vAGI and stuff

[Joakim]

I don't know if it's already been implemented.. but I think vAGI (and other external tools like picedit) should implement some mechanism for being called from AGI Studio.

Right now, the executable will take an argument, but only load a file in the ".vas" format. That is because the editor needs to store the resources in an internal format to be able to store additional information to help create resources. But, I will try to add some way to use a syntax similar to;

vagi_se -i <filename>

To specify that it should import an AGI resource.

/ Joakim

[Joel]

It was more like the second option.

I'll try to explain this as well as I can. I did do the add pattern thing and I set the number of rows to I think 32, then I set up some notes to test it out and it wouldn't play past row 15 in the 32 row pattern. This happens regardless of whether I add the pattern at Voice0 - 0 in the left side table or Voice 0 - 16 or Voice1 - 0. There is a solid white bar just above the 16 in the left side table and that doesn't move, but I'm not completely sure what it's meaning is or if it's related. I'm also not completely sure what the meanings of those numbers in the left side table are. I assumed they were row counts, but I'm allowed to set a pattern beside the 32 in Voice 0 after setting the pattern beside the 16 in Voice 0 to a pattern with 64 rows.

I'm prettty sure that I was trying to load an AGI resource with the Import option, but I'll try to do it again, and if it doesn't work I'll send you one of the files I was trying to load.

[Joel]

Correction: if I set the new pattern at Voice0 - 16, it never plays far enough into the resource to play the notes in the new pattern.

[Joel]

Ok, I definitely did the File->Import option. What happens is that the left pane seems to load fine (whether it's finishing that job or not I don't know, but I can see numbers in the left pane), but the right pane never gets repainted before an error occurs. I'll send you the file I just tested a little later.

[Joakim]

Correction: if I set the new pattern at Voice0 - 16, it never plays far enough into the resource to play the notes in the new pattern.

Ok. Now I understand your problem. Guess I'll have to write some parts of the manual, at least the keyboard commands.. (stupid of me)

The white bars in the sequencer represents the "play loop". The player will start from the first white bar and play to the second. You set the play position bars with the following keyboard shortcuts;

CTRL-B  -  sets the beginning of the song
CTRL-E  -  sets the end of the song

Happy hacking!

I will look into your import troubles and upload a new version of the sound editor today. As suggested by Brian, this beta version should link the DLL's statically. That way the zip file will be much smaller. Sorry for that!

/ Joakim

[Joel]

Thanks, I got it to play more rows now.

I think that menu commands with the keyboard shortcuts for those commands listed with the menu item (as in the File and Edit menus) would reduce the need to write documentation at this point. The only real problems I'm having using this program are that I'm looking for some GUI way to do what I want to do and when I can't find that I really don't know where to go from there. If there were a "Set beginning of song here" and a "Set end of song here" type menu item then I probably would have been able to play around with the commands to see what they do and then figured it out. When the only way to do something is with keyboard shortcuts, it becomes a lot more difficult, because although I'm usually willing to click on things in a program just to see what they do, I'm much less willing to try random Ctrl+key combination to see if they do anything.

By the way, I also think the "Add Note" menu item I suggested earlier should probably be duplicated somewhere in the menu bar on the top with the context menu as just an additional way to do it.

Just curious: are there keyboard shortcuts for play, pause and stop?

[Joakim]

I think that menu commands with the keyboard shortcuts for those commands listed with the menu item (as in the File and Edit menus) would reduce the need to write documentation at this point.

I will add it to the next version!

The only real problems I'm having using this program are that I'm looking for some GUI way to do what I want to do and when I can't find that I really don't know where to go from there. If there were a "Set beginning of song here" and a "Set end of song here" type menu item then I probably would have been able to play around with the commands to see what they do and then figured it out. When the only way to do something is with keyboard shortcuts, it becomes a lot more difficult, because although I'm usually willing to click on things in a program just to see what they do, I'm much less willing to try random Ctrl+key combination to see if they do anything.

I absolutely see your point. The thing is that adding menus and shortcuts is something that I tend to do later in the project, together with the other cleanup that has to be done. In the first betas, I try to only add all functionality and a rough layout. That way, it is easier to do large rewrites of the code. I will try to add more menus as I release new beta versions.

Just curious: are there keyboard shortcuts for play, pause and stop?

See above.

I have fixed a number of bugs concerning the file import and resource loading. Please try the new version and see if it works better now! (I will upload it later tonight)

/ Joakim

[Joel]

Ok, just tried out the new version. The imports appear to work much better now (it doesn't crash). There is a minor bug where the scrollbar is not appearing for me in the left pane unless I use the keyboard to navigate downward. Once I get to the bottom of the visible window and press down again, then the scrollbar appears like it's supposed to.

[Chris Cromer]

Well now that the second beta is out I can try it. And I didn't need any of the dll's.

It looks pretty good from what I have seen so far, but I think I will play around with it some more.

Oh man I remember that example song... my dad used to play it on the piano a long time ago.

[Joakim]

Ok, just tried out the new version. The imports appear to work much better now (it doesn't crash). There is a minor bug where the scrollbar is not appearing for me in the left pane unless I use the keyboard to navigate downward. Once I get to the bottom of the visible window and press down again, then the scrollbar appears like it's supposed to.

I love to hear that the import bug is gone. Don't ever try to write outside the bounds of an array, it's just plain stupid.

About the scrollbar issue, if you mean that you start a new document and the scrollbar does not appear? In that case, it is by design. (no point in showing the scrollbar unless you need to)

But, have you found an issue where you have loaded/imported a song and it doesn't show the scrollbar even though there are data further down? In that case, could you describe how you get to that situation?

/ Joakim

[Joel]

sorry, I meant the scrollbar thing was happening when I import a song with data further down. I didn't really do anything other than import the song (sound 30 from PQ1 - but it happens for any other, as well). The scrollbar just wasn't there. Also, the wheel on my mouse doesn't scroll the window when the scrollbar isn't there and it does scroll the window when the scrollbar appears. It appears to be an import issue only, because the scrollbar does appear if I import the song, save it as a .vas file, close the window (or the whole program), then open the .vas file. It's also not a sometimes bug. It happens every time I import a song with data that extends beyond the end of the screen. The scrollbar also appeared when I saved it as a .vas file, meaning that when I pressed enter in the save dialog box with the name that I wanted to save the file as, the scrollbar suddenly appeared.

[Joakim]

sorry, I meant the scrollbar thing was happening when I import a song with data further down. I didn't really do anything other than import the song (sound 30 from PQ1 - but it happens for any other, as well). The scrollbar just wasn't there. Also, the wheel on my mouse doesn't scroll the window when the scrollbar isn't there and it does scroll the window when the scrollbar appears. It appears to be an import issue only, because the scrollbar does appear if I import the song, save it as a .vas file, close the window (or the whole program), then open the .vas file. It's also not a sometimes bug. It happens every time I import a song with data that extends beyond the end of the screen. The scrollbar also appeared when I saved it as a .vas file, meaning that when I pressed enter in the save dialog box with the name that I wanted to save the file as, the scrollbar suddenly appeared.

Yup! You are correct again. It has been fixed, I will try to upload the new version today or tomorrow.

Anyone else found something strange? I actually found a bug in the export routine, it would make the songs play 10% faster than the original version. It's also already patched, so you do not have to report that one.

/ Joakim

[Nick Sonneveld]

Still doesn't work under Windows 95 however.  "A required DLL file, OLEACC.DLL was not found."  

- Nick

[Joakim]

Still doesn't work under Windows 95 however.  "A required DLL file, OLEACC.DLL was not found."  

- Nick

I have actually investigated that one, and I have noticed that the new version of Visual C++ automatically adds functions for Active Accessibility (for people with disabilities). I have found that you can download Active Accessibility 1.3 for Windows 95 at Microsoft's homepage, but that's not actually the best way to solve the situation. (I see no point in adding accessibility functions anyway)

I will try to see if I can build a version without support for accessibility tonight!

/ Joakim