Limit of objects under AGI

[lowcraft]

Hi all, i'm a fan since 1986 of Sierra's Series Quest Adventures.

How to change the limit of 16 objects on a scene of AGI Game ? We can ?.


Olivier Bolender

[robingravel]

You might use add.to.pic command for objects who are not moving or cycling.


Robin Gravel

[Joel]

I believe that's controlled in the OBJECT file, but I forget how to change it.

[Joel]

If you feel like doing some hex-editing, it's the third byte in the OBJECT file. The value you need to put there depends on whether your OBJECT file is encrypted or not.

If your current limit is sixteen objects, then the value of the third byte will be 10 when you open it in a hex-editor if the OBJECT file is not encrypted. If the OBJECT file is encrypted, then the third byte will be 79.

To figure out which value to put there, the easiest thing to do is use the system's calculator if you're using Windows. Put the number of animated objects you want in decimal format (maximum of 255), then click the radio button that says "Hex". If the OBJECT file is not encrypted, just type the value that you see now into the hex editor as the third byte in the file. If the OBJECT file is encrypted, you need to xor the value against the ASCII value for the letter i (69 hex). Hit the button that says "Xor" and type "69" and hit "=". The result is the value that you need to change the third byte to.

For detailed information about the OBJECT file format, see the AGI Specs.

[Sami Tervo]

You can try to bypass this problem also by creating illusion of object(s). It is tricky but when succesful it can enable many otherwise impossible tasks.

The trick is to use position/.v-command(s), like in Brian Provinciano's AGI Mouse-template. Note: Not REposition.to/.v-command(s)! When using position-commands previous location of object is not erased from screen and a 'ghost image' is seen. There's actually no limit for this so you can create illusion of even hundreds objects! Tricky part is updating these 'ghost objects' and making sure that they won't vanish which can happen quite easily; text-box, textscreen-mode, dropmenu, another object can easily harm them. And of course ghost objects have no location- nor priority-data or other features that real objects possess. Although that can be coped by assigning variables for ghost objects. And one must remember that save-function doesn't save ghost objects and if one wants to make ghost objects appear after loading saved game, an approriate function for redrawing ghost object (e.g. based on variables) must be done. Other bad sides using this technique is possible flickering of objects. This technique is best used when other objects are not drawn upon ghost objects.