Visual AGI Picture Editor - Final Build 1407

Joakim I have released version 1.0.1407 of the Visual AGI Picture Editor. It just ROCKS.

Find it here;

http://beta.visualagi.cjb.net

Happy picture creating!

/ Joakim (currently coding Visual AGI View Editor)
Robin_Gravel mscoree.dll not found


Robin Gravel
Brian_Provinciano Robin: Check the readme, you must go to windows update and install the .NET framework.
Happy German Idiot Vot? .NET-Framework required for an AGI-Editor? That's tough.
Joakim
Happy German Idiot wrote:

Vot? .NET-Framework required for an AGI-Editor? That's tough.


There are plenty of tools for DOS/Win32, you are free to use them. But I will not code in DOS/Win32 anymore, I have moved to .NET. It just makes me much more productive, more done in less code.

Unless I would get paid of course, then I'd be happy to get less done with more code. :)

/ Joakim
Brian_Provinciano Well I think it's great you are moving to the .NET framework. I will in the next few months, and everyone else will in the next few years. It's the future of Windows development! It's like DirectX. At first it was a hassle to install the "add-on" just to use some games/apps, but now it's built in, and so standard, most people don't even realize it's there.
Joakim
Brian Provinciano wrote:

Well I think it's great you are moving to the .NET framework. I will in the next few months, and everyone else will in the next few years. It's the future of Windows development! It's like DirectX. At first it was a hassle to install the "add-on" just to use some games/apps, but now it's built in, and so standard, most people don't even realize it's there.


Exactly. I'd guess it'll be in SP2 for WinXP, as well as integrated into Longhorn (due 2005/2006). By then, Visual AGI should be complete and no-one should need to struggle with installing .NET framework...

Nevertheless, nice to hear that you are moving to .NET as well! I think it's awesome, a programmer's dream. :)
Brian_Provinciano I installed .NET today, and it's FANTASTIC! I still have BCB on my PC for SCI Studio and other apps I wrote in it that I still work on, but all my future projects, and non-BCB specific (ie. console) programs are being done in VS.NET. I lost fondness for BCB before, but now that I'm using VS, I realize it's ten times worse :)

VS rocks!
Joakim
Brian Provinciano wrote:

I installed .NET today, and it's FANTASTIC! I still have BCB on my PC for SCI Studio and other apps I wrote in it that I still work on, but all my future projects, and non-BCB specific (ie. console) programs are being done in VS.NET. I lost fondness for BCB before, but now that I'm using VS, I realize it's ten times worse :)

VS rocks!


Cool, that's great to hear! Perhaps we'll have both AGI and SCI tools in fully object oriented, component based, .NET code in a couple of years.. ;)
RobertEric Joakim, are you using C#, J#, C++, or BASIC in .NET for Visual AGI Picture Editor?
Joakim
RobertEric wrote:

Joakim, are you using C#, J#, C++, or BASIC in .NET for Visual AGI Picture Editor?


C# only at the moment. I will probably release the source for the AGI Helper Library later on, if there are other people interested in C# code for decoding, encoding and managing AGI resources. It would be very nice to have all AGI tools use the same library, because an update would benefit many applications at the same time. Also, many people could contribute to it, making it more complete.
Rono My advice, stick to C#, there's nothing the other languages can provide further.
Can you tell me shotly what functionallity the AGI Help Lib will provide?
Rono Hmm, you know, it's funny hearing you talking about .NET now, because I've been thinking about writing WinAGISE in C# a couple of months ago, but I thought C++(Win32) is more compatible with this community (and because I wanted to publish its code later on)...
But now, seeing your discussion, I'm giving C# (for WinAGISE) another chance...
Joakim
Rono wrote:

My advice, stick to C#, there's nothing the other languages can provide further.
Can you tell me shotly what functionallity the AGI Help Lib will provide?


Right now;

* Almost complete (no Pen yet) handling of AGI Picture resources.
* Complete handling of AGI View resources.

For both resources, encoding and decoding to Sierra's binary format, creation of GDI+ bitmaps and methods for manipulation.

It's all object oriented with abstract base classes and inheritation.

Later on, I will add the Sound resource using my code from Visual AGI Sound Editor, and the rest of the AGI resources will follow thereafter. In the end, I'd like it to be a general library for developers to use when creating new AGI tools. There's absolutely no idea in reinventing the wheel all the time...
Joakim
Rono wrote:

Hmm, you know, it's funny hearing you talking about .NET now, because I've been thinking about writing WinAGISE in C# a couple of months ago, but I thought C++(Win32) is more compatible with this community (and because I wanted to publish its code later on)...
But now, seeing your discussion, I'm giving C# (for WinAGISE) another chance...


WinAGISE? Please fill me in!
Kon-Tiki AGISE is a dos application made by Rono to make or edit AGI sounds right in their original format.
WinAGISE's the windows version of it.
Brian_Provinciano I myself don't really see a need for an AGI lib. For one, there are more than enough random AGI tools out there, far more than enough--very few of which spark more game creation, or are even used, even really good ones like Noptec Vector. Most people who couldn't write an AGI resource loader wouldn't be able to do much with the loaded resources anyways, heh. Secondly, there really isn't much to AGI resources, I know their formats virtually all off the top of my head, and have whipped my own loaders/savers a number of times in mere hours.

What I think was really needed were simply the Sound Editor, Picture Editor, and your other top notch tools. The compiler could be improved, but works very well as it is. The resource handling could be improved, but works fine as well. The picture and sound tools on the other hand had been lacking, and the work you've done to fix that is fantastic! I think the best thing is just to get those two tools to a 100% state.
Robin_Gravel The perfect programmer's dream: a new agi studio with all the features it needs. Picture (background) editor and sound editor encluded with agi studio.

Robin Gravel

Joakim
Brian Provinciano wrote:

I myself don't really see a need for an AGI lib. For one, there are more than enough random AGI tools out there, far more than enough--very few of which spark more game creation, or are even used, even really good ones like Noptec Vector. Most people who couldn't write an AGI resource loader wouldn't be able to do much with the loaded resources anyways, heh. Secondly, there really isn't much to AGI resources, I know their formats virtually all off the top of my head, and have whipped my own loaders/savers a number of times in mere hours.


There's one thing to just load and save the resources, they should be loaded in a format that is easy to manipulate. Right now the Picture class alone is rather advanced, and took about 20 hours to write and debug. Nevertheless, I already have all the AGI resource management separated from Visual AGI as a dll-file, and will release the library source when I release the final of Visual AGI. It's good as a .NET reference anyhow!


What I think was really needed were simply the Sound Editor, Picture Editor, and your other top notch tools. The compiler could be improved, but works very well as it is. The resource handling could be improved, but works fine as well. The picture and sound tools on the other hand had been lacking, and the work you've done to fix that is fantastic! I think the best thing is just to get those two tools to a 100% state.


Yes, I'm working on it. ;)

Thanks for the feedback!
Joakim
Robin_Gravel wrote:

The perfect programmer's dream: a new agi studio with all the features it needs. Picture (background) editor and sound editor encluded with agi studio.


Nah, the perfect dream is to complete Visual AGI. ;D