[Done for V0.39] Alcove locations shouldn't be fixed

L!ghthouse · Post by **L!ghthouse** » Wed May 24, 2006 7:15 pm

Currently when you place an item in an alcove, it appears in a hard coded alcove location. It would be nice to be able to move the location that the items are placed in. For example, you could have the ability to make an alcove that is very high like on a bookshelf, or 4 alcoves on the same wall (DOH! Guess I should have kept that a secret!

).

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(This is supposed to be the wall with 4 alcoves on it)

Post by **Sophia** » Wed May 24, 2006 7:17 pm

I don't think the four alcove idea would work with the way the engine currently is, anyway, because it has no concept of an object being "in an alcove," or anything.

The object is simply regarded as being in a certain facing of the wall. If there's an alcove there, the object is drawn in the alcove. If not, it's not drawn at all and assumed to be inaccessible.

L!ghthouse · Post by **L!ghthouse** » Wed May 24, 2006 7:26 pm

Even if you would not be able to put multiple alcoves on the same wall, the idea is being able to move the fixed location of the alcove. The only thing you can do is change the offset for the alcove's image, but this does not also change the location that items are placed in the alcove.

Still, I think that it would be awesome to change the engine to allow multiple alcoves on the same wall.

Post by **Sophia** » Wed May 24, 2006 7:35 pm

L!ghthouse wrote:Even if you would not be able to put multiple alcoves on the same wall, the idea is being able to move the fixed location of the alcove.

It seems like that'd not be too hard, to simply base where the object is drawn on the image coordinates, rather than hardcoded. Of course, the distance between the bottom of the alcove and where the objects rest would probably still have to be hardcoded, but I doubt if that should cause any serious problems.

L!ghthouse wrote:Still, I think that it would be awesome to change the engine to allow multiple alcoves on the same wall.

It seems like it'd be a mess, but I guess only George knows for sure...!

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Wed May 24, 2006 8:23 pm

You would fudge it with having buttons you press looking like the object, and then releasing the item - would only eork for speciic items, lik books from shelf

George Gilbert · Post by **George Gilbert** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 2:25 am

Sophia wrote:
L!ghthouse wrote:Even if you would not be able to put multiple alcoves on the same wall, the idea is being able to move the fixed location of the alcove.
It seems like that'd not be too hard, to simply base where the object is drawn on the image coordinates, rather than hardcoded. Of course, the distance between the bottom of the alcove and where the objects rest would probably still have to be hardcoded, but I doubt if that should cause any serious problems.

Done for V0.39. Items in alcoves are now drawn with their base at a point which is 93% of the way down the alcove bitmap and 50% across (if you have a look at one of the DM bitmap alcoves that's exactly where you would expect it to be).

This means that you can now put alcoves wherever you like on a wall - all you have to do is pad the bitmap with sufficient transparent (pink) pixels to ensure that it's surface is in the right place!

Sophia wrote:
L!ghthouse wrote:Still, I think that it would be awesome to change the engine to allow multiple alcoves on the same wall.
It seems like it'd be a mess, but I guess only George knows for sure...!

Yep - it'd be a real mess; won't be doing that for a while (although, as suggested above, you can fake it pretty well using existing mechanics).