WHAT'S
NEW (VERSIONS HISTORY)
WHAT'S NEW IN V4.5
The main new feature is the new "Publish to
iGiki.com" wizard that allows automatically publishing your
iPhone/iPod touch games on the Internet.
To access this new wizard, choose "iPhone / iPod
touch" as the target platform (either when you create a new project, or from
the Project Properties window), then click "Compile for iPhone / iPod touch"
from the Project Menu, and then click "Publish to iGiki.com...".
Other new features:
- Improved cylindrical panorama stability
and compatibility (v4.5.2)
- Resizable frame editor window (particularly
useful for working with panoramic frames)
- Fast loading of savegames even for
games with thousands of variables (previously, it could take up to 1 minute
to load a game with 3000 variables for example)
- New "Yes to all", "No to all",
and "Cancel" commands in the window that asks you whether you want the
imported pictures to be automatically resized to fit the game resolution
- Possibility to select and remove multiple
variables from the lists that are under the "Variables" tab of the
Hotspot Properties
- Bigger "Load Project" and "Save
Project" windows of Adventure Maker
- New VBScript command named
Action.ResetRemovedHotspots to reset the "Hide this hotspot (permanently)"
commands. This is particularly useful to create a custom "Start New Game"
button in your game menu. Other new VBScript commands include:
Action.GetNumberOfFrames, Action.GetProjectTitle, etc. Some other commands
are now documented: Action.SimulateHotspotClick, Action.ShowMenu,
Action.HideMenu, etc.
- Possibility to stop the game when a VBScript
error message appears (to prevent infinite loops of error messages)
(v4.5.2)
- Improved behavior when clicking the browser
"Back" and "Forward" buttons during an HTML game or a game for iPhone/iPodTouch
- Fixed the bug that prevented loading a
savegame in a panoramic game (both for the cylinder and the cubic
panoramas)
- Uninstalling a game created with
Adventure Maker no longer displays a warning about shared system files
- New option under the "Distribution Options"
window when creating an executable, allowing not to encrypt the extension
of the files (useful for fixing the "does not match the file format"
bug)
- Possibility to evaluate the Advanced tab of
the "Question Properties" window from the Free Edition
- Encrypting a plugin no longer causes an
error message (v4.5.2)
- Further improved Vista compatibility
- Several minor bug fixes
WHAT'S NEW IN V4.4
-
Create software for iPhone and iPod touch (in
addition to Windows and PSP). Note: some features are not yet supported. For
more information, please read Creating software for
iPhone and iPod touch.
- New
option under the Project Properties, called "Right-click opens the
inventory with access to the menus".
When the option is selected, right-click controls the inventory
instead of controlling the menu. Furthermore,
unless you have also checked "completely hide the
menus" (formerly named "remove the drop-down menu
at the top of the
screen"), the menus are accessible from the inventory, by clicking on the
icon in the top-right corner.
You can change the appearance of that icon by going to the "Inventory" tab
of the Project Properties.
- Possibility to execute some VBScript code
instead of displaying the drop-down menu at
the top of the screen. The new option is located under
the "Advanced" tab of the Project Properties. For example, you can
easily go to a custom menu frame. The code will be
executed every time that the menu is supposed to appear,
that is: when you press ESC, when you right-click (unless the other
option is chosen), when you click on the menu icon that is in the inventory
(when the other option is chosen),
etc.
- New experimental and unsupported "Create HTML"
feature, to export any game into HTML files to play online. To access it,
you must choose "Windows" as the target platform. Note: the limitations are
the same as those for iPhone and iPod touch (more info).
This experimental feature is provided for test purposes only, and there are
no guarantees that it will be further developed.
- When importing a large picture in a game for
Windows, Adventure Maker will ask you if you want the picture to be resized
to fit the frame size. Previously, this feature
was only available for PSP
games.
- New "800 x 600" and "1024 x 768" frame size
options under the Project Properties. Previously,
you had to select "custom" and then manually enter the size.
- New "Jump to Desktop" button in the "Load
Project"/"New Project" windows.
- The "Load Project" window remembers the current
directory
- The hourglass in the PSP
games is more visible.
- New button images in the "Tutorial Graphics" folder.
- Improved help document (more tips and new search
feature).
- New icon for the "COMPILE" button in the AM user
interface.
- Sample project for iPhone and iPod touch included in
the AM package.
- New "help" button on every menu of Adventure
Maker (the buttons lead to the
home
page of the help document).
- Compatibility improvements.
WHAT'S
NEW IN V4.3
- Improved support for Windows Vista (both for the Adventure Maker editor
and for the software created with Adventure Maker).
- Bug fix: the 360-degree panorama plugin is now
correctly included in the deployment files.
- Bug fix: when creating software for PSP, you can no
longer import unsupported file types.
- Much faster resample algorithm in "Batch Picture Resize & Compress" (now
v2.1). Improved Vista compatibility.
- Bug fix in "Creative Painter" (now v2.1). Previewing the exported jpeg
images does not longer generate an error. Improved Vista compatibility.
WHAT'S
NEW IN V4.2
Most of the new features concern the creation of software for
PSP:
1.
Whole new graphic engine for PSP. Loads the images
much faster.
2. Improved installer for PSP: adds the bookmark
entry to the top of the list, and prevents duplicate entries when installing
several times the same software.
3. New integrity check routines before starting compilation, to
automatically detect dead links and missing files, in order to make sure
that the compilation succeeds.
4. Support for animations (animated GIF's).
5. Support for timers to go to another frame after a given time.
6. Semi-transparent background for the text displayed at the bottom of the
screen, for improved visibility.
7. Several bug fixes.
As far as the creation of
software for Windows is concerned,
it is now possible to evaluate the advanced features of the Full Edition
(360-degree panoramas, third-person sprites, plugins, scripting, Flash,
ActiveX components, etc.) from within the Free Edition. Just launch the Free
Edition and you will notice that the buttons that belong the Full Edition
are no longer disabled. Although you can evaluate the advanced features of
the Full Edition only with projects that have fewer than 20 frames (and you
cannot use them to create executables), you can test all of them, and you
can even create your own plugins.
WHAT'S
NEW IN V4.1
The
main new feature is the possibility to export the software created with Adventure Maker so
that it can be run on PSP(*).
An
example of game ready to be compiled for PSP is included in the package
(it is called "Sample game for PSP").
(*) Note: Not all the
features of Adventure Maker are supported.
WHAT'S
NEW IN V4.0
The
main new feature is the support for 360-degree panoramas.
A
sample 360-degree adventure game has been included in the package of Adventure Maker.
CHANGES
BETWEEN V3.4 AND V3.5
The
main new feature is the NEW PLUGINS SYSTEM,
which allows greatly expanding the power of Adventure Maker by implementing new features
that are seamlessly integrated in the program user interface. To download or upload
plugins, click here.
Other
features include:
1.
New "Third Person Plugin" included in the package, to create
third-person games without any scripting or programming (a tutorial is available here).
2.
New "Flash Plugin" included in the package, to play Flash movies without
any scripting or programming (more information is available here).
3.
New "Bring to top", "Move Up", "Move Down"
and "Send to bottom" commands in the popup menu that appears when you
right-click on a hotspot.
4.
Syntax Highlighting for VBScript
code (for advanced users).
5.
New [QUIT] option in the drop-down menu of the "Enable timer" option of the
Frame Properties (to quit after a specified amount of time).
6.
The dialogue will automatically disappear when going to another frame (unless going to
another frame from the "Question Properties" window, in which case the dialogue
will remain visible to allow changing frame during the conversation).
7.
Possibility to intercept the events of several components at the same time (for advanced
users).
8.
New objects references for advanced users (a complete list is available here).
9.
Larger "Execute VBS Code" debug window from the Debug menu.
10.
Several new VBScript commands (for
advanced users):
QuitDialogue, UpdateHotspotsState, GetEncryptedFileName, GetVariableReferenceFromName,
LoadControl, UnloadControl, DoComponentsEvents, CaptureFrame, and SaveAPicture (a
description of those commands is available on the VBScript Language Reference page).
11.
Improved help document.
12.
Creative Painter v1.5 included in the package.
13.
Several minor improvements and bug fixes.
CHANGES
BETWEEN V3.3 AND V3.4
1.
LOOPING VIDEOS:
- Animate your scenes with as many looping videos as you want.
- Let the player interact with them by placing hotspots over them.
- Make them appear/disappear without any scripting.
- Move, duplicate and resize (stretch) them as if they were pictures.
- Get immediate preview of the final result.
- Change their volume.
- Change their playback speed.
- Make them loop forever or specify the exact number of loops.
- Have their audio track seamlessly mixed with the other sound effects.
- Place graphical hotspots both under and over them.
2. DIALOGUE WIZARD:
- Create as many conversations as you want with the very first version of the dialogue
wizard.
- Choose which questions must be available at start, and which questions must appear only
later during the conversation.
- Choose what must happen both before and after the answer has been given.
3. XVID/MPG/WMV/OGG FILES SUPPORT:
- Reduce the size of your games while preserving audio and video quality thanks to the
support for
XVid-compressed videos and Ogg-compressed sounds.
- Include the free (public-domain) XVid video codecs and Ogg Vorbis audio codecs in the
installation
package of your games.
- Import audio and video files of the following types:
wmv, .mpg, .mpeg, .mpe, .m1v, .midi, .ogg, .au, .snd, .rmi, .mpa, .mp2, .wm, .asf. (in
addition to the types
that were already supported by the previous versions: avi, mp3, wav, mid, wma...)
4. SUPPORT FOR CUSTOM ACTIVEX COMPONENTS:
- Easily include FLASH animations in your games.
- Expand the power of Adventure Maker by using third-party activex components.
- Do whatever you want thanks to the possibility to interact with programs created in
other languages.
- Include your OCX files in the installation package of your games, and have them be
automatically
installed and registered by the setup program.
5. NEW GUI
- Feel more comfortable with the new user-friendly Graphic User Interface.
6. NEW ADVANCED OPTIONS IN THE PROJECT PROPERTIES
(for advanced users)
- Execute some VBS code every time that a frame is loaded.
- Execute some VBS code every time that the project starts or a save-game is resumed.
7. THE MONITOR REFRESH RATE IS PRESERVED WHEN GOING FULL-SCREEN
- Play in full-screen at the very same refresh rate.
8. FASTER RIPPLING WATER INITIALIZATION
- Move to a frame that has the rippling water effect enabled without any additional
delays.
9. NEW FREE TOOLS INCLUDED IN THE PACKAGE
- Create your own MIDI music thanks to the "Music Maker".
- Draw nice 2D graphics with the "Creative Painter".
- Greatly improve the pictures created with MS Paint with the "Gradient
Filler".
- Add great lights effects to your renderings and artwork with the "Lights
Effects".
10.
LOTS OF OTHER IMPROVEMENTS, including:
- New Spanish and Catalan language presets,
- New sub-folder "root" inside the project folder, to copy additional
files to the end-user installation folder,
- The rippling water masks are saved in b&w instead of gray-scale, causing the
*.rwm files to be much smaller.
- Possibility to sort the variables.
- New colored cursors included in the package.
- Improved security of compiled projects.
- Greatly increased stability (especially on Windows 2000 and XP).
- New help document.
CHANGES
BETWEEN V3.2.2 AND V3.3
1.
Improved UI (colored icons, optional full-screen mode, minimize button, possibility to
change the background picture, and more).
2.
New way of saving the projects (the number of data files has been greatly reduced,
resulting in the installation process of the produced software running much faster).
3.
New "Runtime Frames Merging" function to share hotspots between frames or to
create hotspots that are common to several frames (particularly useful for creating
toolbars).
4.
The project procedures are now encrypted, resulting in the produced software being much
more secure.
5.
Possibility to create more than one frame at a time by selecting multiple files when
creating a new frame (use the Ctrl and Shift keys).
6.
Several new VBScript commands for advanced users:
-
"Action.ChangeDefaultCursor"
- "Action.CreateTimedEvent"
- "Action.RemoveTimedEvent"
- "Action.SaveParameter"
- "Action.LoadParameter"
- "Action.GetCurrentFrameName"
- "Action.Quit"
- "Action.GetMergedHotspotIndex"
- "Action.GetMergedTextIndex"
- "Action.LoadGraphicFile"
- "Action.ReadINI"
- "Action.WriteINI"
For example, with the CreateTimedEvent it is possible to execute a piece
of code after a time has elapsed, or every X seconds. The other functions allow to change
the default mouse pointer, to read/write to the Windows registry, to read/write to a INI
file, and much more. Go to the VBScript Language
Reference for details.
7.
Possibility to select multiple frames (in the "list of frames" window) and
multiple files (in the "resources manager" window), in order to duplicate or to
remove them.
8.
Possibility to move the frames from one folder to another by drag-and-dropping them onto
the destination folder (multiple selection allowed).
9.
New option in the Project Properties window to completely remove the drop-down menu at the
top of the screen.
10.
New "Apply" button in the "VBS Procedures" window.
11.
Improved "action.GoToFrame" to allow to go to the last visited frame, and
improved "action.LoadAPicture" to allow to UNload the picture of a specified
hotspot (to make it become transparent).
12.
The text objects are now included in the thumbnails (as rectangles with the size and color
of the text objects).
13.
The "External" folder is now included in the "Resources Manager"
window.
14.
When creating a new text object, the default properties (font, size...) are those of the
last text object created.
15.
The "Load Project" default folder is that of the last project loaded.
16.
New Hungarian language preset.
17.
New step-by-step tutorial when launching the program for the first time.
18.
New keyboard shortcuts during runtime: Ctrl+Q to quit, Ctrl+S to bring up the Save Game
window (if enabled) and Ctrl+L to bring up the Load Game window (if enabled). New shortcut
in the editor: backspace to go to the previous menu.
19.
New sample game included in the Adventure Maker package (titled "Memory Game").
20.
Fixed the bug of the desktop icons being messed up (and the display refresh rate not being
restored to the original value) when changing the display resolution.
21.
Several other minor improvements and bug fixes.
22.
Several new pages added to the Help document.
CHANGES BETWEEN V3.2.0 AND V3.2.2
1.
Possibility to stretch (resize) video files during playback.
2.
Support for WMA files.
3.
New "View Variables Status..." command under the "Debug" menu to view
the value of the project variables while playing.
4. Several new VBS commands (for advanced users):
-
"Action.RemoveItem" and "Action.RemoveAllItems" to remove one or more
items from the player's inventory.
- "Action.ChangeDisplayResolution" and
"Action.ChangeDisplayResolutionOnLoadGame" to change the screen size either on
the fly or the next time that a saved game is loaded.
-
"Action.GetDisplayResolutionX" and "Action.GetDisplayResolutionY" to
retrieve the screen size.
-
"Action.GetAMVersion" to retrieve the version number of the Adventure Maker
engine.
5. Possibility to
dynamically create a control, as well as to interact with the controls, with the screen
properties, and with the mouse cursor (for advanced users).
6.
Fixed a bug under Windows XP that caused the file "msimg32.dll" not to be
distributed properly.
7. Several minor UI
improvements.
CHANGES BETWEEN V3.1 AND V3.2.0
1.
New customizable real-time "Rippling Water" effect to simulate water, smoke,
mirages and more. The "Rippling Water Effect Wizard" allows you to easily select
the area to which you want to apply the effect, as well as modify the waves direction,
size and speed while watching a preview of the final result.
2.
Whole new thumbnails mode (faster, resizable and better looking) that greatly improves the
general look-and-feel of Adventure Maker. The new "thumbnails" icon in the
toolbar of the "list of frames" window allows you to switch to the new
thumbnails mode. The thumbnails also display the hotspots that the frames contain.
3.
New "Compact Thumbnails View" button to view all the project frames as VERY
small thumbnails.
4. New "Set Resume Locations" command in the main menu,
to force the player to resume the game from a frame that is different from the one in
which he/she saved the game. It is particularly useful to make sure that, when a game is
resumed, the music starts playing.
5. New option in the
"Frame Properties" window to choose whether to play a video just before the
frame background has appeared OR immediately after.
6. New
"Action.LoadAPicture" command (for advanced users) to dynamically load a graphic
file into a hotspot during run-time (go to the VBScript
Language Reference for details).
7. New "Execute
VBScript" option in the "Using Items On Each Other" window to choose what
to do when the player drags an inventory item onto another inventory item.
8. New hotspot
duplication command in the context menu that pops up when you right-click on a hotspot.
9. New "Edit
VBScript Procedures..." command under the "Debug" menu during run-time to
modify the VBScript source code without having to restart the game.
10. Several new
VBScript commands (for advanced users):
-
"Action.ShowInventoryButton" and "Action.HideInventoryButton" to
show/hide the inventory button;
-
"Action.GetClickPositionX" and "Action.GetClickPositionY" to retrieve
the position of the mouse click;
-
"Action.GetTransitionsStatus" and "Action.GetEffectsStatus" to
retrieve the status (checked or unchecked) of the game options;
-
"Action.InvertTransitionsStatus" and "Action.InvertEffectsStatus" to
manually check/uncheck the game options. Read the VBScript
Language Reference for details.
11. Possibility to
edit the existing "Items On Each Other" events instead of only being able to
remove them and create new ones.
12. New "Hide
Temporarily" command in the context menu that pops up when you right-click on a
TextBox.
13. Two new sample
games included in the Adventure Maker package: Othello and Slider Puzzle. They are
recommended for advanced users to learn VBScript and to see what it is capable of. The
package still includes the old example called "The Closed Door", which does not
use any scripting at all.
14. Faster slide
transitions.
15. Slightly
improved Icon Editor.
16. Several UI
improvements.
CHANGES BETWEEN V3.0 AND V3.1
1.
Whole new sound system, featuring 7 high-quality sound channels, with "loop"
option, independent volume controls, fade in/fade out/crossfade effects, support of mp3,
mid and wav, and more.
2.
New "Resources Manager" and "File Select" windows. They display the
size of each project file or folder and allow you to import/edit/rename/remove files. They
also provide a fast preview of the graphic files and the sound files.
3.
New "Execute VBScript code" function in the "Frame Properties" window
to execute VBScript code as soon as a frame appears, without having to wait for a
mouse-click event.
4.
New "Execute VBScript Code..." command under the "Debug" menu during
runtime (to test a VBScript procedure, retrieve the value of a variable, and more).
5.
The number of files required to save all the hotspots information has been reduced by
half.
6.
New "OpenFile", "OpenExeFileAndWait", "OpenURL",
"SendEmail" and "GetPath" VBScript functions.
7.
New "Add an item to the inventory" option in the window that appears when
dragging an item on a hotspot.
8.
New option to allow the end-user to disable all the transitions.
9.
Relooked UI, faster project loading and several minor improvements.
CHANGES BETWEEN V2.7 AND V3.0
1.
Real-time transitions, with possibility to specify the duration.
2.
Easy organization of frames into subfolders.
3.
Improved User Interface.
4.
New "Test Frame" command to immediately test a frame without having to run the
project.
5.
Possibility to run the project in a window instead of full-screen.
6.
Possibility to automatically split the setup file into several parts for easier upload or
floppy disk distribution.
7.
Multiple-CD support: possibility to distribute the project over more than one CD (Pro
Edition only). The user will automatically be asked to insert the right CD.
8.
Completely integrated VBScript support, with possibility to interact with the project
variables, hotspots and text, as well as to go to a specified frame, to display a text
message, to add an item to the inventory, to bring up the Load Game or Save Game windows,
and much, much more (Pro Edition only). Read the VBScript section
for details.
9.
Possibility to bypass the Initial Screen and to go directly to the first frame (Pro
Edition only).
10.
Possibility to hide the AM logo (Pro Edition only).
11.
New "Hide Temporarily" command to easily edit the hotspots that are hidden under
other hotspots.
12.
New "Load Game" command in the game drop-down menu.
...and
several other improvements and bug fixes. |
