I've created a pause menu for a game using the screen capture object, a sub-applicatio, and an Active picture object, which all runs perfectly when testing through MMF. However, after I have built the stand-alone application and created an install, etc., when i install the program and run it, the active picture does not show up on the pause menu. I can't figure out why, because it even works when I run the stand-alone application on its own, but just not when it has been installed. I also tried loading the picture within the installed program using the picture selector, but every single picture I chose gave me an unknown format error. Everything else in the game works fine so this is the only thing holding me back! Very frustrating! Thanks for any help you can provide...
"If eating hot dogs is wrong, I don't wanna be right"
Always have the picture file in the same directory as the exe, and then just use the appdrive$ + appdir$ + "filename.bmp" function to load the picture.
Wait, why would you use the screen capture object to make a pause menu?
Thanks...I'll give that a try when I have the chance.
I used the screen capture object to have a freeze frame of the game underneath my pause menu, which is a sub-app. There's probably a much better way to do it that I don't know about, but that was the only thing I could come up with. Thanks again for the quick response, hopefully this is the reason my picture isnt working.
"If eating hot dogs is wrong, I don't wanna be right"
So I tried putting that new function into my picture object, but it still won't show up when my app is installed. It does show up, as usual, when simply running the app through MMF. I'm assuming that this is either a problem with file location or something with my install process, but I can't figure it out!
"If eating hot dogs is wrong, I don't wanna be right"
lol axel, it's the best method for pausing imo, not so many people use the trick as far as i know. Deadmandines did submit an example about this in MMF2 (I don't know for sure if it's the same, i don't have MMF2). Placing every code in a group and closing it, is VERY inefficient, and doesn't solve problems with animations (you'd have to stop every animation and start them all after the pause). Plus, since MMF1.5 doesnt have subgroups, it's an immense pain in the ass to do that.
Baldwin, when starting your standalone app and after pausing, confirm that the picture file you made with screen capture is on your hardrive. Is it there? I have the feeling you didn't use appdrive$ + appdir$ + "filename.bmp" correctly If it works while running in MMF, it *should* work as a standalone >_>
Just an update, I finally got this silly picture to work. I actually just simplified my whole Application by switching my sub-app from an external application to just using a frame within the original application (I don't know why I did that in the first place, pretty dumb). For the record though, even after switching to the appdrive$ + appdir$ + "filename.bmp" function, which I'm very glad you two informed me of, the picture still failed to load after going through the building and installing process. I'm sure it was just a mistake I made somewhere along the line that was throwing the whole thing off, but like I said, switching the sub-app so everything was contained in a single Application solved the problem. Thanks again for all your help.
"If eating hot dogs is wrong, I don't wanna be right"
Very inefficient? It takes two bloody actions per object. It's not a pain in the ass if you do it right from the beginning. Besides, saving and loading a bitmap the size of the game window takes much more time than just disabling an event group, especially on slower machines. Not to mention the fact that all animations will 'jump' to a random frame when the game is unpaused, since they aren't stopped when the player pauses the game, which will look stupid, especially on larger sprites, or sprites with long animations.
Well, it's your choice; have your game look and feel nice, or save yourself the enormous trouble of placing out two small actions per object in the event editor.
I think that would depend on the number of animated objects you have in your game. It's still quite troublesome to add the actions whenever you create a new animated object in my opinion. Besides, are you serious with the grouping? Like I said, if it's MMF2, then theres no problem because you can place all (sub)groups in one main group. Doing that in an older klik product, that would mean you'd only have ONE group in your whole event list, namely the group you want to pause
And what do you mean with "jumping to a random frame"? Does it apply to your method or mine? It certainly doesnt happen to mine >_>
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