HintsHighlight Module

HintsHighlight is a module for AGS (Advanture Game Studio) engine.

This module adds an overlay which highlights all the visible and clickable objects, hotspots and charactes.

After adding this module to a game, players can use this features when they wish to avoid "pixel hunting" and need a hint to progress with the game.

Note: this module is compatiable with AGS 3.5 and above. For older version compatiable with older AGS version, see before-ags3.5 tag.

Example

^{Game used for this demo is Sierra-style template. All rights for the shown art are reserved for the respective artists.}

Getting Started

There are three ways of adding this module to a project. This list is ordered by increasing complexity:

1. Import an .scm file ("Explore Project -> Right Click on Scripts -> Import Script.... Get it from the Releases section on Github.
2. Create an empty script called HintsHighlight through engines interface, download the source from this repository and finally copy the downloaded script over the empty one.
3. Create an empty script called HintsHighlight through engines interface and delete it from windows explorer, clone this repository, create a hard link from the cloned files to your games folder.

The basic functionality of the module does not require any additional changes. Run the game and press the default key (KEY_FOR_DISPLAYING_HINTS, set to SPACE by default) to see the hints.

Hints will not be displayed for disabled hotspots, non clickable characters, non clickable objects and non visible objects.

Configuration Options

There are several configurable options that can be tweaked in the top of module's asc file.

MAX_ROOM_HOTSPOSTS_SUPPORTED

The the highest ID of a hotspot in the room. This is required because a static allocation for data in this module. To disable hints on hotspots, set this to 0.

MAX_CHARACTERS_SUPPORTED

The the highest ID of a character in the game. This is required because a static allocation for data in this module. To disable hints on charaters, set this to 0.

MAX_ROOM_OBJECTS_SUPPORTED

The the highest ID of an object. This is required because a static allocation for data in this module. To disable hints on objects, set this to 0.

TOTAL_HINTS_SUPPORTED

IMPORTANT: This value should always be the sum of MAX_ROOM_HOTSPOSTS_SUPPORTED, MAX_ROOM_OBJECTS_SUPPORTED and MAX_CHARACTERS_SUPPORTED.
If this condition is not met, the module will crash the game on startup to prevent array out of bounds access.

HINT_SHAPE_TO_USE

Which shape to use for hints. Can be eHintCircle, eHintRectangle or eHintMixed. When eHintMixed is selected, each shape is determined individually with the help of HINT_SHAPE_MIXED_RATIO.

HINT_SHAPE_MIXED_RATIO

If HINT_SHAPE_TO_USE is set to eHintMixed, this will be the ratio used for deciding which shape to use. If the width/height or height/width of the area is larger than this defined value, then a rectangle will be used, otherwise, a circle.

BORDER_WIDTH

The thickness of the highlight shape.

PADDING

Padding to add around objects/hotspots/characters in pixels.

BORDER_COLOR

The color of the highlight shape.
The default is Game.GetColorFromRGB(Random(255), Random(255), Random(255)) which randimizes the color of each highlight.

SPRITE_SLOT

If HINT_SHAPE_TO_USE is eHintSprite, indicates the slot number of the sprite in the sprite manager. The sprite is allowed to have alpha channel which will be taken into account when drawing.

MINIMAL_SHAPE_SIZE

To prevent highlights that are too small, it is possible to define minimal size. If the shape is smaller that that size, it's size will be increased. For circles, size represents the diameter of the circle in pixels. For rectangles, each of the edges will be increased seperatly and size represnts the length of the edges in pixels.

USE_CUSTOM_HANDLING

If this parameter set to true, the user of the module is responsible for calling the module's interface functions for calculating and displaying hints.

KEY_FOR_DISPLAYING_HINTS

Which key is bound to overlay displaying. Used only when USE_CUSTOM_HANDLING is set to false.