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Hello,

I am brand new to game creation. I am having a lot of fun with FPSC. I like that you can start with the basic program for free, and then buy add-on characters.

Two questions became very important to me right away. I read the entire PDF manual, but I didn't spot these two things. I also searched the forums, but couldn't find this information:

1) Can you make a character appear randomly in a building environment? I read how you can create specific walking sequences for a character using waypoints. But I would like to have a character or two have a mind of their own. It seems all of the characters are pre-determined. I was hoping there would be a random-generated feature, where the game will periodically create bad guys that walk around once in a while with a mind of their own.

2) More importantly for the moment: How do you import pictures (bitmaps)? There was a "Danger" sign that I used in creating my first humble scene. I liked that, and would like to be able to create my own signs and import my own text objects. It would be great if you could import a bitmap file, and FPSC would interpret it as a 2-dimensional picture that you can place on a wall.

If anybody could point me in the right direction on how to import basic pictures to be used in the game creation library, that would be great. Thank you.

Welcome to the forums man!

Now, anyone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I do not think that the first question of yours is possible.
But not to say that you can't make enemies spawn, or appear, in a specific spot of your choosing upon the players entrance to a location.
You can use a Triggerzone for that, so say you wanted an enemy to appear behind you as you entered a hallway, just set up a Triggerzone, right click the zone, set its Main AI script to "plrinzoneactivateused", and in the If Used box 2 down from Main, put the name of the enemy you want to appear. Also, you'll have to place your enemy in the level where you want it to spawn (if its behind the player, then you'd have the enemy placed in the hallway before the Triggerzone. And you'll want to make sure the enemy has the same name, as the name you specified in the Triggerzone If Used section by also right clicking on it. Also, make sure the box Spawn At Start? in the enemies properties is set to No.

Of course, that is however a "pre-determined" starting point, but it adds a little variety.
Really if I'm wrong, someone please say, but I'm pretty sure the actual idea your asking, of a free-roaming character, is not possible.


For the second question, I'd just like to point out a fantastic program called "Signs IV" which is a big plus when it comes to things such as sign making, and others like segments and texts.

http://www.fpsconline.com/

You can take a look at it there (also, unfortunately, you'll have to wait for them to put it back up on sale, but it is an indespensable tool, definitely worth it).

Also, there is a free program you can download called Firma! Which can be found down the list a little there on that website page (an amazing website as well for FPSC media) (oh and also check out fpsfree.com).

http://fps-files.com/index.php?site=files&cat=13

With Firma you can not only make segments, but take the default FPSC signs, like for example the "Danger" sign you pointed out, and put your own texture on instead.
Its a very intuitive program, and comes with a manual showing how exactly to add your own images for the signs.


I hope I've been of some help to you.

Once again I'd just like to welcome you, and wish the greatest for you in your adventures of game making that lay at your feet before you

beginner game creator,

Welcome to the forum. Braden 713 is correct about random characters. If you want to get heavy into scripting with variables, you can do more, but characters don't walk around on their own with any good sense. You need to spawn them and have them follow predetermined waypaoints.

As for the program SignsIV, as the fpsconline website says, it's for sale on fpsFREE.com. You will also find much content and tutorials there, like for spawning characters.

Brian.

Hello,

Thank you for the insights regarding character appearances and sign creation.

I was working with Signs IV today. This would have solves a lot of what I was looking for, except for one major problem: fixed sizing.

It seems that Signs IV locks you into only a few predetermined shapes and sizes for signs. I want to be able to create gigantic signs...ones that could take up the entire side of a wall. Probably 8 times or more bigger than the largest size allowable in Signs IV.

Since I'm really only trying to import a two dimensional picture object (not trying to create picture frames, etc.) is there a more direct way to do this than using Signs IV?

Basically, I would like to create a library of giant wall pictures under the "Entities" category. But I think you need to reformat the file from a J-peg or Bitmap into the native file format for FPSC. It looKs like .FPE is the file format the pictures will need to be in, but I'm not sure.

Many programs I am familiar with have a file import feature. I don't see that in the FPSC menus.

So if anybody knows how to import a gigantic picture into FPC and then hang it on a wall, please let me know.

Thank you!