So, it’s not immediately apparent what a Glulx release actually looks like, from the documentation. This forum is particularly unhelpful when it comes to searching for info on the topic given that it classes ‘glulx’ as a common word and refuses to search for it.
I have pictures in my new game. Does this mean I have to release a zipped folder with the game and materials and interpreter in it as opposed to just a gblorb file? What’s a ULX file and do I need to create one? How do I get it to include Figures in the Materials folder (it isn’t)? Do I need to specify each one in a ‘release along with’ statement? If so, what is the syntax (it’s not given for figures in the documentation)?
Does this all mean it can’t be run in a browser directly from IFDB? When I play a glulx game from IFDB, alot of them, rather than showing the pictures just say: [Picture number 1 here.] - why is this?
Sorry to bombard with questions, but getting answers to these in a structured form is not as easy as I thought.
if this is about GLULX releases, can I include my questions here?
Can I / How to release without it having a title image / pop-up window (library card i believe it’s called)?
And is there a way to have a .gblorb include a .cfg file (or have settings built-in)? maybe even fonts? how about a readme.txt / readme.pdf ? or a map.jpg/png/gif/… ?
I’ve had these questions a while but don’t really knew how/where to ask them but if this thread is for GLULX releasing I hope I can put them here. if not, I apologize in advance, and I will make a separate thread.
Not necessarily. A blorb contains the game file, plus relevant pictures and sounds and things, so that a player shouldn’t need any other files to run it.
That’s the actual game file, outside of the gblorb. It’s like making a z5 instead of a zblorb.
Figure of Apricots is the file "apricots.png".
Until very recently, the online interpreter for Glulx didn’t support images. The new version of Quixe does now but not everyone is using it yet.
Having the cover art appear at the beginning is up to the interpreter. Some do it, some don’t.
The images, yes, if you want to display them inside your game. The Blorb format does also provide for embedding text or binary data directly, but if you’re looking to have the interpreter search inside your game for something that looks like a configuration file and use that, I don’t know of any that do. Same for fonts. For a readme, again, you could embed it, but do you expect players to unblorb your game just to find the readme?
Oh, is there a way to NOT use the standard image from inform7 ? just, no image, no text? if the window shows, it’s empty?
i personally feel very strongly it looks very tacky. like making a big budget movie with cutting edge special effects… and having all the fonts be Comic Sans MS.
In that case it’s almost not worthwhile to not just make a square with the title of the game.
Although I think if you don’t include the “release along with cover art” line in the source text it won’t use anything, even if the default image shows in the IDE. Hundreds of games don’t have cover art or the default image.
Thanks all! Answers much appreciated. So, I was including the figures correctly, but not using a new enough interpreter - hence why they weren’t showing up - hence why I didn’t know if they were included - hence the circularity of it all.
Thanks again.
n.b. Does anyone know whether IFDB will be up to the latest version of Quixe soon?
I don’t know if WesLesley is releasing along with an interpreter or website, but when I do it that way I get the default picture, even without the “release along with cover art” line.
If you release the game as a raw .ulx file, it won’t include any cover art. You can do this by unchecking the “Bind up into a Blorb file on release” checkbox in the Inform settings. However, this way the game file won’t include any bibliographic data either.
You can remove the cover art from a .gblorb file but you have to do it by hand, using a command-line Blorb tool such as eblong.com/zarf/blorb/blorbtool.py.
This is probably too much hassle for you. But if you care (and you have Python installed) you’d do this:
Sorry, guys. But I’m still really struggling with this. I’ve just upgraded to 6L38. Everything is fine (apart from a very odd change whereby I can’t use ‘them’ anymore to refer to objects that are plural. i.e. The widgets are in the Bathroom. The description of them is “Ugly things.” - which worked fine before but not now. No matter.)
Anyway, my game has figures in it - which are integral to the gameplay. I think I’m doing everything right.
Release along with an interpreter.
Figure of fig6 is the file “fig6.jpg”.
etc…
But, when I play the game with the released interpreter, I’m still getting [Picture number 4 here.] where a figure should be.
Several questions: Is 6L38 not released with latest Quixe? I’m not sure how to find out. Do I need to download latest version of Quixe - if so, how do I include it in my game package - won’t the ‘release’ button overwrite it every time I do a release?
More importantly : How will people play my game? Will they need to download an interpreter seperately? How will they know which interpreter to download? Is IFDB going to upgrade its in-browser interpreter soon? What about the other sites (i.e. textadventures…etc…) how big an uptake / support is there for Glulx games with in game imagery?
Thanks for any answers to these - much appreciated!
Carry out examining the map:
Display figure of mapimage.[/code]
If you are playing in the released interpreter, it does not display images. This despite that the website will show cover art.
Open your game in a normal interpreter and the images will display.
You can use Emily’s “Glulx Entry Points” extension to determine if the interpreter is graphics-capable and have alternate text.
Carry out examining map of the property when the location is ticket counter:
if glulx graphics is supported:
display figure of map;
otherwise:
say "[i]This is the map that was included in the box with your game.[/]"
The built in version of Quixe doesn’t support graphics, but the new version does. However it is recommended that you process the gborb to make it work faster. Zarf has instructions in another thread.
