• Module Developers Discussion
• inkey() queries

I'm working on a new intro routine for Annals of Ea, and want to try to get some text on the screen to shimmer, until the player presses a key. I have no trouble with the shimmering, it's just that I don't seem to be able to get a loop to run continuously, and do what's in it until the player presses something.

Here's an example of what I've been trying so far:

   while (inkey() == FALSE) do
    Term_putch(x,y,colour,str)
   end

,but it does not seem to act out the bit in the while clause.

Any help appreciated -- TheFalcon.

NeilStevens: To see some keyboard input routines, read the Minas Anor library quest script. In there I use the keyboard to manage the book creation process.

TheFalcon: Thanks. I sorted the problem by doing something like this:

   local i = 0
   while i < 1 do
      script_foo...
      inkey_scan = TRUE
      key = inkey()
      if key ~= 0 then
         break
      end
   end
end

NeilStevens: To create an infinite loop just do while true instead of using that extra variable i.

TheFalcon: Cool, thanks.

[later...] I don't suppose I can get it to do two things at once?

I.e. can I get the game to run an infinite loop, to provide me with a shimmering effect, and get it to load some more text at the same time.

Failing that, is there a way to get the game to give me a "real-time" counter, so that it will give a count in milliseconds or some such, and I can call this to find timings for shimmering and loading stuff?

(Hmm, this is getting worryingly advanced for a simple intro :D)

NeilStevens: No. You are not going to do be able to do that. If you want realtime graphics effects, you are not going to want to use T-engine. So stop wasting your time trying to hack such effects into the system when they're not going to happen, is my advice.

TheFalcon: Point taken.