move template description to template selection

[selmiak]

and not after selecting the template.

[ghost]

IIRC this means: display the description in the "select game template" window e.g. in a scrolling textbox, instead of displaying it after game is already created as a popup dialog.

This would require to preload template data, but I believe it's worth it because it's more convenient to get info about template's contents beforehand.

[jumpjack]

IIRC this means: display the description in the "select game template" window e.g. in a scrolling textbox

I think a 2-3 lines description inside a static label would be enough.

This would require to preload template data

Probably it would be easier and faster to just hardcode the descriptions inside the editor and associate them to templates names.

[ivan-mogilko]

Probably it would be easier and faster to just hardcode the descriptions inside the editor and associate them to templates names.

Of course not! The templates are not hardcoded, and users may also create and distribute custom game templates.

I think a 2-3 lines description inside a static label would be enough.

The description comes from template, so we should not limit to N lines, but be ready to display whatever comes from template data.
EDIT: we may of course introduce a memory limit, to avoid problems if the text is too long for some weird reason.

[jumpjack]

I was talking only about templates distributed with AGS releases, I didn't even know it was possible to add custom templates.

[ivan-mogilko]

The template file in AGS is simply an archive containing game files. When the game is created the Editor unpacks the archive into the destination folder. Technically, there's no difference between "standard" and custom user's templates.

The template's description is at the moment supplied as a template.txt file. Right now, Editor will load text from that file after whole template is unpacked into the new game, and display on popup.

For implementing a preview, Editor would need to read just that one file from each found template (archive) instead, and "give" these texts to the template selection dialog. That's a relatively simple operation, and will cover all cases.

[ericoporto]

This was fixed in ags4 by #1903, can be labeled as ags4 and closed.

[ivan-mogilko]

Weird, "Resolves" line did not work in pr.

Implemented in ags4 for now.

[ericoporto]

Descriptions have been adjusted in adventuregamestudio/ags-template-source#69 and the UI has been backported to AGS 3.6.2 too.