speech view creates and uses unwanted blank loops in 3.1.2

[EnterTheStory (aka tolworthy)]

I've finally been dragged kicking and screaming into the modern world of 3.x, and speech view behaves oddly:

A certain character only has one speech loop. In 2.72 this would be used every time. But in 3.1.2, extra blank loops are created and these are used, causing the character to turn into a tiny coffee cup when he speaks. I've tried deleting the new loops and saving the game (Ctrl+S), but when I compile and run the game (F7) the unwanted empty loops are created again. What am I doing wrong?

[Khris]

IIRC, incomplete views led to some strange results so I guess AGS now creates blank loops automatically. As with normal views, there should be a speech loop for every one of the four directions.
If your character is only going to face one direction, put the sprites in that loop.

[EnterTheStory (aka tolworthy)]

Thanks for the quick response!

If your character is only going to face one direction, put the sprites in that loop.

Do you mean I should duplicate all the frames in loop 0, making identical copies in loops 1,2 and 3?

Or do you mean I should find all the times the character might conceivably change direction and add some code to check the size of each loop and stop them if necessary?

[Khris]

I assumed the character wouldn't ever turn. If they do, yes, put the same frames in all four loops.

[EnterTheStory (aka tolworthy)]

Edit: I think I found the code in my game where characters try to change direction - 2.72 ignores it if those loops don't exist, but 3.12 doesn't. I should be able to change the code, which will require a simple change for each character rather than editing every loop.

So a related question: in the 2.72 editor you can quickly move between characters using the keyboard up and down arrows, but so far I've only been able to select characters in 2.1.2 by double clicking. Am I doing something wrong?

[EnterTheStory (aka tolworthy)]

On a related note, the same thing happens when an idle view runs into more than one loop. In 2.72, the idle loop would carry on happily, but in 3.12 it causes the dreaded blue cup to appear where the character should be.