Final Fantasy VI SDK - Going Social!

[Imzogelmo]

Ooh, that's too much of a tease. We need more screenshots of this nifty tool!

 

[Celesinator]

Very very amazing x_x... I can't wait til' it's done.

 

[justokre]

Yeah man, I'm still eagerly anticipating this too! Huzzah!

 

[bobtwentytwo]

Dude, I got a couple questions man.

I'm still going to be able to import outside graphics into this right? If so, it's based on like a sprite sheet then, i'm assuming? or will we have to import every single frame individually? If it's based off of a sprite sheet, do you mind positing the format so that I can start spriting?

Also, are you planning on putting enemy skills in the game?

Are you going to program the actual battle animation for every spell in the game?

with reference to the recent editors for the sdk, does this mean the whole SDK will have a GUI, or, am I going to need to know how to script to use this?

 

[Dargor]

I strongly recommend you to read the FAQ in the first post

Dude, I got a couple questions man.
I'm still going to be able to import outside graphics into this right? If so, it's based on like a sprite sheet then, i'm assuming? or will we have to import every single frame individually? If it's based off of a sprite sheet, do you mind positing the format so that I can start spriting?

Yes, you will be able to use 3 different RTPs plus custom resources, just like in RMXP.
The format for battler sprites and things like that isn't final yet so I can't really tell for now.

Also, are you planning on putting enemy skills in the game?

Yes, they are already there, but not all are 100% functionnal.

Are you going to program the actual battle animation for every spell in the game?

Yes, everything you need (including special FX you can't do by default in XP) will be included. But since ripping animations isn't easy, it's not a priority.

with reference to the recent editors for the sdk, does this mean the whole SDK will have a GUI, or, am I going to need to know how to script to use this?

The whole SDK will have a GUI. My ultimate goal is that you don't need to use RMXP anymore when working with the FF6 SDK.

Now, about the editor; I'm doing big progress with it and as I have mentioned above, I want it to be independent from RMXP. However, since my knowledge of wxRuby (the programming language I'm using to make the editor) is a bit limited, there's a couple of things I won't include for now.

Here's the list of things I'm not planning to add anytime soon.
- A map editor (but you will be able to edit the properties)
- An event editor (including map, battle and common events)
- An animation editor
- A project compiler

With that being said, I still want to add these features eventually.
Everything else you can do with RMXP and a lot more will be at your disposition in the FF6 SDK Editor. Even the script editor will be there!

If you have any questions/suggestions regarding the editor, feel free to share them.

Take care!
-Dargor

 

[bobtwentytwo]

Alright, sounds good.

Are you still including Vargas as a playable character?

 

[Dargor]

No, simply because he wasn't a playable character in the original game. If something wasn't in the original or the GBA version, it won't be included.

 

[bobtwentytwo]

Got ya. I noticed you had a pretty sweet Amano-ish Vargas face, did you do it yourself? Since I discovered your project I've done so much sprite editing for potential playable characters from FFVI.

I'm really interested in hearing some of the concepts for games people are going to design with this. I'm going to do a prequel based on Clyde and Baram, and I want to be part of a team to maybe do something with the War of the Magi.

 

[Dargor]

The face graphic was taken from Kefka's Revenge, a fan made sequel made with the Sphere RPG engine. There's a couple of good things in this project but as I said, I won't add anything that wasn't in the original/GBA version.

 

[Imzogelmo]

Could the sprite sheet format that is eventually implemented at least have room for all NPCs to have a full set of character poses? I know you said it won't be included, but if it had some default size such that it could easily be added by a game designer, that'd be awesome.

 

[Dargor]

There won't be any limitations as for the size or number of sprite sheets. I think I'll stick with the current system in the SDK and I will even make an editor for that.

Here's how it will work. Each poses has their own sprite sheet, only 1 row but as many columns as you want. You will be able to specify the duration of each frames and a couple of other parameters like tone, blend type, etc.

A couple of basic poses will be required like Idle but you will be able to create you own custom poses. These poses can be associated to items, skills, weapons and other battle actions.

Besides that, I'm also planing on making a choreography editor for battle introductions and special moves like sword techs, etc.

That's about it for now, I'm still thinking on how to improve the system so if you have suggestions, feel free to share them!

Take care!
-Dargor

 

[Dargor]

Some new screenshots of the editor!

The Battle Command and Class editors are fully functional. The script editor can load and display scripts but cannot save them for now. I'll try to post screens of the official esper editor soon!

Take care!
-Dargor

 

[bobtwentytwo]

That looks sick man, and extremely user friendly.

Do you plan to include a help file with the SDK?

 

[Dargor]

Of course! The help file will explain in detail how to work with the scripts and the editor. I will also list all the changes bewteen the original XP script library and the SDK scripts library. Any changes made to the RMXP SDK and MACL will also be mentioned.

Oh and before I forget, I have updated the main site with some news I've been posting here recently but I have also added a little forum. You can now discuss about the SDK, your projects with the SDK and the game itself there. I don't expect this forum to get as much activity as this topic but at least everything related to this project will be available in one place.

Take a look at it! ff6sdk.webs.com

Take care!
-Dargor

 

[rey meustrus]

I'm curious, Dargor...what language did you write the editor in? You seem to be making far more progress on an RMXP-like editor than anybody else I've seen. I'd be very interested in your source code, once you're finished.

 

[Dargor]

I'm using wxRuby, a Ruby GUI toolkit. It's derived from wxWidgets.
The reason why I'm making fast progress is because both rmxp and my application are speaking the same language. It's exactly like programming in pure Ruby but with new modules, classes, constants, etc.

 

[Imzogelmo]

I'd be happy to offer any suggestions... if I knew more about how it is gonna work. How about the spell and attack animations? How is that going to be implemented? Same principle as with the character animations? I'm thinking that the spell attacks themselves would have some component animations to include, as well as screen-wide effects? Any clue as to how editing those will go?

 

[Dargor]

I'd be happy to offer any suggestions... if I knew more about how it is gonna work.

Good point.

There will be 2 types of animations. The battlers animations (Character poses and choreographies) and battle animations (Attack, Spells, Items, etc.).

I have previously said how Battlers Animations will work so I'll skip directly to Battle Animations.

Battle Animations will work exactly like RPGXP animation system with some more features:
- Possibility to animate the battle background (Tone, Wave effect, etc.)
- Possibility to add animation background and foreground. The background will be placed between the battle background and the battlers (Pearl,etc.) while the foreground will be placed above the whole spriteset and animations(Merton, etc.).
- New target effects like wave (Dispatch, etc.)

XP already have an animation targetting system. You can choose to display an animation on the head, body,feets or the whole screen. Frame options consist of target flash, screen flash and sound effect.

Obviously, Skills, Items and Weapons will have animations. By default, XP has a user animation and a target animation for these. But in the FF6SDK Editor, you will be able to specify random animations. If the Random Animation option is checked, you will have the possibility to setup list of user/target animations. The engine will choose a random animation to play from this list. This will be useful for skills like 10 Hit and the like.

 

[Imzogelmo]

So let's see...256 spell animation, 384 monster specials, etc... are we likely to hit the limit with these? What about jump+weapon and thrown weapon animations? Would those be included in this category as well?

Also, do you need help ripping those graphics?

 

[Dargor]

I'd definitly need help to rip animations, these are really hard things to rip.

Jumping, walking, running, battle introductions, etc. will all be included in the battlers animations.

Weapon animation will also be included in the Battlers Animations editor, under a Weapon tab so that each characters can have its own weapon animation depending on which weapon he's using.

Oh and, don't worry about limits, the current limit for battle animations is 9999. The battlers animations data hasn't been created yet but the limit will also be 9999+.