Final Fantasy VI SDK - Going Social!

[game_guy]

The unlimited layers sounds awesome. I have a question though. Would it be possible to use whatever script(s) you used for unlimited layers and place them in rmxp alone? Even if we had to just map it in the ff6 editor.

Me and friends always wanted that in rmxp. It'd be cool. Awesome updates tho! Keep it up!

 

[Dargor]

No it's not possible since there is nothing left of RMXP in the FF6SDK.

However, it would be possible to create an external map editor for XP (that's what I did before rewritting the editor) to handle multiple layers but it would also require a couple of modifications in the game scripts.

Also, when saving with RMXP, you would lose your extra layers.

 

[game_guy]

Well after you get the next demo out or whenever you can, you should make that external map editor. That would be awesome and I'd sign my soul to you :3

 

[MagitekElite]

*Sorry for the absence...I was switching Routers, and then it wouldn't work so I had to return it and had no internet for a few days and then I bought a Belkin to get Wireless and wired internet. Took a few days to make the PC wireless >.>

Anyway, I was reading through the last and recent posts, the updates sound so freakin' awesome! :heart:

I have two questions.

Also, you can now have as many layers as you want!

First, this sounds awesome! But I've taken a recent course in RPGXP map making, and someone mentioned that the more layers (meaning if you somehow made six layers) would slow the engine down and the PC down by loads.
Is this true? Well, it might be different for this since its not RPGXP anymore...just a random question lol

Also...is there a PC spec people should have to run this, or will almost any PC do? :biggrin:

 

[Dargor]

Well, it's obvious that the more layers you havem the more it will lag. I haven't run serious test yet because all the map features are not completed but one thing's sure, it will be more demanding for both the game and the editor to have a map with a lot of layers. They both need to draw and update all of them and the more there is the slower it is.

ALso, the minimum requirements for this to run smoothly are the maximum requirements for RPG Maker VX.

Also, I'm doing my best to optimize the editor and the game to avoid lag and loading times as mich as possible.

 

[MagitekElite]

Ah, okay, just asking. I was curious to see if it would change since you are changing it so its not XP anymore :smile:

 

[Dargor]

The thing is, I'm keeping the RGSS2 Player and Library, so this is my bottleneck. Maybe one day I'll be insane enough to rewrite these and optimize everything so it doesn't need that much resources.

And by the way, I started working on the character editor and it works great! Characters are divided into 2 parts. The Actions and the Animations.

Character Animations are done in the animation database. This kind of animation can only have 1 cell per frame and it cannot be moved. This limitation is there to avoid confusion and to make it easier to create character animations.

Then, characters have "Actions" that tells which animation to play. These actions are divided into 3 groups. Map, Battle and Custom actions.

- Map actions are containing the walk , riding and idle animations.
- Battle actions contains everything related to battle like casting a spell, being hit, etc.
- Custom actions are anything else you want, like a laughting pose, looking down, etc.

Any of these actions can be applied on a character at any time using events. Wether you are in battle or on the map, you can ask a character to perform one of these actions.

Also, I have improved the Graphic Browser to let you choose how to divide an image (how many column/rows) for better use of sprite sheets. So you can have a character of any size you want with as many pose you want!

That's pretty much it for now.

Take care!
- Dargor

 

[MagitekElite]

Wow, the Character editor sounds like it'll be easy to use...at least I hope it is lol

Also, I have improved the Graphic Browser to let you choose how to divide an image (how many column/rows) for better use of sprite sheets. So you can have a character of any size you want with as many pose you want!

Awesome! I'm sure it'll come in handle when people make FF6 sprites of custom characters, and the poses will help if people want to make the characters have different poses. :grin:

So there will be no limit to character size at all? :

 

[Dargor]

New screenshots!

Sorry for the quality, they got stretched and it's a bit blurry.
On these screenshots you can see the new look of the editor, using AUI (Advanced User Interface), the map editor and a couple of other things.
I'll upload better images later.

Hope you like them!

 

[Celesinator]

Woot! I do! Erm we do! That doesn't look bad at all. Excites me very much ^_^

 

[MagitekElite]

Oh, it looks so cool, Dargor!

It looks better and better with each update. :heart:

I'm gonna love the easy image recolorer :haha:

 

[Dargor]

Note that you can also change the hue of a tileset in the tileset editor. You can then alter the hue of a tile again in the map editor.
I'm also working on a palette system to see if I can achieve some effects seeen on the SNES. Something like this : http://www.effectgames.com/demos/canvascycle/

...

 

[MagitekElite]

Note that you can also change the hue of a tileset in the tileset editor. You can then alter the hue of a tile again in the map editor.
I'm also working on a palette system to see if I can achieve some effects seeen on the SNES. Something like this : http://www.effectgames.com/demos/canvascycle/

...

*drools*
That would be so awesome to see :!:

Wait, how would you go about implementing that...?

 

[Dargor]

It's simple, I already know how to do that. The thing is I know I can't do that in ruby because it would extremely slow.

Each time a bitmap is loaded through the Cache module, I will run a script that cycles through all the bitmap's pixels and store the colors (including the alpha value) into an array specific to this bitmap file.

Then, the user will be able to create its own color palette ans swap palettes at will.

The example in the link I posted have 2 methods of palette switching.
The first one is a simple switch, where all pixels are changed at once.

The other one is blending the pixels color within a specific amount of time.
This methos is smoother than the other one but would also be more conssuming since I have to update the palette using method #1 multiple times a seconds.

A couple of months ago I did a couple of experiments on bitmaps, I wrote a custom DLL in C++ with advanced bitmap methods in it. Doing it that way is a lot better since C is faster than ruby. Eventually, the Bitmap class will be able to handle mask, palette, pixelation and many other cool effects! Most of the mode7 effects are also written in C.

But, this is far from being a priority right now. The editor and core features are more important.

Take care!
- Dargor

 

[Xilef]

Does the "mode 7" use a floor-caster?

 

[MagitekElite]

@Dargor:

Its nice that you want to costmize and add all these nifty features to your SDK, it'll definintly gonna be a nice option for the users. ^,^

I hope to see it in the future, that would be fantastic.

 

[game_guy]

Even though its a FF6 SDK, I've got other plans using this SDK >:3 So much better than RMXP or RMVX themselves.

 

[clockworkbutterfly]

Even though its a FF6 SDK, I've got other plans using this SDK >:3 So much better than RMXP or RMVX themselves.

Indeed. I do as well.

 

[Dargor]

@xilef
I'm not sure what you mean by floor-casting but the mode7 of the SDK will look exactly like the one on SNES.
You can see an example on my website under the Videos section.

More updates!
I've been working very hard on the editor lately and I now have a complete Actor editor! Depending on how many time a week a spend on this, it takes me about 1 or 2 weeks to complete an editor. (took me 2 weeks for the actor editor and 1 week for the Character Animation Editor) The more I work on this, the faster it goes.
However, right now it's only editors, there is nothing in the game itself. But it's at least half of the work.

Next step is to complete the Character Editor.
Then, I'll start working on the actual game scripts and make it so the changes you make in the editor applies in the game for real :P

Take care!
- Dargor

 

[MagitekElite]

Any progress is great to me! If you made an update about you changing the name to something, I'd be excited lol

Oh, can't wait to hear more about the editors!
When you complete the Character Editor, will there be screenshots? :cute: