Final Fantasy VI SDK - Going Social!
- Thread starter Dargor
- Start date
How lucky to be able to do that on your employer's time! :D
It sounds like you've got a great system going there, it should certainly make the battlers look good in battle. Hope to see those screenshots soon!
It's funny that you're working on this now. I was just looking in the ROM and I found where the game does the colors for the outline statuses. I managed to get it to do a new outline for a status with no visual indication (which is just awesome, IMO).
It sounds like you've got a great system going there, it should certainly make the battlers look good in battle. Hope to see those screenshots soon!
It's funny that you're working on this now. I was just looking in the ROM and I found where the game does the colors for the outline statuses. I managed to get it to do a new outline for a status with no visual indication (which is just awesome, IMO).
clockworkbutterfly
Member
Imzogelmo":1f9yjmh8 said:
And as Dargor said previously, developers will be able to add I believe as many actors as they like. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many sprites. There has to be a system.
Perhaps when creating each character's battle sprite, the developer can select an area in each sprite. This area (an outline if following FF6 fashion) would then be normally set to be invisible, but once an actor is struck with an "outline-changing" status condition, the pixels specially selected in each battle sprite will glow with the color designated for each condition. Perhaps one can also adjust the frequency of the fade-ins and fade-outs of the glow. It seems that for FF6, these outlines MAY be the same ones (I didn't check; I'm just guessing...) that turn solid black when the character vanishes.
I believe for all "head-effecting" conditions, there's an animated icon that just appears over a character's sprite when that character is either kneeling down or standing. The icon is the same for every character, so this sprite animation should only need to be created once and then simply applied to all other character sprites as an overlay.
I could kind of see making "body-effecting" conditions like stone, poison, and berserk sprites for each character (or at least leaving the option to do so) just to be sure the developer has full access to how the sprites look and doesn't need to put full faith in an automated palette-swap that may or may not work perfectly when creating new actors.
"Pose-changing" effects should be simple. For each condition constructed, the developer can select if it "forces" a pose.
It sounds like you might want to construct a Condition editor, Dargor. It should make it easier to control what each condition does this way as well.
-- CB
KiddUniverse
Member
Quick question.
you know in Sabin's scenario, during the first group split up, after the Returner's hideout?
theres a part in the military command post where Sabin and Shadow are fighting Kefka, and then when you hit him, he runs away, and then you do this two or three times.
during this sequence, kefka is fully animated, and capable of attacking you.
are you going to be incorporating this into the game? if so, does that mean a possibility that we can animate our enemies, rather than just having one sprite? that would be pretty frickin cool man. i'm not sure how hard it would be to code this into the game, but it would add a whole lot of lasting appeal.
you know in Sabin's scenario, during the first group split up, after the Returner's hideout?
theres a part in the military command post where Sabin and Shadow are fighting Kefka, and then when you hit him, he runs away, and then you do this two or three times.
during this sequence, kefka is fully animated, and capable of attacking you.
are you going to be incorporating this into the game? if so, does that mean a possibility that we can animate our enemies, rather than just having one sprite? that would be pretty frickin cool man. i'm not sure how hard it would be to code this into the game, but it would add a whole lot of lasting appeal.
I'm sorry I've been quite the whole week, I didn't had access to internet :'(
I didn't had the chance to make screen shots or to work on the bitmap script but I'm still thinking a lot about it.
As I said before, the outline glow and vanish effects works great but I need to work on a palette (even a sprite) editor to make all this as userfriendly as possible.
Another feature I will be adding to the C++ bitmap script is the masking effect. This is a must.
Also, I'd really like to know how the wave effect work in FF6 (for water, inside the house on fire, the background in Cyan's dream).
I see it, but I really do not understand how the distortion is made. :/
@clockworkbutterfly
1) I'm not sure about the area on sprites but I'll keep that in mind. Right now, the system is color specific; it targets a specific color to be changed to another specific color.
2) Outline color and speed will be customizable per status.
3) The overhead animation will be an FX applied over the actor sprite. The FX to use is specified in the status editor.
4) Status that changes the whole sprite (Stone, Frozen) will be handles a bit differently. Remember when I spoke about "Actions" earlier?
Well, statuses will have Character Actions that will let you change an actor's character to use when this status is inflicted.
The action can be Specific (it will affect a specific actor) or Global (it will affect every actors with this status; the Imp status could use that for example)
5) Pose changing status will be similar as I said above. I will add Pose Override Actions that will let you specify which pose to force and when.
For example, Poison could force the Idle and Victory poses to be changed to Kneeling.
@Kidd
Good question. It's been a while sice I've worked on this feature but it will be in the SDK for sure.
There will be 2 ways of doing it;
The first one is to specify the monster to use a Character instead of the usual monster sprite.
When done that way, the monster will be animated using the standard character animation system of the SDK, but will still be a monster.
The alternative is to go into the formation editor and instead of adding a Monster, you will add an Actor which will become an Enemy Actor.
The difference with the above method is that this is not a monster but an actor. It has weapons, armors, espers, battle commands, etc.
In a nutshell, it's an actor that is controlled by AI and that attacks your party.
Take care!
- Dargor
I didn't had the chance to make screen shots or to work on the bitmap script but I'm still thinking a lot about it.
As I said before, the outline glow and vanish effects works great but I need to work on a palette (even a sprite) editor to make all this as userfriendly as possible.
Another feature I will be adding to the C++ bitmap script is the masking effect. This is a must.
Also, I'd really like to know how the wave effect work in FF6 (for water, inside the house on fire, the background in Cyan's dream).
I see it, but I really do not understand how the distortion is made. :/
@clockworkbutterfly
1) I'm not sure about the area on sprites but I'll keep that in mind. Right now, the system is color specific; it targets a specific color to be changed to another specific color.
2) Outline color and speed will be customizable per status.
3) The overhead animation will be an FX applied over the actor sprite. The FX to use is specified in the status editor.
4) Status that changes the whole sprite (Stone, Frozen) will be handles a bit differently. Remember when I spoke about "Actions" earlier?
Well, statuses will have Character Actions that will let you change an actor's character to use when this status is inflicted.
The action can be Specific (it will affect a specific actor) or Global (it will affect every actors with this status; the Imp status could use that for example)
5) Pose changing status will be similar as I said above. I will add Pose Override Actions that will let you specify which pose to force and when.
For example, Poison could force the Idle and Victory poses to be changed to Kneeling.
@Kidd
Good question. It's been a while sice I've worked on this feature but it will be in the SDK for sure.
There will be 2 ways of doing it;
The first one is to specify the monster to use a Character instead of the usual monster sprite.
When done that way, the monster will be animated using the standard character animation system of the SDK, but will still be a monster.
The alternative is to go into the formation editor and instead of adding a Monster, you will add an Actor which will become an Enemy Actor.
The difference with the above method is that this is not a monster but an actor. It has weapons, armors, espers, battle commands, etc.
In a nutshell, it's an actor that is controlled by AI and that attacks your party.
Take care!
- Dargor
For the distortion/wave effect, you likely offset each pixel line of the screen using a SIN wave to determine the value of the offset.
I know this is something that is easily accomplished with C++ (WolfCoder has made this a possibility in his RM20XX engine for pictures, and you might benefit from asking him how he does it.)
Also, for the 'enemy actor' thing you mentioned, if you haven't already coded this you definitely should. Think of the Confuse status effect, it will be important to have this coded for that purpose so you might as well code it for the purpose of the enemy actors such as Kefka.
I know this is something that is easily accomplished with C++ (WolfCoder has made this a possibility in his RM20XX engine for pictures, and you might benefit from asking him how he does it.)
Also, for the 'enemy actor' thing you mentioned, if you haven't already coded this you definitely should. Think of the Confuse status effect, it will be important to have this coded for that purpose so you might as well code it for the purpose of the enemy actors such as Kefka.
It's been a little quiet recently so I think it's time for another update!
I have put a couple of things aside to concentrate on the UI of the editor and get most of the features working, even if some are placeholders.
By this I mean, having the final dialog layouts with all the necessary controls in it, being able to, lets say, add actions on items and status, etc.
The goal is to eventually release another alpha demo that will present most of the features of the editor but without being able to actually play with that in-game.
I've also been working on the sprite editor. it is temporary and I'm not sure if I'll be using exactly what I have right now but let me explain it a bit.
The editor let you browse graphics file to add to the database. Once you have imported the file, the editor scans for all the pixels and index the whole thing.
The only problem is that you can only change a color index, not the color itself. And you also need the same indexes for all sprites.
For example, if Terra's sprite frame color is index #0, all other characters that can have glowing frames will need to have their frame color indexed at #0.
You will be able to give name to indexes (like 0 - Frame, 1 - Skin Tone A, 2 - Skin Tone B, etc.) and in a command or whatever else, you can select an index and specify a color to replace every colors at the specified index.
There is also a slowdown problem when importing large images. The bigger the image is the longer it takes to index the pixels.
This is probably the biggest problem here. Maybe there's a way to write the indexing routine in C++ for WxRuby instead of using WxRuby itself.
But besides that, I might be able to really work with color palettes and not just indexes, eventually.
I guess that's it for now!
- Dargor
I have put a couple of things aside to concentrate on the UI of the editor and get most of the features working, even if some are placeholders.
By this I mean, having the final dialog layouts with all the necessary controls in it, being able to, lets say, add actions on items and status, etc.
The goal is to eventually release another alpha demo that will present most of the features of the editor but without being able to actually play with that in-game.
I've also been working on the sprite editor. it is temporary and I'm not sure if I'll be using exactly what I have right now but let me explain it a bit.
The editor let you browse graphics file to add to the database. Once you have imported the file, the editor scans for all the pixels and index the whole thing.
The only problem is that you can only change a color index, not the color itself. And you also need the same indexes for all sprites.
For example, if Terra's sprite frame color is index #0, all other characters that can have glowing frames will need to have their frame color indexed at #0.
You will be able to give name to indexes (like 0 - Frame, 1 - Skin Tone A, 2 - Skin Tone B, etc.) and in a command or whatever else, you can select an index and specify a color to replace every colors at the specified index.
There is also a slowdown problem when importing large images. The bigger the image is the longer it takes to index the pixels.
This is probably the biggest problem here. Maybe there's a way to write the indexing routine in C++ for WxRuby instead of using WxRuby itself.
But besides that, I might be able to really work with color palettes and not just indexes, eventually.
I guess that's it for now!
- Dargor
Celesinator
Member
^ I've been watching it since 2006 (I was 13-14 years old) and I'm excited even today!
MagitekElite
Member
Sorry for not making any posts in this thread in a while. I have gotten a terrible cold and have just recently felt well enough to get onto a computer...
I was hoping to come in and ask a few questions, but one of them was already answered on this page. I was wondering how the part with Kefka (KiddUniverse mentioned it) would work, but now I know. I still have to read all the posts since my last... :lol:
I do have a question and hopefully, it won't be too much of a waste. Its a pretty small question, but it caught my interest. If you haven't already answered it, what will you do for the light chase sequences? By that, I mean the parts in the cave that you have to follow the light or battle a enemy. At first I thought it would just require the user to make an event, but then I wondered how it would trigger and work. Have you already figured out a way to do this?
*hopes question wasn't too stupid >.<*
(I forget how long I've been watching the project, but its been a treat to see so many awesome updates! xD)
I was hoping to come in and ask a few questions, but one of them was already answered on this page. I was wondering how the part with Kefka (KiddUniverse mentioned it) would work, but now I know. I still have to read all the posts since my last... :lol:
I do have a question and hopefully, it won't be too much of a waste. Its a pretty small question, but it caught my interest. If you haven't already answered it, what will you do for the light chase sequences? By that, I mean the parts in the cave that you have to follow the light or battle a enemy. At first I thought it would just require the user to make an event, but then I wondered how it would trigger and work. Have you already figured out a way to do this?
*hopes question wasn't too stupid >.<*
(I forget how long I've been watching the project, but its been a treat to see so many awesome updates! xD)
FenixFyreX
Member
Well, technically couldn't you just set up a system of events that triggers on player touch? For instance, you setup events around the path that when touched activate the 'security system' and you have a loop with a 'rotatin array'(array.pop, array.push) and conditional branch checking the input, and a battle depending on the first item in the array(this is theoretical, advanced eventing :P). Of course, this could probably be easier done by scripting it in(maybe). So, I'd say just use eventing.
I'd love to hear your comment on this, Dargor D:
I'd love to hear your comment on this, Dargor D:
MagitekElite
Member
Yes, I know it is possible with events 
I have spent hours re-creating the events in my own game, but it takes a lot of time and most of the time, it comes out weird. The event page itself becomes very long and sluggish to load.
I was wonder if Dargor would take another route to doing this or would there be a template for the event? :3
I have spent hours re-creating the events in my own game, but it takes a lot of time and most of the time, it comes out weird. The event page itself becomes very long and sluggish to load.I was wonder if Dargor would take another route to doing this or would there be a template for the event? :3
I don't see how it makes complicated events. You make one event for the sparkle, make it run a path then disappear. Then put on touch events on any path exits that would result in you taking the wrong path, which set a switch to true, and then force you back or whatever it did in the game I can't remember for some reason. I think it's time to replay FF6!
@SDeluxe and Celes
It's great to hear things like that. But at the same time it shows me how long it takes to get this done O_o.
Meh, I won't blame myself for that, I always say that quality is better than quantity (or releasing it fast, for this specific case :P)
@MagitekElite
It's not a stupid question at all, please stop saying that! :P
As other people said, this event can and (as for me) will be done using events. You just "spawn" a couple of light characters, make them move along a path and "OnActionButton" of the golden light, you proceed to the next event, otherwise, trigger a battle.
Here's a more detailed approach.
-On your map, you setup a couple of safe areas where the player must be to avoid triggering the security system.
-If you get outside of these areas, a global event will be triggered, placing all 8 star characters around the player.
-This would be done by retrieving the x/y position of the player and moving the characters at this position, then offset by 1 tile in each directions depending on the character.
- 7 of these star characters have an "OnActionButton" trigger that will start a battle
- The other one, the gold one, will make all of them dissapear.
- Loop the above
That template you're talking about would most likely be Global Events.
It's great to hear things like that.
But at the same time it shows me how long it takes to get this done O_o.Meh, I won't blame myself for that, I always say that quality is better than quantity (or releasing it fast, for this specific case :P)
@MagitekElite
It's not a stupid question at all, please stop saying that! :P
As other people said, this event can and (as for me) will be done using events. You just "spawn" a couple of light characters, make them move along a path and "OnActionButton" of the golden light, you proceed to the next event, otherwise, trigger a battle.
Here's a more detailed approach.
-On your map, you setup a couple of safe areas where the player must be to avoid triggering the security system.
-If you get outside of these areas, a global event will be triggered, placing all 8 star characters around the player.
-This would be done by retrieving the x/y position of the player and moving the characters at this position, then offset by 1 tile in each directions depending on the character.
- 7 of these star characters have an "OnActionButton" trigger that will start a battle
- The other one, the gold one, will make all of them dissapear.
- Loop the above
That template you're talking about would most likely be Global Events.
MagitekElite
Member
I see, thank you for answering my questions Dargor. I suppose the direction I took with the aid of another, was too much for something simple. Though my events had a lot more to in it (worked like the Zelda guard thing in OoT), but I thought it would be just as time consuming.
Hmm, what about when you are fighting Kefka at the end of the game? When you defeat one form, the battle doesn't stop and then restart to get to the next form, but slowly scroll down/up for the next forum.
How will this work out? Would it just require a scroll command or something more?
@Prexus:
I never said it would be complicated, but time consuming
Hmm, what about when you are fighting Kefka at the end of the game? When you defeat one form, the battle doesn't stop and then restart to get to the next form, but slowly scroll down/up for the next forum.
How will this work out? Would it just require a scroll command or something more?
@Prexus:
I never said it would be complicated, but time consuming
@MagitekElite
I'm not sure yet about the final battle but, in the past, I've been working on a seamless battle transition between 2 battles.
The script was basically starting the second battle without any battle transition and keeping the previous battle background.
I will eventually make a mini system just for that, maybe an event command.
And sorry for the lack of updates. I don't feel like working on it right now so things are slowing down a bit. I'm mostly working on the UI just to make it more fun for the eyes but I'm bit tired of the rest. I just need to take a little break. But don't worry, as I have said before, this project IS NOT going to die!
I'll try to keep you guys updated as much as possible.
Take care!
- Dargor
I'm not sure yet about the final battle but, in the past, I've been working on a seamless battle transition between 2 battles.
The script was basically starting the second battle without any battle transition and keeping the previous battle background.
I will eventually make a mini system just for that, maybe an event command.
And sorry for the lack of updates. I don't feel like working on it right now so things are slowing down a bit. I'm mostly working on the UI just to make it more fun for the eyes but I'm bit tired of the rest. I just need to take a little break.
But don't worry, as I have said before, this project IS NOT going to die!I'll try to keep you guys updated as much as possible.
Take care!
- Dargor