How to distribute your game without the RTP

[Brewmeister]

Ok, every post I can find about distributing your game links to Ccoa's dead post.
Since she "took her ball & bat and went home"* ,  I made an attempt to reproduce / replace it.

Any & all feedback is welcome & appreciated. I'd like to get this 'stickied' since it's a pretty common question. Let me know if it's easy to understand, and accurate.


How to distribute your game without the RTP

 

[Jason]

Sorry but that link has lots of jibberish like:

edited out the big chunk of text. the problem's fixed so there's no need to clog the thread with all those lines
  - Des

on it...

 

[Xilef]

Read the first post. Use internet explorer on it.

 

[Brewmeister]

Alright, I saved it as an htm. You should be able to use any browser now...

[ edit ]  Link no longer needed. Tutorial in 1st post.

 

[xpace]

Alright, I saved it as an htm. You should be able to use any browser now...

How to Distribute your RMXP game

But I don't see any pictures, neither in IE nor in Opera...
Now it's hard for me to follow. I installed the vector graphics support for IE and I still can't see any pictures. Please consider putting the original tutorial file back up as well, for the rest of us.

BTW: When you save a web page as an .HTM file you loose the pictures, because they have to be saved as separate files and often in a seperate folder. If you want to include the images you'd have to include them and put them together in a .ZIP archive or something. (Or, you could simply host this tutorial on a free web host. Alternatively, you could host just the images with an image host and imbed the links to these images inside the HTM file to download.) But when you save  a web page as an .MHT file ("web archive") the pictures are stored in the same file. No fuss, no muss! The only problem is that Mozilla Firefox, Netscape and the like don't recognize it. However, both Internet Explorer and Opera do! I suppose about the only other option would be to convert the thing into a .PDF document...

 

[Brewmeister]

When I saved it as an .htm, I included the image files.

I just tested this on IE & Firefox, and it worked on both.

Part of the problem could be that is was saved from MS Word, which puts a LOT of extra junk in the .htm file that really doesn't need to be there.
Let me clean it up & see if it makes a difference.

Be Well

[ EDIT ]  Give it another try, and see if it works now.

 

[xpace]

Sorry...
I downloaded again, but it still doesn't work for me.
I believe the only reason it works when you test it is because the image files are also on your computer, either in your brower's cache or saved as seperate files.

As I said, when you save a web file as .htm it's impossible for the images to be 'bound' inside the .htm file itself. It's imposible because the .htm file format does not support this capability. However, if you choose "Save HTML file with images" or a similar option, it will not only generate an .htm file, but also create a seperate folder where the images are kept. In most browsers and word processors this folder is automatically created and named after the file name you saved as, then given the suffix "_files". So, for example, if you saved an HTML file with images and called it "RPG-maker-tute.htm", it would automatically place the images inside a folder named "RPG-maker-tute_files".

It sounds like you are trying to use the .htm format as if it were an .mht (MHTML) formatted file. To learn more about the differences, try this Wikipedia article:

MHTML

It [.mht] is used to bind resources which are typically represented by external links, such as image and sound files, along with HTML code into a single file. The key to MHTML is that the content is encoded as if it were an HTML email message...

In your .htm file, I can right-click on one of the broken (i.e., missing) images and click 'properties'. And, for example, one of the image property boxes says:

Address (URL): Distribute_RMXP_Game_files/image005.jpg

This shows that your file believes that the image005.jpg image should be located inside a folder (located on my machine in the same area as Distribute_RMXP_Game.htm) named "Distribute_RMXP_Game_files". Since I do not have such a folder containing this image file, Internet Explorer could not display it... I would suggest you look on your PC to see if you can find a folder by that name. My guess is that you will find the images there.

 

[Brewmeister]

xpace, I understand the difference between .htm(l) & .mht.
...and SGML, and XML, and DHTML, et.al., and was using UUNet long before Al Gore invented the internet!* 

My HTML file believes that image005.jpg should be in folder on the server named "Distribute_RMXP_Game_files",
which is there, and contains the image files. 

I just went to 2 other computers that don't have these files in cache or on the hard-drive, and the page loads fine in both IE & Firefox.

For server compatability, I should have used "./Distribute_RMXP_Game_files/image005.jpg", but comcast's server doesn't seem to care.

Can you see this?

http://home.comcast.net/~bridge161/Dist ... age005.jpg[/img]

or link to:

http://home.comcast.net/~bridge161/Distribute_RMXP_Game_files/image005.jpg

If not, can anyone else?  (Let me have someone outside my ISP test it.)

If we ever get our personal space back on RMXP.org, I'll move everything here & it should no longer be an issue.

We'll get to the bottom of this! 

Be Well

* I also know that Tim Bernard-Lee invented the World Wide Web, not our illustrious ex-VP!

 

[xpace]

xpace, I understand the difference between .htm(l) & .mht.
...and SGML, and XML, and DHTML, et.al., and was using UUNet long before Al Gore invented the internet!* 

[snip]...For server compatability, I should have used "./Distribute_RMXP_Game_files/image005.jpg", but comcast's server doesn't seem to care.

Can you see this?

Yes, I can. Hmm... Perhaps the "./" makes all the difference?

Either that, or there might be an incompatibility with my OS or browsers. I'm using Windows 98SE, Internet Explorer 6 +SP1, and Opera 9.20.

 

[Brewmeister]

OK, I found an HTML to BBCODE converter, and just posted it here.

Hopefully this works out better for all concerned.

Be Well

 

[Mikee]

Alright, I just have a quick question.  This thread helped a lot and I want to thank you.  But where I'm importing my files... I've already got every file included in the game in that folder.  Do I need to delete those?  Or am I actually EXPORTING the files I used into my game graphics folder?  Thanks!

 

[Brewmeister]

Quite honestly, you busted me!!! :scruff:

I've never used the "Export" option, and until you mentioned it, didn't understand why it was there.
Thank you for pointing it out.

I looks like "Export" is to put RTP graphics/resource into your game folder(s).
And "Import" is intended to import custom resources.

So, you are correct, I should have used the "Export" option in the tutorial. (I'll fix it up)

"We apologize for the inconvenience."

 

[[C18]Star]

I've done everything you noted, correctly but I wanted to make sure everything was fine before I compressed it and everything, but my musics don't work anymore..Anyone know how to fix this? I took all the music from the RTP from my:
Program Files > Common Files > Enterbrain > RPG Maker XP
but none of them work when I import them, nor do my original music I had already or my sound effects...basically all of my audio is not working.

 

[Brewmeister]

By "not working", do you mean it gives an error, or it just doesn't play?

I would use the "Copy/Paste" option for Audio.  Just "Copy" the entire Audio folder from the RTP
(C:\Program Files\Common Files\Enterbrain\RGSS\Standard), and paste it into your game folder.
That way, all of the files are in their appropriate sub-folders.
You can then, if you want to, delete the files you know you are not using.

 

[[C18]Star]

No error, just doesn't play, and that's EXACTLY what I did..weird though because I don't know where I went wrong i copied EVERY RTP FILE into my game files put them in the appropriate location, and imported them ALL..I don't know what's wrong with it..

 

[Brewmeister]

do they play with "Sound Test"? (In RMXP)
Do they play with Windows Media Player?

 

[[C18]Star]

No they dont play in either once I imported them They became corrupt I suppose, becuase I just added a song into the BGM FILE and it played in WMP, but once i imported it in my game it didnt play in the game or WMP..

 

[Brewmeister]

Look in your game Audio\BGM folder. Are there any files with "0 KB" size?

After doing a little homework, I found that if I import them more than once,
the size goes to '0'.

Also check the RTP to make sure it's not corrupted.

Then, just delete the contents of your Audio folder, then try the copy/paste method again.

Be Well

 

[[C18]Star]

Yeah they are all 0KB good job with the research  :thumb:, But I drag and dropped them into my BGM folder, and the Sound and Music Effects as well so theyre not in my original RTP anymore...anyway I can get these back?...I think I completely screwed up..

 

[Mikee]

Thanks, Brewmeister.  After you fixed that it makes a lot more sense to me.  lol and I'm proud to know that the apprentice taught the master something new.