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Hi,

Loading bitmaps via the built-in Bitmap class is halting program execution until the file is fully loaded. This is also true when done in a seperate Thread. Not sure about fork or spawn as those are not supported by Windows Ruby 1.8.1. Is it possible to asynchronously load bitmaps from files (mostly pngs) without lag, maybe using some third-party library or dll? I took a look at chunky_png and RMagick, however I suppose those don't work in RM-Ruby.

TIA, cheers!

Greetings stranger!

A picture paints a thousand words:

click me hard: ShowHide

Kraut gibberish translated: "Discovered location: Waldrast", "Alice left your party" and "Item received: 5 Potions"

Here's the demo to illustrate my idea, implemented via an abomination of an event code: Notifications-Demo.zip



While filling my maps with loot and expanding sidequests and the day'n'night system I came to the conclusion that message boxes interrupting the game's flow aren't always the best way to deliver information to the player, especially if it's the type of information that is not of supreme importance. Possible examples not just from my project are:

• a quest is updated,


• a new conversational topic becomes available,


• the player enters a new settlement that is added to his fast travel map,


• the player finds a common item or gold while enter-hacking the environment,


• the player's stamina is low and he wonders why he can't dash anymore,


• the game is starting an update or streaming/fetching data in the background which might cause minor freezes,


• autosaving/reaching a checkpoint,


• ... or more complex events, e.g. the player passes a specific area at a certain time of day that is crucial for a sidequest to advance and gets notified about that en passant.

Of course none of these notifications would be actually triggered by the script I'm imagining; it's more a kind of extended framework for drawing text with hardly any other functionality on board. These are just occasions where you could use these notifications in script calls or from other scripts.

Anyway! So I go to Google and search for popup and notification scripts and the only one that comes close to this idea is Yanfly's Event Window for VX Ace. However it's lacking a vital feature, namely eye candy. And, well, it's still written for Ace, which I recall to have a window setup quite different from XP. So screw that, for now.



Alright, so how could such a script look like (besides the example I've given above)? Here's what I have come up with:

Script Calls / methods:

• push (string, sound = default) => generic method for notifications, message code compatible


• push_item (id, amount, icon = true, sound = default) => adds/removes item, with or without corresponding icon


• push_gold (amount, icon = true) => dito


• clear (frames) => fades out all notifications on screen in a certain amount of frames


• toggle => deactivate/enable notifications and sounds, for cutscenes and the like

Configuration:

• Fade in/out length of notifications in frames


• Speed and type of movement (linear, smooth using cosinus)


• Visible time: either a set amount of frames per notification or per character in the string (so long notifications are shown longer)


• Maximum number of simultaneously visible messages


• Default sounds and icons for item/gold script calls


• Whether or not to clear notifications upon entering a new map


• ... and all the other stuff like x/y, whether to move notifications down or up, font face, size, color

Here are some scripts than can be used as reference or provide functionality:

• Sprite & Window Smooth Sliding (methods for smooth slides, works in XP too)


• Event Window


• Gab Window

I do hope I inspired and convinced someone out there that coincidentally knows a tad more about scripting than I do I for one am sure that such a tiny feature as described here can help steady the game's pace and also lend a certain richness and style to every project implementing it.

Cheers!

Hey

I'm using a script called MP Party Follow which makes your party members follow you as events and arranges these in a "natural" way around you.
However this inevitably leads to them blocking your way in narrow passages. The solution suggested by the script's author is to make these critical maps broader which is goofy, and setting the party members to through looks cheesy.

A possible solution I came up with is to be able to swap one's place with an event's place by running/pushing yourself into the party member for more than 1 second (so that you don't accidentally swap when planning to talk to them).

Like so:



How would one implement such a feature? Please note that I can't use Player Touch as trigger as Action Button is needed in order to be able to talk to your buds.

Thanks in advance!

Hey there,

I have stumbled upon some of Mascarpone's gorgeous particle-based animations and wanted to check out the full package. However every link in the official threads (#1, #2 (final version)) is dead and so are the threads themselves (for over half a decade).
Now usually I spend about 10-30 minutes googlin' and then find at least one fricking mirror, be it some Korean long forgotten RM community, but this time my search wasn't crowned with success.

Later I also have come across some of Zekallinos' sweet animations which seem to be so rare that there's not even a thread where he released them. It's a file of 175MB.

So I'm wondering whether anyone in this forums still has one of these amazing packages saved somewhere and some spare bandwidth to share it with me (and all the Internet, in this specific case). Mascarpone himself has been allowing re-ups in his own thread so I do think it's ok if someone brings his package back to life here.

Now if you're like 'uh I don't know where to upload big files', I recommend this rarely used but great website: http://www.myupload.dk/

Thanks in advance.

Hey,
I currently run my XP game using the Ace engine (Game.exe + RGSS301.dll) and a Ruby rewrite of Tilemap. Now I know that you can load certain functions from dlls only, so would it be possible to load the C++ tilemap class from the RGSS102E.dll manually after start so I don't have to put up with that squishy rewrite?
The problem is that there are micro stutters when wandering on a relatively complex map. I am currently using Poccil's rewrite; if you know any that work better, tell me please  

Hey,

I recently found a quite decent light effects script for VX Ace and (after two failed attempts by me) am looking for someone that is able to port it to XP.

As far as I can tell the script is hard to adopt by no means as it contains little Ace-specific code. It's more some of the changes in Game_Map which made my efforts throw up errors.

As I don't have much more to offer than a warm thank-you and a credits entry otherwise, I also offer a payment of 50$ for this one. PayPal, Moneybookers, Amazon wishlist, wire transfer, gift coupon - name it.

Please PM me or post in this thread when you decide to take a look.

Happy new year,
Terv