Final Fantasy VI SDK - Going Social!
- Thread starter Dargor
- Start date
clockworkbutterfly
Member
Dargor,
No worries. I can't get the playtest working, but realized that I am able to edit the Game file in RPG Maker XP just fine. No need to recreate the DLL immediately just for me. I can live without it for now. Besides, your time is much better spent bringing this project closer to an actual alpha stage—and then to beta as soon as possible.
Take care, and good luck!
-- CB
No worries. I can't get the playtest working, but realized that I am able to edit the Game file in RPG Maker XP just fine. No need to recreate the DLL immediately just for me. I can live without it for now. Besides, your time is much better spent bringing this project closer to an actual alpha stage—and then to beta as soon as possible.
Take care, and good luck!
-- CB
Back from the dead with a little bit of info!
I'm currently trying to make the "Save Terra" portion of the game work, which implies two small but important details that requires new code:
1) Understanding which party the enemy event touched
2) Being able to scroll the camera to a given position (in this case the above party's x and y coordinates)
The most interesting is part 2 because I ended up writing a couple of helper functions that allows to scroll the camera at a precise X/Y coordinate or even scroll to a given character and all of that with support for diagonal scrolling. (FYI, RPG Maker never had diagonal camera scrolling). On top of that, I have also added a way to scroll the camera using the Set Move Route command! It makes it way easier to create a "path" for the camera without having to use a bunch of "Scroll Map" commands and as I said before, it also supports diagonals, which makes it superior to the Scroll Map command!
Here's a quick look on how it's implemented.
Note the script command "set_move_target", this function is called within the Game_Character class and replaces the "move target" to a new one, meaning you could call the command on the player but tell it to change its target to event #7 instead. You can pass any Game_Character to this function but you can also pass symbols. In this case, the camera is not a character and the code specifically checks if the target is :camera. If that's the case, the commands will make the map scroll instead of moving a character. The last function you see in the list restores the move target to the character previously chosen in the event command.
This is pretty much all I have for now but I can already say that this little improvement is making my live (and hopefully yours) a lot easier!
Take care!
- Dargor
I'm currently trying to make the "Save Terra" portion of the game work, which implies two small but important details that requires new code:
1) Understanding which party the enemy event touched
2) Being able to scroll the camera to a given position (in this case the above party's x and y coordinates)
The most interesting is part 2 because I ended up writing a couple of helper functions that allows to scroll the camera at a precise X/Y coordinate or even scroll to a given character and all of that with support for diagonal scrolling. (FYI, RPG Maker never had diagonal camera scrolling). On top of that, I have also added a way to scroll the camera using the Set Move Route command! It makes it way easier to create a "path" for the camera without having to use a bunch of "Scroll Map" commands and as I said before, it also supports diagonals, which makes it superior to the Scroll Map command!
Here's a quick look on how it's implemented.
Note the script command "set_move_target", this function is called within the Game_Character class and replaces the "move target" to a new one, meaning you could call the command on the player but tell it to change its target to event #7 instead. You can pass any Game_Character to this function but you can also pass symbols. In this case, the camera is not a character and the code specifically checks if the target is :camera. If that's the case, the commands will make the map scroll instead of moving a character. The last function you see in the list restores the move target to the character previously chosen in the event command.
This is pretty much all I have for now but I can already say that this little improvement is making my live (and hopefully yours) a lot easier!
Take care!
- Dargor
Psychokiller
Member
Hey Dargor! It has been a while. I'm mystified no one had anything to say about your work on making the multi-party battle sequences (aka "Save Terra" and, by extension, "Protect The Esper") work. I must admit I was rather curious as to how you'd make those work myself, given nothing even close to that being in RPG Maker by default, and it seems like you were making pretty good progress on it.
Been up to anything lately, either about that part or something else?
Been up to anything lately, either about that part or something else?
Sorry mephyanse but I'm not dead yet! In fact I'm doing great!
Jason and Princess Amy are spot on, I am extremely busy with life in general and it's not always easy. I'll be honest, it's been a few months since I have touched the SDK and I'm not happy with that fact, I wish I could spend all my days working on it like I used to.
But that doesn't mean I'm not working on it! Yes, I've slowed down drastically in the past 3 years but I think I'll just have to change my approach and make sure to focus on what's really important for the SDK and put aside what's less important.
Also my visits on this forums have been less and less frequent, something that also bothers me because I'm trying my best to stay in touch with you guys but it's very difficult to find the time. Now, if I have nothing new to share, I just don't post anything. But I'm always happy to talk about this project and answer your questions so don't be shy, keep posting and don't forget you can also PM me wherever you want!
While I have nothing new to share for now, I do plan on changing the way I'm producing the SDK in a way that would help me go faster.
I'm not ready to elaborate at the moment but that would mean "Less user-friendly tools, more game and content to show" which I think would be better for everybody.
Again, I'm truly grateful for all the support and love you guys gave me throughout the years, I can never thank you enough. One day you will all be able to see the final product! This project would never have been so successful without you guys so THANK YOU!!!
- Sasha "Dargor" Boutin
Jason and Princess Amy are spot on, I am extremely busy with life in general and it's not always easy. I'll be honest, it's been a few months since I have touched the SDK and I'm not happy with that fact, I wish I could spend all my days working on it like I used to.
But that doesn't mean I'm not working on it! Yes, I've slowed down drastically in the past 3 years but I think I'll just have to change my approach and make sure to focus on what's really important for the SDK and put aside what's less important.
Also my visits on this forums have been less and less frequent, something that also bothers me because I'm trying my best to stay in touch with you guys but it's very difficult to find the time. Now, if I have nothing new to share, I just don't post anything. But I'm always happy to talk about this project and answer your questions so don't be shy, keep posting and don't forget you can also PM me wherever you want!
While I have nothing new to share for now, I do plan on changing the way I'm producing the SDK in a way that would help me go faster.
I'm not ready to elaborate at the moment but that would mean "Less user-friendly tools, more game and content to show" which I think would be better for everybody.
Again, I'm truly grateful for all the support and love you guys gave me throughout the years, I can never thank you enough. One day you will all be able to see the final product! This project would never have been so successful without you guys so THANK YOU!!!
- Sasha "Dargor" Boutin
In fact, speaking about staying in touch, maybe I can start a facebook page, open a tumblr or twitter account or something similar if you guys want. I'm not very familiar with any of these (with the exception of facebook) but if enough people care, I can definitely do this!
So is that something you guys would like/care about? And if so, what's your favorite platform? Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr, others?
Let me know!
- Dargor
So is that something you guys would like/care about? And if so, what's your favorite platform? Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr, others?
Let me know!
- Dargor
Psychokiller
Member
I, too, like Facebook.
Social Networks
Lets give this a try, the Final Fantasy VI SDK is now on Facebook and Tumblr!
Facebook :
The Facebook page is there for me to post regular and somewhat more trivial updates. I will also use it to upload screenshots and videos and also redirect questions that have been asked on tumblr. Fore those of you you feel comfortable on Facebook and want to see updates in your feed, this is the page for you!
Tumblr :
I have discovered Tumblr late in 2014 and found that it was a great platform to interact more closely with someone. I have decided to create a Tumblr blog so you can easily ask me questions to which I will reply frequently. This blog has also been integrated with the facebook page so if you decide not to follow the blog but don<t want to miss anything, you can still see the updates on Facebook!
Sourceforge :
Don't forget, you can download the latest versions on Sourceforge! I know, it has been a while since anything was uploaded but I still believe that this page is a good thing and maybe eventually more people will try it out and file bug reports/suggestions!
HBGames.org :
Of course, everything started here, I'm not letting HBGames.org behind! If you prefer navigating forums and are more comfortable here than anywhere else, I will keep posting here as much as I can!
Youtube: :
And finally, Youtube doesn't need any introductions. The SDK now has its own youtube channel where you can see all the progress I make in action!
So lets see how this goes, I hope to hear from all of you soon on one of these pages!
- Dargor
Lets give this a try, the Final Fantasy VI SDK is now on Facebook and Tumblr!
The Facebook page is there for me to post regular and somewhat more trivial updates. I will also use it to upload screenshots and videos and also redirect questions that have been asked on tumblr. Fore those of you you feel comfortable on Facebook and want to see updates in your feed, this is the page for you!
I have discovered Tumblr late in 2014 and found that it was a great platform to interact more closely with someone. I have decided to create a Tumblr blog so you can easily ask me questions to which I will reply frequently. This blog has also been integrated with the facebook page so if you decide not to follow the blog but don<t want to miss anything, you can still see the updates on Facebook!
Don't forget, you can download the latest versions on Sourceforge! I know, it has been a while since anything was uploaded but I still believe that this page is a good thing and maybe eventually more people will try it out and file bug reports/suggestions!
Of course, everything started here, I'm not letting HBGames.org behind! If you prefer navigating forums and are more comfortable here than anywhere else, I will keep posting here as much as I can!
And finally, Youtube doesn't need any introductions. The SDK now has its own youtube channel where you can see all the progress I make in action!
So lets see how this goes, I hope to hear from all of you soon on one of these pages!
- Dargor
Update!
I'm finally tackling the Veldt after a long time avoiding it. But first let me (re)introduce the concept of areas.
In the original game and in some RPG Makers, maps can have sub areas. In the case of FF6, these areas define which enemy groups you will encounter. This is the same for the FF6SDK.
You can always define an encounter list in the map properties but now, if you add areas to your map and if the player is located in one of them, the default encounter list will be replaced with the areas' encounter list. On top of that, areas have a "Is Veldt" option that replaces the encounter system with one unique to The Veldt.
Areas also have a BGM option. If the player enters an area and if it has a BGM, the song will change! When applicable, the song will revert to the map's original song.
That's all for now!
- Dargor
I'm finally tackling the Veldt after a long time avoiding it. But first let me (re)introduce the concept of areas.
In the original game and in some RPG Makers, maps can have sub areas. In the case of FF6, these areas define which enemy groups you will encounter. This is the same for the FF6SDK.
You can always define an encounter list in the map properties but now, if you add areas to your map and if the player is located in one of them, the default encounter list will be replaced with the areas' encounter list. On top of that, areas have a "Is Veldt" option that replaces the encounter system with one unique to The Veldt.
Areas also have a BGM option. If the player enters an area and if it has a BGM, the song will change! When applicable, the song will revert to the map's original song.
That's all for now!
- Dargor
And here's an example of the animation/displacement system during battles!
Note: this is a work in progress.
In this video you can see how the animation system works during battles. The character sprites are attached to an object that is basically their movement controller,the little red boxes, that I call the displacement. When the displacement moves, the character moves with it. In this example you can see the displacement blending to a random target position while the character animation makes him jump on place, giving the illusion that the character is jumping towards a target. The movement is called in the animation data, for the moment using sound FX with hardcoded names as a trigger.
Eventually this could be used to perform more complex movement and animations such as Quadra Slam.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj3AkG1Aevo
Note: this is a work in progress.
In this video you can see how the animation system works during battles. The character sprites are attached to an object that is basically their movement controller,the little red boxes, that I call the displacement. When the displacement moves, the character moves with it. In this example you can see the displacement blending to a random target position while the character animation makes him jump on place, giving the illusion that the character is jumping towards a target. The movement is called in the animation data, for the moment using sound FX with hardcoded names as a trigger.
Eventually this could be used to perform more complex movement and animations such as Quadra Slam.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj3AkG1Aevo