Reference Manual Update

[PyTom]

I've begun work on revising the Reference Manual. As part of this, I'm loading the RM into the Ren'Py Trac, so everyone can edit it. The first part of what I have is here:

http://www.bishoujo.us/trac/wiki/Refere ... alLanguage

If people find obvious mistakes, please just fix them. If something non-obvious is found, then please ask here. By eding the RM, you agree to release your edits under the Ren'Py license. Please read:

http://www.bishoujo.us/trac/wiki/Refere ... ntributing

For more details.

[PyTom]

The second section to be rewritten is up.

http://www.bishoujo.us/trac/wiki/Refere ... alStarting

Comments would be nice... Is this still too complicated for mere mortals to understand? Or is it just right?

One of the nice things about the update is that I'm actually correcting a number of mistakes in the Reference Manual, so that it actually reflects something resembling reality. Much of the manual hasn't been revised by me since the 4.0 days, so it's time for a major overhaul.

[Watercolorheart]

I think a lot of people like me would love to know what args are. I see them mentioned all the time in the documentation, and can't make head nor tail of it.

What's an arg?

ARGH?

-

Good work so far. I like it. I would like to request myself some detailed explanations of animation variables - SnowBlossom, embedding a movie (took some time for me to figure out Ren'Py only supports MPEG!), Composite, Sm.Animation, Live.Composite, and all that good stuff.

I have some code from you, but I think other programmers would appreciate having all that laid out in clear, concise examples too. The source from the demo game is somewhat confusing to figure out.

[monele]

Nicely detailed. Maybe it still lacks a *few* examples such as what the name of the .exe could be when using an underscore. It's just easier to see the result than compose it from the description.

I also added a request in the code snippets section. Tell me if it's not a good idea but I thought one could just edit and put a request in the right section so it can be filled up by someone who knows how to do it.

[PyTom]

Saving, Loading, and Rollback are up at:

http://www.bishoujo.us/trac/wiki/ReferenceManualSLR

BCS >> arg is short for argument, which is a value you pass to a function.

Monele >> It's probably best to ask on the forum, as I'm not sure anyone is patrolling the code snippets section of the wiki.

Also, there isn't a good example of what main_menu is used for... It's intended so that people can write their own main menu completely from scratch.

[monele]

Also, there isn't a good example of what main_menu is used for... It's intended so that people can write their own main menu completely from scratch.

Is the code for the current main menu fetchable from the source code at least ? Starting from this, it should be easier to customize it into something new. Subsidiary question : is it what should be changed to have different labels as was done in Go Magical Boy ?

[PyTom]

Is the code for the current main menu fetchable from the source code at least ? Starting from this, it should be easier to customize it into something new. Subsidiary question : is it what should be changed to have different labels as was done in Go Magical Boy ?

You can look at it in mainmenu.rpy. That being said, there isn't really a strong need to rewrite it. If you want to change what the buttons say, you can use library.transitions. To change button positions, used library.main_menu_positions. To add background music, use library.main_menu_music (coming soon to 5.5.) To change the look of buttons, update style.mm_button and style.mm_button_text.

[riktik]

Nicely detailed. Maybe it still lacks a *few* examples such as what the name of the .exe could be when using an underscore. It's just easier to see the result than compose it from the description.

I agree

[monele]

Alright ^^ Added this to the wiki for future reference

[PyTom]

BTW, I added a Ren'Py processor to the Wiki. So now people can write:

{{{
#!renpy
init:
# init code.

# Other code
}}}

Or whatever, and it will be syntax-highlighted as Ren'Py.

[PyTom]

Some new writing:

- The reference manual has been updated with sections on persistend data and Character objects.

http://www.bishoujo.us/trac/wiki/ReferenceManual

- The wiki now has an updated version of the Relelasing document.

http://www.bishoujo.us/trac/wiki/ReleasingRenpyGames