6.11 Development

[Eliont]

Please, may you include in new version:
1) Python Imaging Library (PIL) - very useful for spirites
2) Config file parsers (ini)
(I do it by rename ConfigParser.py->ConfigParser.rpy and place all code in init block, but it was easier to simply import the module.) .
3) Notepad++ in addition to the existing editors.

And, if possble, how i do it with current 6.10.2e version?

I creating game with complex HoMM3-liked battle system with my own battle engine and using python very wide.

[PyTom]

PIL is mostly redundant with Ren'Py's image manipulators. It's also one more dependency, and one that Ren'Py itself won't use, so I don't plan to include it.

For most pure python modules, you can use them by importing them using the python import statement, in a python block. For example:

Code: Select all

init python:
    import ConfigParser

The one caveat is that mutable objects produced in python modules will not participate in rollback. So you generally don't want to mutate them after initial creation.

I'd have no problem putting a Notepad++ mode up at http://www.renpy.org/wiki/renpy/Editors, if someone wants to support it. But I'm not going to distribute a platform-specific editor with Ren'Py itself.

[Jake]

Speaking of random feature requests, would it be possible to make all the developer-mode Shift-X shortcuts actually require shift, and not just typing a capital letter? Every now and again caps lock gets put on by accident and all of a sudden none of them work - or work when I don't want them to!

[PyTom]

I'll look into what it would take to require shift for the developer shortcuts. Right now, I'm just reading the unicode directly, and I'm not sure if pygame treats shift as a modifier or not.

In other news, I've entered into the home stretch of screen language implementation. After quite a bit of visually uninteresting behind-the-scenes work, Ren'Py is now at the point where it can use the screen language to display the say statement, the menu statement, the main menu, and the preferences menu.

Of course, when I say "the main menu" and "the preferences menu", I really mean "the functionality contained in the main menu" and "the functionality contained in the preferences menu". The whole point of the new screen system is that we divorce the functionality contained within the various menus from the menus themselves. So if you want to add a button to the main menu that toggles fullscreen mode, now you can do that. Want to unify the menus, so there's a combined loading, saving, and preference screen? Again, that's possible. (Or it will be when I get around to implementing loading and saving.)

The point of screen language is that I want to get out of the business of deciding what goes on what screen. (Of course, Ren'Py
will ship with at least one set of pre-made menus, for those who want to use them.)

Anyway, added-or-changed 648 lines of code this weekend, which wasn't bad.

[DaFool]

That's great news!
I'm really just waiting for Jake's battle engine and Screen Language to be released. I have my flowcharts ready and can feasibly crank out something nice in 3 months. Combined with ATL, it's not going to be your regular imagemaps or ui textboxes anymore. I haven't been so confident in years; I'm glad I stuck with the Renpy community.

[Aleema]

PYTOM. I'm so hot for your Screen Language. I hope it releases sometime this summer (if not incredibly sooner).
I've been jonsing for custom imagemap preference buttons, which, as far as I know, isn't possible right now.

[number473]

Awesome! I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the screen language and trying it out myself. Looks nice and straightforward.

[DaFool]

Want to unify the menus, so there's a combined loading, saving, and preference screen? Again, that's possible. (Or it will be when I get around to implementing loading and saving.).

Speaking of saving, will it be possible to have more console- like schemes that separate by username? It's just a bummer when Im supposed to play a new game but the CG gallery is already fully unlocked. I'm talking about multiple persistent in one game, rather than multiple game persistent.

I also want to be able to implement "save points" where all you save are stats and one respawn point without the need for an exacting screenshot and a bookmark accurate to the last sentence spoken. I think games with more gameplay than VN will benefit.

[PyTom]

Ren'Py should already separate saves and persistent data by username. We store the games inside the user's home directory, so when another user logs in, they'll get their own persistent and multipersistent data.

I'm not sure what an inexact screenshot would be.

[DaFool]

Ren'Py should already separate saves and persistent data by username. We store the games inside the user's home directory, so when another user logs in, they'll get their own persistent and multipersistent data.

I'm not sure what an inexact screenshot would be.

Ok got that. I think it may be possible to further separate save types? Such as separate saves for Options settings, one for unlockables, and a third for actual game progress. With VNs it seems like we're only saving based on text_read ( and therefore skippable) vs text_unread. Any another declared variables being saved seem as if they just "tagged along", in my opinion. I want the ability to save only a set of variables for one save file, another set for another, etc. I'm thinking of saving in between turns in a battle where your stats prior to entering battle are unaffected until you finish the battle.

Have there been any renpy games where the screenshot used is just a logo, a character's face(like in some JVNs) or a general background?

[papillon]

Date Warp uses the face of the character whose path you're on (or the PC if you haven't reached the branch point yet) as part of the save/load display, although it uses screenshots as well.

I wanted it to be easy to visually pick out your save from a huge list, but loading up all the thumbnails at once was super-laggy. So with this combination-display you can easily see which group of saves is probably the group you're looking for, then mouse over the matching faces to see the associated screenshots and find the exact save you wanted.

[Jake]

I also want to be able to implement "save points" where all you save are stats and one respawn point without the need for an exacting screenshot and a bookmark accurate to the last sentence spoken. I think games with more gameplay than VN will benefit.

Games with more gameplay than VN will already quite possibly have infrequent saves which aren't accurate down to the last thing that happened and an exact screenshot simply because of the way Ren'Py works; if you save in the middle of Python code, then what you actually get is a save for the last line of Ren'Py code you hit before you started the Python.

I was a bit worried when I started work on my battle engine project that I'd have to mess around a lot behind the scenes to ensure that all the various variables which get changed would be correctly saved and it wouldn't crash or behave weirdly if you saved and re-loaded... then I remembered this limitation of Ren'Py, and it's all no problem; if you save during the battle, when you load your game you just get the Ren'Py scene immediately before the battle.

(The downside to this, of course, is that it doesn't allow for the quicksave-in-battle option that many tactics games give you... at least, not without some messing around.)

Ok got that. I think it may be possible to further separate save types? Such as separate saves for Options settings, one for unlockables, and a third for actual game progress.

If you're talking about user-defined options... can't you just put your options and your unlockables in persistent data? It's pretty much what it's for, after all! I guess there might be some minor benefit to formalising it in that it would be marginally easier for non-programmers to guess where to stick their persistent data, but it probably wouldn't really help that much, and it also tries to pigeonhole persistent data into just two categories, while there are many other things that you might want to do with it. (I have this notion floating around in my head for a porny get-the-girl game with a large cast, where if you ever cheat on any of the girls even once the game remembers and will never show you breasts ever again, for example.)

[jack_norton]

I want the ability to save only a set of variables for one save file, another set for another, etc. I'm thinking of saving in between turns in a battle where your stats prior to entering battle are unaffected until you finish the battle.

That can be done with just variables (and SHOULD be done like that). Using the system you explained is going to be messy and cause bugs. In Planet Stronghold I have for example Max_Health / Max_Psionic and Act_Health / Act_Psionic. The Max is the default value when you start a battle, the Act (Actual) changes on the battles based on your decisions and events.
At start of battle and at end of battle, I just do Act_Health=Max_Health and so on. When character raises level I just update Max_Health.
So for this is better to just use variables - though I would like the possibility to customize saving, for example entering the save game name (which is a common task in many games).
(I mean I'm sure it can be done through python programming but would be nicer if was already available without much tinkering )

[DaFool]

Thanks for all the replies. What I got was that it's safest to just let the Ren'Py scene mode take care of wrapping up all the variables. So even if there was a game with heavy gameplay, the way it would save would be to transition quickly to renpy mode then save. I'm assuming with Screen Language, instead of a save/load screen embedded into right-click by default, it is now the creator's responsibility to invoke the save/load screen however it sees fit.

jack_norton >> I was also thinking along the lines of being able to retrace a couple of turns. So temporary values seem like a good idea, even if you can't save mid-battle. From experience one careless move would ruin the battle, especially for really extensive ones. Not so much a problem with Disgaea, but it was with Valkyria Chronicles.

[duanemoody]

Hey Tom!

When my eroge ZOMBIE SLUTS FROM MARS crashes on someone else's computer, would it be too much of an inconvenience for the traceback not to report my entire hard drive name, user account name, and path?

HEY KIDS: BONUS FUN TIME
put any Ren'Py eroge (any platform) into your dev folder and lint it for extra easter egg action