PON/ONscripter vs Renpy vs Other

[TheGuraGuraMan]

Hello guys.


I know quite a lot of things on PON/ONscripter to make a complicate game myself, and I'm actually doing a VN. Problem, I'm not sure about which engine should I use for it. Of course I want one who works on every platforms, and I don't mind of the programmation difficulty (I was able to get a good level on Onscripter without tutorial after all). Why I'm not simply using Onscripter ? Well there are some problems :

- I woud like to get animations like that http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdw0jPn92wI but Onscripter seems to hate movements, I'm still learning this last big part, but it doesn't seem much makable for now, even simply moving something isn't that easy.
- I'm French, so I want to do it in French, which mean Unicode, so I need to use POnscripter. Except that PONscripter is quite buggy and have less stuff like scaling and Dll effects.

On the other way it seems like there is a version of Onscripter who can support Unicode but not proportional fonts (which isn't THAT important, it looks better, but if it's the only way...), since it was the case for the french version of Narcissu, I should ask about the guys who made it about that...


For Renpy, I used it a little, but I couldn't bear it... simplified don't mean easier when you want to make complicate stuff, or I should just look at some tutorials.


So here are my questions :
- Do you think scrolling is important, personally I do, especially since I want to make it in high quality (so yeah I have to modify the source code, already did it once to add 1080p but it really was random...).
- Is there anyone who use Dll effects ? Can it do quite good things ? The only big effect I know is Umineko's rain.
- let's forget the "it's simpler" stuff, in term of possibilities, which is the better one ? Or should I use another engine ?



Thanks for your answers.

[AxemRed]

The video you linked doesn't actually 'animate' in-engine, the sprites are just pre-rendered filmstrips -- (P|O)NScripter shouldn't have a problem with that at least.

[dramspringfeald]

Actually for RenPy A little of both. If you cant figure it out go to the Tutorials in the wiki.... then Copy paste it till you get the hang of the code.
Also having an understanding of basic "python" will help you seeing as how that's where the Py of RenPy comes from.

There are plenty of Language and localization tools for your area just lurk in the Cookbook for a while.

It's now a question of simple for me. It's how much will it cost me. RenPy is free and I've got plenty of time on my hands so I'll go RenPy.

[Kinjo]

The video you linked doesn't actually 'animate' in-engine, the sprites are just pre-rendered filmstrips -- (P|O)NScripter shouldn't have a problem with that at least.

I was wondering if that was the case.
As AxemRed said, (P)Onscripter shouldn't have a problem doing such animations, as I've gotten similar things to work myself.

For actually moving something, it's not simple but it's not too hard either. I'm not sure how familiar you are with ONscripter but it would be some variant of this code:

Code: Select all

for a to b
lsp number,"sprite.png",%x,%y
print 1
;*change x or y values depending on movement here*
next

Dlls: I've done a lot of messing around with Umineko's rain effect. It can do some pretty awesome stuff (snow/fog/fire effects), but I don't have experience with any other Dlls yet.

I also believe that ONScripter is easier to use than Ren'Py -- but only due to the fact that it's more limited, ironically. It's a trade-off as to whether you want flexibility with your VN (given you know Python) or want to take the time to find ways around limitations to get what you want (given you know ONscripter's pseudo-language). Personally I don't know Python at all, so I choose to stick with something I'm already familiar with and satisfies what I want in my VN. ONscripter does that for me.

[TheGuraGuraMan]

The video you linked doesn't actually 'animate' in-engine, the sprites are just pre-rendered filmstrips -- (P|O)NScripter shouldn't have a problem with that at least.

Ah I see, I tought he just "cut" the sprite in many parts then Renpy moved them like that.



For Kinjo, hum yeah I said it didn't worked but I didn't really tried, maybe it will work...

Mainly wanted things like an object who turn on itself, I'll give it a try to see if it's smooth.


Also I saw somewhere that on the opposite Onscripter is more complete, don't really know anymore who should I believe...

[Greeny]

I vouch for Ren'Py. Underneath all the approachability and fluffiness that surrounds basic Ren'Py lies a pretty robust powerhouse of a VN engine.

And it's not like PyTom is paying me to say that, or anything.

[nyaatrap]

From my experience: Ren'py≒KiriKiri2≧Yu-ris≧CatSystem2>>NScripter.

Nscripter is an outdated engine... I can's see any pros in this tool. Japanese professionals use KK2, Yu-ris, CatSystem2, but never NScripter. Only old doujin circles use it. I don't know how ONScripter or like are improved than the original NScripter, but It must not far from it.

Yu-ris can only use Japanese encode, so you can ignore this engine.

What is the difference between Ren'py and KK2?
I think Ren'py has beautiful and simpler language. KK2 has many custom scripts and resources made by professional programmers other than the original developer.
I'm using Ren'py now, but actually, both are enough good to make something awesome (Yu-ris is also good for Japanese however).

[TheGuraGuraMan]

I looked for informations about KK2, and it doesn't seems like it works on Mac and Linux, in that case I'm not interested.
Also you called Nscripter an "old" engine, what makes Renpy better than it ? Except the fact it have tutorials of course.

[nyaatrap]

Nscripter isn't object-oriented language. It doesn't have flexibility and modules. You need dlls written by another language (Lua) to do complicated tasks. The original developer knows this engine's concept is already outdated and he is making a new engine - NScripter2, which is based on Lua and having DirectX support.
On the other hand, you can just write python directly to do complicated tasks in ren'py. Ren'py also has Open GL and DirectX support already.

PS: Nscripter2 was released on Aug 2012 (http://naokitakahashi-dev.blogspot.jp/2 ... -beta.html)
There is no manual/tutorial yet, but Games using this engine are already out.

[TheGuraGuraMan]

Ah does it mean you can more easily do stuff like Umineko's rain on Renpy ? interesting... well there were only two main things I wanted on Nscripter, I'm sure the first one is available on Renpy, but not the second : Scrolling and moving animation (if you know a little Nscripter, it would be like for-next with msp but it continue when you do other stuff). Don't really know anymore, I just decided to forgot PONscripter abd go to ON to get Dlls and other stuff but Renpy seems quite interesting.

[nyaatrap]

Ren'py is one of the best novel engine on image manipulation. You can move/deform any type/size/amount of images (background, sprites, text, GUI, e.t.c.) freely anytime. This animation process proceeds along with other tasks.