Ren'Py Interactive Director 4.0 Released.

[PyTom]

I'm pleased to announce version 4.0 of the Ren'Py Interactive Director. This is a tool for adding statements to your game that display pictures and play audio files, without having reload the game (except when the Director is first starting.) In addition to the scene, show, hide, and with statement supported in version 3.0, this release adds support of the audio statements - play, queue, stop, and voice. it also includes a number of bugfixes.

Here's a screenshot of Version 4.0 in action:

(Or check out this video of my Visual;Conference talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8PP_HG-weM )

To use version 4.0, download it from the directory below, unzip it, and place it in your Ren'Py sdk. You can also copy the id.rpy file from the interactive director release into your own game, making this release suitable for use with your own projects.

The Ren'Py Interactive Director is free for non-commercial use, where commercial use includes things like kickstarters and patreon-funded games. However, as a special exception, I am making it free for all use until April 15, 2017. This means that all NaNoRenO 2017 games - commercial and not - will be able to use the Interactive Director.

This version requires Ren'Py 6.99.12.4, and can be downloaded from:

https://www.renpy.org/dl/id/

You can also see the source code (which isn't open source, since commercial use is only permitted until April 15th) at:

https://github.com/renpy/id

The github page also has a reasonably formatted README file that has the license in it and explains how to use the Interactive Director, including a number of variables that can be used to customize it. My hope is that this will be a useful tool for the creation of NaNoRenO games this year, and I plan to support it with the appropriate level of effort to make that the case.

[indoneko]

I can't find the ID4 file in that download link. I can see the older versions though.

[PyTom]

That might be because I forgot to hit "upload". That's the sort of couple of days it's been. It should be there now.

[indoneko]

Thanks~

I've been wondering why nobody else took notice....

[dreamfarmer]

I just wanted to say that this is a really fantastic tool, especially for use with digitally generated art. It's wonderful to assemble a large list of assets and experiment with angles and nuanced expressions. I'm not, however, going to be anywhere near done this month so I am looking forward to that commercial-use license.

[dreamfarmer]

UPDATED: I found this which seems to explain all: https://www.renpy.org/doc/html/displayi ... -directory
I feel dumb.


Ok, I'm encountering some unexpected behavior. I presumed I'd have to still add image defines to the script as is done in The Question. I moved a bunch of files to the image directory and then set up a single define to test and make sure it'd work... and when I loaded up ID and went to add a sprite.... it showed ALL the tags associated with the sprite files in my image directory. This is AWESOME. Unexpected but awesome. Makes having lots of renders even more fun. But I have no idea if it's intended

But sometimes it crashes, or at least complains a lot and I can either recover or not. There have been a variety of tracebacks. And this same functionality doesn't seem to quite work with the 'scene' command. And it doesn't indent the 'show' commands properly about half the time. And I can't find any place the images are actually being defined... is it ren'py that just doesn't care?

I poked at it a bit because I thought it was crashing because I chose attributes out of order. But no, it just reorders them properly once I pick a set that works. So I poked a bit more and eventually triggered a crash, but not quite sure how. There's a traceback attached.

(And my apologies if this is the wrong place to post this....)

[caricatur]

Not sure if you figured it out, but I got that error until I updated renpy to the latest version.

As it says in the notes you need to be on 6.12.4 which is fairly recent.
Not sure which files are necessary, I just copied the script and assets from my main folder.

It's not clear how to add assets to the list, it doesn't seem to add available resources automatically like i hoped. Not sure how to edit testcases.rpy if that's what affects what you can choose from.

Also, don't see support for arrays of sprites. You can customize alot so I'm sure some of this can be resolved with some tinkering. I didn't see any instructions, so I'd have to guess.

This program replicates the basic idea of tyranobuilder. Tyranobuilder is a bit agrravating to work with due to having a slow, buggy preview feature. Renpy lets you review your work with a few quick keystrokes. You also have to define transforms here, but it's a step up from tyranobuilder which doesn't make it easy to edit your script (manually go to the directory, edit, and reload the entire scene from tyranobuilder gui).

Also unlike tyrano builder, it doesn't seem to allow more complicated tranforms like crop, or to place backgrounds that don't match the default resolution properly. This is my biggest peeve with tyranobuilder-it's great if everything is custom made for the engine, and problematic if it isn't. This is why renpy is still heads above the competition as far as flexibility an ease of use.

Still I'm happy this was made. I'll try figuring this out a bit better, and update my review if my opinion changes. I'm not a programmer, but I know enough, and this might help newbies get started. Depending on the cost of the license.

This is really good for something you made in several hours. Thanks a bunch!

[Karl_C]

For those who missed that the licensing terms of 'Ren'Py Interactive Director 4.0' had been changed 5 months ago:

The Interactive Director is now an open source project, licensed under the same MIT license as Ren'Py itself.

Source: GitHub: Ren'Py Interactive Director

[Imperf3kt]

Also note that PyTom decided to open a Patreon instead, should you feel compelled to donate a little something for his hard work.