Will the legacy GUI cease to exist?

[felsenstern]

Heya!

I've finally sneaked into the new gui with a HelloWorld Project, and that's the reason why I've created an account here.

For a few days I tryed to setup the design parameters for my new VN. But I was unable to understand how to use the new gui to do the most basic things. And now after two days of studying the new documenation, I've finally given up and decided to go with the legacy gui.

I am now afraid that anytime soon the new gui will be the only option in Ren'py at which point I have no idea how to continue my hobby. Therefor I just want to know if there are plans to replace the legacy GUI completely and how soon that may be.

Thanks for your attention.

[PyTom]

Basically, the new GUI is going to be a strongly suggested default, as of the next version. It can be ripped out completely and replaced with a custom GUI if you choose.

Customizing the new GUI is the same as the legacy GUI - it just uses two files (gui.rpy and options.rpy) rather than just one.

[Mammon]

You can get older versions here. While the newer versions are of course better and more advanced, if the new implications are truly an issue you could download an older version instead. Even 2004 games with their 2004 engine still work for the player because ren'py doesn't need a separate program, they only need to download the game.

[Imperf3kt]

I must admit, I hated the new GUI when it came out, even threw a hissy fit in some thread here.

However, after a couple of weeks of reading the documentation, experimenting and asking a few questions when I got stuck or confused the purpose of a function, I managed to get enough of an idea about how it worked that I am very comfortable with it now.
It's as PyTom says, and not infact much different to the legacy GUI in terms of how you use it. It just has more fancy stuff by default and a few minor differences in how things are approached vs legacy mode.

If you're having trouble adjusting, as many people do - a quick glance through some of the topics from the past ~6 months - then by all means, ask here at the forums and someone will surely try to help you understand the part you're stuck with. They're a pretty patient bunch here.

Now if you don't mind, I'm going back to sleep. It is 2:15am and all...

[felsenstern]

PyTom: I am sorry, but I have no idea how I could do that. Maybe as Imperf3kt suggest to sit down weeks and months to study how something could be achieved, but since creating VNs is a recreational thing for me and my time is very sparse it would take me probably years to implement a VN with the new GUI.

Mammon: thanks a lot, I've bookmarked the page. I hope that it will be possible to find the latest version that supports legacy GUI. Because usually I like to work with the latest version of a software.

Imperf3kt: I don't hate the new GUI, I rather liked it at the first glance, but it simply can't do for me what the legacy GUI does. I like to use themes, which don't seem to work in the new GUI anymore. At least the moment I initialize the new GUI none of the theme graphics appears. And I need outlines for my fonts which I found in the documentation, but couldn't get working. However as I said, I've invested like 20 hours into the new GUI and failed. For me it's just important to know when the support for the legacy UI stops so I can use the most recent version of Ren'py with legacy GUI support.

[SundownKid]

PyTom: I am sorry, but I have no idea how I could do that. Maybe as Imperf3kt suggest to sit down weeks and months to study how something could be achieved, but since creating VNs is a recreational thing for me and my time is very sparse it would take me probably years to implement a VN with the new GUI.

Years is a bit of a stretch. I figured out the new UI in a day or two. Granted I had a lot of experience with the old UI but it's not a massive change at all. It adds some screens and moves the GUI styling to a new file (but you don't actually have to use that file to customize). It's less of a "new" GUI and more of an upgrade to the old one.

The text history screen still confuses me but I even figured out how to customize that eventually.

[felsenstern]

Years is a bit of a stretch. I figured out the new UI in a day or two. Granted I had a lot of experience with the old UI but it's not a massive change at all. It adds some screens and moves the GUI styling to a new file (but you don't actually have to use that file to customize). It's less of a "new" GUI and more of an upgrade to the old one.

The text history screen still confuses me but I even figured out how to customize that eventually.

I had no problem understanding how the new gui works and how the 2 files were connected to each other. But as I said, it doesn't do the same things as the old gui. At least I wasn't able to discover a way to use themes and I neither was able to outline my font.