Why does Ren'Py create image files for GUI?

Discuss how to use the Ren'Py engine to create visual novels and story-based games. New releases are announced in this section.
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qirien
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Why does Ren'Py create image files for GUI?

#1 Post by qirien »

In the new(-ish) Ren'Py when you start a game, it creates GUI images for you with the colors you select and puts them in the gui directory. It seems like it would be easier and take less space to just use Frame(Solid(whatever_color)) instead. Then if you wanted to change colors later it would not have to regenerate all the images, but could just change some color values in a file.

So I'm guessing there's some reason for doing this. Is it to have some dummy images so game creators can easily plop in their own graphics files? Or is it faster to load images from disk instead of generating them every time?

I'm asking because I'm using a lot of bars in my game (right now using Frame(Solid(color))) and I want them to be efficient.
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Re: Why does Ren'Py create image files for GUI?

#2 Post by SundownKid »

I'm guessing it's for ease of swapping out or editing GUI elements for people who aren't that great at programming Screen Language.

In terms of efficiency... I doubt it will make a smidgen of difference in performance.

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Re: Why does Ren'Py create image files for GUI?

#3 Post by PyTom »

qirien wrote: Fri Feb 02, 2018 12:59 pm Is it to have some dummy images so game creators can easily plop in their own graphics files?
This is the reason. Solid is faster, but it's way easier to say "Replace the bar image" than walking through people through a ton of screen language before they can do that. The bars are a little on the big side of this reason - I want to have more space for different kinds of replacements.
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Re: Why does Ren'Py create image files for GUI?

#4 Post by qirien »

OK, thank you! I have to remember most people aren't coming from a programming background... :D
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