Ren'Py 7 Layered Image Attributes Problem (solved)

[noeinan]

Okay, so the newest release of Ren'Py changed layered images in a big way, and I'm super stoked about it. I just started going through the process of updating my game to accommodate the new system and... it isn't working. It could be that I've missed something or made a mistake somewhere, but I'm honestly not sure and am having a hard time figuring it out on my own. (I also started using Atom instead of Editra and I'm still getting used to things.)

I have replaced my previous "livecomp" file with a new "layered images file":

Code: Select all

init-1:
    image aethL = "images/spr/aeth/aeth_base_nude.png"
    #This is a preset to keep you from getting an error.

    layeredimage aethL:

#Eyebrows > Eyes > Mouth > Hood > Bangs > Ears > TopArms > Cloak > BottomArms > Base

        group base auto:
            attribute vest default

        group botarms if_any "nude" auto variant "nude" prefix "botarms"
        group botarms if_not "nude" auto variant "vest" prefix "botarms"

        group cloak auto:
            attribute none default

        group toparms if_any "nude" auto variant "nude" prefix "toparms"
        group toparms if_not "nude" auto variant "vest" prefix "toparms"

        group ears auto:
            attribute down default

        group bangs auto:
            attribute bangs default

        group hood auto:
            attribute none default

        group mouth auto:
            attribute neu default

        group eyes auto:
            attribute neu default

        group brows auto:
            attribute neu default

I have also tried the expanded version (below) but it came up with the exact same results so I don't think the issue is related to the auto function.

Code: Select all

init-1:
    image aethL = "images/spr/aeth/aeth_base_nude.png"
    #This is a preset to keep you from getting an error.

    layeredimage aethL:

#Eyebrows > Eyes > Mouth > Hood > Bangs > Ears > TopArms > Cloak > BottomArms > Base

        group brows:

            attribute brows_neu default "aethL_brows_neu"
            attribute brows_up "aethL_brows_up"
            attribute brows_sad "aethL_brows_sad"
            attribute brows_angry "aethL_brows_angry"

        group eyes:

            attribute eyes_neu default "aethL_eyes_neu"
            attribute eyes_half "aethL_eyes_half"
            attribute eyes_wide "aethL_eyes_wide"
            attribute eyes_closed "aethL_eyes_closed"
            attribute eyes_shut "aethL_eyes_shut"
            attribute eyes_side "aethL_eyes_side"

        group mouth:

            attribute mouth_neu default "aethL_mouth_neu"
            attribute mouth_smile "aethL_mouth_smile"
            attribute mouth_bigsmile "aethL_mouth_bigsmile"
            attribute mouth_laugh "aethL_mouth_laugh"
            attribute mouth_frown "aethL_mouth_frown"
            attribute mouth_gasp "aethL_mouth_gasp"

        group hood:

            attribute hood_none default "none"
            attribute hood_open "aethL_hood_open"
            attribute hood_closed "aethL_hood_closed"

        group bangs:

            attribute bangs default "aethL_bangs"

        group ears:

            attribute ears_down default "aethL_ears_down"
            attribute ears_half "aethL_ears_half"
            attribute ears_up "aethL_ears_up"

        group toparms:
            if_any "nude"

            attribute toparms_none default "none"
            attribute toparms_hood "aethL_toparms_hood_nude"

        group toparms:
            if_not "nude"

            attribute toparms_none default "none"
            attribute toparms_hood "aethL_toparms_hood_vest"


        group cloak:

            attribute cloak_none default "none"
            attribute cloak_open "aethL_cloak_open"
            attribute cloak_closed "aethL_cloak_closed"

        group botarms:
            if_any "nude"

            attribute botarms_side "aethL_botarms_side_nude"
            attribute botarms_crossed "aethL_botarms_crossed_nude"
            attribute botarms_up "aethL_botarms_up_nude"

        group botarm:
            if_not "nude"

            attribute botarm_side "aethL_botarm_side_vest"
            attribute botarm_crossed "aethL_botarm_crossed_vest"
            attribute botarm_up "aethL_botarm_up_vest"

        group base:

            attribute nude "aethL_base_nude"
            attribute vest default "aethL_base_vest"

And here is how I'm trying to use the image in my code:

Code: Select all

    "The air is cold, carrying the strong smell of pine, which I've always associated with home."

    scene bg forest001 with slow_dissolve

    show aethL at ease(offscreenleft, left, 2.0)

So what happens when I start my game is, the transitions are all working, but the image just doesn't show up. Instead, I'm getting a bunch of keywords showing up at the bottom of the screen, such as "aethL" and strings of text on top of each other. I've definitely got all my images in there, and the file names of all my images should be matching up with the needed names to make "auto" work. Moving the location of the image files didn't seem to help either, so I'm not sure it's an issue with the default file path...

I added the image_attributes screen, which shows me what attributes are associated with each image, and it just shows "aethL" with no attributes. It seems like something is going wrong, since it *should* have attributes?

I'm not really sure what I've done wrong here. Maybe the groups are in the wrong order? (I have the bottom layer first and the topmost layers going down.) Or something else is going on? Any help from folks who have been using the new layered code would be much appreciated!

[kivik]

I assume your images are located inside the folder "images/spr/aeth"?

If so, try adding this in your first version of the code (you start from the bottom and work your way upwards in layers):

Code: Select all

layeredimage aethL:
    image_format "spr/aeth/{image}.png"
    # the rest of your layeredimage code

Get rid of this line, it shouldn't be needed at all, I'm not sure what error you were getting.

Code: Select all

    image aethL = "images/spr/aeth/aeth_base_nude.png"

Have a read of the image_format property to understand what it does: https://www.renpy.org/doc/html/layeredi ... yeredimage

[noeinan]

I assume your images are located inside the folder "images/spr/aeth"?

If so, try adding this in your first version of the code (you start from the bottom and work your way upwards in layers):

Code: Select all

layeredimage aethL:
    image_format "spr/aeth/{image}.png"
    # the rest of your layeredimage code

Get rid of this line, it shouldn't be needed at all, I'm not sure what error you were getting.

Code: Select all

    image aethL = "images/spr/aeth/aeth_base_nude.png"

Have a read of the image_format property to understand what it does: https://www.renpy.org/doc/html/layeredi ... yeredimage

I'd kept the other line since it was needed to display a "default" image of sorts in my livecomp code. I took it out and added in the line you mentioned and now the default image shows up! Thank you very much! I still haven't quite managed to get the attributes working, but I'm taking a look at the doc you linked. I *think* the attributes aren't working because of this:

image_format
When a given image is a string, and this is supplied, the image name is interpolated into image_format to make an image file. For example, "sprites/eileen/{image}.png" will look for the image in a subdirectory of sprites. (This is not used by auto groups, which look for images and not image files.)

Since auto groups are looking for images, and not image files, I'm guessing there's something more I need to do to make them show up properly? It's a bit odd, since right now the game has no problem loading images layered properly as long as those values are the "default" but it is not displaying any changes I ask it to make. (Ex. different arm positions) and says they are "unknown attributes". Here's what I'm doing currently:

Code: Select all

    "The air is cold, carrying the strong smell of pine, which I've always associated with home."

    scene bg forest001 with slow_dissolve

    show aethL botarms_up cloak_closed at ease(offscreenleft, left, 2.0)

[kivik]

Hmm... I think it's because of the if_any property:

Code: Select all

        group botarms:
            if_any "nude"

            attribute botarms_side "aethL_botarms_side_nude"
            attribute botarms_crossed "aethL_botarms_crossed_nude"
            attribute botarms_up "aethL_botarms_up_nude"

Based on that, botarms will only be displayed if nude attribute exists. Can you try calling it with this?

Code: Select all

    show aethL nude botarms_up cloak_closed at ease(offscreenleft, left, 2.0)

[noeinan]

Hmm... I think it's because of the if_any property:

So, I'm using if_any, but then I have if_not right after, which should be a catch all? Here's my code currently:

Code: Select all

init-1:

    layeredimage aethL:
        image_format "spr/aeth/{image}.png"

#Eyebrows > Eyes > Mouth > Hood > Bangs > Ears > TopArms > Cloak > BottomArms > Base

        group base auto:
            attribute vest default

        group botarms if_any "nude" auto variant "nude" prefix "botarms":
            attribute slack default
        group botarms if_not "nude" auto variant "vest" prefix "botarms":
            attribute slack default

        group cloak auto:
            attribute none default

        group toparms if_any "nude" auto variant "nude" prefix "toparms":
            attribute none default
        group toparms if_not "nude" auto variant "vest" prefix "toparms":
            attribute none default

        group ears auto:
            attribute down default

        group bangs auto:
            attribute bangs default

        group hood auto:
            attribute none default

        group mouth auto:
            attribute neu default

        group eyes auto:
            attribute neu default

        group brows auto:
            attribute neu default

And then I'm calling like this:

Code: Select all

show aethL botarms_up at ease(offscreenleft, left, 2.0)

This will show all the "defaults" I set up, but then it will have the text "aethL unknown attributes: botarms_up" displayed on top of the image.

I tried this, as suggested:

Code: Select all

show aethL nude botarms_up cloak_closed at ease(offscreenleft, left, 2.0)

This shows the defaults, but now instead of the vest arms, the nude arms are showing up, slack, over the top of the vest base. And I'm still getting these words displayed on top "aethL unknown attributes: botarms_up cloak_closed nude"

Not sure if this helps, but I found a GitHub link with some of Ren'Py's code related to reporting unknown image attributes:

https://github.com/renpy/renpy/commit/6 ... cdb59873bd

[kivik]

Wow, you've actually helped me understand the groups and attributes when trying to figure out what's going on! Alas I don't know if I have a solution to your problem.

Do you have a list of your image filenames and paths? Upon rereading the documentations I can only assume that the problem lies in the files not being found and thus the attributes not automatically declared... But it's hard to see without full knowledge of the files you're playing with.

[noeinan]

Wow, you've actually helped me understand the groups and attributes when trying to figure out what's going on! Alas I don't know if I have a solution to your problem.

Do you have a list of your image filenames and paths? Upon rereading the documentations I can only assume that the problem lies in the files not being found and thus the attributes not automatically declared... But it's hard to see without full knowledge of the files you're playing with.

I'm glad that it's been helpful! I figured it might be hard to get feedback since image layers are a new feature and not many people have used them yet, so your help has been greatly appreciated!

Here's a list of my files and paths:

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E:\_RenPy\RenPy WIP\Crimson Rue\game\images\spr\aeth\

aethL_bangs_bangs.png
aethL_bangs_none.png
aethL_base_nude.png
aethL_base_vest.png
aethL_botarms_nude_crossed.png
aethL_botarms_vest_crossed.png
aethL_botarms_nude_slack.png
aethL_botarms_vest_slack.png
aethL_botarms_nude_up.png
aethL_botarms_vest_up.png
aethL_brows_angry.png
aethL_brows_neu.png
aethL_brows_sad.png
aethL_brows_up.png
aethL_cloak_closed.png
aethL_cloak_none.png
aethL_cloak_open.png
aethL_ears_down.png
aethL_ears_half.png
aethL_ears_up.png
aethL_eyes_closed.png
aethL_eyes_half.png
aethL_eyes_neu.png
aethL_eyes_shut.png
aethL_eyes_away.png
aethL_eyes_wide.png
aethL_hood_closed.png
aethL_hood_none.png
aethL_hood_open.png
aethL_mouth_bigsmile.png
aethL_mouth_frown.png
aethL_mouth_gasp.png
aethL_mouth_laugh.png
aethL_mouth_neu.png
aethL_mouth_smile.png
aethL_toparms_nude_hood.png
aethL_toparms_vest_hood.png
aethL_toparms_vest_none.png
aethL_toparms_nude_none.png

Of note! I originally had toparms and botarms like this:

Code: Select all

aethL_botarms_crossed_nude.png
aethL_botarms_crossed_vest.png
aethL_botarms_slack_nude.png
aethL_botarms_slack_vest.png
aethL_botarms_up_nude.png
aethL_botarms_up_vest.png

aethL_toparms_nude.png
aethL_toparms_hood_vest.png
aethL_toparms_none_vest.png
aethL_toparms_none_nude.png

But having the variant at the end didn't work, so I swapped them. (Didn't work as in the default image didn't show up. The attributes in general aren't working. The weirdest thing to me is that all of these attributes seem to work as long as they're set to default, but if I try to use them on my own they don't work...)

[trooper6]

I'm working on converting a pretty complicated LiveComposite into a Layered Image at the moment and I've been learning a lot about the process. At the moment I'm a bit hung up on...what is best described as sub variants...or nested groups. And Layered Image doesn't have nested groups. So I'm trying to work out what I need to do to get it to work. There are a number of little tricks in there.

You know could you create a fresh project that is just a tester of one of your layered images and then attach it here? I could try taking a look at it and seeing if I can make heads or tales of the matter. (I'm in the process of doing the same things for my more complicated sprite).

[kivik]

I'm working on converting a pretty complicated LiveComposite into a Layered Image at the moment and I've been learning a lot about the process. At the moment I'm a bit hung up on...what is best described as sub variants...or nested groups. And Layered Image doesn't have nested groups. So I'm trying to work out what I need to do to get it to work. There are a number of little tricks in there.

Would love to see your findings! The nested group is something I was trying to do before realising that I couldn't, so I resorted to splitting my layer images up via poses, but of course that means redundant code and that's rubbish!

Here's a list of my files and paths:

Ok I'm really confused and feel like I need to read layered images again and properly experiment with a completely different set of images at some point. However I think your problem is a multitude of issues in one: possibly a combination of filenames and prefixes.
If I understand the docs correctly, your prefix here...

Code: Select all

group botarms if_any "nude" auto variant "nude" prefix "botarms":

would create botarms_botarms. So it's... I think... looking for aethL_botarms_botarms_nude_botarms_up, because you're calling it with

Code: Select all

show aethL nude botarms_up cloak_closed at ease(offscreenleft, left, 2.0)

I totally get what you're trying to do, but I get the impression you have to do it a slightly different way, but I'm not sure what! This is where I think nested groups would make this possible, but how was PyTom to know that as soon as he makes something this useful that we'd push it to its limits right the way!

Shame PyTom didn't come by yesterday when he did his round of answering!

[noeinan]

I'm working on converting a pretty complicated LiveComposite into a Layered Image at the moment and I've been learning a lot about the process. At the moment I'm a bit hung up on...what is best described as sub variants...or nested groups. And Layered Image doesn't have nested groups. So I'm trying to work out what I need to do to get it to work. There are a number of little tricks in there.

You know could you create a fresh project that is just a tester of one of your layered images and then attach it here? I could try taking a look at it and seeing if I can make heads or tales of the matter. (I'm in the process of doing the same things for my more complicated sprite).

Ooo, I wonder if I'm trying to use nested groups without realizing it? I am doing a bit more complicated of sprites, defining each aspect of the face (brows, eyes, mouth) separately instead of whole facial expressions. I would love to see your results! I admit I do not fully understand what I'm doing with this code, so it's just "trail and error" along with trying to follow the patreon tutorial as best I can.

Great point about zipping a test game, I went ahead and attached one to this post.

Ok I'm really confused and feel like I need to read layered images again and properly experiment with a completely different set of images at some point. However I think your problem is a multitude of issues in one: possibly a combination of filenames and prefixes.
If I understand the docs correctly, your prefix here...

Code: Select all

group botarms if_any "nude" auto variant "nude" prefix "botarms":

would create botarms_botarms. So it's... I think... looking for aethL_botarms_botarms_nude_botarms_up, because you're calling it with

Code: Select all

show aethL nude botarms_up cloak_closed at ease(offscreenleft, left, 2.0)

I totally get what you're trying to do, but I get the impression you have to do it a slightly different way, but I'm not sure what! This is where I think nested groups would make this possible, but how was PyTom to know that as soon as he makes something this useful that we'd push it to its limits right the way!

Shame PyTom didn't come by yesterday when he did his round of answering!

Hmm, I did try to just change the file name to "aethL_botarms_botarms_nude_botarms_up" just to see if it works, but it doesn't seem to. From my understanding, the prefix just means I need to call that item using the existing botarms instead of just the attribute name. So instead of "up" I use "botarms_up". I didn't realize prefix affects the file name... I admit I'm a but confused, lol.

In any case, I made a test game and attached it, if that helps folks understand the problem at all!

[trooper6]

Ooo, I wonder if I'm trying to use nested groups without realizing it? I am doing a bit more complicated of sprites, defining each aspect of the face (brows, eyes, mouth) separately instead of whole facial expressions. I would love to see your results! I admit I do not fully understand what I'm doing with this code, so it's just "trail and error" along with trying to follow the patreon tutorial as best I can.

Great point about zipping a test game, I went ahead and attached one to this post.

I also have separate brows, eyes, mouth. And you can't do subgroups, so you have to use an attribute_function for that. I've got one working, but I just realized that it messes up negating attributes when using say-with-attributes. So I still need to keep experimenting with that. You probably do have nested groups going on. I'll check out your project and see what I can figure out.

[noeinan]

Ooo, I wonder if I'm trying to use nested groups without realizing it? I am doing a bit more complicated of sprites, defining each aspect of the face (brows, eyes, mouth) separately instead of whole facial expressions. I would love to see your results! I admit I do not fully understand what I'm doing with this code, so it's just "trail and error" along with trying to follow the patreon tutorial as best I can.

Great point about zipping a test game, I went ahead and attached one to this post.

I also have separate brows, eyes, mouth. And you can't do subgroups, so you have to use an attribute_function for that. I've got one working, but I just realized that it messes up negating attributes when using say-with-attributes. So I still need to keep experimenting with that. You probably do have nested groups going on. I'll check out your project and see what I can figure out.

Thank you! I really appreciate it. I don't fully understand the whole group thing so I probably did something wrong, haha.

[kivik]

Hmm, I did try to just change the file name to "aethL_botarms_botarms_nude_botarms_up" just to see if it works, but it doesn't seem to. From my understanding, the prefix just means I need to call that item using the existing botarms instead of just the attribute name. So instead of "up" I use "botarms_up". I didn't realize prefix affects the file name... I admit I'm a but confused, lol.

You may be right about the prefix - I'm only going by the documentation without experimenting with it so I can't say for sure! Gonna have a play if I have time later to see if I can figure anything out!

Good luck troop6! Hope you get somewhere with it

[trooper6]

I've got it working so far, but I'm doing some more thorough testing and seeing if I can optimize some.
But I ran into that same bug from before about negating attributes with say-with-attributes

[kivik]

Well this was fun... I stripped everything down to just your body and botarms up to try and get it working with no luck, so I said "Sod it, I'm using renpy.list_images() to see what Ren'py's actually pulled from the images" and this is what happens:

Renpy automatically drops the case for all your image names when it checks your image folder - so it generated aethl_botarms_up and not aethL_botarms_up. This seems to be fine if you declare your attributes manually, but it doesn't match if you use auto - which makes me think the auto keyword looks for case sensitive image names, but all image names are lowercase by default so it can't find the image!

I think this should be reported as a bug, but meanwhile you can overcome the issue by just making your image name all lowercase.