Character name blinking with each new line of dialogue

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hachi-mitsu
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Character name blinking with each new line of dialogue

#1 Post by hachi-mitsu »

Hello, this problem probably has the easiest fix in the world, but I feel like I'm going crazy because I can't find any information about this online, and when I test things myself, it just leaves me more confused.

So in my VN, when I have a character talk continuously line after line, I only just noticed that the character name seems to 'blink' with every new line of text, as if it's reintroducing the character name for each line, even though it should already be shown. I do not use a namebox, only the text for the character's name.

I'm confused, are the say/who windows tied with the in-game sprites, or are they separate? Because the only thing I think could be causing this problem is my character sprite expression/pose transitions. I am using layeredimage sprites. My code looks like this currently, and yes I know it's terrible/inefficient, but this is my first VN, so I'm still learning the basics :oops:

Code: Select all

define qd = Dissolve(0.2)

show character smile with qd
c "So it seems that when I talk for a while..."
show character frown with qd
c "My name blinks each time I say something new." 
Are my sprites interfering with the dialogue? In addition to the weird blinking, I also notice a thin black line at the bottom of the program window appear each time I click to progress the text. I feel like it's linked with my name problem. How would I go about fixing this?

If I need to upload any images or gifs of the problem, please let me know. Thanks orz

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Re: Character name blinking with each new line of dialogue

#2 Post by isobellesophia »

Yes, the character name must be the same as the sprite file, like c is for 'show c happy'


But indeed is the most easiest, i did that also with my project preventing from them to blink.


So you need to make it similar, must be the same name as in the file image like the character define image.


Sry for the english.
I am a friendly user, please respect and have a good day.


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Re: Character name blinking with each new line of dialogue

#3 Post by papillon »

I'm confused, are the say/who windows tied with the in-game sprites, or are they separate?
They are separate. However, you're using a transition to change your sprite. During that transition, no say text is being shown, so the name blinks out of existence.

If you remove the 'with qd' from your sprite changes, does it stop flickering?

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hachi-mitsu
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Re: Character name blinking with each new line of dialogue

#4 Post by hachi-mitsu »

papillon wrote: Sat Nov 09, 2019 3:28 pm
I'm confused, are the say/who windows tied with the in-game sprites, or are they separate?
They are separate. However, you're using a transition to change your sprite. During that transition, no say text is being shown, so the name blinks out of existence.

If you remove the 'with qd' from your sprite changes, does it stop flickering?
Thank you for replying. Yes, I had a feeling it would be that, you are right. I'm just confused I suppose, the tutorials I've followed suggest to change your sprites with a dissolve/fade effect if you like things to look more animated and smooth, but then as I do that mid conversation, the transition causes the name to blink and reappear.

If I remove 'with qd' it does stop the flickering, but I dislike how static the change looks. Is there a way I can use the dissolve effect without affecting the text?

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Re: Character name blinking with each new line of dialogue

#5 Post by papillon »

Unfortunately the solutions for this problem that I'm personally aware of are rather complicated and probably not where you want to go for your first VN.


If you can master ATL, you can build custom animations for changing between expressions which will run while the text is being displayed. Therefore the text never stops being displayed and doesn't flicker. This will take a while to get the hang of.

Alternately, if you use code to manually draw the character name in place during the transition, it will look like it didn't disappear. This will require figuring out how to position the text in just the right spot and adding/removing it every time you want to do a transition.


The lazy answer is to cut your qd to 0.1 instead of 0.2 and hope no one really notices or cares about the slight flicker.

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Re: Character name blinking with each new line of dialogue

#6 Post by hachi-mitsu »

papillon wrote: Sat Nov 09, 2019 8:53 pm Unfortunately the solutions for this problem that I'm personally aware of are rather complicated and probably not where you want to go for your first VN.


If you can master ATL, you can build custom animations for changing between expressions which will run while the text is being displayed. Therefore the text never stops being displayed and doesn't flicker. This will take a while to get the hang of.

Alternately, if you use code to manually draw the character name in place during the transition, it will look like it didn't disappear. This will require figuring out how to position the text in just the right spot and adding/removing it every time you want to do a transition.


The lazy answer is to cut your qd to 0.1 instead of 0.2 and hope no one really notices or cares about the slight flicker.
I see what you mean, both solutions seem a little out of my range :( But I'm guessing professional VNs use the ATL method? When I was poking around the code of another VN, I saw that they utilised dynamic characters and LiveComposites for their sprites. I wonder if that has a difference? Maybe I should look into how they tackled their transitions.

I could also try that too. When I had it set to 0.1 to start with, it seemed too quick for me.. But I shouldn't complain. I should expect things won't be perfect on my first try :? I'm surprised this is a problem that Renpy has in the first place. Thank you for helping me.

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