Discuss how to use the Ren'Py engine to create visual novels and story-based games. New releases are announced in this section.
Forum rules
This is the right place for Ren'Py help. Please ask one question per thread, use a descriptive subject like 'NotFound error in option.rpy' , and include all the relevant information - especially any relevant code and traceback messages. Use the code tag to format scripts.
Hey everyone! I'm trying to learn screen language to make a custom monthly menu for my game; so far it seems pretty straightforward, but Ren'Py is not putting the elements where I would have thought it should.
I want to have three columns, with different sections in each column going down. But it is putting all the text for each column on top of the other text, and instead of having the game window divided into three neat columns, it is putting the second and third columns outside the game window. I'm not sure how to tell it to position things the way I want.
screen computer_pad:
tag month_menu
frame:
text "Welcome, [her_name]." size 30
hbox:
# Left column
vbox:
frame:
label "Relationship"
text "Loved: [loved]"
frame:
label "Time"
text "Talaam: Year %(year)d, month %(local_month)d"
text "Earth: Year %(earth_year)d, month %(earth_month)d"
frame:
label "Health"
if (month == 14):
text "You are in fair health."
else:
text "You are in good health."
if (is_pregnant or is_pregnant_later):
text "Trimester: [trimester]"
frame:
textbutton "Skills":
action Show("skill_screen")
# Middle column - skills
# TODO: make these buttons that integrate with DSE
vbox:
label "Focus"
frame:
label "Work"
vbox:
text "Do your best!"
text "Take it easy"
frame:
label "Skills"
text "Domestic"
text "Physical"
text "Creative"
text "Technical"
text "Social"
text "Knowledge"
text "Spiritual"
frame:
label "Free Time"
vbox:
text "Together"
text "Alone"
# Right column
vbox:
frame:
label "South Camera View"
text "Season: [season]"
text "Weather: [weather]"
frame:
label "Colony Messages"
frame:
textbutton _("GO!"):
action Return()
And here's a screenshot of what it does. Notice the right and lower edges have stuff on them that I want to put inside the game window (not outside it).
It's an easy thing to fix. By changing the hbox that contains the columns into a grid, they will do what you want. Then adding yfill/xfills the frames get streched out and even and has vbox makes sure the text isn't overlapping.
I had to take out the variables to test it, but it looks like this for me. (using a different theme, of course)
screen computer_pad:
tag month_menu
frame:
yfill True
has vbox
text "Welcome, [her_name]." size 30
grid 3 1:
# Left column
vbox:
frame:
xfill True
has vbox
label "Relationship"
text "Loved: [loved]"
frame:
xfill True
has vbox
label "Time"
text "Talaam: Year %(year)d, month %(local_month)d"
text "Earth: Year %(earth_year)d, month %(earth_month)d"
frame:
xfill True
has vbox
label "Health"
if (month == 14):
text "You are in fair health."
else:
text "You are in good health."
if (is_pregnant or is_pregnant_later):
text "Trimester: [trimester]"
frame:
xfill True
has vbox
textbutton "Skills":
action Show("skill_screen")
# Middle column - skills
# TODO: make these buttons that integrate with DSE
vbox:
label "Focus"
frame:
xfill True
has vbox
label "Work"
vbox:
text "Do your best!"
text "Take it easy"
frame:
xfill True
has vbox
label "Skills"
text "Domestic"
text "Physical"
text "Creative"
text "Technical"
text "Social"
text "Knowledge"
text "Spiritual"
frame:
xfill True
has vbox
label "Free Time"
vbox:
text "Together"
text "Alone"
# Right column
vbox:
frame:
xfill True
has vbox
label "South Camera View"
text "Season: [season]"
text "Weather: [weather]"
frame:
xfill True
has vbox
label "Colony Messages"
frame:
xfill True
has vbox
textbutton _("GO!"):
action Return()
Thank you! I had no idea you had to use "has" - that wasn't really explained anywhere in the screen language documentation. That's exactly what I needed to know.
But... shouldn't an hbox with 3 vboxes be the same as a grid 3 1 ? It seems to be the same with simpler examples, so I don't know why mine was going off the screen with hbox but not with grid... Maybe there's another formatting thing I needed to tell it? It seems weird that it would ever try to render things off the screen... hmmm...
You can use hboxes, but then you need to define the width for each one. Or, now that I think about it, you can add an xfill True in your first frame, but I'm not sure if that would work?
You could do the following, I think.
frame:
text "Welcome, [her_name]." size 30
hbox:
xmaximum .33
xminimum .33
vbox:
frame:
label "Relationship"
text "Loved: [loved]"
But I personally find having it in a grid is more convenient. If you want to add of remove a column it is quick to do, since it is just changing a single number.
