Circular or other shaped text/menu boxes?

[Reapergurl]

There aren't many games I've seen/played with message or menu boxes/bubbles that aren't square/rectangular, but I was wondering if there was a way to make it to where such a thing would be possible without cracking hardcoded anything (that's a messy job that's reeeeeeealllly HARD to clean up).


Like, for example, I've seen a love and romance game where the message bubble becomes a heart when the message speaks of a crush or affection, etcetera, and a jagged red shape when someone is POed. I wonder how that could be implemented short of rewriting hardcode (I've not the skill in C++ or Python for this).

 

[Heirukichi]

Well, first of all VX Ace is Ruby based, so no C++ nor Python needed. That said you definitly need a script to change your message box shape, that's not only to change its shape, it should change how your text is displayed too (it has to fill the new shape). So if you don't want to code anything you should probably ask someone to write the code for you.

 

[Reapergurl]

@Heirukichi So, there is no hardcoding? I see.


That's a relief. But that brings up something else. Do I need a different graphics set as well?

 

[Shaz]

You could use a Show Picture for the message box background, and in your Show Text set the background to transparent.  Follow that up with a Delete Picture to remove it.  The text will display in front of the picture.


For any changes to menus, you'd need a script.

 

[Heirukichi]

@Reapergurl as it has been said you can use pictures as message boxes, that solves the graphic part, but then if your shape is not rectangular you need to arrange your test accordingly. This can be done either with a script that does that for you or with a very boring job arranging every box manually. (the script is the best way)

 

[Tsarmina]

https://galvs-scripts.com/2012/12/02/message-background/


Recommend this

 

[Reapergurl]

@Tsarmina Thanks, I happen to like Galv's scripting.