RMMV Community Lighting MV & MZ

[ImaginaryVillain]

Today I propose an experiment. For awhile now I've been editing and "improving" Terrax Lighting, which was originally released under the MIT License (as is Community Lighting, so it free to use across the board)... After awhile it is now thousands of lines different than the original. So rather than confusing it with Terrax Lighting by posting it in that thread with the same name, I've forked it to Community Lighting.

So why call it Community Lighting? Well that's simple, and where the experiment comes in. Everybody is invited to edit this plugin (with the hopes of improving it). If you make any changes, please post your updated version of the plugin here along with your change notes. Then we the community will test your changes and see if they're better. If they are, I'll put your version of the plugin in the first post. Oh and don't forget to add yourself to the authors if you do (though don't delete anybody).

The hope here is that by getting everybody involved, we will end up with the best possible lighting plugin... Or at the very least, if that fails you'll get whatever edited version I've done for my game at the time.

Contributors:
Terrax, iVillain, Aesica, Eliaquim, Alexandre, Nekohime1989, Snaphat


Change Notes:

Spoiler: Click Here

1.0 @ImaginaryVillain

1. Rescoped all of the variables to no longer be global.
2. Updated for PIXI 4 & 5
3. Removed the outdated Terrax ABS, Quasi ABS, and Mog Time stuff references.
4. Added compatibility for Ultra Mode 7
5. Fixed the issue with the Lighting plugin needing to be in a specific order in the plugin list.
6. The plugin is now roughly 800 lines shorter and much faster, at least in my testing so far.
7. Not going to lie, I made some other changes... But wasn't noting them because I didn't know I was making this thread at the time.

1.01 @ImaginaryVillain
var rnd = -Math.floor((Math.random() * 20) + 10);

$gameMap.setPEmitterZ(this._eventId, rnd);

1. Removed the "fix" for the plugin order list due to issues with other plugins.
2. Fixed issue with Mog Character Particles giving a "Clamp" error.

1.015 @Aesica

1. Organized the plugin parameters into logical sections
2. Removed the redundant "Add to options" plugin parameter. It can be ommitted from the options menu by leaving "Options Menu Entry" blank
3. Changed the casing in a few plugin parameter names to be more consistent (minor nitpick, I know)
4. Added the option to use modern note tag syntax "<cl: light 250 #ffffff>" to avoid conflicts with other plugins that may also use event/map note tags. Those note tags currently break Terrax's tagless implementation
5. Added better default day/night colors. These can also be changed in the plugin parameters now for easier customization
6. Added a "night switch" which, if assigned to a switch, will set to true during night or false during day (which hours count as day and night are user-defined)
7. Expanded the "Daynight" note tag in maps so you can also set the speed if desired: "Daynight 10" for the default speed, "Daynight 0" to stop time and use the current hour's tint in one go. "Daynight" by itself uses the current speed
8. Fixed a bug where the "Daynight" tag wouldn't tint at all if the speed was < 0 or > 4999.
9. Added "Tint daylight" plugin command which is essentially "Tint set [whatever the current hour's color is]." "Tint daylight" should be used instead of the "Daynight" map note tag if you plan on applying any manual tints on the map. (Daynight blocks the use of the tint command)
10. Changed map note tag reading to happen only once per cycle instead of X times per cycle, where X is the number of events on the map (seriously why was it done that way!?)
11. Replaced the word salad in the help section with (what I hope is) a clearer breakdown of each command/tag and how to use it. I hope I didn't leave anything out.
12. Added a "version" property to Community.Lighting so other plugins can ask it what version it is.

1.016 @ImaginaryVillain

1. Removed a strange debug system that ran twice per light per frame.
2. Removed a speed test system.
3. Restructured the code to use a switch statement and objects instead of a huge stack of Ifs.
4. Removed assorted commented out code from the original plugin.

1.017 @Aesica

1. Fixed a variable scoping issue introduced by the latest optimization pass.
2. Added explanation how to set speeds via the daynight map note tag to the help section.

1.018 @Eliaquim

1. Stored the RegExp note tag into a variable for the code does not compile the RegExp every time he uses getTag() function.
2. Replace the plugin command switch statements with an array/object lookup table.
3. Optimized some for loops changing the way they are handled from this:
for (let i = 0; i < tilearray.length; i++)
to this:
for (let i = 0, len = tilearray.length; i < len; i++)
*I did not reverse the iterator order because I don't know how the plugin works, to be sure if the order matter or not.
4. Some minor changes to if statements that are redundants like:
if(args[0] == 'on' || args[0] == 'ON') to if(args[0].toLowerCase() == 'on')

1.0185 @Eliaquim
Removed the "tiletype" argument here, on line 383.

1.019 @Alexandre
1. Added support for Battle lighting.
2. As a plugin parameter, you can choose to put the battle light mask between the battlers and the battleback or above the battlers.
3. This version includes Eliaquim's work with the better for loops.
4. The kill switch bug I mentioned before is corrected.
5. Multiple parameters in the plugin manager now have proper formatting.

1.0195 @Aesica
1. Daynight tinting now works properly in battles. So if it's night time on the map, the battleback will be tinted to match (assuming battle tinting is turned on, of course
2. Shortened the battle tint plugin parameter IDs (they were being clipped due to their length) and so they match the format of the other plugin parameters (minor nitpick, sorry about that!)

1.0197 @Aesica
1. All Community.Lighting functions are now inside the main anonymous function, and all references to Community.Lighting within it have been changed to $$ (which is a reference to the Community.Lighting object).
2. Help syntax format has been updated to be more uniform: Values in [brackets] are optional, and this is now actually indicated toward the top of the help.

1.02 @Aesica
1. Fixed issue with tile lighting not working properly.

1.021 @Alexandre
1. Removed bug with light ID.

1.022 @Alexandre
1. Conditional Light killswitches now set to on/off based on if the Lightsource is decativated/activated.
2. Bug fixed with Day Night setting.

1.023 @Alexandre
1. Killswitch synchronization added an option.

1.024 @ImaginaryVillain
1. Fixed the compatibility issue with plugin order, and still works with Mog Character Particles.

1.025 @Alexandre
1. Alternate Light Directions added, demo updated.

See changes after this on GitHub.

Known Bugs:

Spoiler: Click Here

1. Flickering with large maps and Ultra Mode 7

So have fun, test it out, edit it, etc. Let's see where this experiment goes.

Script and Demo available on GitHub!
Click here to download!

MV Version Last Updated May 28th 2022
MZ Version Last Updated May 28th 2022

Ultra Mini Community Lighting:

Spoiler: Click Here

This is a side project of mine, it's a very stripped down super fast version of Community Lighting that I use for my game. (Which you can see by clicking the link in my signature). This version only turns on/off (defaults to off), allows for the "Light" tag, player lighting, and the tint command. That's it.

However the upside is it's insanely faster than the base script. So if that sort of thing interests you, it's available on the GitHub as umc_Lighting.js or umc_Lighting_mz.js. Instructions to operate it are in the plugin. I would also like to note that I don't own MZ, so while the MZ version works... It is not extensively tested.

Also just as with the normal Community Lighting plugin, you are free to edit or add to this plugin. Just understand the goal of this plugin is not to be feature rich, but instead to be as fast as possible. So if you're looking to add to it, please keep that in mind. Thanks and let me know how it goes!

Edit: Now in it's own Github. Click Here!

 

[KaYsEr]

Good job, it seems that performances are indeed better.

Some problem I encountered:

* Incompatibility with Mog "event particle" plugin (crashes when on a map calling those effects, shows a message like "clamp is undefined").

* For some reason battle animations on map aren't showing, but some are.. At least in a "Mog Chrono Engine" ABS situation but it's probably the same without that plugin.

* In big Mode7 maps (from what I checked so far at least) it seems the "darken layer" can briefly flicker (disappear) depending on your Y position on the map.

Would it be possible to simply have the "code reduction/optimization" thing without tempering with anything else to make sure things behave exactly like before. Speaking of code reduction, I see some plugin parameters are still here (like "save daynighthours") but you said the stuff attached to those things are removed? Might be better to get rid of them.

That would be really great to use that plugin as a replacement for the original Terrax, let’s hope we’ll get there.

 

[ImaginaryVillain]

Oh in this version, I left in the built-in Time System, mostly because someone mentioned it in the other thread. I simply removed the Mog one. I have never used said time system, so I'm waiting to have other people test it to see if the changes I made affected it. But those parameters are related to it so I left them in.

As for having it the code reduction/optimization without tampering with anything else... That's kind of what code reduction/optimization is... tampering with stuff. Basically impossible to leave stuff exactly the same. But we can still arrive at a similar functionality.

I fixed the Clamp problem with Mog Character particles. It turns out the fix I did to make it not overwrite stuff caused some errors with that. Seems to be fixed. This could have easily caused the other problems, so it's probably worth a test to see if it fixes the Chrono Engine stuff.

As for the Ultra Mode 7 problem, I recall that problem existing with the original Terrax Lighting. If memory serves it can be fixed with adjusting the settings in Ultra Mode 7. Been awhile since I messed with it, but I do remember solving that problem with some combination of those.

Anyway the new version of the plugin is attached to the first post.

 

[KaYsEr]

Your new version fixes the “clamp” error and indeed fixes the battle animation glitch too.

Well to be honest I never had any compatibility problem between Terrax and Mode7, in early versions of UM7 yes (some offset problems) but Bblizzard fixed that in following versions so I think we're good now, might be better not to try to be "any more compatible" (since it already is) because it might bring new problems like the "disappearing thing" I'm talking about (that isn't happening with original Terrax), I just checked to see if I can still see it and yes.. Still there, that’s weird because I can only see it on one map so far (didn’t check all of them tho) and the “Y position” where it happens vary depending on the camera pitch, basically it looks like the plugin deactivates itself and then reactivates (the dark layer gets visible again) if you slightly move up or down. Oh yeah, forgot to mention I use “Altimit movement” for that specific test, might have something to do with the pixel movement then, but weirdly enough so far it was fine. What a strange behavior.

 

[ImaginaryVillain]

Interesting, perhaps Bblizzard did some additional fixes later after my testing. Last time I tested it I mostly just dumped in the code he said would make it compatible and called it a day. But that was probably half a year ago, maybe longer. Personally I haven't really tested Altimit with it since I'm a Quxios "fanboy". So I can't really speak to what errors it causes if any. I know the lighting problem doesn't exist with QMovement and Ultra Mode 7 off.

But after reading this, I did notice UltraMode7 has a new version, so I tested that one, but got the same problem. Then I tested it with original Terrax Lighting (with the UltraMode7 compatibility code added) and still got the same flickering light issue. So as surmised the problem is with the initial Terrax Lighting or UltraMode7 compatibility patch.

I'm sure I'll end up tinkering with it as time goes by. This whole project came about because I want something that has better performance... In fact I've already tinkered with it a bit since that last fix. So maybe I'll end up stumbling upon a fix in my quest to increase performance. Then again anybody else is of course welcome to offer up "improvements" as well.

 

[KaYsEr]

Great! Yes I suppose even without Altimit that problem might happen too (since it seems it has something to do with where you’re positioned), I never had it with the default Terrax but since I only see it on one map with your version maybe it can "go away" with some tinkering (like adding another/different light source here and there idk), well good luck if there's a chance to improve any further. I hope to have access to a potato PC, see if there's a big difference on some weak laptop I’ll dig up if I go back in my parent’s house later this year.

So far it’s not easy to tell. I feel like most of the performance issues with MV are related to the screen we use, on the same machine (with RTX GPU) I get different results whether it’s on my TV or monitor haha.. I know it’s weird but this is a thing, with the “fluid timestep” plugin to turn "delta time" OFF, it’s flawless on my 60hz TV (but will go twice the normal speed on my 120hz monitor), and if I leave that thing ON (or don’t add the plugin), I’m getting some kind of uneven “frame pacing” on the 120hz monitor (but at least the game is running at the right speed and perf are good) while the TV gives me about 10sec of choppy performances every minute or so, like the game is trying to catch up on something from time to time.

Of course, any MV game I play will do this, long ago I thought Terrax caused this but last time I played a very simple RTP game and it still happened anyway.

Laptop computers have a tendency to be really better though (never had any problem with those I tested) maybe the fact that their monitors are “built in” is helping somehow.

Yet another RPG MAKER mystery.

 

[ScorchedGround]

Nice. I have been looking for simple Lighting plugins as an alternative to LNM_LightingTool.

However, is there a way to give an entire map like a "base lighting" (basically tint the lighting layer)?
Because whenever I put an event with a lightsource in it, the entire map becomes completely black, except for that one light source of course. And If I put a single lightsource with a light radius of like 9999 in it, the lighting looks very off and it renders other light sources useless.

In LNM_LightingTool for example there is a command for "tinting" the extra layer like that:
"Tint SET 255 255 255"
And the lower the numbers, the darker the map becomes and the more you see the individually set lightsources. So I can easily put this in an initialization event on each map.

I mostly need lighting for evening/night scenes and in these scenes it's not pitch black.

I haven't really done extensive testing yet so please excuse me if I have overseen something.

 

[ImaginaryVillain]

Sure plugin command Tint set #333333 (where the 333333 is any number that amuses you). Also
Tint fade #333333 will fade the current color to a new color. Also that reminds me, I should really update that help file... It's kind of a confusing mess. I swear every time I've ever read it I discover a new command.

 

[KaYsEr]

In a plugin command, something like: Tint set #55555 will do what you want.


(After more tests, still have no clue why the mode7 glitches happen, but I figured it has something to do with light-sources already on the map, for example the screen would flash green when going almost at the top of the map, somehow like it tries to show that light source in a "loop situation", I know it's that one because if I turn it red, the flash becomes red instead.. weird. I guess we’ll never know what’s going on.)

 

[ScorchedGround]

Ah, great thanks. After looking again, that command was indeed in the help file.

But the help file is such a wall of text that I merely skimmed it to look for a command
and since I read "daynight cycle" at the beginning of that paragraph, I just skipped that part because I don't have a time system. So I missed it

Anyways, thanks for the quick response. This plugin seems pretty good!

 

[Frostorm]

Some minor grammar Nazi-ism for the help section:
22: * @desc Adds switching the script on or off to the options menu
57: * @desc Increase if you're using a higher screen resolution than the default
62: * @desc Increase if you're using a higher screen resolution than the default
67: * @desc Possible values A,B,C,D. If Selfswitch X is switched ON, the event's lightsource will be disabled.
84: * 1. For lights on north walls, light will face south.
170: * This function does not raytrace. If the players lightradius is bigger than the blocking tiles the
171: * light will show on the other side. For the best effect keep the lightradius a bit smaller than the block section.

P.S. Your timing with this thread is impeccable, I'm only now starting to do some mapping in my project so this is perfect. So thank you for this.

 

[ImaginaryVillain]

I appreciate the grammar stuff, though I didn't actually right that huge block of text. And I'm going to be rewriting it anyway, so not much point in worrying about it yet till I know what is/isn't staying. Though if you want to rewrite it, you totally can. That is the point of this experiment, get lots of people to work on it.

@KaYsEr
I'm getting that bug with a vanilla copy of Terrax Lighting and UltraMode7. My test maps are 100x100. There is some good news, two points in the original code say...
"// parallax does something weird with coordinates.. recalc needed"
"// parallaxloop does something weird with coordinates.. recalc needed"

So I'm suspecting the problem is there. For now though the focus is on restructuring the code to be more readable, and removing meaningless stuff. Mostly so I can even figure out what stuff does... Since the original script is written very weirdly. After that it should be a lot easier for someone, be it myself or someone else to figure out the problem.

1.02
Reworked the commands to be a switch statement instead of a massive number of if statements.
Removed some strange debug system that was logging the time every frame for every light.
Edited "some" of the help section to make it more readable. But there's still a lot more to do.
All told, the edits have made the script almost 250 lines shorter since the last version.

Obviously the new version will need some testing, it seems to work better than previous version in my game. But I don't use all of the plugin's vast array of functionality. So let me know if anybody finds any bugs.

If nobody finds any I'll update the first post with this version.

 

[Aesica]

I found a problem with the daynight cycle crashing the game due to var vs let scope, but I fixed it and am in the process of adding my own stuff to enhance the daynight aspects, implement proper a note tag system (currently can be enabled/disabled to maintain compatibility with existing projects using terrax's old format) and other things I've added to the version of terrax I've been using in my project.

Of course, I've been working on 1.01 and now 1.02 is here so...how does this get reconciled?

 

[ImaginaryVillain]

No worries, if yours works better I'm all for it (which is sounds like your testing was way better than mine, so it probably does). It's not that hard to redo any changes I made in 1.02 and goodness knows they might not even be necessary depending on what you change. Honestly I'm excited to have someone else working on this.

 

[Aesica]

I'm just glad somebody got the ball rolling on with this, because it's much-needed. While I've been thinking about releasing my version for awhile now, it still didn't address a lot of the main concerns (like the sluggishness) so I held back. As for testing, well you said you didn't use parts like the daynight/time system, so its understandable. Likewise, with my pre-community version, I didn't use any of the mog crap so I wasn't sure if anything I added might've broke that stuff. As you certainly know from working with this plugin, its very easy to pull the wrong peg out of the jenga tower.

 

[ImaginaryVillain]

Haha yes, the plugin really does feel like it will collapse at any moment if you change the wrong thing. I've taken to leaving stuff commented out during testing, just in case I need to quickly revert. The more I dig into this plugin the more I discover weird stuff just in there, and an overwhelming amount of extra functionality that makes me wonder... Doesn't anybody even know this is there, let alone use it? I swear I've read that help section countless times and it's like magic how some new functionality appears in it.

Like the weird ability to use the 'daynight debug' to display the actual time. I almost removed it thinking it was part of that strange resource draining debug system. Which literally runs two functions per frame per light source. Anyway once I found that in the help section I left it in. Even then I have to wonder, how many people even knew that was there?

Anyway I'm glad you're adding features, my entire plan for alterations to this plugin was just to restructure it, and optimize it. But I really hadn't intended on adding anything specifically, so you adding stuff works out nicely. Also you know waaaaaaay more about note tags in MV that I do, all of my plugins currently work with functions, PIXI, or bypassing MV's functions entirely by inserting my own objects into MV's update cycle. One less thing for me figure out.

That would also be my eventual goal, bypass MV entirely, though I'm not 100% certain yet how I'll do it for this plugin... The code's just all over the place. But essentially I have found that instead of extending MV's own Jenga towers they call objects, I can use PIXI to simply bypass them entirely. What results is not only a plugin that can be added/removed from memory at the drop of a hat, but also orders of magnitude in performance increases.

 

[KaYsEr]

So I'm suspecting the problem is there. For now though the focus is on restructuring the code to be more readable, and removing meaningless stuff. Mostly so I can even figure out what stuff does... Since the original script is written very weirdly. After that it should be a lot easier for someone, be it myself or someone else to figure out the problem.

Sounds like you're doing some kind of "code archeology" with that plugin haha (after reading other messages too), good luck then!

I gave the OcRam lighting plugin a try out of curiosity, as expected the lights are misaligned in mode7 maps but other than that I'd say it behaves pretty good, you can tell it was made after MV got the PIXI4 update and the possibility to create better/convenient plugin parameters (since MV1.5 if I'm not wrong), seems like performances are OK too.

But I don't know if it has the same kind of incompatibilities with older GPUs you can encounter with Khas Lighting, that one should definitely be avoided and it's why many people had to stick with Terrax.
I'll see if I can find some old integrated intel GPU to try with OcRam, I remember Khas would crash on start with an HD3000 due to an incomplete shader support or something.

 

[ImaginaryVillain]

Honestly it kind of is code archeology. Originally it had a check in it for PIXI2 and 3... Which I mean we're on 5 now. Though MV's on 4.5.4. But that should give you an idea how old the code is. And it was originally built as one giant function... So it's pretty difficult to follow. That's really what I was doing, just sorting that out. At the moment I'm waiting to see what Aesica comes up with before messing with the code anymore (to avoid having to redo stuff). Maybe you'll get lucky and whatever she changes will fix the Ultra Mode 7 problem.

Though if Ocram's gets the job done for you, that works too. Maybe BBlizzard will make a compatibility fix for it to solve the misaligned lights. Worth a try at least. Let us know how the testing goes.

 

[Aesica]

Edit: Note that this is based on the original version posted here, not the newer one since I started on this and added most of my stuff after the new one was posted.

Edit2: Aaand I already noticed I forgot to mention that you can change the speed when using the "Daynight" note tag in the help section. Oops.

Okay, so doing bits here and there throughout the day, I think this is working. Nothing's breaking on my end, at least!

• Organized the plugin parameters into logical sections
• Removed the redundant "Add to options" plugin parameter. It can be ommitted from the options menu by leaving "Options Menu Entry" blank
• Changed the casing in a few plugin parameter names to be more consistent (minor nitpick, I know)
• Added the option to use modern note tag syntax "<cl: light 250 #ffffff>" to avoid conflicts with other plugins that may also use event/map note tags. Those note tags currently break Terrax's tagless implementation
• Added better default day/night colors. These can also be changed in the plugin parameters now for easier customization
• Added a "night switch" which, if assigned to a switch, will set to true during night or false during day (which hours count as day and night are user-defined)
• Expanded the "Daynight" note tag in maps so you can also set the speed if desired: "Daynight 10" for the default speed, "Daynight 0" to stop time and use the current hour's tint in one go. "Daynight" by itself uses the current speed
• Fixed a bug where the "Daynight" tag wouldn't tint at all if the speed was < 0 or > 4999.
• Added "Tint daylight" plugin command which is essentially "Tint set [whatever the current hour's color is]." "Tint daylight" should be used instead of the "Daynight" map note tag if you plan on applying any manual tints on the map. (Daynight blocks the use of the tint command)
• Changed map note tag reading to happen only once per cycle instead of X times per cycle, where X is the number of events on the map (seriously why was it done that way!?)
• Replaced the word salad in the help section with (what I hope is) a clearer breakdown of each command/tag and how to use it. I hope I didn't leave anything out.
• Added a "version" property to Community.Lighting so other plugins can ask it what version it is.

If I broke anything or something I added doesn't work, let me know please.

 

[ImaginaryVillain]

I'm not sure what I like better about this, the improved note tags, or just the fact you rewrote the help section into something logical. So far the events and new note tags seem to work fantastically.

I also went ahead and made a map with region and tile tags for test, since I don't think anybody is testing them... Personally I never use them (I don't even use tiles or regions at all), but I suspect in the initial messing with stuff I broke them as I'm unable to get to those to work. So I'll toss them on the to do list.

I haven't tested the DayNight stuff but I suspect you've got that handled.

All in all, performance seems to be great as well. Fantastic job!

edit: Added 1.015 to the main post since it seems like a direct improvement over what was there before. Also added a bug section so people know what needs to be fixed.

edit2: I am apparently incorrect, tile light and region light work just fine. I had a plugin that was disabling the tile map entirely that stopped them from working. Just goes to show you how often I use both of those.