How to add subfolders to the Resource Managers

[Firstgamefreak]

Hey, i have a question. I purchased RPG Maker VX Ace through steam. And i was wondering, how exactly do you add your own subfolders to the Resource Manager/RTP to all future projects? And if not all future projects, then your current one. The picture attached kind of show's what i'm wanting to do.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

You cannot make a new folder appear in the resource tab... that would require editing the source code of the engine's GUI and thus breaches the EULA


Any subfolders and such should be added by you manually, and using them will be via scripts


Though, why would you want it? The resources are already nicely categorized by those folders... and importing is really easy too...

 

[Shaz]

You CAN copy items from your DLC folders into the RTP folders so they'll always be available for you when you start a new project, but you'd need to consider two things


- sometimes resources have the same name - you'd want to rename them to make sure you didn't overwrite any


- the more you put into the RTP folders, the bigger the file will be when you compress your game (if you include the RTP). That means when you share your game around, players will be downloading huge files, when not all the resources are used.


It's better to import the resources for each individual project. To do that, you can use the Resource Manager (F9), or just create your new project then copy the files from the DLC folders into the appropriate folders in your project - they'll turn up automatically then, and should have all the transparency set correctly.

 

[Firstgamefreak]

Though, why would you want it? The resources are already nicely categorized by those folders... and importing is really easy too...

The reason why I want to do that adi is because I want my own content, such as DLC's, to be in their own specific folder. I don't want them to be all jumbled up with the other content. The main thing is Sounds/Music. I want what i'm putting in the resource manager to to be in it's own "nice" category.

 

[Firstgamefreak]

You CAN copy items from your DLC folders into the RTP folders so they'll always be available for you when you start a new project, but you'd need to consider two things

- sometimes resources have the same name - you'd want to rename them to make sure you didn't overwrite any

- the more you put into the RTP folders, the bigger the file will be when you compress your game (if you include the RTP). That means when you share your game around, players will be downloading huge files, when not all the resources are used.

It's better to import the resources for each individual project. To do that, you can use the Resource Manager (F9), or just create your new project then copy the files from the DLC folders into the appropriate folders in your project - they'll turn up automatically then, and should have all the transparency set correctly.

I've tried just manually creating a folder called "DLC" in the rtp directory. However, When I tried doing that the folder "DLC" was not visible nor accessible through the resource manager.

 

[Andar]

The reason why I want to do that adi is because I want my own content, such as DLC's, to be in their own specific folder. I don't want them to be all jumbled up with the other content. The main thing is Sounds/Music. I want what i'm putting in the resource manager to to be in it's own "nice" category.

I think you misunderstood the functionality of the folders in the resource manager.

The folders are there to direct the internal links to a limited set of resources - for example, the face selection for the actors in the database will show ONLY the content of the Graphics/Faces folder in the resource manager.

If you place your own faces (for example) in a different folder, then you will NOT be able to select your own faces for actors in the database, because the other folders are not avalable for actor faces.

If you place your own pictures in the project folders, they will get a red dot instead of a blue dot in the resource menues - that is the only way to differ between them.

If you really want to have your own pictures in a different folder, then you would need to assign those pictures by script commands - which would make that three or four times the work than using the pre-programmed default folders and the resource manager.

But you cannot add folders to the resource manager, because those are NOT simple directory folders, they're special and preprogrammed selection folders linked to database and event commands, and you cannot change those linkings.

 

[Tsukihime]

This is one option if you must have subfolders.


http://himeworks.wordpress.com/2013/07/28/tutorial-managing-resource-subfolders-using-hard-links/

 

[ShinGamix]

Tsukihime to the rescue! Exactly what I was going to say!! Those come in handy.

 

[Shaz]

If you start a new project, you can use the RTP, even though the RTP resources are NOT contained in the project's folders. This means you can import your own (from DLC) straight into your project's folders, and what you import will still be completely separate from the RTP. You can then tell what's RTP and what's not, because RTP resources will have a red dot, and imported resources will have a blue(?) dot.

 

[Firstgamefreak]

Thank you so much everybody for your quick responses! I really appreciate your help in the matter

This is one option if you must have subfolders.

http://himeworks.wordpress.com/2013/07/28/tutorial-managing-resource-subfolders-using-hard-links/

I can't get this to work, I tried it but it's not clear on the most crucial part. In the main windows directory (ex: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\RPGVXAce) I don't know where to put my folder and my files. It tells you what to do once your have your files in place, but not where to place your files and where to place your personal "Folder". Further assistance with this might lead me to the result i'm looking for. Thanks in advance

 

[Andar]

Further assistance with this might lead me to the result i'm looking for. Thanks in advance

Please specify the result you're looking for, because I see two possibilities and the hard links solve only one of them:

1) do you want the folders to appear in the resource manager for better management of your resources in the editor? that is impossible even with hard links, the hard links only turn external folders into a name structure inside the editor - they don't create editor folders.

2) do you want the resources in different windows folders to be able to edit them without needing to go through the import everytime you change a file in the subfolder structure? That can be done with the hard links.

And I think you also need to state wether the resulting hardlinks should be in the RTP-Part or in the Project-part of the game.

The path you've given in your post is wrong for both cases - that's the program path, neither the RTP nor the project path fits there.

Since you cannot change the resource folder paths, you need to go to the existing folders and place the hard links below them.

EDIT:

The correct path for the RTP, Steam Version is:

...\Steam\SteamApps\common\RPGVXAce\RTP\

and then follow the regular resource structure

 

[Tsukihime]

I can't get this to work, I tried it but it's not clear on the most crucial part. In the main windows directory (ex: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\RPGVXAce) I don't know where to put my folder and my files. It tells you what to do once your have your files in place, but not where to place your files and where to place your personal "Folder". Further assistance with this might lead me to the result i'm looking for. Thanks in advance

I don't know how Steam projects look like but usually in your project folder you will see these folders

AudioDataGraphicsAnd then inside Graphics you will see

BattlebacksBattlers...

Those folders are the ones that correspond to the folders you see in the resource manager.You place your own folders inside one of those folders, and then use the batch script provided to automatically rename them and create hard links so that they will appear "properly" in the resource manager while still retaining something that looks like a folder name.

You will see the same directory structure in your RTP folder.