[MV] Change Player Character GFX when Standing Still / Walking / Dashing

[MikeMakes]

Nature of Request                            

Hello, I'm looking for a plugin that allows player graphic change during the following animation sequences: Standing Still, Walking, and Dashing. It would add a sense of lively polish. It needs to be compatible with Shaz's "More Character Frames" plugin or any similar plugin to account for custom character spritesheets that have more than three default frames in an animation cycle.

Notes                                                 
- By default, MV incorporate the character sprite's [standing Still] frame as part of its walking animation cycle.
- This causes animation problem for custom character spritesheets whose [standing Still] frame is not part of the walking cycle.

- This is why I'm requesting for Standing Still graphic change as well.


Possible Method  (Suggestion only, Scripter is free to use whatever method to make this plugin convenient to script and to use)
- Due to MV's animation cycle configuration and "More Character Frames" plugin requiring the actor spritesheet to be renamed such as $Actor [5 5 5 5] (where is 5 the number of frames of each direction - down, left, right, up) to take effect, the Plugin to be scripted might have to call for different spritesheets of the character depending on the movement:

- If character is walking: change graphic to use Walking(Default?) spritesheet.
- If character is dashing: change graphic to use Dashing spritesheet.
- If character has no movement: change graphic to use Standing Still spritesheet.
    - (for those who use RTP style 3 frame walking animation cycle, this could also be used for idling animation or different standing animation.)


Considerations                             
- Change of lead character
- Mouse movement

- Affect player character only and not other event sprites (Basic minimum to affect Player Character)

References                                     

Shaz's "More Character Frames"

MV's Animation Cycle configurations
(js folder -> rpg_objects.js -> around line 6558 on "pattern"

Idea of How was done in VXA (thank you MaxLionheart for the links):

Victor Charaset Animation Control

Victor Multi Frames


Placeholder Templates                                     

$Actor_Still [4 4 4 4]

$Actor_Walk [4 4 4 4]

$Actor_Dash [4 4 4 4]

Thank you.

 

[MaxLionheart]

I upvote! This is a plugin that would benefit so much people who like to make their own graphics.

Right now, it is rather impossible to make smooth looking map animations because the need to include the idle pose within the walk cycle.

Note: In the consideration section, you mentionned it could be fun to have this plugin only affect the character player... maybe it could be an option, but I would really love this eventual plugin to affect all events. (otherwise, the other events would look choppy next to the player)

 

[MikeMakes]

I did think about your suggestion. The reason I put that it's because other events could have their animation graphics change via Move Route command. I did not want more work on the scripter, who might also get confused with implementing this on all sprites (humans and objects) to require them all to have still / walk / dash animation files. Should the scripter be willing and can find a clever way to make certain event sprites turn on the use of still / walk / dash animation when necessary, then he/she can implement it.

I actually evented this system for the Player Character via Move Route, but it is cumbersome to call the common event and to check for certain things. Above all, it lacked proper mouse movement support.

 

[MaxLionheart]

Ah, interesting, I wouldn't have thought of that.

In VX Ace, I was using one of Victor's script that was able to handle the player and the events at the same time.

The way it worked is if you had to name your files the following way:

Actor1
Actor1[wlk]

Actor1[dsh]

...and the game would autodetect what ressources were available for each set.

​

So let's say you wanted a character with and idle and walk animation, but no dashing, you'd just have to create the first two files. The plugin would recognize you had no dashing animation, and therefore would be using the walk animation when dashing.

Also, if you only had only one file labeled something like Actor1 (with no suffix) and no walking or dashing animation, it would treat this file as the basic game did.

Overall, it was a pretty smooth system that allowed a lot of flexibility. (I think you could even set up animations for the jump function)

 

[MikeMakes]

I didn't know about that as I don't have VX Ace, but that does seems like what I have in mind.

The thing is if it were to be done like that, the suffix would have to take in account to be compatible with the suffix used for "More Character Frames" plugin.

 

[MaxLionheart]

​Well, Victor also had a script similar to Shaz's More Character Frames, and in the end, we had to name our files this way:

!$Man1[f8][wlk]​

Where [f8] meant the animation cycle was of 8 frames, and [wlk] meant this animation was to be used for the walk animation.

It was a super flexible system.

 

[MikeMakes]

Oh, I see. Then bracket suffixes can possibly be used together like that.

Can you provide the links to those scripts so that I could update the first post to help potential scripter get ideas?

 

[MaxLionheart]

It were those two:

https://victorscripts.wordpress.com/rpg-maker-vx-ace/utility-scripts/character-control/

https://victorscripts.wordpress.com/rpg-maker-vx-ace/utility-scripts/multi-frames/

 

[Jesse - PVGames]

I definitely second this request - it would be hugely beneficial (and would be super awesome if it supported 8 directions as well as the 4 default directions).

 

[danrs88]

I would also love to see this plugin released.

My sprite set looks awesome, but then just reverts to the idle frame and slides along.

Thanks in advance.

 

[basicleader]

+1 for this plug-in, actually Galv used to have a script on VX ACE doing exactly this too, but since he has come up with a new version of his character animation script that handles idle/walk/dash in one spritesheet only! I don't think he is gonna take/convert his older version with different spritesheet handling to RMMV!

I hope someone else will be able to come up with one! Thanks!

Edit:

As of now, I'm amazed and want to thank all the scripters for the amazing amount of quality scripts already made for MV! I've worked on VX ACE for a long time, and never was able to get everything I needed as a working visual design, but with MV, I'm missing only this last plugin to be set on my visual design and concentrate fully on customizing, tweaking the storyline, and working solely on the game itself!

I have come up with a quick map to test out the scripts I've found I'm gonna use on my visual design, it looks like this already (nevermind the design, did it in a testing purpose only): 




Mapping:

MRPMapExporter (to export a 100% size PNG file of the map I'm working on with events displayed, to customize it on Manga Studio 5)

Galv Layer Graphics (the overlay layers system I feel the most comfortable with).

 

Character Handling:

Extra movement frames (To use charsets with more than 3 frames)

Quasi movement and Quasi depths (pixel movement, collision maps, diagonal movement, zoom in and out, etc...)

 

The only script missing is a plugin making the use of different charsets files depending on the character movement (idle, walk, dash); if you are also interested in this plugin, please show your interest here, so that scripters will get interested in helping us!

 

[Eilios]

I found this (hopefully it's allowed to post here), seems to work. Has idle, walk, and run animations all different, although there are no extra frames to use as far as I can tell (which I think I'm going to need). 

http://galvs-scripts.com/2015/11/03/mv-character-animations/

 

[MikeMakes]

That's really good with MV's default 3 frames.

The current thing is that plugins either do only walking and dashing animations or allow more than 3 frames walking but not incorporate both.

 

[MaxLionheart]

At the moment, the best script in my opinion is this one, from Modern Algebra:

http://rmrk.net/index.php?PHPSESSID=22ktrdipba63ut021v3uokdni2&topic=50452.0

It allows you to have an idle frame, and the number of walking frames you wish to have.

​However, you can only have one animation of either walking or dashing.

I've been using it for​ some time now, and I'm 100% satisfied.

​

 

[basicleader]

Yeah, MA's plugin and Galv's are the best alternative right now. Use them both depending of what I need.


Thanks to those, I'm attempting some more depth mapping on RMMV:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydPxlidEYbU