[MV] Visual Novel Style Portraits during Conversations

[Rhino]

Hi, I'm basically just opening a new thread for an old unsolved issue that was closed! It was a popular request but unfortunately wasn't fulfilled!

The request was for a simple Visual Novel style that is well integrated intp the MV text commands!
My main wish is for a simple way to show two character portraits in conversations, similar to the Gagle Conversation System in VX Ace.

Spoiler

I know that it's possible to have one character bust using Galv's Plugin, or using the Show Picture command to show more, but I was hoping for an easier way to make a persistent image behind the textbox and anchor it to left, right & centre positions, possibly with a fade in/out effect and animated blinks or mouth flaps like Soul777's animated busts!

Thanks for reading! I really hope this request can be solved because it seemed like there were quite a few other people hoping for a response!

 

[Andar]

You should give a better description of what you actually want, because basically (as you said) all that can be done by the show picture command (including animation, just make it a sequence of show pictures, but that admittedly is rather complex to do.

For someone to make you a new plugin, the plugin writer needs to know what the plugin is supposed to do - so a list of features you want added, with a description of how it should be done, will really help.
The easiest way for the animation to be handled would be to make it handle a sequence of several regular pictures, but that means the developer needs to have those pictures. So can you provide at least a single set of pictures for the betatest? Most plugin writers aren't artists, and they need something to test their plugin with to even start working on it.

 

[Rhino]

Hi! Sorry for my late reply.. There's a detailed description in the original thread I linked to, but for easy access I've copied it here

Spoiler

By @Gabihime

• Visual novel style display of 2/3 body sprites in three positions on the screen: left, center, and right. These should be on a layer below the message box and name box. Positions should be defined in percentages, preferably, to make it flexible with different resolutions.
• Optional background layer behind the character images.
• Simple dissolve effect for the appearance / disappearance of characters.
• Ability to display up to three images at once, one in each of the three positions. That means a maximum of three characters on the screen at once.
• Persistence of images until they are cleared or replaced. For instance: two characters in positions L and R are having a conversation. L and R speak alternately, but their images remain in their positions until the conversation is over. When L is speaking, R is still visible. Having the characters pop up and down as they alternate speaking is very choppy and doesn't lead to good storytelling. It's easiest to simply have a function to clear the screen when the scene is over.
• A naming convention that makes it easy to group certain sprites together, to represent different emotions or states, like Actor_1_1, Actor_1_2, etc.
• Optional, but fun, is popping emote bubbles above the heads of the sprites, at some specifically defined location. Shin Totomono does this in its cutscenes.
• Simple integration into the MV messaging system. I know all of this can be done with show images, but it would save a lot of time and pain if I could just pop in a line to start this kind of conversation event, and easily control the images as I wrote the dialogue.
• Compatible with YEP Message Core
• Animation / mouthflaps / whatever is definitely not needed. Just the swapping out of flat, still images.

And here's a terribly crude blinking animation that could be used. It would need to be arranged 1,2,3,2,1 on loop. 3 frames tends to be a standard minimum for animation, but some people might want to be able to add extra frames.

Spoiler

EDIT: some other features that I think would be useful

• Dimming the background when the character images are present
• Ability to dim an Actor when they are not speaking
• Automatically disability the VN system when text box is not set to Bottom
• Ability to use placeholder images (Like Hime's message face placeholder) e.g. to change the character image if they change armour

 

[cedr777]

https://atelieririna.itch.io/visual-novel-busts