RPG Maker MV Deployment to Windows Store via Visual Studio Issue

[Master100000]

You gotta be kidding me... they still havent fixed plugins? I stopped a couple months back because of the UTF8 problem not running plugins. If anyone figures it out let me know. I have a threat about it also lol..

 

[cunningorb]

You gotta be kidding me... they still havent fixed plugins? I stopped a couple months back because of the UTF8 problem not running plugins. If anyone figures it out let me know. I have a threat about it also lol..

Definitely wish I was kidding mate. I've had open forum posts out now since may on this site, as well as Microsoft visual Studio community and stack overflow. The android version works great but both WinJS and Cordova build fail validation on UWP. If i convert files to UTF8 then the game doesn't work.

can anyone speak to whether this link might be useful? I know exactly zero about JS: https://www.ageofascent.com/2015/08/11/gulp-add-utf8-bom-windows-10-javascript-app/

 

[AceOfAces_Mod]

Maybe it could work, but I need to research it.

 

[Zeriab]

I hope you manage to find a solution ^^

@Master100000 UWP is not a supported distribution platform by RPG Maker MV so you really shouldn't expect any issues in relations to UWP builds to be fixed if you don't manage to fix them yourself.

 

[cunningorb]

I hope you manage to find a solution ^^

@Master100000 UWP is not a supported distribution platform by RPG Maker MV so you really shouldn't expect any issues in relations to UWP builds to be fixed if you don't manage to fix them yourself.

Did not know that. I assumed they supported it since they support mobile as well as Windows exe. So if I managed to replicate the issue on another platform would that help? I'm not sure that I can but I'll try if it would be worth the effort.

 

[Zeriab]

Maybe, could be a solution on another platform will not work for UWP.
You can check the distribution platforms here btw: http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/products/programs/rpg-maker-mv#features
Scroll a bit down.

 

[Master100000]

In a way I wasn't expecting a fix for that reason haha. What I ended up doing is starting a game from scratch without plugins and modifying the original non-plugin scripts to imitate the plugins that I wanted to add lol. Now it passes the windows store inspection nicely. Unfortunately, still nothing I can do about adding plugins in UTF-8 format.

 

[cunningorb]

In a way I wasn't expecting a fix for that reason haha. What I ended up doing is starting a game from scratch without plugins and modifying the original non-plugin scripts to imitate the plugins that I wanted to add lol. Now it passes the windows store inspection nicely. Unfortunately, still nothing I can do about adding plugins in UTF-8 format.

Genius! Can you give me some tips on how i could do that for my project? I get the general idea but I'm sure its more complicated than just copying and pasting code.

 

[Master100000]

What do you want to add to your project? If it helps pictures are my best friend, they are perfect for UI, HUDs, Menus, anything.
If there is anything you done with the script I can help but my help will be very basic. I do "trial and error", so basicaly i type something
and if i ruin the game or if it doesn't do what i want it to do then i delete it and try typing something different until i finaly
get the code running the way i want it to lol.

 

[cunningorb]

FYI there is some activity now in my stack overflow post which may yield some results this time. I'm hoping! Check it out and feel free to pitch in if you can. https://stackoverflow.com/questions...-the-js-files-listed-in-index-html-once-js-fi

 

[cunningorb]

@AceOfAces_Mod this link below looks like something I should try. It appears like it could pose it's own problems but do you think it's worth a shot to getting UWP compatibility with my game?
https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/rpg-maker-and-project-centennial.68398/

 

[AceOfAces_Mod]

@cunningorb I can't say with 100% accuracy, but it may work. However, there are the following concerns:

• Will all plugins that you use work? Since the game is stored in the Program Files folder, the game will have problems running (such as not being able to save). Even if they will work, you'll still need to do modifications.
• Should you do this and force people to lose the progress? Since UWP apps save their data on a compartment inside Windows, you can't access the saves, unless you sync them up in some way.
• Are you using Windows Store's APIs and/or are you planning to publish the game to the Xbox One? Xbox One can't run Win32 games. I think that you can use the Windows Store APIs, but it may need modifications to the nwjs program.
• Will the game run fine on ARM devices that run Windows 10 (not the Mobile variant)? The ARM version will have to emulate it, so it will add some extra workload.

 

[cunningorb]

Those are interesting points, here are my thoughts about each:
* I was using Yanfly save core, which as far as I know, doesn't have the ability to change save location.
* I had already considered the possibility that the people who already played would lose progress. However, the game in its current form without plugins is nearly unbeatable due to an issue with common events. I would be surprised if anyone kept playing once they encountered a certain bug about 20 -30 minutes into the game. I would hate to cause frustration but there are only about 40 downloads of the game so far which I feel can be made up for with a "cheat code" for an extra level or something.
* I was planning definitely to publish to the xbox one. In fact I was just waiting to figure out the reason for the game's plugins not working after being published and then I was going to immediately publish to xbox.
* The game runs slowly and animations are poor on Android devices (webview), so I imagine emulated ARM would be similarly slow. That is not ideal. I haven't spent much time yet working on game performance as I was mostly concerned with the plugin bug so far.

 

[cunningorb]

Interesting...

I just did new build from scratch for the billionth time, starting all the way from making new RPG Maker project to get latest update files. Including downloading the latest versions of plugins.

Now, when I install the package, on first run, the plugins work. Then when I close the app and re-open, no plugins run. It will only run the plugins on the first run of the app.

So if I uninstall and re-install, I can run the app with plugins working. Does this behavior make any sense to anyone? Note, this is when installing the x86 version of the UWP app. When running the ARM version the plugins just don't work at all.

Also, I tried building as an Ionic app which made no difference. So in all I've tried building it as UWP with WinJS, Cordova, and Ionic. All failed to handle running plugins. It always works in debugging though.

 

[AceOfAces_Mod]

It's pretty weird... I'll see if I can compile an MV game via Cordova and test on both Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile. Plugins were working on WinJS, though (at least on my side).

 

[cunningorb]

I have a very bare project setup if you or anyone wants to use that as a starting point:
https://1drv.ms/f/s!AhExycO0yDOZhsdmVSBkhw9t_HNn3w

Edit: I just did another WinJS from scratch. Passed the silly WACK test. Installed the app package and yep, it works, but only on first app run. The second time you run the app the plugins mysteriously no longer work. Bear in mind I've whittled down plugins to a minimum here and I'm only using yanfly core and yanfly picture common events.

Very specifically, it was the switch from UTF8 file encoding (which worked on second app load) to UTF8 BOM (which did not work on second app load) that broke the app.

Am I making any sense? This whole issue is quire weird no matter what package wrapper you use.

 

[cunningorb]

UPDATE: FOUND FIX

Thank you everyone who helped, I have stumbled across the answer!

In rpg_manager.js line 2839 we have the flag script.async = false;
Change to
script.async = true;

App works packaged either in cordova or WinJS.

Soon I will start a new thread with a complete walkthrough of creating an app package start to finish for RPG Maker MV. Thanks again for everyone sticking this out with me until I found a fix.

 

[Master100000]

Thank you. I will bw trying that.