Suggestions for the next RPG Maker

[DS Piron]

How many Tile Layers could you possibly need? 5 alone would be nearing overkill, if it isn't already.

What is wrong with the standard walking animation? Unless you are adding more frames of animation (or entirely new animations), there's not much need and they'd need more sprites. (Also, how would this work? The battle animations can use more than one object, which can be rotated, moved and etc., all of which would make a sprite look werid if they were used most of the time...)

Do you want RPG Maker to be like Game Maker, only with a Pre-built RPG Engine?

That aside...

 

[Sharm]

Okay, imagine this.  I have a wall, a window, a curtain, a table and stuff on that table all taking up the same square.  With the way Ace maps I would need an additional 3 layers to pull that off.  If the secondary A layer counts as a full layer, I'd need 6 layers total.  If I had total control over what got put in which layer, 5 would be fine but back in the days where I only used Tiled to map with I used many more layers than that.

 

[Nefertari83]

It would be great if you'd included all the old Event Commands of RPG Maker 2003. I miss them very badly in the Makers XP to VX Ace.

As well as the mapping system.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

and hm, more sheet slots for the Animations too... 2 is kind of limiting for ultimate animations

 

[Caustic]

What about animated GIF or APNG support in pictures?

That'd help solve some of the problems with limited animations for those who are good at it or can figure out how to animate stuff like that ^^;

It'd also allow for animated backgrounds without eating up tons more additional hardware specs that RM games already devour

.

EDIT: For those confused and too lazy to look at the Wiki-link; APNG is an upgrade from animated GIF with better quality and smoother movement transitions that is currently under development.

Speaking of... 

Support for GPUs & multi-core processors above duo cores (think not just quad-core, but hexa- or octo-core processors, which are already a reality and will likely be within a decent price range within the next 5~7 years or less) would help tremendously and allow games to take off into far more complex territory than they currently are able to. Why this isn't already implemented is beyond me. Seriously, what games (minus downloaded Flash games, maybe?) run solely on the CPU anymore?

EDIT #2: Another thing that just came to mind that I don't think has been mentioned yet: Event Previewing

There are times I'd like to see how a certain event would play out, but I'd have to start up the game just to see it run. Why can't there just be a button in the Events part that instantly runs a given event rather than forcing me to reposition the player, save, start up the game, and only then see whether the event works or not?

I wouldn't even care that much if it just ran default characters and settings to show it; if I could see it working (or breaking) right there, that could potentially cut out a nice bit of debugging time that would otherwise be spent jumping between the editor and test playing :\

 

[CWells]

This one was probably done but:

Why not states that override other states? Where you have the option for remove by restriction, why not

Remove if State?

This way, a burning enemy, is extinguished by Cold.

A sickened enemy is cured by a protective barrier that cleanses infections...

 

[Zoltor]

This one was probably done but:

Why not states that override other states? Where you have the option for remove by restriction, why not

Remove if State?

This way, a burning enemy, is extinguished by Cold.

A sickened enemy is cured by a protective barrier that cleanses infections...

Well technically you can do that, just under effect for the skill/spell, have it remove the  states you want it to remove.

 

[DS Piron]

This one was probably done but:

Why not states that override other states? Where you have the option for remove by restriction, why not

Remove if State?

This way, a burning enemy, is extinguished by Cold.

A sickened enemy is cured by a protective barrier that cleanses infections...

Well technically you can do that, just under effect for the skill/spell, have it remove the  states you want it to remove.

You can also just add a State Resist [{Insert 1st State Here}] Feature* to  the {Insert 2ed State Here} State, as the state is removed if it's already present.

*At least, in VX Ace. I don't know about earlier versions. I

 

[Zoltor]

You can also just add a State Resist [{Insert 1st State Here}] Feature* to  the {Insert 2ed State Here} State, as the state is removed if it's already present.

*At least, in VX Ace. I don't know about earlier versions. I

Yea, that too.

 

[Tsukihime]

What if the state was not added by a skill?


Your assumption is that whatever is applying the state can remove the other state, but why shouldn't the state check it itself.

What about animated GIF or APNG support in pictures?


That'd help solve some of the problems with limited animations for those who are good at it or can figure out how to animate stuff like that ^^;


It'd also allow for animated backgrounds without eating up tons more additional hardware specs that RM games already devour


.


EDIT: For those confused and too lazy to look at the Wiki-link; APNG is an upgrade from animated GIF with better quality and smoother movement transitions that is currently under development.

I don't know how they compare to just a regular PNG animation sheet but I don't see what is wrong with how animations are currently done. This is how many engines handle that require true color and lossless animation frames.


If you know what you're doing then you can easily convert your animation into a sheet.

 

[Caustic]

@Tsuki: Because the default animator is kinda meh? XD

And I'm more talking about adding the feature for backgrounds and such, where the built-in animator wouldn't really be up to snuff with cycling multiple images and possibly a hundred frames or more. I'm not saying it isn't possible, but why burn additional processing power ( which the built-in animations do, and don't try to tell me they don't ) when you can just drop an image in the background that does the same thing, takes up less space, and is lighter on the game engine?

It could also allow for things like smoother door/chest animations, animated backdrops ( such as movement by windows ), and possibly even be used in place of battle animations, if the dev desires. The built-in animator can do a bit, but it's nowhere near as powerful as Photoshop/ImageReady or ( with some tweaking and experience ) GIMP or other animation software. Plus, it would allow one to change the images used in the animation without touching the files, use three or more images, or scale the animations larger or smaller, all of which are either currently impossible or impractical with the built-in editor.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

how can you be sure that it is "lighter on the game engine"?

Plus, it would allow one to change the images used in the animation without touching the files, use three or more images, or scale the animations larger or smaller, all of which are either currently impossible or impractical with the built-in editor.

Change images without touching a file? = what???


Use three or more images = yeah we need more slots for that


Scale animations larger or smaller = built-in function of the animations tab

takes up less space

If we're talking of individual sheets, yes. but remember that each sheet can be used in any number of animations... while for GIFs, each animation will be 1 image on its own.


as for animated backgrounds, hmmm... I guess I still prefer multiple parallax backgrounds then cycle each one manually... because I have more control on it, especially for speed...

 

[Caustic]

Shana, when you edit images in a photo-manip program, you make a new project for that image (if you're smart). You can't do that with the default animation process in RMVXA; the animation is saved as straight data, and can only be opened there and nowhere else.

Also, I'm looking right at the Animations tab right now, and not seeing any quick way to scale images. The only way I see is the rather obtuse "Cell Batch..." and that looks like it's more for altering a number of cells, not individual frames (at least not by default). Where's the click-drag functionality?

If we're talking of individual sheets, yes. but remember that each sheet can be used in any number of animations... while for GIFs, each animation will be 1 image on its own.

takes up less space

While one could argue that, also note my first statement in this post. With that system, I can only open them in RMVXA; if the software supported animated GIFs/PNGs, though, then I could edit those images via their projects from just about anything that could touch them, which is a number of different softwares. I'm not just limiting myself to GIFs I rip from some random site online; this would be for those that are able and gifted enough to make their own. Nevermind color/hue balance, various visual effects, and the like that photo-manip software provide as part of their packages.

I'm not saying "get rid of the Animation tab!"; just looking for more options to use outside resources rather than limiting myself to just what I can pull out of RM-whatever-the-next-one-is.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

It's a new project, yes, but you still touched a file... because that new project is still a file... so saying that it will allow you to change something without touching a file is still false

While one could argue that, also note my first statement in this post. With that system, I can only open them in RMVXA; if the software supported animated GIFs/PNGs, though, then I could edit those images via their projects from just about anything that could touch them, which is a number of different softwares. I'm not just limiting myself to GIFs I rip from some random site online; this would be for those that are able and gifted enough to make their own. Nevermind color/hue balance, various visual effects, and the like that photo-manip software provide as part of their packages.

My reply was for the "takes up less space" argument, which is clearly not always true, yet your reply was about a totally different topic. My only argument was that it doesn't always take up less space, I never said anything about portability or openability on other software. so, that is not a counter statement to the quoted message.

Also, I'm looking right at the Animations tab right now, and not seeing any quick way to scale images. The only way I see is the rather obtuse "Cell Batch..." and that looks like it's more for altering a number of cells, not individual frames (at least not by default). Where's the click-drag functionality?

You can resize each image in a specific frame via double clicking the image.


For animated backgrounds, yeah they might be good... but for animations?

and possibly even be used in place of battle animations, if the dev desires

NOPE... they doesn't even support sounds right? plus you can't probably flash any target using GIFs too...

 

[Caustic]

It's a new project, yes, but you still touched a file... because that new project is still a file... so saying that it will allow you to change something without touching a file is still false

You're editing the project file, not the image file. It's the difference between cutting up a picture for an art project, and copying that picture then cutting the copy up instead of the original picture. When you use a project you don't touch the original files beyond loading them; they're saved to memory along with the project, and thus are not themselves altered - only the project will be altered. Otherwise the project file has no use, and you might as well "cut up" that image file to your heart's content.

Is that clear enough?

My reply was for the "takes up less space" argument, which is clearly not always true, yet your reply was about a totally different topic. My only argument was that it doesn't always take up less space, I never said anything about portability or openability on other software. so, that is not a counter statement to the quoted message.\You can resize each image in a specific frame via double clicking the image.

Then I misinterpreted. Sorry.

For animated backgrounds, yeah they might be good... but for animations?

How smooth are the animations for opening doors and such?

Outside of the Animation tab, most I see aren't more than just images changing, possibly with little effects if someone thought to add those. Inside, they look better, but the real killer limit of only two images is a problem IMO.

It might not make much of a difference in most projects, but say someone has a lot of high-quality images and parallaxes they may have made themselves, but their chests and doors still look robotic when opening. What if you could just flip open Photoshop & ImageReady, scale out a dozen frames or so with the transitions and layers all ready, cue up the timing, and have a smooth transition just like that, ready to export? If you're good, this takes maybe fifteen, twenty minutes tops, and it looks darn good too. And if you want to edit, then it's just back over to PS/IR.

Also, that double-click box is basically the same thing from the "Cell Batch" button, just without the cell selection. Numbers /= visuals.

Maybe I'm just a sucker for live preview, but I'd probably go crazy having to adjust numbers a thousand times before "getting it right", only to have the animation not fall in line, and from there it's back to square-one.

NOPE... they doesn't even support sounds right? plus you can't probably flash any target using GIFs too...

That's about the ONLY thing they won't do, so meh. It was just an idea.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

I think this is the major difference between the GIF method and the current Sheet method:


Note: Animation is not equal to Battle Animations.


if it's a sheet that you "animate" thru event commands, you can reuse the sheets to do different animations. While for a GIF, if each door will have an even slightly different animation, it already means a new file. This is one of the reasons I prefer sheets, because I can manipulate that single file to do different things. So in the end, I think in most cases, sheets actually results to a lower file size.


Just take this example:


Using the Door sheet I can do both Opening and Closing doors using that same sheet.


If I use a GIF, I will need 2 files for that already. One for opening, one for closing.


Then if I decide to edit the door afterwards:


If that was a sheet, I only need to edit the sheet and it will affect ALL apllications of that sheet


If that was a GIF, I will edit both of those GIFs... or edit the source image, then resave the two GIFs.

 

[Caustic]

Alright, fine XD

Though why would you need one for closing doors? Unless there's not a black-screen transition and it's just going straight to the next room.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

well, it depends... that's just an example. though some games do open and close doors...

 

[Tsukihime]

It might not make much of a difference in most projects, but say someone has a lot of high-quality images and parallaxes they may have made themselves, but their chests and doors still look robotic when opening. What if you could just flip open Photoshop & ImageReady, scale out a dozen frames or so with the transitions and layers all ready, cue up the timing, and have a smooth transition just like that, ready to export? If you're good, this takes maybe fifteen, twenty minutes tops, and it looks darn good too. And if you want to edit, then it's just back over to PS/IR.

You can animate a sequence of images without using the built-in animation tool, and you can animate a sequence of images that isn't limited to 3 frames.


These do not require you to add support for GIF. Game Maker requires you to specify the number of frames in your sprite sheets for all animation purposes so that it can properly animate it.


GIF is a terrible format. It's only good if you don't need a very large palette.


Once you start talking about "high quality images and parallaxes" GIF doesn't really cut it anymore.


You can take a single sheet and create an infinite number of animations out of it. Each additional animation only requires about 30 KB of overhead depending on how many frames/effects you have. A single GIF is typically much larger than that, especially if you want to talk about "high quality images"

 

[DS Piron]

You can animate a sequence of images without using the built-in animation tool, and you can animate a sequence of images that isn't limited to 3 frames.

How?

These do not require you to add support for GIF. Game Maker requires you to specify the number of frames in your sprite sheets for all animation purposes so that it can properly animate it.

GIF is a terrible format. It's only good if you don't need a very large palette.

Once you start talking about "high quality images and parallaxes" GIF doesn't really cut it anymore.

You can take a single sheet and create an infinite number of animations out of it. Each additional animation only requires about 30 KB of overhead depending on how many frames/effects you have. A single GIF is typically much larger than that, especially if you want to talk about "high quality images"

But what about APNG? (Animated PNG)