TAA_BookMenu (v1.6.7)

[taaspider]

Hi @Goo ...
So, you want the menu to have only the book list, and only when the player press 'ok' on a book (not when it is highlighted) a new scene pops up much like the detached window. Correct?
If so, yes, it is possible.

 

[Goo]

@taaspider, thanks for your prompt reply!
Yes, exactly that! So, when player pess ok on the book list, the book list disappears and only the selected book appears (as the detached window).
If possible, please teach me the way to do it! I am already grateful for the many things that can be done with your plugin.
Thanks again!

 

[taaspider]

That will require some coding. I can work on it, but you'll have to wait a few weeks. Unfortunately, I'm quite busy right now and have not been having much free time lately

 

[Goo]

I can't ask for more... I will wait! Thanks for using your time to do it!

@taaspider, finally I could achieve what I had in mind trough eventing and using the Readbook command alone, creating a sort of alternative Book Menu. So, once again, thank you for this plugin and your good intentions

 

[MikaTeapot]

Is there a text limit for the detached window? When I use readbook for one of my latest books, it cuts off text before the end in the initial window, but when opened via the main menu, everything is there.
edit: it was a wordwrap bug, the option fixed it Didn't think that'd be the case since it managed all the other wordwraps fine.

 

[Sajiki]

WOW really WOW thats a very nice Plugin and i loved

But one question, how i can open a book from item?

Mfg
Sajiki

 

[Goo]

Hey, Sajiki, maybe this can help you:

Create a Common Event with the next plugin command--> Plugin command : ReadBook nameofbook

(Check the Intructions in the plugin on how to use this command)

Create an object. Go to the "Effect" box and search for "Common event". Select the Common Event you have created.

Now, whenever you "use" this object, it will execute the ReadBook command.

Configure as well the other settings in the object (kind of object, consumable, etc.)

Maybe there are better ways to do this, buy this one might help you!

 

[PLUEVNR]

Hello,

thanks for the plugin. It's adding a lot of cool things to a game.

btw, I'm trying to put the book command at a different position with YEP_MainMenuManager and it's not opening. (It opens perfectly when I'm not putting it in the YEP plugin)
I assume I missed something so I'm looking for your help.

Here's what I've done :


thanks

EDIT : nevermind, I just added this.commandBook.bind(this) in Main Bind row

 

[PLUEVNR]

Hey, it's me again ^^'

I've a question about inline images.
In one of the books, I have to load 4 images but it loads during 3 or 4 seconds (which is really long when nothing happens on your screen).

At the beginning, I thought it was the weight of my pictures (1,2Mo total) so I compressed them (now 359ko total) but it has the exact same loading time.

Is there a way to reduce it ? Did I miss something ?

thanks !

 

[taaspider]

One question: does it happen only on the menu view, or it's the same if loading the book with the detached window?

Loading of inline images occur at runtime, when a book is selected. To prevent the menu freezing out as images are loaded, it is done assynchronously (that's why text may appear, but images can take some time to load). So, loading times really depends on your specs and how long the engine takes to do the job.

One alternative would be to use a preload manager plugin, but I honestly have never used one and I'm not sure if there is any out there which would work with TAA_BookMenu without some tweaking.

Another possible solution would be me finding a way of embedding some sort of preload function to the plugin. When using the menu scene there's a delay between highlighting a book and it actually being displayed. I can try to make it preload inline images at this point, but I'm not sure that would be 100% effective. As for the detached scene I can't think of anything but delaying opening the window so there's enough time to load.

I'll need some time to test it out though (I'm finishing the final paper of my post-grad course, so I'm a bit busy hehe ). If an existing preload manager is an option, it would be faster to test it out as you wait.

 

[PLUEVNR]

One question: does it happen only on the menu view, or it's the same if loading the book with the detached window?

On the menu view, text appears first then the pictures, but the page instant loads so I'm fine with it
With the detached window, the screen freezes for around 3 sec and then everything appears. Once it has been loaded at least one time and when I want to re-open the book, there's almost no loading time.
Is it worth it to compress my pictures ? is it a time-winner in any way?

I'll need some time to test it out though (I'm finishing the final paper of my post-grad course, so I'm a bit busy hehe ). If an existing preload manager is an option, it would be faster to test it out as you wait.

Have fun and good luck haha

 

[taaspider]

Is it worth it to compress my pictures ? is it a time-winner in any way?

After loading the book the first time the images are kept on cache memory, so trying to open the same book will load them faster. That's why I thought about finding a way to preload them to memory before opening a book, so when you do they're ready for you.

Picture sizes are most definetely a factor, but not the only one. I can't tell for sure how much it influences loading time though. From what you're describing, I think they would need to be waaaay larger to cause a more relevant delay, so I would say to keep them as they are for now. Let me see what I can do about it first!

 

[PLUEVNR]

Alright ! Thanks a lot.
And take your time I'm not in rush

 

[Solar_Flare]

Hi, this seems like a pretty awesome plugin, so I'll probably make use of it in my project.

After looking through all the options though, I was wondering if there's a way to make the detached book window / ReadBook command not automatically add books to the library window?

I was thinking I could use the library window as a sort of "help" window with a fixed set of books (maybe adding a few extras based on specific events), but also have certain key items that open unique books not available through the library window.

As an aside, it looks like this is should be readily compatible with the localization plugin I've developed for my project (at least if you use Plugin Manager as the data source, not sure about JSON), so that's a nice plus... especially since as far as I can tell my localization plugin works very differently from DK's or Iavra's - there's no "Localization Escape Code" whatsoever.

EDIT: Having tried it, I noticed one minor issue with it - once the plugin is enabled, any saves created without the plugin enabled cannot be loaded. It's not really a problem though - I can easily recreate the saves with the plugin enabled. However, if this had happened when I had more content and saves placed deep into the game, I might have been significantly more bothered by it. Unless I've missed something, fixing it should be as simple as just checking in extractSaveContents that the saved books info actually exists. (As an aside, if books are to be reset on reload, wouldn't it make more sense not to store them in the save at all?)

 

[taaspider]

After looking through all the options though, I was wondering if there's a way to make the detached book window / ReadBook command not automatically add books to the library window?

That's not hard to implement. I may be able to release a new version with this feature in a few days (won't promise a release date though).

Having tried it, I noticed one minor issue with it - once the plugin is enabled, any saves created without the plugin enabled cannot be loaded.

That's simple to solve (it is quite like you described, a simple check before loading an empty object). I'll add that to the next release as well. Thanks for the feedback!

As an aside, if books are to be reset on reload, wouldn't it make more sense not to store them in the save at all?

The complete list of available books is reset on reload, so if you include a new book during development it won't break save files, but the list of books read by the player is stored (so the player can slowly fill its library throughout the game). At least that was what I tested a long time ago. I'll double check it, and if I found anything strange I'll include a fix in the next version.

 

[Solar_Flare]

The complete list of available books is reset on reload, so if you include a new book during development it won't break save files, but the list of books read by the player is stored (so the player can slowly fill its library throughout the game). At least that was what I tested a long time ago. I'll double check it, and if I found anything strange I'll include a fix in the next version.

Maybe I was misunderstanding, but I got the impression that it stores the entire contents of all books in the save files, which is what seemed weird since books aren't changing while the game is played. Did I misread something?

One other thing I noticed is that a lot of your background image parameter definitions (in the structs) are missing "@require 1" which is needed for them to work with Exclude Unused Files.

 

[Sajiki]

How i can set a Picture in my Book?

%img("world", 40, 20) dont work in my .json.
%img("world", 40, 20); dont work in my .json.

Or dont work in .json?

EDIT: Ok i must use %img('world', 40, 20)

Mfg
Sajiki

 

[Solar_Flare]

This is just a guess, but maybe you have to write it like this?

%img(\"world\", 40, 20)

 

[taaspider]

Maybe I was misunderstanding, but I got the impression that it stores the entire contents of all books in the save files, which is what seemed weird since books aren't changing while the game is played. Did I misread something?

Hmmm... yes, the entire book list is being written to the save files, and that just make save files bigger than they need to be. Even so, there's a parameters that defines if the entire book list is reset or not on load. I agree this isn't the optimal design. I'll change that on the next release, making save files lighter and keeping compatibility with previous versions.

Also, I did double check the code yesterday and the books read are reset depending on your parameters (there's one where you can specify if it should persist through save files or not). If that's not how it's working for you please review your settings.

One other thing I noticed is that a lot of your background image parameter definitions (in the structs) are missing "@require 1" which is needed for them to work with Exclude Unused Files.

I'll run some tests. Not all background images parameters should be required for the plugin to work (for example, if you use the default map print as your background, none of them needs to be set).
A heads up in this matter is that any picture used as inline images are not seen by the "Exclude Unused Files", as they are loaded at runtime. Keep that in mind when exporting your game.

%img("world", 40, 20) dont work in my .json.
%img("world", 40, 20); dont work in my .json.

Or dont work in .json?

EDIT: Ok i must use %img('world', 40, 20)

The double quote is a special character in json syntax. So you need to either use single quotes, like you did, or escape the double quotes as Solar_Flare suggested.

As a general update, I'm working in the next release. Still not promising a release date, but you can expect it to come out soon!

 

[Solar_Flare]

A heads up in this matter is that any picture used as inline images are not seen by the "Exclude Unused Files", as they are loaded at runtime. Keep that in mind when exporting your game.

Ohhh, thanks for bringing that up, as I hadn't even thought of it. Then I'll have to either avoid using inline images or ensure something else requires them.

By the way, I wrote something to load books from text files, one file per book; it's not complete (missing custom background support) and not web-safe (using node's fs module), but would there be any interest in this?