Valid Symbols for (non Windows) deployment

[Lihinel]

There was a discussion on a german site about errors caused by file names including special symbols such as # and how it can lead to problems when deploying a game on a non windows system. (Apparently spaces in names will cause problems, but I can't just use html standards, since those would also disallow ! and $ which are used for Charcter Sprites.)

So if anyone could provide information or maybe a link, I'd like to know:
Which symbols are valid for files for rpg maker MV?

 

[??????]

as far as I know, the only thing that matters is CaSe SenSiTIVity!! I have rpg maker games running on android and linux that use special characters and have never had an issue.


So yea, the only real thing to worry about, is case sensitivity. Windows doesnt care about case, and will find filenames that linux and android may cry about.

Ie, you have Filename.png you reference it as filename.png in your plugin, windows doesnt care and will find the file. linux will care and will cry till you fix it.

edit: i could be wrong and there might be some characters you cant use, idk. personally ive never seen an issue.

 

[caethyril]

! and $ are URI delimiters, i.e. characters designed for special use. Their interpretation depends on the application handling the URI: the game, in this case. (Not sure how an unexpected # delimiter would be interpreted.)

RMMV games use XMLHttpRequest for reading data from files, but I think they cope OK with percent-encoding for non-standard characters (e.g. spaces), at least on Windows. Personally, I'd recommend sticking to alphanumeric + hyphens where possible.

Technical reference: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986#section-2.2

 

[??????]

interesting. I use files in my current project prefixed with the $ character and havent had any issues so far. Granted, it hasnt been put to my website yet, but ive tested locally in firefox and on android and everything works as expected.

 

[caethyril]

Yep, as far as I can tell the characters marked "sub-delims" should be fine for use (no default special interpretations):

! $ & ' ( ) * + , ; =

The "gen-delims" are for more standardised URI components (protocol, directory, etc) and should not be used out of place:

: / ? # [ ] @

Typically # marks a bookmark/fragment. I just tested and it does seem to break file access if you put a # anywhere in the project folder name or full path (project shows white screen and does not load). I also tried renaming one of the default battle sprite sheets to #Actor1_1.png and Actor1_1#.png, which both resulted in it loading as usual, so I guess resource URIs get %-coded or something.

 

[??????]

great info ~ mucho thankios :*

 

[Lihinel]

Yeah, quite informative, thanks a lot.

 

[Andar]

@Lihinel @??????

(e.g. spaces), at least on Windows.

That is exactly the problem - they work on windows, but break as soon as you deploy anywhere else.

And do you really want to rename hundreds of files with spaces in them, and then change all references to them throughout the entire project, as soon as you deploy somewhere else than windows?

It's the mixup that can cause problems - which is also the reason why a ? or * should NOT be used in filenames. Those were part of the search parameters ( ? meant any single letter, * meant any number of letters) for searches on filenames in a lot of operating systems, and that also gets you problems on several other deployments.