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Cap_H
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CloseFor my next game, I would like to have hud in reminescent of the one from Ultima 3, 4, 5. I guess it is possible to do with pictures and it would require custom message boxes. That would be moar pictures. So, if there were a bigger amount of pictures than small, it would be lot of bytes.
Hud, to be of any use, would supplement original menu. That means it would have to change with every hit, item and so on.
Is it worth it? Is it easier to do than it looks with common events?
Hud, to be of any use, would supplement original menu. That means it would have to change with every hit, item and so on.
Is it worth it? Is it easier to do than it looks with common events?
It's no so hard. Once you get all the images set up and the eventing of the number changes and such done, then you don't have to worry too much the rest of the game except for changing variables.
The HUD I did for Dungeon Crawl was simple enough. Granted, I limited the numbers I used so that I wouldn't be stuck doing a million of them, but even then it didn't take too long to set up. You just need to know what you're doing when it comes to using variables, pictures and conditional branches.
A tip or two:
- if you have a gauge of some kind, have the line that fills as a layer behind the bar itself and move it instead of relying on having 100 images. Makes things a hell of a lot more streamlined.
- another gauge trick is to have them set up at the side of the screen and push in from the edge so that the line cannot be seen (or have it hide behind other image elements, of course). That way you don't have to worry about any overlappage being seen when you move the bar.
- make sure you have a concrete plan of what you want before you start putting the elements together. If you later decide to move one part to another part, there's going to be a lot of work involved. Better to event it all when you have it down for surety.
- mock-ups to test whether the design works or not. Use a mock-up frame over your normal gameplay and run around and do shit to see if it gets in the way of the screen, and to test with potential audiences for the sake of clarity.
- don't go too ornate or too over-the-top, not only in style but in colour scheme. Try to keep things relatively simple and easy to read.
- use comments to detail in the eventing what does what and why. If you have to come back to the eventing to change something a few months later, it's hell to have to relearn stuff.
- if you finish and then you find the eventing itself looking ugly and clunky, don't mess with it unless it messes with the gameplay in some way. Just because it might look like a clunky mess after you've got more experience in it, doesn't mean it won't work how you want it. Only if it's causing problems should you try to 'prettify' or 'streamline' it. Just do better next time around.
- name switches, variables and images clearly so you know what they do and that they're important.
The HUD I did for Dungeon Crawl was simple enough. Granted, I limited the numbers I used so that I wouldn't be stuck doing a million of them, but even then it didn't take too long to set up. You just need to know what you're doing when it comes to using variables, pictures and conditional branches.
A tip or two:
- if you have a gauge of some kind, have the line that fills as a layer behind the bar itself and move it instead of relying on having 100 images. Makes things a hell of a lot more streamlined.
- another gauge trick is to have them set up at the side of the screen and push in from the edge so that the line cannot be seen (or have it hide behind other image elements, of course). That way you don't have to worry about any overlappage being seen when you move the bar.
- make sure you have a concrete plan of what you want before you start putting the elements together. If you later decide to move one part to another part, there's going to be a lot of work involved. Better to event it all when you have it down for surety.
- mock-ups to test whether the design works or not. Use a mock-up frame over your normal gameplay and run around and do shit to see if it gets in the way of the screen, and to test with potential audiences for the sake of clarity.
- don't go too ornate or too over-the-top, not only in style but in colour scheme. Try to keep things relatively simple and easy to read.
- use comments to detail in the eventing what does what and why. If you have to come back to the eventing to change something a few months later, it's hell to have to relearn stuff.
- if you finish and then you find the eventing itself looking ugly and clunky, don't mess with it unless it messes with the gameplay in some way. Just because it might look like a clunky mess after you've got more experience in it, doesn't mean it won't work how you want it. Only if it's causing problems should you try to 'prettify' or 'streamline' it. Just do better next time around.
- name switches, variables and images clearly so you know what they do and that they're important.
psy_wombats
13315
Picture-based HUD? Yep, go for it, not bad at all. Custom message boxes? Yeah, it's possible, but boy it's sticky. Looking at your references, a few options:
1 - Use pictures for every possible word you want to display. This works well for where there's a limited amount of possible outputted text but is probably not what you want here
2 - Without patching, this can be done with a *lot* of tedious copypasting but it's still technically possible. Essentially there's one picture per letter, and then copy/paste that 52-case elif construction once per letter on the screen... so like 300 times. Ew. You'd need an editor patch to get this many pictures in 2k.
3 - With patching (specifically PicPointerPatch), it's doable with a little tech knowledge and it's actually fun to implement instead of copy paste hell. I've done this before and will happily reimplement if given the chance.
https://rpgmaker.net/games/876/images/4003/ - That's all written dynamically
https://rpgmaker.net/games/876/images/4005/ - Can also use it for fancy text effects
But really, consider using a different engine. Just because rm2k can technically do it doesn't mean you /should/ do it. This would be so much easier on a more modern RM or other engine.
1 - Use pictures for every possible word you want to display. This works well for where there's a limited amount of possible outputted text but is probably not what you want here
2 - Without patching, this can be done with a *lot* of tedious copypasting but it's still technically possible. Essentially there's one picture per letter, and then copy/paste that 52-case elif construction once per letter on the screen... so like 300 times. Ew. You'd need an editor patch to get this many pictures in 2k.
3 - With patching (specifically PicPointerPatch), it's doable with a little tech knowledge and it's actually fun to implement instead of copy paste hell. I've done this before and will happily reimplement if given the chance.
https://rpgmaker.net/games/876/images/4003/ - That's all written dynamically
https://rpgmaker.net/games/876/images/4005/ - Can also use it for fancy text effects
But really, consider using a different engine. Just because rm2k can technically do it doesn't mean you /should/ do it. This would be so much easier on a more modern RM or other engine.
Thanks, these are all helpful. I will definitely use the gauge tips. Naming and comments are a good point too. I usually forget these and it find myself suffering with broken numbers.
@psy i may be able to do regular messages.This one thing depends on mock-ups. Patching looks like a good alternative.
I was considering switching to 20xx. What turned me back to 2k for now is that i want turn-based battles. I dont want to use Ace for this project as I will be using it for all my future projects and dont want to up-scale for it. I dont want to switch to other engines like GameMaker, Stencyl and Gdevelop yet. 2k by my experience is the fastest RM to work with thanks to its restrictions. It's not a project of an epic scale. Just few fights and moral hangovers for now.
@psy i may be able to do regular messages.This one thing depends on mock-ups. Patching looks like a good alternative.
I was considering switching to 20xx. What turned me back to 2k for now is that i want turn-based battles. I dont want to use Ace for this project as I will be using it for all my future projects and dont want to up-scale for it. I dont want to switch to other engines like GameMaker, Stencyl and Gdevelop yet. 2k by my experience is the fastest RM to work with thanks to its restrictions. It's not a project of an epic scale. Just few fights and moral hangovers for now.
hedge1
862
If you're doing text with pictures, you may want to check out the Picture Text Creator. Once you create your "font" to use with it, all you need to do is type out the text and it'll create the image. It makes custom menus in rm2k(3) a lot easier.
https://rpgmaker.net/engines/custom/utilities/78/
https://rpgmaker.net/engines/custom/utilities/78/
I remember this. Nice ut, Hedge.
Can I somehow convert fonts from Fom? I got some Ultima fonts i can't find in the right Tff. maybe, I should create my own by combining them. The savage one is too fancy and the martian one looks good, but it would be more fun with a little eild touch.
Anyway. I got stuck on faces for my characters. I got some mock-ups and so. I will be posting more in Just do it thread later today.
Can I somehow convert fonts from Fom? I got some Ultima fonts i can't find in the right Tff. maybe, I should create my own by combining them. The savage one is too fancy and the martian one looks good, but it would be more fun with a little eild touch.
Anyway. I got stuck on faces for my characters. I got some mock-ups and so. I will be posting more in Just do it thread later today.
hedge1
862
The Picture Text Creator can either use system fonts or what I call "pixel fonts," which are just fonts constructed from an image you make in Paint (or your favorite image editor). So if you have some Ultima fonts, so long as you have an image of them in the right size, you can format it to work with the Picture Text Creator.
I would like the Picture Text Creator to fully support .fon extensions, but I unfortunately don't know how to do that. It may be worth noting that the "Small Font" that comes default with the program is actually a .fon from Windows that I converted into the Pixel Font format.
I'm not sure if that answers your question, but hopefully it helps a bit.
I would like the Picture Text Creator to fully support .fon extensions, but I unfortunately don't know how to do that. It may be worth noting that the "Small Font" that comes default with the program is actually a .fon from Windows that I converted into the Pixel Font format.
I'm not sure if that answers your question, but hopefully it helps a bit.
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