HiddenChest RGSS Player Executable

[DerVVulfman]

A nice effect. Normally, one would just use the [Change Screen Color Tone] the the like. But this could be quite convenient.

Might I suggest two other variants: Sepia for the old-west or leathered look, and Sangre for the more horror aspect.

[kyonides]

You know I Gotta Change My Previous Statement!

Colorful Days Are Just Around the Corner!

Gray Days Are Coming This Way!

Well, the latest version of HiddenChest already available on mediafire doesn't really bring great news... I just removed some temporary code and added a new featurette, the Backdrop.gray_bitmap!!

If you remember clearly, Naoxe Desert isn't gray at all...

Code:

# some scene code
Graphics.freeze
Backdrop.gray_bitmap
# some scene code

Other options are Backdrop.keep_bitmap (normal snapshot) and Backdrop.blur_bitmap (blurry one).

And then in the target scene just add...

Code:

@sprite = Sprite.new
@sprite.bitmap = Backdrop.bitmap
# some scene code
Graphics.freeze
Backdrop.clear_bitmap
# some scene code

I hope you like it!

You don't believe me!?  

Fine, take a look at this screenshots then!  

Options

• keep_bitmap
  
• blur_bitmap
  
• sepia_bitmap
  
• color_bitmap(:any_color) where you replace :any_color with any of these values: :red, :green, :blue, :yellow, :sepia
  

By the way, I have also added the Settings module to start storing, well, settings you might eventually need in your game!

The first of these settings is the image_format!!

Settings.image_format = :jpg or :png

:jpg is the default option!

Happy Bad Eyesight Syndrome! OK, Happy Game Testing!

[kyonides]

Just Another Maintenance Version Has Arrived!

This time I have been working on changing the way the tilemaps in XP work. Now I think that resizing the game window won't make your look strange stuff or some scaling down or anything. Besides I had forgotten to enable Settings and its calls Settings.image_format and Settings.image_format= for all RGSS versions that ever existed. Well, one might need to revisit his own works every so often, don't you think?

Now it's up to you to make a nice menu where you can let the player set all values like Image Format, Block Fullscreen, Block F12 and so on... Did I mention F12? Yeah, I did. I don't really think it was necessary but I finally included it as one of my beloved? customers' requests.

Happy Game Breaking!  

[kyonides]

Your Heroes Were Turned into Stone!

OK, it's not like a witch hexed them out of the blue.  It's just that you can now do something like:

Code:

@sprite.gray_out(true)

...to make your hero look like a living statue! I guess we all know who gotta be our very first victim.

Just in case I also let you know that you can turn them into some strange sepia colored living being! Yeah, I know, that effect is quite strange for a sprite, but who cares? Go piss off your players at will!

Code:

@sprite.turn_sepia(true)

I don't think you'd really need to get the custom color options since you've got the character_hue or battle_hue options already so you'll have to stick to them.

To disable it, just replace the true-ish boolean with a false value.

Happy Witch Hunting Games!

[kyonides]

This is Embarrassing...

But I got to admit there was a strange bug in HiddenChest were you could not use any Game_Picture because Sprite_Picture would fail to set a new Tone. I do not know why that is supposed to be a problem, but it kept intriguing me for a while. Reading the core dumps I got I noticed that it said C could not clone an object or memory (the Tone) for unknown reasons. Since the default Ruby implementation known as MRI is also called CRuby for being compiled against C code, well, it was not a surprised there could be some buggy C code at some point. C++ was doing a fine job, it was C via Ruby API that it could not perform the task... Yeah, how difficult one it was...
Gladly, the latest version of the HiddenChest engine will let you play your games and set as many game pictures via event commands as you need.

Happy Bail Jumping!

(In case you didn't get the reference, this is based on how I could find the bug... by playtesting Wulfo's LaniLocks demo! )

[kyonides]

Yes, There is Just Another Update

Well, I guess you know me, I couldn't stay silent for too long.  

This time this update brings some code changes to keep Windows binaries as up to date as Linux ones. It also sports a script call to block F1 in case somebody doesn't want their players to change the buttons configuration for any reason. By the way, I also let all executables reach the maximum resolution available, namely 1920x1080 or FullHD, in case you might need your typical 640x480 or 800x608 window to grow like a fat cow all of a sudden. Yes, you can revert that change at will.  

Happy Reconfiguration!

[kyonides]

A Minor Update... Again!

It happens that I had not noticed I made a little mistake in the block fullscreen function that did not allow you to effectively block it because its boolean value was inverted, instead of activating the block with a true value, it was using a false or nil value instead.  

Oh, and I forgot to update some basic information like the engine version and its release date...  

Now everything should be working fine.  

You are free to download it from my mediafire, mega or box account!

Happy Game Dev's Block!

[kyonides]

Curious News

I've been fiddling with the way the engine resets the game and I do think I have found the clue to what I suggested long time ago on a different thread. What am I talking about here? Well, it's all about finding a "cure" or "pesticide" for the F12 Reset pest that has been stalking us for quite long! In the worst case scenario I'm quite close of finding it!  

My Linux build of HiddenChest engine already takes advantage of it!

I can't say it's perfect. Still, you rarely see any weird stuff but not because of pressing that darn button!  

What does it mean for scripters? It means they won't need to include the unless $@ bug fix every time they alias methods!

Beware of the "alias" mommy!
It might come back from the sarcophagus to stalk your games day at night!

Nah, just kidding!

[DerVVulfman]

If your solution is to reset every script in the library so nothing at all transfers over or takes hold, you will also eliminate the possibility of old data from a completed game taking hold in a NewGame+ script.

[kyonides]

The End of F12's Buggy Tyrannical Rule

Yes, my friends! The Reset Bug has been eliminated in the Linux Build of HiddenChest!

How did I do that?  

Well, it's not that overly complicated as you might think. Actually, it uses my Scripts module and a modification of the MRI binding.

What's a binding? What's MRI?

A binding here means the code picks a version of a set of methods, in this case a version of some implementation of Ruby, and it adds it to the C++ code that lets you handle graphics, audio and input (via SDL2 that might also include some OpenGL components).

MRI is the Ruby we all know, a C based language that allows you to run scripts at a decent speed. (Speed has been improved since version 2.x!) It's your typical flavor of Ruby for PC's, no matter what OS is currently running. (There's another version that also targets mobile stuff! )

As you may have noticed, I never said I was reloading any bulk of scripts.

That's because HiddenChest doesn't do that at all, he, he!

HiddenChest engine will just reload the Main script! Yes! The very same script that should be the last script in your script editor! So nope, it won't destroy stuff you accumulated if you are planning to include the New Game+ feature in your game project!

If you have ever changed that section's name, you will be in serious need of using this script call:

Scripts.main_section_name = "Current Section Name"

WARNING!

Never use that name for any other section of your game's list of scripts!
Again, you would need to use that script call AND make sure you named the main script in an unique way...

Or just take it easy and never call another script Main.


(Even so I think you should store such data in a variable of any kind before activating that. Still, other scripters might think otherwise. Time will tell what's the best way to deal with it.)

And yes, people! I have already uploaded the source code to my GitHub account!

---

By the way, wulfo, why would you use the Reset as a way to activate the New Game+ feature!? I don't get it. If you handled it via scripts, you'd just call Scene_Title or whatever scene the game developer choose as its main scene script. What am I missing here?

Thank the Lord for I managed to prove my point and show you that you should not suffer from hitting a simple button!