RPG Maker VX Ace, new RPG Maker.
12-01-2011, 06:15 PM
I've got the inside scoop ya'll! I went undercover to spy on yeyinde unboxing his trial version of RPG Maker VX Ace. No, it is not out in English (or Engrish) yet, but the Japanese version is out now! From what I hear, there is loads and loads of new goodies in it, and so much more graphical assets to play with. While he had his back turned, I happened to snag the help file laying on his desktop, but when he caught me stealing it I apologized and he said "Nah, keep it, I've got another copy." Clearance has been issued, I may declassify all the insider information without being assassinated or impeached. Here goes!
Alot of the Window_Message code has been moved to Window_Base, meaning you can use all the fancy codes like /n[id] and such in other windows. (ie, use /n[id] code in an item description.)
Message is letter by letter
Graphics.play_movie(filename), I'm sure alot of you are dropping jaws at that one!!!!
Font.outline
There is an RGSSReset class defined, you can better handle F12 error I suppose.
You can start and save the position of your music files (ie, music resumes from where it was between battles, can probably set a file so that it doesn't re-loop an intro but that's purely speculation on my part.)
Some settings especially for midi files, I'm not 100% sure what they are. I think he said something about it uses an external application or plugin because Vista/7 users have trouble playing midis.
More than 5000 switches/variables (from what I hear)
Battlers inherit from BaseItem
More than 4 save files, I think I heard they're not even index based anymore. (Sorted by timestamp now?)
Tons tons more stats for actors, enemies, items, armors, weapons, skills, states and whatever else I might've forgotten.
Tons more graphics. An example would be "13 more shields than VX's iconset." He also said that, amongst the state icons, it looks like there is one for Reflect. VX Ace has a reflect state?
Instead of Input.press?(Input::C) its just Input.press?(:C)
Scenes are handled differently, using SceneManager module. (instead of $scene = Scene_Blah.new, SceneManager.call(Scene_Blah)
Events are handled with "Fiber"s. I'm not sure what that means yet, but a fiber looks like all it is is a basic interval loop object of sorts. Or at the very least its something you need for a healthy diet ;D
3 layers, one for floor autotiles, one for walls, one for BCDE objects.
More than 1 tileset.
Encounter areas are handled by special numbered autotiles instead of square area boxes, from what I hear. 8 per tileset, 63 for the whole project if I'm not mistaken. Well, 64 but one of them is a no/all encounters one. You can overlap different encounter area autotiles. (I think they're autotiles? Again, its just from what I heard.)
Mode7 settings in the map properties (Okay, bad joke, I made that up, sorry :( )
Some sort of windowskin color manager, probably reminiscent of the famous Final Fantasy window color settings.
I'm not sure about the other objects, but Items and Skills have their own categories system now.
I hear the events are handled differently by the engine now. Instead of all commands and updates being active all the time, the event only updates things that are a priority. What I think this means is; the event will run whatever is important, such as flipping a switch at a certain time or yadda yadda, it'll even "move" as far as location goes, but the actual sprite doesn't update at all if its outside of viewing range.
Window selection actions are now handled with the window itself, instead of through the scene. No more "if @window_blah.active ; if Input.press?([...]) ; # do something ; elseif Input [...]" yadda yadda cluttering up your Scene_Blah update anymore. I think the windows might handle a blunt of their own processing. Scenes? I think they're just there to create, update, dispose the windows but I haven't looked into it myself yet.
Window.move(x, y, width, height)
Window.open?
Window.close?
Window.arrows_visible
Window.padding
Window.padding_bottom
Window.tone
The cursor will now move with the ox and oy settings (scrolling x/y), so you don't have to manually update both. It doesn't seem like you need to add 16 or whatever to base width and height like the XP/VX ones, you could probably make a 1 pixel by 1 pixel window and it would know what to do with it. The "padding" is defined outside of the actual window itself, so you don't have to measure and adjust and all that jazz.
RPG::System handles a vast amount of things, such as switches, variables, vehicle information, game title, different item, skill, weapon, armor, etc categories, version id (instead of magic number), system sound settings,
RPG::System has a .japanese = true/false flag, so you should be able to make an English text version with a Japanese version and visa-versa.
RPG::Tileset has a "type". As translated; "Mode (0: field type, 1: Area Type 2: Type compatible VX)."
Hmm... I could keep listing more and more and more little nibbles of information but I think you guys might just have to check out the Japanese trial version yourself, it sounds like they really put in alot of thought with this project. That's prettymuch everything I could remember from the conversation.
Oh yeah, just now seeing maps have parallax settings, you can set it to loop x/y, scroll x/y and show. Battlebacks can consist of 1 image or 2 images put together. OH! And I hear that you can set the shadows and adjust them somehow. I'm not sure what you can adjust, whether it be width, or opacity or where it starts, ends, corners, etc. I just know that you can manipulate it one way or the other.
Okay, I'm done, seriously. Go check it out yourself, it sounds cool! I probably won't be messing with it much until it goes Engrish but don't let that stop you from having any fun with it :D
Alot of the Window_Message code has been moved to Window_Base, meaning you can use all the fancy codes like /n[id] and such in other windows. (ie, use /n[id] code in an item description.)
Message is letter by letter
Graphics.play_movie(filename), I'm sure alot of you are dropping jaws at that one!!!!
Font.outline
There is an RGSSReset class defined, you can better handle F12 error I suppose.
You can start and save the position of your music files (ie, music resumes from where it was between battles, can probably set a file so that it doesn't re-loop an intro but that's purely speculation on my part.)
Some settings especially for midi files, I'm not 100% sure what they are. I think he said something about it uses an external application or plugin because Vista/7 users have trouble playing midis.
More than 5000 switches/variables (from what I hear)
Battlers inherit from BaseItem
More than 4 save files, I think I heard they're not even index based anymore. (Sorted by timestamp now?)
Tons tons more stats for actors, enemies, items, armors, weapons, skills, states and whatever else I might've forgotten.
Tons more graphics. An example would be "13 more shields than VX's iconset." He also said that, amongst the state icons, it looks like there is one for Reflect. VX Ace has a reflect state?
Instead of Input.press?(Input::C) its just Input.press?(:C)
Scenes are handled differently, using SceneManager module. (instead of $scene = Scene_Blah.new, SceneManager.call(Scene_Blah)
Events are handled with "Fiber"s. I'm not sure what that means yet, but a fiber looks like all it is is a basic interval loop object of sorts. Or at the very least its something you need for a healthy diet ;D
3 layers, one for floor autotiles, one for walls, one for BCDE objects.
More than 1 tileset.
Encounter areas are handled by special numbered autotiles instead of square area boxes, from what I hear. 8 per tileset, 63 for the whole project if I'm not mistaken. Well, 64 but one of them is a no/all encounters one. You can overlap different encounter area autotiles. (I think they're autotiles? Again, its just from what I heard.)
Mode7 settings in the map properties (Okay, bad joke, I made that up, sorry :( )
Some sort of windowskin color manager, probably reminiscent of the famous Final Fantasy window color settings.
I'm not sure about the other objects, but Items and Skills have their own categories system now.
I hear the events are handled differently by the engine now. Instead of all commands and updates being active all the time, the event only updates things that are a priority. What I think this means is; the event will run whatever is important, such as flipping a switch at a certain time or yadda yadda, it'll even "move" as far as location goes, but the actual sprite doesn't update at all if its outside of viewing range.
Window selection actions are now handled with the window itself, instead of through the scene. No more "if @window_blah.active ; if Input.press?([...]) ; # do something ; elseif Input [...]" yadda yadda cluttering up your Scene_Blah update anymore. I think the windows might handle a blunt of their own processing. Scenes? I think they're just there to create, update, dispose the windows but I haven't looked into it myself yet.
Window.move(x, y, width, height)
Window.open?
Window.close?
Window.arrows_visible
Window.padding
Window.padding_bottom
Window.tone
The cursor will now move with the ox and oy settings (scrolling x/y), so you don't have to manually update both. It doesn't seem like you need to add 16 or whatever to base width and height like the XP/VX ones, you could probably make a 1 pixel by 1 pixel window and it would know what to do with it. The "padding" is defined outside of the actual window itself, so you don't have to measure and adjust and all that jazz.
RPG::System handles a vast amount of things, such as switches, variables, vehicle information, game title, different item, skill, weapon, armor, etc categories, version id (instead of magic number), system sound settings,
RPG::System has a .japanese = true/false flag, so you should be able to make an English text version with a Japanese version and visa-versa.
RPG::Tileset has a "type". As translated; "Mode (0: field type, 1: Area Type 2: Type compatible VX)."
And tileset flags...
Hmm... I could keep listing more and more and more little nibbles of information but I think you guys might just have to check out the Japanese trial version yourself, it sounds like they really put in alot of thought with this project. That's prettymuch everything I could remember from the conversation.
Oh yeah, just now seeing maps have parallax settings, you can set it to loop x/y, scroll x/y and show. Battlebacks can consist of 1 image or 2 images put together. OH! And I hear that you can set the shadows and adjust them somehow. I'm not sure what you can adjust, whether it be width, or opacity or where it starts, ends, corners, etc. I just know that you can manipulate it one way or the other.
Okay, I'm done, seriously. Go check it out yourself, it sounds cool! I probably won't be messing with it much until it goes Engrish but don't let that stop you from having any fun with it :D
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