What's up, RMers?

[Steel Beast 6Beets]

I find that small portraits generally work better.

[DerVVulfman]

Hey! Happy Birthday, Steel!

Plenty more done on the Layered Spritesheet tool...

When you enter the Color Balance mode, the ability to scroll up/down the spritesheet in the window has been disabled.  But then again so has the upper right portion so you cannot accidentally (or intentionally) switch from one graphic or body part to another.  Even changing between genders or hand orientation has been disabled.  This completely intentional to prevent errors of course.

As before, all of the color increase/decrease buttons are functional.  But more, I added different reset options.  If you click on the center text display of a value, it resets.  As such, if I was to click on the '255' of the left red value display, it would completely reset to '0'.  This for all other RGB value displays in this window.  Meanwhile, the "Clear" button will reset all color balance adjustments.

OH, but the color balance and hue adjustments can function for ALL graphics.  Granted, hue adjustment by itself SUCKS when dealing with RGB or Grayscaled graphics.   That should be obvious, eh?

And unfortunately, Color Balance still takes a while.  Again, it is a script and not a built-in bitmap function... Dangit, Enterbrain!!!!

And... ALL OF THE TEXT (except predefined settings) have all the text imported from the INI file.  Again, this means the text can be changed to suit your needs.  If you wish it to be in Spanish... there you go!

I have not crafted the Pre-defined Settings system as yet.  In CharGen Ex, the predefined settings are recorded within a separate 'Colors' configuration page. And I believe, I will continue in this fashion.

There will be up to five predefined settings for each separation as shown above, the current buttons merely having placeholder text.  So if a section has less than five settings, I intend to have less than five buttons.  That is the intent anyway.  It is still a bit of an advanced feature, using an unusual set of bitmaps to render graphics.  But as it was a part of CharGen Ex, it will be recreated to some degree here.

[Kain Nobel]

Yes, happy birthday Steel! Hope you had a great one!

Did you get Final Fantasy 16? I'm going in completely blind, no spoilers, complete information blackout, so I'm curious what this game even is. I've played the 1st hour and have no opinion other than it's such a slow paced start for an action game. I think it will get good though.

@DerVVulfman: When going outside naked, don't forget your sunblock.

[Steel Beast 6Beets]

Hey! Happy Birthday, Steel!

Yes, happy birthday Steel! Hope you had a great one!

Did you get Final Fantasy 16? I'm going in completely blind, no spoilers, complete information blackout, so I'm curious what this game even is. I've played the 1st hour and have no opinion other than it's such a slow paced start for an action game. I think it will get good though.

Thanks, guys. I'm feeling older already, ha.

@Kain: I'm short in cash right now, so the expensive stuff will have to wait. That said, I've been following the game's reception and criticism in general seem rather mixed from what I could gather.

[DerVVulfman]

@DerVVulfman: When going outside naked, don't forget your sunblock.

With this teal fur?  That would really mat it up!

I have not crafted the Pre-defined Settings system as yet.  In CharGen Ex, the predefined settings are recorded within a separate 'Colors' configuration page. And I believe, I will continue in this fashion.

I guess I spoke too soon????



Because I was running out of space, I had to move the 5th button for each 'set' over right aligned.  It is this now-available space where I have the name for each set displayed.  And for this layer, the main body, I have the layers of Skin, Coat and Undercoat.



Why three layers?  Well, the body may be a lizard's with top layers and a less scaly underbody... or if it is a half-cat, you may have fur atop normal human skin and no undercoat.  Options!!!



And if I switched to the eyes, the three layers would be Iris, Sclera and Lashes.



The above pic is a 'sample', suggesting what a body may appear if you are using a grayscaled resource, and choosing the 'African' color preset.  As to the skintone preset names, I just went with an early version of the FBI 4473 NICKS form suggestions. The newer edition (as of 2010) lengthened the race name suggestions longer than the buttons would accept.  I am very familiar with that form, but that's a separate issue.  :D 



HOWEVER, the color-adjusted appearance of the sample was done manually.  I do not have the buttons to actively SET the graphic's color YET!!!  Yet.   But that's going to be next.  And I have to fix a feature in the editor I borked.  Well, fixed and borked simultaneously.

[kyonides]

I came up with a  crazy idea.  What if you could learn and use skills as long as a state remains effective but you will lose that special skill once the state is over?
 Of course, there would be a chance to keep that skill if you have a very specific item in your pockets.
So what do you think about that, guys?

[DerVVulfman]

Actually, interesting. As if the hero is under some form of enchantment that suddenly lets him/her weild some power or be able to perform some skill... And it to suddenly vanish once worn off. An unusual mechanic indeed.

[kyonides]

I see.  My idea it's quite  eye catching after all.

Guys, do you recall how the Mimic skill was supposed to work in FF series?
 Yeah, that's something I've been considering to implement as well.

[DerVVulfman]

Hrm...  So now I have a fun (not) issue with the Layered Spritesheet tool.  Everything I currently have is functional, but with a feature that needs to be addressed.  And that feature is that certain layers need to be connected when it comes to chromatic alterations.

In other words... If I change the hue or color of the character's body, things like overlaid faces, ears or tails should also be immediately affected by the same change.  Likewise, hair-based layers would have their own links as it were.

I did this when I created CharGen Ex.  However, that tool had all the paths hardcoded.  Layered Spritesheet however has all the base resource pathways defined within the INI, so this has to be a scripted system.  And each time any chromatic change is made to one of the resources, Layered Spritesheet will need to check a 'list' of links.  And if a list is detected... it runs the changes upon all other resources defined.

Fun Fun Fun.   


Now I have sped up the processing of the bitmap color balance system, if but on a minor scale.  However, it still carries with it some issues.  As stated, it takes some time to change a bitmap to a desired color with the scripted color balance system.  Once a bitmap has been changed, things are good.  But if you switch from one graphic to another while the color balance is set, it will take time to update the replaced graphic.  And if you are loading a WIP file that has color balance settings, it will take time to update the graphics even then.  And this amount of time is unfortunately increased for each bitmap graphics adjusted.

Obviously, hue shifting takes less time.  Though it is less accurate or detailed, even if it is much faster.

Oh, I may allow hue adjust to function the same as the color balance system, permitting three layers per graphic resources.  A nuisance, but not impossible.

[Remi-chan]

While playing through some of my own scenes, I landed on one I could reasonably share without much spoilers. Although it is ENTIRELY nostalgic lore dump (Menagerie: Remastered's release is now almost ten years ago.). it does address the characters in their modern senses, showing how far they've come from the naive scared children into the blossoming adults or in Fyori's case, sinners- they once could only aspire to be.

Nostalgia of Evergrove

Also seeing Evergrove in not MsPaint Graphics sure is something!

This sure is a lot more of a fun scene if you've played Menagerie: Remastered, but because the basic jist of the Menagerie is already solidified by the time you reach this scene, it's not as bizarre as it may seem when watching it in isolation.

But yeah, this more or less serves to show that from Menagerie, where these three were muddled messes, without any idea what they truly believed in... Now they are so in their element and living their best life. Fatty is still going on crazy adventures, Fyori has a girlfriend and is swinging wildly, and Gerald is there to be a beacon of hope and an unpaid mercenary for the peoples that despite dying and being dead for centuries, he still wants to protect.

The amount of confidence and understanding these characters are swimming in, where before, pretty much all of them felt like fish straight out of water, it's perfect. it shows an evolution to the characters and that they became everything they wanted to be, and got well rewarded for their efforts and struggles in life.

Also the elves? Still just a gag, but still funny. There's nothing you can say that will ever make me want to treat wood elves as anything but tradition-bound tree fucking ferrets. With the exception of these three, the ones who were responsible for raising Fyori to age 15 and Fatty from 5 to whatever age he was by the time he had to leave (I honestly forget).

It's sweet, comedic extra payoff to a game which already had a pretty clear conclusion, but that the characters are all still here and having a blast is so comforting.

While I'd utterly love to recount what a truly hopeless parent Blu was during this entire thing. That can wait for another video.

The fact is that: despite every custodian's efforts, these three all came out winners in life and death both. Spooky, the Alien who isn't in this scene, he was the only one with a parent he cherished and who cherished him. Fatty, Fyori nor Gerald had that.