Parallax Mapping Ideas and Tutorials
02-20-2015, 11:02 PM
I saw another post about this, so I had to address it, but didn't want to necropost in their thread, so I thought I'd just make a new one.
Basically, http://save-point.org/thread-3318.html was a thread talking about using pre-rendered graphics as tilesets in RMXP. One of the greatest limitations people continue to talk about in RMXP is that you can't see the parralax background in the editor for that software (which turns a lot of people off to RMXP in general, that and the new-ish Ruby 1.9 in RMVXA)I thought I should address this.
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Parallax Mapping Ideas and Tutorials
Making your map make the most out of parallax backgrounds tends to lend itself more to RPG Maker VXAce, but with the right tooling, it can be just as good in RPG Maker, and to help you along I've included the names and some resources that can help you with the build. Keep in mind, that while adding your parallax map as a cut-up image on your tileset might help you with the editor but indeed can be problematic, as with just an 80x80 map, you're dealing with 6400 individual 32x32 tiles, which, by sheer calculation, and bare minimum, means you're losing a layer on your map that is MEANT for your parallax background, and the tileset itself will be a whopping 256 x 25600 - Not very helpful for huge maps (considering we have all those individual graphics, not to mention the tiles you're actually placing ON the map to have stuff to go behind. Say hello to a 30,000 pixel PNG! Even the beest PNG Optimizers on the planet would still mkae it tough for RPG Maker to use each section of that PNG, add your characters, events, and more.
So, what I've done is put down seven main ideas that can help.
1. Tiled - One of RPG Maker's BIGGEST drawbacks is the fact that you can't see the parallax background. You can however, add it to a free program (actually listed here in the forums) called Tiled (see the thread at http://save-point.org/thread-4881.html) Now, don't use this to generate your map... just as a guideline for your map. If you place an event tile on your RPG Maker XP map, place it on a layer on your Tiled Map. This makes Tiled a workspace, so that you can see exactly how your map will work, even if your RPG Maker screen looks purple and devoid of floors and such.
2. Events UNDER the tiles - . Some of the best details of parallax mapping is to have a living breathing environment. Fishes swimming underneath an icy pond, lava cracks justting out from rocky soil, animated rain drops for the rain that comes down. These are all events that can ensure that the 'floor' you're walking on is full of life! Now, there's a simple way to do this for events. You know that event tick that states "Always on Top"? Well, I personally don't find it as necessary, as most of those event types can be accomplished with a well placed fog, or a larger event. So, with some help recently, your Forum leader helped me find a solution. This is an ultimate game changer, and so far, can't be undone... but in Game_Character 1, where it states always on top? Change that to -1, and you've created an event that goes UNDER tiles. This should be perfect for just little bitty addons to the parallax, or a way to breath animation into a HUGE parallax map without having to do frames for the ENTIRE parallax map.
3. Smaller Parallaxes seemless tiling - A Parallax does NOT have to be every blade of grass on a 400x400 map. It can be a nice big 512x512 image that gets repeated 40 or 50 times on the map! In this case... grass! With the above Events script, you can add different pieces and variations to the soil, and ensure that you have patches WITHOUT A HUGE PARALLAX MAP! Again, with Tiled, you can decide where to best put these below ground events in their own layer, to map out your environment. For instance... if you know you've got a desert, you might make some smooth sand patches, rough stand patches, some interesting bones that get walked on by the player, and so on and so forth... If you're in a nice field, some grass might be thicker, and ANIMATED! The sky's the limits, but now, the tile patches arent limited... Worried about using too many events? make Bigger, and more varied character sets for the awesome event! Now, I'm not sure about overlapping events, but with Z-layer scripts for larger Events, you can ensure that priority is matched based on the Map Y position of the event. but if done right, you can have a BEAUTIFL supertiled map, with very little memory useage.
4. Editor Tiles- Now sometimes this is not as easy as using PK8's Editor Tiles script, but... by using two different images for your actual tileset, one with say Tiles 8 through 24 marked, and others where they are not marked, can help tremendously for mapping everything from passability to special markers (bush) (Terrain ID). You simply draw those X's and O's on the map! Simply change the maximum amount of tilesets in your project, cloning your tileset, and change the graphic to make one tileset WITH the X's and O's and other symbols, and the other tileset picture WITHOUT. This way, you can have your whole tileset looking like a Football coach gameplay scribbling on tourretts, but everything looks nice and clean on your actual play map. Your character will be still confined loosely to the tilemap because the parallax (or that awesome under-tile Event) might not be passable, in that area.
5. Parallax Lock! - Depending on your system, this is done differently. There are tons of scripts that ensure that the parallax scrolls at the same pace as the player, moving down, left, and whatever other directions needed. There are plenty of tutorials on how to lock your parallax to your maps, so I DO hope I don't need to go into detail on how to do that.
6. Fog doesn't HAVE to be fog, you know.. - Okay, so not every fog needs to be the clouds or some effect. Instead it can be another parallax map that holds images that 'appear' to be above the tiles. Roof sections of houses would most probably NEVER be behind the player, always above. Treetops, the backs of mountains, all these things can be placed in the fog, If you still need that haze, there are plenty of scripts for more than one fog, so that you can still have all the overlays you want.
7. Rendered Tilesets. As long as you know that your buildings are going to encompass a section of tiles, you can easily build and add buildings, events, and more to be less square and more fluid. Remember that the autotile is NOT your friend in this case, and RMXP, having only a few autotiles, takes up less memory than the big RMVXA autotile collections. For instance, if you know you're going to have 12 different building types, you can use an 8x8 tile block for a building base, or more if you need to split it up. Add a Fog layer overlay for pre-rendered roofs and more!
8. Render Scene at dofferent times of the 'day' - Okay, now this one really seems extensive, but done right can give an awesome shadow effect depending on the time of the day. If you have a scene created in your 3d program, and have rendered all you want to render, but, also have a time system, you can create 12 or so versions of those graphics, place them in yoru map, and have them change depending on the 'time' of day that's given from any known time system script. Set it up so that the lights are different textures from 6 aoclokc onwards, that the steeple's shadow touched a specific rock that open's a thieve's santcum underground at exactly 5PM. The ideas are endless!
9. Using 3d Engines - Some renders don't come on readily available tilesheets or spritesheets, you sometimes have to just make them yourself. Well, I've got great news for you! Programs like Daz3d are currently free, so if you have any FBX model you want to use, you can add it to a scene, swirl your camera around to get the right angle (I try for 35%, and on that camera, there's a switch for perspective. Now, the item appears to be the same width from bottom to top, and can easily emulate all the views you need to PIECE together buildings, houses, even entire towns, much the same way as you would have with tiles. COLPOLSTUDIOS (not sure on spelling) even has a 2.5D cameraset for changing the angles of an item view for not just the cardinal directions but also Isometric items as well, which is AWESOME for Isometric MAPS!
10. Weather and your map. Let's face it, the default RMXP weather sucks. and sometimes setting up particle rain effects can also be problematic, especially when you can RENDER your weather as a particle animation and lave it interact with your scene like it's really there! Dodge large snowflakes, torrential rain, and more, by simply setting up the fog to cycle. you don't need more than say six frames of fog to cycle through, and one parallel event per map should cover the weather that you need.
While most games made on RMXP simulate Super Nintendo or Genesis style graphics, this allows the ability to branch beyond that to Playstation or better graphics. Imagine adding a pre-rendered map as a backdrop to a fixed Mode 7 map for perspective, or to a transparent H-Mode 7 map for perspective with height? Or even better?! FPLE, coded with a rendered backdrop for each x/y coordinate and direction, using walls and events only visual blockers, as foreground elements to block your walking events! The opportunities are endless, from billboard graphics on an H-mode plane to help simulate most old scoll 3d RPGs to recrreating old RPG games like Myst and 7th Guest. Even BAD MOJO! (one of my favorite old school games)
I hope this little mini tutorial helped you out, and unfortunately I can't do any more at work like I am, but... maybe when I get home I can update this with some pictures!
Basically, http://save-point.org/thread-3318.html was a thread talking about using pre-rendered graphics as tilesets in RMXP. One of the greatest limitations people continue to talk about in RMXP is that you can't see the parralax background in the editor for that software (which turns a lot of people off to RMXP in general, that and the new-ish Ruby 1.9 in RMVXA)I thought I should address this.
-----
Parallax Mapping Ideas and Tutorials
Making your map make the most out of parallax backgrounds tends to lend itself more to RPG Maker VXAce, but with the right tooling, it can be just as good in RPG Maker, and to help you along I've included the names and some resources that can help you with the build. Keep in mind, that while adding your parallax map as a cut-up image on your tileset might help you with the editor but indeed can be problematic, as with just an 80x80 map, you're dealing with 6400 individual 32x32 tiles, which, by sheer calculation, and bare minimum, means you're losing a layer on your map that is MEANT for your parallax background, and the tileset itself will be a whopping 256 x 25600 - Not very helpful for huge maps (considering we have all those individual graphics, not to mention the tiles you're actually placing ON the map to have stuff to go behind. Say hello to a 30,000 pixel PNG! Even the beest PNG Optimizers on the planet would still mkae it tough for RPG Maker to use each section of that PNG, add your characters, events, and more.
So, what I've done is put down seven main ideas that can help.
1. Tiled - One of RPG Maker's BIGGEST drawbacks is the fact that you can't see the parallax background. You can however, add it to a free program (actually listed here in the forums) called Tiled (see the thread at http://save-point.org/thread-4881.html) Now, don't use this to generate your map... just as a guideline for your map. If you place an event tile on your RPG Maker XP map, place it on a layer on your Tiled Map. This makes Tiled a workspace, so that you can see exactly how your map will work, even if your RPG Maker screen looks purple and devoid of floors and such.
2. Events UNDER the tiles - . Some of the best details of parallax mapping is to have a living breathing environment. Fishes swimming underneath an icy pond, lava cracks justting out from rocky soil, animated rain drops for the rain that comes down. These are all events that can ensure that the 'floor' you're walking on is full of life! Now, there's a simple way to do this for events. You know that event tick that states "Always on Top"? Well, I personally don't find it as necessary, as most of those event types can be accomplished with a well placed fog, or a larger event. So, with some help recently, your Forum leader helped me find a solution. This is an ultimate game changer, and so far, can't be undone... but in Game_Character 1, where it states always on top? Change that to -1, and you've created an event that goes UNDER tiles. This should be perfect for just little bitty addons to the parallax, or a way to breath animation into a HUGE parallax map without having to do frames for the ENTIRE parallax map.
3. Smaller Parallaxes seemless tiling - A Parallax does NOT have to be every blade of grass on a 400x400 map. It can be a nice big 512x512 image that gets repeated 40 or 50 times on the map! In this case... grass! With the above Events script, you can add different pieces and variations to the soil, and ensure that you have patches WITHOUT A HUGE PARALLAX MAP! Again, with Tiled, you can decide where to best put these below ground events in their own layer, to map out your environment. For instance... if you know you've got a desert, you might make some smooth sand patches, rough stand patches, some interesting bones that get walked on by the player, and so on and so forth... If you're in a nice field, some grass might be thicker, and ANIMATED! The sky's the limits, but now, the tile patches arent limited... Worried about using too many events? make Bigger, and more varied character sets for the awesome event! Now, I'm not sure about overlapping events, but with Z-layer scripts for larger Events, you can ensure that priority is matched based on the Map Y position of the event. but if done right, you can have a BEAUTIFL supertiled map, with very little memory useage.
4. Editor Tiles- Now sometimes this is not as easy as using PK8's Editor Tiles script, but... by using two different images for your actual tileset, one with say Tiles 8 through 24 marked, and others where they are not marked, can help tremendously for mapping everything from passability to special markers (bush) (Terrain ID). You simply draw those X's and O's on the map! Simply change the maximum amount of tilesets in your project, cloning your tileset, and change the graphic to make one tileset WITH the X's and O's and other symbols, and the other tileset picture WITHOUT. This way, you can have your whole tileset looking like a Football coach gameplay scribbling on tourretts, but everything looks nice and clean on your actual play map. Your character will be still confined loosely to the tilemap because the parallax (or that awesome under-tile Event) might not be passable, in that area.
5. Parallax Lock! - Depending on your system, this is done differently. There are tons of scripts that ensure that the parallax scrolls at the same pace as the player, moving down, left, and whatever other directions needed. There are plenty of tutorials on how to lock your parallax to your maps, so I DO hope I don't need to go into detail on how to do that.
6. Fog doesn't HAVE to be fog, you know.. - Okay, so not every fog needs to be the clouds or some effect. Instead it can be another parallax map that holds images that 'appear' to be above the tiles. Roof sections of houses would most probably NEVER be behind the player, always above. Treetops, the backs of mountains, all these things can be placed in the fog, If you still need that haze, there are plenty of scripts for more than one fog, so that you can still have all the overlays you want.
7. Rendered Tilesets. As long as you know that your buildings are going to encompass a section of tiles, you can easily build and add buildings, events, and more to be less square and more fluid. Remember that the autotile is NOT your friend in this case, and RMXP, having only a few autotiles, takes up less memory than the big RMVXA autotile collections. For instance, if you know you're going to have 12 different building types, you can use an 8x8 tile block for a building base, or more if you need to split it up. Add a Fog layer overlay for pre-rendered roofs and more!
8. Render Scene at dofferent times of the 'day' - Okay, now this one really seems extensive, but done right can give an awesome shadow effect depending on the time of the day. If you have a scene created in your 3d program, and have rendered all you want to render, but, also have a time system, you can create 12 or so versions of those graphics, place them in yoru map, and have them change depending on the 'time' of day that's given from any known time system script. Set it up so that the lights are different textures from 6 aoclokc onwards, that the steeple's shadow touched a specific rock that open's a thieve's santcum underground at exactly 5PM. The ideas are endless!
9. Using 3d Engines - Some renders don't come on readily available tilesheets or spritesheets, you sometimes have to just make them yourself. Well, I've got great news for you! Programs like Daz3d are currently free, so if you have any FBX model you want to use, you can add it to a scene, swirl your camera around to get the right angle (I try for 35%, and on that camera, there's a switch for perspective. Now, the item appears to be the same width from bottom to top, and can easily emulate all the views you need to PIECE together buildings, houses, even entire towns, much the same way as you would have with tiles. COLPOLSTUDIOS (not sure on spelling) even has a 2.5D cameraset for changing the angles of an item view for not just the cardinal directions but also Isometric items as well, which is AWESOME for Isometric MAPS!
10. Weather and your map. Let's face it, the default RMXP weather sucks. and sometimes setting up particle rain effects can also be problematic, especially when you can RENDER your weather as a particle animation and lave it interact with your scene like it's really there! Dodge large snowflakes, torrential rain, and more, by simply setting up the fog to cycle. you don't need more than say six frames of fog to cycle through, and one parallel event per map should cover the weather that you need.
While most games made on RMXP simulate Super Nintendo or Genesis style graphics, this allows the ability to branch beyond that to Playstation or better graphics. Imagine adding a pre-rendered map as a backdrop to a fixed Mode 7 map for perspective, or to a transparent H-Mode 7 map for perspective with height? Or even better?! FPLE, coded with a rendered backdrop for each x/y coordinate and direction, using walls and events only visual blockers, as foreground elements to block your walking events! The opportunities are endless, from billboard graphics on an H-mode plane to help simulate most old scoll 3d RPGs to recrreating old RPG games like Myst and 7th Guest. Even BAD MOJO! (one of my favorite old school games)
I hope this little mini tutorial helped you out, and unfortunately I can't do any more at work like I am, but... maybe when I get home I can update this with some pictures!
![[Image: yy7iKKb.png]](https://i.imgur.com/yy7iKKb.png)
ITCH: jayray.itch.io
Currently working on Goblin Gulch (MV)
Currently working on JayVinci Resurrection
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