Today the latest stable version of the OHRRPGCE is officially released!
It is codenamed callipygous
Many thanks to everybody who has been testing nightly wip builds and testing the release candidate-- and of course, the biggest thanks of all to TMC, who did tons and tons of hard work on this release
The full details about what is new is in http://hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce/whatsnew.txt but some of the highlights are:
* Android port is considered stable (not available in the "Distribute Game" menu yet)
* The map editor works at larger window sizes (simply maximize custom)
* Map editor clone tool has merge/replace modes
* You can increase the number of save slots available from 4 to 32
* Improved import of sprite sets
* Plot strings and slices can be saved in save-games
* You can specify an icon for your game to use when exporting it from the "Distribute Game" menu
* Press F8 while playing to show a debug menu (only if the game allows debug keys)
* You can make battle formations that set a tag when you win, or prevent game-over on death without needing to script it.
* The textbox editor now wraps text as you type
* Semi-experimental feature to change the FPS (works reliably to speed up the frame rate, but all animation speeds get faster too)
* Hero positions can be customized in formations
* Added options to set how large the game's window should be by default
* "Windowed" and "Fullscreen" special menu items (you have to add these manually to old games)
And of course heaps of bugfixes, other improvements and features, and a bunch of new plotscripting commands.
Visit the <a href="http://rpg.hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce ... ownload</a> page to get it.
OHRRPGCE stable release (callipygous)
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Bob the Hamster
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Pepsi Ranger
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Thanks for finally releasing it. Three years between stable releases is a new record, certainly, but seems like the new stuff this offers makes the wait worth it. Good job.
Hopefully D won't stand for "Delayed."
Hopefully D won't stand for "Delayed."
Last edited by Pepsi Ranger on Mon Apr 04, 2016 10:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Pepsi Ranger
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What a relief; it's been "almost there" for over half a year at least.
Three years for a release is crazy; the previous record holder was zenzizenzic at 16 months, ahead of ypsiliform at 15 months, and those already seemed like eternities! We've been releasing with year+ delays for a long time now, but I'd rather have a shorter release cycle.
A few more highlights:
* Shops now show stat equipment bonuses
* Panel, Scroll, Select slices
* You can run multiple copies of Custom at once, and better crash recovery
The ability to resize Custom wasn't mentioned in whatsnew.txt, because it's not finished (it doesn't yet work with gfx_directx, the default on Windows), nor is the ability to run games at other resolutions. That was actually one of the biggest projects for Callipygous, but you can expect to see it complete enough to become official in the next version.
Three years for a release is crazy; the previous record holder was zenzizenzic at 16 months, ahead of ypsiliform at 15 months, and those already seemed like eternities! We've been releasing with year+ delays for a long time now, but I'd rather have a shorter release cycle.
A few more highlights:
* Shops now show stat equipment bonuses
* Panel, Scroll, Select slices
* You can run multiple copies of Custom at once, and better crash recovery
The ability to resize Custom wasn't mentioned in whatsnew.txt, because it's not finished (it doesn't yet work with gfx_directx, the default on Windows), nor is the ability to run games at other resolutions. That was actually one of the biggest projects for Callipygous, but you can expect to see it complete enough to become official in the next version.
What's new in the script debugger? Little has changed since Beelzebufo, for example the ability to inspect globals and timers has been there a long time. Maybe you're referring to the fact that most hero commands now do more error checking?Pepsi Ranger wrote:Oh, and I just wanted to add that the script debugger is so much more helpful now. I'm actually having a fairly easy time tracking down previously elusive issues. Again, good job.
Last edited by TMC on Tue Apr 05, 2016 12:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.
The F1 menu gives short descriptions of them.
Scroll is just a container that draws a scrollbar if the contents exceed the borders of the container.
Select sets a certain child of a specified slice visible, or something like that. EDIT: It selects things!
Panel can only have 2 children and gives them equal space in the panel area so neither of them gets jealous.
I think.
EDIT EDIT: OK, so I went in and actually figured out how Select slices work, and holy slime are they great. They're for custom menus. Basically, a Select slice is a container, but only one of its children can be visible at one time. This makes it work like cycling through heroes in the status menu. You can have pieces of information from various categories all in the same place and they won't get in the way of one another.
Scroll is just a container that draws a scrollbar if the contents exceed the borders of the container.
Select sets a certain child of a specified slice visible, or something like that. EDIT: It selects things!
Panel can only have 2 children and gives them equal space in the panel area so neither of them gets jealous.
I think.
EDIT EDIT: OK, so I went in and actually figured out how Select slices work, and holy slime are they great. They're for custom menus. Basically, a Select slice is a container, but only one of its children can be visible at one time. This makes it work like cycling through heroes in the status menu. You can have pieces of information from various categories all in the same place and they won't get in the way of one another.
Last edited by kylekrack on Tue Apr 05, 2016 6:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Select, Panel and Scroll slices were all added by James to help in converting all of the built-in menus to slices.
I wouldn't say select slices are going to save anyone much effort, since you could write a very simple script to do the same thing. However the nice thing about them is that the slice editor goes through all the ancestors of the slice your cursor is at, looking for the select slices, and selects the appropriate for your selection to be visible. Hard to explain but it makes it easy to edit. Bad Boy uses them for all animations, they were quite handy for that.
Panel slices aren't just for equal area; they can divide a rectangle in two in several different ways.
I wouldn't say select slices are going to save anyone much effort, since you could write a very simple script to do the same thing. However the nice thing about them is that the slice editor goes through all the ancestors of the slice your cursor is at, looking for the select slices, and selects the appropriate for your selection to be visible. Hard to explain but it makes it easy to edit. Bad Boy uses them for all animations, they were quite handy for that.
Panel slices aren't just for equal area; they can divide a rectangle in two in several different ways.
Last edited by TMC on Wed Apr 06, 2016 10:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Pepsi Ranger
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Sometimes I think explaining slices like panel, scroll, and select is better served in a video (complete with onscreen plotscripted examples).
Regarding the debugger, maybe I'm using it differently than before, but it seems to me that the errors that pop up are a bit more specific than I remember them being, and when I go to the debugger from the script error window, I just feel like I have a better handle on what's going on. I've already fixed a number of problems with my "prep clock" script in Entrepreneur (like calling items that don't exist) just by virtue of the debugger having more things to report.
Maybe it hasn't changed much since Beelzebufo, but my understanding in how to make the most of it has. I also think I have a better handle on how to fix the problems that do surface. Maybe that's not up to your recent doing, but it is up to your doing, so thanks.
Regarding the debugger, maybe I'm using it differently than before, but it seems to me that the errors that pop up are a bit more specific than I remember them being, and when I go to the debugger from the script error window, I just feel like I have a better handle on what's going on. I've already fixed a number of problems with my "prep clock" script in Entrepreneur (like calling items that don't exist) just by virtue of the debugger having more things to report.
Maybe it hasn't changed much since Beelzebufo, but my understanding in how to make the most of it has. I also think I have a better handle on how to fix the problems that do surface. Maybe that's not up to your recent doing, but it is up to your doing, so thanks.
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nice to see a new release: hoping for 256 color graphics ;)
First of all ... nice to have a new release.
As I read on the OHRRPGCE page, there are plans in progress to extend the colors to 256 (or better).
That would finally give us a great chance to compete with more modern games. I think that would make OHR a serious choice, instead of, let's say, even the likes of RPG Maker.
Is there any indication of how far you guys are with this? And is there a chance it would even be in the next release (if so, please do not make us wait another three years .. lol
As I read on the OHRRPGCE page, there are plans in progress to extend the colors to 256 (or better).
That would finally give us a great chance to compete with more modern games. I think that would make OHR a serious choice, instead of, let's say, even the likes of RPG Maker.
Is there any indication of how far you guys are with this? And is there a chance it would even be in the next release (if so, please do not make us wait another three years .. lol
Hello!
First I should preface this that saying that I only speak to my own plans not James', and that I'm notoriously bad at getting promised features done in a reasonable time.
I think that improving the graphical capabilities of the engine should be the very top priority for future work, and also that we should start immediately working on it (for one reason or another I've often shied away from working on the most important features). We have made a start.
- Moving to 256 colour palettes and sprites will be the easiest thing to accomplish, so I hope we do that for the next release at a minimum.
- Adding more frames, larger sprites, and a proper animation system will take a lot of changes throughout the engine as well as to the sprite editor, but is probably the most important feature to work on. That's a pretty major project which will probably take a while but I hope we make a proper start on it now, and hopefully parts of this will be usable before it's finished.
- Moving to 24 bit colour graphics (needed e.g. for transparency) is also a major project, but Jay made a start on this years ago. I would say it's better put off a while longer.
But there are also a few other major features that I want to dive into now, like the new script interpreter, and I can't say what order they will be finished.
....
I'm pleased to hear the script debugger is useful for at least someone; I do regularly use it to inspect global variables, but it's definitely frustrating to use.
First I should preface this that saying that I only speak to my own plans not James', and that I'm notoriously bad at getting promised features done in a reasonable time.
I think that improving the graphical capabilities of the engine should be the very top priority for future work, and also that we should start immediately working on it (for one reason or another I've often shied away from working on the most important features). We have made a start.
- Moving to 256 colour palettes and sprites will be the easiest thing to accomplish, so I hope we do that for the next release at a minimum.
- Adding more frames, larger sprites, and a proper animation system will take a lot of changes throughout the engine as well as to the sprite editor, but is probably the most important feature to work on. That's a pretty major project which will probably take a while but I hope we make a proper start on it now, and hopefully parts of this will be usable before it's finished.
- Moving to 24 bit colour graphics (needed e.g. for transparency) is also a major project, but Jay made a start on this years ago. I would say it's better put off a while longer.
But there are also a few other major features that I want to dive into now, like the new script interpreter, and I can't say what order they will be finished.
....
I'm pleased to hear the script debugger is useful for at least someone; I do regularly use it to inspect global variables, but it's definitely frustrating to use.
Last edited by TMC on Thu Apr 07, 2016 5:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
IMO, the most important graphical step forward for this little game engine that could will be a better standard framerate. As in, all the existing timings for things like walkabout animation and the entire battle system would need to be retooled for 30+ FPS instead of 18.
I wonder if it would be possible to crosswalk animation ticks from lower framerates to higher ones? As in, increasing the framerate to some value between 19-60 in game settings would tweak various animation and battle speed ticks that are currently hardcoded into the engine in order to compensate.
I wonder if it would be possible to crosswalk animation ticks from lower framerates to higher ones? As in, increasing the framerate to some value between 19-60 in game settings would tweak various animation and battle speed ticks that are currently hardcoded into the engine in order to compensate.
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Bob the Hamster
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A lot of stuff has to happen before we can increase palette sizes and add more frames. The sprite editor has to be overhauled, and we will need a new sprite storage format. It is a big task, and I can't predict how long it will take-- but it is something we will be working on.
Adjusting animation speeds to work nicely with higher frame rates is also something we are planning, but again, I don't know how long it will take. I am guessing that walkabout animation is probably going to be moderately easy to adjust to higher frame rates, but I know that battle attack animation are a tangled monstrosity that is going to take longer.
Adjusting animation speeds to work nicely with higher frame rates is also something we are planning, but again, I don't know how long it will take. I am guessing that walkabout animation is probably going to be moderately easy to adjust to higher frame rates, but I know that battle attack animation are a tangled monstrosity that is going to take longer.
Its true that moving to a higher framerate makes a big difference to how pleasant simply walking around a map is; I'd neglected to think of that.
Having picked through all the attack animation "scripts" line-by-line recently I would say it wouldn't be too hard to update... in fact we could just leave nearly everything as it is and change the interpretation of ticks to 18th's of a second and likewise change movement speeds to pixels per 18th's of a second, although long-term I would think that would only be a temporary fix.
That said, I'm quite happy to leave battles at 18fps for now and handle them later. We will need to make their framerate match the rest of the engine when generic animations are implemented.
Having picked through all the attack animation "scripts" line-by-line recently I would say it wouldn't be too hard to update... in fact we could just leave nearly everything as it is and change the interpretation of ticks to 18th's of a second and likewise change movement speeds to pixels per 18th's of a second, although long-term I would think that would only be a temporary fix.
That said, I'm quite happy to leave battles at 18fps for now and handle them later. We will need to make their framerate match the rest of the engine when generic animations are implemented.