PARALLAX MAPPING [RM2K3]

author=McBick
No idea what your talking about. Might help if you elaborated. Just to elaborate what I am looking for is a way to create maps like RM2K3 and save it as a PNG file to use.

C++ is actual coding. There is C, C++, and C#. Most game developers favor C++ while XBox game devs have to use C#. C++ requires an IDE environment in order to run (not necessarily to write). There are plenty of environments available for free, online. You can code your parallax mapping in a C++ program (you don't even have to do all the work. A quick Google search for parallax mapping C++ will give you what you need. There are templates including the OpenGL source libraries).

If you want to make a game, RPG Maker is a very flexible tool that can do the job on it's own, but if you are serious about making the best game you can, it pays to learn coding, even if you ultimately don't plan on really using it.

Finally, the dynRPG patch is available at the link I gave you. It is essential for anyone who plans on putting RPG Maker 2003 to any serious use, and its primary function is to allow you to attach your C++ code to your project.

Edit: I talk about this because I don't know if RM2K3 can really even support parallax mapping without a patch of some kind. I know VX and VX Ace can, but that's all anyone really talks about in parallax mapping.

So you want a standalone map editor?

Are you using an image editing program that uses a grid? So you can select, copy, and arrange "tiles" easily. Or is that not enough?

With iDraw you can set a range, like 8x8 or 16x16, and use that to select blocks. So if you open a chipset, hold CTRL, and use the select tool normally - it selects tiles just like the map editor. Making it real easy to allign large maps. Just make an image with all the tiles at the top and enough space to place them below.

iDraw just has some limits when it comes to palette. I open an image in Gimp, transform it to Indexed, and it creates a 256 color palette using all the colors in that image. Export that as .png and iDraw can open it and have all the right colors. If you paste something into iDraw, it assigns colors based on what the current palette is. It flat out can't open a lot of images until you transform them. But the simplicity of the tools and the grid function make it the best program for 2k3 graphics.

author=pianotm
Lot's of stuff related to real parallaxing probably

"Parallax mapping" is one of the perversions in terms of terminology commonly used when dealing with rpg maker ( at very least rm2k(3) ). As McBick in the end pointed out, within the rpg maker realm, parallax mapping often means to simply use a background as the map, rather than utilizing true parallax mapping. Panorama mapping would probably have been a more appropriate term, but old habits die hard