CHERRY'S PROFILE

Hey folks,

I created this online tool to patch your RPG_RT.exe for custom keyboard and gamepad assignments. This also makes it possible to use 6 buttons on the gamepad (A, B, X, Y, L, R) for different functions and not just 3.

Here you go: https://rpg-maker.cherrytree.at/rpg2003-input-configurator/

It works with both inofficial and official versions, but not with the remastered Maniac patch.

~Cherry

Hi folks!

Does anyone remember spring 2012? That's when DynRPG was released. Also, I conducted a plugin development contest which then went nowhere because I misplanned things again. Originally it was supposed to run for a month, until I changed it to "until I'll have time again". I'm talking about this contest here.

Over the years, I forgot about it completely, until someone reminded me today.

Therefore, the submission phase is now, after almost 8 years, officially over! :) What's missing now is the vote.

What was it about again?

Goal
Goal of this contest is to create a DynRPG plugin which is as useful as possible. It doesn't need to be too complex - most important is that many RM2k3 users think it's useful for them. Of course the source code should be published too. The latter should be sufficiently documented so that it can help other beginners to understand how to use DynRPG. Plus, the Rules and Guidelines should be paid attention to.

Timeframe
The timeframe isn't completely certain yet. We start with one month. If there are problems (maybe you find critical bugs which I have to fix first), we can extend the timeframe, of course.

Special: Cross-forum contest!
Yes, you read right. This contest is held in three forums:
- RMN (EN): http://rpgmaker.net/forums/topics/10255/
- Multimediaxis (DE): http://www.multimediaxis.de/threads/134260
- Oniromancie (FR): http://www.rpg-maker.fr/index.php?page=forum&id=19912

I will copy the submissions into the other forums.

Rules
- Everyone who knows C++ is invited to participate.
- Asking questions (of any kind) is welcome.
- The language of the source code, its comments and the documentation has to be English.
- "Copying" from other participants is also welcome, as long as the result won't be exactly the same.
- So: If you creates something, the best thing is to post it here without waiting for the end of the time! Of course you can also directly create a presentation thread (after telling me here).
- At the end of the contest there will be a public poll in all three forums at which the usefulness and usability will be rated. I will also reserve a last word regarding sticking to the guidlines and optimization of the code for myself. The poll is going to be open for one week. Additionally, there will be votes of six jurors (two per forum) (who should test the plugins more thoroughly), in case I find ones. Jurors, put your hands up!

Prizes
You can win:
1. Prize: € 20 / $ 25 Amazon Gift Card
2. Prize: € 15 / $ 20 Amazon Gift Card
3. Prize: € 5 / $ 7 Amazon Gift Card
Additionally, all participants will be mentioned in the next version of the documentation as "testers and plugin pioneers". If you have a website, I will also link to it.

This poll will also be opened in the other forums by me, and the results will be added together at the end. (Multimediaxis / Oniromancie)

SUBMISSIONS:

There were 4 plugins submitted:
a) Pathfinding Plugin by DNKpp (originally anti-freak), submitted via Multimediaxis (readme)
b) Particle Effects Plugin by Kazesui, submitted via RMN (demo video)
c) RagnaDyn by orochii (some custom statuses, ATB control and other things, mainly for battle), submitted via RMN (readme)
d) Date/Time Plugin by elvissteinjr, submitted via Multimediaxis (readme)

The poll will stay open for one week, until January 20th, 2020!

EDIT: The results are in!

OK so, the results are here now! Thanks for voting!

1st Place: Particle Effects Plugin by Kazesui with 14 votes
2nd Place: Pathfinding Plugin by DNKpp (anti-freak) with 11 votes
3rd Place: Date/Time Plugin by elvissteinjr with 3 votes
4th Place: RagnaDyn by orochii with 2 votes

I will contact the winners!

~Cherry

Hello guys! I came across a problem user Tor_Heyerdal had, about events which are on the same tile and "randomly" switched their priority/z-order when panning the screen.

It looks like this problem always existed in RM! In particular, it works like this: When you move events (which are on the same layer, e.g. same-layer-as-hero) onto the same tile, weird things happen. The RM will use a comparison method based on Y position, whether it is the hero or not, and X position, in that order, to determine the order in which the events are drawn. However, if all of these are the same, the actual order depends partly on the event ID, but partly on the other events in the visible area and maybe the moon phase and the size of your shoes, because it is actually undefined behavior.

For example, I have these events (below you can see the event IDs):


Now, I move the outer two events onto the middle one. What happens is this mess:


Note how the order changes when the hero walks past them! >_<

(In this simple example, only the vertical position caused the events to switch their priority, but in more complicated scenarios like the one Tor_Heyerdal had, also the horizontal position caused weird changes like that.)

My solution to bring order into this mess is to add another step in the comparison of events to determine their order: The event ID. Higher IDs are drawn on top of lower IDs (as you would expect, e.g. from pictures). So, the comparison is now Y, hero-or-not, X, event ID.

The result looks like this, and stays this way regardless of where the hero or the map are positioned:



That's much nicer, I think!

I built a patch for RM2k3 v1.08 to achieve this (works also with DynRPG). To apply the patch, download this IPS file and patch your RPG_RT.exe with it (or put it into the DynPatches folder if you use DynRPG version 0.20+): http://share.cherrytree.at/showfile-25860/rpg_rt_with_event_id_fix.ips

EDIT: Here also for RM2k v1.07: http://share.cherrytree.at/showfile-25862/rpg_rt_2k_with_event_id_fix.ips

EDIT2: On second thought, though, I'm not sure if the solution is ideal. Maybe it should use the event ID in the check instead of the X position check? Because now, with the current solution, the order will change when the event is walking around horizontally, in an unexpected way (e.g. when an event walks behind a box). However, some people may depends on the X position order in some way, when events are wider than 16 pixels... What do you think? This is what I mean:


EDIT3: Since Tor_Heyerdal actually needed it without the X check as it turns out, here is the version with only Y, hero-or-not and event ID in the comparison (no X), for RM2k3 v1.08 only: http://share.cherrytree.at/showfile-25872/rpg_rt_108_fixed_without_x.ips

(I will also add this in the next official update of RM2k3.)

Enjoy your new nice and tidy event order!
Cherry

Hallo, sorry for this kind of special thread here, but I had an experience I have to share with you:

When you mess something up in the RM2k(3) Editor so that something crashes while the main window is being loaded (e.g. because you messed something up when editing the TFORMLCFMAIN resource), the RPG Maker will start deleting all files on your harddisk! While doing so, it will appear to hang with 100% CPU in the splash screen.

To be exact, all files on the drive in which the current directory is located are being deleted. This happens because the developer made two oversights:
1) After an exception while loading the main window, the destructor is still called. There, the temp directory of the RM is being deleted, among other things, even if the variable for the temp directory hasn't been initialized yet.
2) The "DeleteDirTree" function doesn't handle the case of passing it an empty string in any special way. It just appends "\*" and starts deleting, which effectively tries to delete all the files on the drive.

So, be careful!

Before anybody panics here: This doesn't affect the game (RPG_RT.exe), but only the editor, and only if you mess with it*.
*: Well, theoretically it could also happen if something fails during loading because of a virus, a hardware fault, etc., but it's very unlikely.

Best regards,
Cherry

EDIT: Ironically, somebody who wanted to translate RM2k3 into Russian sent me an email about a week ago that this happened to him, but I didn't have time to look at the issue yet. Now it caught me as well. :| Luckily, I was able to restore all the deleted files (which were tens of thousands after a few seconds!).

It actually happened! :D

Degica has now, by order of KADOKAWA GAMES/Enterbrain and in cooperation with me, finally released an official English version of RPG Maker 2003 on Steam.

At this point I would like to give a big thanks to Archeia who put a lot of sweat and blood into this translation as well.

Link on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/362870/
Price: $19.99

It should also be available on rpgmakerweb directly. EDIT: There you go: https://www.rpgmakerweb.com/products/programs/rpg-maker-2003

This finally officially allows creating commercial games with RPG Maker 2003 (after a registration). Fortunately, there is now also a license for patches.

There is also an official English RTP. Although it has the same content as the existing inofficial one, it has different filenames; but no worries, you can have both RTPs installed alongside each other.

This version is 1.10, which has been a bit tweaked and tuned by us:
* The fullscreen work properly, also on newer devices.
* The event editor was changed a lot:
** Its look and labels have been aligned with RMVXA - with colors and partly more information in the list than previously.
** It has a horizontal scrollbar, can copy events as text and loads large events faster.
** It's possible to copy event all commands between battle events and map/common events (although it will show a warning, because they still can't be modified while being in the "wrong" place).
* The help file now also works on Windows Vista/7/8.
* Maps can't get lost that easily anymore when a PC Cleaner is used.
* Multiple instances can be opened at the same time, and you can create direct shortcuts to projects in Windows Explorer.
* Battles go faster.
* You have 1000 pictures, 100 labels and 9999 switches/variables/etc.
* Picture commands also work while a message is displayed.
* The fonts are now directly integrated into the engine and don't need to be installed by the player.

A full changelog is available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sXlXZIXdjxVq5gh_lPFuFLMbMRzZe4BKPpRI13ZD2Qc/edit?usp=sharing

Unfortunately the source code was lost over time. Therefore, it was a bit difficult to implement the real "killer features". Also, I originally planned to include all the bugfixes from DynRPG as well, and I wanted to integrate the CommonThisEventPatch, but there was not enough time. There will be updates, though.

Best wishes,
Cherry

PS: Screenshot of the event editor:


EDIT: Version 1.12 is out with a huge picture revamp! Check out the changelog or this teaser poster