CROSS ENGINE: Combining Chrono Engine with Altimit Movement

Restart · 2020-06-09T14:38:33+0900

Latest Version: Cross Engine Alpha 0.20.06.26 Demo Project What is Cross Engine? Over the course of the last few months I've been working on my game, and I decided I wanted to combine Altimit Movement and Mog's Chrono Engine. Cross Engine is what I call the big pile of functions that makes both of them work together, giving both pixel movement and ABS mode. It also includes bugfixes, and QoL features that came up when I was doing things (most of my notes to self thread is included). Basically, this is all stuff I found useful, and hope that other people will find useful as well. Why's it called Cross Engine? Partially because it's a Cross-Compatible Engine for making games, but mostly because it's a followup to a beloved classic which killed off Chrono. Compatibility Patches Cross Engine now works with yanfly's itemcore, altimit movement, yanfly's item spawner, yanfly's doodads, and galv's camera plugin (the last of which is actually essential to avoiding event/doodad jitter). Also, Ultra Mode 7. Spoiler: Other New Features: 8-directional, 2 directional, and 1-directional Spritesheets: Sure, a lot of people have 8-directional spritesheets (and I support all the major formats), but how many people have ONE-directional spritesheets? With Cross Engine, you can take any old image, give it a filename, and put it in. Save it as $Angel(f1)(d1).png, and BAM, it's usable as an event. No mucking around in photoshop making a spritesheet with four versions of the same sprite. But that's not all! I also added intelligent sprite flipping, as well. If you named that angel $Angel(f1)(d-1).png instead, it will flip to face left if it moves left, and flip to face right if it moves right. Split poses and actions One of the things really dragging down the pace of a chrono engine game is that characters were locked in place while they animated. I have changed the engine so now you have a separate 'pose duration' and 'act duration'. Pose duration means your character is playing an animation, act duration means they can't move or cast anything. I've also added a 'cooldown duration', which lets you move, but doesn't let you cast any abilities. Intelligent Tag Parsing 1) Tags parse from right-to-left, instead of left-to-right. This seems super minor, but it means that if your base character sprite is $Harold(f4)(d8), and he has a casting pose "_casting(f8)(d1)", then the new spritesheet sizes will take precedence! 2) Filename Completion: Let's say your idle sprite for harold is "$Harold(f4)(d8)_idle(f1)(d1)". In base Chrono engine this would cause rpgmaker to screech to a halt, because it can't find "$Harold(f4)(d8)_idle". However, upon starting up the game, Cross Engine makes a list of every file in your characters folder. When it checks for poses, it will first check for an exact match. If it doesn't get it, it will check to see if there's any longer versions of that filename. If it checks for "$Harold(f4)(d8)_idle", and can't find it, it will return "$Harold(f4)(d8)_idle(f1)(d1)". What if there's no match at all? The event keeps its base sprite. In playtesting, it will whine about it in the console. No crashing. 3) Negative values are now allowed for x and y offsets. Walking actions You know how in megaman you can shoot your little gun and megaman keeps on walking? Using the tag (walking) will keep your character in the same part of the animation cycle when transitioning into the new pose. Practically speaking, that means you can do the megaman things. If the character isn't moving, it will fall back onto a _static pose, so you don't run in place whenever you shoot. Standing Pose One of the big constraints on having fluid animation in rmmv is that your walking frames have to include a static pose used for standing. If you define a 'standing' pose, your character will use that instead when they aren't moving. While you can technically do this with an idle pose, I wanted to have both in my project. Faint Poses Mog was going to implement faint/death poses distinct from damage poses, but didn't end up finishing it. I have an implementation of this, so you can have a robot get banged up a bit when it gets hit, then violently explode into a miserable pile of circuits when it dies. Basic Preloader Function One thing you'll notice using chrono engine is that whenever creatures change poses for the first time, you'll sometimes see a flicker as the file loads. I have added a function which preloads all poses for a creature. If you enter ImageManager.preloadPoses('Ralph'), it will find 'Ralph_attack', 'Ralph_defense', 'Ralph_is_unstoppable(F4)(d8)(s2)(x4)', et cetera, and preload them. This doesn't happen automatically - you have to invoke it each time you're worried about preloading. New plugin command: disable_idleposes Turns off idle poses. Good for cutscenes where characters mugging at the camera is unwanted. Turn them back on with enable_idleposes Intelligent Rotations Do you want a magic circle of spinning runes? I've got you covered…

● ARCHIVED · READ-ONLY

Started by Restart Jun 9, 2020, 05:38 AM 206 posts Page 10 of 11 View original ↗

Hiroshikano

#181 May 31, 2025, 06:32 PM Source

Midona018 said:
Yes, I turned off all my plugins and this one was the only one to bug
are you using the latest version of each plugin? That's really strange. Can you test it on a clean new game or at least a clean map? Maybe there's other things that makes it crash like a parallel event, idk. I just tested it again to make sure and yeah, it is working. I'm also on MV.

I am using galv's layer above all mog plugins, on 2.0v and crossengine is on alpha0.20.6.26.

edit: also, how big are your parallax images? I have a lot of problems when using big images with this plugin, even with smaller images in big maps, standalone it works but when i start to put other plugins it increases a lot the memory use and eventually will lead to a memory leak. At least for me this was the only thing that made it crash.
AquaEcho

#182 May 31, 2025, 06:47 PM Source

A memory overload can cause a crash if the images are very large or you have a lot of them
Acinder

#183 Jun 8, 2025, 01:50 AM Source

I'm getting some odd behavior using cross engine.

1. When I attack, I see double animation of every attack for the first use. There's only one actor so I'm confused on this.
2. altimitMovementDebug crashes on new game with "Cannot read property "0" of null.
3. player touch events are makes the player move slow when walking over them. I think they trigger the event with every small step. I had to put a self switch to wait 30 frames before reactivating to fix this. Is there a way to make the event only work once?

Any thoughts?
AquaEcho

#184 Jun 8, 2025, 04:33 AM Source

Acinder said:
I'm getting some odd behavior using cross engine.

1. When I attack, I see double animation of every attack for the first use. There's only one actor so I'm confused on this.
What attack are you using (tool event) and what does your attacking spritesheet look like?

2. altimitMovementDebug crashes on new game with "Cannot read property "0" of null.
Could you show your plugin list and the console log when this error comes up (press F8 or F12)?
My first thought is plugins out of order.

3. player touch events are makes the player move slow when walking over them. I think they trigger the event with every small step. I had to put a self switch to wait 30 frames before reactivating to fix this. Is there a way to make the event only work once?
Any thoughts?
I'll have to check when I'm at my laptop but I believe event touch is trigger once.
Hiroshikano

#185 Jun 9, 2025, 11:41 PM Source

is there a way to mark the event who was hit by a projectile? I was trying to use this.target() but it seems that it does not work for abs, or I am having some sort of problem with other plugins because it says either "TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'setPosition')" or TypeError: this.target is not a function. I am trying to set up a tool that "teleports" the event to another place, but i still don't know how to "mark" the event.

edit: just to clarify, i tried some of the "subject.action" but i cant make it work with target() in abs.
AquaEcho

#186 Jun 10, 2025, 02:03 AM Source

You can do it with states and my patch for Yanfly Buffs and States Core (it's under patches for Yanfly plugins). I made the Crystal Sword relocate any enemy it hits to 5,5
Hiroshikano

#187 Jun 10, 2025, 02:11 AM Source

AquaEcho said:
You can do it with states and my patch for Yanfly Buffs and States Core (it's under patches for Yanfly plugins). I made the Crystal Sword relocate any enemy it hits to 5,5
View attachment 342561

View attachment 342562
that's clever, i was hoping for something native from chronoengine but thank you, i'm gonna check it.

EDIT: well, it did not work as yours... I am using the same script and even the same location, 5,5, the patch, everything, it runs the code as you can see by the log. The yep plugins order is correct too. I can use the poison state, but the code inside returns:

YEP_BuffsStatesCore.js:2191 TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'locate')

AquaEcho said:
You can do it with states and my patch for Yanfly Buffs and States Core (it's under patches for Yanfly plugins). I made the Crystal Sword relocate any enemy it hits to 5,5
View attachment 342561

View attachment 342562
AquaEcho

#188 Jun 10, 2025, 04:01 AM Source

Could you change the apply effect to a console.log(target)

Then playtest the game, hit the enemy and press F8 to see if shows the enemy data?

Edit: Ok, I see the issue. Apparently I added an extra line of code to my game when enemies are created to also store the enemy's eventId. Well, if you want to do the same, you need to edit the ChronoEngine file to add this highlighted line under checkToolComments
Hiroshikano

#189 Jun 10, 2025, 09:33 PM Source

AquaEcho said:
Could you change the apply effect to a console.log(target)
View attachment 342576

Then playtest the game, hit the enemy and press F8 to see if shows the enemy data?
View attachment 342577

Edit: Ok, I see the issue. Apparently I added an extra line of code to my game when enemies are created to also store the enemy's eventId. Well, if you want to do the same, you need to edit the ChronoEngine file to add this highlighted line under checkToolComments

View attachment 342578
yeah it was this, thank you very much!
Acinder

#190 Jun 15, 2025, 03:00 AM Source

AquaEcho said:
What attack are you using (tool event) and what does your attacking spritesheet look like?

Could you show your plugin list and the console log when this error comes up (press F8 or F12)?
My first thought is plugins out of order.
Issues 1 and 2 were caused by ocRam_Passages. I guess it creates several actors at once. It also broke the debugger. It also doesn't work so I may have to get rid of it if patching it is too hard. Thanks for the assist! I didn't think to read the logs for some reason.

AquaEcho said:
3. I'll have to check when I'm at my laptop but I believe event touch is trigger once.
I tried event touch but same issue. Anyone else experiencing this? Setting up a self switch to wait before turning off helps to some degree but i'd like to ensure it fires once per step in square.

Thanks again for your assistance

EDIT Found an issue with deploying CrossEngine to web or android. The cross-engine script uses an fs which is node only. Is there a way to get passed this?
AquaEcho

#191 Jun 15, 2025, 03:20 PM Source
Acinder said:
I tried event touch but same issue. Anyone else experiencing this? Setting up a self switch to wait before turning off helps to some degree but i'd like to ensure it fires once per step in square.

Thanks again for your assistance
I believe this is an issue with all pixel movement plugins in that stepping triggers fire off every pixel you move instead of tile. You'll notice every pixel movement has an issue with rapid-firing footsteps too.

You might have to just make the events parallels that check once every 10-15 frames or so (about the length of time it takes for the player to move over a tile) to see if the player is on the event. You can use this script in a conditional
Code:
$gamePlayer.x+.5 == this.character(0).x && $gamePlayer.y+.5 == this.character(0).y
"If the (middle) of the player's position is in this event's position". Then put a wait 10-15 frames.

You could also use
Code:
$gameMap.isTouchingAB(this.character(0),$gamePlayer)
"If the colliders for this event is touching the player's colliders"

Acinder said:
Found an issue with deploying CrossEngine to web or android. The cross-engine script uses an fs which is node only. Is there a way to get passed this?
I can't really help you with this as I've never tried web or mobile deployment. Personally my game is intended for PC download only (I don't think this type of game would work as well as web or mobile, I see web and mobile as more for lightweight casual games and I'd rather use GDevelop for that, not RPG Maker) so I've just never bothered with it. You may have to hire a programmer to look at the issue and come up with a workaround.
ilmania

#192 Jun 19, 2025, 04:57 AM Source

Good day everyone.
I have a little question here.
I know that there's notetags for enemy note page if you want that certain enemies Invulnerable to certain tools ID.

The question is, is there a way to make a notetags for enemies that make certain enemies CAN ONLY TAKE DAMAGE from ID we specified? like, the opposite of that 'Invulnerable Actions : X' notetags?
Thank you! :kaojoy:
AquaEcho

#193 Jun 19, 2025, 05:04 AM Source

ilmania said:
The question is, is there a way to make a notetags for enemies that make certain enemies CAN ONLY TAKE DAMAGE from ID we specified? like, the opposite of that 'Invulnerable Actions : X' notetags?
Thank you! :kaojoy:
You could use Yanfly Buffs and States Core + Autopassive states to give the enemy a state that checks for a propety of the skill like its id or type. Use
<Custom React Effect>
Acinder

#194 Jun 19, 2025, 09:41 PM Source

ilmania said:
Good day everyone.
I have a little question here.
I know that there's notetags for enemy note page if you want that certain enemies Invulnerable to certain tools ID.

The question is, is there a way to make a notetags for enemies that make certain enemies CAN ONLY TAKE DAMAGE from ID we specified? like, the opposite of that 'Invulnerable Actions : X' notetags?
Thank you! :kaojoy:
If you want to code it, the code in chrono_engine at line 6622 and maybe 2 other places should be all that needs to be changed. I've been coding a lot of add ons to cross engine lately, if I decide on this one too, I'll post it here.

Another three maybe possible options:
1. There are collision ids you can use to start an action by a tool in this engine. (i.e. stage 1 examples). Maybe you can remove health by that event call
2. You could detect if the enemy is overlapping the attack event with a certain name. Then use event to attack enemy. You may need to loop through $gameMap.events for that.
3. You could probably use a conditional within the invulnerable enemy to check if the player has said weapon equipped. You can turn on and off its vulnerability. A script call may be needed.

I think a mix of these has potential for no - low code, but I'm new to rpg maker (not coding) so take what I say with a grain of salt. Happy devving!
ilmania

#195 Jun 20, 2025, 07:28 AM Source

AquaEcho said:
You could use Yanfly Buffs and States Core + Autopassive states to give the enemy a state that checks for a propety of the skill like its id or type. Use
<Custom React Effect>
Isn't yanfly paywalled now? didn't have any fund for that :kaocry:

Acinder said:
If you want to code it, the code in chrono_engine at line 6622 and maybe 2 other places should be all that needs to be changed. I've been coding a lot of add ons to cross engine lately, if I decide on this one too, I'll post it here.

Another three maybe possible options:
1. There are collision ids you can use to start an action by a tool in this engine. (i.e. stage 1 examples). Maybe you can remove health by that event call
2. You could detect if the enemy is overlapping the attack event with a certain name. Then use event to attack enemy. You may need to loop through $gameMap.events for that.
3. You could probably use a conditional within the invulnerable enemy to check if the player has said weapon equipped. You can turn on and off its vulnerability. A script call may be needed.

I think a mix of these has potential for no - low code, but I'm new to rpg maker (not coding) so take what I say with a grain of salt. Happy devving!
That no.3 seems doable, let's see if I can pull it off (if not, well, let's just do the hard way and add EVERY SKILL I have into 'Invulnerable Actions : X' notetags except the one that can deal damage to it :guffaw:)

Glad knowing there's someone who still using this plugin :hswt:
Thank you for the reply @AquaEcho @Acinder !

AquaEcho

#196 Jun 20, 2025, 01:38 PM Source

ilmania said:

Isn't yanfly paywalled now?

The core plugins are still free. Buffs and States core and autopassive states are both free.

Just use this patch in a plugin file at the end of your plugin list

Code:

//Yanfly Buffs States Core ChronoEngine Fix
Yanfly.BSC.Game_Action_executeDamage = Game_Action.prototype.executeDamageCN;
Game_Action.prototype.executeDamageCN = function(target, value) {
    value = this.onPreDamageStateEffects(target, value);
    value = this.onReactStateEffects(target, value);
    Yanfly.BSC.Game_Action_executeDamage.call(this, target, value);
    value = this.onRespondStateEffects(target, value);
    value = this.onPostDamageStateEffects(target, value);
};

Acinder

#197 Jun 22, 2025, 11:41 PM Source

If anyone wants to deploy to web and possibly mobile, I found a way to get passed the "fs" problem I had. More can be learned here: https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/cross-engine-cant-deploy-to-web-or-mobile.178444/
Somnus

#198 Jul 10, 2025, 05:40 PM Source

Hookshot is an issue for me as well. When I have AltimitMovement turned off it works fine, but with it on the hookshot suddenly doesn't travel far at all, less than a tiles worth of distance. I turned off all other plugins to see if there was interference but nothing there fixed it, same issue even with just the core plugins enabled. So I have to ask, is anyone else having major issues with the hookshot?
AquaEcho

#199 Jul 10, 2025, 05:45 PM Source

Use these settings for boomerang and hookshot
Somnus

#200 Jul 10, 2025, 05:59 PM Source

Thank you!!!!!! ;_;;_;;_;Ive been bashing my head for hours