TAA_BookMenu (v1.6.7)

taaspider · 2018-12-08T07:20:39+0900

TAA_BookMenu - v1.6.7 Created by taaspider Terms of Use Any plugins developed by taaspider are free for use for both commercial and noncommercial RPG Maker games, unless specified otherwise. Just remember to credit "taaspider". Redistribution of parts or the whole of taaspider plugins is forbidden (which also includes reposting), unless it comes from the official website (linked within the post). You are allowed to edit and change the plugin code for your own use, but you're definitely not allowed to sell or reuse any part of the code as your own. Although not required to use my plugins, a free copy of your game would be nice! Introduction When we create a game, we usually create a whole new world rich in lore and details, and want to make it all available to the players, so that they can understand every single detail we develop. However, just dumping it all in lengthy dialogues usually bore and scare most of the players, who will simply give up on your world. A common alternative used by many AAA games is to minimize dialogue and exposition, and provide additional details through in-game books. This plugin aims to provide just that for your game: a book menu where the player can read up additional lore when he feels up to it. You can place books throughout your game, providing a bit more of context for hungry players as they progress, and keeping exposition to a minimum. Features Creates a main menu command gathering books the player discovers throughout your world, letting them read whenever they want; Allows the dev to call a detached window and show the contents of a book outside the menu; Input your game books into the engine using either the Plugin Manager or an external JSON file; Compatibility with multilanguage plugins that uses multiple external files for text; Allows the dev to setup background images for both scenes separately, with options to use different images for each window or a single image for everything; Allows you to include inline images along with the book text. The image can be used with its original size, or proportionally resized through a special escape code. Use inline trailing images to give a nice finishing touch to your books! Scroll book text by cliking (PC) or touching (mobile) the arrows or swyping up and down; Have book contents change as the game progresses; Mark newly added or recently changed books in the book menu so your player knows when there's new information available; Solar_Flare also developed a nice add on for this plugin, which allows books to be loaded from external text files (one file per book). I recommend checking it out here. Screenshots Spoiler How to Use WARNING: This plugin requires RPG Maker MV 1.5.0 or above! Please make sure your RPG Maker MV software is up to date before using this plugin. First of, download the plugin here. There's a bunch of parameters that allows you to customize each of the scenes (the detached book window and the book menu). The plugin's help section describe most which are not self explanatory, try taking a look there if you feel lost. One important thing though... you have to set up your books before you can call them inside your game. There's two ways of doing that: inside the Plugin Manager itself or using external JSON files. The plugin can only work with one of this methods at a time, so you need to chose which one you want at the "DataSource Type" parameter. I'll enclose the instructions for each case in spoiler tags below to make it more readable. You can also test the plugin using my sample demo project. It was built with MV, but you can open it with MZ as well (just open the game.rmmzproject file and you're good to go). Spoiler: Plugin Manager as Source There's two main parameters to configure: Category Order: List your book categories in the order you wish them to appear in the menu command. If you don't wish to display categories, input at least one entry here and choose to hide categories in the Menu List Window options; Books: Here you'll have to list all the books you want to make available to the player. Each book have the following attributes: Title Title Color Text Variable Text List Visible Text List Category Id Custom Background Custom Background Mode The book category parameter must be one of the categories listed in the Category Order parameter. The Id is used only to order the books under each category. If you leave all Ids equal (0), the plugin will use the order it reads the books from the editor (usually the order you input them). Title Color is an optional parameter that allows you to set a custom color ONLY on the title section of the scene. So that it will appear with the default color on the list section of the menu, and the custom color on the title window. If you want a custom color on both windows just use color escape codes. If you want a book to have a custom background (overriding the global settings), just select an image for the "Custom Background" parameters. Leave it blank to go with…

● ARCHIVED · READ-ONLY

Started by taaspider Dec 7, 2018, 10:20 PM 301 posts Page 5 of 16 View original ↗

taaspider

#81 Jan 10, 2020, 01:33 PM Source

MikaTeapot said:
Hello, your plugin is a life saver <3
One quick question!
When I use readbook, it pops up all pretty and such - but only esc closes the book, how can I make it so confirm (space/enter) work too?

It was built to work that way, but is quite simple to adjust to your suggestion. I'm currently working on a new plugin and investigating the issues reported by EseQueL and Crystalliney. Give me some time and I can add that to the next release, (hopefully) along with those fixes. :)

taaspider said:
Auto Place Command should be working. I'll take a look at that as soon as possible!

Checked that last night, and it works fine with the demo project!
Kurochan

#82 Jan 22, 2020, 07:37 AM Source

Sooo... I dunno if I'm just really dumb or if everyone here is really smart.... I've been trying to figure out how to use the multiple background images settings in my game, but I can't find any examples of the syntax being used to do that like ANYWHERE.... @taaspider do you think you could update your plugin documentation with some example use cases of those kinds of things? That would be a HUUUUGE help.

Thanks for the great plugin btw. My team and I are most definitely using it in our games. We just had a team meeting to discuss that. The only thing that might stop us is if we can't figure out HOW the background image syntax works.

~ Kurochan @ KuroyukiDev Games
taaspider

#83 Jan 22, 2020, 04:39 PM Source
Hi there, @KuroyukiDevGames !
I'm glad it's going to be useful for you!

As you're asking about multiple background images, I'm assuming you mean configuring background for all books, and not a custom background for a single book, correct?

I'll try to help you clear things up inside the spoiler tag below, please take a look and see if that helps you.
Spoiler
There's two separate settings, one for the book menu, and another for the detached window which opens a single book without the book list. For both cases, you will find two parameters:

Detached Background Options: This will specificy the behavior of background images. You'll find all supported options in the plugin manager parameter:

After you select an option and click Ok, the parameter will be shown as a number. That's expected. The plugin runs bitwise operations to identify the options, making it more simple to code.

Detached Backgound Config: It presents four options, but which ones are used depends on what you select at the previous option. If you set background options to "Default Map Print", none of this will be used. "Single Image" is used when "Single Image (Title / Text)" option is selected. As a pattern, every pair combined with "/" means a they will share the same image, while "+" means different background images.

Menu Background Options: Works in a similar way as the Detached Background Options, only it has more options, since there's an additional window (book list window):
The same logic applies: when you select an option and click ok, the parameter will be shown as a number, and that is correct.

Menu Background Config: Again, same logic as Detached Background Config, only a few more option as there are more possible combinations with an additional window.
I've also added a step by step example in the spoiler tag below!
Spoiler
To setup multiple background images with each window (list, title and text) using its own file:

Open up the Menu Background Options parameter and set it to "Multiple Images (Title + Text + List)". After you click ok, parameter should be shown with the value 32;

Open the parameter Menu Background Config and select images for each window through the options highlighted below:

That's it! Save and test your settings!
I hope this clear things up. If you still need help, I'll ask you to give me more details as to what you want to config to help understand better what you need!
Kurochan

#84 Jan 22, 2020, 07:17 PM Source

@taaspider that's actually the perfect info. I was confused because I thought we had to use text-based commands in the books.json file's properties somewhere, but now that I know its done in the MV engine that actually makes it waaaay easier! Thanks for the fast reply! We will definitely be using this plugin in our games from now on. I'll PM you a link to the games when we release them for sure! This plugin is awesome and saves me, my team's programmer, the trouble of having to make this system from scratch. I'm also a JavaScript Programmer too, so I've made my own custom micro plugins to automate some of our game features too.

~ Kurochan @ KuroyukiDev Games
MikaTeapot

#85 Feb 12, 2020, 07:38 AM Source

Edit: nevermind me, I'm really too tired to be trying to do stuff.
DarkSearinox92

#86 Feb 16, 2020, 05:26 PM Source

@taaspider Hi! I really don't understand why i see a lot of mess in the plugin manager...

I really don't understand this chaos o_O why plugin manager don't read html format tags?

(Also, the download of the demo didn't work anymore :( )

Thank you!
taaspider

#87 Feb 16, 2020, 11:46 PM Source

@DarkSearinox92 , I think the html tags are there due to the way you're downloading the file.

On github, do not right click and "save file as", as this will save the entire html page and not only the plugin!
You have two options: select plugin text, copy and paste in a local file; or click the raw button to open a page with only the plugin (no html tags), then right click and "save as" (some printscreens in the spoiler tag to illustrate what I mean).

Spoiler

"Salvar Página Como" = "Save page as", it's just that my browser is in portuguese...

As for downloading the demo, I just tested it and its working fine. Try going to the root github page (this page), then click "Clone or Download", and then "Download ZIP".

Spoiler

Let me know if that solves your issue.

Also, I just released version 1.3.7:

- Added a handler to exit the detached book view with both 'ok' and 'cancel' buttons ( @MikaTeapot )
- Fixed the black screen issue with long texts. ( @EseQueL )

An important note on the second item:

The issue was caused by the way the plugin was calculating text height before drawing it to the screen. There was an issue with the math, which was exceeding the WebGL maximum supported texture size, which depends on your graphic card.
I've tested a really long text after the fix both on PC and Android. As a reference, my largest test included 4472 characters, which still ended up around 20% the maximum size supported on my computer GPU, a GTX760.
However, please be careful with extremely large book texts and be sure to test them on your target device to make sure its GPU can handle it. If it can't, consider breaking your text into smaller books.
DarkSearinox92

#88 Feb 17, 2020, 03:39 PM Source

@taaspider

taaspider said:
On github, do not right click and "save file as", as this will save the entire html page and not only the plugin!
You have two options: select plugin text, copy and paste in a local file; or click the raw button to open a page with only the plugin (no html tags), then right click and "save as" (some printscreens in the spoiler tag to illustrate what I mean).

Oh, damn. I will check it... T_T maybe i've saved it in wrong way and I didn't notice T_T I will try it when i come back home.

taaspider said:
As for downloading the demo, I just tested it and its working fine. Try going to the root github page (this page), then click "Clone or Download", and then "Download ZIP".

This is strange, now it works. Maybe it was a problem of github... Thank you very much, i will try it again at home.

P.S. check your DM, i've written to you :)

And thank you for the new fix and updates! :)

EDIT: I have a little problem. Why if i set on plugin manager "Auto Place command" on False, i see always the menù when i press ESC? I mean, if i wanna organize the menu with Yanfly menu manager, i don't need the menu right there. It seems that the function doesn't work. Or am i doing something wrong?
I tried even to put on false Show Menu and Enable Menu, it's all the same. :/
I tried this even in your DEMO Project but it's the same thing. If i put it on False, it is always there.
DarkSearinox92

#89 Feb 28, 2020, 08:22 PM Source

Crystalliney said:
@taaspider I think you may have misunderstood the problem. The wordwrap is working correctly, but even when all the text is on a single line, the text below the bottom of the window gets cut off when scrolling. This occurs in both the detached window and the book menu window. Here are some more screenshots to demonstrate:View attachment 129846 View attachment 129847
View attachment 129848

Thanks again for your help!

taaspider said:
I did understand, I just couldn't reproduce the issue like you describe now. The only way I could do it was not replacing the line breaks as I said before.

Can you PM me with a book sample you're using over there?
I can try and take a look with a new project, and not the demo.

@taaspider @Crystalliney

Hi Spider, i have the same exactly error of Crystalliney. (Crystalliney use the plugin manager, i use a file.js, but it's the same thing.

Did you find a solution for this problem?
It's very simple to reproduce.

Add Yanfly Core Engine.
Add Yanfly Message Core and enable "Word wrapping" under General.

Then, in your script, If you add <wordrap>%3 under "book menu scene > Book Text Format", as you said in the explanation of the script, and write a long book with line breaks <br>, after a while, the book is cutted away. I can't even read it until the middle.

Do you have solutions? I tried doing this even in your demo, so with only 3 script, and the error is the same... T_T
taaspider

#90 Feb 29, 2020, 03:02 PM Source

DarkSearinox92 said:
Hi Spider, i have the same exactly error of Crystalliney. (Crystalliney use the plugin manager, i use a file.js, but it's the same thing.

Did you find a solution for this problem?

Hi there. Yes, I have found what's causing this issue. I have a possible solution in mind but haven't been able to implement and test it yet. I'll let you know as soon as I have a fix ready for testing!
EseQueL

#91 Mar 2, 2020, 02:56 AM Source

I was finally able to test the latest version. It's so smooth now. No more crash/lag even on mobile, I'm so amazed how you were able to fix this. Good job and thank you for your effort.

Here's what I found:
1. using <wordwrap> - As mentioned by others as well, long texts are cut.
2. not using <wordwrap> - this one works so well so it's my preferred method. Painful to use though as you have to manually linebreak.
3. Not really an issue and not important but the arrow which indicates that there are "more texts below" is missing so readers won't know there are more texts unless they start scrolling.

Overall, this is a very well made plugin. 10/10
taaspider

#92 Mar 2, 2020, 11:32 AM Source

Thanks for the feedback @EseQueL ! :D
I'm working on issue 1 this week. I've tested a initial fix yesterday... but even though it works, it needs a few tweaks before release to avoid introducing new bugs. I've also noticed issue 3, and I'm glad to say it has already been fixed and will be released along with the fix for 1!
I'll let you all know when its ready, but I guess it is safe to say it may be released by the end of the week!
DarkSearinox92

#93 Mar 2, 2020, 04:16 PM Source

No problem, take all time that you need! Best works needs time!

P.S. (Remember even the "Auto Place command" that doesn't work properly xD i don't know why others didn't see it... maybe because i made a new menu called Archive, and inside that i placed the Library... and others prefer to have it on the standard menu...)
taaspider

#94 Mar 5, 2020, 01:30 AM Source

@EseQueL , @DarkSearinox92 and @Crystalliney ... I just released version 1.4.0 which fixes the cropped text issue. Please update the plugin on your projects and turn on the new parameter 'Text Windows WordWrap Fix'. Unfortunately, leaving it always on causes issues when not using wordwrap, so be sure to set it accordingly.

Also fixed on 1.4.0 the Auto Place, Enable and Show Menu Command, and the arrows not showing on the text window.

Finally, added a new feature to allow scrolling text by clicking or touching the up and down arrows (when visible), or by clicking/touching and swyping the text up and down. The book must be selected for this to available though (not only highlighted).

Hope this helps! ;)
DarkSearinox92

#95 Mar 10, 2020, 10:21 AM Source

@taaspider Hey Spider, now it works very good! AMAZING! *_* Great work! I wait enhancements!
jbarros35

#96 Mar 12, 2020, 08:57 PM Source

I'm on MV 1.6.1 for some reason my books are not being learned... is that the title to be used on plugin commands?

nevermind I needed to remove the spaces of the title...

About menu, I'm using SDR Alt Menu plugin, when I add the books to menu I have no icons... how can I put an icon for books?

Edit 2
Nevermind its done using Symbol books

thank you.
taaspider

#97 Mar 12, 2020, 09:27 PM Source

Hello @jbarros35 . I'm not familir with SRD Alt Menu plugin, so there isn't much I can do to help (that's definitely not an issue with TAA_BookMenu).
Have you tried creating a thread at the plugin support forum?
MikaTeapot

#98 Mar 12, 2020, 10:04 PM Source

Edit, missed the bit in help file. Am stupid.
DarkSearinox92

#99 Apr 14, 2020, 07:44 PM Source

EDIT: Resolved. Sorry for the message! :)
Goo

#100 Apr 21, 2020, 04:37 AM Source

@taaspider Hi! Thanks for this great plugin!
I was wondering if there is a way to show the book menu and the book itself in two different scenes.
That is, instead of opening the windows for the book menu and the selected book all together, first open the book menu and, after selecting the book, open the book window (as the detached window).

Thanks for your help!