I want text bubbles, is there a better way to go about it?

[GraveYuppo]

This is what I have:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpILIeCEFrU

It looks nice, i've got no problem with it, but it takes a massive amount of commands to pull off each of the text bubles and kinda polutes the "scene content" tab. Not to mention that manually aligning each line is beyond annoying.

I've trying compressing some of the commands into common events, it helps clean up a bit, BUT makes real time preview un-usable, because it lags for like a second each time i call a common even, which i do twice per text bubble. No such thing happens when using raw commands.


this is what a full text bubble tree looks like
https://i.ibb.co/1f4D4rm/block.png

Some bubbles don't use all commands (like the flip one), so a couple of them can be omitted, but... damn. it takes up so much space. Is there a better way to get the same effect?

[korytoombs]

You could try to type all the text inside the bubble inside an image editing program like Gimp, then load it as an image inside VN Maker. Aligning the text the way you want would be much easier there.

[Skyride Studios]

I don't have lag when calling the common event, I'm not sure why you would either as it is meant for this exact reason.

I used text bubbles for my game. What I did was copy the "Show Message" common event and instead of the text box, I made a text bubble and moved the message box to fit inside that. As long as the text bubble doesn't have to move around that much (I did one for the left side, right side and a think bubble). Then use the "call common event" and choose the show message you maybe with the text bubble. That's the easiest way I can think of.

[GraveYuppo]

Originally posted by Skyride Studios:

I don't have lag when calling the common event, I'm not sure why you would either as it is meant for this exact reason.

I used text bubbles for my game. What I did was copy the "Show Message" common event and instead of the text box, I made a text bubble and moved the message box to fit inside that. As long as the text bubble doesn't have to move around that much (I did one for the left side, right side and a think bubble). Then use the "call common event" and choose the show message you maybe with the text bubble. That's the easiest way I can think of.

unfortunately that wouldn't work in my case since characters move around a lot and are hardly ever in the same position.

as for the lag... i suppose it's easier to show what i mean than trying to explain it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP2aF8h_P8w

the same scene twice, one uses common event calls, the other uses "raw" commands like above. the raw scene is actually much LONGER but shows everything i click instantly, despite of where it is in the timeline. the common event scene has to slowly go through each common event call in order until it reaches the point i clicked, and that can take a long time even in such a short scene. makes it unbearable to edit.

i guess i'll just do what i do with most things in this engine and brute force my way through it all. i mean, it's not dumb if it works, right?

Originally posted by korytoombs:

You could try to type all the text inside the bubble inside an image editing program like Gimp, then load it as an image inside VN Maker. Aligning the text the way you want would be much easier there.

that would be such a waste of storage and probably much more work :<
what i really needed, what many of us really needed, is an option to "center text" instead of only having "align left".

[Skyride Studios]

Originally posted by GraveYuppo:

Originally posted by Skyride Studios:

I don't have lag when calling the common event, I'm not sure why you would either as it is meant for this exact reason.

I used text bubbles for my game. What I did was copy the "Show Message" common event and instead of the text box, I made a text bubble and moved the message box to fit inside that. As long as the text bubble doesn't have to move around that much (I did one for the left side, right side and a think bubble). Then use the "call common event" and choose the show message you maybe with the text bubble. That's the easiest way I can think of.

unfortunately that wouldn't work in my case since characters move around a lot and are hardly ever in the same position.

as for the lag... i suppose it's easier to show what i mean than trying to explain it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP2aF8h_P8w

the same scene twice, one uses common event calls, the other uses "raw" commands like above. the raw scene is actually much LONGER but shows everything i click instantly, despite of where it is in the timeline. the common event scene has to slowly go through each common event call in order until it reaches the point i clicked, and that can take a long time even in such a short scene. makes it unbearable to edit.

i guess i'll just do what i do with most things in this engine and brute force my way through it all. i mean, it's not dumb if it works, right?

Originally posted by korytoombs:

You could try to type all the text inside the bubble inside an image editing program like Gimp, then load it as an image inside VN Maker. Aligning the text the way you want would be much easier there.

that would be such a waste of storage and probably much more work :<
what i really needed, what many of us really needed, is an option to "center text" instead of only having "align left".

Hmmm. Maybe it's me, but I'm not seeing a lag? Also, that's within the live preview. I wonder if you would experience your lag if you build out the game as common events should run through the code as quickly as in a scene. Or maybe you've already tested it on builds?

[GraveYuppo]

Originally posted by Skyride Studios:

Originally posted by GraveYuppo:

unfortunately that wouldn't work in my case since characters move around a lot and are hardly ever in the same position.

as for the lag... i suppose it's easier to show what i mean than trying to explain it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP2aF8h_P8w

the same scene twice, one uses common event calls, the other uses "raw" commands like above. the raw scene is actually much LONGER but shows everything i click instantly, despite of where it is in the timeline. the common event scene has to slowly go through each common event call in order until it reaches the point i clicked, and that can take a long time even in such a short scene. makes it unbearable to edit.

i guess i'll just do what i do with most things in this engine and brute force my way through it all. i mean, it's not dumb if it works, right?


that would be such a waste of storage and probably much more work :<
what i really needed, what many of us really needed, is an option to "center text" instead of only having "align left".

Hmmm. Maybe it's me, but I'm not seeing a lag? Also, that's within the live preview. I wonder if you would experience your lag if you build out the game as common events should run through the code as quickly as in a scene. Or maybe you've already tested it on builds?

it's not lag per se, it's just that the editor's live preview slowly goes though the entire timeline, stopping to play each and every animation that's inside a common even, instead of skipping directly to where i clicked.

when the timeline gets long, it takes a really long time to get to where i want to preview. it's super annoying, which is why i switched this test scene to a raw format to test out if it went away. and it did.

you can see that only happens in the common event scene. when i switch to the other one w/o common events, it's instantaneous.

for the game itself, it doesn't cause issues during gameplay because it doesn't need to skip directly to a certain point. but building the game like this is impossible.

my workaround has been to just increase my work space by switching my desktop resolution from 2560x1080 to 3840x1620. it's a lot harder read stuff because it's over twice my native res, but hey, it's still legible somehow, and the visible slice of the timeline is massively increased.

[Kentou]

it's not lag per se, it's just that the editor's live preview slowly goes though the entire timeline, stopping to play each and every animation that's inside a common even, instead of skipping directly to where i clicked.

I think you are expected too much from Live Preview maybe. It is not as simple as that unfortunately. At least not for an accurate preview. Even every message needs to be processed for the case if there is maybe a text code inside which has an impact on the scene (such as a calling a CE, a text-macro, etc.).

If your scene gets to complex and you notice a lag, it is recommend to disable Live Preview for that scene entirely by right clicking the scene and uncheck the Live Preview flag. Alternatively, you can also just disable the Auto-Replay feature. If you go Tools > Preferences > Application. Then the Live Preview will no longer automatically skip to the clicked command, it only happens if you trigger the shortcut for it or via menu View > Live Preview > Replay.

Hope that helps.

[GraveYuppo]

live preview is great, one of the best features in vn maker.
in this case i'm just better off not using common events for that since that seems to be the causing the issue. no biggie.

for now i just want centered text formatting.
plze gibbe!

[Kentou]

You can also try to check the Inline check box for a Common Event in Database. As long as the Common Event has no parameters. That option will include/embed it into the scene at runtime so it is the same like using the commands raw.

Centered text in a message box? Hmm I think maybe that could be done with a custom text-code made in script. I will take a look how much effort that would be and let you know.

But by default, it is not supported unfortunately. If you make your bubbles more rectangular it would be easier I think.

[GraveYuppo]

Got my hopes up, but checking "inline" didn't do it. Welp, no biggie.

About the text align, i'll be anxiously waiting for that. I'll probably make the bubbles more oval than they are now, but i'll still center text manually if i have to. It just looks much better centered.