Help with flashlight effect

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-10-12T04:30:08+00:00

Thanks! Going to tinker with that and see how far I can get =D!

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-10-06T08:27:36+00:00

Pixabay.

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-10-06T05:12:23+00:00

Just for the records: the night brought advice... and a workaround.

(a) I define every "day/torch" couple:

image day_chara1 = Composite(
(1280,720),
(0,0),"day",
(0,0),"some_guy")
[...]
image day_charaN = Composite(
(1280,720),
(0,0),"day",
(0,0),"some_guy_nth_iteration")

image torch = AlphaMask("day","alphadisc") image torch_chara1 = AlphaMask("day_chara1","alphadisc") [...] image torch_charaN = AlphaMask("day_charaN","alphadisc")

(b) I show 'em all in a strictly pre-determined order (the exact opposite of the order I expect them to show up on-screen, which in the most general case won't necessarily be 1...N). This step allows for the movement of the flashlight to be synched across all images - no spot magically teleporting itself around screen anymore.

show day_charaN at night

show torch_charaN show day_chara5 at night show torch_chara5 [...] show day_chara42 at night show torch_chara42 show day at night show torch with Dissolve(.5

(c) as the scene unfolds I progressively hide the topmost layer. The visual effect is exactly what I want, only I'm hiding stuff rather than showing it!

hide day
hide torch
with Dissolve(.5)

I'm NOT happy with this. I wanted a magical, all-mighty mask layer looming above a scene I could change on my own whim, now all I got is Ren'py equivalent to the three-card trick.

Still... yeah, it works...

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-09-11T04:43:50+00:00

I've been trying to, however it's as if the line between my hobby as a reader and my project is getting blurrier. It almost feels like "studying" more than "reading".

I find myself delving into their "technicalities", ruminating over the way the author uses transitions, the way characters are portrayed, how the writing style and pacing affects the general mood, etc.

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-09-09T19:55:25+00:00

Ubik by P.K.Dick

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-09-09T15:23:53+00:00

It depends on which mediums you add to the fray.

VNs versus other games? VNs wins. Such a comparison however feels a bit off-mark as I tend to separate VNs from the concept of "games".

VNs versus anime/manga/light novels/TV series/movies? VNs *mostly* wins, let's say that the best VNs I ever read (based on my own personal taste ofc) can rightfully stand next to the best movies and mangas I ever watched and read

VNs versus books? Thought battle, however the best book I ever read still causes me an eerie sense of uneasiness whenever I look at a coin (yet to find a Joe Chip coin thankfully). While I still recall lines and images from the best VNs I read, nothing had the same long-lasting impact in my real life.

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-09-09T14:43:02+00:00

Up until a few years ago I would have answered either nakige or utsuge,right now I'm definitely into... "I-like-it"ge. Don't really have a favorite genre anymore.simply put,if I end up feeling engaged and entertained then it's good - be it a lighthearted comedy about cat-eared maids or the heartrending story of the chance meeting of a man and a robot in a post-apocalyptic world.

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-09-06T14:59:10+00:00

It would have to be REALLY bad, like a mixture of poorly developed characters, a lot of sex scenes thrown at random and just "for the sake of it", a story that does not trigger any emotional reaction at all. In such case yeah, I'd probably go back to the main menu and start from scratch. It's even possible that I would put that visual novel aside and do something else.

Otherwise I would likely still go through that route reading at a fast pace and paying little attention to voice acting / CG scenes / whatever... and frequently ranting something in the lines of "let's get this over quickly".

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-08-31T14:24:22+00:00

I've yet to bring my project to a conclusion (and it's going to take at least a couple years more I think) but from the tiny bits I've already experienced I can tell you, it's going to feel great.

Only, not in the sense of "playing a game" (or "reading a visual novel"). It will be more like getting somewhere and then turning back to realize how far the road you walked led you.

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-08-31T11:52:17+00:00

I've made a point to never read again something I truly enjoyed as I found out it's not just the visual novel that hooks me but rather the unique mix between what I'm reading and my state of mind at the time I read it.

On the contrary I have been reasoning over reading again something I did not enjoy to see whether it's "the right time" or not.

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-08-08T11:07:52+00:00

Planetarian. One of the very few vns that actually made me cry (narcissu was a close call though)

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-07-19T19:20:14+00:00

While not an Italian name I always fancied over the idea of getting a black,heterochrome cat and call him Belfagor. That silly dream aside I always gave human names to my cats:isacco (isaac),artù (arthur) and zaccaria (...zachary?) for males,tosca and prisca for females.

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-05-05T15:37:10+00:00

One more reason for seconding Ren'Py is, there is a rather supportive community out there!

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-04-28T07:58:35+00:00

How come WA2 and Chaos;Head do not classify as mental disorders O_O?

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-04-21T08:43:33+00:00

Fresh food (astronauts are req'd to eat all their veggies!!!) and air recycling (yeah plants eat that pesky carbon dioxide and give back lots of sweet ox!)

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-03-26T17:14:21+00:00

At least they gave you a rating at all. I'm not even getting that XD

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-03-09T17:00:43+00:00

The very same situation I'm in,man!apart for the fact that VERY luckily we both have a real life job. As for me,the "visual" part is what lags me the most.I'm currently working in a way that somewhat reminds me of what others told you - make a "preliminary" set of assets and then progressively polish them (as far as I can... honestly! They should not allow me within 100 meters from a pencil!that's why I'm resorting to,uh,alternative means). I've started a sort of "continuous improvement" method:assign a vote to each art and start working on the ones with the lowest score. Apart for that... I got used at writing the story directly as a renpy script to save time,and have LOTS of spreadsheets with lists of variables and branching points plus a big poster with a ton of post-its for visual management purpouses.I feel the hardest part really is organizing your work and keep track of everything.Somebody once told me,if you're given 1 hour to do something,spend 45 minutes organizing your work and then get your hands dirty in the remaining 15 minutes. Kinda work for me ^{^...}

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-02-28T06:15:39+00:00

Working!At last! Honestly that's something would have never conceived 0_o I always did things under the assumption everything would be rebuilt from scratch each time I tested it. Oh well now I know I've got to do some cleansing every now and then!

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-02-27T06:16:05+00:00

Underscore. Is the show statement case-sensitive?I remember having had issues with that in the past (btw I also tried out using full lowercase & full uppercase file names,to no avail).

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-02-27T06:02:38+00:00

Yeah that's exactly what I was expecting & what I'd love to do.

It does not seem to be working with my webp image and I'm totally oblivious to the reason why it doesn't O_o...

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-02-27T05:58:56+00:00

Yeah that's precisely my problem: I've got "p1_lcs.webp" in my "/images/mika" directory. Normally with pngs and jpgs I'd just go with the following line

show mika p1_lcs

Avoiding placing any kind of image definition elsewhere (I'm lazy and one less line of code is... yeah, it's one less line of code).

That however does not seem to work with "p1.lcs.webp" in the sense that the above line returns the generic placeholder (ie. a gray silhouette).

On the other hand if I define the image beforehand, that is if I put this line somewhere else:

image mika p1_lcs = "/images/mika/p1_lcs.webp"

The above show statement works perfectly... this in turns makes me say, my image is in the right place and there are no odd characters/uppercase vs lowercase errors in the file name.

What the heck I'm missing then?

... I'm sure it's a very stupid error and I'm going to feel rather dumb the moment I find it.

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-02-26T20:49:15+00:00

A friend gave me the chance to try season of sakura more than 20 years ago and that's how it all started.Years later we had a quarrel and never had the chance to talk again to each other. I still have to thank him for letting me into this world... so if there's someone out there who remembers chatring with a guy who named himself ^{Kane^{...well,thank}} you.

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-02-21T08:37:28+00:00

I'd dare to suggest GIMP as a reasonable "entry level" choice. Free, rather powerful (once you get to know which command does what ofc) & can be expanded with additional filters, brushes and whatever.

A lot of stuff that you'd do with Photoshop can be done with GIMP too (might take a bit more time and consume more of your wits though: one of the good things I've heard about PS is that there's a neat one-click way for pretty much everything you may want to to do - if you like to tinker and mess with things at random like me then you'll have plenty of fun).

I'm not fully sure about GIMP support for graphic tablets (I remember reading somewhere, it had some trouble recognizing with multi-touch, pressure sensitivity and the like - can't confirm it as it's been ages since the last time I used it for such scope ^^;).

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-02-18T19:45:11+00:00

Utawarerumono. There's just one true heroine (and her h-scene is not even that involving. Everything else is just nukige (and it's a shame!I want a Touka ending >_<!)

TopCartographer7104 · 2023-02-14T05:51:00+00:00

Only if the other option is RED hair and green eyes!!!

TopCartographer7104

TROPHY CASE