Advanced Text System 3.0c

[modern algebra]

Alright. Updated to Version 3.0. There may be a few bugs I missed, so I invite you all to please try it out and report any bugs or incompatibilities you might find. I will note that if you are upgrading from ATS 2, you will need to also put in the Conversion patch below the ATS3, since I changed a lot of the naming and things in this version. But once you have the conversion patch, all the work you did with ATS 2.0 will be preserved.

Download Demo
Download Text Document
Download ATS 2 Conversion Patch
Download Sample SpeechTag Graphics

[cozziekuns]

Finally upgraded. I'll test it out as soon as I can. Good Job MA!

EDIT: OMG, you can view a record of your text. I've always wanted to know how to do that.

[Mishka]

I can't wait to take 'er fer a spin, but 2.0 was pretty damn good, so I am actually watering at the mouth thinking about this thing (which provides many essential features.)

[Cascading Dragon]

Wow. Very nice MA. I like all the extra features and how you redid them

[modern algebra]

@cozzie - Thanks - in ATS2, I was pretty sloppy and instead of using oy to scroll contents, I had instead chopped off the top line and redrew the last three on a new bitmap. It was pretty sloppy and the scroll review and smooth scrolling features are only possible because I did it properly in this version. I'm glad you like

@Mikhail - well, I hope I don't disappoint you. Be sure to tell me what you think

@redyugi - Thanks!

[Countdown]

Hey MA. Awesome update! I love it! I'm using the Conversion patch...and I plug it in, and test and I get this:

[modern algebra]

I can't see that - moved or deleted

[Countdown]

Yeah, sorry. I was cleaning up my photobucket account and moved it.  It's up again.

[modern algebra]

and you've pasted in ATS3? and put the Conversion Patch under ATS3 in the Script Editor?

[Countdown]

*Facepalm* Now I have. It works now. Thanks for correcting me on my retardedness.
EDIT: Do I still need the "Special Codes Formatter" or the "Paragraph Formatter v1.1" scripts anymore?

[modern algebra]

I had to do a small update to the ATS2 Conversion patch. You can download it here. All it was was a little problem with $game_message.choicebox_fitted, so if you don't need that then you won't need this update.

[modern algebra]

Alright, well no bug reports so far, so that's a good sign

Anyway, I decided to add a feature so the demo has been updated. All this does is make it easier to use non-standard facesets. Basically, now when you set :face_width and :face_height to 0, it will automatically draw the whole face. This means that instead of having to change the values of :face_width and :face_height every time you want to show a larger or smaller face, you can always have them at 0 and it will show the whole face, whether single or in a set. You can still specify values for :face_width and :face_height, if you wish, and when you do it will cut out the center of the face to those specifications; but this just makes it easier for people who just want to show the whole face.

Anyway, that's the only thing I changed in this update, and so if that feature doesn't appeal to you then you don't need to get the updated version.

[cozziekuns]

Could be useful if your drawing a lot of faces (which is exactly what I'm doing). By the way, where would you set your own images of your own speech bubbles?

EDIT: Nevermind, I found it out myself.

[Kayo]

I found a bug! Hopefully you can squash it lol.

So if I start a new game or a continue game then return to the title screen and start a new game or a continue game again I get this error message when going through a meassage box:

"Script 'ATS 3.0' line 3546: SystemStackError occured

Stack level too deep"

So yea... i noticed this bug in Ats 2.0 too. Hopefully this is fixable because i wuldnt want to have the character close the whole application every time he dies against that hard boss or chooses the wrong save file.

This isnt the same problem CaptainRegal was having right?

(This is my first time posting on this board and i just wanted to say. I cannot read the verification letters hopefully im not the only one lol)

[modern algebra]

It's not the same problem, but it is the same mistake I made. I didn't realize pause= was definded in the hidden Window class. Right around that line you should see:

Code Select Expand


alias whatever pause=


change it to:

Code Select Expand


alias whatever pause= unless $@


whatever is just a bunch of characters; don't modify them -just add the unless $@

I'll fix it for the next update.

[noian]

Since AMS version 3 includes a paragraph formatter, where should the old PF2 be placed (below or above?) as PF2 is required for some of your other scripts (or can AMS3 substitute PF2?)

[modern algebra]

No, it can't substitute for PF2 in other scripts because unlike the real paragraph formatters, I designed the ATS one to go line by line so as to (A) reduce lag with really long messages, and (B) allow me to work it in where face sets are set so as to interfere with only a couple lines. PF2, on the other hand, does the whole message at once and so the scripts that use it can't use the ATS3 version.

Anyway, it doesn't matter where the PF2 is in relation to ATS3 in the Script Editor. Put it anywhere above Main, but usually when I use it I put it at the top of my custom scripts. It really doesn't matter though in general. The only scripts it will need to be under is any that overwrite the initialize method of Game_System.

[tsy0302]

A very good text system! BTW when I first play the demo, when I talked to "Size matters", the game crashed with an error stack level too deep at line 1800 or so which is "alias back_opacity= opacity=". However when i play the demo again without changing anything, the same error didn't appear.  I think I'll let you know anyway, so you can check if you have to change anything.

I don't know whether it's proper to ask this question here or not. But I really want to know what does this "unless $@" do, and why this solve the problem you posted before. I'm new to scripting so I'd really appreciat if you could explain it to me.
Thanks.

[Cascading Dragon]

You know that if you hit F12 during gameplay, it restarts the program, right?
Well that initializes all the scripts again, which maybe cause a stack error depending on what the script modifies.

Code Select Expand

unless $@
tells the program to only initialize the script once, even if F12 is used

[modern algebra]

Well, that's not entirely true; it does that only indirectly. $@ contains the backtrace for the last exception raised. It is useful for debugging particularly, since if you do something like this:

Code Select Expand


begin
  # Code that may throw an exception
  # Code that may throw an exception
  # Code that may throw an exception
  # Code that may throw an exception
  # Code that may throw an exception
rescue
  p $@
end


It will print out where the error has occured.

When you first start the program, $@ will be nil, which is why "unless $@" will not prevent the initial aliases when first "loading" the scripts. The reason "unless $@" works to avoid stack errors in hidden scripts is because when F12 is pressed, an exception occurs in the update method of the Graphics module, which means that the second time it is "loading" the scripts, $@ will have the backtrace for that exception and therefore will not be nil, and so the "unless $@" will avoid re-aliasing the methods.

Personally, I think it is bad form to use this, and I prefer to directly check if the aliased method is already defined with a self.method_defined? check.

Anyway, thanks for the bug report.

I have decided to stop being lazy and have released v. 3.0b, which fixes both F12-related errors. That is all it does so there is no need to download the new version if that is irrelevant to anyone or if they've fixed it themselves. Hopefully that's the end of the bugs.

[tsy0302]

Thanks for the explanation?It clarified al lot of things for my script learning.
One more question:
Do I still need the  paragraph formatter for other scripts like outline, quest journal, diary system?
Since in this link http://rmrk.net/index.php/topic,35059.0.html, it says that it requires the paragraph formatter.
I'm not sure what will happen if I use the paragraph formatter with the ATS at the same time.

[modern algebra]

yes, you still need the paragraph formatter for other scripts and it does not interfere with the ATS

[captainregal]

I think I have found another bug. When you use choices. With the Dim Background message option it works. However as soon as you exit the choices. The dim choice part of the window won't go away until you enter the menu or exit the map.

[gigazomebies]

Never mind, now I had solved this problem by myself. 
Anyway, thanks for creating the great tool!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
modern algebra,

I have a problem with the localization of ATS 3.0. It's not compatable with Woratana's display localization alphabets scripts.

because of ATS has revised the code of Window_Message, so I really have no idea how to implement Woratana's code into it.

Thanks in advanced

ps. please excuse my bad english, coz it's not even my third language

[modern algebra]

Cool, I'm glad you solved the problem

Good luck with your project and I hope you enjoy the ATS