RPG Maker XP Ace ~ Engine Conversion

RPG Maker XP Ace ~ Engine Conversion

As some, if not all of you, know, a while back, a game maker whho went by the screen name Terv, had put together a kit to allow users the ability to convert their games powered by the XP engine, into projects with the VXAce engine. Alot of people seemed to either:

• "too lazy, didn't want to bother"
• "too confusing, not gonna try"

So I went ahead and offered to make a demo for it. Life happened, and it was delayed a bit, but here it is; a working RPG Maker XPAce demo! So, what does that mean? Well, at the moment, not a whole hell of alot. It's not a demo that you can play just yet, nor is it even close to the start of a game. I have provided some graphics with it, that I consider quite an upgrade to the XP RTP includes; some of the graphics included are from Heretics' collection, some were found whilst browsing sites for resources. Alot of this is stuff I have picked up from various places throughout the years.

So, what makes this so good?

• Lag no more: The new Ruby Version 1.9.2 is about 5 times faster than ancient 1.8.1 and will give your game an enormous performance boost, especially if you're an avid eventer.
• lHyperliquid rendering: The XP engine is well-known for its stuttering scrolling and the associated tearing (graphics being cut). The image is lacking, particularly in window mode. However, after you have seen how beautifully soft and silky smooth your game looks with the new engine you're not going to want to miss it anymore.
• Improved font rendering: The VX and VX Ace engine implemented an improved font rendering which makes your game look more refined and a pleasure to read.
• 60-120fps: While XP's standard frame rate is at a punny 40fps you can set the frame rate in Ace's engine up to 120fps with a single script call.
• Up to 1024x768 in fullscreen: in combination with a suitable script you can easily more than double your resolution from 640x480 to 1024x768 - in fullscreen too.

Rather than tell everyone what the process is and have them try to do it on their own, I have a blank project made up, that will allow you to use the XPAce setup, and simply use this 'demo' as a base. If you do not want to use the scripts I have included, or want to modify things a bit on your own, the link to the instructions on how to do this conversion are right here: Conversion Instructions. If you do end upp using this as a base for your project, there are several people you need to credit:

• Game_Guy, The King - scripts in the kit
• PhoenixFire - Demo project and converted scripts
• KK20 - Immense amounts of troubleshooting and script fixes for the original conversion kit
• Terv - Everything else

I plan to keep adding 'default' scripts into this, and eventually develop this into a full developer kit, at which time I'll be including way more in the way of documentation about features, issues, compatibility and who to give credit for. At the moment, I'll just keep important info in a small text file.

Download It Now!

So, the permanent home for this is on my server, which you can access here! This file if going to simply be updated every time a new version comes out, and I'll try to announce when something important happens with it. Link won't change, unless I suddenly branch off into other development threads with it, in which case, that will also be noted on here.

this is amazing

Thanks I just hope this is of use to someone down the line. I'll eventually end up starting support for it on my server too, but for the time being, the only things I will support are the scripts that I side-load into it myself.

There is something I'm kinda curious about though. In the description you mention being able to change the screen size up to 1024x768. You also mentioned no lag. I'm not sure if it is still the case when you up the resolution, but if so, which script are you using to achieve that? I currently have a project in XP and I've grown to accept the stuttering, but if I could remove it without lagging the whole game, it would be great. However, the last time I tried this xpACE thing, the whole game lagged even with minimal events on the screen, and opening the menu dropped the game 20FPS

There is something I'm kinda curious about though. In the description you mention being able to change the screen size up to 1024x768.

Yes, I took that directly from Terv's description on the original page over on CP about it.. (Right Here) I sideloaded King's Rewrite as the one it's using for the re-write, so, the maps should be much smoother, but as stated on the thread, it also has a higher RAM consumption rate, and supposedly there's been reports of it taking longer to load maps with this script. Out of all of the options though, this is the current one. I'll porbably swap it out for the rewrite by Forever0 that KK20 is working on now. Come to think of it, I'll try that one out tomorrow.. I know there's been alot of work put into it since the kit version was released =p

However, the last time I tried this xpACE thing, the whole game lagged even with minimal events on the screen, and opening the menu dropped the game 20FPS

ehh... No idea, but it's worth testing I suppose. There's obviously alot that can be done with this, and over time, I'll see what I can do.

I actually tried it again. The same things happen, but I guess since I increased the framerate to 60FPS this time, it wasn't as bad. Still a noticable drop from 60 to 35FPS in the menu, but it is much better than before. (I was going from 40 to 19 the last time I tried this kit.)

Also, surprisingly, all of my custom scripts worked just fine with it! (and I have around 20 installed at the moment o.o)