Help with Composite Graphics / Visual Equipment

[AmbiguouslyAnon 0]

Haven't had any luck asking for help elsewhere so figured I'd ask here too.

Essentially, I'm using the Composite Graphics script (found here) by Modern Algebra. The script itself works just fine, but I can't find a way to let me change the graphic being used for armour under different conditions, like a control switch being activated, a state being inflicted, etc.

I mainly want to use this for cutscenes. I.e., the player is wearing their custom clothes/armour, but then when the player sits down in a chair, their clothing looks out of place due to being meant for the basic standing/walking animation. I'd like to be able to somehow use alternative 'sitting' variants of the clothing here, but I can't find a way to do this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, hopefully I explained myself clearly.

(Alternatively, if anyone knows of a way to do the above with a different script (like Victor's), that would also work just as well.)

Oh, and preferably, I would be able to manipulate an event with the same appearance as the actor for cutscenes, instead of having to manipulate the player themself. If that's too complicated, though, I can probably get by with moving the player around directly, although the former would be preferred.

Thanks in advance anyone who tries to help!

[Kayzee 4,045]

Have you thought about using a whole sprite sheet rather then a single sprite (using $ in the file name) for your composite graphic? Then you could have a standing/walking set and a sitting set without much trouble.

Also: The Composite Graphics script works based on the graphics you set so it's easy to have an event with the same appearance as the actor: Just set it with the same graphics file!

[PhoenixSoul 1,407]

I second dearest love, @Kayzee's advice here.

[AmbiguouslyAnon 0]

On 5/15/2022 at 8:47 PM, Kayzee said:

Have you thought about using a whole sprite sheet rather then a single sprite (using $ in the file name) for your composite graphic? Then you could have a standing/walking set and a sitting set without much trouble.

Also: The Composite Graphics script works based on the graphics you set so it's easy to have an event with the same appearance as the actor: Just set it with the same graphics file!

Thank you for the quick response. I've been busy and couldn't test it out until now.

Unfortunately though there's a couple problems I'm having with your method. Using a full sheet instead of a single sheet (I habitually use $ sheets so you were correct on that) doesn't seem to work with the composite graphics. Unless I'm missing something. Which I might be. Specifically if we use this example layout...

 

...then regardless of which index my character is using, the composite armour will always equip whatever is in index 0. There is an index parameter, so for instance I could set something like \cc1["Cloak_red", 1] and then it will use index 1 on the Cloak_red sheet when the Red Cloak is equipped, but it will then use index 1 regardless of the index the actor is using. So instead of using the default 0/walk sprites for every animation, it would just use index 1/running sprites for every animation, which doesn't really change a whole lot. Removing the index number and leaving it just \cc1["Cloak_red"] defaults to using index 0, so it doesn't seem like the script can actually apply full sheets over another one.

Additionally, even if this method could work flawlessly, it's still sort of limiting. There are multiple unique one-off animations for the protagonist (particularly death animations) that probably couldn't all fit on a single sheet. That's why I was hoping to be able to have it switch which sprite I used based off of Switches, Variables, States, etc.

One idea I did have in mind using variables was if I could set the armour comment to something like \cc1["Cloak_red" + $game_variables[10]]

then if variable 10 was pre-emptively changed with a script call to something like $game_variables[10] = "_sitting" it could in theory automatically update it, but it doesn't work. It doesn't crash but the graphic just doesn't show up at all.

Alternatively, if there's some other script or call, etc. I could use to force an actor to have the same equipment equipped as actor 1 then I think there's a very easy (albeit slightly length) workaround I could use.

 

Also didn't realize there was a command to set an event to the same graphic as the player. That's helpful. Unfortunately it doesn't automatically update the character though, so if the player removes their equipment and then triggers a cutscene, the event will be wearing the equipment they just removed unless the event/map was reloaded first. Should be able to find a pretty easy fix for that though.

 

Edited May 25 by AmbiguouslyAnon

[Kayzee 4,045]

If you use a full sheet, all your composite graphics also needs to be full sheets. You see the composite graphics script is really quite simple and just draws images on top of other images and it doesn't really care what the images are, so you can trick it to doing whole sheets at once as long as you are using full sheets for every composite image. I know it's still limited that way for total frames though.

Unfortunately there isn't any easy way to trick the composite graphics script to do what you are asking. Doing so would probably require rewriting a big chunk of it.

Edited May 26 by Kayzee

[AmbiguouslyAnon 0]

On 5/25/2022 at 11:28 PM, Kayzee said:

If you use a full sheet, all your composite graphics also needs to be full sheets. You see the composite graphics script is really quite simple and just draws images on top of other images and it doesn't really care what the images are, so you can trick it to doing whole sheets at once as long as you are using full sheets for every composite image.

What note tags am I supposed to use to make it apply the entire sheet like that? I am using full sheets for the composite graphics and from what I can tell you can only set which index it uses for the armour, I can't find a way to apply a full sheet like you're saying.

[Kayzee 4,045]

Oh! I think I am using a different script then you are. I have been using this script. Maybe there isn't a way to do it with  the script your using.

[AmbiguouslyAnon 0]

4 minutes ago, Kayzee said:

Oh! I think I am using a different script then you are. I have been using this script. Maybe there isn't a way to do it with  the script your using.

Ah, that would explain it. No worries, it happens to the best of us. Thanks for trying to help anyway.