HUD & Gab Windows for RPG Maker MV & MZ
A downloadable Plugin
Gab Windows are text windows that you can dynamically put on the game screen, whether they are part of the game’s HUD or a speech bubble above the player or any other NPC. As they interpret text codes (\C, \V, …), it’s super simple to do something with Icons and Variables!
Features
- You can add as many Gab Windows as you want to your Game to create a HUD
- A Gab Window can be used as part of your HUD or as a speech bubble above your hero or an NPC
- Unlike the RPG Maker's standard Message Box, your character is not frozen when a Gab Window is shown.
- Gab Windows understand Message Codes. You can easily choose a Text Color, draw Icons and display Variables!
- Auto Expire: A Gab Window will automatically close itself after x frames (speech bubble) or stay until you remove it using a plugin command (HUD)
- A Gab Window will be less opaque when it covers the player
- You can override the background type (window, dimmed, transparent) and the window skin for each Gab Window
- Open & close animations are played
- Gab Windows are persisted in your save game
How to...
All commands are explained here: HUD & Gab Windows – Aerosys' Blog
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Position Gab Windows above Followers and Vehicles!Jul 06, 2024
Comments
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Hi, I'm using the MV version of this, but none of the alignment options seem to work, it always just aligns to the left. So I tried using it with RS Message Align, but for some reason that causes the gab windows (right) to all take on the alignment tags from the regular message window (centered) even if those tags are closed off in the message window *and* the gab windows each start with their own alignment tag.
I don't really know enough to be sure which plugin is causing the disagreement, but does this make sense to you? As a plugin author maybe you might have a better idea of why it's happening, and whether it's possible to fix it. For more details, the RS align does work with your gab windows to keep them right-aligned, but as soon as any regular message window appears on screen, the first gab window text gets centered (any others stay right-aligned) until that message window is closed. Any help/ideas for what to do here are much appreciated.
Hi emogal,
I cannot confirm that the alignment options would not work; I checked them in MV and they work for me.
However, I can confirm that RS Message Align overrides my plugin's alignment, so when using RS Message Align, you would need to always write \TA[x] for each line. This way, it worked for me.
Remember: In the script box, you need to escape the \ symbol with another \, so instead of
it's
I quickly checked their code but it's unlikely that I will make a patch here given how my and their code is written, I'm afraid.
Yep, I had the double \\ and it still got overridden. In order to fix it, I ended up making 2 additional gab windows, each blank--one with \\TA[2] before the 3 gab windows I was actually using, and another with \\TA[1] after the final gab window--and this allowed all 3 in-use gab windows to stay aligned to the right, and the message window (which was on the event page above all the gab windows) to appear centered and not move.
What interested me as a beginner to coding was, before this fix, how \\TA[1] from the message window was overriding the first gab window, but then the \\TA[2] from that gab window itself was passed on to the 2nd and 3rd gab windows despite not actually working on the one it was written in. Even writing \\TA[2] at the end of the message window contents wouldn't override the first gab window. Thank you for looking into the issue anyway though, I really appreciate that!
is there a feature to change fonts? not font size, the whole fonts?
Right now, there's no such a feature. Maybe I will add it, shouldn't be too difficult for me.
Is there a way to have gabs play in sequence rather than all at once without pausing other things going on? I'm trying to use them as a side conversation that's going on while the main character is having another conversation, but they all drop at the same time right now rather than popping up one after another, and if I put in a wait command it makes the main conversation wait too.
Hi ShadowChorus,
I'm very sorry for the late reply; I didn't get a notification for your post :(
I don't think this is a problem related to this plugin. A window appears when the eventing tells it to appear, so it's in the game dev's hands after all. I understand that the RPG Maker engine makes it a bit hard to display speech bubbles in sequence without freezing the game.
What you probably want is to use parallel process. Wait events inside events running on parallel processes do not freeze your game.
Hi,
This plugin feature is amazing! Thank you very much!
However, I’m encountering an issue with memory leaks with it. I'm hoping if you could help me. Whenever I display text in a Gab Window, I notice that memory usage increases rapidly until the game eventually crashes.
I’m not sure if others are experiencing this issue as well. I’m using RPG Maker MV. Thank you for your assistance!
Thanks for the report, I will take care of it, and reply here when I find something.
Hey, fantastic plugin! I can't figure out what the Identifier is for, and the link for explanations didn't help. It says it's required, but I don't know what to put there.
You can put anything! When you use it to display the time, call it "time", when it's a short "Hello stranger!" speechbubble then call it "hello". The identifier helps you to change a window later so you can tell which window you are referring to. Therefore the identifier should be unique across your game but besides that there are no rules
So each unique message should have a unique identifier? If I just leave it as "required" then the game will think they're all the same message, or something? Or is it solely for the plugin to reference messages internally?
Yes, the plugin uses this information to reference its windows. I would say, each unique "window" should have its unique identifier. Just have a look at how RPG Maker handles Pictures, there you always need to pick a number from 1-50. It's the same here.
Got it. Thanks for your help.
Sure, why not? I will do that on this or next weekend, shouldn't take too long!
Oh, that would be so great, thank you!
This is just fantastic. Thank you!