So, as I wrote in another thread, I wanted to write two Python files to easily create journals and linking books.
I'm almost done here, both scripts work fine. If Diafero agrees, they will be released with the Offline-KI, and people modeling on Blender will just have to copy/paste some AlcScript to Blender and change a few values in it. No need to edit the python files themselves, or create and release a .pak file
I'll write tutorials explaining how to setup these books, hopefully this will make it relatively simple, even for people new at Age building.
Right now I would like to know what you think about these scripts - whether you would like more features, less, whatever you want.
I wanted to provide only the most important features, more advanced ones will have to be done with D'Lanor's dynamic book template.
Here is what each scripts will do:
xSimpleJournal.py:
Requires these arguments:
- an activator: the clickable book object
- a journal name
- the book type (notebook or normal book) (optional, default will be notebook)
- the book X and Y scale (optional)
The book content will be read from dat/<Age Name>_journals/<journal name>.txt. If these files exist, it will read from <journal name>_french.txt or <journal name>_german.txt depending of Uru's language. The cover texture, font type, additional pictures, etc, will be set directly in this journal using the Plasma HTML (is that how it's called ?). Since it seems there isn't any tutorial about Plasma HTML, I think I'll write one that covers the basics (book cover, fonts and pictures).
xSimpleLinkingBook.py:
Requires:
- an activator
- a destination Age (optional, default will be Nexus)
- a destination spawn point (optional, default will be LinkInPointDefault)
- a link panel texture (optional, default will be Nexus)
- a book cover (optional, default will be none and the book will be shown open)
- a boolean to specify whether the book is a Bahro linking stone (optional, default will be false)
- a boolean to specify whether to show the GoW stamp* (optional, default will be false)
- the book X and Y scale (optional)
* I was thinking about adding the GoW stamp that was originally designed for Sevkor, made by CalumTraveler. I don't know whether it was designed to be used only in Sevkor, though.
Can we use it ? Do you guys want it to be available on books ?
The linking book code uses the Offline-KI's Link Manager. If the Offline-KI is not installed, it will link the player either way, but right now it might link to wrong Age instances (or worse, crash the game if the Age doesn't exist). Well, I guess most people are using the Offline-KI anyway.
I also added a few features, such as:
- animated linking panels (as long as you have a .bik file !)
- fakelink, to avoid reloading the whole Age. Since the third person camera might behave wrong while linking, it is possible to force the Age to be reloaded
- broken books, ie: books with the xLinkPanelBlackVoid, which won't link the player at all
Currently, the script doesn't handle avatar animations (oneshotmods) for linking out. Linking panels, cover textures, images, etc need to be exported with the PRP (I don't fully understand how the Offline-KI manages to load jpeg files directly in Uru's folder, and put them in the book HTML...)
Guild of Writers
)
Till then, people will have to use textures for that - but you can reference the ones in BkBookImages, so it's not necessary to copy linking images for Cyan's ages into all fan ages linking to them.