egomassive's Knytt Stories Plus mod

@Ultigonio: I can't see an area ambiance mute getting a lot of use. I can't even think of a good way to use it. I was going to suggest crickets, but they don't fade out; they stop abruptly when you approach. Could you could tell me how you would use it?

Bizarre new low-priority bug: tutorial button disabled when booting game on either 2x or 3x zoom.

And another: when dying with coordinates enabled, text doesn't disappear and overlaps with coordinates for room Juni respawns in.

@Ultigonio: I can't see an area ambiance mute getting a lot of use. I can't even think of a good way to use it. I was going to suggest crickets, but they don't fade out; they stop abruptly when you approach. Could you could tell me how you would use it?

The first thing that comes to mind is that it could make it so I wouldn't have to cover the screen with area ambiance objects, except for where I don't want the ambiance to be.  As I said earlier, this is more of a point of convenience than actual necessity, but I could imagine a (rare) case where it'd be a hindrance not to have a single object for a muting area.

Another idea it gives me is, say you have a sort of bar setting, where there's hi-fi music playing from a band or something like that, but as you get closer to this jukebox, you can hear that it's playing the same track, but lo-fi, and as you get closer to the jukebox, the band fades out and the jukebox fades in, and they do this smoothly so you get a sort of dynamic music effect that usually isn't possible in KS.  This could probably still be achieved by smothering the rest of the screen with the area ambiance objects, but the transition would be much smoother and more even this way, I imagine.  I can't 100% guarantee I'd use this particular idea, and even if I did I'd have to refine it so it actually made sense, but if I can come up with that off the top of my head, I can guarantee you I'd get leverage out of it some way or another (though, sadly, that isn't to say anyone else would).

@Ultigonio: I can't see an area ambiance mute getting a lot of use. I can't even think of a good way to use it. I was going to suggest crickets, but they don't fade out; they stop abruptly when you approach. Could you could tell me how you would use it?

Couldn't you use something like that to make it sound like ambiance from a prior source is fading out, as if going toward the existing object is synonymous with going away from a source of sound?

The only thing I can think of for wanting an ambiance mute block is so you could have two single sound effects within one screen by using music and the ambiance mute block everywhere but where you want the sound effect to happen. But if you only want one sound effect per screen you can achieve that by using it as music and using a shift that has the stop music checkbox selected everywhere but where you want the sound to be on that screen. You could possibly achieve two or more sound effects by using room duplication and shifting to a duplicate room once the first sound effect plays and then having more shifts with stop music selected and another break where you want the next sound effect to be. The only thing you lose is putting actual music as the "music" instead of as an ambiance so you can have it fade out.

... The only thing you lose is putting actual music as the "music" instead of as an ambiance so you can have it fade out.

There is a little known setting for slow fade ambiance. It's an original KS feature. It's ideal when dedicating an ambiance track to music use, though I can't say I'm aware of anyone ever using it.
[world]
AmbiFade(A)=Slow
AmbiFade(B)=Slow
"Slow" is the only accepted value. I should put some check-boxes for this in my editor.

@ Ultigonio: I understand that it would be easier and more accurate to cross-fade ambiance to point on the screen if there was an object that faded ambiance out as you approached. However, it's possible ,if uglier/clumsier, with the tools I've already given you. Cross-fading is a bonus usage of the area ambiance object anyway, I'm not convinced we need more tools dedicated to this purpose.

I'm more interested in building tools you can make good games with than tools you can do neat tricks with. I'm not against you using the tools I provide in creative ways, but my focus should be on features that can benefit the most designers for the most levels. Actually, that was my focus. Now, the focus is working out the bugs before this school term ends since I will be unable to fix them after that time.

I'm more interested in building tools you can make good games with than tools you can do neat tricks with. I'm not against you using the tools I provide in creative ways, but my focus should be on features that can benefit the most designers for the most levels. Actually, that was my focus. Now, the focus is working out the bugs before this school term ends since I will be unable to fix them after that time.

Absolutely!  I was just asking.  What you've provided is more than enough to do a lot of cool, unique stuff with, so I'm perfectly satisfied with it as-is.

There is a little known setting for slow fade ambiance. It's an original KS feature. It's ideal when dedicating an ambiance track to music use, though I can't say I'm aware of anyone ever using it.
[world]
AmbiFade(A)=Slow
AmbiFade(B)=Slow
"Slow" is the only accepted value. I should put some check-boxes for this in my editor.

Also, this is fantastic to know about.

Using TintInk=Add completely disables background darkening for the map and inventory, though the anti-aliasing of the question mark graphic remains intact. Could there be some issue with your use of pure black here?

I don't know if this has been asked or can't be done but I'm curious about a way to change how a sign looks. Not the font but the actual image and/or color to the sign. I've been thinking that it would be a nice feature to be able to change the background color at least for certain signs on a certain screen so that you could say have certain characters have red backgrounds to their speech or something like that. I suppose it could be like a tint where you define the color for sign a, b, or c.

If it can't be done, I understand. I just saw that there was some sign stuff that was tinkered with in KS+ and it occurred to me, making a connection to a comic, that it would be cool if you could have signs look like word balloons instead, though the way they increase in size with the increase in text makes me doubtful of that. But comics also have some characters have like red word balloons to signify that they speak differently and I thought that would be a cool addition. It would be much easier to differentiate between what is speech, a sign, a tutorial instruction, etc.

Along the same lines I was wondering if it would be possible to specifically assign font on a screen by screen basis. So you could even further differentiate between things by having each of those separate uses for the sign be a different font as well. That's more secondary than the other request though. And all of this could be done with custom objects if it's not possible so it's really just a way to make things more simple for me in the long run.

Something I noticed regarding room-load-lag (which has improved!) is that most times it occurs for me are when every tile is filled with waterfall objects to simulate rain.

I don't know a lot about how Knytt Stories loads rooms, but... if it all takes place within one frame like I think, would it theoretically be faster to load if it kept all of the waterfall objects intact instead of destroying and recreating them?

@ Sergio: Using TintInk effects disables the darkening that occurs when when opening the map or inventory. That darkening happens to be the tint. I was afraid that switching it back to semi-transparent would break the atmosphere of a level using ink effects. I thought I took care of that antialiasing on the question mark, but you're right, it still needs to be fixed.

@ Plural: It's not probably not going to happen. Changing the background image of the sign would be difficult because of the way the sign is programmed. Even changing the color is problematic because it has antialiasing in the corners (although I do like that idea.) Changing the font room by room is another feature I don't think would see much use. Making fonts is hard work. I'll let you in on a secret...
ETA: Funny thing, I was considering allowing images to be shown with the signs. That way you could have pictures of who's talking with expressions. I scrapped the idea mainly because Nifflas was including a similar feature in KU, and I felt I would be encroaching on the new product.

Something I noticed regarding room-load-lag (which has improved!) is that most times it occurs for me are when every tile is filled with waterfall objects to simulate rain.

I don't know a lot about how Knytt Stories loads rooms, but... if it all takes place within one frame like I think, would it theoretically be faster to load if it kept all of the waterfall objects intact instead of destroying and recreating them?

That is true, but I have no idea how to accomplish it.

There is a little known setting for slow fade ambiance. It's an original KS feature. It's ideal when dedicating an ambiance track to music use, though I can't say I'm aware of anyone ever using it.
[world]
AmbiFade(A)=Slow
AmbiFade(B)=Slow
"Slow" is the only accepted value. I should put some check-boxes for this in my editor.

Oh god what, this exists!?
Wait, so does it apply to the entire world, or is it possible to disable on a per-room basis?

@ Willxinc: Slow fade ambiance applies to the whole level.

I was afraid that switching it back to semi-transparent would break the atmosphere of a level using ink effects.

Hmm, I understand... but is there any chance you could make the switch optional? I'm experimenting with using some very subtle* tints and I think the total lack of darkness on the map screen actually manages to be more jarring.

^{* If you're interested, try this mild sunlight: Tint=530464 TintInk=Add}

@ Sergiocornaga: I see. I knew disabling the darkening was a quick fix, but I didn't want to lose the elegance of using one object to serve both purposes. I thought Tint Inks would see marginal use, but thanks to your example I've realized Add and Subtract can make far better day and night masks than semi-transparency, and I can see that being used a bunch. I'll probably have to split the Tint and Map functions into 2 objects.

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Edit:Get KS+ 0.9.9 We're almost out of beta! I better do some rigorous testing before I make the next update. Here's what's new:

• Opening the map or inventory darkens the screen regardless of Tint settings.
• Fixed mistakes in OCO code for several objects including 6:9.
• Corrected antialiasing on question mark.
• Fixed tutorial button bug.
• Showing screen coordinates with F12 should work correctly at death.

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Edit:Get Level Editor + 0.9.4 This is a small update to add the slow-fade-ambiance options to the dialogues. It's on the World tab.