Tool Ren'Py Extended Variable Viewer 3.00.04 - For walkthrough authors, game authors and modders

[anne O'nymous]

Overview:
This tools extend the debug capabilities of Ren'py by providing a better supervising of the variables. This include list filtering, change notification, objects inspection, search and export capabilities.
Just press ALT + U (default) in game to open the extended variable viewer screen.
Note: for those using the old 2.05.01 version, you need to use ALT + E to open it.
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Updated: 21 May 2023
Author: anne O'nymous
Tool Version: 2.05.01 / 3.00.04
Ren'py Version:

2.05.01 - Between 6.17.0 and 7.3.5​

3.x - from 6.99.11 to any 7.x and 8.x​

Language: English

Features :

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Installation :

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Uninstall :

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Change log :

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Limitations and known issue(s) :

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Final Notes :

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Thanks to :

• @mirenzo for his idea of change tracking.
• @paradj07 for the idea of the export capabilities.

Note that this thread is for discussions about the tool. If your question/comment address Ren'Py, the default variable viewer or the console, please wrote it directly in the right thread ; or create one.

Download: Extended Variable Viewer
Version 2.05.01​

All the screenshots are took with the game Pact with a witch, except for one that was took with the game Shattered.


If you found this useful, consider giving a like as thanks and/or encouragement to do more.

 

[3xd_tango]

1 pic would be appreciated

 

[anne O'nymous]

1 pic would be appreciated

Not really sure it help, but well, done.

 

[mirenzo]

Some games are using F4 to change screen size. Can this affect the mod?

 

[anne O'nymous]

Some games are using F4 to change screen size. Can this affect the mod?

And Fuck... It must have been my lucky day, around 30 games tested and not a single one used this key
Honestly I don't know how it will effect both the mod and the game. In theory, the last action defined must be the one that will work. Anyway the worse that can happen is that you can't access the mod's screen, or can't change the screen size.

I'll keep it like this for now, the time to figure a new key that isn't too awkward or, better, find an easy way to change the key according to the game, and to see if someone encounter a problem or have a idea of addition.
Anyway I'll put a new version online in one week, with at least the correction for this problem.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Alright, one week less few hours later, it's done.

I haven't found a none awkward key, but in the same time after more than 250 games used as test, I haven't found a single conflict. So I kept the F4 key, but added the possibility to change the key by editing the .rpy file (with instructions inside).
I also extended a lot the capabilities of the viewer. Firstly by handling completely differently the way it deal with objects, secondly by adding a 'change tracker' which, each time you open the viewer, will 'warn' you of any change that happened inside a variable.

I should work on compatibility, to extend it more to the previous versions of ren'py. This said, actually it work fine with around 90% of the games available here. Only the already finished games (still not all of them) and few exception of games in progress use a version before the 6.99.10 (which date of Apr 2016). So I don't think that it's an emergency and will quietly think about it while working on other projects.

As for the performances, don't remember if I said it in the notice, so they are great. The mode deal with more than 52 000 variables in less than a second, and it need one more to ren'py to display the viewer. So, in the large majority of cases, the viewer will open instantly.

If you have idea of improvements, or think that a feature should be added, don't hesitate, I'll see what I can do.

 

[Tuncay]

I tried using it on star channel 34 here's what happened

Spoiler

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[Davox]

same here

 

[anne O'nymous]

I tried using it on star channel 34 here's what happened

Like I said, it still don't work with too old versions of ren'py, and Star Channel 34 is one of the few games which use such version ; it use ren'py 6.18.3, which is three years old. I'll make a more compatible version in the future, but it will take some times.
It's not just a matter of corrections. Some features used by the mod don't exist in older versions, some others change from a version to another. So each time, I need to find an alternative or a way to use the "old way to do" and the new one in the same time. And obviously, after each change I need to verify that it still works without problems for all the versions.

And to be completely honest, after doing this for three weeks, and done something like a thousand tests, I'm a little tired of this mod. I really need to take a break and work on other things for some times.
I don't forget this mod, but I need to do and think about something else before I start to really hate it.

 

[Palanto]

Hey thanks for this awesome mod! Just a quick question, does this mod work with the developer menu disabled? Or only if I activate the dev menu in the options.rpy of the game?

 

[anne O'nymous]

Hey thanks for this awesome mod! Just a quick question, does this mod work with the developer menu disabled? Or only if I activate the dev menu in the options.rpy of the game?

It don't care at all of the developer mode.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Alright, it took me more time than expected, but I achieved a better compatibility for this tool. It will now works with game made with any version of Ren'py starting 6.17.0. @randybaton and @Tuncay will be happy, it include Star Channel 34.

In addition to the compatibility issue, I also added a full in game configuration interface, and changed the visual to be less "depressing gray". Now it's "Am I dead black"... not really sure it's really better
While doing this, I also made some visual change to make the tool more user friendly. I also redesigned the way the tool works. It's now 100% saved game friendly, but it mean that you need to uninstall the previous version before installing this one. I really mean it, uninstall the previous version before anything else. As reminder, by default you need to press the SHIFT + F4 keys to uninstall it.

All these changed leaded to a renumbering, the tool is now at its version 2.x

Like it use a lot of experimental things, don't hesitate to report any issues, thanks.

 

[3xd_tango]

can you make like to console for edit value or something like that i cant even copy paste .Awesome Mod btw

 

[anne O'nymous]

can you make like to console for edit value or something like that i cant even copy paste .Awesome Mod btw

Unfortunately it's not really possible. It's due to the way Ren'py works and its notion of "interactions" which goes far beyond the definition of the word itself. So, while technically it's easy to do, because it's just the assignation of a value to a variable, it become a Russian roulette when put in practice. The value is changed, but it's a virtual change until you reach the end of the interaction. So sometime it's reverted just by opening the console, or it can be forget when you save the game, and a few more weird behaviors like this.
And believe me, I tried a lot of things since it would be also useful for me. But I don't want to add this feature if I'm not sure that it will works 100% of the time. Some people using this mod don't have technical notions, and I don't want to confuse them with things like what I said above. I don't want to have them believing that a value have been changed, then don't understand why the game don't act according to this change just because they hit one of the few case where the change is silently reverted.

This said, because I find it useful myself, I still think about it and perhaps will find a solution, or a compromise between "directly changing the value" and "making the change easier". But it can take times before I achieved this.

 

[3xd_tango]

okey i understand that.Can you make search option search value or variable ?

 

[anne O'nymous]

okey i understand that.Can you make search option search value or variable ?

Right now I can't see something which make it impossible, so probably.
But it will take some time, because I'm actually stuck on another project with a problem I really want to solve. But once it's solved, I go back to this tool and look how I can add this.

 

[Sam]

Would you mind if I were to include this in a future version of UnRen?

 

[anne O'nymous]

Would you mind if I were to include this in a future version of UnRen?

Minding, no, but have you took a look at it ? While the inclusion into unren-dev.rpy by itself is easy and need just three lines, you'll still have to include the rpa and the three modules, especially now that the configuration interface do more than just changing the calling keys.
In addition to this, the said configuration interface is shared with my mods and will be also shared with my future tools. Which mean that if you include it in unRen you'll have to deal with people asking why they are asked to overwrite something, which is probably not a good idea.

So, while I'm not against it, I think that it's easier if it stay as a stand alone, or in the future part of a devel/modding suit. But feel free to uncompyle the module(s) and use part of it/them, it's full open source.

 

[Sam]

Minding, no, but have you took a look at it ? While the inclusion into unren-dev.rpy by itself is easy and need just three lines, you'll still have to include the rpa and the three modules, especially now that the configuration interface do more than just changing the calling keys.
In addition to this, the said configuration interface is shared with my mods and will be also shared with my future tools. Which mean that if you include it in unRen you'll have to deal with people asking why they are asked to overwrite something, which is probably not a good idea.

So, while I'm not against it, I think that it's easier if it stay as a stand alone, or in the future part of a devel/modding suit. But feel free to uncompyle the module(s) and use part of it/them, it's full open source.

Yep I had a look, I could base64 encode the zip, then use powershell to extract, or just base64 encode the individual files. However, I did overlook the filesize, I didn't notice the 2MB rpa; which while it's still possible would definitely add quite a bit of bulk.

So nevermind, thanks anyway

 

[anne O'nymous]

So nevermind, thanks anyway

You're welcome.