[Ren'Py] SU Re-Imagined, an UNOFFICIAL Proof of Concept Ren'Py Demo - Community Development Thread

[joepe]

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I can't promise everything but I'll take a look for the things you asked for. With regards to layeredimages, I can extract them as well. At least sort of. All pieces will have the correct offsets and such but you would manually have to setup display rules. I added an example for Tala.

 

[OhWee]

I can't promise everything but I'll take a look for the things you asked for. With regards to layeredimages, I can extract them as well. At least sort of. All pieces will have the correct offsets and such but you would manually have to setup display rules. I added an example for Tala.

Due to the need to rescale various sprites, I'm not sure how useful this info will be. Essentially what I've been doing is 're-assembling' the sprites using layers in Photoshop, then deciding on what the 'groups' will be from there and cropping the 'master layer image' for each group and saving the pieces individually. That way the pieces in that 'group' will have the same upper left corner reference point in their sprite, hence if all of the pieces have been positioned correctly in Photoshop, they can all share the same 'index point' for that group, while cutting down a bit on their sizes (saving them at the full body/head size would just be wasteful).

Since Ren'Py is stubborn about you using the upper left corner as the reference point... that being said, if transcribing the info from SU can work, that might save others some time, but I'm also doing minor corrections to the sprites as I'm working with/resaving them, and the .pngs need to be resaved anyways as whatever algorithm SR7's tablet/sprite software uses to save said .pngs, it's definitely NOT optimized. Simply resaving the .pngs in Photoshop drops the image kb size by about 2/3rds, and since I'm rescaling everything up by 5% or whatever anyways to take advantage of the 1920 x 1080 window size...

But if others want a peek at that sprite positioning info, and think that they can make use of it... by all means ask away y'all! There are several approaches to this problem, so whichever works for you!

 

[joepe]

Due to the need to rescale various sprites, I'm not sure how useful this info will be. Essentially what I've been doing is 're-assembling' the sprites using layers in Photoshop, then deciding on what the 'groups' will be from there and cropping the 'master layer image' for each group and saving the pieces individually. That way the pieces in that 'group' will have the same upper left corner reference point in their sprite, hence if all of the pieces have been positioned correctly in Photoshop, they can all share the same 'index point' for that group, while cutting down a bit on their sizes (saving them at the full body/head size would just be wasteful).

Since Ren'Py is stubborn about you using the upper left corner as the reference point... that being said, if transcribing the info from SU can work, that might save others some time, but I'm also doing minor corrections to the sprites as I'm resaving them, and the .pngs need to be resaved anyways as whatever algorithm SR7's tablet/sprite software uses to save said .pngs, it's definitely NOT optimized. Simply resaving the .pngs in Photoshop drops the image kb size by about 2/3rds, and since I'm rescaling everything up by 5% or whatever anyways to take advantage of the 1920 x 1080 window size...

But if others want a peek at that sprite positioning info, and think that they can make use of it... by all means ask away y'all! There are several approaches to this problem, so whichever works for you!

Not sure that I'm understanding the issue to be honest. I'm assuming that the resampling done by renpy isn't sufficient? But anyway, from my testing it works fine and saves a lot of time since the placement of the various image is done for you. If anyone wants to give it a whirl let me know and I'll generate it for you.

 

[OhWee]

One of the major issues is that fact that whatever algorithm SR7 is using to save his .pngs is highly inefficient (by a factor of about 2/3rds), which unnecessarily bloats the sizes of said .pngs.

So every sprite needs to be resaved anyways, and also the naming conventions that SR7 uses for his sprites is also confusing, and tends to scatter sprites about, which means that after you've extracted them, it's usually a good idea to sort them by girl, so that the 'stray' sprites can be tracked down.

So in short, our goal has been to 'optimize' the sprites so that the download sizes are more reasonable. Some want to optimize these further by using .webp or whatever, and at some point we can look at having people compile 'compressed' versions, but we aren't that far along yet. Some people may not be able to work with .webp natively, and Google's install instructions for .webp were useless when I last checked (just showed the download with no instructions r.e. how to install it). But I digress.

The other issue is that we aren't just using the existing sprites. I've been making corrections to them (as an example, SR7's tablet appears to have an 'area' where there's essentially some 'scratched' pixels in the lower right corner which show up on a number of sprites), and also the 'cropping' algorithm sometimes leaves transparent seams, which I'm also correcting for.

Finally, in Mercy's case, her right arm being 'behind' her body when in the down position looks downright unnatural...

Others are creating new sprites as well, which theoretically might be able to use the existing file position info for body parts, but since you are in Photoshop or whatever anyways...

Sooo, since I'm upscaling most of the conversation sprites by 5% anyways (yes, Ren'Py has a rescaling option, but it's just easier to rescale them as I'm working with the images in Photoshop, that way others working with the sprites I save don't have to sweat the rescaling thing), and then resaving them to get rid of the 'bloat' on the kb size of SR7's sprites...

Again, I'm not against you scraping the position info AT ALL, and I'm sure that some will find it as very useful! I'm just explaining that I'm using my own approach to this problem, seeing that I'm already in Photoshop double checking the sprites anyways to see how well they fit together and modifying them as needed to account for 'scratches' and bad cropping and such...

BTW, shift + r (auto reload) is a quick and easy way to double check the positioning of sprites ingame, so you can nudge the xy positioning numbers around as needed in relation to each other.

The main goal here is to make it easier for total newbs that come upon this project in the future to get their feet wet, so any info that can make people's lives easier is of course welcome!

 

[Perniciousducks]

Not sure that I'm understanding the issue to be honest. I'm assuming that the resampling done by renpy isn't sufficient? But anyway, from my testing it works fine and saves a lot of time since the placement of the various image is done for you. If anyone wants to give it a whirl let me know and I'll generate it for you.

I wouldn't mind having them for stargirl, if only so I have a reference to build it all again in photoshop.

I'll try to describe what he said a little differently. For a particular scene, lets say Stargirl's spanking scene, I import all of the images that have been ripped out of SU that pertain to that scene into photoshop. I then move them all around until all of them are in the correct location for the scene.

Then to build the layered image, I re-export those png's in the more optimized png24 format built into photoshop to reduce file size, but I leave the x,y of each image the minimum amount to contain the entire scene... basically this means if there is a png of just a mouth that is 50x200 pixels, but the scene is 1500x1000 pixels, the output png of that mouth will be the 1500x1000 pixels, just most of it is transparent.

Then I don't have to do any x,y offsets when I build the layered image, because each image in the layer is exactly where in needs to be already and all of the scene images are exactly the same size.

 

[OhWee]

I wouldn't mind having them for stargirl, if only so I have a reference to build it all again in photoshop.

I'll try to describe what he said a little differently. For a particular scene, lets say Stargirl's spanking scene, I import all of the images that have been ripped out of SU that pertain to that scene into photoshop. I then move them all around until all of them are in the correct location for the scene.

Then to build the layered image, I re-export those png's in the more optimized png24 format built into photoshop to reduce file size, but I leave the x,y of each image the minimum amount to contain the entire scene... basically this means if there is a png of just a mouth that is 50x200 pixels, but the scene is 1500x1000 pixels, the output png of that mouth will be the 1500x1000 pixels, just most of it is transparent.

Then I don't have to do any x,y offsets when I build the layered image, because each image in the layer is exactly where in needs to be already and all of the scene images are exactly the same size.

This methodology is 'easier' and I'm all about 'whatever works for you', but I do copule of extra steps here. Essentially, my workflow:

1)Position all of the body parts onto a canvas in Photoshop, lining them up and double checking the alignment against the HD asset pack artwork as needed for positioning.

2) Once ALL of the body variations and such are in the same file, I change the image size (using a calculator) to upscale by 5% (or more or less if the height info conflicts with the DCAU wiki or whatever) for conversational sprites, and also other sprites to take full advantage of the 1920 x 1080 'default' window size.

3) Do adjustments to various layers/create new layers as needed to fix imperfections, create variations of existing parts for other costumes, etc.

4) Save this 'master file' so that I can revert as needed to the saved version.

5) THEN, I decide which groups I need. Once I've done this, I'll hide everything except for that body part (head, right arm, hair, whatever) that I'm working with. Then I crop the image to fit every variation of that body part, with a couple of transparent pixels as a border just because, so that I'm not saving a bunch of unnecessary pixels.

6) Save each part one by one, choosing a suitable name that makes sense that 'links' it to the other body parts in that group for that particular pose/conversational sprite.

7) Revert to my saved version, and then pick another body part, rinse and repeat, voila!

So the main difference here is me 'cropping the canvas to the minimum size needed to 'fit' each piece in that sprite group, and then using the 'Revert to last save' or going back to the point in the Photoshop history just before I 'crop' the image each time. Sure, this means that I need to find the 'manual positioning' for each sprite group in relation to the upper left corner of the 'body' sprite, but it saves pixels. As I said though, to each their own!

A quick way to get a ballpark on the positioning is to figure out how much you cropped the 'y' dimension for the main body sprite (i.e. the top 300 pixels or whatever) and then figure out how much higher/lower your current crop is vs. the 'top of the neck where you cropped the body sprite'. Dragging a 'guide' or two into your canvas at your body crop point (x and y really) can give you a 'target point' to figure your offsets. I.e. if the left arm is extending say 75 pixels to the left of where the body is cropped, there's your xoffset...

This sounds more complicated than it really is. The 'guide' idea I should use more. I'm about to save a bunch of Mercy sprites, so yeah I'll be doing that!

 

[joepe]

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That make sense I suppose. Especially wanting to optimize them.

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Yeah, I understand. One reason I was so happy when I got the export working was that I didn't have to align them in photoshop to save exactly as you describe. But again, I understand wanting to optimize them.

Also, included file for Stargirl.

 

[OhWee]

joepe!

Again, we really appreciate any help you can offer! As I said, I'm sure that others will find that info to be very useful when trying to track down sprites or whatever from the 'extracted sprites' folder. This will probably help solve a few mysteries for sprites that you just can't figure out where they get used...

So as long as you don't mind fulfilling requests, I'm sure you'll have a bunch of people asking for things!

If you want to help with some of the coding, say for girls that aren't being worked on atm, any help is appreciated! I'm more than happy to try to explain what I have going on in the 'back end' and don't mind being PMed with questions, etc.!

 

[joepe]

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And I'm happy to help!

With regards to requests I don't mind at all. I really want this to be successful
I've actually already started to look into it. So yes, I'll probably help with some of that as well.

 

[UnsavouryPursuits]

I don't think I have enough buttons on this screen yet...

View attachment 2462842

So yeah, I managed to squeeze in that 'Current Assignments button! That goes to this screen:

View attachment 2462849

I even managed to squeeze a Threat Level meter onto the Profiles screen...

View attachment 2462855

Note that I added a couple of boxes to the Corruption Bar. The Red boxes are for GS/MB performances, the Pink boxes are the 'chat only' parts of the corruption progression, with the cyan boxes being when the action starts...

I also managed to incorporate a Threat Level meter into the Villains Interface screens as well...

View attachment 2462867

I probably should rename ReImagined to Hella Button Overload, but personally I like having a bunch of options at my fingertips, as opposed to jumping between a bunch of menus to do anything...

Anyways, so yeah the Assignments screen will be a thing in the next update. I may set up a 'patch' update once I tackle a few more bugs, as opposed to a 'full' update, as the only thing I really changed was the screens here...

Back to work!

You're right, that's a lot of buttons. I'm no UI or UX guy, but I think it'd be better if you find a way to streamline the amount of information on these screens so that the user isn't completely visually overwhelmed. There's far too many little boxes and buttons IMO. Off the top of my head, I can think of maybe:

• a bar at the top or bottom of the screen where the stats like Day, Money, Threat Level permanently sit, like in base SU, just to get them out of the way. Looking at these three screens, those central stats are in different places each time which is somewhat confusing.
• making more use of drop-down menus or sub-screens (i.e., clicking on one option leads to a new menu). For example, maybe have the roster of superheroines as a base menu, and then the individual profiles open their own screen, rather than having both the profile and the 'Other Girls' menu squashed onto the same screen. Or on the Security screen, have the 'Unassign' and 'Dismiss' buttons come from a drop down menu that can be opened from a small button in the corner of the villain's picture.
• combining several of the little boxes into one single, larger box so the screen looks less cluttered.
• outright cutting pieces of text and information (I think the amount of percentages and numbers are a bit much).
• reducing the overall intensity of the colours except for on key buttons and options, in order to make those stand out more.

However, I'm aware that my suggestions would likely require a bunch more coding and recoding so feel free to ignore if you're happy with how the menus are. They're already better than the base SU's menus at any rate, both in terms of visual presentation and the fact that they actually work.

Just so this post isn't all criticism, I want to say that I think you and your collaborators are doing a fantastic job here. I've been quietly following this project since you started it and, especially after how poor the main SU has become recently, I think this really has a lot of potential.

 

[OhWee]

You're right, that's a lot of buttons. I'm no UI or UX guy, but I think it'd be better if you find a way to streamline the amount of information on these screens so that the user isn't completely visually overwhelmed. There's far too many little boxes and buttons IMO. Off the top of my head, I can think of maybe:

• a bar at the top or bottom of the screen where the stats like Day, Money, Threat Level permanently sit, like in base SU, just to get them out of the way. Looking at these three screens, those central stats are in different places each time which is somewhat confusing.
• making more use of drop-down menus or sub-screens (i.e., clicking on one option leads to a new menu). For example, maybe have the roster of superheroines as a base menu, and then the individual profiles open their own screen, rather than having both the profile and the 'Other Girls' menu squashed onto the same screen. Or on the Security screen, have the 'Unassign' and 'Dismiss' buttons come from a drop down menu that can be opened from a small button in the corner of the villain's picture.
• combining several of the little boxes into one single, larger box so the screen looks less cluttered.
• outright cutting pieces of text and information (I think the amount of percentages and numbers are a bit much).
• reducing the overall intensity of the colours except for on key buttons and options, in order to make those stand out more.

However, I'm aware that my suggestions would likely require a bunch more coding and recoding so feel free to ignore if you're happy with how the menus are. They're already better than the base SU's menus at any rate, both in terms of visual presentation and the fact that they actually work.

Just so this post isn't all criticism, I want to say that I think you and your collaborators are doing a fantastic job here. I've been quietly following this project since you started it and, especially after how poor the main SU has become recently, I think this really has a lot of potential.

Interesting suggestions!

As has been pointed out before, the main thing that is needed for an interface with this many options is a tutorial. My idea for said tutorial will pretty much 're-use' how I approached this in FmF, i.e. a pointer that moves around the screen, and a dialogue box popping up that explains each function as it's being pointed to. Said tutorial would be a 'check box' option at the beginning of the game so that 'experienced' players can simply bypass it.

As for the amount of information, it's always annoying to me when 'need to know' information is buried somewhere else than where you are currently looking. That being said, I try to put the relevant info closest to the 'thing' that you are focused on. An example of this is why the Money amount is shifted up and to the left on the profile screen as opposed to where it appears on the Managment and Assignments screen, and the Villains screen for that matter.

On the profile screen, having the 'money total' right next to the 'upgrade' button lets you know immediately how much spare cash, or how short you might be, for a particular device upgrade.

As for adding threat meters to the various screens, things that you do on those screens can affect threat level, so it's good to have a quick visual reference, and sticking a tiny threat meter in the lower left corner accomplishes that.

That being said, I've already wanted to add a switch to the Profiles screen that allows you to toggle between "currently captured gals and available targets' vs. 'All the gals'. I just need to find a decent place for said toggle... there's toggles already in place for Heroines, Guests, and Villainesses (note that i haven't created those other screens yet).

I'll also consider adding a 'lite' UI toggle, that removes some of the clutter for people that just don't want it.

I figure though that most people that are 'used' to using the UIs on the various screens will 'tune out' the information that they don't need until such time as they want it, and will be focused mostly on the scheduling buttons anyways, and the buttons that switch between screens as needed. The bigger problem is not having a 'guide/tutorial' for what the various buttons do, and that's on my 'to do' list once a few other things are taken care of.

I very much appreciate your input!

 

[UnsavouryPursuits]

I very much appreciate your input!

Okay phew, hopefully I've not come across as a demanding ass.
Ultimately, it's your game. If you think the information on the screens should be there, then go for it. You'll know better than anyone about how the mechanics are going to work. You're already doing more with the Threat Meter than SR7 ever did after Lois. As long as you explain it all and make sure it's all clarified/streamlined, then it'll be good.

Honestly, I'm happy to help out any way I can but my skills with coding or Photoshop/digital art are non-existent so I'm no use there. I'd offer to help with the dialogue, since I always felt the writing in the base game was really atrocious at times, but it seems to me you're already handling that yourself, and a single unifying voice would perhaps be better than two or more clashing styles. Even more so when it comes to the story and individual 'character arcs' for the girls, to avoid any contradictions.

 

[OhWee]

Okay phew, hopefully I've not come across as a demanding ass.
Ultimately, it's your game. If you think the information on the screens should be there, then go for it. You'll know better than anyone about how the mechanics are going to work. You're already doing more with the Threat Meter than SR7 ever did after Lois. As long as you explain it all and make sure it's all clarified/streamlined, then it'll be good.

Honestly, I'm happy to help out any way I can but my skills with coding or Photoshop/digital art are non-existent so I'm no use there. I'd offer to help with the dialogue, since I always felt the writing in the base game was really atrocious at times, but it seems to me you're already handling that yourself, and a single unifying voice would perhaps be better than two or more clashing styles. Even more so when it comes to the story and individual 'character arcs' for the girls, to avoid any contradictions.

Just to state the obvious again, this is a community project that by design is set up so that we can add new stuff to the SU environment. This INCLUDES enhanced dialogues! As an example, Perniciousducks is tweaking Stargirl's dialogues atm to 'better fit' what's going on at that point in the game. This mainly applies to 'repeat' dialogues, but a number of the conversations can use a bit of tweaking... I've tweaked a few myself...

So by all means, if you have suggestions for improving the dialogue, feel free to share them! It'll be up to whomever is working on that girl to incorporate your suggestions, but this project IS slowly moving forward and such ideas/suggestions are always welcome!

And I didn't take your comments as 'being an ass' you make good points. Once everything is in place, if things can be adjusted to be even better, I'm all for it!

 

[Teritius]

Reading all this and having no idea about game creation, would it be possible (as an option) to remove Lex's body from the scene? He's kinda a bone-killer.

 

[joepe]

So, I extracted everything I could from the original game files. Hopefully it'll be of use!

 

[OhWee]

So, I extracted everything I could from the original game files. Hopefully it'll be of use!

HOLY CODE MOTHERLODE BATMAN!

I just looked over a few of those files. You can't imagine HOW MUCH of a timesaver this is going to be going forward!

Just, WOW!

THANK YOU!!!

The SU ReImagined/ReBuilt team/community is going to LOVE having this!

 

[OhWee]

Reading all this and having no idea about game creation, would it be possible (as an option) to remove Lex's body from the scene? He's kinda a bone-killer.

I suppose that all of Lex's sprites could be replaced by transparent.png, but that might look weird having a girl being fucked by an invisible ghost, and not being able to see Lex's Johnson doing it's thing...

Also, the 'sexy fun time' sprites are designed to overlap, so the 'roughly painted in' parts that are normally hidden will show, which will look crappy...

Removing Lex sprites from the dialogue might be easier (again, jut make Lex's conversational sprites transparent) but as for the action sprites, yeah that might require a bunch of new artwork, which would take a while...

 

[Perniciousducks]

I suppose that all of Lex's sprites could be replaced by transparent.png, but that might look weird having a girl being fucked by an invisible ghost, and not being able to see Lex's Johnson doing it's thing...

Also, the 'sexy fun time' sprites are designed to overlap, so the 'roughly painted in' parts that are normally hidden will show, which will look crappy...

Removing Lex sprites from the dialogue might be easier (again, jut make Lex's conversational sprites transparent) but as for the action sprites, yeah that might require a bunch of new artwork, which would take a while...

Yeah, it'll take a lot of editing...

But great news! He can spend all the time he wants making those files and creating a girl pack to install with weird ghost fucking!




I will not be doing that. Sorry.

This feels like standard NTR insanity to the next step, he's been cucked... by himself!

 

[Macfinn99]

Have you ever considered adding waitresses to the GS? Uniform to consist of collar, bowtie, wristcuffs and a minimal apron. This option would be available only after the heroine has completed full training in the cell.

Another suggestion is to add a Lexcorp dairy products division/Milk Bar/Breast Milk Latte Coffee Bar. It would be a shame not to fully utilize all of those magnificient udders. It might be a way to utilize all of those clones that fans keep asking for.

 

[UnsavouryPursuits]

Just to state the obvious again, this is a community project that by design is set up so that we can add new stuff to the SU environment. This INCLUDES enhanced dialogues! As an example, Perniciousducks is tweaking Stargirl's dialogues atm to 'better fit' what's going on at that point in the game. This mainly applies to 'repeat' dialogues, but a number of the conversations can use a bit of tweaking... I've tweaked a few myself...

So by all means, if you have suggestions for improving the dialogue, feel free to share them! It'll be up to whomever is working on that girl to incorporate your suggestions, but this project IS slowly moving forward and such ideas/suggestions are always welcome!

And I didn't take your comments as 'being an ass' you make good points. Once everything is in place, if things can be adjusted to be even better, I'm all for it!

I won't be able to work on anything for a while yet, because I've got IRL work to get out of the way first, but if you or any of the other devs want the script for a girl just tell me what you want and I'll see what I can do.

So, I extracted everything I could from the original game files. Hopefully it'll be of use!

And this'll come in handy if I actually work on this, thanks!