Sorry for the lack of news lately.
I have at last updated AAO with the latest development version, where the first contributions since going open source are visible.
It includes the following changes :
- Update : Updated the About page with the list which had outdated information. (AceAttorneyMaster111)
- Update : Added trial author in the player header (kwando1313)
- New feature : Defined functions str_to_lower and str_to_upper in the expression engine, to convert a string into uppercase or lowercase. (kwando1313)
- Bugfix : Inability to save during psyche locks (Enthalpy)
- Bugfix : Bad dimensioning of wide backgrounds in Chrome (Enthalpy)
- New feature : Frame presets (Unas)
I'll try to be faster next time.
Now, onto some explanation about the last feature, which is the first simple answer I came up for a recurrent complaint about V6.
As you know, V6 does not expose an "auto background" feature as V5 did. This feature used to be handy in particular when writing a court scene : it would allow to automatically select the correct background when the judge or any other character spoke, hence saving a great deal of time.
In V6, it was even better : you would set all the characters on the scene once at first, and then just picking the talking character on a frame you'd have the screen transition to his position - smoothly if needed. Well... that was until the judge intervened : being in a completely different place, it forced the author to set the whole court scene back after each intervention of the judge. Terribly unefficient.
With frame presets, this specific problem is gone.
A frame preset is an exact copy of a regular frame, which can be inserted again and again anywhere in the trial. The only difference with the original frame is that each new frame will have its own ID number.
Using the Frame presets menu next to the frame insertion bar, you can :
- Save any frame as a preset.
- Insert any of the saved presets just like you would insert an empty frame.
Keep in mind that at this point it's only a basic implementation of the concept :
- Presets are not saved yet. When you close or reload the editor (including when you save the game), presets are forgotten.
- Presets are not shared across trials.
- When you select a preset to insert, it is only identified by the content of its text box.
Future evolutions are planned on those three points : first, making the preset selection menu more helpful (showing more than just the frame text), which will be essential if you need to work with a lot of presets simultaneously; second, saving preset frames for future use, maybe even shared across trials.
Stay tuned and enjoy this update !