YEP.116 – Grid-Free Doodads – RPG Maker MV

Yanfly Engine Plugins is a plugin library made for RPG Maker MV, a wonderful piece of software to help you make that role playing game of your dreams. You can find out more about RPG Maker MV here.

You can download the plugin here:

English Mirror

Doodads.json File
Doodad Starting Pack

THIS REQUIRES RPG MAKER MV 1.3.0 OR ABOVE TO WORK! Please check your rpg_core.js file to make sure it says 1.3.0 or above. If it isn’t updated, visit this thread for the update.

In RPG Maker MV, tilesets are used for mapping purposes. Tileset A is used for drawing land while Tilesets B through E are used to add doodads. But in RPG Maker MV, doodads added by Tilesets B through E are locked to the grid and add a rather unnatural feel to it. This plugin will allow you to break free of the grid and add doodads unbound by the grid. Doodads can come in all forms, from large to small, static and animated, you name it!


Introduction


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In RPG Maker MV, tilesets are used for mapping purposes. Tileset A is used for drawing land while Tilesets B through E are used to add doodads. But in RPG Maker MV, doodads added by Tilesets B through E are locked to the grid and add a rather unnatural feel to it. This plugin will allow you to break free of the grid and add doodads unbound by the grid. Doodads can come in all forms, from large to small, static and animated, you name it!


Instructions – Requirements


There’s a couple of things you must do in order to get this plugin working.

1. You must have the Doodads.json inside your project’s ‘data’ folder.
2. You must have a ‘doodads’ folder inside of your project’s ‘img’ folder (unless you named it something else in the plugin parameters).
3. You must have your doodads within this folder.

You can find the above resources in the links above!


Instructions – Placing Doodads


To place doodads into your game, first, load up your game in Test Play mode. You can do this by opening up your game in RPG Maker MV, go to ‘Game’, then select ‘PlayTest’ (shortcut Ctrl+R).

Once you’ve loaded onto a map that you want to place doodads on, press the F10 key to access the doodad editor. From there, you can select the option: ‘Place Doodads’ to start placing doodads.

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Main Menu
The main menu is the first menu you see when you press the F10 key on a map.

Place Doodads
– This will take you do your doodads folder, where you can select a doodad to place on the map.

Edit Doodads
– This will allow you to edit the doodads that you have already placed on the map. Here, you can select which doodads based on the layer they’re on or from all doodads at once. Doodads are ordered based on their position from top to bottom, left to right.

Clear Doodads
– This will clear all doodads on the map.

Toggle Region Overlay
– This will cause an overlay of the regions to appear on your screen to show you what tiles are affected by which regions. Use it again to hide the regions.
WARNING: Using this on large maps for the first time will cause a bit of lag as the regions have to load. The larger the map, the longer the amount of time is required for it to load.

Cancel and Close
– This will remove any changes made to the doodad settings on the map and close out of the Doodad Menu.

Save and Close
– This will save any changes made to the doodad settings on the map and close out of the Doodad Menu.

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Doodad List
The doodad list will show a list of all the doodads you can use for your map based on the current folder it’s in. There are three types of options you can select from here:

IconSet
– This will let you make a doodad out of an icon from the iconset. Take note that doodads made from icons are a bit more restrictive and cannot make use of hue changes. This will take you to a menu where you can select which icon you wish to use then go to the Doodad Placing Mode.

Folders
– Folders will be marked with a / at the end of the name and will have an icon shared by all other folders. Selecting a folder will go into that folder’s contents (and further).

Images
– Images will show a small preview of themselves to the left of the name. These images can be used as doodads without any restrictions. Selecting an image will take you to the Doodad Placing Mode.

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Doodad Placing Mode
When you’re in Doodad Placing Mode, you’ll notice a small section of the screen below with some instructional text.

Q E – Layer -/+
– This allows you to decrease or increase the doodad’s current layer.

T – Tweak Settings
– Pressing this will open up the Doodad Settings menu.

W A S D – Move Screen
– This will move the screen around so you can have a clear view of the map without needing to reposition the player character.

↑←↓→ – Precision Move
– Pressing the directional keys will allow you to move the doodad using the keyboard instead of the mouse. If you wish to move using the mouse, just click on the map somewhere to return control back to the mouse.

Z X – Place or Cancel
– Pressing Z will place the doodad in its current state on the map.
– Pressing X will return you back to the Doodad List (or the Icon Picker if you were placing a doodad made from an icon).

There are some hidden keyboard commands that you can use. These are rewarded to the users who read these instructions carefully. Hooray for you!

H – Hide/Show the Instruction Window
– Pressing H will hide the instructional window so you can get a clear view of where you’re placing the doodad. Pressing it again will make it show back up.123

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 – Quick Opacity Change
– The 1 through 0 keys (not NumPad) will allow you to quickly adjust the opacity level of the doodad. 1 will set 10%, 2 sets 20%, 3 sets 30%, etc. However, 0 will set 100%.

G – Grid Snap Menu
– This opens up the Grid Snap Menu where you can activate or deactivate Grid Snapping and the grid snapping parameters.

R – Region Overlay
– This will cause an overlay of the regions to appear on your screen to show you what tiles are affected by which regions. Press R again to hide the regions.
WARNING: Using this on large maps for the first time will cause a bit of lag as the regions have to load. The larger the map, the longer the amount of time is required for it to load.

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Doodad Settings
When pressing ‘T’ during the Doodad Placing Mode or accessing individual doodads, you will come across the Doodad Settings.

Change Position
– Only selectable if accessed from individual doodad management. This will allow you to reposition the doodad.

Layer
– This allows you to change the layer of the doodad. Higher layers will make the doodad appear above others (and characters) and lower layers will cause doodads to appear below.

Hue
– Changing to hue will change the doodad’s current color shift. Be warned as this process takes up a lot of processing power, and I highly advise against using doodads of different hues if you plan to export to mobile.

Opacity
– Changes the opacity of the doodad. When the opacity value is higher, the doodad will be less transparent. When the opacity value is lower, it will be more transparent.

Scale X, Scale Y
– This changes the amount of stretch on a doodad. X will cause a doodad to stretch horizontally while Y will cause the doodad to stretch vertically. If you decide to use a negative value, it will cause the doodad to mirror.

Anchor X, Anchor Y
– This sets the base coordinates of the doodad to be located. How other doodads/objects of the same layer interact with this doodad will be based on its coordinates.

Frame Speed
– If the doodad is animated, you can adjust the frame speed of the doodad here. The number represents the number of frames that must pass before the doodad updates to the next animation cell. This means lower numbers have faster animations while higher numbers have slower animations.

Blend
– Allows you to change the blend modes of the doodads. Blend modes will cause color differences based on the blend mode type to fit in with the visual effects behind it.

Smooth
– Let’s you choose whether or not you want to load the doodad with either smooth or hard edges.

Delete Doodad
– Only selectable if accessed from individual doodad management. This will let you delete the doodad and then return to the doodad management list.

Revert Settings
– Cancels all of the settings made and returns back to your previous mode.

Accept Settings
– Accepts all of the settings made and returns back to your previous mode.

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Instructions – Making Your Own Doodads


Doodads only have two requirements.

1. They must be PNG’s.
2. They must exist within the ‘doodads’ folder (or specified folder from the plugin parameters) or within a folder inside the ‘doodads’ folder.

If a folder is placed inside of the ‘doodads’ folder, it will be listed as on the doodads list as a directory tree to navigate through.

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Making Animated Doodads
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Doodads can be made into animated doodads. An animated doodad is one that will animate whenever the game’s graphics update. Follow these steps to make an animated doodad:

1. Create a doodad with a cell layout similar to a sprite.
2. Each cell must be the same width and height as the other.
3. When naming the doodad, add [AxB] in its name. Replace A and B with numbers representing the number of cells horizontally (A) and the number of cells vertically (B). A doodad with 3 horizontal cells and 2 vertical cells would be named something like ‘Torch [3×2].png’.
4. The doodads cells will animate left to right. Once they reach all the way right, they will move down a row and update left to right again. The doodad named ‘Torch [3×2].png’ will update like such:

0 1 2
3 4 5

And that’s how you would go about the creation of an animated doodad. If this is confusing, look at some of the examples provided from Yanfly.moe.


Happy RPG Making!