itch.io

This is the final script:

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/3v5h3i26wihbp/goliard

Uploaded so far: Act 1. Working on Act 2...

Thank you!  Still working on it...

Hi,

I've just spent two weeks working with Capsule every day for a game jam.

Here's a link to my entry:

https://itch.io/jam/parody-games-jam/entries - (Iran B4 I Could Walk)

I've got some random observations on my experience. This isn't a comprehensive list (!), but as I've just finished and these things are still fresh in my mind, I thought you might appreciate some feedback.

The list falls into five categories:

1. Stuff I love 
2. Stuff I like but needs attention
3. Stuff which is annoying
4. Stuff which is INFURIATING
5. Stuff which is missing

==========================================================

1. Stuff I love
---------------
1. The PAN & ZOOM command works really well! Wasn't expecting it to be so smooth. Already thinking of ways I can use this in the future.

2. Stuff I like but needs attention
-----------------------------------
2. The sprite sheet animation works nicely but needs more control, like specifying time intervals with more precision.

3. Stuff which is annoying 
--------------------------
3. Sounds did not appear to be included when I uploaded the HTML file 
to itch.io. The sounds are pretty rudimentary, but I took some time on them. Sounds work fine on my local machine. They were part of the whole 
experience and now they're not there...

4. Stuff which is INFURIATING
-----------------------------
4(a) If you have a large number of scenes, and you want to introduce a 
new scene at the beginning, that scene is created at the bottom of a 
'ladder' of scenes. You then have to inch it up the ladder, one step 
at a time, until you reach the top. I had to do this several times, 
eventually with clenched teeth... Why not make a newly-created scene 
appear below the current scene?

(b) The DELETE button for OVERLAY does not work. I had to make a 'dummy' overlay containing nothing and then load it in order to cancel.

(c) The DELETE button for SFX does not work. I had to make a 'dummy' 
sound effect containing nothing and then load it in order to cancel.

(d) Towards the end of the jam I needed to start in a different place. 
It took me some time copying and pasting assets to get this to work. 
Being able to nominate the START scene would be a big improvement.

5. Stuff which is missing (in my opinion)
-------------------------
5(a) There is no way to introduce a character from off stage, or to get 
them to leave. At present there are a lot of these moves available for 
backgrounds, and none for characters. This is the wrong way round: I want 
to slide a character in and out from off stage-- I don't care about the 
background so much.

(b) I'd like to see some more timing possibilities, eg when a dialogue 
has finished, trigger an animation... Perhaps some tutorial on whether 
this could be accomplished using CapsuleScript?

Sorry this is so long!

goliard

Thank you! Yes, original intent was to have a 'play' in five acts -- this is just Act 1. The script is written, just ran out of time, as is so often the case!

For some reason the sound has not been copied to this. Apologies for that.

No problemo! Kudos for responding so quickly!

Hi,

Still not working. The app exported OK this time, but I can't open the captioned clip (tried several players).

The console readout was too long to print here...

EDIT:

The strangest thing...I returned to the captioned clip 40 minutes later, and now it's working ok. What did I do?! Or maybe what didn't I do?

App won't export captioned movie clip

Just bought this app, and wanted to try it out straight away. Loaded an MP4 movie clip, added some subtitle text from a sample SRT file, and when I tried to export the captioned file, I kept getting errors. This seemed a simple process, so I don't know what I am doing wrong, if anything. This is the console readout:

Running export command:

---------------------------------------------------------------

C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\_MEI213482\ffmpeg\bin\ffmpeg.exe -y -hide_banner -i C:\Users\User\Videos\4K Video Downloader+\Smooth Animation explained everything you need to know.mp4 -filter_complex [0:v]setsar=1,format=yuv420p[canvas];[canvas]subtitles=filename='C\:/Users/User/AppData/Local/Temp/glidecaps-7vah3qbr/captions.ass',format=yuv420p[vout] -map [vout] -map 0:a? -c:v libx264 -preset medium -crf 18 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a aac -b:a 192k -movflags +faststart D:\App_Overflow\Video_Editor\Video_sub_titlers\Glide_Caps\exports\Smooth_Animation_captioned.mp4

[ffmpeg] [AVFilterGraph @ 0000023d3e4ab8c0] Error initializing filters

[ffmpeg] Error : End of file

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "glidecaps.py", line 2636, in _run_export_worker

  File "glidecaps.py", line 1044, in export_captioned_video

RuntimeError: [AVFilterGraph @ 0000023d3e4ab8c0] Error initializing filters

Error : End of file

---------------------------------------------------------------

Can you help?

Unconfirmed 883349.crdownload

Just paid for and downloaded the app, and got the message above. Thought it must be a mistake, reloaded it, and it happened again...

EDIT:
I left it for several hours, tried again a fourth time and it worked -- playing with it right now

Thanks for the quick reply! Version 2.0 sets out an incredible roadmap -- I'm not surprised it's going to take some time. Meanwhile, there's a lot to learn about the current release!

Thanks for the quick reply!

Not a bug -- just like to know if custom-built palettes (or downloads from lospec.com) are possible.

Hi,

Been doing some quick testing of the sprite animation, and everything works fine except for one thing. I instructed the program to only play the animation once, but it played 3 times. (I've put all the files concerned in a zip file if you are interested). Test file Note: the artwork isn't mine, it belongs to a web illustrator called Grickle -- I just animated one of his characters.

NOTE: I looked at how other engines deal with spritesheet animation. Here is an interesting approach in RenJS:
https://renjs.net/docs-page.html
(Search for CGs)

So one spritesheet could contain several animations. It would also be useful to be able to play them backwards as well as forwards!

(Please tell me if I should dial back the feedback -- don't want to overwhelm you...!)

Wow. This is a very ambitious roadmap! (I mentioned Inochi2D because it is an open-source alternative to Live2D, so it's encouraging for me to hear that you are considering it!). I have started to look at Capsule 1.9, and I will give you some feedback soon, if you'd like. You are proceeding at an astonishing rate -- this is going to be the best visual novel engine on the market, I am convinced!

EDIT: Not only that -- you could write RPGs and adventure games with it as well...

Some more sophisticated dialogue and choice management, and dialogue branching (like, say, Adventure Game Studio). And a layer system. But honestly, you've come so far so fast, this seems like nit-picking. I was going to ask about animation and sprite sheet support, but you're already doing it! Bravo!

EDIT:

It is still a bit volatile at present, but you might think about Inochi2D for the future. It is an open source alternative for Live2D, a pseudo-3D puppet app for games (and, presumably, visual novels):

https://inochi2d.com/

It does make characters seem more alive, if used well...

Capsule just keeps getting better and better...

Thank you! Happy to hear that these issues are easy to fix! The project is looking great!

This is fantastic! Congratulations on all your hard work -- and just in time for NaNoReNo! Can't wait to try all these things out...

EDIT:

Downloaded 1.8.32, thought I'd give the 'hotspot' action a try.  I couldn't select a scene for the clicked hotspot to jump to: a list of options flashed up, and disappeared before I could select anything! (It was like this for both the 'On click' option lists).

ANOTHER EDIT:

Exported the file I've been working on -- when I re-started Capsule, and tried to import it, I got an error message - 'Invalid file format'. That's a bit worrying...

You probably already know this, but if you don't, lospec.com has a great collection of 4-colour (and many other) palettes... https://lospec.com/palette-list

No apologies needed. Refund is unnecessary. Everything works really well! I am very pleased with the results. One question -- can I import my own (4 colour) palettes?

Just paid for and downloaded your app (looks great, by the way!), and I got the message "This app can't run on your PC".  I don't usually have this problem - Windows 10 desktop - so I'm wondering what to do next...?

A better name would be piXYZels...

Makes sense,  thanks!

Hi,

This project is proceeding very quickly! I love the splash screen solution -- very simple and elegant. However, I downloaded the latest build (1.2.7) a few moments ago, and now unfortunately I can't add a new scene any more. I installed it from my itch.io collection page: this shouldn't make any difference, should it?

goliard

I liked it. Even at this early stage of development, it shows how the app can be used to build a complete visual novel.

goliard

Brilliant! Keep it coming!!

Hi

How come I didn't notice that DELETE button? Weird.
Great to see things are moving fast! I'll play with it again in a little while

g

Another short test

https://goliard.itch.io/another-capsule-vn-test

...and some observations:

• It would be nice to be able to delete a scene
• For cut scenes, splash screens etc, it would be good to lose the text box completely and have just a blank screen to play with
• I find the character appearance action inappropriate on occasions -- that little jump at the start of the scene can break the flow and even look a little comic at times: it would be nice to have an option of just a straight 'cut' with no action for characters
• There is an anomaly with backgrounds -- after two or three scenes with identical picture formats (webp, jpg and so on), I have had to change the picture format to get the next background to load

But yeah, it's simple and straight forward, so kudos so far!

goliard

Hi

Very responsive, thanks! I'll check it out

g

Hi Capsule Team,

I think the easiest method is uploading the test to my itch.io account so you can download it from there:

https://goliard.itch.io/capsule-vn-test

Regards,
goliard

[UPDATE]

I substituted  a webp background image instead of the original jpg and it worked fine... Something to think about...?!  It would also be useful to duplicate a scene, or allow a background to run across several scenes - that would be efficient.

Hi

Just tried a VERY simple 3-scene fragment, and the background refused to load on the 3rd scene. I'm on a Windows 10 desktop.  (The background for the 3rd scene is identical  to the first two).

I can send you the exported HTML file if you want it.

goliard

Now it works fine! I really like the UX -- very friendly and intuitive. Hope to use it for a project soon.

I tried all that. It didn't work.

Seems fine, mechanics look good, but can't change the language to English...

Can I import artwork created in other programs? I'm assuming the answer will be 'yes' ?

Any news on possible upgrades from Version 1?

No, that doesn't work. Setting that field to "contain" does not change the proportions of the background image, and when I try to resize it the image jumps erratically. Like I said before, I really like the concept, but I'm sorry to say that the program is not usable in its present form, in my opinion.

Hi,

Trying to work with VN Gen -- can't seem to get past the background! 

This is a screen grab of the problem. The picture in the black inset at bottom right is the correct proportion; at top is how it appears in the program. Despite 'handles' appearing at the edges of the separate regions of the image, it is not rescaleable (incidentally, this is true of all panes). So I'm kind of stuck.

J

Great quality. Worth every penny. Would love to see (and buy!) cathedral and tavern interiors at the same scale..

Thank you! I'll try this later on. This is such a cool idea for VN development