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Author Topic: Old RPGMaker content  (Read 2427 times)

Neonivek

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Old RPGMaker content
« on: March 07, 2014, 09:34:38 pm »

Where is a good place to find the old RPG maker content for the new RPG maker? As well as a good place for content in general?

It sounds strange... but I actually like a lot of RPGmaker's old stuff because of how much you could do with it. the new stuff is usually so specific that you couldn't do anything with it on its own.

I miss my old RPGmaker quite a bit. Though not because I found it better but rather because it had all the content I downloaded.
« Last Edit: March 07, 2014, 09:36:25 pm by Neonivek »
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freeformschooler

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Re: Old RPGMaker content
« Reply #1 on: March 07, 2014, 10:03:19 pm »

http://charas-project.net/ used to use this a bit

Not sure where you could find good tileset stuff, but it's strewn across the 'net.
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KoE

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Re: Old RPGMaker content
« Reply #2 on: March 08, 2014, 05:59:03 pm »

What exactly are you looking for? I know a bit about converting from RPG Maker 2000 and 2003 to RPG Maker VX / VX Ace (and not the foggiest about RPG Maker XP), so basically everything I say is for doing that. Also note that I don't know of any places that host converted content; I mostly just have tools/techniques.

For Facesets, you should just be able to resize them to 2x using GIMP or something similar and the results should be passable. If you use FaceMaker (which was fairly popular in ye olden dayes), you should be able to save them at VX/Ace's default resolution of 96x96.

For Charsets, try searching for 'RPG Maker CharConverter'; If I remember correctly, this program will automatically rearrange charsets from earlier makers to match the format of VX/Ace. It's rather poorly translated Japanese, and if memory serves you need to select one of the options to make it resize (to 2x) or the characters are ludicrously small.

For Tilesets, you are basically SOL. I've seen lots of requests to convert them but no actual conversions. It CAN be done, and it's a relatively simple (but incredibly tedious) process of copy/pasting and resizing (again, to 2x). If you're interested in going through the hair-tearing experience for yourself, I might be able to raid my other computer for some templates from when I tried to do this. (I succeeded in converting a single Mac & Blue tileset; I could upload that too, I guess).

Panoramas/Background would need to be resized for the newer, smaller resolution (which is something odd that escapes me; you'd have to check the documentation), or you could find a Script that allows you to resize the screen to the older makers 640x480 (which changes the size-in-tiles of the map to the original 20x15 rather than the newer I-think-like-17x13?) I know either Yanfly's basic engine or his battle engine has that as an option.

Enemy battlers would probably look fine, size-wise, at a 2x resize.

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Some people don't like the 2x resize because it makes everything so obviously low-res; YMMV (mine does). 'Course you don't have much choice if you want to reuse the old stuff.

As for where to find content, Charas is the only English site I can think of offhand. I usually do some heavy googling if I'm looking for stuff (or use the old Charas offline generator). As far as tilesets go, I've always liked Mac and Blue and Theodore's stuff. You might also look around RPGMakerVXAce.net and the official forums; you might find a few topics talking about older stuff conversions.
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Neonivek

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Re: Old RPGMaker content
« Reply #3 on: March 08, 2014, 06:18:55 pm »

There are generally two things I'd want from the old game.

The Chipsets / Animations (The spells and stuff... which unlike most people I consider to be superior to the VX content... Sure it isn't as high-res but it was more flexible with what you could do with it. The current stuff is mostly overdesigned and you REALLY have to be creative if you want to do anything but EXACTLY what they made it for)

As well as the music (since the sound effects... the one thing that could have used an upgrade... is still the same)... though I cannot remember if the current music is new or not...
« Last Edit: March 08, 2014, 11:45:06 pm by Neonivek »
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KoE

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Re: Old RPGMaker content
« Reply #4 on: March 09, 2014, 09:52:04 am »

Ah! I see what you mean now. I agree that the newer animation files are difficult to work with and probably too flashy for their own good. I didn't even think about them because I usually I just wind up using the defaults (for the few quick projects I actually release to people) or never getting around to messing with them because that's usually not what I consider fun (for all the projects that never get anywhere).

Luckily all you need to do is resize to 2x and import whatever you find/have for 2k/3 and you should be good to go.

For newer stuff, the Resource Staff at RPGMakerWeb has a buttload of resources, including a fair number of battle animations. (I can't speak to the quality or ease of use of the battle animations; some of the music is pretty good, but all I really scrutinized were the Scripts).

You can also use whatever midis you've got in RPG Maker VX Ace, but you have to manually add them to your [Project]/Audio/BGM directory because the program doesn't identify them as valid for import. Once they're there, though, you can use them like any other song. The program does have its own midi soundfont (or whatever you call it), so it's likely they'll sound different played from RPG Maker than whatever media player you use. The only way I can think of to get around that is somehow recording the midi as it plays and saving that as an mp3 or whatever.
« Last Edit: March 09, 2014, 09:54:23 am by KoE »
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