Plugins VAMStory

[SCAMP]

@hazmhox I don't know where to ask for help but I did a rather substantial story and it took mehours and it was OK when I wnet to pack it down and after I 've uploaded the var to the hub people started messaging me that they couldnt start it. When I went to look, the buttons from VAMstory didn't function anymore and the dialogue seems to have disappeard. I don't know how to restore the backups because it says itäs not compatible. The only thing I did between finishing and packing it was I changed the name of the file from a number to a title. Vam story seems to have been compeltely disabled and messed up between that. Do you have any ideas how I can get my work back? I stupidly only worked on one file so I don't have any to go back to and I don't know how to use the backups

 

[atani]

@hazmhox I don't know where to ask for help but I did a rather substantial story and it took mehours and it was OK when I wnet to pack it down and after I 've uploaded the var to the hub people started messaging me that they couldnt start it. When I went to look, the buttons from VAMstory didn't function anymore and the dialogue seems to have disappeard. I don't know how to restore the backups because it says itäs not compatible. The only thing I did between finishing and packing it was I changed the name of the file from a number to a title. Vam story seems to have been compeltely disabled and messed up between that. Do you have any ideas how I can get my work back? I stupidly only worked on one file so I don't have any to go back to and I don't know how to use the backups

Something essential is that the plugin(s) must be enabled at all times, especially at scene load.
I've used the backups, manual ones only though as a kind of preset, and they've worked well so far. Worst case scenario would be to open them with a text editor and copy the story text to a new story.
Do you still have a working local scene to use?

 

[SCAMP]

Something essential is that the plugin(s) must be enabled at all times, especially at scene load.
I've used the backups, manual ones only though as a kind of preset, and they've worked well so far. Worst case scenario would be to open them with a text editor and copy the story text to a new story.
Do you still have a working local scene to use?

Yeah the timeline stuff is all there. I tried to delete Vamstory from the scene and re add it to start from scratch but vamstory doesn't want to work in this scene anymore. I might have to do it with regular vanilal buttons if nothing else.

I found the text I've weritten in the json file now too, so not all is lost, Only need to get vamstory workign again and I can do it from scratch

I don't know why it deos this? Alll the stuff is in teh json I don't understand why the game isn't reading it correctly.All this becaseu OI changed the name?

 

[atani]

Yeah the timeline stuff is all there. I tried to delete Vamstory from the scene and re add it to start from scratch but vamstory doesn't want to work in this scene anymore. I might have to do it with regular vanilal buttons if nothing else.

I found the text I've weritten in the json file now too, so not all is lost, Only need to get vamstory workign again and I can do it from scratch

I don't know why it deos this? Alll the stuff is in teh json I don't understand why the game isn't reading it correctly.All this becaseu OI changed the name?

Don't know why the backup won't work, used it several times (VAMStory Action/Director) as a kind of preset, not Story though.

 

[SCAMP]

Don't know why the backup won't work, used it several times (VAMStory Action/Director) as a kind of preset, not Story though.

I don't know how t

Don't know why the backup won't work, used it several times (VAMStory Action/Director) as a kind of preset, not Story though.

I usually make my own backups. But this story was only going to be a quick affair, but it developed into something more and bigger, however I just kept working on that one file. The only time I don't follow my standard procedures and this happens. Oh well, thank you @atani , for your help, you've at least given me a few good ideas I can use when I try to recreate it.

 

[hazmhox]

As Atani was asking, does your scene work locally? If not that's gonna be hard.
You can zip your folder and send it to me so that I can check.

If your renaming was the scene itself, it does not matter at all. The scene json does not has any effect on the data of the scene itself.

The backup system keeps 5 saves, so technically, if you haven't work a lot after that, you should still have a working copy. The system is simply a 1:1 of the data contained in the scene... so it should work, unless there's something wrong with the data itself.

If that was the case, it means the scene was already broken even before you renamed the scene. And I mean the scene. So even the backup wouldn't be able to be restored if the base scene was indeed broken.

 

[SCAMP]

As Atani was asking, does your scene work locally? If not that's gonna be hard.
You can zip your folder and send it to me so that I can check.

If your renaming was the scene itself, it does not matter at all. The scene json does not has any effect on the data of the scene itself.

The backup system keeps 5 saves, so technically, if you haven't work a lot after that, you should still have a working copy. The system is simply a 1:1 of the data contained in the scene... so it should work, unless there's something wrong with the data itself.

If that was the case, it means the scene was already broken even before you renamed the scene. And I mean the scene. So even the backup wouldn't be able to be restored if the base scene was indeed broken.

Well, I've rebuilt the entire thing. It was acutally pretty easy with the help of the old jsons. It's actualyl even better now than before. I don't know what happened to break it like that. I have no idea. One minute it was fina and the next it was unusable. Oh well.

Thanks for Vamstory, Hazmhox. It's excellent and I use it a lot.

 

[hazmhox]

Well, I've rebuilt the entire thing. It was acutally pretty easy with the help of the old jsons. It's actualyl even better now than before. I don't know what happened to break it like that. I have no idea. One minute it was fina and the next it was unusable. Oh well.

Thanks for Vamstory, Hazmhox. It's excellent and I use it a lot.

I'm glad you figured it out!

 

[SCAMP]

You won't believe it but I just came to think about why my story broke! atani said in one of his early posts that it's important to keep all Vamstory atoms ON, and yeah I knew that. But I jsut realised, my Director and my Dialog were indeed on, but I had earlier created a "Reset" actions button and just before I finished the scene I turned that Atom OFF and didn't just delete it. That's why my story broke!

Oh well I'm glad I spent a day rewriting it anyway because it came out a lot better anyway. Just thought I'd post this here for anyone who might have the same problem in the future! Keep those atoms on.

 

[hazmhox]

That's strange!

I know the on/off issue was mostly due to the synchronization system. But I never tested the actual save process of the plugin. Since it's a custom system, this might be possible that "offing" it might break the save process. Interesting. I should test this

You know what, this gives me an idea, I'm gonna make a warning for the next update when the atom containing a VAMS script is offed. That's gonna be easier for people to avoid mistakes : )

 

[SCAMP]

That's strange!

I know the on/off issue was mostly due to the synchronization system. But I never tested the actual save process of the plugin. Since it's a custom system, this might be possible that "offing" it might break the save process. Interesting. I should test this

You know what, this gives me an idea, I'm gonna make a warning for the next update when the atom containing a VAMS script is offed. That's gonna be easier for people to avoid mistakes : )

You wrote it on the download page in the instructions, and I read it and knew it and still did that mistake ? so yaeh, a clear warning might be in place

 

[hazmhox]

It's written in one of the updates. But I'm mostly mentionning the synchronization process. Unless I'm missing something I don't think I have ever seen a save issue, but this is worth a test. Thank you very much for all that feedback, this will improve the UX in general and help people understand what they should or shouldn't do ^^

 

[VAMFantasy]

Ty hazmhox as always!
You think it would be worth adding to the plugin a feature that checks precise input? Like a field in which you input text and set the "right" input. And then there is a trigger for the "right" answer and for everything that doesn't fit. Many applications here: from character's phone password or door password to answering riddles. As a way of rewarding paying attention, or exploration of the scene.

 

[hazmhox]

Ty hazmhox as always!
You think it would be worth adding to the plugin a feature that checks precise input? Like a field in which you input text and set the "right" input. And then there is a trigger for the "right" answer and for everything that doesn't fit. Many applications here: from character's phone password or door password to answering riddles. As a way of rewarding paying attention, or exploration of the scene.

That's a nice idea!
I would need to figure out the proper way to "read" the answer and compare it properly so that it's not too complex (like you know, case sensitive or not etc). I'll put that on my notes : )

 

[SCAMP]

That would be bloody awesome. That would let you create Ultima-style dialogue.

 

[zrau]

Still one of the best plugins out there.

Improvement suggestion is adding a button to trigger Vamstory from the dialogue number you have open in the actual plugin UI. Would make testing changes considerably easier so you don't have to go through the whole thing each time.

Director turned out to be surprisingly useful. I eventually ended up using it for most triggers, sometimes even ones with just one action. Set it up once, and never have to search for that logic brick or obscurely named clothing item again. Built in delays on triggers are very nice. Trigger sorting would be huge, even just making them alphabetical. All good

 

[Shadow Venom]

It might be a small bug where Spacer-type buttons break the function of Reset Action Panel. For instance, if I have 10 buttons and the 6th one is a Spacer, when I execute the reset, only the first 5 items before the Spacer will refresh and respond. It breaks at the Spacer, and the following 3 items won't refresh. Additionally, it seems to affect other copies that are sorted after it.

 

[hazmhox]

Still one of the best plugins out there.

Improvement suggestion is adding a button to trigger Vamstory from the dialogue number you have open in the actual plugin UI. Would make testing changes considerably easier so you don't have to go through the whole thing each time.

Director turned out to be surprisingly useful. I eventually ended up using it for most triggers, sometimes even ones with just one action. Set it up once, and never have to search for that logic brick or obscurely named clothing item again. Built in delays on triggers are very nice. Trigger sorting would be huge, even just making them alphabetical. All good

Thanks!
Yeah, I would need a trigger that allows to start from any dialog, which does not exists at the moment. Not a priority but if I've got time at some point I'll think about it.

Sorting is quite a pain in the ass, the refactoring for VAMS took me a long time. Extremely low priority, maybe someday if I'm motivated

It might be a small bug where Spacer-type buttons break the function of Reset Action Panel. For instance, if I have 10 buttons and the 6th one is a Spacer, when I execute the reset, only the first 5 items before the Spacer will refresh and respond. It breaks at the Spacer, and the following 3 items won't refresh. Additionally, it seems to affect other copies that are sorted after it.

Couldn't reproduce with a 12 buttons panel. Everything is resetting fine. Can you try in a vanilla scene and check if it's not a scripting issue?

 

[Shadow Venom]

Thanks!
Yeah, I would need a trigger that allows to start from any dialog, which does not exists at the moment. Not a priority but if I've got time at some point I'll think about it.

Sorting is quite a pain in the ass, the refactoring for VAMS took me a long time. Extremely low priority, maybe someday if I'm motivated



Couldn't reproduce with a 12 buttons panel. Everything is resetting fine. Can you try in a vanilla scene and check if it's not a scripting issue?

Sorry, I encountered such an issue while using previous versions in scene creation. However, I just tried the latest version and couldn't replicate it, so please disregard the previous feedback. Thank you for your response!

 

[Shadow Venom]

By the way, I have a small question. When the game is in a state where sound and motion are frozen, the buttons created by Action, except for checkboxes and similar types, do not work (the native VAM buttons can function in a frozen state). I'm curious if there is any particular reason for this design. Of course, this is not a major issue, and sometimes it can even prevent accidental operations during editing. I'm just curious.

It can be a bit awkward when there are specific actions that you want users to perform only when the game is paused. For example, loading presets through UI buttons. However, there are other ways to solve this.

 

[hazmhox]

By the way, I have a small question. When the game is in a state where sound and motion are frozen, the buttons created by Action, except for checkboxes and similar types, do not work (the native VAM buttons can function in a frozen state). I'm curious if there is any particular reason for this design. Of course, this is not a major issue, and sometimes it can even prevent accidental operations during editing. I'm just curious.

It can be a bit awkward when there are specific actions that you want users to perform only when the game is paused. For example, loading presets through UI buttons. However, there are other ways to solve this.

The design philosophy behind that is :

1. I think the global pause of VAM is a huge design flaw. You can allow a global pause system when you manage the whole execution pipeline through and through. The very core of VAM is based on custom scenes where the game itself has absolutely ZERO idea what a trigger can produce, it can enable a light, trigger animations, change states of plugins... and so on. You have absolutely no way of ensuring a proper execution of a trigger when in a paused in state.
2. Due to the previous factor, and the fact that VAMS suite can cascade several triggers with delays and such... it's very complicated to not have a scene explode because a button/action/dialog was click with the global pause enabled

Hence, the block system. And I think I caught several cases where it wasn't handled and I need to fix that.

I think meshed should have completely frozen any potential interaction through the pause system. This for me, is eventually, only a feature that should allow to reposition yourself in VR, or adjust some game settings. But the fact that you have absolutely zero idea what a trigger can execute, anything during freeze should be prevented.

This is why VAM feels so "glitchy" to newcomers. Everyone with a bit of knowledge on VAM has something in their way of interacting with a scene or handle creation that avoids them to fall into the basic "traps" (physics explosions, animation glitch, character issues and so on) because they know they should not do that or it's gonna glitch like 99% of the time.

From a certain perspective, it's kind of cool. For a developer/creator, it's a nightmare to ensure a proper smooth experience... half the support I have in some scenes is the usual "hey I did that and the scene was broken", and the answer is always "yeah, never do that in VAM, it's not gonna work".

So I design my plugin(s) to behave properly as much as I can. (it's not a magic solution, but it works most of the time)... so if you're paused, then interaction is paused. Want to interact? Unpause your game, as simple as that... like any other game

 

[hazmhox]

hazmhox updated VAMStory with a new update entry:

Features & QoL

General

• Added an alert in edit mode when "offing" the atoms or parent atoms holding VAMS plugins to prevent bugs related to having them off. (since no one reads update notes or documentation, they won't be able to say they haven't been warned... well, unless they do not read the alert window :x)
• Disabled Rich Text preview on all input fields, it was problematic with big texts or annoying to edit in the long run. You will now preview the text with the rich...

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[VamEssentials]

@hazmhox
Hi I just wrote a review on how much I like this. I've used it in a number of scenes testing it out but finally dived deeper into using it in my scene White Apartment Harem...

White Apartment Harem - Scenes -

White Apartment Harem An orgy scene with 5 beautiful ascorad models wearing cheerleader outfits: Evey, Ariadne, Trin, Amia and Amelia. The scene is built on the base animations from Ascorad's Moving Day and includes a Spy Cam view monitor with...

hub.virtamate.com

and Get Her Pregnant...

Get Her Pregnant - Scenes -

Two girl scene with blowjob animations, anal, ATM cumshot in mouth on both, and vaginal cream pie animations on both to get them pregnant. Go through all the animations with your two favorite models like usual and then at the end you can choose...

hub.virtamate.com

After spending a day trying align and fix buttons, and being close to just giving up on uploading a scene to the hub, I just switched everything to VAMStory Actions.

A few challenges I wanted to share to get your feedback, or see if maybe others may know of a possible solution to these challenges....

1. How to Trigger Buttons to Check/Adjust other Buttons/Sliders
On the Get Her Pregnant scene I have a button to choose Get Her Pregnant and originally wanted it to include a combination of options selected like Pregnant, Milk Squirting, etc. in that category. But the challenge I have is I don't know how to make it where when you click that button, it then will check the boxes on the menu or make the adjustments to the menu. What ends up happening is it will turn those on but leave them unchecked so it can get confusing and you have to toggle it on off to keep up with your settings. So I just left it on a generic Pregnancy Morph and let the user choose those additional options but I'd rather have it where it choose everything at once.

2. Updating Sliders/Dynamic Sliders
In Get Her Pregnant a challenge I have right now is going from Animation to Animation the Stroke Speed and Stroke Length are not being locked to my slider values on the menu. I put them to the max and then go to next animation and it's slow. So I have to toggle the sliders left and right to get it to sort of reset and start moving again at the speed I set originally. If it's dropping it, it would be nice to see the slider drop.

3. Dependency Issues/Clear Cache Option
When I created White Apartment Harem I tried out a lot of different models, outfits and music to see what I was planning to go with. When I went to package the VAR to upload it to the hub it listed a lot of dependencies for things I am not using in the scene. I tested out a futa option and thought about adding it to the scene but haven't, yet it shows a lot of futa related dependencies and the only thing I can think of is it is coming from rotating them through buttons or in the scene to try it out. If you look at the scene it says I am using around 200 dependencies but there are things that I am not using. After spending a few days trying to sort out some things and searching the meta.json and using notepad plus with json viewer and really trying to figure out what is going on, I see that there are some VAMStory Actions that seem to stay around after them are removed from the buttons. Even songs removed from a scene still show up in the meta.json after test packaging it and reviewing it before upload to the hub. If it's a user related error it may be related to switching modes between button and button toggle, or possibly a button that had the data on it but was converted to a spacer instead and maybe switching it didn't clear it out. This is probably the biggest challenge I have right now with using the plugin as it happened on other scenes as well initially. So I guess I am just trying to understand is it a user error, I dig through and don't find it and even removed a lot of spacers when I switched everything to sections without spacers but the dependencies are still there. When I get around to it I want to make a lite version with base models and see if I can get rid of them all or track down if it's really that high or if it's somehow coming from the buttons not clearing or updating the meta.json data.

4. Smaller Button Size Options
On White Apartment Harem I have the Settings Controller on the far right that lets you hide individual sections. I want it to be a 1 column row of buttons but the challenge is it won't let me resize the width smaller, it goes to 2 columns. No matter the combination of numbers I use for width, etc. It seems it does not recognize widths below a certain amount and has a max cap on changing. Originally the title text button was something shorter like Controller but I made it longer "Settings Controller" so it made sense that it was so wide. But I would prefer it to be the width of the average words but can't get it there with sizing.

5. Button Selection Tracking
On White Apartment Harem there is a music section where you can go through 17 tracks and pick a song to play. After clicking through a lot of them it's hard to tell which song is playing. It would be nice if there was to highlight the button that is active in that section with either a border or different color/glow. I know I can add text for on and off for each so that may be what I might try out for now but I'd have to adjust the text size on all or dimensions. I may just add a symbol for on version to see how that tracks/looks.

6. Importing Buttons into other Scenes Triggers Clear on People Sometimes
I notice that even if there is a Girl 1 in a scene, if I import the buttons in or restore them, sometimes it will reset the mapping. I go look at the buttons and it has cleared them from the backup. This may be more of a general VAM issue or maybe I did something else wrong. Mostly all mapping seems to carry over with no issue but the ones on people seem to reset even if they have the same name from scene to scene like Girl 1, Girl 2 and I have to manually remap them.

 

[hazmhox]

1. How to Trigger Buttons to Check/Adjust other Buttons/Sliders
[...]

1. How to Trigger Buttons to Check/Adjust other Buttons/Sliders

It does not exists for a "clickable" actions, I could add that. But it exists with sliders ( Set Selected Action slider value trigger ).

2. Updating Sliders/Dynamic Sliders

This is something that has changed over updates, because people asked the exact opposite (ie: "the slider forces the trigger, I'd prefer blablablah").
Calling a "Reset action" on a toggle or a slider, will reset any action to its default state AND trigger it.

In your situation, you're controlling the overall speed parameters with a single panel probably, and switching the animation. The only alternative I see at the moment, is to simply call the "Reset action" on the slider which will put the animation back to its default speed. Until there is an explicit trigger to "trigger" the current state of an action, it's the only viable alternative.

3. Dependency Issues/Clear Cache Option

I see what your problem is, and yes this is by design because I had a bunch of person telling me it was frustrating to loose the data in the triggers when switching the type. Everything keeps its data to allow you to get back on a previous setup if you want.

In your situation it shows you're working on an "iterative process" ( you don't really know what you're gonna do so most of your scene changes a lot between the beginning and the end of the development ) and you have a lot of "history" stored into the plugin. I mean, 200 unused dependencies... damn that's a lot lol... that's like if you started the scene as a lords of the rings spoof but finally ended up doing a Matrix parody :']

I generally have a very clear plan for my scenes, so I never ended up in a situation like this. And quite never had any issue with "unused data". But unless you get me a scene with that "issue" that would allow me to check if there is (or not) a data bug... this is definitely connected to the way you're working with your scenes.

The clear "unused data" might be a possibility... but since you're the only one who ever talked about that, that's not gonna be a priority.

4. Smaller Button Size Options

I gotta check if it's possible to do it without breaking anything. The base layout system of Unity impose some constraints... I'll check it out

5. Button Selection Tracking

The "per button" color system is something I want to do at some point, but I need to think the UI so that it does not become a nightmare. That's quite a big update, I don't know when I'll have time to work on that.

6. Importing Buttons into other Scenes Triggers Clear on People Sometimes

Technically, if your naming scheme is EXACTLY the same, it should work. By exactly the same it means: character name, plugin order, plugin version (apperance does not matter).

But, I wouldn't be surprised that VAM fails to "reconnect" triggers in some situations. We have noticed that quite a few times when working on a couple of plugins with Timbo. So that's beyond my control, especially if you are sure that your naming and plugins is perfect.

 

[VamEssentials]

It does not exists for a "clickable" actions, I could add that. But it exists with sliders ( Set Selected Action slider value trigger ).



This is something that has changed over updates, because people asked the exact opposite (ie: "the slider forces the trigger, I'd prefer blablablah").
Calling a "Reset action" on a toggle or a slider, will reset any action to its default state AND trigger it.

In your situation, you're controlling the overall speed parameters with a single panel probably, and switching the animation. The only alternative I see at the moment, is to simply call the "Reset action" on the slider which will put the animation back to its default speed. Until there is an explicit trigger to "trigger" the current state of an action, it's the only viable alternative.



I see what your problem is, and yes this is by design because I had a bunch of person telling me it was frustrating to loose the data in the triggers when switching the type. Everything keeps its data to allow you to get back on a previous setup if you want.

In your situation it shows you're working on an "iterative process" ( you don't really know what you're gonna do so most of your scene changes a lot between the beginning and the end of the development ) and you have a lot of "history" stored into the plugin. I mean, 200 unused dependencies... damn that's a lot lol... that's like if you started the scene as a lords of the rings spoof but finally ended up doing a Matrix parody :']

I generally have a very clear plan for my scenes, so I never ended up in a situation like this. And quite never had any issue with "unused data". But unless you get me a scene with that "issue" that would allow me to check if there is (or not) a data bug... this is definitely connected to the way you're working with your scenes.

The clear "unused data" might be a possibility... but since you're the only one who ever talked about that, that's not gonna be a priority.



I gotta check if it's possible to do it without breaking anything. The base layout system of Unity impose some constraints... I'll check it out



The "per button" color system is something I want to do at some point, but I need to think the UI so that it does not become a nightmare. That's quite a big update, I don't know when I'll have time to work on that.



Technically, if your naming scheme is EXACTLY the same, it should work. By exactly the same it means: character name, plugin order, plugin version (apperance does not matter).

But, I wouldn't be surprised that VAM fails to "reconnect" triggers in some situations. We have noticed that quite a few times when working on a couple of plugins with Timbo. So that's beyond my control, especially if you are sure that your naming and plugins is perfect.

Thank you for the detailed response, I will review it and see what I can do in the meantime. Thank you so much.