Plugins + Scripts VAMStory

[AWAKENING]

It's AMAZING!!!!
This update is definitely a milestone update - the ability to customize the position and size of the UI is really crucial.
Do you have any plans to make it compatible with older VAM version?

 

[hazmhox]

Do you have any plans to make it compatible with older VAM version?

There is no reason for me to handle older version of VAM as there is no downside updating it.

When VAMS came out two years ago, VAM was pretty much in it's final form and nothing changed pretty much. The only aspect that improved the UX overall is the alert system (which is an excellent way of giving feedback to the user). Making it compatible with versions prior to that would mean I'd need to code custom alerts and feedback for the users.

This would only be an interesting move if everyone was doing that (ie, all other plugins from different creators)... which obviously, is not gonna happen. This means that I would need to inject hours for a simple feature that does not change much in the grand scheme of things, when most other plugins will still require you to have at least the 1.20.77.13

This also means that it means that I'll need to code something for versions of VAM that were release prior to the original VAMStory release. Which means two things :

• If you're playing a scene older than VAMS release : it's impossible to have VAMStory in it
• If you're you're playing a scene older than 1.20.77.13, you can keep the old plugins versions

I know, I know... you're gonna say that you could update an old scene and put VAMS in it. But at this point, I think I'm expecting any creator upgrading a scene, to target players that have an up to date VAM. I've been maintaining some of my plugins for almost 5 years now, and I'm moving forward for people still supporting VAM and people still playing VAM on a daily/weekly/monthly basis.

If you prefer, that's like if you were asking to have Photoshop 2025 with all it's feature... but running in Windows 3.1.

And to be completely transparent, I prefer investing time and ideas in cool updates for the current VAM version, than making it compatible for 3 persons still on VAM 1.10.
If you prefer, that's gonna be a bit blunt... and I know every single bucks count for some people, but if you can't put 8$ to update VAM once every two years, I'm really sorry for these persons but I have to be pragmatic

All my plugins handle legacy content and have pretty much zero breaking changes as much as I can, and the hub allows you (if you want) to keep the historical versions to handle older scenes. You have everything at your fingertips to still enjoy old content ; )

 

[AWAKENING]

There is no reason for me to handle older version of VAM as there is no downside updating it.

When VAMS came out two years ago, VAM was pretty much in it's final form and nothing changed pretty much. The only aspect that improved the UX overall is the alert system (which is an excellent way of giving feedback to the user). Making it compatible with versions prior to that would mean I'd need to code custom alerts and feedback for the users.

This would only be an interesting move if everyone was doing that (ie, all other plugins from different creators)... which obviously, is not gonna happen. This means that I would need to inject hours for a simple feature that does not change much in the grand scheme of things, when most other plugins will still require you to have at least the 1.20.77.13

This also means that it means that I'll need to code something for versions of VAM that were release prior to the original VAMStory release. Which means two things :

• If you're playing a scene older than VAMS release : it's impossible to have VAMStory in it
• If you're you're playing a scene older than 1.20.77.13, you can keep the old plugins versions

I know, I know... you're gonna say that you could update an old scene and put VAMS in it. But at this point, I think I'm expecting any creator upgrading a scene, to target players that have an up to date VAM. I've been maintaining some of my plugins for almost 5 years now, and I'm moving forward for people still supporting VAM and people still playing VAM on a daily/weekly/monthly basis.

If you prefer, that's like if you were asking to have Photoshop 2025 with all it's feature... but running in Windows 3.1.

And to be completely transparent, I prefer investing time and ideas in cool updates for the current VAM version, than making it compatible for 3 persons still on VAM 1.10.
If you prefer, that's gonna be a bit blunt... and I know every single bucks count for some people, but if you can't put 8$ to update VAM once every two years, I'm really sorry for these persons but I have to be pragmatic

All my plugins handle legacy content and have pretty much zero breaking changes as much as I can, and the hub allows you (if you want) to keep the historical versions to handle older scenes. You have everything at your fingertips to still enjoy old content ; )

I got it! Thank you so much for your contributions to the community!

 

[VAMSOY]

Hi hazmhox,

I've been using your Action plugin for all my UI needs, and it has been working flawlessly. I’ve also used the baseline VAMStory (not just the Action version) in previous scenes. I’m aware of the “Follow Camera” option in the settings, but I wanted to ask your opinion on the best way to keep the UI fixed on the screen—such as anchored at the bottom center—regardless of camera movement, similar to an overlay UI frame.

Right now, I’m using the Headlight plugin to “pin” the UI to the screen, but it’s cumbersome and doesn’t work reliably. I’d really appreciate your thoughts on the most effective approach. Or if this would a feature in the future

I apologize if this was already mentioned in this post, I will read through them soon.

Thanks for the great plugin!!

Vamsoy

 

[hazmhox]

Hoy VAMSOY : )

VAMStory is a world UI, narration/diegetic, whatever name you wanna use for it to say "it's for in world interactions".

Due to the dual nature of VAM ( VR and Desktop ), having a UI of that sort work "locked" to the camera is pretty much impossible in VR for all sorts of reasons... so I wouldn't do a feature that is working on desktop and not in VR (and vice versa).

Also, for the overall UI/UX paradigm, I think having UI locked to the screen/camera goes against the whole immersive concept of the VAM experience, so that's not something I would really dive in/consider.

For a proper approach for this, I don't know hacks that would work (properly) without coding something.
But coding an actual HUD rendering for the camera also raises all sorts of interrogations on the VR controllers/player interactions... anyway, sadly I can't give you any pointers for an actual stable trick/hack for this, as I'm not aiming to script UI this way.

 

[VAMSOY]

Hoy VAMSOY : )

VAMStory is a world UI, narration/diegetic, whatever name you wanna use for it to say "it's for in world interactions".

Due to the dual nature of VAM ( VR and Desktop ), having a UI of that sort work "locked" to the camera is pretty much impossible in VR for all sorts of reasons... so I wouldn't do a feature that is working on desktop and not in VR (and vice versa).

Also, for the overall UI/UX paradigm, I think having UI locked to the screen/camera goes against the whole immersive concept of the VAM experience, so that's not something I would really dive in/consider.

For a proper approach for this, I don't know hacks that would work (properly) without coding something.
But coding an actual HUD rendering for the camera also raises all sorts of interrogations on the VR controllers/player interactions... anyway, sadly I can't give you any pointers for an actual stable trick/hack for this, as I'm not aiming to script UI this way.

Thank you for the detailed explanation! I hadn’t considered it from that angle. I was hoping to build a visual-novel (gal-game) style presentation within my scene, but it seems that’s not really what VAM is designed for. I’ll rethink how to present my story and UI in a way that plays to its strengths instead of forcing it into something it isn’t meant to do.

Cheers!

Vamsoy

 

[VAMSOY]

Yeah I might need to fix the shaders on overlays soon : )

I encountered the same issue - Overlay v6, and Story v38. It's weird because I remember it was working properly in one of my earlier scenes. Now the overlay fade out blocks the whole interface.

 

[hazmhox]

Thank you for the detailed explanation! I hadn’t considered it from that angle. I was hoping to build a visual-novel (gal-game) style presentation within my scene, but it seems that’s not really what VAM is designed for. I’ll rethink how to present my story and UI in a way that plays to its strengths instead of forcing it into something it isn’t meant to do.

If you're building a visual novel, then you know exactly where the dialog are triggered, and you know exactly where the player would be. So I really don't understand why you would need to lock the dialog UI to the screen.

With Spacedog we're doing visual novel style/story driven scene, none of them ever felt like requiring any locked UI. A player knows when to interact and stays "hooked" to the dialog up until it's done. I don't see no hurdle of making a visual novel thing without having the UI on the screen/camera.
I think you might be overestimating the importance of that aspect which is just a sort of "side effect" of a 2D (on screen, not VR) game.

 

[VAMSOY]

If you're building a visual novel, then you know exactly where the dialog are triggered, and you know exactly where the player would be. So I really don't understand why you would need to lock the dialog UI to the screen.

With Spacedog we're doing visual novel style/story driven scene, none of them ever felt like requiring any locked UI. A player knows when to interact and stays "hooked" to the dialog up until it's done. I don't see no hurdle of making a visual novel thing without having the UI on the screen/camera.
I think you might be overestimating the importance of that aspect which is just a sort of "side effect" of a 2D (on screen, not VR) game.

I agree with you. The reason I try to lock the UI is because I use a lot of CAMRIDE movement in my scenes (I know, this part is not like visual novels). So if I can dock the UI, it's just 1 less thing for me to think about when I design the CAMRIDE route (being lazy and all Can you point me to the visual novel style scene you and Spacedog are doing? I want to learn from it. Not sure what's the best way to change the location of the UI at this point (perhaps link it to the character's control? so it's always in view of the character)

p.s. I'm encountering a weird issue where overlay's fadeout would override vamstory's UI.

Thanks!!

 

[hazmhox]

Can you point me to the visual novel style scene you and Spacedog are doing? I want to learn from it. Not sure what's the best way to change the location of the UI at this point (perhaps link it to the character's control? so it's always in view of the character)

You can check pretty much any Spacedog scene. Or if you want the collab, you can check Scary Mary we did for previous Halloween.

p.s. I'm encountering a weird issue where overlay's fadeout would override vamstory's UI.

That's not an issue, that's the intended behavior. Refer to the most recent posts of the thread.
A fade out is a global fade out, it should block everything on screen.

 

[VAMSOY]

You can check pretty much any Spacedog scene. Or if you want the collab, you can check Scary Mary we did for previous Halloween.




That's not an issue, that's the intended behavior. Refer to the most recent posts of the thread.
A fade out is a global fade out, it should block everything on screen.

I see! So it's intended. Now I think about it, it makes sense since it's a world UI.

That being said, let's say I want to achieve the following: Diag#1 - trigger on click: fade out with overlay, Diag #2-5 - just text, no triggers, Diag #6 - click to fade in. I can't proceed after Diag #1 is clicked since the UI will be blocked. What's a good work around for that?

 

[AWAKENING]

Hi! First off, huge thanks for the amazing VAMStory plugin!
I‘m encountering an issue when using it as a dependency in my own scenes: some users report that the plugin appears to be referencing an incorrect path or resource (similar to the example in this link).
You‘re welcome to check out the "demo lite" on my main page — it might offer some clues for troubleshooting. Let me know if I can provide any other information.
Looking forward to your reply!

Since none of my testers have been able to reproduce this, I‘m a bit stuck on tracking down the cause. I was hoping you might have some insight, given your expertise with the plugin. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Just to add another data point: a friend had the same issue. I got it working by not packaging Naturalis as a dependency. Not sure why, but thought this info might help your troubleshooting!
I found another solution:
Package the textures I'm using into a separate .var file, then reference that instead.

 

[hazmhox]

Hi! First off, huge thanks for the amazing VAMStory plugin!
[...]

Hey!
You gotta give me the exact path/files/examples/json snippets directly. I don't have the time to open .vars and figure out by myself what is wrong for everyone that has a quirks in their scene

On top of that, you're talking about VAMStory as a whole, but the plugin is so massive and is a whole "toolkit" by itself now that you could be talking about any tool or any "sub module" of VAMS. So you need to also be thorough on that aspect.

I tested quite thoroughly VAMStory for assets integration, I never had any issue with it whatsoever. And I don't see how another plugin would break the save system of VAMS as every plugin is kinda "locked" to its own data. But feel free to detail your problem I'll look into it.

 

[AWAKENING]

Hey!
You gotta give me the exact path/files/examples/json snippets directly. I don't have the time to open .vars and figure out by myself what is wrong for everyone that has a quirks in their scene

On top of that, you're talking about VAMStory as a whole, but the plugin is so massive and is a whole "toolkit" by itself now that you could be talking about any tool or any "sub module" of VAMS. So you need to also be thorough on that aspect.

I tested quite thoroughly VAMStory for assets integration, I never had any issue with it whatsoever. And I don't see how another plugin would break the save system of VAMS as every plugin is kinda "locked" to its own data. But feel free to detail your problem I'll look into it.

It's VAMStoryActions Custom
I've sent the problematic file via Message — please check your inbox!

Looking at the JSON file, the paths appear to be correctly formatted as absolute paths.

               "Global_Opt_BackgroundUrl" : "SELF:/Custom/Button_BG/Play Menu BG.png",
               "Act_0-BgUrl" : "SELF:/Custom/Button/Playmenu/Part1.png",
               "Act_1-BgUrl" : "SELF:/Custom/Button/Playmenu/Part2.png",
               "Act_2-BgUrl" : "SELF:/Custom/Button/Playmenu/Part3.png",
               "Act_3-BgUrl" : "SELF:/Custom/Button/Playmenu/Part1 - Endless .png",
               "Act_4-BgUrl" : "SELF:/Custom/Button/Playmenu/Part2 - Endless.png",
               "Act_5-BgUrl" : "SELF:/Custom/Button/Playmenu/Part3 - Endless.png",
               "Act_6-BgUrl" : "SELF:/Custom/Button/Playmenu/AUTO.png",
               "Act_7-BgUrl" : "SELF:/Custom/Button/Playmenu/FREE.png",
               "Act_8-BgUrl" : "SELF:/Custom/Button/Playmenu/Embody.png",
               "Act_9-BgUrl" : "SELF:/Custom/Button/Playmenu/SPAWN.png",
               "Act_10-BgUrl" : "SELF:/Custom/Button/Playmenu/Reset.png",
               "Act_11-BgUrl" : "SELF:/Custom/Button/Playmenu/Setting.png",

This is part of json.

in the game, just like this

Hope this helps!

 

[AWAKENING]

What‘s puzzling me is that all the background paths are working, but every button path is broken:

 

[hazmhox]

That being said, let's say I want to achieve the following: Diag#1 - trigger on click: fade out with overlay, Diag #2-5 - just text, no triggers, Diag #6 - click to fade in. I can't proceed after Diag #1 is clicked since the UI will be blocked. What's a good work around for that?

Don't block ?
If you do like an overlay subtitle, script it so that it's dynamic and works by itself and fade out after a couple of seconds.

 

[hazmhox]

Hope this helps!

Thanks!

These paths are clean, I don't know how you'd end with naturalis as the ref... I'll check it out.

 

[hazmhox]

What‘s puzzling me is that all the background paths are working, but every button path is broken:

Checked a bit.
I honestly have no idea what's going on.

Paths are good, target assets are in there (in your var). I have the main menu loading properly on my end, but the settings are broken on my working/playing VAM.
On my clean VAM (with a bunch of missing dependencies), all menus are good... and I have naturalis in that build so this means that Naturalis is not involved (again, I don't see why it would).

What I'm seeing again, is that you have vars with asian characters, which as usual, are often responsible for broken paths and bugs. Which could probably induce a sort of error in the path replacement VAM does on the fly at load.

Since testing in my clean results in properly loaded UI (so this means the code/path is actually good)... I'd suggest this :
- Isolate ALL your dependencies of your scene in a folder
- Launch your VAM, load the scene
- If broken, remove one of you dependencies ( one var file )
- Restart VAM, reload the scene
- Rinse/Repeat > do this until you find what dependency causes that problem

All and all, you probably saw my demos for the plugin. Everything works both local and var format AND with plugins like Naturalis included in the scene, so this means that at least one of your deps is inducing that behavior.

 

[AWAKENING]

Checked a bit.
I honestly have no idea what's going on.

Paths are good, target assets are in there (in your var). I have the main menu loading properly on my end, but the settings are broken on my working/playing VAM.
On my clean VAM (with a bunch of missing dependencies), all menus are good... and I have naturalis in that build so this means that Naturalis is not involved (again, I don't see why it would).

What I'm seeing again, is that you have vars with asian characters, which as usual, are often responsible for broken paths and bugs. Which could probably induce a sort of error in the path replacement VAM does on the fly at load.

Since testing in my clean results in properly loaded UI (so this means the code/path is actually good)... I'd suggest this :
- Isolate ALL your dependencies of your scene in a folder
- Launch your VAM, load the scene
- If broken, remove one of you dependencies ( one var file )
- Restart VAM, reload the scene
- Rinse/Repeat > do this until you find what dependency causes that problem

All and all, you probably saw my demos for the plugin. Everything works both local and var format AND with plugins like Naturalis included in the scene, so this means that at least one of your deps is inducing that behavior.

That is really strange... I can't reproduce this issue at all, so I can't troubleshoot it either. My current workaround is to package those textures into another .var file and then call them from there.

Once again, I really appreciate the detailed answer!

 

[hazmhox]

That is really strange... I can't reproduce this issue at all, so I can't troubleshoot it either.

• You have a clean VAM? (secondary install)
• You have tested to load the scene with zero dependencies but VAMStory?

What you're showing me in your shots (the main menu broken) I don't even have that result on my end, only the settings screen is broken.
So this definitely feels like a dependency issue.

Your "fix" of doing another var is simply circumventing the "self:" reference.
Which means the problem is still there somewhere. This could probably result in some people having issues on other parts of the scene.

You have something broken in your dependencies, what, I don't know... you have to find out by doing what I suggested above.

 

[AWAKENING]

• You have a clean VAM? (secondary install)
• You have tested to load the scene with zero dependencies but VAMStory?

What you're showing me in your shots (the main menu broken) I don't even have that result on my end, only the settings screen is broken.
So this definitely feels like a dependency issue.

Your "fix" of doing another var is simply circumventing the "self:" reference.
Which means the problem is still there somewhere. This could probably result in some people having issues on other parts of the scene.

You have something broken in your dependencies, what, I don't know... you have to find out by doing what I suggested above.

I've found the issue — it was caused by having the "❤" symbol in the "Layer" and "Animation" names within the timeline plugin.

Thanks!!!!!!!!

 

[hazmhox]

Told ya!

 

[who_dis]

Is it possible to load a vamstory actions/director backup through triggers? Im trying to use the backups as a preset system (as recommended in the help section of the director plugin), but loading them all manually isnt really quick enough for the way I'm trying to implement it. Thanks for this awesome plugin btw!

 

[hazmhox]

Is it possible to load a vamstory actions/director backup through triggers? Im trying to use the backups as a preset system (as recommended in the help section of the director plugin), but loading them all manually isnt really quick enough for the way I'm trying to implement it. Thanks for this awesome plugin btw!

Nope not really, I'd need a specific path trigger which is a bit annoying UX wise. You could if you wanted, use the normal preset system. It should work, but test it first. The help says that you can use this as a preset system, but the system was initially made to create automatic backup to prevent data loss on long scene/scripting modifications.

 

[who_dis]

Thanks for the response. Yeah i kinda figured that's not what it was meant for. I'm not aware of the "normal preset system", could you point me in the direction of where to find it?