Modding Discussion Possibility of Player Portrait?

Discussion in 'Mods' started by Fawnd, Mar 11, 2016.

  1. Fawnd

    Fawnd Void-Bound Voyager

    I've played many a games that fall into the same "farm/life simulator" category as stardew valley and in a majority of them the player character normally has their own portrait like that of the NPCs...

    Now I know most of the games in this same category also don't really have the ability to customize your character quite like SDV has, but is it even possible for your character to have their own portrait during cutscenes?

    Even if it's just someone playing with the coding of the game to ALLOW the option to add in your own art for them that would be cool... But what I'm wondering is if it's even possible and if so, is there anyone out there that's wanting or trying to attempt it?
    I'm not very tech savy (most of my experience is in visual art for games) so I wouldn't know the first thing about this;;
     
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    • keyten

      keyten Cosmic Narwhal

      Adding new images into the game is already possible. Coding portrait will be harder but may be possible.
       
      • Ingway

        Ingway Subatomic Cosmonaut

        As in you'd be able to see it in the menu instead of our sprite with a little background? Cause our character dosn't get lines so outside of that i can't imagine a situation where the portrait would come into play.
         
        • Fawnd

          Fawnd Void-Bound Voyager

          I know I can add images (like replacing other character portraits and sprites already existing in the game) but I would mainly like to see my character as more than a little sprite walking around at some point? It would be nice at least though I assume it would be tricky...
           
          • Fawnd

            Fawnd Void-Bound Voyager

            Oh I didn't think about that! I suppose changing the menu sprite to be a character portrait instead would probably be easier in that case. You're right about the not speaking as well, didn't really think that through on my part lmao 0x0
             
            • serpentwined

              serpentwined Scruffy Nerf-Herder

              That's actually a great idea, because I would like to use the portrait I made c: I didn't think about that until reading this.
               
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              • Acrimonia

                Acrimonia Subatomic Cosmonaut

                For cutscenes, you might be able to call it as a seperate overlay like the fishing menu, but that'd be pretty hacky, and probably not too stable. Perhaps there's a more elegant solution using API? It really depends on where and when you'd want to see it, but it's certainly a nice idea.
                 
                • Fawnd

                  Fawnd Void-Bound Voyager

                  Hmmm Ingway mentioned replacing the character/background combo on the pause menu so that might be a place to start? It looks like there's a fair amount of coding put into that too though considering it changes depending on character appearance, time of day, and season, but I wouldn't write it off as impossible?

                  Either way that seems like it would be a bit easier and you'd be able to see your image whenever you wanted...

                  If someone ends up being able to implement a feature like that I'd love to get my hands all over making a player character base 8^o
                   
                  • Acrimonia

                    Acrimonia Subatomic Cosmonaut

                    This is a bit outside of my scope, and I'd guess it'd required heavy use of the API to have something that 1): worked and 2): looked nice.
                    And I wouldn't want to give too much hope to an idea that will probably be tricky to implement and fit both those criteria...
                    But since I'm hoping to poke around with things later, I'll keep it in the back of my mind, and comment on this thread if something comes to mind.
                     
                    • Fawnd

                      Fawnd Void-Bound Voyager

                      Haha yeah I figured it would take a bit more work;; I'd try it myself if I knew much at all about the technical aspects of the game.

                      But thank you! I saw a thread about something similar a few days ago and figured it wouldn't hurt to raise the question again since the modding community is moving so fast... I
                      'd really appreciate it if you let me know if you figure anything out! ^u^
                       
                      • Acrimonia

                        Acrimonia Subatomic Cosmonaut

                        Will do! :nod:
                         
                        • Sadron

                          Sadron Ketchup Robot

                          There has to be some way we could get the differing hair and skin colors into a sort of modular character portrait...
                           
                          • Fawnd

                            Fawnd Void-Bound Voyager

                            I'd think it would use the same kind of coding as the game uses to determine your in world sprite's appearance?
                            Or at the least someone could make some sort of template that others can add to for their characters appearance like a sheet with a standard face and dragable features like the hairstyles from the game, different mouths/noses/eyes, and a default shirt that people can edit... Sorta like a pixelated dressup doll or something?
                            It's really not that hard to repackage a file for the game if you've got what you need for it tbh so I'm not sure the appearance changes would be that big of an issue if people wouldn't mind putting together their own sprites if given the necessary resources...
                            The real issue would be with figuring out how to even begin to implement a feature like this, I'd think :^o
                             
                            • keyten

                              keyten Cosmic Narwhal

                              Well, we have a mod that adds custom health bars to monsters. So it is possible to add custom sprites to overlay.
                              So we just need a sheet or couple of sheets of portraits.
                              At least we can use forum avatars as portait.
                               
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                              • Trestkon

                                Trestkon Void-Bound Voyager

                                Oh man this thread was exactly what I was planning to post next, I've been wondering about the possibility for our own character portrait, just so when we're interacting it dosen't seem too faceless.
                                 
                                • Chief@ROD

                                  Chief@ROD Space Spelunker

                                  But Our Character is hardly speaking at all , just responding to what people say to him/her

                                  But it's nice to have one tho
                                   
                                  • Trestkon

                                    Trestkon Void-Bound Voyager

                                    Yeah I know, but like you said just so it can be nice to have one and to put a face to our guy/girl. :)
                                     

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