How do I change the borders of the text boxes?
In this article we're going to see the various ways to change the colors and the appearance of the borders of the text box.
Contents |
[edit] Change the color of the borders
-> of text boxes created under custom.
To change the color of the borders of the text box we need to edit the General Game Data. Then you go down on Master palettes. Then you edit the "user interface color". The box style used by default is style 0. Go down until you reach the box styles.
It is composed of
box style color #allows you to change the color of the body of the text box box style border box style border image
To make our test we're going to work on box style n°2. The function we need is box style border so go until you see
box style 2 border 60
To change the color we just need to change 60 by another figure. Let's say you want yellow borders. So key in 16.
box style 2 border 16
There a small sample text box on the top right corner. So you can try all the colors you want without needing to get back! Great isn't it? ^_^
Now we need to give the demo text box the correct style so that you can use it in your game.
Go back and edit the text boxes. Pick up a free one. Let's say text box 70. Edit the appearance and
get down. Change value and put
box style 2
You have finished and can know save your game. Feel free to give this text box to a sample NPC and make him speak.
-> of text boxes created with plotscripting.
Sometimes when you need to create text box with plotscripting you also need to be able to change the color of the borders. Here is how to do!
First edit the master palette, and then the "user interface color" and modify your style (see above for more details)
plotscript, sample text box, begin variable (text box) text box:= create rect (140, 150, 2) #the third figure in the parenthesis corresponds to box style. So be sure you have two end #end of the script
Give the script "sample to an NPC and test the whole thing. You may be happy to know that you can change the color border throughtout plotscripting. The command is called
set rect style (handle, style)
In the case of your example if we would like to change from style 2 to style 4 this would become
variable (text box) set rect style (text box, 4)
[edit] use the box edges you have made
This function is useful when you want to use images as borders for your text box. This is a little tricky because the border is divided in 15 parts and you need to draw them in the right place inside the drawing box and in a precise order. To help you to see what part you need to draw in each section I've made a sample bow edge set for you. Click above to download them.
Then launch custom.exe and edit the graphics. Then go down and pick up
draw edge box
Go back under windows. Unzip the box edge in a directory where you are you'll find them easily. To help custom.exe to find them, I advise you unzip the box edges in a sub-directory of the one in which custom.Exe is installed. Then press enter.
Choose a free palette with the mouse (let's say palette 14) and then press is. Browse into the directory in which the box edges have been unzip and choose box edge 0. Choose to overwrite the palette and start importing (starting from the left indeed). Do the same thing for parts 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14, 15. We have pick box edge set number 0
You can choose to overwrite the palette each time, it is not very important... if you have not forgotten to select a palette. Then go back and edit the General Game Data. You can now go down on Master palettes and finally edit the "user interface color". The box style used by default
is style 0. Go down until you reach the box styles.
As we have seen before a text box is composed of
box style color #allows you to change the color of the body of the text box box style border box style border image
The one we need this time is box style border image. It is important not to modify box style 0 because it is the one used by default. Let's make a text with text box n°3. Go down until you can read
box style 3 border image: none
As you can guest wee need to change this to
box style 3 border image: 0
Now back and pick up a free text box. Give it box style 3. You will see nice blank borders appearing ! Save your game! You have finished! Well... not really! I strongly recommend you to use your imagination and to start to draw you own box edges.
Go back to the menu and edit a new set. Use the one I gave you an indication to see where you need to draw them. It should help you to make your drawing covers precisely the border (not too far away or not before the limit of the inside). Good luck!
[edit]
If you have made you own menu and/or mini game you also want you menus to have the same texte box style to your dialogues boxes and your menu. You can easily do that after using the background function of the menu.
Launch custom.exe and edit the menu. Pick up the menu you need to adapt the style and go down on background. By default you can see
background 0 #the menu have the same box style as the dialogue boxes by defaults.
In the example above we modified box style 3 so that it can use images (box edges) as borders for the text boxes. You can do that to the menu by changing
background 3 #the menu uses box style 3 defined on the master palettes sub menu
[edit] Advice to remember
- Box style 0 is used for all the text boxes and the menu by default. So I strongly recommend you NOT to modify
it because it the modifications are hugly it will affect all the text boxes at the same time.
- Each style has a harmony between the border line and the color inside the box. Generally
you have a nice light color (red, green, yellow) for the border and the same color is repeated ( but the tone chosen is a bit darker compared with the one used for the borders)
- Remember that you have access to 255 differents colors which make a lot of possibilites. It is perfectly possible
that the 14 differents style which have been pre-defined does not suit you. Feel free to make as many tests as you need!
