Rpg Maker Developers Group

TAA_SmartHelpWindow - v1.2.1
Created by taaspider

This plugin is compatible with both MV and MZ.

Terms of Use
Any plugins developed by taaspider are free for use for both commercial and noncommercial RPG Maker games, unless specified otherwise. Just remember to credit "taaspider".

Redistribution of parts or the whole of taaspider plugins is forbidden (which also includes reposting), unless it comes from the official website (linked within the post). You are allowed to edit and change the plugin code for your own use, but you're definitely not allowed to sell or reuse any part of the code as your own. Although not required to use my plugins, a free copy of your game would be nice!

Introduction

By default, help windows are included by the engine in all menu scenes as a way to convey additional information to the player, either by showing an item, weapon, armor or skill description, or by showing a descriptive text for the scene (like showing "Which slot to save?" in the save scene, for example). This window takes a considerable area of the screen, even when there's no text to show.

This plugin aims to effectively remove the help window from all selected scenes, while also allowing for its existence (in whichever window from the scene you want it to be enabled). However, when the window is activated using this plugin it is show close to the selected item, and the window is resized to fit the text it has to show without taking more space than needed to convey the required information. Also, the player has the power to show or hide this window as he pleases, so that experienced players can remove unnecessary information from the screen.


Screenshots


How to Use

WARNING: This plugin requires RPG Maker MV 1.5.0 or above! Please make sure your RPG Maker MV software is up to date before using this plugin. You don't need any specific version if you're using MZ.

WARNING 2: This plugin messes A LOT with any scene it is enabled on. To ensure it works properly, place it as far below in your plugin list as possible. Be sure to check plugin compatibilities as well.

First of, download the plugin here. You can also test it using my sample demo project. It was built with MV, but you can open it with MZ as well (just open the game.rmmzproject file and you're good to go).

There's a long list of parameters used to configure the plugin operations. However, most of them are used to tell the plugin which scenes should keep the original help window, and which should adopt the plugin's dynamic window. For each scene, you can also select which windows will allow the smart help window to show. When it is disabled for a window and that window becomes active, the help window is hidden from the player as long as he remains in the current disabled window.

The plugin also allows you to change the remaining window positions (to account for the help window absence). That works only if the dynamic help window is enabled for the scene (and the proper custom parameter is also enabled). There's a long section in the plugin help file describing how custom window positioning works, along with some suggested settings. Be sure to take a good look into that before customizing its parameters.

Input Info Settings

Each scene has its own input info settings, so you can determine how this window works for each scene independently (you can see this small windows in the screenshot examples, where it reads "Press 'tab' to toggle help"). However, parameters are always the same for all the scenes. You can enable / disable it, change the window position and size, change font settings, padding, opacity and window skin.

Input Key

This parameter determines which input key is used to show or hide the smart help windows. It provides a list of supported keys for the developer to select.


Input Default Settings

This parameter tells the game if the Smart Help Windows are shown or hidden by default at game boot.

Choices

Starting on version 1.2.0, the plugin can also load help texts to be used with the engine Show Choices command. This section includes a parameter to enable or disable this feature by default (it can be altered with plugin commands), and a specific set of input info window settings to be used when the choices window is displayed in a map.

The sample project has been updated to showcase this feature. Be sure to check it out if you have questions!

Global Parameters

• Display when empty: If disabled, Smart Help Windows will be automatically hidden when the highlighted item has no attached description. This can be strange for a player (the window appearing for some items, and some not). Use it with caution;
• Help Window Setting: This allows you to configure the help window as a separate entity from all the other windows (effective only on scenes where the plugin is enabled). It allows you to set properties like line height, font settings, padding, window opacity and skin. This settings also allow you to draw a flat color rectangle behind the smart help window. You can use that to replace the window skin itself (to do that, set both standard and back opacity to 0), or to replace the window skin background only (by setting only back opacity to 0). The color settings for the background rectangle is based on the html color code, and alpha is used to set opacity, being 0 completely transparent, and 100 completely opaque.
• Help Preferred Position: This allows you to choose what's the preferred method of placement for the help window. If set to 'Above', the plugin will try to always place the window above the selected item. If the help window falls out of screen the plugin will move it below the selection. If set to 'Below' the inverse occurs.
• Item Category Help: If enabled, whenever a Window_ItemCategory (with its corresponding scene Parameter enabled) is active the plugin will load category descriptions from Item Category Texts to be shown in the help windows (be it smart or not).
• Item Category Texts: This array defines what text description to show in the help window when an item category is highlighted. It basically an array of key value pairs: for each item category name (as shown in the menu), it gives a description text to be shown.
• Skill Type Help: If enabled, whenever a Window_SkillType (with its corresponding scene parameter enabled) is active the plugin will load type descriptions from Skill Type Texts to be shown in the help windows (be it smart or not).
• Skill Type Texts: This array defines what text description to show in the help window when an skill type is highlighted. It basically an array of key value pairs: for each skill type name (as shown in the menu), it gives a description text to be shown.
• Equip Command Help: If enabled, whenever a Window_EquipCommand (with its corresponding scene parameter enabled) is active the plugin will load command descriptions from Equip Command Texts to be shown in the help windows (be it smart or not).
• Equip Command Texts: This array defines what text description to show in the help window when an equip command is highlighted. It basically an array of key value pairs: for each equip command name (as shown in the menu), it gives a description text to be shown.

Toggle Button Settings
Version 1.2.0 introduced a feature to load a custom button for the player to toggle the smart help window (with a click, or touch based for mobile deployments). The button must exist in the game's button set image. Compatibility with plugins that alter the default engine button behavior may not be supported.

The button is shown only when the smart help window is available. Whenever it is not, the button is hidden to not confuse the player.

• Enable Button: This defines if the button feature is enabled or not for the whole game (applicable to all scenes where the smart help window is active). If this is set to false, all the remaining parameters under "Toggle Button" are ignored.
• Button Index: Determines the button index in the system's button set image. The index starts at 0 for the first button, and large buttons may take two indexes. Pay attention to this when setting this property.
• Button Width: Determines the button width type for the toggle function. If set to 1, the plugin will assume it has to load a small button. If set to 2, it will assume a large button is to be used.
• Button X and Y: Determines the button position in the screen. All scenes will use the same button placement, as moving it around may confuse the player. Both parameters are evals.

Credit and Thanks

I would like to give a special thanks to my friend DarkSearinox92 for bringing me the idea for this plugin, and relentlessly helping me test the many iterations needed for a stable release (and also for helping me test many of my other plugins).
Thank you!