Part of what made Hoenn feel so immersive was the attention to small details like this one. After navigating the downpouring jungles of route 119 and upper route 120, the rain finally stops, and you are greeted with the sight of rolling clouds over a large freshwater lake and numerous puddles.
I searched high and low for a resource that would let me add those clouds to my Essentials project. After coming up short, I finally decided to create my own!
After studying the clouds in Emerald, I created a GIF with the same cloud designs, placement, and movement speed that the original gen 3 games used. You can replicate this effect in your project using panoramas built into RMXP. For instructions on how to use them, check out this tutorial made by Aki.
If you're unfamiliar, panoramas are only visible in-game. In the example above, the border lake tiles contain transparency, and the center lake tiles are completely transparent tiles.
Be mindful that panoramas are visible at the edges of your map! You can prevent players from seeing this by adding impassible tiles to the edges of your map (8 to the left and right and 6 to the top and bottom).
You will also notice that the clouds follow your character by default, which is not how they behave in the original games. If you want them to display authentically, you will need to modify some scripts in Essentials. The Spriteset_Map script has code that adjusts how panoramas move in relation to the player.
You can simply remove the "/ 2" at the end of lines 111 and 112 to achieve the desired effect. If you're extra cautious like I am, you can comment out those lines and add two new ones below, as follows:
Good luck with your project! I hope this resource is useful for you.
I searched high and low for a resource that would let me add those clouds to my Essentials project. After coming up short, I finally decided to create my own!
After studying the clouds in Emerald, I created a GIF with the same cloud designs, placement, and movement speed that the original gen 3 games used. You can replicate this effect in your project using panoramas built into RMXP. For instructions on how to use them, check out this tutorial made by Aki.
If you're unfamiliar, panoramas are only visible in-game. In the example above, the border lake tiles contain transparency, and the center lake tiles are completely transparent tiles.
Be mindful that panoramas are visible at the edges of your map! You can prevent players from seeing this by adding impassible tiles to the edges of your map (8 to the left and right and 6 to the top and bottom).
You will also notice that the clouds follow your character by default, which is not how they behave in the original games. If you want them to display authentically, you will need to modify some scripts in Essentials. The Spriteset_Map script has code that adjusts how panoramas move in relation to the player.
You can simply remove the "/ 2" at the end of lines 111 and 112 to achieve the desired effect. If you're extra cautious like I am, you can comment out those lines and add two new ones below, as follows:
Spriteset_Map (Lines 111 to 115):
# @panorama.ox = tmox / 2
# @panorama.oy = tmoy / 2
@panorama.ox = tmox
@panorama.oy = tmoyGood luck with your project! I hope this resource is useful for you.
- Credits
- If you wish to credit me, please use the following (though it's not required):
- Gen 3 Cloud Reflections - Fallen Nephilim
- Outside Emerald - Heartless Dragoon
