Messages need to be refactored.

[mateofio]

Our messaging system needs a refactor. We need to determine frame accuracy for messages and what is / is not prohibited when they are up.

Timing from Cherry:

Main update methods for common events run (they just check if they are parallel process and the condition is met and then invoke the parallel process worker for them)
Main update methods for map events run (they do a bunch of things, described in my previous post - but actually even more, because after the check for whether there is any active event page, they will run their parallel process worker and then check once more for active)
Message window updates
Timer updates
Screen effects update
Pictures update
Foreground worker runs
Panorama updates

Test cases still broken:

• 17 - message box glitch not fully animated, need to affect on show screen.
• 27 Test 2 - box doesn't close.
• 42 - We don't interrupt the message
• 43 - Currently off by 1 frame.
• 44 - We set show_message chunk but it gets cleared every frame due to Game_Map::UpdateForegroundEvents() always calling Game_Interpreter::Clear() even when no events run.
• 45 - Wrong timing

TBD:

• Do another performance testing pass
• Test performance of overflow window width.
• Test show screen against window animation
• Backspace timing? Peuteris Grey Intro

Things to verify from RPG_RT:

• Move show choice continuation into message class and handle subcommand_path properly.
• EV01: Save, EV02: Choices -> Save and load the game message window dissapears RPG_RT bug ❗
• Interpreter execution test cases #1707 Test case 6, save game runs an extra frame while message box is closing, before the continuation triggers.
• How is foreground interpreter execution blocked by active message?
  • Only when message is pending, not when closing
• How is parallel interpreter execution blocked by active message?
  • Only when its own message is pending and visible
• Behavior of "Allow other events to move"
• What event commands blocked by an active message?
  • See Test 19
• What active event commands / conditions block a message from starting?
  • Only other messages, with specific rules for FG and Parallel
• How does RPG_RT handle message ownership and show_message chunk
  • Caller of message sets this chunk
  • Appears to be cleared when message ends?
• When is face reset
  • On foreground event finish
• How many frames to open and close message box
  • 8 frames
• How does open and closing behave with foreground events?
  • New messages can appear instantly if created on last frame, otherwise wait for close
• How does open and closing behave with parallel events?
  • New messages blocked until close finishes
• Do messages have any wierd effects when triggered during pre-update?
  • No, they just wait until the first frame to start animating
  • message update not run during preupdate
• How to messages behave when called when screen is erased?
• When msg is updated in the main loop?
  • After all events, before timers
• Frame timing of different message speed settings?
• Can we cleanup and refactor the code to improve code quality?
• When you substitute an actor name with \n[] and it has an escape character like \^?
• Level up message timing
• Class change message timing
• Does the inn use show message chunk?
• Message conditions blocking ShowMessage
• Message conditions blocking ShowChoices
• Message conditions blocking ShowNumberInput
• Message conditions blocking ShowInn
• Change EXP / Level spawning a box while other box active?
• ChangeHP kills party while message is up?
• Check all scenes, what about gameover?
• Race conditions with parallel change system graphic
• Inn cancels pending message
• GetOnOffVehicle behavior with message up?
• VehicleTeleport while message up?
• Interaction with Wait For Key
• Interaction with KeyInputProc
• ChangeClass Message with message
• Can FG run other commands while msg box closing?
  • yes
• Message behavior blocking timers?
• Test delay of full width japanese characters
• Figure out skip frame logic for speed 1 w.r.t. wide chars vs half chars

[mateofio]

Test Cases 1 - What can run while messages are up?

EV01 parallel Message \v[1] \v[2]
EV02 parallel Var1+1
EV03 autostart Var2+1

Msg	V1	V2
1	0	0
2	75	10
3	134	20
4	215	30

Result:
Auto start event advances by 10 frames between each message. Parallel runs during the message. The longer you wait to close the message box, the higher var1.

2. Change EV01 to

Wait 0.0s
Loop:
  Msg: \v[1] \v[2]

Msg	V1	V2
1	1	0
2	471	9
3	567	18

Result: Var2 advances by 9 frames

[mateofio]

Test Cases 2 - Message box animations

1. parallel event Message: Hello

Result: Open, "hello", Close, Open, "hello", etc..

2. parallel event Loop: Message: Hello

Result: Open, "hello", Close, Open, "hello", etc..

3. autostart event Message: Hello

Result: Open, "hello", "hello", "hello", etc..

4. autostart event Loop: Message: Hello

Result: Open, "hello", "hello", "hello", etc..

5. autostart event

Loop: 
  Message: Hello
  Wait 0.0s

Result: Open, "hello", Close, Open, "hello", ...

Conclusion:

• Repeated messages from autostart events don't wait for the message box to close

[mateofio]

Test Cases 3 - Message box timings

1. Set this parallel event EV01

OpenSaveMenu
Msg: \^
OpenSaveMenu

Save	stop count
1	0
2	18

2. Now add 2 more events
   EV02 parallel Var1 + 1
   EV03 autostart Var2 + 1

Save	stop count	Var1	Var 2
1	0	1	0
2	18	18	10

Conclusion:

• Message box animations surely take 8 frames. As this example shows 8 + 8 + 2 frames used.
• autostart events appear allowed to to run when message box is closing
• parallel events run the entire time, as the variable value 18 matches stop_count

[mateofio]

Test Cases 4 - Messages and Save Menu

1. EV01 parallel

Message: Hello
Sw1 On
EraseEvent

EV02 parallel Page 1

Loop:
  OpenSaveMenu

EV02 page 2, activated by SW1

Result: Hello

2. Change EV01 to autostart

Result: Save, Save, Hello

Conclusion:

Scene Change is blocked when messagebox is visible.

[mateofio]

Test Cases 5 - Message Loadgame Bug

Ev01 parallel

OpenSaveMenu
OpenSaveMenu
EraseEvent

EV02 parallel

ShowMessage: Hello
EraseEvent

1. Start a new game and save

Result: Save, "Hello"

Save	Ev01 current command	Ev02 current command	EV02 show message
1	1	1	1
2	2	2	0

2. Load the first save game

Result: Hello message box does not appear ❗

3. Save again after loading

Save	Ev01 current command	Ev02 current command	EV02 show message
1	2	2	0

Result: show_message chunk gets cleared

Conclusion:

Edge cases allow us to save the game while a message box is pending. The message box will appear after the save scene exits, however there are no LSD chunks for the active message. So loading this save game will cause the message to not appear ❗

The show_message chunk appears to always be cleared when there is no active message.

[mateofio]

Test Cases 6 - More timing tests

EV01 parallel

Branch SW1 off
  Message: \^
  Sw1 On
Var1 + 1

Ev02 parallel

Var2 + 1

1. After message box closes, check variables with debug menu

Result: Var2 - Var1 == 18

• Preupdate: EV01 starts message but message not updated, EV02 ticks
• Frame1: Message starts, blocking EV01 for 17 frames, EV02 ticks 17 frames

2. Change EV01 to autostart

Result: Var2 - Var1 == 10

• Preupdate: EV01 does not run, EV02 ticks
• Frame1: EV01 starts message, Message starts, EV01 blocks for 9 frames, and then continues running while the message box is closing, EV02 ticks 9 frames

3. Change EV01 to parallel, Add Wait0.0s inside the branch before the message

Result: Var2 - Var1 == 18

• Preupdate: EV01 waits, EV02 ticks
• Frame1: EV01 starts message, Message starts, blocking EV01 for 17 frames

3. Change EV01 to parallel, Add Wait0.0s; Wait 0.0s inside the branch before the message

Result: Var2 - Var1 == 19

• Preupdate: EV01 waits, EV02 ticks
• Frame1: EV01 waits, EV02 ticks
• Frame2: EV01 starts message, Message starts, blocking EV01 for 17 frames, EV02 ticks 17 frames

[mateofio]

Test Cases 7 - Message speed timings

EV01 parallel

Branch SW1 off
  Wait 0.0s
  Message: TXT
  Sw1 On
Var1 + 1

Ev02 parallel

Var2 + 1
Var3 = Var2
Var3 -= Var1
Var3 -= 17

1. Change the text to \s[N] for some speed N, followed by some number of X followed by \^

Example \s[3]XXX\^\

This table shows the value of Var3, which is the number of frames taken to render the message

Msg Speed	\s[N]\^	\s[N]X\^	\s[N]XX\^	\s[N]XXX\^	\s[N]XXXX\^	\s[N]XXXXX\^	\s[N]XXXXXX\^	\s[N]XXXXXXX\^
0	1	2	2	3	3	4	4	5
1	1	2	2	3	3	4	4	5
2	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	16
3	3	5	7	9	11	13	15	17
4	4	7	10	13	16	19	22	25
5	5	8	11	14	17	20	23	26
6	6	10	14	18	22	26	30	34
7	7	11	15	19	23	27	31	35
19	19	29	39	49	59	69	79	89
20	20	31	42	53	64	75	86	97
21	20	31	42	53	64	75	86	97

2. Other Test Cases

Msg	Frames	Comments
\s[5]X\s[20]\^	23
\s[20]X\s[5]\^	16
\s[20]\>\^	0	Removes wait for finish message
\s[20]X\>\^	11
\s[20]\.\^	40
\s[20]|\^	81
\s[20]\|\>\^	61
\s[20]\.\>\^	20
\>\.\^	0	\> removes all waits
X\s[2]X\>\^	3
\s[2]X\s[1]X\>\^	3
XX\s[2]X\>\^	3
X\s[2]X\s[1]X\>\^	4	position of \s[1] characters determines whether we wait 1 frame
\s[20]$A\>\^	21	Symbols wait longer?
\s[20]\_\>\^	11	Half spaces are the same
\s[20] \>\^	1	Waits 1 frame for empty lines
\s[20]X X\^	42	11 + 11 + 20
\s[20] \^	23	Empty lines 1 + 1 + 1 + 20
\s[20] \^	53	Lines with spaces 11 + 11 + 11 + 20
XX\>\^	1
$AX\>\^	2
X$A\>\^	2
\_\_X\>\^	2
$AXX\>\^	2
X$AX\>\^	3	❓

3. Shift Test

Hold the Shift key while performing any of these tests

Result: Frames == 0

4. ExFont Symbols

Test this message \s[N]$A\>\^

Speed	Frames
1	1
2	3
3	4
4	5
5	6
10	11
15	16
20	21

4. \< Symbol

Test this message \s[N]\<\>\^

Speed	Frames
1	1
2	2
3	3
10	10
20	20

Conclusion

• When speed == 1
  • we print 2 characters per frame.
  • we always increment after odd characters.
  • This only applies to half width characters, and appears to reset after seeing a full width char. So any half width character after a full width will cause a 1 frame delay.
• When speed > 1, each character prints in speed / 2 + 1 frames.
• When the message ends, we wait speed frames before closing the message box.
• Speed is clamped to [1,20]
• Shift key finishes the message instantly, including final wait.
• The \< waits for 20 frames
• The \. waits for 20 frames
• The \| waits for 61 frames ❗
• The \> skips wait for everything include \| and \.
• When speed == 1 Symbols like $A always wait for 1 frame
• When speed > 1 Symbols like $A wait for speed + 1 frames
• Always waits 1 frame for empty lines
• Non empty lines add no extra delay
• Trailing whitespace is not skipped

[mateofio]

Test Cases 8 - Testing the message end character

1. Display this message \s[20]\^XXXXXXX

Result: "XXXXXXX"

2. Press shift will it's displaying

Result: Entire message displays instantly

Conclusion

• The \^ causes the message box to close, but it still waits for the entire text to be displayed before closing.
• The shift key causes the entire message to display instantaneously

[mateofio]

Test Cases 9 - Gold Window timing

Use the same machinery from earlier

1. \s[N]\$\>\^

Speed	Gold	Frames
1	0	1
10	0	10
20	0	20
1	999999	1
10	999999	10
20	999999	20

1. \s[N]X\$X\>\^

Speed	Gold	Frames
1	0	3
10	0	22
20	0	42
1	999999	3
10	999999	22
20	999999	42

Conclusion

• Summon Gold window waits speed frames
• Does not depend on how much gold you have