Tips & Tricks: Understanding the Generator

MV's generator is leaps and bounds better than Ace's, allowing us to make battlers and downed sprites right alongside with a face and walking sprite.  But it's not the most user-friendly thing to use when you want more than just the default pieces.  So today, let's take a look at what the generator folder looks like.

First, you need to locate your generator folder.  The generator is tied to the program, not your game, so you can't just put the pieces into your game's folder and expect it to work.  I don't have a Mac so unfortunately I'm not sure where to find the folders for it, but here is how to find them for the Windows version: 

• For the stand-alone program: Program Files(x86)/ KADOKAWA/ RPGMV/ Generator
• For the steam version: Program Files(x86)/ Steam/ SteamApps/ Common/ RPGMV/ Generator

​You'll know you've found it when you see five folders ('Face', 'SV', 'TV', 'TVD', & 'Variation') and a png file named 'gradients'.  Opening any of those folders will reveal two more folders, one named 'Female' and the other 'Male'.  Opening one of those gets you to the actual pieces.

So, we've found the generator, but what does it all mean?  Let's take a look at each (along with my takes on the acronyms).

• Face - This one's pretty simple, it's all the pieces that go into making the face graphic
• SV - "Side View", the parts that make up the sprite battler
• TV - "Travel View", the pieces that go into the walking sprite
• TVD - "Travel View Downed", all the parts that make the downed/damaged graphic
• Variation - Not technically a piece that is used on the character's graphics, but vital to the generator.  The variation pieces are what show up in the generator when selecting a piece for the character (so if you don't have one, then the piece won't be selectable in the generator)
• gradients - All of the colors of the rainbow.  When you're changing the color of the pieces, this is where those alternate color options comes from.

Makes sense so far?  If you want a piece to show up in the generator and on the sprites and face, you need to have parts in each folder.

Let's end it here to keep this from getting too long.  Next time we'll look at how a piece is named so that it will work properly in the generator.