RPG Maker 2003 Updated to v1.11

The official version of RM2K3 was updated (and released) yesterday. There are a number of bug fixes and some cool and, indeed, welcome additions to the Maker.

Here are a few of them:

Skip Title Screen

In RMXP/VX/VXA, there are a number of scripts to skip the Title Screen, which are mostly useful during game development.

It’s now possible to bypass the Title Screen completely in RM2K3 – a welcome addition for playtesting during game development.

It also opens the door to another possibility: to display a pre-title sequence or an alternative, fully customized title screen.

If "Use" is unchecked, RM2K3 will go directly to the map on which "Player Starting Position" has been set; otherwise, the Title Screen will be displayed as normal.

Window Transparency

The option for transparent windows has been added, which can be toggled on or off in the "System" settings.

This is global, now affecting the title screen as well as Battle Layout A.

In battle, although the windows are still opaque, they become transparent on the maps.

Extra Event Commands

Several new Event Commands have been added (I always considered Tab 4 to be quite blank, something of an afterthought, so it’s nice that it’s being filled up).

These options are definitely useful. For instance, I’d always wanted a function to load a previously saved game without having to return to the title screen. Or toggle the ATB Wait on spec for some battles and not for others.

The addition of the "Open Video Options" (see below) is also a welcome addition, especially since RM2K3’s resolution is now considered as out-of-date; I found videos to be quite blocky and pixelated at times, so never used them.

Video Options

In the v1.11 update, a more-than-welcome improvement of the screen display has been added.

Window mode now also allows for x3 and x4 zoom, as well as interpolation, effectively increasing the resolution for more modern computers and smoothing out some of the pixellations.

And the new fullscreen mode (using GDI rendering for newer systems or the old DirectDraw particularly for older ones) now has options for interpolation, uneven pixel sizes, and aspect ratio. This does vastly improve the quality of the videos and graphics as a whole.

Pressing F5 in the Playtest Mode will bring up the Video Options dialog, where you can also make the settings default, used globally throughout all of the projects you create.

More Conditional Branch Options

This is my favorite addition, and the most useful update.

With options to check if a savestate exists or if fullscreen is active, it opens up some very real possibilities.

For instance, you can set up a parallel Common Event to only open up the Load menu if a previously saved game actually exists.

These are some of the updates that jump out and excite me, but there have been quite a number of under-the-hood tweaks as well.

For a full list of changes and updates, you can RM2K3 English Changelog.