[Early Access] 🌸Visual Novel Maker v1.1.0: Advanced FX, Framed Portraits, Rehearsal Mode

v1.1.0 adds per-effect parameter controls, ambient sound, and custom FX cards to the effects system. A new framed character display mode supports custom frame assets, and rehearsal mode lets GMs stage scenes before going live.

🎬 Live Director Tabs

The Director Panel is reorganized into four tabs — Cast, Scene, FX, Story. Session header and player status remain pinned above the tabs. Tab switching is instant with no re-rendering.

🌧️ Advanced FX

Per-effect parameter controls, ambient sound, and custom effect cards.

• Ambient Sound: FX effects can play looping sounds that start and stop with the effect. Each preset has a gear button to set a custom audio file and volume. Rain, snow, and fog include bundled CC0 ambient loops by default. Sound settings persist per-world.

• Custom FX Cards: Custom FX slots use a 2-column card grid with a dedicated preview button. Video previews autoplay looped; APNG images replay correctly. Upload your own WebM, APNG, or MP4 files and configure a looping sound per slot. Looking for FX assets to get started? This BOOTH pack is a good starting point. The transitions used in the v1.0.0 showcase video came from this pack.

• Per-Effect Controls: The FX detail panel shows controls specific to each effect type. Weather effects get intensity, density, speed, opacity, wind, and color. Particles get intensity, density, speed, opacity, and size. Mood effects get opacity only. Vignette has opacity and spread. Dream has opacity and blur. Lightning has opacity and interval. Glitch has intensity, speed, and opacity.

• Dock & Editor Integration: The character dock FX picker lists all active effects below the preset grid. Click an effect to expand inline parameter controls with a per-effect stop button. The Sequence Editor and Node Property Panel also show inline parameter controls below the preset selector. All configured parameters (density, speed, opacity, wind, scale, blur, frequency, tint) are applied at runtime.

• Weather Color Picker: Rain, snow, and fog have a color picker for tinting. Red rain, green toxic fog, pink snow.

• New Effect Knobs: Particle size slider, vignette spread (10%–80%), dream blur (0–8px), lightning flash interval (2–15 seconds).

🖼️ Framed Character Mode

A new display mode that shows characters in bordered portrait frames arranged horizontally, designed for GMs using bust portraits or images with backgrounds.

• Toggle via Quick Actions in the Live Director. Includes an adjustable frame size slider, theme-adaptive double-border styling, and automatic multi-row layout when many characters are on stage.

• Circular Shape: Framed portraits can use a circular shape in addition to the default rectangle. Configure in Overlay Settings → Characters → Layout.

• Draggable Frames: Frames can be freely repositioned by dragging, just like standing characters. The initial layout uses flex spacing; dragging pulls a frame out of the flow. Double-click to snap back.

• Spawn Position: Slider in Overlay Settings → Characters → Layout to control where framed characters initially appear vertically on screen (0–60%). Includes a live preview with dummy frames while adjusting.

• Custom Frame Assets: Replace the default CSS frame with your own images via Overlay Settings → Character Frame → Assets. Two slots: Frame Background (behind the portrait, 3:4 ratio recommended) and Frame Border (decorative overlay rendered on top, can extend beyond frame edges for ornate designs).

🎭 Rehearsal & Privacy

• Rehearsal Mode: Start a live session in rehearsal mode to set up backgrounds, characters, and positions before players see anything. Click "Go Live" when ready to broadcast the full scene at once.

• Character Visibility: Hide or reveal individual characters during a live session. Hidden characters show a dashed outline for the GM but are invisible to players. Accessible from the Director Panel and the portrait right-click menu.

• Add Characters Hidden: Toggle "Add hidden" mode in the Cast section to add new characters already hidden from players.

• GM-Only Advance: Per-interaction toggle in the Interaction Editor toolbar. When enabled, only the GM can advance dialogue. Players see no advance cursor and clicking the dialogue box does nothing.

• Private Interaction: New "Private (Player only)" option in the token/tile interaction mode dropdown. NPC interactions (F key) display only to the player who triggered them.

• Targeted Broadcast: When running a prepared interaction from the Live Director, GMs can select which players see the scene via checkboxes below the interaction dropdown.

• Lock Player Add: GM toggle in the Cast tab to prevent players from adding characters to the stage. Locked players see a notification if they try.

⚙️ Other Changes

• Standing Position: Slider to adjust the default vertical position of standing (non-framed) characters, from -20% to 50%. Previously hardcoded to the bottom edge. Includes a guide line preview while adjusting.

• Character Flip: Flip a portrait horizontally via the right-click context menu. Persists through expression changes, scaling, and scene snapshots.

• Lock Background: Prevent camera zoom, pan, and shake from moving the background image. Toggle via background right-click menu or set as default in module settings. Unlocking resets the camera to its default position.

• Typewriter Sound Customization: Replace the default typewriter sound with a custom audio file. Adjust playback interval (20–200ms) via module settings.

• Portrait Config Shortcut: Hover over any actor in the Director Panel to access their VN Portrait Config directly via the gear button.

• Scroll Preservation: The Director Panel preserves scroll position when adding, removing, or toggling character visibility.

• Dock Background Menu: The three background buttons (change, clear, toggle visibility) are merged into a single button with a compact submenu. Submenu position adapts to dock placement.

• Dock Popup Consistency: FX picker and background submenu use the same accent-bordered, glow-shadow style as the camera controls popup.

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Exploration Node Deletion: Deleting an exploration scene node now properly cleans up all references from other nodes. Previously, dangling references caused validation errors at runtime.

• Orphaned Node Recovery: Interactions with broken node references from prior deletions now auto-repair at runtime instead of failing to start.

• Hide Dialogue in Script Mode: Fixed players not seeing the dialogue box when running a prepared interaction with "Hide Dialogue Box" enabled. The setting now correctly applies only to live mode chat input.

• Hidden Dialogue Blocking Clicks: Fixed the hidden dialogue box area still intercepting mouse clicks, preventing interaction with portraits behind it.

🔗 Links

• Module Wiki: https://www.notion.so/33ca9504d0878010bbc7f9ad3f04c94e

• Install Guide: How to Install Premium Modules