Special Screen Names
There are two kinds of special screen names in Ren'Py. The first are
screens that will be automatically displayed when Ren'Py script
language commands (or their programmatic equivalents) are run. The
other type are menu screens. These have conventional names for
conventional functionality, but screens can be omitted or changed as
is deemed necessary.
On this page, we'll give example screens. It's important to realize
that, while some screens must have minimal functionality, the screen
system makes it possible to add additional functionality to
screens. For example, while the standard say screen only displays
text, the screen system makes it easy to add features like skipping,
auto-forward mode, or muting.
Some special screens take parameters. These parameters can be accessed
as variables in the screen's scope.
Some of the screens also have special ids associated with them. A
special id should be assigned to a displayable of a given type. It can
cause properties to be assigned to that displayable, and can make that
displayable accessible to the part of Ren'Py that displays the screen.
In-Game Screens
These screens are automatically displayed when certain Ren'Py
statements execute.
Say
The say
screen is called by the say statement, when displaying
ADV-mode dialogue. It is displayed with the following parameters:
- who
- The text of the name of the speaking character.
- what
- The dialogue being said by the speaking character.
It's expected to declare displayables with the following ids:
- "who"
- A text displayable, displaying the name of the speaking
character. The character object can be given arguments that style
this displayable.
- "what"
- A text displayable, displaying the dialogue being said by the
speaking character. The character object can be given arguments that style
this displayable. A displayable with this id must be defined,
as Ren'Py uses it to calculate auto-forward-mode time,
click-to-continue, and other things.
- "window"
- A window or frame. This conventionally contains the who and what
text. The character object can be given arguments that style
this displayable.
screen say(who, what):
window id "window":
has vbox
if who:
text who id "who"
text what id "what"
Choice
The choice
screen is used to display the in-game choices created
with the menu statement. It is given the following parameter:
- items
This is a list of menu entry objects, representing each of the
choices in the menu. Each of the objects has the following
fields on it:
-
caption
A string giving the caption of the menu choice.
-
action
An action that should be invoked when the menu choice is
chosen. This may be None if this is a menu caption, and
config.narrator_menu
is False.
-
chosen
This is True if this choice has been chosen at least once
in any playthrough of the game.
-
args
This is a tuple that contains any positional arguments passed
to the menu choice.
-
kwargs
This is a dictionary that contains any keyword arguments passed
to the menu choice.
In addition, any arguments passed to a menu statement are passed in during
the call to the screen.
screen choice(items):
window:
style "menu_window"
vbox:
style "menu"
for i in items:
if i.action:
button:
action i.action
style "menu_choice_button"
text i.caption style "menu_choice"
else:
text i.caption style "menu_caption"
NVL
The nvl
screen is used to display NVL-mode dialogue. It is given
the following parameter:
- dialogue
A list of NVL Entry objects, each of which corresponds to a line
of dialogue to be displayed. Each entry has the following
fields:
-
current
True if this is the current line of dialogue. The current
line of dialogue must have its what text displayed with an
id of "what".
-
who
The name of the speaking character, or None of there is no
such name.
-
what
The text being spoken.
-
who_id, what_id, window_id
Preferred ids for the speaker, dialogue, and window associated with an
entry.
-
who_args, what_args, window_args
Properties associated with the speaker, dialogue, and window. These
are automatically applied if the id is set as above, but are also
made available separately.
-
multiple
If multiple character dialogue, this is
a two component tuple. The first component is the one-based number
of the dialogue block, and the second is the total number of dialogue
blocks in the multiple statement.
- items
- This is the same list of items that would be supplied to the
choice screen. If this is empty,
the menu should not be shown.
When items is not present, the NVL screen is expected to always
give a text widget an id of "what". Ren'Py uses it to calculate
auto-forward-mode time, click-to-continue, and other things. (This is
satisfied automatically if the default what_id is used.)
Ren'Py also supports an nvl_choice
screen, which takes the same
parameters as nvl
, and is used in preference to nvl
when
an in-game choice is presented to the user, if it exists.
screen nvl(dialogue, items=None):
window:
style "nvl_window"
has vbox:
style "nvl_vbox"
# Display dialogue.
for d in dialogue:
window:
id d.window_id
has hbox:
spacing 10
if d.who is not None:
text d.who id d.who_id
text d.what id d.what_id
# Display a menu, if given.
if items:
vbox:
id "menu"
for i in items:
if action:
button:
style "nvl_menu_choice_button"
action i.action
text i.caption style "nvl_menu_choice"
else:
text i.caption style "nvl_dialogue"
Notify
The notify
screen is used by renpy.notify()
to display
notifications to the user. It's generally used in conjunction with a
transform to handle the entire task of notification. It's given a
single parameter:
- message
- The message to display.
The default notify screen, and its associated transform, are:
screen notify(message):
zorder 100
text message at _notify_transform
# This controls how long it takes between when the screen is
# first shown, and when it begins hiding.
timer 3.25 action Hide('notify')
transform _notify_transform:
# These control the position.
xalign .02 yalign .015
# These control the actions on show and hide.
on show:
alpha 0
linear .25 alpha 1.0
on hide:
linear .5 alpha 0.0
Skip Indicator
If present, skip_indicator
screen is displayed when skipping is in progress,
and hidden when skipping finishes. It takes no parameters.
Here's a very simple skip indicator screen:
screen skip_indicator():
zorder 100
text _("Skipping")
CTC (Click-To-Continue)
If present, the ctc
screen is displayed when dialogue has finished
showing, to prompt the player to click to display more text. It may be
given a single parameter and multiple keyword arguments.
- arg
- The ctc displayable selected by the
Character()
. This is one of
the ctc, ctc_pause, or ctc_timedpause arguments to Character,
as appropriate. If no CTC is given to the Character, this argument is not passed at
all.
In addition, there are several parameters that are only passed if the screen requires
them.
- ctc_kind
- The kind of CTC to display. One of "last" (for the last CTC on a line),
"pause", or "timedpause".
- ctc_last
- The ctc argument to
Character()
.
- ctc_pause
- The ctc_pause argument to
Character()
.
- ctc_timedpause
- The ctc_timedpause argument to
Character()
.
Here's a very simple ctc screen:
screen ctc(arg=None):
zorder 100
text _("Click to Continue"):
size 12
xalign 0.98
yalign 0.98