RPG Tool

RPG Maker saves its data as Ruby marshal, which is not very friendly to anything but Ruby, making it frustrating to work with beyond what the RPG Maker editor allows. RPG Tool is a program designed to convert this marshal into plaintext formats like JSON and vice versa, opening a lot of options RPG Maker doesn’t provide on its own.

The article will be using JSON for explanations, but you can use any other text format.

I’m not a programmer, is it still useful?

Depends on how familiar you are with formats like JSON. You don’t need to be a programmer for that, it’s just text describing data, although in a complex manner.

If this is all too alien for you, I suggest you at least try using it, but only when you must.

What can I do with it?

Extracting and Packing Scripts

Extract the scripts so you can use an IDE instead of editing scripts through RPG Maker’s awful script editor. Pack them back up after you’re done editing or for release. Read Modifying Scripts for more details.

Searching

Some things can be impossible to find in your project, a few examples being:

• Where a certain switch/variable is set/used
• Some piece of dialogue
• Where a sprite or sound effect is used

By converting to JSON, you can use tools and techniques that work with plain text to find what you’re looking for. See Searching for more details.

Comparing Changes / Resolving Conflicts

If you have multiple people working in the editor, you’ll sooner or later run into conflicts, and will have a hard time comparing the differences. Converting to JSON allows you to compare them with any diff tool.

Mass Edits

Renamed a character? Convert to JSON, use find and replace function in your text editor of choice, then convert back to RPG

Anything you can do with data

In the end it’s just data. Throw it in a database, put it through an ETL pipeline, apply some machine learning, and create your very own OneShot based world machine.

Setup

1. Go to your mod’s folder
2. Download the release for your version into it
3. Create a file named rmxp_export.bat, and add this line to it:

Copyrpgtool.exe structured --format marshal json ./Data ./Data_JSON rpgxp

4. Create a file named rmxp_import.bat, and add this line to it:

Copyrpgtool.exe structured --format json marshal ./Data_JSON ./Data rpgxp

5. Create a file named rmxp_unpack_scripts.bat, and add this line to it:

Copyrpgtool.exe unpack ./Data/xScripts.rxdata ./Scripts

6. Create a file named rmxp_pack_scripts.bat, and add this line to it:

Copyrpgtool.exe pack ./Scripts ./Data/xScripts.rxdata

Usage

• rmxp_export.bat converts RPG Maker data to JSON, and puts it in the Data_JSON folder
• rmxp_import.bat converts JSON from Data_JSON back into RPG Maker data
• rmxp_unpack_scripts.bat unpacks the scripts in xScripts.rxdata into the Scripts folder
• rmxp_pack_scripts.bat packs scripts from the Scripts folder back into xScripts.rxdata

Keep in Mind!

Exporting data/scripts only creates a copy of the data in a different format! This means that any changes you make in the exported data/scripts will not apply to the game itself.

Importing data/scripts back will override whatever changes you made in editor! This means that if you export data, make changes in editor, then import back, will undo the changes you made between the export and the import.

The inverse is true as well. Exporting data, making changes in it, then making changes in editor, then exporting again, will undo your changes in the exported data.

Whatever you do, always test your changes, and keep backups when you can. Using a version control tool like git helps a lot as you can undo changes.