If I build a complex bladestyle that uses special features such as party mode, is there any way to use using functions or similar to choose the style number that a particular sound font starts on? for instance I want font1 to begin with style 0 (default) and second font, igniting on style 2.
For Multi-Phase (Special Abilities) styles you can check the ‘Save Alt’ box under Control Options, this will save the last Phase/Alt used. Then for each font/preset (if they are set up correctly) you can change Phase and it will be saved the next time you go to it, but you have to change each preset with the Special Ability, it’s not the same as a using function.
The using functions in my config helper tool are using Edit Mode arguments, these are a different mechanism than the Alt Font (Special Ability) style.
Using functions use “Option” styles which are meant to be permanent edits. “Phase” styles are temporary changes, so they are not built to remain after the preset is changed or power is removed.
So just making sure that I understand, if I create a Using function bladestyle, the style includes special functions, the special functions will not work.
No, the Special Abilities will work while the style is running (if the font is set up to support) as a regular style or Using function just fine. It’s just that you can’t use the Special Ability to make the preset different because it’s temporary, it will always start with Phase 0 active.
Typically, users would use a Using Function with an Option Style so one Using Function can be edited to look and act different for each preset. This uses editing functions (Arguments) so that each preset can be unique.
If you have a Using Function running a “Phase” change then each preset that uses the Using function will always ignite exactly the same (Phase 0) and while that style is active you can change the Phases but if you change presets or remove power it will revert to Phase 0. The only way to change that behavior is with the “Save Alt” combined with Multi-Phase (Special Ability), this will save the last Phase for that preset so the next time you go to the preset it will start at the last Phase instead of 0. So this can allow you set up a Using function for Multi-Phase Special Ability styles and then save the Phases on each preset, but you have to manually do that in each preset AND if you change the Phase on that preset, the next time you go into it, that last Phase will be what is active.
If you have something specific you’re trying to accomplish I can direct you on which is the better approach. Essentially if you have a Using function with Phases, they are temporary for each preset but can still be used on multiple presets but all of the presets will start out exactly the same so no real “benefit” to having multiple presets with the same Phase change Using function (unless you use the Save Alt but that kinda undoes the ability to change the Phase during use unless you plan to change back each time before changing the preset or powering down). The real value of Using functions is with Style Arguments because each preset can be set up to be unique, so you get more unique presets with a single Using style.
But, yes you can set a Special Ability style as a Using function (assuming each preset and font is set up to support) but you’re not really getting much benefit as it’s just the same style in each preset to begin with.
I appreciate the knowledge. My end goal is to smash all my favorite blade styles onto a Proffie V2 while keeping edit mode and all of the cool OS features. I have been able to get Party saber and OSHA and a third blade style that I am able to create variations using using functions. I am up against the limit now and have been programming straight onto the Presets and I am extremely happy with how the saber turned out. I have installed the ANH games on my V3 and like that feature so I have been trying to think of ways to condense all of the blade styles into a single style since party saber uses 9. Unfortunately I have not been able to get much savings so far, but my final thought was to put the game onto either my bladestyle or the osha corruption style. I am guessing that this is a mathematical impossibility, but I am having fun giving it a shot.
From there, make sure all of the styles in your config were generated from the same library, if you have older styles (especially OS5) or styles from other sources you are most likely wasting some extra memory, particularly mixing OS5 style syntaxes with OS6 or OS7. But even between OS6 and OS7 the OS7 library has additional optimization for certain effects so generating everything from OS7 will typically allow you to fit more.
The Multi-Phase Special Abilities, Corruption and Mini Game effects actually aren’t overly large so there really shouldn’t be a reason they wouldn’t all fit, so I’m guessing you have other styles that are older format/syntax or much less efficiently built styles.
Using functions for Option Styles combined with Style Arguments can allow you to have more unique presets overall, but they don’t actually save memory just by using them. The memory savings comes by reusing the exact same style code on multiple presets and then using Style Arguments to handle the variations. You can make other types of styles into Using Functions but they’re not really saving you any memory. Most “wasted memory” in my experience is mixing style formats and syntaxes.
I appreciate it. Yes, I am trying to get those blade styles into a master chassis, so I have a good amount of accent lighting to deal with. For the record, I was able to get all 3 special function styles on a different v2 saber at the cost of repeating chassis accent lighting so I understand that with proffie 2 there are limitations. I have used those defines, and I have eliminated the voice prompts for colors, but if you have any additional tricks up your sleeve I am all ears haha. I appreciate the help.
You set up Option Styles for your Accents, correct? If you have a lot of different Accents with a lot of different styles you will run into limitations on Main Blade styles, there is still a finite amount of memory available so you would need to figure out what gets priority. If you really want more Main Blade Styles, I’d set up one or two Option Styles for all of the Accents as Using functions then just set the Style Arguments to diversify across blades and presets and free up more room for your Main Blade.
Yes, I am using using functions with a single blade style that offers me a lot of variation. I have about 20 fonts on the V2 including the 2 special function blade styles but the majority of the fonts are variations.