🌸 Visual Novel Maker v1.4.0: Glossaries and Exploration Routes (Patreon)

v1.4.0 adds linked glossary terms to dialogue and narration, new route controls for exploration scenes, and per-trigger start nodes for Stories. Picture actions can now play video, and Live Director gains a Current Scene Actor filter alongside a new character image source setting.

📖 Dialogue Glossary

Register a term with a title and description, then link it from dialogue or narration. Players can read the description by hovering over the highlighted term or click it to keep the tooltip open.

A linked term remains plain text until the typewriter has revealed the entire term.

Linked terms remain available in the Dialogue Backlog.

Tooltip borders, accent edges, and headings follow the active dialogue theme.

🌍 World Glossary

A shared world glossary can provide the same terms to every Story. Open it from the Tools tab in module settings or from the book button in Live Director during a session.

Individual Stories can keep their own terms.

A Story term overrides a world term with the same ID.

🗂️ Glossary Categories, Tabs, and Search

Terms can have an optional category. The glossary groups them into counted tabs, including All and Uncategorised, and lists terms alphabetically.

Search the current tab by title, description, or category.

The category field suggests names already in use, and a new term inherits the tab currently being viewed.

The Sequence Editor link picker uses the same category grouping.

Existing glossary entries remain valid and begin as uncategorised terms.

🔗 Glossary Shorthand

Type ::Seraphim:: to link a matching term while writing, or use ::Seraphim|the Seraphim's:: when the displayed wording should differ from the term name.

Shorthand works in the editors and in Live Mode dialogue sent through chat.

The :: markers are removed from the chat log after a link is created.

Only registered term names are rewritten. Text such as std::vector remains unchanged, and an unknown term stays visible for correction.

The Player Glossary Shorthand setting controls whether players can use the syntax in their own Live Mode messages.

🕵️ Quiet Exploration Elements

Each exploration element now has a Highlight on hover switch. Turn it off to remove the visual response while keeping the region or image clickable, allowing clues and hidden routes to stay concealed until players find them.

Existing elements keep hover highlighting unless the setting is changed.

Image elements now follow their configured Cursor field instead of always displaying a pointer.

🧭 Exploration Scene Travel

Enable Continue from target (don't return) when an exploration element should move the Story forward instead of opening a side scene and returning to the same exploration.

The target can be another exploration scene or a regular Story node.

A route in the target can lead back without leaving the earlier exploration underneath it.

Returning routes use a dashed graph line and return icon. Forward routes use a solid line and forward icon.

Existing elements retain their return-after-target behavior, and exploration exits continue through Exit Next.

🚪 Trigger Start Nodes

Tokens, Tiles, Actor interaction defaults, Regions, and Live Director can now start the same Story from different nodes.

Each launcher can inherit the Story start node, so later changes to the Story default also apply to triggers left on default.

A Token can override the entry point inherited from its Actor.

GM Select carries the requested start node into the approval window.

Invalid or deleted node references fall back to the inherited entry point or the Story start instead of stopping the interaction.

🎭 Character Image Source

A world setting in General > Characters chooses whether characters without a VN standing image use their Actor portrait or Token image.

The setting updates character thumbnails in the editors and Live Director as well as the image shown on stage.

If the selected source is empty, Visual Novel Maker uses the other image.

Randomized Token image paths fall back to the Actor portrait because they refer to a file set rather than one image.

🎬 Current Scene Actor Filter

The Live Director Actor browser can show only Actors represented by Tokens in the currently viewed Canvas Scene.

Multiple Tokens linked to the same Actor produce one browser entry.

Search and paging remain available, and the list refreshes when the viewed Scene or its Token roster changes.

📺 Video in the Picture Action

The Picture action now accepts webm and mp4 files through its file picker.

A video plays once and holds its final frame by default.

Loop video keeps an animated picture playing, while Mute video disables its audio.

If the browser blocks autoplay with sound, the picture starts muted instead of leaving a blank card.

🔇 Typewriter Sound Mute

A world setting in the Dialogue tab can turn off the typewriter tick for the whole table. It mutes only the sound, so the typing animation and each player's other dialogue settings remain unchanged.

Bug Fixes

Typewriter Performance: Dialogue appends only newly revealed characters instead of rebuilding the complete line on every tick. Delayed frames catch up to the configured speed, and a closed Dialogue Backlog stores history as data until it is opened instead of building up to 1,000 hidden entries.

Lip-Sync Cleanup: Character exits, Solo Mode speaker changes, narration, scene preset changes, and overlay closure now stop speaking-frame timers and looping speaking videos. Removed characters no longer continue updating off-screen.

Requires GlitchSmith Library v0.6.0 or newer. Foundry VTT v13 and v14 are supported.

Links

Module Wiki: Visual Novel Maker Documentation

Install Guide: How to Install Premium Modules