"dissolve" macro affecting background image?

Twine Version: 2.6.2
Story Format: Harlowe 3

Alright everyone, buckle in, because I don’t know if I’m going to do a good job describing this!

I’ve recently been experimenting with using the “dissolve” macro to make my text appear a little more dynamically as a passage goes on, to give it a bit more of that RPG/visual novel look without it taking as long as the typewriter effect would (and to prevent some of the longer passages from appearing as big walls of text).

So far, I got it working, and I like how it turns out so far! I’ve used this to create the effect thus far:

(live:1s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[The text in question would go here.](stop:)]

BUUUUT I’ve also been experimenting with background images, and the way I’m displaying the background image isn’t quite cooperating. The problem is, while the text is slowly appearing on the screen, the background image also appears chunk-by-chunk as the text fades in. (I don’t know if it helps at all, but I’m hoping to keep the background image onscreen at all times as the text fades in, sorta like they do in Radical Dreamers.)

I’m THINKING it might be something to do with the CSS I’m using to add the background images? I’m using the usual “tag each passage” process in the stylesheet, like so:

tw-passage[tags~="tag_name"] {

background-image:url("image file.png");

background-repeat: no-repeat;

background-position: top 65px center;

max-width: 100%;

height: 100%;

}

(A lot of that styling is because I’m also using borders inside the window to create sort of a DOS/Windows 3.1 effect, so I’ve had to position everything pretty carefully.)

I’m not a CSS genius by any stretch of the imagination so feel free to ELI5, but is there any way to make the background image appear fully before the text starts fading in due to the dissolve: macro? Is there a better way to achieve the text effect I’m going for that wouldn’t mess with the BG?

Thanks so much!

After you display the passage with the background, you can reveal blocks of text in that same passage with their own individual transitions. I think this is what you are trying to achieve.

Check out the Harlowe Manual’s chapter on Transition Delays. Let the passage appear, wait a couple of seconds before revealing the first block of text, and so on and so forth.

Let us know if you have any other questions.

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I feel pretty silly about it tbh, but I have to say thank you so much! The “fade” transition actually did what I was hoping “dissolve” would, AND without the issues with my background image! Super appreciate it!

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