Overlays

Spark provides a comprehensive overlay system that sits on top of the Ren’Py game window, giving you quick access to controls without leaving your game.

The overlay system consists of several components:

• Game Overlay — Main control panel with settings, volume, and tools
• Quick Menu — Compact floating menu for common actions
• On-Screen Keyboard Helper — Button to summon the keyboard
• Hide UI Button — Toggle overlay visibility

The main overlay is accessed by tapping the overlay button (a circular Spark icon). You can also long-press the Menu button on the Quick Menu bar to open the overlay — this is useful if the primary overlay button is disabled or hidden.

• Volume slider — Adjust master volume in real time
• Progress indicator — Shows dialogue completion percentage
• Variable Editor — Inspect and modify game variables
• Gallery Unlocker — Unlock all gallery/CG content
• Device Variant Switcher — Change screen layout variants
• Settings panels — Appearance, formatting, and game settings
• Language Switcher — Change Ren’Py’s built-in language
• Translation Settings — Configure real-time translation
• Close Game — Safely exit the current game

The main overlay button can be customized:

• Position: Drag to reposition
• Opacity: Adjust in Settings (default: 40%)
• Color: Set a custom highlight color

The Gallery Unlocker is a tool in the Spark Overlay designed to unlock all photos, scenes, and content within the game. When activated, it marks all gallery items as viewed, giving you access to the full CG gallery, scene replay, and any other unlockable content.

The unlocker icon appears green when active and white when inactive. Tapping it while active will toggle it off. A confirmation prompt is shown before enabling.

The Language Switcher in the overlay lets you change the active language from the game’s tl folder. This is Ren’Py’s official method for built-in translations — developers (or community translators) place translated scripts in the tl/ directory under a language name, and the game can switch between them at runtime.

This tool is useful when:

• The game includes multiple languages but doesn’t provide an in-game language menu
• The game has custom or unofficial community translations bundled with it
• You want to quickly switch between available translations without navigating the game’s own menus

A compact floating menu providing quick access to:

• Menu — Tap to open the Ren’Py in-game main menu. Long-press to open the Spark Overlay instead
• Skip — Toggle text skipping
• Auto — Auto-advance text
• Center Button — Configurable (Keyboard, Auto Forward, Hide UI, or Translation)
• Rewind — Rollback one dialogue step. With Turbo Rewind enabled, hold the button to continuously roll back

The keyboard overlay button summons the iOS keyboard, useful for:

• Ren’Py console input
• Name entry screens
• Keyboard-based game interactions

The keyboard supports special keys commonly used in Ren’Py:

• Esc — Open the game menu / go back
• Ctrl — Hold to skip text
• Alt — Used in some key combinations
• Fn (Function keys) — Toggle the Fn button on (it turns blue), then press a number key 1–9 to send F1–F9, or 0 for F10

You can hide all overlay elements:

• Use the Hide UI button
• Swipe gesture (if configured)
• Toggle in the main overlay

To completely disable overlays, go to Settings and turn off Enable Overlays.

If the overlay buttons have been dragged off screen and are no longer accessible, you can reset their positions in Settings. This will restore all overlay buttons to their default locations.