TextMesh Pro Support

Table of Contents

THIS PAGE IS ONLY FOR LEGACY PROJECTS THAT WERE CREATED BEFORE THE DIALOGUE SYSTEM'S STANDARD DIALOGUE UI SYSTEM. THE CURRENT WAY TO USE TEXTMESH PRO IS TO ENABLE INTEGRATION AS DESCRIBED IN Dialogue UIs

This page describes how to set up the Dialogue System with TextMesh Pro without using the Standard UI system. (TextMesh Pro is required.) For new projects, the recommended way to use TextMesh Pro is with the Standard UI system as described in Dialogue UIs.

REMINDER: DO NOT USE THIS PAGE. FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS IN: Dialogue UIs

Note About Standard UI

The TextMesh Pro Third Party Support package is provided for compatibility with existing projects that use TextMesh Pro. For new projects, the recommended way to use TextMesh Pro is with the Standard UI system as described in Dialogue UIs.

TextMesh Pro Support Setup

To add support for TextMesh Pro (for projects that won't be using the Standard UI system), import the package Third Party Support ► TextMesh Pro Support. This will unpack files into the folder Assets ► Pixel Crushers ► Dialogue System ► Third Party Support ► TextMesh Pro Support.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Depending on the version of Unity and TextMesh Pro you're using, you may need to add TMP_PRESENT to your project's scripting define symbols to enable support. To do this, select Edit → Project Settings → Player. In the Other Settings section, add TMP_PRESENT to the Scripting Define Symbols field. If this field already contains text, put a semicolon between the existing text and TMP_PRESENT.

TextMesh Pro Example Scene

An example scene is in the Example folder.

The example scene was built with the Unity version of TextMesh Pro on the Asset Store, not Digital Native's paid version nor the version provided in Unity 2018+ through the Unity Package Manager. The example scene will not play out of the box with Digital Native's paid version because the script references are different, but all scripts will still work correctly in your own scenes. To play the example scene and use the provided UI prefabs in Unity 2018+, you must update it using TextMesh Pro's updater tool: Window → TextMeshPro → Project Files GUID Remapping Tool.

The example scene uses TextMesh Pro for the following UI elements:

  • Barks
  • Dialogue UI (conversations and alerts)
  • Selector
  • Quest tracker HUD
  • Quest log window

TextMesh Pro Bark UI

The TextMesh Pro Bark UI component uses a TextMesh Pro to display text above the NPC's head. Follow these instructions to set up barks:

  1. Add a TextMesh Pro child GameObject to the actor. Name it, for example, TextMeshPro Bark UI.
    • Configure its position and appearance to your liking.
    • Add an Always Face Camera component to it.
  2. On the actor GameObject, add a Text Mesh Pro Bark UI component.
    • Assign the TextMesh Pro child GameObject to the TextMesh Pro field.
  3. (Optional) On the actor GameObject, add a Text Mesh Pro Bark UI Fader component if you want barks to smoothly fade in and out, or a Text Mesh Pro Bark UI Animator if you want to use animator to show/hide the bark.

The final configuration should be similar to the screenshot below:

TextMesh Pro Dialogue, Quest, and Selector UIs

Setup is exactly like Unity UI with these exceptions:

  • Use TextMeshProUGUI components in place of UI Text components, and
  • Use TextMeshProDialogueUI instead of UnityUIDialogueUI.

Copying from Unity UI Dialogue UI

If you already have a Unity UI Dialogue UI set up and you want to switch to Text Mesh Pro Dialogue UI, you can use the technique below to retain the dialogue UI's field assignments, such as Dialogue > Panel, Dialogue > NPC Subtitle > Panel, Dialogue > NPC Subtitle > Portrait Image, etc. This way you'll only need to replace and assign the text elements.

  1. From the three-bar menu in the upper right of the inspector, select Debug to change the Inspector to debug mode.
  2. Inspect the Unity UI Dialogue UI. Drag the TextMeshProDialogueUI script into the Unity UI Dialogue UI's Script field. This will replace the script while retaining references to the panels, etc. The only fields you'll need to assign are the Text Mesh Pro UGUI fields.
  3. From the three-bar menu in the upper right of the inspector, select Normal to change the Inspector back to normal mode.​

TextMesh Pro Typewriter Effect

The Dialogue System includes an improved Typewriter Effect for TextMesh Pro.

TextMesh Pro Localization

To localize a TextMesh Pro element (such as a "Continue" button), add a Localize Text Mesh Pro component to it.

The Localize Text Mesh Pro component localizes the element's Text field. You can assign a text table to this component or the Dialogue Manager. The Text Mesh Pro component's starting text value serves as the field name to look up in the table.

Note: You do not need to do this for text in your dialogue database such as conversations and quests. Dialogue databases contain their own localization.

Fonts & Text for Localization

You can use the Dialogue Editor's Language Text Export feature (see Exporting Language Text) to export your content to separate text files for each language. You can then run these files through TextMesh Pro to ensure that your language-specific fonts include all necessary characters.

For more about localization, see Localization.

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