OnRecordPersistentData / OnApplyPersistentData

[Tetralogia]

Hi,

I'd like to be able to save the state of conversations with the textline dialogue ui to return to it later. I normally use :

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FindObjectOfType<TextlineDialogueUI>().OnRecordPersistentData();
DialogueManager.StopConversation();

and

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DialogueLua.SetVariable("Conversation", "Your Conversation Title");
FindObjectOfType<TextlineDialogueUI>().OnApplyPersistentData();

But it doesn't seem to be working anymore?

[Tony Li]

Hi,

Make sure it's recording the state properly:

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FindObjectOfType<TextlineDialogueUI>().OnRecordPersistentData();
DialogueManager.StopConversation();
Debug.Log(DialogueLua.GetVariable("DialogueEntryRecords_Your Conversation Title").asString));

The last line above should record a bunch of numbers like 3;1;0;1;2;1;4.

Then make sure it's applying that saved data properly by stepping through OnApplyPersistentData in the debugger. Places it could exit early (and not resume hte conversation) are:

• If the current scene is in the Don't Load Conversation In Scenes list.
• If the variable ("DialogueEntryRecords_Your Conversation Title") doesn't exist.
• If the variable doesn't contain a list of numbers like above.

[Tetralogia]

Hi,

Sorry it took me so long to answer. When I type:

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FindObjectOfType<TextlineDialogueUI>().OnRecordPersistentData();

Visual Studio Code underlines TextlineDialogueUI and tells me :

The type or namespace name 'TextlineDialogueUI' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

[Tony Li]

Hi,

Put this line at the top of your script:

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using PixelCrushers.DialogueSystem.Extras;

A tip: Often when VS underlines something, you can right-click it and select the menu context menu option. This will give you options to automatically resolve the issue, such as in this case automatically adding the line shown above.

[Tetralogia]

Oh sure, thanks!

So now, how do I make sure the variable DialogueEntryRecords_MyConversation exists? I've written the method as you've suggested :

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void SaveConversation(string conversationTitle) 
{
        FindObjectOfType<TextlineDialogueUI>().OnRecordPersistentData();
        DialogueManager.StopConversation();
        Debug.Log(DialogueLua.GetVariable("DialogueEntryRecords_" + conversationTitle).asString);
}

And when I call it at the last node of a conversation, for example SaveConversation("Vanessa"), the console logs :

TextlineDialogueUI.OnRecordPersistentData: Saving current conversation to DialogueEntryRecords_nil

Dialogue System: Ending Conversation

nil

I have two TextlineDialogueUI's in my scene and use an OverrideDialogueUI component on my NPCs, maybe the issue comes from that?

[Tony Li]

Yes, FindObjectOfType with the 2 TextlineDialogueUIs is probably the issue. It's probably finding the wrong one. If only one conversation is active at a time, the easiest way to find the correct UI is:

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TextlineDialogueUI ui = DialogueManager.displaySettings.dialogueUI.GetComponent<TextlineDialogueUI>();

In the message "Saving current conversation to DialogueEntryRecords_nil", 'nil' means the value of the "Conversation" variable isn't set. That's something else to check.

[Tetralogia]

Ok! I figured that I should register the conversation variable myself, so I rewrote my OpenConversation() method:

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 void OpenConversation(string conversationName, double playerIndex, double conversantIndex, double ui) 
    {
        int player = (int)playerIndex;
        int conversant = (int)conversantIndex;
        int uiIndex = (int) ui;

        if(DialogueManager.ConversationHasValidEntry(conversationName)) 
        {
            DialogueLua.SetVariable("Conversation", conversationName);
            textlineDialogueUIs[uiIndex].GetComponent<TextlineDialogueUI>().OnApplyPersistentData();
            DialogueManager.StartConversation(conversationName, Characters.charactersTransforms[player], Characters.charactersTransforms[conversant]);
        }
    }

So when I call SaveConversation():

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    void SaveConversation(string conversationTitle, double ui) 
    {

        int uiIndex = (int) ui;

        textlineDialogueUIs[uiIndex].GetComponent<TextlineDialogueUI>().OnRecordPersistentData();
        DialogueManager.StopConversation();
        Debug.Log(DialogueLua.GetVariable("DialogueEntryRecords_" + conversationTitle).asString);
    }

I now get a series of numbers. I still have one issue. For exemple, in one of my conversation, I call SaveConversation() on the DialogueEntry 24, but my DialogueEntryRecords ends with 3;23 and not 3;24. So, when I reopen the conversation, it replays the node 24, calls SaveConversation() and thus closes the conversation immediately.

[Tony Li]

When resuming, TextlineDialogueUI replays the entry that it was saved on. If you can change SaveConversation() to sequencer command, you can make TextlineDialogueUI skip it by ticking the Save/Load > Don't Repeat Last Sequence checkbox.

Otherwise, if you want to keep it as a Lua-registered function, you could set a bool before resuming the conversation. If the bool is true (because the conversation is being resumed), exit the function instead of stopping and saving the conversation.

[Tetralogia]

I need it as a Lua-registered function so I took the second solution:

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void SaveConversation(string variable, string conversationTitle, double ui) 
    {

        int uiIndex = (int) ui;

        if(DialogueLua.GetVariable(variable).asBool == false) {
            textlineDialogueUIs[uiIndex].GetComponent<TextlineDialogueUI>().OnRecordPersistentData();
            DialogueManager.StopConversation();
            DialogueLua.SetVariable(variable, true);
        }
    }

Thank you a lot for your help!

[Tony Li]

Glad to help!