Response Menu Panel Animation (VN Template)

[lcn_mc]

Hey everyone.

I'm trying to setup both my main Text Panel and the Response Menu Panel to move onto the screen from the left (as if they're coming from off screen), and stop in the middle. I've been able to partially accomplish this through editing the 'Show' animation used by the Canvas Group Animator Controller to also animate the x/y position of the panels, but I'm running into the following issue:

The Response Menu Panel, as a child of the Text Panel, is being animated when the Text Panel is activated at the start of the conversation, so it, while in its inactive state, is still moving onto the screen. When a response portion of the conversation is hit, the Response Menu Panel game object simply flips from inactive to active, which means it just appears, without any animation, in its final position on the screen.

The intended behavior is that the Response Menu Panel, similar to the Text Panel, moves onto the screen instead of simply appearing.

Any thoughts on this?

Alternatively, if the Response Menu Panel can't be edited to animate separately from the Text Panel, is there a way to introduce a brief delay before the Response Menu Panel appears? (e.g.: The player hits 'Continue' to advance the dialogue, and in the period after the 'Continue' button is pressed and before the Response Menu Panel is activated, there is a intentionally-set delay period of a second or so.)

Thanks for the help.

[Tony Li]

Hi,

Try this: Inspect the subtitle and response menu panels, and tick their Wait For Open and Wait For Close checkboxes.

[lcn_mc]

Tony,

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give that a try tomorrow afternoon and report back.

[lcn_mc]

Ok, I've had a chance to take a look. Here's what I found:

First, the Subtitle Panels (0, 1, and 2, which live beneath the parent 'Subtitle Panels' game object, which lives beneath the main 'Dialogue Panel' game object) have both 'Wait for Open' and 'Wait for Close', and I've enabled those checkboxes.

Second, the Response Menu Panel does not have a 'Wait for Open' checkbox; only a 'Wait for Close' in its set of options. Ticking 'Wait for Close' didn't change its behavior, either. I assume this is because the Response Menu Panel has a 'Standard UI Menu Panel' component (which is where the 'Wait for Close' option lives), but the Subtitle Panels have a 'Standard UI Subtitle Panel' component, which has both the 'Wait for Open' and 'Wait for Close.'

So, assuming there's not any easy way to decouple the Response Menu Panel from the Text Panel, is there any way to introduce a brief delay before the Response Menu Panel activates during a conversation?

[Tony Li]

Hi,

You can decouple the response menu panel. Just move it outside of the Text Panel so that it's a sibling, not a child, of the Text Panel.

[lcn_mc]

Tony,

Thanks for the suggestion. I fiddled with it a bit more, but still can't get the desired result. My assumption now is that because the Response Menu Panel, whether it's a child of the Text Panel or not, still uses the same animation controller as the entire group, it's going to receive animations at the same time the other panels do. (e.g.: When the main Dialogue Panel calls the 'Show' animation when a conversation starts, the Response Menu Panel is going to receive that same 'Show' animation call, even if it isn't a step in the conversation that requires a response.

I'll experiment a bit with adding new animation states into the canvas group controller, but we can consider this topic concluded for now; it was just a minor aesthetic desire to have the response panel move in separately.

Thanks for the help, as always.

[Tony Li]

Each panel (Dialogue Panel, subtitle panels, response menu panel(s)) can have their own Animator. If you want to revisit this in the future, you can set it up like that.