Unintentional Cross Linking between conversations

[GameDev273]

Hello All,
I am encountering a problem of cross linking between different conversations in my prototype. Node contents from conversation 4 are being displayed in conversation 2. I'm usng Unity 2023.3 Alpha and dialogue system version 2.2.43.1 and Lively Chat Bubbles.

Is there an obvious place to look ?

[Tony Li]

Hi,

Can you back up your project, update to DS version 2.2.45, and let me know if the problem persists with new content?

How are you creating content? In the Dialogue Editor? In an external writing application?

Are you using one dialogue database or multiple?

[GameDev273]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. This is what I have done. (I am using one database).
- Upgraded to DS version 2.2.45.
- Created new Db, they are very small as test versions. Entered test conversations manually using the Dialogue Editor.
- Removed previous versions of the DB (in the File Manager - Is there a more thorough method?).
- 'Tagged' the phrases (by adding a textual scene reference i.e.T10S3 so that I can identify 'legacy' phrases.

I forgot to mention I am using Lively Chat speech bubbles.

Behaviour
Speech bubble appearing (flickering on / off) mid-dialogue which are from previous dialogues (they do not show the added scene ref. T10S3).
It does not seem to happen when I use just the Basic Standard Dialogue UI.

I hope this provides useful information. Cheers

[Tony Li]

Hi,

Are some dialogue entries assigned to the Dialogue Actor with the Lively Chat Bubbles subtitle panel?

[GameDev273]

Are some dialogue entries assigned to the Dialogue Actor with the Lively Chat Bubbles subtitle panel?

Yes, all of them

[Tony Li]

When an LCB speech bubble flashes, is it for the character who should be talking at the current point in the active conversation?

[GameDev273]

When an LCB speech bubble flashes, is it for the character who should be talking at the current point in the active conversation?

It is for the same character, but from a different (apparently deleted) conversation.

I should also mention that I exported the current database, searched it and cannot find the phrase anywhere in the DB which suggests it is being stored somwhere else. The 'legacy' phrases are consistent over time.

[Tony Li]

So those "legacy" dialogue entries don't exist in any dialogue databases in your project? Is that correct?

Is it possible that your Dialogue Manager's Initial Database field points to a dialogue database that you don't expect, maybe an old one that's hiding out somewhere.

Also, at any point please feel free to send a reproduction project to tony (at) pixelcrushers.com if you like.

[GameDev273]

FIxed - For now...

Quick Advice - Check Speech Bubble prefabs for Chat Output Processor Scripts.

What I did -
Downloaded database as .csv, inspected and searched in Excel.
There was nothing to indicate a database problem. Set debug to ‘Info’ in Checked the speech bubble prefabs.
Checked LivelyChatBubbles speech bubble prefabs and noticed copies of the Chat Output Processor script on the character bubbles that were ‘cross linking’. I don’t know where these have come from but under the value field – the text entries were shown to be the text cross linking to the current conversation (changes in the value were immediately shown in the dialogue at runtime).
Change of references to speech bubble prefabs in the LCB Subtitle Panel on the relevant characters to a ‘clean’ version (of the prefab) seems to have solved the problem.

Thanks again Tony for your 'super human' support.

[Tony Li]

That was a tricky one! I think I was just acting as cheerleader on this one ("you can do it!") but I'm glad you were able to trace through and nail down the issue.