Trouble with Standard Scene Transition Manager

[LostContinentGames]

Hello,

I've imported Save System Prefabs from the extras, and I'm toying around with the Standard Scene Transition manager, but I'm having a few problems.

1. When I add the save system prefab to my scene, things work fine. I see the loading screen when I touch the scene portal, and then I'm taken to my desired scene. However, if I open another scene in the editor, and then come back to the scene with the Scene Transition Manager, it stops working. I have to remove the save system prefab from the scene, and then add it again to restore function.

2. When I see my custom loading screen, the animation doesn't work. My loading screen is nearly identical to the sample one in the extras. It's just a static image with one spinning element. When I play the scene by itself, it spins fine, but when it's loaded in via the Scene Transition manager, it's all static.

Any idea what's going on?

[Tony Li]

Hi,

1. When I add the save system prefab to my scene, things work fine. I see the loading screen when I touch the scene portal, and then I'm taken to my desired scene. However, if I open another scene in the editor, and then come back to the scene with the Scene Transition Manager, it stops working. I have to remove the save system prefab from the scene, and then add it again to restore function.

Are you opening another scene during play? Or outside of play mode? Are there any errors or warnings in the Console window?

2. When I see my custom loading screen, the animation doesn't work. My loading screen is nearly identical to the sample one in the extras. It's just a static image with one spinning element. When I play the scene by itself, it spins fine, but when it's loaded in via the Scene Transition manager, it's all static.

In your custom loading screen, set your Animator's Update Mode to Unscaled Time. This way if the scene change pauses time the animation will still play.

[LostContinentGames]

I'm changing the scene outside of play mode.

The only warning in the console is:

Dialogue System: SelectorUseStandardUIElements can't find a StandardUISelectorElements component in the scene.
UnityEngine.Debug:LogWarning(Object, Object)
PixelCrushers.DialogueSystem.SelectorUseStandardUIElements:Start()

But that's always there.

[Tony Li]

Hi,

What Unity and Dialogue System versions are you using?

That warning message is fine, but to get rid of it (or to use Unity UI for your selector UI), either assign a StandardUISelectorElements such as "Basic Standard UI Selector Elements" to your Dialogue Manager's Instantiate Prefabs component, or put an instance of a prefab in the scene.

[LostContinentGames]

Unity 2019.4.19f1

Dialogue System 2.2.47

[Tony Li]

Hi,

Can you back up your project, update to DS 2.2.51, and let me know if the issue persists?

If it does, can you send a reproduction project to tony (at) pixelcrushers.com?

[LostContinentGames]

Yeah, it looks like updating to 2.2.51 fixed the issue. Thanks.

In order to update to the new version, I deleted the old one in the plugins folder and imported the new one.

Of course, because of this, I also deleted all my UI prefabs, databases, conversations, etc.

I have these all on my backup project. Is there an easier way to update or is this the correct method? How do I update while keeping all the stuff I worked on?

[Tony Li]

Hi,

You can import updates on top of old versions.

However, if you've made direct changes to any of the files included in the Dialogue System, those will be overwritten by the new version.

Instead of directly editing the prefabs, make copies or prefab variants. For example, if one of your scenes has a Dialogue Manager GameObject that's configured and customized exactly the way you want, drag it into your own folder in the Project view. Then select Prefab Variant from the popup window. This will create a new prefab variant asset that you can add to your other scenes if you want. Since it's a separate file, it won't be overwritten when you update the Dialogue System. Another way to create prefab variants is to right-click on a prefab (e.g., a dialogue UI prefab such as Basic Standard Dialogue UI) and select Create > Prefab Variant. Then move it into your own folder so it isn't mixed in with the original Dialogue System files.

For your dialogue database, you should have created a new dialogue database for your project, so that shouldn't have been overwritten. I recommend putting the database in your own folder, not in Plugins > Pixel Crushers > Dialogue System, so you won't lose if it you decide to delete the Dialogue System folder for some reason prior to updating.

As for restoring from backup, none of the Dialogue System's prefabs (Dialogue Manager, dialogue UIs, etc.) have changed significantly in the past few versions, so you can restore them from backup. Then make and use prefab variants as I described above to prevent overwriting in the future.