Question regarding dialogue trees

[Tank]

In games like Pillars of Eternity, whenever you explore a certain dialogue tree and if it makes sense, it goes back to all of the original dialogue options. I realize I'm wording this in a poor manner but I don't know how to explain it better.

Maybe a little video can help visualize what I'm trying to say.



Is there an easy way to achieve this with the dialogue system? Perhaps I'm dumb and the answer has been right in my face the whole time but what I do is return the player to a node that says something like "Anything else?" or "What's on your mind?" and it shows all of the dialogue options when you start a conversation but that just makes the conversation flow weirdly and it doesn't look very good in my opinion.

I apologize if this has been addressed multiple times but I couldn't find anything.

Also might as well use this topic to address another issue. Whenever I upgrade the version of the Dialogue System it completely breaks everything. I even used the upgrade method and it still broke everything so I had to revert. Is there a guide to safely upgrade?

Thank you.

[Tony Li]

In games like Pillars of Eternity, whenever you explore a certain dialogue tree and if it makes sense, it goes back to all of the original dialogue options.... Is there an easy way to achieve this with the dialogue system?

The key is a Group node:



In the screenshot above, I created an empty node titled "Choice Hub" and ticked its Group checkbox. Then I linked the end of the top topic branch back to this node. You'd want to do the same for all topic branches except "That's all."

Also might as well use this topic to address another issue. Whenever I upgrade the version of the Dialogue System it completely breaks everything. I even used the upgrade method and it still broke everything so I had to revert. Is there a guide to safely upgrade?

What do you mean by "breaks everything"? And what do you mean by the upgrade method? You should only need to import the newer version on top of the old one. What serialization mode is your project using? (Edit > Project Settings > Editor > Asset Serialization)

However, version 2.0 absolutely will break everything because all the script GUIDs have changed, which is why it includes an updater tool to update the GUIDs and get everything back in working order.

[Tank]

Thank you Tony. The Group feature worked perfectly, I apologize for not being more thorough with the available documentation.

As for the other issue, we are using the Force Text mode. Whenever I upgrade to the 2.0 beta version, the Dialogue Manager that we have on the scene breaks and goes missing even if we use the Run 1x to 2x Updater.

[Tony Li]

No worries; there's a lot of documentation. It's usually easier to just ask here on the forum. I think the new 2.x manual is much better organized, so it should be easier to find answers there, too.

Would you please try the latest version, beta 5? The upgrade steps are better now, and they also include a link to a video version if you prefer video.

[Tank]

The new upgrade steps ensured I did everything correctly. I have a question however, I was using a modified version of the Generic Unity UI Dialogue UI, any easy way to convert to something like a Basic Standard UI Dialogue with the new scripts but keep the look I created?

Thanks once again

[Tony Li]

Hi,

Thanks for confirming that the new upgrade steps work right. (Whew!)

There's no automatic converter. It sometimes takes a little fiddling, but these are the basic steps:

• If you're using animation, set up your animator to use triggers. The new Standard UI system exclusively uses triggers. Supporting triggers and direct state changes just added too much confusion.
• Remove the UnityUIDialogueUI script.
• Add a StandardDialogueUI script in its place.
• Assign the alert panel UI elements.
• Add StandardUISubtitlePanel scripts to the subtitle panels, and assign them to the StandardDialogueUI.
• Add a StandardUIMenuPanel script to the response menu panel, and assign it to the StandardDialogueUI.
• On each subtitle panel and menu panel, assign the UI element fields. For example, inspect each StandardUISubtitlePanel and set Panel, Portrait Image, Subtitle Text, etc.

[Tank]

As always you're very helpful, Tony. Another question and hopefully it's my final one haha.

This was working before the update but I basically disabled the Continue button functionality. During a conversation after the NPC said their line you had infinite time to read what they said and whenever you wanted you could click Continue as a dialogue option. The dialogue option "Continue" no longer shows up so I can't progress the conversation. I also disabled the typewriter effect.

Just like in Pillars of Eternity.

However, it's no longer working. How would I make this work using the Basic Standard Dialogue UI as a template? My whole goal is to pretty much make a copy of the dialogue I showed earlier but I'm also struggling with all these layout components. Anything on the documentation that addresses this?

[Tony Li]

Is Continue an actual dialogue entry node? If it's a node, is it being linked as you expect? Open the Dialogue Editor to your conversation during play and check which link arrows are green vs. red.

If it's a continue button in the sense that it's assigned to the Standard UI Subtitle Panel's Continue Button field, make sure it calls the Standard Dialogue UI's OnContinue method.

I'm finishing up the dialogue UI video tutorial this evening. It shouldn't be too much longer, but I had to take a short break. My dog came into the office and decided to start licking his nether regions basically right next to the microphone. So I think I may need to re-record some audio.

If you get stuck on the UI, please feel free to send a copy to tony (at) pixelcrushers.com. I'll be happy to take a look.

[Tank]

Looking forward to that video, I know how dogs can be



This is what I have, I've managed to fix the other issues that I was having fortunately. The dialogue just sits there and won't progress further which is weird. I've tried all sorts of options :/

[Tony Li]

Have you tried using the Basic Standard Dialogue UI? If that also hangs, then the issue is probably with the conversation or Dialogue Manager Display Settings. If the conversation works with the Basic Standard Dialogue UI, then the issue is probably with your custom UI.

BTW, the Standard Dialogue UI tutorial video is up: