messaging-app-like UI

[Tetralogia]

Hi,

I'd like to display the conversations I'm creating with the Dialog System plug-in in a smartphone-messaging-app-like UI, as in the sketch below.



I've built the basic architecture within Unity but I don't know how to go about making it work with the plug-in, especially how to instantiate a new subtitle panel for each dialog entry. Should I do it by script or is there a box to tick somewhere ?

Thanks!

[Tony Li]

Hi,

You might want to start with the Textline template, which is available on the Dialogue System Extras page. It instantiates a new subtitle panel for each "message". It might be a good starting point. To try it out, import the Dialogue System, Menu Framework (also available on the Extras page), and Textline. Then add the example scenes and play the start scene.

[Tetralogia]

Oh that's perfect! Thanks a lot!

Just one thing, I seem to be missing some assets in my project :





And I've got a bunch of errors related to MenuUtility.cs

[Tony Li]

Did you import the Menu Framework, too?

[Tetralogia]

Hi, sorry it took me so long to reply, I was finishing another video game. I had indeed forgotten to import the Menu Framework, thanks!

But I didn’t need it in the end. I took the phone UI prefab from the Textline package and put it in the standard Dialogue Manager so I could have the phone menu and the conversations in the same scene. I created a menu with buttons to start the corresponding conversation, but there’s two things I was wondering :

- Is there a way to put a conversation on hold, leaving it at any moment to start another conversation, and returning to it later (without changing scene) ?

- Can I have some messages that are already displayed when I start the conversations, indicating the characters already chatted before ?

Thanks

[Tony Li]

Hi,

- Is there a way to put a conversation on hold, leaving it at any moment to start another conversation, and returning to it later (without changing scene) ?

If it's a TextlineDialogueUI conversation, first make sure Use Conversation Variable is ticked. This allows it to record the states of more than one conversation.

To put a conversation on hold, call the TextlineDialogueUI's OnRecordPersistentData() method. This saves the current state of the conversation. Example:

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

To resume a conversation using TextlineDialogueUI, set the dialogue variable "Conversation" and call OnApplyPersistentData(). Example:

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

Without TextlineDialogueUI, normally you'd record the position of the conversation before stopping, and then restart the conversation at that point. Example:

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int lastEntryID = DialogueManager.currentConversationState.subtitle.dialogueEntry.id;
DialogueManager.StopConversation();
...
DialogueManager.StartConversation(DialogueManager.lastConversationStarted, player, npc, lastEntryID);

However, this doesn't keep a history like TextlineDialogueUI does.

There is also a Conversation State Saver component, but it only saves the state of the currently-active conversation. If you save the game while a conversation is active, and then reload the saved game, it will resume the conversation at that point. But if you save the game while no conversation is active, it will not resume any conversation.

- Can I have some messages that are already displayed when I start the conversations, indicating the characters already chatted before ?

I can think of two ways to do this.

1. Add dialogue entry nodes to the beginning of the conversation, and set their Sequence fields to None(). When you start a conversation, it will blast through these nodes until it gets to a node with a different Sequence. However, if you've configured Pre Delay Settings, each of these nodes will delay for the specified duration.

2. Or, preconfigure the "history" of the conversation. This requires getting under the hood a bit more than #1, but it also bypasses the caveats of #1. Say you have a conversation named "Bob". TextlineDialogueUI stores the history of this conversation in a dialogue variable named DialogueEntryRecords_Bob, in this format:

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"#;#;#;..."

The first # is the number of dialogue entries in the history.

Each pair of #'s after that indicates a conversation ID and an entry ID. For example:

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3;1;1;1;3;1;7

means the history has 3 entries: [1:1], [1:3], and [1:7]. The first entry is conversation ID 1, entry ID 1. The second entry is conversation ID 1, entry ID 3. And the third entry is conversation ID 1, entry ID 7.

Of course, if none of these fit exactly what you want to do, you're also free to write your own dialogue UI. The Dialogue System doesn't hold you to any of the built-in UI implementations.

[Tetralogia]

Thanks a lot, it worked out for me!

Last question (I think) : When i reach the last entry of a conversation, it disables the Dialogue Panel and resets the whole conversation from the start. How do I prevent that, so I can go back to a finished conversation and re-read it?

[Tony Li]

Last question (I think) : When i reach the last entry of a conversation, it disables the Dialogue Panel and resets the whole conversation from the start. How do I prevent that, so I can go back to a finished conversation and re-read it?

One way is to make a subclass of TextlineDialogueUI. Override the Close() method:

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public override void Close()
{
    OnRecordPersistentData(); // Save the conversation at the end.
    base.Close(); // Then allow it to close.
}

Use this subclass in place of TextlineDialogueUI.

[Tetralogia]

I may have done something wrong, I'm not familiar with method overriding (kind of new to programming) :

- I created a subclass to TextlineDialogueUI
- I wrote an override method Close() with OnRecordPersistentData();
- I'm calling it at the last entry of my conversation

I commented out base.Close() both on my subclass and on TextlineDialogueUI because I actually never need a conversation to be closed. When I reach the end of the conversation, its current state is saved, but if I go back to it later, it restores the conversation from DialogueEntryRecords_"ConversationTitle" : 0.

[Tony Li]

The Close() method should close the dialogue UI, so call both lines:

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    OnRecordPersistentData(); // Save the conversation at the end.
    base.Close(); // Then allow it to close.

Don't comment out base.Close() in either class.

To keep the conversation at the last entry, instead set its Sequence field to:

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WaitForMessage(Forever)

To replace TextlineDialogueUI with your custom subclass:

1. Inspect the dialogue UI GameObject.
2. From the Inspector's three-bar menu in the upper right, select Debug.
3. Drag your custom subclass script into the TextlineDialogueUI component's Script field.
4. From the Inspector's three-bar menu in the upper right, switch back to Normal.