Pixel Crushers Forum

Hello,

I am trying to figure out what pieces I need to make a world space speech bubble dialogue system (bark style?).

I don't think I need a total solution, but rather just some help understanding what pieces I need to rig up to make this work.

A basic example of what I'm trying to accomplish:

1.) 2.) 3.) I would like to be able to have the responses selected, but then still show the player character actually speaking the line in their own bark-style speech bubble. I feel like this is probably not as difficult as I have made it, but I started down a path trying to make this happen and now I'm all confused.

I'm usually pretty good at figuring these things out, but I'm a little lost with all the different things involved with the dialogue system. (Trying to understand what a subtitle is vs. the panels vs. the bark UI vs. the dialogue UI etc. etc.)

I really do appreciate any insight! Thank you!

Hi,

I hear you. The Dialogue System has a lot of options. Try this:

1. Inspect the Dialogue Manager.

• Assign a regular, screen-space dialogue UI. The Basic Standard Dialogue UI is a good starting choice. You can customize its appearance later.
• Tick Display Settings > Subtitle Settings > Show PC Subtitles During Line. Untick Skip PC Subtitles After Response Menu.

2. Add a Dialogue Actor component to the player.

• Select the player actor from the dropdown.
• Change Dialogue UI Settings > Subtitle Panel Number to Custom.
• Assign the Bubble Template Standard UI Subtitle Panel.

3. Repeat step #2 for the NPC.

Play this and make sure it works the way you want. When you're ready to customize their appearance:

a. Add an instance of the Basic Standard Dialogue UI to the Dialogue Manager's Canvas. Assign this instance to the Dialogue Manager's Dialogue UI field. Expand it in the Hierarchy and customize away.

b. Add an instance of the Bubble Template Standard UI Subtitle Panel to the character (player or NPC). Assign this instance to the Dialogue Actor's Custom Subtitle Panel field.

• If you want it to be bigger, increase the Rect Transform's Scale.
• If you want it to be higher or lower, inspect Main Panel and adjust the Y position.
• The cartoon bubble image is assigned to Bubble Panel. Feel free to swap in your own cartoon bubble image if you prefer.

Wow, thank you so much! You explained that very clearly! I will give this a go ASAP!

EDIT: This works perfectly! I knew it shouldn't be too difficult. Thanks again for the extremely thorough and well written instructions!

Hi.

Is there a simple way to bind the bubble to the screen? I find that when a character is near the edge of the screen, a portion of the bubble gets cut off.

Hi,

The Dialogue System includes a KeepRectTransformOnscreen that keeps the pivot point of a speech bubble onscreen but doesn't keep the entire bubble onscreen. If you need to keep the entire bubble onscreen, you could write a similar script that keeps all of the corners onscreen.

Alternatively, use Lively Chat Bubbles.