Using just the Dialogue Editor tool

[adrianadrian]

Hi there!

I'm planning on using this tool in an upcoming game and wanted to double check if it's possible to just use the dialogue editor and dialogue database without using the dialogue management or other parts of the plugin? We have our own systems in place for these and are really just looking for a streamlined way to edit and store branching dialogue.

Thanks!

[Tony Li]

Hi,

Sure! There are several levels at which you can use the Dialogue System:

• Just the Dialogue Editor: All branching conversations and related data (actors, quests, variables) go into a DialogueDatabase ScriptableObject asset that has a fairly simple format.
• Side note: You can also use external editors such as Arcweave, articy:draft, Chat Mapper, etc., and import them.
• Conversation Model: You can use the ConversationModel class to run the "under the hood" logic and management of a conversation, evaluating Lua conditions, setting variables and quest states, etc., without using any of the Dialogue System's player-facing UI stuff.
• Conversation Model + your own UI: You can provide your own implementation of the C# interface IDialogueUI to the Dialogue System, and the Dialogue System will work happily with it.
• Or everything: Or you can use the StandardDialogueUI implementation of the C# interface IDialogueUI that's used by the example prefabs that ship with the Dialogue System.

[adrianadrian]

Perfect, thanks Tony! The first option sounds like it suits our needs. Are there any docs or guides relating to just using the editor and ScriptableObject database? Or is it relatively straight forward?

Also, is it possible to just port in the editor tools and code relating to dialogue editing and the databass without also keeping the other assets (e.g. components we won't be using) in the project?

[Tony Li]

Hi,

You can delete the demo assets (instructions), but it would be a headache for you to try to delete scripts that aren't used -- and they'll mostly be stripped out anyway by the compiler. Don't delete the Editor Default Resources folder; that's a special Unity folder that contains icons used by the Dialogue Editor.

The database is defined here: DialogueDatabase

There is a rare issue that Unity introduced with its Asset Database v2 format that we finally worked around in DS version 2.2.47, so as soon as 2.2.47 comes out I recommend updating to it.

[adrianadrian]

Perfect, thanks for your guidance, Tony! We'll go ahead with the tool