Overriding actor and conversant from conversation database in script

[Aechen]

Hi there.

I'm working on a project currently where I have two NPCs that need to talk to each other through bubble UI. I've followed the example posted elsewhere on this forum to have a conversation being displayed through bubbles, which works perfectly.

The problem I am having is that only NPC1's part of the conversation is displaying, NPC2 never speaks.
Both of the game objects have the Dialogue Actor component on them, and they're set to the actors that they are represented with in the conversation editor. The conversation in question has also been properly set to have the right actor and conversant.
I trigger the conversation from script using:

Code: Select all

DialogueManager.StartConversation(GetComponent<DialogueSystemTrigger>().conversation.ToString(), transform, GameObject.Find(characterName).transform);

The Info level for the Dialogue Manager also shows the conversation as being started with the right actor and conversant, yet only one side of the conversation appears in bubbles.

The conversation in question takes place as one path in a conversation tree for one of the NPCs, which also has other dialogue paths within it that target the player as conversant. If I press on a blank space in the conversation editor, the actor is set as the NPC, and the conversant is set as the player.
The only way I've been able to fix this problem is if I set the conversant as NPC2 in this menu.
I've set conversations up this way so that I can just have a single conversation for each NPC, which then has all the different paths required for the game, just to try to be organised.
So, what I'm asking, is there a way to set the actor and conversant in script when starting the dialogue, so that it'll work for my NPC-only dialogue (which my player can see as they approach), but also still allow my player to be set as the default conversant within the conversation editor?

Hopefully this made sense. Thank you in advance for any help!

[Tony Li]

Hi,

In the Dialogue Editor, are NPC2's dialogue entry nodes displayed in blue? (Assuming you haven't assigned custom node colors to actors.) If so, inspect the node and make sure the Actor dropdown is set to NPC2. Then inspect the NPC2 actor in the Actors section and make sure the Is Player checkbox is UNticked.

Also, please see: How To: Bypass Response Menu When Player Has One Choice for info on how to show the player's lines in bubbles.

[Aechen]

Hi Tony,

Thank you for the reply. Neither of the NPCs boxes are blue, only the player's boxes would show up in blue, but the conversation I want in bubbles doesn't include the player at all. I just checked all my actors and none of them are marked as "Is Player", other than the Player actor.

As for the link you sent, thank you, I'll keep that in mind if I want to show player lines in bubbles later on, but for this conversation, am only looking at having the two NPCs having a conversation without the player at all.

[Tony Li]

Hi,

It must not be finding NPC2's GameObject, or it's using a different GameObject for some reason. Are there any warnings in the Console window about the registered transform for NPC2 being changed?

[Aechen]

I managed to solve it, so just for anyone else having a similar problem to me, this is what fixed it for me.
In the conversation editor, if you press on a blank spot you see the default assigned actor and conversant. For me, the Player was the default conversant, because every other conversation happens with the player. When I left it blank, my bubbles now show up properly for the appropriate NPCs in an NPC only conversation.
It did mean that I had to re-assign the player into my existing conversations, as it got changed to none.
Now I just have to figure out how to use bubble UI only for conversations that do not include the player.

[Aechen]

Hi,

It must not be finding NPC2's GameObject, or it's using a different GameObject for some reason. Are there any warnings in the Console window about the registered transform for NPC2 being changed?

Hi Tony,

I actually just managed to solve my own problem. Weirdly there were no errors, and the info level on Dialogue Manager showed both actors being found properly. I guess it was forcing Player as actor anyway.
I'm on a new problem with my bubble UI, which I only want to be using in case of 2 NPCs talking, but want to use default UI in all other situations. I'll search around a bit, but is there a way off-hand to do this?

Thanks.

[Tony Li]

Hi,

Add an Override Dialogue UI component to the player GameObject, and assign your default dialogue UI prefab. Set this Override Dialogue UI's Priority to a higher value than your bubble-using NPCs. When the player is the primary actor or conversant, the conversation will use the player's Override Dialogue UI instead of the NPCs' since the Priority is higher.

[Aechen]

Hi,

Add an Override Dialogue UI component to the player GameObject, and assign your default dialogue UI prefab. Set this Override Dialogue UI's Priority to a higher value than your bubble-using NPCs. When the player is the primary actor or conversant, the conversation will use the player's Override Dialogue UI instead of the NPCs' since the Priority is higher.

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the quick replies.
So I tried the above, and it works to a certain extent, which is great. I do indeed have my normal player UI in all other situations, and the NPCs talk to each other using the bubble UI. My problem is that when the Player then talks to one of the NPCs, it will still use the bubble UI.
I added an actor component to the Player and set that up, and then I added the Override Dialogue UI component. It didn't work with setting the "Basic Standard Dialogue UI" prefab from the plugins folder, but setting it to the Dialogue Manager in the scene seemed to at least work when not talking to those NPCs.
I also tried increasing the priority number to a high number (100), and when that didn't work, I added overrides for my NPCs and set them to a lower number, but that didn't seem to work either.
The Dialogue Trigger is set to have the Player as the Actor.
Any idea what the problem could be?

Thanks.

[Tony Li]

Hi,

Ah, that makes sense. The NPC's Dialogue Actor component will tell the NPC to use its bubble subtitle panel regardless of which dialogue UI is being used -- unless the dialogue UI's Conversation UI Elements > Allow Dialogue Actor Custom Panels is UNticked.

On the dialogue UI that's assigned to the player's Override Dialogue UI component, UNtick this checkbox.

[Aechen]

Hi,

Ah, that makes sense. The NPC's Dialogue Actor component will tell the NPC to use its bubble subtitle panel regardless of which dialogue UI is being used -- unless the dialogue UI's Conversation UI Elements > Allow Dialogue Actor Custom Panels is UNticked.

On the dialogue UI that's assigned to the player's Override Dialogue UI component, UNtick this checkbox.

Hi Tony,

That makes a lot of sense, thank you. In trying to find this setting and not being able to see it anywhere, I found out that I needed to update the asset, so after that, I can get it to work such that the player's UI takes precedence when speaking to the NPCs, but it's also had the unintended consequence of the NPCs now not using the bubble UI in the conversation that doesn't involve the player.
Is there anything I can do to have it so that NPCs that don't speak to the player use bubble UI, and any conversation with the player uses default UI?

Thanks.