Pixel Crushers Forum

Been a while since I was trying to use Dialogue System. It is feature heavy and I do feel like it lacks a lot of complete tutorials.
But anyhow:

I am trying to do a few things right now for test:
1 - I want to remove the "Press X to interact" thing and move it to work on top of the NPC head, and not have a "too far" condition. How can I go about it? I can not even remove the "too far" condition from it.

2 - I also want to understand how to manage so many different databases and how to either cache or unload them from memory. How does that work? Like, I might want to put all side quests in one, while main in another and divide by acts - just an example. But would I need many Dialogue Managers? Or how do I tell it to load sidequests too? etc etc. I feel like this is mentioned in the Documentation briefly but without much into pratical usage.

3 - A few tutorials for Cutscenes and Sequences would be nice. I have zero idea on how to use it and I would love to be able to understand it to make a turn based battle system using the Dialogue System, but I feel like it is too hard since I feel lost to anything other than just filling what Quick Start told me to do.

4 - I would love a few more tips on how to fast track the learning here. I want to be able to understand more, but I have ADHD so much information is lost when reading the documentation and not needing that information on that specific moment. Sometimes I feel lost and the search functionality from the documentation also gets me hard. Any tips?

5 - How can I add to Action Maps the information of stuff like Interact with characters? Or skip line, fast write, etc? And how to use the Continue Button?

Also any tips on how to faster learn this? I do not mean to complain at any of these. The system is great and the fact that it has LOTS of things is what makes it hard and I get all the issues, just trying to mention what I have been struggling with and why.

I am a solo game dev trying to learn this and what I wanna accomplish is:

1 - Make simple conversations (done, I can make the hello goodbye so far)
2 - Make simple barks (same here, I can make a text appear)
3 - Make simple battle system (omw to making it, but no clue how to change a few things like UI and database with persistent variables, etc)
4 - Learn how to add audio to the conversations, then barks, then battle system.
5 - Learn how to do the cutscenes and sequences to conversations, barks and battle system.
6 - Learn how to use group barks.
7 - Learn the Quest Machine stuff and integrate it into the project.

Battle System would be like any party RPG 1v1 type of battle. Choose to move, use item, defend, run, etc.

Any tips are always appreciated.

Hi,

TheCyBee wrote: ↑Mon Mar 17, 2025 12:31 pm1 - I want to remove the "Press X to interact" thing and move it to work on top of the NPC head, and not have a "too far" condition. How can I go about it? I can not even remove the "too far" condition from it.

To move the "Press X to interact" thing (called the selector UI), please see the Interaction Tutorial video. Pay attention at 04:00 for general information about setting up Usable, and at 08:27 for how to move the UI above the NPC's head. To remove the "too far" condition, increase the Usable component's Max Use Distance to a high value such as 999999.

TheCyBee wrote: ↑Mon Mar 17, 2025 12:31 pm2 - I also want to understand how to manage so many different databases and how to either cache or unload them from memory. How does that work? Like, I might want to put all side quests in one, while main in another and divide by acts - just an example. But would I need many Dialogue Managers? Or how do I tell it to load sidequests too? etc etc. I feel like this is mentioned in the Documentation briefly but without much into pratical usage.

I strongly recommend using a single dialogue database. If you can't do that for some reason, please see Working With Multiple Databases.

TheCyBee wrote: ↑Mon Mar 17, 2025 12:31 pm3 - A few tutorials for Cutscenes and Sequences would be nice. I have zero idea on how to use it and I would love to be able to understand it to make a turn based battle system using the Dialogue System, but I feel like it is too hard since I feel lost to anything other than just filling what Quick Start told me to do.

There's a whole series of tutorial videos: Cutscene Sequence Tutorials.

TheCyBee wrote: ↑Mon Mar 17, 2025 12:31 pm4 - I would love a few more tips on how to fast track the learning here. I want to be able to understand more, but I have ADHD so much information is lost when reading the documentation and not needing that information on that specific moment. Sometimes I feel lost and the search functionality from the documentation also gets me hard. Any tips?

Maybe try more of the tutorial videos. And of course ask here when you have any questions. I'm here to help!

TheCyBee wrote: ↑Mon Mar 17, 2025 12:31 pm5 - How can I add to Action Maps the information of stuff like Interact with characters? Or skip line, fast write, etc? And how to use the Continue Button?

Please see the section on the Input System package in Input_Device_Manager_Manual.pdf included in the Dialogue System.

Ok, will try the videos once again, some of them I felt too short to answer most of the questions (at least the newer ones) and I avoided the much older thinking they would be outdated but I guess better check them too.

One more question about the changing max distance to max value on Usable: wont that also make it usable from that far? Cuz I wanted to only be able to use the characters from very close (like trigger enter with a sphere collider like we do with bark, but also be like that close range for usage).

Hi,

Yes, it would allow interaction from very far. To disable the display of "Too Far", you can clear the Selector's Too Far Message. On your selector UI (see the Interaction Tutorial for how to customize the selector UI, unassign the Reticle Out Of Range and the Out Of Range Color's alpha value to zero (invisible).

If you're using using StandardUsableUI (the component/prefab that shows a selector over the NPC's head), set the same (Reticle Out Of Range and color) as above.

If you have any other specific questions, please feel free to ask them any time. I'm happy to answer.