LDC (Localized Dialogs & Cutscenes) - Powerful and intuitive Dialog System with tons of features!

Hi ditt,

I'm glad you like the plugin! =)

Yep, running external scripts from LDC is very easy!

There are several ways of doing it, this probably being the less time-consuming:

The SendMessage method
In the Actions tab of each screen, you are able to perform a SendMessage action at either the start or end of the screen. SendMessage allows you to "call" another function from a different gameObject. If for example there is another gameObject in the scene called "MyGO", and it had a script on it with a function called "HpUp", you could set it up like this:



assuming the function looked like this:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2.  
3. function HpUp( amount : float ){
4.    // function code here!
5. }
6.  
7.  

Hope that helps!

- Mel

 

Helped perfectly!
Thanks x 2.

 

My pleasure! =)

- Mel

 

New Unity user here! Let me start out by saying this is an amazing toolset. Having no significant Unity experience, I put together a little story game in half a day. Just in case you were still taking any suggestions, I wanted to drop a few:

Dialog Style: Floaty- This allows you to place text anywhere on the screen, choosing whether or not to fade it in, fade out after duration, toggle the typewriter effect, or animate (eg. slide the text in from offscreen) Example pic: http://i.imgur.com/m5TNbcB.jpg

Fast forward Rewind: These would mainly be for games with visual novel components. A key could speed through text that a player has already seen, and rewind would allow them to step back through dialog lines up to a certain limit.

 

Hi The Masked Developer,

I'm glad you're finding LDC to be helpful!

... haha nice screenshot!

"Floaty" dialog style
Yeah I can see how something like this would be very useful in the system! Added to the wishlist!

"Fast Forward / Rewind"
Another cool suggestion. This one will be a lot harder to implement as a lot of under-the-hood routines would be needed to help it run. Also, it would only be limited to the same Dialog thread ( in other words, all the dialogs on a single GameObject ). In any case, added to the wishlist too! =)

Thanks for your suggestions, I think "Floaty" should be making its way into an LDC update pretty soon, and eventually I can foresee the fast forward / rewind actions coming a little later!

All the best,

- Mel

 

Is there any pdf manual or documentation available before purchasing?

 

Hi angel_m,

Sure is!

You can find more info, video tutorials and resources for LDC over at my site here:

>> LDC Website

Direct link to PDF:

>> LDC Documentation

Hope that helps!

- Mel

 

Thanks.

 

You're welcome! =)

- Mel

 

Is there a way to fade out an actor layer without knowing what's currently in it?

I have a looping multi-choice question that needs to return to the question node after every answer route. Each route utilizes different actor poses, and I need it to crossfade into a particular pose every time the original question node is reached, regardless of which pose is currently showing.

 

Hi "The Masked Developer",

If I understand your question correctly then I'm afraid not. The purpose of having to setup actor layers is so you can change the actor's graphics on every frame. To do what you're trying to achieve, you will have to duplicate that particular "Multiple Choice" screen to account for the different actor poses. You can use the Logic screen and Tokens to help with this.

For example, if you have an "Emotion" token setup in the DialogUI, you can do it like this:

SCREEN 1 - Logic Screen
if Emotion is "Normal" go to screen 2.
if Emotion is "Sad" go to screen 3.
if Emotion is "Happy" go to screen 4.
else go to screen 2.
_____________________________________

SCREEN 2 / 3 / 4 - Multiple Choice Screen.

[your question here]
[your answers here] -> navigates to other screens.

The only thing you change is the actor layer so that the correct emotion or "pose" is displayed.

During the story, while the actor poses change, also set the "Emotion" token so that when you loop back to the question, you can use the Logic screen to figure it out for you!

Hope that helps!

- Mel

 

Gotcha, I was thinking about doing something like that.

Right now, you can choose to fade out all actor layers without providing info as to what is in each layer. I think it'd save a lot of time if one could tell a specific actor layer to do that, allowing you to do whatever you wish with the remaining layers. It'd also be okay if that layer had many possibilities as to what might be in it.

 

Sounds like a good idea, added to the wishlist!

- Mel

 

So I'm trying to build for 16:9, which works, except that it seems to be stretching from 3:2. This is more or less okay, except that it stretches the actors, too. Is there a way to keep the actors from stretching in 16:9?

 

Hi TMD,

As you know, at the moment the system scales the UI to fit any resolution. I'm working on new ways to handle ultra wide-screen desktop resolutions (without the visible stretching) in the system without sacrificing the build-once deploy anywhere design philosophy. I'm hoping that will come in v3.5 where I'll be focusing more on balancing larger and more modern desktop resolutions.

There's a lot of re-writes and new routines required for this, but it is coming!

- Mel

 

Hi Mel, a quick question: I've managed to get my ui scaled down to a size I like, font and all, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to get the player pic smaller along with the rest of the ui. I'm building for desktop, and used the advice you gave earlier in this thread to get this far, but how do I resize my player pic? Thanks.
Cheers.

 

Hi Wheelbarrow,

this is coming in 3.1!

I've already got this working and the update should be finalised and out in the next week or so. It will be a new entry in the UI skins! =)

- Mel

 

Excellent, and thanks for the quick reply

 

No worries!

Glad to help!

- Mel

 

Hi Mel,
Really awesome piece of work there.
I'm currently doing a sorta 3D graphic novel. One simple question, is it possible to play and pause the animation or just to play certain duration of the animation in between dialogue? For example, I have a 1 minutes animation imported from FBX. However the animation was split into multiple 3-5 seconds section. The current option is to create a new object on every dialog screen, which kinda hassle and I'm afraid it will take up more memories. So I think its much more efficient to play the next specified animation clip instead.

Let me know if I missed something here. Hope I did.

BTW, I cant play the web FPS demo. It always prompt me to install unityplayer, which I already have.

Thanks!

 

Hi detomato,

Thanks for your comments!

Okay, if I've understood you correctly, you've created a 3D animation that you've already split up in Unity so that they show up as separate animation clips. As the dialogs progress, you want to play a different clip, etc. If this is the case, this is how you can approach the problem:

1) Setup

Rename the GameObject that holds the animation to "AnimationGO".

2) Create a new script

Create this script that we'll use to control your animations:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. // LDCAnimationPrefab.js
3. // This Prefab Finds an animation object and tells it to play a new animation.
4.  
5. var findAnimation : String = "AnimationGO";
6. var clipToPlay : String = "<Animation Name Here>";
7.  
8. function Start(){
9.  
10. // If the animation object exists and has an Animation component...
11. if( GameObject.Find(findAnimation)!=null  GameObject.Find(findAnimation).GetComponent(Animation)!=null ){
12.  
13.    // Cache the animation component
14.    var a : Animation = GameObject.Find(findAnimation).GetComponent(Animation);
15.  
16.    // Play the clip defined in the inspector.
17.    a.Play(clipToPlay);
18. }
19.  
20. // Destroy Prefab when we're done.
21. Destroy(gameObject);
22.  
23. }
24.  

3: Use Prefabs to Load the correct animation (without wasting memory!)

Put this script into a new GameObject and create a prefab out of it (remove the original from the scene).

Now you can use LDC's "Create Object At Start" function to create copies of this prefab that play the correct animation! All you need to do is type the correct animation name in "Clip To Play", which will be visible in the inspector!

Hopefully the code above is correct, I was away from my computer when I wrote this!

Hope that helps!

- Mel

 

Hi Mel, I just bought your plugin!

I would like to create a menu, whose options depend on a variable. Ideally, I'd like to be able to check a boolean if X is true, if so have Y dialog option available.

Example, say I have a menu:
Option A
Option B
Option C

If player selects option A, some scene happens, token $PickedA was set, and eventually it'll return to the same menu, only now I want it to show this:

Option B
Option C

Or even, say, after some logic, a new option appears:

Option B
Option C
Option D


Any recommendations for how to create this effect?

I imagine I'd have to create the menus dynamically in code. Your documentation shows how to make the multiple choice menu, but how to you link one scene to the next in code?

Thanks!
-T

 

Hi Tobiah,

Firstly, thanks for purchasing LDC!

Ok, so the good news is you may not need to do any scripting for this, you can make this happen using the Logic dialog screen and the LDC tokens!

Let's imagine you have setup these tokens in DialogUI.
$PickedA = 0
$PickedB = 0
$PickedC = 0

You can use the "Logic" DialogScreen as a precursor for your menu, and have different versions of your menu setup:

For example:

DIALOG ID 1 (LOGIC SCREEN)

if $PickedA Equals 1 - Go To Screen 3
else - go to screen 2

DIALOG SCREEN 2 (CHOICE)

// Note: This is the default menu
[Option A]
[Option B]
[Option C]

DIALOG SCREEN 3 (CHOICE)

// Note: This is a copy of the menu, but is loaded instead of the previous because we already pickedA!
[Option B]
[Option C]

MORE NOTES

So whenever you want to go back to the menu, you reference ID 1 (the original logic dialog screen and that will take you to the correct screen).

If you need nested Logic, this becomes a little more complicated as you would need to add additional logic screens (depending on the options) before you get to the menu.

SOME GOOD NEWS - COMING SOON IN 3.2 ...

I have an update coming up (Not 3.1 which should be out this week, but 3.2 which should be out in about 2-3 weeks if all goes well). One of the bigger features I'm planning to add are "Conditional Choice" Dialog styles as this seems to be a popular request (I'm sure you'll agree! lol ). Basically, it will work in a similar way to the current multiple choice menu, but each button will have a Logic condition associated with it which will determine if the button will appear or not. So it will look a little like this:

Dialog Style = Logic Buttons
Title / Name = My Logical Choice

Button 1 = Option A
RequiresLogic = true.
Condition = $PickedA Equals 0

Button 2 = Option B
RequiresLogic = true.
Condition = $PickedB Equals 0

Button 3 = Option C
RequiresLogic = false.
-

This will make conditional dialogs waaaay easier without making longer dialogs! =)

If all goes well this feature will be implemented in 2 - 3 weeks!

Hope this helps!

- Mel

 

Awesome! Yeah it sounds like that feature is exactly what I am looking for.

I was interesting in using your system to make a visual novel during nation novel writing month (november), so if you get this out in two weeks it'll make my job so much easier!

I could implement it the way you showed above, but that seems like it would be messy legacy code to maintain ("Does id 3 mean option B and C, or C and D?") so I might just wait on implementing that dialog until after the update.

Thank you very much! I appreciate how active you are and how much effort you are putting in to expanding and maintaining this plugin.

 

Hi Tobiah,

Thanks for the kind words!

Yes I think if you were going to make an entire Visual Novel's worth of menus like that, it would make sense to hold out a few weeks to make it easier on yourself, haha. I'll be posting updates for the features right here in the meantime, so keep an eye on it!

- Mel

 

Coming in v3.2 ...

Even though the Unity team haven't approved 3.1 yet, 3.2 is almost complete and brings some pretty cool and powerful features! =)

Firstly, we'll be getting an overhaul to the "Multiple Buttons" dialog style which will now become optionally condition based! This means, you can make certain buttons visible only if it matches some logic in relation to your tokens! I'm also hoping to add some UI improvements (which I'm not sure will make it into this build - stay posted on that! lol )

Here's a sneak peak at what the "Multiple Button" screens will look like:



Very similar to the old dialog style except you can now attach logical conditions by clicking the "Requires Condition" checkbox, and setting up some simple token logic.

Notice how in the first two buttons, we're setting them to require the tokens "Has Axe" and "Has Sword" respectively. We could also test values, names, etc.

To see what's going on behind the scenes, I originally set up these tokens in DialogUI:



Notice how I've set "Has Sword" to 0, that would make the logic from the second button return as false, which will hide the button from the UI.

THE RESULT

And the final result is this:



This is going to make it insanely easy to create advanced visual novels, RPGs, or any kind of plot that has choices!

Hope you guys are looking forward to this!

- Mel

 

Nice!!!

 

the aspect radio of the icon in portrait app i very large...how can i change this?
Thanl's in advance

 

@ LeeAllen: Thanks! =)

@ emo55: this is coming in v3.1 which should get approved any day now by the Unity team!

It will be a new entry in the UI skins. You'll be able to easily modify the size of the icons by using "fixed width" and "fixed height"!

- Mel

 

happy to hear this feature ;-)

 

Hi,
Just trying to take a look at the demos. I am also getting the webplayer download issue although I have installed the latest unity webplayer.
Thanks

 

Hi zslrepublic,

Thats strange - seems to be working fine on my side. What web player are you trying to look at (FPS demo?) and which browser are you using?

Thanks!

- Mel

UPDATE: Looks like there are some known problems with the Unity web player page and IE / Windows 8. For now, please test on another browser such as Firefox while the unity team irons it out. Thanks!

 

Sorry!!! I can't believe I forgot the system info in a question like this!

Windows 7 64 bit
Firefox 24.0/25.0 (updated from 24.0 to 25.0)
Unity Player 4.2.2.12621

I am able to open other web demos:
2D Action RPG Kit - a fresh demo I tried after updating Firefox
Action-RPG Starter Kit demo worked both before and after the Firefox Update, and is relevant as a dropboxusercontent demo as well.

Neither the FPS nor the Comic Demo are opening for me, whether I open them from the asset store link or your website

Both take me to a black screen, with their title at the top, and a button saying Unity Web Player, Install Now. Which leads to the Unity Web Player download page. I download and installed the file yesterday, with no change. I played other demos before and after installing it.

Thanks, and sorry again for the sparse info in the other post

 

Hi zslrepublic,

Just realised something weird with the Unity webplayers! lol For some browsers it won't load the plugin if they are stored on secure servers (HTTPS).

Can you try changing the "https:" from the beginning of the URL to "http:" and let me know if that works?

These links should hopefully work now:

COMIC / VISUAL NOVEL DEMO

FPS DEMO


Thanks!

- Mel

 

Hi,
Both links in your post are working! Nice demos too.

Thanks!

 

Hi zslrepublic,

Thanks for checking them out, and glad you like them!

- Mel

 

New Update!

v3.1 is now live on the Asset Store! =)

Upgrade now for more control over your GUISkins! (Remember to backup your projects before upgrading!)

Asset Store Link:
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/5020

LDC Direct Website Link
http://www.mel-georgiou.co.uk

- Mel

 

Hi All!

LDC v.3.2 - BIG UPDATE!!!

Hi All,

Today LDC v3.2 has been released!! ... It's another big one! =)


WHATS NEW


HD SKINS

LDC now supports full HD (1920x1280) skins as well as the older (960x640) skins. This allows you to choose between the two depending on if you are targeting desktops / TVs, or targeting mobile devices. Set it up once and you've got a streamlined workflow no matter which platform you're building for!




There is a new "Skins" group where your usual skins have been divided into the standard "Localized Skins" (960x640 native), or the new "Localized Skins HD" (1920x1280 native). There are default skins included so you should be able to instantly see how amazing the HD skins look (especially the text).

If you want to continue to use your legacy (pre v3.2) skins, you should turn off "Use Hi Def Skins". Everything will work the same as it did in older versions of LDC and you can still benefit from the other new features!


MULTIPLE BUTTONS - WITH "CONDITIONS"!

As I spoke about in an earlier post, the Multiple Buttons dialog style has been upgraded to support "Conditions". This lets you apply logic to each button to determine whether or not it will show up!




IMPORTANT - UPGRADE INFO

Please backup if upgrading because this version brings with it many changes! Also, Unity may merge the old and new version in a weird way and break your project. It is recommended if you are upgrading before v3.2 that you import the package into an empty project, and manually copy over the files into your current one!

If you're starting a new project or this is the first time you're installing LDC into your project you have nothing to worry about! Just install the package and you're golden! =)

DOWNLOAD AT:

Asset Store Link:https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/5020

LDC Direct Website Link http://www.mel-georgiou.co.uk


In the next updates I'll be focusing more on the UI side of things and DialogUI options!

Enjoy!

- Mel

 

Hi Mel, sorry for the very late reply, only manage to have my hands on it.
However, I might be missing something obvious here. I tried different combo just in case I misses the obvious, but still didnt manage to get it to work.
Anyway, the script that you posted, does it work the same as 'create objects at start' and 'destroy objects at end'? I tried that way and it works. However, I wouldn't want the object to disappear when going for the next dialog screen. The object will remain, only playing different animation clips.
I would like to also emphasize that I imported the object as FBX, and there is 2 animated character in the file. If that would be an issue?

Cheers.

 

Hi Detomato,

No its not just deleting the old animation, it should find the GameObject that has your animation stored, and tell it to play the animation you want (you are using "Create At Start" / " Create At End" to tell the system when you want the animation to change). Its a small prefab that comes into the scene for a split second, tells your animation object to play a different clip, and then deletes itself.

Just a reminder that the script should be on a separate prefab! You should NOT be putting the script on to your animation object!

Things to double check

- You may need to import your animation using the "Legacy" type in input settings.
- You have attached the script to a prefab that is NOT in the scene. You use LDC to load this prefab in when you want the animation to change.
- You have named "findAnimation" in the prefab to the EXACT name of your GameObject in the scene (the one that has the animation component attached).
- You have named "clipToPlay" in the prefab to the EXACT name as the animation clip you wish to play (you need to make sure this animation clip is also included in the animation component).

Hope that helps! =)

- Mel

 

I'm surprised there is no controller (Xbox 360 specifically) support. How would I add support myself for a 360 controller.

 

Hi Errorjack,

Great suggestion, no one has requested this up until now! Full joystick support added to the wish list.

If you're using "Next" / "One Button" dialogs, you *should* be able to add joystick support in the DialogUI component like this:



You add them to the "Skip Dialogs With These Input Keys" array, and add the joystick code/s you want.

NOTE: I haven't tested this as I don't have a joystick, but according to the Unity input docs it *should* work.

Let me know how it goes!

- Mel

 

Hello Melgeorgiou

Is this package can be used in creating a Quest and Dialogue system?

Hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks,
J.

 

Hi Japhet,

Thanks for your interest in LDC!

Yes LDC makes a great way to control the quests and dialogs in your game!

Using "Tokens" in LDC you can easily keep track of quests and have the dialogs react depending on what has already been completed by the user. Best of all, you can have all of this progress automatically (or manually) saved by the system making it VERY easy as all of the above can be accomplished without any programming - LDC handles it all for you!

Hope that helps!

- Mel

 

Great! thanks

 

No problem!

- Mel

 

Hello Mel,

i Just see in the asset store that this kit is using JS. my game is using C#. is there a C# version of this or is there a way to connect them?

Hope to hear from you soon.

THanks,
J

 

Hi Japhet,

LDC works perfectly fine alongside C#

Your C# scripts can still use the system the exact same way as a Unityscript!

- Mel

 

I'm using this kit with C# it works perfectly.

 

Hi UnleadedGames,

Glad to hear it!

- Mel