[RELEASED] Dialogue System for Unity - easy conversations, quests, and more!

Hello all, I have a question about setting up sequential quests through Dialogue conversation components. I created a quest and conversation called 'Find A Lion' that has no quest or other prerequisites, then I created a quest and conversation called 'Find A Hideoplast' that requires the player to complete the 'Find A Lion' quest before it will start. Here's what it looks like in Editor:



Is this the correct way to set up sequential quests in Dialogue System? For example, if this particular questgiver had 10 quests/conversations associated to it, I would have 10 of these components on that game object. Is this correct, or is there another way to set up these kind of sequential quests?

 

Hi - It's possible to do that. But since you're going to have conditional logic inside your conversations anyway, you might as well keep all of your conditional logic in one place (the conversation). To do this, set up a single Dialogue System Trigger that starts a "hub" or "entrypoint" conversation that links to other conversations for the specific quests.

For example, your Dialogue System Trigger could start a conversation named "Cybergirl/Entrypoint":



I used a forward slash ( "/" ) in the conversation title so I can group all of the NPC's conversations in the same submenu -- Cybergirl/Entrypoint, Cybergirl/Quest_1, Cybergirl/Quest_2, etc.

Notice that the nodes above are all group nodes. That is, their Group checkbox is ticked. This makes them evaluate their Conditions and then pass through to whatever they link to.

The first node (<Quests 1-5>) has Conditions that check if the player is still working on quests 1-5. If so, it links to individual checks for each quest.

The first node linked from that node (<To Quest 1>) has Conditions that check if the player still needs to finish quest 1. If so, it links to a conversation specific to quest 1.

The details of those Conditions and cross-conversation links look like this:



Side note: I could have linked <START> to all of the 10 quest-specific group nodes. However, by using the technique above I'm able to reduce the amount of checking necessary when starting the conversation. For more details on that, see: How To: Use Group Nodes To Reduce Condition Checking Time.

 

Another side note: If you want to, you can visually group nodes to help differentiate different sections. To create a node group, lasso-select some nodes. Then hold down Ctrl while releasing the mouse button. In the example below, I put the checks for quests 1-5 in a blue group and quests 6-10 in a red group:

 

That is simply fantastic, thanks for the answer! I'm going to set up a test database and try to replicate what you have here. If I have more questions I'll be sure to ask.

 

Glad to help!

 

Wow! It's amazing. This's very useful. and work successfully. thank you very much. This is a artifact plugin that I have never seen before

 

Happy to help!

 

It's an absolutely elegant solution for quest organization. I can envision these 'five-groups' having offshoots to sub-'five-group' quest clusters and then intermingling between the both of them. I think the problems with this method would probably arise with incorrect group conditions, but that's really just bookkeeping and testing so it's really nothing onerous, just the usual dev troubleshooting.

I do have a question about quests indicators for this type of overall structure. I have a Quest State Indicator on my quest NPC but have to add 10 Quest State Listeners to enable the indicators for the ten quests. Is there an alternate way to do this?

 

No, that's the way to do it with Quest State Listeners. It keeps each quest's listener info neatly contained in its own component rather than jumbling all quests together in one massive component configuration. However, the Dialogue System is nicely decoupled, so you can use your own quest indicator setup instead of Quest State Listener if you prefer.

 

I'll look into that and do some experimenting, thanks for the reply!

 

If you decide to set up your own quest indicator code and have any questions, just let me know.

 

Suzerain 70% Off in Fellow Traveller Publisher Sale



Torpor Games' award-winning political sim adventure game Suzerain, made with the Dialogue System for Unity, is 70% off in the Fellow Traveller Publisher Sale. While you're there, you can wishlist the upcoming Suzerain: Rizia DLC.

 

Eternights Accolades

Congratulations to Studio Sai on the many accolades being heaped on their debut game Eternights, made with the Dialogue System for Unity, in just the first week of release! You can play it on PlayStation, Steam, and Epic. It's also Steam Deck verified! IGN calls it: "A new Indies must-have."



Eternights heavily uses the Dialogue System's cutscene sequence system as well as dialogue and stories that are hitting players in the feels in all the right ways.

The developer, Jae, also did a great Reddit AMA on Eternights recently.

If you want to get a feel for what a primarily solo dev can accomplish with the Dialogue System, give Eternights a play on PC or PlayStation.

 

Three Minutes To Eight Wins GDWC2023

Congratulations to Chaosmonger Studio! Their game Three Minutes To Eight, made with the Dialogue System for Unity, just won the GDWC 2023 Indie Award!

 

Hi @TonyLi !

Small request (well, small for me, IDK how big it is on your end): could you modify the examples, test rigs and

Savers

to not rely on

NavMeshAgents

and whatnot if the project turns off the

com.unity.modules.ai

(AI) built-in feature?
It's not a showstopper by any means, it's just little annoying to hunt down all occasions when I update your assets (Dialogue, LoveHate, QuestMachine). We absolutely removed the Unity Navigation in its entirety and obviously every reference is throwing left and right.
Again, it's not an urgent problem, but when you have some time to spend on this, I, for one, would appreciate it.

 

Yes, look for this very soon in DS 2.2.40, etc.

 

Black Forest Released

Congratulations to Lemuria on the release of the base building strategy game Black Forest! The campaign and story missions are driven by the Dialogue System for Unity.

 

Hi. I can't seem to find an answer to this question: When the player chooses an option in the dialogue, I want that option to not be available in the rest of that dialogue. I saw how to make it unavailable by creating a boolean variable for each node, and checking its value and changing it. However, that would mean I would need to repeat this process for every single node. Is there a way to create a node that will be available just once? A one-time question or statement, so to speak?

 

Hi! Yes. Inspect the Dialogue Manager GameObject, and tick Other Settings > Include SimStatus:



Then set the response node's Conditions to:

Dialog[thisID].SimStatus ~= "WasDisplayed"​

You can use the "..." dropdown wizard so you don't have to type anything:

 

Dialogue System version 2.2.40 Released + Addon for OpenAI 50% Off

Version 2.2.40 of the Dialogue System for Unity is now available on the Asset Store!

In addition, the Addon for OpenAI is currently 50% off in the Asset Store's Fresh Assets Sale.

Version 2.2.40 introduces a handy new edit-mode conversation player:



You can also playtest a conversation from a specific dialogue entry by right-clicking on the dialogue entry node and selecting Play From Here.


Release Notes:
Core:

• CHANGED: If using Unity navmesh navigation, you *must* now enable integration by ticking USE_NAVMESH in Welcome Window or menu item Tools > Pixel Crushers > Common > Misc > Use NavMesh.
• Added: Edit mode conversation player.
• Improved: Dialogue System Trigger now highlights fields that need to be configured.
• Improved: Dialogue System Trigger > Start Conversation now has Queue option.
• Improved: Dialogue System Trigger now reports error if no Dialogue Manager is present.
• Improved: ChangeActorName() now changes portrait name immediately instead of next time actor speaks a subtitle.
• Improved: SetPanel() sequencer command now has optional third parameter "immediate".
• Improved: AnimatorTrigger() sequencer command can now optionally also reset (clear) a different trigger when setting the trigger.
• Improved: Added optional [SequencerCommandGroup("submenu")] attribute you can add to custom sequencer commands to put them in submenus in Sequence field's "+" menu.
• Improved: Added DialogueLua.GetVariable("name", <default>) overloaded convenience functions.
• Improved: Added GetTextTableValue() Lua function.
• Improved: Added DialogueLua.SetConversationField().
• Improved: Dialogue entry scene events now work when multiple scenes are loaded with their own Dialogue System Scene Events components.
• Improved: Esc key now ends input when double-clicking node to edit text.
• Fixed: Standard UI Subtitle Panel > Add Speaker Name now accepts markup tags.
• Fixed: TextMeshProTypewriterEffect now doesn't try to type if text is empty.
• Fixed: QuestLog & QuestLogWindow now supports "Entry # Success" & "Entry # Failure" fields.

Third Party Support:

• Arcweave: Fixed variables not being imported properly when passed as parameters to functions.
• i2 Localization: Dialogue entries' Description fields are now added to the corresponding i2 term's Description field.
• Text Animator: Added TextAnimatorContinue() sequencer command.
• Yarn 2: visits() function now properly records cross-conversation links (Yarn jumps). Welcome window now has USE_YARN2 checkbox.

 

Hi Tony!
Mostly works, thank you, but I still have one place where I'm getting error:

Assets\Plugins\Pixel Crushers\Dialogue System\Scripts\MVC\Sequencer\Sequencer.cs(1779,76)

And this is the concrete line:

var navMeshAgent = subject.GetComponent<UnityEngine.AI.NavMeshAgent>();

Obviously I did not tick anything, because of the error, the welcome window hasn't popped up yet.

Another one:
If I first install (new project in 2022.3.10f1) Dialogue System, then I install Love/Hate (just downloaded the latest and hit install) - in this order, I get this error:

Assets\Plugins\Pixel Crushers\Dialogue System\Scripts\UI\Utility\UITools.cs(144,23): error CS1501: No overload for method 'Select' takes 3 arguments

The call site (

Assets\Plugins\Pixel Crushers\Dialogue System\Scripts\UI\Utility\UiTools.cs

):

UIUtility.Select(selectable, allowStealFocus, eventSystem);

And the only available method is this in the

Assets\Plugins\Pixel Crushers\Common\Scripts\UI\UIUtility.cs

:

public static void Select(UnityEngine.UI.Selectable selectable, bool allowStealFocus = true)

 

Please import the current versions of the Dialogue System and Love/Hate. (Any order is fine.) The Dialogue System, Love/Hate, and Quest Machine share some common code to avoid redundancy. Updates for them are published at the same time to keep the code in sync. But, this time, the Dialogue System update went through before the others. That's resolved now. This should also resolve that NavMeshAgent error.

 

Ah, sorry, I didn't pay attention to that. There were updates, I guess dropped the ball on this one, a made sure to update both packages this morning and everything is working, thank you both for the time and effort you put into your assets, I always appreciate them!

 

I don't think you dropped the ball. The updates just took a little longer this time to sync up. Anyway, glad it's all working now!

 

New Video Tutorials - Edit More Player and Conversation Templates

The Dialogue System Video Tutorials playlist has two new video tutorials on some useful new features:

Conversation Templates

Edit Mode Player

 

Reminder - The Dialogue System Addon for OpenAI (and ElevenLabs and Dialogue Smith) is currently 50% off in the Asset Store's Fresh Assets Sale.

 

Three Minutes To Eight & More in Steam Next Fest

Play the demo of Three Minutes To Eight and many more Dialogue System-powered games in Steam Next Fest today through October 16.

Reminder - The Dialogue System Addon for OpenAI (and ElevenLabs and Dialogue Smith) is currently 50% off in the Asset Store's Fresh Assets Sale.

 

Dwerve Released on Nintendo Switch

Congratulations to Half Human on the release of the addictive tower defense RPG Dwerve, made with the Dialogue System for Unity, on Nintendo Switch! You can also play it on Windows, Mac, or Linux through Steam or Epic. It's 15% off right now on the Switch eStore.

 

Hello Tony. I Have a problem when changes scenes. The reference Dialogue UI are Destroyed (dontdestroyonLoad) i tried to add again using this in a script (are loaded correctly)
if(DialogueManager.displaySettings.dialogueUI==null)
DialogueManager.displaySettings.dialogueUI= dialgogueUI;

if (DialogueManager.displaySettings.defaultCanvas==null) {

DialogueManager.displaySettings.defaultCanvas= canvas;


}

but the dialogue dont showed

Thanks

 

Hi! Please see: [HOWTO] How To: Manage Player Controls and Scene Changes - Pixel Crushers Forum

I think that will clear up your question.

 

Hunt the Night in Indie Horror Showcase on Steam

Check out Moonlight Games' Hunt the Night in the Indie Horror Showcase event on Steam today.




Other Dialogue System-powered horror games to get you in the mood for spooky October include Gua's Very Positive-rated Witch Hunt, Duck Made Of Wood's Full Fathom Five, and Ryu's Dead Dating: Your Horror Summer Bromance!

 

Three Minutes To Eight Released

Congrats to Chaosmonger Studio! Three Minutes To Eight, made with the Dialogue System for Unity, just released on Steam and GOG.

 

Unity Game Awards Voting - Ends Tomorrow

I'm very honored and humbled to be nominated for Asset Store Publisher of the Year. If you'd like to vote for your choices in categories such as Best Desktop/Console Game, Best Mobile Game, and Publisher of the Year, you can place your votes until tomorrow at https://awards.unity.com/. Thank you again!

 

Hey, is there any convenient way to know if an entry has already been "used" in a convo? Or is manually setting variables the best way to keep track of that?

Basically, we are setting up a detective style game, and we expect the player to go through some of the same dialogues a few times. It would be nice to tell the player if a dialogue branch has been gone through already (or just remove it entirely) without setting up dozens upon dozens of variables.

 

Hi! Yes, use SimStatus. Tick the Dialogue Manager GameObject's Other Settings > Include SimStatus.

To exclude a dialogue branch, set its Conditions to: Dialog[thisID].SimStatus == "WasDisplayed"
(You can do this with the Conditions field's "..." dropdown menu. You don't have to type it manually.)

To show that dialogue entry in a different style instead of hiding it, set the Dialogue Manager's Display Settings > Input Settings > [em#] Tag For Old Responses. You can set [em#] values in the Dialogue Editor's Database section.

To show already-visited entries in a different style and make them unclickable, use the Conditions above, tick Input Settings > Include Invalid Entries, and set [em#] Tag For Invalid Entries.

To conditionally show some and hide others, see this forum post.

 

Ok, perfect. Thanks!

Google did not find this SimStatus stuff when I tried looking lol

 

Glad to help! The best resources are the online manual and the Pixel Crushers forum. Forum tip: Search for "HOWTO" plus a question to look up helpful articles. Or just ask here or the Pixel Crushers forum. I'm here to help, and it could save time having to dig through documentation.

 

Dialogue System Addon for OpenAI - Version 1.0.8 Released

Version 1.0.8 of the Dialogue System Addon for OpenAI is now available on the Asset Store! The highlights of this update are GPT-4 Turbo and ElevenLabs v2 models. Use the addon to help you automate dialogue writing, punch up your writing, add voiceover, and more. You can also run dynamic, freeform dialogue at runtime like in this tutorial that combines the Dialogue System, Addon for OpenAI, and RPG Builder:

More info: Dialogue System Addon for OpenAI forum thread

 

Dialogue System 2.2.41 Released

Version 2.2.41 is now available on the Asset Store!

This update includes improvements to the Dialogue Editor and importing from Arcweave, articy:draft, and Yarn. The save system now supports loading scenes from Addressables.


Release Notes
Core:

• Improved: QuestStateDispatcher methods are now virtual.
• Improved: Quest groups are now included in Dialogue Editor Quests/Items filter bar.
• Improved: Dialogue Editor right-click canvas context menu now includes relevant items from the Menu dropdown.
• Improved: Added DialogueEditorWindow.customGlobalSearch & customGlobalSearchAndReplace delegates.
• Improved: If cross-conversation link dropdown has >1000 entries, splits into separate 500-element dropdowns.
• Improved: Subtitle panel Max Lines now counts actual lines, not number of subtitles.
• Fixed: SMS Dialogue UI with continue button mode didn't show continue button if first line was assigned to player.
• Fixed: SetTimeout() with simultaneous conversations issue.
• Fixed: Tools.StripTextMeshProTags() stripped <sprite> tags too far.
• Fixed: Lua wizards use invariant "." for decimal separator regardless of OS language setting.
• Fixed: ConversationStateSaver now also records which panels have previously opened, actors assigned to them, and accumulated text.
• Save System: Now supports loading scenes from Addressables.
• Save System: Added Persistent Active Data Multiple.

Third Party Support:

• Arcweave: Added support for quests in Arcweave. Fixed node linking issue with conditional code. All methods are now virtual to support overriding. When splitting on pipes, new entries append number to Guid field.
• articy:draft: When splitting on pipes, new entries append number to Articy Id field.
• i2 Localization: Added option to update Display Names when Use I2 Language At Runtime is ticked.
• Localization Package: Fixed bug that only translated Menu Text of response menu entries, not Dialogue Text, on response buttons. Added option (on by default) to instantly update onscreen dialogue on locale change.
• Yarn: Fixed issue where [seq] tag would be left at end of Dialogue Text even though Sequence field was correctly set.

 

Hey.

I was trying to get a custom ui element text box (separate from dialogue system prefabs/conversation views).

to show a specific Dialogue Entry/Subtitle.
i noticed that i can use:

DialogueEntry e = DialogueManager.instance.masterDatabase.GetConversation(convoID).GetDialogueEntry(entryID);

but my intention is to reuse the StandardUISubtitlePanel script, in my custom ui.
and i noticed it has a "ShowSubtitle" function.
but i am not sure how to get the "Subtitle" from the dialogue entry e.

(i am hopping to reuse the StandardUISubtitlePanel, because the text will be localized, and does contain some custom tags, so i am hopping to reuse the STandardUISubtitlePanel so it handles that automatically).

Thank you very much, i hope that it is possible.

 

Hi! Here are 3 ways you can get the subtitle. You can pick the one that works best with what you want:

1. Make a subclass of StandardUISubtitlePanel and override the ShowSubtitle(Subtitle) method. This method receives the subtitle. (Tip: To replace an instance of StandardUISubtitlePanel with your subclass and retain UI element assignments, see this article.)

2. Add an OnConversationLine(Subtitle) method to a script in the Dialogue Manager GameObject's hierarchy or the primary actor or conversant. The Dialogue System calls this method just prior showing the subtitle.

3. Or, at any time while a conversation is active, use DialogueManager.currentConversationState.subtitle.

 

Dialogue System for Unity in Black Friday Sale

The Dialogue System for Unity is 50% off in the Black Friday Sale!



You've seen the Dialogue System in games such as Disco Elysium, Eternights, Lake, Suzerain, Peglin, and many more. Now you can use it in your own games for 50% off.

The Dialogue System Addon for OpenAI (ChatGPT, and ElevenLabs, DALL-E, and Dialogue Smith) is also 50% off.

 

Quest Machine Flash Sale --> Dialogue System vs. Quest Machine

The Dialogue System for Unity is 50% off right now, and Quest Machine will be in a Flash Deal in 3 hours. Some people have asked what the differences are. Both assets work great together or on their own.

Here's the full comparison chart.

Briefly:

• The Dialogue System has interactive branching conversations like in The Witcher. Quest Machine has simpler Accept/Decline windows like in World of Warcraft (unless you're using the Dialogue System integration).
• The Dialogue System uses a field-based editor to write quests. Quest Machine uses a node-based editor. (The Dialogue System’s node-based editor is for conversations.)
• The Dialogue System handles hand-written quests. Quest Machine handles hand-written quests or procedurally-generated quests.
• Quest Machine has some quest control features that make it a little easier to advance quests outside of conversations (e.g., during regular gameplay); but it’s still easy to advance quests outside of gameplay in the Dialogue System, too.
• Quest Machine includes an integration package that allows it to use the Dialogue System to show branching conversations for Quest Machine quests. To use the integration, you must have the Dialogue System and Quest Machine.
• Both have live quest debugging in the editor.
• Both include a save system.
• Both support localization.
• For both, no scripting is required, but they come with complete, fully-documented source code and lots of third party integrations.

 

Return to Lake - Season's Greetings DLC

You can return to the 1980s in the just-released Lake: Season's Greetings DLC for Gamious's wholesome mail delivery game Lake, made with the Dialogue System for Unity. Lake is a perfect example of what a small team can make with the Dialogue System for Unity.

For an example of what a primarily solo dev can create with the Dialogue System for Unity, check out Eternights on PlayStation or Steam.



The Dialogue System for Unity, Dialogue System Addon for OpenAI, and Quest Machine are all 50% off right now in the Black Friday Sale!

 

Hello Tony.
I have a big problem.
I use unity localization and work well, but when there are dialogue options it does not localize the texts. that could be happening?

Thanks

 

It sounds like you're using an old version of the Localization Package integration. Please use the current one. I'm attaching a copy of the integration package to this reply for your convenience.

(Future readers: If you're using DS 2.2.42+, do not use this package. Use the package in your newer version of the Dialogue System.)

 

Thanks
it worked. You always know what the problems are

 

Glad to help!

 

Clam Man 2: Headliner Wins Indie Cup Most Promising Game Award

Congratulations to solo dev Marafrass for winning the 2023 Indie Cup's Most Promising Game award for Clam Man 2: Headliner, being made with the Dialogue System for Unity! You can wishlist the game on Steam and play the Open Mic prologue right now.

Reminder - The Dialogue System for Unity, the Dialogue System Addon for OpenAI, and Quest Machine are all 50% off in the Black Friday Sale.

 

Dialogue System for Unity 50% Off in Black Friday Sale

The Dialogue System for Unity -- the full-featured dialogue solution seen all many of your favorite games -- is 50% off in the Asset Store's Black Friday Sale!

While you're at it, check out Chaosmonger's upcoming cyberpunk adventure game Soul Tolerance, powered by the Dialogue System and releasing on December 11:

The Dialogue System Addon for OpenAI and Quest Machine are also 50% off in the Black Friday Sale.