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Tools for writing dialogues with choices

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Nyriell, Jan 12, 2021.

  1. Nyriell

    Nyriell

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    What tool would you recommend to write dialogues with choices for the non-programmers in my team? I hope for an easy integration with Unity, a well written documentation and/or community that will make writing code easier. Further down the road, we will probably need localization so it would be nice if the tool offered a simple solution for that. Feel free to write your experiences :)
     
  2. MadeFromPolygons

    MadeFromPolygons

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  3. BIGTIMEMASTER

    BIGTIMEMASTER

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    there is a tool called chatmapper as well. I haven't used it much but I know it exist and seems to have been around a minute.
     
  4. sxa

    sxa

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  5. EternalAmbiguity

    EternalAmbiguity

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    Kiwasi, flashframe and TonyLi like this.
  6. TonyLi

    TonyLi

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    @Nyriell - Please feel free to try the Dialogue System's evaluation version before buying. In addition to its own in-Unity editor, it can also import Chat Mapper and Ink (both mentioned above) as well as articy:draft, Aurora, Twine, and TalkIt, with Celtx import coming soon, so your writers can choose a tool they're happy writing in. It also has built-in localization support and, while it doesn't require scripting, is friendly to programmers, too.
     
  7. flashframe

    flashframe

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    +1 for the Dialogue System
     
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  8. TonyLi

    TonyLi

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    flashframe is being too modest by not mentioning that he's one of the developers of the popular game Jenny LeClue - Detectivu, which is available on Apple Arcade, Nintendo Switch, Steam, and other platforms. (Made with the Dialogue System.) If anyone's looking for a family-friendly game with fun writing and great voice acting, definitely check it out.
     
  9. flashframe

    flashframe

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    That is correct :)

    The Dialogue System was a vital component of our production. It works cross platform, with support for multiple languages, robust editor tools and well written, easy to extend code. It has never let us down. And @TonyLi offers the best support of any asset developer.
     
  10. Nyriell

    Nyriell

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    Thank you all for giving me a few options to look into :)
    Especially to @TonyLi and @flashframe for addressing my questions in their comments.
     
  11. BIGTIMEMASTER

    BIGTIMEMASTER

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    You guys know any of these tools include an easy way to insert story board type thumbnails? So I can do look development at the same time as I am testing dialogue.
     
  12. TonyLi

    TonyLi

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    Check out articy:draft.
     
  13. MadeFromPolygons

    MadeFromPolygons

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    @TonyLi We are currently using Yarn Spinner + custom logic and UI to handle dialogue in our game that is currently in early stages of production.

    I see that this imports Twine, and Yarn Spinner is based on Twine so do you know if we would be able to import out existing dialogue into your system? If not, have you considered a Yarn Spinner import, given that it is the most used dialogue system for unity other than your own (which seems to be the top at the moment)?

    We would love to swap to your system but do not want to have to tear up a lot of stuff just to get it to work. Naturally our custom UI code will not port, but if the dialogue and everything important to that will then that will be great!
     
  14. TonyLi

    TonyLi

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    Hi @MadeFromPolygons - We're working on Yarn Spinner import. Look for it in version 2.2.15 or 2.2.16.
     
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  15. Rocky_Unity

    Rocky_Unity

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    Hi TonyLi,
    I recently bought your asset and was wondering if you were still going to add in support for Yarn? I am trying to decide between writing in Yarn or Ink..
    First time working with dialogue, so I'm unsure what practices will make sense. but I do plan for dialogue to be pretty complex
     
  16. TonyLi

    TonyLi

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    Thanks for buying the Dialogue System! Yes, Yarn integration is currently under development. If you're going to use the Dialogue System, I recommend Yarn, or even the Dialogue System's built-in editor, as they will work natively with the way the Dialogue System works. Ink integration is an outlier. Ink works so differently from other tools that, unlike other formats, the Dialogue System acts as a front-end for Ink, allowing Ink to do the processing of the underlying data, and just providing the user-facing stuff: UIs, trigger interaction system, etc.
     
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  17. Murgilod

    Murgilod

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    I've integrated (custom) third party tools with a system that exports Dialogue System trees, though lacking in any sort of scripting past basic choice, and while they aren't robust and likely less so than any official Yarn tool would, I've found it invaluable if not just because working with lots of text in Dialogue System is a bit of a rough experience. This isn't any fault of the tool, it's just that Unity as an editor really isn't built for that.
     
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  18. TonyLi

    TonyLi

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    It's funny; some devs start with an external tool and eventually decide to do everything in the in-Unity editor. Other devs switch from the in-Unity editor to external tools, usually tools that work more like plain text. I guess it really depends on personal workflow preference.

    p.s. - What's the new portrait pic?
     
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  19. Murgilod

    Murgilod

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    My current game has about 475,000 words in its script so working in something as clunky as the Unity editor REALLY adds up.

    The new pic is just an 8x8 bayer dither matrix texture, I uploaded the wrong file and I'm too lazy to fix it
     
  20. TonyLi

    TonyLi

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    Yeah, 475k words can get clunky in Unity. Teleport Games (really just one solo dev) recently released Tortured Hearts, which uses the Dialogue System. It has over 500,000 words of dialogue that he originally wrote in the Neverwinter Nights editor and imported into the Dialogue System. I suppose that's another reason why someone might use an external editor. He's been making Neverwinter Nights mods for years, so that's the editor he's comfortable with.

    Part of me is still a little suspicious that there's a hidden message somewhere in the pic. :)
     
  21. Murgilod

    Murgilod

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    Yeah, I built my editor basically from the ground up and the main reason I haven't added a bunch more variable hooks is because, honestly, it's not too much work to do that in Unity anyway and it's better to test things like that in that environment anyway.

    The only hidden message is "ordered dithering makes pixelated graphics look like something other than a soupy mess when resampled from a higher bit depth."
     
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  22. MDADigital

    MDADigital

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    It's unbelievable how cluncy the UI is. For example we define our ballistics in unity using scriptable objects for each projectile. Curves to define different material and damage properties. There is no built in way to copy a curve in unity. Had to write custom editor code.
     
  23. Murgilod

    Murgilod

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    The worst of it, as far as things nobody seems to be paying attention to at Unity are concerned, the animation curve editor (why can't we clamp it? why are the handles so finicky? why is my best option STILL to enter values by hand?) and the undo functionality, which becomes a real nightmare when dealing with text. Unity has a nasty habit of just not knowing where it is in its own Undo stack.

    That's not even a third party asset problem either, sometimes it happens in editor, like using the animation tree stuff.
     
  24. neginfinity

    neginfinity

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    Did they add quaternion support to it? Last time I had to animate something in unity, rotation was done with euler angles. It was painful.
     
  25. MDADigital

    MDADigital

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    As an engineer changing values with keyboard feels best anyway :) but yeah.
     
  26. bobadi

    bobadi

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  27. MDADigital

    MDADigital

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  28. Rocky_Unity

    Rocky_Unity

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    I was hoping to use an external tool so that a friend of mine who wanted to write dialogue could do so, particularly without interfacing into Unity. Do you have an ETA for the yarn integration? I could use the Dialogue System's editor for a few months, but eventually it would be nice to have the text be external I think.. I suppose I'll really have to dig into it before I can say for sure what's best in that regard.
    Thanks for the tips on Ink! I won't use it in that case :)
     
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  29. TonyLi

    TonyLi

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    I don't have a hard ETA, but I'm trying to get it finished and tested by the end of May.
     
  30. moonpower1

    moonpower1

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    do not use YArnSpinner !!! the documentation is not updated to match the new versions of the plugin . the team is very slow in updating the docs . i went for Inky and never looked back to yarnspinner again .
     
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