Dialogue Nodes (C++)

[CraftyWeazel]

- Original post updated -

• Demonstration screenshots
• Feature list
• Downloadable documentation
• Downloadable example project (won't work until the plugin is available on the Markeplace though)

[HeadClot]

Hey CraftyWeazel - The PDF documentation is empty for me. I have tried to open it with a dedicated PDF reader as well as Chrome and Edge.

[TBWright]

Same here as HeadClot. This looks like a really amazing plug-in, I'm exited to get my hands on it.

Is it currently possible to pass more with the OptionStruct than just the line, visibility, and availability? For instance, if I want to pass a montage or an image when an NPC response is sent to the dialogue widget is that possible?

[CraftyWeazel]

Hey, I updated the documentation link in the original post. I don't know why but the PDF wasn't correctly imported to Google Drive the first time. It should work now
Here is the link.

TBWright With LineStruct and OptionStruct, you can pass text, sound, dialogue wave and metadata (plus the availability and visibility conditions of course). So you can make a metadata entry called "image" or "montage" and supply the name of the asset you want to use here. Then in the widget implementation, you can switch on that name and if it corresponds to anything in your database, then display it.

It would have been better to let users define their own struct to be passed with lines and options, but I didn't find a way to do it inside the editor. Maybe in a future update though.

[HeadClot]

Hey, I updated the documentation link in the original post. I don't know why but the PDF wasn't correctly imported to Google Drive the first time. It should work now
Here is the link.

Looks like it works now

[NilsonLima]

CraftyWeazel You scored another buyer here. Congratz!

[CraftyWeazel]

Thanks I hope the Marketplace approval process doesn't take too long, and that I don't have to change too much things!

[TBWright]

CraftyWeazel Is it possible to create a struct in code and inject it into the system? Possible in place of the metadata? Passing by name is fine as long as names don't change; passing by ref would definitely be preferable.

Regardless, you have a buyer here. This looks great.

[CraftyWeazel]

TBWright I know what you mean. At first I tried to make it work with a struct + metadata. By the way, metadata are still an important thing to me, as they allow you to pass information only for specific messages, without having to change the struct for all the nodes each time you want to add a new parameter.

But yes, passing a UStruct would be better. You could do it by modifying the code, but it'd be quite complicated as you would have to edit a lot of different things (nodes themselves, dialogue objects, dialogue execution node, etc.).

Just so you know, it is one of the next features I'm planning to implement (to let it be done even in blueprints), but I couldn't find ways to do it before. Waiting for that, I guess I could make a little tuto that let's you edit the source code in all the needed places to inject your own struct in it. Would it be okay for you?

[TBWright]

I don't think that would be necessary, especially if you're planning on expanding that in the future regardless. The metadata paradigm seems versatile enough for my needs. I do like being able to pass arbitrary information that isn't tied to a struct -- it makes the plugin useful for more than just dialogues.

[CraftyWeazel]

I'm truly curious to see what people can use it for actually ^^ while making it, I was trying to guess. It's clearly not only dialogues. I also imagined ways you could use it to make different kinds of narrative games, passing timer informations for example.

I will try to make that update soon, along with a "Node was already executed" update (an optional boolean output for every line/option for designers to know if a specific point in a dialogue was already encountered). This, you can already do with blueprints, but it's not quite practical yet.

[Rykroft]

This look nice, it would be great if includes some kind of "dialogue data-table" import feature, like read data from a xls or xlsm file.
Nice work thought.

[CraftyWeazel]

Hey, just a quick update: I sent the first version of the plugin to Unreal Marketplace months ago, but it didn't pass the examination process because of a building issue. I have to fix this but my work is currently taking me so much time that I can't do it right away. I will try to fix this as soon as possible!

Nice idea Rykroft, I will consider adding that