[RELEASED] Blueprint Dialogue System

[Grogger]

Hello Unreal community!

Now on the marketplace: https://www.unrealengine.com/marketp...ialogue-system
Marketplace version (for UE4 4.9-4.19): v1.4 (Changelog - [2016/11/19])
Previous Updates:

• v1.3 (Changelog)
• v1.2 (Changelog)
• v1.1 (Changelog)

Documentation
Video Tutorials


Groggeroo's Blueprint Dialogue System

Built using Blueprint/UMG and actor components, this dialogue system enables developers to quickly create dialogue content, empowered by a data-driven design with a myriad of inline text formatting/scripting tools and configurable interface options.

Branching and non-branching styles of dialogue are supported; which to use is determined at run-time, according to the response options provided by the developer.

With a data-driven design, content creators are free to choose to work in a spreadsheet editor, or directly in UE4's datatable row editor.

The system can be used for basic text-only dialogue or for more complex conversations with non-linear dialogue; text formatting; inline images; variable text; audio playback; scripted event triggers; and custom interface layouts.

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CSV Editors
My personal choice for editing the dialogue is with a free editor called CSVed.
It takes a bit of getting used to, since it's different than standard spreadsheets, but I've found it to be well worth it when dealing with large columns and large tables.

[qdelpeche]

This is pretty cool. Should be a good addition to my ever growing library. 8-}

What type of price point are you looking at?

[Obsidiaguy]

Fantastic! And I love that you decided to explain the features using the system.

[Grogger]

What type of price point are you looking at?

That was a tough question to answer on the submission, but I ended up submitting as $49.99

[majorcyto]

Oo this looks super useful! Can't wait to see it.

[qdelpeche]

That was a tough question to answer on the submission, but I ended up submitting as $49.99

I think that is a very good price and you already have one customer. 8-}

[Meguido]

This is really usefull. I'll be looking for this one when is out

[Meguido]

by the way it's not up yet for vote on trello? any ETA?

[Grogger]

I think that is a very good price and you already have one customer. 8-}

Thanks qdelpeche, that is re-assuring to hear!

This is really usefull. I'll be looking for this one when is out ...

by the way it's not up yet for vote on trello? any ETA?

The system is feature complete and tested at this point, so it's waiting for Epic's "second-stage" review right now. I don't imagine it will be too long.

I will update this thread when it is up there (with a link).

[Mr_SquarePeg]

Hey Grogger - I cannot justify 50 dollars for just a dialogue system.

At 25 to 30 dollars I can justify that.

- HeadClot

[DizcoDev]

Great work Grogger! I think ~50 dollars is perfectly fine.

[Grogger]

Hey Grogger - I cannot justify 50 dollars for just a dialogue system.

At 25 to 30 dollars I can justify that.

Thanks for the feedback Headclot, it's good to hear from all sides!

I am feeling pretty certain about $49.99 at this point though [but not official, I'm considering all feedback]:

Considering the complexity of the system (it's not just text being displayed in a box, there's a considerable amount of features and careful design involved in remaining extendible and accommodating to a content creator's latent needs), it has/would take a non-trivial amount of time and money to create. Unfortunately this means I need to sell a sizeable number of units before I start to see a profit at this price (after Epic's cut, fees, and taxes).

Of course this depends on your needs, if simply throwing basic text in a box is all that you will ever need, this system might be overkill (and may even cost less than $50 for a custom solution ).

Great work Grogger! I think ~50 dollars is perfectly fine.

Thank you

[Winterstone]

Hi Grogger, I am a question for you. How difficult is it to accompany a voice over along with a dialogue system? (I think I asked that correctly lol) So that a voice reads the same text in the dialogue? I'll most certainly be buying this!

Thanks, Winterstone

[Grogger]

Hi Grogger, I am a question for you. How difficult is it to accompany a voice over along with a dialogue system? (I think I asked that correctly lol) So that a voice reads the same text in the dialogue? I'll most certainly be buying this!

Thanks, Winterstone

Hi Winterstone,

It isn't currently a built in feature, but the system is extendible through blueprint, so it could be added.

I can think of several ways to add support for it, depending on your needs. (Warning: this maybe unreadable to everyone but me, though I wanted to mention how I might go about it )

1) Using built in features to play an audio file and to control the speed of the Typewriter effect: Handle the dialogue's 'state change' event and play an audio file, and add typewriter speed tags to match the speed of the text to the speech

This will work with built in features, but a custom handler would be required for each dialogue page

2) If preferring to inline the dialogue in the text: Add an extra parser for the option and use the Named Asset table

This is more convenient than 1 but it isn't nearly as simple to implement

3) Using mostly built in features but prefer controlling which sound file to play through data: Add an audio asset field to the dialogue table and override the base OnStateChange event to play the speech file

I believe this would be the best option I could think of for both convenience of use and ease of implementation

There could be other needs for speech systems, but I've never developed one for complex dialogue.
If you're asking for text to speech system, that could be added with handlers in the typewriter system, though I admit I have no experience with text-to-speech.

[Winterstone]

Hi Winterstone,

It isn't currently a built in feature, but the system is extendible through blueprint, so it could be added.

I can think of several ways to add support for it, depending on your needs. (Warning: this maybe unreadable to everyone but me, though I wanted to mention how I might go about it )

1) Using built in features to play an audio file and to control the speed of the Typewriter effect: Handle the dialogue's 'state change' event and play an audio file, and add typewriter speed tags to match the speed of the text to the speech

This will work with built in features, but a custom handler would be required for each dialogue page

2) If preferring to inline the dialogue in the text: Add an extra parser for the option and use the Named Asset table

This is more convenient than 1 but it isn't nearly as simple to implement

3) Using mostly built in features but prefer controlling which sound file to play through data: Add an audio asset field to the dialogue table and override the base OnStateChange event to play the speech file

I believe this would be the best option I could think of for both convenience of use and ease of implementation

There could be other needs for speech systems, but I've never developed one for complex dialogue.
If you're asking for text to speech system, that could be added with handlers in the typewriter system, though I admit I have no experience with text-to-speech.

Hi thanks for replying!

Well I kind of understood a bit but everything is fairly new to me
That's great to hear that its possible to extend the blueprints. Not that I'd know how too as of yet! I wasn't neccessarily thinking of text-to-speech but just more or having the text dialogue system work as it was meant to but then time a audio file of a voice saying what is typed out!

I was thinking of a sort of narration I guess.

Thanks again, can't wait to get a hold of this!