This project was designed around a system that was already half built and therefore does not include any UX examples of how to access the data. Therefore I don't recommend actually trying to use this system.
This is a plugin that was created to help manage dialogue within an Unreal Engine project.
It adds a new object type that maps a list of levels to a definition of a character.
A new subsystem is created to access data from the dialogue definitions.
A screenshot showing an example dialogue definition
In the above example, I am creating a character for the level called Level with a name of Test.
Upon entering the characters name an ID is generated from a combination of the level name and character name (in this case Test.Level).
This character is marked as not generic, meaning their dialogue is not taken from the generic pool of dialogue (see Generic Dialogue Definition).
A dialogue type is assigned from a list of types which is then instanced, giving you a drop down of variables.
In this example, a 'Conditional Dialogue' type is used, with Single Line types used for both the success and failure of the condition.
After the type of dialogue has been reached, if any responses are defined they can be listed and selected (no way to do this included with this plugin).
Responses are options the user is given after a set of dialogue.
While the system doesn't allow for full trees of dialogue, it allowed for enough branches for the needs of our project.
The example has one response - a Pay Character response.
This costs 15 coins and allows the user to buy a hat from an NPC.
A screenshot showing an example generic dialogue definition
Generic Dialogue Definitions are objects for storing a list of dialogue that could be used by any non-important NPCs.
When Get Line of Dialogue is called on a generic NPC, a random line is chosen from this definition.
At the moment, the weight value connected to each line of dialogue is not used, but in theory could be used to make some lines of dialogue more common than others.
Single Line - Returns a single line of dialogue.
Random - Returns a random line of dialogue from a list.
Continuous - Allows a list of dialogue to be played in sequence.
Each call of Get Line of Dialogue will advance the dialogue.
Conditional - Allows two types of dialogue to be switched between based on a condition.
Multi Conditional (Unused) - Allows for multiple conditions to be checked at once (I think. Honestly I barely implemented this)
No Dialogue - Skips the dialogue phase and goes straight to the responses.
Interact - A generic response that allows the
Pay - Allows the user to purchase an item from an NPC. Allows the user to define a cost, successful and unsuccessful purchase lines of dialogue, and an event to be broadcast upon successful purchase. This event can be implemented as an interface on a blueprint. It uses a byte as its type meaning it can be converted to an enum easily.
Condition - Allows a response to be shown based on a condition. Takes a condition and a response type as parameters.
Conditions are a blueprint class with an overridable function.
This system allows logic to be used to get a boolean from anywhere in the game.
An example of a condition. This condition returns a global boolean from a game instance
Audio can be attached to the dialogue and has two types:
One-Shot audio will play once at the start of a line of dialogue. If the dialogue is skipped then the audio is cancelled.
Looped dialogue will play for each word/character of the line of dialogue. If the dialogue is skipped then the audio is cancelled.
An example blueprint of getting a line of dialogue
The above code is a small example of getting a line of dialogue from a character.
Each time Get Line of Dialogue is called, an internal counter on the type object in incremented, allowing for the next Get Line of Dialogue call to fetch a different line of dialogue.
For brevity I have removed any null checks, but there are many points in which you can check if the data is valid.
To install the plugin, a C++ project is needed in order to initially compile the plugin.
Once the plugin has been compiled though it can be moved to a blueprint project for use.
- Clone this repo to the plugins folder of a C++ project.
- Open up your IDE of choice.
- Compile the project.
- Voila!