Difference between revisions of "Dialogue"

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(Created page with "The built in dialogue (speech) system can be used to create conversations between any number of players or 'items' (typically NPCs). It fully supports the localisation system...")
 
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The built in dialogue (speech) system can be used to create conversations between any number of players or 'items' (typically NPCs). It fully supports the localisation system and can be cued from speech playback, synthesis, the player or anything else via scripting. It's also built on top of the window system so dialogue can be easily displayed inside drop-and-go templates.
 
The built in dialogue (speech) system can be used to create conversations between any number of players or 'items' (typically NPCs). It fully supports the localisation system and can be cued from speech playback, synthesis, the player or anything else via scripting. It's also built on top of the window system so dialogue can be easily displayed inside drop-and-go templates.
  
 +
== Basic structure ==
  
−
== Trains of thought ==
+
All dialogue is JSON compatible with PowerSlide. Here's the general structure of those JSON files:
  
−
Dialogue is represented as a continuous 'train of thought'. Each train is made up of a series of cue cards which describe the dialogue being spoken/ by whom etc. Cue cards and dialogue trains are W3C EventTarget objects, meaning they can send and receive standard events.
+
<syntaxhighlight lang="json">
  
 +
[
 +
  {"speaker":"player"},
 +
  "Hello! My name is &Username;.",
 +
  "All of this text will be said <b>by the player</b>.",
 +
  "It's just an array of text. Because we aren't defining any timing information, it will be cued by the player.",
 +
  "That typically means the player will see something like <i>'press x to continue'</i>.",
 +
 
 +
  {"speaker":"system"},
 +
  "You feel a rush of excitement",
 +
 
 +
  {"speaker":"player"},
 +
  "Ah. That was the system speaker - speaker names can be whatever you want",
 +
  "'system' is reserved as meaning a narrator-style speaker usually present in RPGs.",
 +
  "By convention, spaces are added between speakers, so you can clearly see when a speaker changes."
 +
]
 +
 +
</syntaxhighlight>
 +
 +
Save a file like that in '''Resources/Dialogue'''. For example, ''Resources/Dialogue/myDialogue.json''. To use it, you just then use '''document.startDialogue("myDialogue","templateToUse")'''. For example, call that when a player clicked on an NPC.
 +
 +
As it's PowerSlide, you can also define other tracks in there too (such as a style track and potentially in the future a variety of cutscene management tracks - camera position etc).
 +
 +
== Localisation ==
 +
 +
As seen above with 'Username', localisation variables are fully supported. However, for the purposes of translating all your dialogue, there is also another option: As these files are almost entirely the actual text anyway, you can also inline your translations like this:
 +
 +
<syntaxhighlight lang="json">
 +
 +
[
 +
  {"speaker":"player"},
 +
  {"markup":{
 +
    "en":"Hello! My name is &Username;.",
 +
    "fr":"Salut! Je m'appelle &Username;."
 +
  },
 +
  {"markup":{
 +
    "en":"All of this text will be said <b>by the player</b>.",
 +
    "fr":"Tout ce texte sera <b>dit par le joueur</b>."
 +
  }},
 +
 
 +
  {"speaker":"system"},
 +
  {"markup":{
 +
    "en":"You feel a rush of excitement",
 +
    "fr":"Vous sentez une pointe d'excitation"
 +
  }}
 +
]
 +
 +
</syntaxhighlight>
 +
 +
== Further Details ==
 +
 +
Like other PowerSlide tracks, a dialogue track is just a list of slides. If a slide does not define a '''speaker''' then it adopts the speaker applied to the previous slide. If a slide ''only'' defines a speaker, then it's completely ignored from the dialogue stream (but does affect the speaker of the following slides).
 +
 +
So, the first example is short for:
 +
 +
<syntaxhighlight lang="json">
 +
 +
[
 +
  {
 +
    "speaker":"player",
 +
    "markup":"Hello! My name is &Username;."
 +
  },
 +
  {
 +
    "speaker":"player",
 +
    "markup":"All of this text will be said <b>by the player</b>."
 +
  },
 +
  {
 +
    "speaker":"player",
 +
    "markup":"It's just an array of text. Because we aren't defining any timing information, it will be cued by the player."
 +
  },
 +
  {
 +
    "speaker":"player",
 +
    "markup":"That typically means the player will see something like <i>'press x to continue'</i>."
 +
  },
 +
 +
  "etc"
 +
]
 +
 +
 +
 +
</syntaxhighlight>
 +
 +
== Available properties ==
 +
 +
Here's the available properties on dialogue slides.
 +
 +
{| class="wikitable"
 +
|-
 +
! Name
 +
! Description
 +
! Optional
 +
! Example
 +
|-
 +
| speaker or speakers
 +
| The people/ items saying the text.
 +
| Yes, except for the very first slide.
 +
| {"speaker":"joey"}
 +
|-
 +
| markup
 +
| The text to say, optionally in multiple languages indexed by the language code. This is implied if you just have a line of text.
 +
| No, unless speaker/speakers or options is defined.
 +
| "Hello", {"markup":"Hello!"}, {"markup":{"en":"English","fr","Français"}}
 +
|-
 +
| start
 +
| (Same as PowerSlide). The time the dialogue appears at.
 +
| Yes
 +
| "start":"1.23s"
 +
|-
 +
| duration
 +
| (Same as PowerSlide). How long the dialogue lasts for. If omitted, the slide is cued by the player.
 +
| Yes
 +
| "duration":"1.44s"
 +
|-
 +
| template
 +
| Overrides the visual template to use. Makes it change if needed.
 +
| Yes
 +
| "template":"subtitles"
 +
|- options
 +
| Used if the player should pick from one or more options. See more on options below.
 +
| Yes
 +
| "options":[{"markup":"Yes!","goto":".."},{"markup":"No!","goto":".."}]
 +
|-
 +
| wait-for-cue
 +
| Rarely needed. True/false indicates if it should wait for a cue. E.g. if "click to continue" should appear or not.
 +
| Yes. It's true if no duration is declared, or if options are declared. False otherwise.
 +
| "wait-for-cue":"true"
 +
|}
 +
 +
== Speakers ==
 +
 +
Most of the time, speaker information is already available elsewhere. So, PowerSlide does not include a way for storing speaker details (like their name, a chat head etc). Instead, you'll need to provide those details via the PowerSlide.Dialogue.OnGetSpeaker delegate:
 +
 +
<syntaxhighlight lang="csharp">
 +
 +
// using PowerSlide;
 +
 +
Dialogue.OnGetSpeaker=delegate(SpeakerType type,string id){
 +
   
 +
    // Create the speaker object (instance/ return a custom type if you want):
 +
    Speaker speaker=new Speaker(type,id);
 +
   
 +
    /*
 +
        Get the information for whatever type/id refers to now!
 +
   
 +
    e.g:
 +
   
 +
    if(type==SpeakerType.Player && id==null){
 +
       
 +
        // Current player! You can use localisation variables
 +
        // here if you want, or directly set it:
 +
        speaker.fullName="&Username;";
 +
       
 +
    }
 +
   
 +
    */
 +
    // Ok!
 +
    return speaker;
 +
};
 +
 +
</syntaxhighlight>
 +
 +
=== Multiple speakers ===
 +
 +
A single speaker name could represent a group; for example "clan-members" could be ''all'' clan members in the scene. However, if you need to list out multiple speakers, then you simply provide an array like so:
 +
 +
<syntaxhighlight lang="json">
 +
 +
[
 +
  {"speakers":["player","joey"]},
 +
  "STOP!!"
 +
]
 +
 +
</syntaxhighlight>
 +
 +
=== Advanced speakers ===
 +
 +
You might want dialogue between two players in a multiplayer game. The above speaker strings are actually short forms of this:
 +
 +
<syntaxhighlight lang="json">
 +
"speaker":{"type":"player","id":"2"} /* Some remote player */
 +
 +
"speaker":{"type":"player"} /* Current player */
 +
</syntaxhighlight>
 +
 +
== Events ==
 +
 +
Along with all the ordinary window events and PowerSlide events, dialogue also generates these:
 +
 +
{| class="wikitable"
 +
|-
 +
! Name
 +
! Event object type
 +
! Purpose
 +
|-
 +
| dialoguestart
 +
| PowerSlide.SlideEvent
 +
| Fires when a particular dialogue slide should now be visible.
 +
|-
 +
| dialogueend
 +
| PowerSlide.SlideEvent
 +
| Fires when a particular dialogue slide is no longer visible.
 +
|}
 +
 +
== Mood ==
 +
 +
Mood can change very rapidly throughout dialogue, and can occasionally be hard to translate.
  
 
== Speech markup language (SSML) ==
 
== Speech markup language (SSML) ==
  
−
Cue cards contain SSML which may potentially be forwarded to a speech synthesis engine or otherwise checked for mood cues within the speech.
+
All dialogue is actually an extended version of SSML. It can contain all HTML as well as speech hints. It may potentially be forwarded to a speech synthesis engine or otherwise checked for mood cues within the speech.
  
 
<syntaxhighlight lang="html">
 
<syntaxhighlight lang="html">
Line 17: Line 223:
  
 
</syntaxhighlight>
 
</syntaxhighlight>
−
 
−
== Internal structure ==
 
−
 
−
Each train of thought is stored as a JSON file. Automatically generated indices (also JSON) are also created for each dialogue starting point. For example, click/ tapping on an NPC to talk to them will result in all the possible dialogue that starts at that NPC being checked to see which one(s) are most suitable in the current gameplay context. If multiple are suitable then an options menu is created.
 
−
 
−
''More information will be coming soon - the API is a work in progress!''
 

Revision as of 06:13, 17 February 2017

The built in dialogue (speech) system can be used to create conversations between any number of players or 'items' (typically NPCs). It fully supports the localisation system and can be cued from speech playback, synthesis, the player or anything else via scripting. It's also built on top of the window system so dialogue can be easily displayed inside drop-and-go templates.

Basic structure

All dialogue is JSON compatible with PowerSlide. Here's the general structure of those JSON files: 

[
  {"speaker":"player"},
  "Hello! My name is &Username;.",
  "All of this text will be said <b>by the player</b>.",
  "It's just an array of text. Because we aren't defining any timing information, it will be cued by the player.",
  "That typically means the player will see something like <i>'press x to continue'</i>.",
  
  {"speaker":"system"},
  "You feel a rush of excitement",
  
  {"speaker":"player"},
  "Ah. That was the system speaker - speaker names can be whatever you want",
  "'system' is reserved as meaning a narrator-style speaker usually present in RPGs.",
  "By convention, spaces are added between speakers, so you can clearly see when a speaker changes."
]

Save a file like that in Resources/Dialogue. For example, Resources/Dialogue/myDialogue.json. To use it, you just then use document.startDialogue("myDialogue","templateToUse"). For example, call that when a player clicked on an NPC.

As it's PowerSlide, you can also define other tracks in there too (such as a style track and potentially in the future a variety of cutscene management tracks - camera position etc).

Localisation

As seen above with 'Username', localisation variables are fully supported. However, for the purposes of translating all your dialogue, there is also another option: As these files are almost entirely the actual text anyway, you can also inline your translations like this: 

[
  {"speaker":"player"},
  {"markup":{
    "en":"Hello! My name is &Username;.",
    "fr":"Salut! Je m'appelle &Username;."
  },
  {"markup":{
    "en":"All of this text will be said <b>by the player</b>.",
    "fr":"Tout ce texte sera <b>dit par le joueur</b>."
  }},
  
  {"speaker":"system"},
  {"markup":{
    "en":"You feel a rush of excitement",
    "fr":"Vous sentez une pointe d'excitation"
  }}
]

Further Details

Like other PowerSlide tracks, a dialogue track is just a list of slides. If a slide does not define a speaker then it adopts the speaker applied to the previous slide. If a slide only defines a speaker, then it's completely ignored from the dialogue stream (but does affect the speaker of the following slides).

So, the first example is short for: 

[
  {
    "speaker":"player",
    "markup":"Hello! My name is &Username;."
  },
  {
    "speaker":"player",
    "markup":"All of this text will be said <b>by the player</b>."
  },
  {
    "speaker":"player",
    "markup":"It's just an array of text. Because we aren't defining any timing information, it will be cued by the player."
  },
  {
    "speaker":"player",
    "markup":"That typically means the player will see something like <i>'press x to continue'</i>."
  },

  "etc"
]

Available properties

Here's the available properties on dialogue slides.

Name Description Optional Example
speaker or speakers The people/ items saying the text. Yes, except for the very first slide. {"speaker":"joey"}
markup The text to say, optionally in multiple languages indexed by the language code. This is implied if you just have a line of text. No, unless speaker/speakers or options is defined. "Hello", {"markup":"Hello!"}, {"markup":{"en":"English","fr","Français"}}
start (Same as PowerSlide). The time the dialogue appears at. Yes "start":"1.23s"
duration (Same as PowerSlide). How long the dialogue lasts for. If omitted, the slide is cued by the player. Yes "duration":"1.44s"
template Overrides the visual template to use. Makes it change if needed. Yes "template":"subtitles"
Used if the player should pick from one or more options. See more on options below. Yes "options":[{"markup":"Yes!","goto":".."},{"markup":"No!","goto":".."}]
wait-for-cue Rarely needed. True/false indicates if it should wait for a cue. E.g. if "click to continue" should appear or not. Yes. It's true if no duration is declared, or if options are declared. False otherwise. "wait-for-cue":"true"

Speakers

Most of the time, speaker information is already available elsewhere. So, PowerSlide does not include a way for storing speaker details (like their name, a chat head etc). Instead, you'll need to provide those details via the PowerSlide.Dialogue.OnGetSpeaker delegate: 

// using PowerSlide;

Dialogue.OnGetSpeaker=delegate(SpeakerType type,string id){
    
    // Create the speaker object (instance/ return a custom type if you want):
    Speaker speaker=new Speaker(type,id);
    
    /* 
        Get the information for whatever type/id refers to now!
    
    e.g:
    
    if(type==SpeakerType.Player && id==null){
        
        // Current player! You can use localisation variables 
        // here if you want, or directly set it:
        speaker.fullName="&Username;";
        
    }
    
    */
    // Ok!
    return speaker;
};

Multiple speakers

A single speaker name could represent a group; for example "clan-members" could be all clan members in the scene. However, if you need to list out multiple speakers, then you simply provide an array like so: 

[
   {"speakers":["player","joey"]},
   "STOP!!"
]

Advanced speakers

You might want dialogue between two players in a multiplayer game. The above speaker strings are actually short forms of this: 

"speaker":{"type":"player","id":"2"} /* Some remote player */

"speaker":{"type":"player"} /* Current player */

Events

Along with all the ordinary window events and PowerSlide events, dialogue also generates these:

Name Event object type Purpose
dialoguestart PowerSlide.SlideEvent Fires when a particular dialogue slide should now be visible.
dialogueend PowerSlide.SlideEvent Fires when a particular dialogue slide is no longer visible.

Mood

Mood can change very rapidly throughout dialogue, and can occasionally be hard to translate.

Speech markup language (SSML)

All dialogue is actually an extended version of SSML. It can contain all HTML as well as speech hints. It may potentially be forwarded to a speech synthesis engine or otherwise checked for mood cues within the speech. 

<!-- The SSML describes both how it sounds and how it appears on the UI (it fully supports HTML too) -->
<happy>Hello &Username; - I'm feeling <i>great</i> today!</happy>
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