Dialog

Dialog functions and properties

Dialog.GetByName

static Dialog* Dialog.GetByName(string scriptName)

Returns a pointer to the Dialog with the specified script name, or null if it does not exist.

Normally you do not need to use this, as there will be a automatically created global script variable for each Dialog which got a script name. Where GetByName() function may come useful is situation in which you a) do not know exact name, b) had to store object's reference in a string for some reason. Good examples of this are saving object's name in a custom property, or a file, then reading it back.

Example:

String dialogName = cNPC.GetTextProperty("MyDialog");
Dialog* dlg = Dialog.GetByName(dialogName);
if (dlg != null) {
    dlg.Start();
}

Retrieves a dialog name from the character's custom property, and gets a pointer to an actual Dialog using that name, then runs it.

Compatibility: Supported by AGS 3.6.1 and later versions.

See also: Dialog.ScriptName, Dialog.Start

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Dialog.AreOptionsDisplayed

static readonly attribute bool Dialog.AreOptionsDisplayed

Returns true if dialog options are currently displayed on the screen, or false otherwise.

Example:

bool _previousOptionsDisplayed;

void repeatedly_execute_always()
{
    if (Dialog.AreOptionsDisplayed && !_previousOptionsDisplayed)
    {
        System.Log(eLogInfo, "Dialog options are currently displayed.");
    }
    else if(!Dialog.AreOptionsDisplayed && _previousOptionsDisplayed)
    {
        System.Log(eLogInfo, "No dialog options are visible right now.");
    }
    _previousOptionsDisplayed = Dialog.AreOptionsDisplayed;
}

In this example, whenever there is a transition from options being displayed or them not being displayed, it logs the new state of dialog options being shown.

Compatibility: Supported by AGS 3.6.2 and later versions.

See also: Dialog.DisplayOptions, Dialog.Start

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Dialog.CurrentDialog

static readonly attribute Dialog* Dialog.CurrentDialog

Gets the currently running dialog. Returns null if no dialog is currently active.

NOTE: in dialog is a specific state of the AGS Engine, it means a dialog script created in the editor is being ran. It's not the same as any character speaking. Use Speech.SpeakingCharacter to detect if any and which character is speaking.

Example:

void repeatedly_execute_always()
{
    if (Dialog.CurrentDialog != null)
    {
        // a dialog is running, show our custom frames
        gDialogBorders.Visible = true;
    }
    else
    {
        // there is no dialog, let's hide our custom frames
        gDialogBorders.Visible = false;
    }
}

In this example, the script checks whether a dialog is active, and show or hide a GUI that contains decorative frames.

Compatibility: Supported by AGS 3.6.2 and later versions.

See also: Dialog.Start, Speech.TextOverlay, Character.Speaking, Speech.SpeakingCharacter

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Dialog.ExecutedOption

static readonly attribute int Dialog.ExecutedOption

Gets the currently executed dialog option, or -1 if none is being executed.

Example:

void repeatedly_execute_always()
{
    if (Dialog.ExecutedOption != -1)
    {
        System.Log(eLogInfo, "Currently executed dialog option: %d", Dialog.ExecutedOption);
    }
}

This example checks if a dialog option is being executed and logs its number.

Compatibility: Supported by AGS 3.6.2 and later versions.

See also: Dialog.GetOptionText, Dialog.GetOptionState

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Dialog.DisplayOptions

int Dialog.DisplayOptions(optional DialogOptionSayStyle)

Presents the options for this dialog to the user and waits until they select one of them. The selected option number is returned.

NOTE: This command does not run any dialog scripts, it simply displays the options and waits for the player to choose one. To run the dialog normally, use the Dialog.Start command instead.

This command is useful if you want to implement your own dialog system, but still use the standard AGS dialog option selection screens.

The optional DialogOptionSayStyle parameter determines whether the chosen option is automatically spoken by the player character. The default is eSayUseOptionSetting, which will use the option's "Say" setting from the dialog editor. You can alternatively use eSayAlways, which will speak the chosen option regardless of its setting in the editor; or eSayNever, which will not speak the chosen option.

If the text parser is enabled for this dialog and the player types something into it rather than selecting an option, the special value DIALOG_PARSER_SELECTED will be returned, and AGS will have automatically called Parser.ParseText with the player's text. Therefore, you can call Parser.Said to process it.

Example:

int result = dOldMan.DisplayOptions();
if (result == DIALOG_PARSER_SELECTED)
{
    Display("They typed something into the parser!!");
}
else
{
    Display("They chose dialog option %d.", result);
}

will show the options for dialog dOldMan and display a message depending on what the player selected.

Compatibility: Supported by AGS 3.0.2 and later versions.

See also: Dialog.Start, Parser.ParseText

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Dialog.GetOptionState

(Formerly known as global function GetDialogOption, which is now obsolete)

Dialog.GetOptionState(int option)

Finds out whether an option in a conversation is available to the player or not.

OPTION is the option number within the dialog, from 1 to whatever the highest option is for that topic.

The return value can have the following values:

eOptionOff
  The option is disabled - the player will not see it
eOptionOn
  The option is enabled - the player can now see and use it
eOptionOffForever
  The option is permanently disabled - no other command can ever turn
  it back on again.

These are the same as the options passed to Dialog.SetOptionState.

Example:

if (dJoeExcited.GetOptionState(2) != eOptionOn)
    Display("It's turned off");

Will display a message if option 2 of dialog dJoeExcited is not currently switched on.

See also: Dialog.HasOptionBeenChosen, Dialog.SetHasOptionBeenChosen, Dialog.SetOptionState

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Dialog.GetOptionText

String Dialog.GetOptionText(int option)

Returns the text for the specified dialog option.

OPTION is the option number within the dialog, from 1 to whatever the highest option is for that topic.

Example:

String optionText = dJoeBloggs.GetOptionText(3);
Display("Option 3 of dialog dJoeBloggs is %s!", optionText);

will display the text for the third option of the dJoeBloggs dialog.

Compatibility: Supported by AGS 3.0.2 and later versions.

See also: Dialog.OptionCount, Dialog.GetOptionState

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Dialog.HasOptionBeenChosen

bool Dialog.HasOptionBeenChosen(int option)

Finds out whether the player has already chosen the specified option in this dialog. This is mainly useful when drawing your own custom dialog options display, since it allows you to differentiate options that have already been chosen.

OPTION is the option number within the dialog, from 1 to whatever the highest option is for that topic.

Example:

if (dJoeExcited.HasOptionBeenChosen(2))
    Display("The player has chosen option 2 in dialog dJoeExcited!");

will display a message if the player has used option 2 of the dialog before.

Compatibility: Supported by AGS 3.1.1 and later versions.

See also: Dialog.GetOptionState, Dialog.SetHasOptionBeenChosen,

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Dialog.ID

readonly int Dialog.ID;

Gets the dialog ID number from the editor.

This might be useful if you need to interoperate with legacy scripts that work with dialog ID numbers.

Example:

Display("dFisherman is Dialog %d!", dFisherman.ID);

will display the ID number of the dFisherman dialog

Compatibility: Supported by AGS 3.1.0 and later versions.

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Dialog.OptionCount

readonly int Dialog.OptionCount;

Gets the number of options that this dialog has.

This might be useful in a script module if you want to iterate through all the possible choices in the dialog.

Example:

Display("dFisherman has %d options!", dFisherman.OptionCount);

will display the number of options in the dFisherman dialog.

Compatibility: Supported by AGS 3.0.2 and later versions.

See also: Dialog.GetOptionText, Dialog.GetOptionState

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Dialog.ScriptName

readonly String Dialog.ScriptName;

Gets the script name of the dialog, which serves as a unique identifier.

This may be useful if you have a pointer to some dialog stored in your variable, and want to know what it actually is. Normally you don't need a script name, as you have an automatic global variable for each dialog in the game, but sometimes you may want to save its script name as a text either to display it somewhere for testing purposes, or keep as a reference. You may later use Dialog.GetByName function to retrieve the dialog by the previously saved script name.

Example:

function CustomDialogStart(this Dialog*)
{
  this.Start();
  String dialogName = this.ScriptName;
  System.Log(eLogInfo, "Starting dialog: %s", dialogName);
}

Starting a dialog using the CustomDialogStart() method, like dExampleDialog.CustomDialogStart(), will log its script name for debugging purposes.

Compatibility: Supported by AGS 3.6.1 and later versions.

See also: Dialog.GetByName, Dialog.Start

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Dialog.SetHasOptionBeenChosen

Dialog.SetHasOptionBeenChosen(int option, bool chosen)

Changes whether an option in a conversation is marked as previously chosen by the player. The option is marked as chosen whenever player selects it during the conversation, and is usually highlighted with different text color. This function lets you to reset the option state, or force it change at any random moment.

OPTION is the option number within the dialog, from 1 to whatever the highest option is for that topic.

Example:

if (dDialog1.HasOptionBeenChosen(1))
    dDialog1.SetHasOptionBeenChosen(1, false); // reset the option state

will mark option 1 of dialog dDialog1 as "not chosen yet".

Compatibility: Supported by AGS 3.3.0 and later versions.

See also: Dialog.GetOptionState, Dialog.HasOptionBeenChosen

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Dialog.SetOptionState

(Formerly known as global function SetDialogOption, which is now obsolete)

Dialog.SetOptionState(int option, DialogOptionState)

Changes whether an option in a conversation is available to the player or not. This allows you to add extra options to a conversation once the player has done certain things.

OPTION is the option number within the topic, from 1 to whatever the highest option is for that topic.

The DialogOptionState controls what happens to this option. It can have the following values:

eOptionOff
  The option is disabled - the player will not see it
eOptionOn
  The option is enabled - the player can now see and use it
eOptionOffForever
  The option is permanently disabled - no other command can ever turn
  it back on again.

These are equivalent to the option-off, option-on, and option-off-forever dialog commands.

Example:

dFriend1.SetOptionState(2, eOptionOn);

will enable option 2 of topic number 4.

See also: Dialog.GetOptionState, Dialog.Start, StopDialog

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Dialog.ShowTextParser

readonly bool Dialog.ShowTextParser;

Gets whether this dialog shows a text box allowing the player to type in text.

This property is initially set in the Dialog Editor.

Example:

if (dFisherman.ShowTextParser)
{
    Display("dFisherman has a text box!");
}

will display a message if dFisherman has the option enabled

Compatibility: Supported by AGS 3.2.1 and later versions.

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Dialog.Start

(Formerly known as global function RunDialog, which is now obsolete)

Dialog.Start()

Starts a conversation from the specified topic.

NOTE: The conversation will not start immediately; instead, it will be run when the current script function finishes executing.

If you use this command from within the dialog_request function, it will specify that the game should return to this new topic when the script finishes.

Example:

dMerchant.Start();

will start the conversation topic named dMerchant.

See also: Dialog.DisplayOptions, Dialog.SetOptionState

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StopDialog

StopDialog ()

This command can only be used from within the dialog_request function. It tells AGS that when dialog_request finishes, the whole conversation should stop rather than continuing with the dialog script.

You can use this function to end the conversation depending on whether the player has/does a certain thing.

Example:

function dialog_request (int dr) {
    if (dr==1) {
        cEgo.AddInventory(iPoster);
        StopDialog();
    }
}

will give the player the inventory item 3 and then end the conversation.

See also: Dialog.SetOptionState