Plugins VAMStory 26

General

• Moved the UI Alignment option to the global options (it makes more sense)

VAMStoryActions

• Added Point of Interest feature: it allows you to hide an action panel and replace it with a VFX to draw players attention.
  The action panel can then appear based on distance or look direction. The documentation has been updated if you need some help.
• Added new action type "Text" (a bit barebone at the moment, I'm trying to figure out a set of options for it)
• Added new "Header/Footer options" category
• Added new header text section
• Moved the global slider option to the the "Header/Footer options" section

Tools

• Added a new tool "WAVRecorder", allowing to capture sound from a scene, preview it, and save it as a wav file.

VAMStoryActions

• Fixed slider not initializing the value properly at start

General

• Fixed a couple of incorrect feedback messages in some scripts

VAMStoryActions

• Added a new trigger Reset Selected Action to only reset a specific action of a panel.
• Added two new triggers Change label for selected action and Change label (off) for selected action.
  
  They allow you to change the label of an action during a scene. Just like the other triggers, you need to select an action ID first, then change the label. This only change the label during the scene and does not change the saved/original label.
  
  If you want to get back to the original state of your label during the scene, you can use the Reset Action Panel trigger (which will reset all the panel to its default state) or the Reset Selected Action (which will reset only this action).

VAMStoryDirector

• New gate trigger system. A demo is available in HZMDemos. Gate triggers is a way to execute a single trigger in director and select from a set of actions based on the status of the gate ( inactive or active ).
• Fixed a bug where triggering a deleted trigger would execute the first one available. Now, it won't trigger anything and show a log instead (only in edit mode). Thanks @atani !

Tools

• VAMSColoredBox: A handy 4x4x4m box with no collisions, black by default, but can be changed through the plugin. This may be used to place the player in a static position at the beginning of a story to hide loading and add a starting menu before the scene starts. Just like all the other VAMS plugins, add the script on an empty.
• VATrigger: fixed potential path saving issue when the scene is saved as a var.
• VATrigger: added "Saves" folder to the shortcuts when browsing for the VA folder.

Tools

• VAMSFovController: Added Enable/Disable FOV, which will prevent the FOV to change if you're changing FOV Value. Also added Force FOV Value which will change the FOV even if it is in disabled state.
• VAMSVFXEditor:Added this new tool allowing to control scale, opacity, color and particle size on some common VFX packs (like the awesome packs made by @Farger or @Xstatic)
  • This is not a fail-proof system, since the plugin can't know how the original particle system is made, this might either behave strangely on some systems or simply not work at all.
    
    You will have to play with the settings. If some systems are not updating, it means they are made in a way that this plugin can't handle.

General

• Handled timers for all triggers in all plugins (Story, Actions, Director), allowing you to... well... use the timers
  
  The system is optimized to reduce the number of timers called every frame, so you won't be able to use the test button. You will have to trigger it though the plugin UI or trigger it manually.

Tools

• Added the tools folder with misc mini-scripts to allow easier scripting of complex story scenes
  • VAMSDistance: allows to check a distance between two objects and execute a trigger when the threshold is crossed
  • VAMSFovController: allows to control the FOV of the monitor camera. It is mainly useful for desktop, you could enforce a specific FOV for your scene (handy for cinematic scenes)
  • VAMSVATrigger: allows to trigger voice acting quickly on Person atoms.

VAMStoryActions

• Added a Slider Big type action (it's exactly the same as the normal slider, but big)
• Added Do not execute triggers at start for the toggle types. This will prevent firing the triggers when the scene loading is finished requiring the user to interact with them.
• Changed the error message when you're using on/off, enable/disable, slider value triggers if the action ID is obsolete. This will help you out debug the scene faster.

VAMStory ( just for @Spacedog and @PetaZwega )

• Added groups ordering buttons (move up and down)
• Added dialogs ordering buttons (move up and down)

VAMStoryActions

• Added a Spacer type action (you can use this to make a space between two actions)
• Added Reset Action Panel trigger (this will reset the whole panel and all actions to their default state)
• Added Select Action ID to be able to change the state or values of individual actions
• Added Hide/Show selected action to be able to hide a button ( Select Action ID has to be used PRIOR to it )
• Added Disable/Enable selected action to be able to completely disable a button ( Select Action ID has to be used PRIOR to it )
• Added Set select action slider value to be able to change the value of a slider through triggers ( Select Action ID has to be used PRIOR to it )
• Optimized ordering code

To all creators using VAMStory
A warning about the new synchronization system.

I can't thank enough @PetaZwega to shine some light on that.

VAMStory since 1.17 waits for all plugins of the "suite" to be ready before initializing themselves. Due to the way Unity works... realtime updates (Update function) and coroutines cannot work while the atoms are in a off state.

Which result in any other active (in on state) plugin of VAMStory waiting forever until the atoms are swapped to a on state.

This does not mean you have to control the on/off state of VAMStory plugins, it means you have to keep all VAMStory atoms on. For Director, there is pretty much no problem since the plugin is "invisible" in the scene. For Actions it means you can use the new option "UI starts hidden (at scene load)" if you need, and well... Story will only show up when you start a group so you don't need to control it's initial state at all.

VAMStory is thought to be the "main controller" of the scene. And ensure that no matter what PC is behind (fast, normal, slow or turbo-potato-slow), the scene starts properly.

Drop all "old tricks" (animation patterns, scene animation, Timeline...) to control the start of the scene, and favor VAMS for any scene initialization process AND keep all atoms on.

I'm gonna update the documentation to mention that and also add a warning in the "ingame" help section.

If there is any trouble for you to understand what this update note says, feel free to ask me more in the discussion.
Cheers!

General (thank you @atani <3)

• Fixed an issue where leaving VAMStory plugins atoms in an off state would prevent a proper initialization when they were turned back on.