Plugins VAMStory

[hazmhox]

@hazmhox I know I am too demanding, but:
would it be possible to manually add more than 3 answers?

I have a non story related scenario in mind, where I can talk with a person to do certain things like posing, fire up animations, change clothing, change position, change location in the scene etc...
Goal is to have a kind of model presentation scene with many aspects.
This is not achievable with only 3 answers.

Thx for listening

Then you're gonna be happy, I'm on this (sub-plugins of vamstory that behaves like VAMStory (adding elements)) :

• VAMStoryDirector: Unlimited elements with only a name and a trigger. It's meant to "direct" your scene. A trigger at start of the scene, a handful of triggers to control whatever you want (reset the scene, prepare it for a new section of the scene etc...)
  The goal is to as mention, direct the scene, or be able to quickly use and re-use triggers at several points of the story.
  Tiny stories could only rely on VAMStory. Huge stories could rely on both VAMStoryDirector + several VAMStory.
  
  
• VAMStoryActions: Unlimited elements with an action name + the possibility of enabling a single slider.
  This will produce a big "panel" of buttons and a slider below them. It could be used to display big action panels in the scene (for story-driven or non-story driven scenes).
  But also, you will be able to reference a VAMStoryAction for a group in VAMStory. The goal of that is for you to create and configure your action panel, hide somewhere not visible by the player, and at the end of the group, VAMStory will "steal" the panel and put it below the answers.
  A new option will also be available to hide the main dialog, which could result in the last dialog of a group only showing an action panel

I think it'll cover your needs

 

[Saint66]

Then you're gonna be happy, I'm on this (sub-plugins of vamstory that behaves like VAMStory (adding elements)) :

• VAMStoryDirector: Unlimited elements with only a name and a trigger. It's meant to "direct" your scene. A trigger at start of the scene, a handful of triggers to control whatever you want (reset the scene, prepare it for a new section of the scene etc...)
  The goal is to as mention, direct the scene, or be able to quickly use and re-use triggers at several points of the story.
  Tiny stories could only rely on VAMStory. Huge stories could rely on both VAMStoryDirector + several VAMStory.
  
  
• VAMStoryActions: Unlimited elements with an action name + the possibility of enabling a single slider.
  This will produce a big "panel" of buttons and a slider below them. It could be used to display big action panels in the scene (for story-driven or non-story driven scenes).
  But also, you will be able to reference a VAMStoryAction for a group in VAMStory. The goal of that is for you to create and configure your action panel, hide somewhere not visible by the player, and at the end of the group, VAMStory will "steal" the panel and put it below the answers.
  A new option will also be available to hide the main dialog, which could result in the last dialog of a group only showing an action panel

I think it'll cover your needs

You do not stop to surprise me
Awesome!

 

[atani]

If it wasn't noticed yet, this happens:

 

[hazmhox]

If it wasn't noticed yet, this happens:

Ho shit! I completely forgot about that. Noted, fixing asap (help is gonna go in the dropdown too, I have no other way since the layout is now "absolute").

 

[hazmhox]

VAMStoryActions demo @Saint66

 

[Saint66]

Wow, like a dream! Thanks for the heads up, this is becoming mighty
The Storyactions alone are another blessing in easy scene setup

 

[pinosante]

Playing around with the VAMstory, but I noticed that if you "remove" the avatar, it shows a transparent square box. So line 1 I have the male avatar shown, on line 2 I have removed the male avatar (since the girl is talking) and on line 3 I show the male avatar again, but on line 2 it shows a transparent box (where the avatar would be). It would look better if that box was not visible.

 

[pinosante]

Another (bug/glitch)? I added an avatar, and then copied that line to some other lines, and now I can't seem to remove the Avatar anymore. I had to solve it by adding a new dialogue line without avatar and copying it over the line where I wanted to remove the Avatar.

 

[hazmhox]

For the semi-transparency thing, that's just a temporary cache with the default png. It's only temporary during edition, it will be gone when reloading the scene (unless there is a bug, you can eventually confirm that).

Noted for the avatar removal bug, I'm gonna check that : )

 

[hazmhox]

Another (bug/glitch)? I added an avatar, and then copied that line to some other lines, and now I can't seem to remove the Avatar anymore. I had to solve it by adding a new dialogue line without avatar and copying it over the line where I wanted to remove the Avatar.

Nope, can't reproduce.
Could you give me a more detailed reproduction steps ? ie:
- I'm loading the scene
- doing this, then doing that...

 

[pinosante]

Nope, can't reproduce.
Could you give me a more detailed reproduction steps ? ie:
- I'm loading the scene
- doing this, then doing that...

I tried, but I can't reproduce either.

 

[hazmhox]

The worst bugs x']

 

[atani]

@hazmhox
I adapted a scene of mine to use VAMStory instead of thought bubbles and VAMOverlays subtitles:

Scenes - A Bust gone bust - Updates

hub.virtamate.com

I am for sure abusing your new plugin to do things I needed without having to rework the animations, definitely not good practices. If you'd like to see how it was (ab)used, the atom is called Story.

Some things I forced:

• Trigger from Timeline or when clicking the dialog to hide UI
• Multiple single dialog groups called by triggers in Timeline or in ActRandomizer, as I can't call for dialogs, only groups
• "...(thought)" to emulate a thought

Things I would like but have no idea how sensible they are:

• Thought bubble like option of some sort
• Visibility time for a dialog or auto-advance (emulate click)
• Call for a dialog in a group for the possibility of randomised lines/thoughts instead of single dialog groups
• Clear group position and potentially some way to see in the scene where it's saved, a dot or something?

Noticed these things:

• Render order overlaps VaM UI
• I can't clear a saved position of a group
• Time between dialogs does not pause when the "Frozen" checkbox is checked

I hope anything here and in the scene helps you see some ways the plugin might be used. Thank you again for making it

 

[hazmhox]

hazmhox updated VAMStory with a new update entry:

VAMStoryActions, QoLs, bug fixes

‼WARNING: a major bug (in a really specific situation) got fixed for the save. I recommend saving often while VAMStory is tested and bugs are reported. An automatic backup system will be featured in the next update.

General

• Fixed help UI bug, moved it to the main dropdown
• Fixed misc UI bugs
• Fixed groups, dialogs or actions that were still restored after being deleted (after loading a saved scene)
• Fixed a critical bug producing...

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[hazmhox]

Some things I forced:

• Trigger from Timeline or when clicking the dialog to hide UI
• Multiple single dialog groups called by triggers in Timeline or in ActRandomizer, as I can't call for dialogs, only groups
• "...(thought)" to emulate a thought

- UI hiding, seems normal or legitimate! I don't see how it is forced ? Can you elaborate ?
- In what situation calling a dialog directly could be helpful ?

Things I would like but have no idea how sensible they are:

• Thought bubble like option of some sort
• Visibility time for a dialog or auto-advance (emulate click)
• Call for a dialog in a group for the possibility of randomised lines/thoughts instead of single dialog groups
• Clear group position and potentially some way to see in the scene where it's saved, a dot or something?

- Thought umhhh... maybe, I think it would need to refer the person talking. Not a priority but why not.
- "Auto-advance", I have this in mind for the answers... but how would that be useful for dialogs? You actually don't know how fast your player reads... auto-skipping dialogs might be frustrating.
- Random lines / dialogs, that's strange... really specific feature
- Yup clear position is gonna happen. The spot of position is not a bad idea, a button to shortly highlight it maybe ?

Noticed these things:

• Render order overlaps VaM UI
• I can't clear a saved position of a group
• Time between dialogs does not pause when the "Frozen" checkbox is checked

- Fixed in v3 (available)
- Yup, as mentionned above
- Whaaaaaaaat ? what do you mean ? :'D

 

[atani]

- UI hiding, seems normal or legitimate! I don't see how it is forced ? Can you elaborate ?
- In what situation calling a dialog directly could be helpful ?

• Wasn't sure about it as I used it a lot, either as a trigger on click or with Timeline
• This would be when together with a animation, like the behaviour of the built-in speech bubbles. For some I un/paused the animation when dialog clicking, while on others it was ok to have the animation in a loop. However, some animations make it difficult or strange to use these strategies, and I resorted to making single dialog groups for this. Being able to call a specific dialog would mean I could turn those groups into a single one and keep it tidier.

- Thought umhhh... maybe, I think it would need to refer the person talking. Not a priority but why not.
- "Auto-advance", I have this in mind for the answers... but how would that be useful for dialogs? You actually don't know how fast your player reads... auto-skipping dialogs might be frustrating.
- Random lines / dialogs, that's strange... really specific feature
- Yup clear position is gonna happen. The spot of position is not a bad idea, a button to shortly highlight it maybe ?

• I used symbols to distinguish from speech, most of my "dialog" was thoughts, or perhaps I use thought bubbles too much compared to others
  
• Same reason for the second point in the above reply group, while running non-looped animations. Currently did lots of single dialog groups with a trigger for"hide ui" in Timeline, but was a clunky way and difficult to manage
• For variety in looping animations. Being able to call for a dialog would reduce the amount of single dialog groups I did, and with that I could do randomised thoughts or lines
• Great, this will be very helpful, easy to loose track of where things go and a pain to have to test them all

- Fixed in v3 (available)
- Yup, as mentionned above
- Whaaaaaaaat ? what do you mean ? :'D

• 
  
• 
• This:
  
  Doesn't affect the "Dialog delay" and if there's a animation it will be off until the the group ends

Thanks for looking into these. I hope more people will start releasing scenes using VAMStory soon and see how they use it.

 

[hazmhox]

I see what you mean.
For all the instances of the "calling a dialog directly" / "thoughts" / "randomized dialogs". You're kind of "distorting" your perception of VAMStory.
You perceive it as an overall chat system ( including dialog and thoughts ), but it more is a subtitle / dialog system.
You're trying to make it something it is not.

That said, your perception is interesting... but I wouldn't go down the road of making VAMS a thought system, maybe more in the "let's add a thought sub-plugin to VAMS" direction.

That's why for instance, auto-advance is a complex problem. Since dialogs are contained in a group, they are meant to switch to the next one in line (or display the answers). Picture this: let's you could grab a random dialog in a group, and the thing is in "auto-advance"... auto-advance to what ? next dialog ? hidden state ? Another dialog of another group ?

This simply means you would have to configure every single bit of dialog to know what the next step is. At some point it is the exact same thing as triggering manually from another source. Hence I'd go more down the road of a custom "thoughts system".

Freeze, interesting, yeah that's a problem.
I'm gonna prevent all clicks and interactions while the game is frozen to not break the scene
Nice catch! (I never think of the freezy thing )

 

[atani]

Oh, absolutely. I did warn that I was pushing it to something it's likely not made for and see how it fared.
Ditch the requests that go against where you want VAMStory to go, I'm sharing those so you have an idea in what way I tried using VAMStory.
Funny enough, someone in Discord today asked if they could make random lines using VAMStory. This is normal, there's a new tool available and the want to try it over existing ones.

"Auto-advance" would be to the next dialog in the group when having a timed visibility for the dialog. The goal would be to not need user interaction to move along the story in that group, mainly considering a non-looping animation running alongside, not needing to pause it whenever a dialog appears. Alternatively, a trigger function to emulate a click in the dialog box would also allow the same result.

 

[hazmhox]

I'm not ditching anything!

I want VAMStory to become a framework for story-driven content! These speech bubbles might arrive at some point

Noted for the trigger, I'll add it asap (maybe tonight)... that'll be "Next Dialog". Know that it won't go next if you don't put an "on click" trigger on the main dialog at the last dialog of a group with that trigger tho. (or if you have only answers).

 

[atani]

Noted for the trigger, I'll add it asap (maybe tonight)... that'll be "Next Dialog". Know that it won't go next if you don't put an "on click" trigger on the main dialog at the last dialog of a group with that trigger tho. (or if you have only answers).

Really? Didn't even know if it was a reasonable possibility. This would do all I had to to do before in a messy way. Hurrah
Can't wait to abuse your plugin in new ways

 

[Vam_SlesaR]

is there a chance that you will make a subtitle display option like in Vamoverlay? And is there a chance that you will add the function "enable the next group in xx seconds?

 

[hazmhox]

is there a chance that you will make a subtitle display option like in Vamoverlay? And is there a chance that you will add the function "enable the next group in xx seconds?

- I'd have to think of a way to control VAMOverlays through VAMS to make them both work hands in hands. That's not a bad idea. I'll have to think about it
- Yup this is the timed "answers" I was refering to a bit above!

 

[Vam_SlesaR]

I tried using the fade function from vamoverlay between dialogs and.. the blackout overlaps the vamstory interface and I can't turn off fade

 

[hazmhox]

I tried using the fade function from vamoverlay between dialogs and.. the blackout overlaps the vamstory interface and I can't turn off fade

Yeah I might need to fix the shaders on overlays soon : )

 

[pinosante]

Another request: would it be possible to have answers which have been selected, unavailable if you revisit the group? Similar to the RPG's where you talk to a NPC:
Ask:
- about town
- about the king
- nothing

Where you could first click on 'about town', and after that the new options are only 'about the king', 'nothing', and if you click on 'about the king', only 'nothing' remains to be chosen. Only 'problem' I see now, is that you might end up with answer 1 available, and 2 not, and 3 available. So that might end up with the displaying of a line (1), empty box (2), and another line (3).