Can you add one more demo conversation plz,

[OlegKostin]

I want to understand how it will wokr one with another one. And plz give me some tips about conversations .conv, all that tags.Are you writing *.conv files manually? How can i use ConversationSchema.xsd? Thanks.

[wizered67]

I can add another example within the next few days. Ideally I'd also like to add some more thorough documentation soon. In the mean time, consider looking at the somewhat decent documentation in XML Documentation.xml.

I am writing the .conv files by hand, but the schema adds autocompletion for most tags which is very helpful. If you are using IntelliJ, then I believe you can get the schema working Settings->Languages and Frameworks->Schemas and DTDs, clicking the green plus button, and selecting the .xsd file provided.

Is there anything in particular you would like more help/documentation for? Most of it seems pretty intuitive for me but no doubt that's because I know how everything works. Do you understand branches? Probably the most complicated thing is using scripting languages, so I can definitely provide more support with that.

[OlegKostin]

I'm using Android Studio but its practically the same and your recommendation is working. Thanks!
I think i can figure it out by myself. Im appreciate with all your help and hope i can ask u some point which will be hard for me in future.
Can you add command to add pics on backscreen? Or maybe do u have it already? Сouldn't find it out.
Thanks for your working.

[OlegKostin]

where r u generate bottom area with text? I need to add font style there in order to add russian letters.
For example: Label label = new Label("", new Label.LabelStyle(font, new Color(1, 1, 1, 1)));
Is it possible?

[wizered67]

The labels for text are all created in the constructor of GUI Manager. Take a look at that and you should be able to find what to modify.

I haven't gotten around yet to adding a command for background images but I'll put it on my list and try to get to it soon, possibly tonight or the next few days. Also, I'm just curious, what made you want to use this for your game instead of more developed/well known alternatives?

[wizered67]

I have added a command to set a background image. There's one example in the updated demonstration but essentially you just use . To add your own backgrounds you will need to make sure they get loaded. To do this, check out the loadDefault method in GameManager.java. You'll just need to add another call to assetManager.load with the resource you add.

A few notes:

• The asset loading system is kind of a mess right now. At some point (hopefully soon) I'd like to streamline it and make it easier.
• I haven't correctly set up viewports yet so you'll notice that resizing the game window scales the screen, which can distort it. I've put off fixing this until the future, but at some point I'll correct this. If you want to change the default screen size you can change DEFAULT_WIDTH and DEFAULT_HEIGHT in Constants.java.
• I'm still learning how to create XSD schemas, so I hadn't notice that I accidentally left the namespace as a test name (test.Namespace. Oops). I corrected that in this version so that the namespace is "conversations". I have therefore updated the schema as well as the demonstration. Make sure that when you make .conv files you include xmlns="urn:conversations" in the conversation tag.

Let me know if you have any more questions, have found bugs, or want to request a feature!

[OlegKostin]

Thanks.
I choosed your project because im learing libgdx and android by myself. No point in taking well known alternatives for me. And thanks again for your working.)

[OlegKostin]

Ive added russian letters, ty.
I havent understood some parts of xml logic. So i have some questions.
How can i use variable operations in that xml form like flag. To turn variable from game logic to false or true or to increment it i++?
Can u add one more .conv file? I want to understand how can i get sequence of convisations.
How r u rendering pics on background? It is taking left bottom part of my pic. As u said u r gonna fix it, but maybe i can help u a little.

[wizered67]

For the background being the left bottom, I believe that is related to the origin being in the bottom left corner for textures. I'm a bit confused about why it would be doing it in a problematic way. Can you attach the image you're trying to use so I can take a closer look?

As for the sequence of conversations question, I assume you're referring to going from one conversation to another? I haven't gotten around to making a good way to do that yet, so there's no command. You should be able to do it with code with something like GUIManager.conversationController().loadConversation("demonstration.conv"); GUIManager.conversationController().setBranch("default");

Using the scripting languages is a little complex, so I probably need to make a more thorough guide. You can't change Java variables directly in conversations, but you can introduce variables specific to the scripting language. For example, in the demonstration conversation I use an command to create a new scripting variable called "work" and set it to 0 if it hasn't been initialized yet. Later on I can use a <script> command to increment it with "work += 1". The "work" variable can be referenced throughout the conversation, or even other conversations since all scripting variables are global variables. If you need to access a scripting variable in Java code, you can use GUIManager.conversationController().scriptManager("language name here").getValue("variable name here")
This still needs to be converted to a Java type however, which can be done with a ScriptManagers objectToString and objectToBoolean methods. It's an oversight that there's no objectToInteger method so I can add that later. Anyway, writing this out made me realize how complicated it is so I will see if I can simplify it!

Also, are you planning on developing for Android with this? At the moment, Lua is the only scripting language that supports Android. I definitely need to write a more thorough guide though.

[OlegKostin]

For the background being the left bottom, I believe that is related to the origin being in the bottom left corner for textures. I'm a bit confused about why it would be doing it in a problematic way. Can you attach the image you're trying to use so I can take a closer look?
This is cause of public final static int DEFAULT_WIDTH = 1024; //1024
public final static int DEFAULT_HEIGHT = 768; //576 If u take picture with bigger picture resolution, it will trim.
Ive already had this problem in my test platformer, and fixed. I think i can fix it here either.

I dont know script languages so im starting to learn them. And by the way we cant launch yourr app on android cause u r using groovy, As u said we need Lua to launch it on android
Thanks for detailed answer, ill try to figure it out.

[wizered67]

Just wanted to let you know that I've been working on overhauling the asset loading/managing system. Ideally this should make it much easier to add new resources AND will add more autocompletion to writing conversations. I am, however, changing the names of some attributes in some of the tags. I'll give more specific information when I'm done with this, but I just wanted to give you some heads up that some things will be changing somewhat drastically.

[OlegKostin]

Hello again. Will your schema branch release any soon? Will it support android? Thanks for your work!

[wizered67]

Hi! I've been hard at work for the last month or so adding a bunch of new features! I originally intended the schema branch to focus only on overhauling the asset management system, but I ended up adding much much more. I think I am almost ready to merge the schema branch into master, after a little more testing is done. However, I'm hesitant to call anything an official "release". A lot of things are still in development and are subject to change as improvements are made. You're welcome to use this, but just keep in mind that a lot of things may change.

Since you mentioned it before, I have made sure to support android as much as possible. Previously I had intended Groovy to be the primary scripting language, but because Lua works on Android I intend to prioritize it instead. All of the changes I've made in the last month do seem to work on Android, as long as Lua is used. However, I have not yet implemented viewports for resolution independence. As a result, the screen will really only display properly at the moment on desktop and at the default size. This is something I intend to address in the future, but I'm still learning the best ways to approach it so it may take a while.

Once I merge the schema branch into master, hopefully soon, I will give a more in depth explanation of all the changes that have been made. I still intend to write a better guide to making conversations at some point, but it isn't something I've gotten around to yet. Thanks for your continued interest!

[OlegKostin]

Ok, Im appreciative for your work and waitng your new release.

[wizered67]

I have merged the Schema branch into the master branch! This is a really large and significant update that makes a lot of important changes and really puts the project on a nice track going forward. I'll do my best to go over the most important changes.

First and foremost, I want to mention that I've added documentation to the Demonstration.conv file! There are now comments explaining what a lot of the lines do. This should make it much easier to understand and help you make your own.

Resource Management

The first major focus of this update was overhauling the resource system. Previously, all resource loading had to be hardcoded. This really made it a mess to add new resources. Additionally, using resources in the .Conv files was a pain because resource names did not autocomplete. I believe the new system fixes all of these problems. In the Assets folder, there is a new file called Resources.xml. This file allows you to define which assets will be used in the game. There are sections for different types of resources. Most allow you to add define your own assets by adding a line in the section of the form identifier "filename". For example, let's say you want to add a custom background. You have a file "forest.png" which has been placed in the Textures directory. To include that asset, you would need to open Resources.xml and add a line in the <textures> section. That line might look something like forestBackground "forest.png". (Note: the file path is relative to the Textures directory because this line is being added to the <textures> section, so you don't need to write it as "Textures/forest.png"). The part before the filename, 'forestBackground', is an optional identifier. Identifiers are intended to give simpler or easier to understand names to assets. If an identifier is not given, the filename is treated as its own identifier.

It is technically not necessary, but is highly recommended to run the provided jar file, ResourceSchemaGenerator.jar every time you make changes to Resources.xml. Note: Make sure to set the jar file's working directory to the assets folder or it won't find Resources.xml! What this jar does is automatically generate a schema file based off of the resources listed in Resources.xml. The result of this is that you can use autocompletion for resource names when writing conversations! This can significantly increase the speed of writing conversations and decrease the rate of error! Other types of resources are specified in Resources.xml as well, including characters and animations!

Adding to Resources.xml is not enough to load the assets, however. Instead, load groups must be created in Resources.xml. See the "common" group as an example. By default, the common group is loaded when the game starts, but other groups can be loaded manually through code or through conversations. The code to do it is GameManager.assetManager().loadGroup("name") and the conversation command is <loadGroup>name</loadGroup>. When a group is loaded, all assets in that group are loaded too. Groups can be unloaded similarly, with GameManager.assetManager().unloadGroup("name") and <unloadGroup>name</unloadGroup>.

Images!

Images can now be displayed in conversations! Images are non animated textures that can be shown at different positions. They can be moved to different positions and fade in and out. Some basic examples are in the demonstration.

Tweening

It is now possible to "tween" (interpolate) between character's and image's positions over a set period of time. There are also many different types of interpolation that can be used for different effects. These different types are also available for fading, although they're less useful.

Debug Menu

Pressing "Enter" while Constants.DEBUG is true will open a debug menu that lets you open conversations, change branch, save, and load. These can be helpful when debugging!

Transcript

Pressing the right "Shift" key opens a scrollable transcript displaying a subset of the last messages that were displayed, This is helpful if the player accidentally skipped over something and needs to check it again!

Better scripting support!

It is now easier to get and set the values of Lua variables from Java! To set a value, use ConversationController.scriptManager("Lua").setValue(name, value) where name is the variable name and value is a Java value. Similarly, you can get a value with ConversationController.scriptManager("Lua").getValue(name, type) where type is the type of the variable in Java types. For example, to get an integer it would be Integer.class.

After looking into it, it should be possible to access Java classes in Lua! For example, system = luajava.bindClass('java.lang.System') will set the Lua variable system as a reference to java.lang.System. From there, you can access its methods in Lua with something like system:currentTimeMillis(). For convenience, I have added a class in the scripting package called LuaGameMethods. You can add your own static methods to this class and then call them in Lua with game:methodName. Feel free to experiment with this, there are a lot of possibilities!

Misc New Conversation Commands

(Need more documentation later)
<fade> can be used for a whole screen fade/flash.
<waitUntil> can be used to wait for a script's condition to be met before advancing.
<waitForLoading> can be used to wait for all queued assets to be loaded before advancing.
<else> can be put inside an <if> tag to execute commands if the original condition was not met.
<exit> stops execution of the current conversation and hides all GUI elements.
<clearScene> can remove all characters and or images being displayed

That probably sums up the most important changes, although I may have forgotten some things. I want to write more extensive documentation eventually, but for now look at the documentation added to demonstration.conv for examples of what it does! Let me know if you have any questions or comments!

[OlegKostin]

good job!!