Handling the storing of dialogue strings using JSON

WanderingGiant

Ideally, your writer doesn't have to touch Unity when writing dialogue. However, from the tutorials it seems conversations are written using the ActionList Editor. Are there any guides on how to generate Adventure Creator conversations from a JSON, XML, etc? Is doing so feasible, or is AC not really built to support something like this?

If anyone has experience doing this I'd love to know how they accomplished it.

ChrisIceBox

Welcome to the community, @WanderingGiant. There are a few options available:

1. Courtesy of PixelCrushers, AC has an excellent integration with Dialogue System, which has a wide range of import options.
2. AC has its own integration package for articy:draft on the Downloads page.
3. Through scripting, speech Actions can be generated from an external spreadsheet. An example script that does so from a CSV file can be found on the AC wiki here: https://adventure-creator.fandom.com/wiki/Generating_speech_from_spreadsheets

WanderingGiant

@ChrisIceBox Both Dialogue System's Dialogue Databases and AC have their own built-in "variables" stores. Through integration, will these be merged? Will my dialogue database be able to refer to variables I've set in AC? Can AC reference dialogue database variables?

ChrisIceBox

It's possible to access AC variables through external scripting - see the Manual's "Variable scripting" chapter for details.

It's also possible to use scripting to link AC variables to external sources - the Manual's "Variable linking" chapter has details.

With regards to Dialogue System: the AC/DS integration is provided by Dialogue System's developer. They'd be the ones to clarify how much of this is possible - but if not, I can advise on how it might be made so.

WanderingGiant

@ChrisIceBox I notice theres an option to gather all text and then export as a csv. There's also an import button. If I export my dialogue text to csv, then make changes there and import it back in, will this cause any issues? Or will it properly change the dialogue/action lists where the text originates?

ChrisIceBox

When importing, you can choose to have a text column update update either a translation (which is stored in the Speech Manager), or the original text (which is stored in the source Action, Hotspot etc). The latter takes a little time, as it will scour your scenes for the sources of each text.

I'd always recommend backing up your project before importing text, however, as it's not an operation you can undo. If you make use of version control, that'll also make it much easier to see the changes the operation makes.