Remembering new inventory items while menu is closed

acai

Hi! I’m working on a 2D game and currently setting up my Inventory Menu.

I’ve set up a visual effect that plays on the inventory slot when a new item is added — it’s triggered via an Animator parameter (https://adventurecreator.org/forum/discussion/15867/inventory-menu-hotspot-interactions-new-item-slot-effects#latest]). Now I’m trying to improve it a bit: What I’m trying to do is make sure that if the player collects a new item while the Inventory menu is closed, the visual effect still plays the next time they open the Inventory — so they clearly notice which item was just added.

What I’d like to do is:

• Remember which items were added while the Inventory menu was hidden
• Then, when the player opens the Inventory, trigger the visual effect on those items
• After that, clear the “new” status so the effect doesn’t play again next time

The part I’m struggling with most is:

• How do I remember which items were added while the inventory was off, and check for them when it’s turned back on?

If anyone has ideas, advice, or references on how to approach this, I’d be incredibly grateful. Thank you so much!

(PS. Safe trip!)

ChrisIceBox

You can expand that thread's script to keep a list of items if the Menu isn't open at the time, and then hook into the OnMenuTurnOn custom event to show anything in the list when it opens:

using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.UI;
using AC;

public class ShowNewItem : MonoBehaviour
{

    public string menuName = "Inventory";
    public string elementName = "Items";
    public string triggerName = "GetItem";
    private List<InvItem> storedItems = new ();

    void OnEnable ()
    {
        EventManager.OnInventoryAdd += OnInventoryAdd;
        EventManager.OnMenuTurnOn += OnMenuTurnOn;
    }

    void OnDisable ()
    {
        EventManager.OnInventoryAdd -= OnInventoryAdd;
        EventManager.OnMenuTurnOn -= OnMenuTurnOn;
    }

    void OnInventoryAdd (InvItem invItem, int amount)
    {
        var menu = PlayerMenus.GetMenuWithName (menuName);
        if (menu.IsOff ())
        {
            storedItems.Add (invItem);
            return;
        }

        ShowItem (invItem);
    }

    void OnMenuTurnOn (Menu menu, bool isInstant)
    {
        if (menu.title != menuName) return;

        foreach (var invItem in storedItems)
        {
            ShowItem (invItem);
        }
        storedItems.Clear ();
    }

    void ShowItem (InvItem invItem)
    {
        var inventoryBox = PlayerMenus.GetElementWithName (menuName, elementName) as MenuInventoryBox;
        var gameObject = inventoryBox.GetUIButtonWithItem (invItem.id);

        if (gameObject)
        {
            gameObject.GetComponent<Animator> ().SetTrigger (triggerName);
        }
    }

}

acai

Thanks so much for your help! But for some reason, it’s not working. The visual effect doesn’t play when I open the Inventory menu. (It only plays if I open the menu first and then add a new item.) Any idea what might be wrong? Here's my setup: https://imgur.com/a/bdPcO5n

ChrisIceBox

It needs to be on a separate object to your Canvas - e.g. an empty GameObject in the scene.

acai

Thank you so much for your help! It works perfectly now. I was able to set it up easily using the Events Editor. Really appreciate your help, as always!