Using Hotspots to Make GameObjects appear

plottwist

Hi everyone,

I'm making a super simple Visual Novel game that has a graphic novel look. I want scenes to start with a blank page (I have a 'paper' sprite that I'm using as the background), then players click the mouse to make each panel appear.

I have the sprites set to invisible in the Renderer. Then I'm trying to make them appear using a page wide Hotspot and PopUp Variables. Each panel on the page has been assigned a different local variable and my action list looks like:

Variable: Set - with method 'increase by value 1'
Variable: PopUp Switch - selecting the appropriate sprite/variable
Object: Visibility - turning on visibility

However when I run this, the panels just appear, they don't require the input from a mouse click.

Very new at this so I'm sure I'm missing a step - do I need to add an input action in the action list?

Any advice appreciated

ChrisIceBox

Welcome to the community, @plottwist.

The Panels don't each need their own local variable - a single variable can be used to keep track of which panel to show next.

For the Actions to run when a Hotspot is clicked, they need to be inside an Interaction ActionList as defined in the Hotspot's "Use interactions" panel.

It'll be best to see your setup to understand what's currently going on. If you can share screenshots of everything, post them on e.g. imgur.com and link to them here.

plottwist

Thanks, Chris! Here are some screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/65v2X0v

ChrisIceBox

Thanks. Yes - you don't need separate PopUp variables, just one with the different values (None, Panel 1, Panel 2 etc entered in the Values boxes. Click "Add new value" to make space for the other values.

The ActionList in your second screenshot - is that your OnStart cutscene? That will run when the scene begins.

Your "Reveal HS" Hotspot is where these Actions need to go. A series of tutorials covering Hotspots and interactions can be found here.

plottwist

Okay, I've defined the ActionList under use interactions and the first panel appears on mouse click - so exciting! (Baby steps over here).

But I've clearly not set up the variables properly, hence the following panels don't yet appear. I'll take a read of the variables info again and any advice/guidance appreciated. But feels great to be this close to solving my problem.

Thanks for the help!!

ChrisIceBox

No problem. To elaborate on the use of a "PopUp" variable: technically you could use an Integer for this - to keep track of how many panels have shown. Each time you click, this Integer would goes up, and you can then show a new panel for each value (when =2, show panel 2, etc).

In the ActionList for this, however, you'd need to tie together a new Variable: Check Action for each panel, because this Action only lets you check single values. 10 panels would need 10 such Actions.

A PopUp is similar to an Integer, except it has a maximum limit. Because of this, you can use a single Variable: Popup switch Action to check all of its values in one go.