Floating Dialogue Hotspots

[MurrayL]

Hi guys,

I'd like to do an effect whereby words float above the player's head (like thoughts) to allow them to interact with a computer (the words roughly outline what will be typed by the character).

I know that I could do this using objects with hotspots set on them and make them visible when necessary. I intend for the effect to be used several times during the game (in the same location), so I would end up with a sea of invisible objects.

I'm not sure how flexible GUIs are, as I've not done a huge amount with them thus far, but they don't seem to be quite as suitable as the above method.

The text to be displayed will be set, so there's no problem in creating sprites with the text on, but if I can make a dynamic version that makes less clutter in the editor then obviously that would be better.

Is there an easier way of doing this?

[Khris]

I'm not really clear about how this is supposed to work; do you mean there are several clickable words floating above the head, moving about?

GUIs are pretty flexible, I'd actually use one GUI and its buttons. They could be moved around freely while the GUI itself is invisible, and presto.

[MurrayL]

Yes; sorry it wasn't very clear!

As an example, let's say three words. They should hover above the player character as he sits at the desk. When the player chooses one of the words, they all disappear and the player character writes a paragraph related to the word chosen. Rinse and repeat for, say, two or three times to construct an overall piece of text.

Could you provide some example script to animate the GUI buttons? I could procedurally change the words displayed on them, but I'd like to have them animated with some degree of 'niceness' (a slick hover) that may otherwise require sprites, so I'd be interested to see what's possible.

[monkey0506]

I see what you're doing. You're writing a Sims clone!

As for animating GUI buttons, look up Button.Animate.

I accept responsibility for not having read your posts properly, I'm rather distracted at the moment. I just wanted to comment about the Sims thing.