Adventure Game Studio

AGS Support => Beginners' Technical Questions => Topic started by: Rik_Vargard on Mon 07/07/2025 18:49:47

Title: Dialog GUI not appearing and then game (not responding)
Post by: Rik_Vargard on Mon 07/07/2025 18:49:47
Hi!

I have this problem where, when I start the dialog, the GUI doesn't appear.
It happens in a very basic room, where the player just enters the room, meets an NPC and then the dialog has to start.
But it doesn't. And the game "freezes" somehow and then I get the (not responding) thing and the Windows "loading" cursor turning forever.
Then when I click to close the window, it closes and I get the "Not closed properly" error message.

Then I added an option in the Dialog with the NPC saying "Blablabla".
This time, the dialog GUI still doesn't appear, but the NPC says "Blablabla" in a loop, like forever.

In After FadeIn : (GUI not showing)

cAlien01.Say ("What do you want?");
dDialog1.Start();

In the Dialog page: (Sayin "Blablabla" in a loop forever)

@1
cAlien01: Blablabla
return

I have many dialogs, so I don't know what's wrong with this one.

Any ideas?

Thx!
Title: Re: Dialog GUI not appearing and then game (not responding)
Post by: eri0o on Mon 07/07/2025 19:18:44
I think you still need @S and stop as possible branches in the dialog script.

I don't know why it's halting but I know dialog is a different game state than regular game. If you replace the return with a stop it should not do that I think, since it seems you have no options to return to.
Title: Re: Dialog GUI not appearing and then game (not responding)
Post by: Crimson Wizard on Mon 07/07/2025 20:33:18
1. Dialog options do not appear because by default they are not shown if there's only single enabled one, and the game selects the only one available automatically. If you want to override that, set "game.show_single_dialog_option = 1" in game_start.

2. It loops endlessly, because you have "return" instead of "stop". "Return" without a return value returns back to dialog option selection, "stop" ends the dialog. (but @eri0o already mentioned that)
Title: Re: Dialog GUI not appearing and then game (not responding)
Post by: Rik_Vargard on Mon 07/07/2025 20:59:01
Hey thanks a lot for the replies!  (nod)

Now here's what I "found out".

I do set the player to start in later rooms so I don't have to play throught the whole game everytime I change things, like creating a new Dialog.
So I'm sure that overlooking the "Stop" created that situation I was in.

But here's the weird thing: while I was waiting, I did restart the game from the very beginning as it's supposed to be, and when I arrived at this point, the Dialog showed perfectly, no problems, AND there was still no "Stop", eveything was still on "resturn" But it works... ???

So the mystery for me is: Is there a difference between starting the game at Room 1 and starting it at Room 57?
Perhaps I did something on the way that made that problem happen?

EDIT: And now I did restart from Room 57 and everything is OK, when before I had those problems.... still no "Stop"...  still a mystery to me...
Title: Re: Dialog GUI not appearing and then game (not responding)
Post by: Crimson Wizard on Mon 07/07/2025 22:34:02
No, there should not be any difference in which room you start, the dialogs are unrelated.

Unless your script changes this dialog somehow, and changing to a room skips that.
Title: Re: Dialog GUI not appearing and then game (not responding)
Post by: Rik_Vargard on Tue 08/07/2025 20:56:27
Thank you for your explanations.  (nod)
Title: Re: Dialog GUI not appearing and then game (not responding)
Post by: Eon_Star on Thu 10/07/2025 10:43:36
Hi,

First check the General Settings and the Dialogs section. Do you use a custom dialog GUI?
 Check your dialog options from the menu on the left side of the dialog editor. Then check if the dialogs are edited properly using "return" or "stop". And if the script is not missing anything.
The game will start from the room where you put your player character in the character properities ("PlayerStartsInRoom").

Happy coding.