Help with portraits/textboxes [SOLVED]

[wormcathedral]

Hello! I'm new to this, and I'm currently just getting everything set up.

So, essentially, I want to have the 'SierraWithBackground' text box, but not have the portrait with it. I've tried looking around but haven't found anything on how to do this.

Because there's no speaking sprite with my characters, their text shows up in the usual lucasarts style, but I just want a textbox without the speaking sprite, is this possible and if so, how would I go about it?

Thank you.

[Cassiebsg]

just set it to SierraWithBackground and don't provide an animation speech view. or create an empty one and use that?

[Crimson Wizard]

This really depends on where do you want your text boxes to appear. LA and Sierra styles have their own rules on where to position text. For instance, LA positions it above character's head this depends on character's location on screen. Sierra style positions text aligned to some coordinate unrelated to exact character position, but it may also optionally display text aligned more to left or right side of the screen in turns when there's lines exchange between 2 characters.

If the Sierra style rules suit your needs, then use it and trick the engine by creating a speech view with 1x1 sized transparent sprites for portraits.

If you want your own rules for text positioning, I think it may worth scripting your custom speech style. If you are new to the engine this may be bit complicated, so maybe start with above invisible portrait trick but keep the option in mind for the future when you'll have better grasp on AGS.

Finally, there's a Display group of functions (DisplayAt, DisplayAtY) which actually display text in a box, which you may use instead of Say command, but it's not exact alternative to Say command, as it blocks the whole game including background animations and such. If you don't care, then you may use it. If you will want to have it looks (e.g. text colour) change depending on character or something, then you again will need to script custom functions around Display calls.

[wormcathedral]

Thank you all! I had a feeling about the 1x1 pixel trick, but I wasn't sure.  I'll look into these options.