Dialog Text Span the Screen?

[Georgeqgreg]

The dialog doesn't span the screen, for example, if I have a character say. blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah, it will look like this.



Is there any way to make it utilize the entire horizontal span of the screen, instead of being squished into the center bit of the screen?

[Khris]

Built-in lucas-arts-style speech is hard coded to not use the entire width.
You could try other speech style settings in General settings.

[Georgeqgreg]

None of the other options seem to help me. Thanks for the tip though. I suppose I'll just write around this limitation. Like a player, I must be clever!

[Ghost]

You could break the overly long blahbla into a few separate blahs. That way you allow for line breaks, and will at least get rid of the odd cut-off blah. I must admit this is probably the longest blah I've ever seen in a game.

Or... is that a placeholder blah?

[Khris]

There's always the option to replace the .Say function. You could use Overlay.CreateTextual for the desired effect. You'd have to code an extender function like Character.Speak(String message) and use that instead.
The only problem with that approach is that you can't use the dialog script shorthand any longer. You'd have to use cSomeguy.Speak("bla bla bla"); for every line.

The other thing is, may I ask why you want this? I mean there's a reason that la-style speech doesn't span the screen: it's easier to read that way.

[Georgeqgreg]

You could break the overly long blahbla into a few separate blahs. That way you allow for line breaks, and will at least get rid of the odd cut-off blah. I must admit this is probably the longest blah I've ever seen in a game.

Or... is that a placeholder blah?

Yes, it's just a placeholder bunch of text to demonstrate AGS' behavior while my game is still in early stages of development! Shh!

There's always the option to replace the .Say function. You could use Overlay.CreateTextual for the desired effect. You'd have to code an extender function like Character.Speak(String message) and use that instead.
The only problem with that approach is that you can't use the dialog script shorthand any longer. You'd have to use cSomeguy.Speak("bla bla bla"); for every line.

The other thing is, may I ask why you want this? I mean there's a reason that la-style speech doesn't span the screen: it's easier to read that way.

An overlay? Interesting. I was wondering myself earlier if a GUI would work. Hmm...

Though it's not specifically Lucasarts-style, just that I'm using the style of speech, I guess. As said, changing the style doesn't seem to have any effect, so really, I just have it set as it is right now because I've no reason to care. For the record though, I'm not making a Lucasarts-style game, and this is narrator text. In my design, vertical screen real-estate is at a premium! (I'm using 320x240!) Maybe I'm just being an idiot design-wise though... ah, early states, you know? Well, needless to say, I'm trying to make a strange game! Cheers!

[Khris]

There are at least two recent threads dealing with replacing built-in speech, and we'll maybe even be able to fully customize the built-in one in an upcoming new version of AGS.
Using a Label and a GUI is absolutely possible and may be in fact a better approach, depending on the exact game design needs.

[Georgeqgreg]

Upcoming AGS, eh? Should I hold my breath? And can I have a link to those threads? Sounds interesting. Anyway, right now the design needs are basically "nothing," as the game is in very early stages, I'm just trying to have a usable interface and a solvable first room/puzzle. Thanks!

[Ryan Timothy B]

Right here

[Georgeqgreg]

I meant the " two recent threads dealing with replacing built-in speech" that Khris above was talking about, or is that those? Incidentally, what's the difference between dialog and speech rendering?

[Ryan Timothy B]

Yes, that's the one talking about having custom speech rendering.

As for custom dialog rendering, it allows you to customize how you want the dialog choices to be shown.

[Georgeqgreg]

That can be done easily as part of my interface anyway. I could just hide the interface, and bring up images of the dialog options. Yes, I'm using images. That's... probably not good, isn't it?

[Ryan Timothy B]

There's no good/bad as long as it works well for your game.

[Georgeqgreg]

Indeed, what a great philosophy to live by! Cheers!

[Khris]

I found one of the threads:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=48337.msg636456073#msg636456073

The only downside to replacing speech, besides having to spell out the command dialog script: you can't use built-in voice speech.

[Georgeqgreg]

Hmm... looks like a fun time. Well, if this isn't all improved, I guess I'll look into scripting this all as sfx. Fun times. (Oh well. The speech subsystem is a bit long in the tooth.)