Dialogue Box

A dialogue box: lines with a speaker type out and advance with the confirm action. Scripts: box:dialogue_show({…}); events line_shown / finished.

Type: DialogueNode · Category: UI & Interface · Also found as: dialogue, dialoguebox

Properties

Property	Type	Default	Description
`size`	vec2	`(900, 170)`	Width and height (px). Range 4 to 1280.
`font`	string	`""`	Project font (“” = the engine font).
`fontSize`	number	`24`	Text size (px). Range 8 to 96.
`textColor`	color	`#eef0f6ff`	Colour of the line’s text.
`speakerColor`	color	`#facc15ff`	Colour of the speaker’s name.
`panelColor`	color	`#0f121ce6`	Fill colour of the box.
`borderColor`	color	`#5c8dffff`	Colour of the box’s border.
`padding`	number	`20`	Space between the border and the text (px). Range 0 to 100.
`revealSpeed`	number	`40`	Typewriter speed in characters per second (0 = whole lines). Range 0 to 500.
`advanceAction`	string	`"confirm"`	Input action that shows the rest of the line, then the next (“confirm”).
`localized`	boolean	`false`	Lines are keys in the locale tables (locale/*.csv).
`mode`	enum: `Box`, `Subtitles`	`Box`	Box: a dialogue box the player advances. Subtitles: the lines go on the subtitle track (no box), each for its voice’s length or reading time, then the next by itself - cutscenes, barks.

Plus the common properties every node has.

Lua methods

Call them on the node (self.node in its script, or self.node:get_node("path")). Every node also has the Node methods.

DialogueNode:connect(event, handler)

Connects a handler to one of this node’s events: line_shown (A dialogue line was fully shown (1-based)), finished (Playback (or the dialogue) ended); the tree events; custom ones.

self.node:connect("line_shown", function(value, source) Log.info("line_shown") end)

event DialogueNodeEvent|string
handler fun(value: any, source: DialogueNode)

Returns integer id Connection id for disconnect

DialogueNode:get_property(path)

Reads an Inspector property by its path (vectors and colours as tables); “script.” reads a field of the node’s script.

local value = self.node:get_property("size")

path DialogueNodeProperty|string

Returns any

DialogueNode:set_property(path, value, y)

Sets an Inspector property by its path: vectors as {x, y} or x, y; colours as {r, g, b[, a]} 0..1 or “#rrggbb[aa]”; enums by name; “script.” a field of the node’s script.

self.node:set_property("size", 100, 50)

path DialogueNodeProperty|string
value any
y? number

DialogueNode:dialogue_show(lines, speaker)

DialogueNode: opens the box with these lines (strings or {speaker, text}), or one line: box:dialogue_show(text, speaker). Each line types out; the advance action (default “confirm”) shows the rest, then the next line. Events: “line_shown”(index), “finished”.

local box = Scene.find_node("Dialogue"); box:dialogue_show({ { speaker = "Guard", text = "Halt!" } })

lines string|(string|DialogueLine)[]
speaker? string

DialogueNode:dialogue_next()

Shows the rest of the line, else the next one.

Scene.find_node("Dialogue"):dialogue_next()

DialogueNode:dialogue_close()

Closes the dialogue box.

Scene.find_node("Dialogue"):dialogue_close()

DialogueNode:dialogue_is_open()

Checks whether the dialogue box is currently open.

if Scene.find_node("Dialogue"):dialogue_is_open() then return end

Returns boolean

In a scene file

{
  "type": "DialogueNode",
  "name": "DialogueBox",
  "position": [
    0,
    0
  ],
  "properties": {
    "size": [
      900,
      170
    ],
    "font": "",
    "fontSize": 24
  }
}