vscript-dialog-system

This is an attempt at creating a voiced RPG-like dialog system with branching dialog trees for CS:GO. Currently only targeted at singleplayer maps, support for coop/multiplayer may be implemented later.

What does it (already) do

• Allows for an unlimited amount of dialogs
• Voicelines for the conversant can be added (optional)
• Audio and text can be delivered bit by bit (separate Strings and .wav necessary) or all at once
• Leaving a dialog saves the progress until entered again

How does it work

It makes use of a game_ui entity to map the playercontrols to an env_hudhint. All dialog data is stored in a separate file and put together everytime the player makes an input and therefore basically creating a new frame of the menu. Everything was done using as little vscript as possible so only a basic understanding should be necessary to use this.

How does it look in hammer

Download both dialog_state and dialog_info, put them in vscript/dialog and open dialog_test in hammer. The general location inside Counter-Strike Global Offensive\csgo\scripts\vscripts doesn't matter as long as you update the references inside the script accordingly.

Example map in the workshop
Official Squirrel Documentation
Alternative Squirrel Documentation (more examples and explanation)
VDC

Usage

Creating a dialog

The basic layout of a dialog is a tree structure with a root node to start at and branches of other nodes to follow. In code this is realized with a single array containing multiple tables, connected through the ids of the tables in the array. The last entry of the dialog array is reserved for entrance node, which is used to continue the dialog when left and startetd again, esentially saving the progress.

Difference between player and conversant nodes

The dialog follows the following scheme:

1. The conversant's text gets displayed and the corresponding sound gets played
2. The player can then choose between a set of answers/reaktions/questions or leave the conversation
3. The conversant's text gets displayed and the corresponding sound gets played
4. Repeat till end

Basically conversant and player nodes should alternate throughout the dialog tree, starting with a conversant node and ending with either a conversant or player node with no nodes connected.

Conversant nodes are used to play soundfiles, display corresponding text and options, while player nodes are used to store dialog options text and connect conversant nodes. The layout of the nodes is the same, but some properties are used differently.

Basic Node Layout

testDialog <- //Name of the dialog
[
 {
  id = 0 //Node id
  topLine = ["Hello there", ...,""], //Text in dialog
  sndPath = ["custom/sndfile.wav", ...,""], //Sound in dialog
  sndDur = [3.0, ...,0], //Duration of soundfiles
  next = [1,2,3,12], //Connected node ids
  newEntranceNode = 0, //Node to enter dialog
  nodeFunction = 0, //Function to call
  nodeAccess = 0  //Is node accessable?
 },
 {
 ...
 },
 0
]

General

Dialog nodes don't need to follow any system in the dialog array, they are accessed through their specific id. The entries in topLine, sndPath and sndDur are connected and will be processed index by index, which means the arrays should be the same length.
E.g: The text in topLine[0] will be displayed and the soundfile in sndPath[0] will be played for as long as sndDur[0] specifies.

Property	General
id	The id is used to connect the nodes. Starting node has to be 0. Other nodes don't need to follow any sorting.
newEntranceNode	Is used for saving progress upon ending a dialog. Specifies the new starting node to enter the dialog.

Property	Conversant	Player
topLine	Containes all of the text (string) to be displayed in this node. topLine = [""] means there is only one piece of text, that will be displayed at once. topLine = ["","",...] means there are multiple entries, that will be displayed one after another, with the last entry staying on screen.	Containes the text (string) to be displayed in a set of options to choose from.
sndPath	Containes all the soundfiles (string, .wav filepath) used in this node. sndPath = [""] means there is only one soundfile to be played. sndPath = ["",...] means there are multiple soundfiles to be played, one after another.	Not used.
sndDur	Containes the duration of the soundfiles in seconds (integer/float) in the corresponding sndPath index.	Not used.
next	Array of indexes (integer) of the connected nodes, which will be displayed to the player to choose from. First entry is the top option and last is the bottom one. Ends dialog when empty.	Containes the index of the node to be played when choosing this option. Should only have a single entry. Ends dialog when empty.
newEntranceNode	Used for saving progress upon ending a dialog. Specifies the new starting node upon reentering the dialog.
nodeFunction	Used to call a predefined function upon entering a node. Usefull for events tied to dialog (lightchange, screenshake etc).	Not used.
nodeAccess	Not used.	Conditional access to nodes, change the value to 0 to display or 1 to hide the node in the dialog menu.

Including the dialog

Add your dialog array to the dialogs array in dialog_state.

Starting the dialog

Assuming you set up your entities according to the example map, calling an Output RunScriptCode StartDialog(dialogIndex) with the index of your dialog will start your dialog.