Learn about Dialogue Views, which present dialogue content to the user.
A Dialogue View is a kind of component that receives content from a Dialogue Runner, and presents it to the player. Dialogue Views are how the player sees your game's lines of dialogue, and how they select choices in the dialogue.
A Dialogue Runner can have multiple Dialogue Views. For example, you might have one Dialogue View that's designed to display lines of dialogue, and another that's in charge of displaying options to the player.
Because every game's needs are different, a Dialogue View is designed to be extremely customisable. However, because there are common patterns of how games work with dialogue, Yarn Spinner for Unity comes with some pre-built Dialogue Views that handle common use cases.
This section discusses the pre-built Dialogue Views:
Line View is a Dialogue View that displays a single line of dialogue in a text box that's inside a canvas, and shows a button that the user can click to proceed.
Option List View is a Dialogue View that displays a collection of options in a list.
Learn about Options List View, a Dialogue View that displays a list dialogue options.
Options List View is a Dialogue View that presents a list of options in a list.
When this view receives options from the Dialogue Runner, it creates an instance of the Option View prefab you specify in the Option View Prefab property, and adds it as a child of the options list view.
Options List View only displays options, and doesn't display lines. You can use an additional Dialogue View to handle these, like a Line View or a custom Dialogue View of your own.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
Canvas Group
The Canvas Group that the Options List View will control. The Canvas Group will be made active when the Options List View is displaying options, and inactive when not displaying options.
Option View Prefab
A prefab containing an Option View. The Options List View will create an instance of this prefab for each option that needs to be displayed.
Last Line Text
A TextMeshPro Text object that will display the text of the last line that appeared before options appeared. If this is not set, or no line has run before options are shown, then this property will not be used.
Fade Time
The time, in seconds, that the Options List View will take to fade in. If this is zero, the Options List View will appear immediately.
Show Unavailable Options
If this is turned on, then any options whose line condition has failed will still appear to the user, but they won't be selectable. If this is off, then these options will not appear at all.
Learn about Options View, a component used to display an option in an Options List View.
An Option View is an object that the Options List View uses when presenting options. When the Dialogue Runner delivers options to your game, Options List View will create an Option View for each option that could be selected.
When the Option View is pressed, the Options List View will notify the Dialogue Runner of the user's selection.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
Text
A TextMeshPro text object that will display the text of the line.
Show Character Name
If this is turned on, the Text component will show any character name present in the option. If this is turned off, the character name will not be included.
Learn about Line View, a Dialogue View that displays a single line of dialogue on a Canvas.
Line View is a Dialogue View that displays a single line of dialogue inside a Unity UI canvas. When the Dialogue Runner encounters a line in your Yarn Script, the Line View will display it, wait for the user to indicate they're done reading it, and then dismiss it.
Line View only displays lines, and doesn't display options. You can use an additional Dialogue View to handle these, like an Options List View or a custom Dialogue View of your own.
If a line contains a character's name at the start, Line View can be configured to show the name in a separate text view to the line text itself. If the Character Name Text property is connected to a TextMeshPro Text object, then the character's name will appear in this object.
If you don't attach a Text object to the Character Name Text property, you can choose to either show the character name as part of the line (that is, in the Line Text view), or don't show it all.
Line View can be configured to use visual effects when presenting lines.
You can choose to have the Line View fade in when a line appears, and fade out when the line is dismissed.
You can choose to have the text of the line appear, one letter at a time, with a "typewriter" effect.
You can control how the player can decide to proceed to the next line.
You can set up a Button, or any other Unity UI control, to call the OnContinueClicked method on this line.
You can also make the Line View continue to the next line when the user performs some input:
If you set the Continue Action Type to Key Code, you can select a key on the keyboard that will continue to the next line on press.
If you set the Continue Action Type to Input Action, you can create an Action from an input device (such as from a keyboard, gamepad, or other method).
If you set the Continue action Type to Input Action from Asset, you can attach an Action from an Input Actions asset that you've set up elsewhere.
If you want to use Input Actions, your project will need to be set up to use the new Unity Input System.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
Canvas Group
The Canvas Group that the Line View will control. The Canvas Group will be made active when the Line View is displaying a line, and inactive when not displaying a line.
Line Text
A TextMeshPro Text object that the text of the line will be displayed in.
Use Fade Effect
If this is turned on, the Line View will fade the opacity of the Canvas Group from 0% to 100% opacity when lines appear, and fade back to 0% when lines are dismissed.
Fade In Time
The duration of the Fade effect when fading a new line in, in seconds. If this is zero, the line will appear immediately.
Fade Out Time
The duration of the Fade effect when fading a line out, in seconds. If this is zero, the line will disappear immediately.
Use Typewriter Effect
If this is turned on, the text of the line will appear one character at a time. This will take place after the Fade effect, if enabled.
On Character Typed
A Unity Event that's called every time the Typewriter effect displays new text.
Typewriter Effect Speed
The number of characters per second to display when performing a Typewrite effect. Larger values means that text will appear faster.
Character Name Text
A TextMeshPro Text object that will display the name of the character currently speaking the line.
Show Character Name In Line View
If this is turned on, lines that contain a character's name will display the name in the Line Text section. If it is turned off, character names will not be shown at all. This option is only available when Character Name Text is empty.
Continue Action Type
A drop-down list that selects how user input will be used to continue to the next line.
When set to None, the dialogue will not continue based on user input.
When set to Key Code, the dialogue will continue when the user presses the keyboard key specified in Continue Action Key Code.
When set to Input System Action, the dialogue will continue when the user performs the Action set up in Continue Action.
When set to Input System Action from Asset, the dialogue will continue when the user performs the Action specified by the Continue Action Reference field.
Continue Action Key Code
The keyboard key that the user should press to continue to the next line.
Continue Action
An Input Action that the user should perform to continue to the next line.
Continue Action Reference
An Input Action, stored inside an Input Actions asset, that the user should perform to continue to the next line.
Continue Button
A game object that will be made active when the line has finished appearing. This is intended to be used for controlling the appearance of a button that the user can interact with to continue to the next line.