Dialog Extension

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On this page:
  1. 1. Create a Game Attribute
  2. 2. Set it as the Dialog Control Attribute
  3. 3. Preventing Movement

It's common to want to check whether or not dialog is currently active. For example, you may wish to prevent character movement when dialog is being displayed.

The dialog extension provides a built-in mechanism for determing if dialog is currently active, without having to keep track of this yourself. The way this is done is by allowing you to specify a Game Attribute that you want to be true when dialog is active, and false when it's not.

1. Create a Game Attribute

Settings > Attributes > Create New

Create the attribute with the following settings

💡 Note: The Name of the Game Attribute can be anything you want it to be. For the purpose of this guide, we will call it "Dialog Open".

2. Set it as the Dialog Control Attribute

Data Structures > Plugins/Default Style Dialog Base > Control Attribute

This is the setting that determines the name of the game attribute to set to true or false. Set this to the name of the Game Attribute you just created, Dialog Open.

3. Preventing Movement

To actually use the Control Attribute to prevent player movement will vary on a case-by-case basis. Only you can determine the best way to do this. However, I'll show one example using Stencyl's built-in "8 Way Movement" behavior.

"8 Way Movement" checks a boolean, "Use Controls", to determine whether it should look at up/down/left/right inputs and move the actor.

If "Use Controls" is false, there will be no input checks, and thus no movement. We can add a condition here, to additionally prevent input checks if dialog is currently active.