Openbound - Dialog Sprites

Dialog sprites are the sprites rendered in the dialog system. They require some special definitions and sizes, which is why this is kept separate from sprites.

Table Of Contents

• Overview
• Basics
  • Assets
  • Dependencies
  • Rooms
  • Sprites
  • Animations
  • Characters
  • Actions
  • Dialog
  • Dialog sprites
  • Triggers
  • Paths
  • Templates
  • Game State
  • Effects
• Good practice
• Advanced
  • Text colours
• Production
  • Build
  • Release

Structure

Dialog sprites must be defined within the <dialogsprites> element, which is within the <hud> element. These are usually kept within the definition file for the character in the dialog sprite.

Example:

<sburb description='karkat'>
    <classes>
        <animation class='karkat-dialog' frameInterval='6' x='-180' y='-454'/>
    </classes>

    <assets>
        <asset name='karkat_shout' type='graphic'>dialogs/karkat/karkat_shout.png</asset>
    </assets>

    <hud>
        <dialogsprites>
            <animation name='karkat_shout' class='karkat-dialog' sheet='karkat_shout' length='2'/>
        </dialogsprites>
    </hud>
</sburb>

In the <classes> element, a template for all of the animations is defined. This is to ensure that the spacing between frames and position offsets match.

Then, in the <assets> element, a sprite sheet is loaded. I recommend reading this section from the characters tutorial, since it covers sprite sheets. The rules about sprite sizes apply here, too.

Finally, within <hud> and <dialogsprites>, the dialog sprite is defined, in the form of an animation. If you have read the animations section, the attributes hopefully make sense to you without me needing to explain them again.

The name attribute here is particularly important, however. It must follow the pattern of [CHARACTER]_[WHATEVER]. [WHATEVER] can be anything you like, but [CHARACTER] must be one of the names in the list of predefined colours. See the full list of predefined names and their colours here here.