Speech

Speech functions and properties

Speech.AnimationStopTimeMargin

(Formerly known as game.close_mouth_end_speech_time, which is now obsolete)

static int Speech.AnimationStopTimeMargin

Gets/sets the time margin at which the character talking animation should stop before before speech time ends. This property is specified in game loops and is set to 10 by default.

NOTE: This property only affects the animation if voice mode is disabled.

Example:

Speech.AnimationStopTimeMargin = 40;

will stop talking animation 40 game loops (1 second with the default game speed) before speech time ends.

See also: Speech.DisplayPostTimeMs

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Speech.CustomPortraitPlacement

static bool Speech.CustomPortraitPlacement

Enables/disables the custom speech portrait placement. When set to true the character portraits are positioned at screen coordinates defined by Speech.PortraitXOffset and Speech.PortraitY. When set to false the portraits will be automatically aligned again.

NOTE: This property has no effect if the Lucas-Arts speech style is used.

Compatibility: Supported by AGS 3.3.0 and later versions.

See also: Speech.PortraitXOffset, Speech.PortraitY

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Speech.DisplayPostTimeMs

static int Speech.DisplayPostTimeMs

Gets/sets the extra time the speech will stay on screen after its base time runs out. Commonly the time the speech lines and portrait stay on screen is calculated based on the text length - if the text mode is on, or voice clip length - if the voice mode is on. This property prolongs the time the speech text and/or portrait is displayed. This property does not interfere with speech skipping by key or mouse click: players will still be able to skip speech any time they want (if appropriate skip mode is enabled). This property is specified in milliseconds and is set to zero by default.

Compatibility: Supported by AGS 3.3.0 and later versions.

See also: Speech.AnimationStopTimeMargin

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Speech.GlobalSpeechAnimationDelay

(Formerly known as game.talkanim_speed, which is now obsolete)

static int Speech.GlobalSpeechAnimationDelay

Gets/sets global speech animation delay which affects every character in game. This property is specified in game loops and is set to 5 by default.

NOTE: This property is ignored if lip sync is enabled.

NOTE: The property is only used when the Speech.UseGlobalSpeechAnimationDelay is set to true. This property cannot be used if the global speech animation delay is disabled. In that case, the individual character's animation delay is used instead.

See also: Character.SpeechAnimationDelay, Speech.UseGlobalSpeechAnimationDelay

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Speech.PortraitOverlay

static Overlay* Speech.PortraitOverlay

Retrieves the portrait overlay of a current blocking speech. It's currently only available in eihter a repeatedly_execute_always or late_repeatedly_execute_always. It will return null if no portrait overlay is currently being shown.

Example:

#define PORTRAIT_YMIN 5
#define PORTRAIT_YMAX 30
int plast = -1;
int pmove = 1;
function repeatedly_execute_always() {
    if (Speech.PortraitOverlay != null) {
        if (plast >= 0) Speech.PortraitOverlay.Y = plast;
        Speech.PortraitOverlay.Y += pmove;
        if (Speech.PortraitOverlay.Y < PORTRAIT_YMIN) pmove = 1;
        if (Speech.PortraitOverlay.Y > PORTRAIT_YMAX) pmove = -1;
        plast = Speech.PortraitOverlay.Y;
    }
}

Waves a speech portrait up and down

Compatibility: Supported by AGS 3.6.0 and later versions.

See also: Speech.TextOverlay

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Speech.PortraitXOffset

static int Speech.PortraitXOffset

Gets/sets the character's speech portrait horizontal offset relative to screen side. The actual x coordinate of the portrait is calculated based on whether portrait is to be displayed at the left or right side of the screen. This property specifies the distance between the screen side and respected portrait's border.

NOTE: The property is only used when the Speech.CustomPortraitPlacement is set to true.

Compatibility: Supported by AGS 3.3.0 and later versions.

See also: Speech.CustomPortraitPlacement, Speech.PortraitY

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Speech.PortraitY

static int Speech.PortraitY

Gets/sets the character's speech portrait y coordinate on screen.

NOTE: The property is only used when the Speech.CustomPortraitPlacement is set to true.

Compatibility: Supported by AGS 3.3.0 and later versions.

See also: Speech.CustomPortraitPlacement, Speech.PortraitXOffset

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Speech.SkipKey

(Formerly known as game.skip_speech_specific_key, which is now obsolete)

static eKeyCode Speech.SkipKey

Gets/sets special key which can skip speech text. This makes all other keys ignored when speech is displayed on screen, unless eKeyNone is assigned, in which case any key can be used again.

NOTE: The specified key will only skip speech if the appropriate speech skip style is enabled.

Example:

Speech.SkipKey = eKeySpace;

will assign the "space" key to skip the speech.

See also: Speech.SkipStyle

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Speech.SkipStyle

(Formerly known as SetSkipSpeech, which is now obsolete)

static SkipSpeechStyle Speech.SkipStyle

Gets/sets how the player can skip speech lines.

The accepted values are

eSkipKeyMouseTime  player can skip text by clicking mouse or pressing key
eSkipKeyTime       player can skip text by pressing key only, not by clicking mouse
eSkipTime          player cannot skip text with mouse or keyboard
eSkipKeyMouse      text does not time-out; player must click mouse or press key each time
eSkipMouseTime     player can skip text by clicking mouse only, not by pressing key
eSkipKey           text does not time-out; player can skip text by pressing key only
eSkipMouse         text does not time-out; player can skip text by clicking mouse only

Example:

Speech.SkipStyle = eSkipTime;

will make the player unable to skip the text by pressing a mouse button or a key.

See also: Game.IgnoreUserInputAfterTextTimeoutMs, Game.TextReadingSpeed, Speech.SkipKey

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Speech.Style

(Formerly known as SetSpeechStyle, which is now obsolete)

static eSpeechStyle Speech.Style

Gets/sets the way in which speech text is displayed. This modifies the setting originally set in the editor. SpeechStyle can be:

eSpeechLucasarts
  speech text over character's head
eSpeechSierra
  close-up portrait of character
eSpeechSierraWithBackground
  close-up portrait + background window for text
eSpeechFullScreen
  QFG4-style full screen dialog pictures

Example:

Speech.Style = eSpeechSierra;

will change the speech style to a close up portrait of the character.

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Speech.TextAlignment

(Formerly known as game.speech_text_align, which is now obsolete)

static Alignment Speech.TextAlignment

Sets how text in LucasArts-style speech is aligned.

The accepted values are

eAlignLeft
eAlignCentre
eAlignRight

The default is eAlignCentre.

Example:

Speech.TextAlignment = eAlignRight;

will align the speech text at the right side.

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Speech.TextOverlay

static Overlay* Speech.TextOverlay

Retrieves the text overlay of a current blocking speech. It's currently only available in eihter a repeatedly_execute_always or late_repeatedly_execute_always. It will return null if no text overlay is currently being shown.

It allows to detect appearance, removal, and change of the blocking speech. Additionally, calling Speech.TextOverlay.Remove() will work as a speech interrupt.

Example:

Overlay* lastSpeech;

function late_repeatedly_execute_always() {
    Overlay* curSpeech = Speech.TextOverlay;
    if (lastSpeech == null && curSpeech != null) {
        // speech has started
    } else if (lastSpeech != null && curSpeech == null) {
        // speech is over
    } else if (lastSpeech != null && curSpeech != lastSpeech) {
        // speech changed to the next line
    }
    lastSpeech = curSpeech;
}

Detects when the blocking speech has begun, changed to the next line or is over.

Compatibility: Supported by AGS 3.6.0 and later versions.

See also: Speech.PortraitOverlay

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Speech.UseGlobalSpeechAnimationDelay

static bool Speech.UseGlobalSpeechAnimationDelay

Gets/sets whether speech animation delay should use global setting, as opposed to individual character's setting. The actual global delay value is specified with Speech.GlobalSpeechAnimationDelay.

Example:

Speech.UseGlobalSpeechAnimationDelay = true;

will make the game use global speech animation delay.

Compatibility: Supported by AGS 3.3.0 and later versions.

See also: Character.SpeechAnimationDelay, Speech.GlobalSpeechAnimationDelay

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Speech.VoiceMode

(Formerly known as SetVoiceMode, which is now obsolete)

static eVoiceMode Speech.VoiceMode

Gets/sets whether voice and/or text captions are used in the game.

Valid values for VoiceMode are:

eSpeechTextOnly      no voice, text only
eSpeechVoiceAndText  both voice and text
eSpeechVoiceOnly     voice only, no text

The default is eSpeechVoiceAndText if in-game speech is enabled, and eSpeechTextOnly if it is not. Changing this setting changes the behavior of all Say and Display commands which have a speech file assigned to them.

WARNING: you should only ever use eSpeechVoiceOnly at the player's request to do so, because there is no guarantee that they even have a sound card and so may not understand what is going on.

Example:

if (IsSpeechVoxAvailable()==1)
    Speech.VoiceMode = eSpeechVoiceAndText;

will set the voice mode to voice and text if the voice pack is available.