Chat in game

Scripting
1

I didn’t know if I should post it here or in the networking section but here it is!

So I’m trying to add a gui chat system for my game and I dont really know how to do it! I would guess it’s done with some sort of array but I haven’t used arrays that much so I dont know how to implement it! (It is a multiplayer game)
If someone could tell me how to think and get me on the right track that would be great! I dont want to ask for a finished script, only help on how to think so I can make it self!

Tnx!

//Elis

2

Well you could do what your saying.

Send a chat message as an RPC to all others, and when people receives it save it in a local array, and update chat GUI with the latest x-amount of msgs in the array.

This is a simple approach but it works.

3

Ok, so I’m on the right track! Now, how could I go ahead and do it? As I said, I’m very new to this! :stuck_out_tongue:

4

Create a new gameobject for your gui if you havnt already. Also apply a networkview.
Then disable state synchronisation.

Now look at:

Create a TextField and TextArea.
On Input you send the text from the textfield via rpc and add it to your array which is displayed in the textarea.

5

Here is some procedure, you just have to put the pieces together :slight_smile:

First make an array, I used an ArrayList for this

public ArrayList messages = new ArrayList();

Then make an empty string to temporary store a message in

public string stringToEdit = "";

Make a textfield to enter the message

stringToEdit = GUI.TextField (new Rect (10, 10, 500, 20), stringToEdit, 128);

For a scroll view first create a Vector2

Vector2 scrollView;

Display the actual scroll view and display the chatmessages inside of it

scrollView = GUI.BeginScrollView(new Rect(10, 30, 600, 300), scrollView, new Rect(0, 0, 220, messages.Count * 25));

for(int i = 0; i < messages.Count; i++)
{	
	GUI.Label(new Rect(10,10 + (i * 20),500,20), messages[i].ToString());
}		

GUI.EndScrollView();

Create RPC to send the message across the network

[RPC]
void SendChatMessage(string str1)
{
	messages.Add(str1);
}

Fire the RPC when you hit enter and make the textfield empty for a new message

if (Event.current.type == EventType.keyDown  Event.current.character == '\n')
{
	
	messages.Add(stringToEdit);
	networkView.RPC("SendChatMessage", RPCMode.Others, stringToEdit);
	stringToEdit = "";
}

Remove the oldest message from the array when a certain amount is reached

if (messages.Count == 50)
{
	messages.RemoveAt(0);
}

Don’t forget to attach a NetworkView component to the game object you attach this script to.

Now you only need to set up a server, on this site you will find instructions http://cgcookie.com/unity/2011/12/20/introduction-to-networking-in-unity/

Good luck!

6

Thank you every body for these tips! :smile:
Now let’s see what I can do with them! :smile: