Dialogue data model

Learn the dialogue node and line data model.

Dialogue Data Model

At the core of a dialogue system lie data models that represent speech lines. Each individual line contains the speaker's name, the spoken text, and optionally an audio clip reference.

[System.Serializable]
public class DialogueLine {
    public string speaker;
    public string text;
}

Adding [System.Serializable] to C# classes enables these models to be viewed in the Inspector and serialized to JSON format.

Dialogue Nodes

A sequential sequence of lines forms a Dialogue Node. A node stores an identifier (id), a list of lines, and the identifier of the subsequent node (nextId).

[System.Serializable]
public class DialogueNode {
    public int id;
    public List<DialogueLine> lines;
    public int nextId;
}

With this node structure, conversations are organized into discrete blocks and sequence flow is maintained.

Exercise Dialogue line model

Define a Start method. Inside, declare string speaker = "Rehber"; and print "Konusmaci: " + speaker to the console using Debug.Log.

Show example solution

using UnityEngine;

public class DialogueModelTester : MonoBehaviour
{
    void Start()
    {
        string speaker = "Rehber";
        Debug.Log("Konusmaci: " + speaker);
    }
}

Test yourself

Which two pieces of information are fundamentally required in a dialogue line data model?
- Physics collision layer and audio mixer
- GPU clock speed and RAM size
- Speaker name and dialogue text
- Screen resolution and shader code
Show answer

Speaker name and dialogue text — To determine who is speaking and what text will be rendered, speaker name and text fields are essential.

Serializable dialogue line

[System.____] public class DialogueLine { public string text; }

Show answer

[System.Serializable] public class DialogueLine { public string text; }

Dialogue model terms

DialogueLine

Single line and speaker data
DialogueNode

Node holding a group of dialogue lines
speaker

Name of the speaking character
nextId

Next node identifier to continue flow

Next lesson: Dialogue JSON format

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