Inventory turn on when clicking hotspot - how to stay visible?

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Hello Adventure Creators

I'm new to AC, having tons of fun - I have set up menues, buttons etc - works like a charm.

BUT - my interactions are teasing me a little - I working on a decoration feature, where I now can click a hotspot and a specific inventory for is shown at the center bottom where i want it to me.

However - I'm trying to get the following result:

1. instead of mousing over hotspot and then menu appears, I want the player to first tap/click the actual hotspot?

2. The hotspot and the menu is not alligned, meaning when using mouse, there is a travelling distance to the menu - resulting in the menu disappearing again as soon as I move cursor from hotspot - how do I keep the menu in place and only dissapearing when I tap something else in the world or outside the hotspot?

3. I'm playing the the object: change material, - I want that to happen instantly, so the player doesn't have to "drag" the icon on the hotspot, but can just click the icon right away ?

Any direction would be much appreciated.

Cheers, B

ChrisIceBox

Though I think I understand what it is you're after, some illustrations or screenshots would help to be sure as it sounds like a very visual problem.

Without seeing some shots of your Settings Manager, I also don't know what your current interface settings are, but I'm guessing that your Interaction Method is set to Choose Hotspot Then Interaction, and that your Inventory Menu has an Appear type of On Interaction.  Similar to the 2D Demo.

1. Change the See interactions with setting to Click On Hotspot to require a click rather than a mouse-over.

2. You can try two things:

1) Change the Close interactions with setting to Click Off Menu.
2) Modify the Interaction Menu so that it invisibly spans the whole screen, while keeping the visual portion at the bottom.

3) If using the same settings as the 2D Demo (you can run it via the top toolbar), clicking an item in this mode will automatically use it on your Hotspot.  The key settings are:

Interaction method -> Choose Hotspot Then Interaction
Select Interactions by -> Clicking Menu
Include Inventory items in Interaction Menus? -> True

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Thanks Chris!

That did it - the menu is now on until I click somewhere else in the scene.
I didn't modify the interaction menu so it spans the whole screen, what would that accomplish?

I played around with my hotspot actionlist, where I have two items.

(Basically I have an object in my scene - and in my inventory two colors - that colors will be changed according to the one picked in the menu)

I have included a screen of my ActionList Editor

https://ibb.co/en5CCv

Its fun playing around with these actions, but it's not working - what am I doing wrong?

Is it correct to use "wait" between each condition? I'm thinking if I have 30 items and a check has to be done for each - a loop or something would be easier.

Cheers, 

ChrisIceBox

I didn't modify the interaction menu so it spans the whole screen, what would that accomplish?

Interaction menus close either when the cursor leaves them + the Hotspot, or when you click away from them (see the Close interactions with setting).  Expanding the menu just means that you can't leave it with your cursor, since it takes up the whole screen - just another way of doing it, basically.

Its fun playing around with these actions, but it's not working - what am I doing wrong?

Where is this Interaction assigned in the Hotspot Inspector?

You don't need to create Interactions from the Scene Manager - the proper workflow is to create interactions within the Hotspot Inspector.  To create an Inventory interaction, click the + icon beside Inventory interactions, and then "Create" to auto-create a new Inventory interaction.

You also don't need to check for the currently-selected inventory as part of an Interaction.  When creating Inventory Interactions in the Hotspot Inspector, you can associate each one with a different item, so that each item has it's own interaction, and the interaction is run automatically - so you only have to define what happens as a result (in this case, changing the object's material).

Have a look at the 2D Demo scene - the Bench Hotspot has an inventory interaction for the Worm, which gets run automatically when you select it from the Interaction menu.

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Thanks a bunch Chris.

I can change materials now - how awesome!

Is there a reason why the Ingame menu  "disappears" for a split second while the change is occuring?
it causes a quick "flash" where the hud buttons disappears and then appears again.

When player change color, I added a particle with object: add below my object materiale change action.

It works fine, shoots of the particle a single time.
When I choose another color that has the same particle action added, I get the "XX won't be instantiated, as it is already present in the scene". I first tried to "destroy" it after it has been played, but it caused a warning. What's the appropriate way to have the same particle playing on all "material changes"?

Hotspot Inventory interaction:

https://ibb.co/iOqOnv

I somehow can't get the material to change by just clicking the menu - I need to drag it on to the item.

I did an inventory interaction on the hotshot, similar to the worm/bench example in 2d Demo.
I also get the items right beside my hotspot - 
I have included a screenshot of what it looks like and settings (menu is at the center bottom - and there are also the same items next to the hotspot)

Menu

https://ibb.co/cQNEua

Settings Manager:

https://ibb.co/cBssfF

Doesn't "point & click" work in 3D? I somehow can't get my character to walk to the point I click.

Nothing really happens. So I changed to direct and used touchscreen

(I'm making it for mobile devices)

By the way - one heck of an impressive tool you have build - I can't believe how much have been thought trough and how much is possible. It's so much fun working with. 
Thanks a lot for all the great help as-well and taking your time to explain.

Much, much appreciated!

Cheers, Dan

ChrisIceBox

Thank you, you're welcome.

The InGame menu disappears because its Appear type is set to During Gameplay.

A gameplay-blocking ActionList will count as an interruption of gameplay, even if it runs instantaneously.  To get around that, you can do one of two things:

1. Set the ActionList's When running field to Run In Background.  Gameplay will continue while it runs, so only use this when appropriate.
2. Change the InGame's Appear type to Manual, so that you have full control over its display with the Menu: Change state Action.

To use your inventory items work with Hotspots with one-click, make sure the InventoryBox element that is in your Interaction Menu has an Inventory box type setting of Hotspot Based.

It may be wise to temporarily switch to the default interface (i.e. the Demo_MenuManager asset) while you get things working as they should.

Point and click does indeed work in 3D - see the included 3D Demo.  For 3D pathfinding, you have to choose between Mesh Collider and Unity Navigation - covered in Sections 2.11 and 2.12 of the Manual respectively.  An updated Manual, with improved explanations on these topics, will be included in the upcoming v1.58 release.  Working with Unity's NavMesh tools is also covered here in the 2.5D game tutorial.

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Thanks Chris!

I still get the inventory to show next to the hotspot 
(Can be seen here: https://ibb.co/cQNEua)

I'm working with multiple inventories (decoration) - and have made multiple categories for my items and assigned them to the respective category - probably just me who is blind, but where in the world do assign a category to given inventory? It's showing the same in both now.

Thanks

ChrisIceBox

Sorry, I was under the impression you wanted the Inventory menu to be at the bottom - is that not the case?  Your image shows two sets so I'm confused as to which one is correct.

You can adjust it's position with the Position field in the Menu Manager.

If it's a Unity UI menu, you'll also have to make sure it has a RectTransform boundary assigned - see the chapter on Unity UI Integration in the Manual.  If you need more help on this area, you'll have to post screenshots of its full properties in the Menu Manager.

InventoryBox elements can be limited by category in their properties section of the Menu Manager - this is a property of the element, not the Menu it is placed in - look for the Limit by category? checkbox.

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Hi again Chris

I do only want the inventory menu to be at the bottom.

However I have the "Include inventory items in hotspot Interaction menus?" checked on, and that causes that extra menu to appear right next to the hotspot - causing in two inventory menues - both the one I want and the one next to the hotspot.

If I disable it, the items disappear in my inventory I want (the one at the bottom), so I'm wondering what I have to do in order to keep my items in the inventory at the bottom, while not getting the extra one next to the hotspot?

Cheers Dan

On a side note:

Great work on the manual! Tons of good stuff - in terms of the send message turn on/off for particles, maybe it would be worth adding that a "particle switch" component has to be added to the emitter before it will work.

ChrisIceBox

So you want the inventory to appear at the bottom, but act in the same way as the one by the Hotspot - i.e. appear when click on the Hotspot, and run an interaction instantly when clicked - correct?

In that case, you'll want to disable the current bottom Inventory menu, and re-style the one that behaves correctly so that it looks like the other instead - positioned at the bottom etc.

My suggestions to question 2 in my first reply above details how to prevent it from disappearing at the wrong time.  How did you fare with them?

Re: the manual - thank you.  The Particle Switch section does mention that it needs to be attached to a Particle System, however.