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Reading journal entries for later use - compatibility?


jastey

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This is from Jarl's Adventure Pack.

 

I have two questions regarding this.

First: Does this do what I think, namely read the string ref of a journal entry for later use? If yes, this means this could be used in a mod to grab the correct journal strings for a successful EraseJournalEntry() across platforms?

 

Second: Is this syntax fail-proof, or does it read gibberish if another mod altered the dialogue it tries to read from by adding a reply option or whatever? If yes, could it be coded so it is compatible? (If yes, would someone please provide it, preferably with some comments, as there are other instances and I don't know what the numbers in brackets mean?)

COPY_EXISTING ~HUSAM.DLG~ ~override~
READ_SHORT 0xc "JA#OFF_STT"
READ_SHORT 0x14 "JA#OFF_RES"
READ_SHORT ("%JA#OFF_STT%" + (0x10 * 6) + 0x4) "JA#INDEX"
READ_LONG ("%JA#OFF_RES%" + (0x20 * ("JA#INDEX" + 0)) + 0x8) "ja#entry01"
GET_STRREF %ja#entry01% "husam1"
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Yes, this code reads a specific journal strref from a DLG file.

 

However, it is not foolproof. The code doesn't check state and response indices against number of available entries. It doesn't even check the response flags to see if there is a valid journal entry available.

 

I would code it as WeiDU function if there are several instances where to fetch a journal strref:

DEFINE_PATCH_FUNCTION READ_JOURNAL_STRREF
INT_VAR
  // either use these two parameters if response index should be determined from a state index
  state         = "-1"  // state index
  stateResponse = 0     // relative response index (e.g. 0 for first response associated with the state, 1 for second response, and so on...)

  // or use this parameter instead to specify response index directly
  response      = "-1"  // (absolute) response index

RET
  strref    // returned string reference, or -1 if not available
BEGIN
  SET strref = "-1"

  // determine response index from dialogue state if specified
  PATCH_IF (state >= 0) BEGIN
    READ_LONG 0x08 numStates
    PATCH_IF (state < numStates) BEGIN
      READ_LONG 0x0c ofsStates
      SET ofs = ofsStates + (state * 0x10)  // calculate offset to specified state
      READ_LONG (ofs + 4) firstResponse
      READ_LONG (ofs + 8) numStateResponses
      PATCH_IF (stateResponse >= 0 && stateResponse < numStateResponses) BEGIN
        SET response = firstResponse + stateResponse  // calculate absolute response index (processed below)
      END
    END
  END

  // deal with dialogue response index directly
  PATCH_IF (response >= 0) BEGIN
    READ_LONG 0x10 numResponses
    PATCH_IF (response < numResponses) BEGIN
      READ_LONG 0x14 ofsResponses
      SET ofs = ofsResponses + (response * 0x20)
      READ_LONG ofs flags
      PATCH_IF (flags & BIT4) BEGIN   // response flags bit 4 indicates available journal entry
        READ_LONG (ofs + 8) strref
      END
    END
  END
END

To get the same string reference as in Jarl's code:

COPY_EXISTING ~husam.dlg~ ~override~
  // get journal entry from first response associated with dialogue state 6
  LPF READ_JOURNAL_STRREF
    INT_VAR state = 6
    RET strref
  END
  // just for debugging purposes: fetch journal text from strref and output it in console
  GET_STRREF strref journalText
  PATCH_PRINT ~Journal entry #%strref%: %journalText%~
BUT_ONLY
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// get journal entry from first response associated with dialogue state 6

 

argent77, what would I have to do to get a journal entry from another reply option but the first one? What does the "-1" in the definition mean? Would I have to define more values for state and stateResponse for different uses of the function?

How would I use the strrefs it gives me back. Say I want to erase several journal entries of one quest. I use the function in the tp2 to get the strrefs, and then I can use it in teh next .d file (with #%strref%)? Is there a way to read more than one strref and give it a unique name, maybe, so I can ference to more than one in one go?

Thank you in advance for answering questions (that are clear to you...)

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argent77, what would I have to do to get a journal entry from another reply option but the first one? What does the "-1" in the definition mean? Would I have to define more values for state and stateResponse for different uses of the function?

You would have to set "stateResponse" as well (e.g. to 1 if you want to target the second reply of a state).

LPF READ_JOURNAL_STRREF
  INT_VAR
    state = 6
    stateResponse = 1
  RET
    strref
END

"stateResponse" is set to 0 by default. That's why you don't have to specify it in the function call if you want to return the journal entry from the first response of a state. -1 is just used as a marker internally, so that you have the choice to fetch a journal entry either from a response relative to a state index or from an absoute response index directly.

 

For example, HUSAM.DLG, first response of state index 6 is stored as absolute response index 9 in the DLG file, so either of the following function calls would fetch the same journal strref:

LPF READ_JOURNAL_STRREF
  INT_VAR state = 6   // stateResponse is set to 0 by default
  RET strref
END

LPF READ_JOURNAL_STRREF
  INT_VAR response = 9
  RET strref
END

How would I use the strrefs it gives me back. Say I want to erase several journal entries of one quest. I use the function in the tp2 to get the strrefs, and then I can use it in teh next .d file (with #%strref%)? Is there a way to read more than one strref and give it a unique name, maybe, so I can ference to more than one in one go?

 

Do you plan to erase them via EraseJournalEntry()? In this case it should be enough to specify the strref as argument of the script action:

~EraseJournalEntry(%strref%)~

The content of "strref" is a simple numeric value. You can assign it to another variable with SET (e.g. SET myUniqueVar = strref).

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