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Bark System

Barks are fire-and-forget ambient lines that play without entering a full conversation and without blocking the player. An NPC can mutter as the player walks past, a guard can react to a sound, or a merchant can call out — all without triggering OnDialogueStarted or touching the main dialogue panel.

Overview

A bark graph is a normal DialogueGraph asset with Graph Type set to Bark in the Graph Editor GRAPH sidebar. The runtime runs it on a second, non-blocking runner. Each line fires OnBark instead of OnNPCLine, leaving the main dialogue system completely unaffected.

Bark graphs support:

  • NPC Node — each line fires OnBark
  • Random Node — randomise which line path is taken
  • Weighted Random Node — weighted random path selection
  • Switch Node — multi-case condition routing
  • Branch Node — condition-driven bark selection
  • Set Variable Node — write variables mid-bark (e.g. mark a bark as heard)
  • Jump Node — redirect to a tagged node
  • Fire Event Node — broadcast named events during bark playback
  • Play Audio Node — play audio clips
  • Animator Trigger Node — set Animator parameters on registered speakers
  • Debug Node — log messages to the Console
  • End Node — terminates the bark, including the optional "On end ->" sub-graph slot

Bark graphs do not support Player Choice Node, Wait Node, or Sub Graph Node. These are hidden from the editor automatically. Wait nodes encountered in a bark graph auto-advance immediately.

Setup

1. Create a bark graph

Right-click in the Project window -> Create -> Threader -> Dialogue Graph. Open it in the graph editor. In the GRAPH sidebar section, change Graph Type to Bark.

Build the graph normally — NPC nodes, branches, random nodes. Leave speaker fields blank if you want caller speaker fallback (see below).

2. Add a BarkSource

Add the BarkSource component to the NPC's GameObject (alongside NPCDialogue).

Field Description
Bark Graph Assign the bark graph asset
Trigger Mode OnEnter fires when the player enters the trigger collider. OnTimer fires on an interval. Manual — call Bark() from script.
Player Tag The tag used to identify the player for OnEnter trigger detection. Default is "Player".
Cooldown Minimum seconds between barks
Speaker Name The speaker name this NPC is registered under — must match their NPCDialogue Speaker Name. Used to resolve audio clips and animator actions from the bark graph's Line Sheet when the NPC node and graph have no speaker set. Populated from your SpeakerRoster assets as a dropdown.
Suppress During Dialogue When true (default), silently skips the bark while a full conversation is active

3. Wire the output

Subscribe to DialogueManager.OnBark in any MonoBehaviour:

void OnEnable()
{
    DialogueManager.Instance.OnBark += HandleBark;
}

void OnDisable()
{
    DialogueManager.Instance.OnBark -= HandleBark;
}

void HandleBark(NPCLine line)
{
    // Show line.Text in a world-space speech bubble, HUD ticker, etc.
    Debug.Log($"[Bark] {line.SpeakerName}: {line.Text}");
}

Playing barks from code

DialogueManager.Instance.PlayBark(barkGraph, speakerTransform, speakerName);
  • barkGraph — must have IsBark = true (Graph Type set to Bark)
  • speakerTransform — used for 3D audio positioning; may be null for 2D audio
  • speakerName — optional; used as the third-level speaker fallback for line sheet lookup (see below). BarkSource passes its Speaker Name field here automatically.

Speaker resolution in bark graphs

NPC nodes inside a bark graph resolve their speaker name through a three-level fallback chain:

  1. Node Speaker — set directly on that NPC node
  2. Graph Default Speaker — DefaultSpeakerName on the bark graph itself
  3. BarkSource Speaker Name — the Speaker Name field on the BarkSource component (or the speakerName parameter passed to PlayBark() from code)

A shared bark graph with blank speaker fields automatically voices, positions, and resolves line sheet data for whichever NPC triggered it.

NPC-to-NPC / overheard dialogue

Because the bark runner waits for each audio clip to finish before advancing, you can script a sequential back-and-forth exchange between two NPCs as a single bark graph — no extra code needed.

Example: Two guards talking as the player walks past.

  1. Create a bark graph with alternating NPC nodes: Guard A -> Guard B -> Guard A -> End
  2. Assign audio clips to each line
  3. In your OnBark handler, read line.SpeakerName to route each line to the correct speech bubble

Checklist

  • Graph Type is set to Bark in the GRAPH sidebar
  • No Player Choice nodes in the bark graph (validator warns if found)
  • BarkSource component is on the NPC GameObject
  • OnBark is subscribed in a MonoBehaviour
  • Speaker registered with DialogueManager if you need 3D audio positioning