The final product.
If you've ever tried to use a char command and then show an investigation menu, you'll notice that the character doesn't show up once the menu is brought up. This might be fixed in later versions of PyWright, but here's my temporary solution.
Solution[]
Take the character you want, in a normal pose. Copy it and paste it into GameName/CaseName/art/bg (or just in your game's art/bg folder, but this way is much cleaner.) We'll use Maya, and name the new file "MayaNormal.png".
Make sure you also copy the animation TXT, and now let's change it. Add this at the end of it:
framedelay 0 30 framedelay 8 30
This will stop her from blinking uncontrollably.
Now, before you bring up the menu, make sure your script has this in it:
label Show_Menu bg phoenixoffice bg mayanormal stack nowait bg main2 y=192 z=2 stack localmenu examine=$examine move=$move talk=$talk present=$present
The label is just for the menu, so don't focus on that right now.
The background we want, we load first. In this case, we are using Wright & Co. Law Offices.
Next, we load the 'fake' character pose as a background, while stacking it and using nowait so the animation doesn't freeze anything up.
Last, we load the bottom screen's investigation background, using "y=192" to put it at the bottom, and make sure you use "z=2" and "stack" so that it goes on top of the other backgrounds.
The localmenu is just our menu, don't focus on that right now.
Next, we want to get rid of the fake character when the real character starts to talk.
EXAMINE:
label examine bg phoenixoffice examine fail=nothingthere goto Show_Menu region 103 91 41 99 plant label plant char Phoenix hide "Plant." goto examine label nothingthere char Phoenix hide "Nothing." goto examine
We should load back up the background, and then there's a quick examine code, just to test it. Maya will disappear from both screens while we examine, and then reappear when we finish examining.
TALK:
label talk bg phoenixoffice bg mayanormal stack nowait list talktomaya li Example 1 li Example 2 showlist goto Show_Menu label Example 1 bg phoenixoffice char Maya "This is example 1 with Maya's default animation." goto talk label Example 2 bg phoenixoffice char Maya e=thinking "This is example 2 with Maya's thinking animation." goto talk
We show the the two backgrounds except our bottom screen one, and then a list. When a list selection is made, the background is now just changed to the background we wanted, and we load up the real Maya, and she talks. When we press back, it'll go back to the main investigation screen with Maya again.
MOVE:
label move bg phoenixoffice bg mayanormal stack nowait list movemenu li Example showlist goto Show_Menu label Example script Newscript
Nothing really special here, it'll show a list like usual and then when one is picked it'll go to that script.
PRESENT:
label present
bg phoenixoffice
bg mayanormal stack nowait
present fail=noevidence
goto Show_Menu
label badge
bg phoenixoffice
char Maya
"I like that badge.{n}Can I have it?"
goto present
label noevidence
bg phoenixoffice
char Maya
"I don't know what that is."
goto present
We load the two backgrounds as usual, and then load the present command. Not going to go into detail here. (Make sure you have evidence named "badge" so you can properly test it.)
And, that's it. You should now have a functional investigation menu, with a displayable character with the menu.
Preview[]
Here's a preview with the scripting above combined:
The process is very similar with other characters and then using foregrounds such as the detention center, so it shouldn't be too hard to implent this throughout your game. Thanks for reading!