The Big Bubble Chat Rework

Updates Announcements
#28

That doesn’t sound like a guarantee to me that there won’t be plans in the future for removing this support and I don’t like that very much. I’m not a fan of the fact that the bubble chat script has been moved to a CoreScript and I very much prefer the old chat due to being snappy and more fitting to my game’s aesthetic than the current one which feels too cartoony to fit.

If in the future there are plans to remove backwards compatibility, how exactly am I expected to continue self-supporting the old bubble chat with compatibility for ChatService’s Chat function (the one that allows NPCs to chat)? I should still be able to do that. This also includes writing my own bubble chat handler.

I don’t want or like the new chat nor its restrictiveness of customisability and I’m expecting to have it disabled on almost every single game I currently work on. That’s a hill I want to die on. If I absolutely have no choice with the new bubble chat, I am expecting to have it forked, along with the CoreScripts responsible for making it work just so I can change the code functionality myself.

21 Likes
Maintain support for old bubble chat and custom bubble chat handlers: throw out any plans of dropping support for pre-Roact bubble chat
#30

Excellent stuff!

One small little thing from me:

Could the bubbles move with the character? E.g if you jump up, you see that the bubble sinks into your character a bit: (Not good)
image

Whereas when idle, there is a noticeable gap between the bubble and the head: (Good)

image
image435×536 209 KB

48 Likes
#32

Sadly, the chat system itself is not getting any changes, just the visual part responsible for displaying bubbles. Exploits are not going to change.

5 Likes
#33

This is one of the most exciting updates I’ve seen! I am so glad that you and your team were able to give more customization features that everyone has requested. The best parts of this update in my opinion is the ability to enable it with a toggle instead of the coding aspect and the customization features. Thank you so much!

2 Likes
#34

That looks bad, didn’t encounter that issue before >.<
Is this happening in game as well, or is it Studio only?
And would you mind sending a place file so I can investigate this?

10 Likes
#35

Not promising anything yet, but per-player customization settings is something we want to have (for instance, the ability to change settings for one given UserId only)

18 Likes
Hey, i need some help with bubble chat!
#36

It’s happening in Studio only and I can repro this on a clean baseplate.

7 Likes
#37

I really appreciate the improvements being made, specifically in regards to customisation. I believe that customisation is one of the biggest aspects to the success of any business and I also believe that as Developers, this feature will not only make our lives a lot easier, but will improve the immersion and experience that our games give players!

Excellent work!

3 Likes
#38

The devhub API is still WIP, it should be ready soon! In the mean time this post provides all the info about the newly added APIs in Chat

10 Likes
#39

I agree with you, the new bubble chat is nice and new messages appear and transition smoothly. All that needs work is when the bubble chat sinks in.

4 Likes
#40

Yes please! This is something I want to be able to do. In my game, I would give the monster team red chat bubbles, and everyone else would have regular white chat bubbles.

5 Likes
#42

As much as I love this new change, there’s a lack of several features that my game will require that the new system lacks. For example, the ability to no longer modify the BubbleChat code since it’s now a CoreScript is quite impactful. When I heard about the change, I was hoping that the system would become a lot like the default chat system is setup. Are there any plans of making it like that system in the future or will it be completely locked in a CoreScript with limited customization options?

6 Likes
#43

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Please re-consider this being a CoreScript. The loss of adaptability caused by this is what makes me not want to use this, ever, and rather just fork the old version. Supposedly, making this a normal, default script was too much of a task. Because, and I quote, “[it will] pollute the development environment.” It’s just a telltale sign that your codebase is over-engineered.

It’ll be really saddening if you cut support for the old bubble chat.

3 Likes
#44

I’d really love to see a “…” or something that indicates they’re typing for better player-player interaction.
I know I’ve had that awkward moment where I was typing a big message and the guy just walked away!
Otherwise love it!

11 Likes
#45

Few people are already reporting that issue you see in Studio. Just to confirm, is that Studio only? Does it fork fine if you publish the place, then test it live? We’re still trying to come up with a repro for this.

Right now it is adornee’d to the HumanoidRootPart. We might add a customization setting for attaching it to the head instead!

8 Likes
#46

Using the customization settings API, you can make the bubbles smaller if you want to! Here’s an example:

local chat = game:GetService("Chat")
pcall(function()
	chat:SetBubbleChatSettings({
		TextSize = 13,
		Padding = 5
	})
end)
15 Likes
#47

On mobile, people are allowed to play on a version that’s up to 3 weeks old before they’re forced to update the Roblox app. This feature was shipped in release 451 that came out just last Wednesday, which means that some people (~20% of mobile users) are playing on an older Roblox that doesn’t have this feature. Calling Chat:SetBubbleChatSettings would then return a “This function does not exist” error, which is why we recommend using pcall.

5 Likes
#48

Thanks for pointing it out, I honestly never noticed it before. Seems like an issue with our animation system. Will add to the list of bugs!

7 Likes
#50

Just to verify, I heard there is alot of performance improvements. Is this true and how much faster is it compared to the old chat?

2 Likes
#52

Yay! Glad it’s finally here! :partying_face: Here is my rundown:

Can we please not have it over HumanoidRootPart? This change is not welcome, and it looks terrible, to say the truth. I am using once of the most basic animation packs, and this is what it looks like:

The animation is amazing, this is just what we wanted!

When will we get a total overhaul? A few things I would like to see are:

Google Hangouts-like ‘…’ when chatting. (Credit to @TheCarbyneUniverse)

New Chat UI

Styling similar to Markdown

My biggest concern is not having the chat over the Head, as this is the sole reason why I will not be using this new chat. It’s never been this way, and it never should. These are my 2 cents anyways.

One last way to put it:

Thank you to everyone who made this possible! :tada:

9 Likes