InitializeRuntimeStory is never called when passing in Ink Json String

[a2937]

Describe the bug

I continuously get a null reference exception in C# when I try to create a new Ink Story from some code I loaded. As I have found out, the runtimeStory variable is never actually initialized for some reason. Thusly, Initialize InitializeRuntimeStory() must not be called when I set the story text.

To Reproduce

Pass in the path of a valid Ink file. In my case it was "res://ink/core/main.ink".

using Godot;
using GodotInk;
using Ink;
using Ink.Runtime;
using System;

public partial class CustomSetup : Node
{
private InkStory Story;

  private void LoadInkStory(string path)
  {
  
    var storyText = Godot.FileAccess.Open(path, Godot.FileAccess.ModeFlags.Read);
  
  
    Compiler compiler = new Compiler(storyText.GetAsText(), new Compiler.Options
    {
        sourceFilename = path,
        errorHandler = InkCompilerErrorHandler,
        fileHandler = new FileHandler(
            System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(path) ?? ProjectSettings.GlobalizePath(path)
        ),
    });
    String actualStoryContents = compiler.Compile().ToJson();
    Story = InkStory.Create(actualStoryContents);
    GD.Print(Story.CanContinue); 
  } 



    private class FileHandler : IFileHandler
    {
        private readonly string rootDir;

        public FileHandler(string rootDir)
        {
            this.rootDir = rootDir;
        }

        public string ResolveInkFilename(string includeName)
        {
            var resolvedFile = System.IO.Path.Combine(rootDir, includeName);
            return resolvedFile;
        }

        public string LoadInkFileContents(string fullFilename)
        {
            fullFilename = fullFilename.Replace(":\\", "://").Replace("\\", "/");

            var text = Godot.FileAccess.Open(fullFilename, Godot.FileAccess.ModeFlags.Read).GetAsText();
            return text;
        }
    }
}

Environment

• OS: Windows
• Godot version: 4.2.1-mono
• godot-ink version: 1.1.2
• ink version: 21?

Additional context

I'll expand on my example with a minimum viable project when prompted for one.

[paulloz]

Thank you for the report. This is a use-case I did not consider, since compiling .ink files at runtime seems quite niche. I'll expand the API to allow it.

[a2937]

One of the key things you'll need to do is change

godot-ink/addons/GodotInk/Src/InkStory.cs

Lines 46 to 52 in 10a8bed

	public static InkStory Create(string rawStory)
	{
	return new InkStory()
	{
	rawStory = rawStory
	};
	}

to the following

public static InkStory Create(string rawStory)
{
    var story = new InkStory
    {
        RawStory = rawStory
    };
    return story;
}

Here's how I compile it after loading the text from the file system.

var storyText = Godot.FileAccess.Open(path, Godot.FileAccess.ModeFlags.Read);

Compiler compiler = new Compiler(storyText.GetAsText(), new Compiler.Options
{
    sourceFilename = path,
    errorHandler = InkCompilerErrorHandler,
    fileHandler = new FileHandler(
        System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(path) ?? ProjectSettings.GlobalizePath(path)
    ),
});
String actualStoryContents = compiler.Compile().ToJson();
Story = InkStory.Create(actualStoryContents);

And here's my File Handler. While by no means perfect, it lets users pick a story to run
from the res folder.

    private class FileHandler : IFileHandler
    {
        private readonly string rootDir;

        public FileHandler(string rootDir)
        {
            this.rootDir = rootDir;
        }

        public string ResolveInkFilename(string includeName)
        {
            var resolvedFile = System.IO.Path.Combine(rootDir, includeName);
            return resolvedFile;
        }

        public string LoadInkFileContents(string fullFilename)
        {
            fullFilename = fullFilename.Replace(":\\", "://").Replace("\\", "/");

            var text = Godot.FileAccess.Open(fullFilename, Godot.FileAccess.ModeFlags.Read).GetAsText();
            return text;
        }
    }

[paulloz]

No, this is not how to do this, it is going to go through another dedicated creation method. We do not want to change the behaviour of the factory used by the importer.

[Endimyonn]

In addition to the small change suggested by @a2937, I've found that it's necessary to make sure Ink's compiler DLL is included in the export process - otherwise, any non-debug export will fail. This can be done by removing the debug-configuration condition for it in GodotInk.props.

It's pretty dirty, but for the moment those two tweaks have allowed me to reach my goal of runtime story loading. I look forward to an official way of going about this.