I am currently working on a Unity-based VR research project that integrates Convai (currently using SDK version 3.3.x), and I am exploring the possibility of migrating to Convai 4.0. However, given the significant architectural changes introduced in the new version, I wanted to seek your guidance before proceeding further.
Our current implementation in Convai 3.x includes the following:
Multiple NPCs instantiated sequentially within the same scene (not simultaneously active). Each trial dynamically spawns a Convai character and destroys it before progressing to the next one.
Custom Convai actions and animations integrated into our NPC behavior pipeline (through the ConvaiActionsHandler.cs script).
Dialogue capture and logging systems for research purposes (e.g., saving transcripts with timestamps and trial metadata).
A custom state machine that controls experiment flow, sequential NPC spawning, and interaction timing.
We have made substantial progress building these systems over the past few months.
While reviewing the Convai 4.0 beta and related forum discussions, we came across a note indicating that the current beta version does not support multiple NPCs. We would like to clarify whether this limitation applies to our use case, where NPCs are instantiated one at a time within the same scene rather than being active concurrently.
Given our current project setup, we would greatly appreciate your advice on the following:
Would you recommend proceeding with migration to Convai 4.0 at this stage, or waiting for a more stable/full release?
Are features such as custom actions, animation triggers, and dialogue logging currently supported or planned in Convai 4.0?
Does the “no multiple NPC support” limitation apply to sequential instantiation workflows like ours?
Our main concern is ensuring that migrating to 4.0 will not require us to rebuild significant portions of our current system from scratch, especially given the custom integrations we have developed.
As the version number suggests, V4 introduces major architectural changes and is essentially a new plugin. Because of that, your existing custom scripts and integrations would most likely need to be reworked.
Since V4 is still in beta, many features are not fully supported yet. For your current setup, I would not recommend migrating at this stage. It would be better to stay on your current version until V4 becomes more stable and feature complete.
Thank you for the clarification! I’ll wait for the later release of V4 then.
I was curious though about trying V4 and wanted to try the sample scene that was included when I imported the new SDK. These were some issues I ran to that I would greatly appreciate any guidance on:
When I start playmode to try interacting with a ConvaiCharacter in the sample scene, I’ve been experiencing connection issues. If I close and reopen unity editor and then go into playmode, the connection becomes successful. But the second time and beyond that I try to enter playmode, it always gives me connection failures.
I cant seem to figure out why I got microphone permissions denied. I’ve checked windows input settings and have allowed the microphone access to everything. Is there something I have to do in Unity for this? It didn’t happen back in my original project using Convai 3.3.x.
Everything connected each time I run playmode for the first time after opening the project. After ending playmode and attempting to run it again, the connection failures start and it always fail to reconnect automatically.
