Chat

Lightweight channel-based chat system for in-game messaging. Provides named channels, a fixed-capacity ring buffer for message history, and a singleton API for sending and querying messages.

Architecture

Data Flow

Key Concepts

Concept	Description
Chat	Singleton service managing named channels. Static API for all chat operations.
ChatChannel	Named channel with a ChatBuffer and a MessageSent event for UI binding.
ChatBuffer	Fixed-capacity (256) ring buffer. Overwrites oldest messages when full. Enumerates newest-first.
ChatMessage	Readonly struct with timestamp, sender, message text, and category. Pre-formats ToString() output.

Default Channels

Channel	Purpose
"General"	Default channel for player chat messages
"System"	Channel for system/game notifications

Quick Start

// Send a message (defaults to "General" channel)
Chat.SendMessage("Hello world!");

// Send to a specific channel
Chat.SendMessage("Server restarting", "System");

// Listen for messages
ChatChannel general = Chat.GetChannel("General");
general.MessageSent += (msg) => {
    Debug.Log(msg.ToString()); // "[14:30:00] Player: Hello world!"
};

// Create a custom channel
Chat.AddChannel("Trade");

// Read message history (newest first)
foreach (ChatMessage msg in general.GetAllMessages())
{
    DisplayMessage(msg);
}

Classes

Class	Description
Chat	Singleton service with static API for channel management and messaging
ChatBuffer	Fixed-capacity ring buffer for ChatMessage storage

See Also

• ChatChannel (source) — channel implementation (not yet documented)

• ChatMessage (source) — message struct (not yet documented)