The main new feature here is the introduction of the Hotspot: Selection parent Action. This can be used to limit selection of Hotspots (and Draggables) to a single chain in the Hierarchy. The intended use-case is for first-person close-ups, where focusing on a single item and its children should be isolated from the wider scene, though I'm sure the ever-creative community will find other uses for it.

This version is also the one used by the updated First-person Primer tutorial video, which will be released shortly!

Full changelog:

Version 1.85.6

Hotspots

• Added: "Hotspot: Selection parent" Action - use to limit selection to Hotspots and Draggables that are children of a given Transform
• Changed: Returning null within the OnRequestMenuElementHotspotLabel event will now cancel the Hotspot label's display
• Fixed: "Hotspot icon size" field not always being correctly used

Input

• Fixed: Third-person camera's zoom controls not being compatible with Input System
• Fixed: PickUp's "ZoomMoveable" input not being compatible with Input System
• Fixed: Input element 'Enter'-linked Buttons being invoked when editing ends, rather than when submitted
• Fixed: Inventory items sometimes becoming selected when releasing clicks over a Container
• Fixed: Issues with draggable input

Editor

• Added: Restart option to the Character Wizard
• Fixed: Issues with ActionList Editor's search bar when overlaid above an Action
• Fixed: Character Wizard incorrectly setting the Animation engine of sprite-based 3D characters
• Fixed: ActionLists auto-created in the Events Editor losing their parameters if renamed before being opened
• Fixed: Objective state-selection Editor dropdowns not displaying correctly if multiple states have the same name
• Fixed: "ActionList: Set parameter" Action's "Formula" option not working correctly

Menus

• Added: Label elements set to display Inventory Properies can now show properties from the selected Document and Objective
• Added: Additional click options to InventoryBox menu elements that display sub-Objectives
• Fixed: Conversations displaying incorrectly if skipped during their initial fade-out after clicking

Misc

• Added: Stretch factor field to Arrow Prompts
• Fixed: Draggable objects being interactable if their component is disabled
• Fixed: Remember component default states becoming re-applied to persistent Players upon switching scene
• Fixed: Speech-skipping issues during post-line delay
• Fixed: XML documentation tag issues

Upgrade notes

• The method of overriding PlayerInput delegates has changed - see the Manual's "Remapping inputs" chapter for details

Speech

• Added: Option to ignore speech post-line delays when skipping
• Added: ITranslatableReferencer interface - use to reference ITranslatable implementations that aren't placed in scene files
• Added: Option to always surround cells with quotes when exporting speech text to CSV
• Changed: The "Dialogue: Start conversation" Action's "Override options?" and "Open in set element?" options are no longer mutually exclusive
• Fixed: [speaker] token not defaulting to the speaking character's "Speaker label" value

Conversations

• Added: Ability, through script, to restore a Conversation's options to their original states
• Fixed: Issues when running nested Conversations inside "ActionList: Run" Actions
• Fixed: Issues loading old save-game files after modifying Conversation options
• Fixed: Error when starting a Conversation that is inside a prefab

Characters

• Added: The Character Wizard now sets Sprite-based character Sprite Sort Points to Pivot
• Changed: Tweaked the starting values of the Sample First-person Player prefab to make it more reponsive
• Changed: The Character Wizard no longer moves newly-created characters to the scene's origin
• Fixed: Characters movmentarily ending their Talking animations after speaking if they immediately begin speaking a new line afterwards
• Fixed: "Character/Set Player" event not being invoked at the correct time
• Fixed: First-person crouching resetting the Player's run lock upon standing

Inputs

• Added: Installing the Input System integration template now also adds a button to open its Inputs menu from the Options menu
• Added: The prevention of mouse clicks from being remappable in the Input System integration's Inputs menu is now optional
• Added: Ability to set the binding index when defining remappable inputs in the Input System integration's InputsUI prefab
• Added: Ability to override PlayerInput delegates with multiple functions simultaneously
• Changed: The Input System integration's default EndCutscene input is now mapped to Tab, instead of Escape
• Changed: The method of overriding PlayerInput delegates has changed - see the Manual's "Remapping inputs" chapter for details
• Fixed: QTEs sometimes not failing if a mouse click or Interaction input is involved

ActionLists

• Added: Ability to set Integer, Float and Pop Up parameter values by formula in the "ActionList: Set parameter" Action
• Added: "Popup switch" option to the "ActionList: Check parameter" Action
• Added: Ability to assign Inventory Item, Document, and Objective parameter types in Action Integer fields
• Fixed: "ActionList: Set parameter" Action not downloading custom-linked Global Variables before use
• Fixed: "Moveable: Check Track position" Action field values changing at runtime
• Fixed: Actions ending prematurely when Conversations are run alongside an "ActionList: Run in parallel" Action

Menus

• Added: Ability for InventoryBox elements to sort Objectives by their index in the Inventory Manager
• Changed: The "Max number of slots" Slider in InventoryBox elements is now a regular Integer field
• Changed: InventoryBox elements that display Collected Documents will now display the maximum number of slots if "When slot is empty" is set to "Clear Content"
• Fixed: Unity UI-based Menu elements sometimes being clickable while invisible
• Fixed: MenuElement script's GetSlotIndex returning incorrect values
• Fixed: Timer elements of the type "Loading Progress" not displaying correctly
• Fixed: Menus with Appear type "During Cutscenes" showing briefly after scene transitions

Templates

• Added: The "Title screen" Template now hides the Continue button if no save-game files are present
• Fixed: Issues with Mobile Joystick template when used in conjunction with Input System
• Fixed: Issues with the Graphic Options template
• Fixed: Issues with Title Screen template

Camera

• Added: Option to the "Camera: Split-screen" Action for the MainCamera to attach itself to the Underlay camera
• Fixed: Error when setting a zero or negative aspect ratio value

Editor

• Added: Ability to filter Global Variables by category in the Variables Manager
• Added: "Revert to defaults" button to the Adventure Creator section of the Project settings window
• Fixed: Inventory items losing their property data when checking "Limit to set categories?" in the Property's property panel
• Fixed: Incorrect URLs in a couple of places

Misc

• Added: IsSaving property to the SaveSystem script - use to check if the game is currently being saved
• Fixed: Rare error when switching scenes rapidly and using a Trigger
• Fixed: Hotspot selection issue when "Close interactions with" is set to "Click Off Menu"
• Fixed: Issue when clicking Arrow Prompts that overlap Hotspots
• Fixed: Error when using a Trigger to disable another

This Sunday, a small number of existing, though mostly dormant, accounts were used to create a wave of spam posts.

Investigation so far points to this being a case of credential stuffing, where common or shared passwords - potentially taken from other websites - are used to brute-force access through automated means.

I have not found evidence that the forum, or the server that it runs on, has been compromised.

The affected accounts have been given password reset notices, and must also re-confirm their email. Site-wide, I have also flushed all logins so that all users must log in again.

As a precaution, please reset your password upon logging in. Use a unique password for this forum, and consider using your browser's password manager to auto-generate one.

I apologise for the disruption. Thank you for your attention and patience.

-chris

AC has long supported Unity's Input System as an additional download, but it's now included with AC itself. When running the New Game Wizard, it'll suggest the integration if it detects that Input System is currently being used. Note that this requires the use of Unity 2022 or later.

Full changelog:

Upgrade notes

• Quick-time events now animate UIs using Triggers, rather than referencing state name
• The "Render border camera?" option has been removed, following its conflict with URP in Unity 6.1

Templates

• Added: Input System integration (Unity 2022+) - import to have AC work with Unity's Input System package
• Fixed: Title Screen template sometimes causing the game to remain paused once a new game begins
• Fixed: "Animated cursor" template not animating while the game is paused

Editor

• Added: The New Game Wizard and Character Wizard windows are now resizable
• Added: Clicking the folder icon on the New Game Wizard's "Game name" page now opens a dialog box to override the install path
• Added: If no Default Sound is assigned in the Scene Manager, one is now generated at runtime
• Added: Ability to filter the "Hotspot / Interact" event by Interaction type
• Fixed: Actions sometimes adjusting their output wires when switching ActionLists in the ActionList Editor
• Fixed: Minor issues with the ActionList Editor

Characters

• Added: On Jump and On Land event fields to the Player Jump component
• Added: Improved handling of First Person players when locked to a vertical Path
• Fixed: Character wall-detection not working correctly in v1.83.0
• Fixed: Character prefab data being modified if they are set to play speech but are not in the scene
• Fixed: Characters with a Character Controller ignoring their Path's "Ignore gravity?" option
• Fixed: LipSync Texture component's "Renderer" field not accepting Skinned Mesh Renderers

Cursor

• Fixed: Unity UI Cursor component's "Click Trigger" Animator parameter not always being invoked
• Fixed: Unity UI Cursor sometimes showing during gameplay when "Display cursor" is set to "Only When Paused"

Menus

• Added: Ability for Unity UI objects to accept mouse clicks from the cursor when it is locked
• Added: Ability to insert Scene Attribute values in text fields using the [scene:X] token
• Changed: Quick-time events now animate UIs using Triggers, rather than referencing state name
• Fixed: Issue when using Events to turn off a Menu immediately after it is turned on
• Fixed: Menu text not updating upon switching language if the Localization package is present but "Auto-sync Locale with Language?" is unchecked

Inventory

• Fixed: "Auto-toggle 'Give' mode?" Inventory setting not accounting for unhandled interactions
• Fixed: Inventory items sometimes not de-selecting when right-clicking in v1.83.0

Cameras

• Changed: The "Render border camera?" option has been removed, following its conflict with URP in Unity 6.1
• Fixed: Rotation issue when re-enabling the Camera system while the Third-person camera type is in use
• Fixed: Sample 3D Scene's Third-person camera having incorrect pitch angles

Misc

• Added: OnOverwriteMainData custom event - fired while loading once main data has been applied, but before the scene's OnLoad cutscene
• Added: "Affect children?" option to the Light Switch component
• Fixed: Issue with "Object: Transform" Action's Rotate By option
• Fixed: "Action: Run ActionList" Actions ending prematurely if the ActionList they run triggers multiple Conversations
• Fixed: Issue when spamming dialogue options on a Conversation that is always shown

Update note

• Player/NPC "Wall collider layer" fields are now a LayerMask field, not a text box

Templates

• Added: "Cutscene borders" template - use to display animated borders during cutscenes

ActionLists

• Added: Ability to disable Actions within the ActionList Editor window
• Added: Ability to auto-arrange all Actions within a selected Group
• Changed: If the "ActionList: Check running" Action is used by an asset to check if itself is running, the check will ignore its own instance
• Fixed: "Camera: Switch" Action's "Wait until finish?" option not working if "Return to last?" is checked
• Fixed: ActionList groups not updating correctly when scrolling with the mouse-wheel
• Fixed: "Scene: Switch" and "Scene: Add or remove" Actions not accepting tokens when referencing scenes by name

Menus

• Added: Option to the "Menu: Update content" Action to handle text translations before updating the Menu element
• Added: "During Cutscenes And Conversations" Menu appear type option
• Added: The alignment of item count labels can now be configured for AC-based InventoryBox menu elements
• Fixed: Auto Correct UI Dimensions component shrinking Menus each time they turn on
• Fixed: Unity UI-based Menus sometimes behaving incorrectly after loading a save-game file
• Fixed: InventoryBox element affecting Text children even if its properties are configured so as to have no text
• Fixed: Issue when updating a Menu element's texture with the "Menu: Update content" Action

Interactions

• Added: Ability to set - through script - the radius of the cursor raycasts used by the PlayerInteraction script in 2D games
• Fixed: Hotspot labels sometimes replacing "Give" interactions with "Use"

Characters

• Changed: Character "Wall collider layer" field is now a LayerMask field, not a text box
• Fixed: Character sorting lock data not being saved correctly if they rely on a Sorting Group component
• Fixed: Characters that use "retro-mode pathfinding" sometimes not moving when a "Character: Move to point" Action's target is too close to the character
• Fixed: Footstep sounds played via animation events playing multiple times while blending animation states

Misc

• Added: Ability for custom Events Editor event scripts to exist outside of AC's Scripts folder
• Added: Option to prevent Objectives from setting their Active state to one listed above its current state in the Editor's States panel
• Added: Options for Timers to run in "unscaled time"
• Added: Ability to manually force the GameEngine object as the scene's main instance within the Multi Scene Checker component
• Changed: The AC Status box now scales with screen size, so that it is always readable

Scene Manager tweaks

The Prefab description panel in the Scene Manager has been scrapped - descriptions can now be gotten by hovering over a prefab type, while right-clicking will bring up a list of existing prefabs. Camera types have been renamed, and a new "Characters" panel lets you quickly open up the Character wizard to create new Players and NPCs. On this:

Character wizard improvements

The Character wizard has been restyled to match the recently-updated New Game Wizard, and new movement/physics options have been added. It's now also possible to have the wizard auto-generate an Animator component - complete with states and transitions - for 2D and 3D characters.

GameCamera "Array"

A new camera type, Array, is now available for 3D games. Essentially, you create a set of reference cameras, each associated with a given target position, and the camera then interpolates between them as the target moves. It's powerful, but a bit tricky to explain - so the Sample 3D Scene template has been updated to make use of it.

Title menu template

Included in the New Game Wizard is a new "Title menu" template, which provides both a Title menu and a scene to show it in. It's mainly a copy of the tutorial, but as nearly all games feature one it makes sense to provide this ready-made.

Input System template

This is available on the Downloads page, but after importing it becomes available in the New Game Wizard. It's also been updated with a more robust integration when dealing with gamepad or keyboard control of UI-based Menus.

Improved footstep sounds

The footstep sounds system now relies on pre-defined "Surfaces" to handle what sounds should get played, making it much easier to re-use and assign across multiple scenes. Unfortunately, this does mean existing sounds will need to be updated to use this new workflow, but the end results is one that'll be better going forward. The Manual's "Footstep sounds" chapter has details.

Attachment points

The Character: Hold object Action no longer limits characters to holding objects in either their left or right hands. Additional points can be assigned per-character and then used in this Action, allowing for e.g. a backpack or glasses to be parented to a character to the correct place more easily.

ActionList improvements

Actions can now be grouped up in the ActionList Editor window, and then those groups can be named/tinted to make them distinct and intent more clear. The mouse cursor now also changes icon being dragged, and ActionList fields in Managers now have an icon beside them to quickly open them up in the Editor.

Animated cursor

A new addition to the Template system is the "Animated cursor" template, which demonstrates how a Unity UI-based cursor can be animated when clicked, interacting with Hotspots, and selecting items.

URP Demo compatibility

The 3D Demo is now URP compatible. No need to alter materials or use a URP-only variant: the demo's materials now all rely on Unlit shaders, making them work across render pipelines.

Full changelog below.

It's no hot take that Unity shot themselves in the foot with their initial announcement. I expect we'll need to wait a few months to really feel its true impact, but their eventual retraction - to my mind - is a decent one.

As an asset developer, my position is a little more unique in that it depends on both Unity and its users, but the climbdown is enough for me to say that AC's development and support will continue as it has been. From a purely technical standpoint, I still feel that Unity is the best fit for AC - a toolkit that's both very genre-specific, but also one that aims to aid those who need more flexibility.

That said, this period has been a good lesson about eggs in baskets, and I have spent a lot it looking into the main alternatives. Personally, I find Unreal clicks for me in a way the others don't quite.

A lesson I learned very early on in AC's lifecycle, though, is that a toolkit works best when embracing the principles of the engine it's atop. A theortical "AC in Unreal / Godot" etc would best be its own beast, rather than a 1:1 port. I'll continue to tinker and see where it takes me, but it would be remiss of me to say more than that right now.

AC will be reaching its 10th birthday next month - a fact only made possible by its community, as a tool is only worth what's done with it. Regardless of the future, thank you for the journey so far.

Key features:

Improved New Game Wizard

The New Game Wizard gets some attention, with a smarter look that offers better descriptions and preview images for each setting. The biggest addition, however, is the incorporation of Templates - which we previously limited to a handful of packages on the Downloads page.

Templates

Templates allow you to extend your game's functionality by having AC automatically make changs to your game. These will be suggested by the New Game Wizard following your choices, but you can also use the wizard to add these to an existing project. More will be introduced in future updates, but currently the following are provided:

• Sample Player (2D, 3D and First Person)
• Sample scene (2D and 3D)
• Mobile joystick
• TextMesh Pro converter
• Graphic Options menu
• Nine verbs interface

AC.asmdef file

The Scripts folder now includes an "AC.asmdef" file, which solves a number of issues - the main one being that of scene ActionLists becoming corrupted if Unity is opened with compilation errors. In addition, it is now used to help AC auto-detect which Unity packages are currently-installed, allowing automatic integration with Addressables, Localization and TextMeshPro. No more having to define "..IsPresent" in the Player settings!

This file, however, will invalidate save-game files made with earlier releases. If you need to retain them, you'll need to remove it.

Manager assignment

The default "References" file is no longer included with AC, but is instead generated automatically. This means that your game's Managers will remain assigned after importing.

When opening either of the Demo scenes, their own Managers will be assigned automatically - but only temporarily. This means that you can test out the Demo scenes at any time, and return to your own game, without swapping Managers.

Parameter UI

ActionList parameters have an updated look: rather than override-able fields being listed twice, a "P" icon will now appear beside them. Click this to toggle a field's use of parameters on and off.

A-star pathfinding

This has been available on the Downloads page for a while now, but I'm incorporating this into the official release in an effort to have it be more widely available. A-star 2D is an alternative pathfinding method to the default Polygon Collider, and ought to be a lot faster at handling more complex NavMeshes. If you've previously used the downloadable package, it'd be worth switching over to this as the algorithm has been tweaked further to be a little more natural and faster still.

Sub-Objectives

Objectives can now be linked to one another to create dependencies, where a given Objective can be updated automatically when others are completed or failed. The workflow's a bit involved, though, so a new series of tutorials on this topic can be found here.

Templates

The Downloads page mentioned above is getting quite packed now with a lot of handy examples and add-ons, but they can be a bit cumbersome to incorporate into an existing project. To that end, Templates - where such add-ons can be installed with a single click - will begin to be rolled out. By way of example: the "Shop system" package previously required manually adding Inventory properties, categories, and Menus, but the updated package now provides a handy "Apply" button that will automate these changes for you. Templates can also provide example scenes, and custom prefabs for the Scene Manager.

Eventually, the Template system will be incorporated into AC proper, but for now it's in use by the following Download packages:

• First Person player
• 2D First Person
• Click FX
• Isometric Camera
• Nine verbs interface
• Mobile joystick
• Save-game screenshots
• Save-game retro
• Conversation camera
• Speech bubbble
• Cinemachine integration
• Shop system

As ever, big thanks to the bug reports and feature suggestions. Full changelog:

A common and welcome surprise on these forums is to hear how people leverage AC's features in surprising ways, finding novel ways to build things that I hadn't anticipated. To help with those looking to push AC a bit further, this update introduces a number of building blocks that should help making new features a little bit easier.

Key features:

Scene items

It's now much easier to manage the representation of an Inventory item as a GameObject in the scene. Once an Inventory item has been assigned a "Linked prefab", the Inventory: Scene item Action can be used to spawn and remove instances of it in the scene - optionally retaining a link back to the original item. Together with the Scene Item and Remember Scene Item components, this can be used to enable mechanics such as:

• Inspecting items from the Inventory with a "close up" mechanic
• Equipping items in the Player's hand, for interacting with the environment
• Dropping items from the Inventory into the sene, while allowing them to be picked up again later

A tutorial on the latter can be found here.

Events editor

Custom events have long been a handy way of extending AC through custom script. As an optional alternative, they can now also be used to run ActionLists automatically from the Events Editor window - without need for additional code. Event parameters can also be passed to the ActionList's parameters - allowing the object the event involved to be further manipulated. If you wish to run such events only in a particular scene, or associate them with a particular prefab, you can instead make use of the new Event Runner component.

A tutorial involving this can be found here.

New Actions

A handful of new Actions:

• Hotspot: Interact - use to interact with a Hotspot manually. This might be handy if making an "equip" system where you want to interact with a dynamic object in the Player's hands.
• Physics: Raycast - perform a RayCast or SphereCast in the scene (both 2D and 3D). Optionally, you can assign both the hit object, and the position, to GameObject and Vector3 parameters in the same ActionList.
• Input: Simulate - simulate the pressing of an AC input button or axis. If run from an Active Input, it can be used to dynamically enable/disable individual input recognition by enabling/disabling the Active Input.

Other features of note

The Menu: Set input box text Action has been upgraded, and renamed to Menu: Update content. It is now capable of updating the text of any Menu element type, and can also alter textures.

A much requested feature: individual Document pages can now be assigned textures. These can be modified through script at runtime, if e.g. a texture should change with the game's language.

Inventory Categories are no longer limited to Items - they can also be used to tag Documents and Objectives. InventoryBox elements that display Documents and Objectives can also be filtered by category, allowing for e.g. Main and Optional objectives lists.

Asset lists (e.g. Menus, Inventory items, Dialogue options) can now be re-ordered by dragging-and-dropping. The ActionList Editor now also has a search tool, and the Scene Manager's been smartened up a bit.

Adding to AC's Addressables support is the ability to reference Player prefabs by Addressable in the Settings Manager.

2D games that use Direct control can now benefit from the option to rely on the scene's NavMesh to constrain Player characters - no more having to surround the scene with colliders!

QTEs now also have the option to run indefinitely, making them a useful way of prompting the Player to press a specific key, and waiting until they do.

Asset lists (e.g. Menus, Inventory items, Dialogue options) can now be re-ordered by dragging-and-dropping. The ActionList Editor now also has a search tool, and the Scene Manager's been smartened up a bit.

Adding to AC's Addressables support is the ability to reference Player prefabs by Addressable in the Settings Manager.

2D games that use Direct control can now benefit from the option to rely on the scene's NavMesh to constrain Player characters - no more having to surround the scene with colliders!

QTEs now also have the option to run indefinitely, making them a useful way of prompting the Player to press a specific key, and waiting until they do.

Full changelog:

Upgrade notes

• The ActionTransform script's CreateNew_RotateTo function has been renamed to CreateNew_ScaleTo
• The Settings Manager's GetDefaultPlayer function is now Editor-only

Hotspots

• Added: Option to always mouse-over the lowest Hotspot in 2D scenes when multiple overlap the same area
• Added: The automatic highlighting of all Hotspots within the boundary of a Hotspot Detector is now optional
• Added: OnHotspotsFlash custom event - triggered when the FlashHotspots input is pressed
• Added: Ability to run Hotspot interactions manually from the Hotspot Inspector at runtime
• Fixed: PlayerInteraction script's IsMouseOverHotspot function returning incorrect results

ActionLists

• Added: RunNormallyWhenSkip property to Actions - set to true in custom Actions to have them run over multiple frames even when run as the result of skipping their ActionList
• Added: The "Engine: End game" Action's "Scene to restart to" field now accepts parameters
• Changed: The ActionTransform script's CreateNew_RotateTo has been renamed to CreateNew_ScaleTo
• Fixed: "Character: Move to point" Action's "Copy Marker angle after?" option being ignored if the character starts too close to the destination Marker
• Fixed: "ActionList: Set parameter" Action not setting the correct value when copying from a Component String variable
• Fixed: "ActionList: Set parameter" Action not converting Integer and Float Global variables to Float and Integer parameters
• Fixed: Error when auto-creating an ActionList asset file while the Packages folder is selected in the Project window

Editor

• Added: Search tool to the ActionList Editor - use to search for Actions, text or object names, separating multiple terms with a pipe (|) delimiter
• Added: Ability to re-order Menus, Elements, Conversation options and Inventory items by drag-and-dropping
• Added: Ability to filter Variables by ID in the Variables Manager and Variables component Inspector
• Added: Minor tweaks to the Scene Manager's visual styling
• Changed: Export wizard windows now retain their field values after Unity restarts
• Changed: "Auto-add Save components to GameObjects" operation will no longer close the active scene if no scenes are added to Unity's Build Settings
• Changed: Auto-creating a Hotspot's Interactive Boundary now parents the boundary to the Hotspot

Menus

• Added: "Empty slot texture" property to Crafting menu elements
• Fixed: Unity UI-based Menus appearing in loading screen scenes
• Fixed: InventoryBox elements limiting items by category sometimes allowing the transfer of items outside that category
• Fixed: Unity UI-based Menus sometimes not being interactable with a simulated cursor

Movement

• Added: Option for 2D Player characters to be prevented from leaving the bounds of the NavMesh when moved under Direct or Drag control
• Added: Ability to set the pathfinding update frequency per-character through script
• Added: Minor pathfinding optimisations
• Fixed: Characters very rarely halting mid-movement when a non-zero "Pathfind update time" is set
• Fixed: 2D characters not always turning at a constant speed

Inventory

• Added: Ability to override an instance of an Inventory item's label at runtime through script
• Changed: The InvItem script's HasCursorIcon has been moved to the InvInstance class
• Fixed: Display issue when attempting to set an Inventory item with an overriding texture as the cursor
• Fixed: Inventory item instances losing their overriding texture data upon being transferred

Containers

• Changed: If a Container limits items by category, only items in that category are available to add as default
• Fixed: Containers losing their "Limit by category" settings after loading or re-entering a scene

Players

• Added: Option to reference Player prefabs using the Addressable system
• Added: "Jump bool" and "Grounded bool" parameter fields for Sprites Unity Complex-based characters that use 3D physics components
• Changed: The Settings Manager's GetDefaultPlayer function is now Editor-only

Draggables

• Added: Set Drag Parameters component - attach to a Draggable object to set its "ActionList asset on drop/move" file parameters when run
• Fixed: Draggable objects being let go when using multiple touches on a touch-screen device
• Fixed: Error when using Curved tracks that has region-snapping enabled

Saving

• Added The loading process of custom Remember components now supports coroutines
• Added: Option to the Remember Moveable component to save Transform values in Local space
• Added: The Remember Sound component's saving of changes to the loaded AudioClip asset is now optional
• Changed: If "Save asset references with Addressables?" is enabled, UnloadUnusedAssets is no longer called automatically following a scene-change
• Fixed: GameObjects spawned in via Addressable after loading a save-game not having their Remember component data properly restored
• Fixed: Issue when loading an NPC's Transform data when both Remember NPC and Remember Transform components are attached

Speech

• Added: Ability to alter a Speech line's remaining lifetime through script
• Changed: The "Play talking animations forever until user skips it?" option has been renamed to "Play talking animations entire time line is displayed?"
• Fixed: Speech scrolling sometimes displaying text prematurely if the frame-rate drops too low

Misc

• Added: Option to run a QTE indefinitely
• Added: Ability to set a default offset to apply to selected Inventory items when drawn using Software cursor rendering
• Added: The automatic calling of Resources.UnloadUnusedAssets is now optional
• Fixed: "Object: Add or remove" Action sometimes preventing the spawning of Addressable prefabs that have a Remember Transform component attached
• Fixed: Sound objects sometimes not setting the correct volume when played using Timeline
• Fixed: Objective state names "Active", "Complete" and "Fail" not being translatable

This time around, most of the new features have been mainly coming from additions to the expanding Downloads page. A few recent of note include:

• Cinemachine integration
• Mobile joystick template
• Graphic options template
• Input system integration (now updated with remapping options)

As for v1.76 itself:

Upgrade notes

• The OnCraftingSucceed custom event now takes an additional InvInstance parameter that represents the resulting item
• Giving an item to an NPC with no interaction will run the item's unhandled 'Give to NPC' interaction, not 'Use on Hotspot'
• The "Disable Hotspots while dragging Player?" option has been removed

Menus

• Added: Function to MenuSavesList that returns the SaveFile associated with a given slot
• Added: OnHideSelectedElement custom event - called whenever a UI Button is hidden and it is the EventSystem's currently-selected GameObject
• Added: Option to control Unity UI-based Menu transitions with a Float parameter
• Changed: The "Transition type" Menu property's "Custom Animation" value has been renamed to "Custom Animation States"
• Fixed: Menus sometimes becoming uninteractable when opened via ActionList
• Fixed: Hover sounds for Unity UI Menu elements playing when the Menu is turned on

Movement

• Added: "Minimum distance" option to the "Character: Move to point" Action when "Wait until finish?" is checked
• Added: Ability to override the PlayerInput's "drag state" calculation through script
• Fixed: "Run input threshold" field automatically used to control Player running when relying on custom Touch Screen input
• Fixed: "Character: NPC follow" Action not accounting for the "Minimum distance" field correctly
• Fixed: Issues with the NPC component's "Keep out of Player's way?" option

ActionLists

• Added: Actions generated through script now record the Constant ID values of referenced GameObjects
• Added: "Copy From Component Variable" option to the "ActionList: Set parameter" Action
• Fixed: ActionList "PopUp" parameters not having a "Default value" field in the Editor
• Fixed: PopUp parameters not being usable when comparing PopUp variables with the "Variable: Check" Action

Inventory

• Added: Ability to assign a per-Item unhandled Inventory interactions when giving an item to an NPC
• Changed: The OnCraftingSucceed custom event now takes an additional InvInstance parameter that represents the resulting item
• Changed: Giving an item to an NPC with no interaction will run the item's unhandled 'Give to NPC' interaction, not 'Use on Hotspot'
• Fixed: Inventory item slots merging not accounting for differences in property values
• Fixed: The OnCraftingSucceed custom event firing multiple times

Speech

• Added: The "Filename" fields of speech lines listed in the Speech Manager are now selectable
• Fixed: Conversation Inspectors not respecting the "Items before scrolling" Editor preferences option when listing dialogue options
• Fixed: Speech lines separated by carriage-returns in "Dialogue: Play speech" Actions not playing Addressable audio
• Fixed: Error when playing Addressable speech lines and the associated speech line cannot be found

2D

• Fixed: GameCamera2D positioning issues if a background constraint is applied but only in one direction
• Fixed: Follow Tint Map component's "Affect children too?" option not affecting Sprite Renderers that are disabled at startup
• Fixed: "Remember NPC" component affecting Transform rotation values even if "Turn root object in 3D?" is unchecked
• Fixed: Sorting issue when two 2D characters appear in the same Sorting Map region

Misc

• Added: Alternatives to the "Object: Transform" Action's CreateNew function to generate through script
• The "Disable Hotspots while dragging Player?" option has been removed
• Fixed: Hierarchy icons not showing when editing in Prefab Mode
• Fixed: Various issues with the "Scene: Check attribute" Action
• Fixed: Memory leaks when using the "Object: Add or remove" Action to add or remove Addressable GameObjects
• Fixed: Animation playback issues with the "Character: Animate" and "Object: Animate" Actions' "Play Custom" option
• Fixed: Error when attempting to set a Global variable's value through script while in a non-AC scene

As always, please be sure to backup your projects before upgrading!

There are other fixes and features besides though, so testing is welcome from developers of all game types.

If interested, please let me know either here or via PM. Thanks for reading.

The major new feature in this release is the addition of PopUp parameters, which has been requested a few times. Like variables, PopUps can be used to define a set-number of strings, and can aid with logic-processing in ActionLists. They can also be used to override text fields, allowing for an e.g. Dropdown list of Menus to control in the various Menu-based Actions.

On other fronts:

• It's now possible for 3D Direct-controlled games to do away with wall colliders, through use of the NavMeshAgent Integration script.
• For optimisation, Unity UI prefab menus can optionally be spawned in via Addressable keys.
• The Object: Transform Action finally has the option to move objects at a constant speed, rather than duration.

Full changelog below:

Upgrade note

• The OnDoubleClickHotspot custom event now has an additional "Button" parameter

Characters

• Added: The NavMeshAgentIntegration script now works with Direct movement, and avoids the need to use wall colliders
• Added: OnCharacterTeleport event - called whenever a character is snapped to a new position
• Fixed: Pathfinding issue when using a 2D NavMesh that has "Character evasion" set to "None"
• Fixed: "Character: Face object" Action sometimes running for too long when using IK head-turning since v1.74.3
• Fixed: Player sometimes halting inappropriately when using the "Player: Constrain" Action mid-movement
• Fixed: "Character: Animate" Action sometimes displaying an "Add directional suffix?" field when the referenced character uses the Mecanim animation engine
• Fixed: "Character: Move to point" Action sometimes halting the active Player if Player-switching is enabled

Speech

• Added: "Run in background?" option for Speech Timeline track clips
• Added: "Normalised phoneme float" parameter option for Mecanim and Sprites Unity Complex characters when lip-syncing is enabled
• Fixed: Speech Manager's "Retain subtitle text buffer once line has ended?" option not working as intended
• Fixed: Various issues related to lipsync processing at runtime

ActionLists

• Added: ActionList PopUp parameters - use to define a discrete list of strings that can be selected from a dropdown field
• Fixed: Scene-based Action fields not recording the Constant ID of prefab objects assigned while in Prefab Mode
• Fixed: "Variable: Copy" Action throwing an error when changing a parameter's type
• Fixed: "Variable: Set" Action not always using a String parameter's value

Interactions

• Changed: The OnDoubleClickHotspot custom event now has an additional "Button" parameter
• Fixed: Highlight component's "Enable when associated Hotspot is selected?" option causing Highlighting to be disabled when de-selecting a Hotspot
• Fixed: Error when using the "Inventory: Change interaction" Action to enable an Inventory item's Combine interaction
• Fixed: Issues when manipulating Draggables that use looping Hinge and Curved tracks with "Cursor Position" input
• Fixed: Highlight component's "CancelFlash" function not working correctly

Menus

• Added: Ability to reference Unity UI prefab menus by Addressable key
• Added: Ability to alter the " : " suffix in Toggle and Cycle element labels
• Added: Warning message if a Unity UI's Menu "First selected Element" field is incorrectly set
• Fixed: Corrupted menus in the Menu Manager preventing a game from starting
• Fixed: Cycle elements displaying a colon character if the label text is empty
• Fixed: Occasional error when previewing SavesList menu elements in the Game window
• Fixed: InventoryBox elements sharing the same "Limit by category" data after duplication
• Fixed: Issues with direct-navigation of Interaction elements in Unity UI

Editor

• Fixed: Animation errors related to Sprites Unity characters not being reported in Unity's Player log
• Fixed: Persistent object data not being listed in the Save-game File Manager
• Fixed: Compilation error when using an Assembly Definition file
• Fixed: Compilation error in Unity 2021.2 or later

Timeline

• Fixed: "Engine: Control Timeline" Action sometimes waiting indefinitely if the Playable Director's "Extrapolation Mode" is set to "Hold"
• Fixed: "Limit Visibility" component not being affected by MainCamera Timeline tracks, provided "Calls custom events?" is checked

Misc

• Added: Ability to define a label for a Container
• Added: Option to scale the "Object: Transform" Action's transition time with the distance the object must move by
• Fixed: "Object: Animate" Action not playing clips directly in the Editor if the layer is non-zero
• Fixed: Third-person camera spinning after loading a save-game file
• Fixed: OnEnterGameState and OnExitGameState events not firing after a scene change
• Fixed: Error if the SceneChanger script's ChangeScene function is called while AC is sleeping due to entering a non-AC scene

• Custom translation text can be included in the Speech Manager
• Action types can be disabled and prevented from showing in ActionLists
• ActionList assets can be made to survive scene changes
• Nested prefab support (Unity 2018.3 beta)
• Official support for Text Mesh Pro

As these touch on core systems of AC, though, it's important that it goes through the hands of testers before release. Particularly if your game focuses on custom Actions, I would appreciate feedback.

If interested, please let me know either here or via PM. Thanks for reading.

New downloads

The changes made to this release allow for some new packages over on the Downloads page:

The Chamber

A not-so-subtle nod to a certain series of mobile puzzles games, this new demo game shows how AC can be used to make a first-person puzzle game with an emphasis on draggable objects / physical interactions.

Puzzle examples

Aimed primarily for new users, this package features a series of simple example scenes that show off a variety of puzzles types, from lock-and-key interactions to combination puzzles.

Updated third-person camera

The "Advanced Third Person" Download package now replaces the built-in GameCamera Third-person, bringing smoother movement and more options for games that rely on a more modern third-person camera.

Assembly definition

AC's Editor scripts are now wrapped around "#if UNITY_EDITOR" checks, meaning it's now possible to rely on a single .asmdef file for the whole AC package. Add the "AC" namespace and a Timeline dependency, and this'll help speed up script compilation times if your project involves custom scripting or other code-based assets.

Installation flexibility

You can now specify AC's installation path in the AC section of Project settings. Coupled with the above, this now makes it possible to convert AC into a package, so long as you set the installation path to "Packages/your-package-name".

Link Variable To Animator

This is a script that's been on the wiki for a while, but it's usefulness warrents inclusion in the official release. Attach this to a Variables component to sync a variable's value to an Animator parameter.

A big thanks to all those who helped test the release, and as ever, back up before updating!

Action upgrades

This is more of a good-housekeeping improvement, but Actions now make use of properties to declare their title, category, and number of sockets. This changes the "official" way to write custom Actions - though the majority of existing custom Actions should still work. If you encounter issues with custom Actions, or you want to upgrade them anyway, you can learn more about the necessary changes here: https://www.adventurecreator.org/tutorials/action-systems-v173-update

Performance and optimisation

Exact improvements will vary between projects, but users should generally see improved load times. Game-saving can now optionally be moved to a separate thread, which is recommended if you Autosave during gameplay. Optional Addressable support for saveable assets also means that you can do without the need for Resources folders.

Inventory interactions

Standard and Combine inventory interactions can now be disabled/enabled at runtime, using the new "Inventory: Change interaction" Action. Keep in mind, however, that this only applies to instances of an item that are currently in the Player's posession - it won't affect items that aren't currently being carried.

GameObject variables

Variables can now be declared as variables, with Global variables able to record prefabs, and Local/Component variables able to record both prefabs and scene objects.

And the full changelog: