Version 1.79 - A-star, sub-Objectives, and Templates

ChrisIceBox

A sizeable update hopefully with something for everyone. Headline features:

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:

ChrisIceBox

Upgrade notes

• The OnPointAndClick custom event now uses the "ref" keyword for its pointArray parameter
• The behaviour of GameCamera and GameCamera 2D "Follow speed" fields have been adjusted, and are now represented by a slider

Objectives

• Added: Ability to assign Objectives as sub-Objectives for an Objective state's category
• Added: Ability to automatically begin all designated sub-Objectives once an Objective enters a specific state
• Added: Ability to automatically switch Objective states upon one or all sub-Objectives completing or failing
• Added: Ability to assign an ActionList asset that runs when an Objective is enters a specific state
• Added: Ability to manually set an Objective state as active from within the Inventory Manager at runtime
• Added: Ability to list the selected Objective's sub-Objectives within InventoryBox elements, with the option to override through script
• Added: Ability to sort Objective lists by ID, by start time, or by update time
• Added: Ability to distinguish between new, completed and failed objectives when using the Events Editor's Objective: Update event

Inventory

• Added: Ability to set the maximum number of slots the Player's Inventory can have
• Fixed: InvCollection's MaxSlots property not included in save-game data
• Fixed: Recipes not properly filtering by item category

Menus

• Added: "Pre-process tokens?" option to the "Menu: Update content" Action
• Fixed: Subtitle display issue when using Text Mesh Pro and the "TMPro Typewriter effect?" option is checked
• Fixed: OnMouseOverMenu custom event sometimes being called when de-selecting an element
• Fixed: UI hover sounds sometimes playing when de-selecting an element

Editor

• Added: Ability for custom Actions to add custom entries to their own context menu in the ActionList Editor
• Added: Template class - used by Download packages to quickly apply changes to Managers
• Added: Readability improvements to AC's Editors and Inspectors
• Added: Ability to hide save icons in the Hierarchy, while retaining ActionList icons
• Changed: "Character: Animate" and "Object: Animate" Actions that use Mecanim now use FloatFields for "Transition time", as opposed to Sliders
• Fixed: "Minimum display time" and "Display time factor" being incorrectly hidden in the Speech Manager
• Fixed: Nested scrollbars in the AC Game Editor preventing the window from scrolling

Hotspots

• Added: Option to interact with single-Interaction Hotspots with the release of a click/button, as opposed to a press
• Fixed: Flash effects not running for selected Hotspots that have "Enable when associated Hotspot is selected?" unchecked
• Fixed: Hotspot highlight effects occasionally flickering when "Highlight Hotspots based on cursor proximity?" is checked
• Fixed: Console warning if Hotspot icons are set to display a fixed texture, but no texture is assigned

Movement

• Added: A-star pathfinding option for 2D games
• Added: Ability to modify a character's "up" direction via the Char script's UpDirection property
• Added: Option for the NavMesh Agent Integration component to only take effect during cutscenes
• Added: Improvements to the movement behaviour of characters that use the NavMesh Agent Integration component
• Added: Option to show the Click marker prefab each time the Player moves due to pathfinding when using Straight To Cursor movement
• Added: Random Marker / Random Maker 2D navigation prefabs - use to move characters to a random point within a given area
• Changed: The OnPointAndClick custom event now uses the "ref" keyword for its pointArray parameter
• Changed: AC's legacy Ultimate FPS integration has been deprecated
• Fixed: NavMesh Agent Integration component's "auto-stick to NavMesh" feature during Direct control not working if the game begin with another Movement method active

Actions

• Added: Ability for the "Object: Check tag" Action to pass the checked GameObject's tag to a String parameter
• Added: Option to assign a destination Transform to the "Physics: Raycast" Action
• Fixed: Parameter tokens sometimes not being processed correctly in Action-based Text fields
• Fixed: Objects spawned using the "Object: Add or remove" Action sometimes being inadvertently removed after skipping a cutscene

Speech

• Added: Ability to set custom keys for speech lines when using Addressables
• Fixed: Custom audio filenames defined in the Speech Manager not being used at runtime
• Fixed: Text export wizard's "No lines with translations?" option having the opposite effect

Cameras

• Added: "Camera: Check active" Action - use to check the currently-active GameCamera
• Added: Option for GameCameras and GameCamera 2Ds to update while the game is paused
• Changed: The behaviour of GameCamera and GameCamera 2D "Follow speed" fields have been adjusted, and are now represented by a slider

Conversations

• Added: The automatic running of a Conversation's dialogue options when clicked in a Menu is now optional
• Fixed: OnStartConversation and OnEndConversation custom events not always firing at the correct time
• Changed: If a Conversation's options are overridden, the OnEndConversation custom event is now fired the moment an option is chosen

Events

• Added: "Draggable: Snap" event to the Events Editor
• Added: Ability to generate Events in the editor by script
• Added: OnActiveInputFire custom event - called whenever an Active Input is triggered
• Changed: The "Scene: Change: After" event's "Due to loading save file?" Toggle field has been changed to a PopUp

Variables

• Added: Ability for individual variables to ignore preset values
• Fixed: Error when attempting to use the "Variable: Check" Action to compare an empty GameObject value

Save games

• Added: Option to avoid loading Menu data with the "Save: Save or load" Action's "Selective load?" option
• Changed: Save-game screenshots are now compressed when loaded into memory
• Fixed: Memory leak when overwriting save-game screenshots

Misc

• Added: "Survive scene changes" component - when attached to a GameObject, the GameObject will be moved to the Hierarchy's "DontDestroyOnLoad" scene
• Fixed: Sound objects that survive scene changes sometimes being deleted incorrectly upon re-opening its original scene
• Fixed: Simulated input ignored if input is overridden through delegates
• Fixed: Triggers set to detect via Transform Position not accounting for their own rotation

CamperJohn

Big update...looks great...thanks for all that you do.

MAC

Man, what an update. Not only the much needed feature for having custom names for addressables is in it, but I recently thought about asking for an Action that let's you check which camera is currently active and it's in there, too.
And you have no idea how much the "Ignore presets" checkbox just saved my life. It's almost like you read my mind. Thank you very much for this one. Basically every AC update is a gift, but this one especially.

ChrisIceBox

A few issues slipped through the cracks, a hotfix to address them:

Version 1.79.1:

• Fixed: "Object: Animate" Actions in ActionList asset files breaking the ActionList Editor window
• Fixed: Error viewing save data in the Save-File Manager when "Compress save files?" is checked
• Fixed: Incorrect character placement when the "Character: Move along path" Action is skipped
• Fixed: NavMesh Agent Integration component causing a rotation issue
• Fixed: "Sprites 2D Toolkit" remaining as an "Animation engine" option despite being deprecated

acai

Thank you so much for the update! There are so many amazing new features, and I'm especially excited about the New Sub Objective feature.

monotonic

Excellent work, Chris!

The subobjectives look very interesting indeed, they seem simple enough on the surface but open up some quite interesting and complex behaviours.

First things first, how do I make some free time between fighting to keep the lights on and sleep.