Version 1.81 - Improved footstep sounds, attachment points, ActionList improvements, animated cursor

ChrisIceBox

A mid-sized update that focuses on more useability improvements to the Editor, and build upon some of the features introduced in v1.80. Key features:

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.

ChrisIceBox

Upgrade notes

• The Scene Manager's "On variable change" Cutscene has been removed - replaced by the Event runner component's "Event / Change" events
• The Footstep Sounds component, and "Sound: Change footstep sounds" Action, have been updated to rely on the new Surfaces system - AudioClips will need to be re- Assigned
• The OnCharacterHoldObject and OnCharacterDropObject events now take the attachment point's ID number as their third parameter
• The Scene Manager's "On variable change" Cutscene has been removed - replaced by the Event runner component's "Event / Change" events
• Save-game data now uses Invariant culture by default - for compatibility with older saves in non-English systems, this may need disabling in the Settings Manager

Characters

• Added: Ability to define additional "attachment points" for a character to hold objects with using the "Character: Hold object" Action
• Added: Option for 2D characters to evade one another by pushing, as opposed to carving holes in the NavMesh
• Added: The Player stopping when a Hotspot interaction is set to "Do Nothing" is now optional
• Changed: The OnCharacterHoldObject and OnCharacterDropObject events now take the attachment point's ID number as their third parameter
• Fixed: PlayerStart objects with no previous scene data not being referenced when using the "Player: Teleport inactive" Action if the Player has no previous scene

Footsteps

• Added: Surfaces editor - use to define Surfaces, which store footstep sounds that can be played when a character moves
• Added: The Footstep Sounds component can now auto-detect which sounds to play, based on the naming convention of the Physic Material of the Collider being stepped on
• Added: OnRequestFootstepSound event - called when a character is about to play a footstep sound, allowing it to be altered with custom scripting
• Changed: The Footstep Sounds component, and "Sound: Change footstep sounds" Action, have been updated to rely on the new Surfaces system - AudioClips will need to be re- Assigned

Demo

• Changed: The 3D Demo's models now use Shadeless materials, for cross- Compatibility with all render pipelines
• Fixed: Minor camera smoothing issues in the 3D Demo scene

ActionLists

• Added: Actions can now be grouped in the ActionList Editor window, which can then be named and coloured to help with logic organisation
• Added: The mouse cursor in the ActionList Editor window now changes icon based on the current drag mode, to make its function more clear
• Added: ActionList fields in the AC Game Editor window now have buttons beside them to quickly edit them in the ActionList Editor window
• Added: Scene-based Actions can now reference GameObjects in other scenes, provided both are open at the same time
• Added: Option for Triggers that rely on ActionList assets to set local parameter values
• Changed: The Scene Manager's "On variable change" Cutscene has been removed - replaced by the Event runner component's "Event / Change" events
• Changed: Actions are no longer listed in the Inspector window by default
• Fixed: Conversations in nested ActionLists not running when its parent list is waiting for its completion

Templates

• Added: "Animated Cursor" template - adds some subtle animations to the cursor to quickly the interface some polish
• Fixed: Templates that involve custom Actions sometimes failing the installation process
• Fixed: Sample First-person Player prefab not crouching if the camera's "Head-bob method" is set to "Built In"

Menus

• Changed: The Menu property "Pause game when enabled?" has been renamed to "Pauses game?"
• Fixed: Remember components attached to Menu prefabs sometimes being registered multiple times
• Fixed: Text that relies on Localization not updating correctly when "Auto-sync Locale with Language?" is checked
• Fixed: Animated Graphic elements restarting when placed inside Inventory menus
• Fixed: "Right- Click active item" option not being respected while the cursor is over a Menu

Save games

• Added: Option to use Invariant culture for saving, which helps maintain save-game compatibility across different system languages
• Changed: Save-game data now uses Invariant culture by default - for compatibility with older saves in non-English systems, this may need disabling in the Settings Manager
• Fixed: SavesList elements set to save to a fixed slot ID not saving correctly if the intended slot is currently empty
• Fixed: Issue when saving if a game has Menus but no Elements within them

Editor

• Added: Ability for the Scene Manager to fire an event - assigned in its Inspector - when organising a scene, to allow for custom modification to the Hierarchy
• Fixed: Deprecation warnings in Unity 2023 / Unity 6

Misc

• Added: Option to the Remember Animator component to have the Animator's parameter values to be retained when disabled
• Added: "Inventory RawImage" field to the Unity UI Cursor component - when assigned, its Texture will be set to the currently-selected Inventory item
• Fixed: The ActionMovie script's CreateNew_Stop function not assigning the VideoPlayer parameter
• Fixed: The "Variable: Run sequence" Action's linked variable having the wrong value after being skipped
• Fixed: Narration text-scroll audio not respecting the "Speech scroll audio is" option to play from the Speech channel
• Fixed: Issues with the "Physics: Raycast" Action's "From Origin Forward" mode
• Fixed: "Compare with" field missing from the "Variable: Check" Action
• Fixed: Issues with additive scene loading using Addressables
• Fixed: Draggable movement on touch-screens being frame-rate dependent

TaleHammer

After updating Object: Send Message no longer finds the objects via ID.

I'm trying to affect objects from an actionlist asset here:

ChrisIceBox

Thanks for the alert, @Kisuarts. I've included a fix for this below:

Version 1.81.1:

• Fixed: Unity UI Cursor prefab getting duplicated when loading a save-file in the same scene
• Fixed: "Unity UI blocks interaction and movement?" option not being respected when deselecting Inventory items
• Fixed: ActionList assets not properly referencing scene objects in v1.81.0

TaleHammer

It's still throwing these errors for me when using actionlist assets with parameters, not sure what's up with that.

ChrisIceBox

It's a separate issue - thanks for the report. I will see this gets addressed swiftly.

ChrisIceBox

Version 1.81.2:

• Fixed: "Third Party: Playmaker" Action not exposing its "Event name" field in its UI in v1.81.0
• Fixed: Issues with the "ActionList: Run" Action in v1.81.0

SpecificImpulse

I'm getting a compiler error after upgrading to 1.81.2:

"Assets\AdventureCreator\Scripts\Save system\RememberAnimator.cs(49,33): error CS1061: 'Animator' does not contain a definition for 'keepAnimatorStateOnDisable' and no accessible extension method 'keepAnimatorStateOnDisable' accepting a first argument of type 'Animator' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)"

I'm running Unity 2021.3.5f1.

ChrisIceBox

Thanks for the details. To fix: open up RememberAnimator, and change UNITY_2021_3_OR_NEWER to UNITY_2022_3_OR_NEWER.

Edit: Updating to the latest 2021.3 LTS release should also address it.

SpecificImpulse

Fix verified! Much better solution than mine, which was "comment out code block".

Magnus

I'm getting some compiler errors after upgrading to 1.81.2, one being:

Assets\Scripts\AutoSetFootstepSounds.cs(66,32): error CS1061: 'FootstepSounds' does not contain a definition for 'footstepSounds' and no accessible extension method 'footstepSounds' accepting a first argument of type 'FootstepSounds' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

I also include a screenshot of some of my First Person Player prefab objects:
https://imgur.com/a/IrhaaGC

I have used the AutoSetFootstepSounds from the AC wiki page so not sure if this affects the new setup. I've also added some things to the FP Crouch script.
I tried removing the AutoSetFootstepSounds but got heaps (15+) compiler errors all refering to the "Player" script.

UNITY 2021.3.8f1

// Magnus

Magnus

Ok, I disabled the AutoSetFootstepSounds and now it works. I still cannot get the correct footstep to play based on the PhysicsMaterial (e.g. Footsteps_Grass) for the Surface with a Label "Grass", or rather, the Sound child will always play the sound for the surface with an ID of 0.

ChrisIceBox

I have used the AutoSetFootstepSounds from the AC wiki page so not sure if this affects the new setup. I've also added some things to the FP Crouch script.

The updated Footstep Sounds workflow replaces the AC wiki script - I'll add a mention of this to the page, thanks for the alert.

I still cannot get the correct footstep to play based on the PhysicsMaterial (e.g. Footsteps_Grass) for the Surface with a Label "Grass", or rather, the Sound child will always play the sound for the surface with an ID of 0.

I'll attempt a recreation. Could you create a new thread with screenshots that show the setup?

ChrisIceBox

Version 1.81.3:

• Added: Message box to the Cursor Manager if a Unity UI Cursor is assigned that does not automatically change its appearance
• Added: Functions to the MenuInventoryBox script to get the slot index occupied by a given Objective or Document
• Changed: The Player Land component's "Height Threshold" field has been relaced with "Fall Threshold"
• Changed: The 3D Sample Player's Land animation now always plays by default
• Fixed: DialogList element's "Mark options already used?" property sometimes not being read in Unity UI-based menus
• Fixed: "World Space Cursor Example" component not working when "Use AC Cursor" is checked
• Fixed: Script compilation error in Unity 2021.3
• Fixed: Unity UI Cursor component directly referencing Unity's Input Manager
• Fixed: Footstep sound raycasts not originating from the character's position, if assigned
• Fixed: Conversations not running correctly if they are re-run immediately with an "ActionList: Run in parallel" Action
• Fixed: Issue loading XML saves made before 1.81.0
• Fixed: AC Menus set to appear "During Gameplay" sometimes displaying in between a fade-out and a scene change
• Fixed: Drag Track snap region ActionLists sometimes not running when a Draggable reaches its vicinity

ChrisIceBox

Version 1.81.4:

• Added: "Inventory / Hover" event to the Events Editor
• Fixed: Issues with Inventory item selection if Unity UI menus are used in combination with the "Left click deselects active item?" option

RobinsonSandi

Hi, I had updated to this new version with a project from previous AC versions and there were some problems but I have already resolved them.

RobinsonSandi

Hi Cris. I have another problem now, an almost finished game that was made in Ac version 1.79.2. In the unity version 2020.3.45 I made a backup copy of the game and imported it into another project to be safe for unity of the same version, when today I updated to the AC 1.81.2 version, 10 errors appeared. What version of unity is this latest AC update for? I was unable to resolve the errors in this game. If it's because of the AC update, do you have version 1.79.2 for download?

RobinsonSandi

*48 errors

Assets\AdventureCreator\Scripts\Templates\TMPro\Editor\TMProTemplate.cs(206,24): error CS0115: 'TMProTemplate.IsExclusiveToCategory': no suitable method found to override

Assets\AdventureCreator\Scripts\Templates\TMPro\Editor\TMProTemplate.cs(205,23): error CS0115: 'TMProTemplate.OrderInCategory': no suitable method found to override

Assets\AdventureCreator\Scripts\Templates\TMPro\Editor\TMProTemplate.cs(204,19): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'TemplateCategory' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?) ...and others more

RobinsonSandi

I had to redownload the latest version of Ac and reinstall it again. The errors disappeared, however the triggers and colliders and all the gismos appear in the game scene and the skin on the player's bones became displaced and lost its animation or the animation no longer works... the Ik manager 2D in the new project had not been Even after installing Ik it didn't work anymore.

https://uploaddeimagens.com.br/imagens/18AnMV8

ChrisIceBox

*48 errors

The error messages suggest AC was only partially imported - you'll need to import all of AC (especially its Scripts folder) when updating.

however the triggers and colliders and all the gismos appear in the game scene

This is a case of the Game window's "Gizmos" button being enabled - expand the Game window to reveal it (in the upper-right corner) and disable it to hide gizmos.

the skin on the player's bones became displaced and lost its animation or the animation no longer works... the Ik manager 2D in the new project had not been Even after installing Ik it didn't work anymore.

Share more details in a new thread, but I'm not sure how AC would be related here. Were you modifying any AC animations/prefabs as part of your own project?

stelabouras

Hey Chris!

Quick question regarding the removal of the Scene Manager's "On variable change" logic: What was the reason behind this change?

On one hand I can see how the "Event runner" component can be a good substitute, but on the other hand it looks like the "Event runner" component only supports ActionList Assets and not also ActionLists defined inside the Scene.

So in my case -where I was relying on the "On variable change" logic- do I need to implement some custom logic now instead?