Version 1.82 - New Character wizard, GameCamera Array, Title menu template

ChrisIceBox

This update continues the focus on Editor UX improvements, with updates to the Character wizard, Scene Managers, and the Templates system. Main features:

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.

ChrisIceBox

And the full changelog:

Upgrade notes

• The SaveSystem and iSaveFileHandler scripts now use callbacks for their GatherSaves and GatherImportFiles functions
• The Walk and Run AudioClip fields have been removed from the Player and NPC components - footstep audio should now be played through the Footstep Sounds component

Editor

• Added: Visual tweaks to the Scene Manager's "Scene prefabs" panel
• Added: Ability for the Character Wizard to generate Animator controllers for 2D characters, with empty placeholder states
• Added: Auto-create buttons beside the Settings Manager's Player fields, which use the Character Wizard to generate and assign a Player prefab
• Added: Action float fields now also accept Integer parameters
• Added: Auto-create buttons for Drag Track Snap regions "On snap" ActionLists
• Changed: The Scene Manager's "Existing objects" dropdown has been removed from the main window, and is now accessed by right-clicking a scene prefab button
• Changed: Descriptions for scene prefabs are now shown via tooltips in the Scene Manager
• Changed: The GameCamera and GameCamera 2D prefabs are now listed as "Standard" cameras in the Scene Manager
• Changed: The Tint Map and Collision Cylinder prefabs have been removed from the Scene Manager - though existing instances will still work as before
• Changed: The Character Wizard has been removed from the top toolbar, and moved to separate Player and NPC buttons in the Scene Manager's Prefabs panel
• Changed: The Character Wizard has been revamped with more clear options and descriptions
• Changed: The "Left-click deselects item" inventory setting has been changed from a toggle to a popup field

Cameras

• Added: Option for GameCameras to rely a Box Collider component for its positional constraints
• Added: GameCamera Array camera type - use to move a camera by interpolating the positions of child cameras

Objectives

• Added: The "Objective: Set state" Action's "Set to state" field now supports parameters
• Added: Ability to override an Objective's texture based on the current state

Interactions

• Added: "Unhandled interaction" fields are now visible when using the Custom Script interaction method
• Added: Ability for the selected inventory item to automatically switch to "Give" mode if the currently-selected Hotspot supports it
• Fixed: Hotspot icons remaining visible after disabling the Interaction system
• Fixed: Hotspots sometimes de-selecting upon clicking when not using cursor-based movement methods

Inventory

• Added: Option for left-clicking to deselect the active Inventory item only if the cursor is not over a Menu
• Added: Context Sensitive interaction mode now supports "Give" Inventory interactions when working with NPC Hotspots
• Added: Ability to use a Hotspot's "Unhandled inventory" interaction's "Player action" settings for the global "Use on Hotspot" unhandled event if no Interaction is assigned

Templates

• Added: "Title screen" template - adds a Title menu and scene, providing New Game and Continue buttons, as well as access to the existing Load and Options menus
• Changed: The 3D Sample Scene now uses the GameCamera Array camera type as its default camera
• Fixed: Collision issue with the Exit Hotspot in the 2D Sample Scene
• Fixed: Issues with inventory items in the Nine Verbs template
• Fixed: Sample scenes not having Constant ID components attached to their navigation cameras

Input

• Fixed: Active Inputs of the type "Axis" not triggering if the detected input value matches the threshold exactly
• Fixed: New Game Wizard sometimes not generating the default interface's Active Input correctly

Speech

• Added: Ability to force - through script - a character into "talking" mode, so that they can play talk animations with external dialogue systems
• Added: Option for "Dialogue: Play speech" Actions to directly reference Localization table entries, including Metadata for audio and lipsync files
• Fixed: Error messages appearing in the Console after running the Speech Manager's "Gather text" process in Unity 6

Menus

• Added: Ability for Unity UI-based Input fields to be linked to a Button element when text is submitted
• Added: Option the Auto-correct UI Dimensions component to account for the screen's safe area, regardless of the global setting
• Changed: If a Unity UI-linked Button element has no Label text, it will no longer update the associated Text component
• Changed: If a Unity UI-linked Graphic element has no texture, it will no longer update the associated Image or Raw Image component
• Changed: Minor tweaks to the default UI interface
• Fixed: Toggle element's "ActionList on click" running when its value is changed, as opposed to only when the user clicks it
• Fixed: Text entered in the "Menu: Update content" Action not being included in translations
• Fixed: Interaction menus sometimes not turning off correctly when in first-person
• Fixed: "Walk prefix" label showing when over Menus or while the game is paused
• Fixed: Menus sometimes becoming incorrectly positioned upon re-focusing the game window

Save games

• Added: Ability for the "Save: Save or load" and "Save: Manage save" Actions to reference saves by a Global Variable that represents the Save ID number
• Added: OnGatherSaves custom event - use to customise the ordering of save game files in Menus through script
• Added: The "Auto-add Save components to GameObjects" operation can now include the active scene even if it isn't currently listed in the Build Settings
• Changed: The SaveSystem and iSaveFileHandler scripts now use callbacks for their GatherSaves and GatherImportFiles functions
• Fixed: Autosaves not having their timestamp recorded

Misc

• Added: Events declared in the Event Runner component can now run in-scene Cutscenes, as opposed to ActionList asset files
• Added: The "Object: Transform" Action's "Copy Marker" method can now optionally affect position, rotation and scale values individually
• Added: Performance improvements to scenes that contain many Highlight components
• Added: Option for the "Scene: Switch" Action to bypass loading screens, if enabled
• Changed: The "Remember Visibility" component's "Save colour/alpha?" option is now available when attached to Sprite Fader components
• Changed: The Walk and Run AudioClip fields have been removed from the Player and NPC components - footstep audio should now be played through the Footstep Sounds component
• Fixed: Input issues if the EndCutscene input is mapped to the left mouse button
• Fixed: AC Button "Click textures" sometimes not showing if clicking them results in its Menu being modified
• Fixed: Console warnings in Unity 6
• Fixed: Issues with the Unity UI Cursor component's "Item count Text" field
• Fixed: Linked variables not updating their linked values when changed manually in the Variables Manager at runtime

TaleHammer

Saving broke after the update, I'm using Unity 6

ChrisIceBox

@TaleHammer Can you share a shot of your Settings Manager?

TaleHammer

I was using "Save using separate thread" which I think caused this error

ChrisIceBox

Version 1.82.1:

• Fixed: Issue when saving in a separate thread in v1.82.0
• Fixed: Display issue with Unity UI-based Interaction elements

shredingskin

Hi, since updating I have this error:

Assets/AdventureCreator/Scripts/Animation/AnimEngine_Sprites2DToolkit.cs(292,19): error CS0122: 'Char.walkSound' is inaccessible due to its protection level

Any ideas what this can be ?

ChrisIceBox

It's from the Sprites 2D Toolkit integration, which is no longer supported and not included in AC's source code any more.

Deleting the AnimEngine_Sprites2DToolkit script should resolve this.

mikdog

Hi Chris, thanks. I'd like to use a Splash Screen but started my game before it was part of the setup package. May I ask the best way to do this retroactively please? Would it be creating a 2D scene, and then adding this as the scene manager?

Also, I'd like to try TextMesh Pro as I have the 'Super Text Mesh' plugin, I see there's a folder for TMP, may I ask please the best way to see these examples?

ChrisIceBox

Back up your project first, but you can use the New Game Wizard's "Modify existing" option to install these Templates to an existing game.

mikdog

Thank you

acai

I deleted the AnimEngine_Sprites2DToolkit file, and now I'm getting the following error messages:

Assets/a_ULTIMATE01/SCRIPTS/_Spine2D_to_Integrated_with_AdventureCreator/AnimEngine_Spine.cs(391,19): error CS1061: 'Char' does not contain a definition for 'walkSound' and no accessible extension method 'walkSound' accepting a first argument of type 'Char' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

https://imgur.com/a/20bkV1E

Could you help me resolve this issue? I'm working on a 2D game using Spine2D. Thank you so much!

ChrisIceBox

Remove this code block from the AnimEngine_Spine script:

if (action.changeSound)
{
    if (action.standard == AnimStandard.Walk)
    {
        if (action.newSound != null)
        {
            character.walkSound = action.newSound;
        }
        else
        {
            character.walkSound = null;
        }
    }
    else if (action.standard == AnimStandard.Run)
    {
        if (action.newSound != null)
        {
            character.runSound = action.newSound;
        }
        else
        {
            character.runSound = null;
        }
    }
}

acai

Thank you so much for your prompt response - it resolved the issues! And thank you again for the update! Every feature of Adventure Creator is so beautifully designed. I'll take some time to explore the new features and learn more. Thanks again!