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Version 1.43 - New tutorials, Speech Manager upgrade and all-round refinements

edited March 2015 in Official news
Another month, another update.  This one is less of a "big feature" upgrade, and more of a "let's make this one the most stable and bug-free release yet".  That said, there's bound to be something useful in here regardless of what you're working on.

My fingers are crossed there are no teething problems, but please alert me if anything crops up.  And as always, back up before upgrading.

Ultimate FPS
Ultimate FPS has come on leaps and bounds over the past few months, and recent updates have also made it possible for a much more reliable integration with AC.  v1.43 requires that you use UFPS v1.4.9 or later, and you'll have to adjust your Player prefabs to suit the code changes - but the process of creating an AC/UFPS player prefab is now incredibly simple.  See this tutorial for full instructions, or just download the updated ready-made prefabs to make use of right away.

Tutorial videos
With AC's rapid development and changes over the past months, tutorials have been nearly all text-based so that they can be updated.  But now that AC's reaching a point of maturity, it's high time it got some new video tutorials to guide people through the process of creating a game from scratch.  So, grab a beverage and make yourself comfy - you've got FIVE HOURS of training to enjoy:

Creating a 2D game
With a running time of 90 minutes, this back-to-basics tutorial covers all the essentials needed to make a 2D game.  Navigation, Hotspots, NPCs, Inventory, Variables and more are all covered in detail, so even if you're more interested in 3D, this is a good place to start.

Creating a 3D game
Weighing in at over three-and-a-half hours, this more advanced tutorial goes beyond the basic workflow to cover some of the more complex features of AC.  Make use of parameters, Active inputs, lip-syncing and custom UIs to build a fun game designed especially for the video.  Get all you need by downloading the Evil Lair asset files!  (Note: currently, the assets are intended for Unity 5.)


Speech Manager improvements
The somewhat-neglected Speech Manager has been given some much-need attention, and has some handy new features for voiced and/or multi-language games.  Gathered text can now be filtered by type, scene or description, and each line can be selected to bring up info like translations and expected audio filenames.

Unity 5
AC now has an official Unity 5 release, and Unity 5 users (and Unity 4 Pro) can now take advantage of a few extra features.  If your Characters are Humanoid Mecanim types, you can rely on automatic IK head-turning.  And the new "Engine: Play movie clip" does what you'd expect - though frankly it was just an excuse to have a script file called "ActionMovie"..

Full changelog follows.
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Comments

  • edited March 2015
    Upgrade notes
    • The method for integrating with UFPS has been simplified, but player prefabs will need to be modified.  Please read the manual's section 2.7.
    • ActionList- and Sound-related Actions are now placed in their own categories, rather than Engine
    • Actions now have a “category” enum - until it is set, all custom Actions will be categorised as Custom
    • “Close interactions with” options in the Settings Manager have been renamed - please check your settings are correct
    • Adventure Creator no longer requires that any Tags be defined during installation
    Speech
    • Added: Text listed in the Speech Manager can be clicked on to display properties such as filenames and translations
    • Added: Ability to give descriptions to game text listed in Speech Manager
    • Added: Option to place speech audio files in subfolders based on the name of the speaking character
    • Added: Ability to reduce SFX and Music volume while Speech audio plays - set in Speech Manager
    • Added: Support for SALSA 2D lipsyncing (crazyminnowstudio.com)
    • Added: “wait” tokens used by speech lines can now take decimal values as a wait time
    • Added: Escape sequence “\n” is now treated as a line break when used in speech text
    • Added: Ability to call a custom script function when a Conversation’s Dialogue Option is chosen
    • Changed: Lines listed in Speech Manager are now viewed by filtering by text, type and scene
    • Fixed: Speech Manager crashing when “Gather lines” searches two ActionList assets that both reference each other
    • Fixed: “Reset text” button in Speech Manager not clearing all text found in ActionList assets
    • Fixed: Duplicated speech lines being listed twice in Speech Manager
    • Fixed: Expected speech audio filenames are now sanitised (special characters are now replaced with an underscore)
    • Fixed: Character phoneme options showing in Inspector even when LipSyncing is disabled
    Actions
    • Added: “Engine: Play movie clip” Action - use to play movie clips (Unity 5 or Unity 4 Pro only)
    • Added: “ActionList: Kill” Action
    • Added: “Sound: Change volume” Action
    • Added: Actions Manager window can now used to manage Actions when platform is Web Player
    • Added: Buttons to Actions Manager to search current scene or entire project for instances of each Action Type
    • Added: Actions listed in the Actions Manager can be clicked on to display properties such as filenames and descriptions
    • Added: “Character: Hold object” Action now instantiates the object to hold if it is not present to begin with
    • Added: Parameters to “Moveable: Check track position” Action
    • Changed: ActionList- and Sound-related Actions are now placed in their own categories, rather than Engine
    • Changed: Parameter fields in Actions are now denoted by an “->” arrow, rather than bold text
    • Changed: To prevent ActionLists from breaking, Action types can no longer be disabled in the Actions Manager
    First Person
    • Added: Option to UFPS games to only allow interacting when the cursor is unlocked
    • Added: Much improved workflow for converting Ultimate FPS Players to AC
    • Changed: If a UFPS movement is exited and returned to later, the cusor becomes the game's initial state
    • Fixed: Multiple issues with Ultimate FPS integration
    Characters
    • Added: Option for Humanoid Mecanim characters to use IK head turning (Unity 4 Pro / Unity 5 only)
    • Added: When pathfinding in Unity 2D mode, characters will attempt to move around each other
    • Added: Warning message if the user adds the Char script component onto an object, rather than Player or NPC
    • Changed: The Paths component is now automatically added to new NPCs and Player components
    • Fixed: Various issues with Sorting Maps
    • Fixed: Minor issues with 2D pathfinding
  • Menus
    • Added: When the New Game Wizard is used to create a game with the default Unity UI, the UI Canvases are copied across
    • Added: Unity UI-based Menus will attempt to remain within screen-space if they are not rendered in World Space
    • Changed: “Close interactions with” option “Cursor Leaves Menu” has been renamed to “Cursor Leaves Menu Or Hotspot”
    • Fixed: Interaction Menus occasionally remaining on when the Hotspot they reference is disabled
    • Fixed: “Menu” button not working on OUYA platform
    • Fixed: Display issues with default Unity UI Save and Load Menus
    • Fixed: Interaction Menu not always transitioning out before re-appearing over a new Hotspot
    • Fixed: Per-character subtitle colours not working for Unity UI-based Subtitle menus
    • Fixed: Error when clicking an empty slot within a container
    2.5D mode
    • Added: Button to 2.5D GameCamera Inspector that creates and assigns a Background Image
    • Fixed: Background Images used in 2.5D games not obeying aspect ratio as set in Settings Manager
    • Fixed: Background Images not being placed in correct scene folder by Scene Manager
    Player control
    • Added: “InteractionA” and “InteractionB” input buttons are now available for “Mouse And Keyboard” input mode
    • Added: “Cursor Leaves Menu” option to “Close interactions with” option for Choose Hotspot Then Interaction games
    • Added: When single-clicking is enabled for “Straight To Cursor” movement, the player can optionally pathfind
    • Fixed: “Input: Check” Action not detecting simulated Input from Menu Buttons
    • Fixed: Walk cursors set to only appear over NavMesh also appearing over other Colliders
    • Fixed: Quick Time Events not working with simulated input
    Hotspots
    • Fixed: Hotspots occasionally highlighting even when turned off
    • Added: Option for Highlight component to affect child objects as well (on by default)
    Editor
    • Added: If a GameObject parameter is set when calling an ActionList asset, a Constant ID number is automatically generated
    • Changed: Tags are no longer used, and none are required to be defined when installing AC
    • Changed: “Refresh list” in Actions Manager has been removed, as Actions are now gathered automatically
    • Fixed: Certain Editor elements being difficult to see in Unity 5
    • Fixed: “Engine: Run in parallel” Action’s outputs not showing in ActionList asset’s Inspector
    • Fixed: Actions inserted or pasted using the ActionList Editor window toolbar not always appearing in-view
    • Fixed: Action fields referencing prefabs sometimes becoming unset if viewed when the prefab is deleted or instantiated
    • Fixed: Display issue with “Engine: Change timescale” Action when a time curve is used
    Saving
    • Added: Ability to import global variables from another game’s save file using SaveList menu element
    • Fixed: Not being able to implement more than one custom save hook for global data
    Animation
    • Fixed: Shapeable script being overriden by Mecanim animations
    • Fixed: Animation Actions not always skipping correctly when affecting Mecanim-based objects and characters
    Other
    • Added: Changes in movement method using “Engine: Manage systems” Action is now stored in save game files
    • Fixed: Cursor not showing over Hotspots in rare instances
    • Fixed: Hidden cursors not always appearing after being unlocked
    • Fixed: Occasional slowdown when loading collider-intensive scenes in Unity 4
    • Fixed: Errors when a loading scene is used but no Player prefab is defined
    • Fixed: 2D GameCameras not always being Orthographic by default
    • Fixed: “Object: Visibility” Action and RememberVisibility script only affecting immediate children, not all
    • Fixed: Depth of Field values set by GameCamera being incorrect when a target is set
    • Fixed: Errors with crafting when more than the required Inventory Items are placed in a Crafting Element
    • Fixed: If a pausing Menu is closed when the Player is moving to a Hotspot, the Cutscene ends
  • image

    So many great new feature's and fixes! Bravo!
  • I'm the only one that does a little dance when I see AC being updated ?

    Thank you a lot.

    PS. recently noted the Shenmue image at the QTE tutorial, best game ever, best asset ever.
  • edited March 2015
    It's working great so far, bravo. One little thing I've found. When I choose Character: Hold Object, all of the other actions below disappear in the Inspector. When I toggle the arrow closed, they show up all collapsed. Then, when I hit the arrow to expand them all, they disappear again.
  • Great! Thanks for the update, can't wait for test it. It seems impressive! :)
  • edited March 2015
    You're welcome, thanks.

    @ThatNorthridge: Finally, I'm the recipent of that gif!

    @shredingskin: I agree, though I was only ever able to get my hands on the sequel.  If I ever visit Hong Kong I'll be disappointed if nobody knows what Lucky Hit is.

    @joshuabogart: I don't understand - the other Actions in the list disappear completely?  Is this in the Inspector or Editor window?  Sounds serious.
  • And the gargantuan 3D tutorial is out!
  • Hi Chris,
    I updated my project to 1.43.
    I'm walking through all AC sheets to see if all is working ok.
    Some things I found so this could help others upgrading:
    * Install and Import overwriting 1.42c was the best way to upgrade
    * I had to add two new Input Buttons (Submit and Cancel) and recreate Jump axis
    * I had to reload my managers
    * I had to assign my character again since tin pot was reassigned

    My actual problem:
    * In Speech Sheet I tried reset test since I don't have at this time many work here and gather all text, but this is the error showing (5 times in console):

    Unsupported type Generic Mono
    UnityEditor.EditorApplication:SaveScene()
    AC.SpeechManager:GetLinesInScene(String, Boolean) (at Assets/AdventureCreator/Scripts/Managers/SpeechManager.cs:1046)
    AC.SpeechManager:PopulateList() (at Assets/AdventureCreator/Scripts/Managers/SpeechManager.cs:385)
    AC.SpeechManager:ShowGUI() (at Assets/AdventureCreator/Scripts/Managers/SpeechManager.cs:180)
    AdventureCreator:OnGUI() (at Assets/AdventureCreator/Scripts/Managers/Editor/AdventureCreator.cs:220)
    UnityEditor.DockArea:OnGUI()

    Do you know what could be this?

    Thanks


  • Another thing,
    I has FramerateCounter (from Unity3d standard assets) on my scene.
    Before upgrading it was showing about 30 FPS.
    Now is 18 FPS
    So it seems there's a downgrade in the overall performance, isn't it
    Chris, could you comment on this? you notice that it could be some leak that make performance donwgrade?

    thanks
  • edited March 2015
    I get the same error, but so far as I can tell it doesn't affect the gather process.  The line of code causing the error simply saves the scene - it may be a Unity bug, but I don't believe it's a problem.

    So far as the Submit and Cancel buttons go, I removed them because they aren't AC-specific.  Do you need them for something else?  It's possible to opt out of overwriting your Inputs and References file (the one that stores the active managers) when upgrading to make the process easier.
  • Sounds awesome! Before this came out I was planning to first upgrade my AC 1.40 in Unity 4.6.3 before moving the project over to Unity 5, is that still the best way to go for this release too? 
  • I'm really enjoying the adventure creator feature movie.
  • @hedgefield: I've only ever tested from release to release - never skipping any.  The main thing is that you keep in mind the upgrade notes for each one, which assume you're upgrading from the previous release.  Just back it up, first.

    @shredingskin: Thanks! You mean the trailer?
  • I meant the hollywood adventure creator 3 hour feature film xD
  • Hah, yeah, it's a bit of a beast.  Never figured the longest film I'd make would be a tutorial.
  • Amazing release and two handed high-fives for the MONSTER video tuts. Huge effort, much appreciation.
  • Wow! This is a great news!!
  • @ChrisIceBox: gave it a try and everything went fine! Upgraded AC first then imported into Unity 5 and no errors. Looking forward to catching up ;)
  • Thanks for these improvements :)
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