Can't see my tint map (screenshot included)

icanzilb

I followed http://www.adventurecreator.org/tutorials/working-tint-maps but the UI in Unity (latest version) on my computer doesn't look exactly like the images in the tutorial - and I'm effectively stuck.

Here's where I am right now: https://www.dropbox.com/s/eld8vbergi75b40/tint-map.png?dl=0

1) The tutorial says to set the texture to "Advanced" but I've no option like that - there's a section below called Advanced, and I've checked read/write (and applied the settings as per the screenshot)

2) created a tint map, but I don't see it when added to the scene - it just looks like a gray box and I can't position it at the desired location

I'm wondering what's the issue in my case ... what can I try to figure out a solution?

ChrisIceBox

Welcome to the community, @icanzilb.

The Texture type should be set to Default in the latest version, with Read/write enabled checked.  I shall update the tutorial's wording soon.

Be aware that the tint map itself may not be visible during gameplay depending on your scene graphics and state of the component's Disable mesh renderer? setting.  It will only affect sprites that have the "Follow Tint Map" component.

icanzilb

Unfortunately that still doesn't work for me - as per my original screenshot the tint map shows like a white square in the scene editor and I can't overlay it correctly over the scene set

ChrisIceBox

What about during gameplay?  The Tint Map will only change in appearance once the game is running, not while still in Unity's "Edit mode".  Please show us what the Tint Map looks like during gameplay, as well as its Inspector.

How do you mean that you can't overlay it?  Are you not able to resize it, or are other images appearing in front of it?  Again, the tint map is intended to be an invisible affector of your sprites that have "Follow Tint Map" attached, rather than something is actually visible to users.

So that we can narrow the source of the problem, please try the tint image provided in the tutorial.  My own Inspector looks like this: http://imgur.com/a/ewqbb

icanzilb

Hi Chris, thanks about trying to help with this one

So here's (hopefully) answers to everything you asked:

1) using the tint image from your tutorial here's the shot of the inspector of the texture: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4dl8qairfqypy8e/tint.png?dl=0

2) then I create a tint-map component in my scene and assign the texture to it, here's the inspector of the map object: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yxy5w0ljjrdx2nx/tint-scene.png?dl=0

What I was referring to earlier is that the map object as placed in the scene appears as a white/silver rectangle - I cannot see the actual map image and I can't overlay it (or position it over) the scene set so that I know where the shadows will be during gameplay. Am I wrong to expect to be able to see the map texture in the scene during design time? If it should never be visible - should I just position it in the scene by trial and error? 

3) Next I set the my player to follow the tint map - here's a shot of the player's inspector (the tint map is set as the scene's default tint map): https://www.dropbox.com/s/7mmizpj02tc7qjo/tint-follow.png?dl=0

4) Finally when I run the game I can't tell where the tint map is (which is the expected behavior) but also my player doesn't change its tint as he walks where supposedly should be shadows: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5vdahcqb7at9p19/tint-gameplay.png?dl=0 (including the inspector of the tint map during gameplay)

It feels like I do everything as in the tutorial, but it might be something I miss as well ... If you spot anything, please let me know, thanks so much for your time.

ChrisIceBox

All certainly looks fine, at least so far as following the tutorial goes.  It may be an issue with the player then, in that case - you can see that the Tint Map's material is correct in last shot.

What is your player sprite's Material / Shader?  Here are a couple of things to try:

1. Uncheck Use scene default Tint Map? in their FollowTintMap Inspector, and assign the Tint Map manually in the field that appears.
2. Override your player by placing in the 2D Demo game's player character, Brain2D, into the scene outside of runtime.  Add the FollowTintMap component to his sprite and run the scene - is he affected?  The prefab can be found in /Assets/AdventureCreator/2D Demo/Resources

If those have no effect, you may have to PM me the scene file - but let's see the results of those first.

Regarding how to correctly place the Tint Map, you can do this at runtime if Disable mesh renderer? is unchecked.  The TintMap's effect will update as you reposition/resize it in the Scene view when the game is running - when it looks correct, you can then just copy the Transform component and paste over it when the game is stopped.

icanzilb

Awfully sorry, I got carried away with other features - I'll come back to this asap. Thanks again for trying to help