Forum rules - please read before posting.

Version 1.61 - 2D head animations, menu navigation improvements and general fixes

This release has been in the testing stage for a while now, so the patience has been appreciated.  A fair number of "Upgrade notes" this time, so please take a few moments to go through them carefully.  The major features:

2D head animations
2D characters can now turn their head to face objects and Hotspots in the same way 3D characters can.  Those animated using "Sprites Unity" mode can also play talking head animations independently from their body - allowing for walk and talk animations to play simultaneously.  These modifications are best shown by example, so a new downloadable package is available here.

Performance boost
I expect the boost won't be too noticeable, but AC is now more efficient at keeping track of scene objects that may result in faster load times in some cases.  Additionally, there's now no need for custom scripts to call the GatherObjects method when adding AC objects manually.  It's been tested thoroughly, but please let me know if this gives any unexpected behaviour.

Menu navigation improvements
The direct-navigation (i.e. with a keyboard, not the mouse cursor) of AC menus recieves an upgrdae, with the Horizontal/Vertical axes now navigating between elements in a more intuitive way.  The new Menu: Select element Action can also be used to enforce the selection of an element - useful when coming back through a series of sub-menus.

Variable linking
Global variables can now be linked to any custom asset via events.  Previously this was limited to options data and Playmaker, but synchronisation with any custom script is now possible.  The new "Variable Linking Example" component demonstrates how this can be achieved.

Comments

  • edited February 2018
    And the full changelog:

    Upgrade notes
    • When left-clicking a Hotspot with no Use interactions in Context Sensitive mode, the Player will move to the Hotspot's "Walk-to Marker" if one is defined
    • The _Camera script now has a Start function - any custom cameras that derive from it need to override it
    • When using the "Engine: Play movie clip" in WebGL, the video is now supplied via a URL
    • Changed: Calling StateHandler's GatherObjects function is no longer necessary after adding or removing objects from the scene via custom script
    2D characters
    • Added: Independent head-turning for 2D characters
    • Added: Sprites Unity-animated characters can opt to have their head animations played on a separate layer, allowing for independent moving and talking
    • Added: Ability to snap "Facing angle" parameter for Sprites Unity Complex characters to the nearest 45 or 90 degrees
    • Added: Ability to explicitly assign a Sprites Unity character's Animator if one is not present on the sprite child
    • Fixed: "Turn float" parameter for Sprites Unity Complex characters not being set correctly when walking
    • Fixed: Error with Sprites Unity-animated characters that have lip-syncing enabled but no Talk animation supplied
    • Fixed: Direct-controlled 2D characters sometimes not moving in correct direction after autosaving
    Menus
    • Added: Overhaul of direct-navigation of AC-menus - Horizontal and Vertical axes will now select the most natural element
    • Added: "Menu: Select element" Action - use to force the selection of elements in directly-navigated Menus
    • Added: Option to not update Label elements of type "Hotspot" while the player is moving to a Hotspot
    • Added: Ability to set a mouse-over cursor when interacting with Drag menu elements
    • Added: Ability for SavesList elements that loads a fixed slot to automatically hide if no valid save file is found
    • Changed: When directly-navigating an AC Slider menu element, the Horizontal axis is now used to change its value - not the InteractionA button
    • Fixed: Unity UI menus set to be positioned "On Hotspot" not respecting the Hotspot's "Centre-point override" if rendering in World Space
    • Fixed: Critical bug with Unity UI-based Menus and loading screens
    • Fixed: Crash if a Menu Label references a Global Variable that has been deleted
    • Fixed: Default SubtitlesUI menu prefab not allowing for dynamic positioning
    • Fixed: Display issues with SavesList elements that rely on a fixed save ID
    • Fixed: Unity UI-based menu hover sounds not always playing
    Speech
    • Added: Ability to define parameters for "DialogueOption" ActionLists, as used by Conversations
    • Added: Option to not play character talking animations forever if a speech line is set to display until the user skips it
    • Added: Ability to re-order translations listed in the Speech Manager
    • Added: Minor cosmetic improvements to Speech Manager's popup windows
    • Fixed: Issue with line endings when exporting game text depending on platform
    • Fixed: Lipsync text assets sometimes not processing correctly depending on platform
    • Fixed: Minor UI issues with the Speech Manager
    Navigation
    • Added: Minor visual improvements to "Retro-mode" character movement
    • Added: Improved interface when defining holes in a 2D Navigation Mesh
    • Added: Exposed shared-layer separation distance for Sorting Maps in GameEngine's SceneSettings component
    • Added: Warning message if no Default NavMesh assigned when using Point And Click movement
    • Fixed: Characters moving without pathfinding via the "Character: Move to point" Action being interrupted if the active NavMesh is changed
    • Fixed: 2D Characters sometimes being considered "off NavMesh" if they are placed exactly on the boundary of the NavMesh
    • Fixed: Footstep Sounds component playing sounds automatically even when set to play only via animation events
    • Fixed: Player jump animations not playing in Unity 2017.3
    Hotspots
    • Added: Ability to prevent Highlight component from working automatically when its associated Hotspot is selected
    • Added: "Via Script Only" option for Settings Manager's "Display Hotspot icons" field
    • Added: Manual chapter on the Highlight component
    • Changed: When left-clicking a Hotspot with no Use interactions in Context Sensitive mode, the Player will move to the Hotspot's "Walk-to Marker" if one is defined
    • Fixed: Calling a Highlight component's HighlightOnInstant method brightening materials even if auto-brightening is disabled
    Variables
    • Added: Ability to link global variables to custom scripts, to allow for third-party variable synchronisation
    • Added: "Variable Linking Example" script, to demonstrate how global variables can be synchronised with external scripts
    Input
    • Added: Ability for Active Inputs to respond to axis-based inputs (such as controller sticks)
    • Added: Function to PlayerInput script to check if the player is currently holding any Draggable or PickUp object
    • Changed: To prevent the game pausing, when expected inputs are undefined a warning is now thrown instead of an error
    • Fixed: InputGetFreeAimDelegate override for free-aiming not having an effect when using Touch Screen input
    Editor
    • Changed: If the "Movement method" is set to None, and no Player prefab is defined, a Default PlayerStart will no longer be automatically created when organising scene objects
    • Changed: The Scene Manager’s "Organise room objects" label has been renamed to "Organise scene objects" to better reflect its meaning
    • Changed: The "GUITexture" component has been removed from the Background Image prefab in the 2017.3 release, since it is no longer used
    • Fixed: Gizmos showing in Game window when testing 2.5D cameras in Unity 2017.3 or using "Unity UI" background display mode
    Other
    • Added: General performance improvements
    • Added: Asset license file to the 2D Demo's Graphics folder
    • Added: "ActionCheckMultipleTemplate" file - use as a basis for creating custom Actions with an arbitrary number of output sockets
    • Added: Messages to the console if AC if the TurnOnAC and TurnOffAC methods are successfully run
    • Changed: When using the "Engine: Play movie clip" in WebGL, the video is now supplied via a URL
    • Changed: Calling StateHandler's GatherObjects function is no longer necessary after adding or removing objects from the scene via custom script
    • Fixed: Conversation's "TurnOff" method turning off the active Conversation even if it is not the same as the one invoked
    • Fixed: Critical error if a custom "Check multiple" Action tries to follow an output socket that doesn’t exist
    • Fixed: Minor cursor display issues
  • "Variable linking
    Global variables can now be linked to any custom asset via events.  Previously this was limited to options data and Playmaker, but synchronisation with any custom script is now possible.  The new "Variable Linking Example" component demonstrates how this can be achieved."

    Noice
  • Thanks so much Chris for your hard works.Great update as usual
  • Great update! :)
  • As always,fantastic! 
  • Thanks for the drag cursor! :D
  • As always, thanks for the continued support!

    Btw, does the independent head animation in 2D means there is now an easy way to implement different talk animations using 'sprites unity' (e.g. talkAngry, talkHappy etc...)?
  • @Mutajon: In a way.  This was always possible with having such animations present in your Animator, and then using the Character: Animate Action to change the "talk animation name" so that it plays a different set instead.  This update allows for Sprites Unity to separate the body and head, so that the various "TalkAngry" , "TalkHappy" etc animations only include the head, while the body sprites/animations remain unchanged.
  • Thanks for the update.  It has made my walk through the tutorial much more enjoyable!
  • edited February 2018
    v1.61.1 makes a couple of tweaks and fixes.  Chief among them is the ability to prevent the root objects of 2D characters from rotating in 3D space.  This normally won't make much difference, but in Unity 5.6 and later, characters that rely on a Rigidbody 2D for movement will see more smooth motion.

    Version 1.61.1:

    Upgrade note
    • For sprite-based characters that move with a 2D Rigidbody in Unity 5.6 or newer, it is recommended to uncheck the new "Turn root object in 3D space" Inspector field
    Changelog
    • Added: Option to prevent 2D characters rotating in 3D space, which provides better results for those that move with 2D Rigidbody components
    • Changed: Reverted the last update's removal of a Default PlayerState if the "Movement method" is None, as this removes the Default Camera field
    • Fixed: "Variable: Check" Action UI sometimes breaking when comparing a Local variable with a Global variable
    • Fixed: "Turn instantly when under player control?" movement option interfering with player characters that rely on manual motion control
    • Fixed: Minor formatting issues with Manual
  • Version 1.61.2:
    • Fixed: Critical issue when switching scenes if both scenes rely on sprite-based local player characters
Sign In or Register to comment.

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Welcome to the official forum for Adventure Creator.