Upgrading vegetation add-on

[ExBemined]

We have some old content made with Unigine 2.5 that uses the vegetation add-on. We want to upgrade this content to Unigine 2.9 but the vegetation add-on doesn't seem to upgrade correctly. I've reproduced it with the following steps:

• Open the SDK Browser.
• Create a new project with Unigine 2.5, enable the vegetation 2.5 add-on.
• Open the editor.
• Place a blue_oak1.
• Save the world and close the editor.
• Upgrade the project to Unigine 2.9.
• Open the editor again, no blue oak is visible.

I've tried both with and without upgrading the vegetation plugin to 2.9, but in neither case the content is migrated automatically. Is there something else we can try?

[morbid]

Hello Bemined,

From 2.5 we totally redesigned asset system. More likely, this is the issue, however, such projects still can be upgraded.

I suggest the following:

• Update 2.5 project to 2.7.2.
• Then load Editor and check the world for absent objects. At this point your 2.5 content should be fine. If not — please, attach migration log and engine log after world loading.
• Close the Editor and perform upgrade to the 2.9.

Thank you.

[ExBemined]

Upgrading first to 2.7.2 and then to 2.9 does work indeed, but only if I don't upgrade the vegetation add-on itself. If I try to upgrade that one as well the trees disappear again, it appears the newer versions of the add-on have a different folder structure? Is there a conversion possible here? While we can technically continue to use the old add-on, that way we don't benefit from the improvements made in the newer versions.

[morbid]

In 2.5 Unigine used paths to the content files, in 2.6 we'd introduced new file system based on the unique IDs (guids). When you upgrade 2.5 trees models to 2.6+ we treat them as a completely new content and give them unique guids, then rewriting all links to these guids.

Newer 2.9 Vegetation add-on was made separately and has no straight links to the older versions. So, when you replace upgraded add-on with a newer one you just get the new content with its own unique guids. We can't automatically replace such files in the project.

In other words, we do support old add-ons upgrade, but their upgrade means automatic content parameters and properties upgrade, not the content itself. Technically, in each release we can rearrange any add-on which makes it a brand-new content package for the UnigineEditor.

If you want full Vegetation Add-on replacement in the project, made with 2.5, you'll have to do it manually. Fortunately, it's not that hard. You can just drag-n-drop newer files in the corresponding fields, then delete the old ones.

Thanks.