New version of UnigineEditor

[danni.coy]

The plan is to take a look at what can be improved in terms of better integration with popular editors.

would it be possible to get the new object.extern syntax changed or aliased to something like object.external. extern is a C++ keyword and as the current syntax will break the grammer checkers in many C++ editors.

 

Getting back on topic - I would like the new editor to have a non modal way of accessing the states and parameters of an objects property.

[carl.sutton]

It would be nice if you could extend the functionality of engine.world.getIntersectionObjects to take a player object and a rectangle area of screen space to make for easy dragbox selection.

[chromebird]

My list:

1). Multiple views support (enable orthographic view mode).

2). Automatically reload an asset (mesh/node/texture) changed outside of the world editor, without restarting the editor.

3). Bezier spline creation and editing in editor for camera and object paths.

4). Grid/object/spline snapping.

5). Use tags for assets or search by name in node editor (either by file name or by name assigned in the editor).

6). World/physical triggers of custom shape (to define complex-shape boundaries of an outdoor location or "killing triggers").

7). Scalable mesh primitives in world editor to simplify prototyping of outdoor locations.

8). Particle editor:

a. animation keys or bezier splines with control points to control various parameters(velocity, size, gravity etc.) during particle's lifetime.

b. display trailes for each child of a particle emitter. Currently, if particle emitter has more than one child(another emitter) particle trail is displayed for one(first enabled) child only.

9). Basic animation controls inside the world editor (search/set frames inside .sanim file).

10). Visualize terrain occluder surface & enable masks for terrain occluder to set collisions with camera. (this will prevent from "disappearing" objects when third-person in-game camera comes into a gap between terrain surface and terrain occluder surface).

[danni.coy]

I would like to do a screen recordings/voice of some of our artists using the existing tools (and/or) previews of the new tools to give feedback on the editor being used in a production environment. It would be a similar format to the tests recently done for Krita http://krita.org/component/content/article/10-news/87-krita-artist-session-recording-part-iv-david-revoy

[binstream]

I would like to do a screen recordings/voice of some of our artists using the existing tools (and/or) previews of the new tools to give feedback on the editor being used in a production environment. It would be a similar format to the tests recently done for Krita http://krita.org/com...-iv-david-revoy

Great idea!

[trouble3524]

Thanks Unigine.

As we know,Ungine's Material is hard to remake,so I think Node based material editor(visual shader editor) is not possible finish in short time . so would you please give a export port to artist? now we do in this way. Artist used node based editor (maybe shaderfx or mental mill or sth.).it can export HLSL/FX or sth. ,but need to translate. that is very lower efficiency,and hard to modify.

So if Unigine editor can give a Export port tools to some popular visual shader editor,easy to create a new custom material. that would be very helpful .

 

And my second wish is lightmap tools upgrade.

Like others unigine user talked about. Lightmap tools is good for small scene. As we know, we create a game level environment will using lots of asset. may I give a example: Rocks,static mesh.we need static light. maybe we need a rock asset(name static_rock_001 or sth) using 100 times. so if in unigine lightmap editor, we need create 100 times instance material to store 100 different lightmap? no ,of course we can't. now we can do is we put 100 rocks in unigine scene to use real-time light first,and modify the rocks location or sth. and export node mesh back to 3d editor, attach same material rocks and flatten second uvs, back to unigine editor,create lightmaps.so that is very lower efficiency,and hard to modify too.

We dont want to use 3d editor to bake lightmap because we want to see what real pictures we have in Unigine.

Many thanks if Unigine editor lightmap tools can upgrade and we can used it smart(maybe auto flatten uvs in editor ,or auto create new material for lightmaps object .....I have no clear idea for that)

 

wish unigine get better and better.

[ken.mayfield]

Grid snapping with the option to set the grid size.

[danni.coy]

When can we expect to see an alpha of the cutscene editor; What functionality is planned?

[Guest shane.ploenges]

Can we please get a clear roadmap for 2012 soon? Our company has a deadline of March to have a fully capable editor to build our massive world simulation scenes, but this is looking very difficult to do in the current editor, and we find we need to spend lots of time developing our own enhancements and tools.

 

Developing our own tools is fine, we do not expect Unigine to do it for us, However with such a tight deadline, we want to make sure we are not developing things that Unigine team may already be planning to release soon.. for example spline support and new environment system.. to name just a few.

 

I am sure we are not alone in wanting a very clear roadmap for the next year.

 

thanks.

[ulf.schroeter]

Don't be too optimistic...unfortunately UNIGINE has a unbelievable bad understanding of customer information requirements. Just have a look at your critical post: no reaction at all from UNIGINE, like for so many other postings here on the forum...it seems to me that UNIGINE don't even realize how even long-term users/supporters get more and more frustrated on missing information, unfulfilled announcements and ignored customer suggestions/requests...as a big fan of UNIGINE for a very long time this is really disappointing, but maybe I am just a little bit too negative, don't know...

[Guest shane.ploenges]

I just put down the lack of any answer to maybe everyone being on holidays? But yes it is frustrating considering our deadline.

[binstream]

There are several high-priority directions for 2012, we still trying to fit them into the schedule.

 

We are rolling out a pretty huge update now, so I'm sorry for being quiet in here for a while.

[Rob]

1] Default visualizer grid for easy manipulation of nodes in the editor

 

2] Support of different view selection for nodes / whole world.

 

3] Multiple views support. With except perspective all other render settings will be skipped in other viewports.

 

We will discuss about more features and will let all know.

 

How did you enable the grid? I tried doing a search on the forum but this came out with 0 results

[ulf.schroeter]

Grid is a suggestion for planned Unigine editor rewrite, not an already implemented feature in current editor

[travis.trigg]

It would be nice if you could extend the functionality of engine.world.getIntersectionObjects to take a player object and a rectangle area of screen space to make for easy dragbox selection.

 

+1 for this one

[manguste]

Grid snapping with the option to set the grid size.

Why not use Tools->Common->Position step and Rotation step? This is grid snapping, as nodes can be moved/rotated only with the specified step.

[alexey.egorov]

1. scale manipulator. why still editor have not scale manipulator tool? also right grid support requiered (who needs % scale snap? i need dimension scale snap)

2. advance docking system (for example, i want to see nodes tree without parameters for simple navigation)

3. assets browser with profiles for quality or multi-platform. like in unity, but much better. per texture import setting like resolutions, format & so on. assets profiles for *.node files - different node files for different platforms or quality. for example, we can make node with cloth, & make another node with disabled cloth, or other kind of heavy effects (reduced particle system count, etc).

4. code editor with engine interaction - compiling messages, code insight with built-in docs.

5. good public editor api with script plugins possibility.

[ulf.schroeter]

Quite a long list, most features already requested by other users, some features (asset management system) already on the longer-term roadmap, some features already available (at least workable variants, e.g. editor support for multiple monitors where there should be enough space for node tree visualization including parameters) and some editor features (e.g. dimension scale snap) can be easily done by customizing the editor script code with some custom lines of code.

[alexey.egorov]

my answer is simple - scaling nodes must not cause problems with physics. scaling is the main feature for successful level design. physics objects can be only non-uniform scaled, for example. i believe what it is possible to found solution for this problem.

[alexey.egorov]

> support for multiple monitors

I have small table. two monitors & no more space) using unigine editor, sometimes i want to have three or even more )

i think if there is flexible dockable gui, one monitor for editor will sounds not so fantastic like now )

> and some editor features (e.g. dimension scale snap) can be easily done by customizing the editor script code with some custom lines of code.

now there is no way to do it beautiful way. therefore i want to have flexible editor api & good script-plugins support.

[ulf.schroeter]

now there is no way to do it beautiful way. therefore i want to have flexible editor api & good script-plugins support.

 

Maybe this is suitable for you

 

UNIGINE-SDK 2012-06-14 | Improved Clouds, Flash and Mobiles Support, New Editor Plugin System

 

Editor plugin system:

 

From now on, customizing the Unigine editor for project-specific needs is very easy. After a script with custom functionality is coded, adding new tabs into the default windows or new editor modules, as well as changing a set of editor features for different projects is just a few clicks away.

Editor plugins are loaded via Tools -> Plugins -> Add option. They are saved and automatically loaded on the next application start-up.

• A plugin is any *.cpp file in UnigineScript language.
  
• It should contain getName() function that returns a namespace name for the plugin (use this namespace for created GUI elements and callbacks).
  
• If necessary, you can also implement init(), shutdown() and update() functions for your editor plugin.
  

[danni.coy]

> support for multiple monitors

I have small table. two monitors & no more space) using unigine editor, sometimes i want to have three or even more )

i think if there is flexible dockable gui, one monitor for editor will sounds not so fantastic like now )

current version of the editor supports multiple windows if you load the Interface plugin at startup

-extern_plugin Interface

and make sure that your build includes Interface_x**.[dll|so]

You should also use Unigine::Widgets::Window rather than WidgetWindow directly for your own windows.

[ulf.schroeter]

@manguste: BTW a example/tutorial showing new editor extension via customer plugin would for sure be very helpful. Right at the moment the new functionality seems to be not very obvious for customers.

[manguste]

@Ulf: agreed, it's already on my to-do list.

[alexey.egorov]

ulf.schroeter

> Maybe this is suitable for you

oh, thanks! when i know about plugins for engine, but don`t know about editor plugins. i think it`s great)

 

danni.coy

> current version of the editor supports multiple windows if you load the Interface plugin at startup

i said about it... it is good to have three or even monitors with system like this )

i am just programmer, & i want to have one editor window with custom docked tools.

for level designer it`s ok to have editor windows on multiple monitors, but programmer have code editor & other tools. when i switch to engine, i still need to see my code. variant with old-stile windows which covers all the editor screen is more ugly.