MegaShapes advanced Lofter and spline based mesh builder.

We have all seen game with beautiful rolling backgrounds, now you can have them too!
Making a racing game? Then no problem with Mega-Shapes. Draw a path for the road, draw a cross section and then loft a road. Want more detail? Then Loft a barrier and it will automatically conform to the road surface. Slide the barriers in or out, scale them, twist them, you imagination is the only limitation.
Want more? Then use the powerful rail clone feature to repeat and position sets of objects along your road, fences, power-lines, trees whatever you like.
Still not enough? For those that want even more Mega-Shapes gives you a scatter system that will take any objects you choose and scatter them along your road and have them automatically conform to the existing meshes surface.
Also included is a complete spline editor and spline to mesh system along with controllers to move objects along your splines and levels.With Mega-Shapes you can create beautiful levels quickly and easily.

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The all new MegaShapes system is a greatly improved and enhanced version of the simple Shapes system that is included free in the MegaFiers system. The new system has all the basic spline editing and spline to mesh systems of the previous version but has been extended by the inclusion of an advanced Lofting system. The lofter in MegaShapes allows you to use shapes as paths and then create a mesh by lofting a cross section along that path. You can choose between the simple lofter that uses on cross section or the more advanced complex lofter that allows you to use any number of cross sections to build the mesh. Once you have created your loft surfaces you can make use of the Loft Layer system to add more detail to your meshes. The layer system allows you combine any number of meshes into the final mesh.

The layers currently included in the system

Loft
Complex Loft
Multi Material Loft
Complex Multi Material Loft
Clone
Clone Simple
Clone Spline
Clone Spline Simple
Scatter
Scatter Simple
Scatter Spline
Clone Rules
Clone Rules Spline

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Features of the MegaShapes System

Full 3D Bezier spline system.
Base set of shapes such as circle, star etc included.
Complete spline editor system.
Controllers for moving objects along splines.
Exporter for 3DS Max to export shapes as well as animated shapes from Max to Unity.
Spline to mesh system, turn any shape into a Mesh and extrude it.
Spline to multi-stranded tubes and box section.
Complete control over UV mapping of generated meshes.
Collider support for all generated meshes.
Basic 3D Lofter.
Advanced 3D Lofter.
Layer based cloning and scatter system.
Automatic mapping of objects to generated surfaces.
SVG importer.
Conform your lofts to any terrain or meshes under them.
Make your terrains blend into your lofts.



Demo of Lofter


More information and the docs for the system can be found on the website at http://www.west-racing.com/mf the current cost of the system is $100 and it can be purchased from the Asset Store now.



Some Videos showing parts of the system in action

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Already an update in the store, managed to remove the 'Add Section' button to create the first cross section on the complex loft. New version should be in the store now.

Conform Feature
New feature added, conform your lofts to terrains or any collider object.

Multi Material Layer
New Layer we added allowing multiple materials on a single loft layer.

Terrain Carve

Improved Spline Editing

Unpossible Game
Unpossible is an IOS game created using MegaShapes

 

Hi Chris -

Can't wait to start using MS. We were wondering if you would be willing to share the data format for SPL files that are loaded for paths. We are going to try to write our own spline exporter for C4D. Thanks again for making such solid tools!

d

 

Hi Droderick
Sure that's a good idea, I will prepare a page on the website that describes the format, was also going to add an xml based format and my brother (Tony the artist) wants me to add support for Ai files.
Chris

 

Superb release. looks really powerfull.

At the moment does it support LOD?

 

Thanks You can do LOD by either changing the distance or number of step values on a layer on the fly, or have multiple layers with values for low, medium, high vertex counts and then enable and disable the layers and if you use the 'Lock' feature then you dont waste CPU time recalculating the layer vertices just uses the stored values. Or you can just make multiple versions of the layer and enable and disable the objects as you would another lod system. I haven't actually used the Unity LOD system yet so not sure how that works. If the system is missing any functionality that would improve it then please do let me know, I plan on adding and updating the system like I do for MegaFiers, but things tend to get added when people ask for a feature

 

If you plan as commented, to keep this product up to date and facelifted periodically as occurs with megaFiers I'll seriously consider this aquisition.... Of course this will be linked to the demmand but... as long as you dont go abandon... This weekend I'll think about it seriously.

Another question....
You think it will be able to handle a big environment? for big I understand my 8x8Km city scenario. In the cad app, when all the data is loaded it feells a bit slow and considering how optimized that app is... mmm if I get a really high number of elements lofted I think it will go nuts so some kind of limitation during world editing might be interesting such as render only elements withing a X meters radius or so. well, an on-off LOD in the end.

EDIT: IGNORE NEXT PARAGRAPH-- SCATTER SHOULD DO DAT.
And another thing that comes to my mind...
The lofted elements are to be static? I mean, for barriers etc its awesome, but consider placing some cones, poles etc to trace the couse of a racing track in a wide road. When hitting these elements could be possible that in this case the cone could behave as individual elements with its on collider and rigidbody physycs?

just this.

 

Well I would suggest you only consider investing in the system when you consider it is at a point where it fulfills the job you need it to do, then you need not worry about what potentially may be added, but I think my track record with MegaFiers shows the level of commitment and added value I like to bring to all my projects, that started out with just 16 modifiers and that has now grown to over 45 as well as a complete and advanced morphing system etc

I am not sure how a lofter would help you build an 8km square city, what kind of city are you planning?

If you want to position objects on a loft that you later want to interact with, such as cones then there is a script included that allows you to position objects directly onto the surface but otherwise you would interactive objects just as you would do for any other kind of game level. This system is about building meshes and lofts currently and is not meant to be a complete game level design system (well not yet anyway) it allows you to create barriers, roads, fences, tree lines whatever you fancy for your levels in the editor and have the freedom and ease to alter the base splines or layers in realtime to tweak levels, move walls etc or to produce completely procedural levels at run time with some scripting.

 

Bought the package... Well done!

It took a while to work out the basics, but so far so good, except 2 things that either I am totally missing or are not available yet that are really important.

1. No generation of tangents on lofts? When ever I try to use a Normal Bumped Shader, I keep getting tangent errors "Shader wants tangents, but the mesh doesn't have them"

2. Proper UV2 generation for Lightmapping. The mesh says it has a UV2, and the lightmap shows a strip along the bottom where it is baking *some* of the loft. But it is clearly not layer out for the entire mesh.

These 2 things are essential for me to be able to use this package in my games.

 

@seon - Thank you for the purchase and I hope you find it useful. Tangent calculation is an option it is on the Loft Object component, check the Tangents box. As for lightmapping I will take a look at that UV2 stuff hopefully today.

 

Was an instant buy... been waiting *forever* for this

Ok, thanks for the Tangents info, thought I had checked everywhere, but I am sure I rushed over it in my excitement.

Cheers

 

Looking at the light mapping side, it will be no problem generating lightmapping uv2s for the loft surfaces, simple and complex as they are fully calculated meshes, it will be trickier adding quick support for the cloning land scatter layers as that will involve un wrapping mesh, was hoping Unity would allow access to the beast system to calc of lightmapping coords but it seems not. So still looking into what is involved in getting that working.

 

Cant you just use Unwrapping.GenerateSecondaryUVSet on the entire mesh once it's generated?

 

Just found that option Will add it now

 

Wow, awesome support!

 

Just submitted an update which adds Light Mapping support. There is a Build LightMap button on the Loft Object component which will pop up a window with the unwrap params, click Build and it will add the UV2 mapping to the completed object. Let me know if all is working OK for you.

 

Oooer, submitted where? Asset Store? Doesn't Asset Store updates have to be approved? Salivating...

 

Yes to the asset store, it has been approved already, think updates get fast tracked in an automated checker. Anyway its there now or should be v1.04.

 

Wow, thanks Have lots of lofts to bake tomorrow !

 

Congrats on getting this released, will purchase shortly.

 

I just updated (just woke up) and no new button to bake. The Import Asset window that appeared had no new or updated scripts in it, when I downloaded the 1.0.4 update

Are you sure you submitted with the new change?

 

Very odd files didn't upload, submitted it again the files are certainly there this time.

 

Hello.

About pricing, I've a question. You as developer you set a price in a single currency or you set the prince in a range of currencies?

This is because in the web it says 100$ and when opening unity it sais 95$ and considering the exchange rate it should be somewhere near 80Euro...

 

That is down to Unity, the price is set in dollars on the store, then if Unity detect you are a European buyer they convert it to Euros and add 25% VAT automatically.

 

It looks like I've become your customer...

I have been waiting for such a featured stuff for Ages. The easy roads creator did develop a similar extension, but the way yours manages the stuff seems to fit better my needs.

I'll post suggestions etc in this thread or via pm.

I'll be using the extension with two main targets:

Create racing track elements such as barriers, cone rows, signal rows etc...
City environment elements such all typ of urban fences, linear bushes (to be tested) and all the kind of stuff I've simplified in a line in my CAD app

 

Hi,

I bough megashapes yesterday,

Do you have documentations and samples for runtime API?

I would like to find a way to modify shapes and paths runtime.


what is a work flow to create a donut from scratch with this tool?

any tutorials?

thank you,

Arthur

 

Thank you for the purchase. I will be doing a series of tutorial videos over the coming week or two and adding to the docs. Modifying shapes at runtime is just a case of getting the MegaShape component from the gameObject and then altering the knot values in the Knot list on the spline. I will do a page n this on the website and update the docs on the public methods for the shape classes.

To create a doughnut all you need to do is create two circle shapes, first one will the cross section circle and the second the path of the cross section. Then create a Loft Object and then click Add Layer, pick 'Simple' as the type and click 'Create'. Then select the larger circle you created before as the path and then the smaller one as the cross section on the Simple Loft Layer and you will have a doughnut mesh.
Chris

 

There have been a few updates to the system since release thanks to some very attentive users, it is great to see people using it so thoroughly, really looking forward to seeing what the system gets used for. There is a list of changes since release below. I am also now adding to the system the original spline based scatter system that can be seen in the video below, this is an old video of the system but the functionality will be the same except it will work in editor mode as well, and I am sure I will add a fair few more options to it. There is an old demo of the system at http://www.west-racing.com/WebPlayer.html if you press Escape a gui will pop up allowing you to change the scatter density. That crash barrier in that demo is done with the clone system, and the rope/chain is another system I plan on adding as well.

Changes since release:

• Bug fix for Clone layer not being created from the Layer Create Window fixed.
• Removed unused layer types.
• Fixed exception errors when copying loft objects between scenes, you will need to select paths again after copy.
• Foldouts now have colored buttons to make it easier to see and use.
• Rebuild Button on Loft object changed to a toggle value.
• Scatter Layers no longer update it their animation Speed is 0 or the Layer is disabled
• Added support for Lightmapping of finished loft Objects, a Build Lightmap button as been added to the Loft Object inspector.
• Modbut class renamed to MegaModBut to avoid naming conflicts.
• Added missing button to create first cross section on Complex Loft.

Scatter Video
[video=youtube;mI7HNfIGhj0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI7HNfIGhj0

 

I had a small issue when I first used it - the window that appeared when adding a new layer wasn't tall enough to see all of the buttons (e.g. create) for some of the layer types.

I wonder if providing an additional, far simpler, example scene might help some people get to grips with it?

One other thing I noticed is that if I rotate the transform of a game object that has a scatter layer, and the realtime option for the loft is enabled, the scatter goes out of whack.

 

Hi elbows
Thanks for that, yes seems I wasn't doing the scatter transform quite right, I have fixed it now and will be in the next update. Yeah the current test scene kinda grew from my testing and is a little intense. When I do the tutorial videos I will see about adding some basic scenes. As for the create layer window, cant seem to recreate that issue here, if you resize it it will remember the last values. If you find any more issues please do let me know.
Chris

 

Cheers. I forgot to say how much I am loving the system, Im very glad it came out before I ran out of money!

 

That is nice to hear, if you ever want to show a pic or two would very much like to see how the system is being used.

 

This looks like another great asset, starting to save up for this one.

 

Busy adding more features so hopefully you will give in to temptation as soon as the piggy bank is full.

 

I already did give in. Can I have the features too?

This is a great tool, and has what I need for my project, but more is always welcome!

 

You will certainly have them as they get done, keep an eye on this page or the website (there is an RSS feed at the bottom of each page) for news of updates and new features. All updates are free to users of the system as with MegaFiers.

Thank you for the purchase And I am very happy to hear it is useful, if you have any ideas for features or missing functionality please either post here or on the website.

 

Hi Chris,

Love your work. I agree UT should employ you.

I have a feature request.

I've been trying to make a loft where the centre has no hole, e.g. a platform.
I've tried using cross sections with different coordinate positions to see if I can make them meet up in the middle, but I can't seem to quite tweek it correctly without the centre polygons overlapping.
I've also thought about using short lengths of the path with a wider cross section, but the capped ends will always be chopped off. I can't see how to round the ends without adding an extra end object (not ideal as each platform will be a different shape)

Do you think you could make it create platform type loft objects instead of loop shapes only?

Also, I don't know if it's just me, but 1.09 seems very broken. Nothing is working.

Cheers, Phil.

 

Hi Phil
Yeah there was a problem in 1.09, I was way to strict with some error checking that was throwing out warnings all the time, new version going up very soon with that removed.

I will have a think on capping options, quite tricky to so but I agree that a domed option would be a nice feature to add. I will see if I can come up with a way. Check the store soon for a new version.
Chris

 

Version 1.10 submitted to the store changes are:

• Bug fixed of shapes not being created when active scene port wasnt selected.
• Shape cursor position now respects the selected curve in multi curve shapes
• Adjusted error checking.

 

Depending on what you are trying to do one way to get nice start and end caps on a mesh would be to use the Clone Spline layer, then you can pic the start and cap objects. The downside of this is you cant use that layer as a surface currently to map other layers onto but if you are just looking to do simple platforms then that would work.

 

Just did a quick video to show the system running on a tablet with 3 dynamic layers updating.

 

Splendid, that looks very cool, was wondering about mobile support guess I have my answer.

 

Been getting requests for video guides, so just to say I am working on that this weekend and hope to have the first tutorial video done for Monday.

 

Looks great. What FPS were you getting Chris.

 

Well in that case between 30 and 45 fps with 3 dynamic layers of 30 objects per layer. Most of the time users wont be using dynamic layers, I only added it because I could, so in normal cases on mobile the overhead of the system is zero and it just ends up being meshes. The real benefit of the realtime update is being able to change the mesh density or scatter amounts on the fly to suit the platform or detail level etc.

 

Sounds great. Looking forward to seeing how the realtime update works and is integrated. Also hopefully someone will show an iOS build.

 

Bought it yesterday, and played around a bit. At first, I struggled a bit figuring out exactly how to do stuff, but then I got into the groove. Certainly looks powerfull, and very good for my need to create levels for a game inspired by Super Monkey Ball

 

Thank you for the purchase, I think I am guilty of assuming people know how to use the lofter in packages such as Max, so I am busy at the moment doing some tutorial videos showing how to build the MegaMoo level seen in the pictures. So hopefully that will help everyone. If you have any ideas or suggestions please do let me know.

 

Just done the first in the MegaShapes tutorial series, the first video covers creating the paths and cross sections, creating the loft object, tweaking the settings and adjusting the UV settings as well as how to get your shapes from Max into Unity. It then quickly covers some of the more advanced features which will be covered in the next tutorial video. More info can be found on the web site at http://www.west-racing.com/mf

 

Version 1.11 has been submitted to the Asset store, changes in this release:

• Issues a warning if a Loft Object will generate too many vertices.
• Fixed bug in uv mapping calculation on Simple Loft Layer.
• Added a global Offset value to Clone Layer
• Added a global Offset value to Clone Simple Layer
• Added a global Offset value to Clone Spline Layer
• Changed the up calculation to make it consistent between when up is calculated and when its not, may need to change your rotations if you see old clones rotated.
• Fixed bug where you could not the close Main Params foldout