Vertex animation in Unity.

Hey there, first off I just want to say that Unity looks really nice, and certainly one of the most developed game-creators I've seen.

I downloaded it maybe...6 hours ago (have been screwing with it ever since), and came across a huge problem that basically prevents me from creating anything on it. Or at the very least, makes it a million times more inconvenient.

The game I'm trying to create involves ships. You know, boats. With sails... lots of them. And Unity doesn't like wind animation at all. It seems you would have to apply bone animations to every sail, which would take hours longer than simulated wind effects that 3DS Max has built-in.

I've been aspiring to make this game (RTS) for some time now, and it's a real disappointment that I would need a lot more time just to export items into Unity with the same effect that I have in Max. I don't even have a bunch of time to do the modeling I'd like to do as it is.

In summary: The ability to export FBX files with, in this case, simulated wind animation, and importing said files into Unity with the capability of displaying (or understanding) the animation.

Here's to hoping...

 

Look for "Point cache reader" here in the forum, it may help a lot.
Alternatively search for "Megafiers" in the AssetStore.

 

As Cascho01 says check out MegaFiers it can do point cache and a whole ton more stuff for you. More info on the point cache part of the system is at http://www.west-racing.com/mf/?page_id=1335 you could also use the noise modifier in the system to get some general sail rippling or there is a wave modifier in the system as well.

 

You can make a vertex shader which does that, which would be faster than animating it on the CPU.

--Eric

 

Hey, thanks for responding.

MegaFiers certainly looks useful, but I'm not really doing this as a job, this is more of an educational exercise for me. $150 seems a bit steep to dish out on Day 1.

@Eric:

I'm pretty unfamiliar with the lingo for all this, as is implied in my first post I'm new here. Can you elaborate on what a vertex shader is?

Much obliged, folks.

EDIT: Apparently someone does have the coding for a Point Cache Reader up on the site, guess I posted a little too soon. I'm all about modeling and animating, and know little of code (I know, I should probably learn), so little that I wouldn't know where to put the code exactly for it to work properly. Any tips would be awesome, and I apologize for my ignorance.

 

I did see that you're new to Unity, but I didn't want to assume anything about your general knowledge. I'd suggest Googling "vertex shader", although if you're not a coder that's probably too advanced to write on your own, at least at this point. The Unity docs have a fairly extensive section for shaders; see here for some basic info about vertex shaders in Unity. Also here is a topic about waving flag shaders.

--Eric

 

Thanks Eric, I'll look into it more thoroughly. It seems I'll be needing at least some coding skills to use Unity, as I guess should have been obvious considering it's a game-creator. If only a friend of mine were interested in coding such a thing, I wouldn't have to mess around with all this business myself.

Thanks again, I'll ask more questions as I run into problems, which hopefully won't happen too often.

 

I've come across another problem..I decided to try to use listener's script to see if it works with my sails, and it won't import into Unity properly.

I added the PointCache modifier to all the sails, recorded the animation, and exported as a .pc2 file (All this in 3ds Max). I moved the file into the Assets folder of Unity so it appears for me.

When I try to put the script onto the models, I get the error:

ArgumentException: Path is empty