Boundary Tool [RELEASED]

Greetings,

Current Version: 3.0.1

This thread is deprecated. Please use: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/201034-uDesign-Tools-Released

Boundary Tool highlights:

• Rapid creation of collisions to create boundaries for areas or entire levels
• Grouping of boundary data with separate heights, naming and color coding
• Play in editor tweaking with realtime generation of collision (editor only - will not build to maximize performance during true runtime)
• Map out entire areas in seconds with easy maintenance
• Visualize boundary walls as it clips with your level geometry, giving insight to potential gameplay bugs where players could slip out of the level

Zone/Trigger Tool:

• Add trigger zones and position, size and orient them through SceneView simply
• Colorize and label for visual recognition
• Use QuickView to navigate the scene quickly to any zone and any legacy trigger components
• Link either preset prefabs or instanced objects with a script component implement OnTrigger events
• Key-In values for placement and rotation for fine control
• Visualize the zone area as it clips with your level geometry and moving objects during testing

Version 2.0 Expanded to include:

Version 2.2 Enhancement to Zones:
[video=youtube_share;z7fdgtZNjms]http://youtu.be/z7fdgtZNjms

You can see it in action with YouTube tutorials

Here on the Asset Store!

There is no coding involved. This was designed as import/use for level designers and artists.

Customer reviews through your asset store account are appreciated!

If you'd like to submit an idea, please send it to support@nothingsoftstudios.com

Thanks and enjoy!

 

That is a really neat tool! It's something that is needed in a lot of projects. I hope you do well with it.

 

Thank you for the support!

We are launching a public Trello board as an idea share and a viewport to see how new work is coming along as well.

 

New features currently in test:

- Duplicate Group
- Move Group
- Enclose Group

 

That's a cool tool, but your tutorial videos are horrible for the salespitch. You don't even *use* the tool for the first 4 minutes. You should make a 30 second video that shows it off.

 

Nice tool. Is it possible to snap segment points to vertices like Unity does with models? Or would that need to be added? That's really all that's keeping me from making a purchase.

 

I'll add that to the idea share. That is something we wanted to implement as well. We just have not researched it yet. Thanks for the interest! I'll let you know our findings.

 

Awesome. Thanks!

 

Our peeps use the CTRL drag to snap by grid increments right now, but the native "V" snapping isn't in it. I am guessing you are referring to how you can snap prefabs/meshes together with V?

 

Added for you

 

Yes.

 

Vertex snapping is natively supported through the editor. You can snap any segment point to a mesh vertex.

 

Finally! I've been dying for this!!!

 

Using 'V'? Or how would this be done? Could you post a quick video example? I think I know what you mean; just want to confirm. Thank you!

 

Added quick example of what I was referring to...

 

I like this idea. To add to this, I would like to make the boundary segments align with the vertexes selected, not just be straight up and down. Meaning, I would like to create boundary segments as a ramp over steps - select two vertexes of the top step, and the click somewhere on the ground to make a polygon the covers the steps and acts as a collider for it.

Purchased this by the way - thanks.

 

Nice! Will be picking this up Thank you for taking the time to demonstrate!

 

Thanks for the support.

Two things we are working on that would fit your use case: not just moving a group (in test now) but rotating around the centroid of the group. Also adjusting the depth and an anchor point for the segments. Meaning, 1 segment with 3 depth anchored middle would expand 1.5 each direction. This would allow horizontal collisions.

 

Attached is a screenshot of the core implementation of vertical boundaries (i.e. smooth stairs, ramps, invisible bridge puzzles, etc).

Center anchor is finished. Other two will be quick now that the logic is finished.

 

Version 1.2 has been submitted.

New Features
- Ability to close a group causing first and last segments
to snap together
- Ability to duplicate a group using the "duplicate" button.
- Ability to move a group
- Ability to create groups that have depth in the segment data

Hot Keys (focus in SceneView)
- C toggles active group open/closed. This requires 3 or more
segments in order to close

New tutorial demonstrating features:

 

Wow! A great tool just got better! Glad I made the purchase!

 

1.2 has been approved and on the asset store

 

Looks great! This is definitely a little gem to speed up level design.
Bookmarked!

Also, I have a sugguestion - perhaps you should allow the option to set boundary as a semi-transparent color plane - right now they are just wireframes and it can get confusing when you have multiple overlapping boundaries that requires fine tuning. An option for semi-transparent color (or even an option to set opacity of plane) would allow better visual cue to fine tuning those overlapping boundaries.

 

Hello,

Glad i bought this great tool but atm i cannot use it for what i want.
I am not sure why the boundary is not responding to collision layers. I have made a setup where
The boundary should not collide with another object while being on a specific layer.

Another thing i thought might be handy, is to have the possibility to place points
on an axis, eg. XY axis rather then clicking on a mesh.

Good work anyway,
Cheers, Wouter

 

Right now there is no layer assignment. However this is being worked on today. Setting a default layer for new groups, and for each group able to set layer specifically. It came up internally yesterday.

You can add points at XY by using Add Segment. If its a new group and no segments exist, the first segment is at 0,0,0. So they can be positioned manually, then each Add Segment afterwards will act as an "Extrude" from the last end point.

I'll keep you posted on the layers. Its a simple addition, but needs to be tested with some different layer masks variations etc.

 

Hi Pierre,

Good to hear this is going to be implemented. Is there any chance you guys would implement drawing on axis without the need of a mesh to click on?
This especially would be cool for making boundaries for 2d games quickly.

thanks!

Wouter

 

It's been discussed. The tricky part is the user experience. There's a couple ways to achieve it, but whats the most natural way that will make sense to the end user. Essentially, you will need a depth to decide on the world point. Ultimately, I feel the designer should specify the Z for all creation (all your sprites are on 0 for example, so set the tool to 2D mode and enter 0 for the "Create at Depth" value).

The answer: it is on the backlog for sure. However its on as a new feature. So this sprint is prioritizing hardening current features over new ones. Next sprint will take on new features.

 

Layer support is in v1.3 submitted to Asset Store.

 

Hi Pierre,

Thanks a million for the update. Going to test it soon.
Some other questions poppep in my mind.

How is this performing on ios, or mobile on general? It looks like the boundaries is using mesh collider if the border is set to depth and height.
-Would it be faster to have multiple box colliders aside with sphere collider?
-Is it possible to use the mouse instead of a hotkey?

Cheers, Wouter

 

It does not create mesh colliders, it uses box colliders for performance. The performance is identical to using the same amount of box colliders per segment.

The only performance hog right now can be the Update in PIE flag. That functionality is currently being moved into a per group basis which will solve it. Its intended usage is during editor play you tweak the group you need to when your player or whatever object your testing is there... get the positioning right. Then copy the component values from the inspector, stop playback and then paste the values back in. I will do a tutorial on that shortly.

Also to note, since 1.2, the boundary object itself is now visible in the hierarchy. If you have data from before, you can do the same procedure to copy the component, delete the parent, create a new parent (will show in hierarchy now), paste component values. The end goal was to allow a prefab backup of the boundary information if you needed it, or wanted to share the same data on multiple scenes (reusable terrain for example with different content/spawns).

 

Version 1.3 is live

 

Version 1.3.1 is live.

This includes both an optimization and a new feature.

From user story:

Updating is now per group and flags (nothing, editor, runtime, both) based. We wanted to lay the ground work for a high profile group being able to be manipulated at runtime as well (still has a performance hit, but the option is there).

 

Looking forward to the new release, this just gets better and better.

 

Version 2.0.1 is now live on the Asset Store.

Again, customer feedback and asset store reviews are welcome! We want to make sure new customers feel confident in products and no better way than to read customer experience!

The first post has been updated to include the new features and another demo video.

 

Very good suggestion, and makes sense. I'll see when this can be worked in.

 

Ability to control alpha for boundaries has been added. 2.0.3 is pending approval.

 

Purchased!

I was just pondering on how I'd have to draw lots of boxes to stop the player wandering out of my game level then found this. AWESOME!

 

Version 2.0.3 is now live on the asset store.

Includes a non intrusive bug fix that could allow an exception to be thrown during editor playback when a legacy trigger is destroyed and the zone window had focus.

 

That was precisely the goal. Eliminate a large amount of manual work. Thank you for your support!

 

This tool supported export colliders and zones to asset?

 

I think you're asking if it can "bake" before compiling into a build output.

I will make a video showing how to do this. Essentially, your end result will be a prefab holding everything thats created at runtime by the boundary or zone component. At which point, you can disable the __BoundaryData and/or __ZoneData objects from the heirarchy and drag in the prefabs instead.

 

How to "bake" the boundary data:

 

Woolf - Did the "baking" video answer your question?

 

I've been using your tool for my Battletoads prequel and it's pretty damn useful! Thanks!

 

Hi,

Product already buyed
But,
any chance to get this tools for 3.5.7 version of unity ?
I have project not yet compatible with v4 now but need this tools



Thanks

 

This was talked about. The editor API changed between 3.x and 4.x. But I'll scope the effort for rewiring the editor UI portions in a 3.5x package.

I'll update later.

Thanks for the support.

 

Yes, thank. I've used it but there were problems. After being placed prefab on the scene - walls do not appear. they are, but they are invisible in edit mode.

And I also have another problem. I buy Boundary Tool at store, installed package to the my project, and install package to the second project. (it's all in one computer) And now I can not use the tool ((



Sory for my bad english.

 

Dumping the boundary data into a prefab and removing the __BoundaryData object will remove the edit time view unless you select the collider in your hierarchy. It behaves identical to any collection of objects with box collider components.

The Failed to Load window error is caused by not having the scripts loaded when a new project is started. You should be able to close the tab, import the package (or verify the editor package is in the project), then open it up via Window->Boundaries or Window->Zones. This is caused by how Unity's editor allows extensions to be made via reflection and is common to any application that has plugin support.

Try that out, if it doesn't work, shoot an email to support@nothingsoftstudios.com with as many screenshots (I'd like to see the extracted package in the project window specifically) and info as possible and we'll figure it out. Potentially make a tutorial for it as well. Thanks!

 

Great news ! hope that "update later" is not to late fo rmy project :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

Thanks

 

First tests look successful. Testing on a fresh install of 3.5.7 Indie (deemed the final version release of 3.x by Unity). So far the only issues we found are already reported bugs in 3.5 and were corrected in 4.0 (thankfully disabling the code that runs into that bug isn't a functional piece but a SceneView GUI display piece... there should be very little impact).

Will update when more results are available.