FlowCanvas - Visual Scripting Similar to Unreal Blueprints

You could probably do it, I just wouldn't want to. Took me 5 minutes to code it, 5 minutes into putting it into a graph only got me this far... and the Switch Integer doesn't look like the right way to go... with coding you don't need to wonder what fits best.



Problem is you won't find any visual scripting tool than can simplify such problems, but at least with FC you can probably get there...

 

The above foundation won't work, fundamentally flawed. I've just spent an hour trying to figure out nested loops... it's a no go... and if Nuverian posts a solution... please don't... it would potentially put people off with node overkill vs 12 lines of script.

It just isn't practical to implement complexity like this to visual scripting. If you need to code like that, spend 5 minutes figuring it out via Google. The answers come quick, first page every time. Or ask the community to help via FC forums, programmers like problem solving ;-)

FC covers 90% of coding requirements so you don't need to learn C#. Create a couple of scripts if you need the complexity, then implementation is easy via reflection.

Nuverian answers every question & people like me just want more members on board so that the community gets stronger and we all share questions/answers.

Rix

 

Hey thanks for posting loops in fc right using flow canvas with reflections was a best thing.
and support was also fast

 

@Rixly239 Thanks a lot for stepping in and helping!
I appreciate that Like you mentioned, some complicated things are best left in code and be called with FC nodes, or custom nodes be created for them instead of breaking evey little structure element with a separate node, even if it can be done so.
Thanks again.

@unitywlp Thank you. I am glad you like FC If you need anything don't hesitate to ask away.

 

is it possible to combine this in NodeCanvas WITH Playmaker actions? I want to create a UI manager with Playmaker, and then command it from other objects with NodeCanvas States AND FlowScript functions.

For example I have a scene object called Menu Manager which manages another game objects PlayMaker.


That leaves me another question of, how do we communicate variables and even methods from one gameobject holding a nodecanvas element script, with say another totally different GameObject not holding one? or even, also holding one?

say I want to communicate with a nodecanvas gameobject to a non nodecanvasgameobject script?

I realize id need a reference to the other gameobject, but how could I access its scripts? (like if it didnt have nodeCanvas)

now, what if everyone is given nodecanvas/flowcanvas, will all objects be able to communicate or reflect each other in code or action?

sorry if this has been answered before, just curious. Im attempting to work with UI, its been terrible.

 

Hello,

With both NodeCanvas and FlowCanvas there is the ability to get and set variables as well as call methods on scripts added on other gameobjects. In FlowCanvas for example you can get a reference of another object to get/set or call, simply by drag & dropping that other object in the canvas and when this is done a menu will popup for you to select which property to get/set or which method to call.
Finally, you can certainly combine FlowCanvas with NodeCanvas + the available playmaker tasks altogether.
If you want to provide a bit more information or an example of what you are after, I could as well provide you with an example in return

Let me know.
Thanks.

 

I kinda gave up, I was having issues simply accessing the playmaker component on the gameobject which also had the NodeCanvas one, ill definately experioment more. thanks tho.

 

Hello,
What problems did you have? To get access to the playmakerFSM component or any other component in FlowCanvas, you simply need to drag and drop it in the editor canvas and select a method to call or property to get/set.

​

Thanks

 

Oh sorry, I placed a Playmaker Script FSM component, on an object with a Node Canvas Script component BT component, and also a regular script, and a flowscript (as a experiment), however, the variables ive declared inside of PlayMaker do not show up as accessible fields within NodeCanvas, but my script works as normal. I must be doing something wrong. (the script control, Field action, it shows PlaymakerFSM as greyed out? )

Edit: Im reading the docs on playmaker intergration, do I need to manually drag atleast one node(are they called block?) to the graph and then click sync variables? is thre a way to do it before (trying to add variable reference manually in Add variables like I do to reflect scripts vars when declared public.)

 

Hello,
Playmaker fsm variables are not normal fields nor properties, thus the reason they do not show up to be selected in either NC script control tasks nor, FC drag and drop nodes. Thus it's not possible to use them as "normal" variables.
I am a bit confused of what you are trying to achieve here though, or the part at which you face the problems Sorry. Please let me know what the end goal is and I will try to help as best as I possibly can.
Thanks.

 

Hello,
I can set the "integer" value directly, but a "byte" value is imposible to set.
What can I do to edit the "byte" value directly?


And I can not see the property values of the object

Code (CSharp):

1. public class State
2. {
3.     public bool isLongMemTraining { get; set; }
4.     public int maxMemTime { get; set; }
5.     public byte minPauseTime { get; set; }
6.     public byte chipsQuantity { get; set; }
7.     public byte area { get; set; }
8. }

It is very difficult to debug an application without easy viewing objects values.

 

Hello,
I have just send you a PM with relevant code changes you can do now to allow both of your requests. As far as inspectable properties though, this is not possible by design. Normal fields of course are though.
Thanks.

 

On the first point, everything worked as it should. Thanks.
But the second point is not working, the Object Editor is still empty.

 

Hello,
I have send you a PM with one more change needed.
Let me know if these work for you.
Thanks.

 

Everything works fine, but I have removed the "GUI.enabled = false;" so that you can edit the collection "List <T>" to debug on the fly.
I get the error: "GUI Window tries to begin rendering while something else has not finished rendering! Either you have a recursive OnGUI rendering, or previous OnGUI did not clean up properly."
when running the application if "Object Editors" window is open.
However, this error does not affect on the performance, the window simply disappears and you have to reopen it again.

 

Hey,
I will take a look at that error and also keep the auto-properties inspectable in the next version. I think it can prove useful.
Thanks

 

Nested FOR statement that I attempted earlier, now complete:

 

Hey Nuvi!

I feel like I should be able to figure this out, but I'm unable to duplicate a basic mouselook script with clamping in FlowCanvas. I used your sample above regarding clamping position, but I can't seem to do something similar with rotation. I'm able to rotate the camera rig just fine with Input Axis (mouse X mouse Y) but I can't seem to extract the rotation from the GameObject to then subsequently clamp it's rotation up/down (X axis). EDIT: I have to rotate it to extract the rotation to then clamp it to finally rotate it again...hmmmm.

I don't necessarily need the full solution as I'd like to learn, but I might need some direction if you don't mind.

Thanks man!

-Steven

 

Okay I figured it out...

...but I'd like to confirm if this looks legit to you. I'm going to attempt to add some smoothing to this, but right now as it is the clamping works perfectly.


Phew!! Nevertheless thank you for letting me talk to myself here and figure it out on my own lol.

Cheers

-Steven

 

Ah I just learned that that you can change the Operation of Set Variable ($RotationX = Value in my graph above) to += to save on a few nodes. I was searching EVERYWHERE for += gah!!

Fun stuff...

 

Last question for the moment...

...I'm not able to duplicate a conventional lastFrame lerp like I do in .js/C#. As you can see, at the end of the graph I set lastRotationX to curRotationX, and then lerp the two in the middle, rinse repeat.

Any guidance as always will be adored and appreciated

 

Hey,
Thanks for posting

Hello Steve.

It seems you've figured this out before I get the chance to reply
Indeed, the +=, -= etc operation on the Set Variable nodes are not to be forgotten.
Regarding Lerp in the graph above, it seems that you have set the Lerp T value to 5, when you possibly wanted a 0.5 if taking the middle value is the goal.
Let me know if that's the case.

Cheers!

 

Yea sorry I keep forgetting lerp T is the between A B value...

...what I'm aiming at is smoothing essentially, and in my particular graph that is just not happening. So I might have to concede this and ask how you'd do it.

Don't worry if you don't have time for this, as I already have a very nice script to handle smooth mouse looking. For me this right here is academic, as I do intend to use FlowCanvas for development. I was immediately in love with Unreal's Blueprint's, and as you know from last year how excited I was for your Asset! So yea if you have time I'd love some good old education.

Cheers man

-Steven

 

Hey,
Of course I have time for supporting!
Smoothing with lerp can be done by using T of Lerp, as Time.deltaTime multiplied by some damping value.
Here is a graph that smoothly makes the owner move to the "Target" gameobject.

​

You can of course use the same method for smoothing the rotation like you are after
Let me know if this works for you.

Cheers!

 

Yea no I can recreate your example easily...

...but I'm having the object smoothly rotate from it's last rotation to the current rotation, of which that is dictated by the mouse delta input. You're using a target object, whereas I'm using the object itself and getting and setting it's rotation from frame to frame.

Again totally appreciating the support but this still has me stumped...

Thanks Nuvi!

-Steven

 

Oh and to be clear of a couple things:

• I'm fine with using a target object to have my master object 'chase', but only as a learning example do I want to see if my concept is achievable...
• My gut tells me I'm looking at Lerping the wrong thing, and that maybe it's the mouse input that I need to check against before sending the value to the camera rotation...

-Steven

 

Okay I'm an idiot...

...I was only updating the graph on Mouse Input!?! I have no idea how I missed that, but yea, I simply aimed the Lerp at the Mouse Delta, did all my fancy tomfoolery and made sure the rotations were constantly being updated every frame (On Update Event) and voila...works like a charm. (Note: In the supplied graph I'm only smoothing out the X output to test. I'll do the same for the Y in the final version)

Onwards and upwards!! Time to macro the smoothing and the clamping and I should have some nice clean code!

Thanks for letting me sound-board you for several posts Nuvi!!

Cheers

-Steven

 

Thanks for this Steve, goes into my Evernote for future

 

You're very welcome! The more we can all learn the better

 

Hey Nuvi, I have a couple of questions and/or requests now that I'm starting to flesh this out.

• Is there a way to name Macros? Not fond of it simply saying {Macro}, even with tags...
• Is there a more elegant way than my use of Switch Condition to perhaps output one or the other value based on a boolean? As you can see, I test for Invert, and subsequently branch out to duplicate nodes, which I'd like to avoid. My thinking is a node like Switch Condition, with one In/Out Flow, three inputs for the Condition, Value True and Value False, and with a single output for Value Result. If True, Value True is fired out of the output, and if False, Value False is fired out of the output.

Btw for those that might ask, the macro's in this latest screenshot is simply a compression of the graphs in subsequent screenshots I've posted throughout the day.

Thanks!

-Steven

 

Okay found it. Just now on a whim I hit <spacebar> and searched for Switch Value, and lo and behold a whole bunch of Switch Value nodes came up.

Phew!

Maybe I should go do something else for awhile huh? Lol

Thanks for reading my ramblings. Hopefully these explorations are useful to others learning this bad boy!

Ciao

-Steven

 

Oh! Very minor thing for those following along (or scrutinizing my graphs), I mistakenly pulled and added Invert (INT) from the search as that's the only one that comes up. So simply right-click menu to /Functions/Math/Floats/Invert and you're golden. Suffice it to say an Int makes the movement quite stutter-y.

My bad!

Night all

-Steven

 

This incompetence just won't be tolerated, I call for your head on a stick, lol. Thanks I'll update my saved-for-later graph.

I think at some point we should move this over to the Flowcanvas forums, it would be handy if we had a section for code snippets etc.

I've asked Nuv to consider new topic headers for same...

 

Haha I almost quit the forum!

You know just to make everyone's life easier, here's the .asset file (I had to .rar it)

If you post on FC forums can you link us here?

Thanks RixlyTwoThreeNine!

-Steven

 

Hey @SteveB
Glad you got this sorted out. To be honest I also missed that part in your graph!
So thanks for sharing all these cool images and updates
Regarding your question about macros (which as I see is the only non-answered one now), you can rename macros if you select the asset itself in the project panel and through the normal unity inspector. A quick way to select the asset is to hit "Select Graph" in the flowscript editor while viewing a macro.
Cheers!

@Rixly239 Hey, I have now renamed the subforum of custom macros, for examples to be included as well, so that the subforum is now dedicated in sharing of any aspect
Cheers!

 

Hmmm might have found a bug...

...if I have a node, in my case Set Bool, I set the value to 1 (true). Then I hit Ctrl-D to dupe it, but this is for my False check, so I set this duplicated Set Bool value to 0 (false)...

...when I hit Play, this duplicated Set Bool sets the value to 1 (it should never change. Of course I can add a Value variable to enforce 0 but I shouldn't have to)

Of course if I I add a fresh Set Bool and set it to 0, it's perfectly fine.

-Steven

 

Hey Steve,
Indeed that is a bug, which is already fixed for the new version comming around soon (along with some new stuff )
Thanks for reporting and sorry about the bug.
Cheers!

 

You tease!!

Give us a clue... what are we getting? huh? huh? huh?

 

Hey, sorry

So, here are the changes for the new version coming around:

• Unity reflected nodes now show the official documentation both in the node browser as well as the node description in the inspector panel.
• Variables can now be drag & dropped in the graph directly, which will pop an option for get or set.
• Added CustomObjectDrawers and CustomAttributeDrawers that work very similar to unity's drawers and with which a custom inspector can be implemented for objects or attributes.
• Improved BBParameters and will now never lose reference to variable renames that was taking place in some cases especially for Global Blackboards.
• Auto-Properties are now inspectable both in editor panel and in Object Editor.
• Fixed Object Editor errors when playmode changed.
• Fixed bug where default values were not being serialized correctly after they change once.
• Fixed bug where prefab child object references were not references correctly once prefab instantiated in runtime.

​

Cheers!

 

Omg was wondering why I couldn't drag variables onto the canvas...

...yay!!!

 

Yip, super job, thanks Gav

 

Have you posted it to Unity yet? I'm hitting F5 like a woodpecker

 

Hey,
Yes, it is already submitted. I should be live anytime soon.
Thanks!

 

Sheesh you're over here too! I swear I'm not following you around Liking your damn posts!

 

There was a creepy dude hangin around outside my house, raincoat & binoculars, the whole shebang. I rang the cops, best u be on your way...

Yeah if I spent as much time coding than buying & testing assets, I'd have 43 games out there already lol.

I just can't stomach paying for Nottorus right now, sticking with this puppy It may lack some of the more advanced stuff, but honestly nothing that I have need for as of yet. And I would imagine Nuv will be asking me what it lacks lol, he would be willing to add nodes for any stuff we request.

Are you nearer to splashing for it yet?

 

No doubt FC (and Nuvi) are rock'in it...def agree

 

Update is in

 

The new version 1.2 in now indeed live. Changes listed here.

@Rixly239 Thanks for collecting and posting all these nice examples in the forums. Also of course I will ask what's missing and be glad to add it if possible

Cheers!

 

Hmmm didn't notice this with the last build, but now whenever I Play my scene, stop and then do anything in the FlowCanvas window, there's about a 6 second delay before something happens. No other part of Unity 'pauses', just FlowCanvas.

Thoughts?

-Steven

 

Yeah I reported this on the FC forums, Nuv replied that it's a caching problem on the helper docs that you can switch off.

http://flowcanvas.paradoxnotion.com/topic/graph-running-slow/

Rix