Multiscene editing [RELEASED]

I'm excited to announce our Multiscene editing plugin for Unity 4.5 and up is available on the AssetStore now: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/24921

Simply drag multiple scenes into the hierarchy view and edit them individually.



We use this constantly to quickly reference another scene without switching from the scene we are editing or to copy something from another scene etc.

The next 3 screen shots show the editor with 8 scenes loaded simultaneously, using the visibility eye to hide / show different text etc.







To reduce scene conflicts across the team we tend to split things up into small scenes. For example a front end screen will be in it's own scene and a common background and header in 2 other scenes. When editing the screen it's useful to be able to see the common bar and background, and with Multiscene you can:


I look forward to sharing more soon once it passes the AssetStore review process. Meanwhile if you have any questions or wishes ask away below.

 

Here's a quick video demonstrating the plugin:

 

Now submitted to the asset store.

Time to add the next set of features...

 

Now available on the asset store for an introductory bargain price of $10.

 

It's looking great, man ! Awesome work !

 

Thanks! I use it even more now that I've tidied it up for the asset store. So easy to quickly look at another scene for reference or to copy something out of it. I hope others find it as useful as I do, I'm all ears for suggestions of improvements etc. I should check at some point that it plays nicely with Hierarchy2!

 

I would be more than happy to try to find a way to make Hierarchy2 work with your asset, can you send me a beta version or something that I can check it ? Or if you want to do it your self I will send you the dev version of Hierarchy2 so you can have a look.

Best regards.

 

I've just tested it with the version of Hierarchy2 on the asset store. I think all that is needed is to return early on in Hierarchy2's EditorApplication.hierarchyWindowItemOnGUI handling for any game object that has the Phi.MultiScene script on it. Such objects will always be in the root of the scene. This is the script that renders the header bar for each scene and also overrides the context menu to give scene specific options. I'll get a copy of Multiscene to you.

 

And the good news is The integration is completed !

Hierarchy2 will work seamlessly with MultiScene from the next update.

Thanks.

 

Awesome! Thanks so much.

 

Hi, i've bought this plugin just one thing, would this be obsolete when the multi-scene of unity 5 gets released too? http://blogs.unity3d.com/2014/08/04/multi-scene-editing/ or does it have some neat stuffs going for it that makes it better than unity's?

 

I also purchase it and it works quite well. I too had a similar question, any plans on what features will be updated for Unity 5. Thanks a lot to both developers for quickly integrating their plugins since both combined (this asset and Hirerachy2) make a rapid solution for multiscene editing in Unity 4.

 

I've tested and ensured compatibility of Multiscene in Unity 5 which at present does not provide the base scene functionality that the promised native multi scene editing will make use of. It was the blog post that @cybervaldez linked to above that prompted me to tidy up my solution, which I've taken for granted over the last couple of years but not realised that I should share, into what you now see as Multiscene. I felt that the promised native functionality would most likely be near the mid cycle of Unity 5 and that it was worth while spending the time to create Multiscene so that people can benefit from the workflow, which I can't be without now, in the meantime.

As soon as Unity 5's promised multi scene editing is released, Multiscene will make use of the new APIs to optimise certain features which it has to maintain it's self at present and will then offer the many other scene tools which by that time will be part of Multiscene. At present the plugin is just the core of what will become a toolkit for anything scene related, I have a huge list of features planned, including many which will help with managing the loading of scenes etc at run time.

If you have any suggestions on what improvements you would like to see first then let me know and I'll prioritise them.

 

I asked for this the very first day I joined unity comunity. This is a common practice in cad world and it is a must for any big project. looks great.

 

Looks awesome!

Can we play all opened scene at once? Or we can only play current selected scene?

ps: you may add your assetstore link on first post

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/24921

 

Hi Inas

As it stands Multiscene does not effect anything at runtime, so when you hit play in Unity just the active scene is played and the extra scenes disappear during the play.

I could add an option to keep the extra scenes loaded but before I do that I'll explain how I use it.

When I hit play I want the scene to work just as it would if you were running it on device and you loaded it. So it's for that reason that any extra scenes you loaded during editing do not show up.

But obviously on some screens you want some of the component screens to be loaded automatically. I have a script which does this and am tidying it up for the next release of Multiscene.

It's an 'IncludeScene' script you can add it to any scenes and whenever that scene is loaded it will ensure that the IncludedScene is also loaded. It copes with multiple scenes including the same scene and only loads it once.

So for example, all of my main menu screens (I use a scene for each screen) include a common background scene. So when I hit play in any of them they load the background and everything looks complete, if I then navigate to another screen it does an include of the background too, but this does nothing as the background is already loaded.

Let me know your thoughts on how you would like to use the tool and I'll see if I can include your workflow too.

Link added to the first post, good spot thanks!

 

Do you have a video of this new awesome feature? Does it use unity's additive scenes or is this something else? Can't wait!

 

No video yet, but I'll upload one once I've finalised it as I need to work out the finer details of how best to dress it up. Whilst it's functional for my needs (used in 5 projects so far) I' know how it works and there are a few additional ui bits and pieces I'd like to add to umph it up to asset store standards.

It uses Unity's Application.LoadAdditive functionality yes.

 

Hey,
Any updates coming?
I'm having quite a few errors with MultiScene in the latest Unity 4 versions (not even 5)

 

Yep I have an update that I'm testing at the moment.

It addresses a rare edge case where a scene could revert to it's original settings after entering play mode.

It also has a feature allowing you to specify a list of scenes. For each scene you can specify wether it should automatically be loaded in play mode and or edit mode, or you can leave both tick boxes un-ticked and use it as a handy list of bookmarks, clicking load when you need to.



I'd be interested in knowing what errors you have experienced, please email me at support@trusteddevelopments.com
so that I can help.

 

If you have purchased Multiscene and want to try out the above load functionality before it's live on the store then send me an email.

 

Testing my project in Unity 5.1.0f2 and Multiscene has the following errors:

Assets/Phi/Multiscene/Editor/EdMultisceneModWatch.cs(205,35): error CS1061: Type `UnityEditor.UndoPropertyModification' does not contain a definition for `propertyModification' and no extension method `propertyModification' of type `UnityEditor.UndoPropertyModification' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

The same error also occurs on the following lines:

Assets/Phi/Multiscene/Editor/EdMultisceneModWatch.cs(208,72)
Assets/Phi/Multiscene/Editor/EdMultisceneModWatch.cs(216,37)
Assets/Phi/Multiscene/Editor/EdMultisceneModWatch.cs(223,35)

 

Thanks for that! I hadn't tried it on the beta yet.

I've made the necessary changes and tested Multiscene in 5.1.0f2.

You can make the changes yourself by replacing 'propertyModification' with 'currentValue'. Or contact me for an updated unitypackage.

 

Thanks @andsee - confirmed working on 5.1.0f2. Cheers!

 

Hi ...any chance an update can be pushed to the asset store with the "replacing 'propertyModification' with 'currentValue' "
fix? Thanks.

 

Hi ScoobyDoobyDoo

I saw your van at Universal Studios during my holidays over the last 3 weeks, apologies for not getting back quicker. Now I'm back at home and I've submitted the updated package to Unity.

It also now includes the scene list / loading support mentioned above which is a huge boon plus several singleton scripts and helpers to make things easier when you want to reference an object in multiple scenes.

If anyone needs the package before it goes live just contact me.

 

The fix doesn't help with Unity 5.2 , it didn't turn out to launch a plug-in

 

Hi @wtf3d

To add support for Unity 5.2 load EdMultisceneModWatch.cs into a text editor and search and replace 'UNITY5_1' with 'UNITY5_1 || UNITY5_2'.

Or email support@trusteddevelopments.com and I'll send you a new package with the change.

I'll get a new build with this submitted to the store.

 

New build now submitted with the 5.2 fix

 

Ok. Fix good!

 

Just bought, but it destroys my scene after play...
*5.1.3f1

all I did...
-imported Multiscene from store
-Created a new scene and saved it as "Start"
-Opened my Menu scene
-Dragged "Start" into hierarchy (so it became the active scene)
-Press play, just a normal blank scene view as expected
-Press stopped, and get this error and most of the materials are gone in the Menu scene.



Guess I should have listened to the last review that said it destroyed his project.
*Luckily, I just deleted the Phi folder and restarted unity and scene was back

Edit:
Just to double check...I imported it again, and same thing...also found after you get that error, if you double click a scene to make it active EVERY THING GETS DELETED!!

 

Hi @bocs.

Many thanks for the screenshot of the call stack; that's the first I've seen of anything like that. It sounds like an incompatibility with some other plugin or script. I would like to troubleshoot this with you if possible. Please contact me on support@trusteddevelopments.com and I'll modify Multiscene.cs where the exception occurs to find out what object is causing the issue and I can refund your purchase as this should certainly not happen. Hopefully we can quickly identify the incompatibility and apply a fix.

 

emailed you a repro case, seems like an issue unity caused, and hopefully something you can work around.
*again using 5.1.3f1, waiting for 5.1.4...so don't know if it does the same in 5.2 (too buggy, and can't use patches for webplayer)

 

Hi Andsee,

Have you tested with Unity 5.3 beta and new MSE?
What would be the advantages?

Thanks,

 

I've not tested it in Unity 5.3 yet. I'll take a look.

 

I have 2 scenes, one is a game scene and another is "skin/template" scene where lots of prefabs are placed to modify them easily on the editor. One of the reason I separate those scenes are because the skin scene has so many prefabs/gameobjects(also unused ones) that it will take several seconds for unity to load when I hit play button. And it will eat up lots of unnecessary memory from unused assets too since everything that has refer from the scene is loaded.

Does this still happen when using Multiscene and adding the skin scene to the game scene? Or will the editor completely ignore the skin scene when I hit play button?

 

I haven't entirely understood your setup, however hopefully the following will clarify what will occur.

If you drag multiple scenes into the hierarchy window then the full content of those scenes will be loaded into the editor. However when you hit play only the active scene will be used. Now if in that scene you make use of the MultisceneLoad component then it will load whatever scenes you have asked it to in run mode, allowing you to #include as it were other scenes.

So as long as your skin/template scene is not added to a MultisceneLoad it will not be loaded during play mode.

 

Thanks for your reply. It did answer my question!

 

Hello,

is this working with Unity 5.2?

Thank You

 

Yes It's tested all the way up to Unity 5.2

 

I have some problems with it on Unity 5.2.2f1.

The first time I dragged a scene... and I hid a scene from the view I got an Unity Crash... that kind where you can send an error report to them.

Now it's a bit like this:

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
Phi.Multiscene.ReplaceSceneWithThis (Boolean userSwitchingScenes) (at Assets/Phi/Multiscene/Multiscene.cs:692)
Phi.EdMultisceneHierarchy.SetActiveScene (System.Object data) (at Assets/Phi/Multiscene/Editor/EdMultisceneHierarchy.cs:717)
Phi.EdMultisceneInspector.MakeActive () (at Assets/Phi/Multiscene/Editor/EdMultisceneInspector.cs:68)
UnityEditor.EditorApplication.Internal_CallDelayFunctions () (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/artifacts/generated/common/editor/EditorApplicationBindings.gen.cs:280)

.............
Speaking of the devil

http://puu.sh/lAnYS/6a4682ebff.png
http://puu.sh/lAo0r/525ae61434.png

----------

I load Scene 5 where I once added Scene 4 in the hierarchy. It looks something like this:
http://puu.sh/lAo2S/45ba91d2e4.png

If I drag Scene 4 again it will look like this:
http://puu.sh/lAo4v/992599fa50.png

I even tried to click on the Scene 4 then on the buttom make active scene. I got this after that scene got activated:
http://puu.sh/lAo88/fb1178e9a5.png

My whole scene was black like this:
http://puu.sh/lAoaZ/2a647fa0c4.jpg

It also shows the items from Scene 5 even that the Hierarchy only shows the items from Scene 4.


If you need me to test some stuff tell me. I can reproduce this problems without any problems. Everything seems fine at first but then stuff break.

One other asset that I use and uses the Hiarchy is the Favorite Tabs: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/4237

 

@GamerPET I've not seen this before. One of the screenshots shows up a component from the AdditiveScenes plugin which may not be compatible, but it's just a guess. I would love to help and get to the bottom of this so please email me at support@trusteddevelopments.com

 

I have sent you an email. In the meantime... I got another ugly ugly problem. I deleted teh AdditiveScenes... I tragged a new scene in the Hierarchy... I actually deleted an object from the imported & not active scene... and I kept pressing the S icon to save that Scene. At one point all my objects from the MAIN LOADED scene got their parrents missing... I closed unity... then when I opened it my whole scene was broken... empty. I had to revert my changes from Source Control.

 

If you're getting any kind of errors in the console log then I wouldn't save the scene as there's no telling what state it's in as any exception halts processing causing other important stuff not to occur. I've replied to your email and we will get to the bottom of this.

 

Any updates for Unity 5.3? Even that Unity now has Multiple Scenes it still lacks the features your asset has.

 

Thanks @GamerPET I'll take a look and see what needs to be changed. The project I've been working on day to day was stuck in 5.14 so I haven't tried 5.3 with Multiscene yet.

 

@GamerPET I'm just testing in Unity 5.3 and have my project up and running again. I've got the Multiscene Load script working well and am now about to look at how to handle going into play mode if how Multiscene used to work is what people would like to maintain.

When going into play mode Multiscene would remove all scenes but the current active scene resulting in what I believe is closer to run time behaviour, it would then be up to the active scene and it's components (usually a Multiscene Load component) to load any required dependancies as they do at run time.

With Unity 5.3 it keeps all loaded scenes loaded. I will modify the Multiscene Load component to ensure it does not load any of these scenes again resulting in multiple copies loaded at once.

However we may also want an option to save if dirty and remove all non active scenes on entering play mode (not sure where you would set this, perhaps a global settings page?) and reload them on exiting.

What do you think?

Was there any other functionality in Multiscene that you preferred over Unity's implimentation that I should look at maintaining?

 

Well, what I mainly liked was the ability to just hide the other scenes. Like the scenes are still loaded, I can still see the hierarchy, but the scene is not visible in the Editor. Sometimes I just want to see components from other scenes so I can look at the settings or duplicate & move them into my current scene.

Lately we have been thinking on splitting the scenes... like the 3D Artists work on one scene. I do the logic on another scene. Like sometimes I have to do a camera path and when the camera arrives at some nodes, I execute some actions. I could do those in a "logic scene".

What is a bit weird is how would I do it when I have to interact with objects from the 3D scene...

I would really like an option to have all the scenes running when I click Play... in my case this will be really useful. I can load my logic scene... hit play and then I will be able to see the 3D work.

Thanks