Chronos – Time Control – Unity Awards Winner

I knew I saw it, but I couldn't find it and wasn't sure anymore. I found it now by looking again thank you very much.

 

@Lazlo Bonin:
great asset!!!
I couldn't find in anywhere if your CRHONOS works on mobile.
In your product description says: "2D or 3D" compatible.

That means it's compatible with mobile?

Thanks.

 

I'm using Trail Renderer in my Game Object.
But, when i stop the time. The Trail is gone.
I want the trail is still right before the time stop.
Is it possible with chronos to do that ?

 

Any word on this? I asked the question on May 18th- its now May 30th

 

The forum does not always notify owners of a new post. If you need an answer right away, it's best to PM or send an email to their support address.

 

You can add the PlayMaker actions by importing the "PlayMaker.unitypackage" file at the root of the Chronos directory. The physics actions will be under "Physics 2d (Chronos)".

 

The description also says "Any platform"; in other words, yes, it's compatible on mobile.

Hmm, unfortunately, by looking at the Unity documentation on TrailRenderers, I see no way to pause or reverse them. Perhaps you could try to achieve the same effect with children particle emitters?

That's right, I didn't get any email for the last week even though I'm subscribed to email notifications... Weird. Nonetheless, you're right mdotstrange, I got loaded with non-Unity work so I couldn't look at your problem in more depth. I can't give any time frame guarantee right now, but you're on top on my priority list as soon as I get my work sorted out. I sincerely apologize for the delay.

 

Hello, good news that it already supports using sliders as shown on the example scene and is very good

Now the bad part for me, I have no coding and scripting experience, so I want to know if I can use the sliders already done from the example scene or I must make my own ones with scripting?

I just and only want a simple things, and is to make everything in the scene that is moving in slow motion (except the player), and do not want to make any groups or separate the effects, just simple a slider to slow everything down at will

SO considering this, I wonder if I could apply a prefab with the slider and the needed parts and with the scripts of chronos, from the example scene to my own scene

Thanks very much

 

Hello, Lazlo

Thanks for your answer and for making the new example scene, regretably I do not have any scripting knowledge so I can not make any script myself as you suggest but I have seen now the new demo example scene included in the package, and this includes some sliders to modify and customise the time control and this would be the same as having a dial button, so maybe I could this instead, but I wonder what would I need to do to transfer this slider from your demo example scene to the scene I have done

I do not want to have accelerate or rewind, only to be able to slow time generally to all the things in scene when moving the slider down, so I suposse that the values should be only between 0 and 1 (0 being stopped, 1 being normal time) and I suposse and think that the player itself is not affected by the time control, or maybe I am wrong?

Thanks very much for your possible help

 

Apart from the post I have put above I also wanted to ask this also

As Melonhead I am also interested to know hoe you have done that awesome and amazing fracturing explosion that looks so well done and spectacular, and is say that you have used the fracuring and destruction asset, but what are these little bit tweaks you have done to make it compatible with Chronos?

Thanks

 

so theres no way to support unity 4.6??

thing is unity 5 has major performance issues on mobile as can be found on the android thread. http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/ve...roid-after-upgrading-to-unity-5.306572/page-5

I would buy if this was 4.6 compatible

 

Hello everyone,

Just stoping by to let you know that Chronos now has integration NodeCanvas tasks
You can download them here.

Cheers and have fun!

 

Hey, how was your replay plugins?
Because i'm waiting it for my games

 

I'm back! Sorry for the delays everyone, I've been swamped with work. But now that I'm done, I can spend some time on Chronos. Today, I'll work on converting the example scene to PlayMaker, and fixing any bugs that may arise in the process.

Now for your questions...

With the PlayMaker example scene, you should be able to see and replicate the sliders without scripting.

Good question! I'll post an annotated source code of my "Explode" method so you can see how it works. Basically: attach a PhysicsTimer to every piece, and all the plugin's Explode method with the force multiplied by the time scale.

Here it is, my whole Missile class with full comments:
http://pastie.org/10238853

I'm sorry, but as stated clearly on the description page, Chronos requires Unity 5 in its source. I hope that performance bug gets fixed quickly so you can upgrade -- I myself haven't had any stability or performance with U5 so far.

Thank you very much for your integration mate! Sorry for not answering your email earlier.

I'll get back to finishing it right after I'm done with the PlayMaker example scene for Chronos. Essentially, the plugin is done (the code is fully completed), I just need to work on promotional material (screenshots, documentation, etc).

 

Hi. I have not tried the asset, just reading up on it now.
I use a lot of Inverse Kinematics with my animations. Any system that allows for recording and playback of object settings. to store and read this for kinematics use.

 

Hi Lennart!

I haven't used IK before, so it's not built into Chronos. However, it's possible to record any type of data in snapshots by extending the recorder class (see the example here). If you give me more information about exactly what data you need recorded, maybe I can help you implement it.

Cheers!

 

Just out of curiosity, how difficult would it be to use chronos in a multiplayer networked game?

 

I haven't tested it (I didn't do much multiplayer work in Unity), but I see no inherent reason why it wouldn't work. If you use Time.deltaTime in your multiplayer games (and you should!), using Chronos should work too.

It is my intention that Chronos is fully multiplayer compatible, so if you try it and encounter bugs, I'll be happy to try to fix them.

 

Hi there!

Just came by to say I loved how the fracturing tool was used. It looked great
Keep up the good work!

 

Hi

Great plugin. Really easy to get started and has some great features.

I have a small issue with the performance using the timeline component on shurikin particle systems. I'm not sure if its good practice to use it in this way or if there is a more optimised way to start and stop particles. I'm using the lerpTimeScale as well.

I have small scene with 3 particle systems, some physics2d moving sprites and some audio on a global clock. basically the tutorial setup. The performance decreases steadily over around 20 seconds until its unplayable whether i use the function or not. Having particles with a timeline component isn't working very well. Removing/disabling the timeline from the particles fixes the issue.

I have it working fine with audio and phisics2d with very little overhead. They are relatively simple particles. Is it just intensive to use chronos for that purpose?

Tried the support forum but the verification email won't send.
Thanks for any help.

 

Hmm, that's bad.

I think I know where the problem comes from: I have to resimulate the particle system up to its current time at each frame in order to have a full control over it (and therefore be able to rewind it!). However, if you're later into the game (let's say 20 seconds), each frame will have to simulate 20 seconds * 60 frames of particle systems... and that's bad. Unfortunately, that's the only way I can enable rewind with particle systems.

What I *could* do in the next version to alleviate (but not completely eradicate) the problem is give a "max loops" setting for particle systems. For instance, if you give it 3 max loops, and your PS usually lasts ~2 seconds, Chronos will only simulate up to 6 seconds, then restart. That means there will be a visual "jump" at every 6 seconds though, so it's far from ideal.

I'll keep thinking about it and see if I can find a better solution. Meanwhile, you can either disable the Timeline on your particle system or simply go in Timeline.cs and comment the line: "FixParticles();" in Update.

If you have any other idea, let me know!

 

Thanks for the quick reply.

I was thinking there must be a lot of data and simulation to account for with particles. I was looking for a way to disable the rewind time on particles as i'm only looking for very short instances.

Its pretty extreme the way i'm using it as the particles are endlessly looping and always active. Its a dust/wind particle effect so i can see why it wouldn't be efficient to simulate over a long periods as its not created and destroyed at any time. I can work around that no problem with a few one shot systems i think. Should produce the same result in my case. Its good to know where i'm going wrong and what to account for.

Having control over the loops sounds good. Its always nice to have some extra control and options either way.

Thanks again for the reply. Much appreciated. Look forward to seeing how it develops.

 

Chronos v2.0 is out!

Warning: Backwards incompatible. Backup your projects before updating.

Changelog: http://ludiq.io/chronos/changelog
Migration guide: http://ludiq.io/chronos/migration
Asset Store: http://u3d.as/bX5

New:

• Animator rewind support
• State properties and methods on particle systems
• Custom property drawer for global clocks*
• PlayMaker example scene
• PlayMaker actions for global clocks

Improvements:

• Consolidated component-timeline organization*
• Shared recording properties for all recorders on timeline*
• Automatic transform / physics recording without recorders*
• Component documentation links in inspector

Fixes:

• Fixed bug where time scale of children clocks wasn't updated
• Fixed bug where angular velocities weren't affected by time scale

Upgrade notes
Chronos 2.0 is a big release packed with new features, a massive restructuration and various bugfixes. While we tried our best to cause as little change to your projects as possible, there are still areas you will need to manually edit when upgrading.

Global Clocks
All Global Clock property drawers have been reset. You will need to manually relink all your clocks' Parent properties, as well as all your timelines' GlobalClock property, if they were in global mode.

On the plus side, you can now directly refer to global clocks with a simple public GlobalClock clock; in your custom scripts.

Built-in Components
All parts of Chronos where timelines changed properties of built-in Unity components (e.g. animation speed, audio source pitch, etc.) have been reorganized. Instead of using Timeline.(component)Speed, you should now user Timeline.(component).(property).

For example, Timeline.audioSpeed becomes Timeline.audioSource.pitch. For the full list of changes, have a look at the Migration Guide.

PhysicsTimer / TransformRecorder
PhysicsTimers and TransformRecorders have been merged with the Timeline component. You no longer need to add them to your GameObjects, and all the ones that were there will have missing scripts. You can safely remove the missing script references. Afterwards, check the Timeline and make sure the Record Transform property is checked and adjust the recording properties.

 

Hello, I have just seen the new update to 2.0, as is a great and very good, I am lucky that I did not start to use yet, I bought it but until now did not have time to use it, so I will not have any problem of compatibility

I have read the manual and seen this thread, but I still confused about one thing, I have seen that you can control with clocks on each object the time of that object specifically, BUT

What if all I want is to slow the time of every single thing and moving object inside the scene all with exactly time scale?

Should I add a clock to each moving object also?

I though I could see how the demo is done, but as it has different groups that behave differently I do not know if this true or not

I am now updating Unity to 5.1.1 and then I will download the new version and test it.

Thanks very much for any help

Best wishes with this new 2.0 version and you deserve the best for making such an awesome and amazing tool to control the time

 

You can certainly control every object at the same time scale.

You will need to add a Timeline to every object, each pointing to the "Root" global clock. Then, just change the time scale of the Root clock.

 

Hi.

I just updated to 2.0 and have a problem setting the global clock parent in the timeline component. I can set it when an object is in the scene hierarchy but not in the prefab in the project. When i instantiate the timeline is missing the global clock parent reference.

Thanks.

 

Thanks for the report. I think I know where this is coming from. I'll attempt to push a fix soon but I'm moving this week, so it might be in a couple of days if it gets too hectic.

 

No problem. I really like the update. Its a bit more streamlined to use the components. I was using some physics components but its great just having to add timeline component and it does the rest automatically.

The issue of setting the globalglock at prefab level i got around with a simple script to set the clock on awake from a string. It does the job.

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using Chronos;
3.  
4. public class SetTimeline : MonoBehaviour {
5.  
6.     public string clockName;
7.     private Timeline timeline;
8.  
9.     // Use this for initialization
10.     void Awake () {
11.         timeline = gameObject.GetComponent<Timeline> ();
12.         if (timeline) {
13.             timeline.mode = TimelineMode.Global;
14.             timeline.globalClock = Timekeeper.instance.Clock(clockName);
15.         }
16.     }
17. }

Thanks again.

 

I have seen that it seems that the rewind options is activated by default and will record the scene even if it you will not use it, so please I want to know how to disable it as I do not want to have rewind

General and independent step by step tutorial?

You have done a well done tutorial with the 2D scene of Unity, but maybe I think that it would be perhaps good also to make a general and independent of a project step by step tutorial, that could be applied to any project and any gameobjects.

I suposse and think that this may be the same problem as I am having

I have downloaded Version 2.0 and have a problem following the written tutorial, In the ENEMIES part is told to:
add a timeline to the enemy1 and enemy2 prefabs,
then choose Mode Global,
then in Global Clock select Enemies

But I can´t select enemies in the drop down menu so I can´t continue

I have tried to add enemy1 to Hierarchy and change it there and this time is possible BUT when you click on Apply to save it to the prefab, it does not work.

As I can not follow the Tutorial I think I will see how is done the demo scene and see if can do it something from there

 

i have this issue...
when i add timekeeper to the scene, its say error in console
UnityException: Missing 'Chronos.Timekeeper' singleton in the scene.

fixed : i seems upgrading incorectly.
when upgrading, the file is not overriding. so i delete every one of the duplicated file. seems i deleted the new one that may cause this problem.

 

As mentioned in the tutorial, the first thing you must always do to use Chronos is to add a Timekeeper in the scene. You can easily do that from the Unity menu under: GameObject > Timekeeper.

 

Hello again, I am sorry to bother you, but I may be missing something, and yet do not know what are all the parts involved in the Time control, I have been trying to follow carefully and step by step the tutorial, using the demo scene you have done and tried to add a moving ball, and another moving thing, but they do not follow the time slider control, only change the color.

Is it needed any additional script?

When using Chronos for a explosion of objects using Fracturing and Destruction, should I add a timeline to each one of the fragmented objects?

I have copied the same scripts as the objects from the scene have, and configured correctly the timeline to the Root and the global one, but it still does not work, maybe because I can not copy the same scripts

I do not know what to do to make it work

I have Playmaker, so I could use it also

As said before what I want is simple to only have one Root control to be able to control the time of all the moving objects at the same time, WITHOUT any REWIND or ACCELERATE

I am using 3D and not 2D, so the 2D tutorial may contain maybe wrong things for me

Sorry that I do not fully understand the steps needed for adding all the elements that are neeeded to be able to control the time to the scene and objects

SO all objects would be controlled at the same time with the same time value and not separated

1 - Add a Timekeeper

2 - Add a Global Clock "Root"

3 - Add a Timeline configured to Root for each moving element in the scene

4 - Add BaseBehaviour script (shown on tutorial page)? where should I put this?

5 - Add TimeControl script (shown on tutorial page)? where should I put this?

6 - Modify the script of the moving object so it takes into consideration the new timing measurement that Chronos Calculates so for this you need the translation list included in the website, I have done this already and changed the needed parts

But what happens if the moving objects does not have any script?

7 - Do I have also to add an Area Clock?

8 - What other thing may be needed?

 

I'm not forgetting you SpaceRay, don't worry! It's just that I'm in the middle of moving between two apartments and can't answer complicated questions or debug the plugin right now (my development computer is in boxes, I'm typing this from my smartphone). I'll try to get back to you ASAP this week, sorry for the delays.

 

Hey folks!

So, while trying to fix the prefab bug, I've stumbled upon a bigger structural problem.

The reason why you can't keep the Global Clock value in the prefab is because the object reference of the Global Clock is in the scene, not in the project, and an (uninstantiated) prefab has no notion of the objects in the current scene.

I have three options

1. Leave it as it is, because timelines "should" be scene-based
2. Use a backing string field for the name when in prefab view (as it was previously) which:
   • might go missing
   • doesn't support renaming
   • is prone to break easily
3. Have Global Clocks as project-wide objects that are managed with an editor dialog, but that means all share would share the same global clock setup. This "makes sense" because if you have project-level objects (uninstantiated prefabs) refering to global clocks, that means global clocks are project-level objects themselves.

This begs the question: would you rather have your global clock setup shared across scenes?

I'm tempted to say yes, but I'd be curious to know if you have setups that wouldn't work with this. If so, do you have any other suggestion?

 

At the same time, refering to global clocks with the Key string means "Hey, look for the clock of this name in my current scene setup", which could be an acceptable meaning. The Global Clock drawers would then simply display a text field when chosen from a prefab.

 

@SpaceRay I'll answer your question by PM to leave the thread open to discussion here.

 

Option 3 sounds very nice, and option 2 sounds like a nice hotfix.

Basically in the long run, yes to the question.

 

You could always have the user create a duplicated particle system that "looks" reversed and have them toggle between them. Most of the time you don't need particle systems to be exact anyway.

Your plugin looks really cool. I just have a few questions.

1.) After I rewind, am I able to do other actions and change the timeline? (Think Prince of Persia gameplay mechanic)
2.) What is the length of time that I can potentially rewind?

Thanks!
Stephen.

 

Particle System support has been added in V1.1 already.

1) Yes, you actually have to. You cannot play back the same sequence forward after a rewind (Chronos is not a replay plugin).

2) There's no hard limit, it depends on how many objects you record, how many properties you record on them, and how precise you want the recording to be (e.g. snapshots per second). Usually, I'd say a good 10 minutes is safe even with a small RAM for most games.

 

But the more I think about it, the more I feel like option 3 is limitative; you can't have different setups per-scene. Isn't that a huge drawback?

 

I came here looking for a solution to the prefab issue as I need my projectile prefabs to be able to instantiate and use a global clock. Options 2 or 3 each work for my purposes, though in the interest of getting on with my development as soon as possible, a string field as in option 2 on timelines would be fantastic. niallator's work-around did not work for me and until the prefab issue is fixed I won't be able to continue development, so I do hope a solution is released soon.

 

Hi, I just bought this and decide to make a fun game
After finish the tutorial, I find that Chronos doesn't work.
I use DOTween/NavMeshAgent/CharacterController to move platform/turret/enemy in the test and it seems some parts (such as DOTween) use its own timescale function.
Is that possible to let Chronos handle Unity's Time instead? Because it looks super painful if I have to modify every time related call in DOTween and other assets.

BTW: DOTween is here, a free asset http://dotween.demigiant.com/
UPDATE: I see the DOTween author mark this as an enhancement issue on his github repo, maybe you can help him somehow, check it out https://github.com/Demigiant/dotween/issues/19

 

Hi there, the Chronos package is within a subfolder 'Package', however the tutorial states the Gizmos folder should not be within a subfolder. I've been wondering since the 1.x versions, is it an oversight that Chronos and Gizmos is within Package\ ?

If so, could it be fixed so we don't need to move the folders out of Package and into the root?

 

You're right, this is a bug with the Unity Asset Store Package upload tool. It'll be fixed in the next version, I found a workaround.

So far, I've helped user integrate Chronos with iTween and LeanTween (gosh, there are so many tweening libraries you guys use!). I'll head over to that GitHub repo and try to help DOTween's author integrate it.

In other news...

Version 2.0.1 has been submitted for review!

Regarding prefabs: The bug has been fixed using option 2. Global Clocks are refered to using a string key now, so they can be saved in prefabs even if the global clock isn't in the scene. You'll be able to display the popup in custom scripts by using the [GlobalClock] attribute on a string field.

Regarding particle performance: The temporary performance fixed we discussed was implemented. You can now lower Timekeeper.maxParticleLoops to alleviate the problem, albeit at the cost of a stutter once in a while. I'm open to suggestions for better iways.

Regarding PlayMaker: Support is now directly as a subfolder, not a separate .unitypackage file. Simply uncheck it on import if you don't have PlayMaker.

Regarding folder structure: Chronos is now at the root of the package. Source has been moved in a /Source subfolder. Documentation, tutorial, etc. are at its root. The Gizmos folder is now at the global root.

Hopefully the new version will be approved soon. Sorry for the time it took for bugfixes, everyone!

 

Thanks, good news that the update has been sent and fixed

I will wait for the updated version and then after test again what I want to do to and see if it works or not

 

Yeah! So many tweening libs
After a 48hr gamejam weekend, I find that maybe Chronos is my best buy asset in 2015, very awesome, thank you!

 

I think this is the most innovative and creative idea, as there is really a great and awesome beauty in slowing time of things as you can see things that you could not see at normal time speed

I know that you have tried to make it the most simple way to be able to be used, but I think that it just need a little bit more explanation on how to use it

Although the tutorial page is very good, and explains well how the system works, and the individual parts involved, that I understand well, I still find it hard to combine all the parts involved and make it work right, and would be good to have a more simple step by step guide to tell what is needed to do first and what is needed to add to the game objects from the Chronos asset for it to work.

As obviously there are multiple possible combinations and situations could be may be difficult to make just one tutorial, but it could be made just the most basic and essential part that is needed (maybe control everything with only one clock without any individual one and to all the area) and then make extension for different additional cases if you to expand the control of time as:

- control by specific groups
- individual control of game objects
- physics explosions in slow motion (as seen awesomely and amazingly on the video demo)
- custom area of control
- trigger based actions

And/or maybe explaining how each of the demo scenes groups (A to E) can be done by yourself, or how they are done and has been built, because one thing is to see it working and another is all the things involved in it.

 

SpaceRay, I believe the tutorial (along with the documentation) are sufficient to cover each component individually, in order, to build any scenario you have in mind. If I had to write a different tutorial for every possible combination, it would probably take more than a month (the tutorial and documentation took about 2 weeks to write). Also, by studying the example scenes provided and the components attached to the objects, you should be able to replicate them.

If you have more specific questions, I can try to help you out further.

 

v2.0.1 has been approved! Please update and let me know if you still encounter any bug.

 

Found a small bug already where clocks may not be found depending on the GameObject load order. To fix, go in Clock.cs and change:

Before:

Code (CSharp):

1.         protected virtual void Awake()
2.         {
3.             if (parent != null)
4.             {
5.                 parent.Register(this);
6.             }
7.         }
8.  
9.         protected virtual void Start()
10.         {
11.             startTime = Time.unscaledTime;
12.          
13.             ComputeTimeScale();
14.         }

After:

Code (CSharp):

1.         protected virtual void Awake()
2.         {
3.  
4.         }
5.  
6.         protected virtual void Start()
7.         {
8.             startTime = Time.unscaledTime;
9.  
10.             if (parent != null)
11.             {
12.                 parent.Register(this);
13.             }
14.          
15.             ComputeTimeScale();
16.         }

I'm also investigating a bug with animator recorders not getting playback data. As soon as I figure it out, I'll push both fixes to a v.2.0.2.