[RELEASED] ProBuilder 2.0 : Seamless, Intuitive Level Design in Unity. Finally LIVE!

Oh, thanks man.
I never knew that. I even have Shader forge. I’ll be looking into this now.
Thanks again for the very useful info and quick reply.

 

EDIT: for my post below

I found mesh maker, that can do double sided, that's all I needed but I will still look into the shader solution.

 

What, no sphere again?

 

what the key to scale an extruded part

 

I just checked, that's not on the task list! Adding it now.

Use W, E, and R to toggle between Position, Rotate, and Scale tools.

 

Thank you

 

Can you please add an automatic close?
When I click Shapes designer, and click generate, I would like the Shape Designer to close.
That’s it for now, and keep up the awesome work.

 

Yup, we can do that. Also, "Shape Designer" sounds way cooler than "Shape Tool" - I think I'll change that window's title

 

Great and thanks, I look forward to that. Just one thing, maybe you should have an option for ShapeDesigner, just in case there are people that want to have it stay open all the time.

 

Is there is any issues with Unity 4.5? Do all of your tools including the ProCore Complete bundle include source code? What license are these tools under? Are they under a Unity license or your own license?

 

There is one known bug with the Shape Creation tool on Unity 4.5 (fixed and pending an update ASAP), but otherwise it's fully 4.5 compatible.

Yup, source is included in all tools. ProBuilder provides an option to install the binary or source version on installation, just select 'Source'.

All tools are licensed via the standard Unity Asset Store license, we don't have any special requirements.

 

Heck I figure it couldn't hurt to ask this again, as I see you've added vertex painting to ProBuilder...

...and this is merely a copy and paste from another thread from another asset a year ago, which in turn was a copy and paste from three months prior to that haha:

So yea, you guys are clearly 80% of the way there. You have vert splitting and color by face, so that last 20% (5% per feature ) would be invaluable!

Thank you!

-Steven

 

Quick question to save me going through all the videos and forums posts... ProBuilder lets you create an object, prefab it, and then instantiate it? Are the objects capable of existing standalone like that or are they tied to some sort of ProBuilder root object?

 

c

Look's pretty straight-forward, I'll try to add these tomorrow.

Yup, you can do that. There's a slight caveat in that the pb_Object script needs to remain connected in order to continue editing the geometry, but you can also remove the script and have it behave just like a regular instantiated mesh object (though in that case it would stop working as a prefab - we're workin' on fixing that).

 

Any chance you are ever going to fix deferred mode editing?
Using the keyboard shortcuts or forward should not be a required work around. (this still doesn't fix the shading highlight problem)
*This was reported back in Jan on the google groups under "Toolbar can't be clicked in weird spot"

 

Oh my that would be fantastic (and insta-buy clearly)

...just to be clear why this is a 'thing' for me; in 3DSMax you can assign a color to just a face...no blending of the shared vertice. Once you import it, Unity doesn't recognize the color boundaries and blends the shared vertices, hence why I need to be able to detach the faces (elements) by color, and why then I'd like to have a quick selection of all faces with a particular color for editing (3DSMax doesn't have this btw, so adding quick selection would save me enormous time and actually make any Asset with this feature more valuable than Max!)

Simply think of a vertex colored cube where each side was its own color, with hard edges separating each color (no blending/no shading).

Why do I need this in Unity if I can use Max? Well for the very same reason ProBuilder exists...rapid level prototyping, and I just happen to need this level of vert color control.


Thanks Karl! Very excited now...

-Steven

 

Every couple weeks I come back to this bug and spend a few hours tearing my hair out. I have yet to find even a hack workaround for the GUI offset, but face highlights can probably be fixed if I put a day to it. We've got a lot of bug reports about this lately, so I'll make it a point to devote more time to it.

I just added in the 'Select Faces with Vertex Color' action, and I think every other feature is already in there (though maybe not with a 1:1 order of operation). Also, have you seen Prototype? If you don't need things like edge loops, subdivision, and UV editing it may be a good fit for you (and save you some $$).

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/21...-Props-in-Unity-then-Test-and-Tweak-Instantly

 

Well first off, regarding Prototype, unless I'm mistake in appears to 'colorize' quads...I need to be able to work on the triangle level. If it can use tri's, will it use my vertex shader or only Prototype's?

Otherwise money isn't an issue; a strong toolset and compatible features are far more valuable. That and yes I need far more intricate modeling than just quick blocks and extrusions.

So back to ProBuilder, are you saying that it already:

1. Vertex by Face - This we know is already available, but to be certain, this can be at the triangle level?
2. Vertex Color Layers - This isn't imperative for me anymore, but I'm curious if you can do this. Essentially like blending between layers in Photoshop
3. Select Faces by Color - Okay you just said you have this...wonderful! But is it merely selecting faces that HAVE vertex color, or did you mean it looks at the vertex color of the face, and selects all the other faces that have the same exact vertex color?
4. Detach Faces - This I believe is in ProBuilder already as well...but to be certain of this as well, it does keep the detached faces grouped to its parent object correct? In other words a new object isn't created? (see: Elements of an Object in 3DStudioMax

Thanks Karl!

 

I'm a new ProBuilder user, and I have a couple questions. It looks like the ProBuilder forum is down, so I'm asking here.

I have a mesh that's not super complex yet, but will get more complex over time. The performance was great for a while but now it seems like every time I want to extrude an edge or a face, I get a "beachball" pause of about 15 seconds. That makes it really challenging to work on the mesh. Is there a max mesh size? If I create a new mesh, editing is quick again. Maybe I should work in smaller meshes then join them together when I'm done?

Also, I can't get vertex coloring to work. The mesh has the default material on it (which looks like it accepts vertex coloring). I select vertices, then choose a color from the panel and nothing happens. Am I missing a step?

 

Hi Laralyn, I don't think the forum is down, but it did move recently - http://www.protoolsforunity3d.com/forum/

Regarding the beachball, it sounds like something is wrong. I do notice some slowdowns when editing larger meshes (typically around 10k vertices), but anything under that should be snappy. Are you seeing any errors or warnings in the console?

Currently the Vertex Color interface will only apply colors to whole faces. You don't need to be in 'Face' editing mode, you just have to have clicked a face instead of drag-selecting vertices for the vertex colors to take effect.

 

You're correct - Prototype works with quads only (though some geometry do built triangle faces, Prototype has no way of converting between the two).

Yes, using the `Connect Vertices` command you can split a face into triangles and work at that level. I've also added an auto-triangulate method to the todo list.

I'm not sure I completely understand - so this would blend face colors at the seam? If so, that isn't currently supported, but wouldn't be too difficult to implement.

Yup, I just added this Action to the trunk and will be included in the next release. It looks at what your currently selected face vertex colors and matches all other faces with those exact colors.

Right. You can either use the "Detach" action (which will also separate vertex seams) or simply assign a different material to the faces you'd like grouped. ProBuilder automatically generates submeshes to match the materials of each face (and smoothing groups).

 

The vertex coloring worked on a face--thanks!

Re: performance, I tried it on my work PC and I see the same thing as on the Mac at home. I've included a shot of the mesh in question--is it large enough to produce performance issues? I was planning to tessellate it down the road, to get the intended look so it worries me if it's already too large. I could break it at into separate meshes at a couple points, or create the large flat seabed as a static mesh in C4D.

There is just one warning (repeated) in the console:
Look rotation viewing vector is zero
UnityEngine.Quaternion:LookRotation(Vector3, Vector3)
pb_Editor:UpdateTextureHandles()
pb_Editor:UpdateSelection()
pb_Editor:UndoRedoPerformed()
UnityEditor.Undo:Internal_CallUndoRedoPerformed()


If it IS too large, then is there a way you would recommend making simple low-poly terrains in ProBuilder? Thanks!

 

Alrighty, I have a question about the best way to achieve a use case. I want a level in one of my games to feature an "Arch Gravity Dam" (image link) and am trying to figure out a nice way to construct the base geometry. I could of course get a rough shape by making a subdivided wall them moving segments out and up, but that would be neither precise nor convenient...

Anyone got any smart ideas? I'm sure there's some simple trick I could use to make this easy...

 

I have an young children app and wanted to know if ProBuilder would help me build low poly 3D letters?

When I first made mine I wasn't considering how much memory they will take up on load.


Thanks

 

You could use the Arch tool to get a good start on this.

Not specifically - it may make it slightly easier to build the meshes, but I think you'd be better off using something like this instead: http://www.starscenesoftware.com/flyingtext3d.html

 

Yep, I had a play with exactly that last night.

 

does this have full runtime editing support? the same as in the editor?

 

The mesh editing API is all runtime compatible, but there isn't any runtime interface. You'd have to implement your own handles and editing interface at the moment.

 

Hi,

I am considering purchasing probuilder 2 but have a question. On the asset store page right at the beginning of your product description it says NEW ProCore bundle save $25. I am not sure exactly what this means. Is it that buying probuilder 2 will provide a $25 discount off the bundle if bought in future or that it includes the bundle thus meaning a saving of $25(which doesn't make sense if its the same bundle that is listed as $60). I just want to clarify before I make any decision.

Thanks

 

Well, the $60 bundle says it does not include ProBuilder. The words "ProCore Bundle" there are in fact a link, so I'm fairly certain that what they're saying is that you'll save $25 if you buy all of their stuff as a bundle as compared to buying the bits individually.

 

Hi Angry Penguin,

Thought the same and more than likely right. I just want to make sure that there are no changes being made with the store info yet to be updated.

thanks

 

Alright, this is really frustrating. My gizmo keeps disappearing. At first I thought it was only when I group-selected geometry that it couldn't figure out how to edit all at once, but now I've got a relatively simple object where I can't select even one face without the gizmo blinking out of existence. Select something else and it's there, go back to this object...



... and it's gone. As you can see, there's no manipulator gizmo in the middle of the selected face, and if it's anywhere else I can't find it.

What's up?

 

The gizmo will go the center of the selection - so it looks like you've got multiple objects selected here. I'd guess that the other object (to the right in this image) has a face selected, and the gizmo is somewhere in the middle. If you just click that face without shift-selecting, does the gizmo re-appear?

 

No, the face visible in that image is the onlyselected face. I made that image by:
1. Position camera.
2. Select a single, working face on another visible object. This works fine, the gizmo is visible.
3. Single-left-click the plane selected in the image.
4. Take screenshot.

I've also had similar gizmo absence in many other cases. This is usually during multi-selection (typical use case: select "geometry" mode, shift-click a bunch of objects to get their certs visible, then box-drag the desired verts - verts get selected, gizmo goes on holiday).

Also, on many occasions where it's gone missing I've looked over the entire scene to find the gizmo. I am positive that It's not in an odd place, it's gone.

Most of the time I've been able to work around this, albeit at reduced efficiency, by selecting some or all of the desired geometry a different way. In this case I can't do that, though. (Rebuilding that piece is no biggie, but I'm worried about how often this is happening. For what it's worth, this project started as just a fresh Asset Store install of ProBuilder 2.something, so there haven't been any upgrades or anything.)

 

That's really odd. So it's specific objects that this affects, and usually corresponding to a multiple-object selection.

Are you seeing any errors or warnings in the Console? Also, does running the 'Force Refresh Objects' fix it (even temporarily)?

 

Aside from the case pictured above it has always been from a multi-object selection. I'm not sure on this, but I think that it's predominantly from box-selections. If I shift-click a bunch of stuff I don't lose the gizmo so much.

Nothing aside from leaked object warning when I save. (On that note, see below...)

I'll try this out when next I run into it.



With regards to object leaks, I've no idea if this is related but... a few times I've been working on a level copying geometry objects around and whatnot, and when I copy something, move it, then geometry-edit either the original or the duplicate the same geometry change gets made to both. This implies to me that they're both pointing at the same mesh, which I do not believe to be the intended behaviour (certainly to me as a user it is not). I wonder if this could be related to the leaked mesh log messages, in that you're copying the mesh but in some cases not updating the reference on the duplicate object to point at its own copy?

I've also had a few walls inexplicably go missing, which I think is the same deal - I copy something, move it, eventually delete the original, and both disappear.


Anyway, hope that helps! I can try to put together repro cases if you'd like.

For the sake of any 3rd parties reading this, please don't think I'm knocking the tool. Even with the odd bug here and there (which I'm confident will be addressed) it's a huge productivity boost.

 

Hey there,
is it possible to use multiple textures with probuilder on one material? and if so, how do I do it? Couldnt find anything in the docs. lets say I want a face to have some kind of ground tone or texture and place a decal/symbol in front if it. how can I achieve that?

thanks for any help

 

On the mesh leaking - I think you're correct in your assessment. I did some work on the prefab and duplicate object code during this release, so I'm thinking this bug may be already fixed.

With regards to the disappearing faces, this one I can happily say I actually did fix! That was actually a pretty confusing little bug that took me the better part of a day to work out

You may wish to check out QuickDecals, it sounds like that would fit the bill perfectly.

 

Disappearing faces or the gizmo thing?

In any case, cheers!

 

How textures are used by a material isn't to do with ProBuilder so much as it's to do how Unity's material system works. I wouldn't suggest a multi-texture material for the use case you mentioned, though - a decal system as karl_ suggested is a much better fit.

 

The disappearing faces one. I've not been able to reproduce the missing gizmo yet, still have a case open for it though!

 

Hi,
I definitely need a clip tool like from the hammer editor. ( https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Hammer_Clipping_Tool )
Switching to edges, selecting them, ... takes longer than using the clipping tool.
It's also impossible to cut a sphere or other object efficiently without clipping tool.

 

They've said that boolean operations like that are conceivable one day, but that they're such a huge challenge to get right in regular 3D (i.e. not CSG) that you shouldn't hold your breath. Even booleans in standard 3D modelers tend to create pretty nasty geometry.

 

Running the latest version, for some reason this...

... is happening to me reliably every time I copy-then-edit a PB object. As in, it appears not to be fixed.

 

Arrghhh! - I just created a small level with no problem using ProBuilder and it works fine in the editor. When I build and run it on an iPhone 5, the geometry doesn't display at all and I get the following error messages in the log.



Unity 4.5.2f1

ProBuilder 2.2.5f5 revision 2341


(Filename: /Applications/buildAgent/work/d63dfc6385190b60/artifacts/iPhonePlayer-armv7Generated/GraphicsBindings.cpp Line: 842)

Not allowed to access vertices on mesh 'Combined Mesh (root: scene)'
(Filename: /Applications/buildAgent/work/d63dfc6385190b60/artifacts/iPhonePlayer-armv7Generated/GraphicsBindings.cpp Line: 611)

Not allowed to call SetTriangles() on mesh 'Combined Mesh (root: scene)'
(Filename: /Applications/buildAgent/work/d63dfc6385190b60/artifacts/iPhonePlayer-armv7Generated/GraphicsBindings.cpp Line: 873)

Not allowed to call RecalculateBounds() on mesh 'Combined Mesh (root: scene)'
(Filename: /Applications/buildAgent/work/d63dfc6385190b60/artifacts/iPhonePlayer-armv7Generated/GraphicsBindings.cpp Line: 795)

Not allowed to access triangles on mesh 'pb_Mesh16100'
(Filename: /Applications/buildAgent/work/d63dfc6385190b60/artifacts/iPhonePlayer-armv7Generated/GraphicsBindings.cpp Line: 842)

Not allowed to access vertices on mesh 'pb_Mesh16100'
(Filename: /Applications/buildAgent/work/d63dfc6385190b60/artifacts/iPhonePlayer-armv7Generated/GraphicsBindings.cpp Line: 611)

Not allowed to call SetTriangles() on mesh 'pb_Mesh16100'

 

Thems are static batching errors. This can happen when you have ProBuilder objects with 'NoDraw' faces marked as 'Batching Static'. You can fix this by running the "Repair -> Fix GameObject Flags" action.

 

Thanks Karl.

 

I think I found something about the bug where the 3 buttons (top, geometry, texture) are being shifted upwards.
When you go to your camera and disable the camera component the buttons switch back down.
When you enable the component again the buttons get shifted up again.

Don't know if that was already known, I thought it might help finding and fixing it...

edit: When you switch from deferred rendering mode to forward its fixed.

 

How can we get the vert colour from geometry? I want to be consistent, but at some point have lost one of the primary colours I'm using, and while I can use the dropper tool to get something close it's not precisely the same.

Edit with answer: I managed to do it by setting ambient lighting to pure white then using an ortho camera to pick the colour off the face. It'd be super nice if there were a menu option to "Copy colour from selected face" though.


Something else: Also, I've just managed to lock up the Editor while attempting to set the snap in ProGrids to 0.0625. The snap field now shows "0" and the Editor isn't responding to input.

On a similar note, while I'm not sure if it's related, I generally find number fields in ProBuilder a pain to use - any multi-character number is a pain to type, often involving clicking in the field multiple times, sometimes having to hilight and replace a number because anything I type gets nerfed immediately. Anything with a "0" character is particularly troublesome. Can you change them somehow to not validate/clamp the number until we hit enter or deselect the field?

 

I just did this again. Pretty sure it's a bug, in a newly updated ProGrids 2.

1. Clicked in the number field, typed "0.0625" with my keyboard.
2. Attempted to select and move geometry.
3. Unity locks up.
4. Look at the number field, it says "0".

So, regardless of how the number got to be 0, there's an issue in that attempting to move geometry in that state locks up the Editor. Separetely, I really think some attention needs to be paid to the number fields, because my error rate with them is crazy due to the number of ways I can confuse them.