FlowCanvas (inspired by Unreal Blueprints)

Personally, after using Unreal Engine 4 Blueprints I don't want to go back to old-school coding. Hopefully we can see this in the asset store soon.

 

Hello,
Release is going to be very soon since I've got most things resolved
Thanks

Hello,
Thanks Stiffx
Yeah, that is one of the hardest parts, since I want to allow both low level flexibility but designer friendly routines as well.
So basicaly the way its going right now regarding this matter, is that one could work on a high level approach by using encapsulated actions and conditions which do not expose any ports at all to cluter the canvas and thus is a matter of controling the flow with flow nodes, (Branch, ForEach, Switch etc) and linking up Actions and Conditions.

So in the above example, instead of exposing all those parameters of that Tween action as ports, which in this case there are quite many, they are only changable in the inspector, in a more..direct way.
I think this is a valid aproach to minimize and simplify the effort if one needs so. By all means, let me know of your thoughts
Thanks again!

​

Hey!
I am glad to hear that
Im full throtle ahead to release this.

Thanks

 

I see, very nice. Are you using some templates to create the graphs or it can read normal C# code written by anyone?Anyways it would be good to reverse code to generate graphs.

Like I sayd it's a very good idea

 

Hey,

The graphs are purely made in the editor and don't read or generate any code.
With that said though, any function or property access can be turned into a node with reflection.

Is that what you mean?

Thanks! Im glad you like the idea

 

Okay. If that normally when we does not have access via script to visual script. But you must make:
1) Create function (or many uses of one group of nodes)
2) Create clear working with prefabs. Power of C# scripting that create many universal script for all object who use this script. When we make any change in script and save it - script change on all object. I dont want to find all object and change manually on them all.
When release? And if you need tester - i want

 

Hello there,

You kind of do have access to the visual script from code, in the sense of sending event flow signals, getting/setting variables, or getting the resulting value of a network. There is a very simple API for those things.

1) Are you refering to Compound Nodes like this:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/vi...or-unreal-blueprint-like.245646/#post-1976180 ?
If so they are already there
2) Yep, You can use the same visual script amongst any number of objects, prefabs or not. The visual script graph is stored in an asset file.

I hope I understood your questions correctly. Sorry if not.
Can't promise of a realease date yet, but it's soon enough

Thanks!

 

hmmm I see. I'm telling you this because the UE blue print actually generates C++ code.
With that said, if your product can read an C# script and convert to a flow graph (and vice-versa) it would be THE product.

For example, let's say I have my C# script:

Code (csharp):

1. public float Sum(float a, float b);

and your project can read that and create the flow graph. "I know that there's allot of complexity in it" but worth a try

Anyways like I said your project idea is very very good. Keep it up

 

@Stiffx

Are you sure? BluePrints generates C++ code, but only when you compile project. In Unreal you does not have access to blueprints variable, public function and etc from c++ scripts. Convert code in c++ when compile give us speed the same as normally scripts c++. And this is all.

@nuverian

As example. I create visual script with Gameobject.enable in method Start (As example - enable light). I save this scripts as prefabs (Name EnableLight). Assign on all my light GO in scene. Okey... Later i want to update scripts - i add change color of light. When i resave "EnableLight" - it has changes on all GO, who has this Visual scripts?

In other visuals scripts it is imposible!

 

Sorry for the late replies guys.

Hey,
Yeah, I know UE blueprints generate code at some point at least.
While I can understand the possible reasons of code generation, what would be the reasons of the other way, meaning generating a flow graph from code? I am just wondering, although to be honest it's not going to happen in this tool
Code generation might do on the other hand at some point.

Thanks.

Hey,

Yes that is correct.
The Visual Script (lets call it FlowGraph), is an asset file. Any gameobject who has the FlowGraphController attached and the example "EnableLight" FlowGraph attached, will use that same FlowGraph. As a result any changes made to that FlowGraph are common.

 

Hello everyone!
Here is a rather big update on the tool. (including things than NC people might know)
Many of them are convenience stuff.

Port Context Menus
Dragging a port in empty space shows a context menu of common (not all) nodes that you can connect and do stuff with that type of port. This works both forward and backwards (as in the example)

​

Connecting Context Menu
Dragging a port connection on a node shows a menu of possible ports to connect to, including convertions (see later)

​

Full Browser
A node browser similar to the Unity's Add Component menu.
In reality it can be used for any menu

​

Auto Convertions
This is one of my favorites . Instead of having to create a converter node, convertions are automaticaly handled for you in the binder connection context. Apart from the common type convertions, the converters are extendable and I took the liberty to also add "convertions" for Component>GameObject, GameObject>Component, Component>Component.
While in reality the above are not convertions techinicaly speaking, it realy simplifies the workflow to have the ability to connect a GameObject type into an Animator one directly and then an Animator into a Transform etc.
The icon on the connection shows that a convertion is happening there.

​

Generic Nodes
Being a system tha fiddles with types extensively, having c# generics support seems something good to have I think
A such, nodes<T> can be used directly, thus etremely minimizing the number of actual node implementations needed, like for example instead of ForEachFloat, ForEachString etc, there is a single ForEach<T>.


Canvas Groups
Like you guessed and see, canvas organization rectangle groups

​

The current list of available EventNodes is:

• Code Event
• Collision
• Collision2D
• CustomEvent
• CustomEvent<T>
• FlowGraph Events
• Keyboard
• Mouse
• Oscillator
• Trigger
• Trigger2D
• UIButton
• Update

The current list of available FlowControl Nodes is:

• Coroutine State
• Delay
• Flip Flop
• For Each<T>
• For N
• Latch
• Sequence
• Split
• Switch
• Switch Enum
• Switch Int
• Toggle
• While
• Merge AND
• Merge OR
• Merge XOR

If you feel something is missing or have any suggestions or feedback, now is a good time to tell
I am going to submit the tool to the asset store within this week!

Cheers and have fun!

 

This is just lovely nuvi! I've been working extensively with Blueprints in Unreal 4 and I honestly love them, so this here is very exciting!

Cheers and great job man

-Steven

 

Oh and btw Blueprint compiles to Bytecode, not C++.

 

Will it have custom classes action support ?
I mean i create some Class with extending you system, for example i give it some Input variables and some output ones like :
Input : Angle of Object , Angle for rotation
Output : Transform
Then we could use that new Class in your object as a black nox we could branch to other objects ?
I think this is the main needed feature as we would be able to make any custom action components and branch them with other variables and other node objects.
And it's less work on your side because you won't need to write thousand Actions supporting all Untiy features.

Can we create one Flowgraph per object and some Flowgraphs per level ?

Does it generates C# code when compiling to use them ?

Can it be used to create and manage AI states ?

 

Hey Steven
Thanks a lot! I am glad you like.

Let me know if you feel something should be there

Cheers!

Hello,

I supose you mean creating custom Nodes? If so, yes of course you can create custom nodes with inputs and outputs
There are various ways to extend the system.

There is no special 'Level FlowGraph', but you can create one by having an empty game object and a FlowGraph on it as usual.

There is no code generation involved, no.

Can you clarify what you mean with your last question?
Flowgraphs are not state machines, thus why I am asking in what context

Cheers!

 

How good is the performance compared to C# ?

 

Hello,
The system is very fast except in case of using reflection nodes.
Calls from one node to another are direct delegate calls. Nothing really going in between.
Furthermore values are referenced by their correct type, so there is no value boxing/unboxing.
After release the reflection nodes will also get a major performance boost so that they also use same as above instead of method info Invoke.

Cheers!

 

Doing the Unity rounds, and seeing how things are progressing Nuvi!

 

Hello Steve

I have made vast performance and convenience improvements and the tool is actualy ready to be commited to the store, if only I had written the documentation already, which I haven't

 

Can't we just use the Blueprint documentation for Unreal Engine 4? Hahaha...

...can't wait man and thank you for the update!

 

Beautiful. Cannot wait to try this!!

 

Very interested in the release - hope it doesn't take to long to get the documentation ready.

Currently I'm evaluating different 'visualizers'. As this one and the NC are somehow based on the same idea - how much are both intergrated / connected together? Would it be possible to have the behavoir tree / fsm dealed within NC and this one dealing with more complex activities? And would both tools exchanges variable data and trigger events forth and back?

Would be a big plus for myself.

Thx in advance

 

Hey,
Yeah. Hah. I suppose you could do that up to some extend.

Thanks

Hello,

Both systems are build on the same core framework and as such they work quite well together.
Variables, events etc can be common and can be send between one another. After release of FlowCanvas, I will also provide more in depth integrations with one another. For example having an FSM state being defined with a nested FlowScript, in which case the fsm will be sending events like OnEnter, OnUpdate and OnExit and you could define what happens in the FlowScript

Cheers

 

Any approx release date ?

 

Hello,

I just made a pre-release post in the Asset Store forum category . Thus I am going to submit it in within the next few days, if not tomorrow.

Cheers!

 

It is easy to use our own custom action nodes programmed in C# ?

 

Hello,

There are some different ways in which you can create a node for FlowCanvas.
If you are after creating a simple node which mostly looks like a function, you can do so like this:

Code (CSharp):

1. public class Log : ActionNode<string>{
2.     public override void Invoke(string text){
3.         Debug.Log(text);
4.     }
5. }

This is a node

​

Similarily if you wanted to create a simple function node (which returns some value), you can do so like this:

Code (CSharp):

1. public class LerpVector : FunctionNode<Vector3, Vector3, Vector3, float>{
2.     public override Vector3 Invoke(Vector3 from, Vector3 to, float t){
3.         return Vector3.Lerp(from, to, t);
4.     }
5. }

​

The above ways are for simple nodes. If you want more complex ones, meaning with any number of inputs and/or outputs and complete control, you can do so by extending the base flow node class. It's more complex but more flexible:

Code (CSharp):

1. public class Example : FGNode{
2.  
3.     public event System.Action<Flow> Out;
4.     public event System.Action<Flow> Out2;
5.     public ValueInput<string> text;
6.  
7.     public void In(Flow f){
8.         Debug.Log(text.value);
9.         Out(f);
10.     }
11.  
12.     public void In2(Flow f){
13.         //...do something
14.         Out2(f);
15.     }
16.  
17.     public float SomeValue(){
18.         return 13f;
19.     }
20. }

​

There is even a third way, but I will leave it to those 2 so that I do not confuse you

Basicaly because most of the custom nodes created will be Actions and Functions, the first way can cover most of the needs I believe.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers!

 

This seems very eay to make custom nodes, that's just great as we are not tied to predefined nodes only.

About the resulting final runnable code , it is some compiled C# fo all flowgraphs ?
And what about performance , does it impact a lot compared to pure C# ?