ARCHIMATIX PRO Node-based Parametric Modeling for Unity [Unity Awards Finalist]

I'm very interested in anything that adds to Archimatix's functionality, but to be honest, whenever I see your posts, I don't fully grasp what your assets do exactly, or how they differ from Archimatix's own functionality. I look at the descriptions that you provide but I can't visualize what they do.

Assets that "make Archimatix do more fancy stuff" should be an insta-buy for me, but I have to admit, I kind glaze over your posts even though I see that others say that they are amazing. This is a criticism of me rather than you, but I'm probably not alone in not in my lack of understanding. I think you would benefit a lot by having some videos/gifs that show what each of your nodes do. roryo's visual examples instantly convey to me what each node does and get me excited about trying them.

 

If you come back and see an animation of dancing parametric buildings, spaceships, and furniture you have no one to blame but your self.

 

Good point. Working on some videos is on my to do list. I've just never done much video editing so figuring out how to make a good video has been a learning experience. I will however make it my goal to try to get a few videos out.

 

Intense!

 

These are all AX runtime/procedural…. that same AX runtime+Playmaker model from the previous page actually, except it became too complex to animate so now it's just one-click and the buildings regenerate.

 

These look great Holly.

 

Really amazing! The only problem is that I can't quite tell which room Robot Kyle is in....

 

Really digging all these big curvy glass buildings. They look really good.

 

This is pretty amazing-looking! I just had to stop in and give you some well-deserved props on this!

The only thing missing is possibly some rooms/partitioning and a door to actually get inside...! I wonder if that too is already easily achievable somehow?

 

Hey Everyone,

So I have the next few days free from work, so I am going to be attempting to wrap up a very special project I've been working on. Its been killing me not to share it, but its far enough along at this point im only a couple days away from submitting it to the asset store. So i figured I could share a sneak peak.

Bonus points to the first person to figure out what exactly you are looking at.

 

Hi!

I updated from 1.0.4 to 1.0.6, but I can not create a node for a random tool. The reinstallation did not help. Here is the error in the console (Unity 2017b):

It's archimatix editor outside Unity?

 

Its in unity, just not the editor....

 

@wetcircuit - What I find really interesting about your process is that you started exploring the connection between runtime Archimatix and PlayMaker with a less-detailed version of your buildings to create elegant animated works of sculpture. Then, after you added more detail that was too much to animate, you arrived at some fantastic static models.


Since good design is an iterative process, runtime Archimatix can be used by the designer (game developer or player making in-game assets) to generate hundreds of iterations in a fun and playful way, to arrive at great forms.

I need to add a detail switch that can turn off certain nodes (say interior walls) and temporarily lower the Detail Level while animating, and turning them back on/up after the animation comes to rest.

 

StandIn Building. Very excited to add runtime here...

 

I came up with a lot of "ideas" while doing this (I put ideas in quotes because… well, LOL). Like, a City Planner View that uses the low-res models to place and design, then swaps for the detailed models for 1st-person Street View….

Then I thought models might be more "granular" – like, after you design and place the building it slowly builds floor-by-floor. One way to accomplish it might be to first show only the Floor nodes one-by-one, then fill-in with the Story nodes…. Or to swap the Top Floor with a temporary "under construction" floor as it builds and grows one floor at a time…. (*cue: Sim City Construction Music*)…

I think one of RuinsOfFeyrin's add-ons allows selecting of node branches...? OH! It looks like his *free* Logic Nodes Basic would allow this…! I will try some experiments.

 

I need to add details to the Bottom Floor node: a sidewalk, a street level with shops(?)…, and doors .

Thanks for all the encouragement everybody! I might spend the day reading Rory's tutorials. It might help to know what I am doing! Hahaha.

 

This is a fair price indeed. The abilities you offer users of Archimatix should give them an extension of the toolset that extends their abilities to create viable financial products with a pro polish and allows their users to immerse themselves in the creation or enhancement of objects within their application. It is a plus to keep enthusiasts such as yourself in at least a little bit of pocket cash so you can continue outputting extension for the AX toolset.

 

Great stuff you are showing us. Quite inspirational.

 

I'm disappointed that after 3 emails I haven't gotten any response for help regarding using Archimatix. Hopefully I can get it here.
I understand that the shape merger can make complex shapes. Is there not a way to edit a shape as you can with a poly curve by moving the points or adding points? How do you make your more complex shapes? Currently I use a shape merger. Is that the only way? I so wish I could take any shape and add or subtract points from it.
How do you make a poly curve, curvy? It just draws straight lines for me. So thankful for the snaps though.
Any hotkeys I should be aware of, or are useful?
How do I use have two groups to take the difference between the two, or does it all have to be done within one group?

Thanks for any help, much appreciated,
Jeremy

 

Hi Jeremy - I have been responding to your emails, but perhaps they are not getting through. Could they be in your spam box? I will post my responses here if you can't locate them.

 

Oh how I wish email had been replaced with a more robust, secure, unspoofable & relatively spam-free system years ago. It's been an unreliable mess for so long and sometimes I wonder if it is really sustainable in its current form given the increasing number of relatively sophisticated 'fake purchase orders, invoices etc' that I see coming through the email system at work these days.

And oh how I wish I'd had more time to play with Archimatix! Any weekend now it will happen!

 

Also, give the Channeler node a go - that's how the engines are swapped out in the Spaceship Shop. The Channeler "Channel" parameter can be made runtime and discoverable by PlayMaker.

Would be cool to see under-construction objects being swapped in for full floors!

For a first floor with doors, taller height, etc., you can always make a first-floor node separately and then raise the FloorRepeater above it.

 

Wow! Is this a Gaia 2 landscape? Looks amazing!

 

Ooops - RandomTool is a work in progress. The node icon snuck into the build by mistake!

 

@Jeremy-Borton

I have suggested a 2D parametric shape authoring system for AX for quite some time now (still need to do the writeup for that feature request!) for pretty much the exact reason you mentioned. As an artist, it is nowhere-near intuitive to define code for every point or curve in a shape when you have a vision in mind for a shape, yet you need to test it quickly to be sure it also works visually too.

Archimatix is great for bringing a lot of play into modeling, but in its current form, it relies heavily on you knowing EXACTLY what you want, but in a very programmatic way -- i.e. knowing the program up and down first, then figuring out what it can do for you second to that, and lastly, programming everything to do exactly that - including the 2D shapes you require (all by hand) -- which is a lot to ask of artist-programmers who aren't programmer-artists. Yes, there is a difference lol.

That being said, giving both mindsets a way to accomplish the same task (i.e. one visually, and one programmatically) seems to be the route @roryo was going, but I think basic polygonal shapes (especially the editing thereof) kind of got back-burnered for a while, probably due to bugs being worked out and him focusing on runtime.



@roryo

To address this issue, I think an editor that allows you to click and drag points around to make a sort of (sub-)shape, then define a start and end point for that (sub-)shape, then pick which shape should succeed that shape at its end point as a node linked to the previous (sub-)shape (in a 2D node graph editor form, combining all the sub-shapes to a single "shape" in the end) would be a great start to allowing parametric shape editing. The (sub-)shapes could also be considered "shapes" when not used in a 2D shape node graph and instead used in the standard graph. When you're editing a shape that isn't necessarily parametric, you could always convert a FreeCurve to a shape (also defining its start/end points, perhaps by default, then allow them to be modified in the editor for parametric shapes, but as a standard shape where you can move points around or modify their curvature/etc. or change them back and forth between curves/lines/etc. Furthermore, chaining start/end points of shapes with other shapes in a graph, along with repeating shapes and even letting one randomize them programmatically, would lead to some very fun gameplay possibilities with runtime AX.

Just food for thought.

 

I *do* know what you are saying about programmer-artists vs artist-programmer. Not to be pretentious about labels, but the thought process is different. Artists are looking for "happy accidents" they can exploit. Programmers have no such luxury; they need to fit expectations within a clear plan and stick to it – otherwise every project is a half-assed experiment. You can BE both, just maybe not at the same time….

I think some of what you say is true of any noodle app where you are wiring up nodes. The interface "path" is initially unclear, and a Catch-22 of imagining a complex system which you do not yet understand. But the benefit of nodes is they're exchangeable in-place, so in theory you can take a project from simple experiment to a solid final. In practice that isn't exactly true, you still need organization from the start otherwise you are stuck with a clunky octopus you can't fix…. That's where I am with this Playmaker model. I'm stuck. It's hitting a final level of sophistication, gorgeous in the details but monotonous in the base shape. How to really really control the base shape, I'm not sure…. I agree it's key to AX as a game mechanic. It's easy to see how I can plop down presets that do their dynamic thing, harder to picture how to let a user draw an outline and it gets converted into an "instant building".

Anyhoo, here's my "end-of-life" model.

 

One solution could be to offer a palette of Shapes and when the play clicks on one, it is added to a merger with controls for offset and thicken. Each Shape could be selected from a list of Shapes currently in the merger with runtime controls that appear for the center and the other Shape-specific handles. The level of complexity while maintaining autographic choices is great with adding and merging of Shapes. Of course a runtime FreeForm Shape editor will be great too! On my to-do list is publishing the API for adding points to FreeCurve so that AXer's can add custom UI over top.

The buildings look Amazing!

 

Thanks, got your last email. Not to happy about the answers...we'll see.
It's great that I now can do a curve with the free curve instead of stuck making lines. (It should be said in the manual)

Right now, this program is just not user friendly enough for me to use it yet. I'm sorry.

I need to be able to easily create my own complex flat shapes (without code)...extrude it...group it. Then take two groups of extruded shapes and move them on top of each other to make a combined shape that's unioned or differenced.
Can you do what I described without user imputing code?

 

Yes, in 2D this is possible - I just resent the email before last, which talks about Shape merging. The email has images and links to tutorials. Shape merging, thickening and offsetting is really the heart of AX - and it can take you a long way without any coding. However, Ax does not have 3D booleans yet. The best tutorials for Shape merging are tutorials 3 & 4 should help with this: http://www.archimatix.com/tutorials


In the example below, the Quatrefoil shape (clover leaf) is cut out of a circle. The circle is also fed into a RadialRepeater and cut out of a larger thickened circle.

 

Yeah, I really need 3d Boolean operations. I can't do what I need without it. Can't wait to see what this program becomes, but for now it's back to my old workflow from sketchup to maya to unity.

 

Hey Everyone,

So here is some proof I am indeed working on some videos for my node packages.
This clip is a little information about the Mesh List Node, as well as briefly touching on the Mesh Selector, and Mesh List Selector.

Apologies for the bar through the center. I have no idea why that randomly shows up in the videos sometimes...

Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

Isn't there a less cluttered way to group things? I'd prefer if each node had a layer number to toggle, and the combination of layers would just be automatic, and then with code I could turn on and off layers for the upgrades. I mean when there's so many green boxes around all intertwined, it's scary, it seems less organized. Different colors, and shapes should be used for the different types of green box nodes. I think it's a step in the right direction though. Nice to see the progress.
I then wish that with each layer I could apply a filter (like Boolean difference) that would effect the next layer down...

 

Hey @Jeremy-Borton ,

You could group your selection nodes inside of groupers. So you could have all the meshes you wish to select from, The Mesh List, and The Mesh List Selector in a grouper. The Mesh output of the grouper would then be the output from the Mesh List Selector. You could then also use a control parameter on the grouper to link to the selection id of the Mesh Selector allowing you to control the entire setup from outside of the grouper without ever having to open it once you have it all hooked up.

I like your idea of being able to assign Nodes to different layers, and then toggle layers on and off for viewing.
However I am limited in what sort of functionality i can layer on top of AX, and I think that sort of feature is something that would need to be done inside of AX itself. I will however keep this suggestion in my for the Runtime Graph Editor im working on as I have slightly more control there.

The color of the nodes is green as they are "Mesh" nodes, so there is some logic to their colors. I do agree that it would be nice if there was a way to "clean" up the interface a little once you had things setup. One suggestion I have made is that we have the ability to collapse the node down to being nothing more then its title, its thumbnail, and a single input and output link. For things you wouldn't edit often once they are setup (like shapes), i think this would be ideal as the primary thing you want to see if the thumbnail and name so you can identify it, everything else is extra unless you are specifically editing the node.

 

@roryo

Been thinking of something that could make users who want 3d booleans much happier without them...

What if you could do all the operations you can do on a flat 2D shape (bevel, taper, etc) , but turned on its side and then extruded (as its default state, but with "up" being the *side* of the shape instead of the direction of extrusion)?

This could essentially act like the shadow box in zbrush where you could use 2 or 3 shapes simultaneously to define an overall shape for really specialized shapes (such as fancy slopes on buildings). When combined with a shape merger input for each of the shapes, you would essentially have a 3d shape that can be played with like we currently do with 2d shapes.

(An example of the shadow box approach:
https://pixologic.com/zclassroom/lesson/shadowbox-basics)

I think something like this is what @wetcircuit may be after artistically, since, at their core, most purely-AX creations are too simple in their design to be production-level due to the lack of face- and edge-level control we have.

On the other hand, you've all shown (even me!) how great this 2D approach is (beating 3D booleans in some ways, such as constructing clean, parametric, geometry for pipe intersections that even have holes!), so my suggestion here is to take that existing 2D approach to the next level and combine it with a vertical and possibly a top down dimension as well, giving users more robust, real-time, 3d shape possibilities that easily outperform 3D booleans while still retaining their parametric nature. Then, when deformers are finally added, nearly any shape imaginable can be created, without face/edge-level control, and even parameterized, leading to some really amazing things, especially if @wetcircuit's work above is anything to go off of.

 

Hey Everyone,

So as has been requested, (@Hitch42 ) I have been working on some videos for my node packages to hopefully explain what each node does a little better. Feedback is always appreciated.

Here is a small information video explaining the "Improved Shape" node that can be found in my "Shape Logic Nodes for Archimatix" package and giving a brief comparison between it and the standard AX shape node.

And Here is a brief video explaining the "Material List", and "Material Selector" nodes from my "Mesh and Material Nodes Archimatix" package and their functionality.

 

I've just used Archimatix combined with ARKit from IOS11 to do some runtime parametric modeling in AR space. Pretty fun indeed!

 

FANTASTIC! Great work, @juuuuun!

I haven't tried ARKit yet. Can you get dimensions of the room and let that autosize a wall-to-wall bookcase?

 

Thanks!
Yes the dimension you can get using ARKit is highly precise I think is pretty much possible. I actually saw some projects measuring the room so connecting that info with AX could be used to make autosizing bookcase for sure

 

Yes, those videos help a lot, especially showing your node compared to a default one. Showing that these (at least the two examples you've shown) are runtime improvements is also good to know. If I looked at an image of the Improved Shape node, I might think, "What? I can make picture frame easily enough." That they're runtime improvements is an important distinction.

 

Hey Everyone,

Just a couple of Updates on my packages for you.


Shape Logic Nodes [ Asset Store Link - Unity Forum Link ]

Version 1.3 of my Shape Logic Nodes pack has been submitted to the Asset store for review.

Version 1.3 Changes

• NEW NODE - Shape Splitter : This nodes takes a shape as its input parameter and creates individual outputs parameters for each path in the shape. This allows you to use the individual paths from a complex shape in others nodes such as a plan sweeper or other nodes that take a shape input.
• It fixes a small bug with the Improved Shape node I discovered while doing the demonstration videos.
• Improved Shape node has two new Outputs. Exterior Paths and Interior Paths.
• Small updates to take advantages of changes made in AX 1.0.5 and 1.0.6

​

Pro Logic Nodes [ Asset Store Link - Unity Forum Link ]

That's right folks. Version 1.0 of my Pro Logic Nodes package is now available on the asset store (actually it has been for a couple days, i just didnt announce it). Thank you to the very dedicated customer who noticed this all on their own. If you contact me on here, or the Archimatix slack forums I have something special for you to play with that I'm working on.

This package currently has two very powerful nodes in them. Scene Parameters, and the Command Node. More information about this package can be found in the forum post for it, but I can tell you these two nodes are just the beginning of whats to come for this package.

Note: The price on this package is an introductory price, and the price will be going up with the 1.1 Update to reflect the added awesomeness of the node package.

Version 1.1 is currently finished and I'm just working on updating the documentation before i submit it to the asset store. Version 1.1 the title will actually change to "Pro Logic Nodes & Tools" and is bringing some VERY VERY cool things to the package, which I will leave as a nice surprise to those who purchase the package before the update goes live. Though i will give you a hint, the update has to do with a 3 letter acronym.
​

Runtime Graph Editor: Beta release

A beta release of the Runtime Graph Editor will be pushed to the asset store for review later this week. I am currently working on documentation for how to use it and once that's done it will be uploaded.

​

Shameless Request: To those of you who have already purchased one of my node packages, if you could leave a review that would be greatly appreciated as this is the best way for others to gauge the quality of the nodes.

​

Thanks for your time, and hope everyone is enjoying all the nodes.

​

 

OOH! OOOOH! OOH!


(deletes font-to-mesh plugin from shopping cart)

 

I've seen some AR Kit measuring tool demos that make it look like you can get some really precise measurements that way.

@RuinsOfFeyrin did you ever finish that FBX or OBJ exporter you had mentioned in an email a while back? I had been looking for it in the sets you've made available for sale, but hadn't seen anything.

Being able to export or save an AX model as FBX would be a really amazing feature, especially now that Allegorithmic has done their live link to Unity for Substance Painter. With Unity and Substance Painter running, you basically select the FBX model in your hierarchy and choose Assets / Send to Substance Painter - it sets up the rest. Then as you paint and work the project in Painter, it updates the model live in Unity.

 

I think this might have been asked before…. Seems like a LOT in AX is powered by turtle scripting… I think I last used anything turtle in the 1980s ('90s idk)…??? LOL. Is there a good primer or resource for turtle commands? I'm at a point where I should start making my own shapes.

 

@wetcircuit - have you read though this Turtle scripting starting page here? After that, the AX Turtle Scripting API.

 

Actually yes the obj exporter is done and I just forgot all about it. I think I will package it in ALL the packages just so people don't feel the need to buy any specific one just for that. More then likely it will be an included .tar file for the user to extract themselves inside the packages so I don't have to worry about issue when people own more then one package.

 

I've seen other assets include their demo scenes as a separate .unitypackage which itself is just a file within the main unity package, which seems to work pretty well as they can just double-click it inside unity to import its contents into unity. Hope that made sense!

edit - my description was a bit confusing, what I mean is you can nest a .unitypackage inside another .unitypackage.

 

You might be the hero of the day @elbows. I did not know this, but that is a great idea. You might of revolutionized how i handle my packages all together now.

 

<----- Downloading substance painter to play with obj and fbx exporting to test things. Hopefully everything works well and i can push updates of all the packages with these in them and other updates by this weekend.

 

Version 1.0.7 will include subdivision and the first Deformer node