Official 2020 Roadmap Q&A - Core Engine & Creator Tools

We have started developing a new non-destructive layer-based environment system for terrain and other environment elements, we’ll follow up with more detail once we have plans to share, including SpeedTree support. In the meantime, current terrain system is in maintenance mode - we're evaluating support for features like SpeedTree and will share the plans once we have them firmed up.

 

Hi! The roadmap for 2D didn't mention DOTS. What is the long term vision for that?

Are 2D tools like 2D lights, 2D renderer, sprite rigging etc, going to remain GameObject exclusive?

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Will playmode options (disable Domain- and Scene reload) be able to handle static modifiers eventually?

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Hi Casey.

There is not a date set for ECS leaving preview yet.

The release of the DOTS Sample gave us a very good indication of the things that we needed to focus on for the release of ECS, so we are going through those items now.

We will continue to update everyone on our progress at the DOTS sub forum. So stay tuned.

 

1: We are working on a new non-destructive layer-based environment system for terrain and other environment elements, we’ll follow up with more detail once we have plans to share.
2: We are rolling out new texture streaming slowly to get user feedback the pre-release version is available here for testing. We would really appreciate feedback as to how it works for your projects, and where you think it needs to be improved.

 

This was just different language than we've used in the past. HDRP does support precomputed lighting via baked lighting with Progressive Lightmapper (as Enlighten included precomputed realtime rather than just recomputed).

 

Can someone clarify how the ArtEngine will be used along Unity in terms of;
-What happens to Plus/Pro users?
-How does the pipeline work between 2 software? Is it embedded/external?

Cheers

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Are there any updates to DOTS NavMesh? Is it in development?

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The shown layout of the visual graph is horizontal.
For me, it is logical to use a more modern vertical graph layout which allows separating flow (vertical) inputs and
parameter (horizontal) inputs. With is leading in more readable graphs.(However, you will need to introduce port proxies like in Bolt 2.)
Dots visual scripting is supporting vertical layout, why not to support it here.


Will visual script also support vertical layout? Or both layouts?
Do you consider to add proxy ports (connected parameters with hidden wires)?
Will this allow calling any function from c# class (static, generic, any..) without writing custom node?


Here is how it looks in bolt 2.
Both vertical and horizontal layouts are supported.
Proxy ports are supported (connected to any parameter but hiding wire).
Callingalmostf any function of any c# class or component are supported.


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I heard on the forums that Dots, ECS, Unity.Mathematics and Dots physics currently supports deterministic floating-point calculations on the same architecture.

Can you say a little more about determinism in unity? What are the plans for the sum checking of scenes? Sum checking would make detecting out of sync errors easier in multiplayer deterministic networking or any other critical cases which require verification.

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Hello! Great presentation
Just to know, there any ETA for Tiny + UI Elements Subset?
Thanks

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For the new environment system, have you guys thought of making a "TerrainGraph" akin to ShaderGraph or VFXGraph? I've done some experiments with the Job System and manipulating noise and terrain heights with a graph and it seems to work really fast. I'm just imagining that it would be cool to embed a graph inside of a terrain layer. Then you could apply that terrain graph or stack of layers to a terrain at runtime. You could also just make it easy to apply a shader from ShaderGraph to a layer in the terrain. Maybe you could have a special output node for that.

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If for “multi-rendering path shaders” you want something like LODs within your shaders you can use keyword switches to build out different variants for your Shader Graphs (see documentation: https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.shadergraph@8.0/manual/Keywords.html).

If you’re looking for supporting multiple render pipelines within your Shader Graph we’re doing work there, and this will also it easier to get more specific about stages (see a UX mock up and more info https://portal.productboard.com/8ufdwj59ehtmsvxenjumxo82/c/52-master-stack-and-stage-blocks).

Currently we are not working on surface shaders and the shader team’s focus is on building the best possible shader graph and artists tools possible. Our goal is for you to be able to do what you could do with surface shaders with Shader Graph (supporting both node and code paths). That being said we are actively engaging with a users who see a big desire for surface shaders on the forums here: https://forum.unity.com/threads/srp-surface-shaders.847999/ We would value any contribution.

 

Hi! First of all I wanted to thank everyone involved in this roadmap session, the QA and the recent "state of unity" forum post. This kind of communication is really appreciated.

In the XR slide you mention "On-device remoting for handheld AR", I'm not sure what it means. Could you clarify a bit?

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Hi Jawsarn,

Thanks for the feedback. This is something we are aware of and want to improve however we can.

Not directly related but we are working on improving the general visibility of what DOTS is doing while in the editor (What was previously constrained to the entity debugger). Also we have added Native debugging of Burst in the 1.3 release.

 

I'm interested in RTXGI from Nvidia https://developer.nvidia.com/rtxgi

Do you have any information about how / when Unity will implement this? Thanks.

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We want to enable this in our new non-destructive environment, and we're discussing how this can be integrated. We will share more once the plans firm up.

 

Hello,

We are currently looking into how we can improve the user experience of working with DOTS in the editor in general. One area in particular is how to view what is in a scene more clearly.

There will be updates throughout the year on those efforts in the DOTS subforum.

 

I wonder about foliage and grass support for HDRP terrain in 19.3. Could you improve these tools.

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Thanks for the overview.

Quick question: Why are you guys focusing on enabling tens of thousands of cameras by moving the system to dots? Is that really something you guys should focus on? Last time I checked no game needed anything close to that amount of cameras. Is that really a feature anyone asked for?

This is just one example of a roadmap feature that is just weird.The priorities mostly just seem wrong.

Overall almost the whole roadmap just feels kinda off. Some improvements like the new importer, the profiler features and the quality of life improvements in the editor are really nice (should have been improved years ago but better late than never, and the improvements are really really good thus far, great job by the teams) but quite a lot of improvements seem unnecessary, especially when looking at the massive issues Unity has.

URP not having a deferred renderer after almost 2 years is pretty rough, HDRP seems to only work well for artists (no shader documentation / the whole documentation seems to be geared towards artists instead of programmers, the fixed render queue with only limited injection points limits expandability, no realtime GI solution throughout 2020, ...), why are there multiple physics solutions but both are in preview, why isn't there proper build support for more platforms when using cloud builds, why is this the third networking solution in like 5 years, why is there a focus on machine learning but there aren't even proper AI tools in Unity (Why isn't there any form of behaviour tree), why the hell are sculpting tools in Unity? I cannot imagine a single person using them instead of ZBrush/Blender and why does it take about another full year to add C# expandability to the VFX graph?

I now this has been brought up quite a lot in forums etc. but you guys should really finally create a game using your own engine and tools instead of just making demos for specific features (with sometimes really hacky code in them) and calling it a day. It helps Unreal a lot, I'm sure it would help you guys as well.

This post got longer than originally planed and I'm sorry for some of the passive aggressive tone throughout it, I think I just had way higher expectations of this roadmap.

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Yes, our VFX Graph sample project is here, and here's a blog post that goes into detail on them.

 

Thanks for the update, I can hardly wait for this round of developments!

Is there any news about Cinecast development?

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Hi. First some clarity; intent is not to take anything away from you. In general the intent is not to close currently open repositories or blackbox this going forward on new repositories. Equally we still want to hear your voice in development on things that are in beta / preview / experimental (pick your term). What we ship, when we ship and in some cases, if we should even consider shipping it is dependent on your input.

What we will do is be more distinct about when we are ready to go into preview and what should be in there, when. We want to ship a strong foundational product you can rely on, while enabling collaborative development with our community on new features that are not as baked yet.

The community at large has spoken and is asking us to ship a stable foundation and be deliberate our feature work and roadmaps and be explicit *when* we will ship them. As we are learning how to do this best, we're taking a step back on what package lifecycle should be (so you know *what* to expect, *when* in terms of development and support) and how we offer that to our many users with different needs; generally we don't want *everyone* to have to deal with areas where we are still looking for feedback, or have unclarity on that we are still making decisions to ship or not; but make sure that we can hear and incorporate feedback from engaged users. That's a balance that we are trying to find.

I'd say that currently there's a number of packages we should not have shipped yet while there's others we should absolutely polish and get shipped. What we are saying here is that not all packages will be available directly in the editor and that we will work on clearer lifecycle, so you know when we are still in active development (and it's probably not ready for your production yet) and when we are feeling it's solidified enough to be part of the core editor/engine. Hope that helps.

We are also focussing on assembling user-groups that have a shared interest in a new feature that is not in public preview. The exact mechanics behind and when for this are still under discussion.

Hope that clarifies.

 

Hey @Jawsarn! That's a great question and sub-forums for DOTS is in our plans this year. We just want to make sure that we align with the teams to include all of the product areas that DOTS touches.

 

Hello,

+1 to the feature request. The new entity debugger is still very early, but expect update throughout the year.

I do want to mention some what related, that visualising job dependencies in the profiler is coming in 2020.1.

 

Will Linux version of Unity get more love in upcoming releases?
How much of a priority it is for you?

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So with Unity's move to the XR Plugin system having mostly focused on VR, AR is in a bit of a strange spot where we need to both use XR plugins and AR Foundation if we want to build a single project that supports both AR and VR.
I've personally found that this does not always play nice either, and reported a bug two weeks ago where Android (AR) builds will simply crash to desktop on startup if the Oculus XR Plugin is present in the project.
My question: what are the plans for AR under this new XR Plugin system? I was under the impression XR Plugins would take this over completely and AR Foundation would get deprecated, but the actual plans have not been communicated so far.

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Hey, any more info on when will DOTS.Audio previews be released?

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Hi Rick,

We agree that this is a perfect fit for DOTS and we are working on that right now.

 

I feel like each new flow should be in its own separate graph page. Where should be a list of all graph pages (which contains all used events and custom functions) (OnUpdate, OnStart, OnCreate, MyCustomFunction1, MyCustomFunction2). I am saying page but implying function(that is shown in its own page). If all functions are in its own page there is no need to handle constant reorganization then one function is influense another function layout, you are also thinking only in scope that function that allows to drop off things you do not need(in mind). In each function, there should be only one flow (except branches, foreach loops, switches). And if some function becomes too complex to work you just divide it into several smaller function and work with each one in its own place(function should have privacy modifier).Each graph should have local variables and "proxy port - like parameters". That way everything is manageable. (look how unreal blueprints allows each function to be in a separate page.) That way it is closer to c# programming.

The main idea :
Each function or event must be on its own workflow page. There is no need to put several events on one graph.

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Hello,

There are currently no updates on DOTS NavMesh, but it IS in development.

 

You showed some mock ups for the next iteration of the Editors design. They look amazing. I was wondering if you are able to give a rough timeline of when we could potentially see a version of the editor with the new design? Possibly sometime in 2021? Or are we looking more at like 2024?
I am not looking for a hard time frame or anything. Just trying to understand what to expect.

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Hello,

Yes, Joachim Ante recently clarified the current state of determinism in DOTS. I would recommend following up there for a more in depth discussion.

We do take deterministic behaviour seriously in DOTS and want our users to be able to make informed choices about when something is or isn't deterministic. We still have some way to go, but we are continuing our efforts to deliver deterministic floating point calculations across different architectures.

In regards to checksum comparison in order to prevent sync errors, that is something that can be done today, and something we will likely offer in the future as part of the Core DOTS package.

 

Will there be any more attention towards importing 2D Vector Art into Unity?, especially Animation, i badly want to build my game with Art/Animation from Adobe Animate, but there is little support for it and pretty much no 3rd party software exists / those that do are flawed.

There was a Asset called GAF that came close, importing SWF files from Adobe into Unity, but its lost all support and doesn't work anymore, so it is do-able it just needs some professional attention!

Exporting sprite sheets is an option but only for very simple animations, but not when the animation has dozens of frames, especially at 60fps including tweens, creating a sprite sheet will end up with a huge number of sprites that will be impossible to manually edit all of them not to mention destroy the Ram usage.

Please look into converting SWF file animations into Unity!

Please Unity, throw the Adobe Animate artists a bone!

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Is there an ETA for when the Vector package will be compatible with Entities in any of the renderers?

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