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Question Any news for DOTS Animation ?

Discussion in 'DOTS Animation' started by DrBoum, Jan 14, 2022.

  1. DrBoum

    DrBoum

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    Apr 19, 2020
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    Hi, i was wondering if we could have some communication on what the DOTS animation package is at, currently when i tried upgrading to 2021+ i had compilation error due to some internal code having changed,
    so using dots animation effectively locked me into 2020.3 LTS
    What are the plans of DOTS animation ?
     
  2. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    I strongly suggest to not expect anything in Animation packages, before we reach at least Entities version 1. Which may be even year ahead yet.
    Unity DOTS team rebuilds lots of inners. So additional features like animation is later priority.
     
  3. Onigiri

    Onigiri

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    Entities and Animation is a different teams and they are working in parallel.
     
  4. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    They do well over year and 0 updates since. So don't make blind hopes, or you may be dissapointed. When it happens then happens. Or basically make own solution until then, like others do.
     
  5. DevViktoria

    DevViktoria

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    I just noticed that the Entities 0.50 has been released, but unfortunately the animation package is not compatible with that release. I am curious when there will be a compatible animation package .....
     
  6. Ashkan_gc

    Ashkan_gc

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  7. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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  8. Ashkan_gc

    Ashkan_gc

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    I was totally wrong. saw the other thread later.
     
    DevViktoria likes this.
  9. mfuad

    mfuad

    Unity Technologies

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    Jun 12, 2018
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    ECS-based animation is not in the scope of our Entities 1.0 release, and will come after Entities 1.0 as we focus first on delivering a fully supported ECS foundation. Hard to predict when we will have a new experimental version available for feedback, but we will keep the community updated when we have more details to share.

    Please do share your feedback through our public roadmap so we can understand your animation needs and incorporate them in our plans. Thank you!
     
    MD_Reptile, Occuros and DevViktoria like this.
  10. Endlesser

    Endlesser

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    Actually evolution is not what we DOTS Anim users expect at this moment, we all know that's unrealistic to request any more upgrades and harsh to those Unity staffs who devoted to DOTS Anim. But like @DevViktoria asked, compatibility is mostly significant, to me especially, because for the last 2 years ECS always run with other 4 related packages, nothing new feature but still can run together.

    All I ask is a compatible version of DOTS anim goes with Entities 0.51 of Unity 2021.3, no features, no improvements. Even there's little chance to release it together, I can wait.

    It's going to be devastating to not just me if anim is out of function for real during the time from Entities 0.50 to 1.x.
     
  11. mfuad

    mfuad

    Unity Technologies

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    JingchengYang4 likes this.
  12. DrBoum

    DrBoum

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    having the possibility to use the existing package in the most recent version would be a great start i agree
     
  13. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    I would start and primary focus from the compatibility stand point. Once we got that, we can look further. However I am on 2021 atm, so I need wait for entities 0.51 anyway.

    For me personally it is less need for features but more for performance for many animated characters, or bones for example. But for that, I am fine waiting after release of 1.0, as you guys have higher priorities atm.
     
    JingchengYang4 likes this.
  14. Onigiri

    Onigiri

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    I'm totally fine if devs just port 0.17 anim package to 0.51 entities without any additions. Asking us to delete all the work we've done with animation package and redo it with mecanim until 1.something version is out is very unrealistic.
     
  15. thelebaron

    thelebaron

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    Of course I would welcome any new features, some that come to mind which were mentioned as part of the next upcoming releases(prior to the year of radio silence) were animation events (Animation Events?)and better ragdoll support (mention of ragdolls coming soon).

    From observing package changes, it seemed like the compositor package was also recently merged into the last animation package(though it doesnt appear to work yet) and quite honestly that would truly be game changing for I think just about all of us to be able to visually define our graphs.

    But most critical as others have stated is just compatibility with the 0.50. From experience, using Mecanim with entities can quickly become the slowest link in a DOTS project and more or less negate the performance benefits.

    I greatly appreciate the current 0.50 release and outreach, as well as the GDC q&a's, but I would also like request a bit more granular information surrounding animation. It's been over a year since the last release & communication in the current sticky post. I understand that some teams are less vocal on the forums than others, I also understand that this is all very very experimental and cant be taken as the final product until Unity says so. But I think that I can say for all of us, that we would really love any update from the Animation team for DOTS, maybe really technical nerdy stuff, maybe its a statement of how those features I brought up just still aren't ready for prime time, but really anything to break the silence, would be greatly appreciated.
     
    TigerHix and JingchengYang4 like this.
  16. Ashkan_gc

    Ashkan_gc

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    I totally agree with @thelebaron that updates are really appreciated because you guys have done something.

    Regarding compatibility, I would say that is much better than nothing, specially if samples are upgraded too so one can learn from them. Honestly speaking My team and I did not integrate animations and was waiting for the next version but in the current situation that 1.0 is a good time off and we don't know anything about the status of the animation APIs for DOTS, I cannot say anything. I don't know if having the previous version updated would be of any help for my specific use-case because if it has showstopper issues then we cannot ship with it and if we cannnot ship with that and the status of the next version is unknown until an unknown amount of time then we perhaps should think of some other solution to our problem
     
    JingchengYang4 likes this.
  17. DevViktoria

    DevViktoria

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    I agree. During the update I had removed the animations package and so far the code update was to comment out all the related components and systems related to the animation package. In my case the animation that was in my project has to start when a physics trigger is activated. So I have 2 options. Wait for the animation package to be ready or figure out a way to start from DOTS a Mecanim animation which is now I guess has to be on a non dots Gameobject ... The second one is going to be interesting and a waste of time. Since my project is in quite an early stages, probably I can wait and making the game without the animation. And I can get back to this question when the project is closer to being finished. The probability is quite high that for the audio I have to do some magic like that anyways (AFAIK the audio package will be available even more later then the animation package).
     
    JingchengYang4 likes this.
  18. varnon

    varnon

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    I'll second the compatibility request. I have not updated because I have some animation things working well enough that I won't be able to do in 0.50.
     
    JingchengYang4 likes this.
  19. Sunstrace

    Sunstrace

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    Dec 15, 2019
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    I agree.Need Compatibility!
     
    JingchengYang4 likes this.
  20. UnityChinny

    UnityChinny

    Unity Technologies

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  21. Endlesser

    Endlesser

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    Thanks, I guess that's fair enough, but I couldn't smile as yours for sure:(.

    Anyway I got final two questions to ask:

    1. Is current 0.9.0-preview.6 can run under Unity 2021.3f along with Entities 0.17.0?

    2. If Mecanim is out of my option, where should I start to make it running with Entities 0.5.0?(or should I say if compatibility is officially out, could you help us(or give any tips) to give a shot to approach a compatible version?)

    I'm sorry to say this but it would do me a huge favor if I was told what DOTS anim could be when announcement of Entities are not going to publish with any tech release 12 months ago.
     
  22. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    If you need animation, just hold before upgrading to 0.50.
     
    varnon likes this.