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

Great suggestion, @mangax! We should definitely ship with some crates, barrels, tables, stools... and perhaps a toaster - this way we could say that with every purchase of Archimatix, you get a free toaster .

Madly prepping today... Beta II starts tomorrow!

 

This looks like an amazing asset. I'm a fan of both Grasshopper and Cinema4D's parametric tools. This roof reminded me of something I would normally do to an object like this in C4D - use an effector to 'break' a few of the tiles (offsetting them from the grid) or remove them by hand after making things editable. Will it be possible to effect the repeating of things? Maybe skip a repetition or scale, offset one of the objects?

EDIT: Cool! This is what I was asking about and hoping for! http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/wi...-modeler-for-unity.330869/page-6#post-2532541

 

Hi @Voronoi - glad to have some Grasshopper folks interested! I have not used Grasshopper, but I think you will find that Archimatix is not as general a parametric modeler as Grasshopper - but we have to start somewhere! On the other hand, AX might be a little easier to use than Grasshopper, but I will let you be the judge of that . I was a big user of Cinema4D a few years ago. Loved the parametric workflow, which is wonderful, but I don't think you could have one node feed into several others since the relationships were expressed in the hierarchy window (maybe they have a true graph structure now?).

Jitter tools attached to any Repeater allow for "ruining" many a good model. For more individualized alterations, you could make a grid of roof tiles, then edit each one separately after stamping out a frozen version of the model. Or..the GridRepeater lets you input a Bounding Shape with voids, letting you define and area within the grid where the tiles are not generated, allowing you to duplicate some of the tiles in by hand while leaving the model parametric. This could be done to create a hole in the roof, for example.

 

Regarding Grasshopper, yes it's certainly very broad in what it can do and very sophisticated. OTH, if the goal is to bring the model into Unity, your tool is probably going to be a lot better in terms of UV and control of vertex count so that it is a usable structure.

Cinema does have XPresso, which is node-like and there are workarounds to do similar kinds of things with Cloners and Effectors. Cinema does have MoSpline, which can be a 3D parametric spline that repeats, which is super handy. It also has a Turtle mode, that allows equations to output a 3D tree spline which can be extruded and have objects arranged on it.

I would say the project that to me resembles yours the most is XFrog He is using equations and rules found in nature to replicate trees and natural objects. It is a plug-in that I have used, but is fairly complex to set up. I think he sells a fair amount of ready made plants based on his tool. I saw that you have a similar interest in architecture and using rules to create buildings that share pieces but are also distinct. Very cool!

 

Today is Beta II day! We should be setting sail about mid-afternoon NY time .

 

Perfect time. That is my afternoon as well, and I will actually feel awake by then I think.

 

Excellent, I might be meeting up in-person with both of my artists, so this works out well.

 

@roryo - one question I do have, if it's appropriate to ask here: How scriptable is the output data in each stage? Would it be possible to modify the pipeline to encode extra data in the spare vertex channels, as we may be making a custom shader that may need to use extra data encoded in textures/vertex channels. If some of that data could be encoded in each archimatix step instead of a post processor (which I'll be making a version of for my art team in blender when I wrap some collision/character physics code, as we'll need it for characters regarless), we'd never need to leave unity for a lot of environmental details.

 

Thats an interesting question, @recursive. Nodes such as Mesher and Repeater can all be subclassed, so perhaps there would be opportunity there. I posted an example on page 2 or 3 of this thread of subclassing Generator3D to Perlin deform the input mesh. Do you have any specific examples of the kind of data you might like to add?

 

Not yet, as of current the technique is only something I've worked out on paper, but the basic gist is that we'd encode outline offset, normal, and other color data data artists can manipulate in the spare vertex and uv data channels, which would affect how the object is outlined and lit depending on the angle, as I'd like to provide more control over an outline shader than is currently provided.

We're utilizing our own workflow and Non-Photorealistic shader pipeline (although we may leverage a modified pbr for environments to get that "cartoon with a nice background look to make lighting easier"), but the basic idea comes from this GDC talk on Guilty Gear Xrd:

 

I'd love the ability to click and drag in the AX Editor to select multiple nodes to mode and arrange them. It's common to see clicking and dragging in a graph editor creating a selection box for this purpose, while Ctrl+Alt+Left-Click and drag actually move you around the AX Editor (as Left-Click and drag does now).

- S.

 

For especially large models, a feature to create "Containers" on the graph could be useful.

They could simply be darker or lighter boxes on the graph over which nodes could be placed. They could possess a label at their top-left (and text when hovered). They could have selection bars at the top, that when clicked, would allow renaming or resizing of the containers, and if double-clicked, could hide or reveal their contents.

The benefit would be the ability to logically organize different areas of a large model. For instance, if one was constructing a castle, there may be different sections for the towers, the walls, the fortress, and the courtyard. Users could place the nodes for each in their own container, and reveal them or hide them as necessary. It would be similar to Stardock's "Fences" plugin (http://www.stardock.com/products/fences), or the visual equivalent of Visual Studios' #region #endregion.

- S.

 

It would also be nice if right-clicking on the nodes' title bars brought up the same menu as drop-down menu icon.

Also, there are two different circle node buttons on my toolbar. Is there a difference between the two?

- S.

 

Getting the hang of this. Parametric bridge design. By utilising the linked parameters in archimatix I've now got a simple bridge that changes length and width just by modifying 2 numbers!

 

I have some issues with my glass walls (transparency? reflection?) you can see the buildings on the corners/edges sometime the glass material changes. Not sure if this is a Unity issue or an Archimatix UV issue, or something else….

 

This is a sensational tool!

 

Nice work, @vrpostcard! I am going to release a video tutorial on building relations later today, but it looks like ou beat me to it! Nice to see Robot Kyle has some more world builders at his disposal now too. I was having a hard time keeping up with his demands all on my own!

BTW, the wood plank texture looks good. However at the end the lines are running in the wrong direction. You can fix this by going into the material node and check the box that says "Rot_Sides_Tex"

 

Thanks, @EETechnology!

 

*Waiting Intensifies*

 

@mangax, I just added you to Team Tatooine - sorry about the delay- I had a typo when adding you yesterday. You should have the Conversation invite now.

 

TAKE MY MONEY!

PLEASE!

 

Hmmm - that is looking like a distance from camera thing. To test, perhaps add a Unity Cube to the scene and give it the glass material and see if it exhibits the same behavior.

Otherwise the scene looks AWESOME, @wetcircuit!

 

@S_Darkwell - currently if you shift-drag a node, it will drag it and all its upstream nodes together. In this way you can drag a whole subsystem to a new part of the graph editor. You can cherry pick several nodes with command-click and then hold down command while dragging them. I like your Container idea. That would help visualize the subsystems better.

@elbows had also suggested making the background of the editor window draggable with the same keys as SceneView drag and otherwise clicking and dragging would rubberband-select nodes. I should give this a try!

 

I really REALLY need some written docs. The video is great, but I find myself having to to watch it over and over again for those little details.

For example, I can't copy at all. Just doesn't work. I THINK I did it correctly, but would love a cheat sheet. The keyboard option doesn't seem to copy and neither does the drop down menu. I imagine it is user error.

 

@Teila, this is an interesting bug. In the meantime, have you tried this item in the node menu?



And don't despair - written documentation is on the way!

 

I have not tried duplicate. Will do that now.

Duplicate works. I kept hearing Copy in the video so was afraid Duplicate would create something I could not edit independently.

Thanks for the written documents. I know some of us are old fashioned, but being able to find that bit of info quickly in a written doc is so much more efficient than re-watching videos.

 

I have a few awkward moments…. I was trying to open a jittery noise thingamajig, but it didn't seem to create one, I ended up clicking around until it worked and I hooked it up…. Later trying to hook that same jitterer to another grid repeater and having problems getting it to connect, I discovered I had several extra Jitterers connected to things in unexpected ways but hidden…. Is it possible to create hidden connections, maybe because of what is selected in the interface when you click to create a new node? I'm not sure that's what I did, but I'll keep my eyes open for it.

I also notice I sometimes have more luck hooking an input to an output, rather than an output to an input…. And I sometimes get confused by the shape of the noodle when a node is on the wrong side, it is transparent-ish and does a high loop to change direction. Might just be growing pains. I'll have a few more hrs to work with it this eve….

 

Ahh! That's useful.

If hovering over the nodes highlighted them, and holding shift highlighted that node and the upstream nodes as well, that additional visual feedback may help improve the user experience there a bit.

Glad to hear the container idea was helpful!

About to test it a bit more. Will keep you posted!
- S.

 

@roryo:

Did you also see my post regarding right-clicking, and about the extra Circle node icon?
- S.

 

... adding the right-click on the titlebar to my to-do list!

The Circle at the top of the sidebar menu is there as the most recently selected Shape. It seems more confusing than useful, so I may remove that feature.

 

the tool is so amazing so far
i tried doing these platforms, they merge up nicely!

 

A few more thoughts:

• Deleting nodes with Alt+Delete seems odd. Why not simply the delete key?
• A "Delete All Nodes" option may also be useful
  
• It may be beneficial to add the PC shortcuts to the dropdown menus (for ctrl/alt)
• The ability to click and drag to select nodes still seems useful
• Also, would it be possible to also allow users to click and drag to create connections between nodes instead of just clicking?
  
• The ability to hold alt and click and drag across connection lines to "cut" them, as a quicker way of removing
• The bounding box wireframe and magenta shapes don't update in the scene view until changing input fields in the AX Editor, even through the mesh does. This can lead to the axes and positions not coinciding with the editor fields, which can be confusing.

Thank you!
- S.

 

Wow - nice, @mangax! Its amazing the variety of apparently free-form shapes you can get merging simply geometries. In this example, you used only RoundedRectangle, no?

 

Seeing this, makes me realize we need to get the CurvedCap working. Currently the curved edge is only in the sides of a Mesher and the cap is flat. It will be nice when you have option for the cap to curve at the edges. I have this in the pipeline, but it should be moved to the front burner!

 

All great points, @S_Darkwell! Sheesh - if you guys aren't growing my to-do list today!

 

Says Ethan: "Where's Kyle?"

 

@roryo in that image i used first RoundedRectangle but the round curve at the corner seemed small to me.. so i used the rounded section01 with plansweep, so i get much more rounded objects! but i think after trying bevels, and limited extrude length.. i think results are better overall!


the round cap idea sounds great!
maybe it only needs uv plannar projection from Y axis so it doesn't loop like a sector.

btw i noticed when trying to move around curves, it's a bit slow and laggy.. it seems archimatix calculates and tries to update changes to mesh as soon as possible which causes this i assume?

i wouldn't mind seeing archmatix updates mesh in longer intervals or at least when mouse is up..

 

Arch Shape closed/open shape setting seems to be reversed?

 

Two other feature requests / suggestions:

• A "Reset All to defaults" option would be useful under the node dropdown menu, to revert a node back to its base state
• With a node settings field selected, hitting the "Tab" key will select the next field's dropdown, then hitting "Tab" again will select the next input. If you have the dropdown selected, neither hitting the "Enter" nor "Space" keys will open it. It might make sense to either skip the dropdowns while tabbing through, or to allow them to be opened with said keys.

- S.

 

Some really amazing creations so far!
I was wondering when you said "they merge up nicely!" if it is possible to make jig saw pieces, by first making a piece like you did. Then selecting some edges to make reflection of it to make a new piece. Maybe a good idea for the future. Already this is an amazing tool. Can't believe that a tool of this magnitude works inside Unity.

 

Stunning! Looks like you have an "I-Shape" plan. You are going to like the PlanRepeater to have those columns go all the way around the I-Shape automatically. Thanks, @Voronoi! Keep'em com'in!

 

This would basically be a property parceling functionality as in GIS data systems. In any case, it is already possible in AX if you can live with a slight gap between the pieces. If you have a slightly thickened meandering curves in a grid as voids, then the solids would be the puzzle pieces. When you extrude, each would be a separate game object. This would make a terrific example!

 

Robot Kyle taking a final chance to relax at Robothenge before the final push to release. Built using the PlanRepeater nodes.

 

Wow, @vrpostcard! Or is Kyle appealing to the Solstice that Archimatix has a speedy release?

Did you use RadialRepeater? If so, I apologize for the current defaults and lack of handles on it... to improve soon!

 

I may be going slightly insane but I cannot see an item entry for the RadialRepeater. I first looked for this one, couldn't see it so utilised the PlanRepeater and 'arrayed' the columns around a circle I attached to the PLAN input.

 

Oh, I see. I thought I had cloaked both the RadialRepeater and the PlanRepeater to allow for more time to polish them. The Radial is indeed hidden, as planned, but the PlanRepeater has somehow managed to expose itself for all the beta-world to see! So, then, I am equally impressed that you were able to get this unpolished PlanRepeater to do your bidding! And so epically, ta boot!

 

LOL, I see why everyone sticks Kyle or Ethan in there…. I want to run around in there.

 

This is simply outrageous! I want to explore each corner of every floor!

 

Are you using a TopFloor Mesh input? I see it is thicker than the other floors...

 

@roryo , There's always more than one way to skin a cat, as the saying goes...Archimatix is so flexible, it's easy to find numerous ways to achieve the same result.