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

Modeled right in Unity with Archimatix!

 

A world recast by Deformers...





Modeled right in Unity with Archimatix!

 

now that is a beautiful scene. I want to go there!

 

Pro Logic Nodes: SVG Importer 1.2

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Here we have a screenshot of the re-vamped SVG Importer at work showing off its fancy new layout and cool new abilities to open select multiple paths to export at once as well as the ability to offset the paths.

UI Changes

The entire UI has been changed for the most part. Instead of everything being jammed in to a single viewing area, it is now broken down in to three separate steps. Im hoping this makes the whole process much more straight forward.

1. Load a SVG File
2. Select which Glyphs/Paths you wish to export, and adjust its settings.
3. Export the turtle script to either either a graph, or save it to file to load later.

New Features:

• Entirely New Interface
• Select Multiple Paths to export.
• Offset individual paths
• NEW Turtle Script Commands "offset", "flipX", "flipY"
  • offset - This command allows you to specify an x & y offset value which is applied to all PREVIOUS points in that specific path. If the current turtle contains multiple paths, it is only applied to the points on the currently active path variable.
  • flipX - This command allow you to flip all the previous points in the current path across the X plane.
  • flipY - This command allow you to flip all the previous points in the current path across the Y plane.

Upcoming Features:

• Runtime API for loading Turtle Script saved from the importer in to a a node at runtime.

This Update has just been upload right now and is simply waiting approval.

Asset Store Link: Pro Logic Nodes (on sale now)

 

Hey Folks,

Little bit of a slow day, so I thought I would throw up some screenshots of something I wiped together in a couple hours today when I needed a break for other stuff.

Anyone else like me and try to use the Shape Merger to create a complex layout? You ever find it tedious to flip back and forth between the base shapes, and the merger itself to view the output? Or try to edit it in the scene view and just get frustrated? Wish you could just edit the input shapes all in one spot in a nice 2D view?


The Graph


The Shape Merger Layout Editor


Current Features

• The app allows you to target a Shape Merger node, and displays all the paths that are connected in to it.
• You are able to edit the Position, Rotation, and Custom Properties of each shape from directly within the editor.
• You are able to add new shapes from the library in to the node and have them immediately connected to the targeted shape merger.
• Changes in the editor are applied immediately to the nodes in the graph allowing everything to update in real time.

Things I would like to Add

• Dragging of shapes to position them
• Auto-detection for Height, Width, and Radius properties to display handles in the layout view.

So yeah, that just happened.

 

Ive been busy bouncing around all my projects today cleaning things up and wrapping up odds and ends and ive got one more tasty treat for all you PlayMaker users out there.

So it seems PlayMaker is a BIG thing. Much bigger then I ever realized myself. So with the help of a few helpful testers who have Playmaker I have been slowly working on building up some Archimatix Playmaker Actions.

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These are the actions I have completed so far. I'm looking for some input on any other Archimatix Playmaker Actions people might be interested in seeing.

Also looking for input if I should add these Actions in their own (free) package, or if i should alter the name of Logic Nodes Basic to something along the line of Archimatix Essentials, and include this in that package. Input is always appreciated.

 

Love me some Playmaker. I think including them as a separate unity package within the logic nodes basic download is how a lot of people include playmaker support with their own plugins. Either way I dig it!

 

Oh my god Yes that would be so great.

I have been steeped in Archimatix for a while building and rebuildinga castle as i learn it.

Time savers like this are very welcome, and i think its easier for people like me to use that kind of intuitive UI as long as it performs well cpu wise.

So far Archimatix is amazing - i was able to build a multilevel castle, windows and all, in 2 nights. thanks for keeping up the great work and i hope we will see this in a new update eventually?

 

Please forgive my horrible drawing

is it possible to extrude a shape merger and then remove the caps on the 'other' sides.

I have a wall of repeating extrusuons with windows cut out and id love to hide the top and bottom where they meet the floor and ceiling. i noticed this saves a lot of polys over time so it would be great for mobile.

I'm thinking maybe there is a different way i can achieve this?

 

Hi @roryo , is there any way to move the archimatix folder to say Assets/ThirdParty/Archimatix folder? I tried doing that but the editor starts to drop errors everywhere and freezes almost completely, I've seen some GetFolderName() things in the Library.cs scripts but Im not sure where to touch or if it is even as simple as changing a constant string in the scripts, if it's not, could you consider adding this feature to the next release? I like to keep my third party assets organized in subfolders instead of hanging around in the main Assets folder, thanks!

 

Hey Folks,

So I'm not sure what the deal is with the Asset Store team, but the Updated Pro Log Nodes package with the revamped SVG Importer still has yet to be approved. If you own a copy of this package and would like the update before the asset store team rolls around to approving it shoot me a message with your invoice number and I will send you back a copy of the new Pro Logic Nodes package.

 

Hey @protopop,

As far as I know the current extrusion node does not allow for you to do such a thing.
The best option so far would be to actually use 4 polygons, or 2 polygons and 2 Pair Repeaters, and a grouper.

You would basically design the walls as individual polygons and position them together inside a grouper, then use expressions/relations and properties on the grouper in their properties to make them all "stick" together.

I know its not optimal, but as far as i know its the only way to achieve what you are looking for.

 

Another way to do this is to feed the outer and inner rectangles into their own Extrudes with caps off and with the Plan shapes open. The Extrude of the merger has caps off. Relate all the Heights of the extrudes. Its a bit cumbersome and does not give you complete control of which side is open. (I turned Backfaces on just to help illustrate).



It would be useful to have on/off switches for sides. The may not work as well for curved surfaces, but for 3-8-sided shapes this would be very useful.

The BoxPrimitive (on the right sidebar) ahas a checkbox for each of the 6 sides. This does not allow for a hole in the middle, but it does help in certain cases.

 

Sure - it should not be too hard to clean this up!

 

Thank you @RuinsOfFeyrin and roryo. Very exciting

@RuinsOfFeyrin This would work but i want to eliminate the connected faces between grouped meshes to save polys. I think grouper etc does not actually remove redundant vertices - although it would be cool to have a node that did that. I wash trying to find more information on your MeshMerger node to see if it combines shapes or just groups them - ps your material nodes look great

@roryo - this sounds very col because i see it only has 16 verts and my extruded with caps version has 48 - this would be a HUGE savings i a castle where most of the walls are made up of this shape. I just learned last night to link the size of the walls to the number inside a repeater, so i could also i think remove the sides as well as the top since they join up with the ceiling, floor and each other, saving even more verts.

I will give this a try, although i just lost a ton of sleep this week having fun with Archimatix working on my game level, so i need to restrain myself, but it is so exciting to learn more about AX and see what it can do. I have already rebuilt my castle 3 times and this will be a fourth because i got basically the exact same structire from 40,000 to 30,000 verts, and now i think i can get it lower and still have it with visual parity - wonderful for mobile, and i can take vert savings and perhaps use some for extra bevels here and there.

Thank you both

 

Sometimes when i link two parameters together, like height or width between a node inside and one outside a grouper, the red connector doesn't appear, but the relationship is still there.

Sometimes i want to delete this relationship, but there is no red line to click to delete it. Is there a list or a way to see what connections a node has without the connecting lines for edge cases where they dont show?

 

It would be nice if there was a node that would automatically do this workaround for us since this is a very common use-case, and I've requested the ability to do this before already myself.

Perhaps an extension of the channeler node (or something) could help with a node like this?

 

For those of you interested.

Pro Logic Nodes Update is now live!

Mesh & Material Nodes Update is now live!

 

I don't think that my MeshMerger Node removes redundant vertices. The reason being is that while vertices may exist in the same point in space, there are several other factors that may qualify them as not being the same vertex, such as UV's. So i think i opted for the simple route of combining existing meshes as is instead of trying to determine which uv's are actually identical and which are just similar.

Perhaps some sort of "Finisher" node is in order that cleans up a mesh.

Im not 100% positive, but I think it is not intended that a relationship is formed between properties from nodes outside a grouper, and nodes inside a grouper directly.

I think the intended way this is to be achieved is by adding a control parameter to the grouper. Have your expression from the node outside the grouper connect to this parameter. Then inside your grouper this parameter connects to the node in question inside of it.

Hope that helps.

 

They both help

I figured about the combiner because all those UV's would have to be considered too, and you can make some really crazy shapes in AX I think that would be a complex asset in itself.

Thanks for the tip - ive been dragging connections inside the grouper from sometimes 2 levels out, and last night i was considering if we could just connect the input to the grouper itself and then from the inside to the inner node, and i can see that 90% of the time i should be doing that - its a lot cleaner

 

Every time I come in here and see screenshots my mind is blown. This is, visually, a rather minor thing that I'm probably not going to use but I'm once again amazed that it was even possible.

I don't expect it ever could but can Archimatix do the thing where you make a 2D shape for each of the four sides and it combines them into a 3D form?

 

This should be relatively simple to implement if the curves are each constrained to a vertical plane. If the curves are 3d, it would be more challenging to implement. Four curves like this would also be nice as a deformer.

 

see that's what I'm talking about. You look at something that I haven't seen implemented anywhere in a very long time and you just tell me

That's exactly what I was asking by the way.

 

Im wondering what i did wrong here. I still see the top and bottom sides gone but in @roryo image they are off in the places i wanted them to be. Any advice?

 

I think i found a way, i didnt reverse the open inner shape, and since i dont need side or top, i deleted the extra extrude, and i end up with the same shape 32 verts instead of 48 which is 33% savings

One more issue though is i grouped them and did a radial repeater, all good but the material, the uv changes dont seem to affect the walls. they are just frozen in the default uv size. I tried changing the uv in the material node and the inspector because i encountered that bug before.

 

Sorry for the barrage - im just really interested. I figured out the UV working on the outer wall now because it is technically the top cap, not a side, so i input the materail into that and works

But for the inner part of the window, i tried pluging the material into all three and it shows up but doesnt change when i change the UV. Aside from that this ia a good way to save many verts because the castle is built from many walls like this, so i think i can save a good percent for mobile and maintain the same look. But any idea about the UV changing for the inner piece?

BTW do you or anyone know does the number of texel units affect performance in a game? is less/more better?

 

Ok so the only thing i cant figure out is why the UV changing doesnt affect the inner window sill texture size.

But I did learn some new techniques about building things different ways. I also saved on windows because this made me see i dont need the sides or top/bottom for them since they're embedded into the walls. I saved from 22 verts each window to 16 verts. Combined with the wall savings - 48 verts to 32 for the same look, and multiplied over 100 or so wall windows, im saving over 2000 verts so it pays I think i can live without controlling the inner window sill UV. But if anyone has an idea id try it out.

I do lose the ability to properly bevel the shapes in this case, but when its for mobile its something i can also live with.

I also think i will try @RuinsOfFeyrin ' s Shape merger. I think it might help me keep things organized by combining the windows and walls into a node and then round repeating that in the same stage space. Right now i made the walls and windows into a grouper, but then i need to hop in and out of the grouper to see the round repeater, so i think this is a good use case for it

One more small tip - there was a tiny gap between the sill extrude and the wall. I just changed the x scale of the sill to be 1.02 instead of 1.0 and it fixed it up.



BTW i am using Archmatix to build all a farm, ruins and a huge castle in my game Nimian Legends : Vandgels. It took me a month to build my first house in my first game, and i built and rebuilt the castle 3 times in 5 days, so Archimatix is a DEFINITE time saver

 

Your game looks amazing.

 

I was wondering, is there an easy way to stack an object on top of another object ? I know I can use constraints to do that, but my idea would be a "stack" node that could put nodes automatically next to each other.

Is it something that already exists ?

 

Hey @joelfivat

You can use a Floor Repeater to stack multiple of the same item on top of each other. Or if you are looking to vary what is stacked then my Mesh & Material Logic Nodes pack has a node called the Mesh List which allows you to create a list of multiple different meshes, and it also includes a Mesh List Repeater, which allows you to repeat the list of meshes in a variety of ways (including on top of each other).

Hope that helps

 

Hey @protopop,

I think there is an Issue with UV's being generated under some circumstances. I have a bug report in where the back side face does not seem to take in to account the values set in the material tool. So all the faces look correct except the back face, its texture is stretched all weird.

Also the screen shots of your game look great.

On a side note i checked out the links in your signature, and i tried checking out your "Nimian Legends: Empires", and it just stayed at the loading screen with the three circles acting like they were doing something for about 20 minutes before i gave up and closed the browser.

 

Hey Folks,

Floor Plans? Dungeon Layouts? They all just became so much easier to make!

Figured I would drop a nice screenshot of the Shape Merger Layout tool im working on here before I left for work for the day.

• You can now drag shapes to position them around the grid by dragging the small square center inside a shapes bounds.
• You can now pan the viewing area around by dragging the mouse on the grid.
• Started adding in draggable handles for shapes the contain a width,height, and radius from directly inside the grid view.

So right now with the exception of the height,width, and radius handles everything works.
I still haven't decided how I'm going to release this, but until I figure it out, I thought it might make a nice carrot.

If you like the looks of Shape Merger Layout tool, and already own one of my existing node packs, simply leave a review on the package(s) you own, then shoot me a message and ill send you over a copy of the Shape Merger Tool.

 

would it be too hard or completely outside the possibilities of what archimatix can do, to add kind of 3D spline extruded shapes? because that would be a really game changer here, something in the style of what you can achieve with megashapes asset, is this even possible to have in the future or it will require a complete rewrite of the core engine? or maybe this is already possible and I'm missing something, but until now I understand the core of the simplicity (and also the limitation) of archimatix is that it works only with extruded 2D shapes, right?

 

Thanks so much

This is a sequel open world game and Archimatix is making all the architecture - not only is it a lifesaver but it its super fun as i get to know more how it works - ive been rebuilding the castle again and again with what i am learning, and now i can build a whole castle with it in an afternoon. Plus the AX buildings look great in these sunny landscapes

 

Thanks for the UV tip I can live with it because its only the inside of teh window sill, and using the new technique last night iswear i am briniging a 40,000 vert castle down to 20,000 or less so its worth it I can see that there are so many updates on AX and im sure whatever it is will find a fix eventually.

Thanks for checking out Empires too - sorry it didnt work - i just tried it and it loaded but its at least a 10mb website 0 its a world map with a procedurally based adventure and the setting for my Mobile games - it was probably a connection issue but im glad you tried to check it out. When i come back to it maybe i will be able to figure out a more progressive loading system that doesnt leave people waiting because i know its a slog

 

This is a planned feature, according to rory, but no timeline has been established for it (or most other features he's mentioned so far. Except for the 'roadmap', we're all just playing the waiting game for what he decides to do next.)

 

You'll have to do a write up for the rest of us on AX polygon reduction techniques! That's definitely a subject with AX I know many of us would like to hear more about.

I had planned to do exactly what you're doing (literally build and rebuild a castle to learn more about AX), but I have no use for a castle when I'm done, and it might be nicer for everyone to see what you figured out in the process of building yours since I'm not necessarily targeting mobile with my stuff.

 

well, I've seen the roadmap before, if you meant the 2.5D "WinWall", I don't thing that could achieve what I asked, or I don't have the imagination to see how it could be used for spline extrusion, but in best case scenario this is at least 3 versions ahead of now, and looking at the rate each update was rolling out, I can think of months at least

 

Hi @Cleverlie - 3D splines are coming (eventually!). The Deformers coming out in 1.0.8 help in terms of bending AX models out of their creation planes, and there will be a PlanDeformer, where you can deform a mesh along a 2D Shape. For example, you can model a wall with openings, window frames, and mullions and then bending it along a Plan Shape. The closest we have to 3D deformation right now is TerrainDeformer, where the 3rd axis of deformation is based on the Terrain heights. It should not too hard to go from this to 3D spline deformation.

 

hey!! that's amazing, that's what I need! Actually what is shown in the GIF is pretty much the only thing I need if only I could define a custom mesh instead of the terrain shape so the AX structures follow the mesh collider instead of the terrain collider, shouldnt be hard to adapt the same node to do that right? thanks for the answer roryo

 

Wow - that looks amazing, @protopop!

To help with a better understanding of the uses of Grouper, I just created this post. Let me know if it makes sense!

 

Hey Guys,

So we've been using Archimatix to model most of the big stuff in our game especially structures, but we are running into problems we pulling them out of unity to texture them.

Does anyone have a quick workflow process for exporting and unwrapping the models for use in texture programs like Quixel? We have a work around, but it is slow and tedious.

Also, ever since the update, models in my previous projects have been MIA when I open them.
Is anyone else experiencing this?

 

No, I didn't mean "WinWall" at all -- I meant an actual "extrude-along-a-spline" feature, which has been promised since the very early days of the AX -- before it was even released -- and I only mentioned the roadmap because it has very few things on it and that one is still absent, and has been MIA for a very long time.

It's probable rory intends to implement it is as a deformer-style node -- which makes sense as AX is handled under the hood as something akin to a "glorified 2D shape-extruder" -- but he has made some real headway into making this useful by adding user-friendly parametrics (we need more of this in 2D shapes!) and deformers to it.

Now that he's implementing deformers, I'm sure he'll get around to it eventually. There's no telling when though since it's not mentioned on the roadmap and I've not heard a peep about it since before AX was released...

 

Hi @NicholausFox - Are you getting any error messages with the older models?

 

The PlanDeformer may make it into version 1.0.8 due out this week...











And with a slight twist along the length:

 

More twisting on the PlanDeformer...

 

A now for some extreme twisting (with subdivision set high):

 

This example was done in only 12 nodes

 

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"Archimatix Essentials" is a collection of small tools and UI enhancements I have written that I feel are essential to completing a good workflow in Archimatix.

UI Redesign

Top Toolbar

The top toolbar has had everything removed from it other then the Model selection, and the breadcrumb trail that show up when you are inside groupers. 2D, 3D, Build/Rebuild, Stamp, and Prefab have been moved to the right click context menu that shows up when you right click in the graph window.

The toolbar is now sleeker and uses the built in toolbar UI elements, and removes the drop shadow image from below it.
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Side Toolbars

The side toolbars have been removed from the graph all together. These have been replaced with the custom toolbar windows you can create.
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Bottom Toolbar

The bottom toolbar has been redesigned to be sleeker as well using the built in toolbar UI elements.

I am contemplating removing the "Close all controls", "Close all tools", and "Show all nodes" buttons to the right click context menu as well.

To help clear up more room I am also contemplating making both the zoom, and detail level sections be simple buttons that cause a panel with sliders to appear above them when clicked.

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Minimap

"Archimatix Essentials" adds a minimap window that shows you an overview of the entire graph. You can click or drag the mouse around the mini map window to quickly jump the graph to that point.
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Right Click Menu

Archimatix Essentials adds the ability to right click on the graph window and have a menu appear. This menu contains all the functionality that was removed from the toolbars, as well as a few other useful links.
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Model Parameter Quickview

"Archimatix Essentials" adds a Model Parameter Quickview window which displays and allows you to edit all the exposed parameters on the model you are currently viewing in the graph without having to track down the node they are on.
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Custom Toolbars

"Archimatix Essentials" adds a custom toolbar window for Archimatix. You can spawn multiple copies of the toolbar window as well as control what type of node each toolbar window displays. The toolbar windows also have the ability to refine what they are display by searching based on the node name, or authors name.

Coming Soon​

 

Added a Turn parameter and a animation curve modifier for the Twist, so that you can vary the amount of twist along the length: