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

Are these custom nodes going to get icons?

 

I've basically built the archimatrix plan sweep extruder using a 3D bezier curve



https://forum.unity.com/threads/wip-easy-to-use-and-simple-spline-tool.829602/#post-5490600

 

I posted on Discord about being able to rotate the ends of a plan sweeper to form a variable match.
https://discord.com/channels/289938987060297729/700741815279550464/887555547883249714

 

Rory:
I initially made this web turtle graphic to produce a variable number of arms and connecting webbing.
But this thing turned out so powerful that I decided to leave it as is. The controls are all over the place to produce any number of outputs. I also left code in place remarked out that has further implications.
The only thing that I did not do was to invert the arc direction. That would enable gothic circular windows.
I have put this through a number of deformers that make the output even more complex.
Now when the controls are not used in a spider web configuration the circular arrays are intense.
With moving shaders the designs are innumeral.
I am asking for this to included in the next release or in the Ax share web site.
With my last suggestion for a concentric rings which Wetcircuit put on the website included with this then Archimatix can be advertised as an ability to create scope or weapon graticles or stadiums or radar antennas.
Let me know and I can ship this to you.
The caveat is the actual turtle code is quite simple but the additional nodes are very numerous.

 

If you would zip it into a single download, I'll put it up on the sharing site.
(Or you can share on the discord directly.)

 

This Ax graph design is sloppy because of all the controls. Most of the parameters are not tied together to perform a single web. I was going down that route till I realized that the openness is actually a large feature that enables many more models than just webs. While it will do webs with tweaking the other shapes are far richer in complexity. I played with it for hours after I got it running changing parameters outside the web idea.
Ax actually makes Jello stick to the wall!
Rorschach has met his match when you take your final output and put it into another repeater or in a reflective corner.
I will zip and send.

 

How can I make the gui position upper? Because I can't see the bottom buttons.

 

It looks like both the upper and lower AX horizontal menus have been shifted downward. I wonder if this is a conflict with the uModeler menu? I haven't seen this before. Have you tried installing AX in a clean project? It would be interesting to see if the shift is still there.

 

I tried a new empty project, but I still have the same problem.My Unity version is 2021.2. and I met a lot more error.

 

Are you by any chance using HDRP? I had a similar problem with the Greek vase in a HDRP project. Upgrading with the HDRP upgrade wizard unfortunately didn't work.

I decided to instead use the Built-in pipeline for now, since that was sufficient for the particular small project at the moment.

 

Hi @JaxOrz - Thanks for reporting this bug with the Greek Vase scene in 2021.2.3f1. I can reproduce this. It doesn't appear in previous versions of Unity, so we'll have to find out what rug Unity has pulled out from under us this time! In the meantime, all the other demo scenes appear to be working.

 

I'm VERY interested in this as a level editing tool for an FPS, couple questions:

1) Texturing is a big concern, I'm noticing that the textures just seem to fit automatically, but not a lot of examples of it being edited. Are there any videos that demonstrate this?

2) Since I'm making an FPS I'd really like to know if it's possible to use multiple tags on one model. I really want to be able to fire at concrete and have it make grey dust, metal and have it make sparks, wood and make splinters, and so on. Not to mention footsteps.

3) Will I be able to make these into normal models, for performance and to edit in things like pro-builder?

Thanks!

 

Thanks for you interest in Archimatix, @Not_Sure!

1) Ax does indeed try to automatically generate UV's that anticipate architectural texturing. One of the things that set me on creating AX was the frustration of UV mapping architectural elements in traditional modelers such as building cornices that wrap around intricate plans. In that sense textures are "automatic" in AX. To make alterations, you can scale and shift textures using the Material node. Using this Material node, you can adapt meshes to specific texture atlases, if so desired. That being said, AX does not have the ability to "unwrap" the mesh. If this is desired, then an AX model can be "Stamped" and unwrapped in ProBuilder of uModeler.

2) AX does let you set tags that will be applied to the models generated.

3) One you "Stamp" an AX model, you can "Pro Builderize" it and carry on with any Pro Builder editing features. Of course, at that point it is no longer parametric, but "frozen".

 

Thanks for the fast response!

I guess I can name all my materials starting with my material types and search the name, but that sounds like murder on performance.

You are clearly a gifted coder.

Do you have any better suggested solutions for this?

It really is a must for my feature list, as foot steps in particular will be a large part of my game's atmosphere.

 

For footsteps, I don't think that is an Archimatix thing. That effect sounds more like would be done with either decals or shaders on a "frozen" or stamped AX mesh.

 

Personally, I just assign different physics materials to different physics colliders and trigger the correct sound between pairs of materials.
There is a plugin in the asset store that does a very good job to automatize that. ( IMPACT asset store , it's on sale btw)
Other footstep generators detect the specific texture instead, but I find it much more easy and convenient to just use physic materials for that.

 

I don’t think I need an asset for what I’m doing, it’s not that complex.

My concern is performance.

Surely that starts eating up resources looking at materials names, rather than a simple int from tags?

 

I develop for Android and haven't noticed any problem with performance using the old version of the Impact plugin, which uses physical materials. (I use the old version because I have customized it for my needs, but the newer one should be better)
I was already using Unity's PhysX engine for collisions anyway, so any overhead in detecting material references is nearly zero, as the physics engine has to do it anyway. (you don't pass names in strings by the way, you pass a reference to a physical material asset you create in the editor)
In fact, using physical material references should be less heavy than casting rays specifically for footsteps.
The only scenario that would be more performant would be if you were not using the physics engine at all, but I don't think anyone would do that on Unity, since that would mean no colliders in general and no raycasts.
I would REALLY get that Impact plugin if I was you.

 

Actually, I have this exact same problem with Greek Vase in Unity 2020.3.20f1

 

You can Assign tags to the node by selecting the node and then choosing a tag for it in the Inspector:



Once you select a Tag for this node, any GameObject this node generates will have that Tag. The same goes for the Layer.

 

Thanks!

 

free logic and math nodes: https://community.archimatix.com/share/

 

Wow, Archimatix is getting more and more mature over time. Amazing.
Is the plan for Version 2 still coming?

 

Hi @EmeralLotus - AX2 is a ways off. We are trying to synchronize with the development of Unity's ECS and Graph Tool Foundation, which are taking their time development!

 

Hi, i just bought Archimatix and after using it for a few hours, it is indeed a powerful tool that meets my needs, but for the the time used it to make some pretty basic stuff, I had many bugs and errors that made me have to restart everything from scratch, and each time I used some custom shape nodes that were lost too. It is very frustrating because like I said, i really need this tool and like it already.

For the information, i'm using the v1.3.3 with Unity 2019.4.36f1, in a new project with Archimatix as the only asset added to the project for the moment. Twice I had and error that was spamming infinitely in the unity log console, something to do with a parser error, as i was changing a variable min/max or deleting it. Both times i had to delete the archimatix gameobject to stop the error from spamming.

I tried again from scratch with a new gameobject (saving periodically to be able to go back to a state before an error appearing) and again, after a couple hours into the modeling, i now have a bug in the graph editor UI that makes it impossible to continue. There's a blank grey window that appeared and I can't do anything to it. I took a screenshot this time.

Am i using the right version of Unity to avoid such errors and bugs ? Ideally I'd love to be able to use 2019.4, because I'll use other assets for my project that are only compatible with it. I prefer to check if I'm doing something wrong first, because i have some really basic coding knowledge, and mainly use Unity with Playmaker, but Archimatix doesn't require C# knowledge, so it's perfect for me.

Thanks

 

Hi @ScroggyTV - sorry to hear you have run into some show stoppers! Do you have any console errors you could report? Preferably at the Discord for AX.

 

This reminds me of the times of POV-RAY programmatic scene building

In less weird

 

It would be helpful to have one or two building templates for people starting with Archimatix. Office and residence, I guess ...? Not sure what else, but those two would be good to have as references in a user library somewhere.

 

And please include the multiple windows and borders in the process.
We all had worked this before and I never got a wall with an array of holes to properly work.
The effort at one point was to build the wall along a path with windows appearing at intervals.

 

my attempt at leaded-glass windows, lol.

 

Remember the node I published for circular ones?
I think the architectural library is starting.

 

YES!

Oop! That reminds me, I have some new nodes I forgot to share...



AX is -50% in the sale so if there are new people, check the Archimatix link in my sig.
Lots of free nodes and tuts. (I'm not the dev)

 

interior/exterior

 

2D and 3D noise:

 

Just wanted to share something I'm currently working on, using AX.

 

That's more organic than I would have expected for something from AX.

 

new 30min tutorial

 

I love it! so vivid and mesmerizing
pls join the discord! would love to see more biologic/organic AX

 

I am looking for the same feature. Is it possible to use PlanSweep or Plan Repeater with 3D Curves? Working with deformers for simple tasks is so unproductive. Is there any other way to mimic 3d curves?

I saw this but docs page gives 404 and I couldn't find any documentation:
https://www.archimatix.com/devblog/curve3d-and-curve3dextrude

https://www.archimatix.com/3dlibrary/freecurve3d_0

 

Thank you for the lovely compliment, I've been constantly reworking my textures and workflow within AX to get this type of environment/atmosphere. I definitely will join. Also, thanks wetcircuit for all that you contribute the AX community.

 

Unreal released their tech talk about making the city in the matrix demo, as anyone seen it?

I was wondering if sone aspects could be made with archimatix, like the bare layout of the city, because it felt like we could. I think building are somewhat feasible. But just the bare lay out is what I'm looking for.

 

I don't have a ton of experience with AX, but I have a hard time figuring out what part of it AX couldn't handle. Well, of course if you wanted to model a real world, conform to an irregular space (river boundaries, etc.), or even automatically match models to terrain height across a large span, I think you'd need some extra scripts / tools. But the construction of streets, curbs, buildings ... it seems like AX could handle that, especially repetitive tasks. I don't know how speedy it would be. You'd have to do things for optimization, as well.

Anyway, I'm with you in that I'm wondering if anyone knows just where AX would fall short, and generally how to go about accomplishing a task like this.

I think, for example, AX could fairly easily render all of the buildings, lights, dumpsters, etc., on a block, or several blocks laid out in a regular pattern. But getting larger than that, in the way a city unfolds, I'm not sure how that would work.

 

Can there be a truth-in-advertising law about Unreal demos that make claims like "The Matrix in one click!" when it's actually a team of engineers and a Houdini enterprise license…?

AX has these specific tools already: drop-to-terrain, distribution within an area (bounding and void shapes), distribution along paths….

I'm a pathetic coder with a short attention span, but I've made buildings that instantiated lights and prefabs for each interior room a few years ago (including naively the lights on the other side of the building that can't be seen lol):
https://forum.unity.com/threads/arc...y-awards-finalist.330869/page-38#post-3156162

Ironically, in that post I am replying to someone on a similar topic (how to scale up to city/street design). I don't think I'd approach it too differently today – but I'd make better use of arrays and (as you say) Unity-level scripts to keep track of the size of the lots, and decide which AX model to instantiate, feed in the data, and stamp.

My approach to a street map would be ... to make 'zones' of street grids, then those grids are rotated individually, and cut with shapes to butt up against the boundary of other zones. The street grids don't communicate with each other (the streets don't need to align with another zone's streets) because the boundary line is a major avenue (a wide street).

I'd overlay a different/similar system of 'zones' to create the residential/industrial/commercial areas ('lots' placed along the streets that decide what type of AX building to stamp there). Maybe using colliders and the model checks what collider it is inside?

Pardon my quick mock-up:



I made that 'rando-maze' node specifically to create random side-streets – they don't all connect, but you get the idea.

 

Here is a similar idea…. That same rando-maze node used to create a dungeon.

Just add random monsters and loot boxes.

 

I like progression control in my maze and this one scares me lol, imagine spawning in disconnected part!

 

Haha. yeah, it is not professional, This is just using archimatix turtle script as the 'brains'.
A real maze generator would create the plan and then feed AX the parameters…. you could reset the maze via json each day. It could be the new Wordle-maze-webGL-daily-thing… lol. Money in the BANK!

 

while the sale is still on…. Let me get these out the door!




Playmaker Actions for Archimatix Pro
includes:

Get Exposed Bool
Set Exposed Bool
Get Exposed Float
Set Exposed Float
Get Exposed Int
Set Exposed Int
Get Material Tool
Set Material Tool
Get Shape Code
Set Shape Code
Build Model
Stamp Model
Automatic Model Regeneration
Get Generated Game Object
Clear Generated Game Objects
Model Vert Count
Node Vert Count
Segment Reduction Factor

(version: 0.3b - updated Apr 25)

More to come….

https://community.archimatix.com/share/playmaker-actions-for-archimatix-pro.zip/