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

Working on documentation!

 

@elbows, who has been helping with the early beta round, has valiantly taken on the above custom Shape coding (an advanced Archimatix topic), and generated these new Shapes in short order. He sent me a folder from his AX Assets and I dragged the folder into my Assets and, voila!, the interactive Shapes appeared in my AX 2D library. This paves the way for people to develop coded library items for AX and publish/sell them through the AssetStore to AX users.



After I added elbow's Shapes to my library, I fed them into Meshers to create another @Hitch42 -style twisted tower.







Thanks, @elbows !

Once there is a bit more documentation, we'll be ready for a new generation of beta testers.

 

This all looks incredible! I've been awaiting this fantastic asset for many months. I would be proud to assist with beta testing, if you would have me!

Regardless, thank you and be well!
- S.

 

@roryo what mean the red line on SteveTriangle1 picture ?

 

Thanks @S_Darkwell!

 

@Damien Delmarle, the red line indicates the leg of the Shape that is drawn to "close" the Shape. A Shape that is specified as "open" would not have that red line.

 

Question: In meditating about the release of this fine software, I thought of a rug. When you're done laughing, I'll continue.

I'd like to create a repeating pattern (using a rug or tiled floor as an example), but only in the center? Therefore, is it possible to create a shape or pattern within a larger, empty (negative) space...or part of a larger volume?

Maybe a better example would be this pattern from Morrocco:



Or this simple geometry:


Sorry, if I'm being unclear. And think you, as always for your kind reply.

 

Another excellent question @Sabathius! The pattern itself is most certainly possible. The central Shape could be "coded" first and repeated on a grid. That Shape composite Shape could then be used as either a solid or a void in a Mesher. I was going to hold of on 2D Repeaters until the first update of Archimatix, but you have me tempted to slide it into the first release, since it is fairly trivial to implement. On the other hand, you could do it currently with a Shape merger (though not as elegantly) ny SHpae Merging duplicates of the inner Shape. Once you have the array of Shapes, you can clip the whole thing with a Rectangle to have the pattern cutoff at the edges.

 

Robot Kyle likes his new floor, but he is looking forward to the arrival of the Repeater2D to save on some duplication and merging....

 

The last entity Robot Kyle expected to meet in the parametric staircase tutorial he has been working on was his very own doppelgänger!

 

This wasn't the first time Robot Kyle had been roped into being on the welcoming welcoming committee, and his robot senses told him it wouldn't be the last time either!



Just finished fine-tuning material inheritance through the ancestry of the graph. In this case a material node was hooked into the Grouper on the far right of the image below. All the Mesher nodes that are input to the Grouper will use that material unless they are given there own material node. However, if you open the material texture controls on one of the Mesher nodes, you can tweak the scale and translation of their hearted texture just for that node. For example, the arch node on the left of the graph has its material controls open so that , even though a material node is not connected to it, it takes the local scale and shift to get the alignment just right.

 

This product looks amazing! Great work!

 

Thanks, @StevenPicard!

 

Just added a PlanePrimitive and BoxPrimitive to the right sidebar node menu. Not earth-shattering, but they did need to be there! The 3D Library items on the left sidebar menu will hold more complex "primitives" such as arches, stairs, timber houses, etc., which are really saved parametric models in themselves, each with their own node graph. The primitive nodes on the right are single nodes. AX will be updated over time with more true primitives such as tetrahedrons, etc.

 

You are angelic and unbelievably talented. I love looking at your updates and seeing Robot Kyle's journey as it parallels your own.

PS: That documentation is just superb.

 

Thanks, @McMayhem. I really appreciate the feedback, especially when it carries such kind thoughts - more fuel to power this operation across the finish line!

Speaking of the finish line: my Archimatix to-do list is looking quite short these days. I am definitely starting to feel like there is a release 1.0 in hand.

This coming Wednesday I start into a documentation phase that should last about a week (two or three tutorials and a few manual pages). When that initial corpus of documentation is ready, Robot Kyle and I will see who of you unsuspecting and innocent bystanders we can lure into our final beta round before release. In that beta cycle, we will ask that the testers go through all the tutorials available before starting into their own experiments with Archimatix - as much to scuttle up a bit of the learning curve as to help test the documentation itself.

 

@roryo I won't need much luring into the beta

going through tutorials sounds like fun

 

Thanks, @puzzlekings - glad your on board!

 

Robot Kyle couldn't quite put his digit on it, but for some reason he often felt like a bit of a superstar when emerging from this particular portal... even though his doppelgänger Kevin would often be hamming it up in the anti-portal to the same pavilion, and in a particularly aggravating, non-symmetrical mode.



With this scene, I am finalizing the end cap meshes for a PlanSweep Mesher. The parametric star shape (courtesy of @elbows!) is used as a void in the arch Shape. The arch is also used in a simple Extrude, which is fed into the PlanSweep node as an "End Cap Mesh", meaning it is placed at both ends of the PlanSweep with one being the inverse of the other, as is seen by the slanted cutout with the red inserts.The red inserts cut into the end cap face are formed by the intersection of the arch and the rotated rectangle in the ShapeMerger. The star Shape cut into the arch is used again as a section of its own PlanSweep, but with an offset.



Once this system is set up, one can move the star shape around, or adjust its parametric values to modify the design. Here are a couple of variations:

 

And, seeing as Kyle is putting on a particularly entertaining show tonight, a couple more shots...

 

And a detail of the node graph for the above pavilion model:

 

Final check to make sure all is well with the End Caps on a PlanSweep formed by a multi-Shape "Rail". In this node graph, a Shape (by @elbows) is cut by a rectangle. The "Rail" output is fed into the PlanSweep as the Plan. The arch is fed into the PlanSweep as a Section, and then used again in an Extrude to for the End Cap Mesh. Once the Etrude is fed into the PlanSweep as the End Cap Mesh, then it is instantiated four times. As you drag the rectangle around, the End Caps move around in realtime. Very fun to play with!

 

Robot Kyle is enjoying a relaxing swim. He deserves a break, after all, having just spent over three minutes modeling this deep ocean platform in Unity using Archimatix!

 

Hope that salt water doesn't rust his bolts!

 

Its sunset and Kyle is still in the water. We can only hope that his ant-rust coating hasn't been compromised...



The only difference between and the previous post and this one (besides the sunset lighting ) is that I added a new Circle Shape (marked by the yellow arrow below) and fed it into a new PlanSweep using the Plan circle for the previous PlanSweep and also into the arch Shape to carve out the circular void.



I am hoping that when people start to experiment with Archimatix, they first try to see what the system can do inherently well as opposed to trying to use it to make forms according to prior art direction based on the possibilities from other modeling tools used in their pipeline. Perhaps as the developer I am worried that people may be disappointed that AX is not suited to, say, making a certain vehicle, weapon or building that they could easily flesh out in Blender, Maya or Max. Now that AX is nearing release, I am finding it a wonderful design-build tool with its own merits. For example, I am not sure I would have spec'ed this form out on paper ahead of time. This structure has a certain amount of spatial complexity that emerged from the fast, playful combination of simple shapes and the variation of parametric handles in realtime.

 

LOL, @Teila, your are a step ahead of me! I saw your post only just after my most recent post. I am wondering if someone shouldn't row over there to check on Kyle. He looks so peaceful, but for all we know his joints have completely seized up from rust!

 

Good idea. Make a parametric boat and some oars and check on him! Hurry! Salt is horribly corrosive, you know.

 

can we use a texture atlas and define atlas region on same mesh?
not sure if my question make sense. in short how do we controls uv?

 

Until we have a node for bridging iterations of a parametric hull section together, we will have to raise the parametric dock under him

 

Hi @Damien Delmarle - In the first release, the the UV mapping is automated with the assumption that the texture is tiled. You can scale and shift the texture in the material node. You can't adjust the texture per poly face at the moment, so traditional atlas mapping is not possible. All of the examples posted in the pages of this thread have used tiled textures from Unity example scene, 42 Architectural Textures by CrazyTextures and 18 FREE Substances by Algorithmic.

 

Here is a short clip showing how you can design with interactive parametric handles once you have set a scene up using the Archimatix node graph editor:

 

In the distance we hear Kyle's muffled shout of, "Errrrl cnnnn! Errrrrl cnnnn!"


(Oil can! Oil can!)

 

This looks amazing! Would like to join the beta.

 

Where are Lion, Scarecrow and Dorothy with that oil can! Ah, Kyle... If he only had a heart!

 

Thanks, @Bitnami! I'll be announcing the next Beta phase in about a week.

 

Oh, he does have a heart, he just doesn't know it yet!! Wait until he sees the gold parametric path and travels to the green parametric castle!

 

Alright Robot Kyle, now you're just hamming it up... and to think we were actually worried about you for a while there!

 

Brilliant!

 

"Look everyone! No hands!!!!"





Just testing Shape Merging. Amazing what comes out of relatively simple play with Archimatix!

 

Too much fun! *Now, back to work, me!*

 

Really an impressive work, congrats!!

 

Thanks, @kenshin!

 

For most of the day, I have had to attend to other affairs, but I did indulge in a few minutes of Archimatix play, cooking up this bit of Gothic bacon!






And to think, this is all modeled from scratch in just a few minutes right inside the Unity editor (except for the human, the ship and the tree)!

 

... and for a look that is more Goth...



or more golden...



When modeling in Archimatix, you don't necessarily think of interiors versus exteriors, but rather, you set up the system for the building and make the architecture so to speak - with its inside and outside:

 

LOVE this!

 

Once a parametric model is called up from the library, or created from scratch in the node graph, playing with a single element can make a huge difference in the look of the model, meaning the, unlike modular assets, you may take a library item and quickly make it look entirely different.

Here we can modify just the handles on the arch Shape in the model and get very different looks (in realtime!).





In this case, not only is the exterior changing, but all the interior arches as well, giving very different spatial feels.

 

Looking less Gothic now and perhaps more eastern Mediterranean? In any case, it is the same model!

 

Wow. I've been enjoying your abstract architecture, but there is really something to be said for this tool creating things more grounded in reality. All of your scenes are very inspiring. I just want to get ahold of it and just start making... stuff with it.

 

Thanks, @Hitch42! I have a special fondness for historical structures/typologies. In addition to being an independent game/Unity developer, I am also a professor of architectural history (M.Arch, Ph.D.). One of my goals with Archimatix is to encode architectural typological rules so that people can start with forms that seem legitimately historical, but then vary them until they have a style unique to them and the worlds they are building. In a sense, this is often a basis for sci-fi and fantasy set design in films and games. After the initial release of Archimatix, I will continue to develop and release modules/packs with parametric smarts specific to certain architectural types, putting the logic of these styles into the users' hands in the form of interactive SceneView handles, empowering game developers with little formal architectural design training to experiment and play with historical genre-based game environment design and production. That's the plan, at least! As a Sci-fi fan since the 1900's, I am glad that Archimatix appears to have become quite adept at abstract, futuristic settings too!

 

@roryo could you tell us what are the draw call and poly count of the gothic building earlier? i feel its going to be good numbers but just want to confirm