BGCurve (free Bezier Spline Editor) support thread

Unity provides standard Spline asset https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.splines@2.1/manual/getting-started-with-splines.html , use BGCurve only if some feature is missing

BGCurve is free Bezier spline editor

Asset Store: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/bg-curve-59043
Docs: http://www.bansheegz.com/BGCurve/
Github: https://github.com/bansheeGz/BGCurve

Known issues
Current implementation may have some problems with Undo operation (Ctrl+z), which can result in a broken curve's GameObject in some scenarios

 

Hi, I have created spline and now I need to launch several prefabs on it. How to do it? Docs aren't so descriptive as I can see.

 

You need to attach instance of your prefabs to cursors on the spline.
To do it:

1. Select your curve. In the inspector window ensure you have BgCurve component which has 4 tabs: Points, Components, Fields and Settings.
2. Go to Components tab on BgCurve component.
   
3. Make sure you have Math component. If you don't have it then you can add it using the green plus button.
4. Add Cursor component for Math component (using green plus button). Cursor allows moving along spline.
5. For the Cursor component add Translate Object By Cursor component.
6. Add your prefab's instance as Object To Manipulate.
7. Repeat steps 4-6 if you want more objects which moves along spline.

With such setup you can now manipulate cursor's distance to move the object attached to it. You can do it either from script, from animation or from additional Cursor's component called Cursor Change Linear which moves the cursor automatically.

Yes, I was also confused at the beginning. Actually I've learned most from BGCurveDemo2 from examples directory and after getting the idea of basic concepts I used the docs as the API reference.

 

I have a few spline-segments where the endpoint of one segment ist the startpoint of another spline. I want to move a object on the splines. How can i setup the objectToManipulate becomes the one of the next spline and follow the next spline? How do i access this with a script?

 

something like this should work

Code (CSharp):

1.     void Update()
2.     {
3.         BGCurve fromCurve;
4.         BGCurve toCurve;
5.  
6.         //assuming both curves have BGCcCursorObjectTranslate (and BGCcCursorChangeLinear) components
7.         var fromCurveTranslate = fromCurve.GetComponent<BGCcCursorObjectTranslate>();
8.         var toCurveTranslate = toCurve.GetComponent<BGCcCursorObjectTranslate>();
9.  
10.         //if we reach the end point
11.         if (fromCurveTranslate.Cursor.Math.GetDistance() - fromCurveTranslate.Cursor.Distance < TOLERANCE)
12.         {
13.             toCurveTranslate.ObjectToManipulate = fromCurveTranslate.ObjectToManipulate;
14.             fromCurveTranslate.ObjectToManipulate = null;
15.         }
16.     }
17.  

 

Can't see my Curve in Canvas? Is it works with canvas components (like scroll view)?

 

spline itself does not imply any restriction.
However if you try to use our BGCcLineRenderer component (which uses standard Unity's LineRenderer) to visualize the spline under Canvas component, you may want to check this out http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/1201050/is-there-way-to-have-line-renderer-on-a-canvas.html

 

I have code that disable gameobject with bgcurve. After enabling, object doesn't move. Speed is set, distance ratio is 0. I thinks that's bug.

 

That was because of setting "Overflow Control". If set "Stop" then it won't continue. I've cycled it and set trigger at ratio 0.99 and it works. Maybe I could do this by another way?

 

JSBmanD, disabling GameObject with BGCurve (and all the components) for a while (when you dont need it) is certainly best way (performance wise)

 

I'm thinking about using it but I have a question. Can you programatically add points further along the spline such that you can have a shape with colliders growing outward over time? I'm making a bullet hell game and want to be able to have curvy lasers like these:

or the ones at 3:20 in this video

and was trying to figure out if BGCurve would be a good solution.

 

Yes, you can add, move, delete points at runtime. As for colliders, you will have to create them yourself.
The question- is it really worth it to use BGCurve is hard to answer.
I do not monitor splines solutions for Unity and i do not know if better tool for such task exists or not.
Also BGCurve is limited to Bezier interpolation only.
And ,I guess,the task itself can be accomplished by different methods as well.
If trajectories are static and predefined, you can simply animate the splines with Unity animation tools or draw these trajectories beforehand and then simply follow them with your lasers.
If trajectories are built at runtime with some fancy math formulas Im not sure if you can take advantage of BGCurve.

 

You don't understand. The problem is in setting "Stop" that won't let object to move again.

 

OverflowControl field defines how the cursor behaves when it reaches the end of the spline.
If you chose Stop-it stops and do not move anymore. The Stop field is set to true.
If you need it to move again- you can set Stop field to false and move cursor somewhere in the middle of the spline.
If you set OverflowControl to any other value different from Stop- this field would never be set to true.

Note, that you can also control the cursor behavior from script by setting Speed field of ChangeCursorLinear component (positive- move toward the end,0-stop, negative-move towards start) and you can also control the cursor position from script by setting Distance or DistanceRatio fields of Cursor component.
I hope it makes sense.

 

hi i would like to know the percentage distance my object has travelled through the spline or access the "Distance Ratio" in the Cursor is there already a script to do this?

 

Hi, DistanceRatio is percent, divided by 100.
You can access it with
GetComponent<BGCcCursor>().DistanceRatio

 

BGCcCrusor does not show up, i am in a new script which is basically empty and have the namespace of "bansheeGz.BGSpline.Curve" what am i missing?

 

You just need

Code (CSharp):

1. using BansheeGz.BGSpline.Components;

 

thankyou

 

Hi. Do you know a good way to make actual spirals using BG curve. Do you have a good equations for point and control placement? I've playing around with it a lot and am struggling to figure it out myself.

 

Hi,
Can circle approximation formula help you with that?
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1734745/how-to-create-circle-with-bézier-curves

For 2d spiral, you'll have to increase radius with every new point and adjust controls lengths (e.g. Incoming control's length will be lesser and outcoming control's length will be bigger). The difference will be dependant on radius delta.

For 3d spiral you also have to place controls at some angle, which depends on radius and height deltas. I think the formula for this angle can be easily brute forced.

You can also try to ask people at some math forums, maybe they have better ideas how to do it.

 

Hi!

This seems like a good plugin (a bit too complex for the problem it tries to solve in my taste) with a lot of functionality. However, I cannot for the love of God get it to play? I have watched the video

, I have read the documentation at http://www.bansheegz.com/BGCurve/, I have tried calling the function GetComponent<BGCurve>().Start() and obviously I have found this thread. But still nothing that actually explains or show to make the BGCurve to animate along the spline...

Please view this as feedback to your plugin but also feel free to help me out here.

I have followed the instructions

1. Select your curve. In the inspector window ensure you have BgCurve component which has 4 tabs: Points, Components, Fields and Settings.
2. Go to Components tab on BgCurve component.
   
3. Make sure you have Math component. If you don't have it then you can add it using the green plus button.
4. Add Cursor component for Math component (using green plus button). Cursor allows moving along spline.
5. For the Cursor component add Translate Object By Cursor component.
6. Add your prefab's instance as Object To Manipulate.
7. Repeat steps 4-6 if you want more objects which moves along spline.

But again, like all other sources it does not tell you have to actually get the object to animate...

Cheers!

 

I figured out what was the problem. You had to press in your UI and add CursorChangeLinear component. Then it started to move.

 

Hoodad, hi
I' m glad your issue is solved. We'll update our docs so it'll be easier to solve. Also there are a lot of test scenes in the examples folder and 2 demo scenes, that cover most out-of-the-box usecases, you can check them out if you have some issues.

Could you please elaborate, why you think our plugin is complex?
Our main objective-is to provide a fast robust and extensible core for Bezier splines.
Our components are built on top of that core, you can delete all of them if you dont need them, the core is still going to work.
You can also write your own components either from scratch or by extending the existing ones, so possible usecases should be unlimited if you need Bezier spline without need to worry about underlying core functions.

For example, lets assume you want to move your object not linearly, but by some function.
All you have to do-is to write your own class, which will change cursor position according to that function and all existing components, like move, rotate and scale will work just fine. So existing components structure may seem to be overcomplicated, but actually there is some rationale behind it.

 

My script attach on gameobject you want it's self move , addtional feauture lerp velocity per point speed.

 

How the heck to I set the size of the "ball" that represents a node? I tried scale tool on it, and it won't scale it. My scene is small and the nodes look huge.

I found where to set the size of the small path spheres, but I need to change the size of the big ball. The green one in this example:

 

Found it! For anyone else interested, it's under "Fields"

 

@BansheeGz
Hi. I got up to speed fairly quickly. I have a cube following a spline now. The only thing I can't figure out is how to get the cube to orient with the spline (rotation change). In other words, imagine the cube has a "front" and it is facing forward as it follows the spline, when the spline curves, the cube should rotate to follow the curve, as if it was a road. Where is the option to turn this on?

 

LilGames
Hi, Rotate Object By Cursor [Component] should do it
http://www.bansheegz.com/BGCurve/Cc/BGCcCursorObjectRotate/

Also, there is an example scene which shows it:
BansheeGz\BGCurve\Examples\BGCurveTestComponents.unity
BGCurveGreen object has this component attached.

 

Thank you. That solved it.

I also figured out how to reset the cursor back to the beginning by changing the DistanceRatio to 0, and that I could restart BGCcCursorChangeLinear by setting Stopped to false.

Next I will be figuring out how to only move the cursor N number of points.

If you ever consider updting this asset, I would recommend including an easy way to make the cursor "go to point N" and include an event trigger once it reaches that point.

 

LilGames
Thank you for your suggestions. We'll add the ability to move the cursor to a point in editor GUI in the next release.

With code it can be done like this:

Code (CSharp):

1. var math = GetComponent<BGCcMath>();
2. cursor.Distance = math.Math[0].DistanceFromEndToOrigin;

(index 0 means "Point 1", so use index 1 for "Point 2" etc.). "Point 0"- is the first point of the spline.
math.Math[0] refers to information about 1st section (between Point0 and Point1)

Regarding events- they already exist and should work- component CursorChangeLinear, field PointReachedEvent. It's Unity's standard event. Point index is passed as an argument. BGCurveDemo scene has an example- SunMoonPath object uses events (it's under Director object). You could try to use these events to reset cursor's position. If you do, please, let me know if you have any issue with it.

Another, more simple and robust solution- simply check if current Distance is more than the distance to a point- and then simply reset cursor's position to the point you need.

By the way, if you need the cursor to go from the start to the end infinitely, you could just use CursorChangeLinear.OverflowControl=Cycle, it does not set the Stopped flag.

 

Is there a way to extrude/duplicate a mesh along the spline with this? for example a roller coaster or train track.

like this plugin does: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/41155

 

Currently, there is no out-of-the-box component, which would do it.
You can use a basic http://www.bansheegz.com/BGCurve/Cc/BGCcSweep2D/ component as an example to implement your own custom component (some programming skills are required)

 

I have a tester reporting strange behaviour from CursorLinear and I suspect its from low frame-rates. I make the cursor object stop when it triggers a certain number of points on the curve, but the tester is reporting that sometimes the cursor is stopping past the point. Any advice?

 

LilGames
Try to change line 167 of Assets\BansheeGz\BGCurve\Scripts\Cc\BGCcCursorChangeLinear.cs from

Code (CSharp):

1.         private void Update()

to

Code (CSharp):

1.         private void FixedUpdate()

Please, let me know if it helped or not.

upd. and probably line 214 should be changed to

Code (CSharp):

1.             var newDistance = distance + currentSpeed*Time.fixedDeltaTime;
2.  

 

Hi ,and thanks for this awesome project

I'm developing a game where you as a player trying to jump between flaying Box's (platform's) box's with Collider that atched to them and this box's following a spline.

My problem basically is that the player camera jerks and hitches around with the motion of the platform's
i'm using Ultimate FPS plugin for my player. any advice?

 

Hi,
I may be wrong, but I think this can be related to FPS controller, cause if boxes themselves are moving smoothly, the camera should move smoothly as well unless additional forces are applied to it.
If you could set up a simple scene which demonstrates this issue and send it to our support email support@bansheegz.com we could look into it

 

Hi and Thanks for reply I just uploaded the pack

http://www.mediafire.com/file/k35hq6g0o2qq5w0/Spline_Platform_Test.unitypackage

 

Hi, thank you for the pack. I sent you updated one by email.
Here is what I tried:

1) Step1. Part of the issue was our component using Update instead of FixedUpdate (more details in this message https://forum.unity.com/threads/bgc...-support-thread-official.456983/#post-3259643). We have to add an option for this, sorry for the inconvenience. I changed it in the package I sent.
It did solve the issue with camera jittering when the player stands still, however when the player moves- the camera still jitters. Disabling vsync mitigates this issue, however, it's still noticeable. So I tried another thing (under Step2 GameObject)

2) Step2. I removed UFPS moving platform script and Rigidbody from platform2. And the jitter is gone, well, almost. Sometimes it shakes a little bit while moving, very slightly. To make sure it's not directly related to BGCurve- I put a camera under platform - and there is no any shaking at all.

Please, review the updated package and let me know if it was helpful or not.
Also, I think you could try to ask UFPS support about this.

 

Thanks a lot ,it Solves the problem a special if i disabling vsync (otherwise i get some times a little jittering when i walks but for me in my case it's ok)

 

Hello,

I need to track object movement along a spline, using only their last point reached. I have been struggling with it a lot. I tried to pass through an event the point's id to another script, along with which object/cursor arrived there. I am using it for character movement in a turn based game in which I am treating each point as a space. How can I do that? Is it possible?

 

Hello,
There are 2 events fired then point is reached
1) Persistent (you can edit it in the inspector)
2) Not- persistent (called PointReached)

I attached example scene (BansheeGzSupport/support) with example script (Test.cs) which show how an object, being moved, can be retrieved by any of them.
(Unfortunately our persistent event does not have sender attribute, so I had to add it)

 

Hello again,

Thank you for your answer. That worked well!

But now I have another problem. Currently, I am making the cursor stops after passing some points, using the non-persistent event you provided me. But if (after it has stopped) I gave it a negative speed, the event is fired at the same point again.
This probably happens because the cursor doesn't stop exactly at the point, but a little after it.

As you said in a post above, I tried to check FixedUpdate and also changed deltaTime to fixedDeltaTime.
Unfortunately, it didn't work

 

We fixed this issue, now BGCcCursorChangeLinear has useFixedUpdate field, which can be toggled on in the inspector.

This is because BGCcCursorChangeLinear component was designed like this.
It does not "understand" points the way it should to get rid of these events.
It was designed for very simple usecases- and the truth is- it tries to solve so many things and it's so poorly designed -that it's almost unsupportable at this point.
The only thing we could do to properly fix it at this point and make it easily extendable- is to redesign it from scratch- but we do not have enough resources to do it right now, sorry for the inconvenience.

I think the right thing to do- is to write your own component, which would do exactly what you need.

With current BGCcCursorChangeLinear - the only way to get rid of such events- is to move cursor slightly before or after the point and set a private field called currentSectionIndex to the proper section. And you can not do it in the event listener cause currentSectionIndex is updated after the event is sent (if you need to do it in the event listener-you could start a coroutine and wait till the end of the frame).
I attached the updated BGCcCursorChangeLinear component with 2 methods added (
MoveCursorSlightlyAfterPoint and MoveCursorSlightlyBeforePoint ) which do it.

 

Hello, 2 question:
1. Is there an easy way to make a run-time editor for this (at least for placing points)? If it's already in the product then I can't find it
2. Can you make a demo scene for the sweep? I can't make it work for me.

Great tool

 

Hello, thank you for your support!

1. No, there is no playmode editor (only for SceneView in Unity's Editor).
2. What's the issue with sweep?
Assets\BansheeGz\BGCurve\Examples\BGCurveTestComponents.unity - this example scene has sweep component example.

 

Hi! I'm loving this asset, it's really well done. I've suddenly started getting an error every time the mouse does anything in the 'Hierarchy' tab; it clogs the console up rather quickly. It also seems to be baked into the scene now, in that closing and re-opening Unity produces the same result. It's almost as though the BGCurve code-base itself has been changed? The error reads as below:

Code (CSharp):

1. NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
2. BansheeGz.BGSpline.Curve.BGCurvePoint.get_PositionWorld () (at Assets/BansheeGz/BGCurve/Scripts/Curve/BGCurvePoint.cs:149)
3. BansheeGz.BGSpline.Curve.BGCurveBaseMath+SectionInfo.Reset (BGCurvePointI fromPoint, BGCurvePointI toPoint, Int32 pointsCount, Boolean skipCheck) (at Assets/BansheeGz/BGCurve/Scripts/Curve/BGCurveBaseMath.cs:1497)
4. BansheeGz.BGSpline.Curve.BGCurveAdaptiveMath.Reset (BansheeGz.BGSpline.Curve.SectionInfo section, BGCurvePointI from, BGCurvePointI to, Int32 pointsCount) (at Assets/BansheeGz/BGCurve/Scripts/Curve/BGCurveAdaptiveMath.cs:64)

Which when double clicked leads to the PositionWorld function in BGCurvePoint. I tried to do a bit of debugging and found out that 'curve' is returning null, but I don't know why or when it gets set. I haven't edited the code-base at all before that so it's a strange thing to have happen. I checked my version control to ensure that was the case.

If I create a new scene and make a new BGCurve, I don't get the same error. So something has become problematic in the scene? I've been using the splines in junction with Unity's prefab applying/reverting functionality, I wonder if that has anything to do with it? Perhaps some combination of settings I'm using is creating the error?

Any help would be greatly greatly appreciated! I'm on BGCurve 1.2

 

ChiefBreakeverything, sorry to hear you have an issue with our asset.
It looks like one (or more) of the splines in your scene is broken (e.g. curve field of one of the point is set to null for some reason).
It certainly can be a bug, but it can be very hard to figure out what's wrong without a way to reproduce it.
If you could find a way to reproduce it- please, write to our support mail support@bansheegz.com it will help us a lot.

I attached a script, which should fix this issue.
How to apply it:
1) Find a broken spline. It should start spamming your console as soon as you select it in the Hierarchy. (Try to select a spline and move your mouse in the SceneView- there should a huge number of messages in the console)
2) Drag BrokenPointFix to this spline, then select another object and then select your spline again.
3) Spamming should stop
4) remove BrokenPointFix and save your scene

Please, let me know if it helped or not.

 

Hello I am trying to write a editor-script, that adds a prefab on the curve by instantiating the prefab, adding a Cursor, ObjectRotate and ObjectTranslate to the Curve. Everything works fine but the Cursor of the ObjectRotate and ObjectTranslate is not set correctly in the inspector, it gets always the first cursor of the gameobject.
So for now i have to set this manually, i would appreciate any help.

The function below is called by a Inspector-GUIButton:

Code (CSharp):

1.     public float distance, addDistance, speed = 0.2f;
2.     public GameObject trackPartObj;
3.  
4.     public void AddTrackPart() {
5.         GameObject newTrackPart = (GameObject)PrefabUtility.InstantiatePrefab(trackPartObj);
6.         newTrackPart.transform.SetParent(this.transform);
7.  
8.         BGCcCursor nCursor = this.gameObject.AddComponent<BGCcCursor>() as BGCcCursor; //<<<NEW CURSOR ADDED
9.         BGCcCursorObjectTranslate nTranslate = this.gameObject.AddComponent<BGCcCursorObjectTranslate>() as BGCcCursorObjectTranslate;
10. ...
11.  
12.         nTranslate.ObjectToManipulate = newTrackPart.transform;
13.         nRotate.ObjectToManipulate = newTrackPart.transform;
14.         nTranslate.Cursor = nCursor;//<<<<SETTING THE CURSO
15.         nLinear.Speed = speed;
16.         distance += addDistance;
17.         nCursor.DistanceRatio = distance;
18.  
19.         Debug.LogWarning ("ACHTUNG: Im Inspector Cursor manuell auswählen für (Rotate/Translate)");
20.     }
21.  

 

MidnightGameDeveloper, hello, you do it right.
Since there is no way to assign the cursor while creating a component, assigning it manually is the only way to do it.