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Bug?

Discussion in 'Timeline' started by BroncoBilli, Mar 6, 2020.

  1. BroncoBilli

    BroncoBilli

    Joined:
    Oct 8, 2017
    Posts:
    90
    Create a blank timeline by going to Assets/Create/Timeline. Create a signal track. Notice signal track has no ability to reference a GameObject. It should be able to. Why should the Timeline asset not be able to reference a Signal Emitter's GameObject at this point? It should not have to be tied to a Playable Director in order to store a reference to the signal track's GameObject.
     
    BroncoBilli, Mar 6, 2020
    #1

  2. BroncoBilli

    BroncoBilli

    Joined:
    Oct 8, 2017
    Posts:
    90
    whoops. Nope. I just realized it's the Playable Director component that holds the references to the objects contained in the Timeline playable. Whoops. Design flaw, I am guessing? The references should be on the timeline playable object! And the playable director should simply take a reference to the timeline playable. I used to do this stuff for a job earlier at Microsoft. (too bad Unity HR turned me down! lol!)
     
    BroncoBilli, Mar 7, 2020
    #2

  3. seant_unity

    seant_unity

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Aug 25, 2015
    Posts:
    1,516
    The references are on the playable director because timeline is an asset, and assets cannot refer to scene objects in Unity.
     
    seant_unity, Mar 9, 2020
    #3

  4. BroncoBilli

    BroncoBilli

    Joined:
    Oct 8, 2017
    Posts:
    90
    Yeah... timelines shouldn't be assets, they should be "something special". (uber-asset) They're important enough to warrant it. The extra level of indirection is confusing and unnecessary.

    I'm having this issue w/ the signal track not knowing who it's referencing when the playable director isn't highlit. Unity should make a change (bug fix) so that if a Timeline is only referenced by one and only one playable director, then even if that playable director isn't currently selected, if the timeline window is open, it still retains "focus" so you can edit the signals and other items on the timeline. I mean - why not? It's handy, it doesn't break anything, and it's sort of needed.

    I'm having to work around this issue by making a rule that is: For every Timeline, there needs to be a 1-1 match with an object in the scene (empty, except for the Timeline Playable). This certainly shouldn't need to be this way, but it gets around the problem of Timeline UI's losing the focus and not being able to edit the signals properly. It's ended up really clunky, but it works. I'd rather just have a bunch of Timeline Playables in a list, and be able to tell the Playable Director which one to play, but for editing convenience, I need a bunch of new objects in my scene each one with a playable director on it. Yuck.
     
    BroncoBilli, Mar 10, 2020
    #4