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Cinemachine v1.1

Discussion in 'Cinemachine' started by Adam_Myhill, Jan 5, 2017.

  1. Adam_Myhill

    Adam_Myhill

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    Hi @AFrisby, great question.

    Yes this next version of Cinemachine will be production ready. We have been doing a lot of work integrating CM into Unity and now that we're part of the family, we can get a deeper acces to things - like super late update. It has taken a while to get all of that right.

    We've also made all of the CM components completely modular, allowing for future growth like a Composer 2.0 etc., and drastically improved the interface.

    The version being released tomorrow (!) will have all of this, plus Free-Look. This beta release is really light on documentation and I'll be getting that sorted before the offiial release. It will be green lights for development though and we can't wait to get it into your hands.
     
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  2. AFrisby

    AFrisby

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    Excellent, really happy to hear that. I'm presuming this is going to require a special editor build though - or will we be able to use it against the current 5.5 builds?
     
  3. ArthurT

    ArthurT

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    I'd assume it'd target 5.6 to maintain consistency with the new additions to the Playable API, not to mention requiring a special editor build for native CM integration or might get integrated into a new 5.6 beta, but that is to be seen today, if all goes well. Definitely looking forward to try it out once that happens!
     
  4. playemgames

    playemgames

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    @Adam_Myhill I have been working with this plugin for a few days now and have a question about scripting with it. I am trying to change the Dutch Offset of a camera via script so when it is enabled, it will offset the rotation of the camera. Currently, it does nothing even when the camera is enabled. I can only alter the Dutch via the Composer Settings which sadly is not accessible via script to set. Is this a bug?
     
  5. Adam_Myhill

    Adam_Myhill

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    @playemgames,

    The good news: This has been fixed with the new version of Cinemachine.
    The bad news: Our current beta - available now - fights a bit with the previous version of Cinemachine. We recommend removing the old Cinemachine before adding this new version.

    We plan to fix this for the official release - this is a beta release - so hopefully that's not a big issue for you.

    The new Cinemachine has a lot of improvement and the powerful Free-Look module is also included.
     
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  6. playemgames

    playemgames

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    So the new version is the beta version? Or is this a Cinemachine that is not released? I am a bit confused. What is the ETA on this? I just have the one from the asset store, I am not using the experimental preview. So will the asset store version get fixed?
     
  7. Adam_Myhill

    Adam_Myhill

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    Yes let's clarify the situation some more, thank you @playemgames

    The release today is an updated version of Cinemachine, with Timeline integration and Free Look, plus a whole pile of improvements to the interface, bug fixes, modularity and support for future scalability.

    It's a Beta because a lot has changed, the documentation is incomplete and there aren't enough example scenes.

    After we finish more testing - and get feedback from people like you! - we will push this to the Asset Store as a 1.5.0 update. Free of course.

    That said, the architecture isn't going to change and the main thing holding us back from a proper release is just all that extended testing, the example scenes and documentation.

    Also note that we are no longer going to have the 'BaseRig' and 'GameRig' separation, it's just going to be Cinemachine with everything all together (eventually). Free-look from GameRig has just been included, with Reactor, Collider and Cloud coming next.
     
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  8. Adam_Myhill

    Adam_Myhill

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    Update! A new BETA version of Cinemachine with Free-Look is available (and Timeline - check the other posts)

    You'll need to remove CM from your project before installing this version. There are some name conflicts, we are fixing them but for now if that's not a problem on your end then please grab it and let us know what you think.

    The new Free-Look is awesome. Go make some cool orbit camera games!
     
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  9. playemgames

    playemgames

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    @Adam_Myhill thanks for the clarification, we'll wait till it's stable then :)
     
  10. invadererik

    invadererik

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    Hi Adam,

    Downloaded the demo above, but it crashed unity ( Im using 5.4 latest). What version of Unity is the demo compatible with ? Could you provide a version without timeline stuff?

    Also sorta random:

    Any chance that you could include a Multi Tracking Composer in some future?

    Here is my dream camera:

    Follows X object smoothly, with min, max distance.
    Takes care of Clipping.

    Frames the shot as defined for 1 target when 1 target on screen.
    Frames the shot as best possible for multiple targets when multiple on screen.
     
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  11. Adam_Myhill

    Adam_Myhill

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    Hi @invadererik

    For trying the latest CM package outside of the Unity Timeline demo, you'll want to uncheck all the Timeine scripts upon importing. It should work on 5.4... I have tested 5.5 and of course it works in the 5.6 beta which it's designed to live inside. Having it work as far back as possible is something we're looking at during the beta phase. For now uncheck everything that says Timeline when you import that version of Cinemachine and that's the best we can do in the short term.

    Multi-tracking composers. Yeah, they're great. I've designed a system on a previous project which worked much like how you described The tricky thing is that there's a lot of diversity in desired outcomes for such a feature. When the secondary target moves away from the primary, does the camera move back? Widen the FOV? There's a number of solutions.

    The only way we'll implement this is for the camera to try and keep the secondary target on screen. It will hold the primary and move to work on keeping the secondary but if the FOV is too narrow or they move too far apart, the secondary will just go off screen.

    It's on our list but a bit of a ways down. We are finishing up the Collider system now, then onto something else which should make people very happy.... a way to easily link animations with cameras.... More on this soon.
     
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  12. invadererik

    invadererik

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    Produces some nasty error, in the editor .dll that won't go away. I'll have to try it on 5.5 soon.

    Great I like choices, let me choose from among several options = ] . I do expect that if one of the other items goes too far that it will have to loose it, too far can be defined in a variable like max distance between primary object or something.

    Looking forward to all the new features!

    Thanks for the help !
     
  13. Adam_Myhill

    Adam_Myhill

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    I'll test it on 5.4, sorry you're having issues there. We will work to resolve that

    As for the secondary target feature in Composer, we're working on a Composer 2.0 - it will be another option in the Composer selection method - so it can run beside the original Composer as an additional method.

    The updated modular framework of this new CM lets us add new Aim and Body method options easily
     
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  14. laurentlavigne

    laurentlavigne

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    Freelook, here is what I understand:
    It composes a view blended from the 3 rigs that depends on the position of the camera to the subject.
    The topmost follow field is to glue the root rig to the character, lower rigs allow for some pretty exotic composition (examples?)
    What I don't understand:
    1. freelook seems to use Input axis hardcoded, how do I map those to ipad drag?
    2. when adding noise and selecting settings (that target looking thing) why does the selector default to the scene tab, assets don't exist in scene space.
    3. when I delete the freelook, the brain active camera still points at bottomrig transform
    4. how do I control the amount of inertial of the camera?
     
  15. Adam_Myhill

    Adam_Myhill

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    @laurentlavigne

    That's a pretty solid understanding you have so far. We realize the minimal documentation must be frustrating and please know that we're working on that as our top priority.

    Free-Look works like this:
    There's 3 cameras which define the behavior at Bottom, Middle and Top levels. Whatever input you use (more on this below) will cause the camera to rotate and raise/lower blend between all 3 cameras.

    You can set each camera to have a unique Aim or Follow target, or use the first Aim and Follow slots to globally set them for all 3 cameras. That way you can compose the characters head when you're low (Bottom camera) then compose on their spine bone for the Middle camera, then the root for Top, or whatever.

    I know there's a bit of a sea of numbers, but I want you to have the most control for any given scenario.

    Here's an example, you can blend to a Free-Look with a Heading Derivation Mode set to a fixed World heading and trigger that based on a volume around an object. When your character walks up to the object you can blend into a free-look which is pointing a certain direction. You're able to cinematically sculpt the users experience between gameplay and cutscenes, without a line of code.

    Your questions.
    1. Input axis is not hardcoded. You specify the Axis Name of the channel to listen to which is setup under Edit->Project Settings->Input. You can have Free-Look listen to whatever you want. Note, I have not tested iPad drag but it is on the list.

    2. Why does it want to save the settings into an asset? We did that to get around the fact that Unity does not save tweaking in Play mode, unless you're using assets. It's also good for sharing presets, like a finely tuned hand-held noise that you want to use on numerous cameras.

    3. That sounds like a bug. We'll look into it, thanks for that.

    4. Camera inertia is handled in two areas. The Input Sensitivity - which Cinemachine has no control over, that's done in Edit->Project Settings->Input. The default Unity values are waaaayyy too high. The other place you tune inertia is with the Max Speed, Accel and Decel values per axis.

    Please keep me posted. We're working hard to get all the wrinkles ironed out. Thanks so much.
     
  16. laurentlavigne

    laurentlavigne

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    I never read documentation when using an artist's tool so no it's not frustrating. Maybe a few tooltips would help getting up to speed with the new wording of things. Do you plan to simplify the UI a bit? I don't see how because top exposure is what helped me understand what I'm dealing with. I noticed the composer can't be tuned by dragging the gizmos in the game view, that would help a bunch. Playing with FOV and body radius is fun, that Vertigo effect :)
    1. It doesn't seem compatible with the crossplatform thing, I'll be curious to see if that's something that'll take care of touch by magic.
    2. No the question was why does the noise>settings>settings selector default to the scene tab when it's trying to select an asset - click on the target icon thingy, you'll see what I mean.
    3. cool
    4. I only see max speed per axis control, which doesn't affect the follow movement of the rig
    5. What does recenter to target heading mean? Is it supposed to be in its own section? What does heading "derivation" mean? Is enabled meant to hide the children parameters?
    6. what is orbital transposer radius? the larger the number the firther the camera dollys back
    7. I "play" and life I add some noise to the bottomrig, reference tele-mild then copy the component, stop, then paste the parameters. all params get copied except the reference to tele-mild. Same for lens attribute, they don't get pasted
    8. it's be helpful that the camera automatically snaps to the rig when changing the rig's parameter, look at the UI of LOD for good example.
    9. the inspector has a few bugs, if you play with the body menu and switch one or more rigs, the top rig disappears or the menu grays out
    10. rigs can't be controlled by timeline>animator track, the top parameters can
    11. if I timline>animator track animate lookat, when i play it back it acts as a snap, not a smooth transition
    12. if I copy paste an animator track, it loose its reference
    13. I tried a crossfade between two animator tracks to smooth that lookat snap, but I couldn't move the keys or have the two animator tracks coexist on the same compound track (like video clips in premiere)
    14. animated variables are colored red, that red doesn't show up during play.
     
  17. Adam_Myhill

    Adam_Myhill

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    Hi @laurentlavigne

    The documentation will cover all of this and it's coming soon.

    Ability to drag composer handles in the game view - yes, we've looked into that. MUCH harder than it sounds.

    UI simplification, unfortunately for all the power this is the minimum amount of controls. You'll see when you get into it that every control has a vital role. We may make a more simplified FreeLook but I feel people should just get used it it as this version gives the most ability.

    1. We'll look into iPad control. It needs to work
    2. We can change that default save location to be higher
    3. Ding
    4. Max speed is attenuated by the Accel and Decel values. Crank those up and your camera will get all inertia-heavy
    5. Recenter to target is the mechanism where the Free Look camera will 'come back behind' the character or otherwise return to any given rotation around the character depending on the Heading Derivation Mode. That's the correct term for what's happening, we don't want to dumb down the descriptions at all. It's super powerful, you can get the camera to return to any angle on the character based on world, character or velocity methods. The camera can snap back behind quickly, or wait a bit and then go back really slowly.
    6. Yes. Orbital Transposer Radius moves the camera back and forth from the Follow object. Since there's one for the Bottom, Middle and Top cameras, you can create interesting shapes which the camera will blend between. Typically the shape is somewhat spherical but it doesn't have to be. You can set all three cameras to be the same for a particular FreeLook rig and then blend to that one say if your character goes through a tunnel and the camera will blend into a smaller space.
    7. Unfortunately reconfiguring assets during Play mode can't be saved. We save your tweaks but if you pull assets in and out of slots during play mode we can't capture that. It's a Unity thing. Please realize that Cinemachine is one of the only features which has always saved tweaks in play mode.... and it always will be :)
    8. Agreed. Looking into this. It's a Unity thing.
    9. I've seen that bug, we're trying to get a 100% repo case. Thanks so much for bringing it up.
    10. Yes we need to expose more to Timline. That's on our list.
    11. Are you animating the transformations of look at or selecting between different ones? If you're changing targets, it's best to blend between two different freelooks, each one looking at a different target.
    12. Lame. Bug. Thank you
    13. Hmmm will look into this. Still it's best to blend between two different freelooks, each one looking at the other target.
    14. That's a Unity bug. I'll make sure it gets reported (I think it is already)

    Great feedback laurentlavigne, thank you.

    Note - regarding free-looks, the best method is to make a bunch and blend between them based on animations, trigger volumes, etc. You never want to try and make one camera do everything, Cinemachine is about making each camera do exactly what you want just for a given scenario and blending between each shot appropriately.

    A
     
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  18. Alverik

    Alverik

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    Amazing, the examples scenes are really beautiful.

    I only started using Unity last year, so I'm still green. I really never thought I'd find such an amazing tool for free, specially because my main aim are story driven games (adventure games and adventure game hybrids), so Cinemachine feels like a dream come true.

    Plus I've known from the beginning that making good camera systems is complex and probably out of my league (I just started programming a year ago). So, anyway, hearing that the Game Rig functionality will be part of Cinemachine free (and eventually Unity) is simply amazing. So thank you so much for your hard work. This is the kind of thing unity needs, that we need, so the little guys like us can concentrate on making (hopefully) good games.

    PS: how do I test the new beta version in Unity 5.5 without Timeline? If I untick the timeline folders I just get:
    FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'Cinemachine, Version=1.1.1.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' or one of its dependencies.

    The version in the asset store works great though :)
     
    Last edited: Feb 13, 2017
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  19. Alverik

    Alverik

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    Amazing, I can't wait for the rest of the stuff to be added (though, freelook and collider are probably going to be the only ones I'll need, but who knows, heh)
     
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  20. Adam_Myhill

    Adam_Myhill

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    Hi @Alverik, thanks for the comments. I designed Cinemachine so a couple of people working on a small game can make cameras which compete with giant AAA teams. It's an ambitious goal! One I've been working at for a long time now. Thanks so much.

    Yes, CM doesn't work outside of the Timeline beta. We are on that bug right now. CM works great with that version of Timeline - which is the beta goal - but we know that people will want to try it out in 5.5, etc. That fix should come out soon.
     
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  21. laurentlavigne

    laurentlavigne

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    I mean this:


    Gotcha, yes that's really easy to use

    I'm getting a hang of it, loving the way we can compose camera rigs out of rigs. Unity seriously needs to show a visual graph of the inter-references.
     
  22. OCASM

    OCASM

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    How can I change the field of view of a virtual camera through a script? I'm using the version with Timeline support.
     
  23. Alverik

    Alverik

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    Well, I'm dying to test the new beta, so I hope you guys get it working with 5.5 soon, :). I'd use the Timeline preview build (because Timeline also looks awesome), but they say we're are not supposed to use that build for final projects, so it makes one reluctant to try it... I mean, I want to start using Cinemachine immediately, heh.
     
  24. Adam_Myhill

    Adam_Myhill

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    Go try the Timeline 5.6 build. I'd be cautious about moving an existing project over to that before shipping of course! However just giving Timeline and the new Cinemachine a spin is totally harmless.
     
  25. Alverik

    Alverik

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    Sorry, I'm busy with my current projects and daily life... It's usually just me or sometimes one other guy, so I don't really have the time right now to test a build I can't use for a final project (Edit, but maybe later?)... Anyway, when there's anything new about the newest beta, let me know :)

    I'll start using the asset store version right away though, heh.
     
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2017
  26. pixelsteam

    pixelsteam

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    Hello Adam and team. I have a flying game in dev, and was wondering when Reactor might be ready and if it will support 5.5.
     
  27. Adam_Myhill

    Adam_Myhill

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    Hi. Reactor, it's in progress, however it's a really big topic which brings some Unity-wide questions forward. I'll explain.

    When we first built Reactor - before Cinemachine was part of Unity - we made our own internal 'blackboard'. This is where you can post and share realtime variables like 'RPM' and 'Vehicle speed' and anything else you'd like the camera system to listen to.

    Now that CM is a part of Unity, doing a specific CM-only blackboard 'outside' of Unity is kind of silly and dirty. All of Unity should know about a blackboard - audio might want to know something - it needs to be right in the middle.

    The blackboard idea isn't new to Unity, it's been discussed for a while and there's the Unity Events system which is basically a blackboard system.

    So for Reactor, we can't just use the original kind of bolted onto the side of Unity blackboard. Now is the time to make it 'The Unity Way' and have all the data and communication fit the Unity standards and be cohesive.

    So when? March, perhaps into April. I know that's not great for your game but it's a lot of work on our end now that CM is part of Unity.

    TL;DR Releasing Reactor requires the refactoring of some core systems which need to work 'The Unity Way', which makes it a larger task and prevents us from releasing what we currently have.
     
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  28. evilangel89

    evilangel89

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    I would very much like to use Cinemachine for blending purposes. But can't I use it with the existing controllers that support a default camera ?

    I have a camera (main camera) used by my controller, and I want to blend into a virtual camera when I want to zoom in on a certain object, stay on it briefly and go back the controller camera (Main Camera).

    Right now , it looks like if I go CM, I can only go CM.
     
  29. Adam_Myhill

    Adam_Myhill

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    We recommend a fully Cinemachine environment but realize that people have made a ton of stuff before Cinemachine even existed.

    CM is designed to blend between 'regular' and CM cameras, check the default blend, that should work. Another option is to make an empty Cinemachine camera - IE no targets on the composer and no Transposer and put that as a child of your main camera. Then go fully Cinemachine and have your 'default' Cinemachine camera be driven from your real camera - it will effectively be exactly the same - and then you can have full blend controls between that and other Cinemachine cameras.

    Let me know if I didn't explain that well enough !
     
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  30. Alverik

    Alverik

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    Hey, cool stuff! I didn't know you could mix in regular old cameras too. I've been testing Cinemachine in some projects and it's been fantastic (except that there's no obstacle avoidance yet, but not a big deal for now, thanks to my current target genre). Thankfully I'l be using it mostly for new projects, but it's cool to know this kind of tip. Anyway, let us know when there's more updates. I'll also be on the lookout for a more updated version of the Timeline preview build (though I probably won't use it until I know I can make a final project with it, even if I have to stay on a single version until the end). At least it feels the Timeline preview is starting to get stable enough but I'll probably give it a few weeks or months first. In the meantime I'll be be getting used to the Asset store version. I want to try it for a camera on rails setup. Just going to have to build the rail system, unless there's something in Cinemachine I can use to do that already?
     
  31. evilangel89

    evilangel89

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    Pegasus ?
     
  32. Adam_Myhill

    Adam_Myhill

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    @Alverik There is obstacle avoidance ! It's hidden.. Grab the latest CM from here:

    https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/new-cinemachine-v1-5.459352/

    Note one of the later posts from Gregory if you're using it on a <5.6 Unity.

    Timeline is super stable. I've used the beta for a couple of weeks doing all sorts of things in some really heavy crazy scenes and it hasn't had a single hiccup.

    Once you get the most recent CM going, the way you get obstacle avoidance going is to add the 'Cinemachine Collider' component to any Cinemachine camera.

    We know there's no documentation yet! We're working on it - this is what the beta phase is all about

    Please let me know if you get stuck. I'd love to get some feedback on how Collider is working for you.

    Note - please share your feedback on it in the Cinemachine v1.5 thread, not this one, thanks!
     
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  33. evilangel89

    evilangel89

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    Hey Adam, Thanks a lot for this. I got EXACTLY what I wanted. I used the custom blend example to perform the blending. Looks extremely smooth.

    What I want to do is make the targets for the second cinemachine camera dynamic while the first camera handles my 3rd person view. As of now I've set the second cinemachine camera only to a single target. But I do intend to scale it.

    What would your recommendation be ? Use multiple cinemachine cameras to blend with, or just switch targets ? If I am switching targets I believe I would also need to reload the composer settings for each object too ?
     
  34. evilangel89

    evilangel89

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    I am encountering a really weird bug with Cinemachine. So like I've asked before I use an 3rd party controller for my game. Invector, to be precise, and I cannot use a completely cinemachine setup.

    So I setup a virtual camera nested in the Main Camera with no composer or transposer, and then go fully cinemachine. I have added multiple cameras and by turning one off I blend to the next camera in line essentially making a cutscene like fly by effect.

    During the blending, I see weird artifacts popping in and out on the screen.

    I tried to find what the issue is with no luck until I accidentally noticed that having the Game window and the Scene window together is causing this issue. If I keep the Scene window and the Game window separate this issue will not come.

    Sadly this issue continues to appear when I build the game and run the executable. Have you noticed this happening ? Any pointers in the right direction is appreciated.
     
  35. Peter77

    Peter77

    QA Jesus

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    I submitted a bug-report for this workflow issue a while ago, it's filed as:
    (Case 774467) "Select Object" dialog shows Scene tab for ScriptableObject
     
  36. Adam_Myhill

    Adam_Myhill

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    Hi @evilangel89, we have not seen the issue with the game/screen window being open.

    What version of Unity are you using? I ask because Cinemachine v1.5 has a lot of improvements with Freelook and overall. It might be worth giving a quick try because you can do a lot more with it. Just copy your project and open the copy up with Unity 5.6 - check the Timeline/Cinemachine link in this forum.
     
  37. Adam_Myhill

    Adam_Myhill

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    There's two ways of switching targets in Cinemachine. The first way is to copy the camera with target #1 and add target #2 to it. Then you can blend between the two cameras at any speed you want and you'll get great blending motion. Also, since it's now two cameras you can tune each one up to be perfect - compositionally, fov - whatever - and everything will blend perfectly.

    The other method is to create a dummy target object and animate that dummy object to snap/lerp to your different targets. This way you have just one camera following one target and all the target switching work is being done by how you move the dummy object around. You don't even have to move it that smoothly, just put some dampening on the Composer and it will smooth things out.

    While i've done the dummy target thing a number of times, it's actually more powerful to do the first method of switching cameras.

    Note! in the latest Cinemachine v1.5, we support scripting of almost everything in Cinemachine, so you can now also switch targets with simple scripts. It's still in beta but maybe worth duplicating your project and giving it a try.... Lots of new things in there like State Driven Cameras and Cloud and Collider.... !
     
  38. ippdev

    ippdev

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    I am starting to build a Virtual Tour recorder for architectural VR visualization software and will be using CineMachine as approved by the head honchos at my suggestion.. The idea would be for them to begin recording a Tour and htting the record button would set a camera at the derivation heading of the virtual character they are moving through the scene. They then navigate and i record rotation and position once per second and create a List<> of each position and rotation. Upon stopping at a point-of-interest or a project annotation they again hit Set Camera and create a Waypoint. I imagine I could have them choose a type of Camera Rig.. A free looker to have a gander around or a fixed camera..whatever..I will offer them a choice between rig types for that Waypoint. In the meantime i populate a UI timeline with descriptive blocks,. Navigation blocks whose length indicate the navigation time, and Waypoint blocks where the Tour taker is stationed momentarily. I am hoping the hooks to do all this are there. Any comments on approach to this are welcomed

    I had CineMachine in a project BTW and it threw no errors in 5.6.9 and I uploaded using the Visual Studio collaborative source control. When i opened my source controlled demo at the office presentation I was greeted with a slew of errors which i can't remember (I think they were the ones mentioned earlier in the thread) because i dumped the CM folder quickly to get on with the demo.
     
  39. Gregoryl

    Gregoryl

    Unity Technologies

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    I'd love to help, but am having a little trouble understanding what you're trying to do. What I have so far is this:
    Step 1 is to run the game and record a path by sampling positions/orientations of the main character. On this path, you will also record some Waypoints, each of which holds some extra data (a rig type) in addition to location. At the same time you are recording something in the timeline, I'm not sure what. Why not just put timestamps on your path points?

    This data that gets recorded would then have to be saved somehow.

    Then, perhaps, is there a Step 2 that takes this data and does something with it? If so, what?
     
  40. ippdev

    ippdev

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    Step 2 allows them to then take that navigation and make it more like a human did it than a CharacterController navigation movement. As well I would like them to use different camera types at the Waypoints, lookAround for lobbies and office spaces, lookAt for focusing on particular objects without being locked static orbital for rotating around structures. After they set that up they can then share it with other Project Users and Viewers. I heard some of these people talking about spending 100K+ on a video shoot so it would be cool to give them that quality of camera direction overlaid on their basic navigation and Waypoints paths in Unity.
     
  41. Gregoryl

    Gregoryl

    Unity Technologies

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    ok thanks, that makes sense. It's still a little unclear to me what you're planning to do with timeline. My feeling is that it makes sense to record timestamps on your path sample points, and then infer timing from that when you generate the content for step 2.

    For step 2, I would create an invisible target character that walks that generated path, and have an orbital camera follow it, maybe with a little noise on it for a subtle hand-held effect. At the waypoints, blend into the stationary cams, and then out again when it's time to continue on the path. For the stationary cams, FreeLook is a good choice, to give some control to the user. Also, you can configure the FreeLooks to serve as POV cameras as well. All of this can be generated easily using script.

    FYI we have a team working on a customizable Record feature for Unity, and your project is a textbook example of a good use case for that. A preview version of that API should be available in a couple of weeks, if you're interested.
     
  42. ippdev

    ippdev

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    I am very interested...the sooner the better. I have been thinking of asking access to Unity's alpha level builds for this project so I can get out in front of the latest tech as i am basically their R&D guy for VR. I have been on the beta list since 2010. I am creating a Unity VR project management suite of software for the AEC industries and hired to consult and lead development by the original fellow who put together Revit. I am under NDA so it is tough to ask pertinent questions:)
     
  43. evilangel89

    evilangel89

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    Hey @Adam_Myhill ,

    Will give it a shot. I was using 5.5.3.
     
  44. wholtaeter

    wholtaeter

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    Mar 30, 2016
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    Hi,
    I would like to use the screen overlay from the editor-mode in my game. Is it possible to switch it on? - If not, are there similar effects which you can recommend?

    Best regards
     
  45. Alverik

    Alverik

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    Any ETA on Cinemachine 2.0? I'm dying to try it! lol
     
  46. Adam_Myhill

    Adam_Myhill

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    HI @AFrisby CM 1.1 is safe for development. It has shipped games and is pretty solid.

    That said CM 2.0 coming out has so so many cool new features, improvements to blending, it handles fixed and late updated objects better - it checks, and adjusts each camera to best deal with however the target is animating. So much cool stuff.

    So the question is, when do you want to officially start development? The issue is that we've opened up the API so you can code against anything in CM but that means we couldn't make it backwards compatible.

    If CM v1.1 gives you what you need, great, run with it. If you have a little more time, you'll be far better off starting clean with 2.0
     
    Alverik likes this.
  47. Adam_Myhill

    Adam_Myhill

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    @Alverik we are putting the final touches on 2.0 and hope to have it out within 2 weeks.

    Here's a non-complete list of what's new. I'll start a CM v2.0 thread soon, so this is just a little sneak peek.

    - New open API, able to drive practically anything in Cinemachine by code

    - Collision component. Keeps cameras from getting stuck in the world. Preserves compositional intention

    - Improvements to free-look

    - Improvements to Orbial Transposer. New follow modes. Super easy to make great follow cameras.

    - New Cinemachine Cloud - the ability to call a Cloud shot and have it pick the best camera from all the child shots + priority + random. This feature is really quite powerful. Shot evaluation !

    - New Composer layout, the same functionality but with less controls, easier to animate in Timeline.

    - Smart update awareness. CM looks at how the target is animated and sets its own update method to best suit the target. If something is animated with fixed update, CM will adapt, if something is animated with late update, CM will adapt per shot. Differing tupes even blend together.

    - Post Process Stack support. Custom PostFX per shot including autofocus to drive the DOF plus and offset control you can animate for rack focus / human errror mistakes mojo

    - New SmartFOV feature. Ability to preserve the size of subjects on screen. IE cutting between head shots will keep the heads the same size on screen even if the characters or camera move

    - Everything CM animates in Timeline. Super east to do really complex shots with shifting composition, position and FOV. FAST FAST to use.

    - Spline based camera dolly ! Animate the camera position on the dolloy or have it 'auto follow' for gameplay / trough type scenarios (it even looks like a dolly track, we geeked out)


    We really can't wait to see what you all make with this. It's incredibly powerful and we've ironed a lot of the wrinkles out.
     
  48. Adam_Myhill

    Adam_Myhill

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    That' a great question.. does it need to match what the CM overlay is doing, say if you switch between cameras with different settings?
     
  49. pixelsteam

    pixelsteam

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    @Adam_Myhill for version 2 what version of Unity is it best compatible with? Sadly we are on 5.5.3 and are scared to move up.
     
  50. AFrisby

    AFrisby

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    Apr 14, 2010
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    Yeah - we've been using it for our own internal use, but if you pop into the link in my signature, you'll see what we've been working on, so I'd rather wait for the version with long-term backwards-compatibility (which I'm guessing you moving away from a DLL will be the thing that hurts.)

    tl;dr - we want to enable people who use our stuff to be able to add cinemachine rigs to their creations as well.