"Deprecated" packages ?!?

What is happening with all this "deprecated" packages on the asset store ?
I see this increasing more and more, amasing tools that one embedded in his/her workflow, you end up being left without them, out of nothing.

Any idea what's the plan with this ? Doesn't look very "democratic" to me ?

Thanks,

 

It sucks, but I don't see what anybody can do about it. They can't chase down the developers of old, abandoned assets and compel them to update them to maintain compatibility with the current version of Unity. All they can do is stop selling things on the asset store if they've been non-functional for a long time and keep the last version available for existing owners in case they're still using it on an older version of Unity.

I try not to buy assets I don't have source code access to just so I won't be totally high and dry if this ever happens to me, but that only goes so far.

 

Hmh, so in the end it's all down to the developer ?

What confused me is for example one package still available (last time updated: "Dec 11, 2013") while another one much recently updated went deprecated...

Targeting assets with source code is a good suggestion, thanks.

 

Asset publishers who wish to stop support on an asset can request a package be removed from the store. This may be what you've seen from some packages. Dates do not matter if the asset provider chooses not to support or asks to remove a package.

 

Yeah. Stuff gets deprecated for all kinds of reasons. Being broken by Unity changes and no longer maintained is a common one, but there are others. For instance, the version of TextMeshPro I own has been deprecated because Unity bought it and stopped selling the paid version, not because TextMeshPro has been abandoned.

In the end, yeah, it's all down to the developer. There's a little bit of an approval process to get something on the asset store, but it's not a heavily controlled marketplace. People put things up for sale and move on to other projects. For a lot of stuff that's fine, but other things, especially things that interact with stuff that Unity breaks every couple months like the graphics pipeline, eventually end up deprecated.

There are four deprecated assets in my assets list. (Fortunately nothing I've paid for except TextMeshPro.) Strumpy Shader Editor died when the developer stopped supporting it. Lightmapping Extended was a Beast utility that no longer serves a function without Beast. Shader Replacement was a demo for like Unity 3 that I guess doesn't work any more after some set of changes. TextMeshPro was recently replaced with a free version, and they're not selling the paid version anymore.

 

I still work with u4.7.2. There should be an option to deprecate for an specific version etc if the package works till an specific version there is no reason to totally kill it. That said 5.x development has been a joke, every new vesion required massive upgrades.

 

how do you install deprecated packages, say, if you already installed/purchased one before?

 

Deprecated Assets should still be in your Asset list.

To verify, log into the browser-based Asset Store (assetstore.unity.com), click on the Folder icon (next to the heart one; or click here) and look out for Assets that have a red "Deprecated" text next to them. Clicking on "Open in Unity" should open the Editor and the Asset Store window, from which you can now download the deprecated Asset.

 

really sucks, I've bought over a 1000 assets, many of which I planned to use in the future. When I get around to using them now half of them are depreciated and I cannot even download the last package they released! This means effectively I have wasted thousands of pounds on *literally* nothing. One AI package I bought required 4 MORE assets to be bought to work, all almost 100usd, so I got them all now I find they're all depreciated before I even got to use them.

Unity REALLY should keep a hold of the last available release at least!... So disappointed..

 

You can still download and import them directly in the editor.

​

 

I WISH!!! Not a single one of mine has a download button, how did you get them!!?!?!

 

This is the biggest scam unity have pulled, well apart from charging me £1000 for pro then going free a week later, but this is still potentially worse if I calculate how much ive lost in assets, more than £1000 I think

 

Juts spoke to David Helgason about this, he thinks its a bug in the store, will be trying to resolve with him!

 

Always a great idea to speak of scam first before trying to resolve the issue otherwise.

I've tried both the old and new store inside 2018.2.7f1 (I doubt the Editor version matters) and for me there's a "Download" button:

Old store


New store

 

S***! you're right, Ive just wasted 5 years begging asset authors for their last package...when it was right there... there seems to be an inconsistency in how this works, if I do it from the website, and click open in unity it brings me to "sorry its deperciated etc click here", clicking there brings me to my list of assets and no download + bucket loads of sadness. BUT, if I do it in the editor the download button appears and seems to work!!! This is so mind blowing to me because ive tried many hundreds of times, not sure if I just never tried in editor or they semi fixed things recently??. But one thing is for sure they confused a lot of people, right down to me contacting one of the founders directly (im not dumb etc Ive been on the net since 96 so I know how it should work lol)

You do appear to be right though, in the editor it has a functioning download link, I am now grabbing every single thing I thought I had lost in the last 5+ years!! Thanks............................gonna archive them all for personal use too!..

Can;t blame me for thinking it was a scam though Thanks dude, I seriously never realised I could get any of them again.

 

I had "bought" them before they got deprecated.

 

just wondering, what happens to the rights you have with deprecated assets? are you free to provide community updates on like github? or is it still the same as it were live on the store?

 

The Asset Store does not provide a different set of usage rights for deprecated assets, so you can't publish the author's source code or anything like that.

 

thanks!

 

Yeah, just because an asset got deprecated doesn't mean the author doesn't have any rights on it anymore. It's still his property.

What you could try is to go and see if there's any email or website linked on the author's profile and contact him this way.

 

I am having the same issue. More than 40 assets and so much money spent. This is ridiculous... I am guessing you are just as frustrated and angry as I am. Dont know if we have many options though. Sad.....

I was already angry that I am forced to go to subscription after I already purchased Unity years ago and now this.

Eric

 

search for the assets in your package manager within unity, there should be a download button.

 

As a developer who has just had one of their assets deprecated I can assure you they made no attempt to contact me.

 

What about open source? Suppose I have an open source project published, but it depends on some free assets. From what I understand, assets cannot be distributed together (consider I'm not talking about paid ones here). This means that, in the future, it might be impossible for someone who didn't have the asset previously to reproduce the project.

 

That's probably why most serious open-source software I've ever seen is only built on other open-source software. Software deprecation is nothing exclusive to the Asset Store, though.

 

I would only buy assets with code available indeed, anything else could be a big risk.

That is also why i not have any store asset without provided full code, is very bad practice imo, from an asset user standpoint.

 

Hey, few days ago, I took a free asset from assetstore, and imported it in my Commercial project, but now it is deprecated. Can I keep using this asset(which is deprecated) for my commercial project?

 

Yes i suppose, the license still applies as when was added to your library, same is for paid assets.