iCanScript - Visual Script Modeling Engine for Unity

Disruptive software is pleased to announce the community and professional editions of iCanScript. iCanScript is a powerful modelling engine allowing both novices and experts to create visual scripts for the Unity Game Engine.

iCanScript integrates both multi-level functional diagrams and state charts into a single visual script. You can mix-and-match both concepts to realize your scripts in a natural way, in the same visual graph.

In addition, iCanScript supports nesting and grouping of sections of your visual script in what are referred to as packages. Packages can be folded and unfolded to work at the level of details desired at any point in time.

iCanScript provides a visual scripting environment that has a one-to-one mapping with all Unity Engine API’s. Full games can be created without a single line of code. At the same time iCanScript is designed to co-exist with code and other tools, allowing for a mix of technologies when best suited.

These capabilities put iCanScript in a class of its own, allowing for true next generation Visual Scripting!

iCanScript Functional Diagram for controlling space ship movements.​

iCanScript State Chart for controlling game states.​

The community edition is fully featured and targets smaller projects. The professional edition is not limited by project size. You are invited to try iCanScript and provide feedback that will help its continued evolution, making this product even better!

Our recreation of the “Unity Space Shooter Tutorial”, entirely scripted using iCanScript, is an excellent way to learn the basics. Install the community or professional edition of iCanScript and follow along with the tutorials: iCanScript YouTube Channel

Homepage: http://www.icanscript.com

Community Forum: http://www.icanscript.com/helpdesk/community/index.html

Don’t forget to provide feedback!

 

Love to use it. Rightly priced, with maximum capacity to be used in programming games visually. No visula script give me this much flexibility before. Great going. I have heard that next feature coming to iCS like arrays and loop will make this tool more and more useful. So lets begin the game design completely visually.

 

This is best tool compare to any visual scripting asset available on asset store, I really love to use it,as it is very user friendly for non coder. Best devloper support on devloper forum

 

How is the performance on mobile, versus regular c# scripts?
I mean it seems to me that ICS simply visualizes scripting but in essence still creates scripts.
Even though i can program just fine, i'd like i visual solution if it did not lead to performance impacts.
I'll check the tutorials, but let me know.

Cheers.

 

maybe this half-answers my question but not entirely:
http://helpdesk.icanscript.com/support/discussions/topics/1000028450
You should include this information somewhere, ppl would be very happy to know that ICS is not a 3 step process.

 

Hi Klori,

iCS does not generate a script that is compiled using a standard compiler. Instead, it compiles at runtime into .NET code and glue logic to determine the execution flow and resolve the deadlock condition that could occur with circular dependencies. The glue logic does cost some CPU cycle and you will not get the same performance has tightly hand coded scripts.

iCS is primarily a data flow model in comparaison with the other Visual Scripting tools that are control flow based. What you do gain with this technology is the automatic allocation of CPU resources and automatic parallel execution of nodes that are not co-dependent. On the long run, the improved parallel execution could eventually win in performance on multi-core CPUs (this is not true of the current version but can be realized without the need to change your script) over hand coding the control flow (hand written or VS using control flow). iCS autonomously identifies the parallel execution paths and takes advantages of those when executing the nodes.

 

I guess this isn't ideal for heavy games on mobile then.
I hope you implement your performance improving ideas.

It sounds like a really interesting possibility.

Thanks again.

 

I've been trying out a few visual scripting options (namely Playmaker and Antares Universe), and find your product very intriguing. Playmaker is very easy to use but gets bogged down with complicated actions while Antares Universe is very powerful but more low-level with a somewhat janky interface.

ICanScript looks like it has a very nice interface and sounds as powerful as Antares Universe. One thing I really like about Antares Universe is the ability to modify graphs during execution; is that something possible with ICanScript? Also, do you have any pre-built high-level nodes like Playmaker?

 

Hi Alphalpha,

currently you can modify the port values while the engine is running but changes to the connections or addition/removal of nodes is not accepted (it currently breaks the execution and therefore is not accepted). We do want to be able to allow for full graph change while the engine is running. But that feature is of lower priority then container support and full Unity 5 compliance at this time.

We do have some high-level nodes but not has much as Playmaker. However, our philosophy is that you or any user can easily create your own nodes. Any standard C# code can be added to the iCS library. We are not using a predefined format or require the C# code to be mangled any way to be included in the library. This ability to bring in any C# code is how we can support all of the functionality of the Unity engine. We don't believe in a closed environment, especially for developers.

 

I was attempting to create a simple script to, upon a left mouse click, reposition a sphere on the surface of a plane to the point clicked, ignoring any obstructions between view and plane, which I attempted to achieve using raycasts and layermasks.



As you can see, I dragged the String[] layerNames to the edge of the container so I can edit it in the inspector. Unfortunately, whenever I hit Play, the array gets reset to null. I'm also getting these error messages:

iCanScript: Internal Error: Unbalanced user transaction.
UnityEngine.Debug:Internal_Log(Int32, String, Object)
UnityEngine.Debug:LogWarning(Object)

Spoiler

iCS_IStorage:CloseUserTransaction(String, TransactionType)
iCS_UserCommands:CloseTransaction(iCS_IStorage, String, TransactionType)
iCS_UserCommands:ChangePortValue(iCS_EditorObject, Object)
iCS_GuiUtilities:OnInspectorDataPortGUI(iCS_EditorObject, iCS_IStorage, Int32, Dictionary`2)
<InspectDataProcessingNode>c__AnonStorey1B:<>m__52(iCS_EditorObject)
Prelude:forEach(Action`1, List`1)
iCS_Inspector:InspectDataProcessingNode(iCS_EditorObject)
iCS_Inspector:InspectNode(iCS_EditorObject)
iCS_Inspector:OnInspectorGUI()
UnityEditor.InspectorWindowrawEditor(Editor, Int32, Boolean, Boolean&, Rect&, Boolean) (at C:\BuildAgent\work\d63dfc6385190b60\Editor\Mono\Inspector\InspectorWindow.cs:1093)
UnityEditor.InspectorWindowrawEditors(Editor[]) (at C:\BuildAgent\work\d63dfc6385190b60\Editor\Mono\Inspector\InspectorWindow.cs:907)
UnityEditor.InspectorWindow:OnGUI() (at C:\BuildAgent\work\d63dfc6385190b60\Editor\Mono\Inspector\InspectorWindow.cs:332)
System.Reflection.MonoMethod:InternalInvoke(Object, Object[], Exception&)
System.Reflection.MonoMethod:Invoke(Object, BindingFlags, Binder, Object[], CultureInfo) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:222)
System.Reflection.MethodBase:Invoke(Object, Object[]) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MethodBase.cs:115)
UnityEditor.HostView:Invoke(String, Object) (at C:\BuildAgent\work\d63dfc6385190b60\Editor\Mono\GUI\DockArea.cs:244)
UnityEditor.HostView:Invoke(String) (at C:\BuildAgent\work\d63dfc6385190b60\Editor\Mono\GUI\DockArea.cs:237)
UnityEditor.DockArea:OnGUI() (at C:\BuildAgent\work\d63dfc6385190b60\Editor\Mono\GUI\DockArea.cs:674)

(Filename: C:/BuildAgent/work/d63dfc6385190b60/Editor/Mono/Inspector/InspectorWindow.cs Line: 1093)

ArgumentException: Getting control 13's position in a group with only 13 controls when doing Repaint

Spoiler

Aborting at UnityEngine.GUILayoutGroup.GetNext () [0x00038] in C:\BuildAgent\work\d63dfc6385190b60\artifacts\EditorGenerated\GUILayoutUtility.cs:513

at UnityEngine.GUILayoutUtility.DoGetRect (Single minWidth, Single maxWidth, Single minHeight, Single maxHeight, UnityEngine.GUIStyle style, UnityEngine.GUILayoutOption[] options) [0x00047] in C:\BuildAgent\work\d63dfc6385190b60\artifacts\EditorGenerated\GUILayoutUtility.cs:306

at UnityEngine.GUILayoutUtility.GetRect (Single minWidth, Single maxWidth, Single minHeight, Single maxHeight, UnityEngine.GUIStyle style, UnityEngine.GUILayoutOption[] options) [0x00000] in C:\BuildAgent\work\d63dfc6385190b60\artifacts\EditorGenerated\GUILayoutUtility.cs:297

at UnityEditor.EditorGUILayout.GetControlRect (Boolean hasLabel, Single height, UnityEngine.GUIStyle style, UnityEngine.GUILayoutOption[] options) [0x00000] in C:\BuildAgent\work\d63dfc6385190b60\Editor\Mono\EditorGUI.cs:6084

at UnityEditor.EditorGUILayout.TextField (System.String label, System.String text, UnityEngine.GUILayoutOption[] options) [0x00000] in C:\BuildAgent\work\d63dfc6385190b60\Editor\Mono\EditorGUI.cs:4863

at iCS_GuiUtilities.<ShowInInspector>m__4C (System.String n, System.String v) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

at iCS_GuiUtilities.ModalEdit[String] (System.String niceName, System.String name, System.String& currentValue, System.String parentName, System.Func`3 editor, System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2 db, Boolean noDelay) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

at iCS_GuiUtilities.ShowInInspector (System.String name, Boolean isReadOnly, Boolean hasSource, System.String compositeParent, System.Type baseType, System.Object currentValue, Int32 indentLevel, System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2 foldoutDB, System.Boolean& isDirty, .iCS_IStorage iStorage) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

at iCS_GuiUtilities.ShowInInspector (System.String name, Boolean isReadOnly, Boolean hasSource, System.String compositeParent, System.Type baseType, System.Object currentValue, Int32 indentLevel, System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2 foldoutDB, System.Boolean& isDirty, .iCS_IStorage iStorage) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

at iCS_GuiUtilities.OnInspectorDataPortGUI (.iCS_EditorObject port, .iCS_IStorage iStorage, Int32 indentLevel, System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2 foldoutDB) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

at iCS_Inspector+<InspectDataProcessingNode>c__AnonStorey1B.<>m__52 (.iCS_EditorObject port) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

at Prelude.forEach[iCS_EditorObject] (System.Action`1 action, System.Collections.Generic.List`1 lst) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

at iCS_Inspector.InspectDataProcessingNode (.iCS_EditorObject node) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

at iCS_Inspector.InspectNode (.iCS_EditorObject node) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

at iCS_Inspector.OnInspectorGUI () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

at UnityEditor.InspectorWindow.DrawEditor (UnityEditor.Editor editor, Int32 editorIndex, Boolean forceDirty, System.Boolean& showImportedObjectBarNext, UnityEngine.Rect& importedObjectBarRect, Boolean eyeDropperDirty) [0x00355] in C:\BuildAgent\work\d63dfc6385190b60\Editor\Mono\Inspector\InspectorWindow.cs:1093
UnityEngine.Debug:Internal_LogException(Exception, Object)
UnityEngine.Debug:LogException(Exception)
UnityEditor.InspectorWindowrawEditor(Editor, Int32, Boolean, Boolean&, Rect&, Boolean) (at C:\BuildAgent\work\d63dfc6385190b60\Editor\Mono\Inspector\InspectorWindow.cs:1103)
UnityEditor.InspectorWindowrawEditors(Editor[]) (at C:\BuildAgent\work\d63dfc6385190b60\Editor\Mono\Inspector\InspectorWindow.cs:907)
UnityEditor.InspectorWindow:OnGUI() (at C:\BuildAgent\work\d63dfc6385190b60\Editor\Mono\Inspector\InspectorWindow.cs:332)
System.Reflection.MonoMethod:InternalInvoke(Object, Object[], Exception&)
System.Reflection.MonoMethod:Invoke(Object, BindingFlags, Binder, Object[], CultureInfo) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:222)
System.Reflection.MethodBase:Invoke(Object, Object[]) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MethodBase.cs:115)
UnityEditor.HostView:Invoke(String, Object) (at C:\BuildAgent\work\d63dfc6385190b60\Editor\Mono\GUI\DockArea.cs:244)
UnityEditor.HostView:Invoke(String) (at C:\BuildAgent\work\d63dfc6385190b60\Editor\Mono\GUI\DockArea.cs:237)
UnityEditor.DockArea:OnGUI() (at C:\BuildAgent\work\d63dfc6385190b60\Editor\Mono\GUI\DockArea.cs:674)

(Filename: C:/BuildAgent/work/d63dfc6385190b60/artifacts/EditorGenerated/GUILayoutUtility.cs Line: 513)

 

Is it still being developed. Or lost in wind just like many assets on assets store.
I see no update for last 15-20 days on this.

 

Hi Rahuxx,

iCS is a large visual script editor with many features. It includes features for functional visual graphs, object-oriented visual graph, and state charts (overblown state machine). Most users are having difficulty bringing all of these features when starting to use iCS. We have decided to cut this single product into multiple smaller products such as a state chart only, a functional only visual script editor making it simpler for new users to use. iCS will continue to be available for those that can comprehend to overall feature set. User of the subset product will be able to upgrade to the full iCS feature set.

For now, we are dividing iCS and it will be evolved with and when the subordinate product become available.

 

Can you explain more about this

 

why there is no update on your forum for last 20 days?
Are you people still making iCS? Adding compatibility to Unity5?

 

iCanScript is a large product that has been in development for 4.5 years now. Its has been an exciting product to build and one that attempts to integrate existing and breaking new concepts into a single product.

Since we started, the game development landscape has changed significantly. Notably, the well known and used Unreal game development engine is now available for free. It includes a solid and easy to use visual script environment named "Blueprint" that is directly financed by the core product.

After a financial analysis of the situation, I have concluded that the cost of the continuous evolution of iCanScript cannot be offset from the sell on the Unity asset store. The development and support of iCanScript is therefore left to the goodwill of the existing team members.

I want to thank those individuals that have followed along for this exiting journey and wish each of them success in their own endeavours.

Michel Launier
Founder of iCanScript

 

This is not so good. This is the best tool for visual scripting. Unity is loosing competition to Unreal with this. This is the tool that can beat unreal blueprint.
<UNITY PEOPLE THINK ON THIS>

 

It is important that those of you that have purchased iCanScript register on the web site and open a ticket with your Unity invoice number. This allows us to identify and support our Pro customers.

 

so....does this mean iCanScript is dead fish in the water?
i see the asset is not being sold on unity assetstore nor in the official website.

so dead project?

btw, the current 1.2.8 and 1.27 (only 2 versions i tested)
are a hog, it makes my unity editor run sluggish as hell. when you click on play it takes like 7 to 10 seconds for
playmode to kick in.

and that is without even using the visual scripting tool, just recent import of the asset.

and when i try to use it in my scene it throws any errors and crashes my editor.

tried both `1.2.7 and 1.2.8 both useless to unity 5

using unity 5.0.0f4 64bit

was this the reason the product is dead?

was there any versions that worked before? or in unity 4?

if you guys wont be supporting it or developing why not make it open source so the community take over?

this product came out of nowhere and vanished the same way.
whats going on?
seemed like a nice asset in the video tuts

 

Hi Muber,

I'm sorry that you are having these performance issues with iCS. The libraries in Unity 5 (using C++ backend) are not fully compliant with the .NET standard and the reflection technology. iCS is using the reflection technology to get to and run the visual script.

The sluggish nature comes from the mismatch with the reflection technology. iCS was removed from the asset store to avoid to many people use the product in that state.

I am currently working on iCanScript2, this version will generate C# code from the visual script and therefore will be isolated from the issues described above. The UX is also changed to be closer to Blueprint (Unreal).

If you want to work with iCS version, you will need to go back to Unity 4.6 until we finish the first release of iCS2. Then it will be available again on the Asset store.

Once more, I am sorry for the troubles.

Regards,
Michel Launier

 

awesome, looking forward for v2

btw i sent you a pm .

good day

 

Could someone clarify whether this is actually going ahead? We read earlier that the project was possibility being abandoned, which would be a great shame. If version 2 and Unity5-ness is really coming and you are going to reintroduce into the asset store then I'd like to know, and I'd be prepared to spend some time learning it.

Seems to me this system has real possibilities - particularly for learners. One of the challenges with some of the visual scripting packages is that they don't encourage novices to properly learn about programming; also it seems that systems like Playmaker are tricky to version control or code collaboratively. If this one genuinely generates usable code while speeding up and even informing the process of coding for the novice makes it very attractive.

 

Hi imajia,

iCS2 is in development. It has change some of its focus to become a visual scripting tool that will include most if not all of the C# language features including all of Unity Engine/Editor & .NET System libraries. iCS2 produces pure C# code from the Visual Script (VS) that you will need to attach to the game objects. This approach has the following advantages:

1) An ideal learning tool for non-programmers to become programmers; (you can see what C# code is produced by your VS);
2) Full interoperable with textual scripts and any other package that support standard scripts;
3) The produced code is clean and can be used and evolved independently (if desired).
4) Useful for experience programmers since it includes the same capabilities as C#.
5) Independent from Unity internal changes (such as those in Unity 5).

Version 2.0.x (alpha) is a transition release available to the registered users of the web site (www.icanscript.com). You can use it to learn iCS2. However, the file format will most likely change in this evolution and you may require to rebuild your scripts.

Version 2.1.x (beta) will have the new file format and will be used to iron-out the bugs and features before the public release.

Version 2.2.x will be the first official commercial release.

You are welcome to register and try out iCS2.

Michel Launier
Founder of iCanScript

 

Thanks for the response Michel. Jus

Just to clarify then does that mean that what you said before i.e.

... no longer applies?

 

NEW TECHNICAL DIRECTION:
The initial view of iCS was to be a visual design and programming tool that could be applied to a game production. As team members joined the project, iCS started to become a visual tool for the non-programmer that did not want to learn programming. Ideally, some of our team members would have liked that iCS have 3 buttons to do every and any script possible.

Such a idea is trying to create a mind reading magical tool with limited capabilities. Their is a good reason why programming languages includes so many concepts and structures. If every program could be realized with only 3 concepts, then the programming languages would only have 3 concepts as well. This is not the case...

The financial situation of iCS has been tightened and a prototype of iCS2 has been shown to a few small game studios that did not initially accept using iCS version 1 in their production. The impression was overwhelming and investment offers from their part were discussed.

iCS2 was reborn with a new target audience:

1. Non-programmers that want to learn programming using a visual tool;
2. Programmers that want to give their designer a tool to change the high-level behaviours;
3. Programmers that want a tool to help them design.

iCS2 will include all of the programming concepts of a standard programming language such as C#. It produces pure C# code and its source files will no longer be embedded in Unity.

NEW MARKET SEGMENT:
The technical advancement of iCS2 decouples it from being a Unity only product significantly increasing the market opportunities. The end vision is that iCS2 will be a development aid that can be used to create script for other game engines as well as standard Windows/OSX/iOS/Android applications.

The Unity Asset Store gaves some visibility to iCanScript. However, Unity' customer privacy policies are problematic for interacting with the customers and to-be customers. It is not possible for us to reach out to the people that have bought or tried iCS to engage in a closer relationship given the opportunity to better understand their needs and evolve iCS accordingly. iCS2 is a development tool and we need to interact and help our customers to get them started. We believe that it is mandatory that we own the customer list and therefore, the initial distribution of iCS2 will be to registered users on our web site (http://www.icanscript.com).

NOTE: iCanScript version 1 will no longer be evolved and maintain once iCS2 is available. Pro customers will be freely upgraded to iCS2 version 2.x.

 

Fascinating discussion. I can almost see iCS becoming a standalone editor/designer appication used to generate code to be plugged into whatever engine? If so that's fantastic.

 

This tool is code IDE killer, as we need the IDE just to see generated code.

 

Agreed. Are you considering jumping ship from Blox2? I haven't made any decisions yet, but I'm definitely going to learn the basics & then see if it suits my projects.

 

You are correct tod, the mid to long term objective is to address new platforms keeping the Unity platform as a base. It is the avenue that has the most potential to generate revenue.

 

@Rixly239 I'll still watch blox to see how it's developed and use it where it rocks but I'm not committed to anyone one dev. Even though visual scripting (or at least its concept) has been around for a long time its application is just now being seriously looked at. So I'm giving my encouragement & backing ($) to those that offer the most elegant solution to/for me.
My projects are pretty small. This allows me to try different editors.

 

Cool.

I seem to enjoy learning new tools more than actually working on my game ideas lol.

If iCS is going in the direction it seems to be going in... and they next hit C++ and consider Unreal integration... it COULD overtake Blueprints given the fact that they quote that BP's are ten times slower than the C++ equivalent. iCS wouldn't have that limitation.

I'll work through the tutorials hopefully over the weekend, report back again & should hopefully help myself and others decide. My aim would be a couple of tutorials like the ones I posted on Blox2.

Bank Holiday weekend here, whoop. Monday off work too, so that means a double Saturday night for me. Get the beers chillin folks, enjoy...

Rix

PS. We need to get the iCS boards populated... it's the first thing I look for in a new tool... plenty of support via existing customers... my experience in the other place has left me still searching for a new home...

 

That is what developer wants, discussion on his forum and not here Rix. It would be really great to be there as I may share my work / experience with iCS2 there.

 

@rahuxx

Please do share!! I have already started a couple of threads over on the forum. I have to say that the dev there is ultra-responsive - like within a few minutes on each of my posts!! My experience elsewhere has been one of the motivators of why I keep researching new tools. iCS so far has ticked all of my boxes. The most powerful AND the dev appreciates and responds to posts. What a refreshing change lol.

Post as much as you can, let's get more members joining... and watch the devs get their just rewards

Excellent tool, super surprised at the code it generates. You can literally generate the code & I doubt an experienced programmer can come up with better!!

Enough rant, get on over to the iCS forums and continue building what very much SHOULD be the go-to visual scripting tool.

Did I mention the beta version is FREE folks? Play and decide for yourselves before it goes back on the Unity store.

Have a great weekend all...

Rix

 

Thanks for all the positive comments.

We need to improve the product (that is why it is still a beta product) and your comments and examples are the best way to move in the customer's direction.

V2.0.17 is now available for registered users on the download page.

 

Hi gang,

I've received a reimplementation of the Break-Out Unity tutorial built with the latest v2.0.18 release of iCanScript. this is worth seeing for those of you that are interested in the generated code quality.

http://www.icanscript.com/forum/icanscript-examples/34-break-out

 

Hi,I am sure ICS in visual script will surpass everything & emerge as a leader.

 

you guys forget one thing,If you make a VISUAL LOGIC EDITOR tool, you should consider those people without program experience,because programer don't care this ,they can code,why this,you should check out playmaker ,it's really made to those people without any code experience