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ICE Creature Control - Is support for this toolset dead?

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by DougUnit12, Sep 23, 2017.

?

Have you submitted a request for ICE support in this calendar year?

Poll closed Nov 2, 2017.
  1. NO

    60.0%
  2. Yes - I submitted a request and received a useful and satisfactory response

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  3. Yes - I submitted a request, but received no response

    40.0%
  4. Yes - I submitted a request, and got a response, but it did not solve my problem

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  1. DougUnit12

    DougUnit12

    Joined:
    May 2, 2012
    Posts:
    11
    So is support for the ICE toolset dead? I received no response to my support emails of several weeks ago.

    When I first installed ICE, I had to fix code in one of the C# files to get a clean compile, enabling some defines that should have been enabled by virtue of the installation process. I reported it. Got no responses. Since then, every new Unity update has broken ICE. After the last update (2017.1.1f1) , ICE generated 705 (seven zero five) compiler errors. From the sounds on other ICE-related threads, it appears there may be an incompatibility with another package (Terrain Composer? Gaia?). Today's update failed me entirely. I thought I would try yet again to remove the asset and reimport it. I got an error message that the updater script itself crapped out trying to import ICE.

    I am now going through the process of dismembering my test projects, third party asset by asset, to determine the incompatibilities. Wouldn't it be nice if the provider of the tool collected our user inputs and told us what was going on? If I missed some obvious "do THIS to fix THAT" discussions that any of you know about, please point me to them.

    No one wants to see the asset reviews used as a weapon, but it may be time to ask the asset store admins to add a new "Support Deprecated" state for assets that no longer have visible support, so new customers do not get burned.
     
  2. DougUnit12

    DougUnit12

    Joined:
    May 2, 2012
    Posts:
    11
    A minor update. I was able to confirm there is an asset incompatibility at work here, between ICE and Terrain Composer. Removing Terrain Composer fixes the problem for my affected projects, but it also nukes many existing terrains that have already been detailed. And there are still actual code issues with ICE off-the-shelf. But I was able to work around them.

    If this is an inappropriate post for the given forum, my apologies. Admins, nuke at will if so. The alternative seemed to be to tag this message onto the existing product thread, which made no sense, as the many issues raised there are not being addressed.
     
  3. AGregori

    AGregori

    Joined:
    Dec 11, 2014
    Posts:
    527
    While ICE actually works well on my 2017.1.1.p2 rig, the developer kinda marches to the beat of his own drum. (Dodgy support is very frequent with Unity assets.)
    It hasn't been updated for 3 months now, but I trust it will be.
    And yes, calling out absentee developers in the asset reviews does make sense: it is something they are forced to react to.
     
  4. DougUnit12

    DougUnit12

    Joined:
    May 2, 2012
    Posts:
    11
    Thanks for your reply. I have since found a couple of recent public comments from the developer in response to other support requests. He also speaks to the code issue I found and provided a solution (though not explained well). We seem to be on the verge of the Next Big Release from him, but that is an old story. Let's hope it is a true one in this case.
     
  5. Firlefanz73

    Firlefanz73

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2015
    Posts:
    1,314
    The 1.4 update was announced for last month. I am extremly dissappointed, for me the worst buy ever in the asset store.
    It is extremly hard to learn and use, Buggy and it says in the description it is very easy to use. I am still waiting for the update without much hope.
     
  6. AGregori

    AGregori

    Joined:
    Dec 11, 2014
    Posts:
    527
    @Firlefanz73 I ended up using Emerald AI in my project: very simplistic but does the job out of the box.
     
    theANMATOR2b and Firlefanz73 like this.
  7. Firlefanz73

    Firlefanz73

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2015
    Posts:
    1,314
    Thanks for the hint. I am a hobby developer and a angry with ICE now, it is bad to pay two times for the same thing I Need. But thanks for the hint, I will think about it. :)
     
  8. imump

    imump

    Joined:
    Jul 3, 2011
    Posts:
    55
    Settle petals, tantrum's don't accomplish much, just make you guys look childish, impatient and helpless. Like it was mentioned above, an update is coming, patience...had my rant too :p
     
  9. Firlefanz73

    Firlefanz73

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2015
    Posts:
    1,314
    The update is late over a month with no official Statement at all. I want to make a release soon. I have waited Long enough, that's not impatient.

    He could have told us it's not coming before XMas, would have been okay to know.
     
  10. AdrianoVerona_Unity

    AdrianoVerona_Unity

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2013
    Posts:
    317
    Can you provide more details about this issue? Editor.log? What exactly went wrong?

    Best

    Adriano
     
  11. DougUnit12

    DougUnit12

    Joined:
    May 2, 2012
    Posts:
    11
    For my issue, the big problem was several hundred error messages when ICE and Terrain Composer are both installed. I resolved that problem by removing Terrain Composer. The smaller problem was that with Terrain Composer removed, ICE would still not compile cleanly unless an ICE-specific global define was manually set in the environment (no instructions for this included with the install or documented where I could find it) or the ifdef for this define was commented out in one of the source files. I figured out the work-around myself, then found a comment in a thread that explained the problem.

    I am not sure why the Unity update exacerbated the problem, but the Unity update is working fine in every other area that I can see. The problem seems to be with the Terrain Composer and ICE assets only. There are some new warning messages for other assets that have apparently been using deprecated functions for a while, but nothing just plain broke that I can see.

    If I encounter this problem again, I will try to capture the log file (if any) to get an explanation as to why the rebuilding compile aborted. This time around, I could not find a log with any useful data.

    I understand that complex software sometimes has subtle issues that need resolution. My concern is that an asset supposedly on the top tier of Unity 3rd party tools should "go silent" on support. But I have it basically working again now.
     
  12. AdrianoVerona_Unity

    AdrianoVerona_Unity

    Unity Technologies

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2013
    Posts:
    317
    I'll see if I can some time and try to import those packages.

    If you manage to reproduce the error please, report a bug to us

    Best

    Adriano