Infinite Runner Starter Pack

Hi,
I am going just a little bit nuts here....

I have several sections. (0, 1 and 2). I have transition scenes and tiles, and platforms and scenes for each section.

I am seeing:
1 - some try randomness in my section scenes (ie I see other section scenes dropped in withouth a transition, or what should be a transition with a non-transition scene and the reverse, or what looks like a combination of mismached scenes and platform section numbers). This mostly went away when I changed the probability of a scene change but still happens sometimes.
2 - section 2 hardly shows at all, thought it has the most scenes. EDIT: seems to have been fixed by changing the scene chagne probability on the generator.
3 - I am getting jerkiness after a while. This is when spawning very simple scenes (and I now have everything set to optimise spawning - it made not difference btw to the jerking). Sometimes it pauses for several seconds before spawning, and the longer the pause the more thigns spawn at once.
4 - i am getting the warnigns about unable to spawn platforms based on probability rules. Though generally I don't run out of platforms - I sometimes do). SOLVED: I need to have a transtion from EVERY section type to each other to avoid this. This means though that I cannot have a section that only comes from one other section. (so I now have 0-1,0-2,1-0,2-0 instead of just having section 2 come only off section 1). Can this is changed so this is not a requirement?

5 - with no "unable to spawn" warnings the scenes stop spawning sometimes completely so you are running in space (I have my platforms transparent), or only spane en-mass from a few platforms ahead. Once they stop and run out completely though no scenes ever appear after that point..

I could REALLY use some help because I need to get a game released and am now going in frantic circles for the last few days.

All scenesa nd platforms are set to probability of 1 forever.

My platforms are as follows:
1x section 0
1x section 1
1x section 2
1x Section 1, transition from 0 to 1
1x section 0, transition from 1 to 0
1x section 2, transition from 1 to 2
1x section 1, transition from 2 to 1
(EDIT: plus the extra transitions that I just added)

My scenes are as follows:
4x section 2s
1x section 1
6x section 0s

Transition scenes are attached to transition platforms.

I am running ProbabilityRandom

 

Hi frak,

Are you using the updated version that I sent you earlier (version 1.4)? I know that I fixed some problems with sections in particular from previous versions. For problem 3, what is jerky? Is it laggy when it needs to spawn a platform or scene? There was also a problem in version 1.3.3 where it was reactivating too many objects and that could have caused some lag. With number 4, you should only need section transitions between the sections that actually connect. In fact in the demo scene that is shipping with version 1.4 we do exactly that. We have section transitions between sections 0-1 and 0-2, but no transition between 1 and 2 because those two sections never appear right after another. Edit: I just read your last line - if you are using random probability then there is a chance that each section can appear right after another. I will see what it takes to have it not require a section transition if there aren't any section transitions between any two sections.

In short, if you haven't updated to version 1.4 I'd recommend doing that because it should fix a lot of your problems (I am really hoping you haven't updated yet just because I thought that version 1.4 is really stable). Failing that, can you send me a sample project so I can reproduce it and see what the problem is?

 

I have the latest version at 1.3.3.

No I had not dug up my purchase email to PM you.

I will do that now. When you shoot me the PM will it have the mobile control fix? (because this is for Blackberry)

PM'ing you now.

thanks,
Mathew

 

I just sent you a PM with the link.

Which mobile control fix? The one from awhile ago dealing with swiping and the one from this morning dealing with the accelerometer. The swiping fix is in there but not the accelerometer. As soon as Unity approves version 1.4 I will have version 1.4.1 ready to go which will contain it. I would send it to you now but a few files are in a state of disarray so I will send it to you when I have it done (later this week). Also, it will contain some fixes specifically for Blackberry as I was only including iOS/Android for the swipe controls.

 

I mean the accel fix you sent to somebody else.

This game is seriously overdue so I want to get it submitted by tomorrow if at all possible.

 

I am running a god-mode test now. Will let you know how it goes. More info regarding the jitteryness I was seeing: delays - up to a couple of seconds at times - between respawning a new scene/platform. and a pause in the game while that was taking place.

Now I have not see that yet, though sometimes it took a while to show up. Will run this while I have a coffee and report back.

thanks!

EDIT: actually as soon as I posted this the platforms/scenes stopped spawning and we walked off the edge of the world. With the NullReference when trying to moveObjects. (I was getting this before, though a bit more as I had added a print for every scene and platform spawn that was sucessful).

So it just stops spawning still.

 

On the very next play it started with maybe 5 scenes, almost walked off the edge of the world and just at the last moment spawned to the horizon. So not seeing any difference.

 

Also seeing the jitterness a few times. It does appear to be the scene objects alone. I have just let it run for 10 minute with no scenes and the platforms keep on going.

EDIT: Actually I have been watching the demo Scene play through, and I am wondernig if I am seeing this issue purely because I have no corners - ie the track is all completely straight. Since the scenery spawning pauses from time to time and then spawns in a batch when corners are involved.

EDIT: Actually it isn't. I am now trying different scenes combinations.

Do you want to take the detail of nailing this off onto Skype or similiar? (I am not sure that most people will be interested in the full machinations of this issue - just the resolution)

EDIT: I don't get this issue if I set section selection mode to Linear, or if I use Random and set the same start two levels or the same level as start and end (eg 1-2, 2-1, etc or even 2-2). So it looks like it is happening on scene change in the random SectionSelection script.

 

Hi Opsive, Pls check your PM.

This is apart from the question I asked in PM. I am adding new power ups, I included it in the enum in power up manager. But I am getting index out of range in static data. How to add the values in static data?
Thanks

 

Can I get this version of the shader?

 

Can u PM me the static data thing to add a new powerups

 

@frak -

In the demo scene I changed the section selection type to probability random with a start section of 0 and an end section of 3 (it should really be 2 but the random isn't inclusive, I'll fix that in the next version). I then turned on god mode and had no errors until I stopped it around score 3000. Can you send me reproduction steps or a package? I'll also PM you the files changed for the accelerometer fix.

@Dharma_raj-
I'll take a look at the issue mentioned in the PM. For the power up issue, that is fixed in the version 1.4 update that I PMed you on the 8th. The file affected is StaticDataInspector.cs within Editor/Game.

@Hala - Sure, I'll send you the link.

 

Been reading the release notes on the latest Unity, and they made some Blackberry fixes includig:

"BlackBerry: Fixed issue where gravity was being reported in meters per second instead of G forces. Also landscape x and y for gravity was swapped."

Also, they made the blackberry game pad work like the Xbox game pad.

I will put a cut down project together and PM it to you.

 

Check your PM. Project is up for you.

 

Having seen the latest version I have to say for anybody on the fence about this toolkit:

it's awesome!

Now has the nice touches that set a boring game out from a great looking game.

 

Thank you, frak

I sent frak version 1.4.1 which adds some of the more polish features. I've updated the web player to this version. If anybody wants this version before Unity approves it let me know.

In the meantime, Unity just approved version 1.4 - the curve update! The changed the infinite object generator pretty significantly so make sure you take a look at the required changes within the release notes.

Version 1.4 New Features/Fixes:

• Added curved platforms! Add curves by adding Control Points to your Platform Object
• Collidable objects (obstacles, power ups, coins) can now specify which slot they can spawn on top of.
• Added an option to all the camera to stay at a steady height instead of moving with the player
• Added an example of using the jump platform (and a couple new classes to go along with that)
• Score is now determined by distance traveled
• Fixed multiple bugs related to sections
• Improved swipe input
• Performance improvement when spawning new objects
• Other minor bugs

Required Changes:

• To add curves, the Infinite Object Generator went through a significant rewrite. As such, any startup objects that you already created will not work with the new system. You can recreate the startup objects with the same method as before
• InfiniteObjectGenerator.horizon has been renamed to square horizon. This value must be horizon squared
• New tags have been added: PlatformJump and Floor
• The following properties were deprecated:
• PlatformObject.turnLengthOffset​
• PlatformObject.isJump​
• PlatformObject.jumpLength​
• SceneObject.horizontalOffset​
• PlayerController.rotationSpeed​
• PlayerController.cameraPosition​
• PlayerController.cameraRotation​
• If any of the above properties are not zero, a warning will appear in the console log instruction the new property to use. These properties will be removed in the next feature release.

 

These features are really great!! Since I have added more changes to the script I need to know what are the scripts that were changed in this version.

Two things I want to know :
I wanted to add three types of obstacle which should spawn next to each other. To get this I created an empty obstacle object with all the required components and added the three different obstacles with obstacle object components as the children which are aligned next to each other and it works. Is this the only way to get this kind of positioning, because in this approach I have to make more combinations of prefabs.

I have some breakable obstacles like crates and barrels, Sliding in to it, will break the object. To get this I am using particles to show broken pieces. The problem is When the player hits the object it needs to be disappear. I tried set active and mesh renderer method but it doesnt work. When the object spawn again the mesh renderer remains disabled. Please help, I tried enable it in Awake but failed

Thanks

 

Basically every single core file My suggestion would be to keep track of what changes you made when compared with version 1.3.3, then update to version 1.4, and apply your changes again.

Yes, for now it is. The infinite object generator currently does not spawn two collidable objects next to each other. I have added this feature to the feature request list though.

If you put those activation calls in Awake it is only going to get called the very first time the object is activated. I think you should be able to put that stuff in Start, otherwise if you override the orient method it will definitely be called:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. public override void orient(PlatformObject parent, Vector3 position, Quaternion rotation)
3.     {
4.         base.orient(parent, position, rotation);
5.  
6.         //activation code
7.     }
8.  

 

Hello Opsive,

How are you? We are trying to implement second chance. When the player dies, they are given an option to play from the same point. (Use keys in Subway Surfer) Could you recommend the best approach for it?

 

Hey mustumasti,

I think your best bet is to rework some of the logic before GameManager:gameOver() is called. Anytime the player dies (whether that be through hitting too many obstacles or hitting a wall or landing in the fire pit), the first thing that gets called is the gameOver method. Instead of calling that method you could create a different method within the GameManager that will show a GUI within from the GUIManager asking if they want to continue. If the user does want to continue you will deduct the amount of coins/keys from the DataManager and never call the GameManager:gameOver() method. You can then reset whatever variables you want to reset, such as the number of times the player has collided with an obstacle. You would also be able to reposition the player at this point. If the user does not want to continue, you then just call the gameOver method on the GameManager.

Hopefully that gives you a starting point. I have this on my feature request list and it is a higher priority then some of the other things on there. It won't be in version 1.5 but probably in 1.6 if that helps at all.

 

In which script do I need to put this, collidableobject.cs?

 

What file were you modifying when you placed the activation code in awake? You would place it in that same file.

 

Thank you Opsive, that definitely helps.

I was wondering about updating to latest version of starter pack or not. When it comes to feature list, we wont be using most of those features included in the new version. The major reason I would like to update is for performance boast as well as bug fixing. Do you think this update looked into those aspect?

 

That's a tough question. I don't think you'll see much (if any) of a performance gain because you already had the activation fix, but there were definitely a lot of bug fixes. Version 1.4 dramatically changed the InfiniteObjectGenerator and to a lesser extent the PlayerController to support curves. If you haven't made many changes to those files then it should be relatively easy to update. Also when I make future bug fixes / performance boosts it will be based on the latest version of the starter pack so it may be harder to integrate if you are coming from version 1.3.3.

 

Version 1.4.1 has just been approved! You'll notice that we've added "Pro" to the end of the name. We have a "standard" version waiting for approval that includes a subset of features from the pro version.

Anyway, this version contains the following changes:

Version 1.4.1 New Features/Fixes:

• Changed the GUI to be in portrait orientation
• It is now night outside
• Added a fade to the curve shader so it can fade out in the distance
• Improved the particle effect of the different types of power ups
• Improved the in game GUI: coins will now animate to their collection point
• Added shake to the camera
• Improved the handling of the slot position using the accelerometer on mobile devices
• Added platform defines for BlackBerry and Windows Phone 8
• Other minor bug fixes

Required Changes:

• The curve shaders NearCurve/FarCurve values were swapped in the shader. Now near curve is really the near curve and far curve really is the far curve.

 

If I don't want to use NGUI for my GUI instead I use my own, what approach you recommend?

 

It completely depends on what GUI solution you go with and how it operates, but at the very most you'll need to change GUIManager.cs and GUIClickEventReceiver.cs. The only other GUI solution that I've used is UIToolkit, and with that GUIManager would be able to stay mostly the same it is just that it handles clicks differently so GUIClickEventReceiver would have to change.

 

Unity just approved the standard version of the starter pack. It contains the following features:

• Mobile friendly
• Touch / accelerometer controls
• Infinite object generation
• Object pooling
• Obstacles, coins, and power ups
• Appearance probabilities
• 3 slot track system
• Scene objects
• Fading curved vertex transformation shader
• Custom audio
• Facebook and Twitter links
• Custom editor scripts

You can see more info about it on the asset store page at https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/12815. A demo of this version is available here

 

I have a few questions that have been bugging me for ages...

Do all scene and platform objects have to be precisely the same size? Ie al scenes the same lenght, and seperately the platforms the same length as the scenes?

To have a single lane section, presumably shrinking the platform moves the 3 lanes together, so the only way to tdo that is make the scene object have walls in the way? (so the play will smack into them if trying to run down that lane). So is there a way to have a land just end and the player fall into space?

thanks

 

No, they can be different sizes. In general though it is better to keep them a similar multiple so the scenes don't become misaligned with the platform. For example, if you have a platform that has a length of 10, then a scene a length of 12, the objects would become misaligned if there is a platform turn and the scene isn't at the same distance as the platform.

We have a demo of the platform being twice as long as the scene. In section 1 the curved platform has a length of 28 while the scenes are the standard 14.

Yes. The alternative is to only have platforms and no scenes. The "scene" objects could be baked into the platform and that way you don't have to deal with lining the scenes up with the platforms. The starter pack doesn't require you to have scenes in other words.

You mean have to have the objects completely stop generating at some point? Currently that isn't built in but I could send you the code for it pretty quickly

 

Actually what i mean is something like this:



XXX
_X
_X
_X
XXX
XXX
XXX



So there is empty space for the player to fall in on either side. This is featurd a lot in the game Minion Run. The "X" marks are the lanes.

 

Ah, I see. You should be able to accomplish most of this. You can have a platform spawn that only takes up the center lane, then on the left and right side you have a pit with a death trigger similar to how the fire pit is setup in the included scene. The one thing that is currently not built in is the ability to restrict which lane the player is in when they are in the center lane. In Minion Rush the minion doesn't change lanes if you swipe left or right while in the center lane and no lanes are on the sides

 

Hi Opsive, There is an issue on the kit, I thought the animation issue happens only with the obstacles but it happened also when I tried to add animations to the scene objects. The animation got stuck in some frame soon after it gets play and starts again from the beginning. (say for example, a ball animation has the ball fall to the ground from a height, but before it reaches the ground, it starts again) But when I paused the game, it plays correctly. Is there anything happens inside the infiniteObjectHistory? Due to this I cant able add any animations in my game except the player. Please help.

 

Can you please list the steps to reproduce based off of the demo included with the starter pack? I don't think InfiniteObjectHistory will have anything to do with it since that class relates to spawning objects and not animation.

 

Hi Opsive, One quick question about my issue. When tried adding animated objects in the recent version it works fine, but not in the older version. Could it be the reason?

Also I want to add the curves which is really the great feature I want. To get that, what scripts were need to be updated in my package. I have changed many things in my project.

 

Hi opsive,

Love your pack!!!

I want to use the unity mecanim system for animation on my character. Do you have any thoughts or tips on that?

For your info. I made a clean build from your MainScene scene to Android. But when i play the game on my Nexus 2013 many times the game breaks apart. Strange things happen like the character is falling between two scene objects. Or some of the scene object sections are shown inside another scene object. Maybe you can look in to that.

-- Cheers

 

@Dharma_raj -

It's hard to saw without seeing the reproduction steps. It's good that it's working now though

In terms of curves, the core files that were updated to specifically support curves are the InfiniteObjectGenerator and the PlayerController. However, because of the changes required in these two files other files changed as well (such as InfiniteObjectHistory and InfiniteObjectManager).

@wjpeters -

Glad to hear that you are enjoying it. In the past few days I have started to read more about mecanim because that will be one of the new features in version 1.5. I don't have any new code right now, but I know that it will take some modification of the classes PlayerAnimation and PlayerController. I can send you a beta version when I get it implemented (it will still probably be a few weeks though since we are working on adding an chase enemy first). In terms of the scenes breaking apart, do you have any reproduction steps? I have been testing it on a Nexus 7 with God mode enabled and haven't been able to see any issues. You can try out the same apk that I used here (and with God mode enabled)

 

I guess it should include platform object and its inspector scripts, isn't it?

Eventhough the animations are working when it plays automatically, its not when I triggered it manually using script. Please check your PM. And do this steps to reproduce the issue. Start running, you can see the sample trees in village area, it detects the distance between the player and its transform and triggers the falling animation. And it will work perfectly for certain distance, but after that the animation starts stuck.

I did a quick test to figure out when the issue occurs and found it by selecting the tree object in the scene view which is spawned first by pausing the editor. I resumed playing the game and found how it happens. After passing the player the tree gets disappear with the scene, after some time it spawned again in the horizon with the its transform selected. Starting from this tree none of them animates properly. So, I guess that when a spawned tree is again getting spawn in the game it delivers the animation issues. I hope this gives a good picture of the problem.

Thanks

 

Yes, sorry, I forgot about those files.

I replied to your PM on the animation issue - it was a simple fix (you just missed one line on resetting a variable).

 

Great start pack. I'm getting an error when turning. I haven't changed any code:

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
InfiniteObjectGenerator.getTurnOffset () (at Assets/Infinite Runner/Scripts/InfiniteGenerator/InfiniteObjectGenerator.cs:554)

When this happens the game breaks.

 

Hi DreamEnder,

Can you send me the steps to reproduce? Ideally if you can get the error to happen off of the demo scene that would be the easiest to debug. Otherwise if you want to PM/email me a Unity package that would work as well. Also, can you send more of the stack trace?

 

Hi, That works!! Thanks.

One question about the start up objects. I have created a startup object based on the video tutorial. After that i assigned it in the infinite manager. When I started the game, both the start up object and the scene object spawn at 0 overlapping each other. I want all the objects to be spawned after the startup scene. What wrong I have made?

 

Can you send me a PM with your startup objects in a Unity package? As long as the infinite object persistence file is populated it shouldn't have any problems spawning the objects correctly.

 

I can't seem to reproduce the error. Nevermind.

Anyways I was wondering if I'm forced to use platforms? The models I want to use for the scenery have floors/platforms/etc combined with them already. So I can't separate them.

 

Are you up to date with version 1.4.1? I forgot the specific error, but version 1.4 had a bug that looked similar to that and has been fixed with the latest version. However if you are on the latest I am really curious how you got that error. If you get it again send me the full stack trace and I will look into it closer.

About your platforms question - no, you aren't forced to use both platforms and scenes. If your scene has the platforms combined then just set your scene objects as the platform objects within the infinite object manager and you should be set.

 

Cool that works!

I'm having an issue where my platforms are overlapping. See image.



I'm trying to set the sizes manually but I'm not seeing any improvement. The stairs line up with each other perfectly and the straights line up perfectly. However the straights overlap the stairs a bit and from stair-straight theres a gap.

 

Nevermind. I see the models I bought have their pivots not centered.

 

If the pivots aren't centered and you don't want to get an updated model you should be able to reposition it within the prefab's position. From your screenshot it looks like if you adjust the z axis to have a negative position it looks like it should line up properly.

 

Hi opsive, I have reproduced the startup objects overlapping issue in your unity package, PM sent. Also refer the image attached

In the hierarchy window while the game is running, drill down the infinite objects and find the scene parent, in that you could see two separate scene objects overlapping each other. Please help me out in fixing this.

Thanks

 

I just tried to open your package but I got the following error:

"Error while importing package: Couldn't decompress package"

This is on Unity 4.3.1. I just thought of something though - have you completely updated your project to version 1.4.1? In version 1.4 the infinite object persistence class changed to accommodate the new infinite object generator, and one of the things that it got rid of was the total distance. If you are running a new version of the infinite object persistence but an old version of the infinite object generator then you will see the exact situation that you are describing.