Feedback Information regarding the VFX graph is severely lacking!

For a bit of background I have been using VFX graph and the new render pipelines for roughly 6 months, the VFX graph has been available in Beta since Nov 2018 so we're almost coming up to a year now. It is unfortunate that the lack of documentation on Unity's side has hindered my ability to create with what is an amazing and powerful tool, let me give you some examples.

First time users to this feature will be directed in their search to https://unity.com/visual-effect-graph. Whilst this page does have links to two simple tutorials (only one of which is an official Unity tutorial) there is very little information, where is the Wiki link? It includes a link at the bottom to download the latest version of Unity, but doesn't actually tell you how to set up the VFX graph in it. There are other small things like how they mention VFX graph integrates well with other tools like the timeline and give a hyperlink, this you would think would link to a post explaining how the two are compatible but instead just links to a page about the timeline. It is only if you look in this blog post (about 2/3 down the page) can you actually find a video and a bit of info on how they work together, why not have a link to that video instead!

You may take to their Youtube page to find out more info, there you will find the same lackluster amount of information with only a handful of videos released since the initial release last year. They do have some basic tutorials that skim the surface but you have to mainly rely on other sources to fill in the gaps (thank god for Brackeys!)

The second piece of info new users to the VFX graph will probably look at is this blog post I linked to previously that gives you a run down of the tools and some other basic info, it's a good starter and no complaints there, but right at the bottom it links you to a wiki, which for a new user like I was is the holy grail of information, 'great!' I thought. But alas, what it links you to is an old outdated github version of their wiki, which is still useful and does give to great info but is still missing vital info on a lot of things, but why not use the updated wiki? The updated wiki that is bloody hard to find, in fact I didn't even know it existed until I randomly stumbled upon it: https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.visualeffectgraph@6.5/manual/index.html

Why is this wiki not included on the main page for VFX graph, why is it that if you google 'Unity VFX Graph Wiki' the first thing that shows up is the outdated github version with no mention of this newer version? In fact I'm not even sure if the wiki I just linked to shows up on the google search for some reason, it baffles me honestly. Even this more up to date version hasn't been updated with full info on every block (how do you use sub graphs? How does the particleID work? How does the Modulo work?).

Then there is this forum, it would be a lot easier to find and ask question if the LWRP (now Universal pipeline), HDRP, Shader Graph and VFX graph had their own sub categories, but instead everything get's lumped into the 'Graphics Experimental Previews' category which makes it a chore to search through. The only dedicated forum area for feedback is one stickied post, which as of this point in time is 16 pages long, how is that helpful to the devs or users?

I'm sorry if I've ranted a bit here, but the reason why I've written this down is because I love using Unity and the VFX Graph, it's seriously an amazing tool with an amazing dev team and I worry that the lack of info will turn away prospective devs from using the tool.

 

URP, HDRP and ShaderGraph have their own forums in the graphics section:

Universal Render Pipeline

High Definition Render Pipeline

Shader Graph

VFX Graph doesnt yet, but one is probably coming (eg see response to https://forum.unity.com/threads/please-add-dedicated-vfx-graph-forum-section.757421/ )

As for documentation, links to documentation for packages are in the package manager descriptions, eg:

 

True there are now forums for those things as of two days ago (which I didn't actually know about until after I posted this), and there is a small link to the documentation in the package manager. But c'mon, that link is so easy to miss, why isn't that wiki link easier to find and why isn't it on the VFX graph homepage? Also I feel like the other points still ring true, what information there is is also outdated or straight up doesn't document some features.

 

Well I'm not disagreeing with all of your points, just pointing a few things out. And those forums have existed since late August (and the ShaderGraph one since April).

Tooltips which have recently been added to a development branch of VFX Graph look like they are going to be very useful too, once they make it to a release.

 

The other reason people havent complained about this is that they are used to looking at the main documentation for Unity. And that documentation has a section for packages, of which VFX Graph is one.

https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/PackagesList.html

 

Glad to hear they are adding tool tips, that would definitely be useful. I don't understand your point on looking at the main documentation for Unity because there isn't anything on the main documentation about the VFX graph. Yes, the VFX graph is a package and there is a section on packages, but how does that help anybody wanting more info about the VFX graph?

 

Well, the Packages documentation section is a long list of links to the actual documentation for each package.

I'm going to assume you looked at the other Packages section of the manual rather than the section I was on about and linked to in my previous post. But even that other section has a page called 'Finding package documentation'.