Octave3D-Level Design - Snapping, Prop placement, Multi-Prefab painting

Hi again,
recenty due to more backuping project, i am saving my buildings to prefabs and sometime i place them again in scene via those prefabs using octave and continue working.
I bumped into a problem again
Some buildings have theri "hit box" using placement tool aligned well, so i can continue working and use placement grid well.
Some buildings are rotated in ther placement "hit box". I wasnt abel to manage to google that problem to solve that... tried to set rotation in prefab to all 0, didnt help. Some prefabs even have saved some rotation value, but still it works well with octave, so that might not be the problem.
Here are two pictures. First, all i is good, second, prefab is rotated and i want to be aligned so i can put it aligned on grid...

 

I'm also having this problem. It usually happens when I switch back and forth between Unity and another app. For example, when watching the tutorial videos and then coming back to Unity. It also happened when I switched scenes to observe how objects were arranged in a demo scene from Synty Dungeon and then switched back to the Octave scene. The solution seems to be restarting editor right now.

I am using MacOS, if that makes any difference. Unity version 2020.1.3f1.

 

@aidanmatt
@jsiles42

Hello guys,

It is indeed a weird behaviour. I will definitely look into it. I can't say I have any idea what could be causing it, but I will have to see. Thanks for letting me know.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

Thanks. In case it helps, I was using Unity version 2019.4.5f1. Today, I updated to 2020.1.3f1, but the issue persists.

 

Thanks again

I just thought I'd reply and ping you because I noticed some things that will probably help you track down this problem a lot faster.

1. The reappearance of the active prefab occurs when there is mouse movement input. For example, let's say I switch to Erase mode. The activated prefab doesn't appear. It will only appear as soon as I move the mouse. I was mistaking this earlier as a "fraction of a second".

2. If I switch to Selection or Erase mode and don't move my mouse at all, the controls for those modes don't work. So it's not just that the active prefab placement guide is taking precedence over Selection and Erase modes.

I have a feeling that the bug probably happens when switching out of Placement mode. But I'm not a programmer, so you'd know better. Just thought I'd pass on my thoughts, in case they help.

 

@aidanmatt
@jsiles42

Hello guys,

I have been playing around with Unity 2020.1.1f1 and I simply can not reproduce the issues that you mentioned. When I switch to selection mode or erase mode, the active prefab disappears and stays like that until I switch back to placement mode. Mouse movement doesn't produce any ill effects. Also, holding down ALT to orbit the camera works perfectly.

If you believe it's necessary, I can record a video showing this in action.

I'm afraid I do not have any idea at the moment what could be causing this. It's a long shot, but it could be worth deleting the Octave3D package from your project and re-importing. For the moment, I'm afraid I really have no other suggestion.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

Hello,

I am not entirely sure if I understood correctly. But the idea is that the placement box will always be aligned with the object's local space. Basicly, from what I can see in your second image, the buildings that you are trying to place have been merged into a single mesh (???) and the mesh was defined in such a way that it looks rotated. I don't know. Did you use the Mesh Combine tool to combine those meshes?

The snapping tool was designed to work with smaller pieces. Put those together to build larger structures.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

Hello,
I have some questions:
1- Why the object does not place inside the "WORLD" folder. Each time I create an object, it goes outside the "Wolrd" folder like this.
How to make them spawn inside the "WORLD" folder like your Video Tutorial?

View attachment 688641

2- How to use Path option? When the White Object show up, I press Right Mouse, Left Mouse, Enter, Space... Keys, but nothing happens. When I press ESC, it cancels the action.



Hope to hear from you soon.

 

I don't think the issue is global to all users. If it was, I'm sure this thread would be filled with people asking for a fix. So I'm not surprised you can't reproduce it. Most of the issues (including with other assets and Unity in general) that I have run into cannot be reproduced by others, which is leading me to believe that there is something wrong with either a) my and a few others' particular copies of Octave3D, which may be linked to some particular quirk with our copies of Unity, or b) that there is something wrong with my/our copies of Unity, which is then causing this plethora of errors among various functionalities.

That said, do you have any feedback on the "dependencies" import message I mentioned? If I may ask, what are the package dependencies (if any) for Octave3D, and what effect might it have if those packages were not installed. It wouldn't surprise me if the issues are limited only to people who declined "necessary" package updates that Octave3D requires. For more inexperienced users like myself, the most obvious solution to being confronted with 541 namespace errors after installing a package is to delete that package. Since it didn't seem to have any impact on Octave3D's functionality, I considered the matter solved. But it is possible that that is at the root of my and others' problems.

Tomorrow, I will try reimporting Octave3D and looking into exactly what dependency packages are installed/updated. If that leads nowhere, then I'll have to try completely clearing and reinstalling Unity.

 

Hi there,

It is indeed a bit strange what is happening here. Octave3D has no dependencies. If I may suggest, you should, if possible, switch to an earlier version of Unity, maybe 2019.3.12 for example, until 2020 becomes more mature. I am not trying to blame things on Unity, but it is possible that it could be related to a Unity bug. And unfortunately, the bugs which I can't reproduce are the hardest to fix.

If after reinstalling Unity and reimporting the package, the problem still persists, please contact me at octamodius@yahoo.com with the order number and I will arrange for a refund. In this particular case, this is probably the only thing I can do.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

Hello Andrew

Same behaviour as reported by @aidanmatt and @jsiles42
Could be because I just bought it yesterday and I am not familiar with all the settings that I have to do at the beginning of the session. But I looked at all the videos in your channel and I can't see any similar behaviour.
Also I read the hotkey notes ( I didn't memorize everything , but with time ..).

Indeed, even after I switch to select mode by pressing S , the active prefab in placement mode will show up at the slightest move of the cursor. Also the pivot points don't show up. I can't select anything at this step.

In delete mode, The prefab will show up again, but is allowing me to erase if I keep the LMB pressed wile I hover over the area with prefabs to delete.

I use 2019.4.0f1 and Windows7.

 

Hello,

It has nothing to do with any settings. It just works outside of the box. In my case it works perfectly.

Can you please send me a video recording of this issue?

Cheers,
Andrew

 

Hello,

I am not sure what you mean by world folder. Are you referring to an object in the scene? I would suggest you take a look at the following video in which I talk about ObjectGroups for scene organization:

Regarding path placement, you need to hold down SHIFT and then left click in order to place the path.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

Hi,
Thank you very much! It worked like charm.

 

Here's a link to the video showing the issue.

.

 

Hello Andrew. I just upgraded to Unity 2019.4.9f1.
The issue is gone. I can freely select and create prefabs from selection now.
Also I validated that the add-on works also in 2018.4.2f1
I guess is just an version issue.

This is a great program. Thanks for all the hard work.

C

 

Hi there,

Thank you very much for letting me know. I am glad to hear it's working because honestly, I do not know how to approach this issue

@jsiles42
Thank you very much for taking the time to record the video. I can indeed see clearly what the issue is. However, I'm afraid I do not have any idea at the moment as to how to solve it. So I would like to ask you if it is possible for you to switch to another Unity version for the time being. For example 2019.4.9f1 like cradut did.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

Sorry for not getting back.

I also found that the issue hasn't occurred again since reimporting Octave3D after updating to Unity 2020.1.3f1. I wasn't given the mysterious dependencies prompt, and I haven't had the issue since.

 

Hey there,

Thanks for letting me know.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

Hi,I've been trying to learn how to use Octave.
Seems that the "active prefab" keep exist in selection mode. It moves with the cursor. Can still spawn game object if I click left mouse button in this case.
Re-open the unity project might solve the issue, or maybe not.

Unity 2019.4.8f1
Octave ver 2.4.1

And object groups sometimes don't work, new game objects will be placed in the root of the scene, discarding that "attach to object group" is toggled. Re-opening the scene might solve the issue.

 

Hello,

I am really sorry for the late reply.

It seems I can reproduce the first issue when I switch to playmode and back. Others have experienced a similar issue, but I've only now been able to reproduce it. I have started working on it and hope to come up with a solution soon.

Regarding the second issue, I haven't tried it yet, but I will look into it.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

Hi there,

I have managed to fix the first issue. Please send me an e-mail at octamodius@yahoo.com so that I can send you the updated pack. Regarding the second issue, it seems to work fine with me. I haven't encountered any problems there.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

Thanks for understanding and fixing the first issue. I've moved on to other tasks I have so I don't have much time to test Octave right now. I'll wait until next update via Asset Store.
And the second issue isn't much a big deal for me, I'll make a video playback if I meet the issue again.

 

Hi there,

Sure thing. Just wanted to let you know that the update is now live on the Store, so when you need it, you can update.

Thanks,
Andrew

 

Using Unity 2019.4.11f1 and dark mode.

The gray color behind the generated prefab previews is too light a color for my eyes and makes it hard to see the actual models. Is there any way to choose a different color for the prefab backgrounds? Thanks.

 

1)I didn't understood function of selection projection.
2) I didn't found any shortcuts to change grid cell size.
3) can I select all instances of prefab but limited to certain group like select all wall prefab which resides in second floor group.
also a tip, add shortcut keys with Gui hints so to easily find the shortcut to desired functionality like in blender

 

Ok I just watched one of your unlisted video and the use of projection is mentioned there,

 

Hi there,

I made the video public so that others can see it too

Regarding the other features, these are not available right now. I hope to be able to add them in a future version of the plugin.

Thanks,
Andrew

 

Hi, is there a way to adjust scale along a axis while placing objects like while using point click. I found that there is a option for uniform scale but not for scaling along a particular axis like x axis. Right now after creating the object I go to selection mode and then scale from there. I don't bother doing that , I am just asking out of curiosity.
Tip- Scaling along guide pivot points would be awesome because as of right now when I scale the game object it scales in both direction because it scales from the middle. if guide pivot can be used then it would only scale in one direction like we do in UI using rect transform.
Right now I do scaling in one direction using this

 

Hello, I just purchased Octave3D (very excited to start learning/using it).

When using the Prefab Manager or any of the Inspector settings, pressing the left or right Shift keys moves the focus to the Scene view. This results in the inability to enter Prefab category names using capital letters or an underscore.

I tried loading Octave3D into a completely blank project to make sure this wasn't a conflict with another asset, and the same behavior occurred.

Is there a setting or other means to override this particular behavior?

I'm using Unity v2020.1.8f1

 

Hi there,

Thanks for contacting me. This looks like a bug. I will look into it and get back to you as soon as I can.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

Hi there,

I have managed to fix the issue in 2020.1.6. Please send me an e-mail at octamodius@yahoo.com and I will send you the updated pack.

Thanks,
Andrew

 

HI,

I have requested for the updated version.
Have sent an email with inv. no ( allanb4me@gmail.com )
I have similar issues. :


When using the Prefab Manager or any of the Inspector settings, pressing the left or right Shift keys moves the focus to the Scene view. This results in the inability to enter Prefab category names using capital letters or an underscore.

 

Hi there,

I've sent you an e-mail just now which contains the pack with the fix.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

It works. I am using 2020.11.
Thank you. <3

 

Hi:

I am trying to use prefabs created with UModeler but I have not been lucky until now. The only way I have been able to manage it is by exporting them as a .obj file, creating material by hand, etc which is not the fastest workflow.

When I import the prefab generated by UModeler into Octave3D I can not even seed the preview. Placing the prefab in the scene does not work properly either.

Any clue on what can be happening?

 

Hello,

I do not own UModeler, but if the output is prefabs, then it should work with no problems.

I think what is happening in your case is that you are trying to add mesh assets. You need actual prefab assets not the mesh resources. So make sure that what you are trying to add to the prefab manager is actually a prefab.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

No, it is a prefab.

I have been able to solve it. The thing is that UModeler does not export the mesh when it produces a prefab (which is quite annoying). It has to be done in two steps. Exporting the mesh, and then exporting the prefab. Then, the prefab can be used as usual with Octave3D.

Regards.

 

Ok. That is great. Thanks for letting me know!

 

Hi, I have a two questions.

1. There is a function ‘K-sets the grid XZ cell size to the XZ size of the object placement guide’. How to reset the grid XZ cell size after using this function?

2. The preview image of the prefab is on the front, but the preview image of the prefab in ‘Prefab Management’ is on the back. Is there a way to solve this problem?

 

Hi there,

Regarding the grid cell size, please see the attached image:



Regarding the prefab previews, this is not currently possible. There is a remake planned, and if I get it done, it will support rotation for prefab previews.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

Hi,

I have a hedge prefab, which has too big Octave pivots (those u can switch with J key). When I place one next to another there is a gap between models due to the blank pivot space. I've managed that I can place one hedge and tune snap offset but this would only work with Point and Click and I need to use paths and extrude.

So my question is, can one change Octave prefab pivots?

 

Hi there,

Object pivots can not be changed, however, there is a setting which you can modify. It is called Use original pivots. It resides in the Object Snap Settings UI (the button with the magnet in the top toolbar). This will instruct Octave3D to use the object pivots as were defined in the modeling package.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

Thanks for fast reply. Yeah, I am aware of original pivot but that one is also not good. Anyway it seems I found a workaround. It is possible to attach cube as a parent to the object, scale cube accordingly, make prefab and let Octave grab pivots from the cube while the child is turned off. Place prefabs and then turn off cube mesh renderer and turn on prefab. Not perfect but kinda works..

 

I think in this case you could just avoid creating a cube. Just create an empty parent and check Use original pivot. The parent will have to be placed accordingly in relation to the object and also scale will probably need to be applied to it.

 

Hello ! I'm using this asset since a few hours and get some trouble with the hotkeys. I'm on Unity 2019.4.15 LTS. Sometimes, the behaviour of the hotkeys is completely weird. For example : i'm in the object placement mode. Everything works fine with the mouse. If select point and clic, my prefab appears on the scene. But if i press W (for ex), it doesn't enable object surface grid, it activates the object erase mode.... Same with U, same with O, same with 1,2,34 , shift etc... Everything brings me back to the erase mode. I clic on the scene with, no change. Shift Alt F, no change. I tried on several empty projects, and after a while i get this behaviour. Sometimes it get backs to normal for a while, and then this strange behaviour again. Which step am i missing ?

 

Hi there,

I remember fixing hotkey related bugs in one of the most recent releases. Are you sure you are using the latest version?

 

Hello,
i'm using 2.4.3 . I tried again to use the plugin today. Looks like it s a problem of focus. When i use it for the first time it's nice. But when i select an other object or use Alt D, when i come back to the plugin the hotkeys are not working.

 

Hi there,

Sorry for the late reply. I will try to investigate this issue starting today and get back to you as soon as I have a fix.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

Hi there,

I managed to fix the issue. Please send me an e-mail at octamodius@yahoo.com and i will send you the updated pack.

Cheers,
Andrew