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Plans for Legacy Animation

Discussion in 'Animation' started by AcidArrow, Aug 23, 2021.

  1. AcidArrow

    AcidArrow

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    As we are about to remove all animators, because screw that un-intuitive resource hog designed by aliens, from our project and replace them with legacy animation or scripting...

    So we need to know.

    What are the plans for legacy Animation? The games I work on have long development cycles and I am often forced to update to new Unity versions and I do not want to transition away from Legacy Animation for yet another time, because Unity suddenly one days decides to make good on the implied promise of deprecating it that they've been making for many years now.
     
    april_4_short likes this.
  2. Kybernetik

    Kybernetik

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    I wouldn't particularly recommend the Legacy system, but as far as I know they said they're not going to deprecate it unless a new system can match all its features and performance. Animator Controllers are unlikely to ever be able to do that, but there's also the new DOTS Animation system they're working on. Of course, there's also the chance that they simply change their mind and get sick of maintaining it.
     
  3. AcidArrow

    AcidArrow

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    I have zero interest in DOTS and negative interest in a new Animation system from Unity. They haven't released a good animation related tool in a decade, why would they start now?

    I just want to know if legacy Animation is sticking around.
     
    april_4_short likes this.
  4. april_4_short

    april_4_short

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    Sorry to jump in with a distraction.

    Is there any chance you can do a before and after performance test?
     
  5. AcidArrow

    AcidArrow

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    Probably not, it would take some effort and that is extra Unity related effort I am not willing to spend, but also:

    1. It will probably take a while, so we will probably change other stuff as well in the mean time, so it wouldn't be conclusive.

    2. We will be replacing a lot of camera movements with just straight up Lerp / Bezier scripting, so it won't be a clean Animator -> Legacy Animation comparison.

    3. It's not that interesting, we already know Animator is laughably slow for simple stuff. We had a boids script for a flock of birds. Our first naive test had an animator for the wing flapping animation and it tanked the framerate very quickly. Legacy Animation was like 10x faster. And not having either of them and doing vertex animation in shader was another 10x faster.

    4. Also I think most users already know that the animator is dog slow, and more importantly even Unity themselves know. There is nothing to prove here. In fact Unity have already done the comparison:
    upload_2021-8-24_14-28-55.png

    The horizontal bar is curve count in each clip. So yeah, if you have an insane amount of curves maybe the animator is faster (and I mean, who has that many curves? It feels like they went that high just so they can show the animator being faster *somewhere*, even if it's not a realistic use case).

    For everything else (practically everything that isn't a complex humanoid animation), there is no contest.

    5. The performance isn't even the worst part of the animator. Every decision they made for it, from the terrible state machine controller, the mess with "default values", the weird "will it happen this frame or the next" issues, the whole F***ing root motion concept which is terribly implemented.

    Animator is not a tool to animate things in Unity, it's a tool to sabotage everyone working on and hoping to finish a game.

    So again, my question to someone from Unity that can answer it with some authority is:

    Is Legacy Animation sticking around?
     
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2021
    april_4_short likes this.
  6. april_4_short

    april_4_short

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2021
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    You're preaching to the converted.

    I'm long down the path of Legacy or it's nothing.

    Or really basic maths to change values over time.

    Sorry to have fired you up. Well, not really. It will serve others well, I'm sure!

    Hope it hasn't take too much time out of your day.

    All the very best with the conversions and mods!
     
    AcidArrow likes this.