[RELEASED] Nottorus - Unlimited Visual programming plugin

Man! You did Epic work! I really will buy this one when i will do my own game, because i love blueprint like stuff. Never imagined that somebody like you created thing like that for almost more than one year of your life! And of course i must say - you put a good price for it! Nice job!

 

He should thank us to give him hints about what is good and not , it is like the feedback about Unity prices changes, or why this could not sell well
Anyway i give up about Nottorus plugin. Good luck.

 

I agree completely Zen, but I think the tone that was taken and the disingenuous uproar over all of this was unnecessary.

No one asked me, but if I were to offer an opinion on piracy, and keep in mind I've been a game developer for a very long time, but short of online verification like Steam, copy protection doesn't work. Then again did Playmaker need copy protection to be ultra-successful? Nope.

I can easily see RD's point, but I'm can't be bothered to sweat it.

 

EDIT: 9/12/17
Nottorus no longer has copy protection or "cloud compilation". I'm clearing out my copy protection posts because they no longer apply to Nottorus. Thank you Stridermann for making Nottorus hassle free to use.


Nottorus is by far the best tool of its type that I’ve ever seen. You have done a great job supporting and refining Nottorus. I feel sure that you will do a great job refining Nottorus’ business model over the coming years into a solution that protects and serves us all very well.

 

About the piracy thing.

I also really wish Unity had some sort of security implemented by default on all assets, I really like to support developers anytime I can so they can keep helping in growing what makes unity so strong that is the AssetStore.

I've seen very good Assets getting deprecated because of lack of sales, like Jove And I'm actually Ok with Stridemann implementing Security.

Having your work pirated feels really bad, that's why I'm 100% ok with companies taking security measures... sometimes sadly a piece of software is easier to use on the pirated version than the original because of all the measures.

But I'm sure that the measures taken by Stridemann are not too drastic, most paying customers will not have a problem with it.

There could be some cases where it becomes annoying having to reactivate the product or something like that, but I have to do it every now and then for a lot of things I own.

I have to re-activate Unity each month beacuse of the subscription... I also have to enter my user name every now and then because Unity likes to log off randomly... Sometimes I can't even open Unity offline because the Work Oflline button doesn't work.

So I really don't care much about that.

RD pointed out some valid concerns, and I'm sure Stridemann is listening and will try his best to make this as less annoying as Possible.

As for me.. Each time I have to validate the product instead of being annoyed by it, I will see it as me helping at least a little so Stridemann can keep adding features and improving the tool.

anyways, to end this, I just want to ask to paying customers to don't be so harsh about this, if you have a specific technical problem with the licensing, I'm sure Stridemann will listen to your case, just talk to him and he might want to find a workaround to help your specific case... he's been so open on taking feedback and implementing requested features.

 

I think many have made some good points for both cases. For the record, I do believe that the developer should protect his asset from misuse. Piracy is something that must be avoided and I support the protection means, as long as legitimate customers have no issues stemming from those mechanisms. If the developer continues to foster dialog with current and future customers about possible scenarios, I'm sure a compromise can be found.

Keep up the great work!

 

Just wanted to say hey. I've decided to purchase. This asset looks great and I cannot wait to dig into it.

 

Sup guys, I have been off in my own little world for some time now. It's been very busy, I had to get 1 renter out, and 2 new ones in. Company is going a merger now, and I have been playing a lot of stellaris so I have been nothing but a simp the past few days. I will probably start hammering a bit more on Nottorus, but there are some other things I need to get too. It is good to see that other folks are interested in this asset!

 

Is it Piracy or is the price to high?

Mind you I've already bought the plugin, and it's incredible! I've upgraded to 1.07 and inputted my invoice, but if that's something we have to keep doing, it's going to become a pain. I don't blame Stridemann for trying to protect his work. I understand why it has to work this way. I just wonder...

What is the balance between people pirating it because they can't afford it, people not buying it because of the price, or is this a huge problem that all plugin authors have to deal with which needs to be solved on Unity's end?

 

Your question is actually impossible to answer. Some people will pirate just to pirate, they get a kick out of it the same way a klepto cannot resist getting a 5 finger discount on a Kit-Kat or Rolex.

But I can speak on the being too poor part of piracy. When I was a teen and had no money of my own, any games that I wanted to play that I could not either earn $ for or beg my parents into buying for me were pirated. I still even support piracy for the purposes of try before you buy IF there is no demo of the product available. Now, if a kid wants to play a game but never will have the chance without pirating it... well I would not be the type to get pissed about it, even if it was one of my own assets being stolen.

In regards to development. I tend to look at this a bit differently. If you want to develop a game and especially make some money on it for yourself, then you OWE IT to the community to pay for assets. I don't know if piracy is as big of a problem as everyone says it is, but I can understand the concern any developer/publisher of a product has regarding it.

Now if someone tries anoth starforce or Sony rootkit DRM, then I think the community owes it to itself to avoid the product like the plague and do nothing with it at all, other than the necessary pissing and moaning so the reason for failure is clear. That sends the best message, even better than just pirating the product and thumbing your nose at "The Man".

Now regarding the price of assets. It really is hard to determine the value of some things. Nottorus is not necessary for developing a game, heck pretty much none of the assets are. You can go and hammer out your own code and do it all yourself. But what you do get, is the convenience and that is often time worth the very cheap prices being asked for most assets. There is also the situation where people are not willing to be an early adopter for new assets as well. And part of that early adoption is a higher entry point in $$ and really just bragging rights. Either way, someone has to stick their head out and pioneer something, so pirating an asset because you hate the price or cannot afford it is really not even close to a valid excuse to one pirate the product in the first place or as an excuse to get the price lowered.

So if the asset is worth pirating then it is damn sure worth buying... that is the only way to say that. If you cannot afford the asset, the question comes down to, do you really need it? Does it offset its cost with increased productivity on your side? Well, lets just say yes and no. I can code faster without any visual tools Nottorus included... heck I can still write code that Nottorus does not understand, but I can DEBUG faster with Nottorus than anything else! And debug can take a lot of F***ing time, and I can follow the Visual code easier with Nottorus than eyeballing lines of code in search of ways to optimize or just out right alter logical flow.

S*** I am rambling now....

 

Yay \o/

 

Hahaha yeah I had one of my games turn up on a crackers forum. I thought awesome man! I seen all the angles and figured it was a plus for reasons you state.

Of course man. Maybe the writer should ask everyone if he could place a watermark on the splash page of every project "coded with Nottorus". I don't think any would disagree and it would keep it real man.

Yes I haven't read all posts yet but I browsed and agree that individual programmers like me find the price high. You pioneers pave the way for us small time folk and we'll join you down the road when the dollars go down.

Go Broncos

 

So simmilar to UE4's Blueprints, love it already

 

Amazing great start for the online check. I REAAAAALLY hope that this is not going to happen to me often.
Tried closing Unity, restarting the PC, reimporting Nottorus but still cant get pass the god damn error #1.

What can I do?

 

After a second restart the editor did open but a few seconds latter the little window popups again asking me for the invoice. I copy paste it from the assetstore transactions but nothing seems to happen. A very good thing would be that the system does give you some feed back like "Invoice invalid", "Unable to connect", "Server is down", etc, so at least I know whats going on.

 

This means that unity editor can't open the site. You can test the connection using the attached file. Just assign it to a gameobject and press play. You will get exact name of error in the console.

"Error #1" mans that the www. error string is not empty. I shoud write the correct error name, sorry, its my fail.

 

Error: Rejected because no crossdomain.xml policy file was found
UnityEngine.Debug:Log(Object)
<Start>c__Iterator0:MoveNext() (at Assets/LoadTest.cs:13)

 

By the way, I've sen't you an email with my invoice. Just in case.

 

Oh, I see, you switched to the webplayer application build.

If you switch the build settings to PC/Standalone everything it will works fine. I will think how to fix this, but for temporal fix just do this once a day to allow the license server make the license.

"crossdomain.xml policy" its a feature of webplayer: "This security restrictions apply only to the webplayer, and to the editor when the active build target is WebPlayer..." http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/SecuritySandbox.html

 

@Stridemann is this Windows only? I'd like to give it try on mac OS

 

It works on MAC except "final error checking" (optional feature).
I wrote about this in manual (6.7. Compiling script).

 

Also works on Linux.

What happened to this forum? There's been no news in the last week or so. It feels like everything got off track and now there's a bad vibe in here or something.

Anyway, still loving this plugin and my game is coming along nicely. Recoding it completely using Nottorus

 

Yea thought that was a bit odd myself...

 

I've been very very busy with work this month, So I haven't contributed much lately... but I Still check the forum almost everyday to see if someone has problems and I can help them... But I'm planning on getting more active soon

 

Yeah, even though I'm getting programming done, I've spent a lot of time lately learning the Linux environment and getting it all setup to my liking.
GNOME shell ftw

I'm hoping to get things back on track this weekend.

 

yea, life has a bad habit of things being feast or famine. I might be able to get to a few things in the next couple of weeks. I keep thinking that I will have some time coming up soon but something gets in the way.

 

Hi @Stridemann I'm interested in knowing more about how the state machine system in Nottorus works. Could you (or anyone else) explain or show me how you hook up the state machines to your code? Do the state machines get converted to code along with the rest of the nodes or is it saved as a separate asset (like mecanim graphs). If I could see a before/after showing how a state machine + nodes look when converted to C# that'd be great too. Thanks!

 

ECHO...Echo...echo...echo...echo...echo...

 

Sorry, I forget to answer..

Nottorus State Machine is very similar to a unity animator controller... creating states, transitions, setting up the transition conditions.. You can write own code for any event of node or transition. Here is a documentation for SM (events description, transition modes, etc.)

SM can be added to any monobehaviour script (that can already contain some game logic) and it generated inside script file. It use the SM core script (open source) that contains SM classes and goes with nottorus plugin.

Here is an example (from nottorus example project) of state machine code that generated in monob. script:

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2. private UnityEngine.Animator _animator = null;
3. private bool _animationTrigger = false;
4. //other script variables.....
5.  
6.     void Start()
7.     {
8.         _InitialiseStateMachine();
9.         _animator = GetComponent<UnityEngine.Animator>();
10.         //other script logic.....
11.     }
12.     void Update()
13.     {
14.         _StateMachine.UpdateStateMachine();
15.         //other script logic.....
16.     }
17.  
18. #region stateMachine
19.     //////////////////////////// State Machine /////////////////////////////////////
20.     private NSM_StateMachine _StateMachine = new NSM_StateMachine();
21.     private void _InitialiseStateMachine()
22.     {
23.         //// States:
24.         var _state_0 = _StateMachine.AddNewState("Entry");
25.         var _state_1 = _StateMachine.AddNewState("Wait for a ball hit trigger");
26.         var _state_2 = _StateMachine.AddNewState("Start Animation");
27.         var _state_3 = _StateMachine.AddNewState("Change camera target");
28.  
29.         //// Transitions:
30.         var _transition_0_1 = _state_0.AddNewTransition(new StateM_Transition(_state_1));
31.         var _transition_1_2 = _state_1.AddNewTransition(new StateM_Transition(_state_2, true, 0.5f));
32.         var _transition_2_3 = _state_2.AddNewTransition(new StateM_Transition(_state_3, true, 1f));
33.         var _transition_3_1 = _state_3.AddNewTransition(new StateM_Transition(_state_1, true, 2.4f));
34.  
35.         //// Subscribing for events:
36.         _transition_1_2.OnStartTransit = _transition_1_2_On_Start_Transition;
37.         _transition_1_2.OnEndTransit = _transition_1_2_On_End_Transition;
38.         _transition_1_2.TransitPosition = _transition_1_2_Transition_Loop;
39.         _transition_2_3.OnEndTransit = _transition_2_3_On_End_Transition;
40.         _transition_3_1.OnEndTransit = _transition_3_1_On_End_Transition;
41.  
42.         //// Transition Conditions:
43.         _transition_0_1.TestAllowTransit = delegate { return true; };
44.         _transition_1_2.TestAllowTransit = delegate {  if(_animationTrigger) {_animationTrigger = false; return true; } return false; };
45.         _transition_2_3.TestAllowTransit = delegate { return true; };
46.         _transition_3_1.TestAllowTransit = delegate { return true; };
47.  
48.         _StateMachine.InitStateMachine(_state_0);
49.     }
50.  
51.     //// Events
52.     private void _transition_1_2_On_Start_Transition()
53.     {
54.         _ball_Rigidbody.isKinematic = true;
55.     }
56.     private void _transition_1_2_On_End_Transition()
57.     {
58.         _ball.parent = TeleportPosition;
59.         _animator.SetTrigger("StartConversion");
60.         _newSpawnedBall = (Instantiate(NewBallPrefab, SpawnPos.position, SpawnPos.rotation) as UnityEngine.GameObject);
61.         _newSpawnedBall.transform.parent = SpawnPos;
62.         _newSpawnedBallRigidbody = _newSpawnedBall.GetComponent<UnityEngine.Rigidbody>();
63.         _newSpawnedBallRigidbody.isKinematic = true;
64.     }
65.     private void _transition_1_2_Transition_Loop(float _transitionDelta)
66.     {
67.         _ball.position = UnityEngine.Vector3.Lerp(_ball.position, TeleportPosition.position, _transitionDelta);
68.     }
69.     private void _transition_2_3_On_End_Transition()
70.     {
71.         BG_CameraController.Instance.FollowObject = _newSpawnedBall.transform;
72.     }
73.     private void _transition_3_1_On_End_Transition()
74.     {
75.         _newSpawnedBallRigidbody.isKinematic = false;
76.         _newSpawnedBall.transform.parent = null;
77.         Destroy(_ball.gameObject);
78.         _converterEnabled = true;
79.     }
80.     //////////////////////////// End State Machine /////////////////////////////////
81. #endregion stateMachine

 

@Stridemann thanks for the info, very helpful. Is there an API list somewhere of all the available functions for the state machines? (I notice for example that the UpdateStateMachine function isn't on the page you linked)

One of the things I'm interested in is hierarchical state machines, where a FSM can behave like the state of another FSM. Would this functionality be possible by calling the UpdateStateMachine function of one FSM from the StateLoop function of a state in another FSM?

 

No, because basically the state machine is generated automatically by using state machine tool (using the plugin) so there is no documentation for SM source classes and functions. Almost all available functions is shown in that example. The state machine is very simple and good optimised, so it's not difficult to understand its source code.

I never work in FSM, but its possible to create that example code with nodes in Nottorus and do what you want (hierarchical/nested state machines, changing the transitions and transition conditions in runtime, etc.)

 

Excellent! And I imagine that even if that wasn't the case you could still use Nottorus to build custom editors or FSM systems and stuff since from the screenshots and video it seems you can do that. I'm most likely going to buy Nottorus soon.
One more thing, could you show me what the example script you posted above looks like when parsed into Nottorus nodes?

 

Nottorus still have a problems with parsing anonymous methods and delegates (transition conditions).. (I cut-out them before parsing). But they can be made manually. Anyway the parsed script will looks like this:

Spoiler: Parsing result

 

Awesome, thank you very much! This helps me understand how Nottorus works much better

 

Crazy how this forum died so quickly!

...anyway safe to assume Nottorus works just fine the newly released 5.4?

Thanks guys!

 

Would it be possible to see the roadmap (with approx timelines) for future releases?

The forum has been quiet for some time now and it seems that development too has been limited to bug fixing.

 

Hi guys, I was busy last time, but anyway I still reading both forums and fix all reported bugs. Last update was few days ago and for now I'm working on implementing new feature: favorite nodes list. http://nottorus.net/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=107

And I don't know which design for "Favorite+" and "Favorite-" buttons is better.. I think upper variant is better (with simple button):

My roadmap is empty because all possible features allready released, so for now I'm working on features that offered in "Feature request" thread.

 

Done:
Will be available in new update.

Spoiler: Favorites

 

Nice That feature is cool, was suggested a while back.

since you're already on improving that list, could you sort the default nodes alphabetically? (also the Data nodes)



About the F+ and F- , could they be Unicode characters? or just the + , - ?

Black Star: ⋆
White ☆

Also another quick request that I've forgoten... could you make the default increment value for the For Loop of 1?

Right now the default value is 0, and that's a little annoying since like 99% of the times I make a For Loop it will be i++, so everytime I have to change the increment to 1.

 

I've posted in feature request thread a request for a better mac support.
As currently it's not very convenient to work on a mac platform especially on a macbook's touchpad

 

The most often usable nodes at the top of list, and I think that is correct. But is isn't hard to me to re-place it.

In my todo list.

Done, thanks.


I have a problems with unity color picker (so buuggged), so I decided to make my own:

Spoiler

Looks and works like original, but its mine

UPD: Renamed "Color picker" -> "Color"

 

Looks good!
Though I am more of a HSV/HSB fan

 

Yes I've noticed they're arranged like that... and I understand that is usefull in some cases, like FlowControl being the very first inside FlowControl.

Perhaps a checker on the settings menu? to sort alphabetically or by Use?

anyways the new "Fav" feature also would help finding nodes easier.

 

Yep, will be available in new update.

Done. I add HSV and finish it at all:

I still do not understand.. why do you need to press Command + delete in MAC to delete the node (does it is a specific/particular working on MAC), I don't know how can I help you here.. What should I do?

>>I currently haven't found a way to pan on the graph with a touchpad on MacBook. I can pan only using mouse (RMB)
Yes, for now RMB only is supported.. For handling a touch I we use the Input.GetTouch(0), but it works only in game but not in editor plugin. There must be another way...


UPD: v1.10 published, waiting for approvement.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Version 1.10

Improvements:
- Added "Favorite nodes list" feature for "New node list" window.
- Added custom color picker.
- Added "Sort the default nodes alphabetically" option to Options panel.

Fixes:
- Fixed an error "get_dataPath is not allowed to be called from a ScriptableObject constructor".

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

On most Mac keyboards

there is only "delete" key which behaves like "Backspace" in Windows

So basically macs do not have "delete" key. To get "delete" (like in Windows) we have to press "fn+delete"
and that's a pain in the bum obviously
So Unity is using "command+delete" instead for "delete" like behaviour
But in Nottorus this is not possible at the moment. So the only way to delete a node is "fn+delete". Not critical but obviously not that great either. That's why I'd suggest to use Unity's way of deleting - "command + delete"

As for the panning the only way I've found to pan on touchpad on Mac is to click with two fingers simultaneously and then pan while holding touchpad pressed which is not easy. As there is no right mouse click on touchpad.
In Unity's animator tab (mechanim state machine) I can just pan with two fingers touch without click which is very convenient. But sadly this is not working in Nottorus.

I understand it's a tough feature to do especially if you are not a Mac user. but it would make mac people's lives so much easier =)

Thank you for the amazing updates by the way!

 

If I add an option to changing delete KEY it will solve your problem? For example you can change it to Backspace or Control+Backspace or any other combination.

(Thanks, one more reason for me to hate MAC)

Spoiler

PS. For now I can't find a solution for panning on touchpad.

 

Guys,

I can't help but look in, really wish this tool succeeds for the sake of the Unity community... I do not use Nottorus in any shape or form, nor do I actively "test" it. I'm a programmer, doubt I'll use it even if Unity embeds it.

That said...

@Stridemann

The Nottorus profile page still links to the new forums. Active posts are on the old forum. You may be losing customers if people are thinking there are no posts as per your link...

 

So what a hell is this?? :

Spoiler

Two identical unity forums? What a hell they doing?
I just decided that they update forum's design.. and update the links..

PS. Okay, thanks, I will fix that..

 

Hi Stridermann I bought Nottorus a few days ago and first off this is the absolute best visual scripting solution on the Asset Store and it's already become my favorite package that I've ever bought! A question though is it alright to sell the c# scripts that are made using Nottorus? I noticed that every time a Nottorus script is made it automatically makes a c# script according to what's being placed in the Nottorus Editor. So yeah I was wondering if it's okay to market the c# scripts to the Asset Store that are generated using Nottorus because I would like to make plugins for different toolkits for Unity and I'll have a better chance of achieving this with Nottorus rather than writing c# scripts the traditional way if you know what I mean.

 

Yes) Sure, go for it.