[RELEASED] SoulLink Spawner

Videos
Some video tutorials showing some basic setup and usage in game development can be found here:

Playable Demos
Several playable demos are coming soon. Here is a sneak peek of one of them:

https://youtu.be/fP4W7Z3h5c4

Compatibility
Unity 2021.3 LTS and above

Discord
Follow along with development on Discord: https://discord.gg/ncW9UmU

Asset Store Link
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/slug/217662

 

Well done @magique for the release of your new asset.

 

Version 1.01 is live on the asset store. This versions contains URP and HDRP demo packages.

 

Great job, I like the idea of creating those biomes based on texture.

 

The 10% launch discount for SoulLink Spawner ends today.

 

Version 1.1.0 is in beta testing and adds Quest Machine and Polaris mesh terrain support. It also adds quest filters for spawns by biome and by area.

 

Thanks for adding Dialogue System and Quest Machine integration!

 

The current beta is still developing. I've added a Spawn in Air feature so you can spawn flying AI or even just have objects spawn and drop from the sky if you want. I've revamped the QueryTerrainTextures component and now you can just move your mouse around the scene view and see your terrain texture influences for defining your biomes. And, finally, I'm starting on adding Proximity spawning, which will be included in the 1.1.0 release.

Just a reminder. If you purchase Spawner, you can send me a direct message on the discord channel and gain access to the testing channel and have access to all beta releases.

 

I've added Proximity spawns to the current beta package. Now, I will add Proximity Filters.

 

Proximity Filters have been added and beta testers have received the package. Next I am adding Seasons and Season Filters. After that, I will be preparing for a 1.1.0 store release.

 

Seasons and Season Filters have been added and testers have a new beta package. I've decided to add some basic A* pathfinding support before releasing to store so I'm working on that part now.

 

I am in the process of preparing for a version 1.1.0 store release. I should be submitting the package in the next few days.

 

SoulLink Procedural AI Spawner Version 1.1.0 has been submitted to the asset store.

 

Version 1.2.0 is in beta testing and close to a store release. The major features of this new version are as follows:

• Added Suppression Radius field to SpawnArea
• Added Spawn and Despawn methods to SoulLinkGlobal for custom use scenarios
• Improved visibility of scene view query terrain textures information
• Added Delay Enable Agent field to Spawnable and EnableAgent to ISpawnable interface.
• Added season-based peak temperatures to the weather system for assets that don't support temperature.
• Added experimental SpawnOnTrigger script.
• Added Save/Load system through Pixel Crusher save system integration

 

SoulLink Spawner Version 1.2.0 is now available in the asset store. The primary feature added for this version is a full integration with Pixel crusher's save system.

 

SoulLink Spawner Version 1.2.1 is now available in the asset store.

 

SoulLink Procedural AI Spawner is part of the Procedural Worlds curated mega bundle that just went live. The sale will go from today until July 11th:

https://assetstore.unity.com/mega-bundles/procedural-worlds

 

Does it only work with terrain? Not on standard flat Unity gameobject surface

 

No, it works on mesh surfaces as well. However, you will not be able to use the Biome texture filters with regular meshes. All other filters should be available.

 

Attention game makers. Welcome to the second game making contest for SoulLink Spawner. Now is the time to pick up a license to SoulLink Spawner and start making games.

(Game Contest #2)
Make a game using SoulLink Spawner in 31 days.

(Rules)
1. The entry must be entirely new and cannot contain previous game projects in part or in whole. You must start a new game project from scratch no earlier than October 1st, 2022.
2. You may use either SoulLink Spawner 1.2.6 (or latest) from the asset store or the SoulLink Spawner 1.3.0 beta.
3. You can use any additional assets that you have a license or the rights to use. Be sure to provide all copyright and licensing information.
4. The game can be any genre or style that you choose.
5. The game can be either 2D or 3D.
6. The game must not contain any profanity or nudity or other offensive content. Keep it clean.
7. The contest is open only to valid SoulLink Spawner license holders. You may be required to provide proof of license if you are declared a winner.
8. Enter as many times as you want.

(Dates)
The contest starts October 1st, 2022 and ends at midnight, Pacific Time, on October 31st, 2022

(Submission)
When submitting your entry, you must make a stand-alone build. Zip the entire build directory of your game and upload to a file sharing service such as dropbox. Along with the zip file, please provide the following information:

Name of Entry
Name of Developer
Any instructions necessary for playing the demo
A valid Paypal account

Send notification of your submission along with the link and relevant information to support@magiqueproductions.com with the subject line SoulLink Spawner Game Contest #2.

(Winners)
There will be a single grand prize winner and 2 runner ups for the contest who will be chosen within one week of the close of the contest. The winners shall receive the following:

Grand Prize Winner:
1. $250 cash prize paid to a valid Paypal account
2. A free license to SoulLink AI when it is released to the Unity Asset store.
3. A voucher for World Building Bundle - 2021 Edition by Procedural Worlds
4. A voucher for either Dialogue System or Quest Machine for Unity by Pixel Crushers (winner's choice)
5. The entry will also be showcased in a video to be displayed on the SoulLink Spawner asset store page when version 1.3.0 is released.
6. A copy of all Magique Production RPG PDF products from DriveThruRPG

Second Place:
1. $100 cash prize paid to valid Paypal account
2. A voucher for either Dialogue System or Quest Machine for Unity by Pixel Crushers (whichever grand prize winner does not select)
3. A copy of all Magique Production RPG PDF products from DriveThruRPG

Third Place:
1. $50 cash prize paid to valid Paypal account
2. A copy of all Magique Production RPG PDF products from DriveThruRPG


(Rights)
All contestants retain the rights to their entries and may use them for whatever purpose they want including releasing as a commercial for sale product. All contestants grant Magique Productions, Ltd. the right to use their entries for marketing purposes to promote SoulLink products.

 

I've updated the prizes fort Contest #2. Grand Prize is now $100 cash prize, Second place is $50, and third place is $25.

 

Fantastic news. We have an official sponsor for Contest #2. This sponsor is donating to the cash prize pool. The cash awards are now as follows:

Grand Prize: $250
Second Place: $100
Third Place: $50

I will announce the sponsors details shortly.

 

Our sponsor is Brett Leavy of the Bilbie Virtual Labs Team, the creators of Virtual Songlines. https://www.virtualsonglines.org/

 

Official contest page:

https://www.magiqueproductions.com/contests/

 

Pixel Crushers has joined the sponsorship list and is donating a voucher for Dialogue System and Quest Machine. See the official contest page for how these additional prizes will be distributed.

 

Procedural Worlds has joined our list of sponsors and is donating a free voucher for World Building Bundle - 2021 Edition by Procedural Worlds. This is now added to the grand prize winner pool.

 

3DForge has just joined our growing list of sponsors and has donated vouchers for 3DForge Classic Kit Bundle and Medieval Village Kit Bundle

 

The contest is now officially a Game Jam on itch.io. here is the new link:

https://itch.io/jam/soullink-game-jam-1

 

Two Cubes has joined the list of sponsors and donated a voucher for Game Kit Controller.

 

Just over 20 days left to submit a game to the SoulLink Game Jam #1. Only 7 declared entrants so far so chances are good for grabbing some amazing prizes. Check out the Game Jam page for all the details:

https://itch.io/jam/soullink-game-jam-1

 

The SoulLink Game Jam contest results are in:

https://itch.io/jam/soullink-game-jam-1/results

Two entries had an identical score by my ratings. I've had to make a difficult decision and choose the second place winner from the tie. The official outcome is as follows:

Grand Prize Winner:
Nightmare Island Demo by Crimson Hills

2nd Place:
The Tower by Piyush2410

3rd Place:
Steal Baby Animals! by VardenEE

Congratulations to our winners and to everyone who entered the contest. I think everyone did a fantastic job and I really look forward to seeing the games improved and polished even more if the developers continue to work on them.

 

I noticed you have integration with several assets already, which is awesome. I was wondering if you've also planned an integration with Love/hate from PixelCrushers.

 

What kind of integration would you be envisioning? I had not planned on that integration, but if there is a compelling reason for it and I get enough requests then I would consider it.

 

Well, I'm going to use Dialogue in combination with Love/hate and Questmachine. Your SpawnerAI seems to be perfect for me for the animals. With the Love/hate combo it could be interesting to have animals also react more afraid or more willing to the player character, depending on how a character reacts throughout the game to animals.

 

I'm not sure how this relates to spawner integration, though. Would there be special filters or rules based on a player's love/hate values or something like that? Can you be more specific?

 

I think so, yes. I don't have your SpawnerAI yet (considering it as my next purchase in the next year ), so I'm not quite familiar with your system.
My idea is that the animals will respond to the player, but also keep it in mind, sorta speak. A next time a player would meet such an animal (not having it killed before, or maybe freed from a trap or something), the animal could react differently.
But maybe it's more for your Soullink AI?

 

Right, the features you are talking about are candidates for integration with AI system. However, we plan to have our own system for doing all those things rather than integrate with a third party system. The AI itself will have those kinds of features. I'm not saying we won't ever integrate with Love/Hate, but it will not be necessary to achieve what you want.

 

Ah, thanks for letting me know

 

Hi Magique, switched from Crux to your spawner, modified all codes for Emerald AI accordingly and all works fine. Note, some areas of my game don't use the spawner , those the AI has no problem.

Now it is when I tried to use your spawner that I'm hitting a wall, it appears to be simple enough, I think I setup all things right. Because I spent much more that expected back & ford between the demos, PDF doc etc, with no results. Below is are the problems.

1, AI consoles said AIs are not placed on Navmesh, there are infact fully functioning navmesh, Non-Soulink controlled AIs are walking on it. I used Navmesh Surface & Navmesh Adapter components to render Navmesh.

2, The Soulink AIs are showing up in the Pool alright, all disabled and in world coordinate 000. despite that I specify them to spawn in an Area, I used mesh, not Unity terrain.

3, There are a few Navmesh functionalities in your tool, I tried them all in different combinations with no effects.

I was not expecting it to cause me this long to try to get it to work properly. I wish you have a much simpler Mesh demo without all other avoidance blocks in it eg, just the traditional Navemesh scripts on a mesh to get the spawns, we usually customize other things ourselves. Also, since the codes alteration in Emerald AI are spanning multiple scripts, it will be time consuming to modify again & again, everytime the other Dev update his stuff.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by a much simpler Mesh demo. It sounds like maybe the Emerald AI changes may not be complete or correct if you're getting the errors you are seeing.

As far as the EmeraldAI changes required, I wish it could be simpler, but the developer of Emerald AI would need to fix his code so that the AI work properly in an object pool. I've given him suggestions in the past and he can freely see the changes I've made to get it to work, but he's never made the changes required. Maybe if enough of his users request it, he might make work in object pools and then there would be no code changes or at least very few code changes.

If you hop on my discord channel, maybe we can work out your issues there much more quickly once I get to my dev computer.

 

It could be related to Enviro3, or Time of Day errors that I commented out just in order to install SoulLink at all (It wouldn't appear under Tool otherwise.) I can send you the modified E AI script via email or message in this forum later at some point. But these are unlikely culprits as they thrown no error at all. ATM I put aside this tool and work on other things for now.

I have the latest Enviro3, no TOD. Please be sure to update your integration to the latest of these addons. I understand it must be hard to make compatibilities to so many. Personally I would ditch E AI without much thought for an alternative, but there are no obvious one for simple huge environment wildlife. For real smarter humanoid I already used BHD.

I will get back to the Spawner in the next assets update if I see no red errors during installation, a good efficient tool to mass deliver mob to large areas and save time is essential, I wish the Crux dev give it more love instead of focus on other things.

I & maybe lots of others too appreciate your continuing support and fixes for Opsive controllers breakage of this and that addons eg, E AI etc.

 

We do support Enviro 3 already. Version 1.2.16 had some enhancements for auto integration with enviro 3. I have other users that also use Enviro 3. I think maybe there might just be some fiddly issues with upgrading versions or other conflicts that we can resolve if we work together. We usually get these things resolved for Spawner users within a few hours at most once we get down to looking at it together. Definitely hop on discord and we can look at it more closely.

 

Latest version. Enviro related errors still there;
In \Integrations\Common\Enviro. You have both the older Enviro and Enviro3 scripts there. I have to delete the old ones and keep only the two V3 scripts. Then comment out all older Enviro lines in the editor script to be able to install Soullink (get the menu under Tools to show up).

Hope you look into this in the next update. Thanks!

 

I think the issue is that you might still have the old Enviro scripting defines in your Player settings.

 

I removed Enviro_ HD in the setting seem to fix it. However in your SpawnerMenu.cs, the _HW may be intended as HD?

#if ENVIRO_LW || ENVIRO_HW && !SOULLINK_USES_ENVIRO3

At some point I may enable HD in enviro, will see if that cause errors. Until then.

 

That code looks old. It's not supposed to look that way for new Enviro3. Possibly the update got reverted. What version are you using? Latest 1.2.17? If so, something got reverted for sure.

 

Change that line of code to this:

#if ENVIRO_LW || ENVIRO_HW

and a little further down where it says:

#if SOULLINK_USE_ENVIRO3

change to

#if ENVIRO3

At top of file change this:

#if SOULLINK_USE_ENVIRO3
using Enviro;
#endif

to

#if ENVIRO_3
using Enviro;
#endif

I will post new version asap.

 

SoulLink Spawner 1.2.18 has been submitted to the asset store.

-Fixed issue with auto integration of Enviro3 that was accidentally reverted.

 

Magique Productions, Ltd. is hosting SoulLink Game Jam #2. Already we have over $3,000 in asset store prizes. This contest focuses on the upcoming SoulLink AI system and a fantasy game theme.

https://itch.io/jam/soullink-game-jam-2

 

It's not too late to get into the SoulLink Game Jam #2. We have over $4,000 value in asset store prizes from the following great sponsors:

Procedural Worlds: https://canopy.procedural-worlds.com/

ArtenGame: www.artengame.com

3DForge: https://www.3dforge.co.za/

Pixel Crushers: https://www.pixelcrushers.com/

Toby Fredson: https://www.artstation.com/tobyfredson

UModeler, Inc.: https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/26411

LowlyPoly: https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/16677

Daelonik Artworks: http://www.daelonik.com/

Code Stage: https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/3918

MalberS Animations: https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/16163

Magic Sound Effects: https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/52827

3D Haven: https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/36677

Two Cubes: https://www.gamekitcontroller.com/

The contest is now open to use any licensed assets you own except competing AI products. The theme needs to be 3D fantasy, but that includes sci-fi fantasy as well as medieval fantasy.