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SLATE (Complete Gameplay Cutscenes & Cinematics Sequencer)

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by nuverian, Feb 29, 2016.

  1. nuverian

    nuverian

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    Hey,

    I have attached for you here a playmaker action that will jump the cutscene time to a specified section and optionally stop the cutscene as well. That will effectively also rewind time of course, if the cutscene time is after the specified section time.
    Let me know if that is indeed what you were after.
    Thanks!
     

    Attached Files:

    Crossway likes this.
  2. Crossway

    Crossway

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    Thanks but I get error after importing this action.

    Assets/ParadoxNotion/SLATE Resources/Extensions/Playmaker/Actions/JumpToSection.cs(32,22): error CS1502: The best overloaded method match for `Slate.Cutscene.JumpToSection(string)' has some invalid arguments
     
    Last edited: Dec 6, 2018
  3. namdo

    namdo

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    I was wondering could you make the finger rig from Final IK work in the timeline? While usiing look Ik and fbb ik is great, finger rig IK would be good too.
     
  4. Jakub_Machowski

    Jakub_Machowski

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    The same question :) Also question about master audio integration ;) I write few e-mail but probably you have no time to answer @nuverian
     
  5. nuverian

    nuverian

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    @Everyone : Please use the official forums for support and faster responses. Thank you!


    Hello again,

    I have attached for you here the fixed package.

    Thanks!

    Hello,

    I haven't yet take a look at the finger rig, but I think it would be possible, yes.
    Can you please make a new post on the official Slate forums with your feature request?
    Thank you in advance!

    Hey :)
    I have send you an initial Master Audio integration for testing to your email :)
    Let me know there if that works for you.
    Thanks!
     

    Attached Files:

    Crossway likes this.
  6. akuei2

    akuei2

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    Hi, I'm using Unity 2017.4.16f1 with latest Slate version 1.90.
    Here my problem:





    No UI display and console warning as draw UI fail ... any idea?
     
  7. Crossway

    Crossway

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    Pretty useful asset :) thanks.
     
    Last edited: Jan 19, 2019
    nuverian and hottabych like this.
  8. namdo

    namdo

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    Think you're ever gonna update the UI to use the current Unity UI?
     
  9. nuverian

    nuverian

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    @Everyone. I've stated this many times in the past, but once again, I no longer monitor these forums. Please join us in the official Slate Forums, or the official Discord Server for questions and/or support. Thank you!

    @Crossway Thanks!

    @namdo I am not really sure what you mean by saying "current" Unity UI.
     
  10. protopop

    protopop

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    Just a note - i went to the forum but it says its disabled:

    The website is currently being migrated to another server.
    Forums will remain disabled until the process is completed.
    Last updated 14:00 07-March-2019

    Im not a discord expert but i will try there
     
    nuverian likes this.
  11. dgoyette

    dgoyette

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    It's probably just temporary. I was on the forums over there yesterday, and started seeing the maintenance message today. Hopefully back in another day or two...
     
    nuverian and protopop like this.
  12. nuverian

    nuverian

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    Hey,

    The website migration to a better place (aka host) has finally finished and the forums are back online. The website should now be blazing faster than it was before (and hence the reason the migration happened in the first place). The documentations got a revamp and search bar, while the forums got a nicer text editor while all the above happened. Finally the website is now also secured (using HTTPS) for golden shiny locks.
    Everything should be in order, but if you find any problems with the website, please let me know.

    Thank you!
     
  13. atomicjoe

    atomicjoe

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    Hello there!

    Can anyone tell me how Slate compares to Unity’s built-in Timeline sequencer?

    Is it really better, faster or more user friendly?

    I know Slate was released before Unity’s Timeline so, is it still relevant now that Timeline exists?

    Thank you! :)
     
  14. TonyLi

    TonyLi

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    I prefer SLATE to Timeline. It's much easier to set up animation and camera movement, and to set up custom actions.
     
    atomicjoe likes this.
  15. Kiupe

    Kiupe

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    Hi @nuverian ,

    I'm trying to export a game to Windows Store targetting .Net as a scripting backend. Doing so Slate returns a lot of errors as the following screenshot shows off:

    slate_error.PNG

    Any idea how can I fix that ?

    Thanks
     
  16. BoboShu

    BoboShu

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    slate version 1.9.2
    unity 2017.4.25f1
    .net 4.6
    android or ios with il2cpp runtime had exception
    log:


    NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

    System.Linq.Expressions.Expression.CreateLambda (System.Type delegateType, System.Linq.Expressions.Expression body, System.String name, System.Boolean tailCall, System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection`1[T] parameters) (at <00000000000000000000000000000000>.0)

    System.Linq.Expressions.Expression.Lambda[TDelegate] (System.Linq.Expressions.Expression body, System.String name, System.Boolean tailCall, System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable`1[T] parameters) (at <00000000000000000000000000000000>.0)

    Slate.CameraShot.OnAfterValidate () (at <00000000000000000000000000000000>.0)

    Slate.Cutscene.Validate () (at <00000000000000000000000000000000>.0)

    Slate.Cutscene.Awake () (at <00000000000000000000000000000000>.0)
     
    Last edited: May 27, 2019
  17. nuverian

    nuverian

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    Hey, I have replied to your PM regarding this. It is revant to code stripping.
    Let me know there.
     
  18. nuverian

    nuverian

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  19. flo-feld

    flo-feld

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    hi @nuverian ,
    first of all i just bought slate and i love it. much better than unity's built in timeline. many thanks for the good work! :)
    that being said one reason i bought it was because i saw it has mecanim support. i understand that mecanim tracks are legacy and i should use the animator track instead. however the animator track only plays single animations and i really need to access my blend trees in the animator. is there some way to simulate blend trees with animator tracks that i didn't think of? for example is it possible to set the weight of a single clip instead of the whole track? but even than it would actually be an overkill to blend my 24 animations together frame by frame... :D

    with the mecanim track i only have to animate 2 parameters and it works just fine and as intended. the issue here is that every time i save my scene in unity the mecanim track looses it's connection to the animator's parameters that i animated.
    would be great if you could help me find a solution.

    i am using unity 2019.1.10 btw.

    many thanks in advance.

    Cheers
     
    Last edited: Aug 8, 2019
    atomicjoe likes this.
  20. nuverian

    nuverian

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    Hello there! I am really sorry for the late reply but I was on a summer break/vacation.
    Thank you. I am really glad to hear that you like Slate! :)

    Indeed, the Mecanim Track is prety much legacy due to the Animator Track, but of course you can use it as much as you like :) If you want to take use of the existing blend trees you have created then it is actually the only way. Regarding the Animator Track, you can have multiple Animator Tracks so that you can play multiple layered animation clips (optionally using Avatar Masks as well for each layer = Animator Track). There is no per clip weight, but I think this is something that should be there already and I can/will add it now that you mention it : -).

    Regarding the issue you mentioned I was able to reproduce on my end. Do you happen to get this warning in the console when this happens: "Animator is not playing an AnimatorController"? All I do in code is to get animator.parameters property. This issue was never there on previous versions of Unity and it seems it's a "new" Unity bug. It can also be reproduced with a simple script like this and regardless of Slate, if you just call the Context Menu of the script (attached on a gameobject with Animator), after you save the scene.
    Code (CSharp):
    1. using UnityEngine;
    2.  
    3. public class NewBehaviourScript : MonoBehaviour
    4. {
    5.     [ContextMenu("Do")]
    6.     public void Do() {
    7.         var problemAfterSave = GetComponent<Animator>().parameters;
    8.     }
    9. }
    10.  

    A workaround this I found working however, is that you can enter/exit playmode to make the Animator work again as it should. I know it's not the best solution, but hopefully Unity will fix this at some point. ( I will submit a bug report to them).

    Thank you!
     
  21. nuverian

    nuverian

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    @flo-feld Hey again. I forgot to mention or quote you on my reply just above, so I am doing it now. :)
    While the things I've state above hold true, I've also found a solution from someone else that was facing the same bug.
    I've made the required changes in the context of Slate and have attached for you the changes in a unitypackage. I did test it and seems to work after saving the scene now. Please note though that this is still a hack around the Unity bug and thus the warning "Animator is not playing an AnimatorController" will still show, but only once this time at least.

    Thank you.
     

    Attached Files:

  22. flo-feld

    flo-feld

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    hi @nuverian ,
    now I have to apologize for my late response. I didn't notice you already answered. :D
    Many many thanks for the detailed answer... I couldn't check out the solutions you mentioned yet but next week I start with a new assignment where I need to use Slate again and I will test it then.
    About the per clip weight. I think it would also be helpful if you would be able to animate those weights. Do you think that makes sense?

    Thank you and Cheers
     
  23. MostHated

    MostHated

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    I used Slate about a year ago with great success and wanted to make a new cinematic but have been unable to get Cinemachine to work. I downloaded what I believe to be the latest version of the 3rd party plugin but kept getting errors. I feel that Cinemachine is now considered a fairly important part of Unity / cinematic creation. Is there any chance native support for it is going to be added, instead of relying on a 3rd party?
     
  24. nuverian

    nuverian

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    Hey, Sorry for late reply here, but I rarely look at these forums. Please use the Slate forums or join us on Discord :)
    With that said, I missed adding per-clip weights in the latest version. Once I do however, I will make the weight animatable, yes! :)
    Thanks!

    Hey, Sorry for the late reply here. Have you tried using the native procedural shot system in Slate (Dynamic Shot Controller in the Shot clip inspector) ? I haven't give the Cinemachine extension a shot for a long time now, but I will to see what are the problems face now that you mentioned it.
    Thanks!
     
    ksam2 and MostHated like this.
  25. nuverian

    nuverian

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    Hi everyone.

    A new version of Slate that now properly supports and looks nice in the new Unity Editor GUI Theme (2019.3.x) has recently gone live on the Asset Store. If you want to check the whole changes of this update as well as the previous ones of course, they can always be found here: https://slate.paradoxnotion.com/documentation/change-log/ :)

    Thanks!
     
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  26. Game_DevKH

    Game_DevKH

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    Hey does this tool work with MadGoat SSAA & Resolution Scale https://assetstore.unity.com/packag...-effects/madgoat-ssaa-resolution-scale-86368? Does it use Unity's default camera or something? Perhaps.. should I worry about it or not because there's lot of stuffs that I use that are attached to camera to be rendered in run-time? If this tool doesn't care of whatever I use.. attached to camera or not.. it will be seen in playmode, right? I need to know the freedom of this tool's capacity before I have to purchase it
     
  27. imaginationrabbit

    imaginationrabbit

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    It would be really helpful to have a callback for when Slate switches to a new camera- Unity's post process Motion Blur detects a camera cut as motion and blurs the entire image on camera cuts- would be really useful to have a callback so we can disable/enable the motion blur on camera cuts to get rid of that behavior-
     
  28. nuverian

    nuverian

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    Hey,
    As I replied to the discord but for the completion of this thread, there is a static event that is raised when the camera switches, that being 'DirectorCamera.onCut' :)
     
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  29. imaginationrabbit

    imaginationrabbit

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    Thank for answering my last question- I have another :)

    I'm having issues when using a Particle system set to play in Worldspace when it is nested inside of a character animated with PlayAnimatorClip-

    This is in play mode btw- I know it plays back using local space in the Editor and it maintains the correct position/rotation using local space in both the editor and play mode- the issue is with world space-

    The position/rotation of the particle emitter is offset from the transform it is a child of- it does not play the particles from where the emitters transform is-

    The emitter is placed at the characters mouth here


    I tried playing the same particle system from the same character using Timeline and the emitter stayed in the correct position/rotation-

    I thought it was an execution order issue but I removed everything from the character except for the Animator and the issue persists-

    Any ideas? Thanks!
     
  30. imaginationrabbit

    imaginationrabbit

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    I solved this by creating a simple constraint script that set the particle systems position/rotation in FixedUpdate
     
    nuverian likes this.
  31. AGregori

    AGregori

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    Hey there, SLATE seems to be broken under Unity 2020.2 that was released today. Basically every file in the PartialEditor subdir throws an error. Here's one of many error messages:

    Assets\Plugins\SLATE Cinematic Sequencer\Design\Partial Editor\CurveEditor3D.cs(298,33): error CS0117: 'Handles' does not contain a definition for 'SphereCap'
     
  32. nuverian

    nuverian

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    Hello,
    I am currently working on fixing those errors for 2020.2 and I will upload the new version as soon as possible.
    Thanks :)
     
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  33. AGregori

    AGregori

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    Thanks for 2.0.1.: like you said elsewhere, it was just a few lines to fix since Unity2020.2 changed the handles terminology. Fixed it myself actually. :)
     
    nuverian likes this.
  34. silentslack

    silentslack

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    Hi,

    Can this plugin blend between timelines?

    For our project, we will be looking to branch from one timeline into one of two other timelines that is determined during runtime.

    Thanks!
     
  35. nuverian

    nuverian

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    Hello!
    Unfortunately and right now at least, blending between different cutscenes (eg animations on cutscene actors on those cutscenes) is not possible. When a cutscene takes control of an actor, it completely overrides any other already playing cutscenes having control of that same actor. With that said however, I will take a look at this possibility :)
    Thanks!
     
  36. silentslack

    silentslack

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    We went ahead with a purchase and discovered this for ourselves.

    However, we really would love this to be a feature. As a company, we are considering buying into the whole Node Canvas / Flow Canvas / Slate ecosystem for our title but it is wholly dependent on this feature (our game is made up of branching timelines). We have found a workaround with Unity's Timeline but not too happy with their tool tbh.

    Any update appreciated!
     
    atomicjoe likes this.
  37. atomicjoe

    atomicjoe

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    I'm interested in this too!
     
  38. SpacedPainter

    SpacedPainter

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    Hi guys I'm creating a cinematic video with Slate and after only a few camera short and keyframes added to the timeline it started dropping frames when I play the cinematics in play mode - any help would be much appreciated, many thanks in advance!
     
  39. UnityXizor21

    UnityXizor21

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    Today, I purchased Slate Cinematic Sequencers v2.0.2 from the Unity Asset Store.

    Here are two issues I am encountering right away.

    ISSUE #1 - SLATE CAMERAS IN HDRP (Overexposure?) I haven't tested URP yet.
    • Slate 2.0.2
    • Unity 2020.2.6f1
    • HDRP Project
    Scene and Game views appear normally, but gameObjects within the Slate Sequencer camera thumbnails and the Inspector > Shot Creator Preview Window are both near 100% white.

    ISSUE #2 - PATH FIND TO:
    • Slate 2.0.2
    • Unity 2020.2.6f1
    • Basic 3D Project

    I've attached a video of the NavMesh path issues I am facing.
    • Path FindTo seems to only obey the first bake of a NavMesh.
      • Changing a level and re-baking a NavMesh doesn’t update Slate’s PathFinder.
      • Clearing Nav Mesh and deactivating level objects still follows original baked NavMesh.
    • GameObjects used as Path Source & Targets cannot be repositioned once applied.
      • Path FindTo Source and Target must be removed before they can be moved around a level.



    Are these documented problems? Are there fixes?
     
  40. AGregori

    AGregori

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    Did you uncheck PostProcessing usage in Slate prefs? Perhaps Slate treats your project as SRP.
     
  41. UnityXizor21

    UnityXizor21

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    BUG: USER EXPERIENCE ISSUE
    Just a friendly heads up on this one.

    BASIC 3D Project
    This issue persists for all snapping levels (0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 30FPS, 60FPS)
    This issue persists when snapping is turned off.

    HDRP does not exhibit this behavior.

    I have replicated this twice with new Basic and new HDRP projects.

    Here is what I am seeing:

    Slate's timeline does not visually display frame accuracy while zooming in and out.

    This has been at the heart of so many of my frustrations throughout my first few days of owning a copy of Slate sequencer.

    Let's look at the problem in action:

    In Screenshot #1, a character gameObject is equipped with an FBIK Limb clip AND an animation clip yet he falls through the floor as if he has no animation applied at all. As you can see in the screenshot, the Playhead is positioned directly over both the FBIK clip and the animation clip....I STRUGGLED WITH THIS FOR DAYS!!!



    But then I discovered, by accident I might mention...

    that when I zoom in on the timeline, the Playhead was never over the clips at all. Slate Editor's timeline display is NOT FRAME ACCURATE.

    In Screenshot #2,
    You can see that the Playhead is in a completely different position than it appears to be in Screenshot #1. I haven't moved the playhead. I've only zoomed out to show more or less of the timeline.



    The playhead in both screenshots is in the exact same position. The only difference between the screenshots is the zoom factor of the Slate timeline.


    So much wasted time.

    And I'm discovering many more of these 'gotchas' throughout my use of Slate.

    For example, enabling auto key doesn't always create key frames. And Auto 1st key is a completely separate setting that requires enabling.

    Can anyone either validate my experience confirming this is a Slate issue or help me fix my personal setup.

    I'm on MacOS Big Sur.
    Unity 2020.2.6f1
    Slate 2.0.2
    Final IK 1.9

    P.S. Why is there SO LITTLE DOCUMENTATION and a black hole of tutorials for Slate sequencer? It appears that many reputable projects are using Slate. It's been around for a long while. Why is the learning curve so high?
     
    Last edited: Mar 12, 2021
    atomicjoe and AGregori like this.
  42. UnityXizor21

    UnityXizor21

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    Global Slate Editor Preferences > "Use Post Processing V2 Stack Defined" is unchecked.

    Screenshot of Slate's Native Camera Preview


    Screenshot of Slate's Cinemachine Camera Integration:
     
  43. AGregori

    AGregori

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    I hear you. It was by far the hardest 3rd party Unity tool to learn for our tiny team -- and that's because of its combo of an inherent difficulty and lack of in-depth tutorials.
    My hunch is that the author's true love children are NodeCanvas and FlowCanvas (amazing tools), and Slate is kinda left on the wayside.
     
    atomicjoe likes this.
  44. atomicjoe

    atomicjoe

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    I'm actually quite disappointed by the lack of a full documentation myself.
     
  45. UnityXizor21

    UnityXizor21

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    I've abandoned SLATE altogether. It was not working out. I wish the developer(s) well, but for anyone who's falling into the same problems and wondering what alternatives exist - here is what I've opted for:

    I'm using Timeline with Animation Rigging and Cinemachine for all IK animation controls and camera shot creation.
    I've opted to use Pegasus (way pointing) to take the place of SLATE's NavMesh Agent.
     
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  46. AGregori

    AGregori

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    @nuverian Did you ever address the frame accuracy and pathfinding issues that @UnityXizor21 brought up early this year?
    Or is Slate going MIA?
     
  47. nuverian

    nuverian

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    Hey,

    For the shake of completeness in this thread, I have replied to him on the official Slate forums 1 day after his post, but unfortunately never got a reply back. You can read my reply here. In short, the displayed behaviour is not something I was able to ever reproduce or have ever been reported before. Slate is frame accurate (or rather time accurate) and does not move things around on its own :). Regarding pathfinding it is a matter of moving the start or end point to recalculate the path, but I've changed this so that it is no longer a requirement.

    Slate is not going MIA at all. It is still supported and developed and I love it as much as I love NodeCanvas and FlowCanvas especially due to my 3D animation background :)

    If you are facing any issues, have any questions at all, or any feature suggestions, please drop by the Slate forums and I will be more than glad to address them!

    Thank you.
     
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  48. AGregori

    AGregori

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    My bad, @nuverian, forums in 3 separate places tend to be a little confusing. :)
    The referenced user suggested to use Timeline. For the record, I find even Slate 1.9x to be far more advanced than current gen Timeline.
     
    nuverian likes this.
  49. nuverian

    nuverian

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    Hey, no problem at all. Indeed it is hard to track so many different places (official forums, unity forums, discord server, discord PMs, emails). This is why I kindly suggest everyone to use the official slate forums for support questions, issues and requests since it far easier to track a single separate thread for each issue.
    Thank you for your positive feedback! :)
     
    AGregori likes this.
  50. Invirtuo

    Invirtuo

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    Hi! I am new to Slate and I have a problem with the characters (actors) disappear (flicker once) at the start of a cutscene ( from an Animator Idle state) and at the end before going back to Animator Idle state. I want to use Slate without camera transition.

    Can you help me fix it?

    Thanks for your help,

    Marie-Christine