SpriteMan 3D Support Thread!

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ETA on the update delivery?

 

It's been out since Jan 17th.

 

okay quick question... so i see you fixed the pause when changing direction, however now when you spin around, you do so immediately, without the rotation. in your older versions, it wasn't immediate. you would still keep some momentum and wouldn't pause, but your character would clearly rotate. is there a way I can restore this effect?

 

Yes you can. In PersonPlayerController.cs - method HandleMove().

Find this block of code:

Code (CSharp):

1. if (attackTimer <= 0 && movement != Vector3.zero)
2. {
3.     var newRotation = Quaternion.LookRotation(rot);
4.     rb.rotation = Quaternion.RotateTowards(transform.rotation, newRotation, 360f);
5. }

Change the 360f to something smaller. You can go a step further and make that be a public variable - look at walkSpeed and runSpeed variables for example.

 

Hello I'm having serious trouble creating AI for my game with this. I'm using PlayMaker to make the AI however it seems when I set everything up with raycasting and look at and all that other good stuff that goes into it the AI wont work like it will never look at the character direction or move towards the character even when in radius. I know I have everything set up right because it works with 3D capsules and cubes. So am I suppose to set it up as a 2D AI however then that causes issues with it moving on the Z axis. How could I do this to work properly? Is there a asset you may recommend? Its just not working for me.

 

hey Brandon - glad I could help you through email and that you got your models working with PlayMaker.

 

Can you make your reply to Brandon public on the off chance it helps someone with the same problem? Also can you incorporate the option to choose direction amount on a per animation basis?

 

It was more so me figuring it out myself but he gave some helpful tips on other issues I had. Basically I just had the rig set up wrong as far as the movement goes. If you're using UFPS like I was then its the vp controllers that causes issues because it seems that it interferes with the collision colliders and the raycasting detection. I fixed this by getting playmakers simple AI plugin for $14.99 because it has compatibility for UFPS and playmaker to make the AI work without heavy scripting. However if you wanted to get it to work without the plugin you would either need to remove UFPS all together and find a different method to get a FPS controller to work or go into it with some very heavy scripting and modifications.

 

Hi there,

I just bought SpriteMan for some Retro projects. I've learned how to use it with the Animation pannel and I'm facing some problems as I never did animation before ; Idle and Walk states are looping together on my first try as I don't know how to link actions, or Keys, and animations... (EDIT : I learned how to do this !)

I'm also quite disappointed SpriteMan doesn't have 32 Ways setup. I was about to recreate sprites from a game called Driver 2 Advance, which has 32 Ways car sprites. And I can't use these sprites fully. Will Spriteman have a 32 Ways setup someday ?

It's just a detail but I think you should improve the scenes that comes with the asset a little bit. The pixelated characters doesn't match the default glass textures and such...

Nevertheless, I hope this asset will be very useful in the future.

 

I added 32-way in the last update. It's there in the paid version.

 

Well, I got the full version yesterday, I only have 16 Ways.

 

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/sprite-management/spriteman-3d-47367

The latest release has the 32-way. It's definitely there - please make sure you have the latest version.
2017.3.2 (current)

Apparently some people were having issues with Unity not distributing the latest versions when they were using multiple accounts.

 

You were right ! I had to update the asset and I have the 32 ways now. Thanks.

 

I hate to be the one to bring this up again, but now I can't seem to download the latest version.

The SpriteMan 3D I'm able to download off the store (within Unity) only goes as high as 16 ways and there's no Billboarder script.

Which is a shame, because from the sounds of it, you fixed the problem I was having with the billboarding going in all directions, when I wanted it to rotate around Y.

I downloaded the previous version months ago, but I've reinstalled Windows since then, so it can't have been finding that one in the folder on c drive where Unity stores downloaded assets.

And I'm putting it in a project that's never had it before so it can't be anything to do with that.

I downloaded/installed it 3 times. It just keeps giving me the same one. It says it's VERSION 2017.1 in the UPGRADE INSTRUCTIONS file. I understand that should say 2017.3.2?

I'm using Unity 2017.2.0f3. Could that be it. It says on the Asset Store page that it's been "updated to Unity 2017.3" Is it possible that it's not letting me have it for that reason? Should you be uploading using an older Unity for maximum compatibility?

 

I've always released upgrades with the latest Unity release and never had complaints. Have you tried upgrading your Unity and see if it gives you the latest package?

 

I think that's the problem. Doesn't it work best if you release updates with the oldest version possible/reasonable, so it will work on every version after that.

If for no other reason than the fact that the Asset Store says we're downloading one version when, it turns out, it's actually supplying an older one.

I just looked at the latest assets on the Asset Store. Most of them say they're compatible with Unity "5.x or higher" Which I understand to mean the developer uploaded it with an old Unity (after making sure it worked on the latest one presumably).

It might be a little optimistic to expect your customers to stay on the bleeding edge of Unity releases. Some might be reluctant to update until a current project is complete. Also the latest Unity releases, like most software (looking at you Autodesk) aren't too reliable immediately after release.

So I installed Unity 2017.3.1 to a temp location so as to not overwrite the Unity 2017.2.0 I'm using, and it immediately allowed me to download the latest Spriteman 3D. Which I got the package for, uninstalled 2017.3.1, and imported into my project in 2017.2.0. And it works perfectly.

So I'd blame Unity for this really, it used to warn when an old Unity was about to download/install an asset released on a newer Unity. I wonder what happened to that.

The "Billboard V" option is perfect. Just what I was hoping for. And I can even think of places to make use of 32 way sprites. Thanks for that

 

Awesome! You're welcome. I'm glad you like it.

 

can you guys do a youtube video with audio where you set up some animations from scratch? working from prefabs was simple enough, but i've not been able to advance past them. i've set up my frames and create keyframes for them in the animator but my animation just sticks to the first and second frame, suttering between them. the animation is 16 frames on a loop.

 

encountered a bug.
when using 32 way and trying to assign sprites, the east by, north by, etc. outer circle, there is no button to assign them. there is a button for the idle state and it will work, but when using an additional state, like for walk, it doesn't exist, and there fore i am unable to assign my sprites. can you fix this and reupload?

edit : also, doesnt work for south south east, east south east, etc. when using 32 way.

 

Yeah, I let you know when it's ready.

Edit: I can't replicate that bug. You can also take a look at SpriteManager in debug mode. (top right dropdown button menu on the Inspector).

What it does sound like is that you maybe upgrade from a version pre 2017.1. The UPGRADE INSTRUCTIONS file say what to do in that case.

I would check your Direction Mode and Directions in debug mode - which I can't see from your screenshot. I'd double check those settings (change it and set it back to 32 way). I'm guessing that got 'lost' somehow - which will happen in certain upgrades. Maybe if you did an upgrade from a relatively older version. I'm just guessing based on things I've seen in the past.

You should be easily be able to see what's misconfigured in debug mode.

Basically, the editor scripts just do some automation to add all the right things to the component. Which technically can also be done manually in debug mode. All that said, give some of that a try and let me know.

Last thing to suggest is start from scratch with a new SpriteManager component. That's what I did and it didn't break like that.

And the last, last thing to suggest if nothing works out: compress your project and share it with me somehow - I can take a better look that way. abardandev@gmail.com

Of course, I'm also assuming you're using the latest version and followed the upgrade instructions correctly (doesn't hurt to double check). Latest version: 2017.3.2 - found in README file.

 

Until I make some videos... So you have to set all the Current Frame keyframes. And you also have to add the Current State Index property to the state animation. It's all there in the Animation section of the user guide. http://spriteman3d.punksterinc.com/Help

Also, you can compare your animator and animations to the demo ones in the package. You should be able to see pretty easily what's missing.

Let me know if you still have problems and help me help you by posting a screenshot or two. (we're running low on psychics here. )

 

I got rid of the bug by deleting and reimporting the asset. at first it still existed, but after deleting the states and adding them again a couple of times the issue went away. I still can't get the animations working. the frames don't increment. i've already added the current frame/state index properties. it runs through the samples correctly, but the frame stays at 0 until right before hitting the last sample and stutters for a moment on the second frame before returning to the first. I'm sure I'm just doing something stupid but after referencing the documents multiple times I can't figure out what.

 

What does your animation curves look like? I'm thinking the problem is there.

 

Ah yeah it's definitely something wrong with the animations curves. Whats an easy way to fix this, what caused it, and what do I do to avoid doing so in the future?

edit: i think i fixed it. i just edited each key incrementing by 1 and then set the time for the final key to 1 as well. is this what you would have suggested?

you might want to make a note in the documents. a lot of the people who use your asset may not have too much experience with unity, as I didn't. this is an assumption of course, but I bought this asset as creating it myself was above my scripting level and I wanted something tangible to start from.

 

Right, your keyframes need to increment from 0 to 15. The very last one can stay on 15. It's a good point - that's the one thing the docs don't show.

 

when rotating a camera, it appears that the player changes position slightly. is there a way to prevent this? i've tried to research it and apparently theres a difference between a billboard and imposter, but i've always thought they were the same thing.

 

Hello,

Is there a way to child multiple Managed Sprite objects to a single parent with it's one animator? I mean simply if you took one of the prefabs for example, and duplicated the Managed Sprite child, and then just moved it over a bit so you could see both of them, but otherwise everything is the same you just have two animated sprites instead of one.

thanks

 

alright, my rotation issue seems to be fixed. i don't know if changing the gravity or something, but it was preventing my collider from lining up with my sprites. i loaded a previous scene after fixing the gravity and the problem went away...

i noticed that when going through the docs that you mention that you can't adjust the sprite rotation without turning off the spritemanager. i use a rotational camera, but i also want to be able to rotate towards objects.

in your person player controller you rotate the rigidbody for sprite rotation, so does this mean that I can rotate the sprite?

do you have any pointers on how this could be done without breaking the effect?

edit: anyway, I noticed that you've been logging in and haven't been responding to messages. are you planning to continue development on this? also, what does the Vector3 offset variable do in the player controller? it doesn't seem to be attached to anything.

is there any advantage to using this over using blend trees?

does this support substates?

 

If you duplicate your player and move it over they're both controlled by the same controller and you'd basically have what you want but they're not the same parent

 

Hello long time no talk is this still being supported? Also is this compatible with Destructible 2D for a gore like system on characters? I bought this asset a bit ago and was wondering if it did because I don't want to buy the other asset until knowing. Here is a link: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/sprite-management/destructible-2d-18125

 

I haven't done anything for a while it seems and my dev laptop is down - needs to be fixed when I get some new parts.

My support probably won't be so great moving forward. I'll be happy to answer questions when I get around to them.

The asset makes like 2 sales a month on a good month - at which point ongoing anything is mainly just a hobby at best. Maybe it's time to just open source spriteman.

@KiddUniverse - the way to fix the shifting of characters - feet seem to slide around when you rotate camera (I assume that's what you mean) - is to put the pivot point of sprites at the bottom or feet of the sprite. But then you have another issue where the sprite can rotate too far around that from colliders depending on how free you want the vertical camera rotation to be. I just live with the shift and put the pivot in the center because my camera rotation is usually like modern third person game.

So the setup for a spriteman is to have a parent object, which works just like any other 3D character with colliders and such, and the spriteman is on a sprite as a child of that guy. That allows the sprite to be billboarded freely of character movement. Not sure why you'd want to rotate the sprite itself - it's being billboarded by spriteman and can't really be messed with independently.

I didn't know about the blend trees before you mentioned them, so I'll have to check those out. If you're trying to have rotating camera, then you'd probably still need some kind of algorithm to calculate the x/y directions based on camera direction/rotation.

What do you mean by substates? - you can parent spritemans together to have customizable clothing layers and such. Otherwise, spriteman really only needs to handle sprite billboarding and the correct look direction of sprites. Everything else is done through the animators and their variables.

@Gabe851 - you can parent spritemans together

Root Sprite Manager

Specifies the sprite manager that is root of this sprite manager.

SpriteMan now allows creating hierarchies of managed sprites. Ex: a body with clothing sprites above it. The body would be the root and should have this field left empty. Clothing sprites would use the body as the root (and have billboard unchecked).

@EHEBrandon - I don't know how you'd mix these components. When you make a sprite explode into multiple pieces I'd assume you can turn spriteman off at that point and let the other component do its thing. I don't see this interaction working without coding knowhow

 

Let me know if you do this. I am sure there are people in the community that would love it.

 

Please keep up the support this is a great asset that is good for old school like games. I'd donate to you monthly on a patron just to keep this project alive and well. Also I got gibbing to work properly now its just to get my AI to work right.

 

It's a shame to hear that there won't be as strong of support going forward, but it's nice to know that you'll still be answering questions. It's understandable if the asset isn't selling I guess. I'm hoping that it won't be deprecated, as if there's no support in the future that would definitely put a damper on things.

I'm starting to get further along to the point where I'll be needing to use your tools in order to customize characters and such.

If I use the batch tool, do i still have to individually assign every frame for every state for every additional layer, or does it automatically link the sprites based on their positions in the sprite sheet?

I was really hoping that you would make it so that you could customize the amount of directions per state. If I just don't assign frames to a state that I want to only be 8 directions as opposed to 16, will it automatically just use the nearest directional sprite to it?

like if I had the sprite set up to be 16 directions, but then for a specific state I only assigned frames for north west, rather than north north west, north west, and south north west, would it automatically use the north west frames when the character is technically in north north west or south north west degrees?

 

Q1: sprite sheet names and batches

Hey, so the batch tools match on frame names. Basically, you change the frame names on one spritesheet that you want to consider your master spritesheet. Then you use the 'Save Sprite Sheet Names' tool to create a 'Sprite Sheet Map'. You then replace the names of your other sprite sheets with the 'Replace Sprite Sheet Names' tool.

This workflow gives you an easy way to organize and match all the things you need. It also lets you re-slice the spritesheets if you ever need to.

Then the full version has the 'Sprite Sheet Batch' tool where it will do all the renaming for a list of spritesheets.

Q2: empty sprites

This depends: the master sprite manager will just use the last sprite that it displayed if the sprite it's trying to display was left empty. On child sprite managers it will hide the sprite. Ex: if a piece of clothing or weapon is not visible in a specific frame/angle there's nothing to show - so the correct thing to do is show nothing.

You'll basically need to set all the directions/sprites for things to display correctly even if there's duplicates. Ex: a death animation might only really need one direction - just set the same frames for all directions.

The good news is that the tools and batching comes to the rescue here too with 'Convert Sprite Sheet to SpriteMan State', 'Load SpriteMan State', and 'SpriteMan State Batch'. And of course the scripting support to easily load and swap states in game.

It might be a little annoying having to duplicate the sprites, but you're saved a bunch of extra setup when building multiple characters.

 

Hello,

I really like this product, Spriteman3D has been a total lifesaver while making my current project.

I have one thing I'm curious about that I want to ask,
While I want my sprites to be billboarded under every other circumstance to prevent them from flattening when facing the horizontally or when the camera rotates, ect, but I want to see them to visibly flip and rotate only when the character change direction, i.e: Paper Mario.

Would this be possible to do this with sprites managed by Spriteman3D? It'll be no biggie if this effects impossible to achieve, but I am curious to know.

 

Spriteman can't currently do the Paper Mario effect you're talking about, but if you know how to script well you can modify the package to do it. I don't think I'll be adding that feature.

 

i know i've accidentally had that Paper mario thing occur on the original version of spriteman before the 32 way update that also fixed camera movement. i had already rescripted the PPC for adjusting camera movement before the update did, but i don't know how i accomplished it, so take that for what it's worth.

 

hey glo. ran into an issue. so how would i go about splicing two different animations together using spriteman?

for instance, i have a sprite that i want to be able to switch between different block animations, while also being able to move around. so the top half would have to be independent of the bottom half, using a different state, while the bottom half would be in the "battle stance moving" state.

this approach is used a lot in twin stick shooters like smash tv, where the legs are using different animations than the body.

kind of like this http://gamedevelopertips.com/unity-run-2-animations/

i know you can use different layers by childing an object, but is there a way to do this using spriteman without having to do that? if i were to do that I would have to make multiple different block objects for every single piece of equipment, i actually have six different blocks, with six different weapon types, so that would be 36 child objects per armor that would then be activated/deactivated through script. how can i avoid having to do that?

 

I think I understand what you're asking, though I don't know what you mean by 'block animation'.

You can set up the kind of independent legs/torso system you're talking about, but only within the constraints of Spriteman. The layering is the way to go, using the extra tools I provided for that. Basically, you'll also have to create 2 spriteman systems that get controlled separately it sounds like. I haven't done anything that complicated, since having to create sprites for multiple directions is already pretty complicated.

If you're still trying to figure it out, send me an email with some screenshots and some sprites that you're trying to put together. I could take a better look at it. abardandev@gmail.com (also the best way to reach me.)

 

Hey glowe, first off, very cool asset. I'm still rifling through the documentation to set it up for my project, but I couldn't help but notice something right off the bat that I thought was a bit strange. In the demo scenes, four directional characters behave a bit strange when moving in diagonal directions.... I might hace this flipped, but you'll get the idea -- up left diagonal sees the character moving left, while up right sees the character moving up. Same for down diagonal, but flipped.... Down right is right, while down left is down. Is this by design, meant for isometric uses? Is it something that can be edited in the four directional characters? Or is that just how the four directional characters are made?

 

Also, I apologize if this is covered already in the documentation and I just missed it. I'll be searching through that a bit more in the meantime ☺

 

Sounds like what you want to do is set up a layer mask... There's a great video about making a tps game that shows how to do this really well with a 3d model... It might be useful to you if your familiar enough with spriteman to adapt it...

maybe that will help... Sounds like the tooling he added to sprite man should do what you need

 

Is it possibble to use SpriteMan for viewing Y-axis project sprites above and below, such as Rise of the Triad's GADs? Here's an example a the time:

You can see the metal elevator discs have different viewing angles when percieved from below, above or straight on.

 

Great tool and I've loved using it (been a long time user). I've always had this issue with clipping in my projects and I wondered if there is some simple way to fix it. I usually get a workaround by making the collision box larger but this is sometimes not desirable. Here is an example from a small scene I designed earlier:

I don't believe this is an issue with your tool but I was hoping that it was a common enough problem that you would have some idea of a solution.

 

this isn't already set up, but you could adjust the asset to do so if you're decent with scripting as the foundation for viewing the sprites from different angles is already there. it'd be a lot of copy and pasting and switching the axis. then you'd have do some editor ui scripting to incoporate the other axis.

the best part of spriteman is that it keeps which active frame is currently running in your animation and indexes it so that it if you change views the frame will be the same, making for some really pretty stuff if you take advantage of camera rotation and are decent with making sprites.

you would think with octopath traveler coming out last year that more people would be trying to make sprite based 3d games. i'd be interested to see a response to Ibonnage's clipping issue from Glowe, as i was having that same problem back when i was making sprite based games.

 

Thanks, yeah I don't know how apt I am at being able to figure out how to change axis for projection, it would be an awesome feature if eventually possible to change the angle of projection for these types of sprites.

 

Is @glowe about?

 

Alright, I'm crawling out from under my rock. New update is coming in the next few days! It's already been submitted for publishing and will be live in the next few business days.

Changes:
- Upgraded to Unity 2019.1
- added new option to SpriteMan3D Billboarder
- added the Spriteman3D Billboarder to all demo scenes
- finally documented the Billboarder

http://spriteman3d.punksterinc.com/Help

You can see the latest docs already.

Lots of people been asking about better billboarding options. There's one feature that's been available for a while, but I didn't document it last release. That billboarder has been updated with a new feature and is now fully documented.