Tips and tricks for using PlayableDirector in Manual update mode

The documentation on this is pretty sparse and infuriating so I'm including the completely undocumented things you need to do to actually control a PlayableDirector manually.

The main thing you're probably missing is that you always call

Code (CSharp):

1. playableDirector.DeferredEvaluate()

once per frame.

• Set your Update Mode to Manual.
• In an Update function, call
  Code (CSharp):

  1. playableDirector.DeferredEvaluate();
• If you want to advance the whole director, use
  Code (CSharp):

  1. playableDirector.time += yourDeltaTime
  .
• If you want to use the PlayableGraph object, for whatever reason, you must rebuild the graph at least once (try doing it in Start / Awake) or whenever your playable asset changes:
  
  Code (CSharp):

  1. playableDirector.RebuildGraph();
  2. playableDirector.playableGraph.SetTimeUpdateMode(DirectorUpdateMode.Manual);

 

Glad you took the time to document this doctorpangloss. Is there a reason why you recommend calling DeferredEvaluate instead of Evaluate? The former doesn't seem to be compatible with the Play mode in the editor.

 

I tried using the snippet

Code (CSharp):

1. playableDirector.time += yourDeltaTime
2. playableDirector.Evaluate()

and while seemingly working, it made all my FrameData.deltaTime equal to 0
(The info that is passed to

PlayableBehaviour.ProcessFrame()

).

So instead, i used what was proposed here and used

Code (CSharp):

1. playableDirector.playableGraph.Evaluate(deltaTime);

instead, which solved my issue.

An additional thing to keep in mind is discussed here:
Manually evaluating the graph is more like a scrub then a playback, so notifications and audiotracks are not working