Uni2D tool: A new amazing way to create 2D games in Unity!!

@p6r Hello, unfortunately this demo is not available for the public because it's a WIP project.
The character controller has been initially developed for a other pack.

Here is the first public presentation of this project!
With Uniart Skinnable 2D character pack you'll be able to re-skin an existing pre-animated puppet very easily and quickly get a 2D character controlled character in your game

We're looking to integrate this controller in stable release of Uni2D but we don't know currently when.
There is no date yet for the upcoming Uniart package too.
Check your mails for more details

 

OK ! Thanks for all the infos...
Great and very interesting demo !
e-mail received too.

6R

 

Would be possile to import fbx animated bones and use it with Skinnable 2D character? that would be great and I could use motion capture data for 2d animation for more human-ish characters

 

@cg_destro Our character plugin will comes with animations that you could improve or add to a setup done without any skeletal bone structure.
That said, with our character controller you could imagine import and drive any bones structure.
So you could imagine working on any workflow to finally import it to Unity and drive it with our character controller.
And if you want to combine it with Uni2D you could create animation outside Unity and import them with the only constraint to have the same name/structure than with your current scene graph.

 

Hey Bento Studio!

Just a quick question, how can I get sprites to batch together without using atlases? Say I have a whole bunch of static 'star' sprites in the sky, using the exact same sprite. They don't seem to batch?

 

Hello @Prodigga!

The classic behavior if you use the same sprite is that it will be batched automatically.

Maybe you have scales in your transform. Unity doesn't allow batching on elements that have been scaled. So you have to use the "sprite scale" (in the uni2D inspector) option instead of the classic transform component to keep bathing on your sprite. Since 2.1 you can configure non uniform scales.

If you have bones on your stars, please don't forget to active manual CPU support on the "skeletal rendering skin mode" in order to benefit batching.

If you have set grid or mesh render, check that you are under the 300 vertex Unity batching threshold limitation.

If you don't consider atlasing for this sprite, note that you can use the "shared material" option to get the same render aspect on all your sprites controlled by the same material.
This implies to create a new material ressource and fill the shared material field with this new material for each of the concerned sprite. This is working with a multiselection.

Hope this helps to solve this batching problem!

 

Hey thanks for the reply

For some reason that isn't working for me. I can however get batching to work if I create an empty material (alpha blended particle) and assign that material as the shared material for all my stars. This is that dynamic batching in action. I thought uni2d did something like this internally (if the shared material value is null, internally set the material as the material instance used by all other instances of that sprite)

I am going to write an editor script to collect all child uni2d renderers of the selected scene object, find all similar sprites, create a material for them all to share somewhere in my project and assign it to them. It's a pain to manually create a material for every sprite in our game and keep then up to date with the sprites (when sprites get added, renamed, deleted, etc). I'll report back with how I went

 

@Prodigga Thanks for your feedback! Great idea!

 

Yo!

So I went ahead and wrote something for myself to help me batch things. I am working on a game with Red Finch Studios and our scenes really needed batching. This script gives you 2 new utillities. Utillity 1 creates a material for each unique texture referenced by the Uni2dSprite gameobjects you've selected and assigned their shared material to this newly created material (Batching them!). The other utility resets the Local Scale of all of the selected Uni2DSprite GameObjects to one, and instead sets the Uni2DSprite scale value to what the Local Scale used to be. (Because scaling breaks batching!)

This script is free for whoever wants to use it! You can find it here.

Also, here is a video of it in action!

 

@Prodigga Wow awesome! this is indeed a great time saver to get batching... and it's very efficient!!

 

Thanks, you are all welcome.

 

2D character controlled can be welcome
it's possible to stop uni2D recompile all asset always and do it only manualy when is needed ?
if i make 2D plan and drag sprite on bones parent i can get same result over here?

 

Hello,
Ok for 2D character.
For the recompile pb we're aware of this but it's due to a Unity behavior that can't be solved yet.
About your last question if you put any other object than Uni2D objects on the hierarchy they will not be deformed by torsions.

 

can't be solved yet is bad news because it's realy killing the work flow on time it's take
yes it's can do the job

 

Hello. I've been using Uni2d 2.1 for some time, as an animator i think it's a great tool, thanks!
I've got few ideas that could solve some graphic issues:

1. Sprite mesh generator could have option that is found in photoshop called 'puppet wrap'. Its just existing in Uni2d 'Texture to mesh' option, but with more subdivisions inside. That solves the problem of jaggy edges which occure in 'Grid' option, and saves a lot of poly count.



2. Ability to control binding weights would make the tool much more powerful. Now there's only bone falloff parameter for all bones.

3. Small issue: i'm not able to move the scene with middle mouse button while in 'posing mode'.

Overall, easy to use skeletion and deformations are now what Uni2d makes better than other tools, maybe improving this is the way?

 

maybie you can use use physics setting

 

I tried it and unfortunately generated mesh is too much uneven for handling heavy bending nicely. It isn't bad to use it on some delicate distorsions. Grid mesh works for me (well i do not have other option ) with many subdivisions, but I still think that putting 400 polys for small graphic is a little bit overkill.

 

Really great work...

I am super curious though about on technical aspect of this that I see you doing.

It appears to me that for the dynamic collider mesh skinning deformation, it looks to me like you are generating a new collider mesh every frame and then submitting it to the physics engine. Is that correct? It seems to look like it's working in your video, but I never would of thought that'd work, I would of expected submitting a new collider mesh over the top of the old one would cause the new collider to to not push objects around in contact with it, but rather just intersect and overlap them. Did you do something special to allow the submitting of a new collider mesh every frame and have it actually push around other physics objects?

 

Hi there i have a question about the future 2d character control/import. Will i be able to create my character/skeletal animations with my favorite app "Spriter" and then import them into uni2D for further use/skinning and whatnot?
You guys should look into that if possible, Spriter is a great tool and its not expensive.

Also, I havent bought the asset yet as I'm curious how would i use it as a tile editor, is there a grid option, and an align to grind function, things like that? I'm thinking that would do it for me. All in all uni2D seems to have some great '2D terrain' editing tools, I'm really impressed so far.

Another thing maybe you guys should integrate Prodigga's script, and other future community contributions into the editor, it would work for the benefit of everyone.

Thanks and good luck, great work!

Edit: Also, how is uni2D with pixel perfect and multi-resolutions, 2D toolkit handles that quite well.
I'm asking because you guys lack documentation on the features.

 

Really great work Prodigga. Can this be officially integrated in Uni2D.

 

Question: Is it possible for Uni2D to work on XZ plane ?
Reason is that I need some form of Navigation (Navmesh, Apex), which only works on XZ plane. Or perhaps someone more knowledgeable can provide some ideas of how to do Navigation for XY plane.

 

Hello,

Indeed the mesh is recomputed each frame in 2D or 3D.
Both of the physic engines are created to manage the interpenetration in a reasonable limit.
If you have to perform big transformations modifications inside a frame you'll need to recompute the position by using a raycast. You will find the script in the "Caterpillar" Demo shipped with the plugin!

 

@rocki We'll maybe natively include this feature in a future update thanks again to @Prodigga for sharing his work

And sorry but there is no feature to change the axis. I think you can for instance create a hierarchy with a null objet to achieve this as a workaround!

 

Is Uni2D using unity's 2D physics ? If I change to XZ axis, then the Unity2D physics will not work.

 

Uni2D use both 2D and 3D physic engines. Depending of what you want to do yes you may have to tweak physics parameters in order to get your expected behavior!

 

No problem, thanks for the great plugin I have deleted the repository and moved the script to a Gist. Seemed more fitting. I've updated the links!

 

Hello Bento Studio,

I would like to buy your plugin, but can you make a few tutorials about the version 2.1 ?
The videos on youtube are too old and not so helpful.
Also the documentation is too short.
Thanks.

 

We understand we have not enough video especially for this iteration but all the fundamentals are covered and until we produce more video documentation don't hesitate to ask a specific question here if you get stuck we will be happy to answer to you!

 

i agree with @rollinghome. this needs way more (and up to date, in depth) tutorials.

 

good point @rollinghome I agree with you.
I bought the UNI2D asset in bonanza but i think the assets need more tutorial like the SmoothMoves or Puppet2D assets.
is nice that you Bento-Studio can answer here the questions but with a good and NEW videotutorials in youtube this asset will be a more solid Product/Asset because it is now his weakness.

 

Ok please be sure that the message is very clear.

We are working to find a solution about the tutorials.
Please be patient we are doing all our best to deliver more content as soon as possible.

 

Hi Bento Studio,

I'm running into a bit of an issue to setting up the animation. I would like to have plants, trees, grass and other stuff animate in the background using sprite deformation. Uni2D does a great job at this but I can't get my head around how to actually best save the animations. As when I save animations directly from Unity Animation I get warning message: "Sprite can't be edited in animation mode. Bone edition is still available". Here's the video showing how I created the animation sequences. Is this the right way to do things with Uni2D or is there a better way?

A video tutorial would be greatly appreciated

 

I purchased Uni2d and am having problems creating colliders

My steps are as follows

1) Dragged in “wave” rectangle sample image

2) selected sprite editor

3) In Uni 2d Sprite Script

— changed Sprite mesh Mesh to Grid

— set horizontal and vertical sub divs to 20

— set physics to static

— set physics dimension to 2d

— under advanced physics settings check subdivide and set count to 30

— under skeletal smooth binding set physics skin mode to auto update

4) switched to skeletal animation window

— selected posing

— added four bones from left to right edges

— selected animation tab

— selected individual bones and rotated to make a curvy shape

5) added a Quad GameObject, with a 2d rigidbody and positioned above previous object created

I then played the scene. When the quad dropped on the wave object it did not collide on the edges but on odd positions inside the static wave. What am I doing wrong

I looked at the Uni2d 2.1 video overview where it shows a horizontal branch with a worm. Ideally I would like to know how to create this.


Thanks

--update instead of using a Unity quad, I used a ball image and created a Uni2d dynamic sprite and collisions work great now.

 

Replying to my own previous reply for anyone who runs into the same issue. I found some short straight forward tutorials that help getting started:

Uni2D for Beginners - Part 1 (Intro)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zQ5Tch6J2c&list=UUDMupzqFX8QWt0FomnGQk2w

Uni2D for Beginners - Part 2 (Sprite Setup)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XINNhIeUUEg&list=UUDMupzqFX8QWt0FomnGQk2w

Uni2D for Beginners - Part 3 (Mesh)

Uni2D for Beginners - Part 4 (Rigging)

Uni2D for Beginners - Part 5 (Animating)

Uni2D for Beginners - Part 6 (Physics)

 

Hi,
I'm developping mobile game.
Which is better performance in Bone-animation and Sprite-animation?

 

Hello,

To create animation on mobile there is a lot of cross parameters.

The most importants are :
-The size of the ressources on the disk and memory
-The CPU/GPU consummation
-The Drawcalls
-The render/framerate/size

If you create Sprite animation, the performances will be great if you have small sized sprites. But the ressources will dramatically increase and the size and loading time of your game may explode. Other problem you can't use in the same scene a lot of textures because your memory may not support a lot of big texture that contains your animations. But more the frame rate is high more you have to use textures. So you can reduce the size of the textures by using a limited frame rate but your animation can really going "jerky". You can even reduce the sprite definition but it's sometimes impossible. For end, in this mode you can't easily use a dynamic collider that follow the shape of your draw.

If you create bones based animation you can save a lot of disk space on your build by creating soft and smooth animation not dependent of the frame rate nor of the texture size. That mean you can create animation on a really huge size. The problem with this method is that you can't achieve all the animations for instance a turn over. Other point, for each sprite "GPU" drived animation you'll get an additional draw call. You can avoid this by using the "CPU" method in the Sketelal smooth binding option panel in the Uni2D inspector allowing you to batch the bended sprite. In a other hand using a lot of dynamic "CPU" bones could be very intensive in consummation depending of what you do. If you can use realtime dynamic physics collider (2D and 3D) remember that using this kind of physic deformation in addition of the visual could be very consuming on mobile.

You can always check our mobile sample on the iTunesStore or google play (check it on the asset store page). The sources are shipped with the plugin.
The game is targeted for iPhone4 and middle-end Android devices and we use massively bones deformation including realtime physic deformation.

So there is no perfect solution but each solution have pro and cons. That's why you could combine in the same sprite classic sprite animation AND bones deformation in Uni2D

Uni2D is really great for :
- Create smooth animations using torsion. For instance in a character, prefer do the eye blink with sprite animation
- Optimizing your build size by using the same sprites that could be bend to create variations. (very optimized)
- Create interactive animations like ropes for instance.
- Create sprites where the physics collider need to follow in-game deformation.

Hope this helps!

 

Hi thanks for the reply.
That I want to know is all written

 

I bought the asset and I need to know some things:

1) Is there an official forum, community or something?
2) Is there a complete documentation (the one in the website it seems to be a superficial guide)?
3) Can Uni2D interact with the new Unity3D UI? I can't use an image from an atlas in a UI button.

Thanks!

 

There any chance to have the new video tutorials for uni2D 2.1 before next year? a mean the UNI2D 2.1 version was released the last September 30 and to date we have not video tutorials according to the new version.

We are in 2014, I think it's very easy to make a tutorial video.

Please @Bento-Studio

 

Im having bad PNG resolution with Uni2D. I imported several images, then I made an atlas with them. They look bad on the game. In texture type it says "Advance" even if I try to change it to Sprite or GUI. The max size are 4096.

 

@Mr.Stein Apologize for the lack of video if you have any urgent question feel free to ask.
@DarkSlash Did you have check the resolution of the generated texture?
When you create an Atlas, Uni2D create a folder in the ressources with the name of the atlas that contain the generated datas. By default, the generated Atlas takes 1024 compressed as default Unity texture parameters.
Could you please check the generated texture is not set with these parameters?

 

No, is set to 4096 and automatic truecolor.
I wanted to put 3 1280x720 sprites into the same atlas. May be I cant atlas sprites of that size.

 

@DarkSlash This is not a problem you can atlas with the size you want until you doesn't exceed the max size allowed for the atlas. Could you please send me a project link via PM to inspect more in depth your problem. We can't reproduce this pb here with 2.1 on Unity 4.6.

 

Ok, I'll prepare a project for you to check!
Also, I need to know if there's a way to use the atlas images with the new Unity UI. For example, if I want to use an image from the atlas in a Button.

 

Ok great. And for your question, no unfortunately, Uni2D has its own atlasing system that is not compliant with Unity2D at all. Cheers.

 

It will be something to change in the future or are no plans to implement it on the mid-term?

 

Hello, we think at this state of our tool and Unity, this is something not really possible. Uni2D has been done before the 2D was implemented in Unity and we've bring a lot of improvement to make it as close as possible of the new 2D system. But today Unity don't allows the possibility to bring the smooth torsion to the sprite system via the sprite renderer or in a other hand it seem not possible to access to the new atlas system to plug it inside our system... But nothing is over... As you certainly saw with the 2.1, we will always work to provide more reliability and efficiency in our tools!

 

Ok! I send you the project through a private message!

 

Does Uni2D provide a way for sprite swapping between SD, HD & UD for say iPhone 4, iPhone 5 and iPhone6?

 

Sorry but we don't have this feature.