Official Unity Splines

- Do you have an official source code for the spline package ( I found https://github.com/needle-mirror/com.unity.splines )?
- Is there any way to play SplineAnimate in reverse order? I created a loop animation and my object moves counterclockwise by default. I suppose it depends on the order of knots created. Can I change it somehow?

 

The first post in this thread shows a road following a spline.


Was this done with the Splines Package? If so, how was this done? Spline extrude only makes tubes and spline instantiate doesn't bend objects. If not, can you please add this functionality? It is needed to make things like roads.

 

Any ETA on that Update?

 

Hi,

A few issues I have run into:

1. Spline Animator doesn't show all fields (notably Movement related settings) until you deselect the game object and then reselect it.

• Adding Component
  
• Deselecting and reselecting
  

2. Occasionally, selecting any Spline object causes a bunch of Look Rotation messages to spam the console as long as any spline object is selected. It seems to be random, and resets for a little upon restarting the Editor, but I have not been able to consistently replicate it, but it only occurs on Spline objects. The log itself also doesn't give much info about where it's coming from

3. Although you can select multiple objects with Spline Animators and the component doesn't give the usual Multi-Editing is not Allowed message, pressing Play for preview will only apply it to the most recently selected object. De-selecting an object will stop the Preview as well.

4. Max Speed of 0 causes the time to recalc to NaN, but changing Max Speed to non-zero does not recalculate out of that. The time remains NaN until Restart is called. A workaround is to clamp to something like 0.001 I suppose and then Pause.

 

Does it work with floating origin?
Currently I’m using Dreamteck Splines, it uses local positions so we can move the entire spline and everything just continues working. I would like to confirm that before upgrading my projects.

 

Any chance to get an early release for some people? Is there somewhere where one can contribute and give feedback before a release?

 

Great job on the spline system! Its very nice to use and the spline painter is good!

I have read through the documentation to see if there is a function to get the distance between two points on a spline (follwing the flow) but I cant seem to see any easy fix hehe. Am I missing something in the documentation or could someone maybe help point me in the right direction of how to find this?

 

I figured, since I saw that you guys also added instant selection and dragging as I showed how I needed it in the other thread.

However we based our asset on the Unity Splines. Really, really promising spline framework of yours. But if you guys release all of a sudden something that doesn't work properly anymore we are in a support hell with negative reviews.

Some don't like beta-testing, I however do. It shapes the way. If you guys want early feedback and testing, I'm in

 

First thing I did when using Splines package here is writing extensions...

Can you please add convenience methods

• Convert float3 to Vector3 (and back)
  
• Get a list of Vector3 from Spline ("GetPositions()")
• Spline.SetKnot(-1, ...) // -1 to fetch last knot

And I guess I will stumble on many other stuff that would be nice to have.

 

I was wondering why the spline.changed delegate has been deprecated and insted the static method UnityEditor.Splines.Spline.OnSplineChanged is implemented.
Is there any advantage by using this workflow?

 

I'm actually surprised it was just "changed", i would say they have corrected to Unity's common way of naming events.

Maybe extension methods like float3.ToVector3() for cross conversion would be handy yeah

 

How precise is the EvaluatePosition on the spline?
I'm placing X objects on the curve based on the Length of it (example if length = 10, 10 objects, 1 at every unit), and I want them to move all together along the spline, but It's not accurate at all. Even when spawning I can see weird spacing between objects (in this example spline length = 120, with 120 objects):


Then if I try to move them using varioug methods it always end ups with inaccurate offset building over time.
Is there a spline resolution somewhere? Or something else I should use instead of EvaluatePosition?
Thanks!

 

float3 has an implicit conversion operator for Vector3, so a toVector3() method would be redundant.

 

As he said "methods", i thought he'd want his own extension method, else you'd only need a cast yeah, which is what i use, works well thanks

Code (CSharp):

1. (Vector3)myFloat3;
2. (float3)myVector3;

 

Its implicit, so you don't need to cast,

Code (CSharp):

1. float3 myFloat3;
2. Vector3 myVector = myFloat3;
3.  

You can pass float3 to all methods that take Vector3 as a parameter without casting. and it works both ways.

Code (CSharp):

1. float3 position = transform.position;
2. // to some stuff
3. transform.position = position;

 

You'll still need to cast when using some math operators the add implicit is missing for example
e.g (my use case)

Code (CSharp):

1. myVar += (Vector3)MySpline.EvaluatePosition(0.5f);

 

@gabrielw_unity @JonathanMeaney
About the API, can we discuss the way some values are returned?
Maybe there could be a better way...

Currently using GetNearestPoint() requires 2 out parameters + gives a return value
A better way for me to do this is returning the values in a struct
for example:

Code (CSharp):

1. public struct NearestPointData {
2.     float Distance;
3.     float Ratio;
4.     float3 Point;
5. }

Also by declaring the function as an extention method (clutter is a way lesser problem, other Unity classes have way more already without it being a problem)
So the thing would go as:

Code (CSharp):

1. // from
2. myDistance = SplineUtility.GetNearestPoint(mySpline, transform.position, out myPoint, out myRatio);
3. // to
4. myPointData = mySpline.GetNearestPoint(transform.position);

this way we can retrieve one of the values inline, without needing a bunch of variables....

Code (CSharp):

1. // Currently this can't be done as strightforwardly as this!
2. transform.LookAt(mySpline.GetNearestPoint(transform.position).Point);

Edit: also the "out float3" is not easily interchangeable with a vector3, which makes for a greater overall pain
Edit2: the method doesn't accept

SplineContainer

, doesn't really work with a

Spline

, only works by using

NativeSpline

dunno why use generic type then

 

Any chance to have informations on that? Just so I know if I wait for an update or move onto another spline system.

 

Can unity spline methods be called from Jobs?

 

Hello,

I just tried the package and take a look at the extrude example but it seems that it's hard-coded and can only extrude a tube and not any kind of mesh. Is there plan to create a more generalized version of this script ? It could be very useful in many scenarios, like create roads from a prefab.

Taking example from the Sprite Shape Controller it could be very cool to be able to specify different meshes depending to the curvature of the spline in order to have more control of the result.

Anyway, the package it's cool and I'm looking forward to see what else is coming.

Good job.

 

This would be such a basic needed tool, i cant stress enough how important this would be. There is a free spline tool in the unity asset store, called spline mesh, which sadly isnt updated anymore, but maybe could be used as an inspiration.

 

Hi @gabrielw_unity - I've noticed that SplineUtility.GetPointAtLinearDistance returns based on the scale of the spline - e.g. if the spline gameobject is scaled to 2 and you ask for a point 1 unit away, it will return a point 2 units away. Is this expected behaviour? It's easy enough to work around at uniform scalings, but a bit tricker if the scale is non-uniform.

Edit: this is my current hack, but it relies on the forward vector of the previous point, so I guess it's not completely accurate -

Code (CSharp):

1. float localSpaceDistance = transform.InverseTransformVector(currentForwardVector.normalized * distance).magnitude * Mathf.Sign((distance));

 

I'm using 2021 lts. Can't find official github for Splines. Should i install 2022, download via package manager and copypaste to 2021 project, or is there some easier way?

edit: i guess this is the closest one for official: https://github.com/needle-mirror/com.unity.splines

 

@kaarrrllll is there an ETA for the next spline update? I thought end of Feb, but there's nothing yet. Just asking if I should continue with current version or still wait for next

 

Nice, thanks. I know it's hardly an option, but if you guys need some testing or feedback before you roll it out to the masses, just hit me up. Or I guess @JasonBooth as well, since his asset is one which uses your splines extensively and it's an excellent showcase.

 

In the end, because of my use cases i had to implement extension methods in order to avoid, having to declare stale variables, cluttering the code, and avoid the out float3 problem

I don't really know the returned values were completely wrong, couldn't use them either in local or world space
So i ended up passing the spline's transform and manually using a NativeSpline like this:

Code (CSharp):

1. public struct NearestPointData {
2.     public float Distance;
3.     public float Ratio;
4.     public float3 Point;
5. }
6.  
7. public static class SplineExtensions {
8.  
9.     public static NearestPointData GetNearestPoint(this NativeSpline nSpline, Vector3 position) {
10.         NearestPointData data = new();
11.         data.Distance = SplineUtility.GetNearestPoint(nSpline, position, out data.Point, out data.Ratio);
12.         return data;
13.     }
14.  
15.     public static NearestPointData GetNearestPoint(this Spline spline, Transform splineTransform, Vector3 position) {
16.         return GetNearestPoint(
17.             new NativeSpline(spline, splineTransform.localToWorldMatrix), position
18.         );
19.     }
20. }

And doing the same for SplineContainer


I also had a few more points to raise:

1) Could we get a getLength() function that takes as params start and end indexes, in order to measure between two knots? it's not really complicated i did it again with extension methods, just thinking it would benefit the rest

2) I noticed the spline change event field is "global" meaning not per-spline, is it this way for performance reasons or something else?

3) Having had to update my spline-based scripts when a knot is removed/added, i found out that the "knot removed event" does not return the removed knot and curve, in its parameter.
Can this be resolved? because without those values that event is pretty much useless,
In my use case i had to cache the knot in a private variable, at Start(), Update() and after any spline change,
Just so that i can use the removed knot's value to update my system.

 

Hello, and first all of thank you for the amazing spline package. However, I stumbled upon an issue with the UVs if I extrude the spline. I would expect the uvs to span the entire extruded spline, but if you consider the below spline, where

if(uv.y =1) col.rgb = float4(1,1,1,1);

, you see that the uv space is restricted between the first and second knot of the spline.



Do you have any suggestions or timeline on how to fix this?

 

How can I attach a Knot to an GameObject, so when this GameObject moves the knot also move ?