MegaShapes coming soon

MegaShapes is getting closer to release which means Tony is busy making it look nice, little teaser pic so fresh from his paint box the paints still wet.

Early look at MegaShapes

I have been buys lately on extending the MegaShapes system ready to be released as it’s own product (MegaFiers will continue to include the basic version). The new MegaShapes will, like MegaFiers, expand over time to a complete system for all things spline or curve based, so such things as general spline code for path following complete with controller for moving objects along curves such as cameras, as well as an exporter for Max for getting your ready made shapes from there into Unity complete with their animations.

MegaShapes will also include turning shapes into meshes with options for extruding the shape but the real power of the new system will come from the advanced systems such as the lofter. The lofter allows for you to use shapes together to create complex meshes, such things as tubes and racetracks. The lofting system makes use of a layer system so different lofts can be combined to create even more complex and useful meshes and various different types of layers are available such as the basic loft a shape a long another shape, or cloning of objects along a path to form fences or barriers, to complex lofts with any number of cross sections being allowed to give fine control over the mesh. And this combined with the ability to map layers such as the clone to other loft surfaces so objects are automatically aligned to the ground.

All the systems are fast enough to be updated at runtime for dynamic animated surfaces and this also allows for meshes to be generated at runtime with different params based on the power of the system your game is running on. And the amount of options provided for each layer gives you total control over all aspects of the generated meshes from vertex counts, to uv mapping, to alignment settings. I will be posting more info on this system as we get closer to release but to start you can view the very early development shots in this post to get a little idea about what is to come. Many more systems to add and new loft layers to do so keep checking back. Will be doing some videos soon and we are busy working on a fun little game that uses MegaShapes for its game levels, Tony has performed his magic again to really create something very special.

Version 1.83 submitted to the Asset Store

I have just submitted version 1.83 to the Asset store which sees a fair few changes and bug fixes, the list is below. There is a new modifier added called Squeeze, this is a work in progress modifier so is subject to change. The MegaShapes system has seen a make over and you can no triangulate your shapes and extrude them, more is coming on this system. Other new feature is the addition of helper windows for adding shapes or modifiers. More info on these features can be found in earlier posts on this blog page.

I have also bundled in the MegaGrab system as a belated Christmas present to users of the system you can find more info on the MegaGrab Page.

Complete list of changes for version 1.83 can be found below or on the Version History Page

v1.83

MegaMesh Boolean feature

A quick video of the boolean feature that will be in the upcoming MegaMesh system. It allows multiple meshes to be combined with the usual boolean operations of intersection, union and difference so you can punch holes in buildings or build complex shapes from simple primitives or whatever else grabs your fancy, it will even uv map the intersections for you. Still a few issues to iron out but it is very close now.
Click the image below to see the video.

Sneak peek of new feature.

Just getting the next release of MegaFiers together and thought I would put up a quick grab of a couple of new features of the new version, you can see there are now Windows for the MegaShapes and MegaFier systems to make adding bits easier, you also dont have to worry about adding a ModifyObject component first that will happen automatically when you add a Modifier.

The MegaShape system has seen a bit of work as well with a new look to the spline knots and handles and a new system for editing the positions which make life a lot easier as well as a cursor based system for adding new knots just where you want them. Also you will see the new MegaShape mesher so you can turn your splines into meshes in different ways for example you can choose to build a line, or tubes or fill in the shape all with uv mapping options and numerous other options, this is a work in progress with a lot more features being added so get your requests in now.

FumeFX and Unity first test.

A sneak peek at my first experiments with using FumeFX with Unity, the flow lines seen in the image are real time flow lines around obstacles and make use of the data calculated by FumeFX to allow for very fast simulation in Unity of particles or whatever in a scene using a super fast custom physics solution. So for example if a car is driving along a leaf covered road the leaves could be made to react to the turbulence of the car, or a simulation of mountain updrafts and wind eddies could be used for a base jumping game, or a virtual wind tunnel could be simulated or for more normal uses such as smoke through contained volumes or tornado simulations.

Version 1.82 submitted to Asset Store

I have just submitted version 1.82 to the Asset store, this version sees some general tidying up with more modifiers getting a makeover for their custom inspectors and also all modifiers should link to their correct help pages on the web site. I have also removed all errors for compiling to a Flash target but it seems the first release of 3.5 has a bug when serializing meshes so projects will build but until Unity do an update they wont run, all other targets aren’t effected. Other changes are the ability to set the detail level for the gizmos and an update to the book helper script to use local coords and rotations instead of world space values so you can position and rotate the completed book as you like and a fix to the Morph-O-Matic max exporter which fixes the non export of non triangle based meshes. More information can be found on the Version History page and be sure to check out the customer feedback page.

Version 1.78 Submitted to Asset Store

Just submitted version 1.78 to the Asset store. This version sees some tidying up the inspectors for the modifiers as well as relinking the help page for each modifier to the new website, and in case you didn’t know you can get help on part of the system by right clicking the Inspector title bar for the component and click ‘Help’ as seen in the picture, this will open your browser and show the help page for that item where you can see what all the params do and maybe see example videos or tips.

I also included the Beta versions of a couple of new modifiers, Curve Deform and Rope Deform. Curve Deform is a simple 2D deform based on a user defined curve, so this could be handy for putting humps in a snake or making a undulating piece of road as you can see in the picture (click to enlarge). This is a good alternative to the Path Deform modifier if your effect is only happening in one plane.

The other beta modifier added is an extension of the curve deform and is a something I call a Rope Deform, again it is a 2D curve based modifier but this time the curve shape is driven by a Verlet Physics system, so can be used for doing rope bridges or ropes or banners or anything where you want a droopy physics based effect. This modifier will be added to to allow adding of user defined constraints ie locking a points etc. Due to the system using a Verlet integrator the simulation is very stable and you can go from very stretchy to very very stiff with no issues. You have control over the number of masses in the systems and the stiffness of the system. Click the image to show the options on this modifier.

Chain Demo

A demo of the chain and rope system that will become part of a new package soon. Click the image to start, Esc key will bring up a menu with a few options to play with, left and right buttons for moving around the scene and E & C to raise and lower the camera.

Weights

Start of vertex weighting added to MegaFiers.

New Physics modifier added

Added a new physics based modifier that can do rope bridges and other such objects.