All MegaShapes will have some common values in the inspector and these are shown below, they allow you to alter how the splines are shown in Unity and also alter animation data or manually input position data. The common params can be hidden by click the ‘Common Params’ foldout. Paramaters specific to base spline shape will be shown after these common params.

Inspector Interface

The inspector for the common params for splines is shown in the image on the right.

Add Knot

Click this button to add a new knot just after the currently selected knot, if no knot is selected the new knot will be inserted at the beginning.

Delete Knot

Delete the currently selected knot.

Match Handles

If the tangent handles are out of alignment and a smooth transition through the point is required select the knot and then click this to match tangents.

Load

If you use 3ds Max you can use the MegaShapes exporter to export your Shapes from Max and load them complete with any animation data into Unity.

Load SXL

If you have the exporter for Max or Maya then this will load a shape file in the SXL format which is an XML based format.

AutoCurve

If you have been dragging points around and you click this it will attempt to normalize the curve to get the curve as smooth as possible, note this will change the shape of your curve in most cases.

Reverse

Sometimes it is required to have the spline go the other way, say if you are using one of the path following scripts, so clicking this will automatically reverse the spline for you.

Apply Scaling

If you have applied scaling to the spline in the Unity transform you can apply that scaling directly to the knot and handle values and have the scale value reset to 1, this will effectively recalculate the length of the spline taking the scaling into account so again if you are using the path follow scripts the distance value will make more sense being a real distance instead of a scaled one.

Import SVG

You can import SVG files in as splines by clicking this and selecting the SVG file.

Cursor

Controls the position of the editing cursor along the spline, if you add new knots they will be added at the cursor position.

Import Scale

Scaling factor for spline when importing.

Axis

When you create a shape such as a circle or star then it will be created in the XZ plane with an up axis of Y, if you want it to be create in another plane you can choose the up Axis here. This will change the whole spline.

Curve

If your shape has multiple splines you can select the one you are currently editing with this slider.

Colors

When drawn splines use two colors and you can define those here.

Vec Col

Color of the line from the handles to the knot.

Knot Size

Size of the knot.

Step Dist

Length of each piece of curve when drawn, make smaller to show smoother curves.
Do Late Update

Normalized Interp

Set to on to use an interp spline that takes distance into account making for more constant step.

Draw Handles

Display the handles or not.

Draw Knots

Display the knots or not.

Draw Spline

Display the curve or not.

Lock Handles

When on moving one handle will automatically update the other giving smooth results or keeping corner angles the same etc, turn off to have different in and out tangents.

Auto Smooth

If this option is on the system will try and keep the curve smooth as you add, delete or move knots and handles.

Handle Type

You can choose to edit the splines using position handles or free handles, on some systems position handles can slow the editor down if so try the free handle option here.

Labels

Show the spline knot numbers on the spline.

Hide Wire

If the spline has been turned into a mesh you can choose to hide the wireframe overlay of the polygons.

Animation Inspector

Animate

If the curve was imported and had animation data turn this on to play it. If this option is checked the animation params will be visible.

Time

Current time of the animation playback.

Loop Time

Length of animation

Speed

Playback speed

Loop Mode

Animation loop mode:

Loop

Clamp

PingPong

Outline Spl

If you have pressed the ‘Outline’ Button then the system will create a new spline which you can offset from the original, if you have multiple outline splines in a shape you can choose the one to adjust with this slider and the outline value below will effect that spline .

Outline

The amount to outline by.

Make Mesh

You can at any time choose to turn your spline into a mesh with the option to fill it in, or to extrude shapes such as tubes, box or flat ribbon along it. If you check this box then more options will open up in the inspector and these are shown below in the meshing secion.

Spline Data Inspector

This part of the inspector allows you to manually input data for knots as well as see the length of the spline and other data.

Closed

Check this to turn the shape into a closed shape.

Length

This is a read only value that shows the current length of the spline.

Knots

Shows and allows you to manually input the positions of the knots for the spline.

Fill Meshing Options

Mesh Type

This controls which type of mesh is generated from the spline, Fill, Tube, Bx or Ribbon.

Pivot

You can control the position of the pivot in the created object by changing these values.

Calc Tangents

Turn this on if you are using shaders that require tangents for the mesh, ie bump mapping.

Gen UV

If you want to apply textures to the generated mesh you need to turn this on to generate UV mapping. You can control the UV mapping with the UV values below.

Doubled Sided

If you are creating a flat shape you may want it to be double sided, if so turn this on.

Height

The amount to extrude the filled in mesh, his allows you to give some depth to the created filled in mesh.

Use Height Crv

You can use a curve to describe the height to extrude around the mesh.

Height Curve

The curve that defines the height to extrude along the spline.

Height Off

You can control the starting point for the height curve on the spline to make adjusting it easier.

Top Mat

The material to use for the top of the filled in mesh.

Bot Mat

The material to use on the bottom of the filled in mesh.

Side Mat

If the mesh has been extruded then this is the material to use for the side.

Physical UV

If this is checked the UV coordinates will be calculated from the size of the mesh.

UV Offset

Change the UV mapping offset for the top and bottom uvs.

UV Rotate

Rotate the UVs for the top and bottom.

UV Scale

Scale the UVs for the top and bottom.

UV Offset1

Chage the UV mapping offset for the side uvs.

UV Rotate1

Rotate the side UVs

UV Scale1

Scale the side UVs

Tube Meshing Options

Pivot

You can control the position of the pivot in the created object by changing these values.

Calc Tangents

Turn this on if you are using shaders that require tangents for the mesh, ie bump mapping.

Gen UV

If you want to apply textures to the generated mesh you need to turn this on to generate UV mapping. You can control the UV mapping with the UV values below.

Start

The starting position along the spline to start making the mesh.

Length

The Length along the spline to turn into a mesh.

Rotate

Rotate the tube mesh around the spline.

Sides

The number of sides to the tube.

Radius

The radius of the tube.

Offset

Offset from the spline to the centre of the tube.

Strands

How many strands to make, can be used to make ropes etc.

Strands Radius

The radius to the centres of the strands.

Twist

If there is more than one strand then you can twist them like a rope, this is the amount of twist to apply.

Start Twist

The start twist value.

UV Offset

Offset used to position the uv mapping.

UV Tile X

How many times to scale the X axis of the UV mapping

UV Tile Y

How many times to scale the Y Axis of the UV mapping

Cap

If the tube is not on a closed spline and the length is not 0 then you can choose to close of the ends of the tube.

Up

The Up axis, if you get twisting of the mesh try changing this value.

Mat

The material to use for the mesh.

Box Meshing Options

Pivot

You can control the position of the pivot in the created object by changing these values.

Calc Tangents

Turn this on if you are using shaders that require tangents for the mesh, ie bump mapping.

Gen UV

If you want to apply textures to the generated mesh you need to turn this on to generate UV mapping. You can control the UV mapping with the UV values below.

Start

The starting position along the spline to start making the mesh.

Length

The Length along the spline to turn into a mesh.

Rotate

Rotate the box mesh around the spline.

Box Width

Width of the box.

Box Height

Height of the box.

Offset

Offset from the spline to the centre of the tube.

Strands

How many strands to make, can be used to make ropes etc.

Strands Radius

The radius to the centres of the strands.

Twist

If there is more than one strand then you can twist them like a rope, this is the amount of twist to apply.

Start Twist

The start twist value.

UV Offset

Offset used to position the uv mapping.

UV Tile X

How many times to scale the X axis of the UV mapping

UV Tile Y

How many times to scale the Y Axis of the UV mapping

Cap

If the tube is not on a closed spline and the length is not 0 then you can choose to close of the ends of the tube.

Up

The Up axis, if you get twisting of the mesh try changing this value.

Mat

The material to use for the mesh.

Ribbon Meshing Options

Pivot

You can control the position of the pivot in the created object by changing these values.

Calc Tangents

Turn this on if you are using shaders that require tangents for the mesh, ie bump mapping.

Gen UV

If you want to apply textures to the generated mesh you need to turn this on to generate UV mapping. You can control the UV mapping with the UV values below.

Start

The starting position along the spline to start making the mesh.

Length

The Length along the spline to turn into a mesh.

Width

Width of the ribbon.

Axis

The axis to make the ribbon on.

Rotate

Rotate the ribbon mesh around the spline.

Segs

How many segments across the ribbon.

Offset

Offset from the spline to the centre of the tube.

Strands

How many strands to make, can be used to make ropes etc.

Strands Radius

The radius to the centres of the strands.

Twist

If there is more than one strand then you can twist them like a rope, this is the amount of twist to apply.

Start Twist

The start twist value.

UV Offset

Offset used to position the uv mapping.

UV Tile X

How many times to scale the X axis of the UV mapping

UV Tile Y

How many times to scale the Y Axis of the UV mapping

Cap

If the tube is not on a closed spline and the length is not 0 then you can choose to close of the ends of the tube.

Up

The Up axis, if you get twisting of the mesh try changing this value.

Mat

The material to use for the mesh.

Controlling Shapes from Script

There is a complete API for building and using splines from script and you can find the help page for that Here.

Video of Meshing Options

Small video guides to the basic meshing options in MegaShapes.

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