Spawner - Roadmap

Over the past couple of days I have focused quite a bit of my time into updating Spawner after Path-o-Logical's Rafes suggested I look into providing support for their Pool Manager system. After receiving a copy of Pool Manager to aid with testing the system I set about coding in support for Pool Manager while still allowing those without the system to still be able to use the system. This turned out to not be too difficult to implement and was pretty straight forward with some minor changes to existing code in order for everything to work smoothly together.

I pushed that version (1.5) to the Asset Store on Saturday (4th Feb) and it is still currently awaiting review. Sunday (5th Feb) I woke up and decided to work on a new update that changes the way the main Spawner class handles the spawning. It currently uses Update() which is inefficient for what the system does, so I set about changing it to a coroutine with a small amount of seemingly strange errors I got it working correctly with all the Spawn Modes.

So, I am currently waiting for version 1.5 to be approved on the Asset Store and then I am going to upload version 1.6 which also happens to include improved documentation which could be found on Docs.zip. This contains some better descriptions of classes and a installation guide and so on.

So to sum it all up, it looks like there is going to be a whole bunch of performance improvements coming to Spawner in the coming week and all of this for free. If you use Spawner and like it, if you would consider purchasing one of my other assets that would be awesome.

Regards,
Garth

Console System for Unity

This is a Console system similar to those available in Skyrim, Fallout and others. It allows you to call various methods that have been set up (at compile time) at runtime. Supports a couple default methods (Exit, Help, SetFov) which can be switched off at creation.

The current feature set is:

• Works with Unity Free
• Supports non-parameter methods
• Supports single string (conversion to the correct datatype must be done by the method) parameter methods
• Supports history of previously entered commands
• Integrates into Unity's Debug system.
• Supports 3 default methods (Help, Exit, SetFov)
• Help method automatically displays all available commands and whether they require parameters

Version: 1.0

Source Code: C#

Unity Version: 3.4.1 Free

Price: $ 10

Asset Store Link

Inspector

In-game screen

Regards,

Garth

JukeBox - Pro, V1.0 Ready for Release

I've put my head down and put some effort into polishing JukeBox Pro, so that I may get it into your hands as soon as possible. This is just an initial release with some pro features, if you can think of more features that would be cool to have let me know and I will do my best to include them in future releases.

The current feature set is:

• Custom Dynamic Inspector (based on what you doing)
• Runtime file loading for user music.
• Written to support both desktop and phones, loads .ogg/.mp3 depending on the platform.
• File loading is disabled on consoles.
• Many small bug fixes and possible speed improvements made
• All JukeBox Free features are available.

Version: 1.0

Source Code: C#

Unity Version: 3.4.1 Free

Price: $10

Asset Store Link

Custom Inspector

Regards,

Garth

Spawner - Spawn More Enemies

It's started to look like 2012 is the year of giving from us, here at Corrupted Smile Studio. Coming this week is a Spawner system for spawning enemies. We have taken a previous released Spawner script that Garth made a couple years ago and done some upgrades and additions.

Some details about the system to follow.

Version: 1.0

Source Code: C#

Unity Version: 3.4.1 Free

Price: Free

Asset Store Link

Features:

• Works with Unity free
• Spawn Modes
• Continual (keeps the number of spawned units at the total number of units)
• Once (spawns up to the total only once)
• Wave (spawns in waves, once all are dead, spawns again)
• Timed Waves (spawns in waves, once the time is up, spawns again)
• Time Split Waves (spawns in waves, once all are dead, waits time then spawns)
• Supports 4 different unit levels (Allows easy switching of difficulty)
• Has a custom inspector to ease usage

Custom Inspector

Regards,

Garth

JukeBox Free - Version 1.0

While working on Canyon Project, we developed a fairly simple Jukebox like music system that will simply play through a playlist of songs. We have since decided to release this as a free system on Unity's Asset Store.

Version: 1.0

Source Code: C#

Unity Version: 3.4.1 Free

Price: Free

Asset Store: http://u3d.as/content/corrupted-smile-studio/jukebox-free/2B2

Features:

• Works with Unity free
• Can play random songs
• Can skip forward and backwards
• Allows a delegate to be called on song change that will display a formatted string of the Artist - Title.
• Supports volume changes.
• Automatically plays the next song once a song ends.

We hope someone will have a use for this system.

Unity Inspector

Regards,

Garth (Lead)

INISystem Update 1.11 - Bug Fix

I decided to push the bug fix release of INISystem before the new release has even been approved. This version has a couple breaking features in it.

Such as the classes are no longer under the CSS namespace instead they are under CorruptedSmileStudio.INI namespace. This change was made to ensure that there should never be any clashes with other classes with similar names. The main class is also compiled as a DLL, this is just to ensure if there are any bugs that get reported I will know that it is not as a result of my code being changed. The INIHelper class however is not in the DLL but free, this allows a programmer to add their own parsers to the class as they see fit.

I hope this won't cause too much disruption and updating your code to reflect these changes shouldn't take longer than 5 minutes or less.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

INISystem Update: Version 1.1

I have posted an update to INISystem, to the Unity Asset Store, it is currently awaiting approval. This version brings some parsers for both reading and writing some of Unity's data-types and some basic data-types.

There is a new static class that helps with Unity data-types and the basic data-types are included in the base class.

Unity Data-Types:

• Vector2
• Vector3
• Color
• Quaternion

Basic Data-Types:

• Float
• Integer
• Bool
• String (which was already included)

Also Get has been depreciated in favour of GetString, this just brings the system together because there are now various parser methods available. So in order to get any of the previous mentioned types it would be as simple as GetFloat, GetInt, GetBool.

However with the new Unity specific data-types you have to access it through INIHelper.GetVector2/Vector3/Color/Quaternion. With these methods, you will have to pass a reference to an INISystem class that you have created in order to be able to read /edit values.

This version also completely removed the Add methods in favour of using Change which is more robust and developed than Add was.

Regards,

Garth (Lead)

INISystem - Intro Tutorial

Here's a very simple introduction tutorial for INISystem (Available on Unity's Asset Store Now).

You will need to purchase and download INISystem from http://u3d.as/content/corrupted-smile-studio/inisystem. Once downloaded you will have a new folder called INISystem within your project. this contains all the required files (one in total), an example scene, an example HUD script and a Readme PDF.

The INISystem main class is contained with the CSS namespace. This means that you will need to add using CSS; to the top of the file creating the INISystem class.

You will then need to create an instance of the INISystem class.

INISystem ini = new INISystem();

To load a file it is as easy as calling ini.LoadFile(PathToFile); which returns a boolean based on whether the file was loaded or not. Then you can read strings from the file via ini.GetString("elementName", "SectionName", "Optional Default Value");


To change a value and then save the file you can make use of ini.Change("elementName", "NewValue", "SectionName"); which will either change a current value or add it if it doesn't exist. To save to file use ini.Save(pathToFile);


I hope this short intro tutorial will help you understand how easy this system is to use.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

INISystem: V1 Released

Version 1 of INISystem has been approved on the Unity Asset Store. Head over there now to get file based settings enabled in your game.

Asset Store Link

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

INISystem - Awaiting Approval

While working on Canyon Project we developed a system which allows easy reading, editing and creating of ini files (simple config type files). It works with sections, which allows there to be multiple "variables" with the same name under different sections.

A basic ini layout will be similar to the following:

[general]
startLevel=1
language=En

[graphics]
width=1920
height=1080
anti-aliasing=8x

The system simplifies the processing of these files to allow you to access elements within each section regardless of whether there are elements with the same name under different sections.

INISystem will only work correctly with standalone builds as it makes use of System.IO for reading and saving.
It has only been tested on a Windows 7 (x64) pc but should work with Mac and other Windows versions.

It has currently been uploaded to Unity's Asset Store where it will be available soon, hopefully, for $10.

Name: INISystem
Source: C#
Price: $10
Asset Store Link

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Localising: Version 2.6 Has Landed

You can now find the latest version of Localising on Unity's Asset Store for $20.
http://u3d.as/content/corrupted-smile-studio/localising/

Enjoy,
Garth (Lead)

Localising: 2.6 Update Approaching

Just finished updating Localising to version 2.6, it is now awaiting review by Unity's Asset Store Staff.
This update brings a bunch of bug fixes and hopefully some performance improvement (cannot verify).

Updates:

• Editor bug fixes
• Runtime bug fixes
• Removed various unneeded variables and tried to compact everything else.
• Added a new IChange interface that makes TextureChanger, AudioChanger and the new basic TextChanger components easier to use and interface with the Local class.

The new TextChanger class is merely a view of what is possible to achieve with the new IChange interface.

This update brings with it a small price increase to $ 20.

Regards,

Garth (Lead)

Game Ads - Version 1.0 Released

I just pushed version 1.0 of Game Ads out of the door and onto Unity's Asset Store (it is currently still awaiting review is now LIVE). This version brings with it text, text and image and the standard image based adverts. Along with a change to the file format to accommodate the changes.

The system now uses an XML format file:

<ads>
  <ad>
    <title></title>
    <link></link>
    <format></format>
    <image></image>
    <text></text>
  </ad>
</ads>

This greatly increases the options of how your advert can be displayed. This update also brings with it a price increase of $3 to bring the price to $5.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

FeedMe: Feed Reader for Unity

Almost a year ago, I independently releases a free simple feed reader that only could read a custom feed format and while that was all good and well I decided that I should put in some extra effort and get it working with RSS 2.0 and ATOM format feeds.

This I have done, you can read more in a blog post on my personal blog. The system is nearly done, in terms of how it works. It can currently load RSS, ATOM and the custom format of the previous versions.
However it currently only loads the following from each entry:

• Title
• PubDate/Updated
• Description/Content
• Link

These are the basic essentials of what is within each entry in a feed. However we will work on getting more entities extracted. This system is fairly lightweight as it does not use System.XML to load or parse the feed. It uses the freely available TinyXmlReader from the Unity Wiki.

Language: C#

Price: $ 20

Unity Version: 3.4.1
Asset Store: http://u3d.as/content/corrupted-smile-studio/feed-me

Although it is done in C#, you can simply move the FeedMe folder into the Standard Assets folder in order to access the scripts from UnityScript.

I shall leave you with a demo of FeedMe.
(Edit: Submitted to Unity's Asset Store: Awaiting approval Has been approved)

Regards,

Garth (Lead)

Corrupted Smile Studio - Website on the Way

Yesterday I began working on a basic layout and model for a website that is going to eventually going to become the Corrupted Smile Studio's website. With that being said I have managed to make quite some progress since yesterday.

It's gone from a basic layout to a fairly complete home page (there will be more than just a home page when the site is complete), fully database driven. We are hoping for a complete site by the end of November, early December. The site is aimed at providing a better look at our games, tools and updates. That doesn't mean that this blog will seize to exist or become out-dated but rather the two will live alongside each other and compliment each other to better reach out audience.

A look at the current front page.

We hope this gives you a better insight into what we have been putting our efforts into lately.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Localising: Update 2.51

Version 2.5 hasn't even hit the Asset Store yet and I've already tackled a few bugs that I have discovered over the last day. So I decided that we need to push out a version 2.51 update to correct these bugs.

Bug Fixes:

• The way it was set up for texture and audio loading via Unity's Resources it used the PathToResources property which means it would work fine when using the LocalResources sub-class however if you used any of the others it would break. Now it is hard-coded to use a specific resources folder. This folder is created by default when setting up the audio or texture folders (check Unity's Console for location).
• An error was found in the way it clears the list of translations. This was called when reloading files in a new language, it actually deleted the list of files to load. Fixed it by adding a new method ClearCurrentFiles() that clears the file list and removing the call to clear it from the previous ClearLists().
• isLoaded() is now simply isLoaded

Additions:

• Added a new debug mode through a #define LOCAL_DEBUG added at the top of Local.cs. This will print to the console every encountered missing identity, audio file or texture only once. If you build a StandAlone it will print these to a file in the data folder called Identities.txt, this will allow you to send a debug version of your game to your testers and have them send the file if it is created, to see what you are missing. Disabled by default.
• Small edits to the internal documentation.

We hope this update will be a welcome update. Will update when 2.51 becomes available.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Localising: Version 2.5 Uploaded

After spending a couple hours writing new documentation and three tutorials for Localising, as well as testing in a clean project (in order to make sure everything is A okay), we have released version 2.5 of Localising. it is currently awaiting validation by Unity, but it should be up in a couple days.

For this release we redid most of the ReadMe PDF, to include three tutorials, one for each method of localisation offered by this system. Text, texture and audio. Scarily this is actually the first time I have ever written an in-depth tutorial, so there might be some spelling, grammar and unclear things within the tutorial but they are pretty straight forward.

We have managed to get everything we wanted into the release along with a bunch of bug fixes found while creating the tutorials. So now the editor should be slightly improved with regards to bugs and the runtime should be more smooth. So in a couple days version 2.5 of Localising should be live on the Asset Store.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Game Ads: Spread the Word

With a little bit of downtime in the last few days I thought I could make a very simple Unity addon which will allow a form of in game ads. This will be useful for developers with multiple games and wanting a dynamic means of displaying ads in their games.

It works via the web and allows a developer to have a text file (set up in a certain way) with links to their games and a link to an image for the game. It comes with various amount of methods for getting which ad to display. Currently it uses UnityGUI to display the ads as buttons.

Advert File Editor Window

It will be sold on the Asset Store for $2, currently it is not on the Asset Store yet but I will update when it is available. (Edit) : Asset Store Link

(Edit)I almost forgot to add the WebPlayer demo and also check it out in game in Canyon Project (Facebook App).

Regards,
Garth (Lead)

Localising V2.5: Feature List

I've been working on version 2.5 of Localising for the last two to three days and so far I am pretty impressed with the results I'm getting and the features I'm adding.

Updates:

• New built in Save/Load methods for languages via PlayerPrefs
• Added a delegate method that will allow you to connect your own saving method into the system
• New save on language change, passed as a parameter (default is off)

New Features:

• Texture changing for current material or a specified material (basically changes all objects with that material to the new texture, so you can put the TextureChanger component on a single object and affect all materials)
• Audio changing with settings for auto-play, one shot play (only used if auto-play is enabled).
• If textures/audio aren't found for the language, looks for an English one, if none is found returns null (so in the event that a localised texture/audio clip gets deleted for a language, chances are that you will still be able to display/play something)
• Ability to remove AudioChangers/TextureChangers from the update list, so if you play a sound in the beginning of a level and the player will never need to return to that location or hear the sound, you can disable it from being updated, so if the player changes the language it won't load a new localised version.

Editor Updates:

• New menu item for ensuring that localised audio clips are available in all languages
• New menu item for ensuring that localised textures are available in all languages.

And the pre-alpha WebPlayer link.

Regards,

Garth (Lead)

Localising V2.0

Yesterday we released an update to Localising, we felt that without web support and proper optimisation it simply would not be good enough. So we went back to the metals and worked hard at improving both the editor and the runtime module.


Editor:

• Autosave function for those that sometimes forget to save the file before closing the editor.
• Slight modification that doesn't show empty identities that are found in files because of a strange error with the web module.
• Slight layout adjustment to help ensure users don't accidentally re-setup a language and lose all their translations.
• Newline character support through \n or {n} which allows newlines at runtime.

Runtime:

• File parsing is now split into two threads to improve speed.
• Web based localisation (Non System.IO) is now possible through the LocalWeb class.
• Local has become an abstract class to allow other means of localisation loading through sub classes.
• Various small improvements and changes which should improve speed and reliability.
• Added params[] to GetText and GetGui to allow variable number of variables.

This release caused some headaches for a while but that was overcome.

Warning: has only been tested on a Windows 7 (64x) pc but was designed to work with Mac paths so there should be no issues there.

Regards,
Garth (Lead)