Unity3D Qubicle Import

[Tim Wesoly]

Declined again because of a missing readme.txt file, which in fact wasn't missing.
Seven days waiting for this answer....

[Tobias Pott]

It's pity the importer isn't published yet and it seems the Unity reviewer team has become much more strict when checking stuff.

Aside of this I've taken a quick look onto the .obj specification and some reference model-files from 3d software and noticed it's not that hard to understand.
I will have look on the possibilities writing a little script for exporting the mesh data drom unity to an .obj file and let you know about it when it is testable (or even done).
More details about this will follow in a separate thread.

Have a nice week.

[Tim Wesoly]

Hey guys, Qubicle Unite is finally available at the Unity3d asset store!

Check it out:
http://u3d.as/content/minddesk/qubicle-unite-voxel-importer

The tutorial video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OOKDsqNGOc&feature=youtu.be

Thank you for your patience!

[snivens]

Tim, some questions about the import to Unity:

You mentioned earlier in this thread there would be two types of import, one for character types and another for scenery (that would support deformation). I'm especially interested in deformation ... how does this work?

Can I call something to redraw the mesh after voxels are removed from a matrix, and can it be called at runtime? Does the prefab retain the meta information of the voxel matrix (and can that be changed ... voxels removed, added)?

I'm interested in being able to deform scenery and have the mesh recalculated, and also to apply this affect to "character" style prefabs as well ... just knowing how it will work would be a big help for me in making the decision to add this plugin to my master edition license.

Thanks!

[Tim Wesoly]

hey snivens,
the short answer is: everything you can do now is mentioned in the youtube video.

the long answer:
besides the qef file format there is a second supported file format already included in the plugin which is a bit more powerfull. It supports importing multiple objects and creates separate meshes at the exact position as in qubicle. Furthermore it supports frames meaning you can animate image sequences (like a 3d version of an animated gif). This file format can not be used at the moment because the export for it is included in my qubicle 2.0 wip and not in the 1.x - besides we need a sequencer script for unity which would control the animation. We haven't started with this script yet.

Deformation is not possible because qubicle unite creates a mesh and doesn't preserve the voxel data after import. Of course this would be a great feature that could be realized with Qubicle Core.

[joe2236]

hi tim,

imho the unity importer is a way too pricey for a indie export extension for the great qubicle editor.

i have bought the master edition and payed 67€
you wrote the unity importer is 50$ (ca 38€) but in the asset store the price is 47,5€ (this is 70% from the masteredition for a single exportformat).

imho 25$ (20€) (30% from the master edition) for the unity importer would be ok.

best regards
joe

[Dany0]

snivens: well, I have some ideas on my mind. If you don't need completely dynamic solutions, there's been some stuff floating around for ages. Apart from that, if you use the export to OBJ dialog in Qubicle you can choose to make one model per cube, then remove the cubes one by one programatically. Or if you want something like Cube World or Voxatron, you can use Unite importer for regular in-game model and then OBJ export a death-animation model. Once the monster, or whatever it is you're having, dies, you'll just replace the model and assign each voxel different collision class and some physics attributes on instance creation. If you want some cool voxel particles, you'll just use little cubes and paint them.

If you want semi-dynamic destruction for terrain for example, you can have another mesh that looks like a voxel hole and then just use mesh morphing to achieve the desired effect. Don't know how Unity would handle it, I think it does support geometry shaders though. Would require further research.

[rstehwien]

imho the unity importer is a way too pricey for a indie export extension for the great qubicle editor.
imho 25$ (20€) (30% from the master edition) for the unity importer would be ok.

I also agree it is too pricy and not just from the perspective of the cost of master edition, but from the cost of other unity assets. For example $65 gets you RageSpline (vector creation/drawing kit) or Tidy Tile Mapper (3d or 2d tile drawing). The actual total for someone wanting to use qubicle is more like $125 (for the plugin and qubicle itself) and in that range you get GUI toolkits, Mega Filters, etc. Seems a bit pricy and maybe a hard sell for new users to entice to buy the whole package. Although maybe the plugin works with the free edition of qubicle... then the people who purchased the master edition are paying a premium for something they could accomplish by cleaning up the obj themselves (at least I'd feel that way).

[joe2236]

btw i think the unity asset store does calculating a specific price for your country setting in your profile.

so in my case (i am from austria) your 50$ are 47,5€ in the asset-store and not the real $/€ currency translation (atm 37,80€).
i know there are different taxes but this does not explain the huge differences.
this is really bad (looks like working like steam country price calculation).

joe

[Tim Wesoly]

Hey guys,
I am sorry that everyone here seems to be angry about the price.
I like my customers to be happy so I will drop the price but let me say one thing:

I know how much work Tobi put into it and how long it took to convince Unity to do the thing the plugin does - 3,5 month in total. This is not basic logic that can be simply put together by reading the unity "manual". There are a lot of workarounds involved that are documented nowhere.
It makes me sad to see the discussion about the price. It truly does. If you would know how much work it is to create a software like qubicle and compare it to the amount of money I earn with it you would call me insane. Maybe I am insane but I love this project so much that I simply can't stop. I started as a student and didn't care about any income from Qubicle. Now that I am self employed it's either earn money with it or drop the project. That's a fact.

And finally @joe2236: I don't know why the price is different in austria. I contacted unity to find that out. I hope it's only a bug and not the common rule.