We have recently started using state machine and importing animation clips inside our project.
Here’s some feedback so far from our experience and what we could see improved with the workflow.
I will start with very much basic matters here and hope to update as we move on to more advanced situations with State machine and such:
1 - Better/Faster workflow for imports of FBX animation files:
Every time an *@Sample.fbx file is imported as an animation clip we need to do at least 3 steps to have unity update this on our hero object before we could see it play.
A- (This one is optional but worth noting) We have to select the imported file and go to keyframe settings and switch form “Keyframe reduction” to “off”, we prefer this setting as the keyframe reduction doesn’t always display things correctly (I understand this has been for performance reasons perhaps but we haven’t noticed any impacts so far), this is a matter of preference but ideally we do hope that this feature is set as “off” by default and whenever anyone wishes to reduce quality at any time can do so as an option and not vice versa.
B - We have to select the hero object and click on “update reference clips” in the Rig category, not only not having it update automatically a pain but the button itself is hidden at all times and we have to switch from “generic” to something else and back to "generic’ for the button to show up every single time before we press it and have unity go through all the animation clips again to update that one clip, which is also strange and slow.
Side note: Not to start any Software wars but having used UE4’s animation system, Its not a bad idea for Unity devs to borrow some good ideas from there.
2 - State Machine:
A - I know this one has been requested since forever but please a zoom out option for the view would be appreciated!
B - to be continued… : )