Any chance something like this is in the works? The ability to move between timelines based on params without code would be fantastic for our artists. We’ve been very happy with Animator for moving between animations, but timeline just opens up so many doors :).
Yes absolutely! Since animators are built on the same underlying system that timeline uses, this is exactly where we are looking to go with the system in the future.
Embedding timelines within state machines, state machines within timelines - all of these and more ;}
Super exciting ;}
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Awesome … so you guys are going to build this in officially, correct? We’re hoping to use Timeline ASAP, so I’m figuring out what custom plugins I need to think about :). If this is going to be built by Unity I’ll definitely let you guys handle it … Any idea on a rough ETA?
Should we be expecting a lot more custom timeline plugins from you guys (ie: the lerping, etc) in an official manner, or should we be writing our own at this point with the assumption that if its not there now, we’ll probably need to create it once 2017 is released? Is there any list somewhere of what is being planned for future updates to Timeline? I’ve already made one at the request of our artist and I’m thinking about putting in quite a bit more work to make it asset store ready … I’m just nervous that you guys are working on something similar internally.
Closer integration with the animation system (and it’s state machines) and Timeline are definitely coming, we’ll see many things added over the next few releases (and probably for the forseeable future).
The other side of what we are starting to work on is expanding the example playables that are available to the community - things like the simple examples that we included with the preview release, reusable custom tracks are all things that we are building, but there are probably any number of different variations that we haven’t though of, and are looking forward to seeing what the community creates to support the system.
the TLDR is: we definitely anticipate that there are a wide variety of ‘common’ playables that people will want to use, we’re trying to create a library (the ‘Standard Playables’ package) to give everyone a head start, but what that looks like is still a bit up in the air.
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Great. That all makes a lot of sense and definitely is exciting to hear :). My only feedback would be once you have an idea of what that library may be, to post the ideas somewhere … that way anyone who wants to get a head start on creating custom playables doesn’t have to worry about duplicating functionality you guys are building in.
I must say, this is probably the most excited I’ve been about a feature in a long time (in terms of what is actually useful for our company, and not my having fun personally ;)). Its enough that we’re considering delaying production for a few months in order to be able to use this … the last I heard was a hopeful release around July … but that could be nonsense. Any official word on this?
My goal is to have the ‘standard playables’ up on github so that not only our internal teams can contribute but we can get pull requests / contributions from the community - I agree completely that Timeline is really a game changer for how you work with Unity, and the power of the playable system is what drives it all.
2017.1 will go beta in a week or so, aiming for a June-ish release so far. I think it depends on how the beta cycle goes, there are quite a few awesome new features coming with 2017.1, but hopefully the beta process goes smoothly and we’ll see this in the official release by early summer!
I’m going to ask something I know I shouldn’t in here and derail my own thread … simply because I’m hoping you’ll respond. Sorry :(. (To be fair … it ties into timeline … kinda)
Any idea when we’ll get an eta on an Octane preview/beta and/or its workflow (ie: will existing shaders such as Standard, Alloy, or Uber magically work or is there a new shader required)? I’m dying to (a) figure out if Unity + the Asset Store will basically supply shaders for Octane’s rendering (thus making it far easier to set up than in other octane plugins), and (b) use it with the new timeline for pre-rendered videos 
.
PS: Also, thank you for being so responsive. Even if you cannot say any more on the matter, its really nice to see Unity developers in contact with people on the forums. Definitely much appreciated …
The Otoy integration is actually under our umbrella so it’s fine ;}
We’re working with them on the plugin and things are progressing, don’t have a release date yet though. Currently it targets the Unity standard shader. Materials and shaders are the big challenge for any solution like this. Since Otoy (or any offline renderer) has it’s own custom shader pipeline, we’re trying to figure out the best solution to manage materials between the (very different) platforms. More news about the Otoy integration should start to come out soon.
Sure. I will note that our artist did not want to use Octane in 3ds Max because he felt the shader set did not give enough default options to tweak and unless you have some shader knowledge, creating the right shader for the job is not simple. Whatever the final result, I’m hoping that it will be (a) user-friendly and (b) customize-able enough that we’ll end up with an Asset Store full of shaders that work with octane (skies, oceans, skin, vegetation, hair, etc) if the existing one’s don’t work off the bat … something like Alloy or Uber combined with the Time Of Day (etc) allows someone with next to no shader knowledge to still create a very beautiful game … I’m hoping we’ll wind up with the equivalent for Octane. The ease of use would definitely cause us to lean towards Unity for our rendering (both still and video) needs at that point … especially when we can combine it with things like Terrain Composer, Timeline, IK solutions, etc.
Just pointing out - Octane is not meant for game rendering or ‘runtime’ output - it doesn’t replace the normal Unity renderer for game output. It is meant for outputting rendered content from Unity.
Yep. I’m only discussing pre-rendered stuff. We do still images for 2D first person adventure games.
The main line is Mission-US. Games For Change winner, just got a second nomination for a daytime emmy, etc. My biggest gripe is they used to be built in Flash AS3 (has to run on old school machines) and we’re severely limited tech wise. We’re rebuilding the line in Unity now (what I’m currently working on). Just hoping that Unity + Octane lets us continue to bump up the visuals without requiring any additional time (something we’re short on). Hence my hope for a variety of shaders (ie: with POM and all the goodies) that our artist can use out-of-the-box or at least out-of-the-store ;).
timeline has alot of console errors
bump for ‘standard playables’ up on github.
Hi,
any news regarding timelines within state machines?
Any news?
Or any news on why all the useful features of timeline seem to be not being worked on? You cant just leave it in the state it is now.
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Still very quiet here. Any kind of communication would be highly appreciated.
Timelines in state machines is being worked on, but it is still in the very early stages of development. It won’t be in a full release until sometime in 2018, likely around mid-year.
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Thanks!
Dear Unity team,
Can you please finish the feature next time BEFORE you release it? I would appreciate not having to waste days of my life learning about that shiny new thing you presented so proudly only to realise that it’s just a nicely wrapped box filled with confetti and is otherwise completely useless in most real-world scenarios.
Much love,
Luka
Hi,
I would love to hear about theses most real-world scenarios. We are trying to cover as much as possible with timeline and it’s always possible that our user would use it in way we didn’t imagined yet.
Constructive feedback is always welcome
thanks.