Can somebody explain what a Control Track and a Playable Track is in Unity Timeline?

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I understand what the Activation, Animation, and Audio Tracks are, but I can’t find any info on the Control and Playable Tracks.

Ohh, if you want to use Matchmaker, then yeah, you would have to pay. but if you're making it where you can invite friends through steam, I think you dont need matchmaker.

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2 Answers

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A PlayableTrack accepts any “custom clip”. A custom clip is a class that implements the IPlayableAsset interface.

A ControlTrack lets you take control of time-related elements of a GameObject. For example, a Control Track lets you control another PlayableDirector. This means that, from a timeline, you can change the time on another timeline. A Control Track also lets you change the time of a ParticleSystem or instantiate a prefab.

Do you happen to have a link to a good example of a playable track or a control track or both? I'm still confused about how to implement them.

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Here’s some key bits I just learned:

  • Create the track with the + button on the Timeline panel, not by dragging GameObjects onto it.

  • Drag objects onto the existing control track to add clips for them.

  • Make sure the objects you dragged on have a custom script that starts like this:
    public class MyCustomScript : MonoBehaviour, ITimeControl

  • Add a method in that script like this:

    public void SetTime(double time)
    { print(time); }

That function will be called with the relative time for each frame while the timeline plays.
You can do whatever you want with that information, like setting params, etc.