[FREE] UAlive - Bolt Inheritance - Live to Compiled C# Generation

Community Showcases
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Bolt Extensions has now become UAlive. With the cancellation of Bolt 2, while we already had 2 months or more work invested, we thought this was the prime time to release Alpha 1.

Welcome to the first ever, Live Editable Inheritance based extension for Bolt Visual Scripting. Create ANY type of C# object by inheriting from them. Make Class, Enum, Interface, and Struct macros. When you are happy, compile down to 100% Native C# code, with no dependencies on UAlive or Bolt. You can mix modes of Live and Compiled, and even use both in Flow Macros however you please! It just works.

Introducing UAlive, we bring structure to Bolt in a way never before seen. This isn’t Bolt 2, this has even more power! You are no longer limited by the visual language in front of you, and can craft at speeds you have never worked within before. Eliminate 90% of compilation time.

This extension has been a dream for me to make ever since I started getting into tools creation. Therefore I am so happy to be able to now share this with you. All, at no cost to you. If you want, you can help by subscribing to our Patreon, but the product itself is MIT and open source. I am working very hard at this every day to bring the best product you could imagine.

Along with the structure of code, we also will be tapping into the project wide structure. Including adding an Explorer and Search/Find and Replace. Not everything is in right now, but it works perfectly fine to start using it.

Please view this article for a feature breakdown and roadmap:
https://lifeandstylemedia.com/blog/august-2020/ualive_csharp_access.php

Download on GitHub:
https://github.com/LifeandStyleMedia/UAlive

Documentation will be available in beta.

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As a 60’s retired , hobby type only with no coding at all.
BTW Jason you were one of the first responses to a question I had put on the New outside
Bolt forum, even being a simple question on how to do a fade out and destroy " enemy " was
so good. I know you care about the community a great deal and now the future of bolt looks even better!!!

I wanted to say since my coding is like way below par is understatement, I really like the [VIEW THE MANUAL](http://VIEW THE MANUAL) Idea,
It is a great way for a beginner to " clue " into what each bolt unit does, the way you explain it makes it much easier to get.

Thanks so much, Stay safe.

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Thank you! That is very nice of you to say. I hope I can continue this for a long time into the future. Feel free to drop any suggestion my way if you have them.

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The LASM team and Jason have made some amazingly useful extensions here that are basic quality-of-life upgrades when using Bolt. Pretty quick support on their own Discord server if you ever have any questions or find bugs; things get fixed quickly! Thanks for being such an active part of the community!

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I removed the Input System from this page, so I wanted to update about why I did this.

TheZoob and I did a lot of testing. Wherever we fixed one use case, another bug would arise. We determined it is due to the casting operations. I am still slightly new to the system as a whole, only started using it without Bolt, in my own project a month ago. I assume in due time I will figure it out by using it more actively. What I do know, is it has a lot to do with the ability to bind multiple input bindings or composites. One could end up a Vector 2, another a float, ect. Unfortunately, it does not look like we can determine what to show very easily, but could also be I don’t know the right info. The documentation has not led me to believe otherwise. I am not sure how we can give a proper unit at this time. I won’t remove it, but its activity will make wayside, so we can continue our road-map as I learn the intricacies. If anyone knows and wants to give it a go, please do! I’ll take a pull request for this any day. Its been driving me a little crazy.

Today I am beginning the July roadmap.

Here is a list of features we will be working on. I can’t say all of it makes it, but I don’t see why not.

Query Unit:
(Complete) Add First, FirstOrDefault, Any, and OrderByDescending.

Return Events:
(Complete) Add the coroutine icon when it is on.
(Complete) Add the ability to trigger the event with code, and with a callback on return.

Reroutes:
(Complete) Add the ability to hotkey add a reroute.

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Today we released 1.3 of Bolt Extensions. This effectively ends the cycle of this package, as its full intention was to offer most of what was missing for runtime useage and workflow. We will keep updating with bug fixes, but are taking a long time off from more open source work. We are working on something, now that Bolt is free, that will use much more of Bolt, and will be more honed for a larger audience. We’re also working on a game, so we can’t put as much time into it. Nothing to talk about just yet though, but a new post will show up when it is time.

https://github.com/LifeandStyleMedia/BoltExtensions/releases/tag/1_3_0

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Due to Bolt 2 now officially cancelled in favor of Bolt 1 and a more solid integration, we no longer should or have to cancel any of this.

We will be reintroducing our Patreon, and hopefully it’ll have more activity then last go. Bolt wasn’t free yet.

Our roadmap has changed, and we want to fill the gaps where Bolt 2 helped.

Some examples:
Optional C# generation.
Explorer Window
Typesafe Macro and Machine
Funcs, Delegates and Actions
C# Code Block

If our Patreon starts doing very well, we will release our planned paid asset, UAlive (Inheritance), for free. But it’s a beast, so there is a possibility it remains paid. The rest of this will be done throughout time, and or modified based on feedback.

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Bolt Extensions has now officially become UAlive.

As our deal, was always to allow more C# constructs into the Bolt workflow, we are excited to announce something fresh, something new, and something I think is going to help change things in new ways.

With UAlive now starting in alpha, you will have a new structure for creating all aspects (eventually) of the C# language. What makes it so special, isn’t the fact you can just generate scripts. It’s not good enough to me to simply allow Inheritance, and we did!

What if you could work by inheriting any C# type, directly in Bolt, while coding it live, just like a Flow Macro? We did it. Generate C# Enums and Interfaces right now, generate live C# classes to manipulate in Bolt and the editor, and structs coming in the future. Have structure, and build faster and better apps and games.

We still have a lot to do, including a glaring bug with port redefining again on our Get, Set, and Invoke units, but it should be in good condition to test.

We will welcome a new roadmap and features write-up tomorrow. Not everything exists yet, but it is coming. We’ll update the main thread info as well. We hope this will help as many as possible. Download on GitHub today!

https://github.com/LifeandStyleMedia/UAlive

We’re supporting the alpha phase through Patreon if you want to help us. Thank you!

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This sounds wonderful!!! Free is great, we are fighting for Bolt 2 still, but
Unity may still say Bolt 2 is dead. :frowning: You could put this as a paid asset on the Store ?
In any case, thanks so much for all your good work! Thank you.

P.S I cross posted in the forum that we are still asking for Bolt2 , Post Visual scripting roadmap update - August 2020 page-6#post-6231396

If you had the time to read that forum, you see how many are not happy with Unity. Get ready for a lot of interest I am guessing.

So I hope this will generate a TON of interest, and I hope that as a consequence of
you helping the community so much, I hope your Patron will take off!

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Could, and was going to, but I won’t. Sticking with the free route, as it has always been my intention of bringing live C# to the masses. If those who want to pay to see this succeed without a hitch, they can subscribe to patreon at this time. Otherwise, just enjoy, and help bug report. That is all I want is a more widely available, powerful tool. I think its closer to how we will figure out the next level of tooling.

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I was asked to show some examples of working with methods on Discord and how we could work between the UAlive system, and Flow Macros. Decided to share two of them here. One showing off live inheritance by overriding ToString(), the other shows creating a custom method.

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UAlive Alpha 1 Is Now Available!

Download now to start tapping into Bolts Visual Scripting with the new power of Inheritance, Enums, and Interfaces. Code ANY type live, and eventually you will be able to compile to purely 100% Native C# without dependencies. Meet speed, efficiency and structure, as I attempt to help change the way we code!

Here is an article about what features are in already, and what to expect:
https://lifeandstylemedia.com/blog/august-2020/ualive_csharp_access.php

You can download Alpha 1 right now on GitHub:
https://github.com/LifeandStyleMedia/UAlive/releases/tag/a1_0

Hope everyone has a fantastic day. Of course I can’t stop working, so I’m off to immediately start Alpha 2.0 err Manuals then Alpha 2.0. :slight_smile:

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Starting to upload manuals. Methods are done. Just variables left, and describing about mixing Flow Macros with Class Macros:
https://lifeandstylemedia.com/docs/manual/entries/bolt/basics/Classes.php

The rest will be uploaded periodically throughout the night. Hope this will help everyone understand how this works.

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With Bolt 2 getting tossed out, this asset is all the more needed. Good on you. :thumbsup: (they need to really add this emoji, lol.)

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Thanks! Gonna be a couple months until stable enough, but I’m psyched to finally have everything in order to truly accomplish this. It’s much more rewarding getting to work with people out in the open on something of this caliber. Glad to be able to give it back without being limited to specific people, been waiting for this for some time.

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This is awesome!

I will be following this!

Thanks,
jrDev

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wow!

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Jason, May I ask, what version of Unity are you using ?
IDK it seems that Bolt is Not working in the newer ? LTS versions of 2019 even now :frowning:

I hope I am wrong, but I am guessing that bolt will not be guaranteed to be working in all versions :frowning:
I also have seen people say on one of the forums that they could take out reflection out of Bolt too… honestly I can not see how they could do that.

I had been away from Unity for the last year-ish pretty much. Only back these last few months, So now I am going
through the tutorials that I can find now. Including here if any others need/want https://learn.unity.com/tutorial/bolt-videos-archived

I would feel safer though using what ever Unity you are using. I am assuming it is 2019x versions though ?
Thanks

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Sorry to hear that, I’m on 2019.7f1. previous release to the latest. I have not had the chance to try the latest LTS, but I do know 2020 isn’t fully compatible yet.

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I downloaded Unity 2019.2.21f1, and the first tutorial worked properly for the first time :smile:

I will upgrade to your version, Thanks again.

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