Probuilder is totally useless

[mat108]

Pro Builder is totally useless

Hey Folks! To lay down some sort of my frustration: since almost a year I struggeling aorund Pro Builder who might be a great opportunity to have something to quikly build a prototype but even for that, in my opinion it is completly useless. I always coming along the same issues that almost starterting causing problems in every project at some point: - Polygon shape just makes triangle and can't extrude anymore - Meshrender just dissapear - ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null. Pro…

Been 4 years, still totally and utterly useless.

[mat108]

It’s just so unbelievably, shockingly terrible.

Observe my attempts to move an edge loop on a plane using PooBuilder
tjs8j7

Truly next level stuff going on here. Inb4 ‘You should file a bug report’

[Homicide]

@mat108

https://discussions.unity.com/t/763721

Been 4 years, still totally and utterly useless.

Well, ProBuilder definitely has its issues, but i wouldn’t say it is ‘completely’ useless. Well, i manage with it anyways. But as for professional individuals / teams, etc… i don’t see it being used much if at all. There is definitely far superior software / tools for the job.

[Murgilod]

Ever since moving on to SabreCSG I just don’t even bother with ProBuilder. ProBuilder is a buggy, awkward to use mess and it feels like it’s been left to die as far as usability is concerned.

[neginfinity]

@mat108

https://discussions.unity.com/t/763721

Been 4 years, still totally and utterly useless.

It is a niche tool that has been used in production successfully. Obviously if you know blender well, you can probably run circles around it. And some people are more comfortable with CSG.

@Murgilod

Ever since moving on to SabreCSG I just don’t even bother with ProBuilder. ProBuilder is a buggy, awkward to use mess and it feels like it’s been left to die as far as usability is concerned.

Is it still being updated? IIRC the creator released it as opensource when he couldn’t make money with it. Unless I’m misremembering.

[angrypenguin]

@neginfinity

Is it still being updated? IIRC the creator released it as opensource when he couldn’t make money with it. Unless I’m misremembering.

No, that’s right. Since then it’s been updated to at least as far as Unity 2021.2, but GitHub shows no commits since early this year.

Still, if it works, it works.

[Murgilod]

@neginfinity

Is it still being updated? IIRC the creator released it as opensource when he couldn’t make money with it. Unless I’m misremembering.

It’s not, but what issues it has are minor and stillmuch easier to work around than ProBuilder’s are. I’ve used it in basically every project of mine for greyboxing for years now.

[Stardog]

@neginfinity

It is a niche tool that has been used in production successfully. Obviously if you know blender well, you can probably run circles around it. And some people are more comfortable with CSG.

Is it still being updated? IIRC the creator released it as opensource when he couldn’t make money with it. Unless I’m misremembering.

RealtimeCSG and SabreCSG creators are now working on Chisel.

[warthos3399]

Why do you have to post in 2 forums?. If your that upset after 4 years, why havent you moved on to another solution?. After less than 1 year, i would have moved on. You are just wasting time bro, really…

[mat108]

I post in 2 forums because I’m butthurt af about Unity wasting my time so shamelessly with this utter junk package. You’re right though I am wasting time (also). Venting is good for the soul however. I shall move on to realtimeCSG now.

[mat108]

What the hell is even going on there? Poobuilder developers let their toddler kids write their runtime logic?

[CodeSmile]

ProBuilder devs just recently posted questionnaires for future development, and are now prioritizing CSG editing. See ProBuilder forum.

As far as RealtimeCSG and SabreCSG are concerned, I remember one wouldn’t even work due to compile errors, and the other was not like the thing that blew ProBuilder out of orbit usability wise. And if my memory serves me well, the CSG operations were destructive. I may have used it incorrectly but given that those tools haven’t been updated for years and will definitely not see any updates anymore, it will be a matter of time until you cannot use them anymore as Unity development goes on. So I didn’t want to spend much time on them.

The Chisel thing … as much as I like to see it working, it has practically no commits over the past two years. I’d consider it “dead for the time being”, definitely more so than ProBuilder.

[andyz]

@Stardog

RealtimeCSG and SabreCSG creators are now working on Chisel.

Yeah I bought at least one of those but they were broken or limited in some way and Chisel seems dead, so disapointed!

[andyz]

UModeler has shown a lot of promise as an alternative, unfortunately every time I try to use it, I find a major bug and decide to wait a while, so much for a 5-star asset!

[BIGTIMEMASTER]

serious question - you guys ever try making basic grey box kits in an actual modeling program like blender and using that instead? Even with import to game engine, I still find that preferable to using clunky in-editor controls for modeling. To me the speed of dedicated modeling app is 100% more efficient than any sort of in-editor tools I’ve used (talking both unity and other engines here).

I dunno why, but viewport navigation and gizmo handling in every game engine I’ve used is pretty rubbish compared to what you get in 3d modeling softwares.

[andyz]

@BIGTIMEMASTER

serious question - you guys ever try making basic grey box kits in an actual modeling program like blender and using that instead? Even with import to game engine, I still find that preferable to using clunky in-editor controls for modeling. To me the speed of dedicated modeling app is 100% more efficient than any sort of in-editor tools I’ve used (talking both unity and other engines here).

I dunno why, but viewport navigation and gizmo handling in every game engine I’ve used is pretty rubbish compared to what you get in 3d modeling softwares.

this is true, but is there a modeler that uses the Unity coordinate system cuz damn blender uses a different one and sometimes it is annoying to switch?!

[spacefrog]

Using the probuilder runtime API to procedurally generate geometry is pure gold …

[chingwa]

@BIGTIMEMASTER

serious question - you guys ever try making basic grey box kits in an actual modeling program like blender and using that instead?

The ability to greybox levels or objects directly in the Unity editor, all in relation to the rest of your scene, taking into account scale and position etc, is a hard benefit to give up. I usually use Probuilder to get the basic size shape of what I want in editor, then export and rework the object in Max for the actual final object. Probuilder is a short but vital intermediate step.

[BIGTIMEMASTER]

@chingwa

The ability to greybox levels or objects directly in the Unity editor, all in relation to the rest of your scene, taking into account scale and position etc, is a hard benefit to give up. I usually use Probuilder to get the basic size shape of what I want in editor, then export and rework the object in Max for the actual final object. Probuilder is a short but vital intermediate step.

i dont mean make the level layout in blender, but rather make kit in blender, send pieces to unity. One app open on each screen - once you get the import/export process down its basically instantaneous.

[Murgilod]

@CodeSmile

if my memory serves me well, the CSG operations were destructive

They are not in either of them so I’m not sure what you’re talking about.

edit: Hell, if we’re talking about destructive workflows, that’s literally what ProBuilder is. It’s one of its biggest downfalls when it comes to iteration.

@BIGTIMEMASTER

serious question - you guys ever try making basic grey box kits in an actual modeling program like blender and using that instead? Even with import to game engine, I still find that preferable to using clunky in-editor controls for modeling. To me the speed of dedicated modeling app is 100% more efficient than any sort of in-editor tools I’ve used (talking both unity and other engines here).

I dunno why, but viewport navigation and gizmo handling in every game engine I’ve used is pretty rubbish compared to what you get in 3d modeling softwares.

I have, and there are a lot of considerable issues:

• Setting up collision areas becomes increasingly tedious if you’re working on something where you can’t just use the mesh collider
• The roundtripping process becomes time consuming as time thanks to Unity’s lacklustre MeshSync package and the as of yet non-existent Omniverse plugin
• Iteration time becomes time consuming as you jump in and out of play mode, the modelling application, waiting for the import, and dealing with all that entails

While Blender and other modelling applications may have faster workflows (something that should have been solved in Unity the moment they acquired ProBuilder), they quickly start running into issues with Unity’s asset import/export workflow.