[ WOOT ] -- *Snapcam NAVIGATION STUDIO - 2.1*

[awesomedata]

Snapcam NAVIGATION STUDIO

Unity Asset Store - The Best Assets for Game Making

NAVIGATION STUDIO is the original suite of navigation tools and systems designed to completely-overhaul the Unity Editor (and Game World!) navigation experiences, with a laser-focused eye toward effortless world-editing and design processes for large or complex game worlds!

Not only does it entirely change the way you move around Unity scenes by offering comfortable, direct viewport navigation controls, it also offers other highly-innovative navigation options (including its own namesake “Snap” points – which zip you across to any point in your world, no matter how far away or in how tight of a spot it happens to be!), using nothing more than a click (Grid Navigator) or a flick of the wrist (Snap Navigator)! The included “Navigators” that enable this functionality can be quickly customized to allow you to move around exactly the way you’d want, leading to a custom navigation style that ultimately suits the specific editing AND visualization needs of your game AND your favorite plugins!

Snapcam NAVIGATION STUDIO can even be used in large 2D isometric or orthographic games like Metroidvanias, epic topdown RPGs, First Person Shooters (FPS), or anything with expansive worlds or tight geometry you need to be able to navigate around quickly and easily.

Editor Navigators (Currently Availaible):

Upcoming Navigators:

The “Adventure” and the “WStream” Navigators are coming soon! – For now, it’s a secret as to what they do…

I will only say that Snapcam has, up until now, been focused on the Editor navigation experience… but I want Snapcam to be MORE! – Now it’s time for bringing that same innovation to navigating your game-design…!

^___~

How will YOU use Snapcam?

Unity Asset Store - The Best Assets for Game Making

[awesomedata]

The “Navigator” Introduction

At first glance, the “Navigators” found in NAVIGATION STUDIO appear to just be “windows” that don’t do much. However, the “simplicity” is only a facade – they have tons of functionality under their surface.

Much of each Navigator’s beauty is not as much in what it DOES, but what in it does WITHOUT. For example, the Snap Navigator proves there is no need for a heavy interface (with lots of buttons or sliders shoved in your face) or tons of hard-to-remember (finger-tying) shortcuts! – If you’ve used a Navigator once, you’ll never forget how to use it again, nor will you want to ever use anything else in its place.

Let’s see why…

Snap Navigator

Grid Navigator

(…continued below!)

[awesomedata]

(…continued from above!)

View Navigator

This Navigator doesn’t really have a “window” (unless you call its “Scene” viewport options a “window”) – BUT! – It’s the most ESSENTIAL Navigator offered for the Editor since its sole purpose is to make direct viewport camera motion effortless to control! – (I’ll include some gifs soon to show this in action!)

Snap/Grid/View Navigators – All Work Together*!*

More than meets the eye*!!*

Transformers!!!

Oh… Uhh… I got carried away there… Yeah… What I meant to say was…

For example…

[awesomedata]

The “Navigators” currently included in NAVIGATION STUDIO are:

Snap Navigator – It’s like having the little “Navigator” window from Photoshop (the thumbnail view of your entire 2D document with a red rectangle in it that helps navigate while zoomed in) – except for your entire 3D scene instead!!

To manage this lofty goal, Snapcam allows you to define certain places and camera angles in your scene where the bulk of designing/editing will take place, and instead of dragging a rectangle around, sometimes very imprecisely if you’re zoomed in (because you obviously want finer control, right?), with Snapcam, you simply drag a slider left and right to get you exactly where you want to be in your huge 3D (or 2D!) world.

Snapcam actually is an improvement on the 2D Photoshop design for the reasons mentioned above, and as such, it can be used in 2D games, like Metroidvanias, epic topdown RPGs, or really anything with large expansive worlds!

Grid Navigator – A fast way to access your “snaps” with a single key. No need to fiddle with a slider. This streamlined interface acts as either a pop-up that disappears when you click your snap location’s thumbnail, or a separate window you can tuck around your workspace anywhere you wish (especially useful if you have multiple monitors!)

View Navigator – Deceptively “hidden” feature in the screenshots, this navigator literally allows you to navigate better. And as an added bonus, it also provides workarounds for all SORTS of strange navigation-related editor quirks (i.e. parts of objects being weirdly culled) . Fly through tight corridors like a boss, or just cruise across your huge multi-part world with nice speed controls, easily tweaked by a simple flick of your mousewheel. – You can even reverse the camera with Alt at anytime (while flying).

Need a better view? – Middle-click and drag to fine-tune your view by panning in world-space (instead of screen-space) and use the Pan speed control slider to adjust the distance you pan at any moment. Finally, use the “Snap Navigator” to set any scene camera to the current viewport position (or set the viewport position to any camera!) to get the perfect shots everytime!

Orbit objects by holding Space and moving your mouse, then “dolly” zoom in/out using the wheel. If you don’t want to zoom in on an object but just want to “dolly” zoom in the direction of the camera, just hold Alt and roll the mousewheel.

2D and Orthographic views are now supported as well! Feel free to zoom and snap away to your heart’s content! – The configurable zoom-speed sliders don’t hurt either!

There is SO much more to come with NAVIGATION STUDIO, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, here is what’s in the pipeline:

• Adventure Navigator
• WStream Navigator

And much more!

[syscrusher]

@awesomedata

Snapcam is like having the little “Navigator” window from Photoshop (the thumbnail view of your entire 2D document with a red rectangle in it that helps navigate while zoomed in) – except for your entire 3D scene instead!!

So, for those who do not have Photoshop, how would you describe the way it works? I get the part about saving camera positions as favorites then returning, but I’m unclear on that little window and slider. Sorry for being dense, but I’ve never used Photoshop.

[awesomedata]

@syscrusher

So, for those who do not have Photoshop, how would you describe the way it works? I get the part about saving camera positions as favorites then returning, but I’m unclear on that little window and slider. Sorry for being dense, but I’ve never used Photoshop.

Thanks for your question. I can see how this could be confusing, so thanks for bringing it up! – I’ll try my best to explain!

To begin with, that little window and slider IS where you load/save/replace your camera positions. All you do is middle-click on the thumbnail to save the current viewport location/orientation to the slider. Drag the slider back and forth to change the viewport position to the ones you saved. You can hold CTRL to simply select another position while dragging the slider and right-click to do something with it from the context-menu.

The purpose of the Navigator window in Photoshop is to give you an overview of your entire drawing/photo/etc. (via the scaled down thumbnail of the whole image) so that you may then “Navigate” to various areas to quickly work on details while zoomed-in.

Snapcam is the same concept, but done with the assumption that some parts of the scene are more “important” than others. So, although the interfaces look nearly identical, they function radically different because only Snapcam accounts for 3D positions. Snapcam, for example, does not use the red rectangle or zoom level to determine Navigation – it uses the “Snap” points you define with your middle mouse button, and stores these in the slider below with a helpful thumbnail to help you remember where you were when you saved that location, in case you simply want to select and remove it or something, rather than actually go there.

Does this help any?

Let me know if you have any more questions or if I’ve only confused you more lol!

[RuinsOfFeyrin]

@syscrusher

So, for those who do not have Photoshop, how would you describe the way it works? I get the part about saving camera positions as favorites then returning, but I’m unclear on that little window and slider. Sorry for being dense, but I’ve never used Photoshop.

@syscrusher

The little window and slider is used to preview your snap points. As you start to add more snap points you may not remember what ever one of them is. So the slider allows you to slide through all your snap points, and the little window provides a preview of what it looks like from that snap point allowing you to quickly preview all of your snap points to see the one you want.

@awesomedata

Here is an idea that may be handy. Either a button, menu option, or some sort of key stroke that brings up a window that shows you a preview from ALL of your snap locations at one time. Kinda like a security guard watching a bunch of tv screens.

[awesomedata]

@RuinsOfFeyrin

Here is an idea that may be handy. Either a button, menu option, or some sort of key stroke that brings up a window that shows you a preview from ALL of your snap locations at one time. Kinda like a security guard watching a bunch of tv screens.

I really like that idea. I’ll implement it in the next version! Thanks!

Seems like it would be really great for someone with a large screen (unlike me!) I’ll see if there’s a way to handle this on multi-screen setups. I might have to create a settings window too, in order to handle size maximums or something. Great idea though!

[awesomedata]

@RuinsOfFeyrin & @syscrusher

Been thinking about it and I plan to add 2 other major features, but I’m wondering if they’re too far out of the scope of Snapcam in your opinion. I don’t want to create a bloated package with lots of stuff people will just use other (possibly free) assets on. Here’s what I was thinking:

1. Palette for gameobject placement you can temporarily store gameobjects to for fast placement in your scene.

Also:

2. Tools for moving the camera around manually but with speed control features and easier vertical movement. Possibly a better fly through mode. Definitely a better orbit, with mouse wheel zooming when selecting gameobjects. Control suggestions are very welcome!!

Thoughts?

[syscrusher]

@awesomedata

Thanks for your question. I can see how this could be confusing, so thanks for bringing it up! – I’ll try my best to explain!

To begin with, that little window and slider IS where you load/save/replace your camera positions. All you do is middle-click on the thumbnail to save the current viewport location/orientation to the slider. Drag the slider back and forth to change the viewport position to the ones you saved. [… snipped for brevity …]

Does this help any?

Yeah, that helps a lot. Thanks! That’s totally unlike how I was [mis-]understanding it from the other postings. Much clearer now.

[syscrusher]

@RuinsOfFeyrin

Here is an idea that may be handy. Either a button, menu option, or some sort of key stroke that brings up a window that shows you a preview from ALL of your snap locations at one time. Kinda like a security guard watching a bunch of tv screens.

On reading the clarification @awesomedata kindly posted for my question, your suggestion also occurred to me as a useful addition. It’s basically a 2D equivalent of the slider’s 1D behavior. BTW, your analogy to the security guard camera is a great way of explaining the idea, so @awesomedata if you decide to implement, please consider using that in the docs.

[awesomedata]

Two new features ready:

• Grid Navigator – (nearing release on the Asset Store as part of Snapcam!) – will be the new solution for fast camera travel for both dual-monitor setups, as well as tiny screens like mine, simultaneously!
• Clear All Snaps – intended for the initial release, but forgotten due to Asset Store new asset upload process being a nightmare!

Take a look at Grid Navigator (and Snapcam!) in action:

Snapcam NAVIGATION STUDIO

[awesomedata]

Fixed the volume issue (hopefully!) in the video showing Snapcam’s use!

Remember, you can hold CTRL at any point while moving around with the “Snap Navigator” window to simply select a snap point without actually going there. You can even hold CTRL before “Load Snaps” to keep from changing position when using menu items like that as well!

The shortcuts above are G and S for the two windows respectively, but these can easily be changed in the script (I’ll upload an image to show where) – and G toggles the grid view on/off, so even if you use persistent windows, you can make it go away sometimes if you need to.

[awesomedata]

Celebrating the pending release of the new Snapcam 2.0 update and the slew of new awesomeness it comes with, Snapcam is on SALE for a limited time only.

The new 2.0 update will include the new “Grid Navigator” window (see the video in the first post showing its functionality) and realtime scene-camera navigation controls.

TL;DR:

• Snapcam is on SALE !! – Get it at $22 while you can!

Some of the highlights of the new 2.0 release include:

• NEW comfortable flythrough scene-camera controls (no need to find/hold WASD!)

• Move up/down via middle-mouse (with scene-view speed control setting!)

• Stop in-place to look-around (while moving) – just hold RMB

• Focal point orbit (w/ mouse movement + modifier key) around any selected gameobjects

• Zoom/movment speed settings

• Control movement speeds directly in the scene view w/sliders!

• NEW “Grid Navigator” security-camera-styled window that lets you navigate via grid of thumbnails (instead of by slider alone)

• The new Grid Navigatior window can be set as persistent or super-temporary – so you can either put it permanently on your second monitor, or if you only need it momentarily, you can toggle it via a quick keypress and then click anywhere to send it away!

[awesomedata]

**Jammed some extra features I’ve been working on into the new release to make camera movement control more comfortable!
(See previous post for details!)

Keep in mind the SALE is still active! – Get Snapcam at this price while you can!

[awesomedata]

Because “Grid Navigator” is essentially functional – I have submitted an early (beta) version of it to the Asset Store so that users who buy it during the sale can have access to its functionality now!

Enjoy!

^____^

[awesomedata]

Still awaiting the update to be approved for the Asset Store…

Perhaps the AS approval team doesn’t work weekends…?

D:

[awesomedata]

Snapcam Navigator v1.19 has been released!

Snapcam’s “Grid Navigator” (beta!) functionality is now available on the Asset Store during the sale!

More navigation features to follow in the official 2.0 release! Enjoy!

[awesomedata]

Last day of the sale!

If you want Snapcam, get it at $22 now! D:

[awesomedata]

Okay, so I’ve been doing some soul-searching with Snapcam lately in an attempt to understand just where it can help most in your scene-editing experience.

I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the biggest factors of tedium in level editing comes from attempting to place the camera relative to where it is – especially when you’re doing this all the time, such as when editing tiles or gameobjects in 2D Sidescrollers or in 3D Topdown games.

Say you’re working on a topdown 3D game and your screen is 15 x 7 tiles across/tall.

Most people would prefer to edit the tiles one screen at a time, sometimes 2-4 screens simultaneously can help too – but in a 3D editor such as Unity, this sort of control is very difficult to command from within the Scene view.

So I have considered a couple of new features to combat this:

• Ortho(graphic) mode toggle key shortcut

• A popup window with a grid of buttons (similar to Grid Navigator) that lets you pick from a (user-adjustable) range of nearby screens based on the current grid and location settings (adjustable from the popup itself), preferably with thumbnail previews of each nearby screen

• Option to snap view center to the nearest grid square in the center of the screen (select whether to use a particular corner or center of the grid-square) with a particular scale factor (i.e. how many screens to show at once – e.g. 2 scale factor would show 4 screens or 2x2 screens)

• Shift the camera x or y by a whole screen (select whether to move on the X/Z or the X/Y axis), taking into account the scale value (i.e. if scale factor is 2, camera will move 2 screens horizontally if camera moves once on X axis)

• Copy another snap point’s (or camera’s) orientation on any given axis, and apply only that to a particular camera (including the scene camera itself) via a shortcut key combo akin to Blender’s shortcut keys to select an axis for an operation after the operation is selected (but in our case, we’d select the axis BEFORE the operation via hotkeys)

• Upon shifting the scene camera to a new location relative to the current context (i.e. one screen over), keep the current x,y or z orientation/rotation/etc. of the current context (in this case, the scene camera might keep its x rotation to keep it pointed down a bit at the ground for a topdown 3D view)

• (Better flythrough controls are still coming btw! – Still testing various control schemes!)

Let me know if any of this is genuinely useful to you in editing your levels!