Category: Asset Store

A collection of posts all releated to my asset store releases

Leaderboard Manager (2.1.0)

by Jonathanin Asset Store, Update

Leaderboard Manager (2.1.0)

While it is a little delayed, the new rather long awaited Leaderboard Manager update is here. So what’s new?

Summary of changes

Mechanically the asset is pretty much the same as the earlier 2.0.x versions of the asset but with some updated backend logic for future updates. A full rundown of the behind the scenes changes:

  • New saving system similar to the Save Manager’s setup with a JSON save setup instead of the legacy binary save file setup.
  • Updated the structure of leaderboards to allow each entry to have its own unique identifier so you can reference an entry easier.

There is a porting tool to update old saves to the new structure. More on this in a moment.

  • New settings structure to match the rest of the assets released recently with per user settings and a settings provider flow.
  • Offline documentation is now complete instead of a simpler version. The online docs are also updated to match the rest of the assets using Notion as a host (easier to maintain in a pinch and has search built in).

There are also a new editor to allow to viewing of existing leaderboards as well as a setup to port older saves to this new version, both in the editor and at runtime.

Editor

With the editor tab you can view all leaderboards currently in the save file. You can’t make new ones here as the API isn’t designed to have boards made in the editor, instead having them made at runtime. You can however delete board should you need to test the setup and view the entries to make sure they appear as expected which should help with debugging.

Porting data to 2.1.x from 2.0.x

As mentioned the new structure means any old data from the previous version will need updating. A full rundown is in the documentation for the asset. But basically if you used the old setup to save the score as time by saving the score in seconds etc. As you can now save score as into a time class instead. There isn’t any major work you need to do to achieve this, just define the board ids and the type to convert them to and the asset should take care of the rest.

Note: you will need to convert boards even if they were just a score field.

An example below of a board called “Arcade” being converted to a score board in the new version.

What’s next?

With this update done, I’m mainly focusing on support and getting back into my main side project for the year as I’ve had to take some time off of it to get this out. I do have a few game idea’s that I may prototype at some point or at-least write out some ideas for next year to work on proper. More on these when I have something to share.

Audio Manager 3.x Release!

by Jonathanin Asset Store, Game Development, News, Tools, UpdateLeave a Comment on Audio Manager 3.x Release!

Audio Manager 3.x Release!

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A post annoucing the release of Audio Manager 3.x & an update to the Save Manager as well.

Audio Manager 3.x

Its been a long time coming, but today the new Audio Manager version is released. Unlike previous releases I’m going to stagger this one to release on the Unity Asset Store next year. This is mostly due to the asset’s stability not being great and the high likelyness of bugs from the total re-write. The new version has a lot of new features that have been teased before, but a quick rundown of some of the features:

  • Automatic scanning of audio clips in the project without any user input needed.
  • Dynamic start time for each clip to start where it starts playing audable audio, cutting out deadspace on clips and saves editing out of Unity.
  • Flexiable API for playing audio clips or groups of clips. The setup is more modular than before for easy debugging and fixing.
  • Editor to manage the library, assign groups of clips together and music track lists. Saves workarounds that were needed in the 2.x version of the asset.
  • No setup needed, just import and go. Before you needed to setup the inspector the use it.
  • Entirely static API, no scene references needed. As the static instance was the more common setup, this change makes it way easier to access the API without needing lots of scene references.
  • Music playing setup. Still a simple setup, but plans to make it better with further updates.
  • Inspector players for quick prototyping without needing to write any code. Like the old audio player class, but allowing for edits to be applied in the editor at will instead of needing a messy inspector with all options avalible.

So as of this post the asset is avalible from its Github repository and the Itch page. With the asset store coming early next year, partly for stabilty fixes, partly due to the review process which will likely take longer around this time of year as is. Links before:

Github: https://github.com/CarterGames/AudioManager

Itch: https://carter-games.itch.io/audio-manager

Save Manager 2.0.15

Along with the Audio Manager release, there is a small update to the Save Manager also coming out at the same time, more or less. This update will go live to all stores and mostly fixes some editor stuff that I worked out in Audio Manager 3.x this week as well as some issues with the save editor not refreshing to the latest data.

Links can be found here: https://carter.games/savemanager/

That’s all for now xD

~ J,

Audio Manager Progress Update

by Jonathanin Asset Store, Game Development

Audio Manager Progress Update

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Hi all. Been a little while so I thought I’d just update y’all on where Audio Manager 3 is at and when to expect it at this point.

Is it nearly done? yes. The code is like 90-95% done. As normal the last 5% takes most of the time xD. I found a few bugs which took me a week or so to work out in the spare time I had recently. I think I’ve got them at this point. I also had to add in a new system for an inspector player for audio. Something I couldn’t really leave out of the initial release. A little sneak peak above (right). Its more flexible than the 2.x solution with the option to use mode edit modules from the inspector and choose as few or as many as you’d like to use.

I’ve got one more script to write for a music player inspector, but after that is done it is just a matter of sorting a few small demo projects, testing & finishing the documentation. The docs I have already started writing. I’m hoping it’ll be ready before 2024, but I’m annoyingly busy at the moment on the weekends where I can get the most done. So we’ll see if that happens….

Also new logo! All the assets have a new logo design as of this weekend. I’m slowly updating them everywhere as I get the time to do so and I’m not in a coding mood…. Audio Manager’s logo below:

That’s all for now xD

~ J,

Audio Manager 3.x Progress

by Jonathanin Asset Store, UpdateLeave a Comment on Audio Manager 3.x Progress

Audio Manager 3.x Progress

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Its been a while since I updated you all on the progress so far. So far the progress has been good. So here’s how things are shaping up:

Library Editor

Library Tab

The main library tab of the library editor has had a few changes to it. The main layout hasn’t changed much since I last showed it, but there are some subtle changes.

  • Update clips struct button, lets you update the Clip.??? struct with the latest data. You can edit the keys for the clips in this version so the entries in the struct need updating often. This is one feature I’ve yet to work out a good way to automate. So for now it and any other struct will have manual updates with the exception of when a new clip is scanned where it will happen automatically.
  • Clip Dynamic time preview. I’ve managed to actually draw on the waveform the time currently set for the dynamic start time. This system still needs work to make it more user friendly, but visually its where I wanted it to be.
  • Hints, these are on each main button and can be toggled in the asset settings. They are just to aid with new users to help them understand what important buttons do.

Groups Tab

The groups tab has been updated with some extra buttons and has been fixed up. Previously editing any clip would only edit the last one in the list and there were some issues with keeping the data in sync with the library asset in the project. This tab has the same struct generation button which you’ll see in all the tabs and will update the Group.??? struct.

Mixer Tab

The mixer tab is legit just a button to update the Mixer.??? struct & a button to access the mixer in the project. I have attempted to add the inspector of the mixer to the tab. However it didn’t really play ball. So for now its just a link to the asset in the project with room to extended it down the line.

Music Tab

This is still in development as I’ve only just started the music side of the new version as of writing. So it has the music struct button for Track.??? but nothing else at the moment as I work out how its all going to work xD

Music Management

Like with the audio manager in 3.x, the music setup is going to work mostly if not entirely static. The idea is to allow for a modular setup with the option to transition between tracks. Setup layed tracks which you can sync & transition between as well as playlists etc. Still need to work out the particulars, but it should be good if it all comes out as planned. I may also have a component for use in scenes to set some of this up. But its likely to be mostly a code based solution this time around for the flexibility.

That’s about it for now, so far its on track for end of August, but we’ll see how I do over the next month or so. I’ll post another update when its near release.

Website Updates & Releases Soon

by Jonathanin Asset Store, UpdateLeave a Comment on Website Updates & Releases Soon

This is just a post to update you all on what I’ve been up to over the last few weeks with both the website & some of the asset store assets. Its not been too long since my last post but I did want to update you one the website changes and the progress of the Save Manager mainly.

Website Changes

The biggest and change that you would’ve seen is the new navigation menu setup. I’ve gone ahead and expanded it to have links to all major products currently active. The reason for this was to help indicate to visitors that there were extra pages for assets / games etc. As the homepage doesn’t illude to this too well. The sub menus also include Scarlet Library under the resources section. This being a code library I’m slowly working on for Unity which houses scripts I use between projects. It is well overdue an update when I get the main goals for this year done.

The other main change is more subtle unless you’ve tried to access some of the assets documentation. As the documentation for some assets have been ported to the website, instead of being an embed of a html export from Notion which it was before. The biggest upside to this is the ability to search the documentation! The solution isn’t perfect, as I’d like the option to add a landing page for each docs but otherwise this is much better than the other idea I was trying and mentioned in my last post. Below is a screenshot of the Mutli-Scene docs as they appear on the site now (https://carter.games/docs/multiscene/):

The only other website changes are in the backend, which should improve the sites performance a tad. The site isn’t on an expensive dedicated web hosting provider so it will be a little slower due to that, but its cheap and works which is ideal for me now.

Save Manager

I have good news in regards to the Save Manager, I’ve finally hit a release candidate for the assets version 2.0.0 release. I’ve been spending the last few weeks working out the bugs as best as I can and automating where possible. It’s a good thing I did this as a large chunk of the asset was not working as intended or was fundamentally flawed. Using my side project to test it, I have managed to get it initializing correctly when imported and updating when new save assets are added. On top of this I had to do a lot of trial and error to get the web builds working, but it does thankfully work.

I expect that asset will be out by the end of the month (ish). I’ve still got the write the documentation and check over the code one more time to remove any redundant logic and improve the API for usage where possible. But I should be on track to roughly hit that goal if I keep at it over the next few weeks when I get time.

Build Versions

Some of you may have noticed some minor releases to Build Versions over last week. This was just to fix up some issues the asset was having with getting assets in the resources folder mainly. There is another update coming this week which changes up the date field in the information asset to use a custom class instead of a string, which should help with regional differences with the date. An example of how it looks now:

That’s it for this update. Hopefully more around the end of the month with the Save Manager release!