the best i can get now is carefully using physics 3d & hybrid SpriteRenderer or third party nsprite, it's a solution not any near optimal though, DOTS team do mention many times "Consolidation of ECS workflows", can we expect any 2d consolidation stuff in the future ?
#Will DOTS support 2d physics & 2d graphics in the future?
kind cairn
true flume
2d physics work fine if you simply constraint 3d. Allthough lack of 2d specific colliders is annoying indeed.
2d graphics also work fine if you author it same way as 3d graphics (via MeshRenderer)
kind cairn
2d physics work fine if you simply constraint 3d. Allthough lack of 2d specific ...
without 2d sorting, sprite editing (such as pivot & physics shape), sprite animation(or bone animation), i don't think it can be considerred "fine" for production. but ecs do play great in many 2d games like factorio/terraria/core keeper etc..
also things like 2d navmesh stuff (which is also lacking in 3d situation)
true flume
most stuff you mentioned is not a thing even for 3D 😅
kind cairn
haha, indeed, but at least many 3D stuff is on the roadmap, but unity didn't mention anything in 2D, so i'm here to ask the plan. (or i can just assume there will never be any plan?)
true flume
I wouldn't expect anything for 2d before most stuff from 3d roadmap will arive
kind cairn
seems better roll my own though, thanks!
native ocean
haha, indeed, but at least many 3D stuff is on the roadmap, but unity didn't men...
I asked them about it twice at the DOTS Blitz, the answer is: they don't have any plan for 2D because in their opinion 2D doesn't need the same performance as 3D does, and the devs (other than Unity) can always come up with a rendering solution for 2D.
I've fined my disagreement, along with some others. I also submitted a request for 2D on the roadmap, but who knows if they change their mind? So at the meantime I suggest you try 3rd solutions or develop one for your own.
NSprites is a good solution for any device whose GPU supports StructuredBuffer.
true flume
you can write your own solution, it's probably not a problem
the problem is: animations
even sprite sheet ones will require a massive amount of work
native ocean
Agree. However no one seems to work on a 2D animation for ECS atm. Even Spine has that plan postponed for the near future.
true flume
NSprites dev looks into it and if I'm not mistaken even has some solution
native ocean
For spritesheet, I have a proof of concept already that can work fine on low end Android device. But I just don't have the time to further work on it yet.
true flume
it's really not a problem to render stuff
there are no limitations for low end devices
the problem is to author stuff
converting a bunch of pictures into data layout that is easy to use
native ocean
There are many problems, at least for me. Authoring is just a part of them.
viral crane
As an useless sneak peek: I really want to add 2D animations (2D skinning) support into Rukhanka and made some sort of 2D renderer for everything. But unfortunately I have no time at all while busy implementing promised Rukhanka features 😦 Actual 2D animations can be done already. Problem is 2D skinned meshes (absence of rendering tech for them)
dire jacinth
devs have stated they have absolutely zero plans for any 2d dots stuff, and best way to get it on their radar is to request on the roadmap(im skeptical this makes a difference, i prefer the long ranty forum posts myself 😅 )
dire patio
https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.2d.entities@0.22/manual/index.html
i did find that there's a package being worked on i think?...
i dont know how complete the feature set is
but its technically there
true flume
https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.2d.entities@0.22/manual/index.html
...
it's not, take a look at changelog