Do all derivative assets get published?
Another saving question from me. I'm a little bit confused about how things link together if they've been saved as separate elements multiple times, particularly if nothing has been published yet. Previously, I typically built everything in the level I was developing, but now that I'm doing multi-level things, I've changed up my methods.
So here's a scenario:
I will often create a game scene to start so I can drop in a puppet for scale, then start sculpting nearby, then gradually turn these things into assets for stamping in a fresh, new scene. We'll call this a "development scene" for now, and I'm saving it as a separate file from everything else.
- So let's say I'm working with this "development scene" and I create a new character. We'll call her Amy. I start working on her walk animations, paint her up a bit, and save her as "Amy Model."
- Then, later I'm working on a game level that I'm actually planning on publishing, and drop in Amy Model. Realizing that she needs some extra logic in her controller chip, I scope in (but not into the original stand-alone file) and make those modifications, and maybe make changes to her looks a bit. Maybe I go in and make her jump a little higher so she can clear obstacles I've built since. So when I'm happy, I select her and name her "Amy Game Model" as a new element.
- This is where I'm confused. I'm ready to Publish the finished game scene as a Dream and it's asking me the typical "these items need to be published before you continue." What will it be asking me to publish at this point?
My main questions are:
- Will it ask/require me to publish "Amy Model" as well as "Amy Game Model", since I based it on the original sculpt?
- Will it ask/require me to publish the Development Scene as well, since that element is where Amy is originally from?
Just curious, because if these things are true, I need to go back to my original method so I'm not publishing a long line of linked, half-working pieces.
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Yes, both Amy models will need to be published, as "Amy Model" is permanently the parent to any creations that derive from it. I believe Development Scene will not be published in this scenario.
I ran into a situation that might interest you as well. I was working on a Puppet and decided to Save as New Creation, thinking I would save "out" a copy of the puppet. Then I continued working in my scene. When I went to publish the scene (as a Character), I had to publish the "saved out" version as well. Even though I had never opened or edited it, I unintentionally created a new parent to my working file that I can't get rid of. -
Oh that's interesting... So that's good to know. A little annoying though. So it's better to just jump back and forth between the "Edit Original" (I forget what it's called at the moment) area and the final scene and just keep using the Update tool if you've already added the element to another scene.
I wish there were a better way to "Create a copy" (at least on your own creations) so that they can be worked on separately, just in case you want to adapt things. I guess then—In the example, Development Scene might be a good place to have doubles of every item as well. One that's "Saved as New Creation" (assets) and one that hasn't been saved as anything yet, so you can make duplicates of things. If I want to make another character using Amy as a base, I could do so without sharing any version of Amy (though presumably, once it happens, it wouldn't need to happen again. Just kindof annoying if I decide to change Amy's base in the future (and give her a ponytail or something) and it decides to update all other characters in the process. :/ -
Also, I'm going to guess that you might be able to get around that second issue (the forced publishing of the "saved out" version) similarly by creating a duplicate before "saving out" an object, and then delete the specific one (from the scene) that you "saved out" before you publish the scene. Otherwise it seems like it's basically just saving that item within the scene.
Basically:
- Clone an item.
- Save cloned item ("Save as New Creation")
- Delete cloned item if you don't want it to be published with the scene. You can still keep the pre-cloned original.
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Good thinking, thanks! That would have accomplished what I was after at the time.
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