New official tools + parts released via Unity

[M2m]

LEGO® Microgame Add-Ons Santa's Brickshop has been released:

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/santa-s-brickshop-lego-microgame-add-ons-183389

As far as I can tell no new parts - just some Unity prefabs (like Santa minifig, Chrstimas trees, presents, etc)

[M2m]

I made screenhots of all parts in the Unity pack here: https://github.com/sttng/LDD/tree/master/NewParts/screenshot

1st of 32 pages example below

[Stephan]

That's really helpful for the older 'custom' parts that I am updating to include collision data. Next parts update will be pretty big!

Edited January 6, 2021 by Stephan

[henrysunset]

Is it possible to script a bulk conversion into LDraw format?  It wouldn't bother me if it took a long time to clean up and move to "official" - At least folks who are familiar with the "unofficial" parts could begin to use them!

As mentioned in another thread, I'm in the process of writing an article about the Most Common DUPLO Parts, and many of the parts are missing pictures.  I also plan to add the most common DUPLO parts to my LEGO Brick Labels collection (for only the most discerning toddlers, of course...)

---tom

[M2m]

On 1/15/2021 at 3:36 PM, henrysunset said:

Is it possible to script a bulk conversion into LDraw format?  It wouldn't bother me if it took a long time to clean up and move to "official" - At least folks who are familiar with the "unofficial" parts could begin to use them!

As mentioned in another thread, I'm in the process of writing an article about the Most Common DUPLO Parts, and many of the parts are missing pictures.  I also plan to add the most common DUPLO parts to my LEGO Brick Labels collection (for only the most discerning toddlers, of course...)

---tom

I do think it’s possible but definitely hard. One of the challenges is the fbx format for which afaik only a c++ sdk exists. So you are bound to writing c++. Or you can use blender scripting as an alternative, which then means everyone who wants to use the script has to get blender. 
 

The lego fbx files seem to be a ‘best of both worlds’ between LDD and LDraw format logically. For example studs and bottom tubes are based on reusable standard files and are also put in dedicated sub-geometry groups for quite a lot of parts, albeit not all and also not for Duplo parts as far as I have seen. 
 

I think the guy who wrote the blender Ldraw importer would be the person who most likely has the best skill set and knowledge to do a task like this. 
 

Starting from 0 i assume it might just be quicker to do a manual conversion. With LDD and manual process in my workflow it only takes a couple of minutes per part manually. 
 

My workflow as follows:

• import fbx part in Blender
• Correct scaling (from 0.01 to 1)
• export to obj
• import into parts designer 
• Add basic master data (part number, name, group (system, technic), subgroup (i.e hats, animal parts, ...), bounding, ...)
• Export to LDD 
• correct collision and connection data based on parts pack data in xml file

i'm using blender to import and export the fbx files, because parts designer has once in while problems in reading sub-geometries of certain fbx files. This is because there exist different versions of the fbx file format and I assume the middleware used in parts designer only supports certain versions and feature sets of fbx.

Edited January 17, 2021 by M2m

[henrysunset]

12 hours ago, M2m said:

My workflow as follows...

Thanks for explaining!  I can totally respect that it doesn't sound like a particularly easy process to automate, and it will take some time to migrate 1000 parts!
Out of curiosity, how long does that process take? I would expect that it's at least 15 minutes per part (average), and that probably doesn't include the process of moving parts through the review process.

---tom

P.S. Is there a human-readable summary of the process to create new parts in LDraw?  If not, It's the kind of nerdy article I'd love to tackle at Brick Architect if someone wants to help me do it!

[M2m]

I’d say for a part which is not an assembly the process is rather quick: about 5 - 10min max. That’s in case the respective metadata (connections, collisions, ...) come with the part in the unity pack (which is the case in about 90%). In that case the quality review (do connections work correctly) is also quick. Shouldn’t me more then a minute. 
 

For the case where meta data is missing or it’s an assembly then the process to get a working LDD part can easily become 1-2h or more. 
 

For Ldraw parts creation I have absolutely no experience   

Edit (a quick and dirty video of the process):

 

Edited January 17, 2021 by M2m

[henrysunset]

On 1/16/2021 at 8:00 PM, M2m said:

I’d say for a part which is not an assembly the process is rather quick: about 5 - 10min max. That’s in case the respective metadata (connections, collisions, ...) come with the part in the unity pack (which is the case in about 90%). In that case the quality review (do connections work correctly) is also quick. Shouldn’t me more then a minute. 
 

For the case where meta data is missing or it’s an assembly then the process to get a working LDD part can easily become 1-2h or more. 
 

For Ldraw parts creation I have absolutely no experience   

Edit (a quick and dirty video of the process):

 

 

That was interesting to see, thanks for sharing!  I don't know for sure, but I suspect the process is similar for LDraw.

[M2m]

25 minutes ago, henrysunset said:

 

That was interesting to see, thanks for sharing!  I don't know for sure, but I suspect the process is similar for LDraw.

I guess so. But I don't have any experience with LDraw Parts creation. I guess LDraw.org Discussion Forums - Part Requests is a good place to ask around.

As written, the Unity pack is great because not only does it come with the 3D Geometry of the parts but also with connection info (which is 99% similar to how LDD handles connections).

[Oky]

So I just started playing with this Microgame and so far seems like a pretty neat tool. After going through all the tutorials and playing with it for a while, I still have some questions though. Is there any way to make hinges or any other kinds of substructures, like turning wheels on a vehicle or moving arms on a character? I can't seem to be able to make a brick/model the child/parent of another.

Also, is there any way to apply gravity on anything other than projectiles and minifigs?

I also have the problem that when I import the mods, they import with a bunch of errors, making a lot of the scripts not work, including the brick building mode (the snapping together of the bricks). It seems like it is unable to locate the original files for the prefabs, even though I imported everything afaik. Anyone know what I did wrong?

Any advice would be appreciated.

[M2m]

Lego updated the Microgame. Here is the changelog:

LEGO Microgame - Version 1.1.4
========================================

This is the LEGO Microgame package. Learn to create your own LEGO game with this example project.

Changelog
---------
## [1.1.4] - 2021-01-19

### Added
New LEGO Behavior Bricks:
- Speak
- Counter

New LEGO Tools Feature:
- Show Bricks in Hierarchy

### Changed
- Update Model Importer package to 3.2.0

## [1.1.3] - 2020-12-01

### Changed
- Update WebGL Publisher to 4.0.3

### Fixed
- Issue with grey skybox

## [1.1.2] - 2020-11-30

### Changed
- Update LEGO Model Importer Package to 3.0.3
- Update LEGO Materials Package to 2.1.0
- Update WebGL Publisher to 4.0.2

## [1.1.1] - 2020-10-28

### Changed
- Update LEGO Model Importer Package to 3.0.2

## [1.1.0] - 2020-10-26

### Changed
- Update LEGO Material Package to 2.0.0
- Update LEGO Model Importer Package to 3.0.1

## [1.0.2] - 2020-09-24

### Changed
- Update IET package to 1.1.0

### Fixed
- [Tutorial] Fixed: T6 - Step 8 - Multiple 'Touch Triggers' are highlighted in the hierarchy
- [Tutorial] Fixed: Tutorials 1,5 can not be completed when run again

## [1.0.1] - 2020-09-14

### Fixed
- Hotfix for walkthrough break in second tutorial

## [1.0.0] - 2020-09-09

### Added
- Beta version of the LEGO Microgame

I checked and couldn't find new parts added.

[M2m]

Some updates for the Lego Microgame:

No new or updated parts - parts are in ZIP files for Windows in  C:\Users\<USERNAME>\My project\Library\PackageCache\com.unity.lego.modelimporter@6.0.0\Data

LEGO Microgame - Version 2.4.1
========================================

This is the LEGO Microgame package. Learn to create your own LEGO game with this example project.
Consult the "Terms of Service" here: Assets > LEGO > "LEGO® Microgame Terms of Service"

Changelog
---------
## [2.4.1] - 2021-12-07

### Fixed
- Issue with packages

## [2.4.0] - 2021-11-23

### Changed
- New version of the Model Importer Package

### Fixed
- Issue where minifigure would sometimes be hit by a projectile when pressing play in playground
- Null reference error when no audio clip is specified in Spawn action
- Missing reference error where non-looping audio source is attempted destroyed twice
- Issue where a Touch trigger with brick scope would sense the model itself.
- Issue where spawning a Win brick at the same time as winning would make you win the game rather than add the new objective.

## [2.3.0] - 2021-09-13

### Added
- Tutorials, link to curated LEGO Microgame assets on the asset store
- New "One button controller" Behaviour Brick
- New "One Button minifig controller" script component

### Changed
- Input behavior brick now supports "Any" key
- Tutorial tweaks

## [2.2.0] - 2021-07-16

### Changed
- New tutorial "Import Assets"

## [2.1.0] - 2021-04-13

### Removed
- Packages and modules that were not used

### Changed
- New "Spawn" Behaviour Brick
- New "axle connectivity"

## [2.0.0] - 2021-03-11

### Changed
- Update to 2020 LTS

### Fixed
- Crash on Undo-ReDo

## [1.1.4] - 2021-01-19

### Added
New LEGO Behavior Bricks:
- Speak
- Counter

New LEGO Tools Feature:
- Show Bricks in Hierarchy

### Changed
- Update Model Importer package to 3.2.0

## [1.1.3] - 2020-12-01

### Changed
- Update WebGL Publisher to 4.0.3

### Fixed
- Issue with grey skybox

## [1.1.2] - 2020-11-30

### Changed
- Update LEGO Model Importer Package to 3.0.3
- Update LEGO Materials Package to 2.1.0
- Update WebGL Publisher to 4.0.2

## [1.1.1] - 2020-10-28

### Changed
- Update LEGO Model Importer Package to 3.0.2

## [1.1.0] - 2020-10-26

### Changed
- Update LEGO Material Package to 2.0.0
- Update LEGO Model Importer Package to 3.0.1

## [1.0.2] - 2020-09-24

### Changed
- Update IET package to 1.1.0

### Fixed
- [Tutorial] Fixed: T6 - Step 8 - Multiple 'Touch Triggers' are highlighted in the hierarchy
- [Tutorial] Fixed: Tutorials 1,5 can not be completed when run again

## [1.0.1] - 2020-09-14

### Fixed
- Hotfix for walkthrough break in second tutorial

## [1.0.0] - 2020-09-09

### Added
- Beta version of the LEGO Microgame

 

[jamesster]

This video was just released today, here's the raw slides:

https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1028885/What-10-Years-of-Package

Of interest here, there's a part of the talk where he shows a public collection of LEGO packages for Unity.

This includes some animated LEGO animals/critters, more animated minifig and minidoll samples, and what appears to be a newer or different(?) version of the model importer - I'm not completely sure, but a cursory glance with a file comparison program is showing plenty of models for bricks that I didn't have in my older copy from the microgame. Definitely worth looking into to confirm/deny.

 

Edit - make sure you're on a recent version of Unity to ensure you're getting the most up to date versions of the packages as possible. Latest version of the LEGO Model Importer as of now is 0.10.1, from April 11, not even a couple weeks ago. DEFINITELY has new parts.

Edited April 23, 2023 by jamesster

[Stephan]

On 4/23/2023 at 6:01 AM, jamesster said:

DEFINITELY has new parts.

Well, aparently, the update is not that exiting related to new LDD parts...

Edited April 28, 2023 by Stephan