Sprite shapes with broken tangents

[Voxelette]

Hey there,

I am doing Unity 2D course, and I am learning all about sprite shapes in the snowboarder section. However, not all shapes are going to be curved in actual games. So, I’ve been experimenting with the corners on sprite shapes. The ideal shape I want is possible with a “broken” tangent. However, it’s creating this overlap effect.

I tried tweaking settings, found no option to set separate sprites for sharp corners as far as I can see, and my Google and YouTube searches are not going anywhere. Any advice?

[Nina]

Hi Voxelette,

First of all, click the snow game object so you can see the path along which the snow sprite gets rendered. Secondly, check the broken part and select the vertex where the sprite breaks. In the SpriteShapeController, check the Tangent Mode. This vertex must not have the first mode (“Linear”) selected. You need the second mode (“Continuous Mirrored”) to get a nice curve.

Did this fix it for you?

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See also:

• Unity Manual : Sprite Shape Controller
• Forum User Guides : How to mark a topic as solved

[Voxelette]

Hi, I could not find a continuous mirrored option. Is it under some other panel?

[Nina]

You have to select the broken vertex.

I could not find a continuous mirrored option. Is it under some other panel?

No, it’s not. Have you checked the manual page I linked for you? Look for the option there. Ctrl + F will help you find it.

[Voxelette]

I’m not sure if I’m explaining properly and if we are on the same page… 🥹

I’ve changed all three points to broken and even experimented by changing sharp corner vertex to continuous while other two points broken, there is no mirrored option anywhere, and the results are still not what I’m going for. I need a sharp angle, no curves. With broken, it’s sharp, but the overlap is there, with continuous, it’s curved. Following is the desired effect, modified in Photoshop.

I suppose it’s one of those things I have to drop for now and move on.

Have you checked the manual page I linked for you?

Going by the manual, the broken and continuous is by default labeled as mirrored, which I have already been using, and there is no option to “mirror” it.

Looks to be a UI/UX blunder on the unity side to name it one thing in the manual and another thing in the app UI. I just wasted 1-2 hours searching for a feature that’s not there.

Moreover, I feel it’s a huge oversight by GameDev.tv to miss out on how to implement sharp corners and arches. In an actual use-case, like a platformer, it won’t be smooth like the snowboarder example. To ignore teaching something like this and it not available on searches online makes me think it may not be possible in unity. That’s probably why it was not taught, nor were any resources available pointing to it. I spent hours watching videos on it on YouTube, and not a single video addressed this.

Am I right in assuming I’ll need to probably use another sprite for edges to achieve this effect?

[Nina]

@Voxelette

Looks to be a UI/UX blunder on the unity side to name it one thing in the manual and another thing in the app UI. I just wasted 1-2 hours searching for a feature that’s not there.

If you feel that Unity’s UI/UX should be improved, please message the Unity support and let them know about the problem and what you would prefer to see.

@Voxelette

In an actual use-case, like a platformer, it won’t be smooth like the snowboarder example.

Unity is very complex. If Gary and Rick showed everything one could do with every tool in Unity, the course would be several hundreds of hours long and heavily outdated because Unity gets updated on a regular basis. For this reason, they decided to focus on a few games and solve the problems in those games with Unity’s tools and C#. They aim to show a variety of techniques and tools but they cannot teach everything there is. If you feel that something should be covered in this course, please message our team. Alternatively, if your request is more complex, you could post it here: Ideas - GameDev.tv.

Am I right in assuming I’ll need to probably use another sprite for edges to achieve this effect?

It depends on the effect you want to achieve. Unity is not intelligent. The rules how sprites are processed are predefined. In the manual, you can see your exact problem, which is not considered a problem by the creators of this tool. They wanted the sprites to overlap but in the Snowboarder game, this does not look good.

If the available tools do not solve your specific problem, you’ll have to find an alternative solution. That’s normal.

[Voxelette]

If you feel that Unity’s UI/UX should be improved, please message the Unity support and let them know about the problem and what you would prefer to see.

I was politely letting you know you led me on a wild goose chase and made you aware it’s not called “mirrored” in the engine nor there was a seperate tool labled “mirrored” within the engine… there is only continuous and broken in engine and it’s labeled with mirrored in user manual. it was not an invitation to deflect. It’s not helping me or anyone else and very off topic.

To clarify, I do acknowledge you were trying to help. You kept repeatedly mentioning “mirrored,” and I clarified we were talking about the same tool and there were no separate mirrored versions of it. It’s labeled mirrored in the manual and without a mirrored label in the unity engine, which you should know, and I assumed you know.

Because you kept saying mirrored repeatedly despite already clarifying I’m not using linear, I gave you the benefit of the doubt and spent hours searching for the tool. Hence, the wild goose chase.

It depends on the effect you want to achieve. Unity is not intelligent.

Got it! However, I’m asking for advice on implementing sharp corners. You are mistaking my post as a criticism of the course. I just want to learn.

Why am I so adamant about the sharp corners? If can’t do it with a sprite shape, then it’s not a go-to for platform games. This is an integral part I wish was taught as there doesn’t seem to be any material on it on YouTube or other such resource.

Why is sharp corners important? Because modern platformers are more organic and have shapes like this. It’s very very common. This is the effect I want to achieve—sharp corner with no overlap. I’ll attach it again for any interested. My question is simple. How? I hope someone can tell me… I’m not finding any results on my searches.

Can you, another TA, or someone else at least point me to a tutorial for this? I can’t seem to find any. I tried working with the settings but can’t figure out how to do this.

Again, I’m not here criticizing the course, I’m trying to learn. I apologize if I’ve given the wrong impression. English is not my first language.

[Nina]

@Voxelette

Again, I’m not here criticizing the course, I’m trying to learn. I apologize if I’ve given the wrong impression.

No worries, we are open to criticism. Once I understood the problem and agree that it is a problem with the content of this course, I forward the problem and/or feedback to our instructors, so they can look into it and improve the course if they think that there is something that needs to be improved.

I understood that you want to achieve sharp corners in your individual game but sharp corners were not a problem in Rick’s game. The Snowboarder game is not meant to be “every platformer there is”. It is just this Snowborder game with the problems presented in this course. Additional problems are actually beyond the scope of this course.

@Voxelette

You kept repeatedly mentioning “mirrored,”

In your first screenshot, I did not see what I wanted to suggest to you, so I checked the manual to figure out how I could tell you what I mean. I used the name that was mentioned in the Unity manual, so you would be able to look it up yourself. Here is a screenshot from the linked page:

The screenshot shows that “Continuous Mirrored” refers to a specific button. You could have tested that button and move the handles closer to the vertex. Maybe you could have achieved a sharp corner with this technique.

@Voxelette

How? I hope someone can tell me… I’m not finding any results on my searches.

I think I misunderstood your screenshot. I thought you already solved this problem in Unity. I hope I understood it correctly this time: The screenshot does not show the result in Unity but what you want to achieve?

If so, do you know this video by Brackeys? (Paste ?t=608 behind the URL in your browser.)

MAKE ORGANIC LEVELS!! Unity Sprite Shape

And here is also a sharp corner:

Unity 2D - Closed 2D Sprite Shape - Platformers and Top Down

(Paste ?t=386 behind the URL in your browser.)

You could try to create a corner sprite in Gimp or Photoshop or whatever you prefer. See this video:

2D Sprite Shape na Unity

(Paste ?t=750 behind the URL in your browser.)

The corner piece should be like this:

I hope this helped.

Also please feel free to ask our helpful community of students over on our Discord chat server.

[Voxelette]

@Nina

The screenshot shows that “Continuous Mirrored” refers to a specific button. You could have tested that button and move the handles closer to the vertex. Maybe you could have achieved a sharp corner with this technique.

The problem was NOT I couldn’t do sharp corners. I already used the tool. I had no issue creating the arc. You were assuming I don’t know how to use the tool. There is no Maybe here. Plain and simple. The problem was the overlap and wanting to get seamless edge. Not creating the arc or using the tool. 🥲

Your post still full of deflections and not our responsibility talk making it very unpleasant and distracting to read, but I’m going over it.

I sent a private message on how to improve the student experience.

@Nina

I hope this helped.

Thank You.