Unity Transparency animation problems

Bwohaha

I have a transparency animation problem similiar to what was written about in this post:
http://ru.esotericsoftware.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3675

Animation with transparency works fine in Spine, but when exported, animated transparency is non-existent in Unity.

I use pre-multiply on exporting.
I have used Spine/Skeleton shader in unity.
I have even tried this solution(though in SkeletonRenderer.cs since SkeletonComponent no longer exists):
color.r = (byte)(r * slot.R * 255);
color.g = (byte)(g * slot.G * 255);
color.b = (byte)(b * slot.B * 255);
http://ru.esotericsoftware.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2467

But none of it has worked out... What could the problem be? Other than that spine-unity works perfect so far, but this is important.

I appreciate any help.

Just tried to make the animation be one keyframe, where I've changed transparency, color and etc. None of the changes show up on unity: there it's just the same original texture... Tried out all of the Spine shaders. Nothing seems to work.

I'm at a loss.

Unity 5.0.1f1(latest), downloaded latest unity-spine plugin just today, Spine version 2.1.27(latest).

Pharan

Thanks for being thorough. The problem doesn't really make sense either. If you could share a minimum project that shows the problem and send/link a download to it here, we could take a look at it.

Only judging from the things you mentioned, everything should be working correctly. I'm inclined to think it's some other kind of error and I'm not really sure where to check but I could probably check it myself. Texture settings (unlikely since your problem isn't artifacts and misalignment), material settings and links to the AtlasAsset (maybe), controller logic and animation data (depends on what they are, and if you're 100% these are working correctly).

Mitch

are you 100% sure that the Spine/Skeleton shader is compiling correctly? Someone encountered something before and it just required a forced-reimport of the shader.

Bwohaha

Hey, Mitch, Pharan. Thanks for quick replies.

Here's the project and spine project examples I've made to showcase my problem. As you probably can see, there's only animation with one frame, on which a picture(texture) is rotated, opacity lowered, brightness lowered and it is colored with red. In unity I can only see the picture rotated. The rest of effects do not show up. They don't show up in both editor window and in build.
I can see that they work in spine and in spine's export json I see the color settings I've used for the keyframe.
By the way, forgot to mention that I use Mac in case it somehow is relevant.
Anyway, folder with both files:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2v4zft4fycc8ktl/AADmk81BJ5rveYrDorq1xd_3a?dl=0
In case you need only links to files:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/liwhphb87bv6m9w/ProjectExample.zip?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g372nak1vl4l0yb/spineProject.zip?dl=0

"Texture settings".
Tried out everything: sprite2d and ui, texture, advanced. Flipped the switches around hoping somthing would work, but alas - nothing did.

"material settings"
The only material setting I can change that is relevant is the shader. Tried out everything in Spine/ folder, nothing seems to work. Not sure what problem with the like to the AtlasAsset there could be.

"controller logic and animation data (depends on what they are, and if you're 100% these are working correctly)."
I'm quite certain they do work correctly. In the example above I see that the animation is playing normally(rotation occurs), but the color animations do not. I can see in json that color animation is included there. I've checked my export settings three times and they're exactly the same as in the video tutorial on spine. As for controller logic - in the example above I use only what the spine-unity plugin bakes: a prefab with an animator attached to it.

"are you 100% sure that the Spine/Skeleton shader is compiling correctly"
Tried reimporting. Nothing's changed. On Reimport all in the example project I've received a following error in console that has disappeared after launch and does not seem to appear again except for repeating reimport all command:
NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
SpineEditorUtilities.ResetExistingSkeletonData (System.String skeletonJSONPath) (at Assets/spine-unity/Editor/SpineEditorUtilities.cs:409)
SpineEditorUtilities.ImportSpineContent (System.String[] imported, Boolean reimport) (at Assets/spine-unity/Editor/SpineEditorUtilities.cs:302)
SpineEditorUtilities.OnPostprocessAllAssets (System.String[] imported, System.String[] deleted, System.String[] moved, System.String[] movedFromAssetPaths) (at Assets/spine-unity/Editor/SpineEditorUtilities.cs:257)
System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:222)
Rethrow as TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.
System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:232)
System.Reflection.MethodBase.Invoke (System.Object obj, System.Object[] parameters) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MethodBase.cs:115)
UnityEditor.AssetPostprocessingInternal.PostprocessAllAssets (System.String[] importedAssets, System.String[] addedAssets, System.String[] deletedAssets, System.String[] movedAssets, System.String[] movedFromPathAssets) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/AssetPostprocessor.cs:26)

Tried to launch the same project under windows unity - same problem.

Funny thing: in unity on windows I can preview the animation if I click on the SkeletonData asset (on Mac I can see the list of animations and its' length, but I can't preview them).
In the preview I see on windows the animation works correctly: color, transparency,- everything! Like a dream come true. But when I bake(tried to rebake it on windows just in case) and look at the result in the scene - color animation does not work at all. Weird =____=. I really hope this gets solved. Your words about how this is unusual behavior fill me with hope that it will be so.
Thanks beforehand.

Here's what I see. Preview in the bottom right corner(how it should look) is rotated, dark, red and transparent, while top left one(the scene) is only rotated...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jvwpx0zsltt8f2v/example.jpg?dl=0

Mitch

This looks exactly like the problem I saw with the shader not compiling correctly on OSX.

What version of OSX do you have? What version of Unity? What GPU does your mac have? Is it a hackintosh?

In the short term, switch the Shader for the atlas material(s) to Unity's default Sprite shader and see if works better - its actually very similar to Spine/Skeleton.

Bwohaha

Do I understand correctly that on your pc the example project I've provided works: transparency, color, opacity - they all work and show up? If not - could you give me an example project of your own that have this working? Maybe there is a bug in the latest spine-unity plugin somewhere... I have no ideas otherwise. Couldn't be my mac or OS.

I doubt OS X or my mac could be the problem because:
1) I tried launching it on windows (8) = same problems
2) I had a coworker launch it on windows on another pc (older version) = same exact problems
3) I've tried opening it in windows on my iMac = same problems
4) I have latest OS X installed on my macbook pro, where I initially was testing this.

So weird doesn't even begin to describe this...

I appreciate your help.

Allright, this is new kind of weird...
My coworker has had exported spine boy example. He says there's a shooting effect with additive and color animation effects. They work correctly in unity. However, when he has added a color animation of his own to default spine boy project(transparency and such), his color animation did not show up except in the preview window of skeleton data asset. The animation of shooting still showed up correctly.

I'll try to mess with it a little. Perhaps there's something wrong with how we add the effect... And check, if the unity example project works on your pc? If not, could you look at the spine example project I've sent and see if there's something wrong with the way the effect was added?

Sprites/Default shader did nothing by the way, so we can rule that out. Same problems.

..........................................
RESOLVED
FINALLY! I've made progress on this issue.
I've noticed that on the spineboy unity example there's no animator. Instead there's a SkeletonAnimation script. If I try to "bake" exported spineboy data, I get no color animation at all just like I do in the examples I've provided.
So I've created an empty object, attached skeletonData script to it with data from my example and voile! It's alive!
Now I wonder what for was that "bake" button...

Found the issue that was exactly the same as mine:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4098

Thanks for the help.

Pharan

Did the bake button look to you like it was something you were required to click for it to work?
(this is for redesign purposes. Mitch adds a lot of neat optional stuff and I have to keep him from making stuff look required.)
I realize that it might not be clear from the UI alone how you're supposed to use Spine-Unity. The videos are supposed to be your real guide but I think those may be way too outdated.

Spine-Unity currently has three ways to generate a working animated skeleton.
(1) The original and most fully-functional is the real Spine-Unity way using SkeletonAnimation.
(2) Baking which uses all native Unity structures but lacks a LOT of features like FFD, animated colors, etc. The benefit is that "baked" spine animations don't need the Spine runtime. Events are kinda broken. (but only as broken as Unity's Animation Events are).
(3) SkeletonAnimator uses native Unity Animator component and Mecanim to stand in for Spine.AnimationState. It has most of the features of SkeletonAnimation but lets you use Mecanim features like Blend Trees.

My personal recommendation is to always use the first way: SkeletonAnimation— unless you feel adventurous or have a real need for Mecanim or an independence from the Spine-Unity runtime.