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  • Link objects to apply changes to multiple things

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Hello Esoteric,

Is there any way to link 2 objects between them, so that the changes that I apply to one also reflect on the linked one?

I already successfully use Linked meshes, which is the closest thing I need since it kinda does this, but what I mean is being able to link any other kind of objects between them, so that they share properties among them, particularly Transforms.

A good use example for this would be having dozens of skins where the only thing that changes among them is the weapon, everything else is shared.

Let's say I already have these skins, they're all setup, but later in development I realize a shared thing (let's say the dress) needs a correction, maybe it needs to be translated or scaled differently, and the change should be the same one for all of them among the skins. Every action I would perform should be repeated loads of times through the project.

Wouldn't it make sense to have a Link To function that allows multiple objects to share properties? Or maybe there's already a functionality or a trick that does the job?

Thanks so much for your amazing work :heart:


PS: I know you can mix and match skins at runtime, but isn't more efficient to have the skin already set for the character, without having to build the skin in engine? The game I'm working on can have huge armies of mini Spine characters on screen...
Also the goal here would be facilitating the work in Spine Editor, the output would still be separate skins, everyone with all the images set.

Haven't heard of such functionality

But if you animate using bones they does not depend on skins right? and meshes can be linked.

Or what exactly you want to be shared? transform between bones? or what?

Or what exactly you want to be shared? transform between bones? or what?

Translation values among normal attachments for example. Or Slot colour among Slots.
The corrections I talk about in the previous post are related to the attachment inside the bone, not the bone itself.

I basically need to apply the same correction to an attachment in Setup mode, but without moving the bones, and across multiple skins that share the same attachment in the same slot.

Right now the only way I know is to apply the transformation to one attachment in one skin, CTRL + C while the attachment is selected (copies all transform values), move to another skin and paste the values on the same attachment, and repeat this last 2 steps for every skin that has that same attachment.

Some sort of Link, Bind or similar functionality to temporarily activate could be handy to do this kind of dirty job.
It would be something that only applies to Spine Editor without actually exporting anything different from the usual things, only to allow these repetitive actions to be performed quickly across the project, and it would be something that gets lost once the asset is exported, while remaining only into the .spine file obviously.

For renaming stuff we have Find and Replace, and given a good knowledge of RegEx, you can potentially do anything across the project. But I think right now we're lacking some powerful tool that does things with the same efficiency to the Transforms of the objects.

Just throwing there an idea:
imagine having a button like that which opens a list of all possible properties that could be linked to another object.
In case of a normal attachment it would be Rotate, Translate, Scale, Shear, Path, Colour and the Options like Select, Export, Name... you could tick which one you want to connect to something else, and on the side you have the name of the connected element. :think:

This goes way further my problem, but I think it could save quite some time in general when working with skins...

Yes I understand, in 3D such functionality is called Drivers I remember. you can even write equation how the value is applied to new object. that would be super helpful!

Ah good to know, I didn't know, could you post an example of how they work in a software please?
I can't seem to find them anywhere...

Check this video I was referring to Blender Drivers

Awesome thing warmanw!
That looks really powerful and handy.

I thought about another possibility to achieve what I'm talking about here, and this idea might be simpler to have and more intuitive. Links, just like links to the files that we have in our Desktop, and way more similar to Linked Meshes.

I'm right now reorganizing the Animations folder of my Spine project, we decided that for clarity, every single unit class will have a dedicated folder, with the animations that the class will use, even if the same identical animation already exists elsewhere.
This means the folders will be 100% clear, with way less human errors coming from assigning the various anims to the classes by hand, but the downside of it is that the asset in game will have many duplicates, animations that are just the same as others.

If we had some way to see links to the right animations, without actually duplicating them, it would be awesome.
that would mean that 10 links could point to the same animation, and you edit just one for all of them, kinda the same principle as the Linked Meshes.

I put it in this thread cause I think it's relevant and could be a different way of solving the first problem too.