What's planned for Spine 4.4?

warmanw

Hey I want to see you get a well deserved rest after 4.3 but I want to see 4.4 version more 😆

Maybe for now you just share with us what's coming for us?

I know AI is not coming for sure. But you are welcome to repeat it

Spinebot

I appreciate your enthusiasm! However, I don't have information about what's planned for Spine 4.4 at this time. The development team is currently focused on completing Spine 4.3, which is still in beta. They're working on finishing the runtime updates, testing, and polishing before releasing 4.3 as a stable version.

You can check the Spine Roadmap to see what features are being considered for future versions. The roadmap allows you to filter by version tags, so once 4.4 planning begins, you'll likely be able to see those plans there.

And yes, as you mentioned, AI features are not something the team is planning to add to Spine. They're focused on other improvements and features that enhance the core animation workflow.

Keep an eye on the changelog and follow Esoteric Software on Twitter or check the blog to stay updated on the latest developments!

Nate

Too early to say for sure, but we want a joystick type control, similar to a slider but with 2 dimensions. It will have to work a bit differently but will enable more cool things!

warmanw

Nate That was very very confusing 😃 Controller for what? To make workflow faster? Any example? Please. Give us something to daydream

Voice-of-Shadow

Nate 当务之急是把网格变形给做了

Nate

A slider is a control. Currently it's 1 dimension, which is very nice since an animation is also 1 dimension. You can manipulate the slider using a bone, but only in 1 dimension. It's common to want to use 2 dimensions for control, for example a bone's X and Y. Using 2 sliders for that doesn't quite do the job. A joystick instead of a slider can move in 2 dimensions, so the idea is to be able to key things in the joysticks 2D space, then when you move the joystick position around you get combinations of those keys. You could map the joystick to a bone's X and Y and control anything based on the bone position. This is useful for head control, perspective, and many, many other things.

warmanw

Nate thanks for clarifying, makes sense . waiting!

yugutou

Nate 我认为这非常类似于live2d的四角合成，对于两条参数的叠加非常有用~
我用到4.3的滑块约束之后也在思考，做好头的xy之后，该怎么做四个斜角的编辑，发现实现不了

mj_nooker

Nate all guys who worked with joystick control of Joystick'n'Sliders or DUik in After Effects are dancing and clapping of your roadmap leak about joystick control in Spine XD

Nate

@warmanw I noticed you labeled the 4.4 plan "nothing major" on your Skool post -- how rude! 😆 No hard feelings 😛 but to be clear, it's actually a big deal to have a 2 dimensional slider type of control. It's not possible with sliders, so it unlock new functionality that is super useful. It'll be a major addition. We wanted to do sliders (1D) and a 2D control at the same time, but the way we built sliders to maximize flexibility makes 2D a separate project, and each is a big feature on its own.

@Voice-of-Shadow Which mesh deform feature do you mean?

@yugutou I don't know how it compares to Live2D features, but the way we'll do a 2D control should be super powerful! Indeed, it's not possible to do the same with 1D sliders.

Voice-of-Shadow

Nate
我指的是类似Live2D的弯曲变形器(Warp Deformer)。↓

它可以设置网格和贝塞尔的水平和垂直细分、通过修改网格点或者贝塞尔把柄、批量控制被其包裹的部件网格(变形器的子集)。
配合你预告的4.4的新特性会更加强大。

这种将多个部件单位统一调整的方法非常高效、比如还有包括但不限于下列希望能更新的新特性：

同时编辑多个不同部件的权重
将多个部件作为整体，为其父级添加一个控制子集不透明度、颜色等的属性。(父级可以是上方提到的变形器、文件夹、骨骼等)(这可以使多个部件有相同的透明度变化而不会导致降低透明度时的重叠现象)

我不是希望Spine去单纯复制Liv2D拥有的特性。我只是希望Spine能借鉴Live2D优秀的设计、更好将其融合进Spine动画工作流中。因为这实实在在关系到动画的质量和制作的效率。事实上、目前对于比较大的透视需求来说，Live2D的变形方式更好制作。

mj_nooker

Dear @Nate, I dreaming about something like "Retime tool" in Maya's Graph Editor: IMHO it will be a huge improvement in the animation pipeline. When I have million of timelines with intersected keys - now it's hard and time consuming to move them to change the timings of different parts at some timespan. Now we just can stretch\shrink keys span by only box selection. But with the "retime tool" will rapidly change the game I think O=-)

JulioD

Voice-of-Shadow
+1
I worked in the past with those Live2D warp grids that can affect multiple image elements inside, which were amazing. I miss it so much here in Spine. It would be great to have it in the future.

Nate

I see, thanks! That technique is widely used and is called a number of things: lattice deformer, grid deformer, warp grid, cage deformer, etc. I agree it is a cool feature, especially when applied to multiple attachments or even the whole skeleton. You're also right that the computational cost is reasonable. Please keep reminding us you want it until we add it! 🙂

Editing the weights of multiple meshes has the challenge of how to select the bone you are painting or adjusting. It could work when other meshes have the same bone.

Grouping attachments so they can be transparent together has some rendering challenges. It's not insurmountable but I think the other features are more interesting to do first.