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What is the best alternative to 2D Toolkit?
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GAF:Flash to Unity
All
9
Experiences
Pros
7
Cons
2
Top
Pro
Can convert 99% of what can be done in Flash
GAF supports such Flash features as: Masks support; Filters support; No limitations on timeline; Conversion of shape tweens; Frame labels.
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Con
Sound support available only in Premium version
GAF Converter supports sound but only in the Premium version.
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Pro
No need to use large Sprite Sheets
With GAF converter you get a highly optimized texture atlas and a config file. You don't need to take trouble over cumbersome sprite sheets. You can easily modify an already working in Unity animation and play around with the animations parts whenever you need.
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Con
Doesn't support sounds
GAF does not support importing audio along with Flash animations.
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Pro
Alows using Flash animations in Unity
You can convert Flash animations directly in Unity with the help of plug-in. The converted .gaf file consists of a texturte atlas and a binary config.
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Pro
Supports different frameworks
Full playback API supported in Unity3d, Cocos2d-x, Cocos2d, Starling.
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Pro
Light, fast, and optimised
GAF is lightweight and fast in a project.
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Pro
Uses dynamic text
GAF can use dynamic text in animation on some platforms.
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Pro
Can customize sprite animation
GAF can swap a sprite with another.
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Experiences
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7
0
ex2D
All
3
Experiences
Pros
3
Top
Pro
Fantastic font editor
The atlas font editor that comes with ex2D is fantastic and makes it very easy to manage and modify the fonts in your project. Key features: Support fonts export from BMfont and Hiero. Multiple fonts can be put together in one big texture atlas to save draw calls. Fonts can also be put together with other texture sprite to save draw calls. Manage fonts easily in the atlas editor.
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Pro
Includes a very useful clipping system
Quickly clip sprite, text and other sprite type in a rectangle
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Pro
Best in class sprite animation editor
The UX for editing sprite animations with ex2D is simply better then any of the alternative frameworks. You can: Scale and scroll enabled time line editor. Move, add, remove and insert Frame Element by dragging and dropping them directly. Adjustable single frame length to make animation creating more versatile. Support adding animation events directly in the timeline editor. Preview animation result in the editor. enter image description here
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3
1
Puppet2D
All
4
Experiences
Pros
3
Cons
1
Top
Pro
Mesh Deformation
Instead of having to change sprites to bend legs or other joints mesh deformation changes the mesh shape based on joint weights to bend and move.
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Con
Forced editor scaling causes problems
Puppet2D adjust the scaling of bones in the editor for display purposes, which results in unintended behavior if other objects use a bone as a parent.
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Pro
Inverse Kinematic bones
Bones will move and rotate reacting to the position of the rest of the skeleton. The animator does not have to animate each part of a joint but rather have it follow realistically. Also can be used for ragdoll effects based on physics.
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Pro
Built on top of Unity’s animation system
Mecanim and state machines work natively since Puppet2D builds on top of Unity’s built in animation system.
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7
2
SmoothMoves
All
4
Experiences
Pros
2
Cons
2
Top
Pro
PlayMaker integration
Developers echo17 provide Playmaker action scripts for SmoothMoves.
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Con
Bone hierarchy is not collapsible
When working with a complex skeleton, the entire tree is always visible. There is no way to hide bones under their parents.
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Pro
Texture swapping and tinting at runtime
Animations can be re-skinned in several ways, entirely on the fly.
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Con
Unity Middleware
SmoothMoves is not a stand-alone application. It runs entirely within the Unity Editor, and is not compatible with other engines.
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10
4
TexturePacker
All
4
Experiences
Pros
2
Cons
2
Top
Con
Pure functionality in the free version, you can't even set margins
The full price is too high for such a simple app.
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Pro
Simple Interface
Drag and drop sprites onto the canvas, change the settings, then output.
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Con
No direct integration
TexturePacker is an external third party application with no Unity Inspector interface.
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Pro
Multiple Atlas Output Formats for Unity
There are three different outputs for Unity to read the atlas; JSON, Texture2D, and 2D Toolkit.
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14
1
PlayMaker
All
5
Experiences
Pros
4
Cons
1
Top
Pro
Easy to use
You'll need to put more time in learning Unity + Playmaker compared to something like GameSalad. But once get hang of it and familiarize yourself with it's possibilities. It's quite easy to use.
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Con
Limited tutorials
There are not a lot videos with Playmaker tutorials. Official text tutorials are also quite limited. Even not every action has a description on an official wiki.
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Pro
Elegant state-based visual scripting
Instead of a single "if this then that" event list which can become very cluttered beyond the most basic behaviors, PlayMaker gives each object a list of states where only certain events are triggered, and performing an action also changes state. This allows for a clean, simple visual representation which helps break complex logical structures into smaller pieces, making them easier to understand.
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Pro
Powerful
It basically can do same things as scripting in Unity.
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Pro
Third party plugins support
A lot of third party plugins have support for Playmaker. Playmaker team also invest time to add support for a lot of third party plugins.
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3
0
Tiled
All
14
Experiences
Pros
12
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
Multi-platform
Not everyone uses the same operating system and why should they? Tiled supports Windows, Mac, and Linux so you can work in any environment you like. Also with daily builds you get to stay ahead of the curve!
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Con
Must implement .tmx if your engine doesn’t support Tiled.
It’s not a huge deal but you do need to implement Tiled into your engine if you don’t have it. Don't be lazy just follow this guideline to get your game running. Must implement .tmx if your engine doesn’t support Tiled.
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Pro
Free and open-source
Using the GPL license means you get to use this software free and are free to make changes to it as you see fit.
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Pro
Unlimited layers
Sometimes you need 20 layers to make something epic. Tiled lets you create as many layers as you need.
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Pro
Use shell commands
Setup shell commands within Tiled so you can setup workflows for each of your games.
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Pro
Supports Orthographic and Isometric tiles
Whether you want a straight on look at your world or a slightly skewed one Tiled has you covered.
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Pro
Terrains
Setup boarders with your tilesets so making tiles provide the correct connections automatically. This feature will speed up your level creation.
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Pro
Auto-mapping
One of the coolest things is to create rules so you can automate the mapping process. Want to have certain tiles to always have a collider? Simply make a rule for it and it'll do it automatically. Speed up your mapping process with this feature.
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Pro
Many engines already have support
A big list of engines already have support for Tiled provided by those in the community. See if the engine you use is already on the list.
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Pro
Can create colliders and triggers within editor
Tiled makes it easy to setup triggers and colliders with its vector tools or you can set up a tile that’s invisible in your game. Change collider/trigger properties so you can access them within your game.
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Pro
Tile size and image size do not have to match
Want to import a giant object but don’t want to split it up? Import it and place it the exact size you want it as one object.
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Pro
Properties
Create properties for your map, layers, tilesets, tiles, and objects. Have the flexibility you need to create the best levels for your game.
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Pro
Engine agnostic
Tiled provides an easy solution for tile maps for any engine even the custom engine you are now making. This makes Tiled a very versatile tool for 2D games.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac
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Experiences
Free
102
13
AutoTileGen
All
4
Experiences
Pros
3
Cons
1
Top
Pro
Free tile-placement plugin
AutoTileSet is a tile placing tool part of the AutoTileGen family that is supported in Unity, Construct 2, and GameMaker to create tilemaps. AutoTileSet does not need AutoTileGen to work.
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Con
Extra work needed for Isometric Tiles
Isometric tiles are not technically supported but can be achieved with camera work and setting up tile art yourself.
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Pro
Auto-creates tilesheets
Auto Gen Tile takes a few image parameters and a few settings that will quickly create a full tilesheet with 48 tiles for full bordered terrains.
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Pro
Auto-creates borders on tilemap
While placing tiles on the tilemap AutoTileSet will place appropriate borders and filler tiles instead of the user having to change each tile for each variation. It also support multiple tile sheets for variation and placing them correctly.
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1
0
Blender
All
25
Experiences
Pros
16
Cons
8
Specs
Top
Pro
Free and open source
Blender is licensed under the GPL. Some Blender modules such as the Cycles rendering engine are licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.
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Con
Too many possibilities, no unified workflow
The operations are not optimized enough for specific tasks.
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Pro
Wide import and export format support
Support lots of modern 3D formats including DAE and FBX - ideal for game developers.
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Con
The physics engine is a bit lagging behind, especially the destruction physics
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Pro
Has a powerful rendering engine
Blender runs the Cycles path tracing engine under the hood. Cycles is a very powerful rendering engine capable of full path tracing (light fall off, caustics, volumetrics). It is mostly compatible with OpenCL and CUDA rendering, and is implementing mycropolygon displacement features. The upcoming release has a viewport engine called EEVEE whereby you can see and interact with your work in render mode in real time!
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Con
Difficult learning curve
Blender has a history of being unintuitive, but the 2.8 overhaul made the program far easier for beginners to pick up, and changes continue to be made to further improve the experience. However, there is still a learning curve.
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Pro
Python extensibility
Blender embeds Python 3, which can be used to write add-ons, tools, extend the interface, rig characters and automate tasks.
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Con
Not good for Industrial Design because it uses average vertex normals
You can not create a hard surface with a radius continuity degree along a surface using a specific radius value.
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Pro
Powerful animation suite
Blender provides a full rigging system, and automates animation by interpolating between keyframe positions.
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Con
Vertex normal issues on edges after boolean operations.
After creating a simple boolean operation the vertex normals are broken. A lot of work to fix the issue and you loos surface continuity.
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Pro
Supports both low-poly and hi-poly modeling
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Con
Bad vertex normal after boolean operations
Does not handle well polygon intersections. And need tweaking by hand points or adding average vertex normals via modifiers.
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Pro
Regular release schedule
Releases are made every ~3 months.
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Con
Does not handle NURBs
Is not capable of real hard surface for industrial design because is not able to reproduce surface continuity degree as a NURBs does and average vertex normal destroy surface radius.
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Pro
Sculpting and 3D painting features
Although Blender's 3d painting and sculpting tools (mostly painting) are not at par with specialized software like Substance Painter, ZBrush, or Mari, it is more than capable of getting most jobs done if the user takes the time to learn and understand it.
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Con
Poor particle system
The Blender particle system can at times be a little limiting and finicky (and buggy) to get working. Even if it can get most straight forward jobs done, it is far from the most advanced system, and could benefit largely from advancements.
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Pro
Includes video editing & compositing tools
Blender's node-based compositor has comprehensive video sequencing and post-processing features.
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Pro
Node based modeling support
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Pro
Keyboard shortcuts
Good keyboard shortcuts for everything. Keep your left hand on the keyboard and your right hand on the mouse.
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Pro
Very useful for a freelancer
It offers a round solution (it covers many areas and professional fields) for a freelancer, for free, constantly updated, very polished, and allowing high quality results that clients do require. After some learning, it becomes very useful for professional work.
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Pro
Has a large community
There's a huge community to help you get started immediately.
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Pro
Coherent and streamlined workflow / internal use logic
The trick with Blender is to get used to its usage philosophy, as it keeps consistent through all the application. Once you get it, every feature or addition is learnt naturally, almost effortlessly.
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Pro
Very versatile
You don't have to switch between software when you want to do different things. Because modeling, sculpting, composting, video editing etc can all be done in blender.
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Pro
Generative geometry using nodes
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac, FreeBSD
Technology:
C, Python
3D:
Yes
2D:
Yes (as of 2.8)
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Experiences
Free
663
95
Spine
All
10
Experiences
Pros
6
Cons
4
Top
Pro
Integration libraries support most engines
Spine provides integrated modules for 14 major engines including GameMaker Studio, Cocos2Dx, LOVE, MonoGame, Unity, XNA, Flash, HTML 5, libgdx, Corona, and more. Generic runtime libraries are also available for C, C++, Objective C, C#, JavaScript, Lua and ActionScript 3. Dozens of third party libraries support additional targets.
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Con
Spine Professional is expensive
Spine Essential includes nearly all features, except IK, weights, and meshes. Spine Professional is expensive, though it does give all future updates for life (Spine is updated very often).
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Pro
Simplified UI allows for an easy learning curve
No-nonsense workflow allows you to create your artwork in programs much better suited for the task like Illustrator and Inkscape for example, while Spine itself focuses only on the important task of skeletal animation.
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Con
Requires EVERY developer to have a license
Ever developer needs a license, not just the animator, or an overall license for the project. The license agreement is extremely restrictive.
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Pro
Allows for easy use of artwork from third party programs
Spine's developers provide scripts which makes exporting artwork from third party programs much easier to do.
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Con
Doesn't support gamemaker 2.3
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Pro
Community-driven feature roadmap
Esoteric Software maintains public Waffle issue trackers to help plan and prioritize feature additions.
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Con
No integration for lesser known engines
Spine does not directly support some game engines, such as Construct 2 or Clickteam Fusion.
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Pro
Funded via Kickstarter
Spine received resounding support from Kickstarter backers, beating its pledge goal by over 5 times. A second successful Kickstarter added meshes and other important features.
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Pro
Price high for this product
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Experiences
$69 / $299
227
41
Anima2D
All
5
Experiences
Pros
3
Cons
2
Top
Con
No longer supported by Unity.
This has been merged into the 2D Animation package.
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Pro
Purchased by unity
Everything you could want from a skeletal animation system, free and because purchased by unity promises to be native in future.
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Con
Uses the Unity hierarchy
It's impossible to rename your asset after making your animation, otherwise you lose dependencies.
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Pro
Free
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Pro
Spring bones
Much like spring joints native to unity, you can set bones to have dynamic spring animations based on their parents.
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68
22
Creature
All
3
Experiences
Pros
3
Top
Pro
Automated animation
One of Creature's strengths is its ability to assign motors on bones which will generate animations based on parameters set on the motors.
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Pro
Unity runtime always up to date
Among various game engine supported, Unity is the most up to date runtime including the most recent features, many samples, integrating well in the Unity editor.
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Pro
Easy to use
Creature has a simple workflow structured into 3 steps: Meshing, Rig and Animate.
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65
23
Unity 2D
All
7
Experiences
Pros
4
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
Built into Unity 4.3+
2D game creation was a major feature request from the Unity community and was added with version 4.3. 2D is provided in both the Pro and Free distribution of Unity.
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Con
Lacks critical features
Vertices can't be animated, so you can't have ANY organic feel (like... lungs breathing). Parent bone can't be animated without affecting the children. This is especially impeding for organic feel, again. No option to show & unshow assets (or it is hidden), like for switching weapon on your character for exemple.
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Pro
Integrates with Mecanim
Mecanim brings state machines and blending to 2D bone animation. The state machine editor allows for designers and programmers to visually create a Finite State Machine (FSM) to control when animations should play. Mecanim also allows for blending so an animation can transition smoothly between two states without the need of in between frames made by an animator.
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Con
Poor script interface for texture atlases
Accessing individual sprites within an atlas texture is possible at runtime, but requires use of the Resources folder subsystem.
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Pro
Sprite Sheet and Bone based animation supported
Both types of 2D animation for game development are supported in Unity’s system and can be used interchangeably in the timeline.
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Pro
Easily change sprites dynamically
Usually used for character customization, programmers can change any sprite in a bone animation at runtime easily by referencing the bone and loading the new sprite from the resources folder.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac
Languages:
C#
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Experiences
Free+
660
172
Unity Sprite Packer
All
3
Experiences
Pros
2
Cons
1
Top
Con
Doesn't work anymore
As of Unity 2017 it's completely broken.
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Pro
Create Custom Output Via Code
Set custom packing specified by code useful for those who have to follow a guideline on packed sprites.
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Pro
Comes built into Unity
The Pro license brings full 2D support within Unity without having to use an external program or plugin for creating atlases.
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2
1
Built By the Slant team
Find the best product instantly.
4.7 star rating
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