Question about Spine before buying.

Recon

I found program that would be perfect for Unity , I also use The 2d Tool kit all the time in Unity. So I been doing it the old fashion way in Photoshop and love the fact there is a bone tool . Anyways I have been doing animation in 3DS Max for 3d objects for years so I understand animation so when I see 2d tools doing this I very happy to see.

My question I know this is a 2d tool, which is what I want but I know skinning as well, I notice the ESS version is missing this, I'm an a single person, which I'm in school taking classes for this, but I also make games with myself and other person. The Pro one is a bit steep for my taste and what I can't afford right now since I have many other programs to buy. I was a bit surprised that the skinning was not included. Now my question is how much is the ESS limited.. I been making professional games here, and with out skinning, this seems to limit me. I was wondering what ESS all involves and limits me . I read the page that shows what it offers, that's what concerns me but would like more information before buying.

The reason I ask, I been looking at 2D Puppet and Smooth Moves, but Spine works with 2D tool kit, the main reason I would like to use it, but if its 60 bucks and its very limited, I may have to pass, because for an indie that pro is pretty expensive for an indie. I don't mind paying for good software, but I'm unable to see it in action since we can't export it in the trial, which is fine, but I hate to spent 60 and be a bit upset. I'm pretty good with Photoshop doing the old way, but I feel Spine can speed things up for me in my work flow and maybe help make it even better, but what interest me the most was the skinning and deform ability's . Sadly after I seen the $200 price for it That is a bit steep, I was going to buy the ESS but as I said its seems very, very limited and looks like alls I can do is move images with bones and maybe a few other things, which I would not even need Spine personally so trying to get more info on what ESS offers.

If there is a lot more to it, I would buy it, I have used the trial version but its a not enough for me to see how it works with Unity , since I can Skin and Deform in the trial.

Thanks for any input.

Recon

Nate

The trial comes with a number of example projects and each has an export which can be used for trying the runtimes.

The trial shows what are PRO-only features by showing a small "pro" tag on buttons. You can see exactly what is not in ESS here:
http://esotericsoftware.com/spine-purchase/
Many people have done some great stuff with Spine before skinning was available. ESS can do quite a lot. Eg, Super Spineboy is done with ESS:
https://github.com/EsotericSoftware/spine-superspineboy

Recon

Ya that's the list I seen and was looking at, and noticed no skinning or deforming. I will be doing stuff like this, so that is why I asked. Ok I did not know I could do the example, I know I could not try my own, which made sense. Just going to debate and do more research on 2D Puppet and this program once I do, I will decide on the best for my work flow. The skinning and deforming, is what is making me debate.

Thanks for the fast reply and the info in Spine boy. I wanted to be sure I'm buying the right program for my workflow. Because in the trial, I tested a few things with out skinning, and deforming, I really like what I can do with them so I think this is my biggest issue.

Any other released games with ESS that you know of that I could take a look at by chance? This would great if possible.

Thanks,

Nate

Meshes, free-form deformation and skinning are in the purchase page feature matrix, at the bottom of the features list. They are PRO only though.

Skinning is pretty new, only a few weeks old, so almost all of the games in the Showcase are done only with ESS features.

Recon

I'm going to buy it and give it a whirl only if it works with the Unity 4.3.4? and the newest 2d tool kit any idea?

If so I will buy it.

You know what would be nice, if someone bought the ESS version and then decided when they could afford it, to upgrade it to the pro.. With out having to buy another license . Any plans for the future for something like that?/ This would help make indies make a faster choice to buy Spine so we know we are getting our money worth out of it. Having to buy another license bugs me a bit as I'm sure I will want the Pro in the near future. But 200 bucks for one program is very costly when us indies have small budgets and a lot of other programs to buy.Something to maybe think about.

Please let me know about the Unity version , if this works for it and fine, I will buy it soon as I can confirm this as this will be what I'm only going to use it for is Unity and the 2d took kit.

Søren

It should work just fine with that version of unity. As for 2dtoolkit we are currently updating the Runtimes, so if it doesn't already, it will very soon. Regarding ESS to Pro upgrade: You can upgrade from essential to pro after purchase, from your personal license page.

Nate

Yep, spine-tk2d works with the latest 2DTK and is up to date with all Spine editor features (skinning, etc).

You can upgrade ESS to PRO for the difference in price. Also keep in mind you can request a refund for any reason within 30 days of your purchase.

Recon

Oh you can upgrade ok, and it works with tk2d and Unity 4.3.4 , I will pick this up tomorrow then. Great to hear . So far very impressed with the trial version but have not used in Unity yet. So I will use it for my Team Project for my school project we are building.

If all goes well, it will be added to my work full for my Android games that we are making .

ErwinCole

Hey, there! I assumed it's better to use an existing topic to post my question instead of opening a new one.

I'm also considering buying spine, but I want to understand the license better. In my case, I have my laptop (Intel Core2Duo) with me during the day and whenever I come home I would switch to my desktop(Intel i5) because it is more powerful (more memory, less laggy). I wonder if there's a possible approach with Spine Licence in which I could switch between two PC. I also want to know if Spine ever requires powerful processor for bigger files, since it was using raster instead of vector and considering I'll be also using it for producing video.

All and all, it's just a dilemma between installing this on my laptop for convenience, or desktop for speed.

Secondly, I would like to know the process of moving Spine to a new PC, for example, replacing laptop with a new one.

Thanks in advance ^^

Nate

You can install Spine on up to two computers, but only for use by the same licensed user. Reinstalling Spine as needed is fine, as long as it isn't consistently used on multiple computers at the same time. You shouldn't have any issues.

Spine should run pretty fast even for larger projects. If exporting a huge image or video, the graphics card can make a difference, but for HD resolutions I think just about any card that can handle Spine can export images or video.