Reference Snapshots

Snapshots store position, rotation, scale, and enabled state of all the objects in the scene.

You can set the scene up one way, record a snapshot, then move the objects in the scene around and take a second snapshot. Once recorded, you can jump between the two layouts easily (by double clicking on the snapshot you want in the Snapshots pane, or by using the Select Snapshot action when the game is running). It’s also possible to animate from one snapshot layout to another, which can be used to create “keyframes” of an animated sequence, move UI in and out of the scene, or revert objects that have been moved around by the player back to their original locations.

For example, consider a game with a text box appears on the screen only when a character is talking. Rather than just hide and show the text box, we prefer to have it slide off the bottom of the screen when the text is complete, and pop up from the bottom of the screen when there’s something new to say. To achieve this effect we create two snapshots: One with the textbox visible in its normal location called “Text Visible,” and another with it positioned down below the bottom of the visible area called “Text Hidden.” When text needs to be displayed, we use the Select Snapshot action to select the “Text Visible” snapshot and specify an Ease Out animation taking 0.5 seconds. The text box moves up from the bottom of the screen into position. When the character is done talking, we use a similar Select Snapshot action to select the “Text Hidden” snapshot, this time with an Ease In animation also lasting 0.5 seconds. The text box smoothly drops off the bottom of the screen.