Decentraland for Starters

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Premise

The 20th of February Decentraland was launched. For the ones who do not know, Decentraland is a virtual world backed by the Ethereum blockchain where its community owns the shape and purpose of their LANDs, creating an innovative and a dynamic relationship between landowners and visitors. With this premise, the sky is the limit.

The Mission

Decentraland is aiming high with its innovative concept and content creation highlights where creatives can create, own and control its designs inside the blockchain. This beginning guide will take you to understand a basic pipeline through Unity and the GTLF exporter plugin.

Resources

• Unity 2018.3.6f1
• Decentraland SDK
• Node.js

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Before starting

For this workflow, we work with a Unity plug-in that you can find at GitHub [https://github.com/fairwood/DecentralandUnityPlugin/]. This plugin allows you to work natively from Unity, compose and create all the scenarios without heavy coding.
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Also you need to install the DCL sdk and use Node.js to deploy local scenes. https://docs.decentraland.org/getting-started/installation-guide/

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#00 Creating the project

Unpack the .zip from the GitHub plugin and duplicate the "Unity Project" in order to use it as your own new scenario for Decentraland. Open the project with Unity minimum 2018 version.

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#01 Creating an export path

Once you have opened the project, a new tab in the Unity Editor will be available, drop down the menu and select Scene exporter.
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Now you have a new window in the editor that will be your main ally during the journey of developing for Decentraland.

I like to have the tab in the same place as the inspector, this way I can easily switch between the LAND settings and the asset settings I might be configuring.

Furthermore keep in mind that meanwhile the DCL Exporter tab is "visible", it will be checking frame by frame all the assets in scene. This plugin checks constantly the values and boundaries of the LAND, this might cause editor perfomance issues and I suggest you keep it hidden when working with large LAND states or if you are running a low-end PC.

Once you have opened the tab for the first time, you can set up all the parcel coordinates. By default the plug-in sets to 57,11 its coordinates. You can change it and set the values you desire by clicking "Edit".

Once you have set up your scene you can see how Unity will display in the Scene Tab the LANDs you have set. These planes are not objects and cannot be modified.

The plane works as a visual boundary and you should not place anything out of bounds or will not be deployed.

In this test we will only place a cube, drop down the GameObject menu and select 3D Object > Cube.

Place it in the middle of the scene (8, 0.5, 8) or in the position of your choice, always inside the boundaries.

The cube in scene will be shown with the following Unity components. Things like the Box Collider will not get exported and is irrelevant for the plugin.

Because the plugin is active in the project, a new component will appear in EACH GameObject that contains a Mesh Renderer.
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Note that if a MeshRenderer is a child of another MeshRenderer this DCL Object will be considered as a "ChildOfAGTLF"

This value is telling you that this mesh will be "Combined" in the same GTLF file during export.

This DOES NOT mean that it will combine the meshes, they will be loaded together but as separated meshes.

A GTLF child is represented as an upwards arrow

With both cubes placed you can notice the change in the stats of the DCL Exporter tab

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Now it's time to do the first deploy.

Choose a DCL Project Path in the Standard Export option. I recommend creating a folder in the root of the project, previous to the Assets folder. This way you will take your exports with the project and keep all the files in the same place.
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Click "Init Project" to set the basic DCL libraries and wait to the npm to finish.

This command places the basic SDK but not the LAND info nor the files of the scene. This will be exported with the command "Export".

You will know the command has ended the task
​once the window changes the name to cmd.exe

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Now the project export path has been prepared is time to export the GTLF files.
​Click on the Export button and wait for a Log to rise in the Unity Console.

If you want to local deploy your export, you can do it by using the Node.js editor

Locate your export folder and run the command "dcl start"

Wait for the command to finish and a tab should be opened in your browser.

And here you are! Your very first local deploy.

From this point, you can work as if it was Unity vanila when applying materials, importing new meshes and doing your very own compositions. Just keep in mind to use meshes instead of empty groups because the GTLFs are about meshes and wont export correctly to your scene otherwise.

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Kourtin

Environment artist

I purr when you're not looking. I'm passionate about environments and all the techie stuff to make them look rad. Learning and improving everyday to be a better hooman.

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