Introduction to Bolt: Unity's New Visual Scripting Tool

Unite Now Session
Make games without writing a single line of code! This session covers the fundamentals of Bolt, a visual scripting solution now available in all Unity plans. Learn how to configure and leverage Bolt for your 2D and 3D projects, create basic game interactions, use quick-start templates, and more.

When
Thu, August 6, 9:00 AM PT


Where
You can watch the session here!
Make sure to sign up to get access to all Unite Now content.


______________________


A team of product experts from across Unity will be available during and after the session. Our Community team will continue to field questions to foster an ongoing discussion with the community. Please feel free to ask your questions in this thread. Only questions related to the topics of the session are permitted.

We really look forward to hearing from the community.

Thank you!

 

Cheers.
Quick question.
Will Bolt now serve as a standard visual scripting tool for the Unity ecosystem, or are you still developing your own "native" (let's call it like that) tool/api?

 

tell us about visual scripting using the free 2D game kit of unity(Ellen game). We already have scripts of Free 2D game. Now please show us how the same game is made using visual scripting.

 

Please remake the game(Free 2D game kit) using visual scripting, and share the unity files and video tutorials with us to make us understand what really happens in Visual scripting.

 

Thank you for this great intro. Really gets me thinking!
I see this bolt course has been archived https://learn.unity.com/tutorial/bolt-videos-archived is there something better? Will it be updated? Is there a complete 101 learning session for Bolt? Where should newbies start? here: start? https://learn.unity.com/project/bol...5.1198879508.1597378831-1278202139.1586841582 or somewhere else?

 

Is there a plan how deeply visual scripting is going to be integrated into Unity? Personally I think visual scripting is just the slower, more cumbersome, less efficient way of programming. Actually, the way Unreal-Engine shoves their blueprints up your throat is what kept me away from that engine.
So is it guaranteed that visual scripting will be an additional option that can be safely ignored without missing out on any features?

 

First off -- I wanted to say what an awesome introduction that Ashley Alicea did in the Unite Now video up there. I've been watching Bolt videos for a long time, and she covered all of the core topics quickly and without any fluff. Very good intro to what Bolt does.

Secondly, for anyone new to Bolt -- there is a very active discord community originally built by the initial team that worked on Bolt, but I believe is now being managed by the Unity Bolt team now (NOTE TO FORUM MODS: feel free to edit this if I'm wrong and this isn't an official Unity discord): https://discord.gg/EQhBHmn

Thirdly -- I'd like to post my questions:

Q 1) When I have worked on something for a little while, I've got some reasonably complex graphs which may include groups, embed graphs, events, and I have a hard time keeping track of what I've changed in a session. As Bolt is a visual language, it doesn't really help me to look at a traditional Diff tool when trying to see what has changed. What would the Unity Bolt team recommend I use for seeing changes when I'm using Unity Collaborate?

Q 2) As a traditional code developer who is familiar with best practices such as the SOLID principals for object oriented software architecture, I am finding it hard to wrap my mind around implementing the same kinds of principals in my Bolt unit designs. Does the Unity Bolt team have any recommendations and tutorials on how to best architect Bolt units for long term projects using Bolt?

Thank you so much for putting together this video and the Q&A forum. Looking forward to hearing your responses!

 

I obviously can't speak for the Unity guys, but I can't see them "shoving Bolt" anywhere, as their current stated plan is to make Unity more modular via packages so that you can bring in just what you want. If you don't like visual scripting I totally get it -- as I'm sure you can see with my question above re: some huge software lifecycle issues I have with it -- but I don't think it hurts to have it as an option to put Bolt in front of more creative level things that might need quicker iteration that don't need a programmer .... like say the dialog system, or the cut-scene system in your game. Both of those might benefit from letting the "artist" tinker with settings and the flow of assets and cameras. Just my $.02 worth though.

For me personally, I'm still hoping for Bolt2 to get on the 2021 timeline. It may fix many of my issues, as it can generate c# (which can then IL2CPP down to c++), and I've heard rumor that much of what I learned with Bolt can translate over to Bolt2 once it gets here.... so I've got my fingers crossed that it makes it into beta early next year.

 

Question: Is it possible to create your own nodes writing your own code,(i.e. a C# file converts to a bolt node), say for example, using bolt nodes for object movement, but then adding a procedural effect of your own code design to say destroy object; as such one could use bolt nodes as visual representation of the games architecture with your own custom code nodes linked in, & || , can the bolt system be used in one part of the game, while using ones own code in another part of the game,, without major workarounds.. thanks for answer in advance, I am new to unity and haven't coded or made any games since I was in school, (long ago in the empires of BASIC & DOS) ,,I am enjoying the unity workflow and experience so far,going to check out the Bolt system right now, thanks again.....

 

Hey @phitch516 -- welcome to Unity -- I grew up on BasicA (and later QBasic) so I hear you on wanting both a good visual scripting and powerful custom programming platform.

Check out Reality Stop's video answer on the question:

He covers Custom Units, Reflected Units, and Super Units. Here is his graph on the pros and cons of each:


Also -- here is where it was originally posted between Reality.Stop and Lazlo Bonin (the original developer of Bolt):
https://support.ludiq.io/communitie...-and-why-custom-units-might-not-be-the-answer

Again, welcome to the wild west of Unity and visual scripting. Fwiw, you'll probably get better support over on the Discord than you will in this forum. I think the conversation here with pretty sour after the Bolt2 discussion over the last few pages :-/

 

Thanks for all the info, will check out Discord as well.

 

Hey,

I was wondering what the performance impact was using bolts visual scripting vs C# ?

 

Dear Carol

We are a strategic partner of Wolfram Research Inc. and currently customizing Unity games straight from Mathematica 12 :

https://www.wolfram.com/language/12/built-in-interface-to-unity-game-engine/

I like to investigate how to interface BOLT from Mathematica, if at all possible.

When you have time I like to have a chat please.

Dara O Shayda

 

If you are just looking to build a quick prototype or to get started on your game Bolt likely won't have a noticeable performance impact. But like anything else, it depends on what you are trying to build, and where in your game loop you need bolt to run.

 

Is there a way to get the starter assets shown in the video? PixelPenny and Obstacle?

 

Hi Guys Just trying Bolt for the first time but I when I create a Node ie Vector 3 the node is collapsed it doesnt show the XYZ, Ive watched dozens of tutorials but no info on how to expand the Nodes so I cannot Input values.
Ive tried so many keys on the keyboard Thanks

 

Thank you so much for providing this Bolt Introduction. Is it possible to get the access to the endless runner game project (Penny Pixel etc.) so that students can try the features out as they watch?

 

Hi,

Thank you for this intro, I have been looking forward to introduced Bolt to my students for some time but
I am unable to use Bolt on Mac (Unity 2020.1.8f, Mac OS 10.15.16). In particular, when creating a variable, after entering the name, clicking on the type pull-down menu does not give any options, but instead generates the warning "Inspector block metadata mismatch". This has been a recurring issue since Bolt was first announced to be free in the summer. The issue has persisted in all subsequent versions of Unity. Any assistance with resolving will be greatly appreciated

 

Unity Package Manager Diagnostics (v0.1.5)
============
Ran 7 checks
============
2 succeeded
5 failed
============
❌ UPM registry reachable (FAIL)
Make an HTTP request to the UPM package registry
>> Connection error.

❌ Ping UPM registry (FAIL)
Measure the latency of the UPM package registry API
>> No successful pings could be made in 6.344 seconds (3 failed)

❌ Ping UPM download (FAIL)
Measure the latency of the UPM package download endpoint
>> No successful pings could be made in 6.541 seconds (3 failed)

❌ UPM registry download speed (FAIL)
Test the Internet connection using the UPM package registry
>> Connection error.

❌ Speedtest.net (FAIL)
Test the Internet connection using Speedtest.net
>> Connection error.

✅ HTTP proxy environment variables (PASS)
Detect whether proxy-related environment variables are set (HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, ALL_PROXY, NO_PROXY, UNITY_PROXYSERVER, UNITY_NOPROXY)
>> Proxy support has been configured through the following environment variables:
>> UNITY_NOPROXY = localhost,127.0.0.1

✅ UPM health check (PASS)
Start the UPM process and call its health endpoint
>> Server start duration: 1078.00 ms
>> Server response duration: 646.02 ms
>> Server response:
>> {"status":"OK","nodeVersion":"v12.2.0","upmVersion":"v3.12.0"}

hello,

this is my Unity Package Manager Diagnostics report.

I've been trying to log into my Unity account through Unity Hub and the Unity Editor, but it won't let me. Sometimes I get a message saying "The server is currently unresponsive" even after I correctly enter my login information on Unity Hub.

The only way for me to log in is through Chrome, and I can't do much with the editor or hub because it requires you to sign in to those to access assets and such.


thank you!

 

Hello
And thank you for sharing Bolt with us (gamedevs).
Here

Carol said that audience should ask questions and bring ideas.
I have one, I would like to watch a tutorial on how to make a simple point and click adventure game with Bolt.
It would be nice if the tutorial could cover:
- walking the location (also in a 2.5D manner, as going deeper in the field of view)
- scrolling the location
- changing locations
- clicking items and picking them into inventory
- examining items
- combining items
- NPCs with dialogs
- conducting dialogs with branches

Please prepare such a tutorial!
Best regards