malixegames
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Defining character mechanics
🕑 Added 2023-08-14 17:30:46 +0000 UTCHey guys! This week I managed to give the first coat of paint to all the characters. Instead of painting one character at a time, I separated the steps and painted them all at once, this helped speed up the process, so much so that I forgot to take screenshots.
With all the characters textured within the game engine, it is easier to identify defects and make corrections. But before moving on to the next step, which would be painting the clothes, I had to define some questions regarding the mechanics of the characters.
I chose to start with Angel just because she's first in line alphabetically, but I did tests on the other girls to see how the mechanics behave in different proportions. The idea was to test the combinations of mechanics for look direction, jiggling tits and hair, and the rigging system. This all worked in previous versions of the game, but I wanted to achieve the best possible result with the best performance.
The look direction mechanism existed from day one, but it was common for me to turn it off in some scenes to save performance and that's why I received complaints about the character looking the wrong way. I replaced it with more optimized code that I can leave on all the time.
Nobody ever complained about the jiggling tits, but I mainly had problems with collisions and performance. I got much better results. With this, I hope to use more interactions with the breasts, which I used to avoid for fear of glitches.
"Rigging" is essential for 3D animation, it's like controlling a puppet by pulling strings. For a game, the animations are done in advance, but there is a need for a rigging system when the character needs to interact with the environment, such as reaching for an object with the hand.
This is usually quite laborious to put into practice and it is common to see even current AAA games where the character just stops in front of the object that disappears and appears in the inventory. Imagine how complicated it is to make two animated characters simply hug and kiss in a real-time game.
When I started making this game there was no native rigging system in the Unity engine. I had to create my own system from scratch and you saw it working. In fact, my system worked better than some paid tools I had the opportunity to test. But during this time Unity implemented a native rigging system and it's time to abandon my code in favor of better performance.
But there are two systems where my code remains unbeatable, one is penetration, which simulates the movement of the penis entering and the vagina opening, there is nothing like it on the market. The other is the first system I created from scratch, which controls facial expressions and lip movement during speech.
Now I need to pass all the settings made on Angel to the other characters and I'll have to program an automatic way to do this since there are too many characters. The important thing is that I've defined which mechanics should be on the main skeleton and which ones will be on the skin. That is essential for the next step which will be adding clothes, but I'll explain this better when it's ready.
Many thanks to you. I wish you a great week and the best regards.
Comments
Archy_TaxiWhy
Arg you're right you should keep some surprises for when the time comes ^^. take care of yourself
MaliXe
Hello! Some characters weren't as good in the engine as they were in Blender, so I preferred not to show them for now as they will still undergo small changes. It's just about getting the skin tone right and some shading that isn't in the right place. Blender masks these problems but in the game they are apparent. I'm going to fix everything and show some, but I feel like I should save some to show only in the game so as not to spoil the surprise. At least I'll avoid showing too much while they're unclothed. Thank you again for your support and encouragement. It means a lot to me.
Archy_TaxiWhy
Hello, Always a pleasure to see the notification and to read you. Congratulations on optimising the painting phase to improve speed. I hope that despite the fact that you haven't been able to take any shots of the pre-processor, you'll be able to show us the results (I'm really curious to see some of the characters). I admire the fact that you've managed to create code to deal with certain obstacles. And great if you can use the tools to improve some of the animation and mechanics of your game, seeing the number of characters is just amazing. You're making good progress, keep up the good work. Can't wait to see what happens next! See you next time.
