Body Sliders (Take 2!)

[Hyperplexed]

So I previously noobed out and created the thread in the XCom 1 subforum instead (I blame google!). I reported the thread to ask to be moved, but since it wasnt yet, I thought "oh well, I'll just create a new one..."

 

https://youtu.be/Oaq7a-NRaOI

 

Now here's the thing... The mod is pretty much working and its 100% free of any overrides. I'm still undecided wether I will publish it or not, due to my previous experiences with publishing mods... but... I am willing to help and collaborate on a more wide community project to make this work... So... whats working? Pretty much everything aside from the dropship cinematics (the mission brifing inside the Skyranger works fine, before and after, just the cinematic of them coming down the rope isnt). But, I'm not a programmer, so I'm sure the scripting part of the mod can be improved.

 

so here's a small FAQ:

 

Q: How does this work?

A: Morph Targets ofc, what else? Nespresso?

 

Q: Is it possible to have more than one slider?

A: yes, but thats why this needs to be a collaborative project. The vanilla assets only support one "slider" (which is more than enough for me). However, different sliders, will require its own individual slot, so they can be used simultaneously. this is asset building, so, its limited to pawn setup. I can however set it up for N sliders. Even though there is a small chance that you could have several sliders throught scripting, with just 1 slider slot, they wouldnt be able to operate simultaneously.

 

Q: Can there be a Height slider?

A: There is no short answer for this, as it depends on the concept of Height... Can you scale it??? for sure... but only on the 3 axis simultaneously, UDK 3 doesnt support single axis scaling (or at least not officially). This would only require a very simple script, no assets neccessary.

 

Q: Can this be applied to faces?

A: yes, in fact, we could change the UI to change the regular faces A, B, C, D, E, F to become sliders, and then you could mix and match shapes, this would also require more shape slots.

 

Q: Boobs?

A: I don't care... and please dont ask me to make boobs or animated vaginas, I wont...

 

 

Now the bad news... and I'm going to say this again, maybe this time Mr Ryan (or someone) can actually give us some reply and I'm going to use some specific 3D lingo... Head meshes! yes... I've reported this issue before, and I'll report it again! WE CANT ADD NEW MORPH TARGETS!!! UDK only allows:

 

- Importing Morph Targets

- Even if we export an already baked mesh (or even the base one for that matter) UDK screws up Vertex count and order on export. We cant export the base head, and create a new morph, and reimport it, it wont work!

 

What you are seeing in the video, while it was made from the base head mesh, technically speaking, is no longer the same mesh (at least as morph targets go), I had to redo it, which means that all head morphs were lost in the proccess.In this case this was obviously neccessary because a bigger body implies obviously a bigger neck and trapezoids, it would look weird if I had mantained the same head mesh. there are still some differences in the heads, due to Normal Maps and Bone Animation, but this can limit us, I will have to rebuild every morph from scratch (as in, I will have to "refit" the new mesh to the old shapes, and that is ofc, considering I even have the baked morphs available in the SDK. I know there are some, but not all of them, and because we are unable to export morphs.. well.. poop!

 

Aside from that I also made some "immersive" options, that relate gameplay with the body size increase. Soldiers can now be trained at the GTS and/or go through Gene Therapy at the AWC to increase the body weight, and returning from battle gravely wounded will reduce the weight value, and the weight is also tied to stats, for example, the bulkier you get, you get a mionr buff to HP and/or Strength, but also impacts negatively other stats such as will or mobility. Its basically a mini class/leveling system bound to an aesthetic mod.

 

[Dragon32]

I'm afraid I can't offer any help but hell's bells that video looks fantastic.

 

Is this something where the starting weight of a character could be somewhat randomised? So rookies we recruit would all be slightly different builds? Could a similar randomisation be applied to civilians added to mission levels too?

[Hyperplexed]

yes perfectly doable, I havent done the randomization thing, but I am able to also import the weight settings from the CP. randomization would be an even easier thing to do

[Dragon32]

Well, gosh.

[abeclancy]

This looks very cool!

 

I'm curious what you would need in order to have multiple sliders. I haven't touched any sort of asset modifications, so I might just be unaware of the limitations you are dealing with, but it looks like you are adding in a Weight slider just fine, to the UI at least. Where's the value stored? What would you need?

[Hyperplexed]

the value storage is fine, its being stored as a fload on the Unit. the multiple sliders is just how you need to have them setup in the Anim Tree, you have to create new nodes, and its like Highlander, there can be only one!

[abeclancy]

Ahh, makes sense.

 

If the issue is just that only a single Node can be added to your animation tree, I wonder if we can't just modify the animation tree code so that you can have more than one Node.

 

If you want some assistance and don't mind PM linking to your code, you could link it here and see if someone can't find a solution. Or if you want you could PM me and I could take a look and see if I can't help you figure it out.

[Hyperplexed]

thats not how it works unfortunately, you cant add/remove nodes on the fly, you have to have them "existing" on the Anim Tree, so you can then via scripting edit those nodes, but you cant .AddNode() or something. This is an issue that cannot be circunvented. For example if we wanted to have sliders for ALL the head shapes (considering all 4 races here) we would need about 24+12+6+3+2+1 nodes added to the Anim Tree. But lets say that we just want to have 4 general body sliders, we would need 4+2+1. Like I mentioned, this is asset building, not scripting. Scritping allows you to manipulate what already exists, not create new nodes.

 

This is why I'm willing to participate in a community project to "setup" a framework, that will allow then, to be used by other modders in general, in case they wish to do so. Lets say I do a mod with my own Anim Tree... then another person comes and does the same. They wont be able to be used together, unless they join forces and use a single Anim Tree. You can script the sliders regardless of the anim tree, but it wont work if you're looking for non-existing nodes.

[TeamDragonpunk]

Question... and I only ask since you said that you may not publish yourself... We have a full modeled 3D troll. I'd be willing to pay (or ask our other artists to assist you on anything you would like) if there is a way to import our troll in and use sliders to select him. That might be making things harder than it should be, but to date, we haven't figured out a way to add a completely new specifies. One way or another, this is certainly useful and would like to support/fund this.

 

This made some changes to the head meshes in the last patch, so it could be worth exploring the changes. We can chat With Mr. McFall over skype to get the answers you need.

[Hyperplexed]

Dear TeamDragonPunk, I'm sending a PM explaining why I must politely decline your invitation, but thanks in any case