entitycs submitted a new resource:
A simple state machine - It's time
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A simple state machine - It's time
#soon
Read more about this resource...
#soon
(edit: I'll come back and make this rambling more concise for those who may attempt to read it later, after I get some rest)Whilst I'm not entirely sure I understand what is happening in the example videos, I think I like the premise of this. Looking forward to seeing what it can do!
collection.AddRestorables(new SubSceneComponentSetRestorable<DAZHairGroupControl>(ContainingAtom));
collection.AddRestorables(new SubSceneComponentSetRestorable<MaterialOptions>(ContainingAtom));
collection.AddRestorables(new SubSceneComponentSetRestorable<DAZCharacterMaterialOptions>(ContainingAtom));
collection.AddRestorables(new SubSceneComponentSetRestorable<PhysicsMaterialControl>(ContainingAtom));
collection.AddRestorables(new SubSceneComponentSetRestorable<MVRScript>(ContainingAtom));
collection.AddRestorables(new SubSceneComponentSetRestorable<PhysicsSimulatorJSONStorable>(ContainingAtom));
collection.AddRestorables(new AppearanceSetRestorable<DAZSkinWrapMaterialOptions>(ContainingAtom));
collection.AddRestorables(new SubSceneComponentSetRestorable<FreeControllerV3>(ContainingAtom));
collection.AddRestorables(new SubSceneComponentSetRestorable<HairSimControl>(ContainingAtom));
collection.AddRestorables(new SubSceneComponentSetRestorable<ScaleChangeReceiverJSONStorable>(ContainingAtom));
collection.AddRestorables(new SubSceneComponentSetRestorable<SetTransformScaleIndependent>(ContainingAtom));
I agree, that is a "sticky" point.The biggest problem with all animation plugin is that all use fixed positions. If you want to hit sth and the position is not right it will be a miss. It would be nice to have a plugin that recalculates "routes" to get to dynamically changed position. Ie. slap high or smaller girl, enter high or smaller girl in doggy position.
I've read while researching asset creation, that it is best to release smaller components of your plugins or scenes first, so I have started releasing components that improve usability for my state machine. The first is a simple plugin to turn basic shapes and atoms into passthrough collision triggers. The native spherical CollisionTrigger Atom is great, but I wanted non-spherical shapes, and to be able to track my collider visually, ie. with a mesh. This was the easiest way I saw to...
The state machine? Or the 'collision-less collider trigger' plugin? You can follow entityCX on patreon to start downloading that, and other things as I'm ready to release for "insider testing" before I release them on here. The point of throwing people to a patreon (free), for now, is to have beneficial feedback in exchange for beneficial guidance, tutorials, and early access. I could even do a live screen share session or two to share live usage examples - might be easier than trying to highlight in several videos "everything" it can b e used for / how to use it alongside specific plugins or scene types.can i test it please
I understand completely what he is referring to. Basically, there is a very big issue in VirtAMate currently with animations and scenes. The problem being that they aren't very interchangeable. As a creator I get this question a lot. "Can I use my own looks in your scenes?" and whilst the answer is technically yes, there is a VERY big chance that using any look other than the one I designed the scene for will simply break the animations.I agree, that is a "sticky" point.
Let me see if I understand the idea. I'll put it in terms of walking.
If I turn the character controller 180%, I expect the walking animation to play in that direction.
But if I lower the player's hips, I expect the player to crab-walk the rest of the way, until lifted the hips back up again.
When I have pitched the ideas that Timeline and a StateMachine can be combined, I don't think everyone sees it the same way as you do, but I am one who does, if I understand your scenario.
I know Timeline has blending, and triggers, etc., but it sounds like you are saying, there should be components, such as "major key frames", such that when a major keyframe is reached, any changes made to particularly chosen aspects of its state will trigger a "re-blending" of that aspect, where it be main orientation, the target of an eye-gaze, the rigidity of a body part or clothing item... etc...?
The state machine and there is no link anywhere to your patreon and when I google it, no results show upThe state machine? Or the 'collision-less collider trigger' plugin? You can follow entityCX on patreon to start downloading that, and other things as I'm ready to release for "insider testing" before I release them on here. The point of throwing people to a patreon (free), for now, is to have beneficial feedback in exchange for beneficial guidance, tutorials, and early access. I could even do a live screen share session or two to share live usage examples - might be easier than trying to highlight in several videos "everything" it can b e used for / how to use it alongside specific plugins or scene types.
Your example is rather extreme. I thought about rather simple scenario:I agree, that is a "sticky" point.
Let me see if I understand the idea. I'll put it in terms of walking.
If I turn the character controller 180%, I expect the walking animation to play in that direction.
But if I lower the player's hips, I expect the player to crab-walk the rest of the way, until lifted the hips back up again.
When I have pitched the ideas that Timeline and a StateMachine can be combined, I don't think everyone sees it the same way as you do, but I am one who does, if I understand your scenario.
I know Timeline has blending, and triggers, etc., but it sounds like you are saying, there should be components, such as "major key frames", such that when a major keyframe is reached, any changes made to particularly chosen aspects of its state will trigger a "re-blending" of that aspect, where it be main orientation, the target of an eye-gaze, the rigidity of a body part or clothing item... etc...?
I use appearance load plugin with scale change off. This looks quite ok and is simple. There's more advanced plugin (can't recall name) that recalculate the limbs but it's too slow for my play.Some kind of plugin, or something, to just help kind of realign things in a way that automatically adjusts as required per the differences of limb lengths and such from the original look to the desired look would be ground breaking for creators and users alike.
Ah. I think I see now.Your example is rather extreme. I thought about rather simple scenario:
1. Let's assume that girl wants to slap a man
2. There are two minimum points - start of the hand and target cheek, but let's introduce 3rd point so the hand is not going in straight line (super strange for humans) but in arc trajectory - this is base animation
3. The hand can be in different position - the height of the girl is different, or there was different animation played before and the hand is not at hip but at shoulder already
4. The man's cheek can be on different height because man can be standing or kneeling
5. animation systems recalculate start and end positions and move all inbetween points so the overall trajectory remains arc
Having such system one could create a library of basic animations which could be combined to create complex moves. Because system would support small differences and take into account human moving system (minimize effort, muscles used for movement, natural trajectory of movement) we could get natural looking movement using closed number of animations. Currently each scene is done either using plugins which do single things (like thrusting, breathing) or using complex animation plugins like timeline where transferring animations between scenes is rather hard.
I use appearance load plugin with scale change off. This looks quite ok and is simple. There's more advanced plugin (can't recall name) that recalculate the limbs but it's too slow for my play.
Ah, sorry about that. It should be patreon.com/EntityCX. I was trying to avoid direct linking, but I guess it's okay?The state machine and there is no link anywhere to your patreon and when I google it, no results show up
The best would be if plugin automatically propose animations where start position is similar to end position of previous one - so they could be recalculated. In example: woman sits on a chair and next proposed animations would be stand up, put leg on leg, put legs aside, bend forward, lean on the chair backrest, put hands on knee etc. The calculation would be done during editing of the scene so it don't have to be super fast. Some animations would use just some part of the body (ie hand animations) - in that case only that part should match the existing end state. The best way would be to use single base library scene with all possible moves and predefined actors and add new animations to this base.it wouldn't be possible to jump between two extremely different states
Some rounds of testing revealed my first iteration of the in-game VR controller could explode on load, if a collider that is turned off via the helper plugin would collide with another object before VaM gives the plugin system a chance to choose which colliders to disable.
This has postponed the release of the in-game VR controller and the sample scene. Instructions for how to quickly set up the CyperPunkApt with Person item to create two "sane" states for getting to know the...
This uses the free CollidersAsTriggers plugin, to enable the three collision triggers around the sphere. This lets you use swipe gestures on the controller. You can move the side colliders further, higher, etc. This would be much more difficult with invisible sphere colliders, to say the least.
It also has a holding rig set up so that it will float all around one of your hands w/out ever colliding with it. Just pinch and flick to rotate into another position, and use the usual method to...
Scale is only a small factor of the problem, scale affects the overall size of the person atom whereas there are tons of different factors in limb length. Since leg length, arm length, forearm length, torso length, upper body length, lower body length, and so on are all individual morphs they are separate from Scale and therefore even if you do change the person atom scale it won't affect the actual morphs that affect the specific limb/body part lengths.I use appearance load plugin with scale change off. This looks quite ok and is simple. There's more advanced plugin (can't recall name) that recalculate the limbs but it's too slow for my play.
"The BodyLanguage Sliders are not Triggerable," they said.
... Innovations say otherwise.
I guess it's difficult to see what was thought of as not possible.
Only 3 forward-lookers on my (free) Patreon so far, who will receive priority support.
Currently working on the last steps of saving/restoring from JSON, and other integration testing.
I've been so busy working on getting it to save/load along with the scene that I have only played around with it so much.
Ready to start building a complex, multi-state scene, finally - but might be too tired at the moment. I've been dropping sneak peaks into the official VaM Discord channel work-in-progress - will drop this there while I rest so others can start getting familiar with its capabilities.
Opening up free access to these early states of the plugin to more people, as I am lacking the amount of feedback I would like to receive before public (and/or paid) releases.
- There will definitely be a free version of the plugin.
- But... in the case there is a Creator's version
- those providing feedback showing a modicum of effort will have access to at least all versions through the plugins' development lifetime.
- Attaching a quick vid of what I am...
I understand the developments. But I'm not releasing the free version of the plugin onto the Hub until it has gone through some user testing on both the Creator and User ends. Hope you guys will be patient, or join up, try it out, and provide feedback.
Frankly, I've only gotten feedback from one user, but it was valuable enough to make it worth is so far, opening it up to others.
Patreon members have been given the right to release scenes using the code as a helper, but it is not to be...
Frankly, I've only gotten feedback from one user, but it was valuable enough to make it worth is so far, opening it up to others.
I can understand your points.I was interested in the plugin when I first read the description of it until I read this part:
"I find it powerful enough to consider the ethical implications of releasing it, given I don't want to pull support from those who have worked hard to create multi-part scenes that get the community excited, by making it too easy to replay their scenes 100x over instead of at least throwing some support to get a fuller version of a clip-length or otherwise teased version of a scene."
That could be said of literally any asset whether it is a plugin, texture, CUA, or whatever that is uploaded to the hub. Anything that enables users to better express their creativity and grow the capabilities of both themselves and VAM even if it takes away subs from Patreon. VAM isn't just for people to sell Patreon subs. To me it sounds like you were planning on neutering the plugin for fear of other creators complaining about their revenue. Personally, for me, I wouldn't be as interested in a plugin that is deliberately hampered for such a reason.
Thank you for the reply, I appreciate it.I can understand your points.
From my perspective, this is what I see. Please don't take it the wrong way, but it sounds like you are in agreement with the logic behind my developing this plugin, and sharing it at all...
Early on, it seemed most scenes were pretty simple - using native Atoms, like CycleForce, and the ColliderTrigger, LookAtTrigger, etc. When you loaded a scene, you could start messing around with things. Some of the setups were of better quality than others, but the sense I got was that most people were doing a lot of fiddling themselves. At some point, some creators put in more and more work, and over time started releasing much more immersive, yet less modifiable content. That wasn't, from what I can tell, all about limiting - but more about expanding, under constraints of what is/was available.
What inspired this plugin is the notion of re-igniting that creativity.
I think there are a few assumptions or miscommunications as to the intention of not releasing something without warning, that would hamper the efforts of those who have put in so much work to build and attract a growing community -- even if their content is limiting in the sense you described. Those people will have to likely redesign a lot of their content or frameworks for VaM2, supposing it's not too far down the horizon. Were it not for such creators, who could have together decided to work on a new, separate, competing platform, I think the community would be at a higher risk of being split up. I'm not saying "no pay, no good." as a blanket statement, which brings me to the next point.
I do not intend to keep the plugin behind a "paywall" forever. I have no paid membership level, in fact, to even keep it behind a paywall now - so anyone who was interested could have joined up for free and started playing with what I have spent a lot of time on to help inspire people on how to use it - I gave them a license to create their own things from it, with credit. Eventually, I'd plan to release the Creator version as well, but until people know what it is capable of, the potential immediate user base would not be one I could support without some early backers helping me test and find bugs, work out best next steps, etc.
Finally, because of how difficult I found it to even imagine being able to create multi-state scenes like the ones being released - the way things break - or the headset feels to test in VR while playing with a dozen dropdown menus... etc... I thought some respect for the process was due -- but again, I didn't mean to suggest scenes should all be static teases. I just thought I was being fair to both creators and end users - especially the brave end users who would see this and join up for free to help me develop the concept before releasing on the Hub.