Question CUAs with more than one bone (parented/child) in VaM

[Metix]

So as my mind meanders from shiny thing to shiny thing, I started experimenting with an underwater scene, and had this notion of having slowly waving kelp stalks on the sea floor (using really unusual values with the Wind++ plugin with high angular dampening and a strong spring. After four hours of trying to get unity Configurable Joints to work in VaM, I threw in the towell and just gave each stalk a single bone in Blender -> export/import -> Unity.

It worked immediately! "But then!", I thought, "What if I gave each stalk two bones?".

Yeah, that didn't work. I've got a lot of experience hacking things together over the years, but my understanding of rigging is somewhat lacking. Anyhow, I gave each bone some angular constraints and an approximate collision capsule and tested them in VaM. The joint that should be created by the two bones, parent/child, is not bending at all, at least from the force generated by the Wind++ plugin.

I know it's possible to have full armatures rigged in Blender, ported to Unity and packages into an assetbundle... I believe this is often seen in more advanced CUA hairstyles.

Anyhow, I'm pretty sure I rigged everything fine in Blender, as the joint was bending fine in Unity. But it's a bit of a case of I don't know what I don't know, while also knowing that many many things are possible, if not difficult.

Any ideas where to start looking? I've been through most of the guides on the wiki.

Thanks.

- Metix

 

[hazmhox]

Ok !

First, separate "rigging" (in blender) and your end asset (Unity/VAM).
Beyond some skinning mistakes, bones/armature will work in VAM... your problem is probably on the components side. If you prefer, it's 100% a Unity issue.

I think the idea is that you test your initial rig without thinking of Wind++.
Ensure it works in VAM with your physical properties... then, maybe, try to make it work with Wind++

Note 1: Wind++ was made for VAM clothes/hairs, I'm not sure it's working with native bones.
Note 2: Warning, Wind++ is ULTRA expensive as soon as you put a character in the scene
Note 3: I'm working on a community EZBones lib for VAM (with a plugin and everything), this might be a solution for your case. EZBones can handle physical impulses, like for instance blowing a curtain.

 

[Metix]

Okay, I knew there was a missing step somewhere. I've stumbled across the notion of having to re-rig stuff in Unity, but because it worked fine with a single bone I kinda came up empty.

As far as Wind++ goes, I'm just using it for experimenting, as a semi-random global force to push on things in strange ways, without getting too into the weeds to trigger spaghetti. Oh, and the new version does work on rigid bodies with bones... I will never try to use Unity joints again though!

Check out what I've been poking around with: https://discord.com/channels/363274293112602636/1289585050488279090/1360220224934379560

Thanks Hazm!

 

[hazmhox]

Check out what I've been poking around with: https://discord.com/channels/363274293112602636/1289585050488279090/1360220224934379560

I'm not on the discord anymore. Too much drama, too much annoying people, if you can link it directly here it'll be a blast

 

[SlimerJSpud]

Wouldn't the IKCUA plugin as used on chains with bones work for this?

 

[Metix]

I'm not on the discord anymore. Too much drama, too much annoying people, if you can link it directly here it'll be a blast

I did run my 2 bone rig through the EZ bone plugin in Unity. Not sure if I did it right though, I was using the CUA hair with physics and colliders tutorial here as a guide, which was much more complicated than what I'm messing with. I did add the DLL as well.

One question though, I kept coming across posts saying I should use the rigging package in Unity, but there doesn't seem to be one for the 2018 version of Unity that VaM uses, I guess that's what EZ bone is supposed to take care of?

 

[hazmhox]

One question though, I kept coming across posts saying I should use the rigging package in Unity, but there doesn't seem to be one for the 2018 version of Unity that VaM uses, I guess that's what EZ bone is supposed to take care of?

I don't know what's that. We're talking of very basic set of bone, I don't think anything is needed besides ensuring your setup is good.
If you're using EZBones, the thing will simply set the physics as you configure them and you can influence them either by moving the original object or using the force modules.

 

[Metix]

I don't know what's that. We're talking of very basic set of bone, I don't think anything is needed besides ensuring your setup is good.
If you're using EZBones, the thing will simply set the physics as you configure them and you can influence them either by moving the original object or using the force modules.

Oh yeah, one more neat thing about Wind++ is that it defaults to affecting zero objects in the scene. You now have to manually enable which atoms you want it to affect, as well as individual magnitudes. So it can be as expensive or performant as you desire.

 

[hazmhox]

Oh yeah, one more neat thing about Wind++ is that it defaults to affecting zero objects in the scene. You now have to manually enable which atoms you want it to affect, as well as individual magnitudes. So it can be as expensive or performant as you desire.

Technically, the wind system is not expensive at all. It's the permanent physical response from a VAM character that kills the framerate

 

[Metix]

Technically, the wind system is not expensive at all. It's the permanent physical response from a VAM character that kills the framerate

I did finally resolve the trouble I was having. Might as well post it here for posterity if someone else runs into similar issues at some point.

I had to make a second controller for the child bone and run its own instance of EZ Bone, then I was also able to tailor its own spring and other force resistance settings. Just took playing around with all of the options there INSIDE UNITY (thanks for pointing that out), and then exporting for VaM (with the DLL).

 

[hazmhox]

Np!

The VAM EZBones library should be available either this weekend or this week : )