Guides How to use subscenes

[ZRSX]

ZRSX submitted a new resource:

How to use subscenes - How to create, customize and animate subscenes

Intro
What is a subscene?
A subscene is simple a part of a scene that is saved separately and that you can reuse at will. You can include any subscene any number of times in any scene.

More precisely, a subscene is a VAM atom: it can be found under “Misc / Subscene” when you add atoms to your scene.
A subscene atom should be the parent of other atoms. It allows you to link one or...

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[LogicX]

Hi, 2 noob questions here...
#1 How can I load and import a (subscene) containing a dual pose without also importing the model(s) from that scene? It seem to get saved with the subscene.. and I would like it to keep my already loaded model..


#2 Also the animation is stopped and does not seem to follow from the original scene: (what I did was to add a subscene in that other scene and connected the male/female to that, which seem to break the animation, no matter how I connected it..

But, I managed to make use of the guide above, tips which I can seea real benefit in. Thanks alot for those really useful tips.
thanks
/L

 

[ZRSX]

Hey!

1) Subscenes take everything that is parented to them. If you parent a "Person" atom, it'll include the person, his/her pose, clothing, look & plugins.
If you just want the pose, you should use Pose presets instead (you'll have to do it 1 by 1 for each of your characters).

2) What animation system did you use? If it's animated through Timeline plugin on your character, it'll be saved along in the subscene. Otherwise (animation pattern or cycle force), you'll need to add the atoms related to the animation in the subscene.
Make sure to "Parent" them and not "Link" them.

Maybe try with simple cases first
I hope that helps!

 

[LogicX]

OK
Thanks for explanation,
What I did was I tried to port a dual stock pose/animation that came with the game. Opened that scene and parented the models to a subsecene and saved it, (animation stopped once I did that..) Then I opened the subscene in another scene.

So technically there is no way using the subscene technique to port a pose, without also getting the model/apperance data?
I assume for poses created with Timeline plugin the animation would be included in the atom regardless of using the pose preset or the subscene method?

Im coming from Klub17 where a "pose" = animation regardless of the number of "atoms" ( persons) in it and no model data included. That way It was easy to import a dual/thressome/foursome into any scene/room to get the animation and without the game switching model.

Im still only a few days old with this game so alot to learn. My thought was to initially re-use others creations, to get started and understnad how the poses/animation can be reused, before I start to make my own creations..

//

 

[ZRSX]

No worries!

I see where you're at. If you're only starting with VAM, my advice would be not to use subscenes for now.
It's a pretty advanced feature that even "older" VAM users don't know about. It will because useful once you understand how the rest of VAM works.

First, try to play around with VAM, without thinking too much about how you can reuse things. You'll need to get the way it works; then it'll be easy to achieve what you want.
Quite importantly, atoms are way more than people. They can be everything. A person is just a type of atom (though the most complex). A subscene is also an atom. You'll find that a real benefit of VAM is than you can add any number of atoms in your scenes (environment, furniture, toys) without any constraint except your PC performance.

Look at presets. They are the best for reusability. The most useful are Pose presets & Appearance presets (you also have clothing presets, hair presets...).
For animating, Timeline has the ability to import/export animations. You also have Mocap (Motion Capture) that you can save using Animation presets, but I don't know much about this since I don't have VR.
Also, look at CustomUnityAssets atoms: they can be any 3D object, including full environments.
Then, just know that you can merge load a scene into another.

So technically there is no way using the subscene technique to port a pose, without also getting the model/apperance data?

There is indeed no way to have a "selective" subscene that won't take the appearance of a Person atom parented to it.
But you can easily change the appearance of your models after loading your subscene, using Appearance presets. And, voila!

Im coming from Klub17 where a "pose" = animation regardless of the number of "atoms" ( persons) in it and no model data included. That way It was easy to import a dual/thressome/foursome into any scene/room to get the animation and without the game switching model.

The Timeline import would be the closest thing from what you're looking for, since it has no link to your model appearance. But you'll have to import it for each of the animated atom. So it'll fit perfectly for solo play, but will be a hassle for dual/threesome/foursome.

You can also make it the other way around: make a scene with only the minimum of what you need, then change the environment around it. As I said, environments are atoms, and atoms can be added, removed, moved, modified...
It's the opposite of the behavior you know (it'll be importing the environment around your animated models instead of bringing your animated models to an environment), but the result is the same.

And finally, VamX plugin could be the solution. I don't know for sure, I've never tried it.
It's a paid plugin, I don't know if you can save your own poses & animations or have to use the existing ones only.

 

[LogicX]

Wonderful!
Thanks alot (again) for these great tips!
I try not going too deep in all every aspect until I get the overall picture, but at least now I know how subscenes are used and can be beneficial moving forward.

/cheers L

 

[Babell99]

Great article ZRSX.

Could we use subscene to have multiple different sex positions of the same characters without reloading the complete scene? It is quite common in the resources scenes to click a button to switch to the next position ... to completely reload a brand new scene. It seems like a waste of loading time and resource to me.

So could you, for example. Do something like this.

Example:

You have two UIButton.

UIButton "Missionary" would load two characters playing a timeline animation in the northeast corner of room.

A second button "Cowgirl" would load two characters playing a different timeline animation in the southwest corner of the room.

If this would work, you would agree that only the characters and the animation would be reloaded.

If yes, what would need to be linked to the UI button to load and start subscenes?

 

[ZRSX]

Thanks!

Could we use subscene to have multiple different sex positions of the same characters without reloading the complete scene?

Could you do it? Yes.
Should you do it? There may be better ways.

Could you do it:
That would work. You just need to make a subscene with your two characters for each situation. Then your UIButton would trigger the load your subscene.

For it to work, you have to make sure that the position of your SubScene atom is always the same (0.0.0 for instance): it should be the people within the subscene who should be placed adequately. But that would make your subscenes reusable only within the same environment, which is not great.
A workaround would be to animate the subscene atom to position itself in the proper position, then load the subscene of your choice. A bit tedious, but doable.

You should try, but if you reload the subscene with another having the same atoms, they don't get reloaded - or at least it's way faster.
But sometimes reloading a subscene takes a toll on your PC (don't know why, I experienced it randomly: sometimes it's fast, sometimes not).


Should you do it:
A better way is to combine Pose & Animation.
I think this scene is doing exactly what you're looking for. It's using this combination. Just analyze it to see how it's made.

Quickly:

1. Save a pose for each character using Pose presets. Make sure to check the "Store Root Node In Pose" option. This will position your characters where you want them to be.
2. Make an animation for each character, starting from their respective pose.
3. Add a UIButton that will trigger:
   1. The pose loading of the 2 characters
   2. The animation start of the 2 characters

You're done.

Why using Pose for the positioning and not using the "Control" node in Timeline, you ask? Because Pose will "pop" you character in place, whereas Timeline will transition it... making it feel all the g-force in the process!

 

[Babell99]

Wow ...suberb reply ZRSX, I could not ask for more. I am quite new in all of this but I am a software developer so I am ramping up fast. You explained in great details, it teaches me a LOT. I will come back here to report my result.

Thanks again! I owe you a beer!

 

[Babell99]

Ok I studied your Dungeon scene!!!

That thing is pure gold!!! To this point it does exactly what I want! I may not have to use subscene. Thanks a million time ZRSX!!!

 

[Lione]

Thx but it does not work for me to select the SUBSCENE ATOM as a Parent in current VAM.
It always stays empty if i select the created Subscene ATOM.
Everything else in the List works but not the SUBSCENE Atom.
I tried that Step with several Scenes and two VAM Installations.

Is there a step missing here ?

I want to save two Persons in a Scene into a Subscene incl their Pose etc .

So i created a Subscene as you explained and then i want to Parent the Subscene ATOM.
You also write it has to be the Subscene ATOM to be selected and you showed that in

My Steps then after i created the Subscene.

Here i select the generated Subscene in the List under Lighting Rigs

and result is

 

[ZRSX]

You have to select the subscenes atom as a parent, that is correct.

To do this, select any other atom (in your case the person atom) and select the Subscene as its parent.
Then you can go to the subscene atom and save it. Done

You were doing the right thing, just not from the appropriate atom
You cannot set the parent of an atom to be itself (makes no sense), that's why VAM resets it to "None".

 

[Lione]

Hej thx

I do not understand that workflow
Where do i add the two Persons then?

I tried that with selecting just "Person" and where should i then add the "Subscene" to get all ?
Result is it loads only that Person into a scene and not both together in the Pose.

There is another Menu in the Main Control Physics where i can select Parents.

I also noticed that if the Scene is just a empty Assest Environment ( Loaded as VAR ) it does not work at all to load a Subscene
if you add a Sub Scene Atom and then load the Subscene you saved.

 

[ZRSX]

You just have to select the "SubScene" in the parent section of the Control tab of any atom you want to add in your subscene.

In the Control tab of any atom you want to add to your subscene:

In other terms, just repeat the operation you did to add 1 person for the 2nd person. And only then you can save your subscene.
And you can "add" any number of atoms this way. Including Assets (it doesn't matter if they come from a VAR or not; it'll create a dependency if it does).

To load the subscene, check again the guide. It doesn't matter in which scene you load it and what it already contains. You add a new SubScene atom into it and load your saved subscene from here.
If it doesn't load, it means you had an issue when saving your subscene.

 

[Lione]

Hi thx it worked now adding the Subscene to each Person one after another in the >Control Physics Menu

Since i added a MOCAP Scene as subscene , is there a way i save the Subscene including the animation ?
Its a Kitty MOCAP so usually the Anim Player is then available under Scene Animation.

 

[ZRSX]

I never use MOCAP, so I won't be able to help here. If it's at scene level, you'll very likely not be able to add it into a subscene.

 

[VAM Morrison]

Hey!

1) Subscenes take everything that is parented to them. If you parent a "Person" atom, it'll include the person, his/her pose, clothing, look & plugins.
If you just want the pose, you should use Pose presets instead (you'll have to do it 1 by 1 for each of your characters).

2) What animation system did you use? If it's animated through Timeline plugin on your character, it'll be saved along in the subscene. Otherwise (animation pattern or cycle force), you'll need to add the atoms related to the animation in the subscene.
Make sure to "Parent" them and not "Link" them.

Maybe try with simple cases first
I hope that helps!

Hey I’m trying to figure out subscenes for the first time myself. Theres a simple scene with a character squirming around and squirting that I want to make into a subscene so I can add it to another scene. It uses two animation patterns and a cycleforce (I don’t rally know how these work but I see the symbols floating in the scene when I go to edit mode.) I’ve figured out how to make a subscene and how to put it into my new scene (thanks to your guide) but when I do the girl I added is in the right pose but she’s not animating and she isn’t squirting! Do I have to add the two animation patterns and cycleforce thing, and the custom unity asset that makes her squirt to the subscene or should they already be linked to the character via the original scene? If I have to add them, are they parented to the character or directly to the subscene? Any help you could offer would be most appreciated!

 

[ZRSX]

Do I have to add the two animation patterns and cycleforce thing, and the custom unity asset that makes her squirt to the subscene or should they already be linked to the character via the original scene? If I have to add them, are they parented to the character or directly to the subscene? Any help you could offer would be most appreciated!

Yep, you have to parent to the subscene everything you want to see in your subscene.
So AnimationPatterns, CycleForce, Assets... should be parented to the subscene.

You can also go the other way if it's easier: there's a button in the Subscene atom that will automatically parent to the subscene everything that is not already parented to something. Then you can delete or unparent anything you don't need into your subscene before saving it.

 

[Virtual Voyeur]

ZRSX submitted a new resource:

How to use subscenes - How to create, customize and animate subscenes



Read more about this resource...

Thank you for this!

 

[uttermost]

how do i unhide object from subscene? i cant seem to find where it is