Medieval Character Pack (MCP)

I'm happy to announce the first release of the Medieval Character Pack on the Unity AssetStore.

The Medieval Character Pack (MCP) is a collection of game-ready character models and animations inspired by the European Middle Ages.

The pack currently includes:
- 5 single skinned-mesh knight characters (2,900 to 3,900 triangles each)
- 3 interchangeable shield models (With 5 designs)
- 4 interchangeable weapons
- 11 basic animations (Block, CrossSlash, Crouch, Death, Idle1, Idle2, Run, Slash, Strafe, Walk1, Walk2)
- 2 material type set ups (Reflective/BumpSpec and Mobile/BumpSpec)

All materials are set up as Allegorithmic Substances to allow customization.
Textures are supplied at 2048x2048 pixels in TGA format.

Over time I will be adding more characters and items to this pack. Happy to take suggestions and requests!

For more information and video check out the MCP web page
Or email questions directly HERE

 

A quick sneak peek at some of the townsfolk characters I'll be adding to the first MCP update. They include a noble woman, merchant, blacksmith, and child.

 

very nice I wait for them

 

Here is a second sneak peek at the characters that will be in the next MCP update along with 9 additional weapons for the knights.
Note: At the moment they are all using the basic knight walk animation (Eg all characters are Mecanim humaniods) but I will creating more animations this week for the new characters.

If all goes well I expect to be submitting the update to the AssetStore by Monday 29th Sept

 

Do these models work with the mechinim animation system?

 

Thanks johny,
Yes they are set as Mecanim Humaniods (See image below)

I'm using a fairly default Biped set up when creating them in 3ds Max so it maps well to Mecanim. Characters also have all 5 fingers rigged with 3 joints for each finger.

Do be aware that I have only included a very basic Mecanim Animation Controller. Each animation just blends into the next (Eg no fancy blend tree etc) I will mostly likely add a better Mecanim setup later (I'm waiting for Unity5!) but for now you should assume that you will need to set up your own blend trees.



As always, I am happy to take on-board any feedback and/or suggestions

 

MCP version 1.1 is now in the Unity AssetStore.
Version 1.1 added 5 villager characters and 10 new weapons.

Next on the road map for version 1.2 is archers and crossbow men.

 

nice I can't wait to try them out

 

Ok, here is my feedback, and remember this is just my opinion. I know there are many people out there that like different styles:

First the good: I like medieval! We need more medieval assets. The more the better, and that's because I'm making a medieval style game right now haha The models are good for their style (but the style doesn't appeal that much to me -- see below). I really like the "red shield" knight and his helmet especially. The one that kind of looks like a visor. I like that you're working on other towns folk as well -- the blacksmith looks good. The textures on your models look really good too. I like that you included a mace for a weapon as well, you don't get many of those.

Okay now the bad (and take this with a grain of salt): I know you are going for a more "realistic" style, and I get that, but the models are just too thin and wiry looking for me (if that makes any sense). I'm almost looking for knights (or swordsmen) that have overly exaggerated muscles or body types. The models you made are very scrawny looking and their shoes almost look like high-heels to me. I know they're not, but they almost remind me of women's high-heel shoes lol, sorry.

So my suggestions: Try making a model that's pretty buff (i.e. muscly, or beefy looking). See if people like it. I guess that's my only suggestion really, is to beef them up. But for their style, they're not bad


My 2 cents. Thank you.

 

I think there looking good but yea different body types would be nice too maybe a small, med and large type of body each of them having different amount of muscle percentage amount. but overall I think they look nice, but I have yet put them in my game but will soon. I will leave feedback soon too.

 

Cool. Thanks guys.
I only started thinking about different body types when making the villagers (Eg it's why I have a child model - you don't usually see children characters) Will definitely look at making more different body types in the future

 

Okay, my two cents...I LOVE that you made realistic looking everyday people. I have been looking for these sorts of models forever. I find knights, burly muscular men, women in skimpy clothing with big...well, you know. But rarely, if ever do I find a medieval woman in a dress or a child, or a regular guy.

So kudos to you, Darkeyes! I bought this as soon as I saw the villagers in your thread, before they were released. I hope you release a girl child, a female peasant and a male farmer. A couple of knights in chainmail would be great as well. How about a portly barkeeper?

I was told by an artist that he would not make a female deer or a bull because no one cared enough to buy them. Well, maybe I am the only one who cares, but I like creating a more realistic atmosphere, even if all my player characters are all warriors!

 

Teila is totally right. One thing I really miss in the asset store are the normal people. They make the game much more realistic and believable. You can buy hundreds of knights or warriors but no or just a few beggars, childs, bards, jugglers, bakers. These characters give live to the game.

 

I totally agree and have also gotten a few emails and PMs saying the same thing - basically there aren't enough background NPCs in the AssetStore and the ones that are there are either not particularly useful or super expensive.

For MCP I'm probably going to stick to doing 5 action/fighting characters followed by 5 background characters. The next update will be archers and crossbow men but I'm already planning peasants and nobles after them
Some people have also been asking about mounts (Eg horses etc) I do plan on doing something in the future but this will most likely be a separate asset pack and won't happen until sometime in 2015.

What are peoples thoughts on vertex and triangle counts? So far the characters are between 2,000 and 4,000 (verts and tris) but all the feedback so far has been from folks using them for PC games (Eg no mobile people yet? :S) If most people are targeting desktops I might up the limit to 5,000 to 7,000 so I can get better deformations and details.

 

We are targetting desktop PC games as well, so a 5000 to 7000 would suit us great, a good idea would be to have two version of each character: a more detailed version for PC games and reduced polygon version for mobile games.

 

Just a quick heads up if anyone else has run into problems with MCP and Unity 5.0.0.0b9 (32bit and 64bit)
Seems something is seriously broken with Substances right now - I'm seeing a similar issue to this post on the Allegorithic forum.

I'll post here when there is a fix/resolution. Stay tuned.

 

I forgot I bought this pack! We are also targeting PCs so 5000 to 7000 should be fine.

 

I am still waiting for that little girl though. lol I have a cow with no bull and a stag with no doe...but hope to get a little girl to go with my little boy. I love this package, btw.

 

Thanks Teila.
Yep a little girl is on the todo list after the next batch of archers/crossbowmen

 

Any way we could get an UMA compatible version of this? : p

 

I had a look at UMA awhile back (Granted it was beta I think) it did seem promising but also fairly complicated to set up so I abandoned it pretty quickly. The other main issue I had was it didn't seem to allow for complex Substances and instead opted for its own texture system.
I'll probably go back and have another look at it sometime in the new year but for now UMA support for MCP isn't planned.

 

I just bought the pack and it looks great. When do you plan to release the archers/crossbowman upgrade? I would be more than happy to play with them .

As for triangle counts - I plan to use them for mobile game which means that high triangle counts would be a problem, so having 2 different meshes would be great. I could always try to cut them down using the decimator but I guess the result would be worst than manually crafted meshes.

Cheers
M

 

I expected as much, will probably buy them anyway : )

 

The archers/crossbowmen have been delayed a little due to other work (Hopefully one day I can spend most of my time making stuff for the AssetStore ) They are probably still a few weeks away.

I am considering making some LODs for the characters in the future but for now will forge ahead getting the next batches done first - plus a big animation update

 

Few weeks are fine. I guess I can wait a bit, I should be done with my current project within next few weeks.
If you continue to make assets with such a good quality I'm pretty sure you will be able to spend time only doing the stuff for Asset Store

 

UPDATE: Just heard back from the Unity QA team - apparently they were able to replicate the issue in the older Unity 5.0 b9 but in the latest beta build (b18) it works as intended
I still recommend folks wait until the full Unity 5 release before doing anything major in it with MCP.

 

Seriously thinking of buying this after the holidays. Great job!

I'm going to need to create some sprite/billboard versions of these, I think, because I'll need 100+ in a mobile game that lets the user zoom out pretty far. They will not be animated at they point, just static. At any rate, I know Blender, and have done a few ugly models, rigs, and UV... but no expert. Will I be able to open these in Blender and pose and render them for my sprites? They are 3ds files, so probably I'll have to rig new bones in Blender? I've had pretty bad luck importing other formats to Blender.

I wish Unity could render to AA/alpha PNG for me

 

The price is really good (Its looking like 50$ product) Good work

 

I second the mobile LOD for mobile performance.

Also really love that these characters look very realistic. I know someone asked for exaggerated buff characters but maybe you could make another more cartoony pack with those types of characters.

Keep up the great work!

 

Thanks!

@shopguy: The models are all .FBX so I believe they should open in Blender ok (With skinning and UVs I think - sorry I'm not a Blender guy) Although it looks like there is no native support for Substances in Blender. However you could still set up the Substances within Unity and use the 'Export Bitmaps' to bake the diffuse +normal maps to .PNGs for Blender.

RE: Baking sprites in Unity ... I thought I saw something not long ago about someone getting .PNGs rendered out of Unity with an alpha channel. Although it may have required RenderTextures (Eg Unity Pro) ... may be check the forums.

Anyway, if you pick a copy of MCP up and have any issues getting the assets into Blenderdrop me an email or PM and I'll see if I can help out

 

We just bought this pack and it's not bad.

I like the ability to alter the colors, dirtiness, and rust of the models. However, I wish the quality of the metal and dirtiness could be increased. We are using 2048x2048 and they still seem to be pretty blurry.

I have a couple suggestions though. If you're going to have NPCs you're going to need task animations such as sit, lay down, stand, crouch, pickup, various working motions, and more. These could also be useful to the knight models.

There also seems to be no idle animations for the villagers. They can't use the battle stance ones because that doesn't make much sense. So, they at least need a standing/idle animation.

Also, like the others have said, more villagers would be great. There are no good villager models on the Asset Store.

Note: The Noble Women's walk animation seems weird. She tends to lean back as shes walking. The soldiers walk animation seems to also be messed up. The left leg tends to bend when walking.

Is there an ETA for the new update? Also, what will it consist of?

 

Thanks BHS - and kudos on UniStorm, I picked it up last year and although I'm still yet to use it in a project I have played around with it a bit and it is excellent!

MCP is my first asset pack in the AssetStore and I wasn't totally sure what people would want, so much of the past few months have been collecting up feedback (Super thanks to everyone who has posted here, emailed or PMed me - it has all been very useful)
To date the biggest request has been for more animations (Both general actions and some specific motions) The ones I've included so far are really just a starting point and to test out the models. Right now I do plan on releasing an update to MCP with more animations but am still investigating the best pipeline to create those as quickly and efficiently as possible while retaining some quality (Eg looking like it will be a mix of hand animated and motion capture. I've been talking with a local mocap company but it's looking like that may be too expensive. It may come down to me +Kinect2 +a bunch of mocap clean up work :/)
In the meantime folks should be able to use any animation/mocap that works with Mecanim's Humanoid set up. For example all the Mixamo motions should work ok - also for more knight motions I just saw this amazing asset from Kubold got released recently.

Also I was hoping to get the new update out in December, however due to contract work, study, and Christmas I'm still working on it. The update will have a male and female archer, a rogue type archer (Not sure about the cloak yet), a heavy crossbow guy, as well as a regular crossbowman.
Here is a quick breakdown I threw together recently while explaining my pipeline process to a friend - it should give you an idea of what is coming


I've also started working on a new Substance that will work with the new physically based Standard Material in Unity5. I'll continue to support Unity4 - but have to admit the new lighting and material stuff looks great!
(Not sure this will make it into the next update but will definitely be part of MCP's future updates)

 

Im thinking on buying this, whats in the pipe for this pack except for the archers/crossbowmen?

 

After the archers/crossbowmen I'll do another 5 villager/townsfolk types - most likely another merchant, peasants, maybe a bar keep, and probably a young girl child (Since a few people have recommended that now )
The update after these will bounce back to military units - right now I'm thinking pikemen (Although I need to figure out a easy way to do two handed weapons)

Are there any specific characters you would like to see?

 

villagers including bar keep was exactly what i wanted : D
Made me sure i have to buy this now : )

 

I bought your asset and must say I am disappointed.

No prefabs? Do I have to put all weapons and shields together? This is just ridiculous.

 

I didn't include prefabs in this first release because I needed to get an idea how folks were going to use the pack, so instead I opted to include the 5 scenes (See the Scenes folder) as a starting point. That way someone can make some quick changes and drag their changed version to the Project Tab to create the prefab. The alternative is I make a folder full of lots of prefabs but then I worried people would spend more time digging through them (And then probably making some changes anyway) than just the short time to set one up from the supplied scenes.

How are you thinking about using them in your particular game? I'm currently working on the next update perhaps there is something I can add to make it work better for your use case.

 

The problem is that you didn't put materials to your finished work (which could be achieved through prefabs) as well as swords and shields. Putting them manually would be a tedious work.
Maybe you should make a script/editor extension which would replace shields and swords right from character's hands (like a character customization but in editor)

 

Mmm that's a pretty interesting idea (The in-editor set up tool) .. I did start writing some simple runtime code awhile back for switching weapons/shields so may be able to use that as a starting point. Also if done in the editor with code I may be able to have it spit out a bunch of semi randomized versions (Eg you pick one of the characters and it generates prefabs with randomized versions with different weapons and/or substances with tweaks)
I'll definitely have a look into it - won't happen straight away since I'm already knee deep in making substances for the new Unity5 physical based material/lighting system whilst trying to make better and more animations (The next batch of 5 character models are now all pretty much done bar a few extras) but it is a great suggestion!

Thanks elmar1028, this is the sort of feedback that is really helpful.

 

No worries

And also, it could be a good idea to include textures in .tga format(or any other format) to make it easier for people to change textures to their needs.

Your models are very good, but they need some good "packaging".

 

Is it required to own Substance Designer to get the full power of the procedural materials on your characters (for example if we want to release a game with your characters)?

Or does Unity 5's new PBR replace the need for Substance Designer?

Sorry if these are noobish questions

 

No you don't require Substance Designer to use the substances included in MCP within Unity.

The physically based shaders in Unity 5 are just that, shaders. You will still want to drive the various aspects of those shaders using inputs. These can include Albedo color, Specular amount/color, Normal and Height details, Emission etc
Some of these aspects you may want to control with color pickers, sliders, numeric inputs, whereas others you will need texture maps to control exactly how you want it to look or where on the model you need a particular effect.

The substances in MCP procedurally generate these texture maps based off some controls you can change - for example you can currently add dirt by dragging a single slider. The substance then generates the diffuse, specular, and normal maps taking into account the amount of dirt you've added.

Or to try and put it more simply - in a Unity material you set the shader then you assign a bunch of input textures. The MCP substances generate those input textures for you but you can pick almost any shader you want (Eg the new Unity 5 'Standard' physically based shader)

Hope that is clear(ish) :S

 

Thanksish. The shader inputs can be controlled through script during runtime? For example let's say I want a piece of armor to look more worn as it takes more and more damage.

 

Yes that is totally possible. However the main issue is how long it takes to update the substance at runtime.

Here is a quick throw together showing the first knight guy. In the top left corner you can interactively change the amount of Dirtiness and Rust (For some reason it may not update when dragging the slider for the first time ... but let go and grab it again and it should update ok)
http://pixelmonkey.com.au/MCP/webplayerSubstanceControl/webplayerSubstanceControl.html
This version is calculating the texture at 2048x2048. As you should be able to see the updates to Dirtiness happen faster than the updates when changing Rust (This is because Dirtiness is mostly just mixing simple noise into the diffuse and specular whereas Rust is calculated in a more complex way and also applies to the normal map)

Here is a version of the same scene but this time it is only calculating 1024x1024 maps.
http://pixelmonkey.com.au/MCP/webplayerSubstanceControl/1024/1024.html
There is still a delay when updating but it is faster but also a lower resolution.

With the newer Unity5 PBS substances I'm trying to find a good balance between effects and calculating time - although I do tend to go with better looking effects with slightly longer calculating times, mostly because CPUs are getting faster hence calculating time will be faster in the future.
I'm also looking at adding more effects. These first Dirtiness/Rust type ones were specifically for the metal armor on the first 5 knights. Now I'm looking into better effects for the cloth, skin, leather, blood etc

Hope that helps.

 

Thanks! Yes that is a very helpful rundown. It seems like the runtime changes would work pretty well for the most part, even with the bit of delay. The procedural materials are very cool overall.

 

Hi,

Have you tried yet to change out the shaders for the Unity PBR shader. Just wanting to know if this would work. If it is I'm seriously considering buying this asset.

David

 

Hiya David,

I'm still working on the Unity5 PBR versions of the Substances. I decided to revamp how I'm setting the Substances up to try and give more control and have a better fit with the PBR system (Actually on version 3 of the set up - the first 2 versions ended up getting too messy and complex )

^ Left: Legacy Reflective Bump ... ^ Right: Unity5 Standard (Specular setup) +Reflection Probe ... ^ New Substance set up
In this new set up you will be able to directly control the base color, specular, and glossiness of each of the color masked areas, as well as setting if it is metal or not. There will also be an overall 'dirt' section and sliders for each masked area to dial in the amount of dirtiness. I'm also thinking of adding the option of tile-able, blended normal maps to each masked area to allow even more possibilities but still have to test this out to see what the performance hit is like.

 

This is awesome! Looking forward to this update

Do I need any third-party apps like substance designer for this feature?

Thanks,

Elmar

 

Nope - it will work with vanilla Unity5 (Eg no extra plugins required)

 

Hi,
What about the archer/crossbowman/villagers? Any update about the ETA?