[Release] URG! The ultimate ragdoll generator

Big D: the other incredible addition coming with V4, alongside the Animation States:
- Real time, instantaneous, per 3D plane or per bone cut of animated characters
- Preserves materials, textures, and all other original game components of the original character.
- Triangulates the empty areas of the cuts with an user defined material and texture
- Animations keep on playing flawlessly before, during and after the cuts.
- Entirely dynamic. Does not require model or mesh manipulation nor editing.

Video:
http://t.co/SvXoPuph

 

That looks very good. When do you believe it will be ready?

 

Ah, I see. So let me see if I understand correctly. Take the spider for example. I'd import the model with the legs straight. Orient an instance of this model in Unity with four of the legs pointing up along the y-axis, do the ragdoll for those four limbs (as if they were a spine) one at a time. Repeat for the other side. Then do the head/body/thorax as a single spine (again pointed up along the y-axis). Use your "connect ragdoll" to connect everything together. Done and done!

Is that about right? If so, that's easy enough.

And yeah, your dismemberment functions look really exciting. Looks like this is a "must buy" for me

 

Thanks for the kind words. We're on pre release, and the new version should be available in a week or so.

 

You got the procedure right, yes. Additionally, if there's back legs that are somewhat stretched, URG! will still try to make a full ragdoll, and compile 'arms', torso and 'legs', so it'd reduce the connection need to the 'extra' limbs that it could not figure out.

 

We're thrilled to announce the release of URG! V4 Developer, which is already available for update and purchase in the Asset Store.
As a bonus, and to celebrate Unity 4, we've decided to offer the DEV version at a reduced price.


As sponsored over the last few weeks, there's two major utilities in this version:
- The Animation States Manager: ragdoll to animation and animation to ragdoll transition in one line of code. Showcased when one demo scene Ratman gets back on his feet after being knocked down. Major highlight here is that the transition from ragdoll to an animation state (basically the initial state of any animation) is dynamic, so it is finally possible to get those transitions just right, without the need to manually create many animations to cover several 'ragdoll cases'.
- The Dismemberator: separate a gameobject part in one line of code (the demo scene includes the Ratman, who loses his limbs upon car impact, and a Jeep that can lose wheels, seats and other parts depending on the speed of impact). This is an awesome tool with great production saving value, since it finally becomes possible to detach parts without the need to preset the mesh in the 3D editor application, with excellent results (works equally well on all skinned gameobjects). The utility works on a single mesh at a time, but manages multiple materials perfectly. Specifying the triangulation material and texture, and the spawned particles for separation parts is as easy as passing them as parameters.
Additionally:
- Reworked demo scene, documentation and reference, with workflow specific examples.
- Updated, HD models.

IMPORTANT: URG! V4 is perfectly compatible with both Unity 3.5 and Unity 4, however 3.5 dismemberator instances need to be re-made when imported on Unity 4 (playing the scene straight away will most likely create triangulation artifacts), if you're using this version, please make sure to rerun the Big D editor on the Jeep and Ratman_D entities of the demo scene, and update the respective prefabs. In a couple of weeks we will upload a Unity 4 version specific of the scene to avoid this inconvenience.
We will update URG! Standard version soon.

Features on the works:
- URG! Vitruvian skinner (automatic model skinning utility)
- URG! Carver (dynamically carve holes into 3D models)

 

Ohhh! Been waiting for this stuff for a good while! I'll play soon

 

Hey to add, do you have any ideanwhen the standard version will be updated? I bought it some time ago, bit of chagrin the dev version is currently going for lower. Im about to start work on a long-designed project and some of your additions to the system were gleefully worked into the idea but i'd like to know when i can start to play, thankyou!

 

We're sorry for the delay. We meant to have it updated by tomorrow, but we're not going to make it for various reasons. We're committing to deliver it by next Sunday at most. 100% guaranteed.
Additionally, the standard pricetag is unchanged because of how versioning and pricing works in the asset store :/

 

Hi folks,i'm definitely hoping still for the sunday update, so i hope you'll be keeping to that as i'm holding off some things based on it. One small question is, i'm playing with mecanim and i'm finding it excellent, and i presume you may have also looked, i was thinking of using your method to return a ragdoll to a proper state and then blend back into a mecanim controlled animation, does that make sense and do you have a notion on how it might be done?

 

Hi and thanks for your patience: we will be able to respect the deadline.
Regarding the transition, unity has plans for converting ragdoll simulation to muscle space and animation, but It will be made available in a future version. So basically mecanim will offer something similar than our Animation States Manager.

The ASM can cover your case, since it comes in action 'before mecanim', but it can't blend into the mecanim state machine. So you basically need to use placeholder animations where ASM actions take place (and then intercept the mecanim sequence by code), or simply configure your mecanim sequences considering a 'start' condition that can begin with an URG! ASM animation.
Just remember that you need a line of code to create the transition animation, so you don't have a visual element to use in mecanim until you actually make that call.

 

Cheers! And i think i get what you mean and it doesnt seem to bad, i suppose if the exit state of urg and the entry state of the mecanim share the same animation i can find a frame to cross over, i was thinking of blending the ragdoll 'settled' pose to some kind of fixed 'laid on one side' pose then animating from there with mecanim, it's very handy to have urg take care of this for now, hence my interest in the update, nevermind what options the other features give (which sound great, and useful, fun)

 

We've updated URG! Standard to V4, so counting the usual asset store times it should become available for download today or tomorrow.

 

This is an excellent release! and I'm even more impressed with the dismember tool...will i be able to add particles to the bloody limbs? and even cut anywhere?

 

Thanks for your kind words.
Adding particles is possible, and done through a simple optional parameter passage during the function call: it is just enough to specify a couple of gameobjects (one for the 'parent' bodypart, and one for the 'child'), and they'll be instantiated at the bodypart separation locations.

Regarding cuts anywhere, there's an undocumented function (metdismemberrigged) which does just that. You give it a 3d plane and a ragdoll, and it just cuts separating one side of the plane from the other, cutting whichever bones are caught. It's very cool. There's some caveats to this functionality though so we've left it at the current state until we can resolve its shortcomings (it doesn't properly preserve playing animations, and can fail with multiple cuts in the same 'root' object).

Besides the hole cutter and vitruvian skinner, which are the main features of the next update, we plan to add more polish to the ASM and Dismemberator utilities in-between.

 

Awesome, because I was planning to have dynamic dismemberment in my game, and one of my thumbnails involved a body and two horses... now will this work on prefab models? And I will probably avoid the cuts anywhere deal for now... I was also wanting to have a bit of bone hanging out of the limb like Mortal Kombat 9

 

Entirely possible. The good part of passing gameobjects to the instantiator parameters, is that you can entirely decide what's to be instantiated. You can have bones sticking out (your gameobject is a model prefab, with the 3d bone model attached, and maybe some particles), or even more gory features like the ones you'd have by putting a 3d model through the two-horses-and-rope ordeal!

 

I think I would have to rig up the ragdolled version of my models with all of the gore and crap on it...and just hope that the constraints will hold... (On a sidenote, I don' think UT would appreciate two horses and a rope in game lmao) And for $35 dollars, why fight it...? The models fataliites will already be animated... just gotta do the textures for it... ever play MK9?

EDIT: I would LOVE to do this with URG and a cutscene sequencer...

 

I'm pretty interested in the dismemberment part of this asset.

Here's a question though:

I've developed my own approach, which sound similar to what URG seems to do, regarding ragdolls. It basically takes the unity ragdoll and after I mark the limbs, at runtime I toggle their kinematic behavior on and off whenever I need them to go limp for any reason.

In addition to this, I built the system in such a way that it would allow me to toggle the ragdoll behavior from within an animation. This means that I can play a death animation and at a certain frame I can make my model go ragdoll. In addition, I also built functionality for my gunshots to apply force to the correct limbs on the "death blow" so as to allow for different forces being applied when shooting an enemy. So shooting someone in the head blows them backward appropriately, shooting a limb makes them tumble, etc.

So essentially, I've built a lot of what I need. The question really is this:

1) Does the free version provide the dismemberment features? The main thing I need to see is how much this asset would disrupt my existing code. I need to be able to see if this is feasible for me to use, without requiring a large re-write of my code.

2) How independent are the features? Is the dismemberment part of it tied to everything else, or could I just use that, for example?

3) How long does the new dev price last? At the current price point it's feasible for me to grab it if it fits my needs, but if it goes much higher then its pointless as I dislike using assets to which I don't have the source code for (in case I need to make my own tweaks to it).

4) Is this mecanim friendly? You mentioned the ASM, does the ASM work with the new Animator component to blend from ragdoll to a mecanim animation state? I'm heavily considering switching to mecanim for most of my models, so any assets I buy need to be mecanim friendly and take advantage of it's features whenever possible. I ask because I know mecanim doesn't work using the old components but rather the new animator component.

I'm very interested to hear your reply

 

That spectacular kind of fatality is what made us include the prototype of "dismemberrigged" in the last release!
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/10...ll-generator?p=1038150&viewfull=1#post1038150

With proper artwork, you can certainly get there, or very close, with the Dismemberator, despite the fact that all of MK's fatalities are instead animations!

 

Yup... I am planning on doing the same thing, and with the dismember tool, this will be alot easier to do I think they do the animation, and at the very end switch to ragdoll...

 

For a start, thanks for your interest in URG!

Our replies:
1) the free version does not still include the showcase of the new functions. We're lagging behind on this because we're collecting feedback from the last release, but we certainly will include previews of the new features, and the actual full version reference to better evaluate the product.
In particular, URG!s footprint is incredibly small, since everything is based in meta data that the utilities collect in editor mode and store in specific classes.

2) all features are truly independent. All of them are connected to 'ragdolls' in some manner, but you don't necessarily need an URG ragdoll, or an URGent ragdoll for the ASM, Big D or the other utilities to work as expected. Basically, you just need skinned game characters for any feature, animations for the ASM, and some sort of ragdoll for the Dismemberator.

3) we will most likely change prices after we update the free version, but this won't happen in at least a month given our current timeline.

4) all physical and animation functions are based on preexisting and native Unity components, but currently the only interface between Mecanim and ragdolls is some sort of script, to "connect" any given Mecanim state with an animation (most like what's done with 'Animation Events'). It is very possible and relatively easy to integrate the two workflows, but you can't use an ASM transition or a dismemberator event in the state machine, until unity releases the promised feature to convert mecanim states into muscle space.

 

This is PERFECT... and once it all works with mecanim, it will be even greater. Now I am going to guess that I can define an object that will be used to cut up the "victim" and switch to ragdoll in some cutscene (uSequencer comes to mind). Other than that, I would just have to detail the gory parts in Zbrush (I would have to know where the UV Coordinates are in the cuts)

 

Im a little confused, the unity asset store page says it requires 4.0, but the page here says 3.5 or 4.0. Do I need 4.0? Im still probably going to get it, but Id like it if I dont need to upgrade my Android/IOS just for this.

 

Hello and thanks for your interest in URG!

the current asset store version is for Unity 4.0, both for standard and developer versions (standard was approved by the unity team a few hours ago).
Do note though that the product is still compatible with 3.5, but the demo assets are different from 3.5 to 4.0, so you'll experience weird dismembering in the demo scene, that just requires launching the dismemberator versus the ratman and jeeps in the 'stupid drivers' scene, to make them work properly again.

 

I'd just like to give URG a big thumbs up, i didnt actually get the animation states working properly but i did get the rest of it playing pretty nicely with mecanim and now have a mecanim root motion driven protagonist who ragdolls perfectly when needed. Previous to this i was just using ragdollify with instantiated ragdolls but with the new release i had a look at the limbify options and it's worked out really nicely and well worth the extra time, cheers!. Looking forwards to delimbing some of his opponents when i get them implemented.

 

sweet

 

Hi,

What is the performance like on iOS devices? I'd love to use this for NPC getting shot and ran over by cars.

 

Hi,

ragdolls are 100% made from standard Unity components, so as long as you follow Unity guidelines in respect to bones and triangles, performance is excellent. D and ASM on the other hand require some processing power, but if you keep a minimum number of D and ASM operations per second, there should be no noticeable performance impact! From our tests, reasonably modeled characters (16 bones, 2000 triangles) perform flawlessly.

 

I did just buy the standard version and get an weird import error, when trying to add the unitypackage to my 3.5 project.
here's the error message:

 

If you're receiving an asset opening error, it might be from a downgrade issue. Here's a workaround:

1- backup you project just to be safe (the whole project folder not just the asset folder): the problem comes from an unity importer bug, rather than from the URG! package.
2- access the asset store again, and choose to reimport URG!
3- when the import window comes up, select -only- the scripts folder (can safely select readme and reference, too)
4- all URG! functionality is now part of your project

To be able to use the URG! demo scene and prefabs however, it'll be necessary to install Unity V4 in a different computer/ different folder, and import the asset there.

Note: if you can't start the project, delete the "Temp" folder from the project root

 

thank you it worked that way
I've got another question: Is it possible to edit an existent ragdoll? That was created already?
Couldn't find an option for that--

 

Hmm. just noticed this too.

I made what you say and I get the following errors:




Can you make the project import for unity 3.5.7. Iwant to study the demos.
And I will not get unity4 for the time being.

 

Hi Arc Games,

We just bought the Dev version and trying to use RagDoll feature with a mecanim character.

We took the mecanim character and applied URG ragdoll. The character does not do any mecanim animations anymore and just slides along the ground. We watched the Video tutorials that you have on youtube but did not find anything that shows how to make URG work with Mecanim. It's quite frustrating to buy a great product like URG and spending ages trying to figure out how to use it with Mecanim.

Please be Kind to your paying customers and UPDATE the Videos to show how to use URG with Mecanim.

Thank you for the great product and looking forward to using URG in our mecanim project.

 

Editing a ragdoll basically just requires recreating it with different parameters.
1- Create a prefab of your character so you can revert to it in case you need it
2- On the instantiated prefab on the scene, just use the URG! function to remove physics from root (if there's no character controller or other manually installed physical elements) or source.
3- Create a new ragdoll with tweaked parameters

 

It would seem that the actual URGent classes files are missing. Are you sure those files were included in your import? Please look for them in the project folder to be sure!
You will just need to reimport the asset and make sure that those classes are selected, too.

Regarding the 3.5 demo assets, we've come up with a way to include them that overcomes the asset store limitations. More info on this later on today.

Update: we have included the demo assets for 3.5 in the latest update, and will upload both new versions tomorrow.

 

Ok I got that. So there's no option to edit on the fly? so at least see settings of already created ragdolls?
I wanted to see the settings of the Tree in your demo to build it correctly myself to fix an issue I had.

 

We're sorry for the issues caused.
For a start, you might be experiencing a simple layer issue with Mecanim. Since URG! installs physical components in the originally assigned gameobject layer, there might be a collision between the ragdoll parts and any other components you have in place (the controller, for example).

Taking the 'U_Character_REF' character in the 'Animator Controller' scene of the mecanim demo, for example:
1- select 'joint_Char' as the ragdoll source
2- create a ragdoll with URG! (any type of ragdoll is ok)
3- create two new layers, one called 'ragdoll' and the other called 'ground'
4- assign the 'ragdoll' layer to the 'joint_Char' gameobject and all of its children
5- assign the 'ground' layer to the 'environment\collision_static' scene folder (contains all of the scenery colliders)
6- access edit=> project settings=> physics and leave only 'ground' and 'ragdoll' on the 'ragdoll' layer
7- instantiate/ kinetify the ragdoll whenever needed

With this, whenever the animator and controller are stopped, the character will turn into a ragdoll.

Secondly, albeit all steps are in fact shared with a normal URG! ragdoll creator process, the presence of the animator and controller certainly increase the difficulty of the process. We will make a video and a specific demo scene to illustrate this workflow, and make things easier.

Lastly, thanks for pointing out these issues. We are dedicated to making URG! a truly easy and hassle free experience which is improved with each update.

Update: here's a link to the modified demo scene (requires the mecanim demo scene from the asset store, and URG standard or dev) http://www.mediafire.com/?acgavtyxgd79w7a

 

Thanks for clarifying: there is currently no easy way to assess the creation process that lead to a certain ragdoll, since standard ragdolls aren't hosted in a class, but only in the component settings (joints, rigidbodies and colliders). There's a relation between joint axes and limits and the ragdoll parameters of course, but no immedate way to determine the one from the other.

Do however note that all demo assets are basically variations of the standard settings, with high, medium and low tension tweaks in the options.

From the reference: "- High, medium, low, minimum tension: these are body part specific parameters to describe how joints react when they bend. A value of 1 makes the relative joint part very unflexible, almost as if it weren't there. A value of 99 or higher transforms the joints into gelatin!
High tension mainly affects the arms, low tension mainly affects the legs, and mid tension affects the whole body."

The tree was created with a value of 16 for high mid and low tension options. So hopefully this should put you in the right direction

 

Sorry, but the 3.5 version does not work.

When excluding the _models and _prefabs folder I get the same hard crash.

When I delete everything except the assets folder , unity opens with errors on the terrain.
Then I unzip the 3.5 folders, quit unity and reopen.

I try to enter the demo scene and unity just gets stuck there without opening it.

 

We're sorry for your trouble. Let's see if we can sort it out.

For a start, your project needs to open and work normally again:
1- restore the backup made before the first fixing attempt (suggested but not mandatory)
2- delete the "UltimateRagdollStandard or UltimateRagdollDeveloper" folder from under the Assets folder
3- delete the "temp" folder from the project root (all other files and folders must be kept. NOTE: we mistakenly suggested to delete "library" in an earlier post, but that will actually -lead- to import problems. Sorry for the confusion.)
4- open the project. It should work as expected, but -without- URG content

Then:
5- access the asset store, and from the 'my stuff' menu on the bottom right, select your URG! asset and choose "import"
6- from the reimport list, choose all but '_models' and '_prefabs'

Import should complete correctly.

Lastly, to be able to use the full demo assets, please wait until the latest version is approved by the unity staff: once you update URG!, you will need to "import" again, always excluding '_models' and '_prefabs', and you'll find a .zip file containing these assets for the 3.5 version.

We'll update as soon as we receive confirmation the new versions are online.
Update: we've canceled version 4.1 publication until we find a definitive workaround for the unity asset importer bug

Thanks.

 

Yes. Sorry to bring it up again. But doing exactly as you say (excluding only _models and _prefabs) I get the following error:

 

That's unexpected. Does the error pop up at step 4 or after step 6?
Additionally, does the error also show if you only import the 'scripts' folder from the URG! Asset?

And lastly, can you please report what Unity version is giving you trouble?

Thanks for your patience.

 

The crash happens after step 6.
If I import the scripts only no error occurs.
I have unity 3.5.7.

 

We're sorry but the original error you reported is an obvious Unity importer bug. In fact, we got to it in a different system than the original. So it might be machine specific.

Don't worry though, just give us some time and we'll find a surefire way to deploy the 3.5 assets.

Update: the cause for the crash is still unknown. It is however generally related to materials, models and prefabs. In fact, unselecting the standard asset model and materials, the importer doesn't crash in the troublesome machine. More info on this as we delve deeper.

 

Hey I just found Mesh Baker
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/159258-Mesh-Baker-by-Digital-Opus-RELEASED
is this compatible with urg? So I can create ragdols with urg and combine them with mesh baker?

 

URG! works on bones and skinned mesh renderers, basically. Baker's feature manifest tells that animations remain intact, so we can suppose also that object hierarchy remains unchanged, but to be sure you'll need to ask them.
In any case, the prerequisite for an URG! ragdoll to function is that the ragdolled character gameobject armature remains unchanged, logically, since the bones host the hierarchy and physical elements that create body part relations.

Lastly, do note that ASM and Dismemberator classes are compiled from animation and renderer components so changing them in real time can lead to lack of functionality (realtime added animations can't be ASM'd to, realtime added vertices can't be separated from the mesh).

 

I'm making a driving game with characters that can get hit by the cars and also shot by the cars I'd like to switch them to ragdolls when they get hit or shot. It's a mobile game so I'm a bit concerned about instantiating objects, I use Pool manager to spawn objects from a pool to avoid the performance hits.

Can i use URG with pool manager?

 

Hi and thanks for your interest in URG!

There's basically two methods that achieve your goal: ragdoll prefab 'spawn' (as per poolmanager's logic) or just using kinetified characters.
The first method, as per poolmanager's docs, should work flawlessly with URG! (wouldn't hurt to ask them to be sure), since you create a ragdoll out of your desired characters, create prefabas out of the ragdolls and load those ragdoll prefabs on the pool.
The second method does not require instancing, since you basically iterate through a character's physical components to turn them from kinematic to physic driven, so the performance hit should be negligible since it's all achieved through Unity's native components setup (a foreach cycle at worst).

 

I already bought URG developer edition a couple of weeks ago, just getting round to using it for my project.

Sounds like the second method would be much better.