[Released] Mega-Fiers. A mesh deformation system - RELEASE

Version 1.37 submitted to the Asset store, so if you want to try the Blender 2.58 exporter email me and I will send you the file.
Chris

Changes:

• Blender 2.58 morph exporter
• Fixed bug where path deforms animated twice as fast with gizmo on and moved while editing
• Added Blender ShapeKey import support via .mor files
• Added morph animation import support
• Started modify group of objects, not finished yet.
• More pages added to help web site.
• Updated Max exporter to export morph animation

 

Version 1.37 is in the store now, email me if you need the Max exporter or Blender exporter.
Chris

 

excellent news! testing time for 1.37. Thanks again for the Blender Shapekey support @SpookyCat
is ".mor" a proprietary format you've created specifically for Mega-Fiers?

 

Yes it is but if anyone needs the format just let me know, its a chunk based binary file so I can easily extend it to handle modifier data and animations.
Chris

 

Hi All
Just to say it will be a quiet week as I am away, but I will hopefully be checking the forum and emails. When I get back there will be some interesting news and another nice update coming.
Chris

 

Finally back in front of a computer so will be catching up on emails today.
Chris

 

Just bought this superb system, it's worth the money for the Morph system alone in my opinion but on top of that you get all the extras, anyone doing a cartoon game would be crazy not to use the stretch and squash stuff for example, and the easy morph system with the max exporter makes customizing a player character so easy, thanks SpookyCat for transforming by Unity experience and giving me such freedom with no hassle, can't wait to see what else you come up with on this or other systems.
Mike

 

Hi Spooky,
The system looks great and I am very interested in purchasing this. A few questions though. The current project I am working on is creating a heartbeat. In max I already have the heart animating using morph targets. I saw from a video posted above that you were able to capture values/animation from max and import them into Unity and click play. Is that portion of the plugin already included in this system or is it separate. Staying with the animation portion, I will need to simulate different heart beat rates, am I able to change the speed of the animation that comes from max. Before I saw the video I was thinking of ways to be able to simulate the different rates, and I was coming up with just adjusting the values simultaneously by code, but if this plugin is able to capture the animation from max like I saw in the video and then be able to adjust the speed that would be outstanding. The video I am referring to is the one posted 2 weeks ago (3ds Max morph animations exported to Unity with megafiers).
So lastly does this have everything I need? I have a model in max setup with morph targets that I would like to animate in Unity at different playback speeds, is this tool what I am looking for, and if so does it have everything included or will I need to purchase a few different plugins.

 

Hi There
Firstly thank you Mike I have seen you have been building up to a purchase for a while, glad you took the plunge and are enjoying the system.

OneDong, the Max exporter and animation is in the latest version, if you decide to purchase the system email me with the version of Max you use and I will send you the exporter plugin. There is a Speed value exposed for the animation playback so you can easily change the heartbeat rate. So yes MegaFiers will do all you need morphing wise And then you have all the extras it comes with as well.
Chris

 

Added a FaceBook page for MegaFiers for announcements and for anyone who uses the system and wants to share their experiences with other users.
Chris

 

Hi i am really interested in your page flipping tool. I need to know how performant your product is on mobiles devices such as iphone android phones

 

Hi There
I will do a benchmark for you on this later today hopefully on an Android phone so I will be able to give you timings etc.
Chris

 

Lightwave Megafiers Users:

In case SpookyCat didn't mention it on his site, I've created a FREE helper script to aid workflow for Lightwave users using Megafiers. Here's a Lightwave Modeler Lscript called Morphs2OBJs that easily allows you to export all your object's endomorphs (morphmaps) to OBJs that work with Megafiers in one simple click.

The script should work with LW Modeler 9.6.1 or greater (and likely will work for LW 7.5+ but I haven't tested it in those older versions).

There are a few minor tricks in your LW settings that are needed to get the OBJs to be properly determined as a morph target or base mapping for Megafiers and this Lscript makes sure those settings in Modeler are correct so your OBJs work. It's pretty straightforward and has a readme file included. I've found it saves me a bunch of time and tedious LW operations when I'm doing the LWO -> FBX + OBJs thing for use with Unity and Megafiers.

There's an attached picture of the Lightwave LScript in action below and Morphs2OBJs download can be found here:
http://www.newtek.com/forums/showthread.php?t=120941

Hope this helps or saves you a little time! Let me know if you have any questions or problems with it.

sincerely,
another happy Megafiers user...

 

@onllm : I'm using the page flipping tool on iPad 1 iPad 2 and it working performant.

 

Many thanks to PSDev for an excellent addition to MegaFiers for any Lightwave users who need easy morphing, I was going to post about it but didn't want to steal the credit in any way for a great tool. So just lacking an exporter for Maya and Cinema now

I will get around to doing an exact timing on an Android device but I need a friend to help me out as I don't own a device at the moment, but as Malzbier kindly says others have used the system on mobile devices and it has performed very well. The page flip is a less complex modifier than say the bend, and a bend on a 4000 vertex mesh on an Android phone was taking 26ms, so a page flip on a typical page mesh of say a 200 vertex page mesh would take a couple of ms at most, but I will get around to a benchmark but busy at the moment with a new MegaFiers demo and working with a Max plugin company on support for a rather nice animation system.
Chris

 

I am really interested in Megafiers, it seems a very powerful tool. I have not found any tutorial about how to make an effect (apply a modifier) in runtime. I use javascript and Megafiers is in #C. It means I have to code in #C to achieve any effect by script?
Are the modifiers applied on a mesh undoables?
Thanks.

 

Hey Chris,
I'd like to start by jumping on the band wagon and telling you how awesome the Megafiers system is! Lot's of cool stuff.

I am having a pretty serious issue though (By the way... it's not easy tracking you down! Sorry I had to post here rather than a private email.)
I've used Megafiers to create some bending walls in our game. The problem is that these walls have a tendancy to disappear when the player is looking at them at certain angles. Also, lighting reacts very oddly on the surface of the wall. It seems to turn on and off at it's own will. Have you heard of any similar problems? I am not doing anything too complex here, just added one or two bends to the walls. I've tried everything I can think of but I'm still having problems. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

~Tim

 

Hi Tim
Have you tried turning on 'RecalcBounds'? If that doesn't work could you send me a little test scene so I can see what is causing that, I havnt seen anything like that apart from when a mesh is deformed a long way from its orginal with the bounds being updated so the culling system turns of the object and lighting when the 'bounds' is outside the camera frustum.

Angel_m I will try and get a turorial done for the website for applying components at runtime with java etc. Yes the modifiers are undoable, the starting mesh is cached and can be restored by right clicking the Modify Object header and select reset mesh info, and can be done via code as well.

Chris

 

Thank you Chris! I could have sworn I did this previously, but apparently not. By enabling the Recalbounds box, the walls no longer disappear and the light works properly. Big thanks, and I'll be sure to note you're quick response in my asset store feedback!!

~Tim

 

I am very much enjoying Mega-Fiers since purchasing it some weeks back, cheers for this.

Is it intended behaviour that if I copy paste an object that has your scripts attached, all of the copies of the object will respond to the parameter variable changes on the original objects script, e.g. twist angle, and will ignore the script variables for the copies? This is not a huge problem once I realised what was happening, and there could be circumstances where it is useful, but it confused me at first.

Also I cannot decompress your package from the asset store anymore. Im not sure if this is since I updated to Unity 3.4, or Mac OS X Lion, or whether the cause is something else entirely. I tried downloading it again, double clicking the package file rather than going via asset store import button, and deleting the multiple copies I seemed to end up with on hard drive (as result of asset store category changing?) but it didn't help. Luckily for me I had already decompressed it successfully in the past, so I can manually copy those files to other projects if I need to, but thought I better mention the problem here anyway.

 

can any1 provide me a quick tutorial on how to set up a page flip animation with megafier?

 

I would like to see a page flip demo too.

 

just got a pm from the author. i think he is putting up a demo today or tmr

 

I will be doing a video on the page flip very soon, as well as a series of videos showing each modifier in detail, just finishing up a new demo scene to use for the videos first. And after I finish of support for the new high end Max animation system I will be finally doing a proper book system and improving/adding a new page turn system.
Chris

 

Downloaded package still won't decompress for me with Unity 3.4 on Lion.

 

hi
we just got our tool, really awesome to work with!! good work!!!

i try to deform a house, built of 3 pieces.. the base, a floor and the roof. i tried to use the modify group script, but get the message it cannot add the script. scripts filename does not match the name of the class..

what is the correct workflow to use modify grup?

thx for your help!!

 

Arr the modify group is a work in progress, Iam still working on that, it should have been commented out. I hope to have that fullworking in the next release, it is working in the version you have if it was un-commented but it hasnt been tested with all the modifiers hence it being commented out.

Elbows: Sorry to hear that, Unity have been having problems with the Asset store over the last few days which they say are fixed now so maybe try once again to download it.

Iam not getting forum posts notifications at the moment for some reason so I apologise if there is a wee delay between posts and answers here or with pm's, busy working on the new demo and updates.

Chris

 

thx for your quick reply

do have an idea, when it will be done? more like few weeks or few months? just for info..

 

Wont be weeks, it is virtually done just needs a bit of testing and tweaking and code tidying.
Chris

 

great!! thx a lot!!!

 

Hi,

The space modifiers really got my attention. Very cool! Before we consider buying I have a question: How do the area-of-effect modifiers perform with LOTS of simple objects. For example, can I put a warp down and have every object in my scene warp the same, for test purposes, say, a grid for the ground and 100 cubes (and I need it on a iPhone ).

Cheers,

 

"And after I finish of support for the new high end Max animation system..."

I am salivating

zipper

 

Coming soon

 

Very Stoked!

 

Seconding (or thirding) a request for a writeup on using the page flip and page mesh.

I have things working more or less, but getting some weird back spots on my texture when I flip, using an orthographic camera (actually happens with perspective as well). I'm probably doing something slightly wrong.

Also one thing I noticed is if you add your page mesh as a child object and then make it a prefab, I get a ton of errors about the mesh not being set. So I had to make it a scene object, and have my prefab make it a child at runtime.

 

Any chance of a Maya Exporter? And are there any samples of the Morph being used on an animated Character with a skeleton?

 

Not sure if this is the place for this but I just upgraded to Mac OS X Lion and Unity 3.4 and now my Mega-Fiers doesn't work anymore!
The installer won't install it anymore either. I'm getting this error message...


Error while importing package: Couldn't decompress package
UnityEditor.AssetStoreWindow:OnDownloadProgress(String, String, Int32, Int32)

I could install it fine under Snow Leopard and Unity 3.3, and tried it on a friend's MacBook Pro laptop with Snow Leopard and Unity 3.4 and it works fine there too, but with my Mac OS X Lion and Unity 3.4 the package will not decompress or install?? Unity Asset Store support has not been able to resolve the issue yet either.

As a temporary work around I copied all the files from the Asset folder of my friend's laptop onto my iMac with Mac OS X Lion, but now Unity gives me more error messages about the Mega-Fiers scripts...

Assets/Editor/MegaFiers/DisplaceEditor.cs(5,22): error CS0433: The imported type `Displace' is defined multiple times

I cannot do anything until I fix this problem, but I'm not a C# coder. I only know JavaScript. Any suggestions? Anyone else having this problem? Please help! Thanks.

 

Hi All
Iam planning the page flip video now so if all goes well that should be around later today or tomorrow.

A Maya exporter is being asked for more and more, I will have a look at the Maya SDK and see what I can get done, no promises but if the SDK is friendly it shouldnt be a problem to get one done.

Joeyr, that sounds like the Asset store kernel problems they have been having this week playing up, so I think an email to them to see if they have fixed those might be needed. As for the multiple defines sounds like you have two versions of MegaFiers installed or you copied another script over which also uses the Displace class name. Do a search on the whole project and see if you can track down the other 'Displace'

Chris

 

Hi Chirs,

Thanks for the suggestions. I discovered that Unity 3.4's new Advanced Water contains a C# script with the name "Displace". I had to totally remove the Unity 3.4 Advanced Water and all its associated scripts and folders in order to get your Mega-Fiers system to work again without issue. Seeing that the Unity 3.4 Advanced Water is now part of the standard Pro Unity license it would make sense for you to rename your script to something else so it doesn't conflict. In my case I wasn't using the Advanced Water because it doesn't look right on iOS, but maybe there are other developers out there that want to use both the new Unity 3.4 Advanced Water and your Mega-Fiers system at the same time? As for the Mega-Fiers package not decompressing, I'll do as you suggested and send and email to Unity asking about the kernel problems. Thanks for the heads up on that!

I would also like to add that I would LOVE a Maya exporter as well. That would be SWEET !!

 

Hi Chris,

Are you certain that your Mega-Fiers package can decompress properly on Mac OS X Lion? I tested it on a Mac with Snow Leopard and it imported and decomposed fine, but then tried it on a Mac with OS X Lion, on a fresh clean user account and new Unity Project and keep getting that Unity error about not being able to decompress the package.

Best Regards,

Joey

 

Yeah I think that issue needs looking at, I don't think it is going to fix itself as a result of other asset-store improvements. Other packages I have purchased from the asset store can still be re-downloaded and decompressed just fine, but not Megafiers.

 

I have the problem with Pro Water as well. So from my point of view, if you could fix this by renaming your displace stuff, and then put a new package on the asset store then hopefully the decompression issue will also be fixed as a result of uploading new version?

 

I posted a question higher up this thread. Giving it a bump. Cheers.

 

@joeyjr
Not that you asked, and pardon my perhaps overreaching input, but I'd strongly suggest a revert of any upgrades to OSX(to lion from snow leopard), if you're an OSX Unity dev that is. There have been quite a few random persistent bugs reported for OSX Lion and Unity 3.3 3.4, and for some users BIG issues with Monodevelop on Lion(window resize crashes, random interval crashes, etc). Early adoption with Lion has proven very risky for SOME Unity dev's and their mission-critical cpu's. If you have a time-machine backup, and it hasn't been long since you upgraded, I'd personally revert back immediately. There should be a Lion 10.7.1 upgrade coming soon, and likely a Unity upgrade to follow(or hopefully precede!).

 

Sorry I missed your question. It is always hard to answer the how fast will it be questions as at the moment I don't own a mobile device but from the testing I did do on a friends Android phone (slower than the current iPhones) the system could 'modify' 4000 verts with a complex bend modifier in 26ms. so 100 cubes at 24 verts each and a ground plane 'should' work quite well with say the Ripple warp. And then of course you could do things like updating every other cube each frame if you want even more cubes floating around.
Hope that gives you a little guidance
Chris

 

On this page (http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/99704-My-first-game-using-Mega-Fiers?p=652740#post652740) you can find my first game using the great Mega-Fiers...

6R

 

Hi All
Finally got a video done on the PageFlip modifier, there wasn't much to it so I added how to make a full 3D Book using it, I will upload the book script either here or on the MegaFiers web site for anyone who wants to play, its just a simple script so no fancy features, that will come when I get around to doing the new page turning system.
Chris
[video=youtube;IZWCVQ8UKMM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZWCVQ8UKMM

 

Chris,
You so Rock. After seeing this an all of the great dev on your asset....I'm sold.
Money is tight, but this is worth it!!!

Great job.

 

FANTASTIC !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was waiting for that for my educational projects...
GREAT ! GREAT ! GREAT !

6R

 

Nice demo. Is it possible to make a book that is thicker with a spine that was a few centimeters like a real book?