[Released] Morph Character System (MCS) - Male and Female

@cspencer3d: Morph3D support just informed me that MCS characters currently only support the built-in MCS eyes. May I suggest you consider adding support for third-party AAA eyes in a future version? It's probably the one single factor that does most for realism.

The following is a demo app for the Mac using Tanuki Digital's "Eye Advanced" AAA asset plus Realistic Eye Movements from Tore Knabe as well as a custom facial microexpression system I'm working on. I think you'll agree that the AAA eyes make all the difference.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-WqlCI_kadBVTlqRkl4c2syZWs

Walk up close to any of the characters and observe what's going on over time.

It would be great if MCS characters could be configured to support third-party eyes. Currently, they won't scale or translate along with bodymorphing blendshapes. Thank you.

 

Realistic Eye Movements works fine with MCS eyes, just tested it.

 

Yes, of course it does, but that's not the point of my post. According to Morph3D support, MCS characters do not support any other eyes than the ones shipped with MCS. As soon as you replace them, the new eyes no longer work with body morphing blendshapes.

 

I see. I would be really surprised if they (or any other external meshes) works. Are you trying to morph it at runtime? Have you tried to adjust your custom eyes by yourself in script?

 

I had the hair issue too but re downloaded and installed from the morph3d/packages/ directory and it fixed it....

 

As I said in my posting, it's all about run-time morphing, which is one of the sales points of MCS characters, so yes. Again, external eye meshes work fine, except when the body is morphed using blendshapes. There's a whole system in there to do this for MCS SimplifiedEyes; adapting it to also support third-party eyes is in essence what my feature request boils down to.

 

@PeterB I have no experience with those eyes, but can you just use their shader for MCS eyes? Or some other advanced shader, Alloy has one and it looks pretty good if you ask me

 

Those are nice indeed, but just switching the shader isn't an option in many cases if you need greater control of things like pupil dilation, which is essential for facial microexpression.

The eyes are such an important aspect of an AAA character, and requirements and needs vary so much from developer to developer that flexibility in this area is just as important – if not more so – than the ability to change hair and clothing, something which has been discussed at length in this thread.

What I personally require is really beside the point, but to be stuck with just the default eyes – which really just are two GameObjects – is rather restrictive when MCS characters are so very flexible in almost every other respect. I'm sure many will agree.

 

Interesting, MCS has morph Pupil Dillate, but it doesn't do anything. Perhaps a bug @cspencer3d ?

 

I'm interested in this asset, but I have some questions first. Is it possible to add custom clothes to the characters like cowboy clothes and additional weapons that animate with the characters? Is the system compatible with Third Person Controller from Opsive? Is it compatible with Mixamo animations? Thanks in advance.

Oh and I almost forgot. Is the system available in the website the same as the one available in the asset store? Is just that there is a nice discount available in the website and I want to make sure is the same asset.

 

We did change the prop system which may have affected the hands rotation. Submit a support ticket from the Morph 3D website and I will get the devs looking at the issue.

 

Could be a bug, we are tracking all bug issues on our website through the support ticket system. If you submit a ticket I can get the devs to take a look at it.

 

1. No right now it's not possible to add own clothes, hairs etc. Morph3d is working on a tool to make this possible in the future.
2. Yes it is compatible with Opsive or Ootii. It should be compatible with every TPC.
3. You can use any animation you want, also Mixamo
4. The Asset on the website is not updated so fast like the one on the Unity Assetstore. Right now both versions are the same. But you will have to live with a delay right now if you want to have the discount and buy the asset from Morph3d store.

 

Thanks for your answers. So, I won't be able to update the tool from the asset store if I get it from the website?

 

Exactly. If you buy it from the Morph3d Store you will have to download new versions from there.

 

Strangely enough the problem went away when I reimported the animation, even if the problem existed only with mcs characters.. Might be some leftover bug from the first 5.4 betas, where animations were imported incorrectly.

 

For those who have bought this, how easy is it (or is it even possible) to implement your own clothes?
I might be interested in buying this, but if it's limited to just the ones in their store I probably won't.

 

I'm no expert, but I just asked that same question a few posts before you and the answer is that they are working in a tool so it is possible to add custom clothes.

 

That's just a minor inconvenience I hope. Thanks for your answer.

 

Hey guys, after long hours of trials I finally managed to put a custom clothing on MCS character. (No runtime blendshape change for clothing unfortunately. But You can have a clothing for certain blendshape combination. * EDIT: I think importing fbx to marvelous designer is also problematic. Blendshape is at its maxed value whatever I do. I'll work on it) Workflow is as follows:

- import MCSMale or Female fbx into a 3D modeling software (I used Maya),
- edit blendshape and export edited fbx,
- import the fbx to marvelous designer,
- Make some clothing,
- export clothing as object
- import dress to 3d modelling software while MCS edited model is still open,
- Bind skin, and copy skin weights from body to clothing.
- export clothing as fbx.
- import fbx to Unity, put it on the model.
- Add a script to change clothing skinned mesh's bones with MCS model's bones at runtime.

Here is a video showing animated custom clothing. (I will try to put up a detailed tutorial about it. But workflow is kind of cumbersome as it is.)

 

I hope no one truly believes that a company would put out as much effort as would go into this, and not allow custom clothing..

It may not be ready yet, but custom clothing would be #1 on the list.

 

They are working on tools to create custom clothing. They said (multiple times on this thread) it would be released around Q1 2016. So there will be a way to create custom clothing at some point.

 

Just downloaded v1.0r3, and discovered the BlendShape order has changed from previous versions!!!!!

This is a total nightmare, in my code I am referencing BlendShapes by their number not their name, now all my numbers are wrong!!!! You have changed displayName to ID... !?!

On top of that the LOD meshes have also changed, so the triangle lists are now different...

If we are to use MCS characters in our projects we need the core structure of the system to remain the same, I have a lot of rework to do now...

 

Also the Lite versions now only have 74 not 75 BlendShapes?

And the GameObject names in the structure have changed from Genesis2Male to Genesis 2 Male, why change these things? my code also references the GameObjects by name, so this broke my code also...

 

Thats a pretty big change specially for your Tool @Greg Bassett
I would recommend you to write a Help Ticket on their page right now. cspencer3d looks there more often than on the forums here and does give the help ticket directly to the developement team.
Best of luck!

 

I'm not really sure how you're designing stuff, but relying on strings to match, lists to remain identical, triangle lists to remain identical, is not the way to make an add-on.

What if they add a blend-shape? Why can't they subtract one - maybe it was made meaningless? Renaming game objects is not really a core structure thing.

I'm sure a part of the blendshape order is dependent on the exporting of the meshes. Changing LOD's can also often be a good thing.

I would say you should be thinking about how to generically write the code that manipulates this stuff, rather than relying on static lists to be unchanging. For them to make this into something better, things will have to be changed. Not to mention, an API change like that can usually be fixed by a simple find => replace, match by case, match by word, in visual studio.

The one thing I would expect to remain consistent is the blendshape names, since I don't believe there is an easy way to access those except for by string.

 

HI All

So I just wanted to clarify some info and make sure no one is in the dark.

1. We are working on a set of tools that will make adding clothing to MCS very easy and compatible with blend shapes. Shout out to @umutozkan for posting your custom clothing method here. This is a similar process to what our team uses to create add-on packs we just have to do it for all 350 Morphs. So you can understand why we want a toolset ASAP.

2. Packages are released on Morph 3D and the Unity asset store at the same time. There are also no legacy packages currently. What ever package is available to download is the latest update for the package. We are also working on a notification system to notify owners of any updates available.

3. MCS core code is constantly being optimized and improved. We have big plans for mobile and are speeding up our code with every release. We changed the order of the blend shapes to alpha numeric order because of customer requests and if anyone has request for features or changes to MCS you can submit your requests at the Morph3d website under the help section.

 

In an effort to add to the response of @cspencer3d, let me say that things here are Morph are changing rapidly, and we have a lot of huge development efforts in store for MCS and it's toolset. Admittedly, we haven't handled some of our changes well up until now, but we really feel the pain of issues that users like @Greg Bassett are having.

We're also working very hard to skip forward to a world where MCS has built in upgrade support, amazing documentation, code snippets, direct developer access, continuous integration processes, optimal efficiency, mobile support, and .... well... see for yourself...



( I couldn't make it all readable, but I hope it's an indication of our dedication, and that big things are on the horizon ).

 

Ah! I think I see trench coat and hat on a yellow stickie ...

 

And my parents told me to never write on the walls... boy are they loosing out on the available space!
Can't wait to see what you come up with!

 

Thanks for your post, comments, and support!

I have spent the time since my post thinking about how I can work with the issues thrown up by changes and how I can design my code and asset so changes you make don't effect my work so dramatically, and I think I have been able to come up with some good ideas!

I love MCS and I am certainly not giving up on my use of it just yet!

All the best!

Greg

 

WIP Character Creation. Morph3d works well I actually have more issues with UGUI then Morph. They don't have a beard pack yet so I set up my own. Looking forward to there new development software. The background is 3DForge (love there assets)

 

HEHEHE, Cool to see the Village Exteriors Kit there in the background

 

I tried again to import the last version.
First the shaders package, then female and male.
Still getting pink hair on build.

I get these errors on shaders when imported:
Shader error in 'Morph3D/Volund Variants/Standard Hair': Can't find include file ../UniqueShadow/UniqueShadow_ShadowSample.cginc at line 92 (on )

Shader error in 'Morph3D/Volund Variants/Standard Hair': Can't find include file ../UniqueShadow/UniqueShadow_ShadowSample.cginc at line 134 (on )

This error appears when building:
Shader error in 'Morph3D/Volund Variants/Standard Hair': undeclared identifier 'UnityDecodeCubeShadowDepth' at UnityShadowLibrary.cginc(97) (on d3d11)

Compiling Vertex program with POINT_COOKIE SHADOWS_CUBE
Platform defines: UNITY_ENABLE_REFLECTION_BUFFERS UNITY_PBS_USE_BRDF1 UNITY_SPECCUBE_BOX_PROJECTION UNITY_SPECCUBE_BLENDING


Also, M3DIMPORT.dll that I've got to delete otherwise it doesn't build.

Am I the only one getting these?

 

I'm not currently having any issues with textures or shaders with the lastest version, but I do get this error when trying to do a build:

Waiting for a reply to my support ticket on this currently. I feel like it might be a regression because if you look back through previous pages of this thread there are some people that had a similar issue in the past. I have a fresh install of the latest version and put a fresh copy of the character in my scene, so I don't think it is anything I'm doing wrong.

 

I had this dll issue since the first release.
My only work around to be able to build was to delete it.

Anyway, no matter I start a new project and import fresh package from Morph3D webstore, the shaders always show these errors, which most certainly lead to having pink hair on build (at least not in the editor).



Do you guys have this include file?

EDIT:
After some diggings, I was able to find the files there https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/39921

However, I still get this error while building, and obviously pink hair on build.

Shader error in 'Morph3D/Volund Variants/Standard Hair': undeclared identifier 'UnityDecodeCubeShadowDepth' at UnityShadowLibrary.cginc(97) (on d3d11)

Compiling Vertex program with POINT SHADOWS_CUBE
Platform defines: UNITY_ENABLE_REFLECTION_BUFFERS UNITY_PBS_USE_BRDF1 UNITY_SPECCUBE_BOX_PROJECTION UNITY_SPECCUBE_BLENDING

EDIT2:
OMGs!
Fixed!
Looks like I needed this one as well: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/39945

Did I miss an important shader package when installing Unity?

 

A load of hair packs released today for Mcs male and female models.

 

My prayers have been heared!
Now I am really interested to see Facial Hair Packs and upcoming Cloth and perhaps also Hair Generator.

 

It looks like those hair packs are simply all the different hair models scattered throughout the body model library. In other words, no new hair models.

If I've got that wrong, please let me know.

 

Yeah thats right hopeful.
But before that one hair did cost 15$ (without sale) because 1 hair was in 1 cloth package. Now you have a set of hairs in one package. I think that is a good solution before we get (perhaps) the option to create own hair in the future. If you work on fantasy game you will not buy one scien-fi cloth package just because of one hair option, in my case.

 

Oh, I'm not complaining. Just wanting to make sure I'm seeing it right.

 

The store has a blurb that says:

Whats new in the new Hair System? Whats new in the new R3 update?

I love that you're adding new hair packages. Can you note in them if they are included with another model so we don't accidentally purchase something twice?

 

@Jaimi Great questions. The new hair system is a complete redesign of how hair is done in MCS. The biggest change is the addition of skull caps. All in all the new hair system gives better result with less poke through.

I believe that I posted a rundown of all the changes that were made in the R3 release on page 15 of the forum.

 

I haven't downloaded and reviewed the hair on all my models, but the Coleraine hair is greatly improved. Thanks!

I am getting some little white specks in the hair, but maybe there's a dandruff setting in the shader ...

 

I see the same thing. Haven't had a chance to look at the shader yet, but it looks like dithering or some type of dissolve artifact.

Speaking of hair, does anyone have any insight on how the hair could be animated? I tried doing a cloth based approach, but just like someone posted earlier about using cloth on a jacket, the hair just flies away.

 

Possibly with this plugin (?): https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/23930

 

@cspencer3d Will morph3d update the hair on the existing models?

 

While I haven't verified this, it looks like the hair update has gone through on the MCS store models, and it is probably passing through the validation process in the Unity store now, before appearing there.

 

Thank you, can you please verify? I downloaded all of the models last night and checked their checksums vs my previously downloaded models and they were the same.

** EDIT **
Ahh sorry hopeful, I thought I was replying to spencer. I just redownloaded an older model "Starship Crew" previous downloaded on 12/10/15. The one in the Morph3D store is the same.

 

Hmm. I had downloaded a Vamptress of the Night and she had the modified hair. So I went ahead and downloaded the rest in my library (just finished), but I haven't checked them yet.

VERSION NUMBERS in the MCS store listings would be great.