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

I played around with the beta but I didn't test extensively. They claim a massive performance boost, though I don't know if that applies to loading times. It does look like you select only the morphs that you will need, and that should help loading times.

 

OK - I found it was an issue with the Mixamo being imported into Unity.

1. Rig needs to be Humanoid - on import it was set to Generic, so the animation wouldn't work - now it does
2. Create from this model is selected and then "configure"
2. Set Jawbone in "Head" to "mixamorig:HeadTop_End (transform)" seems to be the only option when using Mixamo - there's no jaw.

Tried the above, hit play, and now does the animation walk while talking properly. Hope this helps anyone else out with the same issue.

 

The new update was supposed to be released in November, any word on the delay?

 

They said they hoped to get it out in November, but there was no actual date.

 

OMG why has the price gone through the roof? if I had known it was going to go up I would have bought the assets I need yesterday but there was no indication it was on sale

 

Yeah, It was a sale. If you are looking to purchase add on content, don't worry, they often have sales. If you planned on buying the base packages, I am not sure when those will be on sale again. Maybe they will do something for the holidays.

 

Heh, welcome to the club, man. They've been saying it's gonna be out for months now. It never comes out and we're still waiting. I got an email from them about how they were going to personally fix my problem, but that was weeks ago and I still haven't gotten the fix. So I'm thinking these guys just aren't that reliable. I mean, I understand trying to hold a release date since I wanted my own game to ship in the middle of 2016 and here we are at the end of 2016 and I still have a ways to go before it's finished. However, my group is made of two people and we work full-time jobs on the side so I guess it's not too surprising. These guys have more folks working on the asset and still can't hit their release targets. They keep promising me that they'll have it fixed and at the end of the day they haven't done anything and I'm at the same point I was months ago.

*Sigh* I keep falling for that stuff, too. Even bought a couple of outfits during the sale. However, I realize now that was probably a bad idea.

The other issue I have these days is that the system won't save options or morphs that I select. I keep turning off the pants in the inspector, but when I run the game it resets it back to having the pants on. When I stop the editor after running, the pants are selected again. It's frustrating.

 

Thanks Celebrus,

I only Started looked at MCS because I thought they’ve set this attractive price to kick start some interest from the game dev community.

I don’t see any workflows for getting content onto the models such as different skin clothing hair armor etc.

No matter how much you change the MCS Male model it still sort of looks like “that man”. Same eyebrows same mole on cheek same grey tee shirt.




Unless you can change these things everyone in your game looks like a clone “Attack of the Paladin Clones”

I was going to look at overlaying some facial hair options eye colors makeup etc. but I’m not paying 50 bucks to get someone else’s product going, I may as well just do my own model.

Price increase was bit short sighted IMHO.

 

A question maybe asked many times: I'm interested more at the clothing than the simple humanoid, so any way to reuse in MCS character the clothing I can find in DAZ asset store?

 

The short answer is no. The Morph3D assets are derived from Daz3D assets (Genesis 2 for the current version, Genesis 3 for the new/upcoming version), but you can't buy something on the Daz3D store and use it on the Morph3D characters out-of-the-box. Neither the models nor the textures are easily converted from one to the other.

 

@chiapet1021 thanks. So probably the only way to use the rich and wonderful clothing is to use directly in Unity the DAZ models, with careful decimation I suppose.

 

@davide445 As someone who attempted to do that in the past, I don't recommend it. In addition to needing to decimate the models, you'll have to pretty much redo all of the textures. The Daz3D asset textures are not compatible with the typical shader options you have in Unity (whether standard within the engine or third party), and their normal/bump maps are designed with the very high poly count of the original models in mind. If you decimate the models to a point where they are usable in a game, the existing textures will look very flat and wrong, since the extra geometry is gone.

 

I probably won't buy another generic figure that doesn't supply a texture map resource kit….

But – for those of us who bought these figures and want to make the best of it while Morph3D sorts itself out – a place to start would be the metal maps which are included. With a lot of fussing around in photoshop you could create base materials for new textures, or adapt the maps for other skin shaders that look a little more realistic than just tinting the same skin over and over.

 

Skin texture packs would be very welcome. Not just one skin per gender per creed/race but many.

 

I'm looking into this, I'll try to post whatever I find some time next week.

 

@chiapet1021 if so there is any other place where to find good clothing, the one provided with MCS are really limited, other systems such as UMA are even worst, I really find the best one in DAZ

 

The products were on sale for most of November. We posted on our Facebook page that the sale would end November 29th I believe. They are currently at their normal price.

 

1. Glad you think our character system is the best.
2. We're hoping to get out tools to create clothing for MCS figures to strategic partners soon so that the marketplace for content packs can grow. Currently anyone can download the artists toolkit and begin the process of creating content addons.

 

I am on your website now. Where is the link to download?

 

https://www.morph3d.com/beta has the artists tool kit. Keep in mind the Artist's Toolkit won't allow you to make the clothing a content pack, but you can still use it to start modeling clothing around the figure.

 

It looks like potentially a good system, similar to FUSE with an auto-rigger if you don't weight paint yourself….

If I have no interest in being part of the "store" will the MCS Tools be free to use? A subscription or pay-as-you-go service? Available to everyone, or licensed artists only? Will there be distribution limitations?

It is also (of course) possible to create and rig clothing for the current figure using the normal methods for creating clothing and rigging….

 

"strategic partners"??? We've been waiting forever for the tools. Do yourself a "strategic" favor and release the tools to your customer base...

 

I'll let you know the answers to these questions as soon as I know. The latest I've heard is what was announced in this video:

Though that may change.

 

I don't make any of these decisions I'm just the messenger. I'll of course pass along your feedback.

 

Sorry if my earlier post is a bit harsh. People criticized MCS in this thread a lot. I always replied those saying I was holding my judgement until artist tools is released. And we've been patiently waiting for too long. I am probably one of the very first who bought the asset. It's been about 6 months since the beta page's last update. And it had been too long even before that.

The tools for creating custom content is said to be in developement from the day one. We bought the product because creating content would be possible at some point. Who would buy a model knowing every clothing available will be publicly sold and none of it will be customized for your own game. Anyone who bought the asset, bought it because they thought this way.

When you (as Morph3D) make desicions like this we who bought your product feel betrayed. So release the tools to your strategic partners... Just know that we don't like that they get it before we do...

 

Agreed. The ability to create custom content that adapts to the characters is the primary reason for buying this over other model packs- the whole reason we dropped money on it. Using the models with only the outfits they're released with makes this a non-starter for production environments- I've said this multiple times, and that was never supposed to be a part of the deal. Having to wait as long as we have due to technical considerations of upgrading the system to the version 3 models is one thing- delays are unavoidable in a lot of cases, especially when trying to release a quality product that'll have any sort of compatibility going forward. We've accepted that fact, and tried to keep our frustrations to a minimum while waiting.

That said, it's been a VERY long time waiting now, and this latest information about "strategic partners" getting the tools first is incredibly aggravating (it would be rage-inducing, in fact, if it wasn't so crushingly depressing). This product is still currently unusable. It's always been unusable. All we've gotten so far are promises that it'll become usable at some point in the future, and for that and the potential we see, we've gotten our hopes up and our wallets out.

Please, PLEASE, for the love of God, PLEASE, I am begging that you make your product usable soon. We're a tiny production team and we've spent more on this than on anything else in the asset store, with absolutely nothing to show for it to this point. We can't use your cookie cutter outfits in our game without serious adjustments, and we can't adjust them without breaking them. If we don't get the tools soon, I might actually get fired for recommending this and having our game's production get delayed as a result.

... just.... please?

 

I am looking for an avatar creator, reading the comments and knowing that i will not be able to craft my own armors and clothes, i will not spend my money on this asset.

 

You can kind of do that already. You need to use their scripting API. Just Google it. But you will still have to figure out using different materials.

 

Pay-as-you-go. Thank you….

Bu-ut...

At 20min, BERKLEY FREI misleadingly says the Artist Toolkit will be released "tomorrow" with a base mesh that allows making items compatible with the Morph3D system . At NO POINT IN THE TALK does he say the toolkit is for a different, unreleased (over half a year later) figure. He also talks about "compatibility tools" (the unavailable MCS Tools) – often within the same sentence – but never mentions it's not ready or even on a separate timetable.



I'm going to be careful with my words because some people feel burned. Based on what was said officially by Morph3D, I think the reasonable expectation from early adopters (who paid full price) listening to this presentation is that this was much further along – days. Literally the NEXT day…. For indie game developers, there's a world of difference between "tomorrow" and "7+ months from now; we'll let you know".

 

You're responses are always well written and even tempered so I take no offense. I actually had a good chuckle. Just got done speaking with the people who make more money than I do. I was told that when the MCS Tools are released everyone will have the opportunity to access them.

 

We don't like shooting the messenger The guys here in this thread could be the best advert for Morph3D; I think what people want is to be kept honestly in the loop, and to know that the areas that we all find lacking, or the bugs that we list are actually being worked on. Status/bugfix updates, and honest timescales would make us all happier and less frustrated.

We're devs too, and know that customers are a double edged sword. They're a pain for keep wanting stuff, but also the greatest asset.

 

I just wanted to let you guys know about the AnyIK giveaway. It supports MCS Models out of the box.

 

I suppose our Morph 3D friends are having a lot of discussions about marketing plans, DAZ-style "product-centricity" and echosystems. The strategy is fairly clear: bang on content and create a closed circle of artists who create it.
Could be a deal, but unity devs and artists are quite different from DAZ user base.
We NEED to get into the bonnet of our projects becuse our job is to create new things.
Perhaps many of us are happy using canned clothing but for many others aestethic uniqueness is critical.

So yes, build your echosystem as you wish but give the rest of us the freedom of building our own stuff.
If it's not the artist toolkit, give us at least a clear, official workflow over importing, conforming and morphing our content.
I purchased MCS male, got my 3dsMax clothing to conform (but not yet to follow body blendshapes) and I am wondering if I must go on buying the female too or revert to something else.
From what I see here I think I'm not alone at all.

So, please, take your marketing guy for a drink (perhaps two) and convince him QUICKLY that a MCS echosystem can live together with us creative folks down here in the wild.

 

I have the Retro Future Hero and I have no idea how to add or configure the helmet to a character? Same goes for the jetpack? The instructions from earlier in this thread mention a helmet script that doesn't seem to be included in the asset anymore.

Edit: I think I've figured it out by added an attachment point as the head then adding the helmet as a prop? Is that the correct method?

Also I'm feeling baited that there was no indicator that asset store prices were about to change at the end of November. They were not listed as on-sale items. I don't usually go wandering to look at a publisher's own website to find info, I'm looking at purchases on the store I purchase. I bought assets thinking I'd add more soon and now the prices are significantly higher.
=(

 

The official discounts on the Unity shows indicators that it is a sale. But Unity picks who will be on that sale, you can only say that you want your asset to be in the sale and max discount you are willing to offer. I think Morph3D guys wanted to have the sale at their terms and lowered the price by simply updating the package, I don't think any baiting is intended.

I've been following MCS from the start there has been 2 big sales on male and female models (once for $15 and once for $10 each). I am sure there will be more in the future.

 

I don't mean any offense to you and I have no idea why you'd defend shady business practices, but 2 sales since release sounds like once per year, maybe 6 months? That's not a reasonable assumption on any project to wait for. The female starter pack went up 5x and that's an enormous price increase for something with no direct indicator of the incoming price change. It wouldn't be as much an issue if this were a standalone product, but it's get you using a system and adding to it.

It should have stated clearly that it was a sale price with the date ending.

 

I didn't take any offense, and I am definitely not defending them. If you check my earlier posts you'd see me rant for other things too. I just wanted to point out Unity has a weird discount system.

I agree that they could have stated in the product details section that it was a sale. I still don't think any bait is intended, they have stated it was a sale on different places. That's what I think though, you're of course free to disagree.

 

Fair enough.

I'm pleased with the quality of the assets themselves (by that I mean the models, morphs, textures) so it is easy to get invested in this system, although configuring isn't as easy as it should be.

Some of the shaders are broken with Unity 5.5 at the moment, but switching to the Standard Unity shader seems an okay workaround.

 

The way you've attached the helmet is correct. When you attach the content pack you'll see that the jetpack and the helmet are listed as available props. They only need to be added to an attachment point. A logical attachment point for the helmet is the head.

As umotozkan mentioned there are issues with the way the Unity store applies discounts. However we did make an announcement on our Facebook page well before the sale ended: https://www.facebook.com/morph3d/posts/1227278027333904

I understand that not everybody has Facebook and that not everyone follows us on Facebook, however it wasn't something we tried to do sneakily. We were fairly forthcoming about the fact that the figures were on sale and about when the sale would end.

 

Like I said before. When Artist's Tools are released everyone will have the opportunity to access them.

 

Following the instructions in the PDF with Unity 5.5.0f3 on a Win 2012-R2 server with dual Xeon 2.4's (16 cores), 16GB RAM, and 1.5TB storage (RAID5), when I try to Reimport the Morph3D folder the memory climbs to consume it all and the server dies of resource starvation. This is a new project with nothing in it except the 4 free assets in the Unity Asset Store.

 

The original import and opening of the content packages works ok, but trying to reimport the whole lot crashes?

Have you tried deleting it all and installing from scratch rather than reimporting? Otherwise could be a bug?

 

I submitted a ticket through the Morph3d.com website.

It was a new install from scratch. Reimport All works fine for other projects. This was my first encounter with Morph3D. I created a brand new empty project for it, with nothing else imported, and pulled in the 4 free assets from the store, followed the steps in the readme to double-click the Shaders package followed by the other two. I tried putting a few characters in an empty scene and dropping content packages on them. Some parts were pink. When I tried right-click the Morph3d folder > Reimport the memory ran up and killed the box.

 

Pink parts? Not seen that issue in a while. The multi-stage install was to get rid of that happening. Definitely something wrong there

 

Are you using the latest mcs versions? The required reimport process was for older versions.

 

Latest from the asset store. Ok so what will fix the pink parts?

 

Sounds like you either have old versions, or the download is corrupt. Try downloading the assets again, but if that does not work, contact Morph3D directly from their website for help.

 

Also after importing MCS you needed to import packages under packages folder in certain order if I remember correctly. First shader package then the model packages. (When I did the order wrong my models looked white though not pink).

I will suggest something similar:
- Redownload MCS
- Import MCS to a new project
- After MCS import, do the shader package import first then the male/female model import.

 

Any update on the artist tools? Last I heard it was sometime in November which has come and gone. We've purchased both male and female, and most content packs, and even though they are a great start, we're still missing a large majority of what we need. The content is being produced far too slow and without the ability to produce what we are missing we're kind of dead in the water. Most of the content being created right now is more fantasy (we require your standard police, fire, paramedic, doctors, nurses, etc), and almost nothing like this is available.

As everyone has continued to reiterate here, no matter how good MCS is, and it is great for what we need, it is completely useless without the ability to create the content we all require for our individual projects. Expecting us to rely solely on your content market place is absolutely a non starter.

We invested into MCS long ago, based upon the commitments that were made in regards to the ability to make our own content, and it seems like this is being dragged out not because of technical reasons but business decisions. Obviously the tools are there, they're being used, content is being created, but they're being held back repeatedly. How much longer are we going to have to wait? We have hard deadlines and at some point we will have to completely abandon using MCS making all of our purchases worthless. Can we get more accurate information as to why the tools are being dragged out?

 

Import the Morph 3D Shader Package first from Morph3D/Packages then import the MCS Figure packages second. If you reverse the order you'll get pink.