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

What clothes are you using? Does it happen with all clothing or only this set?
The base character seems unaffected (just invisible due to the alpha map).

 

Ah. The screenshot loaded. I took a look at the code and haven't found anything out of the ordinary. I also didn't realize I've been doing my updates in Unity 2019.4. Heh, heh. For some reason I thought I was using 2019.3, but I've been using Unity 2019.4 for a while now. I haven't had the problem showing in this picture. I'm guessing there's something with the clothes you're using. Is this happening with all outfits or just this one? Does it happen once you put the clothes on? Is there some time before it happens?

 

@EDarkness and @ru_erikvdb , Good pointers. I never thought to check the clothes. Let me try different clothes to see if the issue persists. Two other items I am using are 1. An animation controller on it 2. changing the morph value of 'heavy' at run time.

Also the issue happens like 1 out of 5 times. Thanks.

 

@pradf4i Do you have the animation controller on the piece of clothing? The system gets real strange when scripts are added to the actual models. When those clothes are added to the main model, strange things happen. It's something I ultimately want to fix, but I'm thinking this has a lot to do with the check that happens internally when a piece of clothing is added to the MCS figure.

Changing morphs at runtime shouldn't be an issue. I do this all of the time, though changing the MCS figure may be the better way instead of changing the piece of clothing.

 

@EDarkness I don't have animations on clothes. Only on the MCS figure.

 

Great. Have you had any problems with other clothes or just one set of models/clothes?

 

@EDarkness - Tested 10 + times after removing the cowboyshirt and everything worked like a charm. Thanks for the pointer.

 

This is not really fatal but keep seeing it. Any quick fixes? Thanks.

 

@pradf4i Are you using any special Unity things like URP or anything like that?

 

Yes. I have URP enabled.

 

Okay. I haven't messed around with MCS and URP. This is something that @ru_erikvdb has taken care of. I think he even made a version of the shaders that work with URP. Perhaps he can provide more details.

@ru_erikvdb, you have been summoned!!!

 

@pradf4i you may follow the instructions here https://github.com/erikvdb/mcs-toolkit/

 

Soz for late reply, my email notifications for this thread are ending up in my spam folder again <_<.

The standard and Volund shaders don't work with URP, that's why I had to make my own. I'm not sure about your exact error, but my guess is that there's still some material that hasn't been assigned a URP shader yet.
You can download my URP shaders from the link above (thanks Rusted Games!) and update all MCS materials in your project with the toolkit (instructions in the github readme).
Note: every time you import a new asset, you'll have to run the material converter again.

 

Everybody this is not really news but many might not know. Morph3d is back with a new name "Tafi" (https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/51491). Don't be fooled guys, these people are just scammers. They already have change names to try and scam people again. Don't buy from them or you will be burning money away. These people have no integrity, they are here for a quick cash grab.
Im not trying to flame, i'm just trying to help people not make the same mistakes as i have. I paid 100s on their website to have everything taken down. You've been warned.

 

I wish they would have done a better job of taking care of Morph3D instead of dropping it completely and doing the exact same thing. Well, the good thing is Morph3D is still available for people who don't want to give Tafi any money.

 

How is Tafi bad? I've kind of been following them since they abandoned their Morph3D awhile ago. I've been waiting for Tafi to finally start releasing a "morphable" character on the Unity asset store.

They've kind of been in a "beta testing" mode with Tafi for a little while now. To me, this is excellent news. I've been waiting for a morphable character system to compete with the UMA system for a long time now. UMA is powerful, but it's so unintuitive and complicated to use in my opinion. Tafi might be awesome. Am I missing something?

 

Because they HAD a morph system that they were using and a lot of us paid for the assets and they never really delivered on what they promised. We waited months and months for updates and they strung us a long for a long time. Eventually they abandon this system moved on to something else and NOW are doing another thing and want us to pay for it again. I can't support that at all.

 

I've dug into the official Daz forums and multiple Daz employees actually endorse Tafi as a cool service for VRchatters and gamedevs. They do acknowledge that there are no other markets for Tafi.

 

Tafi is designed primarily for sine.space by the looks of things.

 

Frankly I wish they would just make an exporter for Daz Studio instead of reselling a small hodgepodge of individual items.

The main benefits of the MCS/Tafi system is that it provides a way to swap clothes on-the-fly, offload unused blendshapes for better performance, and handle on-the-fly body proportion changes for animation.
If you make a game where characters stay the same and always wear the same thing you're probably far better off just buying your characters in Daz because you'll have a heck of a lot more choice, both in terms of variety and price.

I'm tempted to buy a Tafi base model just to see what the new system looks like but also I don't feel like spending more money on them after all the work I've poured into fixing MCS

 

I wouldn't call them "scammers". I've used Morph3d characters in a VR project and while customization broke along the way, the characters still do work well enough in our project in Unity 2019.4 so that the price we've paid was absolutely worth it. The main reason we cannot move to Unity 2020 or 2021 is actually Unity messing up a lot of things for us. If we wanted to move over to URP, our Morph3D characters would be just a small drop in an ocean of issues that we'd be running into.

It's probably fair to say that they made some mistakes in how they designed Morph3D that they were unable to recover from. It was a very ambitious idea and sometimes, ambitious ideas just don't work out they way people thought. That sucks when you have purchased lots of their content (I'm in that situation) but that doesn't make them "scammers". I have had worse experiences with packages on the Unity Asset Store - and as an Asset Store Publisher myself, I also know the other perspective. There are reasons a lot of publishers have pulled out of this ecosystem, even with pretty successful packages.

From what I have seen them do after Morph3D, it did look promising and also very much looks like they have learned their lessons. I haven't had a look at their Tafi characters, yet, but certainly will consider replacing my Morph3D characters with their new stuff. I also follow UMA and have considered integrating that system into our projects as well. But Morph3D/Tafi always looked better to me, so I don't have first-hand experience with UMA to compare with.

 

Well, as someone who's paid for the Morph3D and more than a few clothing sets for it, I'd say I am disappointed with their business handling.

The main issue for me was how they delivered their content creation tool after years of waiting and expected us to pay for every piece we create by it, despite the fact that we already paid for the characters.

Past is past, and I actually owe them for making me realize how awesome UMA is as a framework. Morph3D had beautiful models but a crappy system. UMA had not so beautiful models but a great system.

I ended up creating new models (races as they are called in UMA world) and found the best of both worlds for me.

https://assetstore.unity.com/packag...ner-jane-john-standard-render-pipeline-175172

 

I can understand making mistakes...we all make them. However, the way this whole thing went down just doesn't sit right with me. We waited and waited for updates and improvements and for years we ended up wasting so much time waiting and paying for things that ultimately didn't deliver. We ended up having to spend a bunch of time working on it ourselves and I'm at least happy the made things open source so we could do that. But I just don't see any reason to support this new thing considering how they handled the old thing.

That's just me, of course.

 

I'm using mcs toolkit 1.7 and Unity 2018.4 and getting a bunch of namespace errors on MCS. Any idea how to fix these?

 

With Unity 2018.4, you'll have to go with the converted models, but I'll be honest and say that it's a little tricky since it's right before they went all in with whatever changes they were doing in 2019 and so some strange stuff happens there.

 

Make sure you have the core MCS components imported (MCS-1_7-CodeAndShaders unitypackage) and try rebooting Unity.
Like EDarkness said 2018.4 is a tricky version because that's when you start needing the 2019 fixes, however this namespace issue should be unrelated.

 

I've always gotten strange behavior in 2018.4, which is why I pretty much much recommend against using it with MCS. 2018.3 is fine. 2019 is fine. I've had to uninstall/reinstall MCS in 2018.4 many times.

 

@MoreGalaxies Thanks for sharing, I'll buy a base model and see what's what. Hopefully towards the summer I'll have more time to dive back into MCS development.

 

So I got one of the Tafi base models and it's not at all what I expected . In no way is this a successor to MCS. Unless I'm missing something big, there is no runtime character manager that lets you control morphs and change clothes on the fly. You can pre-assemble your character somewhat similar to MCS, but once you've configured a character that's how it'll look in-game forever. You can manipulate the morphs you selected in the creator as standard Unity blendshapes but there are cases where this'll mess up any animation (as was previously a problem with the MCS JCT issues). I also don't see anything to sync blendshapes with all clothes automatically.

There is some clever stuff in the character creator, but I can't help but think you can get pretty much the same results with the Daz to Unity exporter for most cases.

I really cannot recommend buying these assets.

 

Oh, that's good to know. Runtime editing is all I really care about, so I guess the new Tafi Unity Asset Store stuff isn't for me, then.

 

One thing Tafi does poorly is they don't actually show you all of the character art in the package they're trying to sell you. Unbelievable.

Edit: Luck of the draw, I guess. The one item I randomly selected from the list had no supplemental photos, but others do.

Edit: If you are thinking of buying a Tafi model, be sure to check the actual package inventory before you do. The descriptions talk about earrings in some cases that don't exist, and in one kit there's an extra set of urban clothing that totally doesn't belong in it (think of an ornate fantasy dress with a ... baseball cap).

 

This is on Tafi's website. Not sure if it's true, but apparently its a selling point

 

Good day.

Does anyone know why this works for Unity 2018.4.34f1 (64-bit) and does not work for Unity 2019.4.20f1 (64-bit) ?

2018.4.34f1 (64-bit) works
Unity 2019.4.20f1 (64-bit) does not work

 

Try removing the LOD Group component, it doesn't really work with MCS.

Also make sure you've fixed all the other issues for MCS in Unity 2019:
https://forum.unity.com/threads/rel...s-male-and-female.355675/page-77#post-6199034

 

Good day.

ru_erikvdb
many thanks

I am using Unity 2019.4.20f1 (64-bit)
What did I do
1) Imported: CiaBellaOutfit_2019, MCS_1_9_2r2_DLL, MCS-Female_2019, MCS-Male_2019
https://github.com/EDarkness/mcs/releases/tag/v1.9.2
2) Checked morphs work but give an error (JCT is not available, can not sync morphs)
3) Rebooted Unity 2019.4.20f1 (64-bit)
4) Imported: MCS-1_7-Female_2019Patch, MCS-1_7-Male_2019Patch
https://www.socsci.ru.nl/vr/resources/mcs/patch/2019/
5) Rebooted Unity 2019.4.20f1 (64-bit)
6) Checked morphs work but give an error (JCT is not available, can not sync morphs)

When I change the value in morphs, an error appears in the console
(JCT is not available, can not sync morphs)
It can be fixed ?

 

That's interesting. 2019.4 should work properly (since that's what I use myself). There must be something else interfering with what you have going on. Are you working with a clean project? All you should need is the main DLL, and the 2019 male and female files. If JCT isn't there, then something is keeping that part from being installed or is interfering it in some way.

 

What I've done

1) Removed all versions of Unity installed on the computer
2) Installed Unity 2019.4.25f1 (64-bit) + Clean build, MCS_1_9_2r2_DLL, MCS-Female_2019, MCS-Male_2019 error (JCT is not available, can not sync morphs)
3) Installed Unity 2020.3.5f1 (64-bit) + Clean build, MCS_1_9_2r2_DLL, MCS-Female_2019, MCS-Male_2019 error (JCT is not available, can not sync morphs)

what version do you have Unity 2019.4. ?

 

I'm on Unity 2019.4.6f1, so I need to take a look at .25f1. Maybe there's something they've done that's messed something up. Give me a little time to take a look and I'll get back to you.

 

1) Reinstalled new Windows 7 64 bit
2) Installed Unity 2019.4.6f1
3) Added MCS_1_9_2r2_DLL, MCS-Female_2019, MCS-Male_2019
4) I get the error:
JCT is not available, can not sync morphs
UnityEngine.Debug: LogError (Object)
MCS.MCSCharacterManager: SyncMorphsToJCT (Morph [])
MCS.MCSCharacterManager: SyncAllBlendShapes ()
MCS.MCSCharacterManager: Start ()

It is very strange that this does not work for me.

 

This is certainly very strange.

Could you try on windows 10? Although I can't see why that would work...

I was thinking that the library/asset file could be corrupted (It's stored outside of the unity folder, so a unity reinstall may not redownload it) but if you reinstalled your system, that should have fixed that.

Curious.

The source for the file in question is here:
https://github.com/mcs-sdk/mcs/blob/master/MCS_Core/MCSCharacterManager.cs

The error you are seeing is here, at line 745:

Code (CSharp):

1.             JCTTransition jct = GetJctManager();
2.             if(jct == null)
3.             {
4.                 UnityEngine.Debug.LogError("JCT is not available, can not sync morphs");
5.                 return;
6.             }

The "getjctmanager() function is further down:

Code (CSharp):

1.      /// Returns a reference to the JCTTransition for this MCS Figure that this CharacterManager is component of.
2.         /// </summary>
3.         public JCTTransition GetJctManager(){
4.             if (jct == null)
5.                 jct = gameObject.GetComponentInChildren<JCTTransition> ();
6.             return jct;
7.         }

So, basically, the code is looking for a "JCTTransition" component on a gameobject, and not finding it, producing the error.

If that component isn't there, and should be, I can only suspect a bad/corrupt download? I can't think of anything else...

 

Yeah, the component isn't getting installed for some reason and I'm looking into why that is. However, I'm a little behind due to working on a patch for my actual game first. Once I get that done, then I'll delve into this in real detail.

 

@btckey So I installed Unity 2019.4.25f1 and started with a fresh project. Installed everything and everything worked fine. I loaded up the female and performed some morphs and they worked fine.





I do my development on a Mac, so I'm wondering if Windows 7 has something to do with this. Have you tried using Unity on other versions of Windows? Also, if you can provide some screens of what's in your female/male folders so I can get an idea of what's actually being installed? Did you create a base 3D project or are you using URP?

 

Sorry was away for a bit. @btckey have you managed to resolve the issue yet?
I've actually developed all my stuff on Windows 7 so that shouldn't be the issue.
I do use my own plugin fixes though, which you can find here:
https://github.com/erikvdb/mcs-toolkit/releases/download/1.0/rivermcs-plugins-1_7.unitypackage
They only fix the bare minimum; Edarkness's version has more added features.
To use:
1. Install the original MCS 1.7 Core and Shaders package
2. Override the plugins with mine
3. Import the MCS 1.7 Male/Female model(s) + any clothing assets
4. Apply the 2019 patches.
5. Restart Unity

 

You`re entitled to your opinion and we don`t have to agree here. To me they are the definition of a scam, they offered a service that they bailed out on (you can say it works for you, but that's not the point, it doesn't for everyone without fiddling/fixing it and the point is that they abandoned it without giving many of the features that were promised)`took all models from their defunct website (that they could clearly had uploaded to the TAFI website so the paying customers could have access to them) and are now offering the same exact product with the same exact promises.

On the UMA topic, let me tell you that you can easily import any character and clothing models to work with it, even MCS, DAZ, CC3 etc. Its waaaaay more powerful than TAFI can ever be. It does texture merging, mount objects, blendshape baking, facial expressions and many other features you wont see in TAFI any sooner. So if you like MCS or TAFI just use their models with UMA because i can assure you their system will be the same mess than before.

UMA can seem overwhelming at first, but i assure you it is simple and powerful. Look at the tutorials by SecretAnorak on youtube. He has even made tutorials on converting DAZ models to UMA which works for any other custom model.

Remember the saying: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”

 

No way TAFI get my support. They need to speak about what they did with Morph Character System (MCS) and why

 

Good day.
I'm sorry I couldn't run MCS on Windows 7 and Unity 2019.4
I installed Unity 2018.4 version and it works for me.
But I don't want to realize that I cannot use the Universal Render Pipeline (URP)

 

I have made some basic URP compatible shaders for MCS here: https://github.com/erikvdb/mcs-toolkit/releases/tag/1.0
Install the "mcs-shaders-URP" unitypackage, and use my toolkit for batch conversion.

 

Hi,

I'm trying to make it work in 2020.3. I just read on erikvdb/mcs-toolkit github that:

"Unfortunately, MCS meshes have their blendshapes (morphs) stored in external files that aren't automatically updated to this new order. As a result, the morphs don't work in newer versions of Unity."
​

Does that mean that the characters can't be morphed in 2019 and higher, just exported in an older Unity version and imported back in as a baked model? I followed every step and morphs would just break the character.

EDIT: After restarting Unity and morphs work properly on the character in 2020.3. Does someone know what the quote above is about then?

Thanks a lot for keeping the project alive!

 

Hey Gojira,
Yes sometimes Unity needs to be restarted before it works, glad you figured it out on your own already. The quote from my documentation is the description of the exact problem the toolkit aims to address lol. Sorry if it's a little unclear, maybe I'll update the documentation.

Note you don't really need the mcs-toolkit if you download the patched morph files: https://www.socsci.ru.nl/vr/resources/mcs/patch/2019/
I think they work with Unity 2020 and Unity 2021 as well (verified on 2020.3).

 

Asset removed from store?