UMA - Unity Multipurpose Avatar on the Asset Store!

I second this: Plus you can make your own clothing, even I managed to do it Do you 3d model? Blender is my tool of choice there are a number of addons that help when it comes to clothing. Personally, I did succeed in creating a new race, but its not worth all the extra work. Just a heads up

 

UMA 2.11 RC1 is released on GIT:

https://github.com/umasteeringgroup/UMA/releases/tag/v2.11.rc1

If no issues are reported, it will be released to the asset store next week. Originally this was going to be a minor release, but as time went on it became one of the biggest UMA releases. Here's a list of changes:

Highlights
UMA avatars are now visible at edit time, and can be modified directly in the editor.
Significantly faster UMA builds in built applications
More than 4 bone weights per vertex
Better usage of texture atlas using new fit methods
Transform (scale and rotate) overlays in recipes
Backup/Restore of global library
Numerous bug fixes
Updated scenes
Updated Documentation

Generation
Added support for more than 4 boneweights. Can now use as many boneweights as you like.
Reworked the SkinnedMeshCombiner to use the new boneweights.
New "no coroutines" method of generation results in faster build
Skeleton removal during build is now done in build process to fix issues where skeleton is not available during some frames.
New texture atlas fitting methods:
Reduce (with a variable reduction amount)
Best Fit Square (Expands the texture to the best fit square, and then reduces them to fit the atlas). This takes a bit more work, but wastes the least space.
Broke out fit methods on generator
Added property to sharpen reduced textures by forcing it to use a higher mip. Produces significantly more detailed output on textures that are fit.

Scenes
Updated many scenes to use better lighting.
Updated Mounting Objects example scene to show how to use UMAMountedItem.
Updated Ragdoll scene to show how to detect what part of the body is hit.

Recipes
Added ability to transform (scale and rotate) an overlay in a recipe (Not on first overlay - only additional overlays)
Added ability to change color channel length on shared colors in recipe editor.
Added Property Blocks to Overlay Colors (shared colors). Now you can set floats, vectors, ints, colors, matrixes, etc. on the materials.

ExpressionPlayer
Added Pointing, Peace Sign, Rude sign, and grasp to Expression Player. Note: the arms/hands must be procedurally driven for this to look right (VR, etc).
Fixed some errors where the Expression Player could generate errors during startup

DynamicCharacterAvatar
UMA characters are now visible at edit time (can be disabled)
Made an edit time DNA editor, combined with colors and wardrobe under "customization".
Added filters to colors in DCA customizer section
Added UpdateBounds() function.
Added load/save preset in the editor.
Default colors are now white/black for the various colors on the race.
New events: WardrobeAdded and WardrobeRemoved.
Added "Always Rebuild Skeleton" option in the advanced settings. This will help you keep your rig clean and tidy, for a slight performance cost.

UMAMountedItem
New object to make mounting simpler. Add this to an object you want to make mountable. Specify the bone you want to attach it to, and any offset/rotation. Will automatically attach and process, and survive rebuilds.

OverlayData
Made it possible to have Overlays with no texture channels (these overlays can be modified with material property blocks).

SlotData
New: Wildcard slots. This is a type of utility slots that can be added to recipes, which allows you to place overlays onto slots (or other overlays) based on tag. So you can place an
overlay onto a "Torso" without knowing the actual slot ID, just the tag. This allows you to reuse recipes for slots that have the same UV coordinates.

Slotbuilder
Made blender slot rotation fixup optional.
Can now specify bones to keep when building slots. (for mount points, etc)
Reworked UI on Slotbuilder to emphasise building slots from FBX automatically

Global Library
Functions (and menu items) to backup and restore the Global Library.
Made the Build Preprocessor optional (off by default)

Misc
Set proportions on default female race to a bit less heroic.
Fixed some possible warnings during overlay generation.
Fixed race loading in editor so it does not need to instantiate the race to get slots
Lot of minor issues where assumptions were made in code that occasionally weren't true.
URP conversion option will convert hair to use Speedtree8 shader
Forearm Twist slot script will now let you set the names of the bones
Reworked the bone cleaner to make it more robust
Added flipping, highlighting to bone pose editor
Added "find UMA" to bone pose editor, so you don't have to select it
Bone Pose Editor will now remember the selected UMA when possible
Bone Pose Editor will now allow mirroring on X,Y,Z axis. Default UMA (blender export) is on Y axis.
Provided sane colors for additive channel when an overlay did not have all channel colors defined (issue with core samples)
Tightened up avatars, and made the new avatars the default
Numerous bug fixes on edge cases
Better resource cleanup

DCARendererManager
Added option EnableRenderers to turn on/off the renderer manager for toggling between first and third person.

 

I work with my friend. He can use Uma.
Then I get it from git hub but I can't use it
Do you think what is problem?
Is it relate to ignore uma folder?

 

If you are ignoring UMA folder on GH then you need to import UMA from asset store manually.

 

Thanks for the reply. But I import UMA from asset store but the character is missing. include reimport to global library what do I need?

If that is all I need maybe I missing something?

 

It can be a anything, I was just guessing. Can you provide the error details? Like what is happening? What is the error message on the console?

- If you have error in console and unable to run the scene, then probably you are missing, haven't imported somethings.
- If you have no error on console but you get errors when you run the scene then you may be missing some references in global library.

Again these are just guesses.

 

Can you change the different model parts by code at runtime and how?
I see different models in the asset store using UMA but can i choose one of them and then use the cloths and armor of other uma characters in the asset store?
Can i make meshes of the different parts? for instance a model of the chest, another model for gloves, etc...

 

Are you using 2.11? If not, then you won't see anything until your run the game.

 

Yes, that is what UMA is for. It lets you combine different clothing. It's basically a character system for an MMO - you can change the features, the colors, put different outfits on, etc. You can mix and match.

 

Ok, I know the problem. there are overlay and slots in global index.
After I remove and add it error is gone.

What should I do to make UMA global library know the correct overlay and slot?

Jaimin Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure which version I use. But I didn't see the model until I run the game. I know the reason why it doesn't show even when running the scene.

 

We do not know what is wrong.

if the global library is broken, do this:

1. Find "TempSlotData" in the project view. If you have it, Select it. In the inspector, give it a "slot name". Name it "TempSlot". If you don't have it, don't worry about it.
2. Open the Global Library window from the UMA menu. Dock it in the same area as the Scene View. Switch to that window if it's not active. From the File Menu (on the global library window), choose "Rebuild from project".

That will add everything to the index.

3. Create a new scene.
4. Drop a "UMA_GLIB" prefab in it. It's in the "Getting Started" folder.
5. Drop a cube in the scene.
6. Drop a "UMADynamicCharacterAvatar" prefab in the scene. Position your prefab on top of the cube.

Press play.

It should work.
If not, tell us what errors you are seeing.

 

Thank you I will try it tomorrow

I have questions
Question: 1
I try to add eyebrows and eyes to the character which is changeable

Do I need to create a wardrobe recipe?

Or do the same as fuse male in secret anorak video 301 part 7

Question: 2
It seems after I try to add eyebrows
It creates each texture for each organ
But I have the same texture for the face(which mean both eyes and eyebrow use same texture)

Should I use the same texture for the face or I should use one texture for eyebrows and the other for eyes?

Question: 3
I want to preselect color for the character's skin.

Will it make new material for each color? I afraid it will use too much resource

 

1. Yes, if you want to equip eyebrows, you will need to make wardrobe recipes.
2. I'm not sure what you mean. If you want the eyebrow textures on top of the face texture, just put them on the same slot. It's best to use separate textures and have UMA do the compositing.
3. This depends on how you set it up. If you use a single UMAMaterial, UMA will atlas the textures together and each UMA will have at least one rendertexture. It can use the colors in the recipe, or the shared colors, to colorize the texture in the compositing step. This will use up more resources, so is best when you have less UMA's or are managing the resource usage... You can also do this by having UMA not composite the textures, just set up your overlays so they point to a material that you have precreated. Then UMA won't create a render texture. On the Shared Colors, add a Material Property Block (in the inspector), and set the shader parameters up.

 

A lot of times people who are having difficulties with UMA are trying to do too many new things at once. Be sure to run the demos and become familiar with things before starting to make changes and implementing your own ideas. And when you start making your own art, be sure to start with something very small and not tricky, and run it through the slot and overlay creation processes to make sure it works before proceeding further.

A lot of UMA is very simple, but you know how it is with computers ... you get one tiny step wrong and the whole thing blows up.

 

From your first answer
Then if I want to choose eyebrows or eyes I have to do like it is wardrobe?

From your second answer
if I want to let UMA do composition. Do I need anything?

From your last answer
Is this mean I need multiple overlays right?

Thank you re very helpful

Thank you. I don't know there are demos for UMA. I will look into it.

 

I try it. I think it works. Do I have to do this every time I change something about UMA on another computer?

 

Is there any news on when UMA will be upgraded to UMA 2.11, which has the non - runtime edit and mount points?

 

I should upload it tomorrow. Usually it gets approved right away, but sometimes it takes longer.

 

No, you shouldn't have to. The index can get confused if you change versions, or move things around in the project.

 

That's awesome news i cant wait, Thank you

 

UMA 2.11 is on the asset store!

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/uma-2-unity-multipurpose-avatar-35611

This is a huge release, and adds new user-friendly ways to use UMA - direct in the editor!

UMA 2.11
Minimum Unity Version is now 2019.4

Highlights
UMA avatars are now visible at edit time, and can be modified directly in the editor.
Significantly faster UMA builds in built applications
More than 4 bone weights per vertex
Better usage of texture atlas using new fit methods
Transform (scale and rotate) overlays in recipes
Backup/Restore of global library
Many, many bug fixes!

Generation
Added support for more than 4 boneweights. Can now use as many boneweights as you like.
Reworked the SkinnedMeshCombiner to use the new boneweights.
New "no coroutines" method of generation results in faster build
Skeleton removal during build is now done in build process to fix issues where skeleton is not available during some frames.
New texture atlas fitting methods:
Reduce (with a variable reduction amount)
Best Fit Square (Expands the texture to the best fit square, and then reduces them to fit the atlas). This takes a bit more work, but wastes the least space.
Broke out fit methods on generator
Added property to sharpen reduced textures by forcing it to use a higher mip. Produces significantly more detailed output on textures that are fit.

Scenes
Updated many scenes to use better lighting.
Updated Mounting Objects example scene to show how to use UMAMountedItem.
Updated Ragdoll scene to show how to detect what part of the body is hit.

Recipes
Added ability to transform (scale and rotate) an overlay in a recipe (Not on first overlay - only additional overlays)
Added ability to change color channel length on shared colors in recipe editor.
Added Property Blocks to Overlay Colors (shared colors). Now you can set floats, vectors, ints, colors, matrixes, etc. on the materials.

ExpressionPlayer
Added Pointing, Peace Sign, Rude sign, and grasp to Expression Player. Note: the arms/hands must be procedurally driven for this to look right (VR, etc).
Fixed some errors where the Expression Player could generate errors during startup

DynamicCharacterAvatar
UMA characters are now visible at edit time (can be disabled)
Made an edit time DNA editor, combined with colors and wardrobe under "customization".
Added filters to colors in DCA customizer section
Added UpdateBounds() function.
Added load/save preset in the editor.
Default colors are now white/black for the various colors on the race.
New events: WardrobeAdded and WardrobeRemoved.
Added "Always Rebuild Skeleton" option in the advanced settings. This will help you keep your rig clean and tidy, for a slight performance cost.

UMAMountedItem
New object to make mounting simpler. Add this to an object you want to make mountable. Specify the bone you want to attach it to, and any offset/rotation. Will automatically attach and process, and survive rebuilds.

OverlayData
Made it possible to have Overlays with no texture channels (these overlays can be modified with material property blocks).

SlotData
New: Wildcard slots. This is a type of utility slots that can be added to recipes, which allows you to place overlays onto slots (or other overlays) based on tag. So you can place an
overlay onto a "Torso" without knowing the actual slot ID, just the tag. This allows you to reuse recipes for slots that have the same UV coordinates.

Slotbuilder
Made blender slot rotation fixup optional.
Can now specify bones to keep when building slots. (for mount points, etc)

Global Library
Functions (and menu items) to backup and restore the Global Library.
Made the Build Preprocessor optional (off by default)

Misc
Set proportions on default female race to a bit less heroic.
Fixed some possible warnings during overlay generation.
Fixed race loading in editor so it does not need to instantiate the race to get slots
Lot of minor issues where assumptions were made in code that occasionally weren't true.
URP conversion option will convert hair to use Speedtree8 shader
Forearm Twist slot script will now let you set the names of the bones
Reworked the bone cleaner to make it more robust
Added flipping, highlighting to bone pose editor
Added "find UMA" to bone pose editor, so you don't have to select it
Bone Pose Editor will now remember the selected UMA when possible
Bone Pose Editor will now allow mirroring on X,Y,Z axis. Default UMA (blender export) is on Y axis.
Provided sane colors for additive channel when an overlay did not have all channel colors defined (issue with core samples)
Tightened up avatars, and made the new avatars the default
Numerous bug fixes on edge cases
Better resource cleanup

DCARendererManager
Added option EnableRenderers to turn on/off the renderer manager for toggling between first and third person.

 

How up to date are secret anorak's tutorials? I wanna integrate UMA into an adventure creator project but I'm not sure If there are any changes I should be aware of.

 

Hello,

I have two large projects that use an older version of UMA 2.09 and would like to update my projects to the latest version of 2.11

I am Using Unity V 2020.1.0b and my current version of UMA works OK with that.

From the Assets Store "Note: The older asset bundle workflow will need to be modified to use this version."

Where can I find instructions for modifying as stated............

I berlieve I had seen this instruction details previously somewhere for UMA V 2.10 but cant find the info anywhere any longer? Is their a link to any documentation regarding the "Modification" process required we can refer to please?

Thank you kindly for your help.

Peter

 

To use asset bundles without addressables, you will need to add them to the index:

public void AddFromAssetBundle(AssetBundle ab);

You'll need to do this for each asset bundle. The data is not saved, so you'll need to do this at startup for each bundle.

UMAAssetIndexer.Instance.AddFromAssetBundle(mybundle);

 

They are mostly current. There are updates for Blender 2.8 later in the series, and updates for the new DNA types in the later DAZ tutorials.

But if you are just using UMA, you can checkout the "Getting Started" folder, and it will cover most things.

 

I don't see any changes of the avatar if I change a UMAData DNA slider in Unity3D edit mode.
And if I run play mode in the "UMA DCS Demo - Simple Setup" Scene I get 2 errors on startup:

Code (CSharp):

1. Exception encountered in operation CompletedOperation, status=Failed, result= : Exception of type 'UnityEngine.AddressableAssets.InvalidKeyException' was thrown., Key=System.Collections.Generic.List`1[System.String], Type=UnityEngine.Object

Code (CSharp):

1. Exception encountered in operation ChainOperation<IList`1> - UnityEditor.AddressableAssets.Settings.FastModeInitializationOperation, result='', status='Succeeded', status=Failed, result= : ChainOperation of Type: System.Collections.Generic.IList`1[UnityEngine.Object] failed because dependent operation failed
2. Exception of type 'UnityEngine.AddressableAssets.InvalidKeyException' was thrown., Key=System.Collections.Generic.List`1[System.String], Type=UnityEngine.Object

 

That is saying that it can't find any items for a recipe. Have you regenerated the groups and built your addressable bundles?

 

I'm running into an issue with swappable items via the UMA system. It's been working well for me but, now for the first time I want to know where the end of a weapon or fishing rod is that a UMA character is holding. I know I could always search for a rigid FBX to replace those items and place them in the UMA's hand (via the hand bones) but what if I want to use weapons or a fishing rod asset that I already own but they are part of the dynamic skinned mesh renderer UMA generates on the fly? The character's held weapon is NOT attached to the hand or finger bones. Instead, it's just an extension of the dynamically generated avatar.
I want to be able to do things like add particles to the end of a sword or a fishing line to the end of a fishing pole.

Any help would be so appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

 

I'm not sure I completely understand. You can parent anything to a bone, but UMA will delete if when you rebuild if you are not careful.
As well, there is "UMAMountedItem" which allows you to simulate mounting an item (by synching transforms).
If the item is "built-in" to the UMA, you can find it's bones if you know their name, using a function on the umadata:

GameObject bone = MyAvatar.umaData.GetBoneGameObject(boneName);

As to the end of the fishing pole, hopefully there is a bone there! if not, you would need to add one.

 

Yes, that helped and the errors are gone.
However, the DNA sliders do not change the avatar in edit mode.
Should this be possible or have I just misunderstood it regarding "UMA avatars are now visible at edit time, and can be modified directly in the editor."?

 

the UMAData does not update in edit mode. But you can modify the DNA in the "Customization" section here:

 

Thanks so much for your response! Sorry that I wasn't clear. I purchased some of WillB's UMA RPG Starter kits from the Asset Store and none of his assets are parented to any bones. You'll see the complete skeletal structure of bones with no children that are pieces of armor or weapons. The weapons/fishing rod in question are not separate objects but, rather, UMA slots and overlays that I'm adding to my character. I guess it adds their textures to the same dynamically generated texture map image. I did find a prefab for the fishing rod, for example, but it has no texture.

So, aside from me trying to take all of my weapons and other held items and trying to make a prefab that I can place in my characters' hands, is there a way to find the end of something that's just part of the UMA character itself?

EDIT: Here's a good way to explain it. I run my game in the editor. I hit pause, I zoom in on the fishing pole, click it. Instead of taking me to some fishing pole object parented to a bone, it takes me to the UMARenderer.

I didn't know how to add a screenshot so all I can do is link to the image in google drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v4mSJToX5p61OHDjvGWjv8P7DGQ3ulEm/view
This is where it takes me when I pause and click on any weapon or other held object.

Thank you!!

 

Ah, thanks. I must have overlooked that.
There is something in the documentation ("Preloading DNA") but it's a bit unclear and I thought I could only use it with a custom script.

 

Typically, things like this are done with helper objects. You'd generate the character, then place an empty game object (maybe call it "Pole End" or something), and then you can find that location at runtime. With UMA, you need to turn off skeleton rebuild in the race change settings, or UMA will delete it.

 

Yeah, the runtime generation stuff all uses the preload data to generate the character. That way, when it gets built at runtime it looks the same.

 

Thanks. That does make sense. But I noticed that if you have a small person carrying a sword, the sword generated is smaller than a large person carrying the same sword. So I'm not sure how I would calculate the end of the item (where I'm placing that GameObject) As for the direction to go from the hand to get there, I guess that would be straight out from the opening of the hand, which is curled like he/she is holding something. Maybe it's just positive Y on the local axis of the hand but I still wouldn't know how far to go out. Is there an easier way to do this than what I'm talking about?

 

The "correct" way to do this would be to add the helper object on the fishing pole in the modelling application, and make it a child of the hand bone (or whatever it's tied to). That way it inherits the transform. Placing it manually should make it work also, and inherit the transform (shrink when the sword shrinks, etc). But it's an extra step.

 

Thank you so much! That makes sense. I'm going to the developer on this and see what he says. Hopefully he could do an update for me. If not, I'll have to figure out a hack to calculate exactly where the end is, or try to make a rigid object from the assets I have to work with and don't use UMA for these types of things and just place the prefab in the person's hand with the right transform.

 

how can i create independent models from the different armor or cloth parts?
how can i change by script the different armor or cloth parts?
uma models are mecanim humanoid?

 

1. Open the "customization" section on the DynamicCharacterAvatar object. Change the colors, add recipes, and add and change DNA.
2. See the "Dynamic Character Avatar" section in the UMA Documentation - pages 7 & 8
3. Yes, mecanim humanoid by default.

 

Hi Jami,

public void AddFromAssetBundle(AssetBundle ab);

UMAAssetIndexer.Instance.AddFromAssetBundle(mybundle);

Where do either of these go?

I have never had to work with these specific things in script before so it means little to me......

Is there anywhere I can get this from up to date UMA Documentation "before instalation so I can read about it? before risking killing my projects and many years of work?

The UMA wiki site does not seem to be working

Thank

Peter

 

I will make a component that loads asset bundles into the library for you, and include it in the next update. I'm preparing a bug fix update that should be done by this weekend.

 

Thank you for the great new update!

To celebrate this, and offer a special end of year sale to UMA users, Arteria3d are offering 80% off all UMA costume packs today only

Visit Arteria3d UMA section below

https://arteria3d.myshopify.com/collections/uma

 

I recently updated UMA and installed addressables.
I am now getting the following error:

No overload for method 'LoadAssetsAsync' takes 4 arguments
Assets\UMA\Core\Scripts\UMAAssetIndexer.cs line 1094
Any ideas/patches for this?

Here's the offending code:

Code (CSharp):

1.             var op = Addressables.LoadAssetsAsync<UnityEngine.Object>(Keys, result =>
2.             {
3.                 ProcessedItems.Add(result);
4.                 ProcessNewItem(result, true, keepLoaded);
5.             }, Addressables.MergeMode.Union, true);
6.             if (!keepLoaded)
7.             {
8.                 string info = "";
9.                 foreach (string s in Keys)
10.                     info += Keys + "; ";
11.                 LoadedItems.Add(new CachedOp(op, info));
12.             }
13.             return op;

 

Hi Jami,

"I will make a component that loads asset bundles into the library for you, and include it in the next update. "

Thank you kindly for that and your response and help....

I am sure that addition will be helpful to me and to many others benefitting the UMA Asset overall.

Kindest regards and best wishes to all for 2021.

Stay safe

Peter

 

Sweet, thanks. I will be taking advantage of this.

 

You need to upgrade your Addressables package to the latest version.

 

Hello! I am using version 2.11.1 in my game and I've recently noticed a strange and frustrating issue that I hope someone may know how to resolve. When my character moves around the game world, there are certain places on the map where the UMA character suddenly vanishes. I get no error message and I have not found a way to make the character return. Do you happen to know what causes this or how I can fix it?

 

I would suspect that the bounding box is not correct, and getting culled. First thing to do is to create a "UMA Renderer Asset", and on that asset turn on "update when offscreen". In the Renderer Name field, call it "UMARenderer".

Then, in advanced settings, put the renderer asset in the default renderer asset field. That should force it to update the bounding box right off.

 

That seems to have fixed it. Thank you!