UMA - Unity Multipurpose Avatar on the Asset Store!

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That code isn't not checked in yet but what he has added will be in the UMA code in the future. What will be necessary is for each artist / game developer to create their own guest libraries (one or more guest libraries for overlays and one or more guest libraries for slots (mesh) similar to the two libraries already present that will include the new items. It's expected for each guest slot library their will be a corresponding guest overlay library and vice versa. It's expected that these will be lists of a few items that more or less serve as genre library / guest library (same thing as far as how the code works: what's important is the guest library be set up properly so it can be used: that will be apparent how you do ). There is really no other way to restrict the number of 'fashions' your new elf can wear if you don't do so yourself in the guest libraries you create for yourself and your customers.

You don't want to copy the entire original UMA slot library and overlay library because that's an invitation to make mistakes and cause yourself and any potential users trouble with those. So, in the example being worked on, I am using Joen's tags and such added to the SlotData and OverlayData, and Fernando's Elf ears and Orc nose to create a guest slot library and a guest overlay library for each of two genres: Orc and Elf. Nothing special about those genres except that Fernando had created mesh pieces suitable for those genres. So what has been done is the needed pieces, both mesh and overlay, for Elf ears Orc nose has been moved out of the base mesh libraries (there are two: HumanMale and HumanFemale) into the guest libraries and in addition: a reference to the mesh piece slot that is the parent to the Elf ears and Orc nose has been added to the guest libraries. No other references from the original base meshes. The reason why that is needed is you must restrict your library to be a subset of the entire library that can build a valid elf or valid orc, then the code can build a genre as restricted in your library: in this case Elf or Orc.

However, there can be in the future many different interpretations of elfs and orcs as well as entirely new genres so to maintain culpability for support questions and a reasonable way to regression test changes to the core and a reasonable way to isolate bugs to particular guest libraries we are arranging it so the base meshes are finalized once released and new slots (mesh parts such as body features or clothing) and new overlays (coloring for meshes and simulated parts lacking true meshes) will be in guest libraries and those in turn can be turned on / off by adding the prefab for each of your guest overlay libraries and slot libraries to the game hierarchy while adding their names to the catalogues listed in the catalogue class.

As it's not easy to create good art meshes or overlays either one, it's suggested you watch Fernando's tutorials, as even taking the cataloging into account your meshes and overlays need to be done correctly. You'll see that they are done correctly in Blender or Max or whatever tool you are using before the catalogue code and the core UMA dll ever have a chance to combine your work with the base slot library and base overlay library into an avatar in a game.

As I don't work on the catalogue code at work , and it's Christmas vacation and schools are out in the US, and the neighbors on my ceiling don't seem to particularly care to respect their neighbors: honestly I don't expect to because productive again til next Monday when Christmas vacation ends. I can tell you the code that creates the catalogues is done and the code to create an avatar from the logic embedded in the SlotData OverlayData is in the works using the new class members Joen added.

So we hope to have something for you be next week and completely free. My goal as their goal is, is to enable a way of sharing art to create game avatars that is genre busting. If you feel limited by pre-canned free and purchased models and can't afford professional artists then UMA can take you a long way just by learning to create and combine overlays and altering their shape. To alter their shape you do not need to learn mesh modeling at all. That is part of the system Joen Fernando built. As inspiration imagine an unshaven and unwashed hobo in ragged clothing vs the same character after a 3 months workout regime, proper nutrition, washed, shaven, and dressed in a tuxedo. That type of change is easy if you teach yourself how to create overlay textures without even mesh modeling.

My goal is to have a working 'changing room' for artists to present their work in the asset store and for game developers to use for gamers to customize game characters in a game. My goal and the original UMA team's goal is not to write your game or to add features that are only of help to a particular case of a particular developer or artist. After all there are dozens of prefab FPS assets and such available for you to use that are more or less already finished.

 

"As it's not easy to create good art meshes or overlays either one, it's suggested you watch Fernando's tutorials, as even taking the cataloging into account your meshes and overlays need to be done correctly and you'll see that in Blender or Max or whatever tool you are using before the catalogue code and the core UMA dll ever have a chance to combine into an avatar in a game."

This is definitely an opportunity for a plugin to UMA. If someone can come up with a way to streamline the mesh/rigging/overlay from external programs into UMA, it will be a life saver.

 

There is no doubt one can create a set of clothing overlays with various fabric textures (as in normals from real fabric textures not the png file being called the same name: texture) and fabric patterns and create a massive library rather easily if you have access to the correct resources. If you add the basic elements as meshes of human clothing the job is made somewhat easier (example cuffs at the ankles and wrists aren't easy to simulate with a overlay texture).

 

First of all, thank you sooo much for all the hard work on UMA. It seems amazing so far and should be applauded. Congratulations!

Now, for a question though. I've been successfully playing with the demo scenes, etc. and would love to use UMA on my current project. The problem is that all the example surfaces, rigs, and contents are very tiny compared to the scale of the rest of the game. The characters are still in flux, but the project scale is sort of in stone at the moment. If I integrate UMA into my project and adjust the scale of the rig and meshes in a 3D application, will everything still work?

Thank you again!

 

Have you tried it yet? Might as well try it…could use a separate project to test it in first. As this is a free asset, let's try things first and see if it breaks and then ask why it broke and how can we fix it.

 

Is there any documentation on how to turn this into a character generator that can be used in-game, in real-time? Similar to EVE Online character creator or even The Sims 3.

I mean something like this: http://glscene.com/unity/CharacterCustomization/UMAWebPlayer.html

 

Not really, but just do it. Similar to how the UMACrowd set up the character in the beginning you can update the UMAData recipe later and call the SetDirty(true,true,true) for a complete rebuild of everything (mesh, texture and dna). That will automatically notify the UMAGenerator and it will update the character accordingly.

Unfortunately I can't really share the code for that webplayer because I use a seemingly abandoned IMGUI library that I updated to play with Unity 4.2. But all I do is update the UMAData and call the SetDirty!

 

[/QUOTE]
So we hope to have something for you be next week and completely free. My goal as their goal is, is to enable a way of sharing art to create game avatars that is genre busting. If you feel limited by pre-canned free and purchased models and can't afford professional artists then UMA can take you a long way just by learning to create and combine overlays and altering their shape. To alter their shape you do not need to learn mesh modeling at all. That is part of the system Joen Fernando built. As inspiration imagine an unshaven and unwashed hobo in ragged clothing vs the same character after a 3 months workout regime, proper nutrition, washed, shaven, and dressed in a tuxedo. That type of change is easy if you teach yourself how to create overlay textures without even mesh modeling.

My goal is to have a working 'changing room' for artists to present their work in the asset store and for game developers to use for gamers to customize game characters in a game. My goal and the original UMA team's goal is not to write your game or to add features that are only of help to a particular case of a particular developer or artist. After all there are dozens of prefab FPS assets and such available for you to use that are more or less already finished.[/QUOTE]


thanks , looking forward to see its release

 

So we hope to have something for you be next week and completely free. My goal as their goal is, is to enable a way of sharing art to create game avatars that is genre busting. If you feel limited by pre-canned free and purchased models and can't afford professional artists then UMA can take you a long way just by learning to create and combine overlays and altering their shape. To alter their shape you do not need to learn mesh modeling at all. That is part of the system Joen Fernando built. As inspiration imagine an unshaven and unwashed hobo in ragged clothing vs the same character after a 3 months workout regime, proper nutrition, washed, shaven, and dressed in a tuxedo. That type of change is easy if you teach yourself how to create overlay textures without even mesh modeling.

My goal is to have a working 'changing room' for artists to present their work in the asset store and for game developers to use for gamers to customize game characters in a game. My goal and the original UMA team's goal is not to write your game or to add features that are only of help to a particular case of a particular developer or artist. After all there are dozens of prefab FPS assets and such available for you to use that are more or less already finished.[/QUOTE]


thanks , looking forward to see its release[/QUOTE]

Yeah, me too because I'd like my hand at creating some artwork for UMA. That said, after release I'm ready to go through several iterations to fix bugs and build a nicer looking UI although the intent is to have the UI work in WVGA Portrait mode only, others can modify, but I don't see a need for editing more than one character at a time so that's all I'm allocating screen space for.

 

when will UMA be able to do sth like this?
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjIzNjA3MzMy.html


one of the most impressive feature is that you can shape model mesh by dragging with mouse

 

I was just to ask bout a Character Generator as well. Trying to figure out where to start. There's lots lots of videos but when you just want to code up something fast-- you just really want something quick to read like what you just did here

 

They're probably just lerping between morph targets. Wow EVE has come a long way since I've played bout over 2 yrs ago!

From what I can tell, UMA choose to go with using Bones for character deformation. Can't say what method is the best (character morphing vs bone deformation).

I'm just trying to get a Character Generator into my game so I am willing to travel the path of least resistance. Granted, my guess is that character morphing is the way to go for Facial changes. You probably no doubt want the bone method (UMA) for full character body changes. You could probably easily add morph targets to UMA. Unity 4.3 added blendshape support. Havent played with it myself

 

I can tell both of you that UMA doesn't have quite that number of available morphs and that much screen space available. I am developing the UI for WVGA Portrait if at all possible and I think it is. I've not seen Eve before I think given the number of variations available to be adjusted on Eve or Uma, I've decided they are best handled by highlighting a 2D icon and showing the changes directly on the model. So it's not astoundingly different from the Eve UI.

Maybe after several iterations we can add a honeycomb overlay directly on the model to make more clearly obvious what is being altered. I want to avoid as much as possible using any words in any language after all if the model is being changed directly it's obvious. And Unity is an international company and one site claims over 6900 different languages are still in use although that's obviously counting many mutually intelligible dialects as unique languages.

And as I said though after release I'll work through the bugs you find and fix those but for UI icon improvements you'll have to step up and make them. I am using CC Commons icons and altering those and it's a hassle. They ain't pretty and in some cases ain't obvious what the icons mean. In such cases, I look for icons to be contributed that maintain the simple look and feel. The 1st matter of first business though is actually releasing this UI.

Finally, the initial UMA package doesn't have near the variance in clothing or hair styles Eve has yet although you'd think it will eventually surpass Eve. That will depend on your contributions whether they be free or paid in the asset store. And you can pretty much count the present UMA base mesh libraries as being fixed and expansion is through guest libraries only if that helps you plan your own asset packages for UMA or games using UMA. They fixed it to help you create add-ons that work now and in the future with the UMA base meshes: not to be stingy or annoy you in any way. Also to minimize support problems for folks that update UMA only to find out the base meshes have changed breaking all their own work and purchases. You can imagine how unpopular that would be, so it's not going to happen. I know that Joen, Fernando, and two other full-time professional artists working (Fernando Joen can do code and art) on UMA assets so there will be more assets by mid-January I'd think.

So I'll be offline the next few days though I may go online to the Skype group to ask for help and hopefully testing by next Wednesday.

Happy New Year!

 

As UnLogick said above, follow UMACrowd.cs as you're creating your own CharacterGenerator.cs. That's the path I took - it's all about setting DNA object variables and then calling SetDirty().

This is the character creation screen I have in my game, based on UMA (prior to the development of my own clothes as extra slots!).



If I had to sum up where UMA is now, after using it throughout the beta phase, is that there are some really great features - the base meshes are cleverly designed, with thoughtful topology, and the slot/overlay functionality is excellent and allows for complete customization of your UMA. However, despite being on the Asset Store, it's clearly (as supported by the UMA team), not a slick, production product yet. If you're going to enjoy using UMA, you'll need reasonable good coding, modeling and texturing skills - if you're currently lacking any of these, I'd suggest working on the area where you need work, before tackling integrating UMA into your project.

I would say that Fernando's Youtube tutorials on the beta site are excellent - I found them easy to follow and was able to create clothes, armor, belts, boots, etc. But if you're beginning with UMA, stick with getting it integrated first, using the existing slots and overlays...

 

Hi there everyone =)
I've been away those two days for New Year with my family. Thanks for everyone helping answering questions here!!! =)))
I'll be recording new video tutorials on my free time, and hope they will help you guys.
This is the first video for the AssetStore version:

On this video I explain the "Complete project" category is temporary while we don't have UMA's own category.
Also, reading the manual pdf file included with the project might give you guys a good overview of how UMA works.

About Eve online, that's a great reference and example, but keep in mind when UMA will reach this level of quality/customization depends directly on community help. Right now we are just a small team with limited resources and little free time, that was one of the main reasons for setting UMA as Open Souce. There would be no way of reaching UMA entire potential alone and it's progress will not depend on a single developer or group.

Have a great New Year! =DD
Cheers,
Fernando R.

 

Got a new problem :
Mismatched serialization int the buildt in calss "Mesh'( Read 51228 bytes but expected 51229 bytes)
I see often see this error after using UMA, and always 1 byte offset, so I assume there is some thing wrong with UMA serialization
No biggy, I can still have my scene run normally, just pointing it out

 

Reading through the manual, it seems to suggest UMA supports using an entirely different rig?
Or are restricted to the default one and have to use the Content provided as a base?

 

That's not UMA but another asset is actually corrupting your Unity install itself. Unity really need to fix that, installing an asset should never corrupt a Unity install.

I had that problem with the latest version of the 'cheap' version Word Game Builder ($35 or compared to the Pro version which includes the source code) and come to think of it I notified the author Word Game Builder a month ago or more ago and he said he was going to fix the problem but never did.

To fix that you will need to clean install Unity and reinstall all your assets one by one till you find the asset that is corrupting your Unity installation. Then you must choose to not use that asset.

 

You can create your own rig, but even a very experienced modeler I know opted to modify the existing rig(s) and present that work as new rigs (in this case we call them base rigs or races) rather than create a brand new UMA compatible rig from the ground up as Fernando and Joen spend the better part of a year creating a very good set of base meshes. With the author's decision to do that he looses compatibility (more than likely although he might salvage some of it) with all the slots and overlays of the original two rigs. Sincde he plans on creating an entire suite of mesh add-ons and overlays he doesn't have a problem with that. You have to be very experienced to do that much work.

 

@goat
It's something unfortunately I have to live with , as the rig for my character is done and ready for the animator, I rather take my chances with messing with UMA to accept my rig then to fit my model to UMA's rig.

From what you have mentioned, if it's possible, then how does one make sure it's UMA compatible? Is it as long as it's Mecanim ready?

 

There is no Mesh Serialization at all in UMA. All mesh serialization is handled strictly by Unity API. We read the data from a Mesh class instance and assign it back to a Mesh class instance. The destination meshes exist only at run time and so should never even be serialized into the asset database.

 

It is not as impossible to create your own base rigs as you imply, but it requires a combination of coding and modelling skills so either you need to be both, like Fernando or you need to be two people working together.

Just to clarify I have no credit for the creative content in UMA, all the base meshes, textures and DNA converters are the work of Fernando. My contribution is more in the class structure and the code architecture. I did step in and write some core routines myself, but most of the time I gave Fernando constructive feedback on how to best proceed.

 

It would be trivial to hack away the current Mecanim Humanoid requirement. If you changed as little as ten lines of code I believe you could use UMA to customize tanks if you wanted. The only thing is that if you stray from the base meshes then none of the clothes and accessories from UMA will match your content.

In order to benefit from UMA morphing all you need to do as a modeller is add those extra adjust bones and rig to those rather than the "normal" skeleton. This allows you change the scale and move the center around without affecting all the child nodes. It also allows for non-uniform scaling without the artifacts that you would normally see in children.

Writing the DNAConverters is easy to grasp but once you get into it you'll notice that it's easier to change the rig to match your logical understanding of the morph you want. Best example I can give you is the wings that Josef created with me. Making a DNA converter change x axis of a wing bone to resize the wing is easy, if you know that y is sideways and z is the "normal" of the wing then you can add adjusts to change the curvature of the wing. If the bones are not aligned then it becomes a real mess of vector operations that will be impossible to maintain.

 

@UnLogick
I am actually a modeller who is learning how to code now, well not much of a coder, but I think I can hack things apart.

I am actually more interested in the way UMA handles mix and matching different torsos, heads and legs together while keeping the cost down. I plan to make it possible to customize your character and store it in the server, and it seems UMA does exactly just that. The extra morphing and stuffs is definitely extra icing, which I am definitely interested to look into.

 

Hey,UnLogick, could you give me an example about how to save the UMA at runtime just some code snippet would help
I know I can use UMASaveTool to save UmaRecipe in Unity Editor, but I would to know how to do it after building?
And, how do you guys plan to use UMAData across network? what data are we supposed to send to enable other Client Ends to building up the same UMA I customized ?

 

Fernando has many tutorials you should watch those. Good luck.

 

Anyone know how to put this to a third person camera

 

I exported a package from a functioning UMA project and imported into another project that a simple simple 3d shooter. I get a C# error in Locomotion.cs. (Assets/UMA/Example/Scripts/Locomotion.cs(4,14): error CS0101: The namespace `global::' already contains a definition for `Locomotion')
Could you do a movie that uses one of your avatars in another app? Thanks.

 

Hi there! This happens because you already have a script with the same name
Cheers

 

Hi there! the knowledge to get this working is the same both for UMA and other characters. I would recommend looking for tutorials on youtube (there are some really nice ones) or looking for the character system on AssetStore if you don't want to program it yourself.
Cheers!

 

OK. I have your avatar in my 3d person shoot. However, no clothes. The avatar looks white. Very close.

 

Humm, you might be directly using the prefab, instead of integrating the camera follow to an avatar generated by UMAGenerator. That would explain it being white.

 

Also, if you have Unity Free you may need to uncheck 'Use Pro', but only if you publish. If you run in the Unity Game Editor it will uncheck itself.

 

Hey guys, I was wondering if there was a place I could follow the releases and changesets. Each time I update the package from the unity asset store, I have no idea whats changed and what I'm getting - and it doesn't seem like the website is kept up to date.

For instance, what's in the latest 1.0.4.0 version compared to 1.0.3.0?

Thanks, and great work!

 

For those artists who don't want to dig in the code or those people who don't want to lost time, i'm doing a UMA Helper pack, here is the thread:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/220571-UMA-Helper-Pack

 

Is this available to download

 

does it cost money because i need that asset

 

well uma is free but this style editor I want to know if it is available

 

A UMA avatar put into my shooter project. Use arrows to move.
https://googledrive.com/host/0B8oZFWQFf8T1R0ZJeGJxS2JZZFk/WebGrim.html

 

Hi, thanks for the awesome work. I do have a few questions.
1) is there any tutuorials/examples on how to implement UMA in another project?
2) versions beyond 1.0.1.0 has no change logs, and I wasn't able to use the new save/load feature on the top of tool bar. Nothing happens after i click save or load.

Thanks.

 

Hi there! This GUI integration is Joen work, I think he mentioned about it before. This specific solution might not be available as he uses a third party GUI, but he might be able to sell something similar if there´s enough people looking for it.
I´m also aware of other developers providing similar solutions as well, but I´m afraid none of them are already available for public.

 

Hi there!
I´m working hard to update documentation and website. There had been many changes on the week before release, and I´m still updating everything.
To save/Load, you need to have an avatar selected on it´s topmost GO hierarchy, so that it´s DynamicAvatar component is visible on inspector.
Cheers!

 

No it isn't. Earlier in this thread he told us to look at UMACrowd.cs

 

You might want to take a look on @KirbyRawr forum thread:
"
For those artists who don't want to dig in the code or those people who don't want to lost time, i'm doing a UMA Helper pack, here is the thread: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/220571-UMA-Helper-Pack
"

 

Thanks Fernando, yes if you guys want a gui system on runtime for select colors etc.. maybe i can get it into the package but not for Sunday, since i haven't planned to do it.

Cheers!

 

Hi there guys! =)
Two new videos:

 

I probably missed where t says this, but where do I find the code for the animation? I'm making a character selection screen and want to disable movement.

 

Hi all , just wanted to mention that UMA is one of the best Character creation system we have ever see, especially for MMO games and so with our MMO kit we are developing for Unity developers we have been working with Fernando to get it working with our MMO Atavism Engine which is currently in closed Alpha testing. Our next update which will be next week Saturday will have the UMA system working fully with our MMO engine. Here is a link to our forum post here is some links:

Forum Post on Unity

Atavism Online Website

 

In our system we have it to 3rd person camera, also we have a zoom in and out for certain areas so when you are changing the face for instance it will zoom into the face and then out again when you are doing changes to the body.

 

Hi there, on the video above I explain where the avatar prefabs are located, that´s the place where you might wan´t to have you own changes.
Cheers!