Best option for custom character in game clothings

Hi,

Which is the best way if I want to make the game character compatible with in game armors , leggings , gloves . boots and helmets ?
1>Modular Pawn
2>Using the same skeletal mesh , but creating different diffuse and normal maps for each armor sets , and changing the character materials in runtime. For this case , please provide me with proper pointers regarding how I would create a normal map from a clothing asset , and merge the map with the texture of character’s skin , so that the character’s skin would look like it is dressed

You can use a modular pawn with different meshes for the body, arms, legs etc. You can then set them to play the animation of the body through the Set Master Pose Component.

If you just have really low poly models you can always just switch textures, but if you aim for some quality this won’t do it.

The best one I’ve seen (on UDK) was done with Morph Targets…go figure…

  1. The proper term for UE4 I believe is Character, as in Modular Character, as a Character Blueprint (aka C++) has built in movement control where the traditional pawn character does not.

Yes this would be an option of building a single design character that can accommodate many different accessories as you wish to add at run time. The ideal would to make a player sock that is low in detail but still enough to support clothing much like a Dress up Barbie Doll.

  1. This would be ideal as a single skeletal rig can already support many different meshes as in you can select the rig you want to use and then apply the desired character mesh with out haveing to repeat the resource load for each and every model you wish to add.

This is where things can get a bit complex based on a need for a set design for a lot of different player models as well as “attaching” accessories to different shapes but using Dress up Barbie as the starting point you would then use the same skeletal rig, more or less, and then bind the clothing to the rendered player model rig.

For example lets say we want to add a dozen type of boots and shoes as selectable bling. In the app that you use to create both the player model as well as the matching rig, add the boots or shoes and skin weigh them to the same rig, and move them around a bit to make sure they behave like they are glued to the player model.

To export you have two options as far as I can see.

  1. You can export the modeled shoes or boots as you would any player model and you just tell UE4 that it needs to use the same skeleton as your player model and then set things up so both are rendered at the same time.
  2. Export the boots or shoes as a single stand alone skeletal mesh and then use sockets to bind the accessories like you would do with any other object like a weapon for example.