I’ve created a Discord server, it’s open for everyone for now https://discord.gg/vMVE2kuwzVI’ll sort out channels and what not later
It’s been quite a while since the last update so I forget what’s new and what isn’t, but I’ll go over some of the main features of version 5.
To make the project more immediately usable I’ve spent some time repurposing Paragon content (animations and skins) for use in my project. The new animation system is based around the Paragon animations, so it has 4 directional movement with leans and slopes (uphill and downhill), starts and stops, turn in place, sprinting. Also I’ve implemented leg IK and some other stuff like footstep sounds and a 1st person mode.
Video:
The customization menu has seen some changes. There’s a new dedicated customization pawn which can be interacted with either by the player or through blueprint which provides a better interface for customization. It takes care of input for navigating the menu and camera, and there’s a new variable for setting your target platform - either PC, XBox or Playstation with a widget displaying the controls for that platform.
The body widget has been changed - there are no longer options for different body morphs, instead there’s a height slider and width/thickness slider. The body morphs can now be assigned in the apparel data tables, so how muscular/fat/big breasts etc the character is will be determined by the clothing that’s equipped. The reason I’ve decided to do it this way is because cloth in Unreal does not work with morph targets and I think supporting cloth is more important. Also creating body morphs for every clothing mesh was too cumbersome and it seems like most people didn’t want/know how to do that anyway.
Video:
The apparel menu has been detached from the character customization menu and it’s now a separate window that you also access via a pawn. The standard form for clothing going forward will be entire outfits, like Fortnite skins, where it’s just one mesh and not separate pieces. You can still add different categories (upperbody, lowerbody etc) - adding new enum entries will create tabs automatically - but the included clothing will not be separate meshes anymore. The reason for this change is that it was too constricting design wise to have everything have to fit together. There’s a button for showing/hiding the headpiece of a certain outfit, and you can also override the characters hairstyle depending on the outfit.
Video:
I’ve implemented a simple dialogue system. Lines are cycled based on sentence length and the NPC plays a talking montage when talking. They’ll also turn to face the player when in a conversation.
Video:
Finally I’ve added some basic interaction - driving, combat (a lot of people have been asking how to add weapons):
Sitting (with a new female sit animation):
If you have questions/feedback post on the Discord.