Not sure at the moment if i will even use it. I ask in another forum and for lightgun people like the look but not the idea of a headshot doesn´t kill.
Will think about this later again, maybe use some sort of mask or helmet. Luckly it is pretty easy change at a later point.
At the moment i struggle a lot with nanite SK. It Simply breaks the gore system i created. Just can´t get it to work, seems like the skin weights do not work. Not sure if this is a bug or i just dont know how to doi it.
Spawning parts works, but the most important dismembering dont`t
So i need “again” to rework all models to use lower poly models where it works without any problems. Was testing this now for 2 weeks without getting it to work.
Most players are conditioned to this mechanic. But, not all Undead are Zombies. Some are reanimated by Spiritual Energy so headshots don’t kill them. Mask and Helmet sounds awesome as those can be destructible too. Instant Kill Headshot could be a Limited-time Powerup.
If Nanite SK is mangling the Gore System, then don’t use it. May have to stick with traditional Level of Detail (LOD) and other mesh swapping techniques. Another possibility may be using Vertex Animation with Static Mesh technique. Perhaps Nanite can work with this technique without fuss.
Thank you @TechLord for the video i will have a deeper look at this later. What i see so far would need to rebuild from the ground up, looks great but is not doable at this point. There will no more then maybe 10 enemies at the same time on screen. But what i need to look at is this animation sharing for optimazation.
I hade this idea very early and i already tested this. Just was not sure where to use it.
I do use the helmet, but just for visuals at the moment.
At the moment i test if it works to use Nanite SK for the middle gore part. This way i could use very high poly models and attach them as i did before. with very high poly i can also do textures with poly paint, this is very performant because no real textures are needet. This was the reason to test Nanite SK in the first place.
Edit:
Here is my problem with Nanite SK. Seems like a simple proble for what i just can´t find a solution. Feels like it SkinWeight just do not work.
Still can´t get NaniteSK SkinWeight working.
But i tested how to take advantage of Nanite and PolyPaint for Gore Parts. Here is picture and a short Video.
As i tested a rigged version with Nanite SK i encountered a new problem.
The moment i turned on Nanite seems like Polypaint (Vertex color) do not work.
On the left Nanite turned off, on the right Nanite turned on.
After a mostly finished and more performant rework of the gore system, i stopped for now because i can´t figure out how to use the system with nanite sk without breaking the system.
I moved to level creation and the modular use of pillars with just a single texture for all. I chose to go the middle way with using nanite, it would be possible to do all without using a single texture but the size for such models would add up very quickly and this is just not doable.
So i do mid polys and use textures.
Here is a pic for a few of the models, all share a single texture. The UV´s are set a way to have seemless corners. This way you can use the models from all sides.
Timed start of movement with the last enemy killed to avoid the trap.
Always move (you need to shoot displayed targets or destroy the trap itself).
Stop and shoot enemies, after that shoot targets to move and avoid the traps.
Only stop and shoot targets to move and avoid the traps. But this is just an idea i hade while testing. This would need basicly a game mode on its own. All levels just filled with a lot of traps. Could be fun but this is really just an idea. Not sure where this leads to at the moment.
This needs to be tested a lot first. Just a first test of something i hade in mind a long time ago.
The new empty level to test some models just made me to test this now. I wanted to see if it is even possible to do how i want it to be.
Speaking of shooting … i am at the moment searching trough old models i created and if i could use some of them. I found a set of enemies i was creating for an r-type style sidescoller.
I think i could rework some of them for nanite and use as flying enemies
Almost all of them are rigged and have animations …
I really should start making screenshoots from models and enemies i created. No wonder i need around 700 gb of space for all i have created over the time if i always instead of searching create new ones
Yes as always i did some concepts with ZBrush and after that i tuned the poly cont down.
The time i was doing this was for UE4.
I found the original ZBrush file so i only need to rig them again.
Here is one of the enmies i created. High and low Poly version.
A first test of the Vertex Painting on Nanite meshes per instance.
I think this can be awesome for bigger mesehs. Not sure how performant this will be at the moment but it works great.
Here i tested if i there is a difference between polypainted meshes without textures and the ones with textures. It is barly to see wich ones use textures and wich ones don´t.
I tested the Vertex painting on a Nanite mesh a little more with an real model now.
I works really good, but i also noticed the moment i want to use an alpha for the brush the engine crashed. Not sure if the alphas i used caused this. Will need to test a few more different and see if this always happends.
Edit:
Still testing how a scene would look like with as less materials as possible.
Here i only use 2 materials. Some of the models are also only polypainted (no textures).
Turns out doing polypainted models works nice on concrete like material where you do not need to have much details. The best of tjis … you do not need to do complicated UV´s or hide seams if you want to use only a few materials.
I think the result looks kinda nice.
Here is a first glimse of a level and how all this looks togehter.
A lot of the models do not use textures, instead they are only polypainted.
Really hard to tell wich ones use textures and wich ones don´t.
Edit:
Here is also the latest test of some fast flying enmies.
Was just about to post the latest progress @TechLord
Yeah but this is performance heavy, i guess i have figured out a way to activate and deactivate to make this work. Needs some more testing though.
Coincidentally, my game “Horrors of War” (inspired by Hells Invasion Creepy Pasta) will definitely have them. I’m creating my version of the Demons with modular procedural generation to support various forms of destruction.
Sounds really cool, i did not try again till now if the latest update of UE5.5 fix the skin weight issue. This is something i need to do before i start again doing zombies. How i set up the new enemies the system should simply work.
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