Keyframed Animation: There was not much information about stepped keyframe animation other than a few forum posts from people struggling to get it to work in UE4. But I had no problem exporting a stepped animation with a ‘constant’ interpolation curve from blender to UE5; I added a simple keyframed attack animation to Unreal’s default 3rd person blueprint without any trouble.
MergedMeshes: Secondly, this is an arena fighter with mobs of enemies, which will absolutely benefit from merged skeletal meshes, as would a social hub world that, while outside of combat, would be populated with NPCs and other players, and that would benefit from auto-generated LODs since viewing distance will be a factor. I am assuming that Unreal would not be able to auto-generate LODs for modular meshes but could for a merged mesh. So it seems to me ideal to have both a modular setup with separate animations and morph targets, which is swapped out for a merged mesh LOD when appropriate. But I am making assumptions about Merged Skeletal Meshes and auto-generated LODs based on the documentation, and would appreciate advice on my intended use case.
MasterPose & CopyPose: My interpretation of how the system works is that MasterPose will take the additional bones of a modular piece, such as a long skirt, and add them to the body/main skeleton along with the leg bones, but only the leg bones will animate since they are the only common bones across leg variations. I assume I can then use a separate animation blueprint with CopyPose to animate the additional skirt bones?
My Use Case: For clarity, I am not trying to add a totally ‘separate’ animation from the Master Pose animation (like hair/cloth blowing in the wind independently of main animations), but ‘adjustments’ to the main animation: such as a kick animation, and while all modular leg pieces will follow that animation, a long skirt would clip through the legs unless extra bones and animation is added.
My question, therefore, is if MasterPose and CopyPose can be used together in this way, or if MasterPose can in fact handle this use case on its own, or if I must choose between one or the other system?