Thanks ! Any word on the first question? (node locked license/hardware upgrades)
From my testing you can use either one depending on your overall requirements; if you just need simple foot placement + look at/aiming, the foot placement node should rapidly get you going. It does line traces for foot placement, handles interpolation smoothness and that kind of stuff automatically so it’s quicker to use and beginner friendly. (I haven’t tested weapon aiming with this node though, only foot placement and look at).
A generic solver can also achieve the same things, but it’s generic - you’ll have to setup all IK tasks in your iKinema rig yourself while having more precise control over it - you get to specify the target posiitons for these tasks, whether both translation and orientation are allowed, etc. If you check out the sample project (IKinemaGame) they’ve used both nodes across the examples depending on what a sample asset is trying to do.
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One question on this for iKinema folks though - is it possible to take the pose output of the foot placement node and then plug it into a generic solver node of the same ikinema rig or another ikinema rig? (based on the same skeleton?) The usecase I have in mind is an IK driven bite animation (like your dragon bite) which of course cannot be handled from the foot placement node. I know could just use one generic solver node but then I’d have to do the line tracing for foot placement and handle smoothness/etc on my own when this is already available in the foot placement node.
PS: I’ll post a video of my my eight legged spider climbing a plant’s stalk with and without IKinema when I get some time 