So I don’t want to create anything near the scale of WoW or other big MMORPGs, but I’d like to learn about the principals for letting the user customize their characters in that style, for a much smaller scale game idea I have.
I’m having trouble finding info on this topic, other than a few sightings of the “UMA” system in the asset store and forums. To be honest, just my personal preference, I’m not really thrilled with the quality of the results of examples I’ve seen done using the UMA system… the models look, well, very “plain” compared to other models in the store and other places. I understand that is likely to make them easy to use with the generic system, or maybe just because the system hasn’t been around very long.
Is the UMA design what I should be looking at, or is there something very different that the makers of these MMORPGs I’ve listed are doing?
If I want to have 20 different face styles, is the “common practice” to just have separate meshes for the eyes, nose, and mouth, and then scale/transform those meshes at run-time, or would I actually have 20 FBX files/meshes for all combinations?
Lastly, I really don’t see very many “parts” on the asset store, or anything that really looks like it could be used to do what I’m after. For example, there is no category for “hair” or “shoes”, and the “armor” category only has a few models. Yes, “Weapons” has a ton of models, but that’s about all I could find. Is there a better source for the style of models I’ll need, or would I pretty much need to hire someone for custom work?
Links to any tutorials, books, or videos that discuss this subject would be great!
Try putting a generic shoe on any number of custom characters and in one the toes will stick through, in another the heel protrudes, in yet another the shoe is too bulky for the leg and another the foot protrudes here and there. Same thing with armor pieces. Each usually has to be stretched and pulled about by their vertices to match and if there is any kind of deco work with normal maps they will sheer and stretch and conglomerate into a mess that is easily detectable. Hair can ride into the face, be like a helmet, be scaled incorrectly and since you are stuck with polys for hair any pulling about of those vertices will give it sheering and clumping, thickness and pinching as well.
Thanks for the feedback thus far. Based on the 3 replies, what I’ve gathered thus far:
UMA 2 at least has some great looking examples (unlike UMA 1)… but still not seeing much existing content (a problem for me, since I’m not an artist and don’t want to hire someone on a contract/hourly rate). Once content grows, maybe an option, not really for now.
The lack of custom gear/armor is due to the difficulty of getting truly generic pieces to work well with each other (as stated by ippdev). Unless you follow some strict guidelines, which is what UMA is trying to do, but possibly (so far) content generators aren’t jumping on the band wagon.
The “standard” way of doing it (if you have artists on your team), is like the Unity example given by Not_Sure. You have separate model parts for things like “body” and “legs” and “head”, a few meshes and then several textures for each.
I guess what I’m after doesn’t exist yet, not to the quality I was hoping for, but at least now I understand why not, and what I’d likely need to do to make this style of game. That is, #3, but being able to find enough existing models to do what I want, without hiring someone for custom work.
I did actually find one asset that is pretty darn close to what I want… if I had another 10 to 20 like this to pick from, I’d be in business, but I guess the demand (for sure the supply) just isn’t there.
That one looks really good to me, although I haven’t tried it, so can’t say how well it works. I did read the entire forum thread and it seems like the author has resolved most/all issues and really working hard on it. Only wish there were more like that …probably 3 packages like that would get my current idea/project done, if $125 each, that’s still less than most contract artists would want for 1 custom model of this type and quality.
…probably 3 packages like that would get my current idea/project done, if $125 each, that’s still less than most contract artists would want for 1 custom model of this type and quality.