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279 lines
14 KiB
Markdown
279 lines
14 KiB
Markdown
# Advice for Outfit Creators
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This page is intended to provide an overview for creators of outfits who want to ensure that their outfits are
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compatible with Modular Avatar. Generally, Modular Avatar has been designed to work with pre-existing conventions
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seen in outfits designed for avatar use, but there is the occasional outfit which does something a bit different.
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This page may help you understand what Modular Avatar expects, and how to ensure that your outfit works with it.
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## tl;dr
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For "modular avatar compatible" outfits, just make sure Setup Outfit works. For "Modular Avatar Preset" outfits,
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run "setup outfit" ahead of time, and also consider setting up:
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- Blendshape Sync (to sync body-shape-altering blendshapes from the base avatar)
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- Shape Changer (to shrink or hide parts of the base mesh when parts the outfit is enabled)
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- Menu Items and Object Toggle (to allow users to toggle parts of the outfit on/off)
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## Compatible vs Preset
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Before we get started, we should clarify that there are two different levels of support for Modular Avatar. At the
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minimum, you can ensure that the bone naming conventions and placement of PhysBones components are compatible with
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what Modular Avatar expects, making your outfit "Modular Avatar Compatible". Most outfits will naturally end up
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compatible, but this document will walk you through the detailed requirements, in case you're having trouble.
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Modular Avatar Compatible outfits don't actually have any Modular Avatar components, so you don't _need_ to use
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Modular Avatar to install them, and can use some other outfit installation system instead (or do it manually, of
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course).
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You can go a step further and provide a prefab with Modular Avatar components already set up, which we call a
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"Modular Avatar Preset". This can let you provide additional features for your customers, and reduce the steps needed
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to set things up and the risk for mistakes being made. For example, you can set up blendshapes to automatically sync
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with the base mesh, and/or hide parts of the base mesh that are covered by clothing. However, doing so will require
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that your customers have Modular Avatar installed to use your prefab. You can of course prepare multiple prefabs, one
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with Modular Avatar components and one without, to cater to both audiences.
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Please note that "Modular Avatar Compatible" outfits are not eligible for using the Modular Avatar logo. See the
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[Logo Usage guidelines](../logo-usage.md) for details.
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## How to check for compatibility/debugging tips
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Before we dive in, let's look at the typical workflow for setting up a "Modular Avatar Compatible" outfit. Most users
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will put the outfit inside the avatar GameObject, then right click and choose `Modular Avatar -> Setup Outfit`. If
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successful, the necessary Modular Avatar components will be added and the avatar will be ready to go.
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To check that everything is set up properly, there's a few options:
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### Edit mode sync
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When you setup outfit, the outfit will be configured to sync with the base avatar's bones in edit mode. Rotate some
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of the base bones to verify that the outfit is following it properly.
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### Testing in play mode
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Modular Avatar will merge the avatar in play mode, so you can see how it'll look at upload time. You can use tools like
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Avatar 3.0 Emulator or Gesture Manager to get a more accurate preview.
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### Manual Bake
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You can also have Modular Avatar simply process the avatar in edit mode, and show the results. Just right click the
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avatar and choose `Modular Avatar -> Manual Bake Avatar`. A clone of the avatar will be created with the outfit
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applied, and you can see how it turned out.
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## Setup Outfit
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### How does it work?
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Setup Outfit is generally designed to work with most pre-existing outfits, and to set things up with reasonable
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defaults. Let's take a closer look at what it does:
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#### Identify bones
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<div style={{float: "right", "max-width": "45%"}}>
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*The highlighted portions of the bone names are compared by Setup Outfit to locate the outfit's bones.*
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</div>
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Setup Outfit first tries to locate certain bones in the outfit, which it uses as a reference point
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for processing. Specifically, it looks for a bone that looks like `OutfitRoot -> [Armature] -> Hips`, where `Hips` needs
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to contain the name of the base avatar's hip bone. It's OK for some additional text to come before and after the hips
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bone name, but that needs to be consistent across all bones in the outfit. Note that the `Armature` game object can have
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any name.
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If the outfit's bone naming does not conform to these rules, Setup Outfit will try to match the bone names in the outfit
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and avatar against a list of common bones names, and if successful, will rename the outfit bones to match the base
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avatar. It's best to avoid this mode as it can be less reliable; we recommend matching the outfit bones to the base
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avatar precisely.
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#### T-pose/A-pose conversion
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<div style={{"align": "center"}}>
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</div>
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Sometimes, outfits and base avatars might not be in the same pose. This can be the case if the avatar was modeled in a
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T-pose, but the outfit was modeled in an A-pose. Setup outfit will rotate the arms to match their _positions_ to the
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base avatar.
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#### Creating a Merge Armature component
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<div style={{float: "right", "max-width": "45%"}}>
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</div>
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Setup Outfit will create a Merge Armature component, on the armature object. This component will contain the text
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that came before/after the bone names identified in the previous step (the prefix and suffix), as well as a reference
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to the avatar armature. This is what actually merges the bones onto the base avatar.
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Setup Outfit has some logic to try to deal with outfits that might have an upper chest bone that is not in the base
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avatar as well; this is handled by using multiple Merge Armature components.
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Merge Armature will attempt to avoid creating duplicate bones; it'll merge the outfit bones into the base avatar where
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possible. In particular, bones which contain components (other than Transform) will _not_ be merged, and will instead
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be moved to be a child of the corresponding base avatar bone.
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<div style={{"clear": "both"}}/>
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#### Creating a Mesh Settings component
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<div style={{float: "right", "max-width": "45%"}}>
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</div>
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Setup Outfit will also create a mesh settings component. This will configure a default light probe anchor, set to be
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consistent with the base avatar's meshes, and a reasonable bounding box, for all meshes in the outfit.
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<div style={{"clear": "both"}}/>
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### Before/after
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Here's an example of an outfit before and after merging:
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<div style={{"display": "flow-root"}}>
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<div style={{"float": "left", "max-width": "45%"}}>
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*Before merging*
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</div>
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<div style={{"float": "right", "max-width": "45%"}}>
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*After merging*
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</div>
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</div>
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As you can see, most of the outfit bones have been merged, but some remain due to PhysBones configurations. Any bones
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not
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present in the base avatar are also preserved. The additional text after each bone name avoids name collisions when
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multiple outfits are added.
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### Animation corrections
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Merge Armature performs a number of adjustments to animations in the avatar. In particular, it:
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- Adjusts animation paths to correspond to moved bones
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- Arranges for animations that toggle on/off the original outfit as a whole to toggle on/off all of the objects from
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that outfit, after they've been scattered throughout the avatar.
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This means that users can usually just use whatever animation setup tool they prefer to toggle on/off outfit root
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objects, and this will automatically turn on/off not only the meshes, but also any PhysBones components as well.
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### Differences from Bone Proxy
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If you're familiar with Bone Proxy, you might be wondering how Merge Armature differs. Bone Proxy differs in a few ways:
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- Bone Proxy moves a single object to be under another object somewhere in the avatar. It does not merge bones at all.
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- If you target a humanoid bone with Bone Proxy, it will do so in a way that does not depend on the name of the bone.
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This allows you to create generic gimmicks that work with any avatar.
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- Bone Proxy lets you select how position and rotation is handled with the object; you can have an object snap to the
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avatar's hands, for example, regardless of where they are.
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- Bone Proxy does not perform the same adjustment of on/off animations as with Merge Armature; while it'll correct
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animation paths, animations which toggle the parent of the Bone Proxy on/off won't affect the bone proxy object and
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its children.
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Bone Proxy can be useful when you're creating an accessory that targets a single bone. For example, a hairpin could use
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a Bone Proxy locked to the Head bone. This would make it easier to use on different avatars than it was originally set
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up with.
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### Things that are OK to do
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There are a number of things that Setup Outfit and Merge Armature support that might be surprising. Here are a few
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examples.
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#### Prefixes and suffixes
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As mentioned before, you can put a prefix or suffix before/after bone names. This is OK as long as you use exactly the
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same prefix or suffix on all merged bones. Any bones that don't have this prefix or suffix won't be merged with base
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avatar bones. Note that uppercase and lowercase matters here.
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#### Different bone axis
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<div style={{"display": "flow-root"}}>
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<div style={{"float": "left", "max-width": "45%"}}>
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<p>*Base avatar shoulder*</p>
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</div>
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<div style={{"float": "right", "max-width": "45%"}}>
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*Outfit shoulder*
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</div>
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</div>
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Different 3D modeling software can use different axis conventions; sometimes the X axis will stick out of the shoulder,
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sometimes it might be Y or Z. Merge Armature will handle this automatically; it's not necessary to match the base avatar
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in rotation, as long as the position matches.
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#### Armature object naming
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Setup Outfit doesn't actually care what the `Armature` object (parent of the hips object) is named. It's just looking
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for the outfit hips.
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#### A vs T pose conversion
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It's OK for your outfit to have a different arm pose than the base avatar. If you do this, there are some important
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notes:
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- A/T pose conversion will only happen if your arm lengths are exactly the same as the base avatar. If the length
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differs
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by more than a tiny amount, this conversion will be skipped.
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- Setup Outfit determines the direction to rotate based on the difference in bone positions. Thus, if your bone
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positions
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are off slightly, it might result in unwanted rotation.
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### Things to avoid
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#### PhysBones on humanoid bones
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Some outfits have VRC PhysBones components on humanoid bones, such as hips or chest. This is not recommended; while it
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can work in some cases, there are a number of outfits that accidentally have PhysBones that are copied from the base
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avatar, and Modular Avatar tries to delete these in this case. This can result in unpredictable behavior.
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What is recommended here is to ensure that any PhysBones components are on GameObjects that either are not present in
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the base avatar, or are outside of the Merge Armature component's game object. This will ensure consistent behavior.
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#### Exactly the same naming as the base avatar
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If all of your bones, as well as the Armature object, have _exactly_ the same names as the base avatar, this can trigger
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some annoying Unity bugs. Setup Outfit tries to avoid this by renaming the Armature object, by adding a `.1` to its
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name.
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However, it's best to just avoid this from the start; renaming either the armature object or the hips object will avoid
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these issues.
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## Modular Avatar Presets
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Now that we've talked about the minimum requirements for supporting Modular Avatar, let's talk about what it means to
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have a Modular Avatar preset. Typically, this means you've prepared a prefab where Setup Outfit is already run. Your
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customers can now simply add this prefab to their avatar, and the outfit will be ready to do. It's OK if they run Setup
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Outfit again; it'll see that things are already configured and skip processing.
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Outfits configured this way may be eligible to use the Modular Avatar logo in their advertising. See the [Logo Usage
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Guidelines](../logo-usage.md) for detailed requirements.
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You can however go a step further and set up additional things to make things more convenient for your customers.
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Here's some examples.
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### Blendshape Sync
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Some avatars have blendshapes which change the size of various portions of the body. You can use the Blendshape Sync
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component to automatically adjust the outfit's blendshapes to match those of the base avatar. This can be useful for
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breast size blendshapes, for example.
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### Shrink/hide shapekeys
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Many avatars have shape keys which can be used to shrink and hide parts of the base mesh, to avoid clipping into the
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outfit. Modular Avatar has a feature which can be used to automate this process. By configuring the
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[Shape Changer](../../reference/reaction/shape-changer.md) component, Modular Avatar will automatically
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shrink or hide shape keys
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when the corresponding object is enabled. This will also respond to animations which turn on/off parts of the outfit,
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and can even outright _delete_ portions of the mesh, if the Shape Changer object is always enabled.
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### Object Toggles
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Many outfits have different parts that can be turned on and off. You can set up a menu for your users to use ahead of
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time by configuring `Object Toggle`s. Take a look at [the Object Toggle tutorial](../../tutorials/object_toggle/index.md)
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for details on how to set these up.
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You can then combine these into a single submenu; to do this, set up an object as the parent of your toggles that looks
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like this:
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