Character Cosmetic Items

[YemYam]

Posting a sticky link here as I can never find it in the other part of the forum. We are getting close to having the Marketplace up and running, I hope more people start creating content. I know they are a polarizing topic but the sooner we get a lot of cool, high quality, and most importantly UT theme/look consistent content then that will lay the groundwork for the future.

https://forums.unrealtournament.com/...Cosmetic-Items

[HenrikRyosa]

Isn't it a kind of backwards workflow though making accessories before final characters?

[Sir_Brizz]

It's more a proof of concept of the idea of a marketplace by making items that match Malcolm and the soon to be released Necris character.

[HenrikRyosa]

well by the time they are on the marketplace we will probably have at least one full new character, and that character will have to be made to work with the items, or they will have to be updated somehow to work with it. or does it have some kind of autofitting system?

[Sir_Brizz]

well by the time they are on the marketplace we will probably have at least one full new character, and that character will have to be made to work with the items, or they will have to be updated somehow to work with it. or does it have some kind of autofitting system?

I dunno I think the idea is that most of the sockets would line up but who knows. Between Malcolm and "Loque" the sockets will probably be pretty close. I'm guessing cosmetics will apply to certain skeletons/classes of characters.

The marketplace will probably be out next week. I'd almost be willing to bet money on it.

[danpaz3d]

It's just a testing thing for now as the market is setup. You can hopefully expect some better quality work as people will start making parts that match the official characters design+quality. That's what I think anyway. Chances are that hats made for current models wont fit perfect on the official ones. Unless someone can confirm this.

[Vailias]

The important thing for hats and such fitting is the head size, or more correctly, the head proportion. So long as the width to length ratio is the same, and the socket is placed in the same relative location, the hat band will match the head shape. Hat scale can be controlled via socket scale, or blueprint if need be.

Also, I don't see this as backward at all. Most "full characters" are likely to be a base model piece plus a bunch of accessories, so this system will need to get in place and tested before a full character set can be fleshed out anyway.

[Geodav]

when i last checked eg a few days ago, the socket placement for the current Malcolm isn't the same for the new characters, that said i don't think there was a socket on the necris guy but i'm sure that will be fixed

[YemYam]

I just fixed the sockets for all characters and it should be in the next build. The master template will be:

StaticMesh'/Game/RestrictedAssets/Tutorial/CustomAccessories/Meshes/SM_BodyTemplate.SM_BodyTemplate'

And yes, Vailias is correct. If you fit your accessory to this mesh and zero out your pivot then it *should* fit all characters. Once we have new characters that break out of those bounds the socket will remain the same but we will have to perform scaling on the unique per mesh socket to tweak fit.

[HeisenbergTrip]

So, out of thin air , the character proportions are official? I thought that was going to be one hell of a topic when epic wanted to see what we thought about it.

Oh well, i just hope the marketplace gets clarified if we need to see others with goofy hats.

[Sir_Brizz]

So, out of thin air , the character proportions are official? I thought that was going to be one hell of a topic when epic wanted to see what we thought about it.

Oh well, i just hope the marketplace gets clarified if we need to see others with goofy hats.

I didn't think they were not official for months at this point.

[YemYam]

Nothing is official, all I said was the template for the 3 existing characters exists and if you want to make accessories for the 3 existing characters you could use that template. I also said that when a character did not fit those proportions we would scale the hat socket on a per mesh basis. Meaning there will be different meshes, different scales.

I wish we could ban the word "official" from these forums. Official implies permanent. Nothing is permanent. It's a living product. Everything will evolve and change, every single day. The sooner people accept that the less anxiety you will feel over every little decision. IMHO (my thoughts are not Epic official, only my own).

[Sir_Brizz]

I should have clarified THESE characters.

[YemYam]

I understand. Hopefully there will be many more after these. The proportions will all have to be in the ballpark of the main skeleton rig but there should be enough wiggle room to make everybody happy and able to express their creative visions.

[Vailias]

They are officially official for the officially current official alpha release.

I fully anticipate rebuilding or heavily tweaking everything I make for the gold release, as things ALWAYS change. This is just how gamedev works. You decide on something so you can make stuff to test your systems, make some cool screenshots, and see what works, and what doesn't.

This project has a LONG way to go, and I'd wager most people here haven't seen a project of this scope at this early a stage before.
Basically, nothing is "official" till the project leads call asset lock, and the game ships.

Or to borrow an analogy, "Its not Mr. Right. It's Mr. Right Now."