Number of Questions for Creature+Unreal

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JuiceTin
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Oct 27, 2018 6:30 pm

Number of Questions for Creature+Unreal

Post by JuiceTin » Sat Oct 27, 2018 7:18 pm

Hello,

My team and I are currently finishing up a large Unreal4 game, but are discussing options for our next. It's going to be a 2D shooter with mechanics very similar to one of our older Flash games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQH8Cf7ei_s

I've done a bunch of research (don't have time yet to try it out) but have a number of questions to see if Creature will work for us, as there are a LOT of moving parts in the game!

1a. Our game features over 200 swappable weapon images in the hands, back, and on the leg. Each of the 200 weapons also has matching sub-images clips to be removed during reloading, and another in the hand. This is on top of 100+ skin body parts. Performance-wise will this be a problem? I believe they all need to be on a spritesheet, would one that massive perform poorly, or even fit into creature?

1b. Is there a way to just change the item images from unreal, to avoid multiple massive spritesheets in Creature? Maybe somehow use multiple textures/atlases that are combined in the plugin/material for this?

2. Is it possible to break/stretch/squish bones in Creature for more flexible/realistic animations? (Ex: a person pointing at the camera would need bones squished to achieve that effect)

3a. Does sprite swap work with skins? Ex: During a few frames of a punch, the torso image would need to change to reflect him twisted. Would that also have the proper skin on it?

3b. Assuming skins can by changed dynamically from unreal too? And partially? (Just change arm armor, or leg armor)

4. Can I get item positions/rotations from within unreal? Ex: Having an unreal laser sight coming out of the gun item.

5a. Do motors continue through multiple animations or reset? Ex: If motors are set to display breathing, will they continue seamlessly from idle, to run, to punch? Or reset on each?

5b. Can motors be toggled/adjusted dynamically through unreal?

6. Can animations tween/transition between each other? Ex: Will going from idle to run snap to the run anim, or have a transition?

7. Does creature work well on consoles? Is it used in any completed games?

8. Does creature work with C++? (If not that's okay, blueprints work as a fine middleman!)

9. Can post processes be toggled/adjusted from unreal?

That's it for now! Basically our main concern is swapping hundreds and hundreds of parts, and strong communication between unreal and creature.
Thanks for any help on these questions!!

chong
Posts: 1178
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2015 2:21 am

Re: Number of Questions for Creature+Unreal

Post by chong » Sat Oct 27, 2018 8:14 pm

Hello,

Here are the answers to your many questions:

Creature supports SkinSwapping, look it up in the docs and video tutorials to see if it feeds your requirements. This allows for swapping of items on the character. Performance will depend on the device you are targeting.

You have to use a single large atlas spritesheet for the body parts right now.

Everything is deformable in Creature, you get meshes by default ( one of the biggest advantages of Creature compared to other tools ). To stretch/squish, just add extra bones with skin weighting or use the Free Form Mesh Deformation features for mesh motors.

Sprite Swap should work with Skins, but you need to test it to see if it fits your reqs.

Skins need to be created first but they can be swapped dynamically ( Skin Swap Sets can be created with the UE4 runtime )

You can retrieve transforms of all character bones with the UE4 runtime, that is how attachments are done or fire particles are emitted from the sample dragon character's mouth.

Motors are per animation clip for a bone or a group of bones ( depending on the motor type ). There are also mesh motors that operate on the mesh regions.

Motors results are baked into keyframes, there is no motor running dynamically at runtime in UE4.

You have smooth transition blending between animation clips with the UE4 runtime.

The UE4 Creature runtime is all C++, you can call it directly with C++.

Post process is just for recording clips to video, not for game engines.

Thanks

JuiceTin
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Oct 27, 2018 6:30 pm

Re: Number of Questions for Creature+Unreal

Post by JuiceTin » Sat Oct 27, 2018 8:31 pm

Yes I supposed we'll just have to test a lot of these out on our own when the time comes.

Thanks for the quick reply!

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