Equipping Armor

Unity Courses Ask
#1

OK so… My game is missing a few core elements, and one of the core elements I was searching up is this:

Equipping armor and making it visible on the players’ body. I did some research about that a few days ago, and I read something about ‘Skinned Mesh Renderer’… as far as I was able to understand, this is a solution that skins the mesh of the armor onto the players’ body, but it seemed a little too complex. Today I come seeking a simpler algorithm that helps my player to properly wear armor, hassle-free, so we can see what he has on his body :slight_smile:

I wanted to take a short break from my skilling system (not fully done with that yet, just debating on what’s next… xD) and try something new :slight_smile:

#2

There is no hassle free way to do this…
Not even a little bit…
And I’ve done it… twice, once with Synty’s PolygonFantasyHero, and once with Blink’s characters and armor/equipment.
Here’s a rundown of what you’ll need:

  • A modular character. This is a character whose body model has been broken down into several sections that can be turned on and off.
  • Modular armor/gear. This is gear that is built using the exact same skeleton (humanoid don’t count, generally, this means buying armor asset packs from the creator of the modular character.
  • With the exception of Synty’s set, you’ll need to re-arrange any related armors (as in wear this, not that) into GameObjects. All the Chest armor goes in one GameObject, all the Gloves in one, etc. This is important for simplifying turning armor on and off. For example, if you put on a leather vest, you probably want to automatically remove all other chest armor.
  • You’ll need a subclass of your StatsEquipableItem that contains the data about which armor to put on, and what to take off… For example, for a helmet, ItemsToEquip = that helmet, items to remove = hair.
  • You’ll need a script on the player that, whenever any equipment changes, rebuilds the character from the ground up based on the equipped items.

Let me repeat, this is no simple task. The setup alone is costly. When I set up the Blink characters, it took me about a month (if I had no other obligations, maybe I could have done it in a week) to get every armor piece transferred to the player, before actually writing a single line of code.

I would point you to some specific assets, but the asset store appears to be completely broken today.

In terms of coding, this is not a beginner or even intermediate subject. This is far into the advanced category.

#3

sounds like we have a second train wreck ahead of us… Just when I thought skills-based systems was lengthy, then you got this topic. Alright, I’ll buy a few assets off the store and return to try this out :slight_smile: (btw is the approach you’re suggesting given any name? Like “Skinned Mesh Render” for example? I want to carry out some research as well)

#4

A Skinned Mesh Renderer is simply what all models that can be animated with bone motion (basically all of our characters) uses.

Check out this topic for more information on the subject:

Sounds more like you do… Please don’t take this the wrong way, but because of the nature of this type of setup, I’m likely not to be a great deal of help.

NO! Research first. Look at the topic I posted above… These packages are expensive, so have an action plan or do what I did… I waited for sales (I actually got lucky with InfinityPBR and Blink, as I caught their Humble Bundles, but it’s unlikely those will come up again).

#5

I’ll give it a try anyway… I’ll probably create a dummy scene and give things a try over there, or back up my Unity project and try things on my current version. It’s essential imo :slightly_smiling_face:

I’ll search up free versions first then. If they work, then I’ll count them as something to invest into, on the long run

#6

image

I’ve never come across one that was more than three modular parts. :frowning:

#7

Guess I’ll research and give it a go then. I think Code Monkey had a video about Skinned Mesh Renderer somewhere… I’ll check that one out first :slight_smile:

#8

All characters use skinned mesh renderers. Codemonkey’s tutorial will be useful for understanding them, but won’t help much with modular characters.

Here’s a list of modular characters I’ve used in the past
Blink – This is just the starter, you can go $200 deep in add on armors with these guys, but it’s a pretty nice quality product. This one requires quite a bit of work to get characters ready to fit in with our equipment system, but Blink supplies a script for transferring the meshes from the addon packs to the characters.

Synty’s Modular Fantasy Hero
This one’s low poly, but really very in depth. In terms of bang for the buck, this one is the best (especially if you get it when it’s 1/2 off. This one requires the least amount of prep to be ready to adapt to our EquipableItems system.

InfinityPBR
These characters are super mega high quality, and while the intro price looks fairly low, that’s just a few gear changes. It doesn’t take long to rack up a big asset bill with these guys. These are the hardest characters to prepare to be used in our Equipment system by far, and they are very resource intensive.

#9

Looks like I’m going with Synty then. If quality is high and the price tag matches it, then so be it… their newer packs are compatible with what we’re about to do as well (their fantasy kingdom, elven realm, dark fantasy, etc… they’re all similar when it comes to armor setup, right?). I had plans to invest the most of my budget on Synty assets anyway, so now we’re just doing it earlier :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: (I was going for low poly fantasy since day 1 anyway. Back then I thought I might include a mobile port of my game down the line)

Two months ago, they had a sale which I totally missed because I didn’t have a job back then, but I’ll probably pay full price anyway, since I appreciate their work (and need it)

For Blink, I plan to use their weapons systems, now that I found a solution to convert 3D Models to 2D Sprites. It’s quite slick tbh, and Synty doesn’t supply a lot

For InfinityPBR, I heard of them but never tried their products… (and it’s HQ, I seek low poly for now… I think why I probably won’t end up investing in them)

OK Let’s say that I end up using Synty’s armor pack, what sort of programming nightmares (or setup) am I looking at?

#10

Lots. The scripts I have written for this represent MONTHS of work and fine tuning

#11

Well I better get started then… Any suggestions of where to begin from? :slight_smile:

#12

Do you have the Synty Modular Fantasy Heroes?

#13

Not yet, I’ll probs buy them in a few days, now that we are starting this out (again though, before we begin, setting up the armor from their other packs should be an equivalent process though, right? The elven realm, dark fantasy, fantasy kingdom, etc). I’m willing to take the risk, and take full responsibility for it, but I’m just asking as well :slight_smile:

#14

Nope. Those characters are whole characters, not modular. They’re nice, but not at all customizable. This is a completely different animal.

#15

On a scale of 1-10, how likely is the process of making them usable (for our player) to be equivalent to what we’re about to do, in your opinion?

#16

Are you asking on a scale of 1 to 10 getting the Fantasy Modular Hero ready for our game wearing modular armor as our equipment changes? (about an 8), or getting the Elven Realm, Fantasy Kingdom characters ready for our game? (about a 1, do it just like you set up the characters in the RPG course).

#17

OK let’s ignore that question for a minute. You own the Synty Modular pack, right? On a scale of 1-10, how customizable is it? Does it look good or feel premium enough to you, as a player, as a high level armor actually worth persuading, in terms of visuals at least? Frankly speaking, I LOVE Synty’s style, but I fear that the content just might not be enough to keep the players entertained for long and want to play the game, hence why eventually, I will want both (let’s focus on one for now). I keep hearing complaints of players not having enough content, and I want that out of my game

Blink’s system doesn’t seem too bad either, in fact, now that I spent some time properly looking at it and reading through it’s contents, it doesn’t seem bad at all. They also have various colors and various armor sets, for the price of $150, hence why I’m tempted to give up Synty’s beauty for Blinks’ variety (because for the same price, there is some difference). Let’s assume for a moment you’re still making a choice, which one would you personally go for? I’m all ears for different opinions for now :slight_smile: (Personally right now, I’m leaning more to ‘Blink’, just because they have more variety). I know that at the end of the day, this is personal preference, but I’d love to hear various opinions on this one

In terms of sales, Unity has one coming up tomorrow. Let’s see what this one offers (it doesn’t offer any of them, looks like I’m paying full price in the end…)

#18

Bahaa, Synty just sent out an email with their Black Friday sales. The first one listed is the Modular Fantasy Characters at 70% off. The sale starts tomorrow.

1 Like
#19

oh that’s amazing to know. Is that on Unity or their website?

#20

It’s on their website. While you are there, sign up for their newsletter. They have sales and give stuff away for free very often.

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