While playing with Blender I noticed that there was a typo in the Blender exporter, we have fixed it and updated the exporter so if you are a Blender user and have been getting error messages (no one has reported it so far) when exporting a mor file then please do request the latest exporter via email or support ticket.
Just putting the finishing touches to a new feature in MegaShapes. We have added a Lathe tool so you can spin your shapes around to form meshes. Working on a little Pottery simulator demo to show the system in use, a little sneak peek grab can be seen below.
We have just submitted a small update to MegaFiers to the Asset Store and our webstore, this sees a couple of small improvements to the Waving modifier to make it easier to use. We have also done a little guide video showing how the waving modifier can be used to make animated flags. Finally we have recompiled the Maya blendshape exporter for the 2014 version of Maya so if you need that just send us an email.
We have released version 2.42 of MegaFiers, this brings a new modifier ‘Waving’. This allows you to quickly and easily animate waving objects such as flags, plants, ribbons etc. The effect of the wave will get greater the further away from the modifier center it gets, you have control over the wavelength, amplitude and phase of the wave, as well as being able to easily animate the effect. We have also fixed various bugs in the Multi Volume Select modifier and added a guide video for it as well as its own help page.
We have released another update for MegaFiers, this sees some additions to the spline system allowing some scaling curves to be used with the basic meshing options for splines. We have also fixed a parsing error in the MCC file importer for the point cache modifier and fixed a memory bug in the Max 2013 and 2014 versions of the Morph exporter. And finally we have added another vertex selection modifier this time a material based selection, this allows you to easily select the vertices to be deformed based on the material. The amount of deformation can be controlled as well as the amount to apply to the unselected vertices if needed. This selection modifier joins the other selection modifiers in the system which are vertex color, Volume and multi volume selection.
Did a quick update to MegaShapes to make the chain meshing option work for the rope system, and added an example chain to the Rope Scene.
A new version is available on the Asset Store and our web store, this mainly sees some bug fixes such as frame numbers not being entered correctly on the Morph and Point Cache Animator systems and the vert index slider on the wrap system trying to show one vertex too many. We have also added ‘Order’ values to the various vertex selection modifiers so if you need to change the order you can do so now, before only actual modifiers could have their order changed but now the vertex selection mods can as well. And finally we added in some missing values from the curve deform modifier that must have got lost in a code copy somewhere along the line.
The next update of the system will probably also see a small increase in price which will not effect existing customers but for anyone who is maybe sitting on the fence about a purchase just wanted to give advanced warning on that, the system has been out for nearly two years now and has grown from 16 modifiers to nearly 50 with numerous other systems, helpers and exporters.
Had an email about using MegaFiers to control the bending of playing cards in a game so decide to show how not only how the bend modifier could be used but also how the Bend Space warp could also be used to do the job even more easily.
The video link has been fixed to show the correct video now, thanks to Daniel Klepel for pointing that out.
We have updated the Mega Wrap feature in MegaFiers to allow non skinned meshes to be wrapped onto Skinned meshes, so this could be very useful for adding clothing or facial hair to your characters, this means you do no have to worry about skinning the objects you want to add to your character nor do you need to create the same deformations for the add on items that the base character uses.
We have just updated both MegaFiers and MegaShapes with improvements to the spline system used by both systems. We have added a simple Line Spline helper shape where you can define how many points you want the spline to made from, this is a nice easy starting point for creating new splines instead of trying to straighten out the other shapes. We have also added a beta of a constant speed bezier system for the spline interpolator, as you may have noticed with normal bezier splines you can get regions where where an object moving along the spline will speed up or slow down, this is due to uneven spacing of knots and knot handles of different lengths etc, this is usually not a problem and in most cases not really noticeable or objectionable but there are times when you do want constant speed along the spline for example deforming a mesh a long a spline or building lofts it is nice to have the option to not have the loft or mesh deform on say tight corners. So now each spline has the option to turn on Constant speed and with that there is a Calc Subdivs value per spline which you can increase or decrease to improve the accuracy of the constant speed interpolation, the default value is 10 which works for most cases, if you have very large gaps between knots then you may need to increase this.
We have also added the help pages for the Dynamic hose and the tracked vehicle systems and updated the MegaShape help pages. The simple loft layer in MegaShapes has also had a twist curve added to it.
We have just uploaded a small update to the plugin, this sees improvements to the KML/KMZ import system so that KML files with single placemarks will now work instead of producing very small or broken terrains. We have also change the mesh building pipeline for KML based terrains so the difference in scaling and size issues that were present have been removed and functions such as Zooming that did no work with kml based terrains will do so now. We have also change the limits on some of the params. And we have the first beta of the plugin for 2014 versions of Max.
We have fixed a bug in the Blender 2.66 shape key exporter which would cause an error if there was no animation data connected to the object, so if you are having errors when you export or finding the mor file is still in use when you try and import it into Unity email us for the updated exporter.
We have just updated MegaFiers to version 2.37, this sees a couple of bug fixes to the dynamic ripple and buoyancy scripts as well as the morph system having the missing limits option added in and small improvement to the mor import where empty morph channels will be ignored. We have also replaced the MoneyBookers payment option with the 2Checkout option to make it easier for customers outside the Paypal countries to purchase the systems.
And a little extra video showing the Skew modifier being used to provide a Toon speed effect to a wheel. The little extra script codeis below as well.
Version 2.35 of MegaFiers is available no win the Asset store and on our webstore. This brings some updates to the help pages with info on the spline to mesh options as well as help for the wrap system and animator systems. Unity 4 seemed to bring a bug with function names and animation events so we have added some unique methods to the animator systems so PlayClip etc can still be called as events. And we have added a new modifier, the Globe modifier can be used to deform objects so they will sit nicely on the surface of a sphere or cylinder. You can define the radius of the object and the axis of deformation. Once your object is deformed you can simply disable the system and be left with your deformed object.
We have just submitted a small update to the Asset Store which extends the Mega Wrap feature to allow skinned meshes to be wrapped onto deforming meshes or onto deformin skinned meshes, this now means for example if you are using morphs or blendshapes to do facial animation or for customizing your character you can easily swap say facial hair meshes and have those automatically deform along with the head so you dont need to create all the morphs for each facial hair object. This will also work for say clothing on an avatar, again just make all the clothing fit the base undeformed character mesh and then when wrapped the clothing will deform along with the avatar.
We have also added the option to use MoneyBookers to our online store so customers who can not use Paypal in their country and can choose the manual checkout option and make the payment via MoneyBookers.
Video showing the mega wrap system, we will be doing a video to show the skinned version just as soon as we have a good test mesh, if anyone has anything we can use then that would be great.
We have just submitted v2.33 of MegaFiers to the Asset Store and our web store. This sees a couple of minor improvements namely the ability to use a single Morph Animator component to control all morphs in the child objects as well as the ability to define clips in frames as well as seconds. The Point Cache animator also has this option now.
We are also working on adding a constant speed option to the spline system so for objects that follow splines or meshes that deform along them you will have better control over the issue of speeding up and down on complex splines, so expect that in the next update.
And we are nearly done on the the skinned version of the Skin Wrap feature so again keep an eye open for that update soon.
We have just submitted version 2.32 of MegaFiers to the Asset Store and our website. This sees some bugfixes in the MegaShapes meshing system and also a new selection modifier that extends the original Volume Select with a multi volume selection, so you can now easily define different regions of your model that will be deformed, we also added a new box volume type in case the sphere didn’t suit your needs. The volume positions can also be controlled by target objects, useful for pushing bulge effects along pipes etc. We have also added weighting values to the Volume Select and the Multi Volume select to give even better control over selection, and finally an option to freeze the current selection so it wont be calculated every frame if nothing changes.
Version 1.40 of MegaShapes has been submitted to the Asset Store and is also available onour website. This fixes problems when layers built on a loft surface extend past the start or end of an open surface, previously the mesh would loop back to to the start causing stretched meshes, it will now interpolate correctly past the ends. It also fixes filling in of splines when different axis are selected.
Just done a little promo video for MegaFiers that shows a few selected features of the system.
Due to numerous support requests about using the Path De-formers in MegaFiers for doing tank tracks etc, I thought it would be worthwhile adding a dedicated Tracked Vehicle system to MegaShapes, this system will position objects along a spline that defines the shape of the track making it very very fast as opposed to using the complex Path Deform modifier. The system also has a helper system to link automatically wheels to the track movement. The spline can be changed at any time so with some scripting you can do a simple raycast system to adjust the spline shape to the ground or use wheel colliders that position spline points etc. This is the first draft of this system and it will be available in the next update of MegaShapes.
We have also updated both MegaFiers and MegaShapes to incude the system above as well as some improvements to the Dynamic Hose system that was added not long ago.
This is the first look at our Terrain system running inside Unity. The system allows for easy generation of real world terrains from DEM data. The data is automatically streamed so all the user needs to do is input the coordinates of the place they would like to model and the terrain is generated. You can then scroll around and zoom in and out, or change the gradient coloring and when you are happy the system can be asked to turn the area into a Unity Terrain tile or multiple connected tiles.
This is an early test of the system, we have plenty more features to add as well as the texture grabbing option. The system is already available as a plugin for 3DS Max and comes with scripts to import the data into Unity but this extension to Unity will make life even easier for anyone needing to build real world terrains for simulations or games.
Another update has been released for MegaShapes and MegaFiers, this brings some small bug fixes mainly to the Hose system, but there are a couple of other fixes. Full details are below.
We have added the help page for the Hose system included in MegaFiers and MegaShapes as well as a video guide to the features of the system which can also be found below. The help page is Here
We have just released another update to MegaFiers, we noticed that the Maya blendshape animation playback was not always 100% correct so after some investigating it turns out Maya uses Hermite splines for its animation controllers as opposed to the Bezier type used by Max and Blender so we have added a Hermite Animation controller to the morphing system and updated the Maya exporter and import code so now all should be perfect in the world of Maya based animated blendshapes. You will need to update your Maya exporter as well.
Also in this update we have added some extra code to the Point Cache modifier importer to try and automatically fit more data, we had some reports of data not mapping and it seemed that some modifiers in Max were altering the object offset in the modifier stack so breaking the point cache mapping system, so an extra option has been added to the Point Cache inspector above the Load buttons called ‘Mapping Adjust’ If your point cache file gives a mapping failure error then try importing again with that option checked.
We have just released updates to both MegaFiers and MegaShapes, we have added the dynamic Hose system to the basic version of MegaShapes so you will find it in MegaFiers as well (a late Christmas present). Also in MegaFiers we have a couple of menu items and methods to help with using deformed objects in your scene, there is a ‘Mega Create Instance’ now which will copy the selected object into the scene but without all the MegaFier components and if you change the original object the instance object will also change, and to go with that we added ‘Mega Deep Copy’ which will allow copying of deformed objects in the scene and allow the copy to be deformed independently, we had this before but it didn’t work for Skinned deformed objects but now it does. We also fixed a bug in the Point Cache Animator system which stopped it working correctly and more importantly we found a bug in the Maya blendshape animation system which meant the playback could look wrong. If you are a Maya user then please do request the latest exporter and make sure to get the latest MegaFiers updates if you noticed errors in the animation playback.
The complete list of changes for each system are below:
A little teaser picture of a new feature we have just added to MegaShapes, there is also a video of the little demo running below, I will be posting a video showing the features in detail soon.
This video shows a quick demo scene to show of the new Hose feature we have added to MegaShapes, this allows you to link two objects with a flexible hose that will naturally bend and flow between the two connections. You have complete control over the mesh generation and can choose round, square or D Shaped hoses, and you can adjust the fillet radius for sharp corners. You can also define a region for corrugations and set the number of cycles and radius change. You can also set a bulge curve so you can simulate fluid flowing along the hose or inflating the hose.
The rail that the objects are moving along was also created using MegaShapes with the spline to mesh option, and a little extra script was written to generate the posts the splines rest on.
Here is the webplayer demo of the Professor MacSpeedee’s MegaFier Test Chamber in which he conducts research into procedural animation and deforming poor defenceless meshes in unimaginable ways. The demo also shows a Camera Cut Scene system for controlling the demo mode and the Camera system for implementing various camera types with shake and cross fading etc, if there is any interest the camera system could become a new asset. All the switches, dials, sliders, and Nixie tubes are controlled via custom scripts so they can be wired to controls, values etc.
F1 to F3 changes camera modes, with mouse and WASDEC keys changing the position and direction, mouse wheel will zoom, and cursor keys will change the camera targets. Space will toggle the Cut Scene demo mode and keys 1 to 4 will toggle various image effects.
The Mega Wrap system allows you to drive the deformation of one mesh from another meshes deformation. So for example if you have a character with clothes or facial hair it can be made to automatically morph along with the base character so you can swap in different meshes without having to setup the deformations or have morphing data for it.
We have also just released version 2.24 of MegaFiers, this brings the MegaWrap system as well as bug fixes to OBJ importing for morphing data that was broken by excessive error checking, and the Mega Copy Object will now work correctly with skinned meshes. Version 2.24 is available now on the web store page or the asset store.
We have just made available the beta of 3ds Max 2013 versions of the Terrain Plugin, you will find both 32 and 64 bit versions available in the demo and full version download packages, if you have already purchased the Terrain plugin you just need to submit your email address on the store page to get access to the new version. Also included in the full version of the plugin is the beta of the Unity scripts to allow easy importing of terrains generated by the plugin and its texture as well as allowing importing of Terragen files into Unity.
MegaFiers has been used to make Body XQ an amazing interactive educational program that teaches you about the human body and is available to try on the WebSite or you can download it to your iPhone or Android device and try it there. MegaFiers was used to do all the animation and morphing of the heart and its components and really shows what Unity and MegaFiers can do on all platforms with creative minds. Controls for the webplayer version are left mouse button to rotate, Space and mouse button to pan and Z and mouse button to zoom in, if you zoom in close the scene will change to show the inside workings and keep zooming to see more details.
MegaFiers has been used in a couple of games that have just been made available, first is Folk Tale a lovely fun looking game from GamesFoundry that has just been given the Green Light on Steam and is available for beta testing now at The Game Foundry Website, MegaFiers was used to do the facial animations and expressions of the characters. The second game is for iPhone and iPad and is called Frockets by which is side view Sonic style game based around a frog, the game is available in the App Store now, MegaFiers was used to animate the foliage found through out the game as well as animate the water.
We have just updated both MegaFiers and MegaGrabs. MegaFiers sees some optimizations to the stretch, taper and squeeze modifiers. Also hopefully in the next update the demo scene will see a makeover so keep an eye open for that. MegaShapes gets some optimizations to the Verlet Integrator for the rope system and we have added MegaGrab to the system as well.
We have just released an update for MegaShapes, this sees some bug fixes and some improvements to the rope system bringing it a little closer to Beta. We have added a Verlet integrator for the rope as well as the start of self collision and another meshing option where you can deform a custom mesh to the rope spline, this would allow you to have a complex mesh with multiple materials and may say eyelets at each end for example. A new test scene is also included in the package which will show of the rope systems and we will add more examples to this scene as features are added. A video of the test scene is below, nothing special yet but shows the self collision.
Very small update to MegaFiers submitted, fixes a bug in the helix shape helper that caused some handles to be incorrect, and improved the Make Prefab option a little, you will see errors in the editor when you make a prefab and on exiting play mode these can be ignored as it is a quirk of Unity to report mesh leaks with dynamic meshes in the editor. Full version History can be found Here.
And on another topic added some more customer feedback to the Comments page, thank you to anyone who has posted a review on the Asset Store it is nice to see it being useful, looking forward to seeing some more projects released using the system.
I have been doing some work on the rope system to slowly edge it towards beta. I have re written the core physics system and adding different integrators such as Verlet and VertetTC , I have also added self collision which was lacking from the previous version, a new system for calculating the transport frame to stop ugly twists in the mesh and adding new meshing options such as being able to use a custom mesh as the model to be deformed to the rope path, so you can build a rope mesh with eyelets or other additions, or model up a hose system for a robot and use that for rope, still lots to do but getting there. Quick grabs of rope test below. There will be an update hopefully early next week with the improved rope system in.
We have just submitted a new version of MegaFiers to the Asset store and to our webstore. This sees a few bug fixes and an improvement to the book builder script which will turn of MegaFiers on pages that do not need updating this will boost performance nicely especially on mobile devices. We have also add an option to the GameObject menu to easily create prefabs from MegaShape meshes and objects, and finally there is now an option in the Mgea Modify Object inspector to disable the deformation update on objects that are not seen, so the system will automatically disable any updates when the object becomes invisible to the camera and will re enable it when it again becomes visible, by default this is on for each object and you can disable it for whatever reason you need to do so. This release also sees the alpha release of Mega Wrap which is a system where you can drive a deformation on one mesh from another, so for example if you have your character with a lot of morphs and you also have clothes or facial hair etc then it you apply the Mega Wrap component to that object and then select the deforming object as the target the system will automatically deform your object along with the target so your clothes and facial hair will stay positioned and deform nicely. Expect a video on this system very soon.
A new version of MegaShapes is in the Asset Store now, this sees some minor bug fixes as well as a Create Prefab system added to the Game Object menu to allow you to easily create prefabs from your loft objects, you can either leave all the components in place so allowing editing of the params when used in the game later or delete all the MegaShape components leaving just the mesh and then create the prefab so leaving you with a nice simple mesh object to use. This update also sees the addition of the freshly rewritten rope and chain system, this code is still in alpha and lacks all the features we have planned and has not been thoroughly tested yet but it is there for anyone who is keen to take a look and try it out, the next update will see docs for this and videos on its use, and just to remind anyone who is thinking of maybe buying the system that the price will be returning to its full price when the rope and chain system comes out of beta so a little time yet to get in and beat the price rise.
Some videos showing the rope and chain system in action. You can also try web player demos of the Rope and the Chain Press O for options, mouse and buttons to move around, rope and chain are off to the left in the demos.
I have been doing some custom scripts for Unity to make using the data generated by the plugin very easy. It allows easy importing of the elevation data and will apply the texture if you want it to, you can scroll around the data, zoom in and the texture will move correctly etc, you can also change the terrain detail level. If anyone has any suggestions or features please do let me know. A video of the new system is below.
We have done a couple of updates today, this adds in support for the SXL file format for splines and to go along with that thanks to Daniel Brosnan we have available an exporter for Maya that will export bezier curves to the SXL format for use by MegaShapes the exporter is written in Python so will work for PC and Mac for versions of Maya 2011 and above. Also the for the Path deform modifiers you can now select a sub curve to deform along if the shape has more than one spline. If you need the exporter just send us an email with your purchase details for the either MegaFiers or MegaShapes and we will get the exporter sent of to you as soon as possible.
As a little break from support requests I played some more with the Unity Terrain system and our Terrain plugin. The grabs below are all from one terrain exported from the system to Unity.
You may have noticed on the side bar that a section called ‘Terrain Plugin’ appeared recently, this is a non Unity plugin for 3ds max to generate terrains for virtually anywhere on the Earth and texture them. I did originally think about playing with terrains in Unity as well so after adding a custom export feature from the plugin to a custom Unity Terrain file format and doing some editor scripts to read the data we can now easily and quickly generate some nice looking real world terrains, the example below is of Pikes Peak and was built with just a few clicks in Max and then a few more in Unity. Click the image for a larger view. More info on the Plugin can be found at http://www.west-racing.com/mf/?page_id=2979
Mad professor MacSpeedee has created a test chamber to conduct his research into procedural animation and deforming poor defenseless meshes in unimaginable ways.
This Video shows the new tutorial scene we have created for future video guides to the MegaFiers system, Tony has been busy creating a nice SteamPunk scene and it was fun coding up the switches and dials code which is based on the car wiring system we use in our driving sims. This demo also features an all new camera system with various modes such as free, orbit, path based cameras as well as a Cut Scene manager so recorded cameras can be played back and mixed in any order etc.
I have just submitted to the Asset Store and to our web store some updates for MegaFiers and MegaShapes, this is a small update but brings improvements to the editing of Splines in the editor so no longer do scaled or rotated splines cause issues when dragging handles about, also SVG import will now use the Axis value to orientate the imported splines to that selected axis.
Been working on a new fun Tutorial scene for some new videos, again Tony has worked his magic in creating a fun little test area in a Steam-punk style and I have had just as much fun making it all work. There will be a video along showing of the new scene maybe tonight but certainly over the weekend sometime, until then a little teaser pic is below.
We have done some fixes to the Maya Blendshape exporter which makes it a lot less likely to give mapping failures especially for skinned characters. So if you are having problems with the Maya exporter please do get in touch with the version of Maya you are using and whether it is the 64 or 32 bit version as well as your invoice number from the Asset Store or transaction id from the web store and we will get the new exporter sent you as soon as possible.
Just been having a play with the lovely TTF Text system from Computer Dreams and it works very nicely alongside MegaFiers, so if you are wanting a very flexible 2D or 3D font and text system and you you want that text to be deformed at any time, maybe bend it around a tyre or make it deform along a path or stretch and squash it, then check out TTF Text. You can change your text at any time, change the font, the extrusion amount, the bevel amount, slant, outline etc etc and then have it deform by a MegaFiers modifier.
No updates this time though we are working on a very handy new addition to MegaFiers which will open up some interesting new options for the system especially for Avatar systems etc. But we have added a Demo section to the main menu bar on the left, we will be adding more of demos here as they become available, currently there are two to try in the there, the old Playroom demo and the MegaFlier demo but more will be added over the coming months. So if you haven’t already seen the demos either click the images below or the Demo link on the menu bar.
Press ‘H’ to get the help page up for the controls.
F1 to F4 changes camera modes, with mouse and WASDEC keys changing the position and direction, mouse wheel will zoom, F8 toggles dynamic curtains, and cursor keys will change the camera targets.
There is a new version of MegaFiers in the on-line store, version 2.16 brings a new meshing option to splines, Ribbon to add to the Fill, Tube and box modes, this will produce a flat ribbon along the spline with options to rotate and have multiple twisted ribbons like the other modes, useful for roads. A UV Offset options has also been added to the meshing options and pivot offset works for all modes now so you can easily position the mesh relative to the spline.
Another small update to MegaShapes is in the store now. Version 1.25 brings a new meshing option, Ribbon to add to the Fill, Tube and box modes, this will produce a flat ribbon along the spline with options to rotate and have multiple twisted ribbons like the other modes, useful for roads. A UV Offset options has also been added to the meshing options and pivot offset works for all modes now so you can easily position the mesh relative to the spline.
Version 1.24 of MegaShapes is in the Asset Store now or for direct purchase from the Store Since the last update posted here the we have greatly improved the SVG importer making it compatible with all the SVG files we have around, so you can now easily edit your splines in say Illustrator or Gimp and bring them into MegaShapes with a couple of clicks. We have also added distance modes to the walk loft and shape follow systems to make it easier to use for some users, the help pages have also been done for those systems so just right click on the inspector bar for the component in Unity and select Help to see the breakdown of the params etc. We have also added a simple example script to show how an object can be moved along a Shape Follow using keys and the new distance mode. There is also the new Outline and scaling system included in this update.
I have just submitted a new version to the Asset Store, seems I have not posted about the other releases since 2.10. The system now has a SVG importer for bringing in Splines from packages such as Illustrator for use by MegaShapes. The MorphOMatic morpher has had its channel limits fixed and the Path Deform modifiers have an extra Up param so if you get twisting of meshes on your paths you can alter the up value used in the transport frame to help fix that.
The spline system included with MegaShapes is seeing some new features, as well as the SVG importer you can now apply scaling to the spline in a correct way, so if you scale the spline object using Unitys scale transform you can click the Scale button on the Spline inspector to appy that scaling correctly to the spline and reset the local scale of the object. We have also added an Outline option to you can create a new spline to be the outline of an existing spline and change the distance of the outline easily, I will add a video of these new features soon. Splines can now also be reversed by clicking the reverse button.
We have figured out a work around for the exporters for 3DS Max 2013 and have beta exporters available so if you need one just email us saying if you need the 32 or 64 bit version and don’t forget your invoice number 
Thanks to Unity adding us to the Beta testing of Unity 4.0 I can now say that MegaFiers and MegaShapes are fully compatible with Unity 4.0 and work just fine, and we are looking at the new features in Unity 4.0 to see if we can bring even better performance to the system.
New version of MegaFiers and MegaShapes are in the AssetStore now, this improves the SVG importer greatly and fixes a few bugs, MegaFier users will now also benefit from the new meshing options for turning your splines into meshes via the tube and box extrude options. New features coming soon to the spline system will be hole support and for MegaShapes we are working on new loft layer options and new systems to allow easier creation of complex mesh levels along splines, videos coming soon. The changes to MegaFiers can be found on it’s Version History page and the same for MegaShapes it’s Version History page.
The meshing options in MegaShapes have been extended to include two new methods of tube and box. This allows you to turn splines into tubes or lines as well as extruded boxes very easily. Ends can be capped if the full length of the spline is not used and the extrudes can have multiple strands to build rope type meshes. These new meshing options can also be found in the version of MegaShapes that is included in the MegaFiers system.
This tutorial shows the new SVG import feature so you can build your paths in packages such as Illustrator and import them into the system. The system also includes support for importing animated splines directly from 3DS Max through a custom exporter. The other feature shown in the video is the Shape Follow system, which allows you to easily move objects along a spline or along multiple splines using weights to define the end path. This makes it easy to have for example lots of camera paths in your game and smoothly move the camera from one to another.
Version 2.11 of MegaFiers is in the Asset store, this adds an option to limit the number of channels displayed in the morph inspector to avoid any slow down due to a complex inspector, and also added is the start of SVG import for easily bringing in your shapes and splines from packages such as Photoshop and Illustrator into MegaFiers.
Version 1.21 of MegaShapes has just been submitted to the Asset Store. This sees some bug fixes, as well as the inclusion of some more assets for the MegaMoo tutorial scenes such as jump models, trees, and some more textures for you to play with.
Some of the core systems have also been optimized so everything runs a little faster with more to come in that area. Also added a rotate value to the walk loft system so add more control over your objects, as well as an offset value to the Shape Follow system so if multiple splines are used you can control the start point of each one, there will be a video very soon showing that system and the other new additions to the system.
Finally I have started the SVG importer so you can now build your splines in Photoshop or Illustrator etc and export them to SVG for use by the system. The importer supports most of the features of the SVG file format and what it doesn’t will be added soon.
Just playing around with MegaShapes tutorial scene and some of Tony’s art work.
This tutorial shows how you can get animated morphed characters from Daz3D into Unity using MegaFiers. You just need to have a copy of Max, Maya or Blender and a copy of the MegaFiers exporter. The process is simple, you export the object from Daz to a Collada file and then import that into Max, Maya or Blender, and from there you use the MegaFiers exporter to get the morph data and animations into Unity. This process will also work for other 3d editors such as Cinema 4D, Lightwave etc that do not currently have a custom MegaFiers exporter.
In the forth tutorial for MegaShapes we will use the Duplicate Layer and Copy options to make a second fence quickly, also the Walk Loft system will be shown which is a way you can easily position and move your objects or characters over a MegaShapes surface.
I have just submitted v2.10 to the asset store, this sees some optimizations to the path deform modifiers as well as adding Tube and Box options to the spline meshing, this allows you to turn your splines in to mesh lines with options to cap the ends, change the radius of the rube or the dimensions of the box as well as allowing for multi-stranded meshes to be created with twisting options to form rope type meshes like in the picture in the previous blog post.
Another day another update to MegaShapes, this sees some bug fixes. Firstly you can now freely move your loft objects around and if the layers using the object have ‘realtime’ on then the layers will move, sclae, rotate correctly as you change the base object. This might have the effect on exiting lofts of rotating clone layers by 180 so they appear upside down, if so just change the x valeu in the tmrotate to 180, I would suggest doing a backup of your project before updating.
Copying Loft Objects will now work correctly instead of layers sticking to the original surface they will now stick to the new one.
I will be adding more systems over the coming week such as a system similar to the Path Deform modifier found in MegaFiers this will make it easy to build a long mesh out of mesh components then feed that along a spline and maybe onto a surface. You can pretty much do this with the Clone Layers but just to have the option will be nice. Also the first part of the rope system has been added, you can build multistranded ropes along splines by selecting the mesh option and then a mesh type of ‘tube’, I will be doing a video to show this and other new features very soon. The physics update of the rope will also be added soon.
Also with the addition of the dynamic rope and other systems the price will revert from the introductory price of $100 back to its normal price of $150 so if you plan on getting the system get it before the price change, probably the end of the month.
MegaShapes v1.16 is in the Asset store now, this quick update adds a box mode to the spline to mesh options so now providing a choice to either fill the shape or build a tube along it or a box section. The Walk Loft helper has had a vertical offset value to make it easier to control objects whose pivot is not at the correct place on an object. And I have added a MegaShapeFollow component which allows you to easily move objects along shapes, you can select any number of shapes for an object to follow and have weights for each shape to you can smoothly transition from one shape to another or mix together a dozen shapes to form a final path.
Version 1.15 of MegaShapes has been submitted to the Asset Store. This updates sees some improvements to the workflow so you can now duplicate layers in a loft so for example if you are putting a fence on a surface you can now just hit the ‘duplicate’ button to copy the layer and then slide it across. A delete button has also been added.
The spline to mesh system has been enchanced now with the option to either fill the shape to make a mesh or to turn the shape into a tube/line, you can define the radius of the mesh, the number of sides and the start and length as well as cap the ends. The option also allows you do define multi strands with twisting useful for ropes. More meshing options are coming soon such as box and line options which can be used for say tank tracks.
A ‘tangent’ option has been added the to Loft Object which allows you to tell the system how far to look ahead when it calculates the forward vectors for the loft allowing you to add more variation to your lofts or to increase the accuracy to make tight corners nicer. And finally the Walk Loft helper which allows you to easily move your game objects over the surface of a loft has had a smoothing value added. I will hopefully be doing a video today to show of the new features in this update.
I have just submitted version 2.09 of MegaFiers to the Asset Store, this updates fixes some issues in the animation systems as well as adding very early WIP versions of the Collision Deform and Tree Bend modifiers I have been playing with, feel free to play with the code of these, while they are in Alpha there will be no docs or support for them as they are subject to change etc and have known limitations and issues but users have asked for the code so here it is.
Version 2.06 of MegaFiers and version 1.13 of MegaShapes have been submitted to the Asset Store. This sees some additions to the spline system to allow for easier creation of splines from scripts and an Auto Smooth feature for splines so you can easily now just provide an array of positions and tell the system to create a spline from it. More information can be found on the MegaShapes API page Also all the helper shapes have their own help pages on the site now.
Also the Warps in MegaFiers all now have custom inspectors and all the help pages are now done explaining all the params for each warp.
The Attach system in MegaFiers has been updated to work with skinned meshes. This now allows for an easy system for attaching items to your deforming characters, so as you alter your characters by making them fatter, thinner etc any weapon, clothing, backpack attachment points will automatically adjust so that your items sit perfectly on the new character. Another use is for keeping objects such as eyes and teeth correctly positioned on a face animation system. his makes building avatar systems a lot easier and leads to much more pleasing end results.
Also version 2.05 has been submitted to the Asset Store the changes are:
Amazing how things add up we have over 100 videos on our Unity Youtube channel most of which are highlighting features of the MegaFiers system, followed by an ever growing number showcasing MegaShapes and the rest showing other Unity experiments.
This video shows you how you can link a morph channel to a gameobject or bone so that you can automatically animate muscle bulges or facial distortions or anything at all.
I have finally found a little time to update the dynamic ripple modifier to make it easier to use and fix some of the errors the old version was giving out, the new version will be in the asset store later today, and there will be a proper doc page describing the settings and use going up soon as well.
This tutorial guides you through using the Dynamic Ripple modifier to create a swimming pool scene and rain drops. It then adds a floating object to the scene using the Buoyancy script in the system. The help page as also been added for the system at The Dynamic Ripple Page as well as the Curve Sculpt Layered help page.
We would really like to put together a little showcase of projects that have used MegaFiers or MegaShapes so if you have created something using our system we would love to see a grab or a video. If you do have something you can show then please do send us a link or a screenshot and we will create a little gallery of projects. To get the ball rolling this project used MegaFiers for its mesh deformations and animations and its drag-able picture gallery.
A new version of MegaFiers v2.03 has been submitted to the asset store, this sees a few bug fixes and improvements over version 1.98
In the third tutorial video we will use the Clone layer to add a fence on top of the grass surface we built in the previous videos. The video covers selecting the surface to build on, using mesh objects for start, end and repeating parts of a fence. It also covers the various params you have to control the positioning of the fence and adjusting its look.
The second video takes you through the more advanced params for the layer, such as the end capping, the start and length values for using sub sections of the path and cross section splines, and then on to the Offset and scaling curves to tweak and alter the look of the loft easily and finally ending on the cross section transform controls.
At the end of the video you should be able to see how the Simple Loft layer works and then be ready to use that layer as a surface to build on. The next tutorial will show how to add a Clone Layer to build a fence along this surface.
The first MegaShapes Tutorial video will guide you through the creation of a simple loft layer. Starting with creating simple shapes and editing them to the creation of the loft object and setting of the params to build the loft. It then goes on to show how 3DS Max shapes can be used and then showing some of the more advanced features of the Simple Loft Layer.
Little video showing MegaShapes the spline based mesh building and lofting system for Unity 3D running on a Samsung Galaxy Tablet with some layers updating in real time.
Just in case you missed the tweets etc, MegaShapes is in our Store now at an early adopter reduced price. The price will go to its normal value when more of the planned features are added in.
There have already been some updates to the system and I am busy adding in the old scatter system as a layer to the system. An old video of that system can be seen below, click the image to play the video.
The all new MegaShapes system will be submitted to the Asset Store today, the MegaShapes section of the website is undergoing a bit of a reshuffle and a rewrite with the help pages for the new systems being added. As this is the first release the price of the system on the Asset Store is reduced to $100, as with MegaFiers many more systems, loft layers and features are planned for MegaShapes such as the addition of the rope and chain system, the full scatter to spline shapes, a hose system for joining objects, will be added to MegaShapes over the coming weeks. Some point during that time the price will go to the normal price of $150 so get in early. If you have any features you would like to see added or suggestions then please do email us or post a comment below. MegaShapes was born out of systems we are using for our game project so there must be many features we haven’t even thought about.
If you would like to see some videos of some of the features of the new MegaShapes system then a playlist can be found on our Youtube MegaShapes Playlist
A new version of MegaFiers has been submitted to the asset store, this sees a few little changes as well as getting the MegaShapes system included in MegaFiers using the new improved MegaShapes Pro code for some of its systems. I have now also made it easier to make copies of objects with modifiers on that can be used independently with two new buttons on the Modify Object inspector panel. The list of changes for v1.98 are below. MegaShapes is very close for a beta release to the Asset Store so keep checking back for when that goes up.
Version 1.97 in the Asset Store now. This release sees the inclusion of the new Curve Sculpt modifier which gives an amazing amount of control over a deformation, it makes use of layers so allowing many different curves to be applied in different ways, and allows each layer to be used on the whole mesh or confined to a user defined region. The shape system has seen a little work as a result of the work being done on MegaShapes, both systems will share a common shapes core so as more work is done on MegaShapes the MegaFiers shape system will see some of the benefits for free.
I have also added a WIP script to allow FFD lattice points to be animated via the Unity Animation system. To use add the FFD Animate script to an object with a FFD modifier on it, and when you are wanting to setup an animation make sure the ‘Record’ box is checked, and then un check it when you are finished recording. The one issue with the system is Unity seems very very slow recording for objects with a lot of exposed params, playback is no problem though.
In my own, very quiet, version of the Unity NinjaCamp (just me) I added a new modifier to the MegaFiers suite, this one is a Curve Sculpt modifier which gives a lot of control to the artist. This video is a first look at the WIP modifier that will be in the next update of MegaFiers, this allows you to sculpt the entire mesh or regions of it with curves, this allows for complete control over the deformation and an easy way to deform just parts of a mesh. This would be the ideal base for say an Avatar customizing system or vehicle upgrades such as flared arches or bonnet bulges. The system works of a layer based approach and each layer can be disabled and also its contribution to the end result can be weighted so allowing even finer control over customizing a mesh in a game.
Added a couple more videos to the tutorial series this time the Twist and Hump modifiers.
I have just submitted version 1.92 to the Asset Store, this doesnt bring much new but does see a complete reworking of the Undo system, this makes life a lot nicer when tweaking the modifiers, shapes, ffd lattices etc. I have also started a new modifier. This is a Collision Deform modifier which can be used to squeeze objects through others, or flatten objects against walls, or leave marks behind on surfaces. The system will eventually allow you to specify bulging and falloff amounts, and whether the deformation slowly or quickly returns.
This is the fith video on MegaShapes and shows the lofters Rule based complex clone Layer. This layer allows you to combine any number of objects together using simple rules such as start and end, filler, placed and regular rules. So with this layer you could easily build a wall with trees and gates mixed in and the odd house etc,
This is the forth video on MegaShapes and shows the lofters Complex Loft Layer. This layer allows multiple cross section splines to be used along a path to build a surface.
Another day another post. Today sees the third video in the MegaShapes introduction series, this time it is the Simple Loft Scatter layer which allows meshes to be scattered over a lofted surface. Also today a small update to MegaFiers was submitted to the asset store, this sees a bug fix in the Mega Copy Object system that meant copied morphed objects were not working quite right, this is now fixed, and also I have added collider support for the 2d Wave Mesh object which can be seen in the video below.
This is the second video on MegaShapes and shows the lofters Simple Clone Layer. This allows a mesh to be built from a start, middle and end mesh and be applied to a loft surface. This is useful for railings, or fence type objects.
This is the first video to show the features of the upcoming MegaShapes system for Unity 3D. This system allows you to use shapes/splines to build meshes inside Unity. The system includes methods to turn splines to meshes and an advanced lofting system that is layer based to allow you to build complex meshes quickly and procedurally. Everything can be updated in realtime, and can be animated. If you alter a spline that is being used by a loft the loft will automatically update if required.
The loft system uses an advanced layer approach allowing you to mix different types of lofts into a single mesh. Upcoming videos will show the different types of loft layers, this video shows the simplest layer in the system which is a simple extrude of one spline along another line but even this layer can produce some very nice meshes or game levels.
I have put the old MegaFiers Playroom demo up finally. Click the link below to try it, again not much to do but look around and again you will need a good system as went mad with post effects etc. There are a few modifiers running in the scene, balloons are deformed in various ways, bend used on the projector slide, noise on a ball and path deform for the train. Cameras fly around on Mega Shapes etc.
F1 to F4 changes camera modes, with mouse and WASDEC keys changing the position and direction, mouse wheel will zoom, F8 toggles dynamic curtains, and cursor keys will change the camera targets.
I have just submitted version 1.88 to the Asset store. This version sees major improvements to the FFD modifiers with up to 4 times speed increase as well as easier to use editing of the lattice points with position handles, size of handles and mirroring of the inputs. The FFD lattice will now fit around the current selection if there is one but if that is not desired you can select in the context menu to fit the lattice to the entire mesh.
The Copy Object system has been improved and you can now copy an object and all its children if you like via the GameObject menu options of Mega Copy Object or Mega Copy Hier, this makes creating copies of deformed objects a lot easier.
Other changes include morphs can now have channel values outside of 0 to 100 range, and rubber modifier allows for a another object to drive the effect. I have also added the beta of the Morph Link system which allows you to link morph channel percents to bone or object transforms, this makes things like muscle bulges very easy to do, you just add the component to an object and choose whether you want the morph driven from the rotation, position or scale and from which axis and choose the morph and channel to drive and that’s it, so if your animated character bends his elbow you can automatically have a bicep morph change, or setup a complete rig of controls to drive avatar systems etc. This is a work in progress so any ideas or suggestions please do share.
The sharp eyed may have noticed that there is now a simple forum added to the site so if you have any questions, suggestions, tips or anything to show off then please do use it. The link to the forum can be found on the left side bar.
Just done a few more tutorial videos, these cover Cylindrify, Noise and the powerful FFD set. The FFD set of modifiers has been rewritten and heavily optimized so now the FFD 4x4x4 runs 4 times faster for example, I have also added some editing tools such as mirror lattice point movements so editing shapes is easier, and added back in position handles. Other upcoming changes are improvements to the cyclindrify modifier and the Rubber modifier now allows you to pick which object to use to drive the simulation, this is handy for skinned meshes where the root node may not be the one with the mesh attached. More improvements and features are coming.
This tutorial takes you through the features of the Bulge Modifier.
This tutorial takes you through the features of the Stretch Modifier.
This tutorial takes you through the features of the Bend Modifier.
This tutorial shows you how you can attach objects of any kind to a MegaFiers deforming mesh in Unity3D. This means that it is now easy to attach objects such as other meshes, lights, particle systems to your deforming objects. You just need to use the helper system included in the latest release of MegaFiers.
The latest version of MegaFiers v1.85 has just been submitted to the Asset Store this version brings two new beta modifiers in the dynamic water and the webcam displace modifiers. It also sees improvements to the Morph and Point Cache animation systems that now allow you to automatically sync the animations to the current playing Unity Animation clip. Some handy tools have also been added such as a Mesh Deep copy so you can create a new version of a mesh object and apply modifiers without it changing the original, and also a Copy Objects tool so if you have an object with a lot of modifiers on you can copy it using the new tool and have a totally separate entity, before the Unity mesh reference system would not allow you to do this. This will also be useful for users who have trouble with the prefab system and will allow them to work around duplicating an object in the scene with a function call.
Note, some files have been moved around in this update so if you get errors about duplicate classes remove the offending files from the MegaFier Test Scene/Scripts folder. You wont have any problems if it is a fresh import of the system into a new project etc.
I will be doing some videos to show off how to use the new features very soon.
The MegaFlier Demo, click the image below to launch, Press H for help. Press Tab to lock the cursor so you can control the cameras, F1 to F4 changes the camera mode and cursor keys change the camera targets and the mouse will rotate the view in most modes. There isn’t much to do but look but it was a quick demo and is meant as a teaching aid not a full game demo. You will need a good system to run this with preferably Shader 3.0 support, it uses a few post process image effects and the particle system is quite hefty, so be warned.
The lighting in the demo is using the new Light Probe lighting with HDR and Tone mapping, and all the smoke trails etc are done with the new Shuriken particle system. The camera system is a custom system which allows for various transition modes, multiple targets and different styles of cameras. The demo currently has no MegaFier deformations as it meant as a blank canvas to be used to show what each modifier can do in turn in a series of video tutorials.
A little video showing the new demo scene for the upcoming MegaFier tutorial video series. All the models and artwork were done by Tony and coding by me. There will be a webplayer of this uploaded soon to play with.
A little teaser pic taken from the new demo scene Tony and I have put together that will be used in the upcoming MegaFiers tutorial video series that will highlight each modifier and each param. Click the image for a larger version.
First test of a floating rigid body system linked to the Dynamic Water modifier in MegaFiers for Unity. Works quite nicely but I think I can improve things, but the Dynamic water modifier has a method to get the water height for a given point and methods for adding forces to the water, so anyone can code their own interaction scripts for the system.
This is a quick demo of the dynamic water modifier soon to be added to the MegaFiers mesh deformation and animation system for Unity. You can draw disturbances onto the water with the mouse or by finger gestures or any other kind of input, you just need to call a method and provide an x and y position and a force and the system will do the rest. You can control the damping of the system, the input forces and the overall scale of the effect, as well as defining the size of the simulation grid.
The system will work on any mesh and any shape but best results are obtained with a mesh that has been regularly gridded up. The system runs nicely with the grid in the system using 6ms to run on a single core of a 2.8Ghz CPU.
The system supports obstructions and these can be drawn onto a grid and the level of obstruction can be defined per grid element.
Soon to be added will be support for floating rigid bodies as well defining varying amounts of damping in different areas.
Version 1.85 is getting close to release. This version will include the Webcam version of the displacement modifier and also the Beta version of the Dynamic Water system. I have also extended the Morph and Point Cache Animator systems so they can be told to link to the main Unity animation. So if you change the Unity animation clip playing the morph and point cache animations will automatically match, so now you don’t need to script any changes to get morphs and point caches playing back. You just need to create the clips as before and setup the timings and check the Linked Update box.
I have also added a Mega Copy Mesh menu item to the Game Object menu, this will allow you to duplicate a mesh in the scene and break the instance connection so you can add different modifiers to it and not have it change the original.
I have updated the MegaFiers exporter for Maya to now also export the BlendShape animation data. This now allows Maya users to take full advantage of Mayas animation systems to build their BlendShape animations and quickly and easily get those into Unity.
This is version of two of the Dynamic water modifier, the physics has been optimized and the simulation core improved to give more control and a nicer simulation. Obstacle support has been added and the system will support dynamic obstacles and wake generation.
This is the first test of a dynamic ripple/water modifier for the Unity3D MegaFiers system. This will allow interaction with the fluid from objects or external actions such as a finger gesture. This is just the first test, the quality and features will be improved and added to. Currently you can control the force with which you interact with the fluid, the number of elements making up the fluid sim, the damping and the wave height as well as the axis the wave moves on. The system will work with any shape mesh not just squares or rectangles. I plan on adding configurable barriers and a better wake simulation.
A little video showing how the basic MegaShapes can be used to make meshes in Unity. Meshes can be constructed from splines and then be extruded to any height, the smoothness of the mesh can be adjusted as can all the uv mapping info. The splines can be edited and the mesh update in realtime, also the splines can be imported from 3DS Max and the system also supports animated meshes from max.
Taylor Moore from http://www.veryseriousgames.com/ has just sent me a link to a very charming little test demo he has done using MegaFiers to drive the animations on his character. It makes use of a Bend and an animated Wave modifier to provide the motion to the character. Click the image below to launch the demo.
This is a quick video to show a very early test of some of the basic layers available in the Lofting system included in the MegaShapes package. The system allows for meshes to be created by lofting a cross section spline along a path spline, each loft can have multiple layers allowing you to build up complex meshes. The system will also allow multiple cross sections to be used as well as using meshes for example to build crash barriers along a lofted track.
Everything in the video is procedurally generated and the positions of fences or blocks etc can be altered in realtime, as well as the splines that make the cross sections or the paths making for some very interesting possibilities for game level design.
MegaShapes is getting closer to release which means Tony is busy making it look nice, little teaser pic so fresh from his paint box the paints still wet.
I have been buys lately on extending the MegaShapes system ready to be released as it’s own product (MegaFiers will continue to include the basic version). The new MegaShapes will, like MegaFiers, expand over time to a complete system for all things spline or curve based, so such things as general spline code for path following complete with controller for moving objects along curves such as cameras, as well as an exporter for Max for getting your ready made shapes from there into Unity complete with their animations.
MegaShapes will also include turning shapes into meshes with options for extruding the shape but the real power of the new system will come from the advanced systems such as the lofter. The lofter allows for you to use shapes together to create complex meshes, such things as tubes and racetracks. The lofting system makes use of a layer system so different lofts can be combined to create even more complex and useful meshes and various different types of layers are available such as the basic loft a shape a long another shape, or cloning of objects along a path to form fences or barriers, to complex lofts with any number of cross sections being allowed to give fine control over the mesh. And this combined with the ability to map layers such as the clone to other loft surfaces so objects are automatically aligned to the ground.
All the systems are fast enough to be updated at runtime for dynamic animated surfaces and this also allows for meshes to be generated at runtime with different params based on the power of the system your game is running on. And the amount of options provided for each layer gives you total control over all aspects of the generated meshes from vertex counts, to uv mapping, to alignment settings. I will be posting more info on this system as we get closer to release but to start you can view the very early development shots in this post to get a little idea about what is to come. Many more systems to add and new loft layers to do so keep checking back. Will be doing some videos soon and we are busy working on a fun little game that uses MegaShapes for its game levels, Tony has performed his magic again to really create something very special.
I have just submitted version 1.83 to the Asset store which sees a fair few changes and bug fixes, the list is below. There is a new modifier added called Squeeze, this is a work in progress modifier so is subject to change. The MegaShapes system has seen a make over and you can no triangulate your shapes and extrude them, more is coming on this system. Other new feature is the addition of helper windows for adding shapes or modifiers. More info on these features can be found in earlier posts on this blog page.
I have also bundled in the MegaGrab system as a belated Christmas present to users of the system you can find more info on the MegaGrab Page.
Complete list of changes for version 1.83 can be found below or on the Version History Page
A quick video of the boolean feature that will be in the upcoming MegaMesh system. It allows multiple meshes to be combined with the usual boolean operations of intersection, union and difference so you can punch holes in buildings or build complex shapes from simple primitives or whatever else grabs your fancy, it will even uv map the intersections for you. Still a few issues to iron out but it is very close now.
Click the image below to see the video.
Just getting the next release of MegaFiers together and thought I would put up a quick grab of a couple of new features of the new version, you can see there are now Windows for the MegaShapes and MegaFier systems to make adding bits easier, you also dont have to worry about adding a ModifyObject component first that will happen automatically when you add a Modifier.
The MegaShape system has seen a bit of work as well with a new look to the spline knots and handles and a new system for editing the positions which make life a lot easier as well as a cursor based system for adding new knots just where you want them. Also you will see the new MegaShape mesher so you can turn your splines into meshes in different ways for example you can choose to build a line, or tubes or fill in the shape all with uv mapping options and numerous other options, this is a work in progress with a lot more features being added so get your requests in now.
A sneak peek at my first experiments with using FumeFX with Unity, the flow lines seen in the image are real time flow lines around obstacles and make use of the data calculated by FumeFX to allow for very fast simulation in Unity of particles or whatever in a scene using a super fast custom physics solution. So for example if a car is driving along a leaf covered road the leaves could be made to react to the turbulence of the car, or a simulation of mountain updrafts and wind eddies could be used for a base jumping game, or a virtual wind tunnel could be simulated or for more normal uses such as smoke through contained volumes or tornado simulations.
I have just submitted version 1.82 to the Asset store, this version sees some general tidying up with more modifiers getting a makeover for their custom inspectors and also all modifiers should link to their correct help pages on the web site. I have also removed all errors for compiling to a Flash target but it seems the first release of 3.5 has a bug when serializing meshes so projects will build but until Unity do an update they wont run, all other targets aren’t effected. Other changes are the ability to set the detail level for the gizmos and an update to the book helper script to use local coords and rotations instead of world space values so you can position and rotate the completed book as you like and a fix to the Morph-O-Matic max exporter which fixes the non export of non triangle based meshes. More information can be found on the Version History page and be sure to check out the customer feedback page.
Just submitted version 1.78 to the Asset store. This version sees some tidying up the inspectors for the modifiers as well as relinking the help page for each modifier to the new website, and in case you didn’t know you can get help on part of the system by right clicking the Inspector title bar for the component and click ‘Help’ as seen in the picture, this will open your browser and show the help page for that item where you can see what all the params do and maybe see example videos or tips.
I also included the Beta versions of a couple of new modifiers, Curve Deform and Rope Deform. Curve Deform is a simple 2D deform based on a user defined curve, so this could be handy for putting humps in a snake or making a undulating piece of road as you can see in the picture (click to enlarge). This is a good alternative to the Path Deform modifier if your effect is only happening in one plane.
The other beta modifier added is an extension of the curve deform and is a something I call a Rope Deform, again it is a 2D curve based modifier but this time the curve shape is driven by a Verlet Physics system, so can be used for doing rope bridges or ropes or banners or anything where you want a droopy physics based effect. This modifier will be added to to allow adding of user defined constraints ie locking a points etc. Due to the system using a Verlet integrator the simulation is very stable and you can go from very stretchy to very very stiff with no issues. You have control over the number of masses in the systems and the stiffness of the system. Click the image to show the options on this modifier.
A demo of the chain and rope system that will become part of a new package soon. Click the image to start, Esc key will bring up a menu with a few options to play with, left and right buttons for moving around the scene and E & C to raise and lower the camera.
Added a new physics based modifier that can do rope bridges and other such objects.
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