Puppets 'n' Stairs
Does anyone know what setting controls a puppet's reaction time to elevation changes? When running up steep slopes and staircases, the puppet's body has a sluggish reaction in the vertical direction, causing the puppet to look like it's crouching.
Now that I think about it, this issue also arises when on a fast upward moving platform. It's like the puppet has been skipping leg day.
Is there a tweak that controls leg strength?
-
Maybe springiness? There's also the walkable slope angle, which maybe needs to be boosted? It could also be the springiness of the joints or even keyframes, if you have any custom movement animations going on.
Do you know what the angle of the slope you're trying to walk up is?
If you've been messing with the animation sliders, remember that you can press triangle over any one to reset it to it's default position. -
Hi Andy, I gave your suggestions a try. No joy.
The stairs are fairly steep as it's a spiral staircase. I've recorded a video showing the issue.
https://youtu.be/Ldfc6vXi5UM
Note the puppet is half scale (meant to be a kid) but the issue is still there with a full size puppet.
Looking at the video, I'm wondering if it's a collision or ground detection issue with the thin, small steps. I'll do some testing. -
Update: Just had an aha! moment. It looks like the puppet can go up and down angled platforms all day long. Actual physical stairs? Not so much when they're steep.
So I solved the issue by duping angled platforms along the spiral and setting them to invisible. Then setting the actual stairs to non-colidable. -
Ooooh! Yeah. That. I thought you said the same issue was happening when you walk up a ramp in the original post, so I didn't suggest that solution. ?
-
No I did say that, Supposer. I was being a dummy making assumptions about what was causing the issue, so I just guessed a slope would have the same issue. Hehe
-
I cant really tell that well from your video but it looked like the steps could be slightly angled back and/or have a rounded leading edge. Do they?
If so it could be a similar problem I ran into. If a step is even a tiny bit past vertical the puppet seems to treat it like a ramp rather then a step. So if it is rounded or angled back it thinks it is a really steep ramp even though it looks like you should be able to step over it.
Try set the slope angle on the puppet to max and the slope friction/slidyness or what ever its called while you at it, see if that fixes it. -
I think stairs are tough for Dreams puppets in general. Puppets are designed to raise one foot up if the terrain is uneven, otherwise you would get two stiff legs, with one levitating in mid-air, like in old video games. So the height of the hips are constantly based on the lowest foot. And as you've shown on your video, there seems to be even more of a delay as the puppet waits to find out if it's just a quick speed bump or a genuine change in altitude.
I wonder if reducing the lean would help? Then the upper body wouldn't be as far forward.
If that or oLMCo's suggestion doesn't work, the invisible ramp idea is probably your best bet for now. It would be nice if there was a definite tweak for hardening the puppet "suspension" (for lack of a better term). Then you could set a trigger zone around stairs that would max it out. -
That's the downside of using generative animation. The invisible platform works ok for now, though. Here's a quick capture of it in action: https://youtu.be/CRfaUQX9nmY
But yes, some kind of spring strength tweak would be nice. Though I might end up creating custom stairs animation/logic as really, gait completely change on stairs. I'm kinda nerdy about this stuff, but I love those little details in games. :D -
Very smooth! Well done!
-
Scaling the puppets collision sphere under the puppet setting tab down to the knees seemed to help mine a bit
-
You could place a trigger zone in the puppet microchip, adjust it so that it is covering an area in front of the puppet, use zone falloff instead of zone size so it detects how deep it goes into the slope gradually, then attach the trigger zone to a keyframe that alters the puppets center of gravity to be a negative number.
This will result in the puppets hips raising as the zone intersects with the stairs, you will have to play around with the zone position and size as well as the center of gravity to get it to look how you want. You might want the keyframe to alter the puppets bounciness as well.
Please sign in to leave a comment.