[Released] Mega-Fiers. A mesh deformation system - RELEASE

I'm instancing warped prefabs with DeepCopy at the moment, as binding a prefab's Bend to a Bend Warp applies the same bend to all versions of the same prefab dropped into the scene manually or instanced in the scene at runtime.. I take it this is correct, and not related to what you're saying above? (mentioning because this is in 4.5.5)

 

You will have to Deep Copy the object if you want it to be an independent deforming object otherwise the Unity mesh instancing system will share the mesh between any normal copies of the object, you could instance the object and make a copy of the mesh and replace that in the meshfilter as well.

 

Cool, that's as I figured.

Cheers!

 

Very small update submitted to the Asset Store. MegaFiers will now import into Unity 5.0 and require no code changes, all the obsolete methods etc have been updated for Unity 5.0. If anyone has any problems please do let us know.

 

great news

 

Hi. I have a model done in 3ds max of a character,and he has a cloat on him. Cloth is simulated with cloth modifier. When i import it to unity,cloth loses its simulation. I read its because unity doesnt support vertex animations. If i buy megafiers,will it my problem be solved? And how exactly? Thx.

 

@danteson - Sorry didnt get any notification email again, yes MegaFiers will import a cloth animation baked to a point cache for you, it also has animation clip support so you can play back different sections of that animation or link it to the animation clip playing on the main object.

Just submitted a small update to the Asset Store, this brings a huge performance boost to the Bezier Attractor modifier and also fixes a bug with the repulse mode in the same modifier. Added a simple demo scene as well so you can test it out more easily.

Changes in v2.83

• Doubled the speed of the Attractor modifier
• Added a limit option to the Attractor modifier to limit range of the effect and help improve performance.
• Repulse mode in Attractor modifier now works correctly.
• Added simple demo scene for the Attractor modifier.

 

Excellent update, seeing a massive increase in the performance of the Bezier Attractor! Thanks!!

 

Can probably squeeze a little more performance out for the next update.

 

Adding a new system in MegaFiers allows you to use any number of OBJ files to create an animation, it will import all the frames you set and each OBJ file can have different number of vertices and faces and even layout of faces, the data will be saved to an array of meshes and then can be played back. The system will just swap the mesh data so update is very fast. Obviously having all the mesh data in Unity at the same time can cause memory issues so we have added an option to allow you to save the data to an optimized file format that can then be used instead of the mesh data, the system will read directly from the cache file as it needs to and will recreate the mesh data directly, so using no extra memory. The system is still very fast with a mesh of 6000 vertices taking about 0.6ms to read the frame data and update the mesh with new vertices, triangles and then calculate the new normals and bounds.

 

This video shows how you can use the new OBJCache system coming soon to MegaFiers to import complex mesh animations from 3d packages such as Max and Maya into Unity. You can use the system to export complete particle system or fluid or smoke simulations or buildings being destroyed etc, In this video we use the SuperSpray particle system in 3DS Max to create a fluids animation, we then convert that to a Mesh using the Mesher option then export each frame to an OBJ file. MegaFiers then reads and optimizes those OBJ files and can create an optimized cache file which uses about 1/10th of the memory of the raw data and that file can be streamed from directly at run time.

 

Any ETA? Im dying for this... thanks!

 

sorry basic question i need recalcul only one time the mesh

i do
mega.MeshUpdated ();
mega.Enabled =(false);
it's not working

 

@HeadTrip - It will be in the next update just adding some more features to it such as preloading the next frame on another thread, and optimizing the memory use some more and other bits and bobs.

@kilik128 - If you could possibly submit a support ticket with a little more info about what you are doing that would be great.

 

Thanks, really looking forward to it! so much potential...

 

Hey! Just bought megafiers-- wow what an amazing tool! I'm sure I'll be using it a ton. Quick question off the bat-- I'm using it to animate pages of a book turning. I'm using the Mega Page Flip script. Works perfectly. However, I'm encountering a little blip when I try to reset my pages.

Specifically, I have a set of three pages that I curl from right to left as the pages flip. When one page reaches the left side, I instantly reset it and move it back to position one for an infinite book. However I'm seeing that when I try to 'instantly' reset the mesh to turn value of 0, it doesn't reset immediately. I see a little blip of the curled page as it moves back to the start position (i.e. before flattening out). This despite trying to slow things down with Coroutines.

Is there possibly a hard reset parameter that I'm missing? It could be something else but wanted to just ask this question right away as I continue to troubleshoot... Thanks very much!

 

You might want to try setting 'Use Late Update' on the Modify Object component as it could just be an odd timing thing between object updates. Also there is a book helper script included which does set up a 3 page book that allows for infinite pages. http://www.west-racing.com/mf/?page_id=1214

 

Hey Chris, thanks for the added feature... that animated mesh will come in handy for several things I have planned.

Also... just a quiet reminder on the relax modifier we talked about a while ago...

Thanks.

 

Super! Late update did the trick! Really appreciate the fast response.
Edit: oddly late update fixed the problem when I had both the scene view and game view active. When I switched to only the game view the problem came back. However, when I *also* ticked the invisible update option the problem seems to have gone away completely.

 

Any updates to the mesh animation tech? Doing my daily refresh on the asset store

 

I think i'm doing much the same as headtrip at the moment. Several flavours of mesher are about to be examined

 

We were about to release it but a beta tester found a problem with OBJ files generated from Maya loading impossibly slowly, eventually tracked the problem down to a bug in Mono with the stream readline not liking line endings \n\r so wrote our own. Will be doing the docs and final testing for an update this weekend. The basic OBJ cache system will feature in MegaFiers but we are also making a new product called MegaCache which will have the OBJ cache system as well as a Particle System cache system and the Point Cache system from MegaFiers so if you only interested in the Cache system and do not have MegaFiers yet then maybe best to wait for MegaCache to be released. Video below shows some of the Particle Cache system.

 

Hi spooky cat
With less particle can this working in Mobile or IOS ?

 

@play-Edu - It certainly can the playback is very fast.

 

Just submitted version 2.84 of MegaFiers to the Asset Store and our webstore, this adds the beta of the OBJ Cache system from our new MegaCache asset (being submitted for approval very soon). The version in MegaFiers will be the lite version of the system so it will have the full import and playback functionality but will likely not see the new features that get added the the full version in MegaCache. If anyone is just after the OBJ caching system and are not owners of MegaFiers then wait a few days for the release of MegaCache unless off course you fancy the other features MegaFiers provides. If you find any problems in the new system please do submit a support ticket and we will get it fixed. It has been tested in Unity 3.5 4.2 4.5 and 5.0 with no problems. Please Note it is still in Beta so file formats etc may change but we will do our best to not change anything too much. Docs will be on the website today sometime.

Changes in v2.84

• Added beta of the MegaCache OBJ cache system, this will be the basic version of the system in the full MegaCache asset
• Fixed MegaPaint so it imports into Unity 5.x with no changes needed

 

Ah tis a wonderful day to be a user of MegaFiers

I was going to post earlier to say that I couldn't get (Blender fluid) OBJ sequences to import using 2.84, but then I checked the store again and 2.85 had appeared and fixed the problem I was having with the objs I was using

The OBJ cache system is great, and I was especially tickled to use it because it turns out I requested a feature like this back in the days of September 2011! ( #390 ) It was such a nice surprise to get it now, and it works so much better than the crude botch I had attempted back then.

By the way, a couple of scripts trigger the script updater in Unity 5 beta again (or unity changed stuff in a recent Unity beta). Doesn't cause any problems but since you eliminated this in the past I though I'd let you know that its back.

 

Arr you spotted the quick update As ever all our tests were working fine but then the first person to use the system had odd OBJ files (obviously not so odd) with no normals in them, so we put some more tests in the OBJ importer. I have just done the first draft of the docs for the system which can be found by either right clcking the inspector bar to get the context menu for the component and then selecting help or visiting the page directly at http://www.west-racing.com/mf/?page_id=6179

Which scripts are doing that, I imported into Unity 5.0 and fixed the only one that showed up for me in the MegaPaint modifier, let me know and I will get those sorted out.

Glad the system is useful, if you have any suggestions please do let me know.

 

Could not be better timed aha, are you able to tell me a little about it's prospective performance on webgl (no or limited multithreading in particular)? I'll be giving it a run after a sleep anyways (And an approval), if it's as nicely done as the rest of the mega stuff i'll be a pleased person and so will some other people with any luck

 

Can you say expected vert count in the objects you will be playing back, the system is very fast, faster than say equivalent point cache playback, if you are using the Mesh data source then there is virtually zero cpu use as it is just swapping meshes so would work well on all devices, but even the file and image data sources are very fast. As an example the 2 test objects in the video above running together in the scene gives frame rates of over 1000fps, the fluid sim is 3500 verts per frame using a Mesh data source and the fracturing one is using between 9000 and 12000 vertices using the image data source for playback. Grab below.

 

That'll teach me to even question! That's amazing, much like the megaflow asset which is maybe a little more obscure than this, the opportunities now open are crazy, youre bringing next gen all over the place. It's weird to think it hasnt been wrapped into an asset before now really, i have a bunch of simulations id not really dreamt of getting into unity to do for my current er 'thingy' and its genuinely exciting knowing there'll be an audience going 'what? how!'

 

Can this package be used at runtime to modify for example the size of a characters nose, feet, ears, or any small section of a character?

 

@jococo Yes all the features can be used and changed at runtime as well as in edit mode, so it can certainly be used to customise parts of a character, I suspect most of the users of the system are using it in that way and a lot of the support request we get are people using it to create custom avatar systems for their games.

 

maybe im just tired, but I cannot find the new Megacache stuff in unity. Ive updated but dont see it anywhere in components, game object...

 

Unity does have a habit of not updating scripts, the files are certainly in there as can be seen on the Asset Store, try importing again.

 

re-imported and found it, thanks!

 

Just submitted a small update to the store, this brings a fix for a potential memory leak in the OBJ Cache system as well as an improvement to the file sequence loader where you can now specify a Name Split character. Some users were having problems when the name part of the file name also contained numbers ie Name01_0001.obj would not be found, but adding a the name split '_' the system will load the sequence correctly. Also fixed OBJ Cache meshes not appearing when a project is opened until they have been changed.

Changes since v2.84

• Added option to OBJ Cache inspector for Name Split character.
• Fixed potential memory leak in OBJ Cache system
• Fixed image base OBJ Seq mesh not appearing when project loaded until it is animated.
• Fixed final warning for importing asset into Unity 5.x project.
• Fixed bug meaning bi-linear option in Dynamic ripple could not be unchecked.
• Made changes to OBJ importer to work with odd OBJ files such as ones with no normals etc
• Frames slider appears correctly when selecting a cache file for the first time

 

Mega-Fiers with TextMesh Pro

I have an object with a TextMesh Pro component that I had applied a bend to giving it a nice little arc and it looked great. The problem is that I needed to be able to change the text on the TextMesh Pro component and it seems like I have hit a limitation between the two as the text won't update.

Is there a way to tell the Bend component to refresh the mesh so that it can apply the bend to the updated text?

Thanks in advance

 

Figured out that you can tell TextMesh Pro to forceMeshUpdate() then call MeshChanged(TextMesh.mesh) and MeshUpdated()

Was also rendering text to RenderTexture for one frame so had to wait for LateUpdate to see the results.

I still can't really get the two of them to work together in the Inspector. Sometimes I can edit the text, but the Mega-Fier won't update. Then other times I can modify the meager, but the text is frozen. Is there a way to update mesh in the Inspector?

 

@BigToe - I was using a beta of TextMesh Pro a while back and it was working just fine with MegaFiers could update the text etc, it worked so well I also supported it in our MegaBook system. I will se if can get a later copy and see if anything has changed. Have tested MegaFiers with most of the mesh based text systems such as TMPro and TTF Text etc and they have all worked as expected. I know Unity changed something in Unity 4.x which meant updates on one object in the inspector didn't trigger updates on another, had to make some changes in MegaShapes to work around that so could be something similar needed here.

 

Very small update in the AssetStore now, added a new version of the Conform Modifier which will work with any number of colliders, you can add them in the inspector. So now you have your objects conform over multiple terrains along with any objects on top as well.

On another note MegaCache has been submitted to the AssetStore so hopefully will be approved this week otherwise it is available now on our website www.megafiers.com

 

Very impressive system!

 

Another small update, this adds the ability to define a path for cache files to be loaded from for standalone builds, and also fixes a bug in the Dynamic Ripple modifier where mouse inputs were not correctly positioned if a box collider with a non zero center value as used.

Changes in 2.89

• Added a runtime folder option for OBJ Cache files, cache files for standalone builds need to be copied the data folder for the build after the Unity build.
• Fixed mouse offset issue in dynamic ripple modifier if using a box collider which has a non zero center value.

 

Is there any chance to get the DAZ character design demo scene? This one:

 

Hi. I have a game object with children. Can I apply mod to them? I see modify object group members or modify group. But I can't get them work.

 

@Seto - If you could submit a support ticket at the website we can help sort that out for you.

 

Dear Spooky Cat, i try to use you script for the fist time, I follow the instructions that you post on you tube on how to use "morph"... i try several times paying attention on how to export the objs frm max, but i always get this error:

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
MegaMorphEditor.LoadTargets (.MegaMorphChan channel) (at Assets/Mega-Fiers/Editor/MegaFiers/MegaMorphEditor.cs:539)
MegaMorphEditor.DisplayChannel (.MegaMorph morph, .MegaMorphChan channel, Int32 num) (at Assets/Mega-Fiers/Editor/MegaFiers/MegaMorphEditor.cs:723)
MegaMorphEditor.OnInspectorGUI () (at Assets/Mega-Fiers/Editor/MegaFiers/MegaMorphEditor.cs:967)
UnityEditor.InspectorWindow.DrawEditor (UnityEditor.Editor editor, Int32 editorIndex, Boolean forceDirty, System.Boolean& showImportedObjectBarNext, UnityEngine.Rect& importedObjectBarRect, Boolean eyeDropperDirty) (at C:/BuildAgent/work/d63dfc6385190b60/Editor/Mono/Inspector/InspectorWindow.cs:1089)
UnityEditor.DockArea:OnGUI()

im also dont find any information on how can i animate a morph.

Thank you!

 

@victor.biosphera - If you can submit a support ticket at the website and maybe share the OBJ files we can look into that, but why use OBJ files when you can use the Max exporter?

 

thanks for your fast answer, i read something about a exporter, but i cant find that... you will sold it separettely? My max version is 2014 x64. I m going to post a ticket right now.

 

Submitted a small update to the AssetStore, this adds an option to the OBJ Cache system to update a mesh collider if one is present, also fixes a small bug in the Copy Object method where normals might nor be copied correctly depending on settings.

Changes in v2.90

• Added option to MegaCache Obj to update the mesh collider if one is present.
• Fixed a bug in the Copy Object method where normals might not be copied correctly depending on settings.

 

@SpookyCat I just came across some of the older work - Mega Mesh boolean system - is there any availability on this at all? I am trying to find a way to procedurally generate fractals in unity using meshes and this would be an amazing asset to use for this.