2022.03.14
Highlight for this release is Quality of Life!
- IMPROVED Manipulator and Multiple Solvers Choose which solver to manipulate, with this new UI
- IMPROVED Import Symmetry Symmetry on already-animated characters!
- IMPROVED Manipulator Deselect A little more convenient
- IMPROVED Clean Abort on Record Less clutter when in a rush
- IMPROVED Coloured Limits Edit limits with more confidence
- IMPROVED Auto Cache A perhaps more intuitive default?
- IMPROVED On-Location Pin Pin now appears where the simulation is, rather than the animation.
- IMPROVED Limit on Select Now limits are less obstructing to look at
- FIXED Nested Namespaces and Import Complexity defeated
- FIXED Animated Pose Space Blunder from the previous release
- FIXED Fix Unlink Solver Now it actually works
- FIXED Translate XYZ The world axes are local no more
- FIXED Export without .rag Minor hiccup, now burped
- FIXED Euler Filter Actually working the way you'd expect
- FIXED 0 Density Catch-all for density going too low
Showcase
Let's catch up on a few highlights over the past 2 weeks.
Instict
Andrei got Ragdoll introduced to this beautiful thing.
Some nice stills.
Rhinos
Jason's working on a new tutorial for how to make self-walking quadrupeds.
Quality of Life
Let's have some more, shall we? 🥳
Manipulator and Multiple Solvers
The Manipulator operates on 1 solver at a time.
When there are two or more manipulator in the scene, Ragdoll will now be more kind and smart about which one you mean.
Select any..
- Assigned control
- Retargeted control
- Marker
- Group
- Solver
- Constraint
..and the manipulator will figure out which solver you mean.
When unsure, it will ask you to clarify.
Selection Highlight
Each marker have 3 possible nodes you can select.
- The marker itself, a DG node
- The source transform, the control you originally assigned
- The destination transform(s), where simulation is recorded onto
Selecting the marker and source transforms gave you a handy selection highlighting in the viewport, confirming what you had selected. But so far, selecting a destination transform did no such thing. Until now!
Notice how this also helps you detect whether something has a target at all, like the upper legs here. These remain unrecorded, as they are connected to the hip and driven by IK.
Contact Visualisation
You can now visualise when and where contacts occur.
This can help spot self-collisions too!
Import Symmetry
Symmetry is now preserved on import.
For any character authored in a symmetrical pose, the Ragdoll Manipulator would let you operate on this character on both sides at once.
But until now, this symmetry was lost if at any point an import was made on a character was not symmetrical, such as an animated character.
This changes today!
Manipulator Deselect
With nothing selected, you now have access to the Solver in the Channel Box.
Clean Abort on Record
Almost rhymes. If recording takes too long and you hit the ESC key to cancel, Ragdoll no longer leaves a mess behind. It's clean!
Coloured Limits
The manipulator now colors limits by their axis. Where X is red, Y is green and Z is blue; just as you'd expect.
Auto Cache
There is now an option to disable auto cache upon completed record.
This will let the simulation continue running after recording, using your newly recorded controls as input.
On-Location Pin
Whenever you make a new Pin Constraint, it would appear at the location of your animation. But now, it will appear wherever the simulated version of your animation is.
Limit on Select
Limits are now only visible when selected, making things a little less messy in the viewport.
Fixes
Some house cleaning of minor things that could sometimes trip you up.
Nested Namespaces and Import
Ragdoll is now happy to import physics onto any number of namespaces.
Animated Pose Space
The previous release broke any transition between Local and World, this has now been fixed.
Translate XYZ
When you want a marker to follow your animation in worldspace in all but one or two axes, you can use World Pose Translation. However, in the previous release, the axes were aligned with the control rather than the world. This has now been fixed.
Fix Unlink Solver
Linking two solvers is a non-destructive method of getting multiple characters to interact in the same scene. As it happens, you haven't been able to unlink until now.
Export without .rag
As it happens, the Import Options will only show you files that have a .rag extension. But! The Export Options would permit export of files without this extension.
As a result, it could appear as though nothing was exported. :(
This has now been fixed.
Euler Filter
To keep gimbal locks from happening in your recorded simulation, an "Euler Filter" could be automatically applied. This hasn't been the case so far, but has now been fixed.
0 Density
Giving markers a density of 0 would make it infinitely light, or infinitely heavy depending on your perspective. Such things does not exist in the real world and cannot be simulated.
Ragdoll will now protect you against this.