VaM2 Tech Alpha 2 Released! (and additional progress update)

I know it has been a long time since the last post here. For this, I apologize. Please do join our Discord server for more mini updates and information from me, and I will do a better job posting to Patreon with more frequent progress updates. If you want more direct interaction, I usually post in the vam2 channel on our Discord server. You can connect to Discord here: https://www.patreon.com/settings/apps

Beta progress:

We have been very busy working on multiple fronts. The main game beta work has been focused on the core game engine as previously reported. This work is taking much longer to complete than anticipated. It is a giant project that all has to work well together to ensure a high quality experience. We are choosing to build things soundly rather than rush and make poor choices that could affect long term usability or scalability.

Here is some of what that core work covers:

• Atom system
• Parameter system
• Save and load system
• UI system
• VR and desktop interaction systems

Alpha 2 Release:

Due to the core engine work taking so long, we decided to focus the last month or so on providing an updated alpha that features a number of improvements that will also end up in the beta releases. In this way, backers will have something to experiment with while we continue to work on the real application. A lot of the work done to update the alpha can also be applied to the beta, so we don't view this as a wasted effort.

This 2nd alpha is similar to the 1st one. It is meant as an experimental tech demo to showcase some of what has been worked on for VaM2 to date. The UI and control scheme used in this alpha is just for this alpha and does not represent what will be in the beta or final versions of VaM2. This alpha is available to all current Patreon backers. Download the zip using the link below, and extract to a new folder where you want to install it.

The zip is password protected as it is only meant for current backers. Please do not share or redistribute.

Link: https://cdn2.virtamate.com/Release/VaM2X_Alpha_2.zip

Password: 2live2

Here is what this updated alpha features:

• added bedroom environment with model
• added sample full house environment (no model) to show off what HDRP environments can look like
• new model Alexis (morph and textures) from amazing creator RenVR!
• improved skinning system
• motion vectors and TAA (Temporal Anti Aliasing) added
• added more makeup and iris choices for all of the models
• dozens of morphs added
• (limited) all morphs save/load - limit of 1 fixed slot per model
• added sample animations (similar to the VaM built-in animation) to models
• added smooth physics motion (interpolation) option
• (limited) all poses save/load - limit of 1 fixed set shared between all models
• added root model node to move entire model and controls more easily
• added more control nodes to cover more joints
• added head and eye gaze
• added eyelid automation
• added micro-expressions
• overhauled UI
• fixed UI to work better on more extreme aspect ratios
• indirect lighting improvements: skin now works with light probes, added real-time global illumination support
• added light color picker for more control of lighting
• added spot light angle controls
• added more options to depth-of-field effect
• added up/down movement in VR
• added FPS-style keyboard and mouse navigation (hit Tab to toggle)

Known issues and limits of this 2nd alpha:

• animation changes can cause joint tangling - changing animations and changing back can usually fix - this is just a placeholder system to give the alpha models some life, not the real animation system for future
• joint physics (especially when following animation) can become unstable, especially if control power is set high
• head gaze has jerky movement if on and the time scale is not set to 1 or if in VR and physics motion smooth (interpolation) is turned on
• animation motion is jerky if time scale not set to 1 or if running in VR. Turn on the motion smooth option in the model's physics tab to allow smooth motion. This impacts FPS quite a bit. In the real beta, the interpolation system will be part of the skinning system on the GPU so it will not have this issue.
• enabling DLSS seems to result in worse performance in this build - this is something we can't really control and are not sure why it is not working properly - we ran out of time to investigate further
• having the UI open (especially the morphs) can really impact FPS. This is due to the very static nature of the alpha UI. The beta UI system will not have this issue
• Fairly large memory footprint, although not by VaM standards! All of the models are preloaded. Models are not reusing the morph banks and other data, so there are many redundant copies of information.

Additional known issues and limits as reported from previous alpha:

• Inaccurate collision. Only a basic collision model is included here. Accurate collision will come once the skin physics system is completed.
• Some of the included texture sets are not high enough quality for VaM standards, especially for VaM2 and HDRP.
• Mesh normals and tangents are not currently recalculated after the model is posed. This can result in inaccurate lighting. Future releases will have real-time normal and tangent recalculation (VaM already does this).
• Some of the ambient occlusion texture maps are baked too dark in certain areas. An example is the armpits. Combined with the normal recalculation issue it can result in the armpits being dark when arms are raised.
• The included static hair is quite expensive to render due to a sub-optimal shader. An option to turn hair off has been included to show this.
• The model skinning is all done on the CPU currently. This is especially expensive on the Edie HD 16X model. Future versions will move the skinning to the GPU for the final HD skin rendering which should improve performance.
• Shimmering of controls when DLSS is turned on
• Pulling pins or controls too far from model can cause other joints to bend in weird ways. This is a Physx artifact that we will hopefully be able to fix in future release.
• XR (VR) mode is limited. There is no UI, but you can move around and interact with the model. To run XR, start the program. On the UI, click the VR button. Once your VR system starts up it should be working.

Roadmap

While this could change, here is a rough roadmap of what is next for this project:

• 1st beta: Complete core engine and first set of built-in atoms
• 2nd beta: Skin physics system
• 3rd beta: Clothing and hair systems
• Later: API and plugin system, custom tools for community to build custom atoms, props, clothing, hair, etc.

Thank you all for your continued support while we develop VaM2. There is still a long road ahead, so thank you for your understanding!