VaM2 Progress Update

You do awesome work. Thanks a lot. Im looking forward.

Igiginaki .

There are several tutorials on YouTube

agentofspectr

Meta humans don’t really impress me much. If you strip away the shaders, post processing, and lighting, DAZ just looked like a better choice. It also has facegen integration, so you can literally make yourself. Lol. Current future of custom avatar runtime content for games I think will be better DAZ runtime integration whether unity or UE. If you add back in all the bells and whistles, it ends up looking the same in the end and a good animator can make all the difference.

Mav

Honestly, I NEVER open my wallet for much online. VaM was my 1st, and is well worth it! Keep up the great work!

Brodieking

I think it's better not to count update downloads, in hub. Either way, I'm looking forward to the new version　:D

3115062

Cool! Thanks for sharing! My guess was rather You being experienced in Unity already. But that explanation makes sense. So I suppose, since entire Idea was based on DAZ possibilities anyway, it mattered most which engine was better suited for adapting and modding DAZ models, morphs and file formats with as little fiddling as possible. And I must admit it works amazingly well. As a graphic designer who deals with multiple programs and importing-exporting different file formats I'm surprised how DAZ morphs and models work straight in VAM just by copy-paste into correct folder XD. Cheers!

Niko Mower

I looked at both when I started. At the time I started this UE had just gone free. While UE offered better out-of-the-box rendering, it was really lacking when it came to ease of extending the engine. VaM required a lot of custom components to do what it needed to do, and I could not easily make this happen in UE at the performance level requires. I have recently looked at UE and Metahumans, and I admit it is impressive. When I looked at it Metahumans came only with a few pre-built models, all lacking genitals and even naked skin textures without clothing built into them. To change the model, my understanding is you have to prebuild them externally and then import them as-is, meaning no changes within the runtime (morphs, etc.). So while impressive, they are current very limited. As far as rendering goes, I believe Unity's HDRP can get close or match what UE is doing with their rendering system. And with Unity's new jobs systems, I can implement the skin physics I want without performance issues. I'm not sure I could pull this off in UE. Changing now would also require me to spend months learning the ins and outs of UE. I already know how to do just about everything in Unity, so my development time is greatly reduced. So for now Unity still makes the most sense. Perhaps after 2.X is "done" I'll investigate other engines and attempt a port and comparison for fun. For now, the best path is to stick with Unity and leverage all the work I have done to date.

Meshed VR

Out of pure curiosity, what was main reason for choosing Unity over UE when You started it all? And what do You think of it now, since UE5 and Metahumans are on the horizon? (I'm not dissing Your choice, I'm not a developer and I don't use neither engine, just pure curiosity. Really ;) )

Niko Mower

@AKeimner, Miscreated on patreon has a simple undo/redo that works for controller transforms. Not sure about add/delete atoms though.

carcosa

Yeah 2.X can utilize a 32-core CPU. That doesn't mean all cores will hit 100% because that would not be needed in many cases and there are times when the CPU will be waiting for the GPU to complete tasks, like rendering and possibly some physics simulations. Each additional core, however, will bring an increase in FPS because many of the processes in 2.X will be running on the Unity jobs system which can utilize all cores for overall speedup of the entire game cycle loop.

Meshed VR

Yeah 2.X is being built with undo at the core. There are some things that will still be problematic with Undo due to VaM being heavily physics based as physics cannot always be unwound in consistent manner.

Meshed VR

As a creator, i would really appreciate, a quick Undo capability when it comes to creating or moving. Keep up the good work! cant wait for 2.x

AKTheuF

I have been checking out the news section here in hope of getting an update on vam2. I'd love to see some new animations and graphics. Can you tell whether vam2 will be able to utilize a 32-core CPU to full extent?

Max

Yeah you got me there. I posted this the other day on the official Discord server in response to an update: "Yes I am failing on giving regular updates as usual but I'm going to give a progress update on 2.X this month. I would like to finish some major milestones before giving the update because a lot of what was worked on so far was very technical behind-the-scenes kind of stuff that doesn't make for a very good update."

Meshed VR

"...We will try very hard to work on better communication of progress going forward..." - several months later...

Cheston

"paving the way for a lot more variation and capabilities for users making custom content" -- Well this has me very interested, the existing models are nice, but rather limiting to what you can do with them, especially for some... lets say, niche content.

Drunlade

Are there plans to start a Trello board for Version 2? I'm definitely excited as well and interested in seeing more details.

DoctorMan

cant wait to create ... :)

hello everyone, I'm sorry but it's been months i'm trying this game and I-ABSOLUTELY-DON'T-UNDERSTAND-ANYTHING-ABOUT-HOW-IT-WORKS... It's extremely coomplicated menus, every word looks like coming from an engineer school, i dont understand anything about how to add a model in a room, or how do i load a body for myself with interractable body parts, just like in the game "blade and sorcery" that looks ike using exactly the same physics and engine (maybe I'm wrong but it looks very similar to me in reactions). My question is: do you guys have any video (very easy to understand and not with NASA words) that explains everything please?

Nagsugo

A goal for 2.X is full body soft physics with variable softness maps to control it. But tongues could be tricky as ideally it could fold and curl correctly as well. This is accomplished now through the tongue joints which 2.X will have more of for more mobility. I think this combines with soft squish might remove the need for tongue clothing. But I'll see if both could be possible in 2.X.

Meshed VR

cool, also, a few of us had a conversation about, soft bodied or cloth based tongues that would conform a little more for licking, instead of being a master of morphs for animations involving tongues and just be more squishy in general. Unfortunately, 1x doesn't support cloth on tongues, so if you put that in 2x you'd easily outcompete that guy named Meshed.

ParticlePinnacle

You will be able to do full custom models in 2.X. It will require more work than just adding morphs or textures to existing model, but it will greatly increase possibilities inside VaM! :)

Meshed VR

Would love to hear about rigging/skinning options in the future. You hinted at an expanded workflow which makes me happy. I've mentioned this to meshed before, but allowing us to have more control over skinning and rigging would allow for much, much deeper variation.

Fraser Keen

Wonderful Thank You

Toshie27

Yes for sure before end of this year. Our goal is to have several iterations of alphas this year.

Meshed VR

Can you at least tell if there will be an Alpha out this year?

Toshie27

I just wanna use genesis 8 models already.

Hector Delgado

What's the latest?

AWWalker

Thank you for the update, can't wait for Lamia's in 2.0

Orlandu

i have 2 questions, how do i save a character, and can i import a character from another website/creator?

MrDoom12

1.X does not natively support joint corrective morphs. A community member made a plugin for one though: https://hub.virtamate.com/resources/joint-correct.3542/ In general joint correct morphs work just like regular morphs, but the value is driven based on specific joint angles. You can make custom morphs using the method for making morphs in DAZ Studio, and then import them into VaM, and possibly customize the plugin here to get what you are after.

Meshed VR

Not a 2.0 question but, is there a tutorial anywhere to create corrective blends? Bending the leg up Towards the stomache makes the crease between the leg and hip look really bad, and also deflates the glutes a bit, would love to be able to make a morph turn on automatically when bending up

Cc

Ok noted, thanks for prompt reply!

Entering the key should just say key accepted and not ask for anything additional. If you browse the Hub, the 1st time it will ask if you want to allow VaM to enable the built-in web browser. This makes browsing the Hub better as you can see more of the content descriptions, reviews, etc. If windows is prompting you about internet access, you should say yes if you plan to use the community content at all. If you don't want VaM to access the internet at all you can say no. This is just like how any other program in Windows works.

Meshed VR

Good day! I have a short question regarding activating "Teaser and above" content in the programm. When open you get ask to grant permission of some webside to your system to use the content ect. I was wondering what is ment by "access to your system" and if I have to revoke anything after I use the programm no more and do I simply delete the installation file? Appreciate a short info, thanks!

1.X was already doing skin physics on the CPU. Unity's implementation of PhysX is CPU only. Unity's new physics systems are also on the CPU, but use the new C# jobs system which can greatly speed up a lot of the operations that slowed 1.X down. The main reason for doing skin physics on the CPU is so that it is easily fed back to the rest of the main Unity physics systems. Running skin physics on GPU and then reading back to CPU for integration is pretty troublesome for both latency and performance. 1.X hair and clothing physics are both GPU based, and 2.X will likely have the same. We would like to see if we can have clothing physics interact with skin physics a bit better to allow things like skin squish from tight clothing. It is best if physics systems that need to interact all run on the same system, either CPU or GPU, and not both. There is a small possibility we will move skin physics to the GPU so it can better interoperate with the clothing, but then regular collision with regular physics objects like furniture that are still CPU based will be an issue. The short answer is that it is complicated. Our goal is best performance possible with limited compromises on accuracy or capability. We plan to do lots of experiments to find the best balance.

Meshed VR

Why is doing physics on the CPU the best choice instead of the GPU or PhysX?

Seriously i have barely real sex for 6month since i got new PC with VR, own closed room :)

rabbit1qaz

@ Jared. I just had to figure this out myself yesterday. Find and open perfs.json. Look for ""monitorUIYOffset" : "0", stuff like that. mine was like 900 or something. I just reset it to 0.

Keith Roll

Does anyone know how to move edit menus in desktop mode? The top half of my menus are off screen and I don’t know how to move the menu down

Jared

VaM was always meant to be a creative sandbox with endless possibilities, but we also had the intention of allowing the creation of games within the sandbox. This is why there is both a Play and Edit mode. The Play mode in 1.X never quite got to where we wanted it to. We plan to correct this in 2.X. The early 2.X alphas, however, are going to mostly feature the creative sandbox Edit mode, and Play mode will follow later on.

Meshed VR

Any more "game" features coming? It feels like it's becoming a more and more high-level animation tool than a game.

John McPseudonym

It looks like you were using 1.19 version and not 1.20 based on another post of yours on a 1.19 key post. If you move to 1.20, the key linked here will work.

Meshed VR

Not much will be compatible between 1.X and 2.X as we are using all new models and all new rendering system which requires new materials. It might be possible to port just about anything from 1.X to 2.X but it will require some work outside of VaM to make it compatible.

Meshed VR

We are on longer working on 1.X, but the bug forum is here: https://hub.virtamate.com/forums/vam-bug-reports.9/ We can address this in 2.X

Meshed VR

1) Current CUA won't be directly compatible due to materials. 2.X requires imported objects to use HDRP materials. So the CUA will need to be remade. 2) 2.X will have more powerful import system to allow items with bones/joints. You will have to do some work in Unity to map to the VaM control system. More information will be provided in future. 3) Raytraced shadows and reflections already work in 2.X since HDRP supports this, but there are some issues we found. There are visual artifacts in VR and performance is not very good. It will be an option you can enable, but may be disabled in VR unless they improve this. 4) Yes - fluids will be supported, and with improved collision model should work much better than the community addons found in 1.X

Meshed VR

"Creator" key post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/release-1-20-key-40460994 not working invalid

20Ala

What about compatability of VAM 1 add-ons? I don't expect plug-ins to work without redevelopment but rather things like looks and clothes. Would be great to know in advance.

Tomek

Bug reort: where to put this? (i can't find my trello link) When enumerating drives in file browser, like base content dir, saves, etc... if a drive is locked (ie. bitlocker), it stops at the previous letter. Can you put a catch statement in there to skip/dump the drive that is locked, and move to next?

AWWalker

1) Does currently created CUA be usable in 2.x ? Do you plan to upgrade VAM in that area as well ? e.g. importing objects with high density fur and so on ? 2) Some 3d objects ready to buy from many render sites seem to have sth like skeleton so eg parts of them can be movable (like moving limbs of animals) will it by somehow supported ? 3) Do you have plans to use nvidia native features like raytracing ? 4) Will there be better fluids ? now there are only cloaths simulated cum which looks quite nice but is rather static, and all that CUA cum pee assets do not looks as real one completely. Seem that more and more is done in way to 2.x :) hope you show us beta soon :D

rabbit1qaz

Genesis 8 to start with, but nearly anything should be possible in 2.X. We are not planning on porting Genesis 2 Triax skinning from 1.X which is what Genesis 2 models will not be supported.

Meshed VR

@meshedvr what model are you using? G8, G3?

AWWalker

uv's will be different, so it'll be a task to do that

AWWalker

Thanks for the update on 2.X The higher quality graphics looks amazing and certainly takes VAM to the next level. The only disappointment I have is it sounds like it is a very different system to 1.X so I guess I won't be able to use the characters I've created in 1.X, in the new version. Perhaps I'll be able to export my existing model data to DAZ using the VAM “Export OBJ and MTL Files” function and then import back into 2.X.

Dave C

I am glad to hear this. I keep paying each month because I love this program and want you guys to prosper!

Futa Fan 2019

Please see this - it is related to WMR deadzone settings. https://trello.com/c/e15ktUiV

Meshed VR

I'm really looking forward to the new version I think version 2 will be a great future for everyone I will be very happy to support you in what you do, because this is the future

mates75

Please upload screenshots from time to time to patreon, at least here will be some traffic ;).

Jan Kadlec

I have and issue where my camera keeps drfiting to the left/front/up im on WMR no other apps or games have that issue, and its made VAM pretty much unsuable :/

Jan M.

2.X will support custom grafting, which is what allows mixing genders, adding wings, horns, tails, etc. Out-of-the-box we plan to include characters that have many gender variations using standard genital grafts and morphs, but users who want more options or different genital grafts (different shapes, etc.) will be able to do so using the same tools we use internally to make the built-in characters. This will require different skin physics in many cases to account for the different shapes or functionality (moveable wings, tails, etc.), and will not be as easy as just adding a morph or new skin texture, but the upside is there will be infinite possibilities to what could be created inside of VaM. It should even be possible to import models that are not based on the DAZ Genesis 8 system. We are only choosing that as a starting point because of the flexibility, large catalog of content, and generally high quality appearance.

Meshed VR

"Improve performance." This this and this ! Please. Take your time. Doing good work I'm sure. We'll all be here to support you until you're ready. If I had a request it be to make sure the program is inclusive as possible making it easier than ever to create girls and boys and boy girls and girl boys and elves...lol Vam has to be a place which doesn't intentionally exclude others and allows all people to feel comfortable in their own skin...by possessing anothers haha

Chris

Intel 10900K CPU, single generic 3080, 32GB generic ram, mid-range motherboard, all at standard clocking. It was a "budget" high-end system. I will be testing on older systems as well. I want to be sure 2.X can run on a very large range of hardware at steady FPS for VR.

Meshed VR

VaM was originally intended as a VR application first and foremost. The figures I quoted were for 1080p desktop resolution. 4K monitors and VR will require more GPU power and will result in lower FPS. 2.X will include vsync option so you can cap at your monitors refresh rate and not use as much of your GPU power. We are trying to make sure that 2.X can run consistently at 90FPS or higher on a typical VR headset on a high-end CPU/GPU with most of the user preferences set on high or ultra quality.

Meshed VR

1.X is probably only using 100% of 2 of your CPU cores while the rest sit at 30-50% usage. 2.X will actually be capable of using all of your CPU cores in a more balanced manner. To developers that is considered optimization because your CPU is being used more efficiently. 2.X is going to be very demanding if you have all the high-end options turned on. We are making sure it scales with different hardware. If you don't want it to utilize your hardware at a high percentage, you will be able to turn options off so it can run cool and quiet, but at a sacrifice to physics accuracy or render quality.

Meshed VR

Genesis 2 requires a different kind of skinning system and we are not going to port that from 1.X as it is complex and very computationally expensive. Genesis 3 might be possible, and we will support the ability for users to create custom models and import them to work in VaM just like we are doing with Genesis 8. It won't be easy to do this and will require some technical knowledge of Unity, but it will be possible. Initially, we plan to only officially include Genesis 8 based characters for use in game. The community may create a lot more beyond this once those tools are available sometime in the future.

Meshed VR

@Meshed VR - in hub post you say that on your high end PC you get 360FPS with 2chars and 8 lights. Could you tell us what are exactly parts of that pc: CPU, GPU(model, one or dual or multi), RAM(model, size and GHz), Mother board

rabbit1qaz

My screen runs at 60 fps, while VAM renders at 80 90 or sometimes more, any point of rendering faster than screen limitations? Or is this waist CPU? I d rather more details than FPS that can’t see. LOL.

Lilac bush

I am relieved to see that you have listened to my request in my previous post. Even though it may not seem like much to the author, we all feel relieved to have a progress report with a single development screen. Good luck with the development. I will continue to support this project.

Mr.K

I hope that they improve the optimization so it's not always using 100% on my rtx3090 + Ryzen 5900X

Nas Shadow

I'm really excited about the future possibility of bringing Genesis 8 characters into VAM 2.X. At the moment it's only Genesis 2 characters that can be brought from DAZ into VAM 1.X, right? Will it be possible to import Genesis 3 characters or do you mostly focus on Genesis 8 and Genesis 8.1 for VAM 2.X?

Eric Bullhorn

Oh man. This will bring the downfall of humanity I'm sure of it. Who will ever want to have a real woman now that we are able to create our very own in VR. I for one cannot wait!!

Virtamouse

We don't have exact details yet, but in-game we plan to allow texture loading at the very least. Clothing creation will likely be similar to 1.X system. To allow tons more possibilities, we are going to release the same Unity tools we use in-house to make the characters, and we will be creating extensive tutorials on how to use these tools. This will allow custom grafting (wings, horns, different genitals, etc.), increased material control, custom shaders.

Meshed VR

How will exporting my gen 8 characters from daz work?

Cryphius

doing Gods work

William Wilson

no

William Wilson

Looks fantastic

Rizky Bizz

Will 1.x content work in 2.x? Scenes, models, plugins etc?

SlamT

This looks awesome. 😲

s p l i n e VR

I'm loving the screenshots and videos. I'd love to see more along the way!

Bromo

Yes! We have not started on physics yet. That will come after the work described in the post on the Hub.

Meshed VR

Will there be soft body physics for male / futa models?

Jables