Monthly Report: February

Another busy month! I'm still working on that scene! However, I think now finally have most of the tech needed for this project together. This required a long list of improvements for IdlePoser and LogicBricks as well as some tweaks to ParentHoldLink, which is part of Essentials. Check out this preview video of seamlessly swapping between two handjob modes and using a fleshlight toy by B3liar. What you are seeing are 5 IdlePoser plugins coordinated through a central StateMachine and various helper LogicBricks. The other girl will also use another 5 IdlePoser plugins, coordinated through the same StateMachine. You remember the walking girl I posted in last months report? This will all be in one big seamless scene!

I still won't commit to any particular release date or feature set for this, it will be done when it is done! Still LOTS of work to be done! However, I'm trying to push out new versions of IdlePoser, LogicBricks and Essentials in the "next few days". Aiming for this weekend, but as always no guarantees! I still need to package those up, make sure everything works including the demo scenes.

IdlePoser v7 - Changelog

• Control ease in/out duration of a state from the Transition tab. Now using a 3-piece smoothing curve consisting of a linear part in the middle and the integral of SmoothStep at both ends. The resulting combined curve has the benefit of allowing you to tweak ease in/out duration while also providing smooth velocity and continuous acceleration/deceleration. (This was the "Math stuff" posted at the beginning of the month, although I ended up using more complex curves. CaseEP correctly pointed out that the acceleration (second derivative) was not continuous, I thought you would not see a difference, but you do. Way more natural!)
• TransitionDuration moved to Transition tab.
• Option for one-way transitions from the Transition tab.
• Option for states to allow in-group transitions. All states along the transition need to have this enabled, giving your precise control.
• Option to default to using a world anchor (instead of person root control)
• Debug rendering of paths and transitions can be limited to the selected state.
• Increased amount of state groups from 8 to 12.
• Listing hidden atoms in the Anchor popups and providing a filter.
• Handling renaming of anchor atoms.
• New PartialStateMask action to allow only change the explicitly mentioned groups in the mask.
• Default to world anchor for non-person atoms to prevent self-reference.
• Default to 'control' capture on non-person atoms.
• Fixed issue with Anchors not being updated/applied correctly.
• Fixed issue with SetStateMask that could not be cleared, you can set it to "Clear" now.
• Fixed issue with debug info not being updated.
• Fixed issue with UI alignment in the state menu.
• Fixed debug rendering render order and reduced performance overhead.
• Fixed issue that could happen when IdlePoser tried to change it's own state through triggers.
• Changed default directory for Pose saves to 'Saves/PluginData/IdlePoser' to comply with VaM's new plugin guideline and avoid the security warning. Note that you may have to manually move your saves poses, if you have any. Folder is now created when missing.

LogicBricks v6 - Changelog

• New ValueUpDown brick: This provides a value that ping-pongs between 0 and 1. You can smoothly adjust the speed and through triggers you can have it smoothly stop at exactly 0 or 1, causing a trigger signal you can connect to. This is obviously useful handjobs and similar animations where you want them to stop at a precise point to you can transition to some other animation. You see this in action in the video. 
• New LinearAnimation brick: This brick allows you to interpolate the position of an atom between two positions. Essentially this is an AnimationPattern with just two steps, except it's all in a single atom and its actually linear. In the video you see this in action as well, it's utilized to animate Empty atoms used as anchor for IdlePoser states. This keeps your scene organized when you need like 10 different of those anchor atoms in a very tight space where it would be impossible to tell the AnimSteps apart.
• StateMachine: New option for having a "cooldown" on states, preventing them from being selected again, unless there is no other choice. This can also be set via trigger.
• StateMachine: Now using VaM's filter popups so you can keep your sanity while handling way more states.
• Various bricks now have an AcceptTrigger option, allowing you to turn on/off their reaction to incoming triggers. This mean you can now essentially disconnect/reconnect trigger connections via trigger. It's been added to Relay, RelayOnce, Delay, RandomDelay, Blend, RandomBlend, Loop, RandomLoop, RandomChoice, RandomSound and RandomSoundFromAB.

Essentials v8 - Changelog

• ParentHoldLink: Added option to prevent the plugin from resetting it's relative position/rotation when it is deactivated and then reactivated. This makes the atom snap into position when turned on, but it prevents unintentional drift/misalignment when doing crazy things like picking up a toy, playing with it and putting it back afterwards. You can just turn on/off the atom (or the plugin) at the right time in your animation and get what you expect.

Cheers, MacGruber