Desenvolvimento do Sistema Popul8 Character Editor

Character customization and avatars are dynamic and evolving elements of the game industry and have become integral aspects of modern gaming by providing players with a personalized and immersive experience. To meet the current needs of the different users in this sector, Didimo planned the P8CE project to develop a Character Editor (CE) to enable in-game and real-time customization of characters from video games. This innovative character customization tool will provide developers and gamers with a smooth, adaptative, and easy-to-use solution that can be applied to the creative process, or directly into the personal experiences of each end-user. The intended solution presents a unique opportunity to enhance player engagement and provide a more personalized gaming experience through advanced customization options and seamless integration with various game engines. To accomplish this idea, Didimo’s CE will be developed according to a set of strategic goals: -SG1: Allow players to create and customize their own characters in real-time directly within the game environment; -SG2: Enable customers to use their own assets, characters, and specifications with the CE; -SG3: Enable easy integration, with a seamless process, from initial customer data to create a character inside the game; -SG4: Have a scalable solution that can be sold repeatedly with little or no support from Didimo. These goals are associated with a combination of key features that include automatic and rapid generation of unique characters, customization and support to diverse art styles (from photo-realistic to heavily stylized), optimized scalability for large-scale creation across all platforms & engines, and enough versatility to integrate multiple workflows and meet customers specifications. The necessary research and development process will be structured into different modules to create and integrate the distinctive functionalities of Didimo’s CE and meet the strategic goals that define this project. These modules include: -Data Sources for Variation: using advanced algorithms to create the ability to support different types of variation editions and constraining: o from DNA: base variations that represent full characters; o from blendshapes: the ability to change specific shapes (e.g. elf ears, specific nose shapes, etc.); o from bone shaping rig: create an internal rig that allows for direct manipulations of different areas of the character; o from skin editing (and potentially other textures): the ability to add and blend different layers (from skin tones to freckles, to scales, patterns, etc.). -Character Editor Configurator: a version of the CE to run inside the Popul8 Standalone software, allowing developers to define constraints, ranges, and options that will be available in the instance of the Character Editor in the game. -Popul8 SDK: the code that will be used inside the game to both support the creation of the CE and in-game code to composite characters from a small character descriptor. It also has an interface describing what actions are available and how to bind UI actions - one version for the Unity Engine and another for the Unreal Engine. -Popul8 Showcase: integration example code that shows how to build a Character Editor (based on the SDK) and also contains a UI layer. It is meant to be used by customers to guide them through implementation in game - one version per engine.