Fully functional DAZ3D Characters in Unreal Engine

Macislav

Question out of interest.

Has anyone succeeded in using DAZ Characters with Unreal Engine to the fullest extent yet?

That is with all bone driven morphing targets (JCMs) applied + Dual Quaternion Skinning Version of Unreal Engine + multilayered clothing? And what was the performance with animations like, esp. with animations
where extreme bone rotations / body deformations are needed like for some yoga or gym moves or some professional sports (acrobatics, martial arts....).

I've seen some youtube videos with DAZ characters in it, but those characters were just standing or walking and
they didn't seem to have bone driven JCMs applied and I'm sure that even the Dual Quaternion Version of Unreal Engine was not being used in most cases.

I know that it's technically possible to use animations with morphing targets in Unreal Engine
(with some small settings and blueprint changes for it to show the right shadowing esp. with normal maps) and there is even a Dual Quaternion Version of it as I've tested it successfully
with characters from makehuman, but with as of yet only up to about 5 different shape keys for each body side made by myself for a character in blender.

I'm unsure about the perfomance hit with many more shape keys involved in a complex scene. Performance in an open world with some walkable houses and
a few high poly (naked mesh ~140k tricouont) characters with multilayered clothing on (underwear+clothing+shoes...) was good. UE seems even to recognize the corresponding morph target for every piece of clothing if you have made shape keys for your clothes as well and given them the same names like for the body morph targets...

As it's tedious and difficult to sculpt anatomically correct looking morph target for every possible animation I wanted to try out DAZ with UE4. Has anyone experimented with that yet?

David Vodhanel

Using Dual Quaternion will require building the engine yourself with that code.

JCMs: http://davidvodhanel.com/daz-to-unreal-jcm-examples/ that version of the plugin is waiting for approval for release on 4.25 right now though, so it won't be out for a few days.  You can connect these without the plugin though, it's just more work.

Multilayered clothing: Do you mean attaching different pieces at runtime: http://davidvodhanel.com/daz-to-unreal-exporting-clothing-or-hair-separate-from-the-figure/ (same things, fews days until its out)

Or dealing with geometry that need to be hidden: http://davidvodhanel.com/daz-to-unreal-hiding-figure-geometry/

Ellessarr

David Vodhanel said:

Using Dual Quaternion will require building the engine yourself with that code.

JCMs: http://davidvodhanel.com/daz-to-unreal-jcm-examples/ that version of the plugin is waiting for approval for release on 4.25 right now though, so it won't be out for a few days.  You can connect these without the plugin though, it's just more work.

Multilayered clothing: Do you mean attaching different pieces at runtime: http://davidvodhanel.com/daz-to-unreal-exporting-clothing-or-hair-separate-from-the-figure/ (same things, fews days until its out)

Or dealing with geometry that need to be hidden: http://davidvodhanel.com/daz-to-unreal-hiding-figure-geometry/

wow hello man,you there!!, finally a better place to talk with you, because the epic market is terrible at deal with communication between seller and customer.

David Vodhanel

Ellessarr said:

David Vodhanel said:

wow hello man,you there!!, finally a better place to talk with you, because the epic market is terrible at deal with communication between seller and customer.

Hey, yea I'm over here to.  I don't mind answering questions over here as long as the mods don't mind.

Ellessarr

David Vodhanel said:

Ellessarr said:

David Vodhanel said:

wow hello man,you there!!, finally a better place to talk with you, because the epic market is terrible at deal with communication between seller and customer.

Hey, yea I'm over here to.  I don't mind answering questions over here as long as the mods don't mind.

wow thanks, i sended you a pm about what i talked in the unreal market with the "physic stuffs".

Macislav

I've been trying to import the standard gen 8 character as fbx into ue4 for some time now, but I don't see any jcms there, although the box "morph" is checked". As of yet it never has worked for me, so I'm asking if it is possible at all? Or do I have to do something with the morph export rules?

 

P.S.: Works now, but how to export into blender. The bones look strange in blender. Is this something with the bone orientation or is fbx not the right format for blender?

Ellessarr

Macislav said:

I've been trying to import the standard gen 8 character as fbx into ue4 for some time now, but I don't see any jcms there, although the box "morph" is checked". As of yet it never has worked for me, so I'm asking if it is possible at all? Or do I have to do something with the morph export rules?

 

P.S.: Works now, but how to export into blender. The bones look strange in blender. Is this something with the bone orientation or is fbx not the right format for blender?

to export the morphs you must go to each morph you want to export click on the gear next to the name of the morph(jcm too) then when open the morph options you must select the morph/jcm name and copy it, now click in the morphs rules then click to add+ then paste the morph name, now it gonna export it without any issue, another thing to remember to proper use the jcm morph in the character in unreal you must set that jcm in the animation graphs, if you don't know how to make it i can show you a tutorial in how to do that, but only in pm since the link is not a "safe" one and also remember even using jcms not gonna make all the animations "perfect" because daz also uses dual quat type joint bend while all game enginers normally use "the common" way to joints bends then if you want "more perfection you must grab a "unreal version with dual quat, here the thread about it:

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/134926/adding-dual-quaternion-support-to-unrealengine4-images-inside/p1

 

scar_hand

I don't know if this is the right place to ask this question, but I'll ask anyway: After using the Daz3d store purchased morphs to dial in a shape for a Genesis 3 Male, is it possible to remove DAZ Studio's skeleton for this G3M figure, and then rig this G3M figure with the skeleton that is used for Unreal Engine 4's mannequin?

I ask this question because when I import a G3M figure into UE 4, and then retarget the mannequin's animations to the G3M figure's skeleton (the default G3M skeleton made by DAZ Studio), the fingers on the G3M figure becomes twisted and bent out of a natural position for human fingers.  

David Vodhanel, why does this finger problem happen when a Genesis  3 (or 8) figure is retargeted to the UE 4 mannequin's animations?

My theory is, if a G3M figure has the same skeleton as the UE 4 mannequin, then - maybe - the animations meant for the UE 4 mannequin would work perfectly for the G3M figure?

David Vodhanel

I don't mind answering questions here.  I might not notice them right away though.

why does this finger problem happen when a Genesis  3 (or 8) figure is retargeted to the UE 4 mannequin's animations

I'm not sure, but I think it's a bug or limitation in the retargeting code in Unreal.  It's on my todo list to debug into it and see what's going on.  I just put it on my Trello for visibility. https://trello.com/b/jflWglcp/daz-to-unreal

is it possible to remove DAZ Studio's skeleton for this G3M figure, and then rig this G3M figure with the skeleton that is used for Unreal Engine 4's mannequin?

It is possible; however, it's going to be a lot of work that needs to be redone per character and everytime you change a character.  It will also break JCMs unless you also update all of those.  My recommendation is that you just do the quick manual fix for now because it's most likely going to be way less work.  Hopefully this will get resolved either by me or Epic.  If you keep an eye on my Trello, I'll update that card either way when I know more.

If you need a better solution for now, the animations will probably retarget better using HumanIK in Maya.  There will be some work involved setting that up though

scar_hand

Thank you for your reply, David. Also, your "Daz to Unreal" plugins are fantastic! They really do speed up the process of transfering my Daz Studio's skeletal meshs and key framed AniBlocks for Genesis 3 figures into Unreal Engine 4. 

Honestly, I have no idea how to implement my skeleton theory. I'm actually a beginner with Blender, Autodesk software (like Maya and 3ds Max), and Unreal Engine 4.

So, I'll just figure out how to make keyframe animations for my Genesis 3 Males and Females in Daz Studio. Then, I'll use your plugins to transfer my animations into Unreal Engine 4.  

mindsong

David, I saw mention of some bone oddities up above. Are you aware that there were/are a few bone-name typos in either G3 or G8? I can go dig up the specifics if needed.

cheers,

--ms

David Vodhanel

Mindsong, I didn't notice any misnamed bones.  I'm pretty sure I mapped them all the the Epic skeleton though either way.  Which bones are misnamed?

NextWorldVR

David Vodhanel said:

Mindsong, I didn't notice any misnamed bones.  I'm pretty sure I mapped them all the the Epic skeleton though either way.  Which bones are misnamed?

Hi,

Absolutely you are correct, Using the DAZ 'Skinning' with Mannequin bones is amazeballs in UE4. The trick? 

Export as FBX, import into Max.  Rename every bone you can to the same name as a Mannequin ( have both up, SIDE BY SIDE) And copy bone names from one window to other) For any bnes that are additional  (like the Hands Carpal bonbes in Daz or the 72 Face Bones)  simply MERGE them and their skinning in with the Hand and Head bones correspondingly) 2 ways to do this: 1: use Advanced Rollout in Skin Modifier in Max, save envelopes, then reload and merge bones etc,.  the better easier way:

2) The 3dsMax UItility called Skin Utilities,  select skinned mesh, push first utility button, 

then select your mesh and the copy it just made at the ame time and push second button,. 

Thern, merge by name, except undo (the top left right arrow buttons) the Face bones and Carpal bones etc,  asnd instead on the left select the Hand bone, on the right, sleect the Carpals, click trhe Leftt Arrows button on top and their skinning info will be assigned to the Hand bone!  Then select Carpal bones on right andf click Remove,.  Finish, click ok, (takes a while)  then delelte all those unnecessary bone, you end up with the Daz Bones renamed,. (on whatatever pose, in UIe4 when you import, choose,  'Use Frame 0 as base pose'  AND 'Update Base Pose' check boxes! !!  That makes it so it doesn to have to be any particular pose to start wihth coming out of Daz!

Should I do a tutorial on my channel? 

I'm Woody

youtube/com/NextWorldVR

NextworldVR   @    gmail.com

(Use a 30 day free install of 3dsmax if you must.  I keep 12 versions of 3dsmax install (right now from 3ds Max 2010 to 3ds max 2021 !!! and install a new successive one every 29 days, then reinstall windows after a year, start with one higher!   ie. Free 3ds Max forever!.)

NextWorldVR

Macislav said:

I've been trying to import the standard gen 8 character as fbx into ue4 for some time now, but I don't see any jcms there, although the box "morph" is checked". As of yet it never has worked for me, so I'm asking if it is possible at all? Or do I have to do something with the morph export rules?

 

P.S.: Works now, but how to export into blender. The bones look strange in blender. Is this something with the bone orientation or is fbx not the right format for b

Easiest way to get morphs out of Daz,  just anmated one 'morph' per keyframe onto the time line  (I decide how many Morthps I need, say 30,.  then I go and Create a Blank Keyframe on each frame, then go though and starty with Visemes,  Frame 1 is AA,  Frame 2 is EE,  frame 23 is Smile,  Frame 27 is Blink, etc.  then when you export, they will export all those as morphs but not the ones you didn't use!   (Make sure you have the one '.CTRLVS=Export' in the rules,)

I tend to select the Head and Hair, Eyes and Brows, Lashes, and select just those with moprph targets ('Export Selected Only' Checkbox in FBX Export dialog) 

THen I Inverse Select everything BUT and export with the same 'selected only' but NO Morph Targets. 

THen I do the same for clothiung using the 'Merge Clothing with Body Skinning' checkbox.

Then I can merge all there in 3dsmax using  Skin Utilities,...

I should do a tutorial for these things too,.   I was using DAZ (well, I guess it was Poser then?) for a 3dsmax animated TV SHow in 1991!!!  I have been perfecting getting things out of Daz since then!

I can get FULL HD Characters with all HD morphs targets (and DAZ Skinning too!)

along with making ATLAS of the Textures...  !! :)  I do it all the mnual way in 3ds max Unwrap UVW and Photoshop,but it is fast enough, Everything is east once you know how! 

i'm here:

youtube.com/NextWorldVR  I am nearlly at 3,000 subs and about to start uploading a lot of teaching stuff! :)

-Woody

jimmydorvil

Hello out there,

I am new  to this new to this wonderful world of daz to unreal. So far I have been able to get character and content from daz to unreal. I have not be able to get the maniquinn to transfer full animation to my character.  I can not get the compatible character to automactically alppear in the retargetting window. When delect show compatible models then I see my daz models.  As mentioned by others here, the character appears in Unreal it just wont fully articulate.

I am not a coder, so I am greatful to have gotten this far. 

 

Good luck and cheers!

 

Senor_Monkey

jimmydorvil said:

Hello out there,

I am new  to this new to this wonderful world of daz to unreal. So far I have been able to get character and content from daz to unreal. I have not be able to get the maniquinn to transfer full animation to my character.  I can not get the compatible character to automactically alppear in the retargetting window. When delect show compatible models then I see my daz models.  As mentioned by others here, the character appears in Unreal it just wont fully articulate.

I am not a coder, so I am greatful to have gotten this far. 

 

Good luck and cheers!

 

Hi, It sounds like you need to setup Bonemapping for both skeletons first. IIRC the Daz one should be setup (both G3 & G8), but the one from the animation, will need to be setup and saved. Click on the animation, then on the skeleton on the top right, to get to the right skeleton. Setup bonemapping and save it. Then, when you retarget, the everything that has bonemapping setup will appear as a compatible skeleton. If you need help, I can explain further.