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More than 4 Characters?

SpaceRockSpaceRock
edited 11:54PM in Suggestions
I was just curious if there were any future plans or possibilities to being able to add 5 or more characters into a scene? If not, just throwing it out there as a suggestion. Saw some artwork that brought this to mind.

Comments

  • odesodes Administrator
    edited 11:54PM
    There's no logical (in code) limitation preventing us from doing so. The limit is there mostly because of performance reasons, since adding characters increases required calculation and reduces framerates. Unfortunately the calculation scales extremely poorly because Unity game logic is single threaded. We've managed to thread some of the stuff, but a lot cannot be because calls to the Unity APIs are required and must be executed from the main thread.

    Having more than 4 characters would be really bad on older computers.
  • FenrirWolfeFenrirWolfe
    edited 11:54PM
    If older computers not being able to run such interactions is the problem then you can simply write down the number of characters in the pop-up which appears when you hover an interaction within the Cloud. This way people with such an issue can safely ignore those and everyone else isn't limited by them.

    Maybe just add an optional closed-interval-thingie within the Cloud into which one would write the lowest and highest number (e.g. 2 │ 4 - only interactions with 2, 3 or 4 characters would show)? That would be even better, actually.

    What might be more problematic is that 5+character interactions could get quite confusing. In fact, I'm already having slight problems with that when making interactions with only 4. Perhaps colour each character's submenu with the colour of his/her anchors?
  • MisterBangYourSisterMisterBangYourSister
    edited 11:54PM
    FenrirWolfe said: Perhaps colour each character's submenu with the colour of his/her anchors?

    I can't see the point of that, when you choose character, other char's anchors are dissapearing so you can edit easily. Also as you said every character have separate color so it's very legiable already.

    I like idea of tagging/describing number of characters though.
  • FenrirWolfeFenrirWolfe
    edited 11:54PM
    MisterBangYourSister said: other char's anchors are dissapearing so you can edit easily. Also as you said every character have separate color so it's very legiable already.

    That's on the scene. Notice that I said "submenu". I meant the buttons on the UI to the top-right of the screen. Right now, you sometimes can't tell which character is which without testing every single one of them until you get it right.
  • MisterBangYourSisterMisterBangYourSister
    edited December 2015
    FenrirWolfe said: I meant the buttons on the UI to the top-right of the screen. Right now, you sometimes can't tell which character is which without testing every single one of them until you get it right.

    I know what you meant, thats why I can't understand you, because regardless of menu you always see what character you selected. Like, how can you get lost when only one char is toggled at the moment. I don't want to be rude or anything, maybe I'm just still missing your point.
  • FenrirWolfeFenrirWolfe
    edited December 2015
    Well, you clearly have absolutely no idea what I mean... I'm not speaking at all about "selecting" characters. I'm speaking about - for example - changing one character's expressions. You cannot know if you've chosen correctly if there are 2 (or even more) characters of the same type unless they're connected to each other (having sex - to put it simply),

    That's where the coloured - for example - "Horse" button comes in. You just click the "Horse" button with the same colour as the anchors of the horse you want, go to the "Expressions" menu and change what you want to change without trial-erroring it.

    Perhaps there's a language wall between us?
  • MisterBangYourSisterMisterBangYourSister
    edited December 2015
    FenrirWolfe said: characters of the same type

    "Same" is the keyword. Now I understand, because this is the only case menu is not telling you on which character's sliders you are looking at. You could type it in your first post though, phrase "characters with the same names" would make it clear.
    And there's one reason why I excluded that option on first sight.
    I think it's good enough to distinguish every character you have in your interaction.
    ps. Your idea is good afterall, I would like to see it in the app.
  • FenrirWolfeFenrirWolfe
    edited 11:54PM
    MisterBangYourSister said: And there's one reason why I excluded that option on first sight.https://trello.com/c/3If1rkak/110-allow-characters-to-be-renamed

    Hah, I see. It's even funnier because it was me who suggested that one (http://forum.yiffalicious.com/index.php?p=/discussion/comment/282/#Comment_282). I wouldn't call it "enough", though...

    Anyway, sorry for the misunderstanding. However, both of us are to blame. I need to be more clear. You need to look at things from different perspectives if you don't understand them.
  • odesodes Administrator
    edited 11:54PM
    I'm thinking of something like this for the current character being edited. What you guys think?

    image
  • FenrirWolfeFenrirWolfe
    edited December 2015
    @odes
    Just to clarify: That would happen after we've clicked the character's name on the top-right menu? If yes, then I believe that would work great... better than the thing I've come up with, actually. It kinda breaks my rainbow-coloured menu fantasy but that's irrelevant. I like it.

    EDIT: I would make it more subtle and timed, though. A constant light as lurid as that would get annoying quite fast.
  • odesodes Administrator
    edited 11:54PM
    Yeah, it would be when you open a character's panel. Perhaps it could like highlight and fade out.
  • FenrirWolfeFenrirWolfe
    edited December 2015
    odes said: Yeah, it would be when you open a character's panel. Perhaps it could like highlight and fade out.

    Precisely. That would be it, in my opinion. Maybe make it a different colour? Dark orange seems kinda unfitting.
  • odesodes Administrator
    edited 11:54PM
    What color would you like?
  • FenrirWolfeFenrirWolfe
    edited December 2015
    I would like them to be either the same as the colour of the character's anchors or white (bright - easily visible; neutral). This way they don't add any unnecessary and unfitting contrast but are still easy to see.

    Another option would be making the colour dependant on the map. The dark orange, as an example, could be used in some sort of a dark, candle-lit level.
  • SpaceRockSpaceRock
    edited 11:54PM
    odes said: Having more than 4 characters would be really bad on older computers.

    I would second what FenrirWolfe mentioned about having a character count on the cloud pages. Another possibility, when a user tries to add 5+ characters, a warning bubble could pop up about the limits just so they are aware of the degraded performance. But for those with newer computers, it would be nifty to see more characters on the screen, especially as more species are added.
    odes said: I'm thinking of something like this for the current character being edited. What you guys think?

    I would find that helpful. Would it be possible to make that highlight shine through another characters body - as in, if one character you are trying to edit is buried beneath other characters or even props etc, you can see them outlined through the clutter and can adjust using that?
  • odesodes Administrator
    edited 11:54PM
    SpaceRock said: Would it be possible to make that highlight shine through another characters body

    Yes
  • rageproragepro
    edited 11:54PM
    I just wanted to chime in with some performance data. I'm currently able to maintain 120 fps at all times in all cases with any combination of 4 characters in any poses with any amount of IK going on. I have a Core i7-4790K @ 4.8Ghz, 16GB of DDR3-2133, and an R9 290X, on Windows 10 x64.

    I understand the performance concerns for older/slower computers but I don't think that's necessarily a reason to hold everyone else back, is it? :)
  • odesodes Administrator
    edited 11:54PM
    That's one hell of a computer. :)

    If all goes according to plan, expect something for 0.5.0.
  • HorsieHorsie
    edited 11:54PM
    It would be useful to make this decision easier to have some metrics.
    Maybe Yiffalicious could ask permisson to check the basic computer specs (processor, memory, graphics card, graphics memory and windows version) and upload the results to the main server so you can have real data about the computers running Yiffalicious.
    Something like the Steam's hardware survey.
  • SpaceRockSpaceRock
    edited 11:54PM

    odes said: If all goes according to plan, expect something for 0.5.0.
    Cool, thanks. While my computer is not quite up there with Ragepro's, I can also confirm I can have four characters in a scene without any noticeable drawback, it will be nice to up up the ante.
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