Now that my birthday is over, it’s time to sit down and play around with GearBell’s Baby Best Boi model in Unity. Though after I installed the package yesterday, I immediately noticed an issue with it.
As in… where’s the ‘Baby Best Boi’ folder in my Assets folder? Turns out, when it installed, the files went everywhere in my Assets folder. And with how big my project folder is, I couldn’t figure out what is what. And so I tried my best to organize the files, putting them in their correct folders.
The texture/shader files, sort of are there in a folder. But they’re also mixed up with my older attempts of texturing. They also don’t really seem to be connected to the model (aka listed as a shader anywhere in the Hierarchy).
–
Moving away from that, the armature is interesting. The eyes and mouth have no bones, which explains why the mouth doesn’t open. And as to why the eyes still move, the head is a blend shape (which is triggered by emotes).
What’s even more interesting, is the animations have their own model and armature. I’ve never seen a model like this, in my life. Then again, she did say that this model was originally supposed to be just for herself. And it was, until Kibble wondered if she would share it with the community as a secret avatar. She even admits it’s one big mess.
—
And that’s not the best part. Remember when I said that I was thinking of recreating Baby Red Boi with this model? Well, that is still doable. What won’t be (for now), is recreating the whelp version of BenieTheDragon Boi. This is due to the texture sheet not having a good UV map. In other words, I don’t know what is which (what’s the arm, what’s the leg, etc).
So, basic recolor texturing is the only thing one can do at the moment (though one has figured out how to add pupils to the eyes).
A few are trying to get a proper UV map (Fluffy attempting to do it), but currently is having severe issues attempting to map the body, head and ears. Stating that ‘seaming isn’t a thing’, and it’s trying to ‘unrap the body as one piece’… it doesn’t sound good for custom retexturing.
–
So, that’s about it. Oh, I almost forgot. You can remove all the fluff, in Unity (by simply disabling each and every one in the armature)! No Blender knowledge required.
Also, GearBell has given us permission to reupload the model. So I’m going to try to fix this mess of files going everywhere. I believe I already have done it to the best of my abilities, to where all I need to do is create another Unity project, get the VRCSDK (and the cube shader thing) installed, then attempt to load the model into it.
If there’s no errors, then I’ll repackage it (and add a .txt file on how to install and use it) and upload it to VRCMods (while also specifically saying “I did NOT make this model”.. etc, etc).
..EDIT: As expected, I’m running into issues (mainly missing scripts). Such as requiring DynamicBones (which was never a requirement with the Best Boi model)). Highly confused about that. So until I get help from GearBell (or anyone that knows) about this, I’m not re-releasing it. I refuse to release this ‘pirated’ version of the script (as I would be dealing with a crapton of legal issues).
–
I also ran into a rather serious looking issue (that had sickened me so much that I didn’t want to take a screenshot), with my Best Boi models. All of the attachments to the models, where.. let me explain it the best I can. It looked like the textures were “blown up” past their confined space. It looked like my work was corrupted (and it wasn’t something I could fix). So of course it made me panic, not knowing what the fuck I did wrong. It brought back those painful memories of losing my best world due to.. reasons still unknown to this day.
Red Boi was having the worst of the issues, with the cap’s texture 5x bigger than the actual model. The walking stick, looked like the texture was being ‘sucked out’ of it.
–
Then I started wondering if there was an issue with the shader, and changed it from Flat Lit Toon to standard. This worked, which told me that there was a serious issue with Cubed’s Unity Shaders. Reinstalled the shaders.. problem FIXED!! 😀 Thank the maker it saved my hard work!
Seems the shaders that came with GearBell’s model, were fucking up the ones I had.
…EDIT 2: Finally got Baby Red Boi recreated using GearBell’s model! It was a lot of work trying to figure out what textures were actually being used, and it felt satisfying when I finally figured it out. It was like defeating a very hard boss fight; using all of my past Unity knowledge to win the battle.
It really is a big mess. Instead of the UV map wrapping the model (and changing the color of one texture), I have to individually select each and every patch of fur, the head.. etc and change the texture. I also learned something new, to disable shadowing (which makes the model look a lot better). With shadowing, it looks like one big shadow ‘light show’ (especially with the eyes).
And speaking about the eyes, they have their own ‘texture’ (more like a standard color material).