character editor extension

[Zackul]

I think a lot of people would like more from the character editor. In addition to many species that could be extremely easy to incorporate, a few other changes would also be great.

For humans, a wide range of skin colors could be offered. This alone covers a lot of species that aren't in the game. Both Umbaran, Zeltron, Aruzan and Pantoran.

The Twi'lek also lack skin color. There is no real purple, there is no white and black could also be offered. Everything exists after all. Additionally, it would be nice if you could put the lekku over your shoulders in different ways like a hairstyle.

For the Cathar, it might be great to put the ears a little further up on the head and give them a more cat-like appearance. Here too, you could offer other fur colors and even have the option of having a tail. This covers several species again.

Heterochromia is great too. Many games with really good character editors already have this option. So why shouldn't it be possible?

Last but not least, you have to say that there are far too few hair styles. Some of the ones programmed so far simply look stupid and are almost never used. There are only a few really good looking styles. In this regard, it would also be great if you could not only choose a single hair color, but also dye the strands.

I think these relatively simple changes would really bring the game into the new era. It shouldn't be too much effort and even if not everything is implemented, a few changes would make the game more colorful. You would see a lot more variation, but unfortunately currently characters are simply doubling.

 

I hope that this suggestion will be implemented. I have no programming experience, but in my opinion it could certainly be done without much effort. The hairstyles would be the only really elaborate ones. Maybe the ears of the Cathar, if you want them to be more cat-like, and the tail, but otherwise it shouldn't be too difficult.

[SteveTheCynic]

42 minutes ago, Zackul said:

that could be extremely easy to incorporate

Please provide solid evidence to justify this extraordinary assertion.

43 minutes ago, Zackul said:

This alone covers a lot of species that aren't in the game. Both Umbaran, Zeltron, Aruzan and Pantoran

Incorrect.  They would be classified as humans for *all* species-specific conversation options, and that would be ... weird.

45 minutes ago, Zackul said:

relatively simple changes

How do you know how simple it would be to change the character appearance code to accommodate these things?

46 minutes ago, Zackul said:

I have no programming experience, but in my opinion it could certainly be done without much effort.

(SteveTheCynic falls about laughing.)(1)

(1) I've been a professional developer for thirty five years.(2)  I have no confidence (or less than that) that it would be as simple as you seem to think it is.

(2) No, I do not mean that I am 35 years old.  I began my career as a developer in the beginning of 1989...

[Kryptonomic]

11 hours ago, Zackul said:

I have no programming experience, but in my opinion it could certainly be done without much effort.

A lot of what you suggest would be relatively easy to implement but some aspects can be tricky. As Steve indicated, this isn't always as easy as it might seem. There are a lot of factors that can go into this because the model you see on the character creator is, in fact, what is rendered in game. You might say, "Well, yeah, obviously. What would be the use otherwise?"

But here's the issue. For your game engine, you create a base model. And you have what are sometimes called "shape keys." Different engines use different names but it's all the same thing. There is logic that situates the character mesh towards the various shape keys you have set up. (So your Cathar ears, as one example.) This is how the model is stored: a series of vertices in different positions. The challenge is you have to preserve those vertices on your mesh and those are related to the aforementioned shape keys. And those shape keys are what are used in character creators behind sliders or value setters.

I know: boring, right? But this is what makes it tricky to get even simple changes correct because those simple changes have to apply to any animations that are relevant to the base model of the character in question. This is why games tend to have relatively few base models.

HeroEngine, which this game is based on, has basically the same mechanics that I described above. I would link you to some of the documentation the developers of the engine had made available, but HeroEngine is now dead and gone entirely; as in site closed down, engine no longer available. (Although their HEWiki is available on the Wayback Machine, albeit a little painful to traverse.)

Certain things you mention, such as coloring for eyes, is much easier, of course. That's why they've offered packs in the past accommodating eye color changes. Different colored eyes (the heterochromia) is in that same bucket. It's probably just something no one was really thinking about. The hair, however, does fall a bit into the above category. It's (relatively) easy to add a mesh for a hair style. It's harder to have it situate itself well in terms of clipping or animations due to facial movement. It also has to situate in terms of cybernetic enhancements, some that wrap around the head, some that situate "in front of" the hair and so on.

Skin coloring can be equally interesting because while it sounds simple -- add a different overlay to the mesh -- you do have to factor in how that color is displayed relative to various lighting effects. Case in point: we already know the "lighting" in SWTOR's character creator can give slightly different appearances when you actually get in the game, such as with certain skin tones. It can be subtle, and thus not terribly distracting, when it's just a case of "not as pale as I thought" or "a bit darker than I thought." It can be much less subtle when getting into purples, blues, and so on.

When all is said and done, it's tricky to get this stuff right and you are limited by the engine you are running on. Examples of character creators done extremely well are that of Elden Ring and Hogwarts: Legacy. But also notice the high level of fidelity. It's questionable whether such work would be all that valuable in a SWTOR context given that, in the end, your character would really look pretty much the same, just with a slightly different shade of coloring.

Edited February 11 by Kryptonomic

[Traceguy]

On 2/10/2024 at 5:03 PM, Zackul said:

The Twi'lek also lack skin color. There is no real purple, there is no white and black could also be offered. Everything exists after all. Additionally, it would be nice if you could put the lekku over your shoulders in different ways like a hairstyle.

We also lack a true yellow as well. And speaking of which, the "yellow" skin color you can have is for imperial twileks only. Why are Twi'lek colors locked behind factions? Are yellow Twi'leks inherently evil?

 

[VegaMist]

On 2/10/2024 at 3:03 PM, Zackul said:

Last but not least, you have to say that there are far too few hair styles. Some of the ones programmed so far simply look stupid and are almost never used. There are only a few really good looking styles.

This ^. I would imagine, it shouldn't be too difficult to access stats on which hair styles are actually being used. From an unscientific observation (from visiting any populated area), it's kind of obvious that certain hair styles are used by a vast number of players. The same can be said for head/complexion styles - there are some that used over and over again, and some what you'll never see on the actual players (and only know they exist while experimenting with character designer).

In addition, I'd love to see things like hair styles, cosmetics, and jewelry implemented into outfitter since styling your hair and matching your cosmetics/earrings to a specific outfit is a pretty common behavior.

Edited February 12 by VegaMist

[ThanderSnB]

18 minutes ago, VegaMist said:

This ^. I would imagine, it shouldn't be too difficult to access stats on which hair styles are actually being used. From an unscientific observation (from visiting any populated area), it's kind of obvious that certain hair styles are used by a vast number of players. The same can be said for head/complexion styles - there are some that used over and over again, and some what you'll never see on the actual players (and only know they exist while experimenting with character designer).

In addition, I'd love to see things like hair styles, cosmetics, and jewelry implemented into outfitter since styling your hair and matching your cosmetics/earrings to a specific outfit is a pretty common behavior.

I really don't like how they did the complexion slider because it's not just complexion. It's also eyebrows, eye shadow, lipstick, blush, and maybe some other things all in one slider. Those should all have their own separate sliders. For the makeup ones, they should have an additional color slider for each one.

[kirorx]

Ratatakki have those purple tattoos. Would be neat if they came in different colors. Then you can look like “the son” from clone wars. That would be sick