Character

A character consists of a mesh of multiple parts, a skeleton and animations, and feature flags dictating how the character can be customized.

Character features

Character models

Character models are the models player characters use when they spawn into a world.

By default, the primary character model is Round6, composed of 4 rounded limbs, a rounded torso and a cylindrical head.

Round6

Round6 is prominently displayed on this early screenshot

The character model contains the following:

• Parts: Head, Torso, ArmLeft, ArmRight, LegLeft, LegRight
• Skeleton: BRoot, BTorso, BHead, BArmL, BArmR, BLegL, BLegR,
• Animations: Idle, Walk, Jump, Sit, Wield, Climb
• Standard UVs: Shirt, Pants (Roblox-compatible)
• Features: 6 colors, Height scale, T-shirts (1), Shirts (1), Pants (1), Hats (5), Faces (1), Body (5), Tools (1).

Character colors

Character model parts' colors can be picked. Configurable by character model.

Character height

Character vertical scale can be modified. Can be disabled for character model.

Character clothing

Three main parts: T-shirts, Shirts and Pants. Combined into single character texture.

When creating, need to specify which character model(s) it supports.

Character accessories

Hats, Faces, Tools, Front, Back, etc..?

When creating, need to specify which character model(s) it supports (or add variations for different models?)

Ideas and other stuff

MyLittleQuadruped character model

Basic pony character model inspired by My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, usable for ponies and furry characters.

• Parts: Head, Body, HoofLeft, HoofRight, LegLeft, LegRight
• Features: 6 colors, Height scale, Hats (manes, horn, etc), Faces (eye color and style), Tools (hoof wields, telekinetic effects), Body (tails, wings, bags etc)

Technical details

The character starts off as a 3D model which has limb parts, an armature and some animations. The model is then exported as glTF. From there, a custom definition file must be created containing...

• The exported character model (+Y Up, include animations, do NOT include materials, apply modifiers if applicable)
• which parts it consists of (Head, Torso...) and their respective bones (BHead, BTorso). Also, must name the root bone (BRoot). Please note that the root bone must be the parent of all other bones. The bones must NOT have the same names as the body parts.
• The character controllers looks for these animations (the tree structure represents fallbacks if not found):
  • Idle
    • Sit
  • Walk
    • Climb
    • Swim(?)
  • Wield
  • Jump
• Min and max scale - set both to the same value to disable rescaling in character editor, 1 for no scaling.
• Unit height - Height from the bottom of the foot to the top of the head, used for collider creation.
• Accessory support - Accessory type + relative origin point translation and quaternion + max amount.

Character binary format draft

Marker	Length (uint32)	Contents	Notes
ba fb 00	1	Version (uint8)	Format marker for application/x-freeblox-character .vfbc
ba aa 00	Number of entries	Part (string) : Mesh Asset ID (string) : Bone (string) : AttachTo (string) : PointOrigin (vec3)	Character parts
ba ab 00	Data length	Min scale (float) : Max scale (float) : Unit height (float)
ba bf 00	Number of entries	Accessory type (enum uint8):Count (uint8):AttachTo (string):PointOrigin (vec3):QuatOrigin(quat)
ba de 00	Number of entries	Texture type (enum uint8)
ba cd 00	String length	Author information (string)
ba ff 00	Binary size	Model file	glTF binary data

Note 1: : is shorthand for NUL byte (x00).