Fine tuning procedural locomotion animations

[Frooxius]

Hello everyone!

I've got another thing that I could use the community help with - the new procedural locomotion animation system!

What is being tested

This "test" is actually a bit less about testing and more about helping us to fine tune a new system.

I've implemented a new system for procedural animations for users moving around. This plays huge role particularly in desktop mode, as it animates the poses of their hands, feet and head.

While the system was tuned a fair bit in its development, it still needs a fair bit of tuning to polish it up and tighten up the animations to look as realistic as possible across many avatars.

You can read more about it in this issue: #2617

This is also latest devlog video (though a bit older than the current prerelease build): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjTX7CtXkLo&feature=youtu.be

Current build number

Use latest public build on Steam.

How to test

The system has been released, but the tweaked values are not integrated yet. We'll keep this open for a while, as long as people are interested in helping to fine tune the values, we can look at any new set and see if they're an improvement over what is currently out.

All the components for this system are under Users/Common Avatar System/Animation

• Launch the build in desktop (this is to make sure that tuning affects everything - hands & head, which are normally driven in VR from your headset)
• I recommend pressing F5 to go into third person move so you can see all the movements
• Create Empty Object
• Attach LocomotionAnimationConfiguration component on it
• Open your user root in the inspector and find UserPoseController component
• Assign _defaultConfig target to the component you just created
• Alternatively you can attach LocomotionAnimationConfiguration component on the avatar you want to test - but we want to tune parameters for all avatars, so editing the global one is preferred
• Change the parameters and test with variety of motions
• Test all the motions with variety of different avatars
• Repeat and tune

What motions to test:

• Moving slow (press Z), normally & fast (holding shift)
• Moving in all directions (forward, backward, sideways, diagonally)
• Turning stationary or when moving at various speeds
• Jumping, in combination with all above
• Crouching in combination with all above (please note that crouching is expected to look a fair bit goofy particularly when running - it's not really something we can do well physically)

How to tune your specific avatar

Some things - like arm or leg length should be tuned per-avatar basis to work properly. This is done with two components you attach on your avatar:

• LocomotionAnimationFeetMetrics
• LocomotionAnimationHandMetrics

You can override certain metrics using these components so the animation system can better fit your avatar. These are per avatar tuning and should not be part of tuned parameters you submit.

However if you do find that there's a different set of defaults for these metrics that works across many avatars, feel free to submit those!

Some tips to test

If you need to test motion more reliably, you can use two fields on UserPoseController

• RenderDebugVisuals (can be currently toggled by pressing F10)
• OverrideLocomotionVelocity
• OverrideLocomotionAngularVelocity
• PauseLocomotionAnimation (can be currently toggled by pressing F11)

The override parameters will simulate the avatar moving at certain speed, which will keep it consistent.

The PauseLocomotionAnimation will pause it temporarily, so you can inspect what's happening.

I have tuned parameters, what now?

• Save the object with tuned parameters - either into a shared folder or export as .ResonitePackage
• Create a new thread in this discussion with your tunings
• Ideally include some videos showing off your tunings and some notes
• Let other users test them and provide feedback
• Test other user's tunings and work other users to iterate

Where to discuss/coordinate?

I've made this Discord thread here: https://discord.com/channels/1040316820650991766/1276327399474335814

You can use this to discuss/coordinate before submitting here. Make sure you submit and test the results here as well!

How many tunings will be accepted?

There can only be one default set of parameters, so our goal is to arrive at good set of parameters that works across a set of commonly used avatars. Please focus on working with other users so we can arrive at single set of parameters.

However as secondary goal, we can provide users with "presets" - e.g. different styles of walking/running - heavier walking, leaner walking and so on. You can make those kinds of presets as well, but please note that this is a secondary goal.

How to tune the parameters

• The goal for default animation is to look as realistic and natural as possible
• Ensure the parameters work well across many avatars - these will be the new defaults!
• Use video/mocap references to watch how humans walk/run where possible when tuning
  -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAnEhz6Eqn4
  -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd8Jijb7jZY
  -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq9A5FD8G5w
  -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8Veye-N0A4
  -- Google/search more

What NOT to provide as tuned parameters

• Cartoonish / unrealistic movements - the default set should be mostly neutral and work well with majority avatars
• Tuned parameters specifically for particular avatar - if you tuned the parameters only for particular avatar, please do not provide these
• Heavily changed systems - it generally needs to have the 3 archetype gaits - idle, walking & running. If you add extra ones in between or after (e.g. extremely fast running) this is ok, but it cannot be less than these 3
• I tuned parameters in earlier builds before this announcement, can I use them?
  -- I'd STRONGLY recommend against it, other than maybe copying some parameters. A lot of things have been completely reworked since the earlier internal prerelease builds, so they might not match

I found an issue that cannot be resolved through tuning

If you ran into an issue, glitchy behavior and similar that cannot be resolved by the tuning - either global parameters or per avatar metrics, please make sure to make an Issue instead: https://github.com/Yellow-Dog-Man/Resonite-Issues/issues/new?assignees=shiftyscales&labels=prerelease&projects=&template=prerelease.yml

What to include:

• If you're reporting a behavioral issue, record a video
• Make sure debug visuals are enabled (on the UserPoseController check the RenderDebugVisuals)
• Set Motion Blur to 0 % while recording (if it already isn't)
• Include recording at high resolution so the debugging visuals are legible

What NOT to report:

• Issues with the IK (e.g. the hips, or bones not resolving properly) - IK is a separate system from this

[NukiRaccoon]

Initial feedback: this is way more complicated than I think you needed it to be, perhaps it has too much physics-simulation to it.

This interface could definitely be better organized and labeled, as I don't know where I need to look for each thing that is popping out to me. And maybe the hands and legs should be driven separately, seeing as one might not even use the hands?

First thing I did was try to find ways to override the head movement because I didn't like it moving where my head was looking without input. If you wanted to do something like that, you should consider having the mouse control the eyes and have the head follow them at a delay/smooth, or just a very gentle bob.

The movement of the hands also feels way too intensive: I feel like a simple swinging system would've sufficed, while these are kind of just wiggling about constantly.

it's making it difficult to figure out what to change or how.

I liked the look of the legs in the air: I just turned the "Foot While Floating Max Distance" up to .8 and it was perfect. The only issue was, while I was with Easton, we both had our IKs go crazy when we went back into walk mode, like they needed to re-center or degimble or something.

I appreciate the added control over Crouching, as the hands always seemed a bit extreme to me in the past. I set the Y offset down to .25, the center-offset to 0,0,-1 because it was pointing them down, and the rest was fine.

I did encounter an issue with the hand freaking out when I tried to focus on something when the inspector was too close. I'm not sure what variable to mess with to change that.

Going to take a quick break, but I'm hosting the Avatar Station if people want to come in and mess around with mirrors and avatars available.

[Frooxius]

Thanks for the feedback, but unfortunately simpler system would look a lot less realistic and too robotic. In order for this to be able to handle range of movements and have realistic simulation, this is what it needs. There is not really a way to reduce that without reducing quality.

For rest I recommend trying tweaks. For other issues please report them as requested in the main post.

[TisFoolish]

How long will this test/fine tuning be open? I won't be free til the middle of the weekend and I'd like to get input from my friend Hammy as he is a professional animator.

[TisFoolish]

Follow up question, does the prerelease also include a build for headlesses? I'd like to do this on a headless that way if either of us crash our work, notes, etc are not lost.

[Frooxius]

We don't have a set finish point, this can potentially run for a bit, since we can keep tuning the defaults while this is in release as well. As long as people are willing to contribute improvements and test, we can look at any updated values and see if we'll integrate them.

[gameboycjp]

Would the automatic avatar metrics being incorrect be something to open an issue report for, or to talk about here?

[Frooxius]

I'm not sure if I understand what do you mean. There's no automatic avatar metrics, it's mostly fixed right now. It should roughly match typical humanoid avatars, but others you manually calibrate.

One thing I plan to add is automatic estimation of those, but that's not a thing right now.

[gameboycjp]

Oh! That's good to know, I assumed they were set automatically. I might open a feature request to add visualization for those after the update releases, it's pretty hard to tell what they should be set to.

[orange3134]

After four hours of tinkering with a few friends, this is what we came up with.
It's not perfect yet, but I think it works somewhat decently now, no matter which avatar I try it on.

Video
https://youtu.be/AflslFTYDm0

Resonite Package
LocomotionAnimationConfiguration by orange.zip
(Do not unzip, change the extension from zip to resonitepackage.)

I have tried various avatars other than the one shown in the video, and I think that the LocomotionAnimationFeetMetrics/HandMetrics should be set for all avatars to get beautiful animations.
I have found that the appropriate values for the following three items in particular vary widely from avatar to avatar.

• FeetSeparation
• HandOffset
• ArmLength

The following are points I would like to improve, but haven't figured out how to do so

• When turning left or right while moving forward, I would like to prevent the hips from turning too late relative to the turn of the viewpoint.
• When walking, the right hand and the right leg appear to move forward at the same time. I would like to make the timing of the arms moving forward a little faster.
• When running, I would like to make the head bob larger. If I simply make the head bob larger, it will sway too much when walking. I wish it were possible to set individual head bob amounts depending on the speed of movement.

[shiftyscales]

When turning left or right while moving forward, I would like to prevent the hips from turning too late relative to the turn of the viewpoint.

I believe this is actually a value that would currently be handled by the VRIK component. There is a value called AngleThreshold which determines how far you must turn before the hips / chest turns to align with your facing direction. By default it is set to a fairly high value (60).

Try setting it to a low value and seeing if that improves this issue for you.

[orange3134]

@shiftyscales Thanks for the info.
I tried setting AngleThreshold to 0, but still did not improve the delay in hip rotation.
Video
https://youtu.be/G7m9VL9QeB0

[orange3134]

I applied the good points of June's( @VRBat ) setting to my own setting.

Video

https://youtu.be/dIGiCOexjps

I think the running has improved.
The movement when rotating without moving is also more natural.

Resonite Package

LocomotionAnimationConfiguration by orange 1_01.zip
(Do not unzip, change the extension from zip to resonitepackage.)

[VRBat]

Spent last night focusing on gaits. I did approach things a bit differently than the defaults. I didn't adjust too many of the general values yet. I might but I might not. The only things I think need work were just the hand swinging and stepping under all of the gaits. Default values for X while floating and X in air all seem to be pretty decent. I might look more into them, but overall they feel very nice!

Showcase using 3 avatars each calibrated.

My list of changes include:

• Greatly reduced head bobbing Video showing the issue

I was having issues with head bobbing simulating when I wasn't moving, resulting in rather strange and unnatural movements when hovering my cursor over something. So I reduced the head bobbing for now. It would be nice if there was a HeadBobbingIntensity field that can be used per gait to determine how much the baseline head bobbing gets used.

• Reduced foot stepping and arm swinging on gait 2 (3.5 ReferenceSpeed) Demo 1st is mine 2nd is default

I wanted to approach the highest gait as a jog rather than a run/sprint, and eventually make another gait specifically for faster movements (Using Shift sprinting). In its current state, the stepping and hand swinging have been greatly reduced. But might have been reduced too much, so I might be spending more time in adjusting that later today. Unless someone else would like to adjust it.

• Reduced foot stepping on gait 0 Video Demo Left is default, Right is mine

The default foot stepping resulted in massive steps when simply turning your avatar. I reduced these since turning usually only results in your foot lifting about a couple of inches above the ground.

As for calibrating avatars with LocomotionAnimationFeetMetrics & LocomotionAnimationHandMetrics, I found the average adjustment's made on my avatars have been:

• FeetSeparation
• FeetBackwardsOffset
• ArmLength
• HandOffset

Specific values of course are determined on the actual model's proportions. So I didn't list them.

Feel free to make any adjustments on it, but please make notes of what's changed.

LocomotionAnimationConfigruationJune.resonitepackage

Also since some users have been struggling with the current 3rd person camera, I've configured a quick alternate 3rd person camera that uses BlitToDisplay to display a 3rd person perspective that you can freely move around in. You can press \ to toggle the camera

3rd Person Camera.resonitepackage

[orange3134]

I tried this animation.
It looks nice and natural.

However, on some avatars it looked like they were tripping over their own feet.
I think this can be improved by reducing the FootAvoidanceRadius value.

Comparison video
https://youtu.be/V-f1eo9bFrQ

Notice the red arrows indicating the landing point of the toes; if the FootAvoidanceRadius value is large, the landing point is shifted back and forth, and the rhythm of the gait is disrupted.

Maybe avatars with narrower crotch widths have this tripping problem.

[VRBat]

I've got an updated version of the previous system! I took a bunch of feedback and fixed some of the things that were issues, specifically the stepping sometimes tripping. There still might be some issues with this version of it, please provide any possible feedback and solutions if there are any. As for me updating this, it will be a while until I can. I have a lot of contract work I need to work on through October. So updating this will be slow for a bit.

Video Demo

Changes:

• Added a 4th gait for sprinting, this should help configure for higher speeds.
  The current gait layout is now:

0: Standing
1: Walking (pressing Z on desktop)
2: Running
3: Sprinting

• Adjusted MinOpposingProgress on gait 2 to .75. This was to lower the foot's traveling speed between each step.
• Set HandCrouchOffset to X: -0.1 Y: 0.4 Z: 0.25
• Set FootFloatingOffset with a slight negative offset on Z & Y (X: 0 Y: 0.2 Z: -0.4). If anyone want's to revert back to how it originally was, you can set the FootFloatingOffset to X: 0 Y: 0 Z: 0 which is located under Foot while floating category
• Reduced hand force in various gaits

ResonitePackage

Download here

Click on the text and the LocomotionAnimationConfiguration will be automatically parented to the root of your avatar (following default avatar configuration), or place the LocomotionAnimationConfiguration in the _defaultConfig reference field under UserPoserController that's located in your user root if you wish for the whole session to share the same component.

Remember to set your LocomotionAnimationFeetMetrics & LocomotionAnimationHandMetrics before applying this locomotion

You can find those components under User>CommonAvatarSystem>Animation. Attatch those components under your avatar.

On average I found myself changing specifically:

• FeetSeparation
• FeetBackwardsOffset
• ArmLength
• HandOffset

[Dusty-Sprinkles]

your video demo seems to be private by the way

[VRBat]

Did some more adjustments as the week goes by.

Changes

• Updated proper VelocityDecreaseSmoothTime values to each gait.
• Improved foot stepping in 2 & 3
• Adjusted arm swinging for gaits 2 & 3
• Reverted my previous Foot while floating values back to default. (wanted it to be more universal)

I won't be including all specific changes in this commit due to having to focus on work, but I wanted to get this update out to everyone as quick as I can. I might release another update next week depending on how much time I'll spend testing. So far I think I understand the majority and adjusted everything accordingly

There still might be more issues that I've overlooked, if there are any found, please let me know, it helps a lot if I get told about any bug/issues.

Download ResonitePackage

Remember to set your LocomotionAnimationFeetMetrics & LocomotionAnimationHandMetrics before applying this locomotion.

You can find those components under User>CommonAvatarSystem>Animation. Attatch those components anywhere under your avatar.

[VRBat]

I made some changes to the arm swinging. However I had to overdrive some stuff to achieve it so I'm unsure how viable it is.

Changes

• HeadMaxLookDirectoinAngel from 15 to 5
• HeadLookSpeed from 2.50 to 0.10

0

• FootMaxAngle from 90 to 35

1

• Offset from Z: -0.35 to `Z: -0.3
• HandForwardForce from 500 to 250
• HandBackwardsForce from 500 to 145
• HandDrag from 50 to 15

2

• VelocityIncreaseSmoothTime from 25 to 75
• VelocityDecreaseSmoothTime from 5 to 75
• Offset from Z: -0.65 to Z: -0.75
• FootStepUpAngularVelocityMultiplier from 750 to 250
• FootStepDownAngle from 60 to 45
• HandForwardForce from 310 to 150
• HandBackwardForce from 370 to 15
• HandDrag from 25 to 40
• HandSwingDistance from 0.30 to 1.75
• HandOffset from X: -0.05 Y: 0 Z: 0 to X: 0 Y: 1.4 Z: 1.5
• HandDirectionCenterOffset from X: 0 Y: 0 Z: -1 to X: 0 Y: 0 Z: 0
• HandSwingDirection from X: 0 Y: 0 Z: 0 to X: 0 Y: 1 Z: 1.5
• HandSwingArcPeak from X: 0 Y: 0 Z: 0 to X: 0 Y: -1.2 Z: 0

3

• Offset from X: 0 Y: 0 Z: -0.7 to X: 0 Y: 0 Z: -0.8
• FootStepUpHeight from 0.25 to 0.50
• HandDrag from 50 to 60
• HandOffset from X: -0.05 Y: -0.3 Z: 1.6 to X: -0.05 Y: 1.5 Z: 4.5
• HandSwingDirection from X: 0 Y: 0 Z: 0 to X: 0 Y: 1 Z: 1.5
• HandSwingArcPeak from X: 0 Y: -1 Z: 0 to X: 0 Y: -2 Z: 1

With the new automatic calibration for avatars, I decided to try and make the arm swinging more animated and should work with auto calibrated avatars.

Download ResonitePackage

if the feet seem like they're tripping over each other, attach a LocomotionAnimationFeetMetrics and change the FeetSeparation value to spread your feet slightly further apart. It feels like the automatic values put your feet too close together.

[troyBORG]

I've been messing around as well, borrowing some things from both Orange's and Junes. But also tweaking stuff myself.. here is what I've came up with.

Ignore the hands flying up when jumping, Adjusting the Arm Length on my avatar fixes that

Video (Click to view full version): {I've updated some settings since I made this video}

And here is the Config (Updated 8.25.24):
TROY_LocomotionAnimationConfigruation(8.25).resonitepackage.zip

[ModernBalloonie]

Here's a test I did to make the really fast run not look weird.

2024-08-24.16-23-52-1.1.mp4

I actually overdrove FootTravelDistance a little bit to get this, and I added another gait.

Modern's Locomotion In a box v1.zip

[Frooxius]

2024.8.27.55 [PRE-RELEASE]
Hello everyone! First, thank you everyone for the feedback, notes and helping tweak this system! I've tried to address as many things as possible, I'm going to be taking a bit break now, so I'm pushing out what I have.

Here's a list of the changes in the new prerelease - for some of these I based them on going through the comments, but I didn't collect all the credits, since it's scattered over a bunch of comments, sorry! I'll credit everyone who contributed once this gets released fully.

New Features:

• Added HandSwingArcPeak
  -- This is the peak offset that the hand will try to arc when swinging back and forth
  -- This should allow making the arm follow more of an "arc" when moving around
  -- Note: I'm not 100 % confident if this will work well, I do have an alternate idea how to make this affect the arm, but I'm releasing it "as is" in this so see how well it works. If there's trouble getting this to behave well, I'll rework it
• Added SimulationSpeedRatio to UserPoseContoller
  -- This allows slowing down the simulation speed, to better visualize what's going on during fast movement
• Added FootSidewaysDistanceRatio and FootBackwardsDistanceRatio to allow modulating the foot travel distance depending on the direction of travel
• Make head bobbing offsets per-gait properties, to allow changing how head bobbing behaves depending on speed
  -- Additionally HeadSmoothingSpeed is exposed, which allows controlling the amount of smoothing applied to the head bobbing

Bugfixes:

• Fixed head bobbing not being aligned with user's direction (reported by @ModernBalloonie, issue HeadHorizonalBobOffset is bobbing different directions depending on what direction in the world you face. #2803)
• Fixed avatars not being instrumented with AvatarUserViewHeadOverride in some cases (reported by @gamethecupdog, issue Default avatar does not get head override added #2800)

[Frooxius]

Another update:

2024.8.28.1268 [PRE-RELEASE]
Some more improvements for the feet behavior. I'm still looking into some more oddities and misbehavior.

I'll be merging this into master soon and making a new build with some other things, since it seems to be in okay enough state - the fine tuning will continue after release still, since we can swap out the default values anytime.

Tweaks:

• Improve feet behavior when landing from a jump/fall, to prevent the feet suddenly jumping in a pose
  -- The "leading" foot will gravitate towards fully extended pose
• Improve debug visualizations

[Frooxius]

2024.8.28.1308 [PRE-RELEASE]
I found the cause for gaits becoming unstable and hopping wrong in some cases, some of the math/logic for how feet progress was wrong, which was causing all kinds of weirdness. This should sort it out and make it behave much better.

If you're doing some fine tuning, please make sure you're on this build (or later) as it'll influence how the gaits behave a bit.

Fixes:

• Fix feet continuing to move forward with inertia in cases where they should be moving forward based on the opposing foot pose
  -- This fixes gaits being unstable in some cases, particularly after landing after a jump (reported by @j4.lc, issue Two feet will go at once randomly when running #2816)
  -- This could also potentially fix other cases where the gait becomes unstable

[Frooxius]

2024.8.29.33 [PRE-RELEASE]
Doing some more cleanup of things, mostly how stuff behaves while in VR and when controllers are not tracking and fixing up a few things. I think I'll take a bit of a breather now and get back to wrap this up later.

Tweaks:

• Do not simulate hands while in VR and controllers are active but not tracking. Also fix issues with full body trackers and desktop simulation

Bugfixes:

• Fix IsSimulated status while in VR
• Fix raycasts being incorrectly offset after using VR

[Frooxius]

2024.8.30.1213 [PRERELEASE]
Another prerelease build, this adds a bunch of polish to the system, particularly when using VR and adding ways to make some content work, like poser systems

New Features:

• Add Legacy Feature setting to suppress feet simulation (based on report by @shiftyscales, @veercollie, issue ForceUseFeetProxies state on VRIKAvatar not respected / Proxy transforms can't be written to #2836)
  -- Note this is to make certain features that hijack feet proxies work, like posers work without having to modify them
  -- If you turn this on without using posers and similar feature, the animations will NOT look correct. Turn this off after you're done using posers
  -- IMPORTANT: This will likely be removed at some point, we recommend upgrading posers to be compatible with the new system and automatically suppress the simulation when active

• Add LocomotionAnimationSupressor
  -- Adding this under avatar and checking SuppressFeetSimulation will suppress the feet from being simulated
  -- This is useful if you want to take control of the feet proxies, e.g. with a poser system

• Feet poses are now overriden while in VR and using full body when the user moves fast enough
  -- The poses will not be overriden if the user is in horizontal pose
  -- You can configure angle at which the user is considered horizontal in Settings under "Controls" (this might be moved elsewhere later)

• Added reverse transform of feet positions when they are tracked, so when simulation override activates, feet animate from a pose that's close to actual user's feet

Optimizations:

• Added optimized versions of average functions for vectors when there are only two or three arguments

*Tweaks:

• When in VR with full body tracking, the center of locomotion animation simulation will be a midpoint between the actual user feet
  -- This fixes the feet being weirdly offset when the poses are overriden by the simulation
• Do not simulate hands while in VR and controllers are active, but not tracking

Bugfixes:

• Fix full body trackers for feet interfering with simulated feet poses (both in VR and in desktop)
• Fix raycasts being incorrectly offset after using VR, resulting in glitchy poses
• Fixed inactive devices & finger tracking devices being used when they shouldn't
• Pose filters now receive poses unaffected by body node offset to simplify their logic and fix issues with wrong offsets

[Frooxius]

2024.9.2.1379 [PRERELEASE]
Another pre-release, addressing some of the issues reported. I'll be making a public build with this soon, to get a number things out of the way.

However the fine tuning will continue even after that.

Tweaks:

• Add mechanism to suppress rapid transition between OnGround and InAir state when walking over certain colliders (based on report by @shiftyscales and @veercollie, issue Some observations during a long session breaking in the procedural locomotion animation system in VR #2837)

Bugfixes:

• Fix legs freaking out when jumping while not moving in any direction (based on report by @shiftyscales and @veercollie, issue Some observations during a long session breaking in the procedural locomotion animation system in VR #2837)

[troyBORG]

Unless I can think of anything else, or if there is anything people might want to tweak here is how mine looks now.
TROY_LocomotionAnimationConfigruation(8.29).resonitepackage.zip
It looks good across multiple avatars.

http://troyborg.us-southeast-1.linodeobjects.com/2024-08/2024-08-29%2001-13-52.mp4
I show it Walking, Running, Spring
Avatars: Rex, NeonWuff, Novabeast, Regulus

Then I show my Zorrix I use with the debug visuals on moving around in different directions at the end...

[Psychpsyo]

fyi: The http (no s) link to an mp4 makes Firefox give a security warning when trying to download it.

[troyBORG]

fyi: The http (no s) link to an mp4 makes Firefox give a security warning when trying to download it.

I use the Brave browser, and when I click it, it just plays it right in the web browser.

[troyBORG]

I've given up on the settings I had, this is based off June's version 2.2. But with some tweaks to make the arms move a little less.
Also some Flux to make the fingers not wiggle when they are near your face in desktop.

TROY_LocomotionAnimationConfigruation(9.17).resonitepackage.zip

Here is a video showing off one of the adjustments regarding the hands having less movement....
https://troyborg.us-southeast-1.linodeobjects.com/2024-09/2024-09-17%2000-31-04.mp4

[GearBell]

I have tried my best for plantigrade (humanoid) legs, tested on multiple different humanoid avatars with normal humanoid legs. Its not perfect, but its a good basis to start with. Does not require extra components.
Humanoid Locomotion.zip (Ive never done a resonitepackage before so if it fails go to my Toyshop Ive uploaded it there)

Also, Feedback - Can we have the feet not turn with the head? When people turn thier heads they swivel in place, no one can just look at something with thier head anymore thier whole body goes with them.

[GearBell]

Further testing at this point, more feedback:

• Can there be a separation of the head turning and the feet turning with it? Would be nice to be able to look around without the feet pivoting with the head.
• Can we have an option to not have the feet align to a surface and just stay flat? Seems to be a consistent issue with digigrade legs.

[FlameSoulis]

Sort of like a dead zone angle where the head-turning does not immediately cause the feet to update?

[ultrawidegamer]

Another observation is that when running, the avatar will instead of having a long stride will just increase the speed of the footsteps and will just comically walk really fast

[Psychpsyo]

Isn't the point of having multiple gaits to adjust for that?

[ProbablePrime]

Yes, a higher speed gait is what should be occuring here.

[ultrawidegamer]

no this cant be fixed with gaits, unless im just missing how you can have both feet off the ground at the same time while running?

[Frooxius]

This can be fixed with gaits, it's the FootTravelDistance property on them. This determines how far does the foot actually travel.

The default parameters have the running gait be longer, so they should go faster. I'm not sure why are you seeing them walking comically fast. Is that with defaults or with a different one?

[ultrawidegamer]

just confirmed that this issue was on my side and has been resolved

[orange3134]

I have created a new version.
Tested with over 10 friends, each with a different avatar, with relatively good results.

I also did some trial and error on Hand/FeetMetrics.
I think I have found values that are not bad for many humanoid avatars.
However, adjustments for each avatar still need to be made.

Resonitepackage

New Version V1.08
LocomotionAnimationConfiguration by orange rhenium 108.zip

(do not unzip, change the extension to .resonitepackage)
Hand/FeetMetrics is also included.

Video

https://youtu.be/7iv2yLqS0SA

Problems

• Motion when turning is unnatural.
  The upper body seems to be lagging behind when turning.
  

This is a screenshot while turning to the left.
You can see that the avatar's upper body is facing the direction of the green arrow, even though the avatar's direction of travel is the yellow arrow.
I think there needs to be a feature to address this issue.

• Left/right movement is unnatural.
  I think the problem is that when moving left or right, one leg is moving through the other leg.
  Shifty explains this in detail in this Issue.
  Legs clip through each other while side-stepping #2851

Suggestion

Is it possible to create a mechanism to automatically calculate and set Hand/FeetMetrics when an avatar is created in Avatar Creator?
Adjusting these components manually for each avatar would be a hassle and probably impossible for a Resonite newbie.
It is very important for a beginner to be able to just set up in Avatar Creator and have the avatar work somewhat nice.

[orange3134]

Does it look feminine? I didn't intend to, but there may be something that makes me look that way.
Either way, it seems that the movement of the human body is largely based on the skeleton, so it makes sense to have two default animations, one for men and one for women.

[orange3134]

New Version V1.05

New parameters added in Resonite 2024.9.6.626 are now supported.
Please use this if you want to try it out, as anything prior to 1.04 will not work as intended with the current Resonite.
LocomotionAnimationConfiguration by orange 105.zip
(do not unzip, change the extension to .resonitepackage)

[JennDolari]

Does it look feminine? I didn't intend to, but there may be something that makes me look that way. Either way, it seems that the
movement of the human body is largely based on the skeleton, so it makes sense to have two default animations, one for men and
one for women.

I find that it's the placement of the feet that makes it look feminine. A lot of time, the avatar defaults to feet together when you stop. As I have a feminine avvie, it's fine for me, but spacing the feet apart with the slider should help with that.

[troyBORG]

yeah the feet are way to close together. Also the running I feel like the left/right swing of the hips is a little to much..

[orange3134]

New Version V1.08

Fixed for the latest update.
A few more tweaks based on feedback from friends.
LocomotionAnimationConfiguration by orange rhenium 108.zip
(do not unzip, change the extension to .resonitepackage)

[ChromaShiba]

I am looking at this briefly over the weekend, I will do a bit of a deeper dive going into the week. This suggestion is going off the current defaults with no parameters tweaked on a Taidum model, and I'll be speaking on just an animation level and not a technical one.

One thing that stands out to me about this is that all the animation seems to be driven by pulling the rest of IK by the ends (i.e. hands pulling elbow, feet pulling knees). While the feet and hands are needed to target end positions, I would suggest that before their movement take place to have a bit of movement relative towards the target, starting at elbows and knees (possibly starting higher up at the shoulders and thighs, i.e. radiating motion out from hips). This hopefully would make those movements more weighted/intentional and less string puppet like. The general idea is to ripple out movement from the hips in these cycles instead of pulling straight on the ends.

Later this week I want to gather more thoughts about the gaits and play with they system more but first impressions are that there needs to be more of a gradual height falloff based on speed when it comes to step height so there is less awkward stepping at the end. It's possible that the cycle all together is grinding to a halt too much when the movement inputs are released and there might need to be a partial second of cooldown to comfortably arrange the avatar limbs into a natural resting position. This could be an additional half step forward instead of trying to stop right on a dime. I want to alter the parameters more before making any full suggestions though. (I tried a ReadyPlayerMe avatar here in addition with defaults and still the same rough suggestions)

One thing we might want to consider as a future project for the content team, is creating additional UI/UX in the avatar builder that makes these parameters easier to adjust when first setting up the avatar. Or we create a separate UI/UX that adjusts these parameters with helpful visuals and a preview toggle for the animation.

[Frooxius]

For the part of this pulling the IK - that's the only way this can work - it's avatar agnostic system, that technically has nothing to do with the IK. Same thing happens when those poses are sourced from your controllers and trackers, unless you use knee and elbow trackers.

We could add more effectors, but reworking the IK might be better, since that will help make users in VR look better.

The gradual falloff was already implemented in friday patch if that's what you mean. Problem is that the way physics movement works ingame, the character does stop on a dime. We can change that, but that will change how movement feels.

There will soon be automated calculation for the metrics, so the UI/UX might not be as crucial at that point.

[ChromaShiba]

@Frooxius Analyzing this again this morning, this time using a ReadyPlayerMe rigged avatar with default settings.

Playing around with some parameters lessens my concerns with heel roll and I guess just brings it back to what my initial thoughts were about movement radiating out from the hip (since that requires an IK rework I won't focus on this point too much now).

More importantly, I think overall what stands out is what I've seen some refer to as "pitter patter" or "extra steps" that occur as the IK tries to reset itself into an idle position. Now looking at it again I'm feeling more so that you might be able to smooth those steps to look more natural by adding an additional moment of cool down to movements when the movement input is released instead of "stopping on a dime". This would be similar to the movement difference Fly locomotion has to Noclip locomotion. The difference I'm referencing being that movement stops at an ease instead of a linear hard stop.

If that proves any success I might additionally suggest tweaking the easing exponent of side stepping. Side stepping would possibly have a warm up and cool down time, to get up to full speed, more exaggerated than forward and backward movement. (i.e. running sideways will never be as generally quick or get up to speed as fast as running forward/backward (theoretically)).

[troyBORG]

Is there anyway to make to disable to locomotion system when in VR? Maybe make it a desktop only feature?

Or maybe if you want it, add it on the avatar.
Or it can be applied in the world that everyone would load. Or like your "universe thing" where businesses can have there own custom set of dash presets or whatever. Have it they could then force the animation system on them?

[shiftyscales]

That's not possible. There is no "old system" anymore, @troyBORG, and it wouldn't be worth the engineering time to reimplement the janky old system when problems with the new one can be reported and it can be improved.

If you have particular feedback / issues with the system that can't be resolved by tweaking the existing parameters, I'd recommend opening a GitHub issue demonstrating the problems you are observing.

[troyBORG]

That's not possible. There is no "old system" anymore, @troyBORG, and it wouldn't be worth the engineering time to reimplement the janky old system when problems with the new one can be reported and it can be improved.

If you have particular feedback / issues with the system that can't be resolved by tweaking the existing parameters, I'd recommend opening a GitHub issue demonstrating the problems you are observing.

No the old system is still in there, just I think drives have been disconnected so that it uses the new system.
Because if you move VERY slowly with full body, you can sometimes get the old system movement to trigger.

[ProbablePrime]

This isn't possible, the old system can't be used in this manner.

[shiftyscales]

@troyBORG - I asked the man who coded the new system itself if it could be done prior to the new system's release- believe me when I say it's not that possible / easy. That isn't my speculation. It's fact.

[troyBORG]

Ok. Hopefully soon we can come up with a tweaked default animation.
I just don't want some new player to join the game. Try moving around and wildly seeing arms and legs flying around, causing them to get a bad impression of the game and then never look at it again.

I know once thing I heard from people was they thought this was just going to be a new Desktop thing! And that it wasn't going to effect VR players. But then seeing your legs moving in ways your not expecting can really break the VR emersion. Or people who have Species Dysphoria seeing themselves move in ways they wouldn't....

Like how all devlogs of the new system was shown only in Desktop mode. I know the system is being implemented for Desktop players to move more realistic. But this is also a VR platform. So we should be also testing these new features in both Desktop and VR. If is going to add extra movements that can make things come into your field of view unexpectedly..

I didn't really test the new system during pre-release at all in VR.

[ultrawidegamer]

After hours of fine tuning, I decided to share my settings for the animation system. These adjustments are much more subtle and more closely resemble the pre update animations while still preserving the new features.

AnimationSettings.resonitepackage.zip

These settings are also provided in my public folder under examples/components
resrec:///U-ultrawidegamer/R-b6fe258a-ca9f-4822-83b8-f7e6dba2c89b