A third playable character, built with the pipeline skill from a source
that was already in the repo: the animation library ships a rigged
Mannequin mesh on the exact 53-joint reference skeleton, CC0, so it needed
no download and retargets perfectly. 18 clips, 0.3% cross-leg bleed, 7% of
verts at four influences — a clean authored-weight import. Licence
recorded in mannequin.license.json as the other skins do.
It has no cloth chains, correctly: it is a mannequin and has neither hair
nor clothes.
Importing it turned up two real bugs, both of which would have hit any
flat-coloured or single-piece model:
- LevelMaterials.apply_character_look treated ANY untextured surface on a
character as the model's own outline shell and hid it, so the mannequin
rendered as a solid black silhouette — its body and joint materials are
untextured flat colours, not ink. _is_line_work() now asks whether the
surface is named eyes*, is drawn front-face-culled (the inverted-hull
setup), or is near-black. Taila and Miku are unaffected: their materials
are textured and never reach that branch. Verified by render.
- verify_character.py failed the build for having one mesh. That check
cannot tell "the pipeline joined them" from "the artist authored one
mesh" — Quaternius' mannequin is one piece on purpose. It is advisory
now; the join path's two unambiguous signatures, cross-leg bleed and the
4-influences-everywhere spread, are still hard checks.
Also restored Miku's description, which the re-import had blanked.
3 GLB skins selectable (6 with the built-in colour skins). Smoke 0
failures, 11/11 movement tests, cloth idle 0.024-0.078 deg/frame.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <[email protected]>
The model animated but deformed wrong: arms crossed the torso and foot heels
stretched to the model's center-bottom. Two root causes, both fixed:
1. Pose mismatch. Sketchfab models are modelled in an A-pose (arms angled
down) but the Quaternius library rests in a T-pose. Binding the A-pose mesh
to T-pose arm bones misweighted the arms, and the library clips (which
rotate arms ~70° down from the T rest) then shoved the already-drooped arms
across the body.
Fix: autorig.fit_arms_to_mesh() reorients each arm bone chain along the
model's real arm direction; merge_animations retargets every clip from the
library's T-pose rest onto the fitted rest via world-space constraint bake
(Copy Rotation/Location + nla.bake), so world motion is reproduced
regardless of the rest difference.
2. Feet-to-center stretch. The library's deform-flagged `root` bone runs up
the body centre-line; nearest-bone weighting assigned inner-foot/heel verts
to it, stretching them to center when animated.
Fix: exclude root/control/mechanism bones from weighting (_NON_DEFORM_HINTS).
Also upgraded nearest-bone weighting from rigid (1 bone/vert) to a smooth
inverse-distance blend across the nearest 4 bones, so joints deform cleanly.
Bone-heat still fails on Miku's joined hair/clothing mesh, so this is the
primary path.
Verified by rendering Idle/Walk/Run poses (Blender): natural stance, arms at
sides swinging correctly, feet planted, proper running stride. Smoke test
still 30/30.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <[email protected]>
The first-person head-shrink (SkeletonModifier3D) left the camera looking at
the inside of the neck/torso/hair. Replaced it: the owner's model now renders
shadows-only in first person (clean FPS view, still fully animated and visible
to others and in shadows).
Added a third-person toggle (V / toggle_camera_view) so you can actually see
your own animated model — the easiest way to verify a new skin's animations:
- over-the-shoulder SpringArm3D camera (wall-collision aware) on the local
player; press V to swap, press again to return
- firing still uses the first-person camera, so aim is unchanged
- reveals the owner's model via set_owner_visible() on both SkinnedPlayerModel
and HumanoidModel; hides the first-person weapon viewmodel while in TP
- death forces first person so the toggle can't fight the death cam
Smoke test extended to cover the toggle (camera boom created, becomes current,
round-trips) — 28/28 checks pass for both color and GLB skins.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <[email protected]>
Verified the full chain on a real Sketchfab model (Miku UID -> rigged ->
13 clips -> loads and animates in-engine, 24/24 smoke checks pass).
Fixes found while running it for real:
- sketchfab_import: read .sketchfab_token as UTF-16/BOM too (PowerShell's
`echo >` writes UTF-16LE, which crashed the UTF-8 reader)
- autorig: rig to the animation library's OWN skeleton when _library.glb
is present (zero retargeting); robust binding — fall back to rigid
nearest-bone weights when Blender bone-heat fails on complex meshes
(Miku's joined hair/clothing gave 0 weighted verts); export as
parent_type=ARMATURE with no modifier (Blender 5.x only emits a glTF
skin in that exact form — a lingering Armature modifier gave skins:0);
export_apply=False (applying modifiers baked away the skin); flatten
the Sketchfab empty hierarchy before binding
- merge_animations: support a single multi-clip library GLB via
LIBRARY_CLIP_MAP; version-safe fcurve access for Blender 4.4+/5.x
slotted actions (Action.fcurves was removed)
Assets/tooling:
- bundle assets/characters/animations/_library.glb — CC0 Quaternius
Universal Animation Library (13 game clips), + .gdignore so Godot
skips the pipeline-input folder
- requirements.txt (stdlib-only; documents Blender-python separation)
- pipeline docs updated for the bundled library + swap instructions
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <[email protected]>
Character pipeline (tools/):
- sketchfab_import.py: search/download via Sketchfab Download API with
license/attribution tracking (SKETCHFAB_API_TOKEN)
- autorig.py: headless Blender auto-rig — fits a Mixamo-named skeleton
to unrigged humanoids, binds automatic weights
- merge_animations.py: merges the shared Mixamo-skeleton animation
library onto any rigged character, strips root motion, canonical names
- pipeline.py: one command chains download -> rig -> animate -> register
In-game skin system:
- SkinManager autoload reads skins.json (auto-written by the pipeline)
- SkinnedPlayerModel rewritten: canonical clips with fallback chains,
blend times, speed-scaled locomotion, weapon bone attachment
- First-person: full animated body for the owner, head hidden via
SkeletonModifier3D; third-person: full model for other players
- Skin selector in main menu; skin id synced in multiplayer
- Fixed GLBLoader crash (GLTFDocument.get_animation_count doesn't exist)
Multiplayer sync overhaul:
- Movement is now client-authoritative: the owning peer simulates
locally (no input round-trip), server keeps health/kills/death
- Remote players interpolate synced_position/velocity with
extrapolation and snap-on-teleport
- Knockback/impulses routed to the simulating peer
Audio:
- AudioManager autoload: SFX/Weapons/Footsteps/UI/Music buses, pooled
3D players, variation + pitch randomization, auto-registration from
assets/sounds
Docs: 3D_ASSET_PIPELINE.md rewritten end-to-end, new ASSET_SOURCES.md
(non-procedural animation/map/sound sources) and SOUND_DESIGN.md.
Verified with debug/spawn_smoke_test.gd (headless: 24/24 checks pass).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <[email protected]>
Pipeline:
1. Downloaded TDA-style Miku model from Sketchfab (19MB FBX, 38K verts)
2. Imported to Blender, scaled to Godot humanoid proportions (1.8u tall)
3. Created clean 17-bone humanoid armature (Hips/Spine/Chest/Head/Arms/Legs)
4. Auto-weight-painted mesh to armature
5. Added Idle (breath bounce) and Run (cycle) animations
6. Exported as GLB with embedded animations (3MB)
New:
- SkinnedPlayerModel class: loads GLB with own armature+animations
- Player 1 spawns with Miku model, others get procedural humanoid
- Completely separate from procedural model system
Files:
- assets/characters/skins/miku_rigged_final.glb (3MB, 48K verts, 17 bones, 2 anims)
- characters/skinned_player_model.gd
- Removed old procedural GLB attempts
Skin System:
- PlayerSkin resource class (model_path, color_tint, etc.)
- SkinManager with default skins: Default, Red Team, Forest, Miku
- HumanoidModel.apply_skin() supports both GLB model replacement
and procedural color tinting
- Procedural meshes auto-hide when GLB model is loaded
Miku Skin:
- 43-part procedural model generated in Blender (headless)
- Twin tails, headphones, thigh-high socks, idol outfit
- Teal/cyan color scheme with red accents
- Exported to assets/characters/skins/miku.glb
- Applied to player 1 in test level builder
Pipeline:
- Blender 5.0.1 + MCP addon installed
- Bridge script for socket-based Blender control
- docs/3D_ASSET_PIPELINE.md documents full workflow
Hermes