As mentioned in the topic, I want to change the parent a mesh is clipped onto. I know I can do it from the mesh properties in the Unity Editor (see pic). However, I wish to do so via a controller and the depth option doesn't seem to work with clipped meshes. Is there a way to do this in the AP editor?
Hi!
Although we couldn't be of much help to you, we're glad you found a solution.
Changing clipping connections while the game is running is limited because there can be systemic chaos.
However, as long as the connection is maintained, it seems that we can develop a new clipping system.
We've never considered a system where a group of meshes become clipping masks or become clipped children, so it's worth a look.
However, what is expected is that the function requires the process of creating and combining many "Render Textures", so it seems difficult for us to optimize the performance.
Anyway, we think we can (not sure) consider it positively.
According to our current schedule, after v1.3.4 we are preparing, there will be no more updates to add features this year, so maybe next year if your suggestion applies.
We will take note of your suggestions and consider them carefully.
Thanks for the nice ideas. :)
Oh I see. That's unfortunate but its understandable.
I wanted to create an animation of a person putting a popsicle into their mouth. Usually I would put the popsicle_mesh layer between the face_mesh layer and the mouth_mesh layer. However, I would need to change the shape of the mouth layer with consideration to the face layer which was quite tedious as it can block the view of other facial features.
So I decided to use a transparent mask based on this article: https://rainyrizzle.github.io/en/AdvancedManual/AD_CustomClippingMask.html
with the popsicle_mesh inversely(?) clipped to the mask to create the illusion of the popsicle being inserted into the mouth.
I actually found the solution to the problem earlier today. The problem was I wanted to change the mouth state (the transparent mask) to a different state (e.g. from closed mouth to open). For some reason, it did not occur to me that I could morph the mask freely into different state (except visibility as it affect the popsicle as well). This might be only specific to my use case so I do appreciate the suggestions just in case I really do need to "change" parent meshes of clipped mesh.
On the topic of clipping meshes, I noticed that Mesh Groups are not able to be clipped onto a mesh nor clipping a mesh onto Mesh Groups as if it does not treat a Mesh Group as a single grouped mesh. Is this also part of the limitation of the rendering pipeline?
Hi!
The idea you suggested is interesting, but unfortunately, changing the parent mesh of clipped meshes or changing the depth of clipped meshes is not possible due to system.
(We were rather surprised that, as you tried, changing the value in the Unity Editor changes the parent. Because we didn't develop it that way. Wow..)
Clipping has a tighter relationship between parent meshes and child meshes, which even gets involved in the rendering pipeline.
Clipping is the only function of AnyPortrait that directly accesses Unity's rendering pipeline, so it is systematically managed.
Conversely, this means that there are some limitations.
Therefore, you can't change Depth and can't change the relationship of parent-child meshes.
(We specified in the manual that the depth of clipped meshes cannot be changed.
https://rainyrizzle.github.io/en/AdvancedManual/AD_ExtraOption.html )
This is also considered difficult to support through future updates.
This is because to support this, we have to rewrite a significant portion of AnyPortrait's rendering.
Sorry for not giving you a hopeful answer.
Instead, we recommend that you try a trick to solve this problem.
One of the tricks we thought of was:
Duplicate the targeted Clipped Meshes, and prepare multiple parent-child mesh sets so that they look like as if the depth changes or the parent changes.
And by using the control parameter to show or hide the sets, they appear as if they were switched.
Other than that, you will be able to come up with many other ideas.
Methods such as "group as a child mesh group and change the depth together" or "change the image or shape of the parent mask mesh" will work.
If you tell us what you want to make, we might be able to find a good way to do it and let you know.
Sorry for not giving you the perfect answer you were looking for.
Even so, within the capabilities of AnyPortrait, we will try our best to support you.
Thank you.