Bone editor

Tomcat

#skeleton

Godot 4.7+

What should be used for the bone editor?

There’s a great line in the article:

If you want permanent modifications, i.e., if you want to develop something like a bone editor, then it makes sense that it is not a SkeletonModifier3D.

The character generator needs the ability to change body proportions — different arm and leg lengths, etc. If this is done through AnimationMixer, it results in an extremely large amount of tangled animation and complications when adding new ones. It is preferable to separate bone configuration from character animation.

https://godotengine.org/article/design-of-the-skeleton-modifier-3d/

kuligs2

Tomcat there was talk in some issues on repo that this modifier is going to be replaced with updated skeleton classes or something. Like they released recently the look-at or something with the bone or something, its related to this.

Not sure if its smart to invest into to-be deprecated class atm.

Tomcat

kuligs2 Like they released recently the look-at or something with the bone or something, its related to this.

Not sure if its smart to invest into to-be deprecated class atm.

look-at complements it rather than replacing it. This class was only recently introduced, and as far as I understand, it is currently being expanded.

kuligs2

Tomcat the articles you posted are from 2024, thats when the skeletonmodifier was introduced if i remember.

I think i confused the old IK modifiers with the new ones that they added recently

https://godotengine.org/article/inverse-kinematics-returns-to-godot-4-6/

Tomcat

kuligs2 I think i confused the old IK modifiers with the new ones that they added recently

Yeah, these are new IK features — an extension of SkeletonModifier3D. But this is more of a post-processing step, after character animation. It looks like I need something before AnimationMixer — like bone processing.

kuligs2

Tomcat if youre savvy enough and smart, you could tackle is via gdextension or a custom cpp module.. i once tried to get into custom cpp module but cpp is not my language and its too convoluted to get into the godot engine just to do one simple thing.. maybe vibe coding would ease the pain, but the model that could tackle this task with enough context (sourcecode) would be above the types you can run or your mid range GPU

Tomcat

kuligs2 if youre savvy enough and smart

I'm certainly smart and savvy enough, but only in areas other than programming. 😹 There are plenty of fields of human activity that require both smarts and savvy, but aren't related to programming.

If I understood the article on SkeletonModifier3D correctly, an extension won’t cut it here — we need something before AnimationMixer, and that’s deep within the engine. I’m starting to understand why big studios build their own engines. Unfortunately, we don’t have that option yet. It looks like we’ll have to put this idea on hold, as regrettable as that is.

For now, we’ll implement it in crooked way we can and see how viable it turns out to be.

Tomcat

I'm not sure if anyone will find this useful. But SkeletonModifier3D starts working properly if an AnimationMixer is present, starting with Godot 4.7 RC1. Up to and including Beta 5, they didn't work together yet.

They might break it again later, but for now everything works as intended.