Palworld Animation Framework and Mod Research Community.

[UnexceptionalFox]

Hello everybody. I am Developing an animation framework for palword. I do not have a rock solid list of features, but here is a list of features that I am aiming for that I can generally think of right now.

Features in development:
- Skeletal Mesh Swap While preserve base game animations. (Completed)
- Toolkit of ready to import skeletal mesh of all Pals and Player characters. Blender and FBX files, and potentially uasset files. (All Pals Completed, Player Characters should be the same but haven't tested)
- Loading of custom animations (Completed)
- Multiple Actor Animation sync with independent animations. (Completed)
- Animation retargeting (Completed)
- Actor Tagging. (Partially Complete)
- Animation Metadata and Tagging (In research and Development)
- Integration of animations into the AI Action system (In research and Development)
- List and selection of all available animations  (In research and Development)
- Use of animation blueprints in an extensible manner while keeping base game animations available (In research and Development)
- Procedural animation implementation (Hopes and dreams, In research)
 
One of the attached videos is an example of 2 actor animation custom animation sync. The animation is a ue5 mannequin animation retargeted to Cattiva's skeletal mesh. The other attached video is an example of a pal being able to return to normal AI functions after a custom animation is complete.

This demonstrates the foundation of creating many different mods that would need a custom animation framework such as a sex mod about on the level of skyrim's. I believe it can develop far past that though, especially after official modding tools are released. Until then I feel it's my responsibility to lead the charge on this as it seems many other people are having trouble doing that. Because of this, I am launching my own discord server. It will generally be focused on The development of this animation framework, and the research and development of the general modding community of palworld. When I am finished with a version of my framework that is user friendly, I will release it to the public with no paywall.

As it seems the 2 NSFW mods being developed have not shown anything past simple model swaps and questionable decisions, I am open to starting a project of my own based on the animation framework I am developing. If you are interested in Palworld modding, research, my framework, and the potential to create a nsfw mod using it, you can join my discord and voice whatever you feel like in relation to those things or come learn a thing or two about modding. It is not a pure nsfw server, but there are nsfw sections. It is under construction and will be built up further according to the needs of the user base and the vision of the server.

 

https://discord.gg/33dE4cQMA3
 

I have started a Repo for model imports. Some of the skeletons will still be broken, but a lot should work. Please report to me any skeleton that is broken so that I may fix it. If the model imports and base animations play correctly, congrats you have a uasset file with the correct bone hierarchy. If it is not correct, or broken, it need to be reported to me so that it may be fixed. After all pals are working, I will move onto NPCs.
https://github.com/UnexceptionalFox/PAF-Workspace/ Edited February 6, 2024 by UnexceptionalFox
Added link to model repo

[zileteh]

These are my favoriate kind of posts. No drama, just "I'm working on a thing that is required to move the scene forward". Hats off to you.

I know with skyrim sexlab, there was a debug spell that you could cast on two actors to make them do an animation. Have you gotten as far as making like a dancing stick so you can trigger the anims through the player character?

Edited February 2, 2024 by zileteh

[UnexceptionalFox]

37 minutes ago, zileteh said:

These are my favoriate kind of posts. No drama, just "I'm working on a thing that is required to move the scene forward". Hats off to you.

I know with skyrim sexlab, there was a debug spell that you could cast on two actors to make them do an animation. Have you gotten as far as making like a dancing stick so you can trigger the anims through the player character?

The above video with the two cattivas is an example of this. I have a debug mod that I made for myself. I able able to select the two cattivas and trigger the animation with a button press much like you describe. The action is being started by direct player character input here.

[zileteh]

Cool. Are the animations actually synced? OR does it just play them both around the same time and yolo?

What part are you working on now?

[tacomarine]

Ohhhh don't you hype me for this, man. I'm trying to wait for the game to be done!

[UnexceptionalFox]

6 minutes ago, zileteh said:

Cool. Are the animations actually synced? OR does it just play them both around the same time and yolo?

What part are you working on now?

It plays them both at the same time, from the same source controller. This should be enough to keep it in sync. It is possible to check and control the playback dynamically to keep the animations in sync by checking the animation state and adjusting the state of the animation on the fly.

Right now I am working on Animation Metadata so that animation can be tagged like in skyrim. ue5 has a much more extensive system for that though, which is cool.

[zileteh]

This is exciting because its like, the more boring work that brings long-term benefits to the wider community. Making simple model replacers alone won't get you there, this might. I don't expect a full model replacer + animations + sex mod to exist for at least six months probably longer - don't hold your breath

[zileteh]

1 minute ago, UnexceptionalFox said:

Right now I am working on Animation Metadata so that animation can be tagged like in skyrim. ue5 has a much more extensive system for that though, which is cool.

Feel free to ignore me and continue working instead, buuuuuttt

Is that like how animations in skyrim are tagged for like [human female] -> [something wolf-shaped] or [something hose shaped] or [2 human shaped males], etc?

[UnexceptionalFox]

12 minutes ago, zileteh said:

This is exciting because its like, the more boring work that brings long-term benefits to the wider community. Making simple model replacers alone won't get you there, this might. I don't expect a full model replacer + animations + sex mod to exist for at least six months probably longer - don't hold your breath

I agree. What I am making does not replace animations in the game at all, it is additive. All in game animations still exist in their original form.


 

 

10 minutes ago, zileteh said:

Feel free to ignore me and continue working instead, buuuuuttt

Is that like how animations in skyrim are tagged for like [human female] -> [something wolf-shaped] or [something hose shaped] or [2 human shaped males], etc?

Yes it can be used exactly like that. It can be used in conditional statements to make sure an animation is compatible between two actors, or to categorize it into fetishes like feral and noncon, and enable and disable as the user pleases.

[zileteh]

Awesome

Any word on like, amendments to the UI? I know in skyrim there is a mod menu that most mods plug into for settings (ex for enabling or un-enabling a tag). I havn't noticed anyone mention they are working on this bit or if it's trivial to do so noone mentions it.

I know there are 2 very vocal groups asking for anthro all the things / keep all the things in their original morphology. I'm curious if you have plans how to keep things compatible. If someone were to get a pal replacer that changes their body to be drastically different, ex feral -> anthro, how is that going to be handled tag-wise? Would the author of the pal replacer have to add tags to their model to say "this is a 2 legged human thing now not a 4 legged wolf"?

Edited February 2, 2024 by zileteh

[UnexceptionalFox]

6 minutes ago, zileteh said:

Awesome

Any word on like, amendments to the UI? I know in skyrim there is a mod menu that most mods plug into for settings (ex for enabling or un-enabling a tag). I havn't noticed anyone mention they are working on this bit or if it's trivial to do so noone mentions it.

I know there are 2 very vocal groups asking for anthro all the things / keep all the things in their original morphology. I'm curious if you have plans how to keep things compatible. If someone were to get a pal replacer that changes their body to be drastically different, ex feral -> anthro, how is that going to be handled tag-wise? Would the author of the pal replacer have to add tags to their model to say "this is a 2 legged human thing now not a 4 legged wolf"?

Yes that should be possible because there is a way to add metadata to all assets. If they add the correct metadata to their skeletal mesh which can be used to tag it correctly. However animations will still have to be made for that specific skeleton, especially remaking all of the base game animations for that altered model. I am hopeful that some sort of procedural animation work can open the door for animations that allow a specific body type to accept a general animation and have it look nice.

[Tungsten Rod]

Sockets and well-set-up physics assets will solve a lot of the common issues we'd have with other engines. UE5 also allows blending animation/physics and the like in flexible ways. It's pretty easy to retarget IK to sockets/bones, for example, to align things and have them stick together nicely - without the need to make extra animations. Of course people would have to set those up on their character/Pal assets, but that's pretty easy and modular with UE5.

I currently don't have the time, but I'll gladly contribute my UE experience once that changes.

Edited February 2, 2024 by Tungsten Rod

[Lordchaosc]

Really hope we'll get some progress with your framework. Hopefully we'd get some eventually.

[Jikala]

Good to see some proper progress being made, looking forward to it! (=w=)b

[vulcan13]

This is great, guess if I was a little more patient I wouldn't of had to post that other thread, I look forward to see how this turns out. With Palworlds popularity it would be amazing to see Skyrim Levels of support and mod development for the game.

[zileteh]

I wish I had something I could help with. No UE5 experience, and no ability to model or do animations worth a damn. I do have programming experience mostly in python so if there's like, menial going through stuff and tagging it or changing it to the correct format, maybe I can help?

[hazerddex]

1 hour ago, zileteh said:

I wish I had something I could help with. No UE5 experience, and no ability to model or do animations worth a damn. I do have programming experience mostly in python so if there's like, menial going through stuff and tagging it or changing it to the correct format, maybe I can help?

there are always tutorials if you are willing to put in the work. unfortunately my only programing and modding experience is java. and doing sprite work form long ago

[UnexceptionalFox]

I had 0 ue5 experience before palworld came out and the modkit localcc made was released. I would be happy to help anyone learn, and hopefully build a community where one of the core focuses is just that. Helping people learn how to mod the game, so they can make cool shit for the community.

[zileteh]

Fuck it. Mind sending me like a list fo links for what SDKs, runtimes, dev tools, etc. I need to get started? Not sure what my goal woulld be but maybe digging through the resources will inspire me

 

The power of boners compels me

[UnexceptionalFox]

12 minutes ago, zileteh said:

Fuck it. Mind sending me like a list fo links for what SDKs, runtimes, dev tools, etc. I need to get started? Not sure what my goal woulld be but maybe digging through the resources will inspire me

 

The power of boners compels me

Resources are in my discord server posted in the top post.

https://discord.gg/33dE4cQMA3

[Tungsten Rod]

For those that are tempted to get into modding Palworld themselves, the UE5 docs are pretty good and comprehensive: https://docs.unrealengine.com/5.1/en-US/
Good place to start, and likely makes the modding tools we have for now make more sense.

Edited February 3, 2024 by Tungsten Rod

[UnexceptionalFox]

I have started a repository of models to import. Some models will still be broken, but I will update the repo to fix them. A lot should be fine
Please report any broken models to me, so that I may fix them.


https://github.com/UnexceptionalFox/PAF-Workspace/