Moving away BSS and Rymdnisse Rigs

[StandingPadAnimations]

Much of MCprep's existing rigs are from BSS (Boxscape Studios) and Rymdnisse (who's pack was adopted by BSS). However, neither has contected us in the past 3 years (BSS seems to have vanished off the face of the Earth, Rymdnisse has removed his pack from his website and doesn't seem to do Minecraft animation anymore). In those 3 years, the BSS and Rymdnisse rigs have started to break more and more as Blender changes more of the rigging system. In addition, BSS is known for poor rig quality in general, often not naming bones, and frankly wouldn't pass our asset standards in 2023 (#455). As such, we should move away from BSS and Rymdnisse for assets, and depend more on community made assets (which tend to be of a higher quality anyway). In addition, many mobs can use standard player rigs, just with scaling changes.

As a general timeline for how this may loom:

• MCprep 3.6: Deprecate BSS and Rymdnisse assets, but keep them, start working on replacements
• MCprep 3.7 - 3.9: Remove BSS and Rymdnisse rigs from the UI by default, but allow users to opt back in to using them
• MCprep 4.0: Remove BSS and Rymdnisse rigs completely

[zNightlord]

If the plan is throwing away the existing mob rigs completely like that, asset standard #455 really need to update on a strict bone, controllers naming convention for certain mob rig type for #164
Keeping alike mob skeletal structure in sync for animation.

[CFeeney333]

This is something I would love to start working on if I have time...

[StandingPadAnimations]

If the plan is throwing away the existing mob rigs completely like that

The plan isn't to throw them out completely immediately, instead to mark them deprecated in MCprep 3.6, then make them unacessible in 3.7 - 3.9 (except through a legacy checkbox) before finally removing them in MCprep 4.0 (which should be treated as a major breaking update). Knowing how MCprep development typically goes, it'll probably be 2025 or 2026 when MCprep 4.0 comes along, maybe even later (it would be hilarious if I got a college degree before MCprep 4.0 comes out), so it'll be quite a while before they're fully removed

asset standard #455 really need to update on a strict bone, controllers naming convention for certain mob rig type for #164

#455 does have some strict requirements for rigs, including naming all bones. I don't think this will conflict with #164 anyway

[CFeeney333]

Any particular requirements for new rigs? Simple rigs that more closely resemble minecraft mobs? More complex mobs with face controllers and so on? Both? Do they have to be compatible with prep materials?

[StandingPadAnimations]

The requirements for rigs can be found om #455

[CFeeney333]

Should mobs work with prep materials ideally?

[StandingPadAnimations]

Ideally, yes, but it's not required (the villager rig for instance uses a custom material)

[zNightlord]

The requirements for rigs can be found om #455

Keep this a consideration.

Ideally, yes, but it's not required (the villager rig for instance uses a custom material)

As for this I recommended keeping individual parts as multiple materials, villager has 4 textures (inner, profesion, biome, level) so 4 materials with simple texture setup, no material based texture switching.