Aight so here’s the deal. I wanna cut down to the bare salami and just say it.
TU’s Workshop…needs some work.
First thing we gotta talk about though is The RIG.
The Workshop Rig was made ages ago for this game, Approximately 2018 if I’m not mistaken. When TU’s workshop first came out, it was very temperamental, and there was a lot of work to smooth over the cracks in the foundation, but once it had solidified enough, it frankly brought new life to TU. Don’t like being a pasty, low budget fuse model, skeleton or milk carton? Now you don’t have to be! In the (At the writing of this post) 3-and-a-Half years since Workshop was released, There are now nearly 10,000 playermodels available on the workshop. Some good, some bad, some questionable, some hilarious, and some that just make you wonder…why?
But one thing that all these playermodels have, linking them, is the rig. The TU Rig, made in Blender, was more or less based off the very first character rig in the game for the humanoid playermodels that existed before workshop, which was likely made in 205-2016, back when Macaroni and the gang had little experience working in Unreal.
The Rig itself sufferers from a multitude of issues, such as:
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Uneven Bones. - This causes problems in the movement and rigging of areas like the hands and fingers. It may take several reimports to find a few vertices you missed during the weight painting, and even then, the “Guide” to the TU Workshop rigging uses a much older version of Blender that has now become relatively outdated.
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Extremely Wonky animations. - Most newer Emotes don’t suffer from this problem, but a decent chunk of emotes that came out with Workshop look absolutely horrifying when you break down the animations bit by bit. Bones become disjointed, parts of the body don’t move like they’re connected correctly, and overall most of the animations look as if they were not tested to see how they worked with other humanoid models in order to fine tune their movements.
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Limited Flexibility. - Often when rigging the model, a player may find that parts of their model may not line up exactly to where they need to be on the model. Most modelers could rectify the issue by editing the armature to adjust slightly without compromising the overall form, but due to the nature of TU’s workshop system, that ability is rendered moot, as regardless of any edits in Blender, the armature will immediately snap back to its original programmed rest position, which can cause the model to be warped in such a way that it is severely disfigured.
Beyond the Rig, TU’s overall workshop system suffers from a lack of proper instruction, as unlike VRChat and other similar workshop pages, TU’s PM Rig takes time and a decent understanding of 3D modeling to deal with.
The other half of the problem: The Editor.
TU’s Workshop Editor is in dire need of a Quality of Life overhaul. There are multiple glaring issues that cause Workshop to be an absolute pain to work with in some cases, including but not limited to:
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Cosmetic Metadata isn’t parallel across all items. The Base examples that you get to adjust the Metadata with don’t work for every cosmetic.
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No slot for Facial cosmetics, and no indication what controls the size of face cosmetics.
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Some Neck Cosmetics extend down the chest, yet remain rigid and inflexible.
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Wrist cosmetics are bound to the hand bone instead of the lower arm bone, which causes issues with different poses.
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None of the available TU Emotes are shown in the editor, and other weapon holding positions are also not available for adjustment. (Weapon poses also look rediculous, no offense. But who stands or runs with their legs together and hunched over like Quasimodo?)
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Vert counts on models also triple themselves inexplicably, Even on models using quads and not tris.
There may be more issues I am unaware of, but most of these ones I know are widely known.
What can be done?
I propose the following:
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A COMPLETE overhaul of the player animations, workshop rig, and other player customization systems, all coupled together as its own update. (It will take time, I know.)
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Adjustments to the rig and animations that allows models to be animated without being forced to snap the bones exactly into the original positions. (Think Puppeteering animations between models in SFM.)
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Improvements to the Metadata Cosmetic system that allows users to adjust for ALL cosmetics in the game.
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Addition of poses, emotes, and game-specific animations to allow for further adjustments.
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Normal map and further PBR support to allow for improved textures on models.
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Addition of systems to handle multiple Workshop Rig Types, including the current one, an improved version, quadraped rigs, and other rigs as suggested/requested by the community.
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Improved Tutorials, instructions, and adoptions of community-made tools to help with the process.
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And finally, the addition of specific workshop furniture types, from Lights, Decorations, and Seats.
These changes, while they’ll certainly take time, will be very welcome changes I imagine. I hope that eventually, when the day comes that we get what equivocates to Workshop 2.0, that it will bring and foster new life into the game, much like the first workshop update did so very long ago.