1.18.1 Beta Released - The Custom Hair Update! (Patreon)

Please note this is a Beta, so you must check the Beta Opt-in box in VaM_Updater.exe to get this. Please note that since this is a beta, there may be some bugs, and there are some known issues listed in the notes below. 

I plan on creating a video to show how to use the new hair creator and styling tools within the next few days. Also planned is 1.18.2 release to follow on with more capabilities and fixes to any bugs that are found. More details on 1.18.2 release below.

Enjoy!

 Beta Limits and Notes:

• No custom scalp import yet
• Some performance degradation over 1.18.0.6 due to many more colliders on head for collision accuracy and no optimizations yet on changes to hair sim and shaders

1.18.2 Plans to complete custom hair sim:

• Add more scalp choices
• Custom scalp import
• Multithread style joint creation
• Sub-style support (style presets)
• Create more built-in styles
• Rigidity painting (allows custom rigidity per strand instead of just using the root->mid->tip curve parameters). 
• Optimizations
• (Maybe) Add support for multi-section hair with sections that have different number of segments and simulation parameters

Tips:

• VR is recommended for use of styling tools since you must move 3d objects in precise manner to manipulate hair, but if desktop is used, drag the tool to move it. Use LeftCtrl+drag or LeftShift+drag of tool to rotate it. Use right-mouse drag on screen to rotate view quickly for another angle view. 
• After you click “Save Style”, style mode will stop and it will switch to sim mode. It may look like your style was somewhat lost. There are 2 factors here. For good style hold, you must create style joints (this button to do this will turn yellow to indicate that). This process is slow so is not done automatically when saving style. There may also be cases where you do not want to store or regenerate the style joints after styling. The other factor is the root->mid->tip rigidity parameter settings. These can control how firmly hair holds to the style, but setting too high will cause hair to be stiff and won’t simulate motion.
• For quick styling you can move the head around while in style mode (must click the toggle to enable moving of another nodes to do this)
• Put Person in default pose before creating hair as hair tools are placed according to this pose. Also – scalp mask edit currently cannot work on skinned mesh so editing is done on base t-posed mesh.
• Vary tool strength to achieve different styling effects
• The Pull tool can be very useful for making pulled styles like tails and slick back. Try using a very large pull tool over entire head to quickly line up hairs.
• Use hold tool in one hand while using another tool in the other hand to help hold parts of hair in place
• Use world scale to make it easier to edit depending on if you are trying to edit a large section at a time or working on fine details. 

Features:

• Sim Hair V3 – Custom hair creation and styling: Improved scalps: closer to head; Scalps are now wrapped so they match with head morphs. Hair sprouts directly from wrapped vertices for perfect match; Improved lighting: Light center per strand. Random light center param for more depth and color variation; Improved curl: Direction now based on particle root to tip axis. New curve params for more control. Length consistent curl frequency. New randomness params for more variety. New options for curl reverse and axis alternating for more variety.
• Added “Sim Enabled” option to hair
• Added “Collision Enabled” option to hair

Content:

• A few hair samples created using the new system

Tweaks:

• Improved sub-hair position randomness to prevent patterned look
• Head now uses auto-collider system in most places for much better collision with hair and clothing
• Improved sim hair shading – specular shadowing near root (both Sim Hair V2 and V3)

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed issue with hair curl not working with scaling
• Fixed femaledummy skin graft settings mismatch that was causing distortions with some morphs
• Fixed broken “Snap” joints on hair.
• Fixed issue with GPU buffer overrun in hair tessellation. Might have been causing some crashes and was also a slight performance hit
• Fixed issue with disable of sim clothing not unregistering the need for GPU colliders, decreasing performance