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| Name of gadget | Blank Puppet (Basic or Advanced) |
| Section | Gameplay Gear |
| Number of Tweak pages | 9 |
| Author | LadylexUK, QuietlyWrong |
| Last updated | 2 April 2020 [v2.09] |
Description
This “gadget” provides the basic mannequin (a humanoid figurine you can pose and sculpt on). It has nine packed pages in its tweak menu so it qualifies as the most complicated of gadgets in the toolbox. You can use the menus to change the way the character moves, looks and behaves. The various puppets do not differ at all in their tweak menus (beyond the default values of those tweaks); rather the advanced puppets (advanced and sliding platform puppets) contain extra microchips and keyframes to create run, jump and possession behaviours (you may have to scope in to the puppet to see the microchip, which contains one or several Puppet Interface gadgets). Therefore all of the tweak menu information below applies to all puppets.
The sheer variety of options available to you (combined with the ability to reproportion and reposition limbs, etc.) make the puppet an incredibly versatile controllable biped capable of representing a huge array of in-game characters. However this complexity does come at the cost of thermometer and performance, and your Scenes will suffer if you try to introduce large numbers of puppets.
Example Tutorial (adapted from Media Molecule)
- Stamp a Blank Puppet
- Go to test mode
- Possess the puppet
- Move around, jump etc.
- Exit test mode
- Hit start time and open up the tweak menu
- The puppet will move and these movements will change as you move the sliders.
- Try altering the sassiness slider and see what that does. (If you’ve never done so, try setting it all the way up to 100%!)
Tweak Menus
Click on arrows to reveal
Tweak Menu 1: Overall Movement
  [screenshots from beta; v1.03 identical] |
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- Menu page indicator
- Walk Speed
Use this to set the puppet’s walking speed. - Run Speed
Use this to set the puppet’s running speed. - Turn Speed
Use this to set the puppet’s turning speed. - Face Camera Direction
When activated, this forces the puppet to face in the same direction that the camera is facing – in other words away from you as a player. - Acceleration Time
Use this to set the puppet’s rate of acceleration. - Deceleration Time
Use this to set the puppet’s rate of deceleration. - Jump Height
Specify the height to which the puppet jumps when a prolonged signal is sent to the puppet interface’s “Jump” input. - Minimum Jump Height
Specify the minimum height that the puppet will jump to if the signal sent to the puppet interface’s “Jump” input is a mere pulse. - Double Jump Height
Specify the height of a second jump if it is triggered while still in the air following an initial jump from a surface. Set this to zero to eliminate double-jumping altogether. - Gravity
Use this to determine the degree to which in-game gravity affects the puppet. (See the Global Settings gadget for setting gravity levels across the scene.) - Air Control
Determines how much control a player has over the puppet’s movement while it is airborne. At 0%, it realistically represents the fact that an average puppet cannot steer itself while in the air – but most platform games don’t work like that so increase the value to a level you like for intuitive control. - Walkable Slope Angle
Use this to specify the maximum angle that the puppet can walk or run up or down without sliding. - Sliding Friction
Use this to specify the degree of friction that the puppet experiences when sliding down a slope that exceeds the Walkable Slope Angle above. - Quick Edit
Use this to quickly see how your various settings affect the built-in animations for the puppet:- Walk
- Run
- Jump Ascent
- Jump Apex
- Jump Descent
- Power
This is where you turn the gadget on/off.
Tweak Menu 2: Lower Body Movement
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- Menu page indicator
- Slideyness
Change the amount of sliding in the puppet’s movement as it changes the speed of its run/walk. - Skateyness
Change the animation of the puppet’s legs – with high skateyness, the animation slows down as the character gets faster. - Match Floor Angle
Select the amount of lean the puppet undergoes when traversing a sloped floor. When choosing this, it may help to experiment with walking your puppet over the range of slopes that the character can negotiate in your scene. - Lean Into Strength
Choose the degree to which the puppet leans into corners when running. - Foot Separation
Choose whether the puppet makes tiny little steps or great strides or anything in between. - Bicycle Feet
Changes the movement of the ankles when the character is running – the higher this is, the more horizontal the feet remain throughout the running motion. - Stompiness
Choose the heaviness with which the puppet brings down its feet while running about. - T-Rex Tread
You can switch this on to give the puppet a more of a “giant monster” vibe – it’s more noticeable when applied to very large puppets. - Strideyness
Choose the amount of swing in the puppets legs when moving. - Centre of Gravity
Choose whether the movement animations convey a lower or higher centre of gravity for the puppet – it doesn’t actually change the density of the physical object. - Bounciness
Put a spring in your puppet’s joints or make it stiff and lifeless by choosing the amount of bounciness in its lower body movement. - Quick Edit
Use this to quickly see how your various settings affect the built-in animations for the puppet:- Walk
- Run
- Jump Ascent
- Jump Apex
- Jump Descent
- Power
This is where you turn the gadget on/off.
Tweak Menu 3: Upper Body Movement
[screenshot from beta; v1.03 identical] |
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- Menu page indicator
- Motion Sensor Movement
Use this to specify the amount by which the puppet leans (head, neck, torso) in the direction that the DualShock controller is being tilted. - Lean Lag
Use this to specify how much the head moves in advance of the rest of the body when moving and changing direction. - Sassiness
Choose how much sway to give the pelvis when walking and running – turn it up to increase the wiggle in those hips! - Sway
Choose how much the upper body moves from side to side as it runs along. - Lumberingness
Choose the heaviness of the puppet’s upper-body movements. - Stiffness
Choose how stiffly the body articulates when in motion. - Arm Vigour
Choose the extent to which the arms swing back and forth when running or walking. - Arm Flail
Choose how much the arms move away from the body when walking or running along – along with Arm Vigour it ccan make some pretty eccentric behaviour! - Springiness
Use this to increase the bounce in the puppet’s joints or reduce it to make the puppet more lifeless or machinelike. - Breathyness
Use this to specify how much the chest and belly animate to represent the puppet breathing in and out. The effect is fairly subtle, but if you want to create non-breathing characters – robots and heavily armoured characters, for example – it’s a cinch to drop this to 0% and the breathing animation is eliminated. - Quick Edit
Use this to quickly see how your various settings affect the built-in animations for the puppet:- Walk
- Run
- Jump Ascent
- Jump Apex
- Jump Descent
- Power
This is where you turn the gadget on/off.
Tweak Menu 4: Body Structure
[screenshot from beta; v1.03 identical] |
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- Menu page indicator
- Connectors
This tweak menu is a little different from most. OK, a lot different. As you might guess, each one of these widgets represents one of the puppet’s body parts. To reassign any one sculpture in the puppet to be one of these body parts, simply click on the widget here and then click on the sculpture in the scene (scope in if necessary). A dotted line from the gizmo to the imp shows that you are in selection mode.
Once a body part is reassigned, this has a knock-on effect on all of the puppet’s built-in and procedural animations, so use this with caution! - Power
This is where you turn the gadget on/off.
Tweak Menu 5: Behaviour
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- Menu page indicator
- Auto Jump
Activate this to enable automatic jumping behaviour in a puppet that is set to follow a player-controlled character. - Auto Look
Activate this to cause the puppet to automatically look at imps, tags and labels in its vicinity. - Follow Me
Toggle for the character to follow a named tag.
Tag to follow
Name of the tag you want the character to follow is typed in here or selected from the list of all tag names by hovering the tip over the field and pressing up or down on the d-pad. - Inner Radius (follow)
When the puppet is following a tag, the Inner Radius specifies a minimum distance, below which the puppet doesn’t bother following. - Outer Radius (follow)
When the puppet is following a tag, the Outer Radius specifies a maximum distance beyond which the puppet will stop following (until the tag comes back into range). - Turn Towards
Toggle whether the player will turn towards a named tag.
Tag to Turn To
Name of the tag you want the character to turn towards is typed here or selected using the d-pad. - Outer Radius (turn to)
When the puppet is turning towards a tag, the Outer Radius specifies a maximum distance beyond which the puppet will stop tracking it (until the tag comes back into range). - Look At
Toggle for the character to look at a named tag.
Tag to Look At
Name of the tag you want the character to turn look at is typed here or selected using the d-pad. - Outer Radius (look at)
When the puppet is looking at tag, the Outer Radius specifies a maximum distance beyond which the puppet will stop tracking it (until the tag comes back into range). - Procedural Animation
Switch this to toggle “procedural animation” that adds a layer of extra calculation to try to make the puppet’s animation fit better into its environment. - Procedural Walk
Switch this to toggle “procedural walk” that adds a layer of extra calculation to try to make the puppet’s walk and run look more natural. - Power
This is where you turn the gadget on/off.
Tweak Menu 6: Physical Properties
[screenshot from beta; v1.03 identical] |
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- Menu page indicator
- Visible
Toggle to make the character visible or not. Default is visible. - Moveable
Toggle to make the puppet moveable or fixed in position. “Moveable” refers to the Dreams physics simulation and doesn’t mean the puppet must remain absolutely static – the option for unmoveable characters may be useful for NPCs, for example. - Collidable
Toggle to determine whether the puppet will collide with other collidable sculpts or pass through them. Also see the next tab of tweaks for the labels of objects that will collide with the puppet. - Collision Shape: Vertical Position
Only relevant when the puppet is collidable, this tweak and the two below it define the volume of space that the puppet’s body effectively occupies (for the purpose of in-game physics and touching damage modifiers). This one specifically determines its vertical position relative to the puppet. - Collision Shape: Height
Use this slider to determine the height of the puppet’s collision shape. - Collision Shape: Width
Use this slider to determine the width of the puppet’s collision shape. - Density
Only meaningful if the puppet is set to “Moveable”, this slider allows you to alter the overall weight of your puppet for the purpose of physics simulation. A helpful numeric readout below tells you what the current weight would be. - Power
This is where you turn the gadget on/off.
Tweak Menu 7: Collision Labels
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- Menu page indicator
- Collides with
As a default all these label types are active. You can toggle them on/off so that the character can pass through or collide with different objects depending on their label name. - Power
This is where you turn the gadget on/off.
Tweak Menu 8: Labels
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- Menu page indicator
- Labels
You can designate one or more labels to the character here. - Detected
This outputs a signal while the puppet is being “sensed” by one of the sensor gadgets that detects objects by label type – for example the laser scope. - Player Ownership
Use this to manage or determine which player is controlling the puppet. - Power
This is where you turn the gadget on/off.
Tweak Menu 9: Audio
[screenshot from beta; v1.03 identical] |
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- Menu page indicator
- Volume
Change the volume. Note that this is a special audio slider with two handles – it is possible to stretch this out to add random variation or “spice” to the audio output. For more information on those options, see a tutorial on the sound gadgets (TBA). In short, you can drag each half of the slider with L1 & X to stretch out the variation range, or L2 & X to alter the spice range. - Sound Channel
Select to choose the audio channel associated with this puppet’s sounds:- General A
- Music A
- Voice A
- Character A [this option is advised for player characters]
- Background A
- Gameplay A
- Unset
- Power
This is where you turn the gadget on/off.
Lex Tips
If you are going to create a series of characters with similar movement settings and animation (such as a selection of villagers or soldiers) it is a good idea to tweak the menus and add keyframes when the mannequin is in its untouched form and save it as a base model. Then you can design your characters by remixing your base model. Your characters will look different but will animate and behave the same.
Useful Tutorials
Version Updates
v1.03 – cosmetic changes to a few menu tabs only
v2.03 – new tweak options [currently work in progress on this document]
v2.07 – new ‘Sliding Platformer’ puppet type
Very helpful to see these details from screenshots. Thank you!
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