After getting the promised Artist Tools after 1+ year of waiting, MCS (Morph3D) customers are a little aggravated with the company because of the license they offer with the tool. Maybe “a little” is a little understatement here. Basically you need to pay them to create content, you need to pay them to stream your content (like using asset bundles) and you can’t sell your content created for MCS with the Artist Tools at any place other than the Morph3D store where you need to… well pay them.
This, along with the gray areas in the license and “please open a support ticket with us so we can work it out and see if you can use the assets you created in your game” attitude is received by the customer base as shady business and caused an outrage in the forum thread. Especially after listening to “We’ll release the artist tools soon” for over a year, waiting to be able to create content for the MCS male and Female they bought for $50 each, outrage is totally understandable. The fact that they made these models free now, only adds to fury. (They offer Morph3D store credit to people who bought the asset though…)
At this point, which I think is the proof that the god has a sense of humor, UMA released the 2.5 version in the UAS. This version has a lot of improvements in the usability (recipes, dynamic DNA and all) as well as visual improvements on the base models. Current version definately looks a lot better!
I personally think that UMA is a very powerful framework. MCS never had that, and probably never will. What MCS had was beautiful human models with lots of customization option. With UMA’s latest release that gap is closing. Also, UMA Steering Group has an exciting list for upcoming features, like blendshapes, cloth support, physics and substance support.
I expect to see a lot more content and maybe new races for UMA in UAS in the near future. Actually I am currently working on new UMA races (human male and female) based on ManuelBastioni models. Expect to read more of that here soon 😉
Edit: Here is the link to Bastioni UMA Races page, and an updated screenshot of Bastioni races.
