Roadmap update: TittyMagic 4 (Patreon)

Hey! (★‿★)

It's roadmap update time!

With TittyMagic 3.1, the goal "Feature-complete and better polished Animation optimized mode" from the original roadmap was completed. In version 4, I will tackle several of the other goals, some of which are well under way and and others which I've only just begun looking into.

Check out the TittyMagic 4 teaser in my Discord The Everlasting Conclave or on the official VAM Discord's #screenshots channel!

• TittyMagic 4 will be available as alpha builds for patrons only, and then as the usual Patreon early access release once its features are ready and bugs have been ironed out
• The first alpha will be out soon. Alpha builds will only be posted here, not on the Hub! 
• The free version will probably be available in roughly 4-6 weeks from now after the end of the early access period.

Roadmap for TittyMagic 4

Goal: Improved touch physics & Unify modes into one [✔ Added in 4.0]

This replaces the previous roadmap's goal "Improve the Touch optimized mode". 

In short, modes are going away in this update (this is the primary reason it's a new major version i.e. 4 instead of 3.2), to be replaced by more extensive configuration options for breast behavior (see the next goal). 

I decided that modes are no longer needed when it turned out that dynamic morphing actually makes it possible to have realistic breast mass and good collision physics at the same time regardless of breast size. There's no longer a significant downside to physics realism or animation quality with touch optimized physics, so there's no need for separation between Touch optimized and Animation optimized modes, and the Balanced mode is obsolete.

Dynamic morphing (i.e. force morphing, or nipple position based morphing) is a game changer for touch physics. It does much of the heavy lifting to get breasts to move when collided with, and combined with fat back force, the result is breasts that feel like they have weight but aren't static when touched, and don't depend on hard colliders either.

Goal: Configuration options and customizability
[✔ Partially completed in 4.0]
[✔ Completed in 5.0]

This replaces the previous roadmap's goal "Physics settings customizability".

In version 4, there will be fine grained control over how much chest angle affects physics (such as target angles) and how much dynamic morphing is going on in each direction. 

With the merging of modes into one, there needs to be a way configure the plugin for optimized animation rather than collision. A simple solution would be a slider that lets you choose any degree of touch optimization vs animation optimization. I'll try this out and see how it works using the existing animation optimized physics and the new touch optimized physics. A possible issue here is though that middle values are lacking in both respects, but the ideal slider value can also be subjective.

Other aspects of customizability are still just ideas that I haven't begun putting into code, more info on that front will be included with the alpha releases.

The addition of more configuration options naturally makes it easier to apply settings that don't really work or look good. However, using default settings or only adjusting the amount of softness should still always work great - configuration is completely optional.

Goal: Limited compatibility with futa models [✔ Added in 4.1]

• Given that futa models are just male bodies using female morphs, the plugin should be fairly easy to make compatible with chest angle based breast morphing on futa models so that breasts can droop, spread, lift etc. when leaning in different directions - just like on female models.
• Physics settings are a different issue. If any physics settings automation can be done on futa models, it will likely be limited to the male pectoral physics settings.

Future TittyMagic roadmap items

Goal: Compatibility with different gravity settings

• Currently, the plugin works properly only with the default Earth gravity. It'd be nice if you could set any gravity in the Scene Misc tab in the and it would still work correctly - especially low gravity (Moon/Mars etc.) and zero gravity (space).
• Mostly the issue is with the physics target angles being chest angle based and the chest angle doesn't take the scene gravity into account. The solution might be to just use each gravity X, Y and Z component as some kind of multiplier in the way that morphs and other values are calculated in each direction. This is probably not a very big task.

Goal: Improve physics with clothing

• It would be possible to have a certain degree of automation as well as manual controls for how physics settings and morphing is adjusted when clothing is equipped. This would replace the simplistic spring/damper multiplier in the clothing item's own settings in VAM.
• The goal would be not just to make breast stay put more realistically under the clothing, but to also improve collision on breasts covered by clothing, i.e. reduce clipping.

Goal: General improvements to realism or quality

This is a rather unspecific goal. However, I feel there must be ways to improve the realism or quality of animation and physics in ways that aren't yet clear. Those might be found out about by experimenting with things that I haven't tried yet. Some such things might be:

• possibility of moving all morphing updates to per frame rendered instead of per physics update [❌ Dead end]
• vertex position based morphing for more options in what causes morphs to change and how (I've tried a basic version of this but it produced jittery morph animations for some reason) [✔ Added for futa breast morphing in 4.0]
• dynamically adjusting different physics parameters based on chest angle that aren't currently being adjusted [✔ Added in 5.0]
• dynamic adjustments to physics or morphs based on the pectoral joint instead of the chest joint [❌ Dead end]
• delve into how soft physics actually works in VAM under the hood, and try to find ways to manipulate the system [➡ Completed in 5.0 alpha 1]

I'll update the roadmap if there's something in here that seems promising once I get to spend some time trying these things out.

Goal: Custom morphs (Copied from the previous roadmap)

With custom morphs, the realism of how breasts should shape when gravity and other forces act on them could be increased significantly. The built-in morphs used currently are far from a perfect fit for the plugin:

• built-in morphs are a one size fits all solution: the effect on large breasts, breasts that droop, breasts that are perky etc. isn't quite right
• many of the used morphs  affect both breasts, when realistically each breast should be able to move and shape on its own
• the shape in general could be improved a lot

Using custom morphs would also reduce the number of required morphs to achieve a desired shape, and open the possibility for different morphing profiles to be used on breasts that are very different in size and shape.

Updating the plugin to use custom morphs could be a very time consuming undertaking though, so I'll be spreading that effort over at least a few months. Concrete steps towards completing this goal would look something like this:

1. learn how to sculpt good looking morphs in Blender
2. gather reference material ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
3. sculpt new morphs based on the reference material to look as realistic as possible
4. use the custom morphs in the plugin for both chest-angle based and force based dynamic adjustment

Goal: Better support for breasts larger than 2kg [✔ Added in 5.0]

• Currently, breast mass feeds into the plugin’s calculations on physics settings and breast shape, with the upper limit on effective breast mass of 2 kg (which is hardwired in VAM). To improve the physics and shape of massive mammaries, some of those calculations could be based on breast volume (or estimated mass) instead of the effective mass.