When your active Object is made with an older version of an Avastar Armature, then Avastar checks if the older rig is compatible with the current Avastar version. If Avastar is happy with the Rig, then it does not propose an update and goes ahead without any further action. In that case the Tool only provides a Cleanup function that you can use to… well to cleanup your rig if you need to do so (see further below what the Cleanup function does).
However, if Avastar finds an outdated rig, then it automatically adjusts the Tools panel to offer an in Place Update of the Armature. And it warns you that it is highly recommended to update the rig by using the update tool.
Lets step over the Update Tool Panel for this situation:
The Header Section
Pose/Rest Position: To Switch your Rig from the Current Pose to Restpose (the same can be found in the Armature Rig data Properties section (right side of the Blender Screen)
Source Rig: Is fixed to be AVASTAR (After all you update an old Avastar Rig)
Target Rig: You can select either Basic Legacy Rig or Extended Bento Rig (with hands, face, wings, …)
The Update Options
The Import Options allow you to define in more detail how exactly your old Rig shall be Updated. Finding the right options can be tricky at times, depending on the nature of your Rig. The options are explained below
Enforce SL Bone Roll: The Bone roll is the rotation of bones along their long axis. If the Bone Roll is wrong then you can end up with very odd issues. This option tries to reset the Bone Rolls of your armature Bones to the Roll as used with the Default SL Avatar. This option is only rarely necessary, but very handy when it is needed.
Apply Rot&Scale: Often your Meshes contain Scale and Rotation in Object space. While this is not entirely wrong, it often creates unwanted and unforeseeable issues. So it is normally best to apply Scale & Rotation during the update.
Rebuild missing Bones: Different Avastar versions can have defined different Bones. This option ensures that your updated Rig contains all known Avastar Bones. This also can be used to repair rigs of which Bones have been removed intentionally or by accident.
Rebuild Avastar Meshes: Often you do not want to see the Avastar Meshes. But sometimes it may be good to “recreate” the Avastar Meshes as reference. This option is rarely used.
Check for Joint edits: When you update a rig that has been modified, then Avastar needs to collect the modification information to setup the Rig accordingly. Note: While this seems to be not necessary on first sight, Avastar must do this for internal usage. We rely on this information to allow appearance sliders be used with edited Rigs. Normally you want this option to be enabled.
Generate IK Offsets: IK Bones are normally placed automatically by Avastar. However when you have special custom Rigs where your IK Bones need to be placed at unusual places, this option attempts to treat the IK Bones just like all other bones and move the IK Bones along with the sliders . This option is not used normally as the automatic placement of IK Bones works well in most cases.
Generate Tail Offsets: Technically we only need the Bone Head information to support Sliders on edited Rigs. However sometimes you want to also edit the Bone tails for whatever reason. This option is there just for that. Normally you want this option to be enabled.
Alignment Options
In Avastar-2 the Rig must follow a couple of rules to preserve the entire Rig integrity. This has become necessary so that we can support Sliders also for edited rigs.
When a rig does not follow the rules, then the Update tool provides up to 3 more options to fix integrity. Those options only show up when needed!
Origin: The origin of the Armature must match the location of the Armature’s Origin bone. The origin Option allows to either move the Armature Origin to the Origin bone, or it moves the Origin Bone to the Armature.
COG Align to: The COG must be aligned to the Pelvis. In some rigs pelvis and mPelvis are not aligned as well. In this case you can specify which of the 2 pelvis bones is the master bone
Rig Align to: Avastar 2 expects that the green Animation Rig is strictly aligned to the blue Deform Rig at all times. In earlier Avastar releases this was not necessarily needed. Although we always recommended to keep the 2 rigs aligned. This option allows the user to either align the Animation Bones to the Deform Bones or vice versa.
The Operator section
The Snowflake icon: When this option is enabled, then the original rig is applied to the meshes (the current pose is baked) before updating. You may want this option when your original Rig is not in Restpose.
Below the Update Rig button you find an information section which tells you some details about your Rig and the bound meshes:
- Warning: A Message containing the outdated rig version
- Custom Mesh: The number of user made (custom) meshes bound to the Rig
- System Mesh: The number of Avastar meshes (head, body, eyes, …) bound to the rig
Important: The Snowflake option only works when your original rig is oriented in the same way as the Avastar rig (arms aligned along the X axis)
What happens during the update
When all settings are done, then you click the Update Rig button (see image above). Avastar will now step through following activities:
- The original Armature is applied to the Meshes (when snowflake icon enabled)
- The meshes are unbound
- A new Avastar armature is created (Basic or Extended)
- The Avastar bones are aligned to match the original rig (If check for joint edits is enabled)
- The meshes are bound to the new Avastar armature
- Depending on the other options the new Avastar meshes are kept, hidden or deleted
When the update fails
Sometimes the Update Tool creates odd or wrong results. This can be a bug in the tool or it can be a wrong option setting. Here are some known cases:
- Meshes jump to different locations after update:
Enable the Snowflake Icon (see above) and try again - Armature reverts to Default rig:
Enable the option check for joint edits - Moving the sliders after update fails:
- Open the Skinning Tools Panel
- Select No Sliders
- Select SL Appearance
If you can not get your update to work, you may need to do it manually. Please feel free to report us your issue. So we can see if we can improve the update tool to also cover your particular situation.