About the Project
This is a personal project I worked on in 2023. My goals for this project was to…
- port level/object data from the PC ports of two SEGA titles, Sonic Adventure DX: Directors Cut and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, for use in the Unity engine.
- create high quality 3D models of various Chao (a pet-like creature) from both of these games for use as avatars in VRChat.
My Responsibilities
My responsibilities to this project ranged from programming event systems utilizing C# and UdonSharp for VRChat, creating high quality 3D character models optimized for use on Quest platforms, animation each of the characters, and extracting data from two SEGA game titles in order to port assets onto other platforms.
Project Progression
This project originally began in 2019 when I first started working in the Unity engine. I’ll admit that I didn’t really know what I was doing back then.
After spending 4 years with Unity, I returned to this project briefly to give it a complete overall. My goal was for this VRChat world to look nearly identical to its original counterparts. Utilizing the skills and knowledge I gained during my time at Drexel University, I was able to achieve this as seen below.
Chao Avatars
Alongside porting over the levels, I created 3D models of some of the Chao that can be found in the original games as well. These models were created to look as though they belonged to the current gen titles (based off of the official models seen in them). There are approximately 20 variants currently available in the world as an avatar. Each of these avatars have also been optimized for usage on all platforms (PC, Android, Quest, and iOS) for VRChat.
Chao Avatar Customization
Although these avatars can be used in VR, they are also set to be compatible for desktop use with a variety of custom animations to allow users to interact with others in a variety of ways.
Alongside the animations, I implemented a customization system for PC users to adjust their color scheme, default expressions, and avatars ‘mood’. In the original games Chao can come in a variety of colors and shapes. Many fans enjoyed this aspect of raising Chao so I included some form of these customization options into VRChat- albeit with some limitations in order to keep them all within VRChat’s optimization thresholds.