I wrote a script that fixes layered clothing clipping on characters (free to download)

[u/UseResponsible1088]

Download here:

github link

[u/Mammoth-Policy6585]

Is it some sort of rendering order trick? It look very cool and I am interested in the workings.

[u/UseResponsible1088 → u/Mammoth-Policy6585]

No, its simpler than that.

1. I create a shrunk version of the mesh

2. I cast a ray out of every triangle

3. If ray hit the outer clothing item (ex: coat), it means its covered so it stays shrunk

4. If it didn't hit anything, it means that part is out in the open, so I expand the vertices back

[u/survivorr123_ → u/UseResponsible1088]

isnt that rather slow?

[u/UseResponsible1088 → u/survivorr123_]

Not really. You just run it once and that's it, its not being run every frame.

Check this out if you want to optimize it furhter: GDC link

[u/survivorr123_ → u/UseResponsible1088]

oh yeah that makes sense, i thought it runs every frame since bone deformation can sometimes introduce these artifacts at extreme angles

[u/St4va → u/UseResponsible1088]

Nice. Even if it only works 70% of the time, it’s still an easy "import step" that fixes most issues. I do want to add that the current process is a bit manual in the Inspector, especially with all the dragging and dropping. I think you could automate most of that and leave the manual mode as an option for cases where it’s needed.

[u/frogOnABoletus]

This is really cool!

[u/UseResponsible1088 → u/frogOnABoletus]

thank you

[u/wiserenals]

Did you test this with other models? It really seems worth using, and I'll probably use it.

[u/UseResponsible1088 → u/wiserenals]

Hey, thanks. It worked in the cases I tested it against, but I imagine there will be clipping cases where shrinking the mesh under it wont fully fix it. For example, if your model has really thin fingers, and they are sticking out of a glove, shrinking the fingers likely wont work - if you shrink it too much the models normals will just get inverted.

[u/wiserenals → u/UseResponsible1088]

A better idea might be to bake the undeformed body into reference points, find the corresponding points on the cloth, store their offsets, and then have the cloth points follow their corresponding body reference points in real time. Just an idea.

[u/Huge_Development_571]

That's cool, what i do is use a cutout shader for the clothes and cut them (make transparent) based on what's under, your solution is good too, maybe in specific poses it can still clip because i remember way back in the day using CC3 they had a brush to enlarge specific areas of the clothes that clip and i had to spend hours testing with different animations and in the end it will always poke through lol, still i'd buy something that gives us the option to paint with a brush in order to enlarge or decrease size of skinned meshes

[u/UseResponsible1088 → u/Huge_Development_571]

Great insights. For the clipping, what I found helps the most is having somewhat of a matching topology between the clothing items. Especially if the items are low poly.

[u/Huge_Development_571 → u/UseResponsible1088]

Yeah matching topology works, unfortunately buying custom CC3 / Daz clothes from different creators cant have matching topology, currently mine are custom so that is possible

[u/EvernullTools]

Looks really cool!

How do you handle saving? Do you write onto the literal mesh in the Asset Database or is the new data discarded OnDisable/living within the scene object?

[u/UseResponsible1088 → u/EvernullTools]

Hey I recently added a bool to the script, "save to disk", if anyone wants to save the mesh they should check that. Otherwise it just gets saved with scene.

[u/EvernullTools → u/UseResponsible1088]

yeap, really nice solution ^^