Creating a customizable prefab

Often, a developer will want to pregenerate a character, and place that pregenerated character into the scene. This is a simple procedure in DCS once you have the basics. Please note that this creates a customizable UMA that is generated on the fly. If you want a compact, unmodifiable prefab that is pregenerated, you'll need to use the power tools.

Create save location

First step is to create a place to store your character definitions. Characters are stored as recipes. For ease of use, we will store these definitions in resources.

• Create a Resources folder if you do not already have one.
• Create a folder inside the resources folder, and give it a name. We'll name ours CharacterRecipes

Create and save the character

• Start up the "UMA DCS Demo - Simple Setup", and design your character:
  • Add wardrobe items
  • Set colors
  • Change DNA
• Select the UMADynamicCharacterAvatar in the scene Hierarchy pane
• Select "UMA/Load And Save/Save DynamicCharacterAvatar(s) Text (optimized)" from the menu, and save your character to the CharacterRecipes folder we created above. In this example, I named the character "Dwarf":

Create the prefab itself

• Open the "Load/Save" options on the UMADynamicCharacterAvater in the scene (the one you just modified).
• Set the "Load Path Type" to Resources.
• Set the "Load Filename" to the name of the character we saved (in this case, "Dwarf")
• Drag the UMADynamicCharacterAvatar into your project to create a prefab, and name it.

View your handiwork!

• Stop the playback of the scene, and drag the new dwarf prefab into the scene in several places, positioning and rotating as needed, and press play
• (Note: I actually saved a version with the helmet on)