What is the difference between Final IK and PuppetMaster?
Final IK is a collection of inverse kinematics solvers and tools. It can be used for all kinds of procedural animation effects like foot placement correction, interactions with the dynamic game environment, aiming correction, mapping VR avatars to the HMD and hand controllers, etc. Final IK contains over 65 demo scenes for different use cases.
PuppetMaster does advanced character physics, blending between animation and physics, partial ragdolls and physical player-character interactions in VR. PuppetMaster also helps with setting up biped ragdolls.
Both assets contain the Baker tool that can be used for recording your IK procedures or ragdoll simulations as Humanoid, Generic or Legacy animation clips.
Is it possible to get Unity5 compatible version of Final IK?
Yes. Please get a support ticket and include your Asset Store invoice number.
Does Final IK work with Animation Jobs, Animation Rigging and ECS/DOTS?
Animation and especially IK are terrible candidates for multi-threading by nature because they need to work on hierarchical data structures and be solved in specific linear order. I have made multiple test cases (AimIKJ and CCDIKJ solvers based on Animation Jobs, also the same using Animation Rigging framework), but they are all much slower than their old single-threaded counterparts, even if used on 100 or more characters. DOTS animation is going to be faster, but most likely not nearly as much as you've seen in some of the DOTS tech demos that are about moving tens of thousands of independent objects.
It is still possible to use Final IK on top of your Animation Jobs and Animation Rigging, but pure ECS and DOTS versions of Final IK solvers will be developed in the future when those systems have matured and become production ready tools.
Does Final IK work with PuppetMaster or they exclude each other?
Final IK and PuppetMaster are developed in a single project and were designed to complement each other and work seamlessly together. Final IK allows you to add foot placement correction, aiming correction, updating IK on top of PuppetMaster mapping for minor cosmetic fixes and many other solutions. If you own both assets, please import the "Final IK" integration package from "Plugins/RootMotion/PuppetMaster/_Integration" to access example scenes and scripts.
Can I use Final IK to create animation from scratch?
Final IK was not designed for animation authoring, but for runtime animation modification, meaning it will run on top of whatever animation you have to provide you with more flexibility and accuracy when interacting with objects and other characters in the game. Think of it as a procedural layer on top of your normal animation that allows you to move hands, feet or other body parts to another position and/or rotation.
That said, both Final IK and PuppetMaster contain the Baker tool that can be used to bake your IK effects and/or ragdoll simulation to Humanoid/Generic or Legacy animation clips.