The idea of giving players 3D print-ready assets from within the game is not new, but it has traditionally been limited to static assets, such as in-game weapons. Given that Target City is an FPS, this approach made sense.
However, for the past few months, we’ve been working on an upgraded version of this feature, allowing players to download 3D assets derived from animated models. With the development of the single-player story mode, Target City – Origins, we’ve introduced more characters into the Target City universe. So, we asked ourselves—why limit 3D assets to static models when we might be able to offer animated ones?
At first, this idea seemed technically impossible due to significant challenges. But after time and effort, we managed to make it work.
Although Target City – Origins is still in development—and progress on the single-player mode has been slow—our breakthrough in converting dynamic (animated) assets into static, 3D-printable models is something we’re excited to share with anyone who might be interested.
Our first prototype featured a free test asset—Blade Zombie, a character from the single-player storyline. This character was created by a 3D artist specifically for 3D printing, rather than being a traditional game-ready model. As a result, it has a higher polygon count than typical game assets. However, it was still integrated into the project just like any other in-game model.
To make the asset functional in Unreal Engine 5 (UE5), it was rigged to the UE5 skeleton and retargeted to use animations from FAB.
Anyone interested can download the prototype project and test its functionality—pausing Blade Zombie at any moment during an animation and exporting an STL file in that pose.
