Announcement: Scale Changes

Hello again guys! Just like I mentioned in the previous post, I've decided to change the models to the TF2 Scale, so I will now explain what is this:

What is scale?

One of the problems we model builders run into, are "scale issues." A scale issue is as basic as it sounds: a model sometimes is bigger and some others are smaller. When something like that happens, animators normally change the scale of a model how they see fit. This is why no matter how big a prop is, animators just add a scale to rootTransform and can change sizes how they see fit.

Then we can just change the scale as well, so this is a non-issue.

Yes and no. There is one issue when you change the scale of a model via rootTransform: the jiggle values of the model (hair, breasts, you name it) get absolutely messed up. 

There is people who believe the jiggle system in Source Engine is bad, and so, first thing they do is bake the jiggles and then animate them by hand. This is why a model scale is a non-issue for them.

However, there is also people who believe the jiggle system in Source Engine is incredibly helpful, and so, by scaling the model, they see their work just became harder because now they don't have something they usually use.

It's not fair to ignore the people who use it and basically tell them to "deal with it" while others can just enjoy just fine.

Why TF2 Scale?

This goes with the idea that SFM was made to work with Source Engine models, specially TF2 models in later stages. There's a reason why when you use regular maps on SFM and you use a ported model, chances are the model is either too short or too tall, but the TF2 models seem to work so well. In the end, SFM was made to be use with Source Characters. So, with that in mind, I used one of the Measurement props by LordAardvark and checked the heights of the TF2 models. His tool was surprisingly close to the TF2 characters scale, but I assume it wasn't 100% accurate because that's just impossible and because of the Blender and 3DSMax and FBX scale shenanigans.

So, I decided to use a combination of his prop and TF2 chars to more or less get a proper scale, this because honestly the Source Units make no sense, so this would make things easier and faster for everyone.

Thank you for reading!