Steam News12 May 20261mo ago

Bringing Brunilda to Life: Seven Systems Working as One

Thanks to everyone who has played Alter Evo so far. We appreciate your comments and reviews. Keep them coming. We finally have some time to dive behind the scenes into how we built it.

In this update8

Full notes

Full Alter Evo update

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What changed

0 fixes1 addition8 changes0 removals

Performance
Balance
Gameplay
UI and audio

changedReallusion Auto SetupOnce the character hits Unity, the Auto Setup plugin handles material remapping, shader assignment, and LOD configuration automatically. https://www.reallusion.com/auto-setup/unity/download.html

changedIdle & Body Animations + Jiggle Physics + Hair physicsThe base layer of our Animator Controller handles full-body idles — subtle weight shifts, breathing, micro-fidgets. These run constantly underneath everything else. We used mocap based idles from the Reallusion actor core selection: https://actorcore.reallusion.com/

addedIdle & Body Animations + Jiggle Physics + Hair physicsAs a secondary pass we added hair physics to Brunilda's rigged, card-based bangs and pony tail, as well as slight jiggle physics to the breastbones via Naelstrof.JigglePhysics. These two really help alleviate the uncanny stiffness of her looping idle pose and greatly increase her attractiveness. https://github.com/naelstrof/JigglePhysics

changedSALSA Dynamic Lip SyncSALSA analyses audio in real time and drives phoneme-based blendshape weights on Brunilda's face. Because it works from the actual audio waveform rather than pre-baked data, it handles placeholder dialogue, runtime TTS, and final VO equally well which allows you to implement voice acting early in your development cycle. https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/animation/salsa-lipsync-suite-148442

changedRealistic Eye MovementThe eye movement plugin handles saccades, blink timing, and gaze targeting procedurally. Brunilda doesn't stare — she glances, refocuses, and occasionally breaks eye contact the way a real person does. It's a small thing that sits completely below conscious notice, which is exactly the point. https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/animation/realistic-eye-movements-29168

changedRealistic Eye Movement07

Alter Evo changes

changedOnce the character hits Unity, the Auto Setup plugin handles material remapping, shader assignment, and LOD configuration automatically. https://www.reallusion.com/auto-setup/unity/download.html

changedThe base layer of our Animator Controller handles full-body idles — subtle weight shifts, breathing, micro-fidgets. These run constantly underneath everything else. We used mocap based idles from the Reallusion actor core selection: https://actorcore.reallusion.com/

addedAs a secondary pass we added hair physics to Brunilda's rigged, card-based bangs and pony tail, as well as slight jiggle physics to the breastbones via Naelstrof.JigglePhysics. These two really help alleviate the uncanny stiffness of her looping idle pose and greatly increase her attractiveness. https://github.com/naelstrof/JigglePhysics

changedSALSA analyses audio in real time and drives phoneme-based blendshape weights on Brunilda's face. Because it works from the actual audio waveform rather than pre-baked data, it handles placeholder dialogue, runtime TTS, and final VO equally well which allows you to implement voice acting early in your development cycle. https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/animation/salsa-lipsync-suite-148442

changedThe eye movement plugin handles saccades, blink timing, and gaze targeting procedurally. Brunilda doesn't stare — she glances, refocuses, and occasionally breaks eye contact the way a real person does. It's a small thing that sits completely below conscious notice, which is exactly the point. https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/animation/realistic-eye-movements-29168

Thanks to everyone who has played Alter Evo so far. We appreciate your comments and reviews. Keep them coming.

We finally have some time to dive behind the scenes into how we built it. One X user commented that "Brunilda is the waifu to end all waifus." So we thought that we would start by breaking down how we turned her from a boring 3d model into a stunning starlet:

Pipeline

Concept Art → Character Creator 5

Every character starts as a piece of concept art. We use that as direct reference inside Character Creator 5 to sculpt, texture, and rig — keeping the artistic intent intact before anything ever touches the engine. The CC5 export pipeline into Unity 6 is where the magic (and the headaches) begin.

Plugin

Reallusion Auto Setup

Once the character hits Unity, the Auto Setup plugin handles material remapping, shader assignment, and LOD configuration automatically. https://www.reallusion.com/auto-setup/unity/download.html

Animation + Physics

Idle & Body Animations + Jiggle Physics + Hair physics

The base layer of our Animator Controller handles full-body idles — subtle weight shifts, breathing, micro-fidgets. These run constantly underneath everything else. We used mocap based idles from the Reallusion actor core selection: https://actorcore.reallusion.com/

As a secondary pass we added hair physics to Brunilda's rigged, card-based bangs and pony tail, as well as slight jiggle physics to the breastbones via Naelstrof.JigglePhysics. These two really help alleviate the uncanny stiffness of her looping idle pose and greatly increase her attractiveness. https://github.com/naelstrof/JigglePhysics

Animation

Facial Animations Layered on Top

A separate additive layer drives facial expressions — eyebrow raises, cheek puffs, brow furrows — blended on top of the idle base. The key was keeping facial animation data completely decoupled from body animation data.

Plugin

SALSA Dynamic Lip Sync

SALSA analyses audio in real time and drives phoneme-based blendshape weights on Brunilda's face. Because it works from the actual audio waveform rather than pre-baked data, it handles placeholder dialogue, runtime TTS, and final VO equally well which allows you to implement voice acting early in your development cycle. https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/animation/salsa-lipsync-suite-148442

Plugin

Realistic Eye Movement

The eye movement plugin handles saccades, blink timing, and gaze targeting procedurally. Brunilda doesn't stare — she glances, refocuses, and occasionally breaks eye contact the way a real person does. It's a small thing that sits completely below conscious notice, which is exactly the point. https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/animation/realistic-eye-movements-29168

Lighting

Special Lighting for Dialogue Sequences

Baked lighting handles the world. For dialogue sequences we layer in three real-time spotlights in a classic three-point cinematography setup, tuned to whatever lighting scheme makes the character look best given the natural light sources already present in the scene. We also enable real-time shadows during these sequences, which would normally be far too expensive during active gameplay — but dialogue is a still moment, no physics, no action, no AI, so we can afford to turn them on and let them do their job properly. https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.render-pipelines.high-definition@12.0/manual/Light-Component.html

We also crank up post-processing for these beats: depth of field pulls focus to Brunilda's face, shadow resolution goes up, and ambient occlusion gets more aggressive so contact shadows read correctly in close-up. Adaptive Probe Volumes tie it together, making sure Brunilda picks up indirect light from her surroundings dynamically so she never looks pasted into the scene. https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.render-pipelines.high-definition@14.0/manual/probevolumes-use.html Thanks for reading our technical blog post. We're looking forward to posting a few more of these depending on what players want to know more about. Alter Evo's 20% launch sale is live for one more week. Go grab a copy before it returns to full price: Alter Evo Sincerely, Technical Fiction

Source

Steam News / 12 May 2026

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