VN Ren'Py STWA: Unbroken [Book 1 Steam] [STWAdev]

4.60 star(s) 138 Votes
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Just Jericho

Just Jericho

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Skeltom said:
It looks like he changes or disables some render settings before he does the animation in DAZ. He also tends to instantly make the characters sweaty or wet, hair included at the very start like they are getting all hot and heavy but I don't think it works. The denoising also looks very high so the skins and whatnot look more doll like. Unless he does the videos in 3delight which could account for a lot of what happens.

I know he was trying to do something different with the animations but I think it changed to much. I think adding more frames to his older style would have been more beneficial. They still looked like the scene albeit pretty stuttery. Like it was encoded at 15 fps or something. That and the newer ones conveniently hide the penetration 98% of the time unless its oral like something from skinamax. The angles and positions really do suck most of the time. The older ones were a lot better in that regard.
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I've seen a number of devs recently trying to get away from Daz entirely and learning to do more in Blender even for the still renders, and the difference is staggering. Better lighting, more realistic flesh physics and jiggle, cleaner animations, etc... more options in general. Though it apparently has quite the learning curve, the devs that are making the switch are really standing out lately. Hopefully STWAdev is working towards that as well.

As far as animations in Unbroken though, another criticism I have for the newer animations is that he tries to show too many movements and it just doesn't work. There are a lot of really awkward unnatural movements in the Kana sex scene and also in the Katie Kafton scene and it's super distracting. IMO the the best looking animations are kept to simpler loops with focus on flesh physics (like the recent Iris scene in LISC).
 
Tomy75

Tomy75

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Sep 27, 2018
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Skeltom said:
The denoising also looks very high so the skins and whatnot look more doll like.
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That's exactly the word that came to my mind when looking at the animations in Pt7, all the girls are wet (not the MC strangely) and look like dolls, no more skin texture nor grain. Ines was the worst because she lost all her natural charm, no more freckles, just a plastic skin.
 
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Skeltom

Skeltom

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Jericho85 said:
I've seen a number of devs recently trying to get away from Daz entirely and learning to do more in Blender even for the still renders, and the difference is staggering. Better lighting, more realistic flesh physics and jiggle, cleaner animations, etc... more options in general. Though it apparently has quite the learning curve, the devs that are making the switch are really standing out lately. Hopefully STWAdev is working towards that as well.

As far as animations in Unbroken though, another criticism I have for the newer animations is that he tries to show too many movements and it just doesn't work. There are a lot of really awkward unnatural movements in the Kana sex scene and also in the Katie Kafton scene and it's super distracting. IMO the the best looking animations are kept to simpler loops with focus on flesh physics (like the recent Iris scene in LISC).
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There is a learning curve sure, but it isn't staggering or anything. I don't think it's worth a switch this far in to an already started project though. Maybe the next one? The project I'm working on is in blender but I make the base scenes and characters in daz. The difference in render times alone is staggering. It would take me 2 hours to render just a still in daz with my meager setup but the same one in blender doesn't go over 10 minutes. And that's with cycles at 4000 passes, eevee is like 1 minute tops but the shadows are a pain.
 
SixtyNineGaming

SixtyNineGaming

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Jun 25, 2021
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So much incredible content. Decided to replay all the way from the beginning cuz I love it so much and I 'm glad I did even tho it took me two days to finish. I absolutely love the characters and their banter.
 
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RoryTate

RoryTate

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May 15, 2018
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Avatarbr1 said:
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That's a reasonable explanation for the MC's behaviour in game, and indeed I think it works to a degree for some of the LIs as well. It's not a perfect real-world excuse or anything, but it's enough to create that "escapist" framework required by a fictional story.

Tomy75 said:
I just enjoy how STWAdev shows emotions through very little things, like a word or a facial expression, it's not something you see very often in the world of AVN...
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STWAdev is indeed a master of visual storytelling. Not many other devs can get such a wide range of character emotions across to the player in just a single image.

Jericho85 said:
I don't know what that animation engine is that is being used for these scenes but all I know is that it doesn't look good.
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I agree that the Ines skin rendering issue was jarring, and the "sparkly" hair was distracting as well, but I think the animations were generally acceptable. They are suitably realistic enough and framed well to engage the interest of the player. To my eyes, some scenes just felt overly reliant on the animations, and there were fewer interesting renders in addition this time around. Also, after playing some other AVN's the last few days and having some time to think about it, I wonder if it's also because there's a lack of raw "passion" in some of this update's scenes? There's not as much sexual banter and everything feels a bit too cerebral compared to the way other AVN's approach raw and wild fucking.

An example that comes to mind in this update is when Serena insinuates that she is a "cum vampire", which is a very exciting innuendo to hear. However, she unfortunately does this only after the sex has concluded IIRC. This needed to be established and built up earlier in the interaction. Also, I enjoyed how Els and the MC enjoyed the "memorable chaos" of their date, so perhaps this mindset could be used to spice up the sex scenes as well? At least it would avoid the sense of "I'm going to touch you now, do you consent?"-type dialog encroaching on the intimacy that we are being presented.
 
hkennereth

hkennereth

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Mar 3, 2019
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On the most recent episode, there's that scene where Amrit and Ines are watching a k-drama and invite the MC to join in. I can swear I've seen that story before, but I can't remember what that is. Anyone knows what story is that from?

screenshot0001.png
 
motseer

motseer

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Dec 17, 2021
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RoryTate said:
Some quick thoughts after playing this update.

The dev for this game really knows how to write dialog that sounds natural, but serves a dual purpose, in that it gets the player back up to speed after a long time away from the VN. Kudos on that.

I'm continually amazed at the quality some independent games like this can put out. There were only a couple of small typos that I noticed:

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That's it though. Really impressive for so much writing. Overall, the renders, animations, and storytelling were all of a quality that is better than most corporate products.

And now we get into my long list of thoughts and spoilers on what's in this update, so please be warned before clicking.

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Edit: I meant to say "gamut", not "gambit".
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motseer

motseer

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Dr.TSoni said:
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Actually, while it might have been US lead, it was a coalition mission or McNab would not have been part of it. It doesn't matter, however, the mission to "clean up loose ends" was subsequent and separate. We know this, partly, because MC did not know about it until after the fact. It could have been any of the major coalition partners who decided it was necessary. Anyway, it's mostly just a wild idea but, I wouldn't put it past STWAdev to toss in a twist like this... Jus' Sayin':cool:
 
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DarkKiller

DarkKiller

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motseer said:
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On one hand, I've always disliked the idea that everything and everyone should be interconnected in a story. But on the other I'd quite like a twist like that tbh, Valentine and Els' whole lives would be turned upside down and I'd be curious to see how they'd recover.
 
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Dr.TSoni

Dr.TSoni

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May 20, 2022
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motseer said:
Actually, while it might have been US lead, it was a coalition mission or McNab would not have been part of it. It doesn't matter, however, the mission to "clean up loose ends" was subsequent and separate. We know this, partly, because MC did not know about it until after the fact. It could have been any of the major coalition partners who decided it was necessary. Anyway, it's mostly just a wild idea but, I wouldn't put it past STWAdev to toss in a twist like this... Jus' Sayin':cool:
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After closer inspection you are right
 
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Antherak

Antherak

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Aug 20, 2020
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DarkKiller said:
I'd quite like a twist like that tbh, Valentine and Els' whole lives would be turned upside down and I'd be curious to see how they'd recover.
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I have 2 paths. Elspeth and Kana. It that scenario would happen, my Elspeth route wouldn't recover. She would be promptly dumped to the curb, following my MC ditching the veteran's office and cutting all ties to her.
 
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indio68

indio68

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Sep 26, 2020
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SixtyNineGaming said:
So much incredible content. Decided to replay all the way from the beginning cuz I love it so much and I 'm glad I did even tho it took me two days to finish. I absolutely love the characters and their banter.
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agreed the only thing that bother me is have to choose which girl to be the one...i can't really choose i love them all..damn
 
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4.60 star(s) 138 Votes