RomanHume

Sommelier of Pussy & Purveyor of Porn
Game Developer
Jan 5, 2018
2,390
13,336
Supported. Story really is more important than visuals for me. Its why I play games like this instead of just watching porn.
My real goal is to make the game that I myself have always wanted. And honestly, that's a porno with a great story and good acting. So hopefully I can a crescendo with both of those and keep everyone, and mostly myself happy with the final product.

I love writing, and when I started this story, I began with the characters, their personalities and the backgrounds. Once I knew who they were, it was a matter of throwing them in the mix together and just seeing what happens.

I have broad strokes of where the story is going, but a lot of the writing is organic. So organic in fact that as I was working on this current update, the dialogue sort of took off on it's own and before I knew it I had a new conflict between characters that didn't exist before, and it blossomed into this fantastic side plot that weaves in nicely with the main story.

So I agree. Story is paramount. But I feel a great story also deserves great visuals, so I'm doing my best to deliver both.
 

Tisi

Newbie
Dec 3, 2017
58
136
My real goal is to make the game that I myself have always wanted.
So I agree. Story is paramount. But I feel a great story also deserves great visuals, so I'm doing my best to deliver both.
I think it's great that you want to put out, in your opinion, the best game possible. Here's the thing though, you've already done what amounts to a restart of the game. Initially I was annoyed by the restart of the game, but the current version is, IMO, better that the original.

My concern now is that, as you progress with your ability to render scenes, you're going to, again, restart your work. To put that into perspective: why continue on the current path when you can, once again, redo the content with "improved" sex scenes. It's not a bad thing to seek improvement. However, maybe it's worth the time to finish one game within in your development limits and then move on to another game to showcase your improvements.

At the end of the day, whatever you decide will never be "perfect" because the software is always evolving. Short of using some propriety system, you can't produce a product that can't be improved.

My personal opinion: animated/variable sex scenes are overrated. Let your players enjoy using our imaginations to, for lack of a better term, fill in the blanks when it comes to intimate scenes.
 

Deleted member 997153

I am a meat popsicle
Donor
Game Developer
Nov 7, 2018
1,081
6,860
So it's scaring me how comfortable I'm getting with renpy screen language. I was able to put this together in about three hours tonight on the laptop while the beast is cranking out renders.

Taking much of your feedback to heart, I've revamped the sex menu system and made some serious improvements to the interface.

1. The boxes have been made semi-transparent and are much less jarring to the eye.
2. They dynamically resize based on the amount of content in each box.
View attachment 299317

3. The individual menus can now be manually opened and closed via the arrow in the upper right of each box. This means if you have chosen a location and position for example and just want to explore all the stimulations, you can save yourself some space by collapsing the other two boxes. The game will remember which boxes were open and closed each time it is opened.
View attachment 299318

4. The menu remembers the choices you made higher up on the hierarchy by darkening the text of the previous selections. This too is remember each time the menu is opened.
View attachment 299319

5. The entire menu can be expanded or collapsed at any time via the icon in the upper left. This means that in the middle of a sex scene you have the option of jumping tracks to a different one if the current scene just isn't doing it for you. This icon only appears during sex scenes and will be absent during the rest of the game, freeing up valuable screen space.
View attachment 299320

6. You can terminate the sex scene complete at any time, not just at the end of a scene. Thus giving you complete control over the experience.


Other suggestions will be implemented at release time. We always intended to include better transitions between locations and positions to create a better narrative flow. So that is already in the pipeline and almost complete. We're also going to scale back the amount of text during the sex scenes. It will be a fairly even combination of click throughs and looped "pseudo-animation" of about four or five scenes.


That said, the reason I'm excited about this system is because it is a lot less work on the development side. The reusability of it alone is going to save us from having to manage all kinds of loops and jumps that tend to get buggy as they get bigger. It also makes developing sex scenes a little more formulaic which requires less planning overall. I now have the freedom to just come up with four or five smaller sex scenes that I think are appropriate and feed them into the menu.

Our new batch rendering system is also capable of doing camera changes between renders. This means we can set up our six or seven sex scenes, set four or five cameras, and then just let the computer take over. It's a far cry simpler than before when ever frame needed to be saved as a separate file and rendered out one at a time.

We can also program in a few minutes of downtime between batches for gpu cool down. This means we can leave the computer on autopilot for longer periods of time throughout the day and that's going to help us render faster.


I know the development speed has been ebbing and flowing a lot lately and that's largely due to team reduction and that other job I have encroaching in on my free time to work on the game. But rest assured, development never comes to a stop. Some weeks may only have ten to fifteen hours, others I eek in twenty five or thirty.

I know everyone has been waiting extra patiently for this next update. I won't try to placate you with estimations or promises. But know that I will not stop!

Thank you all again for your patience. It means a lot that you've stuck around this long.

Salute!

Pay attention, kids. This is how you dev properly. These improvements are excellent. I can't wait to see this new control in the game. Well done!
 

RomanHume

Sommelier of Pussy & Purveyor of Porn
Game Developer
Jan 5, 2018
2,390
13,336
Pay attention, kids. This is how you dev properly. These improvements are excellent. I can't wait to see this new control in the game. Well done!
I appreciate you sending me some resources and bringing it to my attention that I need to stop being lazy about studying UX design. I've always known it was a weakness, but you gave me the little kick I think I needed to finally do something about it.

Still have a lot more studying to do, but what I've learned so far is already paying off. Thanks again for offering up your feedback. I'm 1000% happier with the way the interface now looks.
 

RomanHume

Sommelier of Pussy & Purveyor of Porn
Game Developer
Jan 5, 2018
2,390
13,336
I think it's great that you want to put out, in your opinion, the best game possible. Here's the thing though, you've already done what amounts to a restart of the game. Initially I was annoyed by the restart of the game, but the current version is, IMO, better that the original.

My concern now is that, as you progress with your ability to render scenes, you're going to, again, restart your work. To put that into perspective: why continue on the current path when you can, once again, redo the content with "improved" sex scenes. It's not a bad thing to seek improvement. However, maybe it's worth the time to finish one game within in your development limits and then move on to another game to showcase your improvements.

At the end of the day, whatever you decide will never be "perfect" because the software is always evolving. Short of using some propriety system, you can't produce a product that can't be improved.

My personal opinion: animated/variable sex scenes are overrated. Let your players enjoy using our imaginations to, for lack of a better term, fill in the blanks when it comes to intimate scenes.
I completely understand your concerns and the situation you're describing is something I have remained very cognizant of. To your point, a rework is already happening, but not like it was done before.

You're correct that as I get better with the tools of the trade and find new and wonderful ways to improve the game, the urge to do rework is overwhelming. But we stopped once before and did a rework and I absolutely refuse to do it again.

For about an hour every other night, I put in some time on a new version of the game, v1.1. It has enhanced gui features, an in game database, a journaling system to track your choices in the story, and all kinds of bios and indicators at your finger tips. There's a new system for nicknaming characters and new visual options. It's coming along quite excellent.

But I only allow myself to work on it for three to four hours a week tops. The rest of my free time goes into developing the current version. Eventually I'll get v1.1 caught up with the current version and when that happens I'll replace v1.0 with v1.1.
For now, I reason that if I just work on v1.1 a little bit at a time, and slowly work on catching up to the current game, as I learn new things that dramatically change the game, I'll work them in and test them in v1.1.

So hopefully in a year or so when v1.1 has caught up, I'll be at the peak of my skill and happy with it as the defining vision of what I want this game to be.

But I promise you that until that happens, I will continue forward with the current version without fail. There may be some inconsistencies between the beginning of the game and the later parts of my skill develops, but work will continue forward without back tracking.

As a player, patron and a fan, I hate it when a game I enjoy restarts and progress is lost. We did it once and I won't do it again. You have my promise.
 

RomanHume

Sommelier of Pussy & Purveyor of Porn
Game Developer
Jan 5, 2018
2,390
13,336

Long Overdue Update 2019-05-14

Damn, I have so much to share and I'm not even sure where to start. Give me a second to collect my thoughts a bit...
Ok, the silence. Let's start with that. I've been kind of quiet these last couple of weeks, but the silence is not indicative of a lack of progress. Quite the opposite, the silence was the result of much progress.

As previously mentioned, the project has been transitioning to a team of one. Myself.

In the past, I was responsible primarily for the writing and the community interaction for the project. But going forward I will be tasked with the writing, the artwork, and the coding. This means I've had to work over time learning to specialize in all three areas very rapidly.

The last thing I would want would be for this transition to result in a reduction in quality. Oddly enough, I think the opposite might have occurred. For the last month and a half I have personally be learning all the ins and outs of Daz, Photoshop and Renpy.

As evidenced by the new "sex menu" that is being introduced into the game, I think it's safe to say I have a strong handle on the code.
And hopefully the attached imagery will have you confident that I can handle all of the visual art going forward.
And the writing, well, nothing changes there.

The most challenging part of this transition has been redefining the production pipeline. And now I think we have that ironed out as well. it's one thing when you have two or three people working on a project and you're feeding things forward, not needing to know about the black box process that goes on before it moves on to the next person.

But now that I am involved at every single step of the process, changes need to be made in the order that things were done to help optimize the speed at which production occurs and to streamline some of the tasks involved.

To that end, I've recently completed 21 hours of photoshop training and a combined 50 hours of training on digital modelling, sculpting and shading over the last month. It's simple, the better I understand these tools and know what's available, the faster I can manipulate, update, and integrate.
And I have to say it's already paying off. Learning how to optimize the scenes for rendering, manipulating the shaders so that I get the desired effect in the first try (vs six or seven), and taking a few seconds to tweak a rig or sculpt polys instead of trying to fix odd bends and folds in post production is going to save a ton of time.

Already I've been using my new-found photoshop skills to fix lighting errors and enhance colors and blends in a matter of seconds. Before, we would have gone back Daz and made actual lighting adjustments and re-rendered a couple of times until it was correct.

There was some trial and error involved in adjusting the pipeline as well, but I think the cycle I've come up with will work well going forward.
If I stick to the program, I should be able to produce scenes at a rate of about one a week. That's scenes mind you, not completed chapters. But it will be a constant forward momentum that will lead to a steady stream of updates, so I'm excited about that.

Now on to what you really want to know about...

WHEN IS THE NEXT UPDATE?!
All of you have been exceptionally patient with me and to that end I cannot thank you enough. But you've waited too long. And now the bill has come due.

Starting tomorrow I'm taking off time from the "Real Job Blues" and for the next week and a half going to work solely on this update and get it out to you next week. I'll work 18 hour days if that's what it takes.

And even though it falls to me to see this project to completion, my passion has not waned and I am still as enthusiastic, if not more so, than ever. I look forward to carrying this to the finish line and I'm excited about what we'll come up with together.

I am, as always, your humble servant in the production of quality adult entertainment. And now, more than ever, I salute you!


As a weak consolation for your patience, here's a few more teasers from next week's long awaited release.



[/COLOR]
 

Deleted member 997153

I am a meat popsicle
Donor
Game Developer
Nov 7, 2018
1,081
6,860

Starting tomorrow I'm taking off time from the "Real Job Blues" and for the next week and a half going to work solely on this update and get it out to you next week. I'll work 18 hour days if that's what it takes.
You're a machine, dude! I'm sure I speak for everyone here when I say that we appreciate the huge effort you're putting into your game. The results speak for themselves!

Don't burn yourself out though. Nobody wins if you get to the point where the game starts feeling like an obligation or a project you work on grudgingly. If it remains fun for you, then it will always remain fun for us. Take a break when you need it and make sure you're taking care of yourself, first and foremost. :)
 

N1K17Y

Active Member
Jun 12, 2017
829
2,377
Starting tomorrow I'm taking off time from the "Real Job Blues" and for the next week and a half going to work solely on this update and get it out to you next week. I'll work 18 hour days if that's what it takes.

And even though it falls to me to see this project to completion, my passion has not waned and I am still as enthusiastic, if not more so, than ever. I look forward to carrying this to the finish line and I'm excited about what we'll come up with together.

I am, as always, your humble servant in the production of quality adult entertainment. And now, more than ever, I salute you!
*rocky theme song starts playing
 

RomanHume

Sommelier of Pussy & Purveyor of Porn
Game Developer
Jan 5, 2018
2,390
13,336
You're a machine, dude! I'm sure I speak for everyone here when I say that we appreciate the huge effort you're putting into your game. The results speak for themselves!

Don't burn yourself out though. Nobody wins if you get to the point where the game starts feeling like an obligation or a project you work on grudgingly. If it remains fun for you, then it will always remain fun for us. Take a break when you need it and make sure you're taking care of yourself, first and foremost. :)
I appreciate the good advice. Fortunately my problem is the exact opposite of burnout. I have so much energy for this project right now, not being able to work on it full time is what's killing me. I got this whole story in my head and I have to get it out. Especially since the longer it's up there the more it grows.

One challenge has always been that the trainer, Monica just sort of existed as this side character with no real tie in to any other characters. During the writing of this chapter, inspiration struck and now I've got her looped in. Also came up with an even deeper background for Nanami.

So yeah, lots of story I'm excited to tell, I just have to get it on the grid. =D



And secretly, on the side, I've been cracking Maya open late at night studying character rigging and Arnold rendering. It's a long term goal, but I want to do my second game completely in Maya/Arnold. Bring some Hollywood quality VFX to an adult novel. I figure if I want to make a career out of this, I owe it to myself to be among the best. Of course, that is a long term goal set for when there is enough patronage to justify the expense on a ultra-high end rig that can bust out those renders in a few minutes.
 

fried

Almost
Moderator
Donor
Nov 11, 2017
2,311
6,066
I appreciate the good advice. Fortunately my problem is the exact opposite of burnout. I have so much energy for this project right now, not being able to work on it full time is what's killing me. I got this whole story in my head and I have to get it out. Especially since the longer it's up there the more it grows.

One challenge has always been that the trainer, Monica just sort of existed as this side character with no real tie in to any other characters. During the writing of this chapter, inspiration struck and now I've got her looped in. Also came up with an even deeper background for Nanami.

So yeah, lots of story I'm excited to tell, I just have to get it on the grid. =D



And secretly, on the side, I've been cracking Maya open late at night studying character rigging and Arnold rendering. It's a long term goal, but I want to do my second game completely in Maya/Arnold. Bring some Hollywood quality VFX to an adult novel. I figure if I want to make a career out of this, I owe it to myself to be among the best. Of course, that is a long term goal set for when there is enough patronage to justify the expense on a ultra-high end rig that can bust out those renders in a few minutes.
If I could offer some amateur 3D/graphics/designer perspective here, perhaps ...

(I know you tend to be highly contextual in your explanations/rationalizations, so I'll attempt a similar style here - sorry for the length of this post)

My more serious 3D history (as opposed to dabbling with DOS raytracers, early 3ds Max and Truespace) started with my first love, Softimage, which necessarily moved into the Autodesk space after the buyout - so that brought me more significantly into using 3ds Max (which I enjoy, it's so overly techy and logical), Maya (which I can get along with, but still makes me get that pee shiver every time I start it up) and even Mudbox until I mostly replaced that with Silo + ZBrush. Poser (yay!) and then Daz 3D (OK) came into the mix because of their orientation to use lots of available content in a direct and semi-standardized manner. My more involved render engine experience is with various versions of Mental Ray, Iray (for Autodesk apps and Daz 3D), V-Ray, Keyshot, some Arnold and Octane. I have typically composited with After Effects and/or Photoshop, but have been dabbling with Natron as freeware practice for Nuke (which I wouldn't use enough to offset the cost) and now use Affinity Photo+Designer most of the time when 2D graphics/post-processing is involved. Throw into the mix my recent acquisitions of Substance Painter and Designer, while also dabbling with trial versions of UV mappers and all sorts of 3D-supporting apps and ... it's obvious I need help. This is all just a hobby! I'm that unfortunate classic: Jack of all trades, Expert at NONE. But, it's fun.

I've been reading about your journey here with interest and this latest post compelled me to suggest that if you want to move beyond Daz 3D into more customization of the models via mesh adjustments, custom morphs, your own props, maybe your own characters and certainly custom materials over time ... consider Blender (especially, version 2.8's usability enhancements.) Yeah, I didn't mention it in the ramble above, because I've been trying it out like a toy for years, but now use it for serious hobby work and put many of the other tools aside just to get more time with it: it has a tremendous, distributed knowledge base from which to learn, many formal tutorials (and they are growing) and a reasonable PBR-capable render engine with farm enablement in Cycles (although plugins for many standalone renderers are now available.) It can do all the modeling, rigging, etc. you might hope to do, and also offers compositing (which is OK, not stellar), animation (decent) and is nicely compatible with other model formats. Oh, and it's super for making Daz 3D morphs and compatible props - I do both of those often.

If you really might want to spend the big bucks some day, then maybe also take a look at Cinema4D in your spare time: it's much easier to pick up than Maya and v20 is really super stuff. Its internal physical renderer isn't bad and also has other render engine plugins available - indeed, its Octane integration is truly remarkable. It can also do motion graphics and effects in a 3D landscape quite well, among other things.

Maya is intense and amazingly capable software for Windows, but unless you are thinking of a professional path in 3D some day, it's not necessary to learn for becoming a highly capable modeler, rigger, shader-creator, designer, animator, etc. since there are so many competitors out there now - and, some of them are completely free (e.g., Blender).
 
Last edited:

RomanHume

Sommelier of Pussy & Purveyor of Porn
Game Developer
Jan 5, 2018
2,390
13,336
If I could offer some amateur 3D/graphics/designer perspective here, perhaps ...

(I know you tend to be highly contextual in your explanations/rationalizations, so I'll attempt a similar style here - sorry for the length of this post)

My more serious 3D history (as opposed to dabbling with DOS raytracers, early 3ds Max and Truespace) started with my first love, Softimage, which necessarily moved into the Autodesk space after the buyout - so that brought me more significantly into using 3ds Max (which I enjoy, it's so overly techy and logical), Maya (which I can get along with, but still makes me get that pee shiver every time I start it up) and even Mudbox until I mostly replaced that with Silo + ZBrush. Poser (yay!) and then Daz 3D (OK) came into the mix because of their orientation to use lots of available content in a direct and semi-standardized manner. My more involved render engine experience is with various versions of Mental Ray, Iray (for Autodesk apps and Daz 3D), V-Ray, Keyshot, some Arnold and Octane. I have typically composited with After Effects and/or Photoshop, but have been dabbling with Natron as freeware practice for Nuke (which I wouldn't use enough to offset the cost) and now use Affinity Photo+Designer most of the time when 2D graphics/post-processing is involved. Throw into the mix my recent acquisitions of Substance Painter and Designer, while also dabbling with trial versions of UV mappers and all sorts of 3D-supporting apps and ... it's obvious I need help. This is all just a hobby! I'm that unfortunate classic: Jack of all trades, Expert at NONE. But, it's fun.

I've been reading about your journey here with interest and this latest post compelled me to suggest that if you want to move beyond Daz 3D into more customization of the models via mesh adjustments, custom morphs, your own props, maybe your own characters and certainly custom materials over time ... consider Blender (especially, version 2.8's usability enhancements.) Yeah, I didn't mention it in the ramble above, because I've been trying it out like a toy for years, but now use it for serious hobby work and put many of the other tools aside just to get more time with it: it has a tremendous, distributed knowledge base from which to learn, many formal tutorials (and they are growing) and a reasonable PBR-capable render engine with farm enablement in Cycles (although plugins for many standalone renderers are now available.) It can do all the modeling, rigging, etc. you might hope to do, and also offers compositing (which is OK, not stellar), animation (decent) and is nicely compatible with other model formats. Oh, and it's super for making Daz 3D morphs and compatible props - I do both of those often.

If you really might want to spend the big bucks some day, then maybe also take a look at Cinema4D in your spare time: it's much easier to pick up than Maya and v20 is really super stuff. Its internal physical renderer isn't bad and also has other render engine plugins available - indeed, its Octane integration is truly remarkable. It can also do motion graphics and effects in a 3D landscape quite well, among other things.

Maya is intense and amazingly capable software for Windows, but unless you are thinking of a professional path in 3D some day, it's not necessary to learn for becoming a highly capable modeler, rigger, shader-creator, designer, animator, etc. since there are so many competitors out there now - and, some of them are completely free (e.g., Blender).
I want to say this was an incredible post and highly informative. I truly appreciate it! And it's solid advice.

Since we're talking about the journey, I'll share with you some of the stuff that's been going through my head since I discovered I would be responsible for the visuals (and pretty much everything) going forward.

First off, it's important to understand that I'm the type of personality that likes to "go big or go home". But that isn't my sole draw to Maya. The biggest draw is animation. This is one of Maya's greatest strengths and I would love it if I could produce fast, high-quality animation one day. It can be done with Daz, but it's really not configured for it and it's glitchy as hell (disappearing key-frames, etc). But tangent to animating is the absolute control of the pipe line from start to finish. Full blown development in Maya is of course the end goal. The non-desctructive work-flow means I can always go back and make any required adjustments.

Of course, there are several steps I plan to take over the next year or so to get there.

I've made it no secret that I want to do this kind of work full time. I find it very fulfilling and I love telling stories. On top of that, I love creating the art. But when I do something, I want to be the best that I can. I want to sit down, write my story, and know that no matter what I come up with, I will be able to create all the necessary visuals I need to tell that story the way I want to without being constrained to the Daz store or available online assets. Total Creative Liberty.

I've paid for a couple of months of Maya to play with it and get my feet wet, and holy shit, I think it's the most amazing piece of software I've gotten to toy with in a long time. I've done some modelling, rigging, and short animations, and I love it. It's a work of art. But I'm a long way from being good enough to start making my game with it. Oh, and the Hypershade! I loooooove the Hypershade!

My plan roughly is thus. First I plan to tackle and master zBrush. I want to use zBrush to enhance my existing models and update all of the hair assets to fibermesh so that I am free from these static, stiff, unlife-like facsimiles of hair. It can be used on my Daz models and can be used to enhance and improve models in Maya. So that's a no brainer. So there is immediate and long term application.

Next I intend to master Substance Painter/Designer. This too will be good for immediate Daz application as well as long term Maya work. I so frequently use Adobe Bridge to tweak and update the Daz materials I'm currently using that being able to create surfaces from scratch is a huge benefit.

After that I think I want to learn the ins and outs of Marvellous Designer and free myself up from using the same old stiff, static clothes that are available in the online stores. Being able to outfit my characters according to their own personal style is a huge draw to me and having that freedom of design just opens up a whole world of possibilities. Also Daz and Maya compatible.

Ideally, as I'm working on mastering all of those tools, I'll be steadily building up my Maya skills on the side to the point that they can be implemented in time for the next game.

Very much a long term goal. But thought out in a way that there can be immediate application of the acquired skills. I won't get any of this done tomorrow. But in two or three years, totally possible. Total creative liberty. That's what I'm striving for.

However, I would also be remiss if I failed to mention, the journey excites me. I love learning to do this stuff. Every new piece of software I learn, every new skill, just opens up so much possibility. I know it will take time to accomplish, but it's not like I'm trying to get anywhere soon. I'm in it for the long haul. And I can handle a slow steady climb to the top if that's what it takes.


I know there are a lot of options, and I've done as much research as one can reasonably do. But I've seen Maya in action and I love the results. There is definitely a learning curve. But so far my playing around and following tutorials has left me confident I can build the necessary skills to get what I want out of it. Time of course will tell the tale.

If anyone else has opinions on 3D software or if there is more you'd like to chime in with on the subject, I'd definitely like to hear it. It's a topic that fascinates me to no end.

Salute!
 

fried

Almost
Moderator
Donor
Nov 11, 2017
2,311
6,066
I want to say this was an incredible post and highly informative. I truly appreciate it! And it's solid advice.

Since we're talking about the journey, I'll share with you some of the stuff that's been going through my head since I discovered I would be responsible for the visuals (and pretty much everything) going forward.

First off, it's important to understand that I'm the type of personality that likes to "go big or go home". But that isn't my sole draw to Maya. The biggest draw is animation. This is one of Maya's greatest strengths and I would love it if I could produce fast, high-quality animation one day. It can be done with Daz, but it's really not configured for it and it's glitchy as hell (disappearing key-frames, etc). But tangent to animating is the absolute control of the pipe line from start to finish. Full blown development in Maya is of course the end goal. The non-desctructive work-flow means I can always go back and make any required adjustments.

Of course, there are several steps I plan to take over the next year or so to get there.

I've made it no secret that I want to do this kind of work full time. I find it very fulfilling and I love telling stories. On top of that, I love creating the art. But when I do something, I want to be the best that I can. I want to sit down, write my story, and know that no matter what I come up with, I will be able to create all the necessary visuals I need to tell that story the way I want to without being constrained to the Daz store or available online assets. Total Creative Liberty.

I've paid for a couple of months of Maya to play with it and get my feet wet, and holy shit, I think it's the most amazing piece of software I've gotten to toy with in a long time. I've done some modelling, rigging, and short animations, and I love it. It's a work of art. But I'm a long way from being good enough to start making my game with it. Oh, and the Hypershade! I loooooove the Hypershade!

My plan roughly is thus. First I plan to tackle and master zBrush. I want to use zBrush to enhance my existing models and update all of the hair assets to fibermesh so that I am free from these static, stiff, unlife-like facsimiles of hair. It can be used on my Daz models and can be used to enhance and improve models in Maya. So that's a no brainer. So there is immediate and long term application.

Next I intend to master Substance Painter/Designer. This too will be good for immediate Daz application as well as long term Maya work. I so frequently use Adobe Bridge to tweak and update the Daz materials I'm currently using that being able to create surfaces from scratch is a huge benefit.

After that I think I want to learn the ins and outs of Marvellous Designer and free myself up from using the same old stiff, static clothes that are available in the online stores. Being able to outfit my characters according to their own personal style is a huge draw to me and having that freedom of design just opens up a whole world of possibilities. Also Daz and Maya compatible.

Ideally, as I'm working on mastering all of those tools, I'll be steadily building up my Maya skills on the side to the point that they can be implemented in time for the next game.

Very much a long term goal. But thought out in a way that there can be immediate application of the acquired skills. I won't get any of this done tomorrow. But in two or three years, totally possible. Total creative liberty. That's what I'm striving for.

However, I would also be remiss if I failed to mention, the journey excites me. I love learning to do this stuff. Every new piece of software I learn, every new skill, just opens up so much possibility. I know it will take time to accomplish, but it's not like I'm trying to get anywhere soon. I'm in it for the long haul. And I can handle a slow steady climb to the top if that's what it takes.


I know there are a lot of options, and I've done as much research as one can reasonably do. But I've seen Maya in action and I love the results. There is definitely a learning curve. But so far my playing around and following tutorials has left me confident I can build the necessary skills to get what I want out of it. Time of course will tell the tale.

If anyone else has opinions on 3D software or if there is more you'd like to chime in with on the subject, I'd definitely like to hear it. It's a topic that fascinates me to no end.

Salute!
Well, it's certainly an admirable path and set of general goals, so if Maya has you by the horns right now . . . I was actually experimenting with animating Daz-based figures in Maya earlier this year and it was definitely a longer route via the export/import and trying to re-rig the skeleton, etc. path compared to using the DaztoMaya bridge, which makes much of that far easier and faster, I feel. You always need tweaks, especially in materials and lighting, but I did get Blender working pretty well with a Genesis 3 figure via the Diffeomorphic script and that didn't take much doing. Coincidentally, I was working with a Maya -> Blender conversion script that was quite neat and made bringing in a more complex scene (that I got from Evermotion, I believe) to compare how Cycles could handle something originally made with V-Ray in mind.

We know that Autodesk is now pushing Arnold as the renderer-of-the-moment and it's a fine choice, though I also know people who have just as many pluses and minuses with it as Mental Ray, strangely enough - and, it doesn't allow for unwatermarked batch processing out of the box (may not matter to you, of course.) There are alternatives to consider, such as the obvious V-Ray (which may not be ideal for your needs right now - it's nice for archviz, of course), but I know a lot of folks also using/trying Redshift and Octane with Maya these days.

I have a Pluralsight subscription and it's been well worth the cost, IMHO - there are other venues with similar offerings, but I've been with them since they were Digital-Tutors and feel that my areas of interest remain covered. So, I have smatterings of other tutorial offerings from other providers where gaps were needed to fill (very little, though).

BTW, I own the 2012 version of the Autodesk "Creative Suite" 3D products - I think 2013 was the final year in which they sold bundles of the their 3D suite with a standalone license. So, if I need a more recent Maya version for importing a newer scene and/or to handle Arnold materials (an example), I rent for a month and save as the older version, convert materials, etc. Those go on sale periodically on eBay and other online venues.

Although I only glossed over my ZBrush use, it's very easy to build real-world practice with it by making Daz morphs via the "Send to Zbrush" -> GoZ route, I feel. You can't change the mesh resolution in such a case, but that flow forces you to understand the finer points of the unique ZBrush UI, using primary brushes such as Move, Flatten and Smooth, managing sub-tools and masking, working with Symmetry, etc. Although Maya can subdivide quite well, I tend to bring existing objects into ZBrush and wrangle them into shape with ZRemesher (and related Geometry tools), define groups, update or generate base UVs, etc. because it's ridiculously good and fast at doing all of those things quickly + well. For manual retopology, that's either some ZBrush, Maya or - increasingly for me - Blender (used to be Silo, but Blender has become so improved as of late).

Some people swear by 3DCoat for much of what I've mentioned above - it's sort of like a rich toolbox these days and the price tag is amazingly low for its capabilities - but if you have ZBrush already I think there is a lot of overlap. And, its UI is also unique: so you have to decide if the learning curve is worth it compared to your time on other tools you may or may not favor.

Substance Painter is super easy to start with and has some nice tutorials for adding details thought previously difficult to integrate without finding or paying for high-quality textures. Designer is just a playground and only needed if you are looking for ideas that nobody else has come up with yet (and which can be manually tweaked, I feel). It also can handle creating tilable materials quite nicely.

Yeah, Marvelous Designer is the growing standard for consumer-grade clothing creation and augmentation in 3D work, though ZBrush is actually easy to use for basic clothing/coverings meshes, too. If I'm not tweaking Daz-related clothing or fabrics via dFormers or dForce limited physics+properties (which is most of the time, btw) or augmenting their fit/shape via Send to ZBrush/GoZ, MD is a nice backup for things that I need to add which are not readily available from a site already or to test out dynamics more holistically than dForce enables.

Obviously Houdini wasn't mentioned when you talked about generating effects even though it's the KING of 3D special effects via simulations because, again, $$ and lots of hours needed to get comfortable with it - you're already pretty busy right now, I'd offer :) . However, effects can also come from After Effects-like programs and the Nuke-like Natron (which is free) actually can allow for some cool stuff in this area despite it being a compositor first and effects enabler second (again, similar to Nuke).

It is a super fun, technical world in 3D-like work and will be interesting to see how this goes for you + your continued interests in related spaces over time, even beyond this particular VN.
 
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RomanHume

Sommelier of Pussy & Purveyor of Porn
Game Developer
Jan 5, 2018
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Character Playlists
So the early poll results are in and there is definitely more than a handful of you out there using Spotify.
The issue with setting up the playlists was going to be transferring everything to a free account on Spotify that I could make public. But then I discovered that Spotify allows the dragging and dropping of Playlists. This pretty much sealed the deal.
So for those who want it or are just curious, enjoy.
And for those who are curious but don't use Spotify, you can sign up for a free account, with ads of course, and play the lists in your browser if you just want to check them out.
Totally up to you.
Anyway, I gotta go. Busy finishing this chapter.
Salute All!
(I've included the links to the playlists
as well as on the Patreon splash page).
 

fried

Almost
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Nov 11, 2017
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Character Playlists
So the early poll results are in and there is definitely more than a handful of you out there using Spotify.
The issue with setting up the playlists was going to be transferring everything to a free account on Spotify that I could make public. But then I discovered that Spotify allows the dragging and dropping of Playlists. This pretty much sealed the deal.
So for those who want it or are just curious, enjoy.
And for those who are curious but don't use Spotify, you can sign up for a free account, with ads of course, and play the lists in your browser if you just want to check them out.
Totally up to you.
Anyway, I gotta go. Busy finishing this chapter.
Salute All!
(I've included the links to the playlists
as well as on the Patreon splash page).
Nice enhancement for your community!

All those people on Spotify while I'm on Google Play Music, though . . . feels like iOS vs Android :)
 

goobdoob

Conversation Conqueror
Modder
Respected User
Dec 17, 2017
7,425
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Character Playlists
So the early poll results are in and there is definitely more than a handful of you out there using Spotify.
The issue with setting up the playlists was going to be transferring everything to a free account on Spotify that I could make public. But then I discovered that Spotify allows the dragging and dropping of Playlists. This pretty much sealed the deal.
So for those who want it or are just curious, enjoy.
And for those who are curious but don't use Spotify, you can sign up for a free account, with ads of course, and play the lists in your browser if you just want to check them out.
Totally up to you.
Anyway, I gotta go. Busy finishing this chapter.
Salute All!
(I've included the links to the playlists
as well as on the Patreon splash page).
Hey, how come the wife and the ... neighbor's daughter have the same last name?

Also, you misspelled Cassie's last name. "Harighnton"
 
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jdoch

Member
Oct 16, 2017
157
274
Hey, how come the wife and the ... neighbor's daughter have the same last name?

Also, you misspelled Cassie's last name. "Harighnton"
Is it the same name misspelled though or just a different name? Welcome to the twilight zone. Also: As a smart person once said: "Don't ask questions to which you don't want to know the answer"
 
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Dysphorika

Well-Known Member
May 5, 2019
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Hey, how come the wife and the ... neighbor's daughter have the same last name?

Also, you misspelled Cassie's last name. "Harighnton"
Stating the obvious here, but they actually are family, just seems that case the author don't want to the patreon police closing their business.
 

RomanHume

Sommelier of Pussy & Purveyor of Porn
Game Developer
Jan 5, 2018
2,390
13,336
Hey, how come the wife and the ... neighbor's daughter have the same last name?

Also, you misspelled Cassie's last name. "Harighnton"
Is it the same name misspelled though or just a different name? Welcome to the twilight zone. Also: As a smart person once said: "Don't ask questions to which you don't want to know the answer"
Stating the obvious here, but they actually are family, just seems that case the author don't want to the patreon police closing their business.
Actually they live in one of those rich neighborhoods where the families are arranged alphabetically.

Cassie's family, the Harighntons, are from an auld English branch of the Lincolnshire Haringtons (still not the same name as there is only one 'n'). When the Haringtons came over with the first Virginia colonies they added the 'h' and shifted some letters around to make it sound more "new worldly".

Meanwhile, Roger's ancestors were from some shit-hole East of Warwick and didn't come over until after the American Revolution (Patriarch Horus Harrington had a penchant for drawing dirty cartoons of the King and a goat. He found that in America he could freely print whatever he damned well pleased and went on a tear with a series of filthy panels called "King George's Fucking Goat").

So yeah. As you can see, there is clearly no relationship between these two families or their respective names. Glad we could finally put that to rest. (y)




edit: For the record, all this was going to come in the game eventually. Probably post-coitus somewhere.
 
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