- Apr 18, 2021
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Daz doesn't have this kind of static model but has viewer render modes, which reduce load. So you can pose and place your characters in a low resource viewing mode such as wireframe. Then once everything is just how you like it, output your final render with full lighting and textures. To accomplish this best with 4+ character models, I recommend hiding several models and doing a composite render. Essentially you hide half your models, render, swap which ones are hidden and render again, then combine the images in Photoshop etc. This isn't a perfect solution but it usually works. There is a "spot render" tool which also helps with this, by rending only a small piece of the image, for example if you need to change one small thing.I did actually try Virt A Mate once before but it's not really my thing since it's more geared toward vanilla romance/solo sex stuff but what I'm hoping to creat is a game with lots of exhibitionism, which is why I'm having a bit of trouble finding a suitable graphics engine (haha).
As you know, loading a lot of characters on set causes issues with Daz, this was what I liked about The Klub 17, you could upload static people as toys (you had no control over their limbs and they could not be posed but made for excellent props to fill out a scene) plus you were allowed to upload up to 4 fully poseable people into the scene at any one time. This gave me up to eight people on set at any one time (4 fully poseable and 4 static, as I could load a single static as a toy for each person). Dose Daz offer any kind of solution similar to this one?
This was still very limited however (in TK17) and it meant I couldn't use toys on set when I wanted more people in the scene and ultimately narrowed the scope of what was possible in my game. On top of that, there were not many different static people to choose from and I didn't have the capability of making my own, which meant I was stuck using the same static extras in nearly every scene and having to pretend that they were different people each time. Needless to say this setup would never cut it for a serious game. I was told that you can upload static people/props (into the background, thus freeing up toy space) with the Hook 5 paid version/addon of TK17VX but I could never experiment with it due to my low grade hardware. But to be honest my biggest worry is that even with Hook 5, I will most likely face issues finding assets going forward if I keep working with TK17VX.
As far as Unity and Blender go, no, I haven't tried them yet. I've heard good things about Blender but the fact that Unity offer a graphics engine was an alian concept to me until just now, I always looked at Unity as an alternative to Ren'Py, I am only now realising that Unity offer an all in one suite (so yeah thanks for the info and maybe it's also something worth checking out. Although, I always found something a bit off putting about Unity, don't ask me why but I just find games made on Unity to be a bit clumpy and rough around the edges, it's kind of hard to pinpoint why exactly that is but for some reason Ren'Py just seems much more fluid and approachable to a novice Dev such as myself.)
So yeah, I think you are right and I should probably jump back on the Daz waggon and take another swing at shifting my operation over their. On the plus side, my new laptop arrives today so I may be able to start experimenting with it very soon
There are also Iray section plane nodes which hide anything your camera cannot see to reduce load. This is great as long as you aren't doing something that requires crazy amounts of reflections such as a mirrored car or building.
The final trick, which is one I don't really like, is texture optimization which reduces the texture size of things which are farther away or don't really matter. Personally I don't do this at all but some people swear by it.
Renpy is easier for some people than Unity. For me, I hate it because there is no visual feedback in Renpy to show you what you're doing. You need to be a very logical person. For an artist it is hell. There are plugins for Unity, of all sorts, to make games easier to construct. For doing a very basic visual novel, yes Renpy is easier but if you want to do anything remotely advanced you quickly start hitting your head against the limitations of Renpy. That's where Unity becomes easier to work with.
