A discussion on the distinct lack of physics-heavy sex games

[TheMohawkNinja]

Hello,

As someone who has always been a huge fan of SFW physics-heavy games (especially game engines like Euphoria, DMM, and GeoMod), I've always been on the search for that same thing in sex games. I've found a few, but have been disappointed at what's currently there:

• XStoryPlayer seemed like the ideal candidate. Soft body physics, first-person perspective, a world that was going to be increasingly open, and some pretty solid (if sometimes frame killing) fluid dynamics. However, the developer has long since given up on that project. While what's there is promising, there's not much (although it at least has modding support if you are willing to put in the time).
• Some Modelling Agency is amazing in so far as it has a genetics-based random character generator to allow for a massive pool of potential characters. The various bars to fill (or avoid filling) for mood, orgasm, pain, etc. work very well in my opinion (although the negative ones tend to fill a lot easier than I'd like). Additionally, while the fluid dynamics are more subtle than XSP, it comes off as more realistic. However, the gameplay is extremely limited in scope (quite literally just one room). While I'm open to being proven wrong, given the name of the game, I don't expect the scope of the game to expand much beyond what is there currently.

I am aware of other VR-only physics-based sex games, but that requires a VR headset. While I have one, the controller-based interaction seems less than ideal for a game genre where, as one might put it, you are expected to have your hands off of the keyboard and mouse at various points during gameplay.

Ideally, it would be great if someone could take the physics-based, soft-bodied character modelling and gameplay of the two games I listed, but actually expand the scope to a more open-world game like LifePlay to give the player a lot more to do. For example, wake up in an apartment, go down the street into a general store where I could spend some money I earned at a job to purchase basic consumable items like food or condoms. Then I could talk to the cute cashier girl and either take her back to my place, or just bend her over the counter. All in first person, and with all the jiggle and jizz physics a man could want.

Yet, so far as I have seen (and by all means, I would love for someone to prove me wrong), anything approaching such a game doesn't exist in any form, and I'd like to better understand why.

I'm guessing a lot of the problem might be performance issues at such a scale. I could be wrong, but it seems like the passive soft body physics that would be an intrinsic part of the model would be a heavy tax on the processor. With other (albeit wholly unrelated) games relying heavily on soft body physics like Beamng.Drive, the need for the constant (or at least the appearance of constant) physics calculations has been the focus for a lot of optimization during the game's development.

Fluid dynamics is definitely a computationally expensive aspect of such a game, but this only needs to be calculated at certain points (hymen breaking, ejaculation, peeing, etc.), so it should scale easily.

If I ever find the time once my current studies have finished, I may look more seriously into the development of such a game, as I do have a good understanding of C++, just not in the context of a game engine (would probably use the latest Unreal Engine), nor do I have any artistic talent. It would be great if XSP and SMA could open source their work for study (especially XSP since its' development is dead at the point), but that's probably asking too much.

 

[MannBobinson]

Yet, so far as I have seen (and by all means, I would love for someone to prove me wrong), anything approaching such a game doesn't exist in any form, and I'd like to better understand why.

Well, making something like you describe here would be a massive undertaking to get right. Most adult games are made by hobbyists, often working alone or in a very small group. They can barely get decent looking 3D models, let alone physics-compatible ones that behave accurately, react to different types of fluids, etc. Coding and running the game isn't really the big problem -- it's the resources and expertise needed to get a game like this to a state where it is presentable.

 

[EvolutionKills]

Soft body physics isn't going to prevent a game from going all Uncanny Valley. Doing anything decent with anything approaching photorealistic humans takes a colossal amount of animation work. That means lots of motion/performance capture, and entire teams worth of dedicated animators. Tiny rink-a-dink porn game devs just don't have that kink of manpower, because their games aren't going to attract the kind or size of audience that would allow them to recoup the investment needed. So at best you get a slow improvement over time as general middle-ware toolsets improve, a passive mooching off of mainstream game development progress.

Plus, scope and performance issues. Expanding the scope exponentially increases the work, which is why so many 3D games are a fetish playground in a small basement somewhere or a sad open-world with fuck all to do in it and abysmal graphics. VR only makes that problem even worse, with the added dev time and cost needed to tackle the specific interface requirements; plus now you're knee-capping yourself to a very small and niche audience. Plus VR needs high performance (so as to not induce motion sickness, you need rock solid 90~120 FPS), which is hard at the best of times, let alone for a small dev team on a shoestring budget.

GeoMod was cool because blowing up holes in the wall to shoot Soviet coded space fascists was fun in Red Faction. Euphoria was cool because tossing Stormtroopers around with Force Push was fun in The Force Unleashed. How any of that translates into a useful tool or angle that a NSFW game could use that other engine can't already do is lost on me. Short of slapping a nude mod in these games, what is it about Euphoria that makes it uniquely suited for a NSFW game that you can't just do in Unreal or Unity? Unless your answer is tossing around naked Stormtroopers, what's even the point?

 

[TheMohawkNinja]

Soft body physics isn't going to prevent a game from going all Uncanny Valley. Doing anything decent with anything approaching photorealistic humans takes a colossal amount of animation work. That means lots of motion/performance capture, and entire teams worth of dedicated animators. Tiny rink-a-dink porn game devs just don't have that kink of manpower, because their games aren't going to attract the kind or size of audience that would allow them to recoup the investment needed. So at best you get a slow improvement over time as general middle-ware toolsets improve, a passive mooching off of mainstream game development progress.

Potentially, although at least for me, the uncanny valley problem hasn't been too bad throughout the game's I've played, NSFW or otherwise.

Plus, scope and performance issues. Expanding the scope exponentially increases the work, which is why so many 3D games are a fetish playground in a small basement somewhere or a sad open-world with fuck all to do in it and abysmal graphics. VR only makes that problem even worse, with the added dev time and cost needed to tackle the specific interface requirements; plus now you're knee-capping yourself to a very small and niche audience. Plus VR needs high performance (so as to not induce motion sickness, you need rock solid 90~120 FPS), which is hard at the best of times, let alone for a small dev team on a shoestring budget.

To clarify, I am NOT interested in VR, quite the opposite for sex games due to the need to have your hands on the controllers at all times. I honestly don't understand why it seems like a lot of physics-heavy porn games are VR, especially given what you just said.

As for the increased scope, while that does increase dev time by a lot for sure, it's something that could be done piecemeal. Start with just your apartment bedroom as you get the core functionality worked out, then start expanding to the whole apartment building, then add buildings and so on. While I know "early access" is a controversial topic, I see no issue in putting out a game of limited scope as long as the plan is to expand as development continues.

GeoMod was cool because blowing up holes in the wall to shoot Soviet coded space fascists was fun in Red Faction. Euphoria was cool because tossing Stormtroopers around with Force Push was fun in The Force Unleashed. How any of that translates into a useful tool or angle that a NSFW game could use that other engine can't already do is lost on me. Short of slapping a nude mod in these games, what is it about Euphoria that makes it uniquely suited for a NSFW game that you can't just do in Unreal or Unity? Unless your answer is tossing around naked Stormtroopers, what's even the point?

I was just bringing up those as examples, not as things I expect to see in an sex game, although Euphoria might be a good candidate given how well it handles body movement. I imagine the licensing cost is pretty high though.

 

[hog_pet]

Potentially, although at least for me, the uncanny valley problem hasn't been too bad throughout the game's I've played, NSFW or otherwise.



To clarify, I am NOT interested in VR, quite the opposite for sex games due to the need to have your hands on the controllers at all times. I honestly don't understand why it seems like a lot of physics-heavy porn games are VR, especially given what you just said.

As for the increased scope, while that does increase dev time by a lot for sure, it's something that could be done piecemeal. Start with just your apartment bedroom as you get the core functionality worked out, then start expanding to the whole apartment building, then add buildings and so on. While I know "early access" is a controversial topic, I see no issue in putting out a game of limited scope as long as the plan is to expand as development continues.



I was just bringing up those as examples, not as things I expect to see in an sex game, although Euphoria might be a good candidate given how well it handles body movement. I imagine the licensing cost is pretty high though.

sounds like youd like "our apartment", sadly its going increadibly slow but it ticks all the boxes