VN Ren'Py "A Study of Scarlet" Development Journal - Hogrocket

[damnedfrog]

Teacher Mode: On

Most AVNs and games look barren because there are usually no people in the background. There are two reasons for this 1) the time and effort involved in making, posing, and placing all the additional characters and 2) The extreme stress this places on the rendering computer making for long render times or even just failure. People like Oceanlab who have massive rendering computers can make beautiful scenes easily (well, as long as they're talented enough like he is) People with lower end computers (like most of us) are limited in a scene. I just learned how to make "billboards", which are a 2D render of a scene, person, or prop that is placed on a flat surface and placed in the scene.

This model file is 626KB and has lots of surfaces to render
View attachment 2733657
by making it a billboard from a render, the file is 404KB, but more importantly has only one surface to render
View attachment 2733661

The drawback to billboards is they can only be used from one point of view (sort of) or you have to make multiple

billboard shown from an angle
View attachment 2733669

This is a render using billboards. Who can guess which ones are the billboards?
View attachment 2733674

I will say the guy at the table, and the blonde behind the bar.
Because of the light.
The girl at the table and the guy standing at the back seem to be actually illuminated by the light sources in the room.
But not the two others.
That said, it didn't jump out at me. I had to examine the scene carefully.
And I did know some of the characters were billboards.
So i think it's a good way to accelerate the development of a game.

 

[Saint Blackmoor]

It does mean I can make more interesting scenes without waiting hours or crashing Daz. It also means I can do things that would be difficult otherwise. I hate a bar scene like this with the MC and whoever he's talking to being the only people in the scene.

I don't know, Daz. I think this a good alternative to "the empty room" problem. How would do outside in sunlight? From what I see, this game is going to be amazing. I wish you much success.

PS: I played a game the other day, and there was a scene in a courtroom. The lawyer says ladies and gentlemen of the jury, and you see an empty jury box in the background.

 

[Vidal the king of Pervert]

He's going to be disappointed anyway - all the LI's are redheads, the only blondes will be hookers, pirates and criminals, the only rich girl is a redhead, and I don't write bitches very well. I will make a solo path available if it's not too much work. Might make the only solo path with this MIL......F?

Spoiler: For Vidal

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sir you have got yourself a goddamn deal

so SEXY what's your name I'm just letting you know

that I want kids

 

[HogRocket]

I threw y'all a curve ball.

They're all billboards.

The blonde bitch behind the bar for sure. Well, at least until you tell me I'm wrong lol

Been going back and forth on eyepatch dude, going to guess he is only because of your comments about using them for background characters. Either way it looks incredibly convincing so good job

Bitch on the left looks like she could be a billboard, difficult to tell. I'm going to guess she is because she looks like she has one cheek on the bench and one cheek floating off the side so that could be to do with billboard placement? I don't know...

Finally, guy with the hat. Looks too natural to be a billboard.

So I'm guessing everyone's a billboard except guy with the hat. I'm full of shit aren't I, just please tell me I'm not 0 for 4

I hadn't noticed the thing with her butt. I'm glad you pointed it out. She was the last one I made and I wasn't careful about her placement.

The guy with the hat I got really lucky with. I did him right after I watched a better video about how to do it and got everything right.

I will say the guy at the table, and the blonde behind the bar.
Because of the light.
The girl at the table and the guy standing at the back seem to be actually illuminated by the light sources in the room.
But not the two others.
That said, it didn't jump out at me. I had to examine the scene carefully.
And I did know some of the characters were billboards.
So i think it's a good way to accelerate the development of a game.

Lighting is everything when creating the individual render. I don't think the lighting is as uniform as I'd like it. I made them all a little differently.

I don't know, Daz. I think this a good alternative to "the empty room" problem. How would do outside in sunlight? From what I see, this game is going to be amazing. I wish you much success.

PS: I played a game the other day, and there was a scene in a courtroom. The lawyer says ladies and gentlemen of the jury, and you see an empty jury box in the background.

Outdoors they can actually look even better because you don't have as many light sources to account for. When making the individual render, you try and get as "flat" and non-directional lighting as you can to keep the lighting from giving it away. Fairly directional lights like the close candles kind of make it obvious that there are no shadows on them. Sunlight kind of washes out the small shadows that would be on them in dim lighting.

I did Eyepatch Dude right after I learned how and was experimenting with settings. Hat Dude came after watching a better video on it, but his lighting is too flat for being right next to the candle. The girls I kind of rushed just to get some more figures for the test scene and didn't do as good a job on their placement.

Rendering this scene with the billboard people took no longer than an empty scene. Rendering this scene with 4 background characters, no mains in the scene would have taken forever. Scenes with low level lighting take longer because of all the light sources and shadow paths that have to be calculated. I hate AVNs that every scene looks the same illumination like you're in the school cafeteria. Low light scenes are dramatic but a bitch to render. Worth it though. That's why my updates are going to be a loooooong time in between. That and lazyness

 

[HogRocket]

Same characters thrown onto the dock.


Sunset is a weird time of day lighting wise. One bright source that gives very diffuse lighting, with darkness overhead and to the East. Notice that the billboards cast shadows just like 3D figures.

An interesting phenomenon with billboards is they're two sided.


All I did was put a camera on the other end of the dock, didn't rotate anything. The sun is "behind" the camera here so they have more direct light.

 

[damnedfrog]

I threw y'all a curve ball.

They're all billboards.

What a sneaky dev!
You can't trust anyone nowadays...

 

[damnedfrog]

Rendering this scene with the billboard people took no longer than an empty scene. Rendering this scene with 4 background characters, no mains in the scene would have taken forever. Scenes with low level lighting take longer because of all the light sources and shadow paths that have to be calculated. I hate AVNs that every scene looks the same illumination like you're in the school cafeteria. Low light scenes are dramatic but a bitch to render. Worth it though. That's why my updates are going to be a loooooong time in between. That and lazyness

As far as we can see from the images you've posted, it seems a good technique to have "fast" rendering with more than acceptable quality.

 

[Harem Trooper]

OH! Steampunk?! I welcome this unique setting since I cant even remember seeing the last one. Even better it has Harem lol.

 

[Harem Trooper]

Ok, the scene with Spurlock holding the picture is the result of a complete story shift that popped into my head last night. This also lead to the masked woman I labeled as the villain. In that drowsy state of waking up this morning I had another complete shift that makes it even better and totally different. The "villain" woman may become a non-villain, the villain has shifted, the story is better. To be honest the original idea had no villain until my first epiphany, then the second one. Villainy, conflict and strife are not going to be big parts of this, I'm not trying to end up on the Story First Games thread with this one. Having an antagonist will make this more "Sherlock Holmes" like, but will not interfere with meeting hot redheads . I need to go write some of this shit down before I forget it.

Just make all redheads beeing involved with the big evil guy/chick and MC dicks their truth out of them slowly by surely until he reaches the Harem and safes whatever he needs to safe.

 

[Harem Trooper]

brother I'm glad everything is going well what would you get that dress away from me I told you I'm not going to

cosplay one of the female characters in your game to advertise the game again

I mean I don't mind the wolf whistles but a bunch of people ask for my number and they never called I

am 100% straight but that doesn't mean I don't have feelings

What are you talking about ? Cosplay in DaZ right ?

 

[Harem Trooper]

If you people behave, I'm liable to include a "Hogrocket SuperVillain SuperHero Origin story"
View attachment 2731876

If its a summoning circle and it aint a thicc succubus who wants to hand hold the MC by getting mat pressed it aint it dude.

 

[Vidal the king of Pervert]

What are you talking about ? Cosplay in DaZ right ?

 

[Harem Trooper]

View attachment 2740451

You dont even want to post them ? Bruh...
Anyway, fuck you for your monogamy preferences anway. Get shit on nerd, rekt, ratioed + L given.

 

[Vidal the king of Pervert]

You dont even want to post them ? Bruh...
Anyway, fuck you for your monogamy preferences anway. Get shit on nerd, rekt, ratioed + L given.
View attachment 2740467

just another day of me getting insulted by my own kin

anyway love you to brother

 

[HogRocket]

For those who haven't seen her, I made a Foxgirl for another project of mine who I am completely smitten with. Here
I think I'm going to make a human version of her and bring her to this game. If she doesn't "translate" from fantasy to steam punk, I won't. Some characters just lose their magic when you change their hairstyle or clothing.

Stay tuned

 

[HogRocket]

She had too much life and pizazz to put her in a Victorian dress.

Steampunk Helicopter Pilot anyone?


Steampunk Pirate?


Ah, the hell with it! I'm just going to quit this, engineer a fully immersive AI environment like Eternum, put her in it and live there with her forever....or until I starve to death in my immersion unit.

 

[damnedfrog]

She had too much life and pizazz to put her in a Victorian dress.

Steampunk Helicopter Pilot anyone?
View attachment 2745374 View attachment 2745375

Steampunk Pirate?
View attachment 2745376

Ah, the hell with it! I'm just going to quit this, engineer a fully immersive AI environment like Eternum, put her in it and live there with her forever....or until I starve to death in my immersion unit.

She's cute in human form also.
Pilot! I want to embark on a steampunk chopper piloted by a sexy girl!

 

[HogRocket]

A test scene. The Automaton on the right I had thought of as "Blythe Brassie" after a character in a Piers Anthony Xanth book I read as a teenager. She is not (planned to be) an LI, just a character.


Then it dawned on me - this is a story about redheads. What's the closest metal to red? Copper!


(this version is going on the OP)

Edit:
This one too

 

[HogRocket]

Time for some "girl talk" at the Automaton Shoppe

 

[HogRocket]

Testing different skins with freckles on the same model for comparison. The eyes change because the "skins" are really the surface materials for a model. I could change to all the same eyes, but I'm a lazy ass who is milking the Patrons.