Huitieme

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Oct 9, 2018
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Alright, time for an opinion piece.
Never been a fan of denoising as I find it makes the surfaces "too smooth" and give an oil painting feel to the renders. If that's what you're going for, or depending on your rig, then I guess it's good, but I prefer the original more detailed ones.
 

goobdoob

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Dec 17, 2017
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Alright, time for an opinion piece. Recently I've been messing around with Daz's "Denoising features". I've played with several combinations with mixed results and I think I've finally honed in on a setting that I'm fairly pleased with. However (isn't there always a however?)...

However, there is certainly a trade off between fine detail and denoising. I like to use detailed skin textures and noise patterns to add a little bit of surface detail to my characters. But the denoising algorithm tends to remove some, if not all of that detail.

Now I have my opinions on the subject, but I'm curious what yours are.

Not denoising = a little bit of grain but fine surface detail
Denoising = almost zero grain but loss of surface detail

I'm curious, which do you prefer? There are no right or wrong answers, I'm simply soliciting feedback.
(And feel free to download and keep the images for your own personal pleasure!)

Render Time: 10 Minutes
Denoising: No
Surface Texture Used: Anagenessis
View attachment 628617

Render Time: 10 Minutes
Denoising: Yes
Surface Texture Used: Anagenessis
View attachment 628616

Some Side by Side Comparisons of the two images
View attachment 628612 View attachment 628613 View attachment 628614 View attachment 628615
I looked at the 2 big images; you can really see the difference in Roger's chin. Without denoising it looks noisy. With denoising it looks out of focus. Lupita looks like a plastic doll, like some other games on here that have no skin textures.

I prefer the noisy one, but I'd prefer it more if you let it bake a bit longer to get rid of the noise naturally.

I now have the oddest urge to hear a Weird Al song about Lola sprining her trap on you.
It's The Kinks; Weird Al's "Yoda" is a cover.

The song was the original inspiration for game-Lola's name:

So, this just hit me. You've GOT to name the futa "Lola".


The media link isn't working, so -

 
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LeFapman

Member
Oct 29, 2018
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This conflicts me so much. On the one hand, I want to say I'm sorry. But on the other, I did mark the fetishes.

And I mean, one of my goals is player immersion and I'd say in that moment you and the MC were definitely of one mind. I mean, you can't relate to what the character is going through more than that can you?

But I think now what we all want to really know is...
View attachment 628599
One thing I wasn't sure, because on the description of that fetish it was saying "you wish to have the option to have sex with a transgander side character?" I thought I could chose.

There was a game I played that one of the main girls could be a transgender or not, and it was saying exactly like this before the game starts *shows off girls texture* (dialogue: - Do you wish your best friend to be a transgender or not?) *options show: Yes/No.

But you don't need to be sorry, it wasn't a turnoff at all. You were right about me and the MC. It's nice to be open minded for new experiences, Lola is too much of a sweetheart to decline. I think that answers your question hahahah. :ROFLMAO:
 

RC-1138 Boss

Message Maven
Apr 26, 2017
13,116
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I prefer without Denoising. Lupita's skin looks better to me, more real.

[...]
But you don't need to be sorry, it wasn't a turnoff at all. You were right about me and the MC. It's nice to be open minded for new experiences, Lola is too much of a sweetheart to decline. I think that answers your question hahahah.
So it was a good trolLola'd ... :p
 
Last edited:

jamdan

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Sep 28, 2018
4,290
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I saw in one of the dev threads that people use the denoising for farther out perspective renders, but don't use it on closeups. Thats probably a good compromise.
 
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TheDevian

Svengali Productions
Game Developer
Mar 8, 2018
13,758
32,315
Sorry, starting to run low on likes again... :cry:
And I think for the purposes of this game my definition of harem ending will be along the lines of perpetual dalliances. Some may know about others, some won't, but you won't be forced to terminate any relationships.
That works for me. I guess personally, it is just that I find jealousy a big turn-off, especially when it goes too far. Envy is fine, it can cause you to work harder and try new things, but jealousy is a problem. To me it is the opposite of love. It is treating someone like a possession, and if I am going to play that kink now days, I want to be the owner, not the owned. The older I get, the less I am willing to be pushed around. :ROFLMAO:
Alright, time for an opinion piece. Recently I've been messing around with Daz's "Denoising features". I've played with several combinations with mixed results and I think I've finally honed in on a setting that I'm fairly pleased with. However (isn't there always a however?)...

However, there is certainly a trade off between fine detail and denoising. I like to use detailed skin textures and noise patterns to add a little bit of surface detail to my characters. But the denoising algorithm tends to remove some, if not all of that detail.

Now I have my opinions on the subject, but I'm curious what yours are.

Not denoising = a little bit of grain but fine surface detail
Denoising = almost zero grain but loss of surface detail

I'm curious, which do you prefer? There are no right or wrong answers, I'm simply soliciting feedback.
(And feel free to download and keep the images for your own personal pleasure!)

Render Time: 10 Minutes
Denoising: No
Surface Texture Used: Anagenessis
View attachment 628617

Render Time: 10 Minutes
Denoising: Yes
Surface Texture Used: Anagenessis
View attachment 628616

Some Side by Side Comparisons of the two images
View attachment 628612 View attachment 628613 View attachment 628614 View attachment 628615
It is a tough choice, and sometimes that might depend on the lighting, as that will change your needs and what you should see in the scene.
I am not sure what I plan to do personally.... For now I am using it it helps with the teeth and some of the hair styles (especially when they have a lot of strands). Now this might change when I get better at lighting, but for now it makes a big difference in some of the renders. There is also the option to render a larger pic and reducing it to remove some of the noise...

What I do know is that noisy images are also annoying and blurry, so kind of a drag if it goes too far either way.

I guess I have to vote 'with' for these, as the blurriness I see seems to stem more from the way the camera is focused (DoF) than the denoiser, but again each scene will have different needs, and you will want to use or not use it depending on each thing.

If you don't use it on these, I would say they could stand a few more iterations though. hehe
 
Last edited:
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fried

Almost
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Nov 11, 2017
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Alright, time for an opinion piece. Recently I've been messing around with Daz's "Denoising features". I've played with several combinations with mixed results and I think I've finally honed in on a setting that I'm fairly pleased with. However (isn't there always a however?)...

However, there is certainly a trade off between fine detail and denoising. I like to use detailed skin textures and noise patterns to add a little bit of surface detail to my characters. But the denoising algorithm tends to remove some, if not all of that detail.

Now I have my opinions on the subject, but I'm curious what yours are.

Not denoising = a little bit of grain but fine surface detail
Denoising = almost zero grain but loss of surface detail

I'm curious, which do you prefer? There are no right or wrong answers, I'm simply soliciting feedback.
(And feel free to download and keep the images for your own personal pleasure!)

Render Time: 10 Minutes
Denoising: No
Surface Texture Used: Anagenessis
View attachment 628617

Render Time: 10 Minutes
Denoising: Yes
Surface Texture Used: Anagenessis
View attachment 628616

Some Side by Side Comparisons of the two images
View attachment 628612 View attachment 628613 View attachment 628614 View attachment 628615
Interesting question!

I tend to see denoising as a way to deal with darker or shadow regions that are more difficult to resolve and sometimes helping with upscaling needs. Denoising can sometimes stretch textures as much as smoothing them out, even generating an entirely new shading or appearance of an object when it had lots of noise in a noticeable grouping. And it almost always creates a new tone from the underlying hues, in my experience. All these thing can be very subtle, especially when the processing is used consistently.

So, I'm seeing most of those side-effects in your test renders!

The noise seen in the lower left portion of the window behind Lupita becomes a new shape after denoising - perhaps it was originally some unresolved lighting reflection?

MC's shirt takes on a toned appearance.

Lupita's face looks more professionally smoothed and softened.

BUT!

All noise on the MC's shirt (e.g., his underarm shadows) and beneath his jaw are resolved, blending well where they reside beyond the main region of focus.

Lupita's toes are no longer distracting and blur nicely in their position too near the viewer to focus while we look at her face and attractive upper body.

Although her skin has lost the sense of micropores on face and arms, she still retains enough pore texture on her chest and especially around her nipples - the important stuff is retained!

Lupita's hair appears slightly softened from the denoising, which is actually a benefit in her case, I feel.

------------

So, YMMV but I think that if denoising helps drop your render + post-processing times and fits well into your pipeline, you will see more benefits than detriments.
 
Last edited:

fried

Almost
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Donor
Nov 11, 2017
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Sorry, starting to run low on likes again... :cry:
That works for me. I guess personally, it is just that I find jealousy a big turn-off, especially when it goes too far. Envy is fine, it can cause you to work harder and try new things, but jealousy is a problem. To me it is the opposite of love. It is treating someone like a possession, and if I am going to play that kink now days, I want to be the owner, not the owned. The older I get, the less I am willing to be pushed around. :ROFLMAO:
I find these perspectives very interesting :unsure:

I can agree there is often a sense of possessiveness with jealousy, which I also tend to see as being about one's own sense of confidence in themselves and their relationships. Fear of being rejected or diminished can play a supporting role, too. It's a complicated feeling and never attractive, which I saw as someone who has experienced deep jealousy (in various ways and situations) before.

So, as I've gotten older I have tried to work on the causes of my being jealous and minimize them, to the point where I'm less worried about being the "owner" and happy to be respected and cared about, regardless. As my kids have been growing up and are experiencing more of the world with less of me being their coach or guide (but still supporter+protector, to an extent), this has been something important to me: "if you love someone, set them free" kind of a concept.

Pride has been part of the mix for me, too. That's the tough one to manage, but I find that if mutual respect is involved, that aspect of mine stays down naturally.
 
Last edited:

Ayhsel

Chocolate Vampire
Donor
May 9, 2019
4,872
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Alright, time for an opinion piece. Recently I've been messing around with Daz's "Denoising features". I've played with several combinations with mixed results and I think I've finally honed in on a setting that I'm fairly pleased with. However (isn't there always a however?)...

However, there is certainly a trade off between fine detail and denoising. I like to use detailed skin textures and noise patterns to add a little bit of surface detail to my characters. But the denoising algorithm tends to remove some, if not all of that detail.

Now I have my opinions on the subject, but I'm curious what yours are.

Not denoising = a little bit of grain but fine surface detail
Denoising = almost zero grain but loss of surface detail

I'm curious, which do you prefer? There are no right or wrong answers, I'm simply soliciting feedback.
(And feel free to download and keep the images for your own personal pleasure!)

Render Time: 10 Minutes
Denoising: No
Surface Texture Used: Anagenessis
View attachment 628617

Render Time: 10 Minutes
Denoising: Yes
Surface Texture Used: Anagenessis
View attachment 628616

Some Side by Side Comparisons of the two images
View attachment 628612 View attachment 628613 View attachment 628614 View attachment 628615
Can only notice the difference because you put them together. Cannot say one is better than the other.
 
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lemonfreak

The Freakiest of Lemons
Oct 24, 2018
5,406
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Can only notice the difference because you put them together. Cannot say one is better than the other.
For me, and not labour the point, the first version looks like it was shot under natural light/traditional filament light-bulbs whereas the de-noised version looks like it was shot under florescent lighting.
 
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eightypercent

Member
Apr 2, 2020
454
731
What a completely awesome game... I chose all 3 kinks at start and the way the plot/story/intrigue grabs you I am so glad that I didn't "pussy" out of that decision. Each choice really seems crucial because of the imaginative plot and brilliant writing.

5/5

Favourite 3 female characters are Nanami [sub], Jane [real] and Lola [adm].
 
Last edited:

RomanHume

Sommelier of Pussy & Purveyor of Porn
Game Developer
Jan 5, 2018
2,390
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I prefer without, personally.

The difference is very slight though and, tbh, if you'd made the change in-game and not said anything I doubt I would've noticed.
At first I didn't saw a difference. Good, you added the side-by-side comparisons. After that i saw the difference, but I doubt I would have noticed it ingame without the comparrison. The only real difference I can spot is Lupitas face in the first and forth picture of the side-by-side comparrisons.

Personally both versions are ok for me. I know that's not really helpful, but the difference is really small in my eyes. Maybe there are other good reasons for one or the other version besides the visual outcome, which could be considered.
Never been a fan of denoising as I find it makes the surfaces "too smooth" and give an oil painting feel to the renders. If that's what you're going for, or depending on your rig, then I guess it's good, but I prefer the original more detailed ones.
I looked at the 2 big images; you can really see the difference in Roger's chin. Without denoising it looks noisy. With denoising it looks out of focus. Lupita looks like a plastic doll, like some other games on here that have no skin textures.

I prefer the noisy one, but I'd prefer it more if you let it bake a bit longer to get rid of the noise naturally.



It's The Kinks; Weird Al's "Yoda" is a cover.

The song was the original inspiration for game-Lola's name:
I prefer without Denoising. Lupita's skin looks better to me, more real.


So it was a good trolLola'd ... :p
I saw in one of the dev threads that people use the denoising for farther out perspective renders, but don't use it on closeups. Thats probably a good compromise.
Sorry, starting to run low on likes again... :cry:
That works for me. I guess personally, it is just that I find jealousy a big turn-off, especially when it goes too far. Envy is fine, it can cause you to work harder and try new things, but jealousy is a problem. To me it is the opposite of love. It is treating someone like a possession, and if I am going to play that kink now days, I want to be the owner, not the owned. The older I get, the less I am willing to be pushed around. :ROFLMAO:
It is a tough choice, and sometimes that might depend on the lighting, as that will change your needs and what you should see in the scene.
I am not sure what I plan to do personally.... For now I am using it it helps with the teeth and some of the hair styles (especially when they have a lot of strands). Now this might change when I get better at lighting, but for now it makes a big difference in some of the renders. There is also the option to render a larger pic and reducing it to remove some of the noise...

What I do know is that noisy images are also annoying and blurry, so kind of a drag if it goes too far either way.

I guess I have to vote 'with' for these, as the blurriness I see seems to stem more from the way the camera is focused (DoF) than the denoiser, but again each scene will have different needs, and you will want to use or not use it depending on each thing.

If you don't use it on these, I would say they could stand a few more iterations though. hehe
Interesting question!

I tend to see denoising as a way to deal with darker or shadow regions that are more difficult to resolve and sometimes helping with upscaling needs. Denoising can sometimes stretch textures as much as smoothing them out, even generating an entirely new shading or appearance of an object when it had lots of noise in a noticeable grouping. And it almost always creates a new tone from the underlying hues, in my experience. All these thing can be very subtle, especially when the processing is used consistently.

So, I'm seeing most of those side-effects in your test renders!

The noise seen in the lower left portion of the window behind Lupita becomes a new shape after denoising - perhaps it was originally some unresolved lighting reflection?

MC's shirt takes on a toned appearance.

Lupita's face looks more professionally smoothed and softened.

BUT!

All noise on the MC's shirt (e.g., his underarm shadows) and beneath his jaw are resolved, blending well where they reside beyond the main region of focus.

Lupita's toes are no longer distracting and blur nicely in their position too near the viewer to focus while we look at her face and attractive upper body.

Although her skin has lost the sense of micropores on face and arms, she still retains enough pore texture on her chest and especially around her nipples - the important stuff is retained!

Lupita's hair appears slightly softened from the denoising, which is actually a benefit in her case, I feel.

------------

So, YMMV but I think that if denoising helps drop your render + post-processing times and fits well into your pipeline, you will see more benefits than detriments.
Can only notice the difference because you put them together. Cannot say one is better than the other.
For me, and not labour the point, the first version looks like it was shot under natural light/traditional filament light-bulbs whereas the de-noised version looks like it was shot under florescent lighting.
Just wanted to quickly thank everyone who offered up an opinion on the two images. This type of shit always puts me on the fence because I see advantages both ways and it helps hearing what members of the community think.

Since it's been a few days I think I can safely sound off with my own opinion. I prefer without denoising, hands down. Denoising steals fine detail and in the process robs some of the 'reality' from the image.

However...it's also a time saver because I can cook the images for about half as long and not really have any post processing to do. I think ultimately what I'll end up doing is my best to use denoising judiciously to save time, and worry about ultra-realism when I get to Blender. At this point, Daz only exists to keep my updates coming out while I work on the "Master Vision" slowly on the side.

My experience with Daz has taught me that even though I'm feeling very good with Blender, the reality is that in another seven months, I'm going to be exponentially better than I am now. So rather than move to Blender, and then fight the urge to "redo" all my early Blender work, I'll just wait a while and continue to build up that skill set.

But between the real world stress, quarantine madness and all the other shit I have to deal with right now, I'm thinking it's in the best interest of the project to take a few short cuts (*cough* Denoising *cough*), here and there to make sure that this thing isn't delayed.

And now I see I started to ramble and I'll just stop there. Thanks everyone for the insight! Truly appreciate it!

Salute!
 

RomanHume

Sommelier of Pussy & Purveyor of Porn
Game Developer
Jan 5, 2018
2,390
13,342
One thing I wasn't sure, because on the description of that fetish it was saying "you wish to have the option to have sex with a transgander side character?" I thought I could chose.

There was a game I played that one of the main girls could be a transgender or not, and it was saying exactly like this before the game starts *shows off girls texture* (dialogue: - Do you wish your best friend to be a transgender or not?) *options show: Yes/No.

But you don't need to be sorry, it wasn't a turnoff at all. You were right about me and the MC. It's nice to be open minded for new experiences, Lola is too much of a sweetheart to decline. I think that answers your question hahahah. :ROFLMAO:
I did try to make sure that even with Lola's content turned on you had a chance to back out after discovering her secret. I wanted players who liked her character to still be able to deal with her and help her even without having sex with her.

But I'm glad you enjoyed it all the same! Salute mate!

What a completely awesome game... I chose all 3 kinks at start and the way the plot/story/intrigue grabs you I am so glad that I didn't "pussy" out of that decision. Each choice really seems crucial because of the imaginative plot and brilliant writing.

5/5

Favourite 3 female characters are Nanami [sub], Jane [real] and Lola [adm].
I appreciate the feedback and the stellar review mate. Thanks!

Now if there were just two or three of me working together on this thing I'd have this game done in no time. As long as people are patient with me, I promise not to disappoint when the released drop. ;)
 

RomanHume

Sommelier of Pussy & Purveyor of Porn
Game Developer
Jan 5, 2018
2,390
13,342
I just wanted to give a shout out to Roman as well. Throughly enjoyable game/novel. Graphics are top notch. Story pulls me in and keeps me there. Keep up the good work!
Thanks man. I've been busting ass on it, just don't have much I can share at the moment for fear of spoiling too much!

Jane is best waifu.
Probably the first person who ever said Jane is waifu material. :D
 
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RomanHume

Sommelier of Pussy & Purveyor of Porn
Game Developer
Jan 5, 2018
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2020_05_04 Sharice Monica Sarah SFW.jpg

2020-05-04 News

I'll be honest, I'll chest deep in coding, rendering and writing at the moment. It's been a busy couple of weeks. Amid all the normal stuff I'm trying to do, this quarantine shit has been started to ease up and the real job blues decided it was time to crack some whips and make up for lost time.

I guess I can't really complain though. I've been stealing time from them and using it to work on the game, so it was only a matter of time before the check came due. But the bill's been paid and things are starting to even back out.

That said, we're still sailing straight and moving forward at a fair clip. Balancing work on three chapters at once and making some serious headway on each one. At the moment, I'm working on Lupita, Monica and Cassie in pretty equal measures.
Should have some scenes ready for testing soon.

It's really light on the news front at the moment. In a strange way I'm happy to say that it's just business as usual. Work on the game is following a pretty steady cycle and at the moment there aren't any real challenges I'm having to deal with. One of those, no news is good news, type of scenarios.

I think once I get these first few scenes up for play testing, it'll snow ball from there and I'll have some real progress to start sharing with the community.

Till then, I'm going to render away and keep chugging at these scenes. Look for some Cassie teasers in the very near future.

Salute my mates!


Fuck me! I almost forgot to mention the teaser. I was doing some lighting and costume tests for the three girls in Monica's upcoming chapter and thought I'd have them pose up for a group photo. Sharice and Monica you know, and Ms. Cartier you'll meet soon enough. It should be a proper cluster fuck when it's done. Cheers!
 
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