WIP v2.0
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Ops, I forgot to make an April plans, but I had no idea what I will focus on this month anyway. So I just started to mess around and I might have made some progress.
Instead of increasing the version to 1.9.6, it's time to make a major leap in the version number!
Major version number changes when something drastical happens in the backend.
It all started with me updating the Unity Editor version, which means its using a more recent rendering pipeline. It supposedly performs better too.
On the top of the (virtual) world!
After the upgrading was successfull, I thought I take a look on one of the oldest requested features - the legendary UI that stays always on top, and does not clips into the models.
If only it would be possible...
Wait, it is!
I'm not sure if the new Unity version made this work, but I was able to render the transparent UI layers after everything else rendered, making them appear on top even in VR.
Goodbye, tits covering my position selection!
(Minor) Upgrades people, upgrades!
After the overlay UI, I started to experiment with the rendering pipeline a bit more, increased shadow quality, and I made some new functions that enabled softer shadows for all the characters - many used too bright character lights and low quality shading. This will make even old releases appear smoother.
Then I started to experiment with Screen space ambient occlusion(SSAO) , further improving the shading with minimal impact on the performance.
There is a catch tho. Old contents must be rebuilt with SSAO support,otherwise the renderer ignores the effect on them. It's doable, but takes a lot of time.
Here are some examples with a rebuilt Officer Flint supporting SSAO:
Left - Current version
Right - 2.0 with softer shadows and SSAO
On some maps its more noticable than on others, especially on maps that used too bright light before. Overall, it's a minor graphical update, but I take any small % of increase I can get.
The Quest for Android
Half year ago I made quick android test with an older build to see how easily can this whole thing be ported to Meta Quest devices. The initial build was successfull back then, but I focused on other stuff instead.
Now that we leap into 2.0, I started to experiment with it again. Initially, building the client is simple, building content is an other story. I had to extend the GOAT File Builder to also support android content building, because the currently generated content only support Windows.
Android file paths also gave me trouble, and there are still some problems to solve, but it looks promising. KUM simulation will not work on android, and probably sex toy support either, but the other things should function the same.
It also works on regular android devices, but let's talk about that after the Quest version is finished.
I'm planning to make a seperate tier for the Android version, because it will give me a bit of extra work, and I need to store the contents for it separately.
That's about the news I can share for now, new content coming this month of course, more on about that in the next WIP.
I will probably release v2.0 on the anniversary update on May 12th, alongside with the updated contents, and if I finish the android version, it seems like a good date for that too.
See ya later!
