VN Ren'Py Game Dev Journal: Inner Demons (Ch 4 progress)

[GrayTShirt]

I'd tone down those sweat spots a lot.... it looks like a pattern of grime or dirt, or grey freckles. apart from that, very raw and animal looking renders - is that the impression you are looking for?

Yes and no. There are times when the lewdness becomes "raw and animalistic". The character shown is an example (not her specifically) of one such scene. I got the lighting where I wanted using an HDRI ghost light. Unfortunately, sweat doesn't translate well in such low lighting causing that oily, grimy look. I used Thunder 3D's Ultimate moisture shell asset to make it, but I need to either tweak some settings (I started with stock settings) or find a new sweat asset.
-GrayTShirt

 

[GrayTShirt]

So, I started working on the prologue. Then I realized just how shitty was turning out, story-wise. It felt like I was just throwing information out and said, "Remember this shit now!" It's not how I've ever written a story before. I like to think of myself as an excellent writer, but this was becoming hot shit.
Now, I'm tweaking the story outlines and summaries. The background info will be presented as needed. I want the reader/viewer/fapper/flicker/whatever to be engaged the whole time, regardless of whether or not dialogue choices that affect the story are available.
But with these changes I need to work on some environments and scenes I haven't planned on doing for a while. Plus, I wasn't happy with ANY of my lighting and atmospheric choices.
Back to square 1.5.
-GrayTShirt

P.S. Dude's still gonna have a monster dong though.

 

[osanaiko]

So, I started working on the prologue. Then I realized just how shitty was turning out, story-wise. It felt like I was just throwing .....
But with these changes I need to work on some environments and scenes I haven't planned on doing for a while. Plus, I wasn't happy with ANY of my lighting and atmospheric choices.
Back to square 1.5.
-GrayTShirt

NO NO, NO, GOD NO!

P.S. Dude's still gonna have a monster dong though.

oh, ok. phew. carry on.

 

[GrayTShirt]

Redoing my opening shots. I really like how it's turning out.
Battlefield_001 was the original opening shot. Changed it to Ch001-0001. This isn't final as I'm still working out lighting and particle effects, but you get the idea. Very excited for it.
-GrayTShirt

 

[GrayTShirt]

Rendering the Prologue now! Using the Render Queue asset to do it. Sometimes the lighting gets weird while doing some adjustments in the viewport. Hopefully they don't render that way. 61 total renders for the prologue, rendering 43 now. It took about 2 weeks to make them. Posing each finger joint and making fine adjustments to body poses is such a pain in the ass.
Next up, final tweaks as needed, looking up sound effects, finding music, then working with Ren'Py.
Almost there!
-GrayTShirt

 

[GrayTShirt]

So, about 5-30 renders are useless. The main model used for the opening shots has mismatched shaders/tones/something. This is the only model doing it. All of my settings are the exact same in the surfaces tab. I went through each of them one by one. I can't figure it out. Even on unaltered skin (shoulders, mid-thigh) it's highly defined. So, I have to rebuild/redo this model. Which sucks, because I really, really liked it. And each of these renders takes 2.5 hours to do... I was really proud of some of those scenes too. Example provided. I have to do something about that "burnt-in" stuff on the male model too. I'm pretty sure its the lighting and the saturation in my render settings.
GrayTShirt

 

[GrayTShirt]

New Warrior model made. Very happy with it. Plus, no weird shader issues!

 

[GrayTShirt]

So, I looked at my renders. Still not happy with them. Decided to redo the whole thing with new environments and lighting. The scars on the MC had a texture "box" around them, so I need to work on that. But, here are some of the shots I really, really like. I need to find a way to recreate them. Should be easy enough though.
GrayTShirt
WARNING: FullHD 1920x1080.

 

[osanaiko]

the first and last of those 4 are especially good. but, yes, some more fill lighting would improve things .

 

[GrayTShirt]

Working on my new renders now, looking real nice. But, I wonder if I'm putting in too many gratuitous shots...

 

[GrayTShirt]

Redoing 50+ renders. Just minor things... like ADDING A CAMERA!!!!!! Using RenderQueue, I had apparently been using perspective view; which led to a bunch of shots of the same corner. Remember, use a camera if you're using RenderQueue. Once you find the angle/shot you want, add a camera using the "Apply active viewport transforms" which is the 3rd option. It's taking a while to fix this on all of these renders, especially since I'm trying to remember what the angles I had originally used.
GrayTShirt

 

[osanaiko]

Redoing 50+ renders. Just minor things... like ADDING A CAMERA!!!!!! Using RenderQueue, I had apparently been using perspective view; which led to a bunch of shots of the same corner. Remember, use a camera if you're using RenderQueue. Once you find the angle/shot you want, add a camera using the "Apply active viewport transforms" which is the 3rd option. It's taking a while to fix this on all of these renders, especially since I'm trying to remember what the angles I had originally used.
GrayTShirt

oh man, that sucks.

I'm pretty sure that cameras are the only way to get depth of field effect anyway, so I always used them regardless.

 

[GrayTShirt]

Renders are finally done! Did some post-work with PhotoShop to eliminate some noise and do some levels corrections. (Wound up doing the $10/month subscription.) I'm happier with these results as opposed the first renders I've tried, but not as happy as I'd like. I'll be using these regardless as a "proof-of-concept".

Next is a decent amount of drinking while I work on the script per image, then start looking in Ren'py. Although I am tempted to try Unity with a visual novel plug-in. The beginning of the game is all visual novel, no choices to make since it's all linear until the protagonist begins experiencing conflict. But choices will become more and more important as the story goes on, as well as "quests". Not to mention the animations I plan to include later.

Till then, enjoy the teaser image attached. The last dozen or so images are "blocked" since it plays into the title of the game and hints at character development.
-GrayTShirt

 

[GrayTShirt]

Script is done! Only took 2 hours too. I kind of knew what would happen with each render which made it easy to write. Tomorrow will be used to find some music and sound effects; as well as working on the Ren'py build. Maybe another week to put everything together!
-GrayTShirt

 

[osanaiko]

BANZAI! For the Emperor!

 

[GrayTShirt]

IT'S DONE!!!!!!
It's finally done! Images, music, sound effects, splash screens (I think).
Uploading it just as soon as I figure out how.

NOTE:
Alot of the images are not up to a standard which I think is acceptable for me. This is, however, a proof of concept and lays the foundation for what will come. Expect the images, GUI, and overall experience to improve over time. I will go back and improve this initial build with better images that will meet my standards.

-GrayTShirt

 

[GrayTShirt]

Uploaded, I think. It's in the game request forum. Submitted a report ticket to try to get it moved.

 

[HandofVecna]

I think I'm finally figuring out interior lighting. Using HDRI ghost lights and tweaking up luminescence. I'm also really liking the HD detail my cast is showing. So far, all of my images are FullHD 1920x1080. Getting more and more excited to finish the prologue and start the story.
GrayTShirt

EDIT: Didn't realize which assets I had shown next to the render. The King knows what's up.

What HDRI Ghost lighting product did you use for this image? Looks really good.

 

[GrayTShirt]

Here is a screen shot of what I used to light that scene. I made that well over a month ago and couldn't remember.

 

[GrayTShirt]

Had the initial release, mixed reactions. Biggest was length. Some things to think about when making content:
1. The amount of time just rendering was insane. 2hrs, 47min per image. Something close to 4100 samples/iterations per. When you're rendering for so long, you can be tricked into thinking you're making more than you actually are. Solution: maintain resolution (1920x1080), but reduce samples to 2100. New render time: 1hr, 12min. This can be further reduced with scene optimization. Since the scenes kick over to CPU, it takes much longer; even with a Ryzen 9 3900x. My RTX2060 can't deal with these images as is.

2. When adding sounds, make sure they're short enough and can be loopable so speeding through scenes won't be so detrimental.

3. Same with music. My opening music starts off slow, then kicks in about 30-40 scenes in. When I was testing, I knew exactly where certain sounds meshed better with certain scenes. Outside looking in, wasn't a good idea.

4. Overall solution: reduce render times with samples reduction and scene optimization. ADD MORE SCENES! Next release is aiming at 750 images. Maybe more, maybe less. Goal is to make 30/day for 25 days, and to optimize each scene to keep render times @ 30min or less if I can maintain quality.

5. Tags: Tags at their face value can be misleading. Biggest comments were regarding the "femdom" tag. I wish I could find a more accurate tag regarding what is happening in the story, but that's the closest I can find. I'm hoping as more versions are released the context of some of these tags are better explained.

Till next post,
-GrayTShirt