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Since we already had two releases this month (v2.5 on 3 Aug & v2.6 on 17 Aug), rather than trying to cram in a third update in the same month, I thought I would take this opportunity to spend three weeks working on something more ambitious that requires a bit more experimentation.
As you know, the last few months have seen a major graphical face lift for the game: both the character models and animations are now much better than back in the v1.x versions. However, the fact that sex scenes happen in front of a 2d background with fake Depth of Field-ish blur hasn't changed, which has the following negative effects:
1/ It just doesn't look very good. In first person POV, it looks even worse.
2/ When you move your camera around during sex scenes, sometimes the animations make no sense as the characters are basically just floating
3/ There are no way I can implement animations that require bed/ walls/ furniture with a 2d background
4/ Most importantly, there's no way to have realistic lighting, shadows and post process effects on the 3d characters themselves as their surrounding isn't real 3d and the lights are fixed, one-directional and don't actually reflect whatever light sources you see on the 2d background. The character models themselves can be super realistic with high poly count and detailed textures, but without those, they can never look quite right. As an example, just think of all the adult visual novels out there with still 3d renders: they basically all use the same Daz models, it's the lighting that makes the difference.
Now, there are 77 different building types in the game, making 3d interiors to replace all 77 2d background images is simply beyond the scope of an indie project with a solo developer. Thankfully, the majority of sex scenes in the game do happen in front of the same 2d background: the bedroom (i.e. at home, your significant other's home, hotel room, your fraternity room, etc), so it makes the most sense to implement a customizable 3d bedroom interior into the game to help tackle the issues listed above.
With that in mind, here are the plans for v2.7:
- Replace the 2d bedroom background with a proper 3d bedroom interior space
- Allow the player to customize their own bedroom with furniture and decorations, but most importantly allowing the player to position windows (that can be opened/ closed during sex scenes and also reflect the time of day) and different types of lights (that can be switched on and off) as to lit the scenes the way they prefer
- NPCs' bedrooms and hotel rooms will be randomized, but once generated, stay consistent (so your girlfriend's bedroom won't get refurnished completely each time you visit, don't worry!)
- New controls (both for moving the camera and repositioning the action) for these new 'full 3d' sex scenes
- Set up realistic lighting, shadows and post process effects for these new 'full 3d' bedroom sex scenes
- Add the option to 'head back home' for sex scenes that happen outside the bedroom, for those that can't stand any 2d backgrounds at all
- Some new animations that require bed or walls, which weren't possible before with the 2d background
- (Unrelated to the rest of the update, this is just a popular request) Allow you to add clothes to the inventory of NPCs so that those who prefer a Sims-like approach can force each NPC to wear fixed outfits rather than wearing completely random clothes each time you meet them. Completely optional feature.
- Bug fixes and other improvements, with a public beta testing period
Estimated Release Date: 7 September (with release candidates for beta testing released 36 - 72 hours in advance)