Seems I found a new game to add to the backlog lol and seeing Milton here makes me think I might like it
- Nov 11, 2017
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is that like standard DAZ rendering? that seems way too slow on progress and heavy on a PC
- Apr 28, 2023
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While I'm not an expert, I have a pretty good understanding of how DAZ works now after doing it for almost two years, but someone with more experience/knowledge might correct me on what I'm about to say.
For Chapter 2 I would say that the average time has been closer to 40 minutes. But obviously render times vary considerably based on what is being rendered and how many iterations are required to produce the final image. The current scene I'm working on is indoors, at night, mostly focused on character faces and has glass windows in the background. In my experience, the glass requires more iterations to render to completion, a closer shot of a character's face typically renders slower than a further out shot (not sure exactly why on this bit), and the environment (light settings and actual building prop) can also impact render times, to varying degrees. But for me and my setup, 90 minutes for a scene like this seems pretty normal.
As an example of this scene I'm working on, I'm attaching three images. I've not done any post work or anything to them, they're just the raw renders, all from the same part of the scene, the same conversation. One renders in 40-50, one in 1 hour 20 and one in exactly 2 hours. The lighting and camera angles are pretty much the same, I'm hiding unnecessary assets to save memory etc. but the renders time still vary, presumably because of the hair and makeup on certain character iterating slower.
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An bright, sunny outdoor scene, for instance, I can render in 10 minutes (assuming it's just 1 or 2 characters with little to no extra lighting). But I've found that a lot of indoor scenes can really run up the render times. The longest I've had for this chapter was just over 4 and a half hours, if memory serves. That's because of a very specific asset for a character that, for whatever reason, means that the render iterates very slowly.
I don't know if this is normal. As far as I can tell, I render using pretty standard settings, but if someone can point out something I've been doing something wrong this whole time then I'd take any advice.
For what it's worth my PC has been completely fine the whole 2 years I've had it. Nothing's ever broken or needed replacing, and it runs as well as it ever has. GPU temps all normal etc., too. So I don't think the excessive render times have been negatively impacting it.
- Nov 11, 2017
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thanks for the insight with what takes longer to render. but even 40 minutes for one image is insane to me
- that sounds so inefficient for one image when the intention is to create scenes which i'm sure DAZ programmers had in mind. idk if it's a bottleneck issue with one of your drivers but it's not an overworked component as you pointed out for what it's worth the renders are crisp and high res. however, i hate to break it to u but there's a community of us who just ask for compressions of the VN so we dont even necessarily require such high resolution. but that's up to u and if u want to further investigate other developers' process
- Apr 28, 2023
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I'm not sure what the original intention of DAZ was, but I'd be surprised if they thought people would be trying to make 1000s of renders a year on it. My assumption was always that it was a 3D art software for one-off images, so it's not especially optimized for quick renders. Not sure on that, though.thanks for the insight with what takes longer to render. but even 40 minutes for one image is insane to me
for what it's worth the renders are crisp and high res. however, i hate to break it to u but there's a community of us who just ask for compressions of the VN so we dont even necessarily require such high resolution. but that's up to u and if u want to further investigate other developers' process
And to be fair, as I say sometimes scenes can take 5-10 minutes if they're really basic. But once you start adding in details and environments, it just adds to the information that needs to be processed and calculated.
As for render quality, I'm pretty much already working at the minimum. I only render at 1920x1080. Many other devs, as far as I can tell, render at larger sizes (4K or 1440) and then downscale to 1080. This does result in better image quality, but like you say not everyone cares for that, and people often play compressed versions anyway. My issue with that is that while 4K images look a lot better, they literally take 4x the amount of time to render. That's a sacrifice devs with multiple rendering machines with very high-end cards can afford, but for me and I assume a lot of other devs with only one computer it's not worth the time. But it's good to know that native 1080 renders are still a good enough quality.
- May 1, 2017
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- Apr 28, 2023
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Back in May I thought I could have it out by the end of June. That's still a possibility, but unlikely at this point. I've still got what I'd guess to be a couple weeks of rendering to do still. I don't want to keep guessing a date and pushing it back, but atm I'd say early-to-mid-July. Hopefully I won't push that back too.
- Jul 26, 2023
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Keep at it mate. No pressure. At least you're keeping us in the loop about where things stand. I appreciate it muchly. And very much looking forward to chapter 2.
- Jul 26, 2023
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Quite a few nice girls to choose from here. Still haven't worked out who my favorite is, but there's a few blondes in the running. I think one of the brunettes might have her nose in front at the moment. LOL.
without playing this going by just looks the blonde laying laying down seems to be my favorite , then the redhead m followed by the blonde on the far right , then maybe the blonde with the pink highlights. Rest im neutral about or need a better view
- Jul 26, 2023
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Blonde laying down has a twin sister! The one not here is the nicer one IMO.
Pink highlights we haven't met yet, but I'm very keen.
The brunette in the aqua bikini showing us her ass is the one I'm definitely interested in getting to know better.
yeah I'm also interested in the same brunette or the one lying down in the yellow bikini as well but not 100% sure without a better view hehe of either of them since ive yet to play the game
Edit you got me curious now about the twins
- Jul 26, 2023
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The banner shows the 8 LIs quite clearly. The twins are a bit like another game we play, in that they are quite opposite and have always had different interests and really don't have much to do with each other. (So far, 6 of them are still in the running to be my fav, LOL).
From the banner image the one with the brown hair in between the blonde twins and the blonde with the pink highlights has my interest now
- Jul 26, 2023
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I think you'll like Alice too, far left. She's cute, sweet, naive, gives off childhood friend vibes.
damnit the more you talk about this the more I want to play and you already talked me into playing 2 other games sooner than I want lmfao
- Jul 26, 2023
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No hurry on this one. Unless something's happened Chapter 2 is not very far away and you're better off waiting for more content.
- Apr 28, 2023
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Just quoting both of these as they're both relevant.
So, earlier I said early-mid July would be possible. This, evidently, was wrong. I am, however, onto the final scene for the chapter. This will take probably 1-2 weeks. Then I've just got to finish any postwork, and make sure the game, yknow, works correctly. In it's current state I can play through the whole chapter, it's just the images that are missing, but I want to make sure everything set up, particularly because in this chapter there's already a decent amount of branching (mostly conversation based, nothing too dramatic, but coding wise they kinda all add up the same).
I was way off with my last two guesses as to when it'd be done, disappointingly. And I don't want to start being that guy who keeps failing to deliver on deadlines, even if they're estimates. If you want me to be incredibly optimistic, I would say before the end of July, but we've seen how that kinda guess has gone so far. So I'll just say it's coming soon (all likelihood in August).
And then yeah, for anyone interested in the game who haven't got round to it yet, wait until ch2's out and have a go then. Not only is ch2 such a dramatic increase in quality for the most part from ch1 (there's still some areas where it's not great visually, owing to my very limited ability), it's also ended up over double the size.
So, while it disappointing to me it's taking this long still, I'm confident in saying it's been worth it. Looking back, ch1 feels almost more like a proof of concept. It was always basically just the introduction, a little foreshadowing, nothing too crazy. But, to me, from a storytelling perspective, which is what this game will always focus on, ch2 is just so much better. So much more happens, so much more is set up to happen, and I'm really excited to get on to the things I know are coming. I keep planning ahead and writing for future chapters, fleshing the story out, and am looking forward to getting there.
I'm adding a bunch of previews here for anyone who's read this far. Not long now. Thanks to all being patient.
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