Monthly Update - Technobabble Edition
The end is near, and new 3D tech stuff promised for 0.4 is pretty much ready.
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RedGifs limits the length to one minute so the video had to be a pretty quick one. Tech beta release is late by a week or two, but hopefully out at some point during next week. New 3D stuff can be (in theory) used to replace all currently used static images with real 3D content.
Currently, I can either render scenes into static images, videos or export them into interactive 3D-scenes (including any animations). Each format has its pros and cons, I'll list a few here (with + and -).
Static Images:
+Easy to create
+Small in size
+Supported everywhere
+High image quality
-Hard to change later. For example, changing the outfit of a character requires modifying and rendering all images again.
-Static, even minor changes in expressions etc. require another image.
Videos:
+Easy to handle
+Mostly supported, some issues on Mobile platforms (Android, iOS)
-Larger in size, unless heavily compressed or downscaled.
-Pre-rendered, no dynamic changes (poses, facial expressions etc.) possible.
3D scenes:
+Requires more from CPU and GPU
+Interactive stuff. Different camera angles, animations, expressions etc.
-Lower image quality (realtime renderer).
-Larger in size, but most assets can be heavily reused (some 3D scenes can be smaller than static image versions).
-No support on mobile platforms
Currently, 3D scenes will automatically fall back to static images if your computer/device doesn't support them. They can also be disabled from settings. I'm also investigating a possibility to download movies and/or 3D scenes later as separately packaged files, so those not interested can skip them as they increase the download size quite a bit.
The whole 3D export and rendering system can also be used if I decide to change the game engine from Ren'Py into something else (like Godot or Unity - maybe even Unreal Engine although that's a bit overkill). Interestingly
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- that version adds some new support for stuff like this, so we'll see where it goes. It also updated the rendering system, which might conflict with my system in some places, so there may be some nasty extra surprises on the way.
Anyway, the tech stuff is now mostly done and finished. It was a pretty interesting little project and I learned a lot - especially that writing a 3D renderer inside Ren'Py with Python is not that easy (or sane). Unfortunately, it did delay 0.4 more than I would have liked to, but maybe it will prove it's worth in the future. Or maybe I'll just silently drop it, who knows?
Now I can focus on pushing 0.4 out as soon as possible, fingers crossed. More content to come, including $10 special series continuation.
Like before, I'm not going to take any Patreon payments until 0.4 is out (I'll temporarily suspend my Patreon at the end of each month until then). It takes some stress off me so I can hopefully make a solid release and finish things properly.
The rest of the post is a mostly copy and paste from my last update for those who are new or want to be reminded what will be coming next. See you in the next post, thanks for your support!
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So, TL;DR:
* Some new tech in 0.4: interactive 3D and pre-rendered movies, at least a few of each. When I get the pipeline (and my skills) working smoothly, next releases should have more.
* Test release planned at some point before the real release, testing animations etc.
* After 0.4 I will try out a bit faster release schedule with partial updates instead of releasing large, complete routes that take ages to finish. We'll see how it goes.
* Steam release at some point after 0.4 is out. Steam has been pretty random with adult games, so who knows what can happen.
Over a year without updates. The game and art in this game are awesome.. but making one update that long is not too good in my opinion. I understand that Dev wants to do everything right, but there are many Devs who can handle even more demanding games and it takes them several months. (DPC for example)
