VN Ren'Py One Day at a Time [Ch. 18c] [Zoey Raven]

[Walter Victor]

Thank you, in all humility, this might be the best render I've ever done of Lydia.

It's certainly one of my favorites, at the very least.

Seriously, you need to manufacture a way to fit it into the game somewhere down the line.

 

[Zoey Raven]

Seriously, you need to manufacture a way to fit it into the game somewhere down the line.

One Day at a Time is rendered at 1080p 5000 iterations and denoised. That render was 8k 20,000 iterations, it took all night. So, it would look very out of place, even downscaled. It's also in a different aspect ratio that wouldn't fit into Renpy.

Next game will likely have less renders at much higher quality (which won't be for a while, cause this one still has a ways to go). But, I have to continue this one how I started. Even though the quality of in game renders has improved, because I've just gotten better at Daz and postwork.

The reason there are so many renders in the game, is if you notice, no one ever speaks with their mouths closed (and I vary facial expressions a lot). It drives me nuts to see that. But, I'll probably have to get over it for the next game to do less renders, but higher quality renders (due to time and file size).

 

[Tremonia]

this might be the best render I've ever done of Lydia.

She's a queen.

 

[Walter Victor]

An interesting poll from the developer at Patreon:

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Just a feeler poll about a new game.

Ok, let me make this clear, One Day at a Time will always be the priority and get the majority of my time until it is finished. However, we've still got a ways to go with it at this point, and I'd like to have a new IP (Game) established when it ends.

None of what I'm talking about will happen immediately. However, if I were to decide to start the new game. I would make it two updates of One Day at a Time then one update of the New Game. Let's give it a code name umm... Picasso (which has absolutely nothing to do with what I have in mind). Rinse and repeat, until One Day at a Time is finished. After that every update would be Picasso.

Again, this is all just me throwing sand into the wind at this point. Although, I do have a solid idea for a new game, and I think it will also be something that's not been done before, just like One Day at a Time. At least the way I'm going to do it, I've never seen it done before.

Looking forward to bringing you Ch. 14 in a few days! Cheers!

I'm in favor of this, it's worked well for other developers. 93%

I'm not in favor of this. 7%

44 votes total · 7 days left

 

[bacienvu88]

An interesting poll from the developer at Patreon:

You must be registered to see the links

Just a feeler poll about a new game.

Ok, let me make this clear, One Day at a Time will always be the priority and get the majority of my time until it is finished. However, we've still got a ways to go with it at this point, and I'd like to have a new IP (Game) established when it ends.

None of what I'm talking about will happen immediately. However, if I were to decide to start the new game. I would make it two updates of One Day at a Time then one update of the New Game. Let's give it a code name umm... Picasso (which has absolutely nothing to do with what I have in mind). Rinse and repeat, until One Day at a Time is finished. After that every update would be Picasso.

Again, this is all just me throwing sand into the wind at this point. Although, I do have a solid idea for a new game, and I think it will also be something that's not been done before, just like One Day at a Time. At least the way I'm going to do it, I've never seen it done before.

Looking forward to bringing you Ch. 14 in a few days! Cheers!

I'm in favor of this, it's worked well for other developers. 93%

I'm not in favor of this. 7%

44 votes total · 7 days left

Sounds like a good approach I think.

 

[Zoey Raven]

Just a comment on the poll. Anybody who thinks I couldn't balance this, hasn't paid a lot of attention to my work ethic. But, like I said it's not happening imminently anyway. Also, there a plenty of devs I know personally who do it, and I've picked their brains about it at length already.

I'm not going to name them, but several have many completed games on here, and some of them are among the best IMO. I just don't want this game to end and I'm sitting there with my junk in my hand. I have SO much more love to put into One Day at a Time, but I also have to look at what comes next. I'd be an idiot not to. Due to the type of game ODAAT is, I don't make Philly money were I can just afford to not have something in the pipeline and make people wait 6 months for the next game.

Also looks like there's overwhelming support for it on patreon.

 

[troll822]

One Day at a Time is rendered at 1080p 5000 iterations and denoised. That render was 8k 20,000 iterations, it took all night. So, it would look very out of place, even downscaled. It's also in a different aspect ratio that wouldn't fit into Renpy.

Next game will likely have less renders at much higher quality (which won't be for a while, cause this one still has a ways to go). But, I have to continue this one how I started. Even though the quality of in game renders has improved, because I've just gotten better at Daz and postwork.

The reason there are so many renders in the game, is if you notice, no one ever speaks with their mouths closed (and I vary facial expressions a lot). It drives me nuts to see that. But, I'll probably have to get over it for the next game to do less renders, but higher quality renders (due to time and file size).

As one of your on-and-off patreons I would say that please put that to a poll.
I commonly use a 1920x1080 monitor and even when I use my fancier 2560 x 1440 monitor, I watch movies and play game at 1080p because they more or less seem the same to me.
Thus, I believe that the current resolution is excellent. Even if you want to increase it, 8k is extreme IMO. I am sure a few rich guys have such screens but I doubt the "rank-and-file" could ever appreciate such detail and if it comes at a steep reduction in render numbers, I don't think it is worth it.
For such awesome posters and promo material, sure. But for a game? Nah.

 

[Zoey Raven]

As one of your on-and-off patreons I would say that please put that to a poll.
I commonly use a 1920x1080 monitor and even when I use my fancier 2560 x 1440 monitor, I watch movies and play game at 1080p because they more or less seem the same to me.
Thus, I believe that the current resolution is excellent. Even if you want to increase it, 8k is extreme IMO. I am sure a few rich guys have such screens but I doubt the "rank-and-file" could ever appreciate such detail and if it comes at a steep reduction in render numbers, I don't think it is worth it.
For such awesome posters and promo material, sure. But for a game? Nah.

I believe you're misunderstanding. I said the image wouldn't work because it's 8K. All images in any renpy game I do will be pre-down scaled to 1920x1080 or natively rendered at 1920x1080. You can render an image at 4k and make it 1920x1080, the only result is a more dense render that looks better and doesn't have to be denoised. The end user will never know the difference. In fact I'm certain you've played at least one game that does this over your time. As people get more powerful hardward they are taking advantage of it. Hope that clears up any confusion.

I'll state it again just to be sure. The only renders I will ever do that don't end up being 1920x1080 are promo renders. Meaning the render of the month or when I do one for fun and to improve my skills with Daz. And by the way, I only have a 1080p monitor, not that that matters just anecdotally.

 

[Elhemeer]

The guy who made Leap of Faith did a segment in one part of the game where, for most of a scene, he downscaled from 4k, but part-way through abandoned it since there was a clear difference between the native 1920 renders vs the scaled-down 4k renders and he wanted the majority of the game to have the same feel.
But he left that short segment in and, in game commentary, pointed out where it switched back to native. The improved clarity of the downscaled 4ks was obvious and impressive.

 

[Zoey Raven]

The guy who made Leap of Faith did a segment in one part of the game where, for most of a scene, he downscaled from 4k, but part-way through abandoned it since there was a clear difference between the native 1920 renders vs the scaled-down 4k renders and he wanted the majority of the game to have the same feel.
But he left that short segment in and, in game commentary, pointed out where it switched back to native. The improved clarity of the downscaled 4ks was obvious and impressive.

Yes, Drifty told me that as well, because I asked him about it. This is why I won't do 4K downscale on One Day at a Time. Because I want the game to look uniform. Next game sure, cause I can do it from the beginning.

 

[Tremonia]

Boom, there goes the dynamite...

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I am proud to bring you the concept and overview of:

ODAAT: The Production

Overview:

You are a director of moderate acclaim, who's been given the task by your mentor of putting on the first modern theatrical production in one of the oldest and most storied venues in the world. What kind of show runner will you be, and how will you go about achieving this monumental undertaking? How will you nurture your cast and crew along the way? Can you gain their respect and confidence, to give them what they need to be successful, both on and off the stage? Will you be heavy handed or have a softer touch? These are all question's you'll have to answer for yourself.

The choices will be yours, but you will also have your assistant and long time childhood friend by your side to help. There will be many ladies in the game you'll have a chance to become romantically involved with. Perhaps you'll be interested in all, some, or just one of them. This will be up to you as well.

By the way that's Maria up there, your childhood friend you grew up with, and your assistant! She says hello, bet you guys kept wondering why you were seeing her so much lately.

I'm sure you're also wondering why I'm keeping the ODAAT name at the beginning of the game. It's because this one will very much live in that same universe. While tonally it will be different and not have nearly as much emphasis on drugs, the game will still be about people striving for a common goal, and having to overcome things in their own lives. In order to do that they will have to help each other along the way.

Having gone to music school and being on stage in various productions my whole life, I have unique insight into what this entails and the fact that most artists are screwed up in one way or another (not that all humans aren't, but people who do any kind of art seem to be more troubled than most I've encounter). As stated in the overview, what happens off stage will be just as, or even more important than what happens on it.

Thanks again to those who were supportive, and also to those who were not. Everyone's opinion is valid and you are all entitled to it. I hope you all will jump on for the ride when it kicks off!

As I said, not sure when this will happen yet. Could be this summer, could be in the fall, could be next year. The number one priority is One Day at a Time! It always will be until it's completed, because I adore it, and I adore working on it! But, we may just start this on the 2:1 setup I told you about in the poll. 2 One Day at a Time then 1 ODAAT: The Production at some point in the future.

Again, can't wait for you guys to play Ch. 14 of One Day at a Time in a couple days! Hope you are all doing well! Cheers!

Hello Maria! Very nice to meet you!

Zoey Raven, I wish you all the best with this project. Can't wait to see your first versions and don't mind teasing us with renders from time to time.

 

[troll822]

I believe you're misunderstanding. I said the image wouldn't work because it's 8K. All images in any renpy game I do will be pre-down scaled to 1920x1080 or natively rendered at 1920x1080. You can render an image at 4k and make it 1920x1080, the only result is a more dense render that looks better and doesn't have to be denoised. The end user will never know the difference. In fact I'm certain you've played at least one game that does this over your time. As people get more powerful hardward they are taking advantage of it. Hope that clears up any confusion.

I'll state it again just to be sure. The only renders I will ever do that don't end up being 1920x1080 are promo renders. Meaning the render of the month or when I do one for fun and to improve my skills with Daz. And by the way, I only have a 1080p monitor, not that that matters just anecdotally.

Yes, I was misunderstanding.

About the confusion part... please consider I don't know how those games are made, so the "Render high and then compress and it leads to denoise" doesn't mean much to me. I will take your word that it leads to better results.

 

[Kassan06969]

I think any game by this dev will be cool. Can't wait to see how this one goes. Pretty certain everyone is on the sober path now. Would hate to see anyone relapse. I saw enough of chronic relapsers where I used to work. Ones that complaines and didn't take the program seriously. Later quite a few I saw ended up dying because they OD'd. Especially once that damn fentanyl came out.

 

[Zoey Raven]

I think any game by this dev will be cool. Can't wait to see how this one goes. Pretty certain everyone is on the sober path now. Would hate to see anyone relapse. I saw enough of chronic relapsers where I used to work. Ones that complaines and didn't take the program seriously. Later quite a few I saw ended up dying because they OD'd. Especially once that damn fentanyl came out.

Can't promise no one will relapse til the end, but I can promise none of them will give up or have tragic endings. I've already promised this in the thread several times, everybody's going to land on their feet before the completion of the game. Unfortunately though, relapses are a part of recovery for some.

I can also say other than the MC having a relapse variable that I've already warned people about (cough, help people and you'll be fine, cough). I don't have any planned per se. But I'm not ruling it out, if I see a place where a lesson can be learned from it for a character.

 

[bacienvu88]

I can promise none of them will give up or have tragic endings.

At the time of the end of the game. Tragedy can happen at any time.

Spoiler

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[Zoey Raven]

At the time of the end of the game. Tragedy can happen at any time.

Spoiler

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Yes it can, but this is a work of fiction conveying a message of hope that I'm in control of. So, I say at the end of the game these people will be sober. Because I have the artistic license to do so.

You can of course imagine whatever events you would like after that. Because IRL it is not likely they would all stay sober for the rest of their lives. The statistics would be against that. But I'd like to think my character's will be part of the 10% that do.

 

[bacienvu88]

Yes it can, but this is a work of fiction conveying a message of hope that I'm in control of. So, I say at the end of the game these people will be sober. Because I have the artistic license to do so.

You can of course imagine whatever events you would like after that. Because IRL is it likely they would all stay sober for the rest of their lives. The statistics would be against that. But I'd like to think my character's will be part of the 10% that do.

Sorry, I wasn't saying that they wouldn't succeed in staying sober for the rest of their lives. I was just trying to reiterate the message the game hammers home that for an addict you need to choose to stay sober each and every single day. Doesn't matter if it is before the game ending or after.

 

[Zoey Raven]

Sorry, I wasn't saying that they wouldn't succeed in staying sober for the rest of their lives. I was just trying to reiterate the message the game hammers home that for an addict you need to choose to stay sober each and every single day. Doesn't matter if it is before the game ending or after.

That's very true. Like we say in the rooms "you have to live it everyday".

 

[Tremonia]

Tomorrow, pals.

 

[Ukghar]

Is it possible for MC to have an excellent relationship with girls and only have sex with Lydia?
I know that she doesn't mind, but for me it looks like MC is acting on his own quite often and it's not possible to back off. Did I miss something or some sex scenes are unavoidable, if MC is liked enough?