ProjectV [Smix8] Development Thread

[smix8]

Progress Update
Well, well ... getting there with a lot of care.​

• Finished the Look At Controller to work while animations are running
• Characters heads and eyes turn independent and accordingly without being cross-eyed.
• Walk animations now work for different sized characters with flat shoes or high heels.
• Also added the 3d character models for Dina and Kristina with their wardrobe.

left to right are Grace, Kristina and Dina fascinated by some balls

​

• Some NPC navigation and Head Focus testing, still a bit buggy and missing animation adjustments for slopes.
• The navmesh is used by non-player characters (or maybe for point&click movement not sure).
• Characters change their field of view and gradually switch head focus between interesting targets in close proximity while moving.
• Also tested triggers for returning transition between character camera and level camera.

navmesh, field of view, head focus and camera testing still with noticeable bugs

​

• Added Body Morphing Support for character models.
• e.g. for future character editor and/or results of player choices.

get in shape with ingame body morphing for characters

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• A lot of work went into the model import/export process
• Decimating the 3d models for different level of details
• Optimizing the textures while still keeping the original look

Everytime I encounter a tiny 3D asset with 4-times the polys of a full figure and 8k textures (like a small ring) I want to cry. Some DAZ content creators must hate everyone for making this on purpose to increase render times.

the doc in progress, getting rid of a few million useless vertices and 8k textures is hard work

​

That's it for this week. Bye!

 

[PJWhoopie]

No downloads to try out?

 

[smix8]

Hey

sorry, I have no newer, playable version ready ... still working on it! But I will need some additional testers in the near future so everyone that is interested and not afraid of bugs just leave a message and I will get back.

There is still the

You must be registered to see the links

if you want to take a look how the development started.

 

[smix8]

seems things can go wrong pretty fast when you miscalculate a vector by a small margin
​

 

[smix8]

Spend most of the time working on the logic behind the scene and blocking out 3d levels.

One major step was finally gluing all the interaction objects, areas and dialogs together with transitions, tool tips and whatnot. Also created more level drafts for the 3d locations to test the environment and gameplay interactions. Not visually pleasing but good for testing and sharing with other developers that helped me out.

Not visually pleasing but good for testing​

A more recent development video made to share with other developers but maybe someone here finds it interesting as well.

 

[smix8]

Going on a buying spree to Yasmin to test the in-development trading screen and inventory. Fresh out of the shower with only our towel for an added discount to the traders exchange rate cause she just likes us this way.

in-development drag&drop trading screen and inventory​

 

[lobotomist]

on reddit you mentioned sharing on github, im thinking of doing something similar to this, but more stylized/handpainted and more diablo like.
thing is I mostly experimented in unity, but maybe if I could see your code I might switch to godot.
That said is this done in gdscript? would you accept pull requests?

 

[smix8]

I did everything with GDScript for the rapid prototyping and it was very easy to get into after using Python. Both languages use more or less the same syntax. There was no reason to use C# or even C++/GDNative for performance at this point but both are valid options for later when it might become necessary.

I wouldn't generally mind code sharing or even participation. In fact I plan to make it public at some point so other developers can have an easy starting point with Godot. My current issue is, due to the rapid prototyping, the code is messy and tangled and I know that large (old) parts are redundant by now. One of the primary reasons to make the code public is to FORCE myself to refactor it beforehand and make each feature more modular. I am hesitant to share it in its current state.

If you are new to Godot I would suggest, since Unity and Godot have sometimes very different workflows, that you get yourself comfortable with how Godot handles nodes and scripts by working through the 'Step by Step' section and demos on the official docs. I know I did and it really helped me out and when you are done I might have finished refactoring by then so you can jump right into.

 

[smix8]

Build a 3D character editor from scratch. Support for morphs and clothing changes among other things.

3D character editor with morphs and wardrobe
​

 

[smix8]

Untangled the character editor from the rest of the code and uploaded it on my git for those interested.

You must be registered to see the links

 

[smix8]

I will be such a happy panda when the next major version is finally released and I can share all the "story-blocked" content *gulp*

At least someone is also waiting


Meanwhile I invested an hour and improved the drag & drop trading menu with item comparison, double clicks and other stuff among small bug fixes.


Made the source public on github

You must be registered to see the links

​

 

[Kellan]

Hey, whatever happened to this one? Are you still working on it?

 

[smix8]

Yes, still working on it with radio silence.

In fact another whole year of constant development time went into this project. It makes a lot of progress but it also very time consuming to make. Nothing of the original featureset was dropped, only adapted to the 3D capabilities. This added a ton of work upfront for a release. There is a lot of game engine stuff that needs development for a 3D game but this technical groundwork is very boring for an audience. You can see a few parts of the more technical stuff on my youtube/github but I am not very public about it. The games name might change at some point. Apparently when people say CoV they think about a disease in 2020.

 

[smix8]

Testing character lookat reactions and animations to a player controlled character.
​

I will try to share more small, unedited videos from development from now on. Sadly not all development work is visual but more and more will fall into this category.

 

[smix8]

Testing the water
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Testing ...
- dynamic water surface
- swim navigation and buoyancy
- wetness soak and dry for clothes and skin

Animations and transitions are a bit janky but those are development placeholders.

... some people might notice a well known character in the water.

 

[smix8]

Having a Conversation
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[osanaiko]

I remain awestruck with the scope and ambition of what you are building. Bravo, smix8, and godspeed.

 

[smix8]

Grab a Towel
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Testing Quest System and (optional) Censorship.

 

[smix8]

Added and changed so many things the past few months that it is hard to keep track.

I am looking for a few new game testers in the near future with different hardware.

If you want to participate let me know your core hardware profile (GPU/CPU/RAM/HDDorSSD).
Game requires Windows 64x as Operating System (for now) and game download will be in the 5-12 GB range depending on your texture quality choice.

Beach Impressions
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Large additions are ...

• Animation Retargeting at runtime to better support animations for different sized characters
• Deformable Surfaces for the games environments and some gameplay elements
• PlayerParty and Formation Controllers so NPC's can follow the player character around properly
• Weather has been added with proper environment, activity and npc wardrobe and behaviour changes
• Contentwise 50+ new wardrobe items, 100+ animations, multiple new characters, locations and activities
• Full support for (smallsized) patching, dlc and user mods
• Editor for preparing characters, locations, dialog and script templates

Large changes are ...

• AnimationTree has been reworked and now supports actor(group)pairing and direct playercontrol through contextmenus
• Calendar has timeformat changed to a 00:00-24:00 realtime format with gradual time and environment, npc schedule and location changes
• Conversations now automatically include context from environment, other present characters or the players persistent actions and preferences
• Cinematic Camera movement and angles in Conversations are now automated from context so more Conversations will make use of them.
• A lot of technical core changes to make nearly every aspect of the game customizable through the user options menu.

Animation Retargeting
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[djtheprophet]

smix8 I would like to be one of your testers
Below my actual configuration:

Intel i5 8600K OC to constantly 4,3Ghz
16GB of RAM 3000MHZ
Samsung Evo Plus SSD
ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3060ti OC
250Mbit internet connection for downloading