August Status
Another month and more waiting... see you all next month!
No, I'm joking, sort of. As I have previously said, the stuff from me this time around is going to be small. No new scenes, no new features, no sweeping changes that break everyone's save (I hope). But there are some things, and I'll talk about some of the small stuff in just a second here.
First, I want to talk about the elephant in the room. We've had a horse scene, so now it's time for elephants! Wait, no, that's the wrong note card. When is the next update!?!
While it is always a guessing game as to when Ferdafs will put out content, my guess is still sometime this month? I was hoping for the first, but that (obviously) didn't happen. Depending on when it does come out, we'll do our best to turn it around as quickly as possible, and I'll provide updates as we work. If it doesn't come out this month... then, next month? Or who know, maybe right after I put this out the update will drop.
I've already talked about the long term plans if updates from Ferdafs ever do stop (which, again, I hope isn't the case), so I won't reiterate it here. You can thread search if you want to know. Otherwise, the plan is to keep waiting for an update.
As I said above, additional content is small this time around, and while I've talked a little about the two expanded scenes, I want to talk about other minor changes coming as well.
First is the engine update to 8.1.0. I have been testing that this will work with the update only patch file, and so far it seem to be fine? It is incremental instead of a major update, so it's a much smaller jump then it was from renpy 7 to 8. While not huge, it does add about 80~MB to the patch only file (which I'm guessing will be 50~MB of content?), still a smaller download over the whole game.
Speaking of smaller downloads, the next update will also feature the option for the new low res video versions. Here is the current plan: the main game will release the same way it always has, compressed (and sliced) images, compressed 1080p 30fps video. There will be an uncompressed image patch (for those that want it), and an update only file (assuming I don't fuck it up again).
And, in addition to that, there will also be the new low res video versions with compressed (and sliced) images, and video at 540p 30fps. This will be the full game for all supported platforms, not a patch file you have to apply. They will be listed in their own section as "Low Res Video". Right now, this low-res version is about 700~MB, down from 1GB, so while it isn't a huge savings, it is something.
This is sort of a test to see if it is worth the effort to maintain yet another version of the game, and I'll see how people like it (or not), and how much extra effort it is (spoilers, more than I want).
In addition to the engine update, I am also testing out the new render engine. Next year, renpy 8 will no longer support the current render (a problem if you know, want to render images), so with the next update, gl2 will be set as the render engine. I'm not using any of it's features yet, just turning it on to see what issues (if any) arise for players. If it does turn into a whole mess, it is a single line to turn it back off again.
Lastly, is a nice little quality of life update that I've wanted for a long time. Self-voicing ("v" key by default) and auto forward now work together! It does seem not to be perfect, but it is a step closer to that sweet hands free mode!
Anyhow, back to waiting for content to arrive. Currently doing scene review on some stuff and making tweaks to the new expanded events in the next update. As always, thank you all for being awesome!