Some queries from a newbie

[yoda.baby]

Hey everyone! I'm sorry if this is being asked for the gazillionth time. I have searched the threads and forums here but I haven't got a satisfactory answer.
I'm quite interested in making a VN and I chose to go with Ren'Py and Daz, just like so many others. I've become somewhat familiar with Ren'Py; so scripting, dialogues, stories etc. aren't an issue for me.
It's the rendering and animations part that is holding me back. I've read a lot of posts, queries and guides here and there regarding Daz and I got a decent image of what and how the stuff should work. But before I start to actually devote time to it, I'd like to know if there are better, more friendly options out there for me. I had a few questions regarding the same -

1. While I don't have a gaming laptop, it's decent (i5, 8gb RAM, 2gb Nvidia GPU) . I understand I can run Daz even on low spec laptops. Would renders on my laptop take long? Would the quality be affected? Is there an alternative to this? Should I use Blender? (I wouldn't mind learning as animations in general come under my area of interest). I personally don't mind Honey Select (2) models, but I prefer the Daz models to them. Are there any more options available?
2. If I choose to stick with Daz, can I use the assets from the asset section here? Would there be any legal repercussions? I don't intend to monetize my game, as it is just a hobby.
3. If I choose to go with Blender, would there be any pre-made model rigs? Or would I have to create my model from scratch? If there are, are they as good and detailed as the ones from Daz? Can anyone direct me to games who have animations made solely with Blender?

That's all the questions I had for y'all. If you have any suggestions, tips, tutorials or anything, please feel free to comment. Thanks!!

Stay safe
Cheers ✌

 

[Synx]

1. You can run DAZ on very low spec, but rendering on low spec is a completely different story. For DAZ your whole scene needs to fit in your GPU RAM. And 2 GB is most likely not enough.. You will most likely run in problems rendering on your GPU with scenes not fitting in the GPU RAM, so DAZ starts to use the CPU. There are options to circumvent this, like rendering each model used in a scene separately and then combining them together with photoshop or GIMP (free alternative).
With your laptop you might be better of looking into realtime render options. You most likely lose some quality, but your render time will be a fraction of the racetracing renderengines. Main options are Honey select, 3Dlight in DAZ, and Eevee in Blender. Eevee will give you the best quality, but Blender has a much steaper learning curve compared to DAZ.
I wouldn't recommend trying out animations in your first project, especially with a low spec laptop. But if you really want to try out animations i would 100% pick a realtime renderer with your laptop.
2) The renders you make with DAZ are you own property, you can do with them whatever you want. The renders you make have 0 legal connection to the assets u used. As long as your not bragging about using pirated assets literally everywhere you can, you got nothing to worry about legally.
3) You can export all the models from DAZ to blender, including rigs, face morphs etc.

 

[yoda.baby]

It's pretty clear to me now. I think I'll stick with Blender/EEVEE for now, since I would like to do other SFW art as well. If I make any progress, I'll be sure to post it here. Suggestions, tips, guides, etc are welcome.
Thanks very much Synx!

Stay safe
Cheers ✌

 

[yoda.baby]

Ok so a few more questions popped up, I hope y'all don't mind

1. So I started using Blender, watching tutorials from YouTube and reading guides. I installed the MB Labs add-on, and it's really good. But it does not include genitals. Is there a way I could add them to my characters? Another add-on perhaps? Or a new model creator?
2. Views on grinding and sandboxing? I don't want my game to be a grindfest, where the player has to spend most of his time doing tasks, earning money and raising stats.
3. Views on timed choices? Like the ones in the Walking Dead games.
4. How much content should the first release have? Would 15-20 mins be enough?

That's all for now. Thanks!

Stay safe
Cheers ✌

 

[Synx]

1) I dont know the MB labs add-on. I personally just use the DAZ model as a base model and morph the face around to create a new character. Requires a bit of practice but using the DAZ base model comes with a lot of perks, like no need for UV-unvrapping, comes with a lot of face shapekeys.
2) Sandboxes are hard to pull of as often they feel like grind fests/click simulator. I especially hate the games where you need to click through 7 different areas to get to the area you want (like going from your bedroom to school require you to click hallway, stairs, living room, door to go outside, map, outside school, school door, etc.). It gets tedious an annoying very quickly.
3) You need to make it super clear when something can happen on a certain time then. A game where you need a walk through to progress is a bad designed game.
4) 15-20 mins is fine. I would say try to have at least 1 sex scene in your first release to show what you have planned for that aspect in further updates.

 

[Rich]

A few followup comments. Rendering Daz Studio on a low-spec laptop will take a LONG time if you are using the iRay renderer. Daz Studio has a new renderer called Filament which is MUCH lighter-weight. In this respect, it's much like EEVEE vs Cycles - the renders can be somewhat less photo-realistic (unless you put a bit of care into them) but they're WAY faster.

So, before you give up on Daz Studio completely, you might want to look into Filament.

Also, it's MUCH harder to write a sandbox game than a standard "choice based" visual novel. If this is your first time dipping your toe in the water, you might want to set your sights a bit lower. Do a first project that's simpler than your Magnus Opus, and save that for the next go-around. You'll learn a lot your first time through, and it may reduce your frustration level.

 

[Synx]

A few followup comments. Rendering Daz Studio on a low-spec laptop will take a LONG time if you are using the iRay renderer. Daz Studio has a new renderer called Filament which is MUCH lighter-weight. In this respect, it's much like EEVEE vs Cycles - the renders can be somewhat less photo-realistic (unless you put a bit of care into them) but they're WAY faster.

Ow thats nice. Last time i looked it was Iray or 3Dlight, and the latter one was pretty bad.

 

[Deleted member 1121028]

I'm not sure it's a good advice. Filament is a galaxy away from Eevee, has been implemented for viewport purpose, not really for rendering. Shader wise it misses half of its native features, it's extremely raw. Kinda doubtful it's time well spent in the long run tbh (if they not fully implement it).

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[Rich]

I'm not sure it's a good advice. Filament is a galaxy away from Eevee, has been implemented for viewport purpose, not really for rendering. Shader wise it misses half of its native features, it's extremely raw. Kinda doubtful it's time well spent in the long run tbh (if they not fully implement it).

Perhaps. But I remember essentially the same comments being made about EEVEE when it was brought out. I merely offered it as a possibility, since it will work pretty well on low-end systems.

 

[Deleted member 1121028]

Perhaps. But I remember essentially the same comments being made about EEVEE when it was brought out. I merely offered it as a possibility, since it will work pretty well on low-end systems.

Eevee truly plays in another league in term of depth in comparaison to Daz/Filament. I'm not sure there is even comparaison to make honestly. If the goal is also to learn a bit about rendering (and not just Daz alone), Daz/Filament is quite a terrible starting choice imho. I mean, yes, I got you, it will render something fast enough on a low spec system, but hmm.

Filament was started by a bunch of google devs on their free time as a

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. Couldn't be that bad, why not afterall? But the way it's half assed in Daz is rather catastrophic for rendering. Last time I tried (ok it's a bit old) there was maps size and maps scaling problems, missing crucial shader bricks, buggy tone mapping, no cutout/alpha, missing SSS, buggy lights and overlapping lights problems... Just few things I remember.

 

[TDoddery]

I've got a really shit computer so Iray renders take a lot of time even if they run at all.

Filament works really fast and well to show me a much better idea of what an Iray render might (I emphasize "might") look like when I do it. But it's streets behind a full Iray output.

So for me Filament is excellent for pre-rendering viewpoint assessment type stuff, like for instance character facial expressions (and which is a very big time saver) but not much beyond that.