VN Ren'Py Summer's Gone [S1 Steam + DLC] [Oceanlab]

[Penfold Mole]

This is an interesting debate, and while I have a position taken, I would like to add brain food.
We can consider Summer as Chekhov's Gun or as a McGuffin. And both positions have their valid points, personally, seeing the amount of clichés, prototypical developments and anime axioms scattered here and there, I'm inclined to think Summer is a Chekhov`s gun.
But, at the same time, I agree that it would be very valuable to the story if she were only a McGuffin.

In case Summer really is Chekhov's Gun or one of the many in this story, the important question is, did it already bang? I mean, was Summer's disappearance the bang or not? Or will it make more than one bang? So the actual question remains open and it won't help us in any way.

Maybe less is more and there's no need for more bangs from this particular gun?

 

[sorco2003]

In case Summer really is Chekhov's Gun or one of the many in this story, the important question is, did it already bang? I mean, was Summer's disappearance the bang or not? Or will it make more than one bang? So the actual question remains open and it won't help us in any way.

Maybe less is more and there's no need for more bangs from this particular gun?

More bangs, more happiness...

 

[burbero]

Also, Sasha's antagonism in the book club would imply she doesn't know him like Summer did. Until there's a good logical explantion of how and why, it's a theory without much basis.

Speaking of Sasha's book club feud. Why do you think he acted that way? He didn't like Nika's presence from the first moment.

 

[Darker than Black]

Oh,i didn't mean that Sasha=Summer. As far as I know, even Dev personally confirmed that this is not true. I meant that theoretically, if Summer is alive, then we could already see her, simply because of her hair color/lack of moles we didn't think much about it.

I respect your opinion, but I disagree. In this main story, Summer is at the center of events. I don't know exactly what happened to Summer, but my personal opinion is that Summer is not a character to be wasted easily.

 

[White cat6]

You misunderstand me - I am not interested in a harem style game, I am very interested in the plot. I believe if Summer returns it will make the plot boring. It can be done well, but the 'blast from the past' throwing all Nika's choices to the wind is a very boring, cheap and obvious way way to develop the plot. It's Ocean's story though, and so far he hasn't been boring me. The plot is about Nika learning to overcome grief and get on with his life, as well as help the people he cares about get over their traumas. Summer reappearing adds drama, but Nika doesn't have to move on then, his life just paused. A story about people moving forward away from their past, of their own will is far more interesting.

Well, the plot is much broader than you described, even with regards to Nicky himself. Your description means you don't see it. But answer these questions:
Why is Nika so depressed about Summer's disappearance?
Why doesn't he have sexual interest in women?
Why doesn’t he feel the “smell” of Sasha, although other men do? I wrote smell in quotation marks because the women in the club weren’t sure what it was.

 

[Darker than Black]

In general it seems to me a good exposition, I have some notes to make.

- To show that he was cured, nothing better than to confront him with the person who caused the trauma. It is a possible direction. Or maybe to show that you can't overcome certain traumas.
- Everything about fights and stuff seems out of the question to me, the possibilities are there, even without Summer coming back, the scenarios are possible, but it would be rare but not unusual. As much as Ocean pursues maturity on a narrative level, the characters are still teenagers, and there's nothing more natural and realistic than teenage fights for the sake of it.
- Whether or not Ocean has another game planned (according to what I have read all that is ruled out, at least the one with a female protagonist for sure) should not be taken into consideration, since it is just an idea that may or may not exist.

That's pretty much how I think. We don't know if Summer is alive, if she'll come back, or if she does, if she'll be LI. Of course, there may be a scenario in the story where we will not see Summer again, but I think this is low probability. Let's imagine that Nika is almost healed and has someone at the center of his life (Bella, Nami, or any LI). Then let's imagine that Summer suddenly appears just as things are going well. It's pretty cliche from a narrative perspective, but it still works. Nika may falter again or different events may develop. But eventually (unless it's Summer LI) we need to see Nika meet Summer, forget about her, fall in love with another woman, and fully recover. And we need Summer to see that we're fully healed. Of course, this is my own opinion.

 

[Marley300]

You must be registered to see the links

Hello,

The last log was mostly about S1 & Ch2. This log now includes some new Season 2 stuff.

How so?

Well, I got an upgrade.


If you don't care about hardware and behind-the-scenes stuff. Scroll down until the previews start.


I was running into a wall with a scene in SG. I couldn't render it as it featured the big classroom & 11+ visible characters.

Sure, I could've used fewer characters but that's not the solution to the issue.

Especially in the college, I want to show crowded scenes with lots of students and professors running around.

I value immersion more than the actual image quality by now.

At first, I tried to render the scene in two images. (Hide half the people -> Render it -> Show/Hide the other half -> Render it -> Put together in Photoshop.

It didn't work. The scene is so crowded and everyone so close to one another that the shadows were fucked and seams started to form.

I also tried to remove some characters, but I couldn't even render the 7 characters. (From 12 to 7.)

Then I wanted to move that scene over to the WiAB PC to render it with the A6000. Yeaaah, the WiAB PC was lacking 50-100 assets that I would've had to hunt down.

And the new Cloud library is still uploading (It's been weeks.).


So I reached out to a B2B business in Germany that sells hardware and asked them for an offer for two A6000 Ada's.

These fuckers come in at 10k€ in Germany. Each.

So, I talked to them over the phone and told them what I would need... and that I'm looking for a reliable hardware business to work with.

I got both A6000 Ada's for 13k. I also didn't buy them but leased them, as it's super easy to deduct 100% of the cost as a business expense.

And the best/saddest part? The leasing rate of these cards together is less than 40% of my monthly energy bill. Let that sink in.


I didn't like the Ada. I didn't want to get it. And now I tested them for two days.

I knew they would be slower than my current setup...

But I was wrong. Those Ada's outperform my 4090+3090 easily.

I have some numbers:

4090 + 3090

Render 1: 6:28min

Render 2: 8:42min



2x A6000 Ada:

Render 1: 5:13

Render 2: 7:01



The reason I didn't want to get the Ada was that they got rid of the NvLink and memory pooling.

But I found an SLI option in the Nvidia settings... And I think it somewhat works.



I went back to the scene I couldn't render previously and rendered it without any issues. (12 Characters).

I then noticed something funny... The cards were only using 25 GB VRAM out of 48.

How is that possible?

If that was the case, the 4090 & 3090 should've been able to render the version with 7 characters. (These cards have 24GB VRAM and the scene would've definitely dropped below 24GB by removing 5 characters.)

That's why I think the SLI (NvLInk) actually works to a degree. Theorethically I could render this scene with 24-26 characters.

That's amazing.



So yeah, I gave in and got myself two Ada's for a "decent" price and now have a friendly relationship with a B2B Hardware business in Germany. (Which will help a lot in the future.)

And I'm very impressed by the Ada's. I never expected them to be faster than my 4090+3090.

They also only use half the energy compared to the 4090/3090 combo.

I could also add two more of them to the case.



I hate to say it... But the Ada's delivered.

Prepare for some big, immersive scenes in the future.



And now I'll answer the question from the beginning: How am I able to do Season 2 again?

Thanks to the Ada, I can now do what I've been doing with WiAB for SG.

Work on two updates at the same time.
Previously, I couldn't do it if any scene featured more than two characters. (In each Daz instance).



Alrighty, let's start with the Season 2 previews. (Limited to three.) 4K attached.

Judging by how S1 ended. Season 2 has different starting routes. (Mila, the Cheeto & solo)

Some Mila.


I'm kinda sick of the Cheeto's open hair. It's such a low quality asset. I also don't like to use her ponytail all the time, so I've begun to experiment with new hairstyles.


The look the Cheeto gives you while you try to explain, why taking a bath together is a bad idea before she dismisses everything you just said with a funky "Yo!"




Now to the current priority target. Season 1.

Sadly, the A6000s arrived after I finished the basketball scene... So I had to limit myself there.

But the basketball is done and only a few smaller scenes are left and then I'll need to do the postwork and... Oh god... The gallery for Chapter 2 & Chapter 5.

Some more basketball comparisons. 4k Attached.

I had to laugh a few times when I checked out the older images... Like what the actual fuck.

Old (Bella slamming MC into oblivion.)





Obviously, the new version has a much better dynamic. Bella isn't a hulk anymore, you'll actually deal some blows to her too this time, and the scene flows much better.

New


Less than 200 lines are left. I can see the light.

It also feels so good to work on Season 2 again.


Oh, I almost forgot. I've also started to work on the first Blender cinematic. It's the new Intro for SG, as I sadly had to remove the old one due to music license issues.

I bought the license for the new intro song almost two years ago. Since then this intro cinematic has been in my head... and soon I get to use the music.


I feel good.

I hope you do too.

- Ocean

 

[Maviarab]

And we need Summer to see that we're fully healed

You're assuming Summer is obviously alive and knows we have issues....

 

[Penfold Mole]

Summer's gone. When in doubt, check the game title again.

________________________
I'm out of reactions for today.

 

[sorco2003]

Summer's gone. When in doubt, read the game title again.

Summer-Autumm-Winter-Spring aaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnndddddddddddddddd Summer again

 

[ItsNotUs]

Hello,

S2 - Chapter 1 - Dev Log #3

The last log was mostly about S1 & Ch2. This log now includes some new Season 2 stuff.

How so?

Well, I got an upgrade.


If you don't care about hardware and behind-the-scenes stuff. Scroll down until the previews start.


I was running into a wall with a scene in SG. I couldn't render it as it featured the big classroom & 11+ visible characters.

Sure, I could've used fewer characters but that's not the solution to the issue.

Especially in the college, I want to show crowded scenes with lots of students and professors running around.

I value immersion more than the actual image quality by now.

At first, I tried to render the scene in two images. (Hide half the people -> Render it -> Show/Hide the other half -> Render it -> Put together in Photoshop.

It didn't work. The scene is so crowded and everyone so close to one another that the shadows were fucked and seams started to form.

I also tried to remove some characters, but I couldn't even render the 7 characters. (From 12 to 7.)

Then I wanted to move that scene over to the WiAB PC to render it with the A6000. Yeaaah, the WiAB PC was lacking 50-100 assets that I would've had to hunt down.

And the new Cloud library is still uploading (It's been weeks.).



So I reached out to a B2B business in Germany that sells hardware and asked them for an offer for two A6000 Ada's.

These fuckers come in at 10k€ in Germany. Each.

So, I talked to them over the phone and told them what I would need... and that I'm looking for a reliable hardware business to work with.

I got both A6000 Ada's for 13k. I also didn't buy them but leased them, as it's super easy to deduct 100% of the cost as a business expense.

And the best/saddest part? The leasing rate of these cards together is less than 40% of my monthly energy bill. Let that sink in.


I didn't like the Ada. I didn't want to get it. And now I tested them for two days.

I knew they would be slower than my current setup...

But I was wrong. Those Ada's outperform my 4090+3090 easily.

I have some numbers:

4090 + 3090

Render 1: 6:28min

Render 2: 8:42min



2x A6000 Ada:

Render 1: 5:13

Render 2: 7:01



The reason I didn't want to get the Ada was that they got rid of the NvLink and memory pooling.

But I found an SLI option in the Nvidia settings... And I think it somewhat works.



I went back to the scene I couldn't render previously and rendered it without any issues. (12 Characters).

I then noticed something funny... The cards were only using 25 GB VRAM out of 48.

How is that possible?

If that was the case, the 4090 & 3090 should've been able to render the version with 7 characters. (These cards have 24GB VRAM and the scene would've definitely dropped below 24GB by removing 5 characters.)

That's why I think the SLI (NvLInk) actually works to a degree. Theorethically I could render this scene with 24-26 characters.

That's amazing.



So yeah, I gave in and got myself two Ada's for a "decent" price and now have a friendly relationship with a B2B Hardware business in Germany. (Which will help a lot in the future.)

And I'm very impressed by the Ada's. I never expected them to be faster than my 4090+3090.

They also only use half the energy compared to the 4090/3090 combo.

I could also add two more of them to the case.



I hate to say it... But the Ada's delivered.

Prepare for some big, immersive scenes in the future.



And now I'll answer the question from the beginning: How am I able to do Season 2 again?

Thanks to the Ada, I can now do what I've been doing with WiAB for SG.

Work on two updates at the same time.
Previously, I couldn't do it if any scene featured more than two characters. (In each Daz instance).



Alrighty, let's start with the Season 2 previews. (Limited to three.) 4K attached.

Judging by how S1 ended. Season 2 has different starting routes. (Mila, the Cheeto & solo)

Some Mila.
View attachment 3291958

I'm kinda sick of the Cheeto's open hair. It's such a low quality asset. I also don't like to use her ponytail all the time, so I've begun to experiment with new hairstyles.
View attachment 3291961

The look the Cheeto gives you while you try to explain, why taking a bath together is a bad idea before she dismisses everything you just said with a funky "Yo!"
View attachment 3291959



Now to the current priority target. Season 1.

Sadly, the A6000s arrived after I finished the basketball scene... So I had to limit myself there.

But the basketball is done and only a few smaller scenes are left and then I'll need to do the postwork and... Oh god... The gallery for Chapter 2 & Chapter 5.

Some more basketball comparisons. 4k Attached.

I had to laugh a few times when I checked out the older images... Like what the actual fuck.

Old (Bella slamming MC into oblivion.)
View attachment 3291955
View attachment 3291953
View attachment 3291952
View attachment 3291954

Obviously, the new version has a much better dynamic. Bella isn't a hulk anymore, you'll actually deal some blows to her too this time, and the scene flows much better.

New
View attachment 3291960 View attachment 3291966 View attachment 3291957 View attachment 3291956

Less than 200 lines are left. I can see the light.

It also feels so good to work on Season 2 again.


Oh, I almost forgot. I've also started to work on the first Blender cinematic. It's the new Intro for SG, as I sadly had to remove the old one due to music license issues.

I bought the license for the new intro song almost two years ago. Since then this intro cinematic has been in my head... and soon I get to use the music.


I feel good.

I hope you do too.

- Ocean

Nami got new body?

 

[Razrback16]

Great update from Ocean on the hardware. I remember when we were talking about the multiple gaming cards vs workstation cards and the power saving from the workstation cards was one reason I strongly recommended them, but at the time I also understood that Ocean was having issues with getting multi-gpu functional. Glad he was able to find a positive with 2x workstation cards seeming to work together. It may not be a permanent solution as issues could always come up, but for now what good news and able to get a good deal on them also. Hope things work out for him.

 

[Geralt From Rivia]

You must be registered to see the links

Hello,

The last log was mostly about S1 & Ch2. This log now includes some new Season 2 stuff.

How so?

Well, I got an upgrade.


If you don't care about hardware and behind-the-scenes stuff. Scroll down until the previews start.


I was running into a wall with a scene in SG. I couldn't render it as it featured the big classroom & 11+ visible characters.

Sure, I could've used fewer characters but that's not the solution to the issue.

Especially in the college, I want to show crowded scenes with lots of students and professors running around.

I value immersion more than the actual image quality by now.

At first, I tried to render the scene in two images. (Hide half the people -> Render it -> Show/Hide the other half -> Render it -> Put together in Photoshop.

It didn't work. The scene is so crowded and everyone so close to one another that the shadows were fucked and seams started to form.

I also tried to remove some characters, but I couldn't even render the 7 characters. (From 12 to 7.)

Then I wanted to move that scene over to the WiAB PC to render it with the A6000. Yeaaah, the WiAB PC was lacking 50-100 assets that I would've had to hunt down.

And the new Cloud library is still uploading (It's been weeks.).


So I reached out to a B2B business in Germany that sells hardware and asked them for an offer for two A6000 Ada's.

These fuckers come in at 10k€ in Germany. Each.

So, I talked to them over the phone and told them what I would need... and that I'm looking for a reliable hardware business to work with.

I got both A6000 Ada's for 13k. I also didn't buy them but leased them, as it's super easy to deduct 100% of the cost as a business expense.

And the best/saddest part? The leasing rate of these cards together is less than 40% of my monthly energy bill. Let that sink in.


I didn't like the Ada. I didn't want to get it. And now I tested them for two days.

I knew they would be slower than my current setup...

But I was wrong. Those Ada's outperform my 4090+3090 easily.

I have some numbers:

4090 + 3090

Render 1: 6:28min

Render 2: 8:42min



2x A6000 Ada:

Render 1: 5:13

Render 2: 7:01



The reason I didn't want to get the Ada was that they got rid of the NvLink and memory pooling.

But I found an SLI option in the Nvidia settings... And I think it somewhat works.



I went back to the scene I couldn't render previously and rendered it without any issues. (12 Characters).

I then noticed something funny... The cards were only using 25 GB VRAM out of 48.

How is that possible?

If that was the case, the 4090 & 3090 should've been able to render the version with 7 characters. (These cards have 24GB VRAM and the scene would've definitely dropped below 24GB by removing 5 characters.)

That's why I think the SLI (NvLInk) actually works to a degree. Theorethically I could render this scene with 24-26 characters.

That's amazing.



So yeah, I gave in and got myself two Ada's for a "decent" price and now have a friendly relationship with a B2B Hardware business in Germany. (Which will help a lot in the future.)

And I'm very impressed by the Ada's. I never expected them to be faster than my 4090+3090.

They also only use half the energy compared to the 4090/3090 combo.

I could also add two more of them to the case.



I hate to say it... But the Ada's delivered.

Prepare for some big, immersive scenes in the future.



And now I'll answer the question from the beginning: How am I able to do Season 2 again?

Thanks to the Ada, I can now do what I've been doing with WiAB for SG.

Work on two updates at the same time.
Previously, I couldn't do it if any scene featured more than two characters. (In each Daz instance).



Alrighty, let's start with the Season 2 previews. (Limited to three.) 4K attached.

Judging by how S1 ended. Season 2 has different starting routes. (Mila, the Cheeto & solo)

Some Mila.
View attachment 3291958

I'm kinda sick of the Cheeto's open hair. It's such a low quality asset. I also don't like to use her ponytail all the time, so I've begun to experiment with new hairstyles.
View attachment 3291961

The look the Cheeto gives you while you try to explain, why taking a bath together is a bad idea before she dismisses everything you just said with a funky "Yo!"
View attachment 3291959



Now to the current priority target. Season 1.

Sadly, the A6000s arrived after I finished the basketball scene... So I had to limit myself there.

But the basketball is done and only a few smaller scenes are left and then I'll need to do the postwork and... Oh god... The gallery for Chapter 2 & Chapter 5.

Some more basketball comparisons. 4k Attached.

I had to laugh a few times when I checked out the older images... Like what the actual fuck.

Old (Bella slamming MC into oblivion.)
View attachment 3291955
View attachment 3291953
View attachment 3291952
View attachment 3291954

Obviously, the new version has a much better dynamic. Bella isn't a hulk anymore, you'll actually deal some blows to her too this time, and the scene flows much better.

New
View attachment 3291960 View attachment 3291966 View attachment 3291957 View attachment 3291956

Less than 200 lines are left. I can see the light.

It also feels so good to work on Season 2 again.


Oh, I almost forgot. I've also started to work on the first Blender cinematic. It's the new Intro for SG, as I sadly had to remove the old one due to music license issues.

I bought the license for the new intro song almost two years ago. Since then this intro cinematic has been in my head... and soon I get to use the music.


I feel good.

I hope you do too.

- Ocean

Just my five cents. It's up to Ocean to decide, of course, but are these scenes with a couple dozen characters worth the colossal money spent on Ada? Plus the bonus to rendering time, which is not worth the expense, is only a quarter faster. In addition, one developer was able to create a party with several dozen characters in the frame using a 2xRTX3090. The visuals are certainly worse there, but the visual perfectionism of Ocean is a serious disadvantage.

 

[Ali ibn Hassan]

Nami got new body?

FFS she's young and still growing as do the rest of the teen cast

 

[Ali ibn Hassan]

Just my five cents. It's up to Ocean to decide, of course, but are these scenes with a couple dozen characters worth the colossal money spent on Ada? Plus the bonus to rendering time, which is not worth the expense, is only a quarter faster. In addition, one developer was able to create a party with several dozen characters in the frame using a 2xRTX3090. The visuals are certainly worse there, but the visual perfectionism of Ocean is a serious disadvantage.

Let the man spend his hard earned cash on what he likes

 

[Tauro Thurius]

Should I replay the game for Chapter 5 Beta or wait for the full release?

 

[Maviarab]

Should I replay the game for Chapter 5 Beta or wait for the full release?

May as well wait at this point...providing nothing drastic happens to hold up the release.

 

[TheReDeeMeR]

All that NASA PC and still one update per year?

 

[BobTheDuck]

I'm excited, S1 completed and increased productivity is quite a good dev log

Speaking of Sasha's book club feud. Why do you think he acted that way? He didn't like Nika's presence from the first moment.

Sasha's both strict and gentle at the same time, she'll keep herself reserved and separate, but then injures her hand to protect Nika's head (which he returns the favour with the basket ball), she doesn't want to warm up with him, but then finds the situation cute, she acts cold to him at the book club but kept her eyes on him to help him with his panic attack. She sends help for him being locked up, but then says maybe he deserved it. I kinda feel she wants to keep her distance because she doesn't trust men, but it's not that simple. I also guess when Mila heard Nika pull women down (to trigger Zara and Nadia), Sasha also heard it.

I'm guessing she just has a big distrust of men, especially if she needs a bodyguard. And she's probably tired of all the teasing from the others, being subjected to Kelly's breeding fantasies etc so she doesn't want more opportunities to be teased.

Well, the plot is much broader than you described, even with regards to Nicky himself. Your description means you don't see it. But answer these questions:
Why is Nika so depressed about Summer's disappearance?
Why doesn't he have sexual interest in women?
Why doesn’t he feel the “smell” of Sasha, although other men do? I wrote smell in quotation marks because the women in the club weren’t sure what it was.

Getting depressed because someone you cared for and saw your future with is gone is depressing, most of my friends who've had serious break ups have taken a long time to recover (one friend admitted she went looking for an assassin, kinda glad I never ticked her boxes). Why depressed? Emotions are a crazy drug. If you mean why was he so affected/traumatised? Until he reveals what happened at the cabin, it's completely unknown. His trauma is related to what happened when he last touched her, not when he last saw her, as he saw her since then.

He does have sexual interest in women, he refers to there being life down there twice with Nami. He gets weird feelings in his stomach when realising he likes Bella. Why does he have erectile dysfunction? His brain chemistry is too flooded with depression to get really excited, his triggers are buried beneath thick clouds and memories.

He doesn't notice Sasha's pheromones because the triggers are buried. It's like he's distracted. Doesn't matter how attractive someone is, if you're distracted, they just walk by. His smell works because he noticed Bella's smell when he wasn't distracted.

Amber's the one who should be asking these questions, I'm sure she will. I don't see how these questions really reveal anything that common sense can't work out by empathising and putting yourself in Nika's shoes. His problems aren't going to be solved by logic, but by struggling against the apathy/depression, and deciding to pay attention to life, not just notice details.

Anyway, the dev log is more exciting than my words.

Just my five cents. It's up to Ocean to decide, of course, but are these scenes with a couple dozen characters worth the colossal money spent on Ada? Plus the bonus to rendering time, which is not worth the expense, is only a quarter faster. In addition, one developer was able to create a party with several dozen characters in the frame using a 2xRTX3090. The visuals are certainly worse there, but the visual perfectionism of Ocean is a serious disadvantage.

It's more about not having the limits stop him in the future I guess? Also, less energy footprint, means lower cost, means less stress. A quarter faster means 9 months instead of a year, plus there were the loading benefits with the recent Daz update - I'm all for any speed improvements he makes.

All that NASA PC and still one update per year?

You say that with that game in your signature?

 

[Razrback16]

Just my five cents. It's up to Ocean to decide, of course, but are these scenes with a couple dozen characters worth the colossal money spent on Ada? Plus the bonus to rendering time, which is not worth the expense, is only a quarter faster. In addition, one developer was able to create a party with several dozen characters in the frame using a 2xRTX3090. The visuals are certainly worse there, but the visual perfectionism of Ocean is a serious disadvantage.

I think so, although that's obviously just my opinion - I like the bigger scenes and bigger cast in games like SG. I think it makes things more realistic and makes the characters seem to play a bigger part in the MC's experiences, etc. as the narrative progresses.