Summer's Gone - Season 2 - Chapter 1 - Dev Log #22
Hello,
The first dev log of the year.
Warning! This is a long-ass dev log.
You can skip the workstation and 'Why I don't hire another artist' section if you don't want to read a summary of how we got here. Taxes and other behind-the-scenes stuff are also mentioned.
I feel like writing a little more today, as this is my only real outlet for what's happening behind the scenes.
- Workstation
In late December, I posted on Discord that my B2B vendor and I had finalized the Workstation. However, I made a late change by downgrading the CPU, so the contract had to be redone. That was on the 24th.
He told me he would be back in office in the early days of January.
I've been discussing this workstation for a year, and it's almost time. I will be fully transparent about the Workstation specs and its price. This wouldn't have been possible without the support you guys have given me. (Steam had to do some heavy lifting because I had to prepay the 2023 taxes in full last June.
Under normal circumstances, I would've had to pay them in late 2025, but the gov didn't like how I handled it. So, last year was a financial challenge.
But now that 2023 is already paid, 2025 will be a lot more chill, as I won't have to pay 2024 until 2026.
And with 2022 paid a few weeks ago, I have so much more freedom now.
This means that all the talk about taxes and workstations will soon stop.
Bottleneck
I think it's useless to upgrade your PC to a faster one if your PC outperforms you. If you can't set up more scenes a day than it can render a night. Don't upgrade for speed.
(VRAM updates are always awesome.)
But for a long time now, I have constantly outperformed my current Workstation.
I haven't turned on my other old PC in a while because it can't handle the scenes.
With the new workstation, I will be the bottleneck again.
Now, let me talk about a topic I see come up a lot, but I haven't spoken about it in a log yet.
"Why don't you just hire someone to help you with the art?"
I hear this quite frequently... Okay. Let me tell you why.
Step 1
How many other Daz artists do you know who can produce my quality, style, and composition AND want to work for someone else?
Step 2
Now, can I trust this person?
I would need to buy them a system that costs thousands, if not five digits, so he can render scenes with 15-30 characters without losing all the quality, thanks to insane optimization.
If he's a Daz artist, he might already have a good PC, but a 4090 isn't enough to handle some of the scenes.
Step 3
Now, I have to pay this person, and someone who matches me in quality and style isn't going to work for a few hundred bucks a month. It will most likely cost me easily 50% of my support.
Step 4
I've been burned by external help before- not once, not twice, but three times. After months of excuses and being ghosted, I did it myself again.
Instead of working 100% of the time, I will have to manage someone. What if his art isn't what I want it to look like?
What if I envisioned it like this or that? What if the expressions are off? "You want me to show you how I do this or that..."
Revisions after revision could be happening.
To finalize my reasons.
I don't want to rely on others when I make the game. I don't want to spend time managing people. I don't even know if there's an artist like me in Daz. (There are other very talented artists, but we all have different styles.)
I can't even remotely afford it.
But the most significant factor is that you would feel and probably see a substantial shift in the game.
It would feel like a cute bakery shop was bought up by a bigger corp, and suddenly everything tastes a little different. It's not as moody and vibrant anymore. Something seems off.
You would immediately see it in the expressions of the characters.
Don't forget the additional work for my tax office and, most likely, more bureaucracy.
I have no issue hiring coders, UI designers, postwork boys, environment creators, and all those other things that I don't like doing and take weeks to months of my time.
But the writing, the art, and the animations are something that only I will ever do while I work with Daz. That's where my passion lies. I'm absolutely addicted to it.
While I do earn money with SG, I don't view it as a business product. You don't see me do marketing campaigns because all I want to do is write, create art, and become even better at all these things while trying to stay financially stable and eventually be able to afford a child.
I understand that everyone wants updates as quickly as possible, but I won't slap a sticker on SG that says, "New recipe!" just to get it out quicker.
If I'd do that, It wouldn't taste the same.
Thankfully, I have reached an insane level of productivity while maintaining and improving the quality of the art. And with the new workstation, I'll push that envelope even further.
It might've been a mistake to make an update three times the size of my usual updates, because now the insane jump in productivity doesn't show. I'm almost at a point where I would've finished Chapter 5 twice since I started working on S2 in June. (And that's not the only renders I do.)
My closing thoughts on it... While working with DAZ, I will never be able to get help.
However, that might change with Blender, especially in the environmental design department. In Blender, I'm a small bibi fish.
There's so much to learn from absolute titans of the 3D industry... And it excites me so much.
The Workstation specs.
CPU: AMD Threadripper PRO 7985WX
Cooler: Liquid Thermal Solution | Alphacool Eisbaer Pro Aurora 420 CPU AIO
Case: Fractal Design Define 7 XL
Power: Super Flower Leadex 80Plus Platinum | 2000W (Can power 4 A6000s ADA)
Motherboard: ASUS | Socket sTR5 | Pro WS WRX90E-SAGE SE | E-ATX (Can fit 4 ADAs)
RAM: DDR5 5600 ECC Reg. 32GB | Micron | 2R x8 (From 128GB DDR4 to 256GB DDR5)
SSD: 2x NVMe Standard | M.2 | Samsung 990 Pro | 2TB | 0.33 DWPD | PCIe 4.0
Another 1x 8TB Sata for all the 3D Assets.
1x VGA NVIDIA RTX 6000 ADA | 48GB | PCIe 4.0 (I then have 3 ADAs in total.)
I downgraded the CPU from a Threadripper PRO 7995WX to a 7985WX. However, it still supports the 128 PCIE lanes I need for the GPUs. While the CPU isn't that important in Daz directly, it will be crucial for simulations in Blender and Houdini.
My current CPU one only supports 16 or 32 PCIE lanes. I know that one of my A6000s doesn't run at 100%.
Price ~21.000€ to 23.000€ (including tax).
I managed to get the leasing company to drop the upfront payment, and I'll be paying ~ 550 to 600€ a month for it. (With a bigger payment at the end if I want to keep the Workstation after leasing. I plan to do that.)
Add the two A6000 Adas I already have, and I have active business leasing of around 1000€ a month.
As the workstation will only be used for work, I can deduct it as a business expense. The leasing helps a lot there.
I will make another small post about it when I have signed the contract and when it arrives.
The next upgrade would be a dedicated animation PC. But for that, I wanna wait for the new Nvidia 5000 series. Speed is more important there. So, that upgrade might be done by the end of 2025 (early 2026).
But it all that doesn't matter right now. We'll check them out when they release.
This might become the longest dev log I've ever made...
Earlier today, I published a post where people can submit their own signature drink/food for SG.
Characters in the games can and will order them on occasion. (Also judge them.)
Here's an example of how it looks:
Cocktails. (Some characters in game can also earn their own signature drink.)
Messe created it, and I thought, why not let some supporters get their own creations in, too.
Here's how it looks for the Divine Serpent:
Maybe you can 'Chase the Sunset' with the Signature drink: "Tonalu Sunset"
The post can be found here:
You must be registered to see the links
Season 2 - Chapter 1
The holidays were around, and I took it easier during these days. However, I did work through New Year's Eve.
Now, it's 110% again.
As soon as I have the workstation, I will note down the daily render output for a while to see what is possible. I will do it healthily because long-term performance matters more than a few weeks of insane productivity.
Previews. 4K attached
Sonya again.
I was like... Do you know who we haven't seen in a while... Nancy.
Oh yeah... Ayua is also doing... something.
Following up on the last Log's Zara preview:
That's me how I look at 12h workdays. (Not kidding.)
I made some nice renders in the past two days that I really liked. It's in the same scene as the one with Sonya. I had added a little more to it and finished it yesterday.
It's time to fix my sleep schedule so that I can ruin it again in two weeks when hyperfocus hits and I can't stop working.
Hopefully, I'll see you in two weeks with a powerful new Workstation by my side.
Happy New Year, lads!
Ocean
