VN Ren'Py Completed The Professor [v3.4] [Pixieblink]

[Pixieblink]

View attachment 569045

Huh?

I'm not sure I get your point.

 

[Pixieblink]

funny game, and nice animations, so different from static games. since the animations can be quite long, some sort of indication of time remaining like a progress bar or something would be helpful as it is currently too easy to skip past long animations.

It would. Renp'y doesn't support it though there may be a work around. I'm already checking into it.

 

[TFurguson69]

This guy wants patreon for that little of an update? Me thinks he smoketh the crack too much

 

[Pixieblink]

This guy wants patreon for that little of an update? Me thinks he smoketh the crack too much

The animations take a VERY long time to render. If I were just doing stills, I could bang out an update with 7-8 new days (for whichever character or combo thereof).

 

[Evil B. Monkey]

Hey Pixieblink, I'm in awe of your animations. How long would you say it takes you on average to create a 10 second animation if you already have all the assets? Also, is there any chance you could do a post or video on how you create them and what tools you use? I've been forming a plot for a project of my own and have solid development and writing bases, but I'm just starting to investigate the graphical side. Would you mind pointing me in the right direction?

 

[Pixieblink]

In awe? Thanks but I don't think they're that great. Just.... acceptable.

Daz studio & power, power and more power.

You can download a copy of Daz studio for free. Try it out, play with it. There's a bit of a learning curve involved.

The really big thing is render times. The more powerful the system, the quicker the renders. Right now with a 16 core Ryzen and a nvidia rtx2080ti video card 5 seconds of video takes about 3-5 hours. That's JUST the render time. Add to that the time positioning things around in DAZ and getting everything ready to render, the post production in a video editor, coding in Renp'y and final compression...

Real life example? I just finished a new video sequence for the next update (The Professor takes Katie to the hairdresser). It's about 35 seconds long and took about 35 hours to complete everything.

Add to that the time for creating the stills. Took about 2.5/3 hours to create these 5 stills that are part of the storyline at the hair salon.

Honestly I've only recouped about 15% I have invested into this game so far.
But what the hell, I'm having fun creating it (It's my first game).
And it would be nice if the game really took off some day...

Hope this helps you out, and good luck with your project.

 

[Evil B. Monkey]

Thanks for the reply!

In awe? Thanks but I don't think they're that great. Just.... acceptable.

I think it depends what you are comparing yourself to. "Acceptable" is fair relative to commercial games. But the only Ren'Py project I've seen here with better animations second-per-second and similar style to yours (as opposed to a simpler, cartoon-style) would be "My Best Deal" by Pirot King, and it's using mostly sprites and has far less animation overall.

Daz studio & power, power and more power.

I'm surprised you're doing it all in Daz. I've read that Daz isn't very good at animation and that tends to show in most of the games on this site. Any idea what you're doing better than they are? I'm sure part of it is just framerate, but you've got very smooth transitions between the different poses as well as great "breast physics" and facial expression changes. Is it just attention to detail or do you have any tips you can share?

The new stills look great by the way. Which reminds me, there are a couple shots in the OP I didn't see. Namely, the cheerleaders and the one with the camel. Are they not yet in game or did I miss them somehow?

Editted to add:

Honestly I've only recouped about 15% I have invested into this game so far.
But what the hell, I'm having fun creating it (It's my first game).
And it would be nice if the game really took off some day...

I don't have a lot to spare these days, but I'll toss a few bucks your way. I think it will take off eventually if you keep it up. I suspect you're being held back by a poor initial reception (if the first page of this thread is anything to go by) and a limited amount of new content due to the amount of animation. But I think once more people try it, most will really like it.

 

[giqui]

The animations take a VERY long time to render. If I were just doing stills, I could bang out an update with 7-8 new days (for whichever character or combo thereof).

Beautiful work. I look forward to the next update.

 

[Pixieblink]

Thanks for the reply!



I think it depends what you are comparing yourself to. "Acceptable" is fair relative to commercial games. But the only Ren'Py project I've seen here with better animations second-per-second and similar style to yours (as opposed to a simpler, cartoon-style) would be "My Best Deal" by Pirot King, and it's using mostly sprites and has far less animation overall.



I'm surprised you're doing it all in Daz. I've read that Daz isn't very good at animation and that tends to show in most of the games on this site. Any idea what you're doing better than they are? I'm sure part of it is just framerate, but you've got very smooth transitions between the different poses as well as great "breast physics" and facial expression changes. Is it just attention to detail or do you have any tips you can share?

The new stills look great by the way. Which reminds me, there are a couple shots in the OP I didn't see. Namely, the cheerleaders and the one with the camel. Are they not yet in game or did I miss them somehow?

Editted to add:



I don't have a lot to spare these days, but I'll toss a few bucks your way. I think it will take off eventually if you keep it up. I suspect you're being held back by a poor initial reception (if the first page of this thread is anything to go by) and a limited amount of new content due to the amount of animation. But I think once more people try it, most will really like it.

Thanks dude, every penny helps And I'm glad you enjoyed playing the game.

I think the problem with DAZ and animation is the learning curve. It's a little tougher, but the ability to control the characters in the animation exactly the same way you would pose them for a still image makes up for a lot. And like I said, you're going to need a power system to render it, you can forget about your old jacked out 8-core chugging through it in any acceptable time frame.

Message me in private once you get started on DAZ, be happy to lend you some pointers and get you started in the right direction. You can also check out a lot of different youtube videos, I probably learned more there than reading articles written by ''experts''.

And of course a lot of it just has to do with learning DAZ inside, outside upside down. The frame rate, the lighting, the HD detailing of the skin, even the choices in the clothing & hair all affect render times, often massively.

As for the camel & the cheerleader... it's when the Professor goes to bed and dreams in Heather's last 2 updates. You'll see either / or depending on if you drank before you went to sleep or not.

And if you like the game, a review is ALWAYS appreciated.

 

[Pixieblink]

Beautiful work. I look forward to the next update.

Glad you had fun playing it. A quick little review is always appreciated, if you have the time.

 

[Pixieblink]

hahaha this game got me laughing so hard. Nice animations btw.

Thanks dude, I'm glad you enjoyed it. If you've got a few seconds, a quick review of the game is always appreciated.

 

[Evil B. Monkey]

Thanks dude, every penny helps And I'm glad you enjoyed playing the game.

I think the problem with DAZ and animation is the learning curve. It's a little tougher, but the ability to control the characters in the animation exactly the same way you would pose them for a still image makes up for a lot. And like I said, you're going to need a power system to render it, you can forget about your old jacked out 8-core chugging through it in any acceptable time frame.
...
Message me in private once you get started on DAZ, be happy to lend you some pointers and get you started in the right direction.
...
And if you like the game, a review is ALWAYS appreciated.

Thanks! I've got a 980Ti, but my processor is about 10 years old (i5-2500K). I'll have to see how it holds up. My current plan is to create a bunch of movie sprites for use over backgrounds rendered separately, possibly splitting the head and body so I can pair emotions and outfits to combine them either in Ren'Py (if it can do that) or some kind of editing software. Then I can just focus on animations for intimate scenes without having to create a million stills for everything else since I plan to have a heavy story focus.

I'll definitely hit you up when I could use some advice if you're cool with it. I don't know how far off that is though. I'm still trying to get the plot to where I want it.

I posted a 5-star review last night. Let me know how I came across because I fear I might ruffle some feelings for the more sensitive creators. It's just that having had feedback for my own creative endeavors in the past, I find most people don't give actionable criticism so I try to be thorough.

By the way, I hope you like the fan signature I made. Let me know if there are any particular images or videos you'd like me to make them for (the filenames are fine if they're in the images folder) or if you'd like one that says "Dev" or something. Now that I understand the process, I could make more pretty quickly.

 

[Pixieblink]

Thanks! I've got a 980Ti, but my processor is about 10 years old (i5-2500K). I'll have to see how it holds up. My current plan is to create a bunch of movie sprites for use over backgrounds rendered separately, possibly splitting the head and body so I can pair emotions and outfits to combine them either in Ren'Py (if it can do that) or some kind of editing software. Then I can just focus on animations for intimate scenes without having to create a million stills for everything else since I plan to have a heavy story focus.

I'll definitely hit you up when I could use some advice if you're cool with it. I don't know how far off that is though. I'm still trying to get the plot to where I want it.

I posted a 5-star review last night. Let me know how I came across because I fear I might ruffle some feelings for the more sensitive creators. It's just that having had feedback for my own creative endeavors in the past, I find most people don't give actionable criticism so I try to be thorough.

By the way, I hope you like the fan signature I made. Let me know if there are any particular images or videos you'd like me to make them for (the filenames are fine if they're in the images folder) or if you'd like one that says "Dev" or something. Now that I understand the process, I could make more pretty quickly.

Thanks dude! Both for the fan sig (which is awesome!... but could you make it say THE PROFESSOR REMASTERED instead of THE PROFESSOR?) and for the review. Ruffling feathers? Don't worry about it, just post what you feel is right.

Sounds like a complicated way of going about making a game, but once you get all the stuff prepped it should be faster in the long run. Don't THINK renp'y can split like that (seperating the head & the body), but I could be wrong.

Hit me up anytime, glad to help out. The way I figure, the more people make / play games, the better we all are for it.

Just looked it up, the 980ti is only 2800 odd cuda cores. The good thing about daz is when rendering you can pick BOTH hardware rendering (your video card) and software emulation (through the CPU) either / or both at the same time to help speed things up.

You're still looking at some serious render time with DAZ & Iray shaders... have you thought about using the 3d delight shaders instead? I don't like it nearly as much as Iray, but it IS workable. Or even maybe cartoon shaders? Or even (cringe) Honey Select?

 

[giqui]

Thanks dude, I'm glad you enjoyed it. If you've got a few seconds, a quick review of the game is always appreciated.

Just one question: why did Heather have such a small stake?

 

[Evil B. Monkey]

Thanks dude! Both for the fan sig (which is awesome!... but could you make it say THE PROFESSOR REMASTERED instead of THE PROFESSOR?) and for the review. Ruffling feathers? Don't worry about it, just post what you feel is right.

Sounds like a complicated way of going about making a game, but once you get all the stuff prepped it should be faster in the long run. Don't THINK renp'y can split like that (seperating the head & the body), but I could be wrong.

Hit me up anytime, glad to help out. The way I figure, the more people make / play games, the better we all are for it.

Just looked it up, the 980ti is only 2800 odd cuda cores. The good thing about daz is when rendering you can pick BOTH hardware rendering (your video card) and software emulation (through the CPU) either / or both at the same time to help speed things up.

You're still looking at some serious render time with DAZ & Iray shaders... have you thought about using the 3d delight shaders instead? I don't like it nearly as much as Iray, but it IS workable. Or even maybe cartoon shaders? Or even (cringe) Honey Select?

I'll figure something out. I'm probably too much of a perfectionist to lower the quality much to improve render time though. I won't have as many sex scenes as most games anyway since I'm going for something between a western adult novel and a Japanese-style eroge, so I can lean on the sprites a lot which should be quicker given it's a single character (or even part of one) with no other objects besides clothing. I did render a single character model in very high resolution a couple years ago in Iray (though with just the camera light and no objects) and I don't recall it taking that long to do, so I expect I can make it work. I don't think I'd go the Honey Select route, but I could potentially look into the cartoon shaders if I had to. Most likely though, I'll just have waaaaay fewer animations than you do and reuse them where it makes sense.

How's this?



Just say the word if there's anything in particular you'd like. I should mention I'm a bit colorblind, so let me know if anything needs adjusting lol. I just grabbed the orange from your banner for the color.

 

[Pixieblink]

Just one question: why did Heather have such a small stake?

Because she was a (broke) student? Or perhaps because it started off as a friendly game.
But I have a feeling things are going to start getting serious...

 

[Pixieblink]

I'll figure something out. I'm probably too much of a perfectionist to lower the quality much to improve render time though. I won't have as many sex scenes as most games anyway since I'm going for something between a western adult novel and a Japanese-style eroge, so I can lean on the sprites a lot which should be quicker given it's a single character (or even part of one) with no other objects besides clothing. I did render a single character model in very high resolution a couple years ago in Iray (though with just the camera light and no objects) and I don't recall it taking that long to do, so I expect I can make it work. I don't think I'd go the Honey Select route, but I could potentially look into the cartoon shaders if I had to. Most likely though, I'll just have waaaaay fewer animations than you do and reuse them where it makes sense.

How's this?



Just say the word if there's anything in particular you'd like. I should mention I'm a bit colorblind, so let me know if anything needs adjusting lol. I just grabbed the orange from your banner for the color.

It's badass. Thanks!

You know, if you're going the backgrounds & sprites mode with no lighting... there's a script for DAZ that allows you to batch out renders. Just line them up (save the .duf files) and crank it up when you go to bed

You could probably turn out a dozen or two sprites overnight.

 

[RandyPhoenix]

MC looking realy bad when I look comments or rewiews I want play but everytime I saw that MC I dont want download...

 

[Horrible]

Digging your content. Kudos. If I might offer up a quick note for copyediting:

LOSE = not win.
LOOSE = not tight.

That's a pretty common typo/copyedit mistake. Thanks for the game. Again, good work.

 

[cxx]

MC looking realy bad when I look comments or rewiews I want play but everytime I saw that MC I dont want download...

he's not in his prime anymore so what do you expect?