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I hope the dev manages to pull it off...but the track record of games that have changed engines is terrible. The number of games here that are successful using the Unreal engine is practically zero. Those two things combined does not bode well.

It's a great story and I love the characters. I hope the game continues.
Though game does not change engine, it still is renpy only thing is changed that from Daz to UE. It still is a huge change especially previous chapters also needs to re-rendered for consistencies sake and there is a steep learning process for UE, I still am hopeful for the game.
 

bigfuckinE

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Jul 18, 2022
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am i imaging things or was the character model for the danes daughter estrid changed? it has been a minute since i've played since the last update so, was there a poll i missed? i loved the look of the previous model. this one reminds me of a previous MC LI that ended on bad terms and all of a sudden popped up out of nowhere and became a choice gain.
 
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cxx

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Nov 14, 2017
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am i imaging things or was the character model for the danes daughter estrid changed? it has been a minute since i've played since the last update so, was there a poll i missed? i loved the look of the previous model. this one reminds me of a previous MC LI that ended on bad terms and all of a sudden popped up out of nowhere and became a choice gain.
maybe mixing up games.
 

bigfuckinE

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Jul 18, 2022
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maybe mixing up games.
perhaps that is the the case, i do have a list of 56 games i'm waiting on to be updated. although i'm pretty sure it is this game, i've finally reached the previous LI i was referring to, Isabella. so maybe i'm just mixing up the order of the girls. the one i'm thinking of i'm assuming it's the daughter of the danes, because she is offered to the king's heir, can't even be bothered to remember his name because i don't like him. she's worried about her knife and later on ambushes the MC in his room holding his servant hostage. i remember her being darker in skin tone...
 

Kirel

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Mar 18, 2018
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431
That is Estrid, she is the daughter of the king of the Danes, and her model hasn't changed from what I remember. She's always been very pale and blonde...
 
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bigfuckinE

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well there is/are girl/girls with darker skin but none of them is viking and doubt viking chiefs kept concubines of women kidnapped from africa.
didn't exactly mean black or african american or w/e the pc term is. i just meant like a dark tan. this chick is as white as my last emo/goth gf.
 

cxx

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Nov 14, 2017
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didn't exactly mean black or african american or w/e the pc term is. i just meant like a dark tan. this chick is as white as my last emo/goth gf.
not that black but some are with bit darker skin color.
 

bigfuckinE

Member
Jul 18, 2022
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i'm starting to find that i have a very faulty memory at best. i apologize if any of my choice in wording was misconstrued as arguing, as tone cannot be conveyed very well through text. i was only trying to understand. thank you to all for your help and any info given. it has also been brought to my attention that my choice in wording may be hurtful. i apologize to anyone i may have offended with ethnic background, that was not my intention. i'm not very good with this PC generation, but i am trying and learning.
 
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Dragon59

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Apr 24, 2020
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well there is/are girl/girls with darker skin but none of them is viking and doubt viking chiefs kept concubines of women kidnapped from africa.
Actually, there were Vikings with skin tones out of Africa. Some taken originally as slaves, others who immigrated voluntarily. Same with Vikings whose ancestors came from Mongolia. Despite the popular image, the Vikings were ethnically diverse. The majority were of Nordic complexion, but not all. And eventually, all were of Nordic ancestry.
 

bacienvu88

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Aug 3, 2021
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Actually, there were Vikings with skin tones out of Africa. Some taken originally as slaves, others who immigrated voluntarily. Same with Vikings whose ancestors came from Mongolia. Despite the popular image, the Vikings were ethnically diverse. The majority were of Nordic complexion, but not all. And eventually, all were of Nordic ancestry.
There were Vikings travelling all over Europe's coasts, including Spain where the Moors ruled, Constantinople and as far east as Volga. It would be surprising if they didn't bring back any people from those places.
 

Umariel

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Jan 21, 2019
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One of main recruits sources for ;
6k of served Byzantine emperor family.
 
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One of main recruits sources for ;
6k of served Byzantine emperor family.
Actually, you can look at articles with "Halfdan was here", one of the funniest historical things I've seen. Dude came from Sweden then engraves his name to Hagia Sophia then almost 15 centuries later people discover that. :LOL:
 
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K18

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Apr 19, 2018
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JuneDevUpdate3.jpg

Just an FYI that I'll be cutting the frequency of these development updates back a bit (to every 2-3 weeks). Day-to-day is a regular pattern of trying new things, refining existing content in UE, watching some tutorials, and working hard to get the next release out. If you don't hear from me for a couple of weeks, fear not. As always, I'm pretty active in Discord most evenings and weekends.

With us halfway through June, there is very good progress to report at the five month mark since I began the Unreal Engine transition. I'm working on custom animations now, along with addressing other issues that I find. Animations and then sequencing those in Unreal Engine will be the final two big pieces. I've brought in another tool to help out with this process to hopefully yield more natural animations. That's going to be a process with training my eye (and learning the tool), but I'm looking forward to it.

Along with that animation work is the control rig for the characters. I'm working on that each evening a bit, and I'm adding things to it like expression selections and fine control of facial muscles. It is going to be a process, but this control rig will help me with setting things up in Unreal Engine sequences and will make small adjustments much easier.

JuneDevUpdate4.jpg
Other than that, work continues in a fashion that I hope doesn't come back to bite me later. That's the "fun" of doing something like this. You can only hope that the mistakes you make are easily correctable later. In fact, I try to design my workflow to account for this, as there are always things that can be improved.

At this stage of development, I'm as ready as you are to get the next release out. It is now a time of pushing things that are not essential off into the future. The wonderful news is that all this preparation before all these wonderful new animations can be created and put together for Chapter 11's release is nearing an end. It's been an adventure, but there is a lot of the character and environment work completed.

A bit of good news is that I was able to get all several hundred of my custom Daz poses converted over to animation sequences in Unreal Engine. They are, of course, just a single frame animation, but this means setting up custom animations, or just transitions from something like sitting to standing, is going to be easier for me since I can use these as a base to start those. Very excited!

As if I didn't have enough on my plate, I've been working on getting To Be A King - Volume 1 ready to launch on another digital platform. More on that when I can announce it. Oh, and this month's special renders will be in UE. Not sure whether it will be an animation or not, but there will definitely be a handful of renders.

I'll end this five month anniversary post by quickly highlighting what's been accomplished thus far:
  • Daz characters converted in Unreal Engine with all their morphs, expressions, poses, and clothing.
  • Hair converted to the Unreal Engine groom system for high quality and realistic movement.
  • Character eyebrows & skin textures converted for improved realism.
  • Animation retargeting for the Unreal Engine 5 mannequin skeleton, UE4 mannequin skeleton, & Mixamo skeleton.
  • Real time character physics implemented for the breasts, butt, and thighs (jiggle physics).
  • Most environments converted into Unreal Engine and using Nanite meshes for higher quality when viewed close up.
  • Basic lighting presets selected and configured for scenes.
  • Custom animation testing started.
  • Daz character genitals converted with morph support (e.g., the vagina can actually open).
  • Custom shaders for the skin, eyes, hair, clothing, and most environments to provide easy changes.
  • Clothing conversion process refined, and real time clothing physics added to existing Daz converted clothing.
  • Initial scene setup testing completed.
  • Character joint rotation correction morphs refined and implemented.
  • Preset animations converted for testing.
  • Model optimization to improve performance in future use cases.
  • Character model conversion time decreased from about half a day to under 30 minutes.
  • New background characters created with LOD support for improved performance in heavy crowd scenes.
  • Cronut's model converted to a custom posable skeleton.
  • Facial motion capture support for converted characters.
 

PederSilver5

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Aug 18, 2020
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Choice of MC graphics, many of those images seem to be of a weak man, the chin is narrow to medium, the shoulders slope, he walks and carries himself like he is uncertain or unready. When dancing at party she said not to wear his armor, but it was to be his best uniform, seemed like common soldier soft leather armor, no insignia, and not boiled hard too. The physique unclothes with Kaylan is better. Cassia bed decorated with the sixth son symbol the fleur de lil, *snickers* Candle lighting, story about 375 AD... Its pleasant to see some taller women in the pool, I noted many have narrow hips, so not certain how many babies they might provide as heirs. On the character sheet, you should give the MC's height and measurements too, its only fair (I am curious). He seems shorter in some of the graphics. On the Fleur De Lil, I think it was Clovis I that used it as a symbol for his conversion to Christianity, which is Gaul (Franks) So its about a hundred and twenty five years early. I did see something about Cleopatra, (about her suicide via asps) but I think that is a load of carp. I surmise the most astute choice of first of harem be Aelinia for wisdom advice. We see Gaul has an upcoming princess not yet met. Ah I see Lydia has the Rampant Lions two facing on her furniture. I have a single black Rampant lion. Did you know that is the sign of the warrior, the passant on the prowl and the lazy English prones... Dan a young Lion, he leaps out from Bashan.

Charisma statistic doesn't update (5pts) after blessing Goddess Anna. Oooh ok more intrique, still a bit early for this but ok, you may not know the Danes and Norwegians sent and acted as mercenaries to the Rus.
Well knock me over with a noodle, you do know some olde norse stories.
An unusual situation, you might slow down on the many girls, I was looking forward to the stuffed cat getting drunk on beer and spilling the beans. Seems the Italians are greatly influenced by Gaul in your story, perhaps you should put the Bees of my line on their clothing too, ha.
 
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