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Hello,
So, this is the first official Dev Log of Chapter 3.
From Chapter 3 onwards, I will switch to the half Chapter counting.
I'll do the same as I did with Summer's Gone.
Season 1 is Chapter 1 to Chapter 5.
With Chapter 5, WiAB S1 will be published on Steam, Gog, etc.
1. Current state of Chapter 3, A6000, and the near future.
I mentioned in the last Dev Log, that I would order an A6000.
And so I did... The old version, though. (The new ones are going to be above 8000€ to 9000€ here in Europe.)
I got the last GEN for 5200€.
Speedwise not much will change (5-7% improvement maybe) but the card features 48GB.
This allows me to render all the scenes.
Another big plus: The card is only 2-Slots big. I could put another A6000 in there.
I might get another one after the next update.
I'm around
130 renders into Chapter 3.
The past few days have been jam-packed.
I'm moving in less than a week, and I'm also in contact with a new tax office, and a lawyer's office.
In the future, I want to work together with a lawyer to set up my contracts for music, freelancing, etc.
It's kinda weird how much this entire development endeavor has expanded... But if I want to provide more and more quality in the future. I need to put more in.
At some point, I will probably employ someone to handle the contract with the artists.
I don't really enjoy that part and would rather just write and render.
2. Planned changes to the PCs.
Here's a big one.
At the moment I have two PCs and something that looks like a PC.
In the future, I want to only set up scenes on one single PC. WiAB and SG will go onto the same PC.
Then I will get another three PCs. (I already have two.)
One of them is completely dedicated to rendering stills. The other two render animations.
But everything will be set up on the main PC.
So, in the future, we'll have one main PC and three Slave PCs to increase productivity.
I'm currently producing the Steam Trailer for Summer's Gone. (Apparently I need one for Steam.)
And it just takes forever... All 3 PCs were on this and it took 5 days to set up and render 10 animations.
That's too long. Slave PCs are the way to go with animations.
Sometime in 2022, I will buy an absolute goddess of a workstation. This will be the main PC for setting up and rendering at the end of the day.
My currently used two PCs will become Slave PCs.
The third animation PC I can barely use will retire. (Its insides are from 2015 and got a 2080Ti, which only has 11GB VRAM.)
3. WiAB will go 4k.
With the update to Renpy, I'm now able to create the game with 4k images. I tested some stuff out and the file size would be about 30-40% bigger.
But the quality improvement would be immense.
I already render everything (except animations) in 4k. And I manually scale it down in postwork.
So by going 4k, postwork actually speeds up A LOT. (I don't use a batch scale program, as I have some specific scaling options in PS to preserve quality.)
I will need to redo the post on the renders from Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. But that shouldn't take long.
I will start with it over Christmas for 2h a day.
3. Previews (Comparisons.)
Last time I mentioned that I would be previewing someone that appeared in the old game.
The police station was foreshadowing.
Old Abigail Chapter 2
Old Abigail's introduction was... umm... let's call it 'special'.
New Abigail
Old Abigail Chapter 4
Old Abigail Chapter 6
New Abigail
Old Leia and Abi
New Leia and Abi
Personality-wise, Abigail hasn't changed a lot.
Her background and past are completely different now. So is the role she's going to play in WiAB.
We VN early access developers have one big issue. We release games in parts with only a few months of work in them.
You probably noticed that I change characters here and there. Especially boob/ass forms and sizes.
During my postwork on Chapter 2, I personally found Leia's tits a tat too big and weirdly formed.
In these previews, you see some more compact and formed boobs. I did some Zbrushing. They're a little bit smaller now.
I could of course just ignore it and just keep everyone how they are... But I don't like this approach. It's a WIP.
Anyways, Leia's tiddies are a little smaller now with a new form sculpt.
Ch2
Ch3
They're still big.
But I now find them a lot more aesthetically pleasing.
And some cutie Leia for the end.
This is the last Dev Log in my current place. It's been quite a ride.
- Ocean