VN Ren'Py Abandoned Wicked Choices: Agents of Karma [v0.1.75] [ASLPro3D]

[ASLPro3D]

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UPDATE: How will YOU get to the END?? – May 31, 2021
(as posted on our Patreon Page)

Hello everyone, I hope that this finds you well and, for those that live in the States, that you are enjoying the long weekend, spending time with the family and remembering the men and women who lived and died to help provide us with the freedoms that we get to enjoy.

And while Memorial Day is just a United States holiday, I still think that it is a good thing for everyone one to do, no matter what country you live in, to remember those who lived, fought and died to protect the lives that we are able to live… may their sacrifices NEVER be forgotten.

To the men and women that I served with, all my thanks and love!!

With that said, let’s get down to the brass tacks here and talk about the current status of “Chapter Two” to the Prologue of “Wicked Choices: Agents of Karma”.

For comparison, let me first show you the screen capture that I posted in my last update, so that you can compare and see the progress that we’ve made…

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(From the last update)

And, now, here is the screen grab of the current Twine File and I will break down, what’s been done, what’s left to do and what we’ll be focusing on next…

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(Current update)

The box in GREEN is where I am currently working… I spent a good majority of the time finishing up the 270+ images that needed to be done for that chapter section and have been inputting everything into the Twine file for the programmer (Epadder) and editor (Sierra3) … the boxes in YELLOW are also finished, I just need to added everything and the various choices that you will have into the TWINE in those spots and that should be done on Wednesday.

The box in RED will be the next area that I will then focus on and that will require roughly another 500-600 renders and once added into the TWINE will be the completion of “Chapter Two” for everyone…

I’d like for you to take a moment and focus your attention on the BLUE BOX up near the top… that is the CREDIT’S Page and the End of the Game in the TWINE… as you can see, there are MULTITUDE OF WAYS that you can get to the end of the game!!!

You will have PLENTY of CHOICES to make to through the course of this chapter, plenty of options to choose from to get the kind of ending/sex and relationship that you want with the characters…. Discover things, try out things and will have the means to try out different things to get the outcome that best suits YOU.

Yes, I know that this has been taking a LONG time to create and a lot of you have been very, very patient in waiting for it… we CAN’T thank you ENOUGH for your dedication to us, our work and this game’s story and KNOW that we’ve been putting in LONG HOURS and working a lot to make sure that we provide you with something that you will enjoy.

And, like you, I look forward to getting this release OUT, so that I can return to smaller, regular releases… rather than this drug induced concept that should’ve only been attempted with lots more staff and help!

Okay, I took up enough of your time here… time for me to delve back into this mess I created and try to finish up this section, so that I can bring us one more step to getting this out to all of you.

Please be safe, enjoy your week and, again, thank you so much for your dedication, support and faith in us… we really hope that when this gets into your hands that you will be able to see just how much we appreciate all of you!!

~Jack & Crew

 

[BlondieAngelEyes]

Good to see your process ASLPro3D

 

[ASLPro3D]

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UPDATE: Work, Work & More Work!! – June 11, 2021
(as posted on our Patreon Page)

Hello, my friends, I hope that you all have been well and it’s that time again to provide you an update on the status for “Chapter Two” of the Prologue to “Wicked Choices: Agents of Karma”!!

First of all, so that you can better follow along, let me provide you with the current snapshot of the Twine file…

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As you can see, I managed, by last weekend to tie off a large chunk of the story section, with numerous paths and choices that you can make and still need to finish out that group signified by the GREEN BOX… however, rather than jumping right in and beginning that section, which will have a lot of choices and paths, I decided to take a break from TWINE and began start the work of assembling the various poses, camera angles and setting up the renders that are still needed in the RED BOX section.

The area in the RED BOX is the most important “TRUE END” outcome area and is the area that will provide YOU THE PLAYER with the BEST outcome and sexual choice options for you to choose from! And, just for the record, when this area is programed into the software by Epadder, it won’t be as easy to get to as it shows in the TWINE file… so, you are going to have to manage your dialogue/responses correctly to get to this area!

Anyway, this area is the most IMPORTANT area in the game and the rewards for you navigating your way to it should be rewarded with the best choices and outcomes, and since I needed a break from working in the TWINE, I began the process of working in it on Sunday.

While working in it, I decided… for storytelling purposes… that I needed to add a brief scene in it that would better explain the reactions & reason why one of the characters were acting the way they were with a brief flashback… however, I ran into a pretty BIG problem while doing so… my current computer system isn’t powerful enough to render the scenery and scenes for that brief section… there is just too many damn polygons and geometry to render it out and no matter what I tried it would create the dreaded BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!!

Frustrated beyond words, the wife and I decided right then and there to hop in the car and drive to the computer store… I had been trying to put it off till after I release this damn chapter, but this recent setback solidified the need for me to start the process of doing a new system build!!

As some of you know, I had already purchased an ASUS RTX GeForce 3090 Strix back in December of last year, but couldn’t put it in my current system because the CPU, PSU, current motherboard and RAM couldn’t support it…

So, two hours and $5,535.61 USD later, I managed to get all of the parts (except for the second ASUS RTX GeForce 3090 Strix that I want to get) I need, including a new case to contain all of the parts and still be able to continue to work on the game using my current system and have begun the process of building the new system when I am done working on “Agents of Karma” for the day.

I’ll post the specs, for those interested, once I am finished with my update here…

So, this is how I plan to do this… every day, I am going to continue the work needed (and the stuff I know I can do right now) for “Chapter Two” using my current system, when I am done working on the game for the day, I will be working my tired and broken ass on my new system build till it is finished and have all of my software and stuff installed on it.

Then, I will unplug the old system, plug in the new one and keep going on the work that needs to be done.

For the “flashback” scene that I wanted to do and am unable to do currently, I will move forward without it and inject it in at a later time… either as a patch if the game is done before my system build is done, or in the release if the system build is done before “Chapter Two” is done…

In the meantime, I am going to finish out the area in the area RED BOX and also finish adding the already finished stuff into the GREEN area in Twine.

I’ll be sure to keep all of you updated on the remain progress of “Chapter Two” to the Prologue of “Wicked Choices: Agents of Karma” and on my system build… I wouldn’t have been able to build this system if not for you, as well as, the stimulus checks we received and think that this is the best investment to make for continuing with this game series!! Please, take care, have a good weekend and I’ll talk to you soon!!



CURRENT BUILD SPECS FOR THOSE INTERESTED:

ASUS ROG Strix Helios GX601 RGB Mid-Tower White Edition Computer Case

ASUS ROG Maximus XIII Extreme Glacial

ASUS GeForce RTX 3090 Strix Graphics Card (trying to get a second one too)

INTEL I9-10900K CPU

G.SKILL 128GB RAM

SAMSUNG E 1TB 970EVO (Boot Drive)

(6x) TOSHIBA 10TB 3.5 7200RPM

YOTTADRIVE Aluminum Alloy 4 Bay External Hard Drive RAID Enclosure

LG Slim Portable Blu-ray/ DVD Writer w/ 3D Blu-ray Disk Playback

CORSAIR RMX1000 PSU (ASUS only does 850 PSU ☹ )

EK Quantum Kinetic TBE 200 D5 PWM D-RGB – Acetal Pump

EKWB EK-CoolStream SE 360 – Triple Radiator

PrimoChill PrimoFlex 3/8" (10 mm) x 5/8" (16 mm) Advanced LRT Tubing 10 ft.

Corsair Hydro X Series XL5 Performance Coolant 1L – Purple

Bitspower G 1/4" Mini Valve - Matte Black (and additional fittings)

Windows 10 Professional Edition

 

[ASLPro3D]

Good to see your process ASLPro3D

Yeah, doing so best shows everyone that progress is being made, that their support isn't ignored or forgotten and... heh... just how insane and doped up that I was when creating this chapter!!

 

[vimmers]

ASLPro3D
very nice equipment

 

[c3p0]

ASLPro3D for PSU I only use Seasonic. In my view they do one of the best, if not the best.

The area in the RED BOX is the most important “TRUE END” outcome area and is the area that will provide YOU THE PLAYER with the BEST outcome and sexual choice options for you to choose from! And, just for the record, when this area is programed into the software by Epadder, it won’t be as easy to get to as it shows in the TWINE file… so, you are going to have to manage your dialogue/responses correctly to get to this area!

Meticulous copying the twine file for reference

 

[jaw1986baby]

Yeah, doing so best shows everyone that progress is being made, that their support isn't ignored or forgotten and... heh... just how insane and doped up that I was when creating this chapter!!

NOICE!
I have had a lot of luck with ASUS gear myself. One question is that Boot Drive an M.2 interface? or SATA6 cable?

 

[ASLPro3D]

Meticulous copying the twine file for reference

May not help you, I am sure that it won't look completely the same when programmed in by Epadder... but, then again, you can always refer to the In-Game Pathing System.

 

[ASLPro3D]

NOICE!
I have had a lot of luck with ASUS gear myself. One question is that Boot Drive an M.2 interface? or SATA6 cable?

It is an M.2... I am honestly not a big fan of SSD's... once the cells are full, the card is useless, so I only use an SSD card to hold the OS only for faster boot time, all my other programs go on an HDD drive, while 3D files and backups to each individual render go on a removable drive and is saved forever, in case I ever need to redo the image/scene.

 

[c3p0]

It is an M.2... I am honestly not a big fan of SSD's... once the cells are full, the card is useless, so I only use an SSD card to hold the OS only for faster boot time, all my other programs go on an HDD drive, while 3D files and backups to each individual render go on a removable drive and is saved forever, in case I ever need to redo the image/scene.

And I put the task of reassemble my big tower off. Fear too much that my RAID controller will scream and inform me that the HDD aren't working as they should.

With SDD it their working life depends a lot of them and how you use them. For what I see a great advantage is they are fast and use same or less power than a HDD. But depend on which type you want (SLC, MLC, TLC, QLC, ...) they may cost a fortune and have very different endurance and writing speed.
For Flash type memory IC Microchip declare a data retention of over 100 years, older (E)EPROM memory IC have a retention time from 10 years to over 200 years, where the classsic SRAM (with backup battery only included hold up to over 20 years). And HDDs will fail too. All depends on your work case and you always should have a backup.

So for my PC I will most likely recycle my ridiculous expensive SASII RAID controller and use somehow cheap 2.5" SATA SSD (TLC, perhaps QLC). Give me a lot more performance and a lot more space possible for 2.5".
And I should invest in a suitable backup as well.

PSU:

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, eg.

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cost superior, but from my own background also superior build quality and make OEM work for other brands too.

 

[jaw1986baby]

It is an M.2... I am honestly not a big fan of SSD's... once the cells are full, the card is useless, so I only use an SSD card to hold the OS only for faster boot time, all my other programs go on an HDD drive, while 3D files and backups to each individual render go on a removable drive and is saved forever, in case I ever need to redo the image/scene.

Definitely want to use backup solutions for data integrity never good to lose data.

But don't worry about your SSD degrading anytime soon. Even the TLC storage types (which have the lowest expected life versus MLC and SLC) typically are rated for 100+ years which is why warrantees are often about 10 years from the manufacturer.

I am and have been very much in the bottom 10% of earners in the USA for the last how long and I still upgrade way more often than 10 years so warrantee period is even long IMO

 

[c3p0]

But don't worry about your SSD degrading anytime soon. Even the TLC storage types (which have the lowest expected life versus MLC and SLC) typically are rated for 100+ years which is why warrantees are often about 10 years from the manufacturer.

To go into technical details (one of my stronger points), QLC would be the bottom.
And also depend on how they are manufacture it. If you don't have any claim on how long the retention time is, then you don't now how long it us (or under which conditions).

Only truth is and this is the same for write cycle:
If all other things are the same: SLC > MLC > TLC > QLC (and then 5bit, 6bit and so).

I haven't seen this information on any datasheet I've read and it doesn't make a difference if you look at a server SSD with 15 TB size or the cheapest consumer SSD. Also can't seem them in the public available information for even flash IC, yet I'm sure that some of the datasheets of flash IC will have them on it...

Bottom line I don't think that we can really say anything about the data retention they have. Yet, I would bet my sorry arse that this will be (far) longer than the warranty they give. But I wouldn't recommend to use SSD for cold backup 10+ years.
Also I would recommend to any who need a backup that is 10+ years either use a strategy like use HDDs and in best case two ore more off them with the same information and additional ECC code on top, then copy that around 3-5 years to new HDDs or go to an expert for (expensive) backup solution.

 

[slayer991]

It is an M.2... I am honestly not a big fan of SSD's... once the cells are full, the card is useless, so I only use an SSD card to hold the OS only for faster boot time, all my other programs go on an HDD drive, while 3D files and backups to each individual render go on a removable drive and is saved forever, in case I ever need to redo the image/scene.

I would not think your bottleneck would be the spinning disk anyway...it's the graphics processing/CPU, correct? Kudos to you for backing up your data to a removable drive (hopefully, you have it stored in a separate physical location).

 

[ASLPro3D]

I would not think your bottleneck would be the spinning disk anyway...it's the graphics processing/CPU, correct? Kudos to you for backing up your data to a removable drive (hopefully, you have it stored in a separate physical location).

You'd be right slayer991, the bottleneck and issue is definitely coming from my current CPU & GPU's that is resulting in the BSoD's... the GPU's remain around a steady 37-42 degrees while trying to render the scene, so best I can figure out is that it is RAMming out, causing a buffer overload and then crashes the system, forcing a reboot of my system.

I did an independent Benchmark on my system and everything came back at no less then 140% better than other systems, but apparently still not enough to render some scenes, particularly foliage scenes that have a lot of geometry, bump, specularity and transparency maps... this is one of the scenes that I was able to get to render, but when I tried again to knock down and reduce the lighting, it was creating the multi-reboot BSoD...

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Even though I got it to render once, that render alone took an hour and a half to render out, only to be come out over saturated with light, needs texture adjustments and seriously needs to be re-rendered... which I've decided to just skip this scene till the new computer system is completed, with the increase of CPU, RAM and GPU power.

As for backups... yes, all of the back ups are stored on a removeable drive system that I have housed in a Yottamaster external hard drive raid enclosure that I use one of the HD's to completely mirror my system as a back up and one drive each for each game that I've created (one HD for Wicked Choices: Book One and one for Wicked Choices: Agents of Karma) to hold all of the Poser .pz3 scenes, separated into the game chapters they belong to and was used to create that game.

Each of the .pz3 files are the same name as the image name, so in the above posted image example, I have a corresponding 2theRuins03_0001.pz3 file that is saved on my current system and a copy of it saved on the backup, so that if I ever need to redo the scene again, all I need to do is call that scene up, make the adjustments that I need to make to it, save a new file (or update it) and keep moving forward.

That is why I was able to quickly do the Remastered stuff for Wicked Choices: Book One, I didn't have to recreate any of the locations, I just loaded the locations back in, changed what I needed to make (character's, poses, etc...) and didn't have to monkey around with the location sets or lighting... just hit "render" and keep creating new content for the remaster.

It has to be offline anyway because just the .pz3's for Wicked Choices: Book One total 3.16TB of files... keeping that amount of content on my regular system would reduce system performance and would make for long scans times, daily, when I check and scan my system for Ad/Malware and viruses.

I like to keep the main system clean, free of clutter, increase the performance and longevity of the system. I am pretty OCD when it comes to my computer and file storage.

 

[slayer991]

I like to keep the main system clean, free of clutter, increase the performance and longevity of the system. I am pretty OCD when it comes to my computer and file storage.

That's the only way to be. I have a 3970x, 3080, 128GB RAM 20TB RAID 5 local, and 50TB on my NAS. I also use my m.2 SSDs for boot only. Why do I have such a ridiculous system? I'm an IT guy and it's doubles as my homelab. I do a fair amount of remux/re-encoding of movies for my Plex. In my use-case of moving large files around, a large SSD HD cache makes sense (e.g. PrimoCache). I should update my system to 10GB which would make live easier.

BSODs are a PITA. Where you able to capture the error messages? Did they leave you any clues as to the root cause or are you just going to wait until the new system is complete?

 

[ASLPro3D]

BSODs are a PITA. Where you able to capture the error messages? Did they leave you any clues as to the root cause or are you just going to wait until the new system is complete?

Yeah, they are Kernel errors related to the system's RAM, which is fine during all of my benchmark tests, it only occurs when trying to render in Poser 11 & Poser 12 and renders with dense mesh/smoothing.

 

[slayer991]

Yeah, they are Kernel errors related to the system's RAM, which is fine during all of my benchmark tests, it only occurs when trying to render in Poser 11 & Poser 12 and renders with dense mesh/smoothing.

I'm curious, how much memory does the rendering process use?

Would ECC memory fix the problem?

 

[ASLPro3D]

I'm curious, how much memory does the rendering process use?

Would ECC memory fix the problem?

Regretfully, no... the failure of the kernel is the result of too much data trying to be queued for rendering that exceeds the memory limit and causes a spike and shut down process to prevent the CPU/GPU from getting too hot (I think) or just can't contain all of the data.

Sometimes when it does manage the render, it will have exploding geometry with splines shooting everywhere in the scene... or it will get part of the way through the render and just stop, signaling that the render is finished... when, in reality, it isn't.

 

[slayer991]

Regretfully, no... the failure of the kernel is the result of too much data trying to be queued for rendering that exceeds the memory limit and causes a spike and shut down process to prevent the CPU/GPU from getting too hot (I think) or just can't contain all of the data.

Sometimes when it does manage the render, it will have exploding geometry with splines shooting everywhere in the scene... or it will get part of the way through the render and just stop, signaling that the render is finished... when, in reality, it isn't.

Thanks for the explanation. Not an easy (or inexpensive) technical fix. Either adding more memory or a custom liquid-cooling loop for the CPU/GPU which would even out the thermal spike.

Basically, your renders are too high quality and the system can't handle it.

Time to go back to 8-bit.

 

[ASLPro3D]

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UPDATE: Massive Prep-Work, Routes & Computer – June 25, 2021
(as posted on our Patreon Page)

Hello everyone, I hope that this finds you well and that you are all ready to get your weekend started, if it hasn’t already started yet!

It is that time again to provide an update to everything that has been going on around here, including the incredibly HUGE mess that I had created for all of us, entitled: “Chapter Two” to the Prologue of “Wicked Choices: Agents of Karma” … boy, this dang thing really could be a game on its own, it is that large!!

Since our last update, I had been focusing on assembling the stuff needed for the last section (that we call the “Escort Sex Scene”) route that you all will be able to choose and access in “Chapter Two” by your choices made throughout that chapter.

Unlike the previous scenes, that you could also get, this one is… by far… much LARGER with 9 possibilities and outcomes, each with the possibility of 6 variations per possibilities…

…in layman’s terms, so that you can better understand:

For each character pose that takes place in the scene, depending on your choices, there are 6 variations of that pose (female fully dressed/male fully dressed, female partially undressed/male fully dressed, female partially undressed/male partially undressed, female nude/male fully dressed, female nude/male partially undressed, female nude/male nude) that had to be created for each of those poses and to reflect the progress of the story depending on the choices that you make.

Multiply all those possible outcomes of outfit combinations by 20-30 potential poses needed for each of the 9 sexual options that you will experience in that route and you are looking at around 1,620 possible combinations of setups that I had to create for the characters to have injected in the scenes that needs to be rendered for that section to be completed.

Which is what I’ve been doing, doing the character poses, doing the variations and injecting those possibilities into the scene, saving each scene for rendering and will begin the process of rendering everything for that route this weekend and coming week.

Once done with that, I will be injecting all of those renders and associated text into the TWINE for the Programmer (Epadder) and Editor/Sound Engineer (Sierra3) to assemble into the game and once their task is done, beta test it and send it out to all of you to play!!

So, won’t be too much longer.

And, will jump right into doing the much smaller release of “Chapter Three” and, hopefully, get us onto a regular monthly release schedule for all of you (and for mine and the staff’s sanity)!

I am SO LOOKING FORWARD to getting back to doing SMALLER and REGULAR releases, rather than this HUGE monster that I created and have been working religiously on for what feels like the birth of Christ (or at least the Antichrist)!!

The only other situation of note, to update all of you on (to keep this update as short as possible, so I can get back to work here), is:

While working on building my new computer system, I quickly discovered… due to my back surgery and the condition of my neck and back… that it would be better for me, physically, to just take my system and the components into a company to build my computer for me.

At present time, I am unable to physically stay hunched over for long periods of time and wresting a 45-pound computer case to put everything together and still be able to stand straight or live without pain the next day.

While I can technically do it myself, I can’t physically do it myself, not without straining the neck and back and, with the wife’s “two cents”, decided that hurting myself would only complicate things and make my daily work much more difficult and require me to take meds to help ease the pain.

Meds to ease the pain is what caused this HUGE MESS of “Chapter Two” to the Prologue of “Wicked Choices: Agents of Karma” to be SO BIG in the first place and don’t want to get another “Hey, I got a really GREAT IDEA for the next game release” idea again.

So, I took the computer in to Micro-Center and have paid them to finish assembling the new computer for me and hopefully will have that back soon, hooked up and running (would make rendering much quicker and easier on me).

And… there you have it, a current update for all of you!!!

I am going to get back to work here, start rendering all of this stuff so that I can finish this last section up…

…THANK YOU so much for all of your patience and continued support!! It shouldn’t be too much longer and, as ALWAYS, I will keep you updated on what is going on with things. Please, have a good weekend, continue to take care and be safe and I will talk to all of you soon!!

~Jack