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Yo
So it's been quite a few days of turmoil.
If it can go wrong it has recently... which tends to be the case when I let myself get into these crunch time scenarios.
I've been awake for about 25 hours now.
I have been stressing to finish these changes before the end of the month because I fucking want to live up to something I set out to do for once but luck isn't on my side right now.
I take adderall for my ADHD and it's been amazing for me 99% of the time but yesterday when I took it, it led me to an all day long panic attack that I did my best to fight through but it was a losing battle.
Anyway, that's not the important bit.
You guys have asked for more transparency so let me explain what exactly has been happening.
I feel like an idiot right now but I'm also happy to have finally fixed one of the issues that have plagued my animations forever.
So keep in mind that WVM is my first game ever and first time ever working on something like this. I've taught myself everything for the most part and I've just figured out a way to do things that work for me.
I've always been someone to try and get things to work on my own... whether it be shit that would break around the house or electronics or whatever.
And I've encountered thousands of issues while making WVM and for 99% of them I just found a way to make it work.
The main problem that has stopped me from being finished with the redone animations is a thing I like to call the "Royal wave".
For example, let's say the MC is "Hugging" a girl from behind and he needs to grab her hips for some extra stability. As he is going in for it he needs to pull himself or her and for that to happen his hands and arms need to stay mostly locked while the rest of his body moves.
To animate that isn't too tough, just put the hands where they need to go right?
Well, in doing so... all of the frames in-between the keyframes have to figure out how exactly to move the arms and hands to make it from point A to point B.
What sucks is that the interpolation always would end up doing something that looked like a royal wave. Where instead of staying locked on it would roll or slide down and then back up into place because that's just how the arm had to move to go between the points.
It was awful and looks awful, I made it work in the past by either just removing the arms from the shot or going frame by frame and posing the hand for each and every single render. Which takes hours and is super easy to fuck up.
This is something I've always struggled with and since I technically could fix it I never really tried to find a better solution.
Like I said, I've been awake for 25 hours now. 20 of those have been spent working on fixing this and another thing that I got fixed as well.
And the solution was so simple that it hurts.
There's a built in tool that lets you lock limbs and such in place and they wont move... and I just didn't know it existed... turning an 8 hour job into a 20 minute job.
I definitely feel foolish but I'm also happy to have learned something new that will help tremendously in the future.
Okay, long explanation just to say that I don't think the 700 render update will be ready by June 29th or 30th. But it won't be much longer at all. There is a 300 render update that's pretty much ready to go though.
I've been stressing super fucking hard about getting out a solid update before the month's end.
I tried to tweak too much. I've definitely been feeling the pressure to have to put out something good so I tried to add stuff or make something look better but it mainly led to just more frustration and stress. Not my best play.
I'm human, I've been through a fuck ton recently so I'm not gonna beat myself up.
I know a lot of you are frustrated as well and just know that I've never once tried to dupe any of you or anything.
WVM is my hobby and I do this for fun. Stressing this hard about updates and all that is the complete opposite of fun and I'll be honest when I say that I'm feeling pretty jaded about a lot of things and I desperately want to get past this. I want it out more than you do... is what I'm trying to say.
and if you aren't comfortable supporting me right now I completely understand. You owe me nothing. You've played and enjoyed my game and that's all I could ever ask for.
If you're feeling any sort of doubt then please remove your pledge but please join the discord first so you can still play the chunks as they come out.
You can always rejoin when I'm back on my shit.
Okay, so main point of this post time.
I've spent a lot of time stressing about how to deliver this update right now. I was trying to think of what the majority would want and then it hit me that I literally have the ability to poll that.
I'll admit I'm reluctant to since the last poll didn't go very well but fuck it.
So the two options are.
A:
"Release them in smaller chunks. The first one (300-ish renders) on the 29th and the other (400-ish renders) the moment it is finished (Likely July 1st-3rd)"
or
B:
"Wait and release them together (700-ish renders) the moment it is finished. (July 1st-3rd)"
As far as my personal opinion goes: I do believe the two chunks together make for a better update. But I also have no issues splitting it up especially given the circumstances. I'm cool with either.
I know my word doesn't mean a whole lot right now when it comes to release times... but these are being stuck to.
If A is chosen it will likely be released toward 8-9pm EST as I have things I have to do during that day.
Either way, something is being released soon or I'll pause pledges until 2024.
Poll ends at 4am EST. Whichever has majority vote will be the one I go with.
And this post will self destruct after whichever vote is picked gets released.
And as always, thank you all so much for everything.
A - 26 %
B - 73 %
233 votes
