Monday, October 31, 2022

Progress 31.10.2022

 

And for one brief moment, I had three update writing buffer. But alas, it wasn't to be so.

So, where are we at? Update 18 was sent to be proofread and tested, and I already had some feedback confirming what I suspected. There will be some code changes done, but nothing too major.

Meanwhile, I started rendering update 19 and writing update 22. Well, the writing started yesterday already, but in the end, it doesn't change much did it begin today or yesterday.

Wow... that was probably one of the shortest progress updates I've done. But then again, there isn't much to tell when things go well.

I realized over the weekend that, at times, there isn't a feasible way to expose some background events or material within a story simply because there isn't a natural way to do it. Of course, you can have a character asking about it, but it can feel forced, especially if the background information doesn't matter for the story being told, and yet it would be nice for the reader/player to know.

So what triggered this?

Some of the things I show don't happen simply because they are either concept material, testing material, or I'm not certain that the story in the next one will need some of the things I've done. 

And that being said, I've been thinking about a vampire character. It won't necessarily be her, but most likely, she will be there regardless, but I have to see where the story takes. I know how it ends, and I have about 18 different starting scenarios for it. And yes, the two renders are related to her origins. I made them because... why not? I still do the "Daily Motivational Render", well most of the time, at least set the scene might not render it because you know, making the VN takes priority in my head, and with the revelation I had during the weekend kind of lends itself to this kind of thing.

Sorry about the bit dark renders, but in my books daylight and vampires don't go together. In shadows, sure, I'll buy that but never in the sunlight.


Friday, October 28, 2022

Progress 28.10.2022

 

Man, I feel tired, and I mean properly physically exhausted. Luckily I can get a few extra hours of sleep in the next few days. Anyway.

Stuff... writing of update 21 is still underway, nor is it going to be that big of a shock when I say that it's done by Monday.

As for the rendering of update 18, it's mostly done, and there are fixing things and the like. There is one section I am not happy with, but I need to play through it a few times to see it in the proper context.

This is the last render I show from update 18, and it is a render that a big portion of people won't see. And if you see it, well, let's just say you are going to miss a portion of the update and the game overall... And if you made the different choice, well you see something different in same location, well the devil is in the details.

Then on more different matters just because I can. A lot of my DAZ budget goes to two things, environments and effects. Effects are something that could be done in post, but unfortunately, I'm not that graphically gifted. And it's one of the reasons why the UI is a basic ren'py one, other than the reason I like the simplicity of it, is that I simply suck at graphical work. Sure I can pull decent renders, which is why my effect library is... large. Granted, sometimes I simply forget that I have something I could use.

And environments, there is some repetition in there. I probably have two or three different castle ruins. But that's kind of the point. At least there is some variation if I need to use more than one in a singular story. Also, both of these renders were done to test the environments mostly. Sure I could just render them without anything else, but why? I've pulled 400+ SciFi-related renders in the past two weeks, so well, my mind wants to have a change of scenery once in a while. The highlands I like, the castle ruins are... okay, I'm not a fan of the grass, although it looks awesome. It makes difficult to position the figures with it as it is attached permanently to the ground. Of course, I can hide them from the surface parameters, but that carries a risk that you simply forget to show the grass. Says the guy who recently forgot to make the couch visible for 15 renders... and it was a prop.

Anyway, have a nice weekend, you all, and I'll keep working on stuff in the background.

Monday, October 24, 2022

Progress 24.10.2022

 

Monday and progress stuff.

Let's tackle the writing first for a change. It's going. I have the remaining day plotted; I just need to decide in which order I put what and sprinkle some choices in the latter half. That's one of the trickiest aspects of writing a VN. The choices, which I've probably said a few times by now, you want the choices to have a meaningful impact. The problem with Terminus is the location, it's a space station, and one fuck up, and you can easily end up dead. So the choices for most parts are more personal in nature. Granted, the biggest choices that have been made so far just affect the entire station and the colony, so not a big deal...

Thus we return to rendering at last. It's somewhere I didn't think I would be, but roughly at the halfway point. Considering that the first scene is 120 renders alone, but have to see how it goes considering I'm rendering a bit slower now than I am with previous scenes.

And this is the reason why. I so didn't think it through when I wrote this scene. Granted, a few people don't necessarily need to be there, but meh. But it's a decent test of the system, really. There were no texture reductions made to get this scene done. And still have some VRAM to spare.

Friday, October 21, 2022

Changelog: Update 17

 

Changelog: Update 17
  • Day 17 implemented
  • 403 renders
  • Grammar, spelling, and other fixes (Thanks to Adry Lemon, Shaddy, BryonSmothers3DX, To Begin With, Bread_, OBE, Psykotik)
Man, what a day. Anyhow... stuff is being finalized for the update to be released... but not going to ramble too much today. Note, there are some grammar fixes in the queue for previous days. I'm reorganizing my development/build environment so not everything is in place as of yet. So if you reported something and it isn't there it's coming soonish.
Release schedule:
  • $15 Tier: As soon as the links have been verified (5 to 10 minutes from now)
  • $10 Tier: 23rd of October 2022
  • $5 Tier: 24th of October 2022
  • $3 Tier: 25th of October 2022
  • Public: 1st of November 2022

Progress 21.10.2022

Man, I'm tired. So going to do a quick progress post thingy since I'm uploading the update 17 as we speak. Well, as I write. Anyway. I'll do a changelog once the uploads are about to be done.

As for update 18, I just realized that it probably will be closer to 500 renders because the artistic side of me that tends to sleep while I render noticed something that might be interesting to do... thus update 18's first scene is somewhere around 120 renders by itself. And I have another similar scene in the update. And it's probably going to be another 120 renders. It might take a tad longer, but I'll do what I can... not that it matters that much since I'd normally start rendering today... anyway.

Then we move to the writing aspect of things. 21 is about halfway done in two days. I've been getting inspiration at 6 in the morning and don't want to stop writing. So it's good. Yay.

And this is from update 18. Some people aren't happy... Yeah, as said, keeping this short today since lot's to do, and fairly certain it will get busy later on. That and I need a nap...

Monday, October 17, 2022

Progress 17.10.2022

 

And good Monday to you all. Mostly good anyway, outside of this damn cough and upset stomach. Right so things. As I said on Friday, I'll start rendering update 18 today, which I have, and there are renders cooking, so to speak, as I write this. And unfortunately, no, you don't get to see them for obvious reasons once update 17 is released to your hands and one name, Chiel. 

And speaking about update 17, proofreading is underway, and once it has been done, it will be released to you guys. But I'm stating the obvious there.

And as for writing, I'm not entirely happy about the length of update 20, so I will write a few more pages to it before moving to update 21, it shouldn't take longer than an hour, but that goes into the "famous last words" category.

So, what I'm going to show you? Well, as I usually do, I'll show some of the extra renders I did for motivation.

To be fair, you've seen similar renders before, partially because they are easy to do, look spectacular, and are general-purpose enough not to give spoilers on anything I've planned story-wise. Maybe.

So why I'm showing this one? Remember earlier when I said that the clothes the mage is wearing aren't most likely what she ends up using because of the constant dForce requirement on them? I was wrong. Those are hers. Over the past week or so, between posing, writing, rendering, and making some other stuff, I've been trying around 15 clothing sets for her, but none of them fit. Sure they looked good, but they weren't hers. This is one of those moments where the first intuition was correct. Initially, when I created her, I just, without thinking, put that set of clothing on her. 

And then there is this. Actually, no idea, just one of those things that popped randomly into my head that I had to make as a render. Although I've never made a render with that particular fairy model before, it's a good test to see if I can render it. And stating the obvious, yeah, I can, with enough VRAM to spare for two or so more figures in the scene. 

Although, it also illustrates a point about dForce that I dislike, other than the bag clipping through his leg *sighs*. Lack of basic morphs for the clothing. A lot of times, it would be easier if you could have something like a basic sitting morph. This angle doesn't show the bottom half of the tunic clipping through the tree stump. Sure, if you mess around with the timeline, you CAN make it look perfect, but there are times when you are producing something, you have to ask, can I do it in a different way? The obvious solution is to make him stand, but how would that change the dynamic of the scene? Having him sit down creates a more relaxed image and puts the viewer at ease that at least now there isn't some monster coming to bite the heads off. But I'm rambling.

Anyway, I'm back to rendering and writing and other stuff for the update after the next one.... weird way to say updates 18 and 20/21 ;)



Friday, October 14, 2022

Progress 14.10.2022

 

I've been running a slight fever for a day, so I'm a bit out of things. Nothing to worry about; it's just the normal autumn cold for me due to the temperature shift. The same thing happens in spring. Granted, it does explain why I've been so damn sleepy for the past week. Nevertheless, still, I shall do a progress post!

So what's up? I'll be handing the update 17 for testing and proofreading sometime this weekend. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow. It depends do I need to take more naps between now and then.

And as for writing? Well, it's in an okay place. I will write this weekend and resume rendering update 18 on Monday. Mostly because if things are as they used to be, I can't stand certain light tones, and rendering and gaming have those tones. Thus writing.

And then the renders...

Something from update 17, yay. Yeah, it's time for Neesush to make her decision. Granted, you will only see this bit if you make the right choices, but that isn't anything new regarding Terminus Reach in general.

Then some stuff I did for fun. This doesn't have any relevance to anything at the moment. I just wanted to render some mechs. Also, I like that environment, for what it is, it is really lightweight.

Granted, neither does this, simply because I wanted to render it for the sake of it.


Monday, October 10, 2022

Progress 10/10/2022

I was debating on whether I should do a progress post or not, but I decided to do it anyway.

So, update 16 is rolling into your guy's hands, which is good, and more or less on schedule I originally envisioned.

Then rendering on the update 17, I'm somewhere about halfway. It's a bit interesting overall; it goes well enough, but some posing is more complex. But it's good practice going forward.

Writing is about 1/3rd of what I require for the split day. I plan on writing longer today once I finish up the scene I'm doing.

So, today you get all extras as I decided I won't spoil too much on what happens in update 17. Thus, the first one.

One of the lessons I learned from doing Sorcerer is to never underestimate the value of a pet (or familiar). I don't do narration because it's a visual medium, show, don't tell. This has been the core of what I have done since TRS1. Inner thoughts are a certain kind of narration; personally, it doesn't fit 3rd person renders much. Having a pet (or familiar) you can talk to opens up a different way to expose the inner thoughts when needed. And this? It's just to test various creatures I have to see what would work.

And then this... Clothing design. DForce is awesome when it works, but when you do a lot of renders in a sequence, let's say, a fight scene. Every time you move your characters with dForce clothing, such as cloaks, you need to run it. For one character in a scene? No problem; if it isn't exploding, it's relatively quick. Two characters? Ehh... doable. But eventually, it just piles up, and dForcing takes longer than the actual rendering. So, you have to look for clothes that don't necessarily require it. And then there are the other things to consider, the character itself, is he/she a noble? Peasant? Warrior? Commoner? Then there is personality, which affects how we choose our clothes. So, all things considered, lot's of trial and error.

And yeah, sorry for the multiple messages this week.

Sunday, October 9, 2022

Changelog: TRS2 Update 16

Changelog: Update 16

  • Day 16 implemented
  • 309 renders
  • Grammar, spelling, and other fixes (Thanks to Adry Lemon, Shaddy, BryonSmothers3DX, To Begin With, Bread_, OBE, Psykotik, ThunderRob, betatester)

And the not so longly awaited update 16 is here. Yey. In all honesty, this update is weird. It has the same amount of text, they all have but it was really fast to render for some weird reason or other. Render amount is always a bad measure of length since there are always as many renders as I need to tell the story, if I need 500 I need 500, or I need 10 that's something that is hard to estimate as there are scenes that can be done with few, but then seemingly similar scene requires fifty. Anyway.

Release schedule:

  • $15 Tier: As soon as the links have been verified (5 to 10 minutes from now)
  • $10 Tier: 11th of October 2022
  • $5 Tier: 12th of October 2022
  • $3 Tier: 13th of October 2022
  • Public: 20th of October 2022

Friday, October 7, 2022

Progress 07.10.2022

It has been a bit of a meh week overall. Now don't get me wrong here. It's just part of the normal creative process, with ups and downs, as I've said before.

Anyway, as far as I know, proofreading is still happening, and the release should be this weekend for update 16. Well, I figure something out regardless

Right then, the update 17 that I'm rendering. It's... going. I have a certain internal schedule, and I've been keeping up with it, but there are some scenes with multiple figures to be posed, and it's eating time because I have to go back and forth since a lot of things can and will go wrong.

As for writing? Update 20 is some sort of branching day, so it's going to be a bit more larger writing project overall. However, I do have some doubts that I'll be able to finish it before finishing update 17's rendering. Well, no point in worrying about it at the moment.

And yes, the introduction of the cat girl is in update 17.

Overall I'm happy. Yeah, I might be in a bit "meh" mood at the moment, but it will pass. Those moments are unavoidable even if you do something you love doing. And I'll probably do some extra renders over the weekend once what I currently do stops eating all my VRAM I have. Ten Genesis 8 figures consume a decent amount of it without texture reductions.

Although that being said, I'm still one week ahead of the normal rendering schedule, so if I take one or two days just to write if need be, no one will likely know the difference. Well, now you do since I mentioned it ;)

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Public Release: TRS2 Update 15

Tested and played through it a few times, and all the saves worked. But that doesn't mean things didn't slip by. So as always, if there are any issues please report them on discord (https://discord.gg/GJK5kfKypg).


Note: Only mediafire version "requires" the proofreading patch. Mega has been updated to proofread version.

Uncompressed:

Uncompressed update only:

Compressed:

Compressed update only:

Android:

Monday, October 3, 2022

Progress 03.10.2022

 

There are times when you need to know when to say "ah, to hell with this" and stop. I've been trying to make a set for the better part of the day, and it's just not happening. But then I do what I need, take a step back, drink from my tea mug, have a biscuit with it, and then tackle it from a new angle.

Also, after that heart attack, update 16 was sent to be tested and proofread. So that's happening with that, and the release should be at the end of the week, assuming nothing too surprising happens. But wait! Didn't I just make a release week ago? Yes, I did. It took me just a week to render this update. Things went surprisingly well. And no, it isn't going to be the new norm since I still need to write.

And speaking of writing, Update 20, here we come. I don't know what it was with last week, but everything went too smoothly, and now I'm suspicious that the next update will be an update from hell.

So I'm a week ahead of the rendering schedule. So what I'm going to do? As the preview shows, well, not really. I mean, you couldn't know from what it is until I say. But anyway, I'm starting to render update 17. This is why I love having a writing buffer. So yeah, moving forward while Adry cleans up my mess of writing. ;)

And this is the problematic scene. Yeah, it's just a room with a long desk with people sitting. Yeah, that simple. Why was it problematic? Placing, looks, how to render. First, I wanted them to sit in a semi-circle but didn't have a table prop, and I couldn't kitbash it. So after a couple of variants I tried, I noticed I wouldn't be able to render the scene as I wanted. I still can't, not exactly how I want, but it's an improvement from the issues before.

And sorry, no extra render today. Have to keep few things hidden for now ;)

Changelog: Tribulations of a Mage 0.13.0

Changelog: 199 renders (+24 auxiliary renders) Implemented the next part of the story Added things to the codex, bit more work on the secret...