BTS: 3H shader and body overhaul (Patreon)

view the short visual test here

Hey all, I hope your holidays are merry and well! Just wanted to share some ongoing Houses stuff in the background while I'm still trying to get things off the press. It's one of those games I keep trying to re-invent my shaders for and things were due for a refresh 😄 

Everything is subject to change while production tests are performed!

The body base was completely redone to increase the polygon count and visual detail. Every texture layer is separated to make easy adjustments for skin color, body definition/muscle, chest and nip type, etc.

The previous shader wasn't bad but there were a few issues:  

Characters were rendered twice, once in the environment and once isolated, to get their optimal lighting by stacking the footage. This increased render times and wasn't very practical for my use, especially when VR renders already take a lot of time.

Actors mostly ignored light sources other than their primary light - a technical limitation at the time. Characters were nicely lit and bright but what if I needed moody scenes, the warmth of a fire or torch, or the glow from a magic spell?

Now that the monastery set is coming together and scenes won't be exclusive to a bedroom, the new shader unifies environment lighting with the actors and makes them more flexible for cinematic and visual purposes, as well as reducing render times a great amount by keeping to a single layer. :)

Old footage - Two different lighting environments under one shader, minimal post-processing.

Old footage - Exploring creative control with lights.