Weekly Update 37/2023 (Patreon)

Hello everyone.

My name is Nemegs and I am a pornocholic. It's my first time here, so...

I've had quite a week, with many pushups leaving me a bit tired, but more on that in a moment. Several key themes have been swirling around in my mind this week. I hope you enjoy this weekly update, as it's primarily about me sorting out the jumble inside my head this time. So, here's what's been on my mind:

It's been a stark reminder of why we haven't seen massive animations since the SR fashion show. Back then, it took me a whole week to render them. Thanks to my new and powerful GPU, it's not as time-consuming anymore. But the fancy animations for TFA consumed my entire last weekend. Consequently, TFA issue 5 is ready, but I still need to add the animations currently coming out as images from my DAZ3D. I'm crossing my fingers that this weekend will be sufficient to get it all done. This is probably the only bit of not-so-great news in this update. I'm looking forward to tackling it.

As expected, I've continued to learn new things every time I work on TFA. This time, though, there were a plethora of new lessons, almost overwhelming. My head was buzzing with all this new information, and I couldn't resist trying everything out immediately. In hindsight, there were only two major takeaways. First, I finally cracked the code on blurring backgrounds for close-ups when using depth of field, though it's a bit taxing on my RTX 3090's rendering time. This aligns with the longer times needed for substantial animations, and it's making me contemplate the need for another RTX 3090 and a new power unit. The tricky part is explaining this to my wife... Nevertheless, I'm excited to incorporate this new technique into SR. The second major discovery was related to animation, specifically achieving a more natural glute movement. I had been attempting to do this manually, even creating a Laura model with butt bones. Sadly, it didn't work with the genital graft. However, I acquired a tool that can automate morph movements in animations, and after a lot of tinkering, I think it worked. I can't predict the final result because I used it in the TFA finale animation, which is currently in my DAZ3D workspace. At the moment, I'm thrilled to have learned some valuable techniques that I can't wait to apply in SR.

Of course, there were moments when all of this felt overwhelming. That's when I sought solace in writing dialogues for SR. Yes...SR... I was writing dialogues and couldn't think of anything but the last item on this list...

6.6GB...6.6GB...and the game is far from being finished. It's a hefty load, with over 10,000 images, and I couldn't help but wonder how massive it would become when it eventually nears completion. Would it reach 15GB or more? I realized that I needed to take action, as these obsessive thoughts consumed me throughout the week. I might have annoyed the marketing department a bit with my constant inquiries.

I decided to take a peek at what would happen if I compressed the game's images to reduce their file size by half. Admittedly, it wasn't an easy decision for me. Currently, the images in the game are at 60% of their original quality, and going lower made them look utterly unappealing. However, I gave it a shot, and my reservations were justified. The quality of some of the images would have been tolerable if I had been drunk. Since I don't tend to lose my vision completely when I'm drunk (unless jet fuel or methylated spirits are involved), most of the pictures made me throw up my breakfast immediately. To be thorough, I sent these compressed images to the marketing department. The response was surprising. While some of the pictures were subpar, most were deemed acceptable. Our conversation concluded with me expressing my surprise at the Marketing team being drunk in the middle of a Wednesday. I want to sincerely apologize for that. The marketing department's response to my image compression conundrum was to impose a penalty of 20 pushups every time I entertained the thought. I would like to be in better shape, but unfortunately, this tactic didn't deter me, as my physical fitness aspirations exceeded such a challenge.

I realized that I could optimize the game without sacrificing its current quality.

I began by converting all the animations in the game to 60 frames per second. Version 1.9 had already adopted this frame rate, and since no issues had arisen, I went ahead with the conversion. What's more, I had a tool that not only facilitated this process but also reduced the animation file sizes simultaneously. This move shaved off approximately 1GB of data.

Next, I turned my attention to the PNG files utilized in various screens of the game. I pondered if there was an alternative format that retained transparency while reducing file size. To my chagrin, I remembered that I had a batch converter to WebP format sitting on my computer for this exact purpose, unused for two years. I clearly need some memory-boosting pills. Anyway, employing the WebP format allowed me to trim an additional 1GB.

Then, I delved into the realm of image quality within the game. I decided to slightly reduce image quality and convert them to WebP format. The result? Another 800MB in savings. Importantly, the quality of 95% of the images remained unchanged, though the remaining 5% made me feel dizzy. Replacing these copies with the original JPEGs wouldn't be noticeable in the overall game size.

Consequently, the game's total size was reduced from 6.6GB to 3.8GB, all without any loss in quality. I now feel confident that I can continue optimizing the many screens within the game. The last step is to switch all PNG files to WebP format in the game code, which, fortunately, is not a complex task.

That wraps up this week's update. The coming week will be dedicated to working on the dialogues for SR v2.0. As soon as the animations are ready, I'll be releasing TFA early access.

Wishing you all a fantastic weekend, and thank you for being a part of this journey!

Regards,

Nemiegs