Dev update #52 (Patreon)

Hello, everyone. And a very warm welcome to all new patrons!

The work is slowly going on. Slowly because twice a day I'm sitting without power. And I hope I won't end up in a situation when it'll be completely gone. 

I've made an outline for the next chapter, but it's still a bit raw. Need to think about it more and decide what I want and should include in the next update. I also did some analysis of past scenes and decisions while writing a guide. It helped me to visualize the progress I made and decide where I want to move next. 

Did some work on models and the library. Still in progress. If you're with me for a while, you know that I often struggle with library and content management. Especially after the releases. I usually don't go into details on this, but now I want to spill some light on it. While working on the game and actively creating new scenes, I create hundreds of files. Scenes, textures, different options for models, environments, create templates for different stuff etc. I also download hundreds of different assets, morphs etc. And the library keeps getting bigger and bigger. Firstly, it makes my navigation through all of this very hard. Searching for the right thing becomes really a challenge. And secondly, it slows down my workflow coz scenes and models are getting longer to load. I've been experimenting with a file management system for a while. Trying different methods and even using different apps for this. Sadly, none of this worked. I even ended up completely ruining part of my library once and had to spend about a week restoring needed files. But now I guess I finally found the right solution which will make navigation simpler and loading times acceptable. Though, it'll take some time to rework it once and for all. I hope I won't return to this again. And at first, I need to reorganize my models and update some of their assets, which is what I'm doing right now and will continue doing this when I finish writing this post. 

Speaking of models, I also spent some time working on a wet look. Some of you may also remember how I was struggling with it and wasn't quite happy with the results. Now I've learned a bit more and improved it. Yay! Just want to point out that even when I'm not working on new scenes for the game, I'm working on my skills. My goal is to be able to create beautiful and high-quality renders fast and render them fast. And when I say fast, I mean it. Sometimes working on one render can take up to 30 minutes and sometimes even an hour. My goal is less than 10 minutes. Which is impossible when this is the time needed to load the scene. Which is what happens now. That's why I spent time reworking models and the library, improving my skills and never stopping learning new things. Just for example, I've spent almost a year working on the intro with its 330 renders and 7 animations. Now I do twice as much in half the time and with much higher quality. And I'm sure the results can get even better. Therefore, it makes sense.

All right, this is it for today. Before starting to work on new scenes, I need to finish all this stuff and write these scenes. Gladly, to do the writing I don't need power. I still can use pen and paper. Like in old days. Maybe I should even write a book instead of making a game. Lol.

Oh, and lastly, our polls have finished, and I'll work on this month's Halloween wallpaper and special renders early next week. 

Thank you for your support, have a nice weekend and stay safe!

mr.moonmi