Monthly Update: A model model Edition

August is ending, which means it's time for the traditional monthly update! During the last update, I was experimenting with some final touches, including trying to get the final file size down a bit, which worked pretty well. This involved playing with video compression levels and up/downscaling for video, which was pretty easy. A more complex task was comparing the good old gzip data compression to some more modern ones, including trying some pretty format-specific to just using zstandard. Combined, they easily reduce the data size by hundreds of megabytes, depending on how the settings are adjusted for size vs. performance.

That was pretty much the last issue I had on my TODO list, nothing is really blocking the release anymore. I'll try to find some good time slot to push out a final test release at some point during September for people to try to dig out any technical issues. The previous test releases were very helpful in digging out some bugs in the new tech stuff. I'll probably include a good section of the new 0.4 storyline in that test release, so people might be a bit more motivated to try it out. Other than that, no more news (which is good news).

And as always, I'm not going to take any Patreon payments until 0.4 is out (I'll temporarily suspend my Patreon at the end of each month until then).

The rest of the post is mostly copied from my previous updates for those who are new or want to be reminded of what will be coming next. See you in the next post, thanks for your support and patience!

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So, TL;DR:

* Next release 0.4 will have Alice's full storyline.

* Some new tech in 0.4: interactive 3D and pre-rendered movies, at least a few of each. When I get the pipeline (and my skills) working smoothly, next releases should have more.

* After 0.4 I will try out a bit faster release schedule with partial updates instead of releasing large, complete routes that take ages to finish. We'll see how it goes.

* Steam release at some point after 0.4 is out. Steam has been pretty random with adult games, so who knows what can happen.