PROGRESS REPORT(2023.4)

Sorry for the delay in updating the progress information. First of all, thank you for your continued support. As the game is still in the early stages, updates may be slower.

First of all, regarding the issue of game crashes, the crashes have been identified as being due to graphics card drivers and TdrDelay settings. If you encounter a game crash, please try updating your graphics card driver to the latest version first. Then, run regedit, locate Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers and create two new key values TdrDelay and TdrDdiDelay. It is recommended to modify the values to 60 or higher, which should solve the game crash problem. For more information, please refer to: https://docs.unrealengine.com/5.0/en-US/how-to-fix-a-gpu-driver-crash-when-using-unreal-engine/

Next is about the gameplay part. I made some new features to the Locomotion system and added a gliding feature to add a bit more freedom for the free exploration. However, because I felt that the content was not enough, I also added a another new character, hoping to bring some new fun to this free mode. But for the new level, I still consider it as a "test" level because there is no complete task, and even no gameplay missions.

The free mode took longer than expected. I spent a long time exploring how to make my collision system support Morph deformation, but unfortunately the solution I found cannot be used in version 4.27 of the engine. So I can only add this feature after upgrading (refactoring) the engine. Making a better collision system may take more time. At the same time, I also encountered some strange bugs, which took a long time to troubleshoot, so in this version, I did not fix the collision problem, so there may be inaccurate collisions or even clipping issues. But anyway, I will try to release a small update as soon as possible.

I am still exploring new character import processes. Unreal showed an amazing new facial capture plugin at their recent event. So I am considering starting to use Metahuman instead of the current Daz workflow. Daz has a rich content library of resources and beautiful characters, while Metahuman is more realistic but lacks sufficient content library support. I am not very good at modeling and binding models, which is still a headache for me.

Recently, the AI industry has exploded, and I have spent some time exploring new processes and possibilities, including StableDiffusion, LumaAI, ChatGPT, NotionAI, CharacterAI, MoveAI, and others. There is no doubt that technology is currently undergoing a transformation. If used properly, it can save a lot of time. Currently, the animation process is still a very time-consuming part. I will continue to work hard to find solutions for this part.

After the release of the last version, I paid attention to every opinion and idea from everyone and appreciated the support. However, due to receiving too many opinions and some critical voices, I felt a little pressure and entered a period of confusion for some time. So, there was no progress for a while, and I know that I owe an apology to my supporters. I felt guilty about it, but now I have resumed making progress. Because I am usually very busy with work, I can only spare one or two hours to work on the game everyday. Also, because the framework is quite complex, many features are still in the exploratory stage, so updates will be slow. For example, the climbing level released about two months ago was actually started in May 2022 and went through repeated testing and polishing before it was finally completed. Moreover, I personally prefer to accumulate a certain amount of content before releasing updates, so it will really be updated very slowly. I am truly sorry about this and appreciate everyone's support.

Regarding the game, there are still some parts that I'm struggling with. The game is currently fragmented in my mind, and I have many great ideas that would be perfect for level-based games similar to "Climbing" (single element, but can be deeply explored). However, connecting these good ideas together is still a headache (i.e. continuity of the plot), and I haven't written a complete storyline yet. So, I'm not sure whether it's better to update according to the progress of the plot, or to update the polished gameplay levels separately. If it's the latter, the game experience may be very fragmented, but I can quickly make the parts that everyone likes. So, I don't know what everyone thinks about this.

As a perfectionist, when something I want cannot be achieved well, I always consider giving up on it, but I don't want to see the game left unfinished.

Regarding the Gameplay section, during this period, I also did a lot of testing, including the much-anticipated Vore section and scenes that are over 1000 times larger. Currently, it seems that only by upgrading the engine can support these super large scenes, and Nanite can insert very detailed models into the scene without too much performance pressure. Regarding upgrading the engine, it is actually a restructuring plan to make the previous system better and more complete. Moreover, many useful tools no longer support Unreal 4, so upgrading has become necessary.

Also, I know that everyone is very interested in the VR version. I am also starting to study how to port the previous levels to VR, but the gameplay process may be somewhat different. If there is any progress, I will update it, so the VR version is also included in the plan.

Finally, the positioning of this game is still R-15 level, and R-18 content may cause me a lot of trouble, so there will be no content like unbirth (although I really want to do it), but Vore will definitely be added, so you can rest assured.

Finally, I still want to thank everyone for their support! Thank you!