Dev Roadmap #3: Live2D Physics in Ren'Py!

Hey friends!

I've been a bit quiet lately because I've been working on a little side project, which I'm excited to finally share with you all.

Since we moved to Live2D, I've been absolutely amazed by how much can be done with the software, while disappointed by how little can be exploited natively by Ren'Py. A few updates ago, this led me to start digging around under the hood in order to implement our own optimizations to make displaying multiple high resolution characters feasible.

However, something that has continued to frustrate me and many other Ren'Py developers is the lack of native Live2D physics support. One of the main issues is that the Live2D physics engine is written in C++ and is nontrivial to integrate with Ren'Py's rendering pipeline.

Anyways, I was laying out all the animation work that needs to happen for 0.6, and I couldn't shake the feeling that we were leaving a lot on the table by having to effectively bake in all of that glorious physics into animations that have to be looped and played individually. not only does this exponentiate the process of animating, but it makes the whole affair feel a little. . . stiff. So, I started doing some research - reading through the Live2D software and documentation, through Ren'Py's rendering framework, writing some test functions here and there.

In the last couple weeks I decided to get serious, and I've spent every ounce of free time (and a significant portion of time at work) (and three all-nighters in the last week) developing the groundwork for this: native Ren'Py support for Live2D physics.

So, I'm extremely excited to announce that, starting in 0.6, character animations, including both standing sprites, sex poses, and CGs, will feature real-time physics!

Not only does this mean that animations will now feel more lifelike while being easier than ever to generate, but we have big dreams for what this might enable in terms of gameplay!

Attached is a little teaser!