The Final System, AI Illustration, and That Mac Version...

The UI still has to be revised to match the rest, but Laura got the cats talking to each other again today within the main project.  As I have oft stated in recent months, this interactivity was "The Final System" we needed working in order to start adding actual story content and quests.

This was initially added over a year ago, but was put on hold due to various factors - not the least of which was the Refactor.  Finally seeing this working again was immensely gratifying!

In-between other jobs over the past few days, we've re-started processing in-game name mentions. I was specifically tasked with creating the posters and album covers for the radio station interior (among other places,) and let me tell you:  

I doubt we'd have been able to create such great content on our budget, had it not been for the new generation of AI.

In many cases, people who wanted to be featured rather prominently in media within the game provided no photos, and very little direction on how exactly they wanted to be portrayed.

Each one of these posters contains imagery created by an AI.  Sometimes (such as on  the "Poppy" album above,) it's just the logo.  In other cases, (such as the "Skitch Mahoney" poster above) all imagery aside from the text was created by AI.

Using this technology simply makes sense, considering the hundreds of placements yet to be done.  It also allows us to add visual content and a depth of realism that would be impossible, otherwise.  

Take, for example, the founder of the now-defunct LaFlamme Fishworks - Civil War Veteran Grenadier Euphrasien Constance LaFlamme.  Initially, aside from the cartoon that appeared on the labels of LaFlamme Fishworks products, we had no resources on what the guy looked like outside of that context.

This was exacerbated by the fact that neither the Union nor Confederate side in the US Civil war had Grenadier detatchments.  Normally, we would be left scratching our heads of how we could somehow photoshop a solution together out of old public-domain daguerreotypes.  Under the best of conditions, such a job would take us at least an hour, and would definitely not look genuine.

However, if we ask the AI for a contemporary photograph of a mustachioed caucasian U.S. Civil War Union grenadier in his late 30's, we not only get a perfect solution - but it takes less than ten minutes.

There might be individuals who look like this guy - and similar uniforms, but outside of Peace Island lore, neither actually existed. If you're wondering about the hat:  You just might encounter it in the game!

And that brings us to...

THE MAC VERSION.

Our previous theory about the save/load mechanism did not prove to be the fix we hoped for.  Apparently, the issue is more closely tied to FMOD, which is the system we are using for the persistent soundtrack.  We have a few more in-house theories of how this might be fixed.  If those don't pan out, we're going to bring in a dedicated Mac specialist, to assist.  

Believe it or not, this is not the longest it has taken to convert a Peace Island alpha to the Mac.  Back when this project was just myself and Laura, it once took six weeks to get things working properly.

We appreciate everyone's patience.

SHIPMENTS OF PREMIUMS GOT DELAYED FOR A WEEK, DUE TO A SHORTAGE OF POSTCARD SETS - WE RESUME ON WEDNESDAY!

See ya'll next week!