badtimetales

Tuesday Motivation

as there was a public holiday here ;)

UHD and transparent background below.

(An Isa wallpaper as a by-catch from some gui work ;)) 

Have a good week! 

BTT

Weekend Update

Not much to tell right now, fixing some poke-throughs and so on. 

For the update I've decided that there are 3 more scenes to do, which I can do when the rework is in beta testing. 

Wishing you all a nice memorial day or Pentecost with the day off tomorrow, and who has doesn't have a public holiday a good start into the new week! 

BTT

Just to make it clear ....

because I just saw THAT in the exit survey. 

Patreon billing was paused for two month and will be active on the 29. of this month.
I've no idea what this guy is talking about - and i really don't care.


If people can't read it's not my problem.
But as a reminder for you - before another one calls me a milker:

Patreon billing will resume at May 29.

Thanks for your support, 

BTT

Weekend Update

I made some good progress last week, as usual I spend too much time on some special effects/animations.

If all goes well, I will send out the rework for beta testing this month as planned. After that it's not much work for the update, but for the proofreaders, modders and translators. Sorry about that :(

The rework not only includes new animations and visuals, I also fixed a lot of pokethroughs (which most of you probably didn't notice).

Since the the C 4.1 release is planned for next month, Patreon billing will continue on the 29th of May.

If you are not happy with that, please unsubscribe before that date.

The $2 tier is gone for several reasons.
Backers at that level will remain at that level.

Have a great weekend and thanks for your support!

BTT

Animations - Devs life

Why are there so few good-looking animations in visual adult novels?

Daz is not made for animation. And it doesn't look like Daz is going to change that.
Daz still doesn't have soft bodies (the character reacts to pressure, for example), it only has a rudimentary working IK chain (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse_kinematics), but no working FK chain (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_kinematics).
Physics simulations like fluids? Very limited.

There are free and paid software solutions that do all this and work great.
For example Blender.

But the problem is getting the scene into Blender (or any other software).
So you have that done after countless hours. But when you render that animation, it looks different from what you render in Daz.

Daz uses Iray from Nvidia. Which is really good at rendering realistic images if you know what you are doing.
Most other software uses its own rendering (like Blender) and the materials (like skin and so on) are not transferred 1:1.
So the renders will look different (and in my opinion worse) than in Daz.

There is no easy way to fix this.
There are some great Blender artists out there who manage to create realistic looking renders.
But that requires a lot of Blender knowledge, and there is so much to learn about Blender that it would take months.

So as a developer, you struggle with the limited capabilities of Daz and convert the scene to another software to do the animation and get the render quality you want.

Unless you are a pro with a software like Blender and the way to transfer Daz to Blender.
Which, unfortunately, I'm not :(

But I've learned a lot the last months and I'm quite happy with the results. 

It's the weekend update

Surprise, on time this time ;)

After countless playthroughs I've finally finished reworking chapter one.
I also managed to do some work on the GUI and removed all the pointless choices.

Meaningless choices?
I've decided that character stats like love, trust and so on are not important for the main characters.

Wil is there, Alex is there. Just to name two.
They are needed for the story, so there is no need to fake any character stats.
(With Alex, you'll still have the option of dumping her, but it doesn't change her relationship or her role in the story).

Whether or not you tell Wil to leave in the first chapter, you need his help.
Tell Wil that you love Alex or not. Alex will be there.
I hope you understand what I mean.

I'm adding some choices that will change the story in some parts.
Like being aggressive or passive will change the situation later in the game.

Chapters 2 and 3 should be much less work to redo and half of it is already done, I just have to torture my GPU ;) 

I may regret this, but you have the right to know where I am.
This rework has already taken much longer than planned.
If all goes well, I'll be sending out the beta this month.
While working on the update at the same time, I hope to get Chapter 4.1 out for beta/proofing soon after the comments on the revised beta have come in. 

Patreon billing has been paused for 2 months now and will resume after I've sent out the beta. I'll let you know when billing resumes.

Thanks for your support,
have a great weekend!

BTT

Weekend Update

Not much to report. 

Working on the rework, cleaning the "code", working on the replay function and gallery (will need some help with both from the coding guru ;))

No new renders for the update this week, so not much to show.
And the ones from the rework I can't show public on Patreon.

Anyway, billing is paused for May, as you might have noticed.
I'll unpause it when Chapter 4.1 goes to beta testing, but I'll make a public announcement before I unpause. 

Thanks for your support, have a great start into the new week! 

BTT

Weekend Update

Late again, sorry. I got stuck playing through the first chapter rework. 

It's ridiculous how many rendering errors like poke-throughs you can see with a trained eye.
Luckily it's easy to fix, but it's time consuming :/

While I was editing the script and fixing the bugs, the GPU was busy rendering some animations. I'm really having fun with Blender ;) 

I've got a few dozen renders set up for chapter 4.1, need to go through them again to check the lights and finally render them. 

I started playing through chapter 2 today, need to re-render some animations, but that shouldn't be a problem. 

That's all for now, not much to report but it's work to be done. 

Thanks for your support,

BTT

Wallpapers

I completely forgot the Wallpapers I did last week :(

It's a bit late for a Monday motivation. I hope it brings a smile to your face and you can look forward to the weekend.

Thanks for your support 

BTT

UHD below 

A Dev's life .....

There are so many devs out there doing a good job. 

But once they're established, it's hard to get in touch with them and even harder to build a relationship.
To some point I do understand that. You just can't answer every "how do you do that" question, or you even might not want to answer it at all. 

I had one fellow dev who doesn't believe in working together.
Well, he's history for 6 months now.
But I've met a few new devs doing incredible work and I really like to exchange experience with them.

There is Monk and Moonlight  who are creating really good  stories.
If you don't know these guys, check out their VNs.

Moon released a demo at steam a few days back. Go check it out and if you like it, whishlist his game. It would help him a lot. 

Get the demo here  

Thanks for your support,

BTT

a dev's life ..... #(lost count)

So what's new?

Not much, the PV is producing electricity, between 600W to 3500W a day.
On a sunny day that means that the extra costs for rendering (about 400W per hour)  are reduced, on a cloudy day, well i get the some basic load covered.

That will be better in the next months and much more worse in winter, but until now I'm happy with it.
My initial calculations to get a break even in 2 years seems to be right.
But that's  only because I use the power I produce. 

It's still cold for April, where is the climate change when you need it?
I spend a few hours in the garden this weekend, preparing everything.

Tomato, peppers, chili, pickle, strawberry and raspberry it will be.
Price for gardening soil is up 40% the last two years :O
Well, still cheaper than paying that crazy supermarket prices.


I finally made an appointment with my eye specialist.
I think I really need glasses for the Computer work.
As long as it's not retinal detachment as my father had, I'm good with glasses ;)
Not getting younger, but hey, the screens are getting bigger!

Have a good start into the new week! 

BTT

Weekend Update

Hi all!

I don't have much to report, at least not much that I can share.

This week was mostly rework (script and renders). I've been trying to get some things like soft body in animations working, i had a preview of this on discord a few weeks ago. 

Soft body, aka the body reacting to pressure for example, is something which is completely missing in Daz (like so many other things) so I had to export the models to other programs. Which is a nightmare.

But I'm quite happy with the results.
And with some other animations as well.

As you can see above I did a few renders for the update too and wrote the dialogue. 

I had planned to send out a beta of the rework including the update this month, but I don't see that happening.
So the Patreon pause will be renewed, I'll lift it when the beta version is out (and therefor I have a release date).


Thanks for you support! 

BTT

Weekend Update

Late again, too much work :/
Somehow I missed the Easter update, too much work and family business, sorry about that. :(  (Why nobody kicked my ass?!) 

So, progress? 

Yes! I don't know any english idioms to describe what I want to say.
Basically it's like it's the last months.

Working on the update and the rework (some scenes to show soon).
And with both parts there is always a scene or two that needs 3-4 versions to make it look right :/
I've had that in ever update yet and really would be happy if i could eliminate that time consumer.

For the update I reworked one scene, added a few dozen renders and more story for another. Working on it will go on.

For the rework I've worked on the animations and the scripts, will focus on the GUI the next week.

Thanks for your support,
hope you had a good weekend and have a good start into the new week! 

BTT 

(might upload a few wallpapers, but i'm not happy with the looks right now)

Spring is sprung and Easter is here!

Happy Easter!

Weekend Update

*Alex sighs*

Hi all. 

Not much to share, I had some RL things to do this week.
Did some renders, did some conversation/script writing and editing.
Played around with Blender - and it's frustrating.
These Blender devs really keep their secrets to themselves.

Patreon is paused, as promised.
They changed the way how paused accounts are handled.
With the monthly billing supporters still could join, with the new subscription they can't. *sigh*
Well, it is like it is.

I still owe you the March special render poll, but there are only three suggestions.
Will get that up tomorrow, sorry. Need to get a regular date for that.

Have a nice weekend and thanks for your support! 

BTT

Monday Motivation public

A very early one, or better a cozy Sunday ;)

Have a good week! 

UHD and more in the second post

BTT 

Weekend Update

Hey .... *sighs*

This isn't my proudest moment.
I really wanted to deliver the update this month, but there are several reasons why I will not be able to do so.

The rework is taking a lot longer than I thought, while the update is getting bigger and bigger. I have lost count of the number of renders and re-renders.

For the update I'm at 540 images with 1016 lines.
Without animations.

I could go on and on about what I am doing, but in the end you want to see results.
Which I can't provide right now, not in the way I want to. Sorry about that :(

As a consequence I will pause Patreon billing for April.
Don't get me wrong, I'm planning a release in April!
And old (paused) or new Patrons will be able to download it. 

I just think the rework/Steam thing isn't something you have to pay for.
And that keeps me busy for some time now.
I hope you will like the result.

I wish I could give you better news :(
But I can only do this rework once, and it has to be the best I can do now.

Have a nice weekend,

BTT

Weekend Update

Hello everyone!

It has been a very productive week.
I've done ~80 renders for the update and reworked some animations for the update.

While the PC was rendering I started to clean up the code. In short: What a mess.

The PV system generated 13kW this week, which isn't much, but since it was cloudy every day it was still a good amount.

Thanks for your support and have a good week!

BTT

(Can't show more here, sorry.)

Monday Motivation

Wishing you a good week

Weekend Update

A VERY late weekend update, sorry about that, I was just too busy. 

This is the first time I've run into the branch problem (stay with Alex or not) and I hate it already. Coding and double rendering as you can see in the pictures. 

But all in all, both the update and the rework are going great.

The two solar panels are set up and working, all that's missing is the sun.

I've been playing around with Blender this week for a few different scenes and I'm quite happy with it.

For example
https://twitter.com/badtimetales/status/1632474090102571013
(or discord in the WIP channel)

Sorry, no Monday Motivation this week :(

Thanks for your support and have a good start into the new week!

BTT

Your money at work ;)

600W peak (750Wp for 2 modules) PV system ordered (maximum allowed for "plug in solar").

With the PC using up to 400W during rendering + the monitor, this should be enough to reduce energy costs. 

Rendering during the day will be something I'll have to get used to.

I'll play Tim Taylor at the weekend ;) 

Thanks 

BTT

Weekend Update

Hello everyone. 

It's been a busy week, not just for me as you can see ;)

So what's new?

I added a few dozens stills for the update. Had to redo some, but no big deal.
Finished post work on 300 renders. 

The animations for chapter one are more or less done, just need some post work.
I will post some vids later so you can get an idea of what it will look like (Patron only).
All in all, the rework is more work than I thought.
I had hoped to use the old animations and "fix" them, but because of the way I set them up, that doesn't work (for chapter one, chapter two will be no problem).

So a completely new scene setup it is. 

But I like where it's going ;) 

I had a bit of a problem with Steam (yes, in the first step of setting up an account), but it's fixed now (hopefully).

Let's hope it's not the usual way. 

Thanks for your support, 

Have a nice weekend!

BTT

Weekend Update

Yep. Weekend.

Can't show much of the update as most of it would be a spoiler.
Zeus is not amused, as you can see, there's another guy helping you. The question is whether that's a good idea or not. 

And that picture of Alex's father gave you a really good idea. Thanks god for the bureaucracy! 

The next scenes planned for next week are with Wil, some sports (I'm not sure because I'd like to animate some parts of it and me and Blender soft bodies are not friends) and hopefully I'll get to the start of a scene that's important for the story. 

I still have a knot or two to untie ;) 

Reworking is going great, I'm about to finish the animations for the first chapter, 3 animations are rendering at the moment.
After the poll, the general idea is to show a longer vid to set the mood with some talking, and afte that the looping animations. 

There may be a problem with the steam version, but it's nothing that can't be fixed.  It's, as others have had, the music.
It shouldn't have any effect for now though.

I know that most of you play without music, but I like the way how I can set a mood with it, even if it costs me a day or two to find the tracks and putting them into the game.
I've no idea if I will be able to still do that for steam, as I don't want to have the same disasters other devs had.

Thank you for your support and feedback, 

Have a great Sunday, 

BTT

A dev's life -13

This post isn't about me.
I have realized that times have changed.

Admission. Support. Feedback.

That's what a developer wants. Some want more feedback, some want more approval, many want and need more support.

And I don't blame them. Creating a VN takes dozens of hours a week if you want to deliver a reasonable amount of content and a good story in more or less good quality.

Not to mention the hardware, the cost of assets and electricity.

Developers starting in 2018/19 or earlier had a much easier start in terms of building a fanbase.  
Why is that?
One reason is the flood of new games.
But that's not all.

Isa's last update got an estimated 50k-70k+ downloads, just from my sources.
Plus the pirate sites.

While I have loyal followers and fan base after more than a year (thanks guys!), new developers see the time they invest and the feedback they get.
Which is next to nothing.

A dev asking you to whishlist their game on steam.
Almost no response.
Another asking you to rate the game. On a pirate site. Nothing.

There is a reason why so many games get abandoned - and it is not always because the dev thought they could make $10k in a month.
Abandoned games are why I hear "I won't support a dev, there's a chance they'll stop developing".
Chicken and egg.

Just as an example:
Isa has 670k views on a pirate board.
With 380 likes and 37 ratings.
Would you offer a product for this ratio?
Likes and ratings don't cost anything except 3 minutes of your time.
Hundreds of hours of work don't deserve 3 minutes of your time?

As I said, I've made my peace with the situation.
And while I'm using Isa as an example, it's just to show the numbers.

Isa will be finished. No matter what.

But if you want new games: Give those damn likes, ratings and wishlist entries.

And yes, that's one reason why I'm going for a steam release.
The Patreon way doesn't work anymore.

Sorry for the rant, but I have seen three (new) devs get frustrated about this in the last few months.

Thanks for your support!

BTT

Happy Valentine's Day 1/2

The girls took a short trip ;)