Dev log November #3

Hello,

1. Blender - Daz

2. Color errors

3. Previews + comparisons

1. Blender - Daz

As everyone here should know, I am learning Blender.
And the best way to get better in something is to do it a lot.

I never openly said it and I wanted it to be a surprise but I planned on doing the WiAB rework in Blender.
That's also the reason why it took such a long time to even show some stuff to you guys.

But, last week I decided against it, even tho I have invested around 800€ in assets and other software but the Daz to Blender converters suck too hard at the moment.

I managed to fix all the major problems.. But.. There are so many small drawbacks and problems at the moment that pile up to a gigantic "Fuck you."

Blender itself isn't the problem. It's mostly the converters you have to use to get functionality. (Like Diffeomorphic or the Daz to Blender bridge.)

It would be no problem to do these super high-quality sex animations you often see on the web with a few chosen chars.
But if you have to constantly switch environments, chars, and do 1000+ renders an update, the headache these converters give me is too big. 

Besides, I can only put two chars in one scene before my Vram explodes.

I decided to revisit Blender in a year and hopefully, those converters have improved by then. 

I will still do Blender stuff on the side and sometimes use it for cinematics but I will proceed with my old plan. I will continue the game in Daz till season 2.

I am at a point where my Daz renders look decent enough to justify going a little bit further till season 2.

But I still learned a lot from Blender, especially in terms of animations, natural movement, etc.
Obviously, you cannot compare Daz and Blender. Daz is a shitshow in terms of animations.

So yeah, from now on, we're back on high productivity. (At least as soon as I get a 3090.)

I managed to render some scenes with the 1070Ti, even tho they take  ~3:30h to finish.

2. Color errors

A few days ago I noticed some huge errors in my renders. Especially in the "blacks".
They are caused by my monitor and sometimes I see them and sometimes I don't.

I asked some people if they also see that stuff. But they don't.
If you notice some errors in the future, just something that looks absolutely weird, please tell me which monitor you are using and if you customized your color settings. 

I also noticed how unbelievably different renders look on different monitors. 

Currently, I am using a 49" Ultrawide 5120x1440.
And I hooked up a 27" 1920x1080 and saw how different they look.

There is sadly no way to actually match what you and I see. 

Sadly, I do have to assume that everything you see on your monitor looks different from mine.

For example, the highlights on my 49" look amazing, while they are completely gone on the 27".
Maybe it's a resolution thingy. I can't say and I just hope it doesn't look too far off. 

This also affects Summer's Gone.

3. Previews + comparisons.

Due to the fact that this is in some part a rework. (Events are different.) I have the chance to show you comparisons to what I am actually reworking and if a visual rework besides the story-rework is justified.

The entire first season of WiAB is written now. Everything is brought up to a new standard. I will now have to overhaul the second season a little.

In the old WiAB, I reduced the MC in terms of deepness to a minimum. I did that because back in the days, I thought giving the MC a "bland" personality, would make it easier for the player to insert themselves.

I hate that and did throw it completely away in Chapter 6 and added what was usually planned for the boy.

I always did it so that you couldn't see the MC's face in the old WIAB (cause it's the player.) but I found a new love.. Cinematic shots and animations. And I have to show the face. 

You could see the old MC in this render.

Some weird Elon musk-Elvis clone.

Due to being back working in Daz, I didn't need to care about the limitations of Blender anymore and created a new custom MC that actually looks like someone who could pull off dating a Dana, etc.

Obviously, the MC is a completely different person now. He is a lot more proactive and I did put a lot of thought into his personal story arc and I am excited to show you guys.

On the topic of new looks.

Miru, a very special girl and probably the person that got influenced the most through the rework. 

I first used her old skin, the one she had in the first WiAB version to keep the Miru essence alive. But, the creator of her fucked it up hard.
The legs + genitals do not match with the rest of the body and so I threw it away and gave her some high-quality skin.

Here are some comparisons between the old Miru from the intro of Chapter 1 and the new one.

And the MC now has heterochromia. (Different eye colors.) And I chose long hair for the MC. I am now capable of giving the MC four different hairstyles for different occasions and it also fits his personality and current circumstances. (Also, there are almost no good Daz male hairstyles. I will see If I can somehow export the Particle hair from Blender into Daz.)

I know some people will now say "She doesn't look Asian!"
Take a look at old WiAB and Miru's sister. She has blue eyes.
I think you can think of a reason why. (Otherwise, wait for the story arc.)

The updates are now smaller. I won't do any 5000 lines updates anymore as you all know. So, as soon as I have the 3090, I will be able to give my first thoughts on the near future.

I have found some 3090s available. But those are the "Bad" custom versions.
And I really don't want to pay 1800€ for a "bad" version of it. The ones that are loud and cool like shit. 

My eyes are open and I am scanning the sites every day. 

I am probably going to do another dev log this month. 

- Ocean
(: