Artemis DevLog - CH5

Happy Monday!

What a week. Sometimes I wish I could just slip into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and just crank out as much as I can. But it's safe to say that I got through the Steam checklist last week. I just need to tighten up V's intro and insert the renders that I had to do to patch things up. The long awaited CH4 4.2 patch should be here this week. It addresses a lot of things that I had been holding off on for a while, as well as insert the remaster for one another scene from CH1, which I'll go into more detail in a minute. I plan to wrap up the patch today and send it to the beta team to ensure things play smoothly. The changelog is quite long, so for those who want a sneak peek of what has been worked on, I attached a txt file for you to view.

Something I do want to point out that was added to the Quick Menu. You'll see "Resolve Screen" as an option. Sometimes if you're fast forwarding through scenes, the notifications will get stuck. the "# years ago..." or the "Decrypted!" pop-ups. If that happens, click "Resolve Screen" and it'll fix that. V's revised intro will go through this too.

In regard to remastering one of the scenes, it was the flashback with Supermom. For those new, I was diagnosed with keratoconus back in early 2020. And my vision had gone on a steep decline toward the end 2020. This scene had a grossly low-quality background. I had intended it to just be blurred away with depth of field, but it was very difficult to determine what was in focus and what was not. In CH2, I had not yet gotten my contacts but I tried to work with DOF but I believe some shots may have been slightly out of focus. So if someone mentions something that looks blurry, yeah I believe it because I couldn't see clearly. That said, this flashback was just atrocious for me to look at but I'm very happy that it finally got corrected. Next dev cycle, I may re-master the INK scene from CH1. I'm very fortunate I saved every old scene, so it only took me maybe 12 hours to redo 90 renders. Just a matter of opening the scene, importing the lighting, render settings, models. CTRL+C/CTRL+V then CTRL+SHIFT+C/CTRL+SHIFTV to copy the position/pose over to the models. Was a very quick job to do. Below are the results.

I also had a nice long conversation with Puggy, co-dev of Hellcat Lounge. Basically giving me a massive run-down of Blender, which is another 3D software. Those who have been around know that  I've always wanted to integrate Blender into my workflow. Not just for animations but also for the huge array of tools it offers you. Because let me tell you, sometimes I get an idea in the middle of development and DAZ just cripples my creativity because the tools aren't available to me. I end up having to fire up some external program and work there, then bring it over to DAZ. Puggy pretty much gave me a nice overview of what Blender can do if you put the effort to do it. And things seem really nice and calm right now in Artemis. But now that the story is starting to ramp up, I'm going to need something more than what DAZ can offer so I can render out things like the physics of a building collapsing, the guardrails of a bridge falling into the water below, etc. Basically seeing what Blender can do, really gives me hope that Artemis can REALLY be how I envisioned when I first started writing the story. Because drag racing, the firing range, the combat. Those aren't things I added in just because. They serve a purpose for things to come. (And for those thinking it...yes, Dom Torretto cameo soon because family.) Anyway, very exciting things to come as the main story continues to unfold.

Lastly, this month...March 21st, is the day I decided to click that send button and tell myself "why did I just do that" as I released Artemis to the wild. Fast forward two years and I'm still amazed how deciding to just "do it" projected me into a whole new career change. That said...a couple of things. I'll be throwing out a poll probably tomorrow asking if you guys want a full "Victora's Secret-esque" spread of the girls of Artemis. Or do you guys want individual renders of the girls? The spread with all of the girls will be done quickly. Due to focusing on CH5, the individual girl renders will trickle out as I have time to complete them. Only because I don't want to take more time off from CH5 development. 

To recap:

Spread of all girls Victoria's Secret - Fast

Individual girls - Renders will get posted as they're completed which will take weeks.

Again, a poll will be out tomorrow to decide.

On top of this, I'll do a written Q&A and reveal responses on the week of the 20th. I'd do a live-chat on Discord. But honestly, I'm very aware that I tend to just talk/ramble. One question may have me fire off for like 10 minutes. At least with written answers, I can clamp myself. I mean, look at this DevLog. It's a goddamn dissertation right now. Haha, anyways. Drop questions below, I'll bring it up again next Monday and the Monday after I'll reveal my responses.

Welp, sorry for the wall of text on this one. I'm back on full-throttle with CH5 now, especially with Steam prep much out of the way now!

Again, huge thanks to everyone for two years of Artemis. Past and present. Thank you.

Be safe out there.

- digi.B