PURE ONYX February 2023 Progress Update!

Hey everyone!

The next Pure Onyx release will be tomorrow!  This was a short month, but we still have quite a bit to show off and discuss!

The upcoming release contains a couple significant updates for the visual equipment system, including the addition of Onyx's feet when her shoes are removed.  The visual system will now also function on the world map!

In addition, we've added the 1x and 2x Vioreaper H scenes for the Bat Bunny.  I think you can expect the Blade Bunny futa versions next month, hopefully along with Onyx's new H scene with the Bunny Girls!

As usual, we have a lot of new art content to show as well, so please check below for the details :D!

Topics for this Update!

• February Release Details
• 2D Art Revamp Part 1 (Status Portrait)
• Neon Design Concepts
• Announcer / Ring Girl Progress!
• Visual Equipment System Updates (Feet!)
• Onyx + Bunny Girls H Scene WIP!
• Spider Enemy Sculpts!
• 2D Art Revamp Part 2 (Title Screen WIP)

February Release Details

Tentative Changelog (** indicates items added or being added since the February 20 Inner Circle test release):

• ** Added Bat Bunny w/ 2x Vioreaper H scene
• ** Visual equipment system now functions on the World Map
• ** Added new attacks for Bat Bunny
• ** Bat Bunny now actually dodges instead of cartwheels in place.
• ** Improved enemy AI ability selection algorithm
• ** Lowered amount of Stamina gained per level
• Added Bat Bunny w/ 1x Vioreaper H scene
• Improved anims and added missing physics to Onyx w/ 1x Vioreaper H scene
• Added feet mesh and rig update to Onyx + improved Onyx's abdomen texture
• Enabled Onyx's feet for use with the visual equipment system
• Fixed issue with visual equipment system that would cause nipples to clip with ground/objects they are pressed up against
• Wraxe no longer spins like a top if you walk past him back and forth quickly
• Fixed Charger not playing turn animation after breath attack, stomp, and roar
• Splicer Thug no longer stalls out for 10 frames after standing up
• Fixed issue with money/exp etc. on left side of screen flipping out when playing in Windowed Mode
• Added additional debugging tools that can provide us with more actor / AI / combat information when players report bugs.
• Loot can no longer spawn behind shop

2D Art Revamp Part 1 (Status Portrait)

If you recall we've been doing a lot of R&D to integrate AI into our workflow for environment backgrounds, but in the last month we've also been learning how to utilize it for creating high quality 2D character art from our in-game 3D renders.  This art can then be used for UI and marketing purposes.

Our in-game models look solid at game cam distance and are pretty good close-up when in motion, but were never intended for high quality close-up stills.  Arc Systems for instance has an entirely separate pipeline (rigs, models, animations, team probably) for close-ups.  Utilizing AI here is a force multiplier for us, allowing much more accuracy in terms of art direction since I'm at the helm for generating the base images, which I then composite and hand off to the painters to finish.  There are usually inconsistencies with characters or general errors like with hands to fix (the hands were painted mostly from scratch in the status portrait).  We still have to add her braids and belly jewelry, for instance.

And it's still not an easy button.  This month I did 8150 generations (renders) just on the character artwork, something that would've been impractical a few months ago and before the workstation upgrade.  While a lot of this was experimentation (especially on faces), I've had a lot of success with a new status portrait for Onyx (with the help of Xxoom), which you can see the before and after of above.

P.S. Xxoom has since painted in her braids and belly piercing :D

Neon Design Concepts

Limbo has been working on additional designs for Neon's outfits and mechanic parts, as we determined the original set of ideas didn't have enough of a visible sense of progression.  This new direction is turning out better I think, and more in line with Neon's original design!  He's also working on tiers for drone designs this time as well.

Ring Girl Progress!

Xxoom and Demonu have made a bunch of progress on the Ring Girl character for Semi's boss fight :D.  Xxoom drew closeups of her face, which Demonu then used as reference for the 3D sculpt!  Her hair is still a work-in-progress!

Visual Equipment System Updates (Feet!)

TK has completed the rig edits necessary to resolve the height discrepancy and keep characters' feet grounded when not wearing shoes.  AltairPL has also improved the visual equipment system, now allowing for feet to display when Onyx's shoes are removed (or destroyed, but currently they can't be).

There's still one issue, which only manifests during the solo Thug H scene, which is caused by the legacy rigs we have to use for that scene, due to it being animated before many of Onyx's rig upgrades were completed.  That said, Ryatta has almost completed a technique for transferring these old animations to the new rigs, so we will hopefully have that knocked out next month!

Lastly, as of this week, AltairPL has also added visual equipment system functionality to the world map, so you will see that in the end-of-month update!

Spider Enemy Sculpts!

Kame has completed the 3D sculpts for the spider enemies!  We are now also working on a third baby spider enemy.  See above for renders from more angles, and expect to see cel shading / material tests in Unity of these guys in the next update!

Onyx + Bunny Girls H Scene WIP!

We've been working on the new H scene for Onyx and the Bunny Girls!  This one involves a pretty complicated rig for Onyx, including a dancing pole, a lot of tape and vibrators o.o... Here are some shots from Kame of the zeroed "outfit" that will be used :D.

P.S. the straight line things poking out from Onyx are wires for the vibrators -- when zeroed out things like this (and tentacles for example) are straight so they deform properly when rigged and animated

2D Art Revamp Part 2 (Title Screen)

The second AI art project I've been working on is the title screen revamp!  A while back I made a collage from screencaps of our in-game models, and has always intended on having a high quality 2D painting made from it to be used in our title screen. This aligns very well with our startup loading overhaul, as we'll be working on UI animations for that soon also.

As mentioned at the start of this post, there's still a lot of work that goes into this, and that means each character render has to be processed separately -- usually in chunks -- for the best result.  Check above for the more complete images of some we've (mostly) finished so far, and below for some closeup before and afters