August 2021 Progress Update!

Hello again everyone!

This has been a very good month for us progress-wise. We added the Thug's section to the Chain Splicer's H scene, and have most of the first FemCop H scene animated!  We've made a lot of headway on performance improvements, and have a lot of progress to show on the latest enemy and her futa variant.

I'll also be discussing a lot of the technical features/improvements we've made for the mid-month release in more detail, as well as some upcoming ones!

Topics for this Update!

• Bunny Girl Progress!
• Futa Bunny Girl Variant WIP
• Test Mission Added to Game
• FemCop H Scene WIP
• Armor Damage / Visual State System
• FemCop LOD model
• Liquid Mesh Optimization
• Larva Combat Animations
• Pure Onyx FAQ

August Release Details

Check out the changelog below for the changes to the mid-month release, as well as expected upcoming changes at the end of the month!  Expect a few more to be added when it releases.

Tentative Changelog (** indicates items added or being added since the August 16 Inner Circle test release):

• ** Adding first FemCop + Onyx H scene
• ** Chain Splicer now has the "eyeshine" cue before launching an H attack
• ** FIxed clipping on FemCop's bodysuit shoulders
• ** Fixed an issue where changing key-bindings would cause the game to freeze 
• Added Thug section to the Chain Splicer H scene.
• Added additional SFX to the Runt section of the Chain Splicer H scene
• Added the capability for Onyx to travel between maps / exit to the World Map
• Added basic event system, including enemy encounters, triggers, temporary wall colliders to limit encounter areas, and "Go!" indicator to guide Onyx
• Added an arrow indicator to guide player toward map exits/transitions.
• Overhauled camera math to accommodate multiple aspect ratios without breaking enemy encounters.
• Added Test Mission to show off the new map/mission features
• Added first iteration of enemy clothing damage / graphics transformation system
• Added first level armor damage to FemCop (jacket destroyed when hit with heavy attack)
• Added LOD (optimized) model for FemCop
• Added Mule Kick ability to FemCop (she will now counter attack from knockdown)
• Added SFX to FemCop's Backstep ability
• Completed rework/upgrade of FemCop's genitals rigging
• Massively reduced chance of firefly artifacts appearing (white flashing circles -- visual giltch some players have) appearing.
• FX no longer incorrectly continue playing after an H animation / H scene has been skipped or an attack has been canceled.
• Runt's box and Ball Drone will no longer fail to appear during Runt's section of the Chain Splicer H scene.
• Charger can no longer improperly change facing direction after winding up for Ground Stomp
• Wraxe no longer pre-emptively flickers away before his Death animation can complete
• Fixed textures on Ball Drone that were missing after LOD revamp
• Ball Drone is no longer missing its eye during Runt's section of the Chain Splicer H scene.
• Zoom now functions in the gallery when a scene is not active.
• Game database split in two so that only system data is initialized at startup (will allow for loading animation instead of black screen)

Bunny Girl Progress!

TK completed the game resolution model of the Bunny Girl enemy last week, and I quickly knocked out the materials / textures so we could show her off here :D.  She still needs another day of work to improve colors on shadows along with some other fixes, but she's almost there.  TK is also just about finished with her rig and weapon, so I'll be sure to post a posed version of her and the new variant next month :D.  

Futa Bunny Girl Variant WIP

Kame has completed the model for the futa Bunny Girl variant!  

As mentioned in the last update, futa characters will be one of a few optional bits of content that we will include in a content filter system.  That being said, we won't be skimping on, ahem, anything >.>!

The details of the optional content are still WIP, but you can see the alternate model above. 

Test Mission Added to Game

Probably the most important feature added in the mid-month release is the first test "mission" -- the result of a lot of hard work by AltairPL!    

As we move away from the enemy wave minigame, this test mission represents a basic example of how regular gameplay will function, and highlights a lot of functionality that AltairPL has added to our map/event systems this month.  Some of the features include:

• Enemy encounters that lock action to a portion of the map -- similar to what you're used to in beat 'em ups.
• Multi-wave encounters
• Classic beat 'em up Go! indicator to guide Onyx
• Ability to transition between maps, an indicator to mark where exits exist.
• A wave event within an enemy encounter event (to show that we can do all sorts of special events with this system, or include sidequest related events).
• Ability to exit to the World Map upon completing the stage (we still need a Mission Complete screen)

The Test Mission can be accessed on the World Map, just like the other locations/events. 

FemCop H Scene WIP

We're hoping to, at the very least, have a rough version of the first FemCop H scene ready for the end-of-month release!  I think we're in a good position to make it, but with only a couple of days to spare for unforeseen issues I don't want to promise too much :D.

In addition to this, we're looking at adding up to two multi-team H scenes between Onyx, FemCop, and the male cops in the near future >.>, with the first as early as next month.   

Armor Damage / Visual State System

Mr Kittyhawk completed the first iteration of the Armor Damage system for the mid-month release!  Really, it's a visual state system, since its uses extend beyond armor damage.  In actuality, it allows for scripted graphics changes to take place on a character, meaning we could potentially use it for enemy transformations or extend it for use with persistent H effects. 

FemCop LOD/Optimized Model

Performance boost talk~! TK finished FemCop's H-compatible optimized model for the mid-month release!  The polycount went from 78.6k to 36k with all parts visible.  Here are his comments:

The girls are much trickier on account of generally being more complex with more moving parts. Particularly the parts we like the most. The lowpoly versions have to do all the same things (including H scene activity), so the improvements aren't as nice as some of the other characters. 

As TK points out, the poly reduction isn't as big as with male enemies.  36k is quite high still, and this is because her abdomen / boobers need to remain detailed for body shaping H effects (inflation / nipple stuff / etc).  Thus, we will likely create an even lower poly combat-only model for females that isn't H-compatible, otherwise sections of the game with predominantly female enemies would be significantly less performant.

Liquid Mesh Optimization

Another big performance boost!   TK finished FemCop's liquid mesh optimization as well.  Here's what he had to say:

We originally [made these from] crushed down versions of some liquid simulations that Ubercharge (our simulation guy) made. So now the lowpoly variant is much more sane, with that baked down to body-conforming planes. The face and crotch still have significant depth to them and are viewed from many angles , so I decided it was easier to work the polycount much lower for those meshes, [but leave them 3D.]

The liquid meshes were very high poly before (we have yet to optimize Onyx's -- expect hers when we do her optimized model).  Where the enemy model optimizations yielded a 2-4x polycount reduction, this is a 10x improvement.  As TK mentioned, this is achieved by using a combination of 3D geo and textures.

Larva Combat Animations

TMX finished most of the Larva combat animations this month!  Here's a preview of a few of them.  Back in November I included a description of how these guys will behave, and wanted to repost it now since it's still accurate.

These guys differ from existing enemies in that there are a few variations to them based on their scale.  They will ... be found in packs, with the variations exhibiting different behaviors and attacks, contributing to what could be a chaotic encounter if they aren't shut down quickly... 

Some ideas for their attacks include spitting acid that damages clothing durability (thanks Inner Circle guys for that), leaping like popcorn at Onyx so that she has to punch them out of the air ...  We've also considered the idea of the big ones inflating on death and exploding like a bomb.  It may be fun if they sometimes spawned by falling from above onto Onyx as well :D.

... [TK's] currently working on a more docile and sucker-like alternate head model.  We decided the "teeth out" look will probably be for the bigger ones once Onyx aggros them :D.

Oh yeah, when the big ones Ground Slam it will launch the smaller ones in all directions :D who will in turn no doubt stick to things >.>

Pure Onyx FAQ

Lastly, I'm in the midst of working on a FAQ for everything Pure Onyx related.  Once complete I'll plaster this everywhere I can.  Even if you've been hanging around our Patreon for awhile, I think you'll find some useful information in it!