hyperdeep

Smash, pass, pass... smash [Engineering Build 0.4.3ap]

Added 2022-09-30 16:00:45 +0000 UTC

Well, phase 1 of the grand bug smash is complete and we've made some significant headway into an utter mire of my own creation. We haven't reached complete bug-freedom yet, but we're on our way.

A non-exhaustive list of bugs smashed in this update:

Resolution settings not retained between sessions
Resolution settings not applied correctly
Fullscreen settings not applied correctly
Freecam can remain in "move mode" after opening designer/sidebar
Starting freecam mode while already in freecam mode causes issues
Various menu elements incorrectly colored
Various menu element borders incorrectly rounded
Tab selection buttons incorrectly colored when reopening designer
Range selectors' shaded regions misaligned
Combo box item text incorrectly spaced
Help section of sidebar contains missing/outdated information
Some addon menu items cannot be deselected
Addon menu item deselection inconsistent/awkward
Chance to crash when opening "facial piercings" section
Addons initialized with incorrect default offset values
Some addon materials incorrectly rendered
Inconsistent lighting across objects
Postprocess materials incorrectly ordered
Some facial expressions prevent proper insertion

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Because it wouldn't be good for my sanity to do NOTHING but bugfixes for a whole update, I took some time off to work on some other elements:

Yet another new main menu design

What can I say, I'm never satisfied.

Logo increments

I spent such a long time designing the word "deep" in the most recent logo incarnation that I was utterly exhausted when it came to thinking about the word "hyper", which is why I chose not to and copped out.

I took some time this month to think about how to elegantly incorporate the H with the D and came up with what you see above. Is it completely overwrought? Yes. Does it actually read as the word "hyper"? No, not really. But I like it and it satisfies the golden rule of logo design: that everything must be made of intersecting circles.

Environment tweaks

Last month I put the environment capsules together REAL fast, so they weren't exactly polished. I've tweaked some of the materials and lighting to hopefully make things look a bit more cohesive. I've made a few LUTs as well to go with them to hopefully make each one feel more distinct. I really like the capsule concept and I'm optimistic that it's going to bloom into a pretty cool element of the game.

Lighting in general

You might have noticed last time that HD-chan was looking a whole more shadowy and dynamic than prior appearances. This is partially a good thing, because I had always intended for the game to eventually have some sort of dynamic lighting, but it also brings along a lot of risk.

The whole design philosophy behind the game's shaders is to try to recreate "high quality anime art". That is: stylised but not cel-shaded. Introducing lighting more accurate than a human hand could hope to reproduce is antithetical to this philosophy and so a lot of thought must be given to how exactly lighting data will be used and applied to maintain a consistent and deliberate "look". This thought was not given last month and hence the result looked more like a rough experiment than a finished project (because it was).

This month I spent some more time thinking about how the lighting ought to apply and I think I've come up with a reasonably tasteful and aesthetically consistent solution.

Eyes

I've been doing some experimentation with removing HD-chan's eyelashes and irises and baking them into textures. This should hopefully make the whole eye system simpler and get rid of some persistent visual glitches. The new model is not incorporated into this build. Next time.

Dick

I tastefully rounded off the bottom end of the "dick only" dick, so that it no longer terminates in a weird jagged polygon mess

Speaking of weird jagged polygon messes, the dick and the dude overall are in desperate need of touching up. Unlike HD-chan who has had constant attention and improvements to go along with my increasing skills over the last couple of years, "the dude" has been entirely neglected, and it's starting to show. Probably not right at the top of the to-do list after the bug smash has concluded but getting up there.

Controls

Some of the controls have been modified slightly. Until now this would have been a nightmare because the help page has rarely been up to date or accurate. Now the game has a controls guide that comes up when you press H (for HELP)!