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Chapter 1 - Dev Log #3
🕑 Added 2021-03-19 21:27:19 +0000 UTCHello,
So- where were we...
- General
- Chapter 1 and the problem
- New tier benefits + Blender progress.
- New Helen.
- New House of the MC.
- Public previews.
- General
YOU CAN FIND ALL IMAGES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST TO DOWNLOAD. FOR SOME REASON YOU CANNOT VIEW THEM FULLSCREEN ANYMORE.
1. General
First the general stuff, the update is going decent. Sadly not great because my PC is hitting the limits on every edge. I can't even count how often Daz crashes lately. It's so frustrating but that's part of the job. Starts twitching
It's not even Daz's fault, sadly my i7 6600 is pretty much dying and my now 2(!) 2080Ti's are constantly hitting the Vram limit.
I personally value "immersion" a lot but I am unable to properly create outdoor scenes that deliver the feeling I want due to the lack of Vram.
I add one tree and instance it seven times, add some characters and I see that I am already above 10GB.
And due to the bad CPU, the scenes lag like hell. But WiAB 0.5's camping trip toughened me up.
Sadly, the prices of the 3090 have skyrocketed.
They now cost up to 3000€ here in Germany. Just insane.
I have the WiAB funds to get one- which would solve a lot of problems. BUT- my CPU and mainboard will probably not be able to handle the 3090 properly.
The plan is to save up until I can buy a Threadripper + TRX4 Motherboard + 3090 in one go.
Or I might even go for the Threadripper and TRX4 first, to at least minimize most of the crashes. (These problems don't exist on the SG PC at all.)
I also got a 2nd 2080Ti for less than 300€ from a friend.
Even though I need more Vram, I couldn't say no to the additional render speed.
And in addition to that, I encountered a really shitty bug, which ate four days until I managed to fix it. In short: This bug always told me that there was a file missing whenever I opened a scene. It was due to a corrupt asset and it took me four days to locate it. This bug could be ignored safely and I could just keep on working.
BUT... It made me unable to use the Render-queue and render overnight because whenever the Queue opened the next file, the bug would prevent it from rendering until someone did click "Okay". But enough crying, I had to work with much worse when I started. Times will get better eventually.
2. Chapter 1 and the problem
The new WiAB rework is quite challenging. I love it and I hate it due to the time pressure. I especially have my problems with Chapter 1.
It's just personally under my expectations and I am afraid too many are hyped for nothing. Chapter 2 is where the game picks up a lot.
I had a lot of fun writing everything after Chapter 1.
But Chapter 1 did hold my mind hostage- or more like, the old WiAB did hold my mind hostage and I wasn't able to "let it go." Anyways, it's still much better than what the game currently offers.
3. New high tier benefits + Blender progress.
As most people here know. I will switch to Blender with Season 2 and as soon as Chapter 1 is out, I will make a poll about the first character of WiAB that is going to be converted.
The best way for me to learn and have fun at the same time would be short stories.
Like some little bonus scenes made in Blender which will then be published for the high tiers (20$ and above.) I would like to give the high tiers more benefits for supporting me this much.
After the first Blender-Short Story, I will hold polls for the 20$+ tiers to vote on them. In the latest SG Dev Log, I showed my first conversion of Bella to Blender.
I have kept working on it a little and improved it here and there and I want to show it here. Here is the first version, that was already shown on the SG Dev log. 
There she had very flat skin. The hair was more thatch-like. Here is the 2nd version with some improvements but still a long way to go. 
Here she has a lot more skin details and less thatch hair.
In the future, I will be doing separate Blender logs again.
4. New Helen.
With the rework, many characters are getting a rework.
That means skins and eyes are getting changed, bodies getting custom sculpting.
At first, I didn't intend to change Helen's skin but then I took a closer look at it and- there is no way I would keep that low-quality skin.
I picked that skin back in the early days before I even had a clue what I was doing. Here are some examples of why the old Helen had to go.
Here the full view of the new sculpt Helen with the old skin:
Besides the weird dead look.
The body texture is atrocious. Everything is really "bumpy" and stretched.
Even worse at her mouth area. As you can see the part above the lips is weirdly stretched. 
It had to go.
Here is the new one that features high-quality skin + eyes. 
I know that some will like old corpse-Helen more but I want the game to be future-proof.
5. New House of the MC.
I spent a lot of time in the last weeks designing a completely new house. (This house is pretty much abusing my Vram.)
It is still a work in progress until it will really get used in Chapter 2. But here are a few pictures of the backyard. (The backyard didn't exist before.)
Due to the new character traits and depth, all of them got in the rework, I was able to design certain sections of the house according to some character traits.
This will also affect each person's personal room. They will get some very nice custom-tailored rooms.
6. Public previews.
As said before, I now wanna stick to the tier-benefits and most previews are now for the 5$ tiers.
A big new part of the rework is as I mentioned in earlier Dev logs, the life of MC and Miru in their "old" city. 
Especially about the life and characters they have met there. 
Chapter 1 pretty much focuses on Miru and the MC. It gives a small but clear insight into their relationship. With the rework, an actual loving relationship has been crafted. 
Quite a few options are given during the first 3 Chapters that will shape your relationship with Miru. (Including an open relationship.)
You can find four more previews in this POST.
The PC might be troubling me but we are coming closer.
After Chapter 1 and when I have built most of the environments, we should be looking at a comfortable release schedule.
- Ocean
