Prelewd Project Launch / Important Patreon changes (Patreon)

[Content Warning: All links in this post are NSFW (non-furry and furry content)]

Hey all!

I already mentioned in my last post I was going to launch a new project to try and finance the Filmmaker in the long run, so here we go!

I'm launching a new project called "Prelewd", which is a 3D porn simulator with VR capabilities and support for SFM animations, Source Engine (and Source2) assets, as well as VR/360 videos. Now, some of that might sound familiar, because it's effectively just a repurposed version of the Filmmaker using the same implementation :).

I know this is a little out of the blue, but there are good reasons for this approach:

• The Filmmaker is very technical in nature, which makes it difficult to make interesting videos about, advertise it to people and get more supporters on board.

• Some of the features I'd like to implement (like real-time raytracing) require investments that I cannot afford at the moment.

• I'd like the Filmmaker to remain free and open-source, but that makes offering Patreon rewards very difficult.

• I started this Patreon a few months before the pandemic started, and needless to say it has... complicated things a little.

This new project should (hopefully) help solve all of these issues and also allow me to reach a much larger audience.

Prelewd is (for the most part) based on the same implementation as the Filmmaker. This has the advantage that most of my progress on Prelewd will also enhance the Filmmaker at the same time. That being said, the implementation that is unique to Prelewd will not be open-source and there will be Patreon-exclusive features for Patron++ patrons.

There will also be a few changes to my Patreon as a whole. For one, there will be a lot of NSFW posts from now on, and I will be focusing primarily on Prelewd at least for a few weeks to get things going.

I don't want to intermix the two projects too much, so Pragma does not ship with Prelewd, Prelewd has to be downloaded separately. I've also set up separate social media accounts for Prelewd:

Website: https://prelewd.pragma-engine.com/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PrelewdNSFW

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Prelewd/

Discord: discord.gg/4rUudq8

You can find videos and more information on the Prelewd website, but here's a short summary of some of its features:

• There's a VR and a non-VR mode, as well as a real-time interactive mode and a video playback mode (supports 360° and VR videos)

• SFM sessions can simply be imported (just like in the Filmmaker)

• Characters in the animations can be replaced with any other models using animation retargeting

• There are some limited customization options like changing character skins, bodygroups, changing the set, etc.

• As a SFM animator, you can create your own custom projects, Prelewd will automatically pack up all of the assets and project files required to run the project, which you can then ship to anyone who has Prelewd installed.

Download

You can always download the latest version of Prelewd from the Pragma Patreon settings page: https://wiki.pragma-engine.com/patreon/settings.php

You can either download the standalone version (which includes Pragma), or the addon version, which you can simply extract into your existing Pragma installation.

There's also a free-for-all version of Prelewd available here. There are no Patreon exclusive features yet, so both versions are the same for the time being.

(Special thanks to Lieutenant Flapjack for allowing me to use one of his animations to ship with Prelewd!)

For instructions on how to use Prelewd, check out this article.

Anyway, I hope I'm not disappointing anyone too much with this change of plans, the Filmmaker/Pragma is still one of my main goals in the long run 😅. The alternative would be to find another source of funding, which would most likely take away too much time from the project as a whole, so I think this is the best compromise going forward. There will be some more other minor changes to this Patreon over the next few weeks, but there'll be another post about that then!

I understand that not everyone may be comfortable supporting a NSFW project like this, so I'll offer a refund of your pledge for this month to anyone who wishes to leave this Patreon and who has missed this post before this month's payments are processed.

Either way, I wish everyone a Happy Halloween🎃!