Inner Circle Update for January 27 2018! (Patreon)

Hey guys!
 

Apologies for the gap in posts.  I’ll actually be making a post in addition to this one in just a few more days. What originally was going to be a test to show off one feature ballooned into a full test of our new cutscene process, which I plan on showing an example of in action :D.  Basically though, I should’ve posted this update a few days ago instead of thinking I could cram it all into one.  

Anyways, after being so late with it this month, I really want to get back to posting our monthly updates near the beginning of the month. Since we’ve been working on this other thing for the past week, doing so leaves us little time to expand the battle test release. That being said, I have a few ideas for how we can, and will update you on in the next Inner Circle post in a few days.

Battle Interface Concept

I needed a break after the monthly update, so I changed gears and worked on some concepts for a new battle interface to better fit with the new art style. I tried a bunch of variations, but this is the one I like best so far. And here is the current UI for comparison.  I’d still very much like to get a UI artist on board eventually to overhaul the entire UI theme, but I think something like this at least doesn't conflict with the new style as badly, and could serve as a stepping stone. 

Some things this concept design accomplishes:

• Removes the now unnecessary white outline theme all over the gauges and other elements 
• Tones down the saturation in the colors and makes them more fitting with the retro cyberpunk theme 
• Softens elements by using darker values and gradients
• Scales down some oversized elements

Unfortunately, we won’t be able to implement this in RPG Maker since it will likely require some shaders for the text and glow effects, so it probably have to wait for the new engine. 

Uber’s Map and HDR Processing Pipeline

Ubercharge got to work some on his map, but spent more time working with me on some things involving what I’ll show off in a few days. 

His procedural HDR processing pipeline for maps that I discussed in the monthly update helped me see how valuable it is for maintaining consistency and saving time when doing post processing. For a noob like me, amount of information available to work with in HDR source imagery is mindblowing.  Not only can we remove a lot of the grunt work for maps, but we can very quickly create some amazing procedural effects that can be re-used anywhere (here’s an effect we accidentally made that I think gives off a Tetsuo the Iron Man vibe, something we could use for flashback scenes in the story). I’m more and more convinced we should be using it for as many of the game’s assets as possible, which should be really evident in what I’ll show off in a few days. 

TK’s Armor Remodeling

TK has finished remodeling Neon’s armor, and it looks and functions great :D.  Most importantly is that it performs far better when working with it in Iray. A close second is that it looks far better in close-ups without artifacts from Iray’s displacement mapping. Among a few other details, I still have to tweak and add the displacement maps to the bump channels in order to be able to do some full quality renders, but I’ll have those for you in the upcoming post (I’ll also get to show some examples of the lights in HDR).

In the Upcoming Post…

The cutscene demonstration in the next post will be very brief, but will serve as an example for a host of new features. 

• Simulated soft body dynamics (squishy body parts)
• AltairPL’s Bezier curve system (smooth camera panning/zooming/transitions) 
• HDR processing
• A full test of our liquid process, including further improved simulated liquid, Ubercharge’s texture-based liquid maps, and proper post-processing.
• An example of our capabilities using Adobe Premiere to compose cutscenes as opposed to doing it via code with RPG Maker.