Inner Circle Update for August 28 2019! (Patreon)

Hey guys!

Sorry for being slow to update here the past week.  We've been getting a lot of uninteresting but necessary tech stuff related to the 3D conversion out of the way while I grind out the animations for Onyx and the Splicer Thug.   

Now that we're producing animations, Mr. Kittyhawk has been resolving issues with the 3D conversion as we run into them. He has also made a lot of progress smoothing out his improved AI system that he had to leave hanging when we started on the 3D stuff.

TK has been continuing his work updating Onyx's rig and models, and Limbo is still working on the Splicer boss model, among other things.  He'll hopefully have a draft of that ready to show by the monthly update.

Clothing Swap and Equipment System

Something we've talked about since making the switch to 3D is the possibility down the line for alternate visuals to go with the equipment system we'll eventually add.  Last week TK and Mr. Kittyhawk began working on the rigging system for swapping clothes out for H scenes, and they came to the conclusion that the only way to preserve the possibility of alternate visuals for equipment was to go ahead and lay the groundwork for the system now :D. 

The system will work similar to Skyrim/Fallout's slot system, in that Onyx will have a bunch of slots corresponding to parts of her body.  This allows for a lot of combinations and outfit customization.  Gear however can take up multiple slots, meaning something like a bodysuit wouldn't be compatible with a skirt and shirt.

This system won't be a priority immediately, but the core system is already there and we're looking forward to expanding Onyx's wardrobe soon :D. 

Unity Animation Exporter for Maya

Probably the most important thing we've done since the last update is build a custom export tool for Maya.  It cuts down the labor of cleaning and prepping animations from about 15-20 minutes per animation to just a few clicks.   It still has some bugs to work out and features to add, but is fully functional and even works for scenes with multiple characters (H scenes).

Animation Progress

As mentioned above, our new export utility tool has made pumping animations into Unity far less painful.  I just finished up getting a full set of placeholder animations (many of which are still static poses) to Mr. Kittyhawk for both Onyx and the Splicer Thug.   I have a lot of pose work done on the first H scenes as well, and will begin fleshing things out as we start into September.  

I had really hoped for a test release with the 3D models this month, but on the plus side when we do get there it'll be much more refined than I had originally anticipated.

Splicer Grenadier Concepts

Limbo and TK have been passing the Splicer boss models between each other, so on his downtime Limbo has been working on concepts for a grenadier / molotov-slinging Splicer enemy.  I wanted this guy to resemble the old MATM Splicers, hence the mask style.  In additional to standard grenades and molotovs, he'll also have gas grenades for inducing some lust-sickness type effects :D.