Inner Circle Update for March 26 2017! (Patreon)

I meant to post this update yesterday, but I've been working on something today that I decided I want to share with you (and even more importantly get your opinion on)!  I'll get to it since I'm sure you're curious about the above image :D.  

Potential Hair Improvement(?)

The other day I ran upon some artwork by an amazing character 3D artist that goes by the name Hazardous.  Something I really like about his work was that he combines realistic character models with a more stylized way of doing hair in 3D.  A good example of it can be seen in this image .  I think you'll agree it looks fantastic, and that got me to thinking.  

I've never really liked the pseudo-realistic style I use for hair in MATM.  The benefit of it has always been that I can use purchased hair assets and tweak them to my liking, but this is at the cost of it looking as good as I'd like.  Well, after V0.06 we're coming up on a lot of major changes including the Lust Overhaul, which will potentially require a lot of new artwork.  Since I'll also have to prepare the art for the new engine's tentative higher resolution (whenever that's finished), I've been thinking that sometime in the next few months would be a good time for an artwork overhaul in order to step up my game.  After seeing Hazardous' work, one of the things I'd like to improve is the hair models. 

Here's a full size version of the image shown above.  In it you'll see Malise's current hair model compared to a hand-painted sketch of what I think a revised hair model *may* look like for Malise.  The right most image shows what it could look like when textured (obviously the hair lines will follow the geometry... this was just a rough job done in Photoshop).  The major change is that instead of hair made from planes with textures and opacity maps, the model will be solid geometry and details will be sculpted.  The result would be better volume and a more anime-inspired look as opposed to the weirdness going on now.  In my opinion, it's far less sloppy, allows for more design freedom on my end, and should look great with our style.  I plan on making a new hair model for each character.  I would be (with TK's help most likely) sculpting these from scratch, meaning there would be a pretty hefty learning curve for me since I haven't done geometry sculpting before.  That said, it's something I've needed to get into for awhile, so I'm not worried about it.

What do you think?   Are you guys in agreement that this is something that could be improved upon?

Story Progress

Welp, I've made a lot of progress on the story, but not nearly enough.  I'm nearing halfway where I wanted to be with the "final pass" for this week.  The story document plus the notes I still need to merge with it have officially passed the lower limit of what's considered the length of a novel (40,000 words).  The good news is that details for v0.06 are coming together as I fill in the gaps.  The bad news is I've had to take a lot of time to work on dialog for critical story points to make sure I can work in what needs to be worked in.  This is obviously pretty time consuming, but a plus is that getting it done now will save us time later.  

I guess my point is that people will likely be disappointed for the monthly update, but it'll be a huge weight off my shoulders when this story work is done.

APL's Progress on the New Engine

AltairPL here! Today I'll be a little more brief than in the last two IC updates.

You can find the updated progress chart for RPG Maker compatibility here . For modules and classes, I've changed Started/Pending status with number of Ruby methods needed for completion in completed/total format. It's not perfect, since some methods are very simple (few lines of code) and some are gigantic monsters with few underlying functions and a lot of code. Still, it should be a good enough progress indication for RPG Maker compatibility.

As for progress, I basically realized all my plans from the previous IC update, which makes me very happy. I also made some tests/experiments targeting resource usage - looks good for now, but I see one potential problem that may rear its head somewhere along the line, so I made extensive notes on it and possible solutions. And last, but not least, I finally took some much needed and long overdue time off.

My plans for after the break are still not determined, but I will probably either start implementing Font class or push forward on the Graphics module. I'll probably start with the latter, since right now I need to recompile the whole application if I want to see how something behaves with a different frame rate and similar settings. After that I may start implementing the Input module instead of the Font class, since having Input running will allow me to attempt interfacing the new engine with the  game structure itself and in turn test things in the real game environment.

If you still haven't, please read my part of the last IC update and try the tech demo - I could really use your feedback.

TK's Environment Art Progress

TK here! This week I've been re-examining how I render scenes and a little bit of asset management. I spent a couple of days with Unreal Engine 4 with the idea of rendering out final backdrops there. There's a lot of great stuff going on under the hood, but I think in comparison with my current workflow, the cons outweigh the pros as a whole. But at least my curiosity is satiated, I'll probably try to set some time to goof off with UE4 more in the future. I still have an asset crisis that's growing every day! I don't have the luxury of being VerySmart(tm) or having a person working on pipeline tech, so I'm still stuck with scenes bloated with too much to manage (but it works for now).

From there, I went back to trying to solve some issues I've been having with Mental Ray lights and materials, and managed to get some small boosts in my render times (maybe). ...and I finally wrapped my head around getting mesh lights to work properly without totally destroying everything around them!! Neon tubes, signage or shaped lights are examples of where I'll be using this.

Also, Ero picked up another city kit with some nice street level techy cyberpunk stuff going on. Here's a wide shot of that until I can play with it more . It fits in nicely with the other kits. I think I worked out some good detailing ideas for the sewer areas, so I made some variations on a slurry channel set that doubles very nicely as wall trim and possibly as small walkways.