Fitting Room Enviro Progress #3 + Test Build Date (Patreon)

We're finishing up with the character creator enviro, and will be moving onto programming of some of the NPC customization features shortly! 

As we mentioned last week, the player has the option of tweaking some visual elements of the environment. The wallpaper, the flooring, and leather seating have a few options to choose from to allow the user a color palette and mood that suits them. We decided on this feature because we want Fitting Room to feel like a personalized space, but also because spending a long time in VR in a brightly lit enviro can get a little uncomfortable for some people, so the ability to make walls and floors darker should hopefully help a little with that.

Clicking color swatches on the pinboard in the lobby will change the wallpaper color and pattern, skirting and curtain trim color, the leather color, and also changes the flooring between oak, pine or maple. Look out for some clips of this tomorrow at https://twitter.com/VirtualNovel, where we take part in Screen Shot Saturday.

We have some finishing touches left, but we're hoping to have these completed over the weekend, and then we plan to release environment performance test builds to Patrons on Monday 3rd April. We're using some new expensive-to-render features like MSAA and planar reflections, so it would be a great help for you guys to test out the scene and let us know how it performs. The scene will contain an NPC but they won't have any customization features just yet - that will come shortly after!

The clothing unit is the centerpiece of Fitting Room's functionality, and will eventually be filled with interactable and decorative props as well as outfits, shoes and accessories. 

With Fitting Room, Patrons can expect updated builds much more frequently - somewhat similar to how we iterated Interaction and Locomotion test builds last month, as we realized how valuable constant testing and feedback was. Test builds will be available to all Patrons pledging any amount. For Patrons contributing / who have contributed a significant amount to Virtual Novel, we'll be releasing a poll / questionnaire soon to get your feedback on some things, please help us by filling this out!

On an unrelated note, we will be ordering some Vive trackers! If anyone has any ideas on how / if we should integrate Vive trackers into Virtual Novel in any way, feel free to let us know.

As always, thanks to everyone for your support with the project. Please feel free to email us with feedback, questions  or criticism any time at virtualnovelgame@gmail.com

Have a great weekend,

Love,

Virtual Novel devs