Just a quick update on the progress for 0.4.

I've decided it is best to split this update into two parts so 0.4 will come out in late February or early March and the second half (0.4.5) will come a few months later.

The reason for this is that it is taking longer then I originally expected to set up and render all the images needed for all the scenes. For this first half of the updates I am around halfway done with all the renders, this is helped by me finding ways to cheat and reuse some scenes in which a character exists in one version of the scene but not the other.

So the images for the last scene ended up taking less time then I had projected so I have actually finished the renders earlier then expected. I'm going to use this time to work on some Valentines Day themed images for version 0.4.

As will be the norm these extra renders, which are just in a folder included with the game called Extras, are only provided by me to anyone that supports development at the Captain level tier ($10/month).

I expect the update to be out next week or the week after.

Hi again all, I wanted to give you all an update on the second half of 0.4. Currently I am still writing out the script for this version but I would say I am somewhere around 1/3 to 1/2. Part of this is because I've gone back and added an encyclopedia to help provide more information for characters, ranks, titles, species, empires, etc.

I have started composing* the images that will be used for this update. I am expecting around 60-80 images for this update depending on exactly how long this update is for the story progress that I desire to have occur and the ability to use reuse images. Because of how long it takes to render images I am still not using animation but if this project can get some financial support and if hardware becomes available, I do plan to go back at some point and animate some scenes in this and previous updates.

This update will include two sex scenes, both with the same character, and these scenes will have some differences depending on choices you make throughout this update.

*I suppose that is the best word for what I mean

Hey all, it's been a few weeks since the last briefing.

I would say the script for this update is around  60-70% complete, most of what is left is writing out the dialogue for the sex scenes. I have blown past the 60-80 images that I projected for this update, currently sitting at 104 images and that only covers around half of the update.

When I don't have an image ready to be rendered I have also been dabbling in seeing what changes I can make to render settings to cut down on render times to see if I might be able to use animations in the sex scenes. So far this testing has shown me that an image with two figures and an environment doesn't look noticeably different between using a Max Samples of 5000 (default setting) and 500. This also cuts the render time down from around 1 hour - 1.5 hours per frame to around 30 minutes per frame, which is a noticeable difference since the animations in question are around 200+ frames.

Luckily though graphics card prices seem to be coming back down and availability it starting to be a thing again so in the next month or two it might be possible for me to actually pick up something like a 3070, might even be able to stretch for a 3080.

Hey all, it has been almost a month since the last update. I am still working on writing the dialogue for the second sex scene as well as rendering out images, both for that sex scene as well as some other scenes. I am close to having the money needed to order a 3080, as well as a new PSU to replace my existing one because it is old (10+ years) and I am missing one more set of 8-pin connectors to power a 3080. I am hopeful that I will be able to purchase it by the end of next month.

As for the update, I don't expect it to be out probably until sometime in June unless I remove the second sex scene or not animate it (the first one is animated with two positions). 

I am also thinking about what the next update will entail, haven't started writing it yet. I guess the best way to describe it would be to call it a bottle episode, it won't use a bunch of different sets and will be focused on getting to know more of the main cast that we have currently met.

Hey everyone, so yeah not going to be getting out the next update before this month is over. Those technical issues I had a few weeks ago really interrupted my flow. I am currently continuing to render out the last animation, it is about a third of the way done though I have only been working on it for the past few days and with a few interruptions so it's actually not that slow. I expect that all scenes will be done rendering, and a test play through will be done around mid-June.

I had originally been hoping to get this out back around Easter so the extras for the $10/month tier were Easter themed but since that didn't happen while I am play testing I will likely work on some renders that are Flag Day related, though it won't just be USA flag related in this case.

Hey all, final briefing for 0.4.5. I am currently finishing up the renders for the extras for anyone that supports development at the Captain ($10/month) Tier. I expect those to be finished sometime late tonight. I have also been running test to make sure my logic for the if/then statements are correct and so far that all seems to be working as intended. So I expect to release this update either sometime this weekend or early next week.

As a reminder the extras are just extra images located in their own folder and aren't mentioned anywhere in the game logic, they are not extra scenes because I don't like the concept of locking story content behind a behind a specific subscription tier. I usually work on them early in development of the update when I'm still writing out the script or after I have finished the script and am going through test runs.

Good news, everyone!

With Nvidia looking to want to get rid of more supply of 3000 series parts, at least near the top end, prior to the launch of 4000 series later this year. I manged to get my hands on a 3080 12GB for a decent price, ~$800 including taxes. It is expected to arrive on Saturday. However I won't be able to install it right away due to me needing to buy a new PSU, my current one is a fully moduler one with only 2 8-pins connected and I don't know where the other cables are, plus it is near a decade old now and is an 80+ Bronze, so I said screw it, it's easier to just buy a new one. Sadly though Amazon is claiming that it likely won't arrive until August 1st.

The good news for this project is, that with this upgrade, I should be able have longer updates thanks to scenes rendering faster, as well as have higher quality images thanks to being able to achieve higher render iterations in the same amount of time (currently I get between 500 and 1,000 iterations in a 2 hour render depending on how busy a scene is). I should also be able to use dForce when I want after this upgrade, technically dForce works with AMD but due to a bug with Daz, that I reported but that they seem to consider a user issue, it fails to load the OpenCL Kernel with more recent AMD cards when using recent drivers, in theory if I used an old ~2019 driver dForce would work on my system but since I use my system for more then just this project I have no desire to use an ancient driver.

Now that I have the 3080 installed, while I work on the script for 0.5. I think I'm going to go back and re-render some of the earlier scenes* to try and bring their quality up. I probably won't do every scene, instead focusing on scenes that I think "I could do this better now that I can render stuff much faster."

With this upgrade I also have two choices when it comes to rendering going forward.
1) Stick to my regular settings and workflow but render significantly faster, and still end up with better images thanks to stopping due to hitting max iterations instead of the max render time. What used to take two hours, default max render time, and would only do 500-1000 iterations, depending on scene complexity. Now does a full 5000 iterations, default setting, and takes, in the case of the few frames I tested, about 30 minutes.
or
2) Kick up the max iterations and let it stop due to render time. Because each iteration renders faster then with my previous setup it should get through a lot more iterations. Say we assume linear scaling, probably not realistic but makes things simpler, if we keep max render time at 2 hours, since it takes ~30 minutes to do 5000 iterations with the couple of frames I tested, in 2 hours it should be able to do around 20,000 iterations. That is a lot more, but the thing is, the final image will probably still need to be run through an external denoiser (in my case Intel's) and at some point you get diminishing returns in how much quality is retained compared to the number of Iray iterations that were done in Daz.

Personally I think I'm going to stick with option 1 for the immediate future and go from there, adjusting settings as needed for each scene.

*I don't plan to add any new scenes, but the scenes themselves might look a bit different thanks me potentially adding some more stuff or redoing the lighting.

Hey all, time for the first official briefing for version 0.5 of Andromeda.

First, I want to correct some stuff I said in my last post.

First correction, I said:

But plans have changed. I am going to remaster the images for every single earlier scene, especially those from 0.1-0.3 (though a few in 0.4.5 could use some touch ups as well but I'm not sure if I'll get around to those by the time 0.5 is releasing). The reason for this is that the few scenes I have remastered already have seen fairly significant improvements in quality, see below. Part of the reason for this is, of course, me now having a better grasp on Daz, as well as having some useful scripts and other assets that I didn't have back then.

Second correction, I said last time:

Well yeah, turns out at the default settings and the internal denoiser set to kick in at 4000 iterations, images look like they were given significantly more time to render, with out actually taking that additional time and having minimal detail loss.

Now, I don't expect to have every single scene remastered by the time 0.5 is ready to release, so this will be a continuing effort. Saves should generally be compatible since I am not touching things like variables. Assuming my assumption is correct the the remasters won't be done by the time 0.5 release I would expect them to be done by the time 0.6 comes out.

This remastering process shouldn't interfere with work on 0.5 because my plan is that I will work on them while I work on the script, but once the script is done I will transition to focusing on doing the renders for 0.5.

Now for the new content with 0.5 itself. This update is going to be more focused on getting to know most if not all of the main cast that is already in the-game, I plan to add a few (mostly aliens) down the road.

Now that doesn't mean this update won't include progress on the central plot. Time is still moving, as the ship makes it's way to it's next destination, it's just not the main focus of this update.

Now for when this update will come out? I can't give anything exact but I would guess around December '22 or January '23. While I would love to get releases out ~3 months that won't be happening this time because I expect to be busy near the end of the year and won't have as much time to work on writing, or more accurately around that time, renders, especially since I don't set up by scenes all in one Daz file plus I use this as my personal rig as well.