LR2 v0.52.TECHDEMO
Added 2022-09-16 11:40:29 +0000 UTCHere it is, a demo of the work-in-progress Live2D rendering system! I want to stress that this is very much a tech demo, and not a new version of LR2 intended to be played for any significant amount of time. It is buggy, incomplete, and unoptimized.
Do I still have your attention? Well, here are your links! (Android users
PC: Lab Rats 2 v0.52.0a_TECH_DEMO-PC
Mac: Lab Rats 2 v0.52.0a_TECH_DEMO-Mac
Android: Lab Rats 2 v0.52.0a_TECH_DEMO-Android
There are a few major features in this update that I want to highlight. First, this build entirely removes the old image archives, and comes in at a slim 170MB. All of the character rendering, from the outfit designer to character conversations, is done using the Live2D rendering system. The results are far from perfect at the moment, but I think I'm past the hump and things will get easier from here.
Second, all characters now have a bunch of new body parameters that can be modified with serums! In addition to height and breast size there are also now character-specific values for shoulder width, waist size and butt size. Height is now handled with proper limb scaling rather than just scaling the character image, making tall and short characters feel noticeably different. Breast sizes are also now handled as continuous values instead of discrete cup sizes, so serum effects can more smoothly change girls from tiny titties to huge mommy milkers. Breast sizes in general now go larger than the did previously. There are new tier 1 serum traits to allow you to adjust all of these new parameters.
Third, skin tones are now based on an internal colour rather than using a single pre-coloured image. This is an effect I'm not satisfied with yet, and I'm still looking to improve it. The skin tones in the game are "close enough" placeholders. The same goes for lip colours, which I haven't spent time dialing in yet. Improving the look of these skin tones is high on my list of priorities.
There are also a whole bunch of limitations and issues that come along with this WIP version. There is currently no support for clothing patterns or for clothing fadeout animations. group rendering is also currently not supported as I try and figure out the most performant way to display characters and manipulate their Live2D models. There is only a single pose - a neutral standing pose - in this version of the game. There are a whole bunch of layer issues with clothing that needs to be addressed. The "mannequin" for the outfit designer just generates a random girl and uses her, which is a little creepy.
With all those problems acknowledged (and hopefully to be fixed in the near future!) , I hope you're interested in what you see with this tech demo! If you're a modder, tinkerer, or programmer who's interested in how the new rendering system works feel free to get in touch with me here on Patreon or over on Discord! I'm actively looking for way to improve the whole system and input is always welcome.
Enjoy!
Comments
I don't want to bandwagon so I won't repeat any common statements, I like the direction you're going in, I see the vision with it. I feel like you are a lone dev on this and it is encroaching being a major game. The pacing of your updates is a bit slow for such an unstable release, maybe work in hybridizing new content and more stable content? Right now as far as I can tell, no new content was added, this is just a reskin that is really unstable, I can see the possibilities with the reskin now that you can manipulate them more easily, but maybe release stability patches in the coming few weeks with consistent updates giving us insight to what your plans are. Maybe you can post polls on what needs to be tackled in what order, or accept story boarding ideas. I love supporting you and would love to continue, but I think most of your patreons are beginning to really feel the lack of communication and low results.
LuxxyDuxxy
2022-09-21 22:34:27 +0000 UTCI downloaded the tech demo as soon as it was available, and tried to play it. I quickly discovered that it runs very slowly - at least on my machine, which is older but not without a decent graphics card and 16 GB of RAM. I abandoned that and moved on with my day. This morning, I tried again. After restarting and skipping the intro I could at least go meet a few of the women. Each dialog step or choice takes at least a second. Doesn't sound like much, but it feels very slow. And the game crashes as soon as it runs into something called 'item_name' which is not defined. BUT, I want to say that I like the art. The faces look much better. The bodies are nice. The clothing looks pretty good really. The lighting is not so great - the models look washed out, but that could be adjusted. There is only one position, but I know that adding more will just take time and your process will speed up as you learn Live2D, find optimizations, etc. Overall, I think this is a great step but I am frustrated with the pace of the progress.
Sef Tarbell
2022-09-21 11:12:36 +0000 UTC
