Weekly report Number 45.

This report is open to everyone because I have a ton of things to say.
I started writing it today, Wednesday, at 10:20 PM Chilean time... The report has always been on Thursdays, but I need tomorrow free from other things, to keep rendering as much as I can, taking advantage of the fact that it's my day off (free from real-world work).

Alright, as the vocalist of Slipknot once said: I'm not gonna make it... (please read this with the same rage and helplessness as the vocalist delivers it).

This week, I hit the limits of my hardware's capabilities, and I still haven't finished everything I need to do.
Last Friday, less than 24 hours after posting the weekly report, I decided to do something insane... I wanted more buildup, more human warmth in the upcoming sex scene, and I decided it was time to pull off the dumbest thing I've done in a long time. Knowing my limitations and how tight I am on time, I foolishly made a 300-frame animation...

Maybe you have no idea what that actually means, so let me explain step by step so you can laugh in my face afterward... Making the animation itself is nothing, one or two hours of work depending on its complexity. The problem is rendering each frame.

Everything ready, I drop the file into the Render Queue so the animation renders itself while I sleep, eat lunch, or leave the house for a short period. 300 frames, each taking about 4 minutes to render. To that, you need to add the time DAZ takes to open the scene before rendering and then the time it takes to properly close DAZ (the script handles everything automatically and as efficiently as possible), only to reopen the next scene (the next frame in the sequence). So, to those 4 minutes, add another minute and a half... and then multiply that by 300.

The image is showing the actual time it took for the last three images in the sequence (I didn't render everything at once)...

So, that's right, over 27 hours in real-time. And obviously, I can't render something for 27 or 28 hours straight without stopping... It took me over 4 days... and then I made two more animations. I know, I'm an idiot, but it had to be done.

What I'm going to show you is the current view of my animations folder:

I’m not sure if you can see it clearly due to the image size, but at the bottom, it says "433 items". Subtract 4 files, which are already processed videos, and you’ll get the actual number of images rendered so far for the animations in this version.

What you’ll see in the game are the videos, and there will be no trace of the images that created them.

So, let’s do the math. Well, actually, I already did it...

This week, I’ve rendered 357 images, the vast majority of which belong to animations. That brings the total to 1072 images... Later, on another occasion, I’ll give an exact report on the actual number of images and animations, because the images that create the animations will be deleted and only the videos will remain... From now on, I’ll make that distinction.

As for the code, I’ve made a bit of progress, but nothing major. Remember, I can only do one thing at a time.

Let’s see, what’s left...
I still have 3 and a half more animations to render (they’re short, normal ones—don’t panic), a couple of renders in between one of those animations, then a short scene with about 3 or 4 images after the sex scene, and finally, the last scene at the Fortress, which should be around 6 to 8 images.

In terms of coding, I’m currently working on the section right before MC’s death (one of the possible outcomes). I mean, I'm coding the results of the decision you need to make... The same section, where MC isn’t in danger of dying, has already been coded. After that, I need to move on to some scenes in the forest, leading up to the group arriving at the base of one of the large control towers, where things will unfold as they must.

I have to code both, MC’s death and non-death, it sounds weird, but that’s how it is. Then, I need to incorporate the animations I mentioned, along with some earlier events, and finally, what happens at the Fortress. All that coding will take about two or three days... plus the rendering... Check that everything is okay, test, and that's it... So, for my own sake and to avoid making myself look like an idiot again, I won’t be giving any dates.

From now on, every other day, I’m going to give a brief report on what I’ve done, so everyone knows exactly what the hell is going on.

I’m really sorry for this delay, but sometimes I get a little too excited about what I’m doing. Once, a while ago (for version 0.2 if I’m not mistaken), I said I had about 60 or 70 images left to do, and I ended up making over 200. That’s just how I am...

It’s by no means my intention to delay things artificially, in fact, it’s not in my best interest because I lose money, and what I want most is to finally have enough to buy a decent graphics card and speed up this whole process...

It's now 11:40 pm Chilean time. That's why I made the report today and not tomorrow XD

See you.