Dev Log Week 18: Is That Crazy Enough for Ya'?

This past week has been an interesting one. First, let’s talk about something not directly related to Moonlight. Chasing Sunsets recently wrapped up, and I took the time to play the final chapter on stream with Kentyrr, the artist for the game. Chasing Sunsets is one of the key reasons I got into AVN development, and Kentyrr has been incredibly helpful in getting me up to speed with the world of 3D.

Playing the final chapter was bittersweet. On one hand, it’s amazing to see a project reach the finish line. On the other, it’s hard to say goodbye to characters you’ve grown attached to. It was a nice mental reset and a chance to appreciate the magic of this genre from the outside looking in. I'm really excited for what they do next.

What’s Wrong With Your Eyes?!

The first dev challenge of the week showed up when I was checking through renders before converting them and adding them into the build. That’s when I discovered a massive issue. Evelyn’s eyes were completely broken in around 40 renders, and for no clear reason. I went through the usual suspects like world center offsets, rig problems, etc. None of them applied. In the end, the fix was simply turning off some instanced environment elements and rerendering.

That sounds simple, but reloading all 40 scenes took around six hours. The scene files are heavy, and each one took ages to load. A total grind, but at least it’s fixed now.

Animated Misery

With that sorted, I decided to cause myself more pain by compiling animations. That… might have been a mistake. The results were choppy and nowhere near the quality I envisioned. Unfortunately, this feels like a limitation of the current workflow with Daz. It’s made me seriously reconsider what I’ll do with the remaining planned animations for this chapter.

I’ve been working with PinkSpector, Nuii Pointer, and the GOAT himself, Puggy, to see if I could bring Akari into Blender without too much loss in texture quality. The results are promising. She’s looking great, and it definitely has me thinking about what future workflows might look like.

As for the lewd scene in progress, I’m honestly not sure what the final approach will be. I might shift to stills only. Another sub-par animation is not something I want to push out. That decision will come later. For now, the priority remains getting all the stills done first.

Render Numbers and Final Thoughts

Despite the setbacks, I still managed to knock out a decent number of renders this week. I’m keeping the grind going and pushing forward on the chapter. Your continued support means a lot, especially during weeks like this. Every kind word helps offset the pain of render bugs and animation disappointments. You guys are the best.

In the words of Jonathan Hang, I’ll catch you on the next one.

Bat