Starting Work on Lab Rats 2
Lab Rats v0.13.0 is live and out for testing, which heralds the beginning of a new age! This marks the first time I'll be able to devote more than a couple days to the development of Lab Rats 2, and I'm looking forward to being able to spend a big chunk of time on the project now. First up on the chopping block is a big one - automation and streamlining of image set production.
I've spent a couple of prototyping weeks in the past switching over to Daz3D (which I still need to get some more practice with) and looking into the scripting tools for it, but now it's time to code the business end of things. The goal will be to make image set production a one step process: design an outfit/body type/position and click a button, and have Daz start rendering out the different images. From there I can package up the images and edit them down in bulk later on (mainly photoshopping out bits of clothing I don't want in the shot, along with making sure everything layers properly).
I'm aiming to have a few test outfits set up in LR2 by the end of the week, so I'll try and get some screenshots or gifs up of them if everything goes well. A reminder to patrons as well: Lab Rats 1 is in it's final testing phase, which means your feedback is more important than ever! If you find a bug, or just want to leave general balance comments you can find the form to fill out here: Lab Rats Bug Reporting Form
Comments (11)
anyone know how to get Nora's phone number
When you go to the lab at night, sometimes Nora will be there and let you in. If your influence is high enough, you can then ask for her phone number. I can't remember if it's available under talk about work or ask a favor, though. You can always scroll back if you pick the wrong one. Hope that helps!
Great news! Congrats on the milestone. I've been thinking about LR2-- the dynamically generated girls thing could be very cool if done well. I think a key is to do it in such a way that you can do permutations, rather than just repeating the same sex acts with more girls. I think being able to have the girls play with one another would fit the ticket; I don't know of any game out there that has good, dynamically generated females that can do g/g scenes. It'd be very cool to be able to create and enjoy the interesting combinations and pairings. I know you said that g/g was not going to be on the table at first (nor should it be), but I hope you put it on your road map so that it's in the back of your mind from early on.... that will help you avoid painting yourself into any corners.
the problem with dynamic characters is indeed posing. with full 3d engines you can have that reasonably, but those run into danger of being repetitive in other terms. 2D Sprites could be randomized, but you'll always be able to tell apart the different pieces and rendering every body part so it'll have enough variation in terms of shape, color and pose will be a complete bitch.
Are there any plans to continue adding limited amounts of content to Lab Rats 1 after 1.0 is released? Possibly a small scene or two a month. This would give those of us who aren't as interested in the randomly generated girls nature of Lab Rats 2 a reason to stay subscribed. Especially when it's in the early stages of development.
I'm working on a mod for it, I'll probably post it for download if there's interest. It's gonna be a pretty big one, too. Only problem is I don't have Honey Select, so my image selection will be limited. While I'd certainly welcome additional content as well, I'm not gonna count on it. Vren did mention, however, that the characters from the first game will return, so there's that. Not sure if that's still the case, but it's something I definitely want to happen. Edit: Specifically, I think he said that Mom and Lily will return. Don't know about the rest of the cast.
Time to spring for dedicated render box if you don't already have one.
Yep, that's seeming like a possibility in the near future. Once I have my workflow down I'll see if rendering ends up being much of a bottleneck.
Vren, how do the ending scenes work? In a previous run I did, my first ending scene involved all girls but Nora loving me (the new main menu had those girls naked, only Nora was dressed). I then decided to "time travel" (command console → set day) in order to attempt raising affection even more, but when I reached (again) the last day, I saw the same endings of before + Nora obeying me. Ending screen: only Nora is naked.
If your like me and hate waiting for images to finish rendering before you can work on the next image. Make sure to grab the batch render addon for Daz, off their site. That way you can design everything (Say 1 position, with how ever many different outfits, then load them into the batch render and let it do all of them at once while your doing something else. (Writing story, playing a game, testing code. What ever.) Makes my life a little more sane, because I tend to drift off while waiting for 1 image to finish up LOL.
Is it just me or you guys (Devs) tend to talk to each other?