WIP - Customization Overhaul
Hello, everyone! I've been busy laying the groundwork for the big cosmetics update and I finally have some visual progress to show for it. The next build is still a few weeks away, but in the meantime, here's some of the problems I ran into and the solutions that'll make adding more options much easier in the future. Also some previews of new features to come.
I wrote the original customization code over 3 years ago so it was pretty cumbersome and difficult to expand on. Every outfit was hardcoded into a monolithic script with arrays of properties that needed to be synced up to work properly. It worked, but it was very difficult to add new options without breaking old stuff. It ended up being an extremely long list of parameters that was daunting to look at.
I fixed this by defining some custom data types for each customization option; one for shirts, one for pants, one for hairs etc. Each data type contains only the properties needed for that specific option and it automatically tells the customizer what properties to change when equipped. So setting up a new option is as simple as right-click > create > shirt then assigning their specific values. No more massive lists of parameters to dig through.
I also had to make some changes to the character shader, which is the logic that tells the game how to draw the character. It handles stuff like skin color, clothing, sweat effects, and anything else that changes the appearance of the character. It's pretty complicated and I'm starting to run into limitations. Here's what that looks like under the hood.
The biggest obstacle is that a shader can only support up to 16 textures. I use textures to mask out clothing, sweat, cellulite, stretch marks and many other things. I hit the 16 texture limit a while ago so I needed to figure out a way to squeeze more texture data from fewer image assets if I wanted to add more options. One way to do this is through RGB channel packing, which breaks up a single texture into 3: one for red, one for green and one for blue. Here's an example of how a texture can be broken up to make a mask for finger nails, palms and belly bloat all from a single image.
I applied this method everywhere I could, but it still wasn't enough. So I had to resort to another trick called texture atlasing. It's pretty straight forward; arrange multiple images into quadrants of a single texture, then break up each quadrant into its own mask. Using this combined with channel packing lets me get up to 12 masks from a single texture.
This only works for textures that never change though. Otherwise I'd need a different atlas for every possible combination of mask, which would get out of control quickly. So stuff like clothes can't take advantage of this technique since they are customizable. Either way, this left me with more texture slots to add stuff like clothing patterns.
With those obstacles out of the way, I started rebuilding the customization interface, which can now support many more options and is easier to use. Now you can scroll through lists of clothing options with preview icons, access more variables like shininess and opacity, and assign clothing patterns with their own custom colors.
I also rewrote the save system to make the experience more user friendly. Instead of a limited number of save slots, there's a proper name-based system that will allow you to name your characters and save them to a drop down list. With this setup, there will be no limit to the number of characters you can save. I also reworked the save file structure so you won't need to migrate saves from old builds to new ones.
Now that most of the ground work is laid, I can start adding a slew of new options. This overhaul took longer than I thought so I might break this up into two updates depending on how much time it takes me to create more outfits/hairs/accessories/etc. Either way you can expect a new build in the next 2 or 3 weeks. If I don't end up adding all the options I want by then, I will release another build with even more stuff not too long after that.
Thanks for your patience and support as I continue chipping away at this and I'll see you again soon!
Comments (56)
First off, I admire the hard work you're putting into this game and it's neat to see your work in progress. Second, I finally got around to trying the most recent build (More Odds and Ends) and the new 1st person camera kinda caught me off guard. I can appreciate going for stability, but I preferred the camera of the previous builds because it felt more immersive, like you were seeing from the POV of your character, rather than a swiveling camera sliding around at a fixed height. I'd like it if a future build had the option of choosing between the 2 types of 1st person camera (if that's possible).
That's fair. I will consider making an option for this sometime soon if it's not too difficult.
Looks amazing so far! Really excited about the character save changes too. Keep up the amazing work!
Any chance of new NPCs in this update?
No, I'm only focusing on character customization for this update
god damn... keep up the good work!
cool
Great additions! Any chance for more titty only blow up expansion? or fat hourglass growth models/blobs? Starting with hourglass chubby and obesity, , then the belly catches up in the later stages?
Possibly. I'll try some hour glass stuff whenever I get around to adding more growth sequences, but that might not be for a while
Gotta have dem tiddies on that red balloon "Expanded" tiddie bloat slider :0
I'll see what I can do down the road
Make the character deflate gradually if they fart continuously when they're balloons. You don't have to do it. I just thought it'd be funny
That would be funny. I may try that whenever I revisit the inflation mechanics
Ooh, this is looking great so far, excited to how this continues to grow !! Plus the BTS insight is really cool as someone who wants to make things (someday lol). cool share
The work so far is very well made, I can totally understand how hard programming is, I for sure don't know how to do that sort of stuff. If I may request (maybe) if there is a clothing update at some point, a Hoodie. With either the hood up or down, might be cool? not sure how hard that is to animate but if not, then maybe just the hood down would be nice.
I've been experimenting with clothing options that have parts extending past the base mesh. A hoodie would fall into that category. It's proving to be difficult and I haven't figured out a method that works yet, but I will continue to try stuff. It might be possible.
I don't know if you're into this but can there be a vore option added to the future where you can eat NPC's to gain weight?
I want to add that at some point, but yeah, it's kinda low priority since it's not really my thing.
Keeping my fingers crossed that the next set of accessories will include some furry cosmetics 👀
Furry stuff might not make it into the next update, but most likely the update after that.
Will we get better clothes ripping ?
I probably won't have time to improve clothes ripping on top of everything else, but I will consider it in the future. Anything specific you have in mind for improvements there?
Looks minty, keep up the good work!!
one thing id like to see added with the clothes is a tight clothes/stretchyt clothes option, where one constricts and deforms the body more and the other is similar to what we have now
I do this a little bit already. You can see the skin get a bit indented along the edges of clothes at larger sizes. Not sure how much farther I can push that without other issues cropping up, but I can look into it.
Looks great cant wait to try this out , keep up the good work.
Wow! Really appreciate you taking the time to show us not only the progress, but also just how complex things are behind the scenes. Keep up the good work!
The sheer scale of the customization overhaul from then compared to now over 3 years & having to wire it so it functions with the current workflow, that's an incredible change to both the flow & its UI interaction! Hope your taking it easy after all that & keeping well.
This is pretty good so far! And take all the time you need, we're definitely looking forward to the next update whenever you have everything up and ready. ^^
This is looking really well done. Although Idk if you mind me questioning but, will there be more male options when this is finalised?
Yes I plan to add more male stuff. Anything in particular you'd like to see?
Love to hear all this.
Say, what if you can try to... make their breasts bigger, and their butt too! huh?
Seconded, I could make so many more character inserts.
Absolute legend you are, Blobygon! Curious, after the customization updates, what else do you plan after that?
Not 100% sure yet, but I might try reworking the growth mechanics so weight class upgrades are smoother and more automatic. I might look into making bigger blob sizes too.
Wow! Really appreciate it you explain everything to us and it all seems a lot of work, but it also looks really great! Thank you for the hard work and also sharing this with us
I'll try to throw out a solution like this on the fly: Channel packing + texture2DArray?
I did look into this but ran into issues getting it to work in practice. For now the atlasing seems to work well enough, but I might try it again if I need more textures later.
Thank you for the hard work!!! Always so wonderful seeing the work ya do here.
I hope you can make other inflations like a helium tank, water pipes, inflation pump that an npc pumps you up with an hose, or anything please and thank you.
Not sure when, but I plan to explore other inflation scenarios at some point.
Looking good. Can't wait
ooooooh this is all so exciting!
This is so, so good ! Thank you for your hard work !
Hey blobygon it's me my name used to be Samus Aran and now it's Grace Ashcroft but Anyways your progress looks fantastic as always and to add a color patterns and more stuff I'm so excited can't wait and as always blobygon good luck and I Really appreciate your hard work and dedication you put in to your game thanks blobygon for everything much love blobygon and I'm still supporting you blobygon 🩷💯🙏👍🤝💯
Holy crap, now that's some customization!
WE'RE EATING SO GOOD NAME BASED CHARACTER SAVES
Loving this in-depth look at how the game operates! Can't wait to see how that Sanbox mode you talked about takes shape. It'd be insane if we got anything vore related in general, but I'll always love what we have right now. If theres one thing I'd ask for is a growth scenario where the character is suspended by like wires/machinery/tentacles and just have food/npcs forced down the players throat.
That would be tricky but maybe at some point.
Will you able to add any of the customization options I suggested to be able to recreate certain characters?
Yes, I plan to
Bestow more funds upon thy, this project needs to expand beyond the horizon
This is very cool and super exciting
you are a wizard
Looks like ita holding up well! Cant wait to test the latest patch.