"NO ZERO DAYS"

[Faeryl]

DATE: 15-JAN-2024

Okay so I spoke too soon. The workflow I had for materials and unwrapping things wasn't very optimal.

Spent today with a new process that is much more streamlined.

Also ended up using Blender's displacement modifiers to help explode meshes for baking.

Overall I used to think Modo was the King of Hard Surface, but Blender turns out to be way way more powerful.

 

[Faeryl]

DATE: 16-JAN-2024

Sometimes learning is a painful process.

There is a big difference between a 3D mesh that looks good in your 3D modeling software and Substance Painter...and prepping it to work for ideal channel packing and finding all sorts of things you missed...which means you do it all over again.

3rd time's the charm? Lots of re work of UVs and mastering the Painter workflow today. I hope to be done!

 

[Faeryl]

DATE: 18-JAN-2024

Business and Accounting the past 2 days. Nothing fun. Bleh.

 

[Faeryl]

DATE: 19-JAN-2024

Okay! More progress on the rigging issue.

I think I can get it solved in one more day. Learned a lot.

 

[Faeryl]

DATE: 21-JAN-2024

Just something I've been wanting to get to for a long time. Home, the station, took its first steps today.

Also processed a few people's requests for packs that they put in for in Nov but were not able to get to till now.

If you still want a pack upgrade, I'll give a window of Monday/Tuesday [22-JAN/23-JAN] to get them in. Pay in 3 plans available. DM direct as it is a manual process.

 

[Faeryl]

DATE: 22-JAN-2024

Reading thorugh Unreal docs today.

Lots of other stuff kept popping up. Hope to make more progress tomorrow.

The goal is to contribute more the code base and help get things moving faster.

 

[Faeryl]

DATE: 23-JAN-2024

Had some RL things to take care of today.

Sometimes things just come up.

Tomorrow is clear.

 

[Faeryl]

DATE: 24-JAN-2024

Made color picker widget for practice and for character customization.

 

[Faeryl]

DATE: 25-JAN-2024

Alright, today was finishing up my review of Substance Designer, which I started on back when I made the ice for the first demo. It had been a hot minute, but after a day of playing with nodes I'm back up to par and actually improved.

So we have the full gamut covered now. Custom texture creation, Texture Painting, and hard surface modeling.

It's time for a deeper dive into Unreal, farther than I've gone before.

 

[Faeryl]

DATE: 26-JAN-2024

Part of work is research..Ahem...Palworld is the research today.

It's like Pokemon crossed with Valheim. Yet legally distinct.

 

[Faeryl]

DATE: 27-JAN-2024

Switching the two days. Will be working Sunday.

 

[Faeryl]

DATE: 29-JAN-2024 (at 11:00am PST)

Wasn't feeling well yesterday. Woke up with a bad sore throat, but today is better.

Will post the daily update tonight.

 

[Faeryl]

DATE: 29-JAN-2024 (at 2:31pm PST)

Had a good chat with Harry about the UI porting.

Also, we released January’s skin today. Every Wrenga starts as a cub. Live now for monthly backers!

 

[Faeryl]

DATE: 30-JAN-2024

Started on the first goal today: Basic character create in 2 weeks. Progress will be released as standalone builds.

Setting a deadline is scary but it really helps keep everything on track.

 

[Faeryl]

DATE: 31-JAN-2024

Spent the day researching different techniques for character customization.

Morph targets are popular but I decided against them (except perhaps for facial features, if we do those), because morphs would have to be created not just for the body but for all clothing items.

Also morphs don't preserve normals (they have to be recomputed), and don't affect collision boxes, so all that would have to be handled. Plus you would need to bake them for performance.

After all this, I decided bone scaling would be the best way for us to go. While it won't give you all the possibilities of morphs, it gets you most of the way there, is performant, and much much less work on clothing (none really) and hitboxes and baking, oh my.

 

[Faeryl]

DATE: 02-FEB-2024

Today was one of those setback days...where everything breaks and doesn't do what you expect it to do.

I hate rigging. No wonder they farm this out so much... back at it again tomorrow.

Sorry folks, days like this happen but you have to keep pushing.

 

[Faeryl]

DATE: 03-FEB-2024

Yesterdays update: Harry worked out some long standing issues with the network code and is prepping for the UI port.

 

[Faeryl]

DATE: 05-FEB-2024

This major storm system has taken our power in our area. Lots of flooding too. Will resume updates when storm passes in 2-3 days. Most of California is being hit.

 

[Faeryl]

DATE: 07-FEB-2024

Storm is over.

Today Em got the first steps to the new website going, which will integrate with the main my.em8er.com site. Good stuff.

 

[Faeryl]

DATE: 09-FEB-2024

Worked with Ricardo go get some help with the customization build. Thanks, Ricardo!