Furrier
patreon
Devblog -Anim Dynamics
🕑 Added 2021-08-15 12:49:30 +0000 UTCHi!
Let me tell you what i did this week!
Coding stuff:
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First i fought bugs like crazy, better said, i Hunted them down all throughout the code.
Yesterday for example i had this problem:
I need for one sequence to have the player (you) at game begin inside one of my "events"
What are events:
Events are the places where you interact with characters or things, i call them that because i copy the skeleton animation from that event to your character so i don't have to have all animations inside one blueprint. Also it allows me to do little special things when you play just inside one event without having this code to load everytime with every animation.
So now i took the begin play, took the event where you need to go, and called the function i named "Add character"
YAY everything worked, then i added animations and linked the sound effects, but then the nasty bug showed itself when i wanted to exit the event....
Somehow was the skeletal mesh still valid and therefore copying it... WHY?!
After like a hour of searching where the "Copy mesh" was set every frame i deleted it, i found out it came out of my awesome event code, and that you as player where there set as Female....
then after a bit of more search i found out that, its all my mistake (as always)
Let me explain,
At begin play, i check if a character is assigned to a event, usually i only do that there just for the females, like when Mirage sits in her throne or a kitty smokes a hookah inside the palace.
I had forgotten to exclude the player from that check, so with a simple (is controlled by player) node and a Branch it was fine YaaaY²
Like that i am fighting those bugs, i add the features or animations and when they appear i find and destroy them! >3
Animation Stuff:
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And because i coded most of the week i really needed to have something fun for a change,
i already finished the new level design to like 90% and there are no more animations to do,
so i decided to add the Emotion manager to the framework now then originally planned for harem 0.9.
Look at the video above you see it in Action, please node the audio is still using placeholder sounds, my voiceactress seems too bussy at the moment,
If you know someone willing to record a few Female sounds for me please contact me, with a contact adress to her and how much she takes for a line or minute of voice.
Making animations is always the most relaxing part for me, and for a change everything worked perfectly :3
So how does it work?
Unreal has the Feature to split a Skeletal Animation in "Half", or more precise it copys the animation after a specified bone.
I use that as base for the emotions, i copy every bone after the neck, with premade Emotional state animations:
This system works for every character the same, i do the poses and a Morph target per emotion, and then its simple implementing it into the characters animation blueprint.
This code checks which emotional state is active and blends the corresponding value in the anim blueprint, it can be extended and is very fast.
I took rebecca for this, because i want to have it perfect when i do these poses for Mirage♥
And i learned a few things:
-do minimal animations on the face,
No animation = creepy look. Too much Animation = chaotic animation.
-Split the emotion manager into another actor for performance reasons,
I created a new actor for that called (brain) it gets spawned with the character and saves informations, picks emotions on values stored inside the character and has the "eyes" (does a line trace on what the character sees)
-Do every emotion 110%
Because i blend them inside the animation blueprint, most of the time the Emotion gets only like 50% blend ratio, its better to tell what the character feels, and it supports the cartoony look i am after.
-Use morph targets like crazy!
Morph targets are yours and mine friend, they really help with animations and making a chracter feel alive, i am very glad i implemented them into my Fur shader.
I will now continue work on the next game, featuring the ponys, (all you seen here is already in that game as easter egg have fun finding her:)
I decided to show Rebecca because of the patreon rules i can not show you Pony Human action directly on here.
Questions from last time:
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Some people have asked me where do i get the start locations of the salvia solver,
as reminder, the end i get from the collision and can be everywhere on your body.
For the Start i take a median location between a few sockets i created for that.
Here you see the pony tounge as example for that.
Release date:
I get asked every day when you can play it, the answer is ASAP!
i Release it as soon as i am happy with the result, fighting game breaking bugs takes time and i only can work on code a few hours until i get crazy and need to do some animations or sculpt something.
I am eager to show you all the things i learned and made during the last months, especially the features of my Framework.
I work every day on it to deliver you a awesome game, and after that i do Harem 0.9.
For a rough estimate it should be days not weeks until a release, in any case i keep you up to date, and you have not seen like 10% of the stuff that is in the game from the previews i posted, There is much to explore with more than just ponys, i added four anthro chracters some are hidden so there is fun for everyone :3
♥u
Your Furrier,
Download link to the video above:
https://vimeo.com/user143774380/download/587426245/a4d95ec785
Comments
Furrier
These are all estimates, it's not evil will of me to not release something that isn't ready yet, I always release things when I am happy with it in respect to my skill/learning progress. Of course you get the game as soon as it is done I send you a private message, and thanks for your support I am sorry I am not good/fast enough yet but I am working on it. And it is not the missing voice actress or sound that is holding it back, as said I ran into a few optimisation problems and had to redesign the main Level hub and do changes in the code. As I do every little thing myself manhours more like day hours. And after days of coding I need to animate or model something or I get crazy... Could you please send me a private message with just the name of the game '' ponyarcade'' so I remember?
Spyman
Not going to do it on my dime when the tier I pay for says test Game Builds. Also when you say it be done in days not weeks then you post Aug 7. The Aug15 you post audio is still using placeholder sounds, my voice actress seems too busy at the moment.
Furrier
I totally understand your frustration, as said, I work on it, but with games it's hard to make it playable when parts that are important to trigger effects animations and general game logic are not working correctly with each other. I am still learning much of this, and it's really hard to estimate dates when doing things for the first time. Especially when I get asked every day when I am done solving a problem which I never solved before and there are many. I should not give release estimates out anymore I am sorry. With minigames I do that already they are always a surprise like this frost minigame.
Spyman
Been waiting two month for this game with promises of a release all month. WILL NOT RELEASE A BETA, will not let us help you bug hunt. But you will release something else to try to keep people happy and for the to keep supporting you. I can't wait no more I can't keep supporting a creator who keeps promising stuff week after week with no resolute. So I'M DONE.
Spyman
IDK maybe if you would release a Beta so your fan community could help you bug hunt. for seven weeks you have said your almost done,it's coming.
Furrier
Yea I know... But I am working on it right now, it's hard to estimate time because I release it when I am happy with it. With harem 0.9 I do more regular updates every week. With the framework does the code not change as much as between the previous versions. So there will be 0.9a,b,c,d and so on. Sorry for the waiting time I do my best to keep it as short as possible 🐈
Spyman
So days not weeks
Swlightman
That's a great idea from you with the laptop = 3 That's true, you would have to buy or rent a server and then install a mechanism that transfers the update to the virtual laptops. That is really difficult, where I would not have a solution ready now. : / I hope to see Mirage too, because it was my first Fluff game and I hope to see Mirage again soon. ❤
Furrier
Thats the plan, having you virtually go to the laptop and select the minigame you want to play, with the added feature to get the characters from those minigames out of the laptop into your bed to cuddle♥ from the "update" feature i don't know how to implement something like that, would need to somehow check and then transfer the packages from a server onto your harddrive, which is tricky. But i want sometime add all minigames into one package like this, maybe with the release of the Gold version of my very first game ever (That Mirage Blowjob game) which is already in the works. A whole collection of those games with the features i always wanted to add would be awesome :3
Swlightman
Hey Furrier, this is a cool idea with the laptop and I would also implement other games like Frost or Harem in the laptop. Because you can also update games or even load the next update?
Furrier
My main ones are, Harem and Frost, these two are the biggest ones. But from time to time i do minigames which will not be shown before and i just release as surprise. The Very next one (the pony game) is nothing of the above, its for finishing up my framework (which i will use in all my future games) and to get to know it/ gain some experience on how to do things the right way.
Jukes
Which games are which exactly? You're working on a few at the same time right? Is it just frost a and fantasy harem?
