VN Ren'Py Xephon: Remastered [Dev Thread]

[XephonDev]

Basically, why remastered. Well, Xephon as the original "Story" in my opinion is a big mistake. I don't want to leave this game at this state. I write a new story, implements a new character and I want to see does it make sense.

Story:
24 yo man from a good home is in college. Z is graduating from college. He has never had any luck with women, causing him to seek a different erotic form. He was fascinated by erotic games and later began to create them himself. Unfortunately, it took its toll on his psyche. One of his friends told him to go to therapy, so he did. The problem is that the therapy is quite experimental. 6 people are banned from society for 28 days. Every day at noon they are given a task that is supposed to help them cure their trauma. The main hero doesn't want to have a girlfriend because he is afraid he will hurt her. Mainly because of his work and perversions. This is how we will direct the actions of the main character locked up with 5 girls with other sexual disorders. The topic may be heavy, but I want to cover the hole after Xephon

Mechanics:
Okay, this is a classic VN game with multiple paths to choose from. Nothing out of the ordinary other than the mechanics of points for completing tasks. Each of the 6 characters in the therapy earns its own points, which affects the course of the further plot

Visual and audio aspects:
I want to try something new. I put DAZ away and I'll try to make it using VAM(Virt-A-Mate). Why? Well, I'm annoyed with DAZ and not just me. First of all, I want to show that DAZ isn't a must-have. Secondly, I like to try new things.
Here

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to some VAM render (Not captured by me, only for the showcase!)
For audio, I'll use classical no-copyright music.

Summary:
I would love to hear any feedback or suggestions. I don't want to do something again that doesn't make sense. Thanks for reading!

 

[Gallant Trombe]

The link is not working for me.

 

[XephonDev]

Working

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[Gallant Trombe]

Working

You must be registered to see the links

Thanks, that link is working.

I don't have any experience with Virt-A-Mate, so I can't speak to the production side of it. The quality of the renders from the link seems fine. They are a downgrade from DAZ, but if it is better for you to work with, then it is what it is.

To give the best feedback I can, I hope you don't mind me speaking candidly here.

Looking at Xephon's renders, I don't think the programme you used was the problem, so I'm not sure how Virt-A-Mate will be much of an improvement.

For example, the renders aren't given enough time to render, they are very blurry. The images are in very low resolution which compounds the issue with rendering time. This tells me either you don't have a powerful PC (understandable), or there isn't enough time dedicated to each render. VAM is a VR programme, it takes a lot more power just to run in VR, so if you don't have a powerful enough PC for DAZ, I'm not sure it has the power to produce decent screenshots from VAM. Even if you don't run VAM in VR, it doesn't change the fact that the engine is built for VR. Logically a lot of comprises would have been done to make it function as well as it can for VR specifically. Lastly, it is designed for real-time rendering, not rendering stills, it's an entirely different ballgame. Still, work with what you are comfortable with, a lot of people are fine using Illusion games to make their renders, VAM can definitely work too.

Beyond that, there are the sets in Xephon. They aren't lighted properly so they are flat and uninteresting. Camera work still needs a lot of improvement as well. You need to remember if you are making a visual novel, the visuals are there to help tell the story, even if it's just a run of the mill porn script story, it still needs to be told well through visuals and words. For example, if the scene has 3 characters in it talking to each other, just making sure the characters all fit inside the frame alone isn't enough. On the contrary, zoom in onto each of their faces to better convey the conversation. Make sure they actually exhibit some emotion by tuning their expressions. I noticed a lot of shots have characters just put into a body pose, but they just have a deadpan face on. Saves you a lot of time having to render all the characters plus the background as well if you only have to render the face of a character. You can save even more time if you use DOF to blur out the background. This is more of a problem with photography and cinematography. It is up to the person to get better at it with knowledge and practice. Without it, the images won't be good no matter what.

Lastly, about the story; Focus on doing well in what you consider the most important part of your VN.

If you think the story is the most important part, then the focus should be on storytelling. Again, in a VN, people's attention goes to the images first, even if you have good writing, if the visuals aren't good, it will bring the whole thing down.

If it is the porn, put most of your effort into it. Xephon has 3 sex scenes, but even all together is not long enough for 1 scene if that's the focus.

As long as you get your focus right, enough people out there will appreciate it.

Again I apologize if my comment is too critical, however, I absolutely understand and relate to the feeling of time wasted working on something that failed. I rather give my feedback as honest as I can than help contribute to you wasting more time and effort.

Hope you find this somewhat useful, good luck with the remaster.

 

[XephonDev]

Thanks, that link is working.

I don't have any experience with Virt-A-Mate, so I can't speak to the production side of it. The quality of the renders from the link seems fine. They are a downgrade from DAZ, but if it is better for you to work with, then it is what it is.

To give the best feedback I can, I hope you don't mind me speaking candidly here.

Looking at Xephon's renders, I don't think the programme you used was the problem, so I'm not sure how Virt-A-Mate will be much of an improvement.

For example, the renders aren't given enough time to render, they are very blurry. The images are in very low resolution which compounds the issue with rendering time. This tells me either you don't have a powerful PC (understandable), or there isn't enough time dedicated to each render. VAM is a VR programme, it takes a lot more power just to run in VR, so if you don't have a powerful enough PC for DAZ, I'm not sure it has the power to produce decent screenshots from VAM. Even if you don't run VAM in VR, it doesn't change the fact that the engine is built for VR. Logically a lot of comprises would have been done to make it function as well as it can for VR specifically. Lastly, it is designed for real-time rendering, not rendering stills, it's an entirely different ballgame. Still, work with what you are comfortable with, a lot of people are fine using Illusion games to make their renders, VAM can definitely work too.

Beyond that, there are the sets in Xephon. They aren't lighted properly so they are flat and uninteresting. Camera work still needs a lot of improvement as well. You need to remember if you are making a visual novel, the visuals are there to help tell the story, even if it's just a run of the mill porn script story, it still needs to be told well through visuals and words. For example, if the scene has 3 characters in it talking to each other, just making sure the characters all fit inside the frame alone isn't enough. On the contrary, zoom in onto each of their faces to better convey the conversation. Make sure they actually exhibit some emotion by tuning their expressions. I noticed a lot of shots have characters just put into a body pose, but they just have a deadpan face on. Saves you a lot of time having to render all the characters plus the background as well if you only have to render the face of a character. You can save even more time if you use DOF to blur out the background. This is more of a problem with photography and cinematography. It is up to the person to get better at it with knowledge and practice. Without it, the images won't be good no matter what.

Lastly, about the story; Focus on doing well in what you consider the most important part of your VN.

If you think the story is the most important part, then the focus should be on storytelling. Again, in a VN, people's attention goes to the images first, even if you have good writing, if the visuals aren't good, it will bring the whole thing down.

If it is the porn, put most of your effort into it. Xephon has 3 sex scenes, but even all together is not long enough for 1 scene if that's the focus.

As long as you get your focus right, enough people out there will appreciate it.

Again I apologize if my comment is too critical, however, I absolutely understand and relate to the feeling of time wasted working on something that failed. I rather give my feedback as honest as I can than help contribute to you wasting more time and effort.

Hope you find this somewhat useful, good luck with the remaster.

Thanks man!