Report #10 - UPGRRRRADE!!

This was the most expensive month for me. I spent all my savings and got into a bit of debt. So yeah, I'll be talking about this now.

Computaaah Upgradooo plus max super ultimate edition pro
The time has come! The gods themselves wanted this to happen, otherwise, I would be working as a cashier right now.

Behold, a new forge!

*sparkles*

*a lot of sparkles*

*poooow*

*meeeooow*

Isn't it beautiful? No RGB lighting, nothing superfluous in it, but a pure beast power >:)

Changelog:
Ryzen 5 1600 -> i9 13900k & Arctic Cooling Liquid Freezer II 420  
B450 -> MSI MEG Z790 ACE  
DDR4 32GB -> DDR5 64GB  
1080ti FE -> 4090
$2000 -> -$2000
2 kidneys -> still 2 kidneys

I tried not to skimp, so I chose components based on reviews, not price. And yeah, the assembling part was super scary for me. I spent about 12 hours studying all the instructions, googling tutorials and then connecting everything.

CPU 6.0GHz and more??

I couldn't find any suitable image, so here's a kitty :3

To be honest, i9 13900k is mindblowing. With my previous CPU (Ryzen 5 1600) I had to wait like 1-1.5 minutes before a scene is saved or loaded... I mean every action was slow. Even posing characters was laggy. But now it takes only 15-20 seconds to save a scene! It's a huge timesaver since I often do backups. MOREOVER, huge scenes don't lag anymore and every move is smooth now. Yaaay!

Daz uses only one core for most processes, so that's why I choose Intel instead of AMD. I was also scared that the CPU would burn my house so I bought Freezer II 420... but no. Daz doesn't really load the CPU that much.

GPU power, bring me more powerrr!

But the truth is... I bought this GPU on credit. Yep, I got too confident. But you know what? I don't care, it was worth it.

Now I can render scenes that are 5 times more detailed and nicer (or in other words 5 times faster).

With 1080ti I had to spend up to 5 minutes to render a scene in 2560x1440 and then downscale to 1920x1080. I also had to always fit the limit of 11GB, optimize my characters, remove some textures or use their lower resolution versions. But since 4090 has 24GB of VRAM, goddaaamn, I no longer need to do all that texture compression stuff. I also can easily render my scenes with a lot of characters all at once and Daz won't even crash, haha! Haha... ha... ahh... my wallet hurts.

You know what's special about this image? This is the last render made on 1080ti which I bought 4 years ago. If it wasn't for this video card, I wouldn't be a developer now. You can rest now, legend.

New GPU, New Pipelines

#1 resolution: 1280x2, iterations: 350, VRAM usage: 1.9Gb, time: 2 min
#2 resolution: 1920x2, iterations: 800, VRAM usage: 2.6Gb, time: 2 min

What does that all mean? 24GB of 4090 allows me to render in 4K and then downscale images to 1920 which results in a little bit better quality, spending the same amount of time!

I talked to some Devs and they said that they spend like 15-30 minutes on rendering 1 frame... That's crazy! My limit has always been 5 minutes, not a second more. Probably that's why you can't see skin pores, bumps, atoms, protons, neutrons... on my renders.

Development Progress it ain't much but it's honest work

It's been 2 weeks since the last release and I didn't really have time to to add new content. Last weeks I was really into searching for specs, ordering a suitable PC case and so on...
But I added a fancy TV talk show that replaced that boring news channel!

I was inspired by the talk show from Cyberpunk 2077, so I thought that Clairton would need a celebrity.

Character Enhancement INCOMING "It was bad but now it's good." - Confucius

I reworked the library girl and made her look more like a... girl?
Remember her? That's her now:

Don't tell me that adding a mask doesn't make a character look any more interesting! You'll be wrong >:(

Don't worry, I didn't change her acting much. She's almost the same girl but with a different appearance. And I personally love her new hairstyle.

Few more things:
• I'm thinking about splitting the game into chapters, so it could be possible to skip time. I believe this will have a positive effect on the narrative and weed out unnecessary scenes. Aaaand it should also help to navigate the plot easier.
• I'm also thinking about adding the ability to disable sandbox for the game. It's just an idea. I'm not sure if it would work or not, but since there're people that don't like sandbox games, I'll consider the idea of making the sandbox optional.

Guys, thank you for the support you've been providing! Without you, I wouldn't be able to afford anything off that list.

And considering my new financial obligations, I hope everything will continue to go as well as it is now. I'm counting on you ❤️