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YL2 Update February-Early March

odesodes Administrator
Hi all!

Here's our update we promised earlier. (Due to illness and other events, we were a bit behind schedule.)

Before we get into the gist of this update, we just wanted to share some changes we're making to our posts.

Right now we're in a phase where most of the work we do is very technical in nature. It's quite difficult to show images of this work, or at least images that are interesting and meaningful to users, since most of it is just raw code or crude placeholder content. This is the reason why we've been writing such long and technical texts, to sort of make up for the lack of more representative-looking content.

I'm sure there are some who enjoy reading all that nerdy, techy stuff we've been writing about, but I believe most people are here for the adult content. Plowing through walls of technical jargon isn't necessarily the thing I think most people here want to do, or what we should be spending a lot of our time writing about. So I was thinking maybe we could tone it down a bit from now on. I'm not saying we'll cut it out completely, but perhaps that we'll write shorter, more concise summaries of what we're doing - even though we might not have much else to show at times.

I think in the end what is important is that we're making progress and communicating it. So as long as we have that dialogue, hopefully that will be sufficient to reassure you that progress is happening.

Let us know what you think.

February + early March progress

This past time we've been working hard on a Shape Layering system to be used in our character creator. The purpose of this system is to completely separate the concepts of gender and shape. As a matter of fact, from the perspective of the app itself, there is no such thing as "male" or "female" - just different genitals and different shapes. For example, a "dick girl" would basically be a character with male genitalia, but with a feminine shape applied to the body. Likewise, you could create a character with a very masculine appearance, but with female genitalia, if you wanted to. Obviously, feminine characters with female genitalia, as well as masculine characters with male genitalia, in addition to hermaphrodites, are all possible to create with this system. The point is that these concepts are separate, so you are free to create whatever type of character you can imagine.

Coming up with a system like this has taken a lot thought and testing to arrive at. It has definitely been a journey to figure out how all these things are supposed to fit together, and it hasn't always been easy. Also, it's not only about the implementation part of things either, but also how we can author content for it in an efficient manner. We believe we have now come up with a complete system for all of these steps. The coding parts are done, and we also have internal documentation detailing every step of how to create content for it. So all that remains now is to start creating content!

We hope that by the end of the month, we'll be able to provide a glimpse of how this system works with "real" content. So hopefully things should get a bit more image heavy from now on. :)

Other news - Moving to DX11

In YL2, we're making use of many DX11 features to offer a better experience. Looking at the adoption rate of DX11 (95%*), we have now taken the decision to move over to DX11 fully. By utilizing DX11, we can vastly improve many computational operations to create a much more fluid and fun experience for the user. By only targeting DX11, it also means we can save time by not by not having to implement operations twice (once for CPU and once for GPU), in addition to making the code base less complex as well.

We don't think it's unreasonable that an app that will be VR compatible only works on DX11+ systems.

* source 

Summary

If it's ok with you guys, we wish to make shorter, more concise updates from now on, focusing less on technical jargon and more on content.

In February and March, we've been working on a shape layering system to be used in the character creator, that will allow you to create a vast array of different characters.

YL2 will be targeting DX11 to offer a better user experience.

Comments

  • edited March 2018
    Not that I'm complaining, but the consequences of this are there's no hope of Macs getting a version of YL2. The game will only run on Windows operating systems. The benefit being though that even slightly weaker PCs will be able to keep up.

    However, since there's so much customization in the game, the speedup may balance out with the extra overhead. Character customization for instance seems like it takes the base model and shapes it to the modified version on the fly. I don't know how heavy this process is, but imagining me programming it... I wouldn't be able to do it w/o incurring a lot of processing power over the current way of just having static characters.

    I do have one question.

    Regarding your shape layering system with how you're really blurring the lines between genders to further accommodate people's proclivities. I was wondering if the new system will have the Yiff cloud for uploading interactions and how you plan on allowing people to filter through content they don't want. Obviously custom tags are a thing and could solve it all on it's own, but I rarely see people use the feature. I'm quite vanilla myself and generally turn off all content I'd rather not see.

    Ahhh

    There's one thing I also forgot regarding Shape Layers.

    I get that you start from a gender neutral base and add shapes to transform the characters into whatever you're into.  Looking at the process that way though, I can't help but feel anxious that the innate femininity of some characters might be lost.  For instance, in YL1 you have the cat. You can make the cat's breasts larger if you want, however, in comparison to Giraffe's breasts, the cat's breasts don't look good large. Other parts of the characters physical balance makes it so for the cat, the best size is generally on the smaller size. Basically, by making things toggle-able or into a meter you kind of lose on the innate artistic direction to express the character's physical beauty.  I can't say much about YL2 since I don't have my hands on it, but I won't deny it has me slightly worried.
  • odesodes Administrator
    edited March 2018
    Actually, whether or not it will work on unix based systems depends on Unity - how it compiles the shaders. It's possible it will run on those systems if the compilation is cross platform. The documentation here is a bit lacking, but some references seem to suggest that at least some "DX11" features are supported on all platforms (if the hardware has support for Shader Model 5 and SPIR-V). When we say DX11, what we actually mean is Compute Shaders and Structured Buffers. So YL2 on Mac and Linux may definitely happen.

    The challenge with our shape layering system is that shapes can be applied with masks, i.e. a shape that affects the whole body can be configured to only affect a part of it, meaning we can't use the native blend shape system. The only way to get this working is to program our own blend shape system, that moves vertices individually. However, moving 10k+ vertices _per layer_ on the CPU is very costly, linearly increasing the time to process the stack as more layers are added. By utilizing the GPU however, we can move all the vertices in one go per layer, making it virtually instant.

    The new cloud implementation lies further ahead into the future, but we intend to make it better than last time. I reckon automatic tags will still be a thing to some extent, but custom tags will definitely also be a thing and something we want expand on. The type of characters that are possible to create in YL2 have already been imagined countless times in the furry community already, and I don't see e621 having a tagging problem, so I think we should be able to handle this as well.

    I'm not sure I understand your last paragraph. The whole point with the shape layering implementation is that we're able to define body types separately, meaning we can create any shape we like and incorporate it into the system. It has been designed to offer us creative freedom in our body type authoring, so we can keep on adding more and more body types with time.

    While the shape layering system will define the general look of the character, sliders for inflation are still separate. So you'll be able to make characters flat-chested or heavily inflated during the course of the animation - just like before.
  • I just meant that Elaine is aesthetically designed around her base shape. By being able to mix and match shapes, there is no overall aesthetic grounding for the characters. It's a very minor issue, and if you guys keep up with the quality of 3D models as you always have, probably won't even be a cause for concern.

    Also that challenge of the shape layering system seems interesting to say the least. Being able to apply a shape through a mask means you can make just the arms extremely muscular and the rest of the body really soft or something like that. That's a lot of versatility. I hope it all blends well with each other and doesn't mess with the textures or fur.

    Hmmm... just talking like this is inspiring me to make some YL1 tutorials XD. Thanks for staying passionate about your works, and I do hope that in the future you continue to give as much insight as you want in your comments.

    I know you might be oversharing or that no one can do anything with the information you give, but I do hope you understand that some of us really do appreciate the in-depth analysis into what you're currently working on and the minute challenges you face.

    Good luck in your endeavors.
  • I have a question for the creators of the project, will it be possible to export models to programs like 3ds max?


  • odesodes Administrator
    @TheUnsaid Thanks!

    @sergmonax Yes it will be possible to export models.
  • I'm just curious if there is any possible ETA on the next public release.
  • @kurisu7885
    No not really
  • @kurisu7885
    Public release? Forget this.

  • ;-; my computer runs DX10 max, rip me
  • Sorry if this was already answered but will size scaling be a thing?
  • odesodes Administrator
    @duskreaper
    You will be able to configure height and scale of your model in the character creator of YL2.
  • I have another question about the character creator if you don't mind answering. Will we be able to have multiple parts i.e. multiple genitalia and arms? And will we be able to make something like a dragoness herm with a knotted horsecock? If these features are included I'm not expecting them out of the box
  • odesodes Administrator
    You will not be able to have multiple arms and genitalia. You will however be able to have multiple tails. Shafts are separated from different species, as are body types from genitalia and species. So you could create a dragoness herm with a knotted horsecock, eventually (once we have implemented a dragon species and a knotted horsecock). The initial release of YL2 will have three species - canine, feline and scalie.
  • edited May 2018
    I'd posted a couple of suggestions to the unofficial Discord for Yiffalicious, but I figure I might as well repost them here since they relate to the announcements made for YL2's character creator here:

    So, it's announced that YL2 has or will have genitalia/groin options for characters with vulvae, cocks, or both, but at least so far not for characters with neither. A "none" option for the genitalia would have to be the easiest option for the category to implement out of all of them, and it's certainly not like there wouldn't be demand for its inclusion in the product, so I'd like to see a "none" option be added there.

    And then whereas there’s currently support planned for characters with specifically a cock, a vulva, and an external pair of balls in between, there’s a request on the Yiffalicious forums for YL2 to support characters who have a vulva and a cock but who don’t have that external pair of balls in between. Note also there being characters in the fandom who have just a penis down there without an external pair of balls to go with it, as well as characters who have a vulva down there with a pair of balls as well and characters who have neither a cock nor a vulva but who still have a dangling pair of boyballs down there.
    To make YL2 capable of supporting all those different types of characters at once, I suggest making testicles toggleable/placeable separately from the base genital/groin choice, rather than being automatically, forcibly and exclusively bundled in with the choice of a cock(/cock and vulva) for one’s base genitalia/groin configuration selection.
    Consider also that testicles may have to be treated separately from the base genitals choice internally anyway in the case of, e.g. allowing players to choose from multiple different kinds of cocks for their characters that have cocks, so allowing players to toggle testicles on their own may really be a matter of exposing already-to-be-implemented functionality to the player and nothing more in such a case.

  • odesodes Administrator
    edited May 2018
    @Accenture
    Thanks for sharing these thoughts, Accenture. You have made us revaluate our original plans regarding how balls work. There will be a slight trade off in model quality, as having balls as a separate model will inevitably create a seam between them and the body. However, separating the models in this fashion will allow us toggle the balls, in addition to providing multiple variations of balls (with time). This setup also makes things less complex and generally more manageable. Shape authoring will be much easier for us and quicker. So we think it's a trade off that makes sense.

    Would a "none" option genitalia still have a back-door so to speak? Or would that be removed as well?

  • edited May 2018
    Personally, I think it might make the most sense to have individual options for the anus as well as everything else. Like:

    Cock: humanish, canine, horse, dragon, none
    Balls: even, uneven, hairy, none
    Vagina: humanish, dog, horse, cloaca, none
    Anus: humanish, puffy, none

    That would also allow, for example, a scaly character with a cloaca and no separate anus.
  • edited May 2018
    "Would a "none" option genitalia still have a back-door so to speak? Or would that be removed as well?"
    Going tail-hole-less isn't my thing, personally, so I don't think I'd get much mileage out of the idea of taking the back-door away (my main character's a null character who's a total butt-slut), but in any case I'd recommend that to implement the idea of removing the back-door how you would do it would be to add a toggle for it that would be separate from one's choice of genitalia, rather than making it an automatic, forcible and exclusive part of one's genitalia choice. You can see in my suggestions this running theme of avoiding "automatically, forcibly and exclusively" bundling different things in with one's character creation choices like that. :p

    Still, though, I'll just reiterate that I would greatly appreciate a null/"none" choice for the genitals - it'd mean the difference on whether or not I'd be able to faithfully recreate my main character in YL2, for one thing.
  • edited May 2018
    As an addendum, although I say that I wouldn't get much mileage out of removing the back-door, note that having a toggle for the tailhole would be something that would make a lot of sense if there were to be a genital slit/cloaca choice for the groin implemented into YL2.

    Edit:
    ... I typed all that while having completely missed Arrkhal's post. Yup, I'm more or less suggesting what Arrkhal's suggesting.
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