September 2024

General

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This is the last dev blog before the release of version 0.4.5 with the Vore Update.

During this month I've been concentrating mainly on bug fixes.

VR Crouch

You can now crouch in the game without having to physically do so in your VR space.

This also works when you're playing in seated mode.

Sitting mode with calibration in menu :

I took the opportunity to review the VR controls.

Video Settings

I've made a pass at the game options and added better descriptions.

I've also added an option to choose the screen on which to display the game if you're using multiple screens.

Check Soles Animation Clean

Following some bugs with the new Character Grab System, I've corrected and revised the animations used in the Check Sole situation.

VR Profiles

When a player sticks to the sole of Talas, held in his hand, in his beak or seated in the remote-controlled car, this is managed by the Stuck Zone system.

In VR, different situations require different camera positions.

This is what keeps the VR camera in a range of motion when you're in Talas' beak.

Or when you're glued to Talas's sole, it causes the camera to rotate in VR to keep the player facing the sole when playing standing or lying down.

The problem is that the position of the VR camera is calculated by a single function that manages all the possibilities, and this starts to get very complicated to manage when I want to make a modification.

So I've been working on a new profile system with independent code to manage camera position and other features according to each profile.

The game will automatically change profile according to context. It's quite similar to what I'm already doing, and makes the game more modular.

It also allows me to preview the VR position in the game without having to use my headset.

Here, for the “Stuck to Sole” profile, you can see the character rotation and offsets so that the player can play standing up, sitting down or lying on their back.

(Depending on eye height, the code will rotate the VR player's position).

Rub Feedback

As far as hand rubbing is concerned, I've worked on a better optimization that makes it easier to calculate which areas are clean and which are not.

I also did a pass on the sound and effects to give better feedback.

Camera Shake

I've done a little refactoring of the way I handle camera shake.

In 3rd person view it will use the character's location and not the camera's to calculate the intensity of the shakes.

You can be very zoomed out if Talas is walking beside you, but you'll still get camera shake.

So now all characters can produce shaking.

The intensity of the shaking will also be calculated according to the difference in scale of the characters.

Here with a giant Cobble giant:

I've added an option to scale the camera shake.

You can disable it completely, or make it stronger than normal if you wish. (From 0 to 200%)

Cheat Code

I've slightly reworked the cheat code scripts to handle FX and other visual feedback, and standardized certain tasks such as the Spawn of the actors.

I've also added the remaining cheat codes before the v0.4.5 update.

And I've updated the cheat codes page on the Github page.

As you can see at the moment, some cheat codes are hidden, so players will continue to discover things over time.

That's it for those of you who read my development diaries:

Crumb: Spawn a crumb. `/cheat_nomnom`
Right Flashlight: Spawn you a flashlight (Right hands) `/cheat_sinisterportabledieu`
Left Flashlight: Spawn you a flashlight (Left hands) `/cheat_dexterportabledieu`
Remove Flashlight: Remove all spawned flashlights. `/cheat_paspordieu`
Active Magical Girl: Add magic FX trails `/cheat_zaubermadchen`
Remove Magical Girl: Remove magic FX trails `/cheat_paszauberei`

Settings Structs

I've slightly reworked the way I manage the structures for the different game options.

Now the different structures are not ordered in the same way as the player options, but categorized into very specific data structures for a particular use.

For example, the ergonomics menu will now modify data structures linked to the camera, user interface and accessibility options.

In MMVS I try to leave as much control as possible to the players, so I leave a lot of options accessible, but this is becoming increasingly tedious to manage, because for each data structure you have to manage :

BP modification libraries.
Options menus.
User backup.
Descriptions and translations.
And application from options.

In the future, I'll try to standardize all this.

Caustics and Gastric Fluid Pass

I did a pass on rendering in gastric fluids and also added some caustics for fun.

I remind you that you can disable the lights in the digestive system if you wish in the game options.

More Bug Fix

During this month, a large part of my time was spent researching and correcting bugs.

Together with the various game testers, I often send out pre-alpha versions to get an overview of the game's quality and potential bugs.

I have a private server on which we share and categorize the various bugs, the research avenues for correcting them and the various corrections and explanations.

Thanks to them, I've been able to discover and fix hundreds of bugs.

I don't really talk about them on the Work In Progress channels, as they don't really concern new content.

I'll be talking a bit more about the bugs that will be found in version 0.4.5.