Author Archive

New features implemented on the handcuffs!

• Option to “tighten” the cuffs after self-cuffing.
• Click helper that can be made visible and shows up in “highlight transparent”.
• Suspension animations with adjustable wrist spacing & cuff position offset.
• Time lock support (basic).
• Config to have the bracelets open or closed when in the “unequipped” position.

There are so many configuration options now…

No sound in the video here as I’m having an issue with my screen recorder crashing when I do, so you’ll have to excuse me. FIXED

These are the sounds I’ve put together so far:

• Ratcheting sounds when the bracelets close (recording of my HC-01 handcuffs).
• A beep sequence when the LEDs come on and off (it’s like the 4th attempt at this sound now…).
• A servo-ish sound when the bracelets release.
• A single beep on lock/unlock after the lock/unlock sound.

The actual locking/unlocking sound is still the typical KDC one as I figured most people recognize this one anyway.

I also had to redo the offsets because the cuffs were actually upside down while in the back, which made the accessories look weird. But that’s a general issue with the TouchBound accessories sadly (Mitigating it a little is nice, still).

Tomorrow: Key animation, bento hand flexing, and some more config stuff (closing the bracelets when docked, or not?)

I was out of town earlier this week and the day I came back I ended up on a friend’s live stream (again). Fun, but exhausting.

I did my best to use the remaining time productively, but even now as I write this post, I still feel somewhat sick. Here is a bit of a summary of the work done on the new handcuffs, so far.

All of these use configuration cards, so that’s really on a “per avatar” basis:

• Tightness of the bracelets when the cuffs are closed.
• Wrist spacing when animated (front-cuffed only at the moment), this uses a bunch of animation variants effectively.
• A saved “position & rotation” for the front-cuffed and “unworn” state. (only read on script reset, manually moving the cuffs to a new position will be saved)
• Whether the cuffs should be visible, or hidden when in the “unworn” state. Most people will probably want them hidden, but a “nice to have”.

And those all update live, that’s kinda nice, but you do need to do this with the RLV mode disabled due to the no-edit restriction.

I ended up almost losing my mind hunting down what I assumed to be a major bug introduced during the (ongoing) PBR refresh of the system. But no, after 2 hours, it turns out the new LSL preprocessor I was using appears to have a bug that causes it to optimize out functional (and important) code.

I’ve also done some work on the VRChat version of the Cell Block D-5, and got a nice prototype of the media player. I even got my hands on some screen shaders (made by Noriben Lunch) to give each of the displays the right appearance (Trinitron aperture grid and an LCD panel… maybe the rack should also be a CRT tube… or a broken LCD?).

The last two days were pretty rough, but I’m slowly getting back into code-mode. Everything I wrote yesterday was garbage and I ended up deleting it all, out of frustration.

Things got a little better today and I made some valuable improvements to the TouchBound system cosmetic functions. I now have a few sections that can properly manipulate PBR materials alongside the old materials. I also have implemented some of the cuffing system, user-facing messages, as well as configuration flags to adjust how tightly the bracelets ratchet when closed. There is also an option to have the cuffs hidden in the “uncuffed” mode and some click-routing code to make things a bit smoother and user-friendly.

No animations yet. Knowing the way I do things, it will probably be the last thing I end up doing.

A new update to my VRChat world has been released! The Prison Cell Block D-5 now supports VRC Light Volumes. I’ve also updated all the shaders on dynamic objects and slightly improved the labels on doors, the changelog, and the warden system.

I’m tempted to move things like information on how this world work and the changelog to a little clipboard rather than having things written on walls like now.

Click here to visit the Prison Cell Block D-5 in VRChat.

I’ve added a few finishing touches to the sci-fi cuffs mesh and textures. I believe that I made a fairly reasonable set of LOD models, not all of these are necessary, but the lowest LOD never ever looks right when done automatically.

There are some additional markings on the top of the sci-fi cuffs locking blocks (Unless I made a mistake, that’s the Chinese character for “unlock”), and some subtle noises and variations in all the materials that looked a little too plain, like the big red hinge piece (some scratches there now).

The lock holes do not rotate on this version of the lock block, I could change that if people tell me that it is a real problem, otherwise, I’m keeping them as-is. I was thinking about adding the 3D key model that I made for the heavy-duty lock, for the lock and unlock animation and realized that “normally” I would have to use the “universal keyhole” that the chat conditioner uses, so I quickly re-rendered the chrome parts to see what it would look like and, I’m not really sold. The depth isn’t really working on that mesh it looks like some sort of adjustment dial, not a keyhole in my opinion.

What do you guys think?

I’m almost done with the textures of the sci-fi cuffs. I still have to try to squeeze in an extra decal or two, and the red part of the “hinge” need a little something extra, as it looks a little too plain at the moment. Oh, and the LEDs! I forgot to do those properly.

Other than that there is still the LOD models that I have not done yet, and maybe cleaning up the points of origin for all the meshs to make it easier for me (and modders) to line everything up. I added a little bit of roughness to the surfaces where I had normal quantization issues (same issue I had with the stunprod months back).

A quick update for you all on the sci-fi cuffs, I’ve finished reshaping the low-poly and added some extra sections to allow people to adjust the spacing better (thanks to the separate Bakelite sections). The mesh is also unwrapped and probably final at this point.

The metal shader need some further refining, it lacks a little bit of something in my opinion. No real issue otherwise, just a lot of partial renders to set up scenes for. The written markings are also not 100% final yet.

I had a thought this weekend: What if I made the cuffs a better match to the existing Signalis-inspired stun prod?

What kind of handcuff would be carried by security Replikas? I came up with some details that re-use elements already present in the stun-prod, such as the Bakelite shell and diodes (there might be too many diodes)… Someone did ask if those would feature a time lock function and with this many indicators, it is almost too good of an idea to pass…

I could also get rid of the hex bolt at the center and have a central keyhole there instead because I suspect people might expect the two keyholes to imply dual-custody, and I’m not really convinced by that idea…

I did not get a lot done in the past couple days, the panel building project has received some additional window frame detailing, and while I did some progress on the sci-fi cuff low-poly model, the normal baking process is giving me a lot of little rendering artifacts that I need to resolve (or at least minimize).