Archive for the ‘pet projects’ Category

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).

I took a bit of a break due to a combination of family visits, and a need for some personal time. And what do you know, summer is here with a vengeance.

Eventually, I gave up and unpacked the air conditioner from storage. It was a hassle, but I do not regret it. Better sleep, clearer head for work… And I don’t have to live at night anymore!

For today’s update I have a couple of things to show:

First, I’ve been mildly obsessed with is a staple of brutalist architecture; “Plattenbau” or panel construction. It was used all around the DDR and former Soviet Union. I’m not sure if this is going to be a construction set, or if this is just me experimenting with the style. Fun fact, it’s compatible with my 3×3 cells >_>.

The other thing is that I’ve resumed work on the sci-fi rigid handcuffs. I’ve added a few more visual details, and completed a good chunk of the low-polygon work. On that matter, I’m attempting a different method, but I have no idea whether it will work well with normal maps. If it doesn’t, I’ll just remodel it the old way.

Getting towards the finish line on the Morgiana collar! Textures & LOD models are ready, I also got most of the code done. You can also see what it looks like without the studs. I’d love to do a release right before June rolls in, and I might actually be able to make it, but the release will most likely be sometime next week.

We’ll see what happens, right?

I swear this is one of the last times I’m taking pictures of the Morgiana collar high-poly model. I added all the dings and dents, punched the holes for the back ring (let’s hope it will show up in the normal map), finished the Low polygon model and unwrapped it (1024×1024 feels overkill, but I could not use 1024×512 efficiently like I did with the cuffs because the flat sections are much longer and would end up with a lower resolution, it also needs its own duplicate of the ring mesh, so there is that too), oh yeah and the logo is in place and on time (usually I forget).

I can always drop the resolution & repack if that’s too much.

I resumed work on the Morgiana collar, The second half is modeled, but I had to redo some things on the first half (just to satisfy my mild OCD).

I also spent hours over the weekend putting together a (personal?) variant of the hired help uniform, not a big fan of using 2K textures, but it does look quite nice with all the stitching I added to it (also those are patch attachments, don’t ask).

Lastly, I don’t think I posted anything yet about the new brainwashing propaganda entertainment system I’ve installed in the Second Life Cell Block D-5, it is still a little rough around the edges. I will make better models, textures and more diegetic scripts, I hope ^_^.

I ended up having something like 3 recording sessions before I ended up with a chained walk sound that I was happy with. I did not want to use a stock sound, just to make my things a little more unique, and it took a while to get something that works.

Update on the Morgiana ankle shackles: the new sounds are in, the tiptoe variant has a foot-lock animation, they open & close and the ring sways to the side when you do (came up with a fancy little piece of math to limit the drift on that angle, despite the fact that the ring angle can be adjusted by the wearer). The tiptoe variant is effectively rotated 90° with a bunch of chain links going under the heel, it will be the user’s responsibility to adjust/add/remove links to fit their specific feet/body.

Furthermore, I have drafted some of the code required to give bolts a PBR-friendly appearance, but that will come in a later update (the bolts being non-PBR is not ‘that’ noticeable). Eventually the chain sound feature will also be added to other ankle cuff sets.

Unless you think I’m forgetting something very important, I guess the Morgiana ankle shackles are ready for release?

I waited an extra day just to make sure everything rolled over properly.

A quick summary:

Last week was incredibly rough, ethernia.net expired on Monday despite the fact that I renewed it on time. Contacting the registrar led nowhere, the phone was disconnected, the contact email wasn’t getting relayed. During the night, while I was sick from food poisoning, a friend managed to get someone on the phone, and we all discovered that the one person that ran that registrar company had died about 2 or 3 weeks ago.

Harsh. This is where I got my very first domain name, and I stuck with him for more than 20 years…

I had to engage into a lengthy process to recover the domain name, this part isn’t quite finished but at least it is paid up for the next year and functional.

Everything should be back in order, DNS servers can take a little while to update, but it has now been more than 24 hours and the new information should have propagated everywhere. That means deliveries, updates, and all the other dead realm systems should be back up and running.

Shackle stuff

Finally, a picture with decent lighting.

Work wise, I had to make new bolts for the Morgiana shackles because, after everything was done, the original ones didn’t actually fit. I also started the wrist low-poly, it shouldn’t take very long. The code for the ankle cuffs is mostly functional at this point, but I haven’t found a moment to set up my recording area those chain sounds.

There is a good chance no one will read this post for a week or two…

I’m currently getting an issue related to the primary domain name (ethernia.net), the blog can still be accessed through kyrahabattoir.com for the time being, but quite a few things aren’t going to work right while I get this all solved:

• deliveries
• updates
• documentation wiki

I’d recommend you do your purchases on the marketplace for at least a few days.

Oh, yeah I’m also super sick, for unrelated reasons (but the stress is definitely not helping), and couldn’t get anything done today, we still have some progress from Monday and this weekend, so here is some more in-world tests:

Yesterday was my birthday, so things for a little busy, and today I think I’m getting sick from something, so there is that.

Despite that, the show must go on, I’ve completed the low-poly model, with optional chain parts and the ring (they both have a split since, again, we are going weld-free here). I did a very brief in-engine test too.

Most of the unwrapping is done, and it might actually all fit inside a 512×1024 (proportion-wise). Now, where should I put the KDC logo…