Did Cecilia, Alena, Rhea, and Noemi&Phoebe this round. Mostly happy with them myself but always want your feedback. Alena is the only one with really significant changes, I didn't care for her 3dcg model. Rhea got a bit of a clothing change to show off the Tenta marking on her back.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q3O3YQqhpHNeI1jDAWs2DaeMkDWxvRM_/view?usp=sharing
Still working out some new models using KK, it does feel a bit closer to 3dcg and while the tools aren't *quite* as strong, I'm getting some decent images out of it. So recreated Donna, Sarah, Angelica, and Kathleen (Kargan's request) and redid an old scene with them. As always, I'd love your feedback on the new models and pose styles.
My initial reactions-
Donna is good, she's a bit babyfaced but that might just be a consistent KK style.
For Sarah KK doesn't do side tattoos well so I moved her to a tramp stamp and arm sleeve for body tats, she seems the sort for a whale-tail as well. Might be too modern.
For Angelica I'm fairly happy overall, tried to give her an eye-glow under power. Let me know how that worked out. I can bring it up if necessary, even turning her eyes into spotlights if needbe :)
Kathleen got changed quite a bit, her character was mostly undone when her model was created. She turned out to be one of the most sexually-forward women in the game and I gave her a outfit more fitting to that persona. You can see it in her first frame, her hair being down is appropriate to the scene but she'll usually still have the tight braids.
Did a few different eyes for the magic; Sarah used a overall filter, Donna a pixel gradient, and Angelica an emission glow. Let me know which you all would prefer.
I've spent my free time in the last couple of weeks playing around with a few different imaging programs, both Honey Select 2. I'll agree that HS2 isn't as appropriate for the RPG maker style but the power of the engine is absolutely amazing coming from 3dcg. And our women finally have noses... actual noses! Did Alena and Vanessa scenes that stay fairly close to the 3dcg designs (ignore Nicole's model, that is very much WiP). I decided to change Adeline's model significantly, having such a visually striking model for a master disguise artist/assassin didn't make much sense so redid her. Really like the new model personally, she's more she has a bit more of an androgynous look now that makes her very unique among the harem. But still is all woman for the people always disturbed by Laura.
I also gave KoiKatsu another try, this time the older KK instead of KKS which seems to have significantly better mod support. Still far less than HS2 but possibly enough for me to function with, particularly as I learn to use overlays to do the body markings that are important to Harem's story. Started with Jessica (dunno, has become a personal fave of mine recently), her dark tram scene just to get a handle on KK's maps and controls. Did Terra's reconcile (c4 light to dark route) scene to test out some of the overlays and did Sam and Terra with Aries to work more with the male models (neither of those are anywhere near complete.
As always, would love your feedback. Focus on the models themselves, I'm sure I'll get plenty of comparative feedback between the two engines regardless. That will likely be decided by a poll that I'll create if I decide to work on Harem again, as opposed to me just playing around now.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17RB3QEgZEf2NtHb3arGEKOgqPL9TTmE7/view
Personally things are going fantastic for me. Back in school, going to finally finish my Bachelors after many years and am looking into various grant programs to earn various medical technical programs that sound very interesting to me. And would be quite lucrative. Spending so much time with the family again has been fantastic for my mental health as well.
So I'm continuing to play around with the imaging software and have mostly settled on HS2. KKS is a bit closer to the 3dcg style but still significantly different and is missing a few creative tools that would make a night and day difference in workflow. Ditto for COM3D2 but the mod support there is massively shorter in mods, particularly in tattoos and body markings which Harem used extensively. I'm still listening on the imager topic; but unless the imager has a solid static studio and pose manager, overlay system, and inline map editor HS2 is likely to win.
From the feedback on the first set of trial scenes I did and have an updated version with some model changes and new scenes.
Experimental 1.2
-Fixed a fixed poor picture calls, should follow scene better
-Revised Noemi, Terra and Jessica models, feedback please
-Added scenes for Cecilia, Rhea, and Angelica. Again, feedback please
I know that some of the text doesn't match events, like Angelica grabbing carpet on a wooden floor. Don't report those, these aren't replacement scenes.
Lighting before Terra is bad, still learning that system. And Angelica's hair is too plasticy.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RC3sARf6c0XqLe65zTWbHuJ3QNZwlccy/view?usp=sharing
Also working on a few new models, the feedback cycle has been useful to revising models. Both here and in discord. Keep them coming, and keep them constructive! I have Vanessa and Alena model scenes started, would be open to suggestions for two more slots for the 2nd set of scenes.
When I came back, I said it would be quite a while before I would/could decide if I would return to developing Harem. Part of that is me figuring out if I even can do so, I deleted my 3dcg installation before my attempt and much of it is irreplaceable. While I community member did offer their copy and I do have some mods from it still stored, I have lost many of the mods, and all of the models and scenes used to create the game.
So I’ve been looking into different, more modern, imaging programs. I played a bit with the COM3D2 and wasn’t especially impressed with the variation of models it can create and the size of the mod community. Tried HS2 and was far more impressed with both its modding community and studio program. While stylistically it’s far from the VX ACE design and 3dcg, the results are very good. I’ve always been very sensitive to uncanny valley issues in imagers but so far I’ve been able to clear the valley and been happy with the results.
I’ve spent a few days this last week recreating characters and scenes from Harem and would like to share them with you all for feedback. Not as much as technical issues like clipping and lighting, but what you think about the models replace the 3dcg models and the mechanics of the scenes. And what you’d think if I were to use a more photo-realistic imager instead of the more anime-styled 3dcg or CMD32
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cXciZhrLhNF8yF4WG4w5A2lQCg4794NQ/view?usp=sharing
A few more scenes for you all, these had been written and imaged just not coded so I took a bit of time to stitch them together in VX. While I have some partially written scenes my install of 3DCG didn't survive my attempt so I can't create any more images. Recreating the installation/mods/hardsaves or switching to another imager would be a significant time investment so these will be the end of the unreleased scenes being released.
I'm releasing a few scenes that I got done during a few semi-functional periods after 8m7. It's a standalone so you don't need to import any saves or replay files from an existing game to see them, just start a new game and it should give you a choice of the 4 scenes included (Baylie and Leona's capture scene, a progression scene for Eleanor, and Donnie/Tomas's next "conquest"). Enjoy!
Note: This does not mean I'm restarting development. I had some things completed from before and spent an hour dropping them into a standalone package, no more no less.
