Hello! I hope you are working hard on your New Year's Resolutions.

The video above is my treat. Some little snippets of some of the animated backgrounds, details covered below!

Please give a like and subscribe if you enjoy those, as they take a bit of time and organization to make, and I am already working hard on backgrounds, and story input into the VN. 

Detailed report below

The TLDR is this.

Priorities of work is:

1. Backgrounds

2. Story Input into Unity.

3. Live 2D Commissions for the Routes.

With the story input, I will be starting the process of layering in sound effects, music into the narrative.

Based on the Trello, we are moving forward gradually, but things are looking amazing!

Backgrounds in B1NARY are a bit different. I honestly don't know what to call it.

I wanted to have them move as much as the Live 2D models to give off a vibe of a living world.

Rain, Midday, Night Time, Blizzards (In some domains), these all add atmosphere and lightens the load on the text with visual cues.

We also want to have lively backgrounds while not taking up a ton of graphical resources, hence the video clips.

So we do it in a slightly different way.

Step 1:

 Taku Artworks and I discuss the background and what it needs to do. He then paints it and layers it for me.

This might start as a real place, or made in Blender / Unreal to get the proper camera Angles.

Step 2: 

Using Art and Photoshop tools, I prep the layers, color to match to the domain, and set up the backgrounds for animations in Wallpaper engine.

Step 3: 

In Wallpaper Engine, I create all the different lighting conditions, the rain, the blur, the movement, and add the little touches to make all the variations required.

I am sure there is a better way. However, I am comfy in Wallpaper Engine for this purpose, and consistency is incredibly important for me.

Step 4: 

After the variations are captured using OBS, I clean them up and loop them in video editing software. At this point, I optimize them by compressing them and changing the formats to .ogg for multi platform compatibility.

Each background and it's variations averages about 100-150mb max. Some of these can have up to 12 variations, and others only 3. It just depends on the location.

Be rest assured, I am taking every step with the optimizations in mind.

In the past month we made several updates in Unity.

Unity Version was updated to 2022.3.55f, which included many patches and fixes for some of the issues that were popping up in some of the prefabs.

Live 2D SDK Update

This one is pretty big. With Live 2D 5.2 coming up soon, we decided to update our Cubism SDK from 4.2 to 5.1. This provided several enhancements.

Transforms, lip-sync parameters, and color masks work more efficiently.

The framework itself is built for easier updates in the future. B1NARY didn't REQUIRE this with the current models, but we are looking forward.

Future projects using the systems, and DLC's, would benefit greatly from these improvements. Now, if a new type of transform comes available, it is a simple update.

I have noticed about a 20-30 percent improvement in FPS overall when it comes directly to the Live 2D Models.

Good example is the first scene which has 3 models on screen, used to max at 190fps, now sits around 230-245fps.

Demo Update Coming:

We have been keeping the demo up to date to match the Main Game, at least with Unity version. Lot's of the UI changes won't be updated on the demo.

However, I will be adding a small fix the H Scenes to allow only the audio of Asterella Star. It's have also tweaked controls as well.

Some optimizations have been included. When it's ready, I will post a mini update to Steam and to Itch IO with the changes.

This will probably be the last update to the demo, as the main game is finished, code wise. 

Kota the Demon, a husbando in our game, has about 20 animations added for just the game itself.

These animations will be given to Kota for his streams as well! And I plan to add some to each main waifu and husbando in the game.

Art References are ready for Comrade Del and Fefe.

And with several others ready to rig, we will be pushing hard on the model in a few months.

Two models need some clean up before rigging commissions. I plan to do those first. (Female MC and Aoi Miyuki, the AI Train Conductor.)

I have all of the Female Domain Locations ready to Animate! We are hitting it hard.

I should be done rather quickly because the preparation is already finished for all 9 of them.

Next series of Backgrounds will be locations in the Twatch Server, with the train station series first.

During this time, my plan is to be doing story input in the mornings and animating at night until I am caught up.

A lot of work goes into story input, audio, unlockables, scene changes, ect.

In fact, after this update, I will be animating all week. I am so excited to see things finally coming together. We are in the endgame!

Vocal Artists recording and translation will happen in the final stage in conjunction with polish and final checks of Live 2D Models.

So until next month, be safe and have fun!

Project Lead

TherinWhitten