Hey folks, sorry it's been a little while again. After several days I think I figured out what was up with my PC. But I am not only here about that, I am here to showcase an upcoming mod; one that'll go up during my upcoming Hiatus.
So let's go over the mod first! It's something I saw on Pinterest and had to adapt. I basically had to redraw the entire thing by hand. Then I had to wrestle with Blender Stencil as that is the only way to get full body stuff lined up. I grabbed my art, put it onto a digital stencil, and then overlaid it onto the body meshes. After, I basically pasted my design over.
But the stencil does not wrap around the body meshes.
So I then had to painstakingly work to add to the design so it didn't cut off weird, as well as adapting those changes for the different bodies. VTK/Hyst and Fem UV were easy enough to line up. As well as Masc UV. I do still need to test the KS UV version though, so maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.
With Gymfiend, it shares very similar UV Maps to VTK, so I could use that for this body.
However, it did not frame the lower body as nicely due to how fucking wide the Gymfiend body is - which I love by the way - so I had to add in some extra lines that both fit the rest of the tattoo, and also leave a more flattering silhouette for the whole design. I think I accomplished that pretty well, and only needed to make a minor few adjustments. VTK/Hyst and Gymfiend are pretty much perfect and are now ready to port, but I now need to finish up with KS UV. Fingers crossed.
I am loving how it's looking so far. By the way, the lines look goopy in Blender, but pretty smooth in-game.
Here's a small sneak of the mod and the various ink colours:
Yeah, the White Ink version is a bit hard to see in Blender. But I still wanted to include it. As with all my tattoo mods, the ink is set at 85% Opacity. This allows it to be a bit transparent and reflect your V's skintone/skin mods. It helps it look more realistic. I am so in love with how this turned out. Lotus flowers are pink, and the inspiration for this. So let me know what you guys think of a dark pink swatch for this.
But yeah, I am so happy with how this looks; cannot wait to take the mod photos. Might even ask for submissions for the mod page.
Now onto my PC. I suddenly realised I only started having issues after tussling with World Builder and it's Removal Tool. After running some tests with an Intel software and the PC Temp monitor I use, and running timers to see how long overheating took, I started seeing a pattern. With both or either of those mods installed, my PC heated up like an arc reactor or something. It didn't do this with regular use or other games, like FFXIV; which is a pretty demanding game given the size and scope with the new graphics update.
So I then removed both mods, booted up the game, and set a timer.
With the WB and Removal stuff in, my game overheated my PC within either 10-15 minutes or around 30-35 minutes. This is with raytracing cranked up and my decision to limit FPS to 80, which my PC is more than beefy enough to handle now. But without them, it ran smooth for just over 90 minutes. No warnings of overheating, no game crashing; my PC's temp barely went around 70 degrees.
Yes, I am in the UK so we use celsius.
I also took new screenshots for my Blackwork Arm tattoo mod that I previewed recently, and didn't notice any issues during that either. Which considering I use the 'Pathtracing in Photomode' feature to do, my PC handled smoothly. So I am fairly confident I'll be fine to do my playthrough and won't need to go through sending my PC off for repairs.
I'll probably still run my desk fan while playing, just for the sake of my anxiety.
So yeah, I'll be starting my playthrough soon; after taking the pics for the mod I previewed on this post. The current working title is 'Lotus Lines', but I kinda want something more elegant, given all the work that's gone into it. This project has taken around a week, which is the longest I've spent on a tattoo mod in quite some time.
I'll have prepped 10 mods for sure, but if I have time before I start my replay, I'll try and prep more.
Before I go, I wanted to thank all of you. The past 6 months have been extremely rough. I am physically and mentally exhausted from everything. My Aunt dying, my Cousin's bullshit, my other family dog being on borrowed time now. (Literally, they've given him 3 months to a year to live) Plus my Nan's husband dying of cancer. And a whole lot more. Cannot even begin to say how draining it was for my Aunt's funeral and packing up her flat. Will be strange going to see my Nan and knowing there's some stranger moving in to my Aunt's place.
All of that left me unable to update the page as often as I used to.
But you've all been incredible. So patient and understanding. I've received so many wonderful, kind messages; both on here and through my Discord server. People continue to support the page even though I've stated multiple times I cannot do Supporter Rewards right now due to all the stress. I'm vanishing for a week at a time or more.
Yet everyone's been sticking around, and we even keep getting new members.
So yeah, I just wanted to say thanks. You guys are a wonderful little community and I just hope I'm still able to make stuff you guys can enjoy. I really think you'll all like my upcoming mods. I'm excited to replay the game, and fall in love with this game all over again.
Thank you everyone, hope to be back again in the next couple of days with more good stuff.