I just finished the cell lamp final textures and lod models!

I added a few little extra details, such as ribs and rivets on the top cover, and allen bolts on the sides. The switch has a couple of “knurling lines” to make it look a little more grippy.

The glass uses a simple, old texture that I really like to use for light bars, with a bit of dramatic glow.

The last picture shows the lowest LOD. You get about 20 triangles to work with before LI starts going up, so there is really no reason not to use them. From the GPU’s point of view drawing a model comes with some incompressible overhead, so whether you draw one triangle or twenty makes no difference.

It all comes down to a very reasonable score so far:

• 14 parts.
• 30 Textures (A lot of those are very small).
• 26Mb of VRAM.
• 2351 triangles.
• 7 LI.
• 9360 complexity.

It was about time to work on the cell lamp that will sit above the door. The idea is to cast a little bit of light on the door for accent, but also to house the light switch for the cell’s ceiling light.

Because this is a small part and “why on earth are you so slow Kyrah” I figured I would put a gallery that presents different iterations and dead ends I’ve been going through with this piece.

If anything, now you can see what you’re “not” getting 😛

The main reason I’ve abandoned the very first version is that I couldn’t get the slightly domed glass panel to look right. Therefore, I switched to something I knew would potentially work.

Some of the pictures also have two toggle switches but that is only the on and off position being visible at the same time.

I just finished simple chain anchors for the prison cell project. They are optional and cost 0.5LI each, therefore the setup on those pictures is 3LI (3 in/out). I was initially going for an “U” shaped anchor, but that’s a bit boring given that the freebie anchor plates already look like that.

They aren’t super detailed, but this is about on-part with the rest of the build.

I also added a simple wall insert to replace the bars, (it is just a slightly modified cube). You can see it in two of the pictures because I’ve removed the bars on one side, it is only really there to fill the space (and cost a little less LI than a primcube).

Finally, I started working on the lamp that will sit above the door, but I barely started really.

I was supposed to do a lot more work today, but that’s just how it is sometimes.

I finally got around to make some kind of texture for the floor trim, and to work more on the cell floor design. Since the very start I had in mind the idea of a “classic” tatami flooring as an option (wouldn’t be suitable for supermax obviously). Overall, I am very pleased with how it eventually turned out, given that I made them completely from scratch.

Don’t worry, the “normal” floor style is not going to go away.

I have also added in today’s blog update a quick idea for some potential floor markings. I would love to know your opinions on what else I could add (not “too specific” things obviously).

It is finally starting to look complete 😀

And another part of the cell project is complete. I’ve just finished re-rendering the cell door textures and am considering them to be final at this point.

All the models are final too, with proper LOD versions and colliders (I finally figured how to make offset colliders). I also decided to use the spare “face” of the door to put a configurable text engine on it, because why not?

It uses the simplified alphabet that my nameplate system uses, and so you won’t get fancy symbols. It should be good enough to put cell numbers, block denominations, things of that order.

13 different parts and 7 Land impact so far, including the required lock proxies, there is only a few more things that I need to finish before I can move on to the furnitures.

Cell door progress woo!

I’ve now gone through round after round after round of texture tests.

There is a limited amount of detail I can add on such a large piece without blowing the texture budget and it also had to be tintable.

…Or at least tint-friendly?

I’ve added a bunch of little normal mapped details here and there:

• Rivets on the front and back.
• Friction reduction rails on the window shutter path.
• Ribs on the shutter itself.
• Grip-style latch on the shutter handle.
• Indentations on the door edge where the deadbolts retract.
• Dishing on the backside of the shutter… because why not.
• You can also pick between glass or bars on the window opening.

Furthermore, the actual texture is “light” enough to be color matched with the cell framing beams and can support a fairly wide range of colors through tinting.

In all honesty, I’m probably forgetting some things, I always do 😛

I’ve just pushed a new update for the KDC Isolation Headphones!

Beside a bunch of small fixes (that I can’t really remember), the main addition is a new configuration flag card:

• cfg_LockableIMButton

It allows to adjust the default behavior of the IM toggle button to prevent people from toggling it once the headphones are locked. This is a fairly “niche” feature, but it might make the headphones more practical to use for some.

As usual, you should receive a notification from the auto-updater shortly.

I’ve also updated the Instruction Manual, so you can get more details about this new feature there.

After a much needed mini end-of-year holiday, I am back to work. Which means: back on the prison cell project.

I initially hoped that I would be able to cram everything into a half-width texture, but it wouldn’t fit. At least on a full-size, I know that all the parts should fit.

I’m not going to put anything into the window/hatch spaces because I intent on keeping those “black” for the lowest lod (when the door is merely a cube).

The hatches will also share the same texture area. Other than that, there isn’t going to be much UV recycling.

It probably won’t matter but I’m trying to do some pixel perfect snapping in the UV edges in order to see if I can make them as seamless as possible.

I also had an idea on how to get more value out of the prisoner uniform. The last picture is a quick mockup of a “conversion” to a japanese/korean style uniform, tell me what you think!

This one is on me again, I made a mistake during last round of update and forgot to package two left wrist cuff animations (left cuff to collar left/right ring).

So unfortunately, it is update time again, wrist cuff hotfix time:

• AI Basic wrist cuffs.
• ER Chrome wrist cuffs.
• Classic leather wrist cuffs.
• Heavy Metal wrist cuffs.
• Laminated wrist cuffs.
• Lined Chrome wrist cuffs.
• Meat Market wrist cuffs.
• Paw Mittens.
• Vermilion wrist cuffs.

Once again, I apologize for the inconvenience.

🙇‍♀️

I’m not sure how I feel about this year…

Granted we all have the excuse that it was a very “special” year. In a way it is also not an excuse.

I don’t know what to think of the work I’ve done this year, on one hand, I did release a few good items, but on the other I could probably have done more? I’ve neglected the Patreon stuff quite a bit, and did close to no work at all on my game.

In my defence, I guess 2020 was the year of “product updates & experimentation”, and I’m not saying that JUST for the more recent stuff 😛

So let’s all sit back, relax, and have a comfy new year celebration. Next year will be better. Next year I’ll do better.

See you all on the other side!