No can remember exactly when this wide-brimmed hat came into our possession, it has clearly seen better days but it must have served its owner well. One of our clerks vaguely remembers of a tall and pale lady who came in on a cloudy October night and to whom he offered coffee as she browsed some of our more peculiar products, she must have been a little too distracted that night.

As with every year, I’m making a little “special” project for Halloween. And as every year, this is only for a limited time, from October 15 to November 15.

Every other Halloween special is back at the store too! Check them out if a witch hat is not your kind of thing. And as usual, Patreon supporters can get this as part of their rewards~

I managed to finish the low-poly and unwrapping today so I had to give it a quick in-world test!

The hat material isn’t that interesting yet, but even at this stage, it really pops once you add the emission map. I’m probably going to spend a few days refining the material and getting my final texture exports the way I want them. Felt or leather… undecided for now.

Someone mentioned that it reminded them of Bloodborne, I never played this game ^_^.

I finally decided on something to do for Halloween, the “Witch Huntress Hat”.

This project idea comes from a very dear friend who mentioned the large brimmed hat with a slit above one eye that a manga character wears (Akabane Kuroudo from GetBackers), and that maybe I could do something cool with that. I was initially unconvinced, until the idea of a glowing magical seal drawn on the surface of the brim popped into my head.

In my head, this would be a piece of armor meant to protect the wearer against the supernatural creatures they fight… something like that. I would have used a pentagram but the space in the center of it would have been too small to accommodate that part of the hat. I’ve also hemmed the edges of the cut, to imply that the slit comes from battle damage and has been repaired.

Did not decide yet how distressed the surface should be, or whether the seal should be etched into the felt, but I also don’t really have a ton of time left to complete this project so I’m already working on the low-polygon version. Gotta keep this moving fast!

Have fun over there~

Some code improvement on the VRC map: I’m trying to wrap it up feature-wise with a basic lock system and respawn-cheat prevention. Once I’m done with that, I think I’ll consider this version more or less complete.

I’ve been struggling to come up with a simple metal table & chair design that would fit the theme, yet clearly look more like office/police station furniture: You can see what I came up with, both the VR and SL variant.

The table I more or less the way I want it (could maybe use some more surface details). The chairs? Not so much. I’m trying to get them to look like they are part of the same set as the table but it looks… goofy.

These are background props, I really shouldn’t overthink it, and yet…

I got some of the low poly modeling work done on the Vergilius elbow cuffs, not much happening on this project other than having to do some weird forced-triangulation in some spots that are shading a bit strangely (since this set doesn’t use normal maps on the rubber parts). I might have to temporarily put this project on ice soon since October is almost upon us, and I always use the first two weeks of October on the limited edition Halloween project.

Speaking of Halloween… I still have no idea of what to do this year, I’m open to any suggestion so long as it is original/unusual (no pumpkins or bats… please), and something I can wrap up in two weeks.

I started making the Vergilius elbow cuffs. The ring spacing is much larger than on the collar and cuffs but I don’t think I can insert an extra ring in without getting the opposite problem (too tight).

I also attempted to make a modempunk-ish keypad to use as a “secure” elevator call button on the cell block floor in dead realm but it doesn’t really “vibe” with me so far. It has the chunky keyboard keys I was picturing in my mind but the rest lacks style. Maybe I need to come up with something a bit more futuristic.

I’ve pushed 2-3 updates to the VRChat cell block: specular lightmaps (something it really lacked compared to the SL version), toned down lighting and emission (which felt a little too bright), and I also fixed some normal mapping issues. I want to make a few more additions before calling it good enough: a table and a couple chairs to act as a guard post, spawn control, and a way for the instance owner to secure the doors shut.

I was sick yesterday and slept all afternoon, (you can imagine what it did to my sleep cycle) motivation is pretty low.

This update brings the padded cells & the pipework additions that I did for Second Life, to the Prison Cell Block D-5 in VRChat. Enjoy~

I just released an important fix for the MixMaster, you should get it as soon as possible!

It turns out that the way I wrote the timing system for drink mixing led to progressively worse and worse timing, the longer the machine was rezzed, until it eventually would completely skip the “mix” stage, leading to a lot of failed drinks.

I am deeply sorry to everyone that ended up frustrated by the bartending system as a result. The update is live, you should be able to get it with your update box. If not, Marketplace buyers can request a re-delivery. Otherwise, DM me and I’ll send it to you.

Someone complained about Cell Block D-5 being a VRChat-only location, so I took it as a bit of an exercise to convert all the prison cell assets to PBR materials, this is the result.

It will be publicly accessible from the KDC Store elevator once I’m done with it. It is a bit of an experiment, and will be a stand-in, until I can get the “full” underground prison project to completion.

I’ve started working on a potential lock & key add-on: A key chain that can be linked to them, allowing public locks and keys to be picked up and dropped. I know 3rd party creators have already come up with creative solutions for key/lock access control, but I like this idea, and I believe it will add to the system as a whole.

Because of this I’m also reworking some parts of the lock & key system to be able to “reserve” a lock, or a key to a specific user for example.