nottravisgames
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The "Why us?" update...
🕑 Added 2020-03-23 10:21:29 +0000 UTCTLDR:
- I found out what caused the render error and fixed it;
- I blew the motherboard on the PC re-running the renders;
- I fixed the motherboard!
- I found out what caused it;
- Replacement parts constantly turned up late;
- I'm still waiting for extra cooling fans...
- I've made no real progress this month so am refunding March pledges
- The chapter should go out to testers this week.
- Release will be first week of April
Long version (and it is a long version!).
Sometimes, as a writer, you write something and think "Nah. That's not credible" and have to scrap it and start again. Which rather sums up this post. Because no matter how many times I've tried to craft this, the suspension of disbelief required on the part of the reader is just too much. But, on the other hand it's what happened so I think we're stuck with it, although at least I have primary supporting evidence. Then again, even with that I still don't believe it and it actually happened to me..
Disasters, part the first.
So last time I reported I'd screwed up the renders for the animation frames so I suppose I'd better start there...
I'll be honest in that going into that last week of February I was -so- fucking pleased with myself you wouldn't believe it. I'd done all the extra remodelling work, knocked out a fabulous script (it is actually - you'll love it), coded it all up, rendered it, and made some cracking animations - all within the month.
And then I hadn't.
Now I'm not usually a careless bitch so I was as much puzzled as distressed over why the renders for the animations had come out wrong. I -knew- I'd checked it. Hell, given the amount of remodelling and asset faffing I do it's not as though I have no experience in applying shaders and no one but a fool would run 2,000 renders without checking, so just what what the hell had happened? Quite a lot it transpired.
So some technical guff for context. The colour of Daz assets are controlled by what is known as shaders and surfaces. So there is a little box called surfaces where you highlight the asset and can apply different colours, textures etc to get it to look as you want. For some assets they need two applying. The base shader and then an Iray shader on top. This is especially so for skin textures and my first thought was that I had, indeed, been a dizzy bitch and forgotten to apply the Iray shader. Stupid but possible. So I got the MC, took his naughty bits off and started again. For those interested I use the standard Daz male genitalia these days as opposed to the more common Dicktator. Largely as I just don't like the colouring (oh the irony...) and the glands always seem to come out far too bright a shade of red leaving the MC looking as though he's Rudolph the red nosed cock. Anyhoo, I digress...
So, I give the MC back his bits and bobs which starts off with a big grey plastic set of meat and two and veg; I then apply the shader for his skin -and- then I apply the Iray shader. So I run a test render...and it looks exactly the same. Exactly the same. Well, that was one point on the "not such an idiot after all" scoreboard but left me non-plussed as to why it wasn't working. Something had for his gentleman bits were no longer grey plastic for a start. It turns out that on this skin shader, and only on this skin shader, I had to have the asset highlighted in both the scene tab and the surfaces box when I applied the Iray part. If I did that, the Iray shader applied and the error went away. I've never come across this before having always been able to just use the surfaces box.
So, error solved. But that left me wondering why I hadn't picked it up before - and that came down to camera angles.
There are two lewd animations in this chapter and the first one, and the one in which I had run my original test render, has a slightly different camera angle to the second. On the first animations camera angle you can't see the error. That join between genitalia and the body is out of shot. This also explains why the testers didn't see it on the animation they looked over - it wasn't there to see...
Of course, having tested it for the first render it didn't occur to me to test it for the second set. Why would I? It was the same set up after all. *sighs*. Annoyingly, it wasn't even visible in the preview frame which would have been the other place I could have caught it once the angle had changed for, trying to be an arty bitch, I'd thrown the smallest spotlight at Annie's eyes to try to make them shine with excitement. Adding spotlights to scenes darkens the preview frame considerably; thus...
...which reduced my chance of spotting it. Not that I was looking for it at that point of course but maybe, just maybe without the small spotlight I might have done.
So mystery solved, ego deflated and error corrected. All I have to do is run thousands of renders again. Applying the Iray shader totally changed the appearance of the MC's gentleman bits and so they all had to be re-run, even on the animation that looked fine at first, as I think giving the MC a cock of many colours would have been something that would be a bit noticable...
Well that'll teach me for bragging I thought. Thankfully, I have a new supah PC and so even with that amount of renders it shouldn't take that long to bash them out again...
Disasters, part the second
What is it the bard said? “When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions”? More like the entire Third Armoured Division complete with air support if you ask me...
A few days in to the re-run and the new spangly PC blew . Not all of it, just the motherboard but that was enough to bring things to a halt. Not that I knew it was that at first. No, at first, all I knew was the PC had turned itself off. Now this has happened before, usually when Windows decides that -right- now it wants to do an update and so decides that at 3am no one will be using the computer (it's when I usually am however) and does it there and then. So it was with a curse at Bill Gates that I saw the quiet PC after coming back from a coffee and merrily turned it on again. It whirls into life, makes a "Puff!" noise, throws in a funny ozone smell for giggles and then dies. Dead.
Not something you want to see at that time in the morning.
Now before I go too far on this I appreciate that this is reading very much like an extract from that best seller "Excuses for devs - The easy way!" for not doing any work. But I've stacks of photo evidence plus links to my forum as we collectively tried to work it out and solve it and I'll be adding those to this post at the end.
So anyhoo, I now have a dead PC, God knows how many renders left to do, no idea of if I've lost any data (I am slutty when it comes to backing up...) and now I do freak out. I've -no- idea of what to do or how to fix it. I can't send the bloody thing back to where I purchased it due to what's on the hard drive. Nor can I take it to the little PC computer repair shop for the same reason (it was only later I found out I could take the drives out and done exactly this...) and I've no idea how to repair a motherboard. Hell, I can barely change a plug!
So several angst ridden days go by as I wrestle with this one and as I bounce around the internet to find out what went wrong. With some fault testing I'd pinned it down to the motherboard at this point and it seemed that the easiest fix was to get the same type of board and do a like for like swap as that avoided any problems with Windows or the BIOS wondering why they were suddenly in a new computer.
So with no experience at this sort of thing at all my only option is to become "PC Repair Notty" and replace a motherboard. Alright then...
So I order one. Next day delivery. Should be here on the Friday. It turns up on the Monday... Jesus. I was seriously losing zen at this point as, for you can well imagine, weekends are when I get most of the game work done.
BUT!
With some help from the guys on my forum I actually do it. I actually replaced a motherboard! Well, yay for me! but that solved the symptom not the disease. Why had it blown in the first place and, if I start the run again, will it do it again?
Investigating it further it seems that the PC is under-specced for what I'm trying to get it to do. Oh for sure the graphics card is brill, but the rest of the architecture just isn't up to the job. It's like I've put a huge V8 engine in a 1960's mini. Sure it runs fast but it won't be long before the suspension collapses and the doors fall off...and I'd had the PC running hard. Practically 24/7 for three weeks which it just wasn't having.
So if I do the re-run I -might- get away it, or it might blow again. So far I had been lucky (ha!) in that all that had gone was the motherboard and I'd had no data loss or damage to the graphics card etc, but could I count on that again?
The conclusion was no, not really and I can't afford to replace the 2080ti if that goes (after all if I had the cash I'd have better specced the PC in the first place) and let's be honest the render hamster PC ain't going to cut it for the number of renders and quality I need. Long term I have to replace the motherboard. Short term we need more cooling, which was ordered last Wednesday for next day delivery and...(yep, you've guessed it) I'm still waiting for them to arrive.
What does this mean?
Ah! Good question. IF the fans turn up today, it's possible that I can still get the chapter out this month. Indeed my testers are fairly sure I can and have suggested all sorts of ways that we can make this happen. But *glances up* can I guarantee it? Based on what's happened so far, would you want to make that guarantee?
I know I don't.
I've achieved nothing this month and so my first order of business is to refund you your pledges. It's not your fault any of this happened and I don't see why you should be taking a hit on this. It's one thing if I'm making progress but realistically I'm back where I was at the end of Feb. The game all done and waiting to finish off the animations (although this time with the right shading..). Despite the confidence of my testers that we can turn this around quickly I'm less sure.
I suspect that it's because I'm a bit battered and bruised over this one. I'd worked so sodding hard to get it out last month y'know? And I'd done it in terms of the production effort required. That's what really kills. I'd done it. If only I'd run a second test render when I'd changed the angle, or if only I hadn't shone a spotlight or if only the skin asset hadn't been so bloody particular we'd have been (and should have been) talking about chapter Three now not Two.
I'm sorry. I really, really do try y'know?
Anyhoo, I'm hedging my bets; writing off March and going for a first week in April release date.
Gah...even writing that sucks. For that's three months since the last one and it's not three months work. January was largely extra remodelling due to the expansion of the game, March has been a ...God knows what March was, and so the release will only be a months work. That said....that said...it -is- still good. Very. Some forty different paths and my God the variety.. If you like replayability it has it in spades for sure. I think that's also why I'm so cheesed off. Not only had I made the chapter in the month but it's a -good- chapter. Much, much stronger and prettier than the original Two and you should be playing it.
Anyhoo....it is what it is. I'll just pick myself up like always and carry on.
Thanks for reading and stay lucky (or at least luckier than me!)
Notty
If you're interested in more detail including a live(ish) blog as I did the repair there is this post on my forum here which details the saga more thoroughly as the guys helped me work everything out. Bags of photo and delivery note evidence re all the delays.
There's also a separate smaller post with some photos of the rebuild here.
Comments
Nottravisgames
Thanks Wolvy. I'd be lying if I said it hadn't been a bit of a knock but, yeah, I'll bounce back :)
Wolvy
Awwww Notty. :( /Huge Hug Sorry you are having a bad start of 2020 like Medic said and that it is making things painful for ya. I know you can do this and you will rebound and learn from it. You got this!! <3
Nottravisgames
Oh Jesus, I don't even want to think of water cooling going wrong.
NeimadFR
It's really a perfect case of "when it rains it pours" (which you should be familiar with as a brit :P) 2020 is really trying hard to get the shittiest year ever award, Australian bushfires, COVID-19, your catastrophic chain of event and another favorite dev of mine that botched his water cooling, please stop it 2020
But the poor cook... :(
Nottravisgames
It is rather fab *nods nods*.
hisstoryman
"Why us Sergeant?" "Because we're here lad. Because the Zulus are here." I love that movie.
Nottravisgames
No, not really :( BUT, there are some pluses to take from this. One, I know that I can make that many renders in principal. More importantly though on doing the re-run I found I could make them at 90% render quality and they'd still look the same. This shaves about 10 to 15 per cent off the render time. Now that doesn't sound much but if your saving a minute per render and making several thousand renders....
MedicBear
Damn. You've really not had the best start to 2020 huh? Remembering when we encouraged you to remaster the game seems like an age ago now... Who knew we'd have so many tribulations along the way? Stay safe out there as the world ends, and remember to ration your Jaffa cakes - the Jaffa cows are all infected with covid so we won't be seeing any more soon!
Nottravisgames
"even if it will be delivered late. :P" *actually laughed* :)
DA22
Sigh, I disagree with the repayment, but can't stop you anyway. You know shit does happen. :) Just do not hang your head and allow yourself to get in a funk. Remember besides those two things that can happen you actually did what you set out to do, take away the positives over the negatives and ofc for those negatives get a boxing bag to get rid of the negative energy, even if it will be delivered late. :P
Nottravisgames
Could be.... *hides her script*
Sulring Durgul
You really like that Zulu movie, dontcha? Is it because it shows the tribulations of brave young officers in an impossible situation?
