Naturalis next steps & other news

Naturalis v1.1.7

First off, this latest free release is now loaded with a cslist. The reason for this is that apparently DLL containing packages cannot be hosted on the Hub according to some obscure Hub policy that I probably couldn't even have know about in advance. (EDIT: Turns out this wasn't necessary after all, see comment.)

Download: https://hub.virtamate.com/resources/naturalis-free.35101/

Since this package doesn't contain the dll, if you load a dll-referencing scene using the latest version, that'll produce an error about the missing dll. So if you have some scenes around that reference the dll, best keep those specific package versions around. Sorry for the inconvenience, but there's just no good way around this. You can however remove a scene's dependency to the dll by using the Auto-update.cs file included in the package and then saving the scene.

Naturalis v1.2 Plans

With that out of the way, let's talk about version 1.2!

The main focus is on the morphing system and the hard colliders. I've update the Trello with a preliminary to-do list that still needs to be fleshed out a bit (and will inevitable change during development anyway): https://trello.com/b/AcnDeqFr/naturalis-public-roadmap

When it comes to the morphing system, there's some relatively low hanging fruit to be plucked. The first part is essentially a redesign of how the morphs are applied and adjusted. There needs to be a much more granular control of different morphs or morph categories, i.e. adjusting rotation, movement and shape independently as I've talked about before. The second part is improvements to the morphs themselves.

As for hard colliders, I need to do some experimenting and investigating to know what to do there, but it's clear there are problems with the current hard colliders: they are very few in number which makes the collison detection quite inaccurate; they don't adjust in real time for different poses as the breast shape changes; and they have problems adapting to very large breasts. Similar issues exist (to a smaller degree) when it comes to glute hard colliders. The solution is probably going to involve creating a larger number of custom colliders and creating a system to update their position in a performant way in real time when morphs are adjusted. That's the challenge, anyway.

It'll take a while to get a playable alpha out - I try not to predict. I completely understand if some of you want to tune out and pause your subscription until there's something new to download, that's fine by me! For those who stay subbed, I appreciate your support very much, and you'll get access to WIP posts along the way.

New Trello Boards

Not directly related to Naturalis, there's two new placeholder Trello boards.

Skindent Public Roadmap: https://trello.com/b/jWJlFQ6w/skindent-public-roadmap

Skindent is the placeholder name for the plugin that is planned to handle runtime morph generation for skindentation morphs based on the clothing mesh shape. I know a bunch of people have been excited about this idea and it's been a while since I showed the super early proof of concept. But it's definitely a more challenging plugin to develop than what's planned for Naturalis v1.2. I promise to return to this though.

VamBoop Public Roadmap: https://trello.com/b/2Aurjlxm/vamboop-public-roadmap

This just lists the future development ideas that were thrown around when VamBoop v1.0.0 was released.

Archive Link Updated

All previously released content is now moved to the archive folder. The new archive folder link is updated to the membership page and has been sent to you as a direct message.

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If you have any ideas about what you'd like to see, throw them at me! Both big and small ideas are good, can be related to Naturalis, some other plugin, or something else entirely. The wisdom of the crowds and all that. Thanks!

-everlaster