So here I am again getting my feet wet in my ultimate quest to create a set of procedures that will enable non-artistically talented people like me to create beautiful BG’s via Sketchup with the least amount of time and effort and recently I stumbled on a phrase that I’ve been hearing for a while…

This is a sample of a baked texture in Sketchup… it looks good but the fact that it took me hours to manually draw those shadows in the texture tells me that I needed a software specifically dedicated to the task if I want to make full use of baked textures.

Baked Textures…

So what is baked textures?… I’n layman’s terms… the shadows, bumps, and everything else are now hard embedded on the texture. Now in theory, pre-rendered baked textures in sketchup means you now have the real possibility of moving in-and-around sketchup’s default interface  at full speed while having beautifully rendered textures that only needed to be rendered once and only once… and this is why I’m interested in it. Just imagine… you can use and reuse the same scene both for BG’s and angled CG’s for Visual Novels and OELVN’s without even going to Photoshop and post process… just simply put camera, export image and ready to use… that is so time saving and very very convenient… not to mention you can now use sketchup’s default video and batch image export to create dynamic moving bg’s very easily.

A quick google revealed to me several programs that can do such task

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Speed-GI Baking Tools For SketchUp

This is pretty much what I had in mind. Unfortunately it’s in Chinese so we cannot know much about it nor can I find their website. Not to mention it’s commercial software so definitely not hobbyist friendly.

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Lightup for Sketchup

Don’t you get that warm fuzzy, warm and pleasant feeling when someone out there was using the models you made… in this particular video, the guy here used the generic warehouse I modeled for sketchup and parked a gundam inside and he did a pretty cool job at the lighting. As the video demonstrated, he is moving inside sketchup’s default interface with all the shadows and lights embedded and baked into the texture. This is by far the most user friendly one I’ve seen. Again unfortunately, this one is a commercial software. Anyway, click HERE to learn more about Lightup for Sketchup.

Here’s a better video demonstrating how powerful LightUp really is and at the same time gives us an idea how we can utilize it for OELVN / Visual Novel production.

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LumenRT

I know there are better videos out there to demonstrate LumenRT but this is the one that is close to what we are trying to achieve…

Now this one is by far the most powerful of the three I’m going to show to you people… It is also the most resource hog. But what the heck… I can definitely say if you got the cash to spare then grab this one but for the casual VN dev… this software is kinda overkill… In a nutshell, LumenRT behaves more like a game engine than an architectural software which is good or bad depending on which side you are on but personally, I have nothing bad to say about this especially after trying their trial version that enabled me to produce way better BG’s than I have before… It’s commercial so same thing as the previous two…

Click HERE to learn more about LumenRT

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Now I know there has to be a way to embed and bake textures in Sketchup conveniently unlike the one I did with the first image. If anyone out there knows how, may I humbly request to be pointed in the right direction… it also helps if the software is free since I know most VN devs out there cannot afford the software I listed above…

Filed under: OELVN News, OELVN Project Tagged: 3d, backgrounds, baked texture, LightUp for Sketchup, LumenRT, mugenjohncel, OELVN, pre rendered, Sketchup, Speed-GI Baking Tools For SketchUp

As the title says… it’s been two days since I downloaded the demo of CrazyTalk. But what is CrazyTalk and how in the world is this software relevant to OELVN aka Visual Novels?… A LOT!!!

Anyway, Crazytalk in layman’s terms will enable me to animate a sprite at the quickest time possible with the delicious possibility of synchronising voice with sprite lip animation in conjunction with almost lifelike head movements and blinking dynamic eyes without doing them manually… isn’t it great!?…

Ehem… my obsession with finding an easy way to animate sprites goes way back. It all started with White Album for PS3… it’s a remake of the same old White Album VN we all love except this time, they utilized MotionPortrait Technology which made it possible to dynamically animate single layered spites. I was like “I SO BADLY WANTED THAT SOFTWARE!!!” I’m already salivating at the prospect of animating my self insert character (UNCLE MUGEN) for everyone to adore and worship but after several hours of Googling far and wide…

In case you are curious what MotionPortrait looks like in action, click here to see delicious Yuki…

I finally learned that MotionPortrait technology isn’t available for general public and is only offered as a soft of middleware… THE FUUUUUU@^#%$!! Why you F!^%@!! Make it hard for us mere mortals to have this delicious technology!?… You no like our money?… Here take my wallet!!!… of course the devs being Japanese and probably uber-xenophobic (apologies for every Japanese reading this… that comment was meant for the devs of MotionPortrait)

EHEM!!! (again) where was I?… Oh yeah…

Of course me being the tenacious me decided to find quick and cheap alternatives and ended up using Adobe Photoshop’s Puppet Tool which actually did the job but not at the pace I wanted since you have no choice but to do it manually… painstakingly manually… see below video

And then I recall someone from Lemmasoft mentioned CrazyTalk and a quick google lead me to CrazyTalk software which is basically “almost” everything MotionPortrait was and more (take note, I said “almost”… more on that later)

Like a kid eager to try his first doobie… I downloaded the demo, youtube’d some tutorials, loaded an image and in just a few minutes I already am seeing progress… EUREKA!!!! This is IT!!! THIS IS THE SOFTWARE I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR!!! So I tossed everything for a while and focused on learning the strengths and weaknesses of CrazyTalk and assess if this truly is the one software that I’ve been looking for so I can finally give that Japanese MotionPortrait Technology a middle finger…

It has voice/mouth sync, just load an audio voice and CrazyTalk pretty much does a very good job at animating the mouth. The preset idle moves are a sight to behold. The GUI of the program is pretty much no-brainer and very easy to comprehend and navigate even for a noob like me. Of course it does have some face mapping/fitting problems specifically having no further way of detailing things beyond the default three level detailing… So the question is…

Can CrazyTalk be used in OELVN (Visual Novels) as replacement for Motion Portrait?…

Yes and No…

Right now as far as I have seen from the demo… it can do most of the functions I seek from MotionPortrait but it does have some serious issues that will most likely prevent CrazyTalk from being fully utilized for OELVN’s… one of the main ones is that there is no layering in CrazyTalk. Normally this is not an issue but since most of the sprites used in Visual Novels have this bangs overlapping the eyebrow, the amount of distortion is very very noticeable. It would be really nice if you could add a separate layer for Eyebrow or inversely have a png of the bangs overlaid above. While the eye creation and options available is very comprehensive… it too inherits the very same problem of having only thee level of detail adjustment. CrazyTalk eyes look good on real and androgynous faces but not on Generic Moe-Moe anime girls…

Of course, those things in my wish list might already be available in CrazyTalk but there is no way for me to know if it is locked since I’m using a demo version especially after viewing the video below which obviously had the glasses overlaid above the eyes…

Long story short… CrazyTalk while not intended for use with Visual Novels can do the task at hand. Will I buy it?… Mmm… I am planning to and the price is not cheap but reasonable… I might hold-off a bit until I solve and figure out how to manually stop the eye from blinking or how to add overlay graphics above the face and other concerns…

But in case you wanted to try CrazyTalk and give it a spin go here…

http://www.reallusion.com/crazytalk/default.aspx

I still have a few days left in the demo… who knows what I’ll discover…

Link here…

More to come soon…

Delicious Green and Clean Ennergy

OK I know this might be a bit sudden but I’ve been working under-the-radar on Project Gakuen…

So you ask, what is Project Gakuen? It’s basically a School themed VN with strict Framework where you have a whole school with comprehensive background and history to work on and make VN’s out of it. Imagine, one school with multiple VN stories on going parallel with each other. They could be stand alone stories or intertwine with other existing VN’s and the best thing about this is that the BG (School) is already complete… all you have to do is place camera, point, shoot, render… basically a recyclable BG that can accommodate a wide variety of situations. Of course before this can be a reality… someone has to create a whole School from the ground up… and create the history and background information that will form the basis of future VN’s that will pop up from Project Gakuen Series…

Current progress… that track and field is really a serious space hog…

The really fun thing about Project Gakuen is that this is not a Studio Mugenjohncel Exclusive. Others will be able to access the School, Explore and Use them within the Terms and Conditions. Relax, it’s not that really strict. All I ask is to work within the framework of the School like you’ll have to use the same design of uniform so every single student of this school will have same uniform despite the VN or story, your characters will be subjected to the School’s rules and regulations (which can be bend and broken for the sake of plot) and must consider rules and events established by previous works (in case there are existing projects already under Project Gakuen)… this is important in case there are plans to intertwine the stories. Also, if a writer introduced a character under Project Gakuen, he/she/it will be open game and can be used and abused by the next writer… imagine, you write a story where your female character is the protagonist and then another writer decides to intertwine his/her story and your character now is the antogonist in their story. You can email me at mugenjohncel@yahoo.com for more questions and inquiries…

So what’s with the Solar Panel?… Like I stated earlier, I’ve been working on constructing a whole school and I just added solar panels to supplement electricity in the school and this is supposed to be an update to be posted in the other blog but since it’s a pretty new blog with not much exposure, I might as well use Studio Mugenjohncel to provide exposure to Project Gakuen.

You can learn more about Project Gakuen HERE… also, in the near future I will be looking for a writer who has a school themed story and a proofreader once everything is in place… in return, you’ll get a complete set of BG’s and a retarded artist

Spread the word on Project Gakuen my friends… Uncle Mugen needs you…

Website/Blog
Check the news section for regular project updates… bookmark and favorite for more pleasure

Original Lemmasoft thread where it all started
Skip to page 2 and beyond to see lovely progress updates

Long story short… I’m once again using Studio Mugenjohncel to spread awareness, love and news that I posted an update on the other less known blog Project Gakuen… this time we introduce Blare… one of the main characters in one of the pilot OELVN’s that comes out with Project Gakuen…

Here is Blare… She will strip you naked if you let your guard down…

Here is a teaser image and A LINK TO THE BLOG POST that contains more juicy details…

More to come…

Here is LINK to the BLOG POST

(I just hope none of the Uncle Mugen stigma makes it’s way to Project Gakuen but that might be too late… oh well…)

To find out why… head to Project Gakuen website and read more delicious details why the pool is currently closed…

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PROJECT GAKUEN BLOG

Same thing as previous post… I’m once again using Studio Mugenjohncel to spread awareness, love and news that I posted an update on the other less known blog Project Gakuen… more to come…

“POOF” (Disappears)

Edit: Updated link…

Filed under: OELVN News, OELVN Project Tagged: mugenjohncel, OELVN, pool, pool's closed, project, project gakuen, school, shading, Sketchup, solar panel, uncle mugen, visual novel

Too much effort for a simple room scene that doesn’t even look as good as I hoped it would be

Sometimes I wonder if there really is a magic shortcut for doing all those pesky internal BG scenes without putting much effort… and that is the holy grail I seek… create cartoony/anime like BG’s with the least amount of effort that will look good with hand drawn images…

Despite using a sloppily configured setting, this scene still turned out good on it’s first render…

External scenes are easy mode so far since Global Illumination is very easy to predict and control… internal scenes on the other hand is very chaotic and can be influenced by the tiniest of details… even a simple scene quickly becomes complicated to produce… Here’s a tiny peek at my little agony…

Here is a BG for sepia tears… this is Luks’a room before rendering…

Initially… I relied mostly on Global Illumination (the light outside) and a quick light above and 20 minutes later the results are far less stellar than I hoped for… it’s dark and eerily realistic even for a sloppy render setting.

Tried increasing the light and added a light source behind the camera to provide additional light and another 20 minutes has passed and I almost spit my coffee when I looked at the results…

OK so the previous image is too bright… even though I kinda like the effect it has on the walls, the rest of the scene is just way to over saturated .. if only I could retain that render setting for the wall… Anyway, let’s reduce the intensity of the light. Another 20 minutes later… this is the result…

Still not right… still too bright and way too over saturated… let’s reduce the light a bit more… and 20 minutes later…

At this point I give up and decided to take the best looking render and ugh… Manually color correct it, add some lens flare here and there and BAM! Instant BG… All in all I wasted 80 minutes waiting for the various renders and another 1 hour to manually color correct the image plus another 2 hours modeling the scene in google sketchup. All in all it took me about 4 and a half hours to do this BG which made me think what if I draw it manually from the start… will it take me that long and will the results be better?… Unless I tried drawing a BG manually, I’ll never know…

This is one of the many reason why I’m hell bent of finding a way to bake shadows into textures in sketchup. Imagine, once you find the perfect setting you’ll never have to re-render again… EVER!

Someday it will come but for now… we no choice but to make do with this method…

Oh well… Happy New Year…

I’ve been really tight lipped on what I’ve been up to so I can prevent jinxing my projects but I think it should be safe to post at least this much teaser to tell everyone I’m still alive…

This is Alice from Tales of Lemma (now Lemma’s Tales) made by Blue Lemma from Lemmasoft…  In the original game she is nothing more than this person who organized some event but now that Studio Mugenjohncel and Uncle Mugen is involved you can safely bet that awful things could happen XD. As you can see, I have reverted back to the two shade color simplistic style to save time and effort and get more things done in my ever dwindling free time. This version of Alice will appear in an upcoming Parody OELVN titled Lamest of Lame (an anagram of Tales of Lemma) meant to be released during the 10th year anniversary of Lemmasoft but due to busy schedule will be pushed back a bit despite the script being ready and complete for nearly 3 years… Oh and… you will notice her appearance has drastically altered from the original (See below image)

Alice as she appeared from Lemma’s Tales (Tales of Lemma Remake)

My sincerest apologies to Blue Lemma but I just can’t get over her outfit… she reminds me of Jazzercise from the 80′s and I spent nearly half a day trying to draw and copy the dress in a way that will not bring me back to the 80′s but that proved impossible so I just tossed everything out of the window and give her original clothes but I did retain her pants though for more impact I kinda dropped it slightly lower and leave it open XD.

Anyway, that’s all for now…

In case you wanted to try the remake made by Blue Lemma you can find it HERE…

“POOF” (Disappears)

Filed under: OELVN News, OELVN Project Tagged: alice, blue lemma, Lamest of Lame, Lemma's Tale, lemmasoft, mugenjohncel, OELVN, Renpy, Tales of Lemma, uncle mugen, visual novel

And now I introduce to you Miko… the pink haired protagonist of Blue Lemma’s – Lemma’s Tales VN and the upcoming Lamest of Lame…

As you noticed she closely resembles the original material but if you look closer there is several differences I put in place. Yes she retains her petite body, the jeans, the ribbon and everything but I took the liberty of slightly altering her shirt design.

[This is original design we based on]

[Here, Miko is not as tall as Alice but definitely cuter]

This would be the 3rd time I remade her sprite since this project Lamest of Lame was actually quite old and gets tossed aside in favor of more delicious projects… the 10th year anniversary just give me the perfect excuse to divert effort into finishing this… I tried really hard to make her look tame and gentle so I can hide her nasty side…

[An older obsolete sprite of Miko... ]

In case you wanted to try the remake made by Blue Lemma you can find it HERE…

“POOF” (Disappears)

OK… I know I’m hell bent on streamlining on optimizing my workflow in creating BG’s and reusable trees is an integral part of it but you see…. after using and abusing the same tree template for 5 years in so many backgrounds and graphics… I too get sick and tired of looking at them…I need to try and do something fresh…

I know, I’ll try and draw trees manually… easy right?… Err… not quite…

I’ve been using and abusing the same set of template trees for so long that I haven’t drawn any trees manually and I’m beginning to wonder… do I still have what it takes to draw a tree… manually?… No use procrastinating and better get to work…

An hour later (which is a long time) I managed to make this in Photoshop 7… Hmm… Seems passable, not to mention I can manually change the colors and hue of either the leaves or the trunks since they are layered and independent to each other unlike the previous template which is nothing but tree images photoshopped to hell and back to make it look like hand drawn… maybe I should draw more trees manually… what do you think?…

Anyway, in case you wanted to use the Tree Template for whatever project you are doing, you can grab it HERE…

So once again I’m on my weekly grind in my never ending quest to improve my BG’s without actually making too much effort (AKA: USE EVERY CHEAP TRICK IN THE BOOK)… I got a little bit bored so I decided to go to Renai Archives and see what OELVN (AKA: ENGLISH VISUAL NOVEL) releases I missed and possibly review and give some exposure… Now unlike most of the Visual Novel related blogs out there who focuses on what was cute, moe, pretty,  polished,  hyped or popular… I, the Handsome Uncle Mugen is more focused on obscure or otherwise really strange and unique OELVN’S (AKA: ENGLISH VISUAL NOVEL) that most people tend to ignore… and boy I have a very good find today…

This OELVN Titled “The Petty Parody” is in the words of the author…

⌠This visual novel started as a test of Ren’Py 6.11.2. You may notice some of the Ren’Py tutorial in the very beginning. This visual novel was initially called “firstproject”, but was later renamed “Searching for Mio”, then later to its current title, “The Petty Parody”. Its current name was inspired by alliterations used by the Lemony Snicket books, who my friend loves greatly. The name “Mio” was inspired by Akiyama Mio from the popular anime series K-On!. Throughout its short development (a few weeks or months with short intervals of time spent haphazardly), The Petty Parody had no real direction. I just went with what seemed to fit, while still making the game somewhat amusing. A key source of inspiration for much of the game’s dialogue comes from “The Fucking Question”, a parody of the Ren’Py game “The Question”. This game, until very recently, was complete crap. I asked a friend of mine, who had beta-tested before, and he suggested that I add more meta-jokes. I began to add some more meta-humor, and eventually ended up rewriting a large part of the game. The game is now in a completely different state than it was before his suggestion, so I thank HuckleberryPie greatly for his suggestion. Thanks for playing The Petty Parody! If you have questions or comments about this visual novel, please feel free to contact me on Twitter @zombieramen.⌡

So there you have it… the description alone will probably give you an idea what’s in store for us but you know me… if this VN is a den full of lions and it’s the only option I am presented with, I’d jump into it… butt naked…

So let’s see for ourselves what’s inside…

Heading towards the title screen… we see… a green pixelated screen that reminds me of… weed… no title text no nothing, just the default Ren’py GUI with a custom BG… most people will be turned off by this but not UNCLE MUGEN!… This just made me extremely curious…

So uh… Lucy?… You’re Sakura now?… Normally this is not that confusing but considering I draw that sprite I can’t help but concentrate really hard to ignore the fact that she’s Lucy so I can follow the flow of the story…

But then Eileen appeared or is it Mio?… Now I’m double confused…

To concentrate on the story, I have no choice but to cover the upper half of the screen with folded paper since no matter how hard I try I can’t see them as anything other than Lucy and Eileen.

So far so good… it seems the story is about Sakura and Mio snuck in on a place they shouldn’t be… simple enough… the story is slowly forming and taking shape until…

Yep, at this point I totally lost it… and to make things really good… the dialogue is actually voiced… using sound-bytes from who knows where…

I’ll stop at this point now to prevent spoilers…

Normally, I’d give the Uncle Mugen seal of approval but to be honest… this game is pretty weird… even for UNCLE MUGEN… let’s just say I recommend it but not quite there yet to get the coveted Uncle Mugen Seal of Approval but I am certainly looking forward to more works from this author especially after that mind fucking sound-byte parts… but all in all it was a refreshing piece of OELVN literature…

Edit:

OK, I re-read it again in a much clearer and different mindset… you know what?… I concluded that this weird concoction of a VN deserves a…

In case you’re interested you can download it HERE…

Lol… After being traumatized, you can bug him at his twitter address at… @zombieramen

“POOF” (Seriously, that was fun!)

OK, the title is actually a line from the project I’m working on “Lamest of Lame” and doesn’t have anything to do with what I will post today XD

Anyways, I already finalized how the GUI hud will appear in game. I went with a conservative approach and once again used the same template I used in my previous projects, slightly modified to produce a worry free working GUI hud.

It is made up of beautiful vibrant orange yellow with high contrasting black to stand out from the background and make the text more visible. There is the in-game buttons that will not contain the GENUFLECT option but the most important thing is the addition of the POV (Point of View) indicator since this OELVN will have you jumping from one person to another. The indicator will reduce confusion.

Uncle Mugen says… This is all for now to prevent spoilers…

Have nice day! XD

“POOF” (Disappears)

Filed under: OELVN News, OELVN Project Tagged: alice, anus, gui, Lamest of Lame, lemma's tales, lemmasoft, Lucy, mugenjohncel, OELVN, project, Tales of Lemma, uncle mugen, visual novel

I don’t usually show rough or unfinished sketches here in me blog but what you see here is a totally revised sketch of Miko from Lamest of Lame OELVN… (a Tales of Lemma OELVN Parody)

So what happened here is that I already finished the sprite for Miko a week ago complete with color and expression (see here for the post)  and to my horror I actually draw her hair wrong… I was under the impression that it was a very fluffy ponytail but after looking at the CG of the original base material (Lemma’s Tales OELVN… aka Tales of Lemma OELVN) it was not a ponytail but rather a totally different style altogether…

And to add more pain, I accidentally saved a flattened PSD so no possible to edit without getting messy so it is I decided to make it draw from scratch altogether… Here, I preserved her petite body structure but less stronger more feminine pose compared to the previous Miko… she is cuter this way…

There is also very important fact that she was carrying a sports bag so I have a version where she carries a sports bag. This will delay me by a day or two but no problem… she is now cuter and prettier so trouble worth it…

“POOF” (Disappears)

You are in for a treat!… For I the HANDSOME UNCLE MUGEN had this massive wall of text and pictures for you to enjoy…

Ehem… So Shakespeare asks… TO OELVN or NOT TO BE OELVN… that is the question…

Today we have one game that fits this… Tristan and Iseult

According to the description given in the Renai Archives… home of the finest OELVN’s on this planet…

A millennium before Romeo and Juliet, another doomed love – that between the Breton Tristan and the Irish princess Iseult – passed into legend. Some of the stories have the pair running off to France to live out their days; in others, they’re both murdered by a jealous husband. Sometimes Tristan is a knight at King Arthur’s court, other times a wandering Pict. Against a backdrop of war between the Irish and the Celtic peoples of ancient Britain, the pair fall in love and play out their respective roles in the fate of the whole of the British Isles.

So without looking at images, it’s safe to assume that this could be an OELVN but alas it is not to be. For it is actually a a hybrid OELVN turning strategy game meant to demonstrate the feasibility of using the Ren’py OELVN Engine besides it’s intended purposes… more on that later… for now let’s focus on the game itself…

So here we have Tristan… this long haired lad who speaks really weird English which make things slightly hard for someone like me who is a non-native English speaker… Seriously, what shampoo are you using?

For starters, those who are accustomed to the typical Ren’py VN will find the way this game transitions from one speech bubble to another quite jarring due to it’s sudden movement from off-screen left… again and again… every time you click… but you’ll get used to it…

And then without warning… the Irish has attacked!!! Time to hit Google… because I know next to nothing about Irish…

And after a brief introduction and tutorial… you get to beat the crap out of them pretty easily and effortlessly. Now the really fun thing about this is the way they react once you killed them or killed one of their own… Something tells me the Irish and British don’t get along very well in this game…

The next level, you’ll find yourself armed with new type of units… Now unlike the previous level… the Irish (enemy) is actually on the retreat and your job is to finish what you started earlier. Unlike the previous unit you are commanding, the current units you have are not really that powerful and all it takes is one unit to escape and it’s game over for you so you’ll have to actively pursue them in order to get them… which is actually harder than it seems since your turn only allows you to pursue so much that you’ll have to rely on the archers up ahead who are not really that powerful to finish the job.

And after the slight adrenaline rush from the battle it’s… back to being OELVN… which I will not go into detail to prevent spoilers…

And just when I was slowly being sucked and absorbed into it’s world… SUDDENLY! A GUNDAM ZAKU!?… WTF!!!…

I rubbed my eyes only to realize… it’s just some guy in red Armour… I get up and brew myself a cup of Coffee… at this point I realize I’m hovering the thin line between a review and a spoiler so we should stop here and focus on the other things…

Is it an OELVN or a Turn Based Strategy?…

As I have mentioned before… this game is a hybrid… a combination of both… Unfortunately, both genres present in this game are not only highly contrasting each other but is actually dragging each other downwards…

As a Turn Base strategy, it’s not really as detailed or deep… if I can put it in a simple way… you are given a specific set of units with known strengths and all you have to do is to place them at the right place at the right time… besides terrain, no other factors will have visible impact on the outcome of the battle… this is very evident in the second battle and the very long intermission OELVN between battles breaks the momentum so much.

On the other hand… as an OELVN, the turn based strategy game breaks the continuity of the OELVN so much since the battles can be quite long… not as long as most people think but certainly long enough to break the OELVN momentum…

For now, I’m going to leave that question in the hands of the readers…

Normally, this is the part where I end this but I Uncle Mugen is very VERY curious how this thing works in Ren’py… I’ve been using Ren’py since 2006 and despite what people say about it’s ease of use… a complete beginner will feel overwhelmed by it and that’s only the default OELVN creation part. And now we have a game that completely bends Ren’py in a way not intended to be… It’s like cutting down a tree with a hammer…

As you can see in this close up… there is a visual tearing in every tile-set… map. This is Ren’py’s fault for Ren’py doesn’t really scale up and interpolates things properly when dealing with odd numbered sizes… but then again, you really can’t blame Ren’py for it is not intended to do this kind of thing…

Of course, I UNCLE MUGEN can no longer resist the temptation… I wanted to know how this thing is even possible so I did the obvious thing to do and uh… extract the files by force and see what we can learn from it… XD

OK so the usual things are there… graphics, RPY, RPYC’s and WAIT A MINUTE!?… What’s this?… CSV files!?… in Ren’py!?… What kind of Sorcery is this!!!… T… This is dangerous stuff…

At that point I realized I have to stop going further… I’m dealing with something dangerous here that can destroy the entire world… or at least make me a powerful Sorcerer… You know what Uncle Ben once said… Great power comes great responsibility… You know what Uncle Ben… if I have “THIS” much power or skill to bend Ren’py and create any OELVN or game I can imagine then I’ll focus on games where I “UNCLE MUGEN” is the protagonist and the “STAR!”

OK… I still peeked at the files and I’ll be honest… I can’t even comprehend what’s written in there…

Also what’s a “evil-demon.png” doing in there?… Ehem… no let’s move on to another thing…

This is the reason why I reviewed this Hybrid OELVN…

Well… true… part of it was the battles but there is a bigger factor why the game was overlooked by so many and buried into obscurity… the name…

A quick and unbiased Google search revealed to me THIS RESULTS…

Basically, the name is a very well known and commonly used, chances are… using the same name will not only make the game be buried in obscurity because Google goes after the most likely place or thing associated with the term… which is is a legend made popular during the 12th Century and chances are… Google will place high priority on readily crawlable literature… which is way off the radar range of the typical OELVN or even TURN BASED STRATEGY audience…

Also, you forgot to post in Lemmasoft XD… you know… that place was a great source of web traffic…

Oh well… I enjoyed the work so the least thing I can do is provide some exposure to it. I’m giving it the UNCLE MUGEN SEAL OF APPROVAL!!!…

You can download the game HERE on their site or in the Renai archives HERE…

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Filed under: OELVN News, OELVN Review Tagged: csv, eviscerate, jake, mugenjohncel, OELVN, Renpy, review, teresa, Tristan and Iseult, turn based strategy, uncle mugen, visual novel

Long story short, I already have this finished Miko sprite but I accidentally flattened the master files so I have no choice but to redraw the sprite from scratch since I cannot edit them and make variations to it… By the way, this is for project Lamest of Lame OELVN… which will most likely end up on NaNoRenO…

Sorry for Watermark, this is sprite of Miko

Here is preview, she still retains the slender petite appearance of the original but the hair is now more defined but less volume. Her pose is less dynamic from previous but is more feminine and cute… Yes, this is using my previous original style using thick lines and highly accentuated and simplified shading… which turned out good…

I fail at English… better stop for now… XD

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He is Mushroom Man… he is an mutated alien monster mushroom from outer space and he is out to get you for no apparent reason!

One of two antagonist in my OELVN project Lamest of Lame… Mushroom man is slow, big and heavy but packs large amounts of HP. His arsenal of weapons includes Punch, Hug, Body Slam, Touch and Lick… they are super effective…

Not much to say about him to prevent spoilers…

More to come!…

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What you see here is a very detailed Sketchup Model of a school building.

It is FREE for use in OELVN projects or just whatever purpose it may serve you best…

It is modeled after the typical Japanese School building regularly seen in anime but the base model is actually a stripped down model of an actual existing building.

Be warned though… this model is very big and very complex… it will be a bit slow especially on older machines…

This building has both interior and exterior including furnishings…

It even has comfort room for boys and girls

Here is cutaway section to show interior detail…

Yes!… The building has ventilation and centralized air-conditioning… you can even follow the vents all the way to the air conditioners on the rooftop…

And here is a light switch…

And an xray view to show the electrical and ventilation provisions…

For those who love the rooftop, the view is also nice on top…

OK Last preview…

Like every single free resource from UNCLE MUGEN, this is free for use on whatever purpose it may serve you best, even OK for commercial use, may it be on OELVN creation or anything else but may I humbly request you credit me and say hi to me when you use it…

OK… That is all for now… you can download it HERE in Google 3D warehouse… again be warned, it is big and complex file so it is recommended for you to have very good machine…

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UNCLE MUGEN again got something really nice for you guys… this time it is an stupidly detailed school basketball / multi purpose gym building… it is not as heavy as the previous school class building but still heavy for older machines… Originally meant for OELVN use (aka Visual Novel) Use for whatever purpose it may serve you best including commercial use. Just don’t forget to say hi credit me Uncle Mugen (Johan Sy) in case you used it. Please do not forget about me when I’m gone OK…

You can get it here… HERE

Here are some more previews… (Note: Raw Un-rendered Screenshots)

Beautiful Exterior

Now with porn-o-licious x-ray mode!

Yes, it is a full basketball court!

With delicious details for close up of things!

More nice views from above!

Here are audience seats… without the audience…

It is generous to provide enough space for other sports activities like Judo, Aikido, Love Making, Dancing and Kung-Fu!!!

A close up of un-necessary details

OK that is all for now!

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Warning! Non OELVN Post

Ota-chan or O-tan, she’s one of unofficial mascot of /ota/

Long story short… moot created /jp/ Japan / General board to separate non Anime contents from drowning /a/… It was a sort of renaissance… I was there from the very beginning… it was paradise. It was a time where I can draw Touhou getting tortured and spam Guro images for the enjoyment of everyone. This also marks the transition between Mugenjohncel to Uncle Mugen… everyone’s favorite Uncle… Everyone is having fun… serious fun at it was like that for quite a while until a new batch of Janitor and Mods quite literally shit up /jp/ by deleting threads that don’t conform to their tastes and banning people they don’t like… It got so bad that I simply left and stopped ban evading… it wasn’t worth my time…

Uncle Mugen says Fuck You!

If this is their idea of compensating for being failures in life then so be it. Let them be the overlords in their little corner of the Internets. Excuse me while I go back to real life. Suddenly without warning a website called http://ota-ch.tk appeared and within it is a board called /jp/… it was pretty much frontier the way it is right now but what really is worth noting here is how it closely resembles the old /jp/… the /jp/ that is not overrun by faggot Janitors and equally faggot mods…. it was the old /jp/ I knew and love… my faith in humanity is slowly being restored…

/jp/ I’m home!

This will be my new home… this is the real and true /jp/… this is /jp/… I am home!

Click HERE to visit /jp/… help Uncle Mugen spread the word. It’s fun here! Do not be afraid!

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Long story short! We now found a really very good and promising renderer for Sketchup that is FREE! YES! FREE!!…  While it is still in Beta and pretty much basic as of writing…  the mere fact that it is available for FREE means it is opening possibilities and accessibility to a lot of people who otherwise cannot afford a commercial renderer. YES! It is now possible for everyone to create beautiful Background Graphics for OELVN (aka EVN) use or even photo realistic renders in Sketchup for FREE!!!

It is Brighter3D – FREE Rendering plugin for Sketchup!

You can visit the developer’s site here…

www.brighter3d.com

There is one catch though… it currently doesn’t support Windows XP and this is where I the Handsome UNCLE MUGEN needs your help!

The developer posted this on his site, saying if he gets at least 30 users to say yes to Windows XP he will support it!

http://www.brighter3d.com/forum/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=59#postid-80

C’mon guys… this is our only chance to get a promising renderer to support Windows XP… the OS of the GODS!

UNCLE MUGEN badly needs your help on this one!… please spread the word my friends!

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