More comprehensive ratings system

[gernb]

It seems like it would be really useful to have a few more rating categories as opposed to just one 1-5 star rating.

In particular, I almost never want to use the default characters in the scene but replacing them fails in many scenes. And by fail I mean the scene is unusable a close to unusable. I do not mean things don't align perfectly.

When a scene breaks I want to come on here and give the scene a 1 of 5 because to me, one of the biggest pluses to tech like VaM is that I can replace the characters with ones that are more my type so a scene where that's not possible is very disappointing.

At the same time, I don't really want to downvote the quality of the scene. Rather I want set of checkboxes that affect the rating. So for example

[x] can change all characters to any sex (the scene doesn't break)
[x] changing characters to any other character/any sex doesn't ruin their facial expressions
[x] can change the voices
[x] can turn off the music
[x] can easily turn off post processing

My thinking is that a scene that doesn't check all of these boxes can not be rated more than 4 of 5 period or in some way is ranked lower to encourage taking these issues into consideration. In this case it's not a judgement of the quality of the work. It's more of "does the scene support VaM's full potential"

To elaborate on some of these issues

[x] can change all characters to any sex (the scene doesn't break)

I've downloaded lots of scenes recently, that if I switch the main character (female) to a male futa the scene completely breaks. Animations don't play or in scene menus disappear.

[x] changing characters to any other character/any sex doesn't ruin their expression

Similar to above, I change the character and the facial expressions are so off as to be un-usable. Mouths are 4 inches tall and 1mm wide or upper eye lids are stretched below the bottom of the eyes.

[x] can change the voices

Maybe this one is a little harsh. A scene that uses VaMMoan I can change the voices. a scene with pre-recorded voices, I'd prefer to at least be able to turn off the man's voice but often I can't find where it's coming from

[x] can turn off the music

Straight forward

[x] can easily turn off post processing

There have been scenes that use post processing that doesn't work in VR. I've gone though every object in the scene, even after checking show hidden, and checked each object's plugins and can't find a where the post processing as been added. Yes, I checked scene plugins too. These scenes are effectively usable.

In any case, I feel like something along these lines would only benefit everyone. It would give authors guidelines on how to meet more people's desires. It would gently encoruage authors to spend a little more time making sure these things work. It would likely lead to guides and tutorials on how to accomplish these. It might encourage guidelines on character creations so more characters are swap compatible. It might also lead to plugin fixes or even VaM2 features to help with these issue.

Well, I can dream

 

[atani]

Hi,
As far as I know, there will be soon a Hub update that will change considerably how reviews or ratings work. As they are introduces some complications that hopefully will be remediated with the update, so I'm hopeful.

Changing looks is something I do pretty much on every scene I play, but results depend on both the user and creator side.
User side:

• Always use appearance presets, never look presets
• Keep the same scale as the person in the scene
• If the person is very different in body shape to the original in the scene, you're more likely to have issues
• Accept that some changes are needed or will not have the intended results

Creator side:

• Forcing a preset to load during the scene is annoying for the user as it clears any changes
• Setup and UI to consider the user replacing the person appearance but still be able to add back (cum) clothing or rescale for example

As for the checklist, it is not something that would make sense as it's entirelly subjective. Each scene is made with the creator's intentions, and adding options to change certain things would be for sure more work, could affect the result substantially, and other reasons. It's great to have some flexibility to customize the scene, but it all depends on the scene and there's a limit to what can or should be changed. For deeper changes, you are expected to save it locally and do it yourself.

I've downloaded lots of scenes recently, that if I switch the main character (female) to a male futa the scene completely breaks. Animations don't play or in scene menus disappear.

Here it is entirely on your side to not do this, or at least understand why it would break. A female and male persons are different, clothing and some plugins for example are sex specific. This is a deep change in scene structure that requires it to be made specifically to that purpose.

[x] changing characters to any other character/any sex doesn't ruin their expression

This is dependent on the morphs of your character, some will just look awful.

[x] can change the voices

Depends on the voice setup. Needs to be something made from the start with multiple voices, a lot more work.

[x] can turn off the music

Many scenes with music include a volume slider.

[x] can easily turn off post processing

Would be great as I also have issues in VR. Keep in mind that some creators are not even aware of this as they don't have VR headsets and some post-processing uses are not problematic and give the scene nice touches.


As you see, a checklist is highly subjective and scenes vary considerably to be a source of rating. You can't judge a lapdance scene from a story based scene with the same checklist, it would be a unfair treatment.

Creators will vary in knowledge and interests. Having a scene that can be changed requires a reasonably advanced understanding of VaM to account for the changes, it's not a simple task of adding a button, some options need a sturdy structure to keep it running when things are changed, no easy feat sometimes.
Other times the creator doesn't want a user to change things for X or Y reasons, and the reasons are usually not presented.

Maybe the update will fix many things with the current review system, but I find it unlikely that a checklist will be part of it.
Don't forget you can always share your own review list on a resource's discussion area, your feedback is really useful to the creator to improve the resource.