Poll - Environments release: what type do you enjoy more?

[hazmhox]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to try making some statistics about the environment releases for the hub. I'm curious to know which one do you prefer.
The poll allows one or the other to really pin point what enviro type is prefered in general.
This mostly is connected to how the lighting is handled.

Thank you in advance for your answers! Reminder: Cast your vote above this message!

Dynamic Environment:
A full unlit environment with a base structure and a set of props to arrange your scene. Or a full unlit environment with an already made base structure AND prop structure you can't change to create your scene in without having to design it yourself. It is not baked, so you need to lit the scene yourself.
Examples: Statis Lab or The Hideout.

Baked Environment:
A fully baked environment with a base structure and prop structure you can't change. You don't have to lit the environment yourself, you simply need to add a couple of lights for the characters.
Examples: Château Dimitrescu or Publick Occurences

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More informations for both cases.

Dynamic Environment
Pros:

• Fully customizable
• Can be packaged with either something already ready to use. Or a base and a big set of props to build the set of your dreams.
• Allows you to drastically change the initial "artistic direction" with clever lighting and combinations of other props from the community

Cons:

• You need to lit the WHOLE environment which in VAM's situation can be hard even in average size closed environments especially if you're focusing on proper perfs for a VR experience.
• Needs lighting experience if you want it to look good AND perform well
• Can be overwhelming if you need to build the whole environment yourself

Baked Environment
Pros:

• Beautiful base light, far better than standard realtime lights in VAM
• Extremely nice for performances since you only need one or two lights to lit your characters.

Cons:

• Static! besides adding lights for the characters, you can't drastically change the tone of the environment
• Props can't be moved

 

[hazmhox]

As a side note: there is no wrong answer. Only preferences

If you want, you can add details and reasons in the thread on why you prefer one over another.

 

[atani]

I prefer performance and ease over very flexible lighting options. Lighting is difficult enough to do well, and I prefer to use that time for something else in the scene.

 

[groinc]

I'm looking for a hybrid - Dynamic Lighting I can choose/direct, but with ambient occlusion style shadows backed into the environment which would obviously be non interactive.
I basically make scenes that are centred around a comfortable place to sit or lay, etc, I don't need exploring options.
I would also prefer them to be 'pre-vamified' if that makes sense?

 

[hazmhox]

I'm looking for a hybrid - Dynamic Lighting I can choose/direct, but with ambient occlusion style shadows backed into the environment which would obviously be non interactive.
I basically make scenes that are centred around a comfortable place to sit or lay, etc, I don't need exploring options.
I would also prefer them to be 'pre-vamified' if that makes sense?

So Baked. Baked is always an hybrid situation so to speak.
Dynamic light is always needed for the characters. And the baking does the AO. All this does not prevent you from shooting a lit behind a fence for instance to have dynamic shadows in some situations.

Vamifier is only a plugin that allows proper soft shadowing (NGSS2) used by meshed in VAM1. Any LD familiar with VAM knows that there's a gcinc library that allows building assets compatible with realtime lights from VAM. It's been a long time since VAMifier is not needed unless you stumble upon assets and content made by people who are not really attentive : )

 

[HolySchmidt]

I definitely prefer Dynamic Evironments. It has no impact on my performance and I can light everything up as I like. Never understood why there are so many Environments with baked lighting, has zero advantage to me.

 

[hazmhox]

I definitely prefer Dynamic Evironments. It has no impact on my performance and I can light everything up as I like. Never understood why there are so many Environments with baked lighting, has zero advantage to me.

I would definitely see ya having "no impact on your performance" and lit a room perfectly like this, throughout... the whole... area, and with a lighting as gorgeous as what baked light provides ( spoiler: impossible ).

And no, I think you might have a "I like these enviros and they are baked" bias (for instance if you've stumbled upon Orpheaned assets like the several images linked above). But there are not "many" baked enviros... Most enviros are not baked (mostly because people do not understand baking and/or don't have the patience to learn/do it).

As I was saying, it's a matter of taste, but I still draw the line at "even tho you prefer to have fun with dynamic environments, baking is far more impressive visually than realtime". Beyond the versatility of dynamic enviros, it would be a bit fallacious to say that realtime lighting in VAM looks like baked lighting and has the same computation footprint

 

[DJ]

I would like to see CUA's that include both baked and unbaked lighting options. Because sometimes baked lighting is convenient, and other times it's not.

The same with dynamic environment. Some packages contain the environment and a bunch of furniture, then a scene where it's all in place, so you have the option of building the room as you want it, or you can just load the pre-built scene and go from there.

So I guess my answer to the poll is yes, i want environments that have *all* these options.

 

[HolySchmidt]

I would definitely see ya having "no impact on your performance" and lit a room perfectly like this, throughout... the whole... area, and with a lighting as gorgeous as what baked light provides ( spoiler: impossible ).

Good point, but all I see is candles everywhere
You're right with that specific example. You can't do that with VaM lights everywhere. I was more referring to environments without light sources.

But maybe you are right. And I do have absolutely no clue about baked lighting, that's fact. Then I'm going with DJs answer: give me both options

 

[hazmhox]

lol @DJ ! of course someone had to ask for both

 

[DJ]

 

[SlimerJSpud]

"You can't have everything. Where would you put it?" -- Steven Wright

 

[atani]

"You can't have everything. Where would you put it?" -- Steven Wright

Everywhere!

 

[hazmhox]

Everywhere!

All at once?

 

[atani]

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) ⭐ 7.8 | Action, Adventure, Comedy

2h 19m | R

www.imdb.com

 

[keycode]

All at once?

yes, of course... also baking pizza? probably? hot-OT: is it possible (for you) to add an alternative or a secondary option in your glorious indispensable vam-moan plugin (calling it "just" a plugin looks reductive as for other vam creations) a skin_on_skin noise? it's a "banal" very simple sound typical of all real life couple-sex action, easy to ear unless we are (making public indecent sex) in a crowded train-station during the average arrest of an operative nigerian pusher.

The simulation copy and save of a skin-on-skin noise is in itself, very easy to record (just moving hands on our arm skin, for instance).

In my opinion this element (skin-on-skin sound) can have the same psychological importance as the other two nice sounds-options you were giving with your plug-in (besides the voices). Even with my guilty ignorance about vam skin colliders and related triggering, I suppose it will need some (lot?) of time to realize this new "automatic", even very basic, very approximative, sex-action sound simulation. But I hope you can consider the same my humble request. Thank you and ciao from Italy.

 

[hazmhox]

Thank you and ciao from Italy.

Stay on topic bruh! there's an actual place to discuss about VAMM ( VAMM is not gonna receive updates anymore ) ;]

 

[keycode]

even a sound or a indecent farting noise can be considered part of (any fucking) environment or on fucking porn application topic: baked or not baked lights included.

Sorry for for intruding

 

[projectilevarmint]

Dynamic! With the main scene CUA hidden so it can't accidentally be selected when you're trying to grab a newly spawned character.

 

[VAMIC]

A dynamic scene with modular pieces already assembled into a demo scene and some baked lighting in the demo.

 

[hazmhox]

REMINDER: It's a either / or poll. Of course everyone wants both dynamic versions and a beautiful baking, a million of props, proper physical objects, top notch modelling and level design AND free.

Like I do want three girls waiting for me @ my manor when I get back from work which are only here to satisfy my carnal needs and a gazillions euros on my bank accounts

Joke aside: it is a poll to know WHICH one of the two technics you prefer. Asking for everything doesn't help for the actual goal of the poll.

 

[Saint66]

I am also more on the baked side, but mainly due to time constraints and the ease of use. But, if the baked lighting is not well done, I am screwed

 

[Mhunter047]

I pretty much only build from scenes that DO NOT have baked in lighting, or at least have that option. Good lighting can be a drag on resources and a pain to setup, but I have found that good lighting can make the difference between a very photorealistic scene and a cartoon looking scene. Both are acceptable depending on your preference. My preference is for photorealistic. The resource use can be managed by turning lights on and off with triggers for different locations and views. I should point out that my preference here was developed during years of rendering in Poser and discovering the difference light could make.

 

[hazmhox]

You know there's a poll above the initial thread message to cast your vote right?

My preference is for photorealistic. The resource use can be managed by turning lights on and off with triggers for different locations and views.

Unless you're using a "current gen" engine, it's highly unlikely you can shoot for "photorealistic" in VAM with the whole enviro lit, two characters lit AND acceptable performances in VR.

This was kind of implied, I'm talking about realtime usage here. Not screenshots. You can go crazy with the light for screenshots and do not care about overall performances, so the discussion is less interesting for that approach.

 

[Mhunter047]

You know there's a poll above the initial thread message to cast your vote right?



Unless you're using a "current gen" engine, it's highly unlikely you can shoot for "photorealistic" in VAM with the whole enviro lit, two characters lit AND acceptable performances in VR.

This was kind of implied, I'm talking about realtime usage here. Not screenshots. You can go crazy with the light for screenshots and do not care about overall performances, so the discussion is less interesting for that approach.

This is true, but the goal is to get as close as possible. Especially in VR, it doesn't have to be perfect. I have found in VR that with the right lighting, a quality character, and some decent action, you can be fairly immersed and convinced that she is "real". But.... like you have pointed out, it is a goal, even if not completely obtainable.