VaM2 Progress Update (Patreon)

It has been a long time since our last update. For this, we apologize. We will try very hard to work on better communication of progress going forward. Thank you for your patience! We have been very busy and we wanted to wait until we were at the point where user-facing progress could be effectively shown in screenshots, video clips, and gifs. We have been working on several of the most challenging aspects of VaM2 since the last update, and we have completed tasks that will set new standards in how well VaM2 looks and performs compared to both VaM and competing projects out there.

What is VaM2?
For those who haven't followed our previous updates, VaM2 is the next-generation of VaM featuring an all new engine, next-gen rendering technology, and improved 3d models.

VaM2 Main Goals (unchanged since last update):

• Improve visual rendering to next-gen AAA quality.
• Improve physics. Improve collision accuracy. Improve realism of skin, body, clothing, and hair physics.
• Improve performance. Scale better with high-core-count CPUs. Offer more performance options that allow VaM to run on lower-end hardware and still be enjoyable.
• Improve usability.

When?
VaM2 is a huge undertaking. It will take a considerable amount of time before VaM2 will have a full feature set comparable to today's VaM release. After these last few months of work, it has become more clear what the first VaM2 playable alpha will look like and we are now planning on how to get that to all Patreon backers in the near future. More info on the alpha plans in the link to the Hub provided near the end of this post.

Summary of some of the work since the last update:

• Completed highly optimized Dual Quaternion Skinning (DQS) engine. Necessary to make DAZ Studio Genesis 8 models look their best. It also makes other models beyond DAZ Studio models look better.
• Joint controlled morph (JCM) support. Necessary to make DAZ Studio Genesis 8 models look their best.
• Work on High Definition (HD) mesh, morph, and skin engine. Resolution on VaM2 models will be at least 4X higher than 1.X models, allowing amazing details and smooth edges! We weren't sure this would even be possible, but we found a way and it looks and  performs amazingly well!
• Experimented with a large range of varying  models, materials, and textures in the asset import pipeline and Unity's High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) to begin streamlining the  process of model creation for VaM. We plan to offer users the same import and model creation capabilities that we use internally, paving the way for a lot more variation and capabilities for users making  custom content.

Details and information on plans for first playable alpha:

For a lot more information, images, gifs, and videos, please check out the full detailed update post here on the Hub:

https://hub.virtamate.com/threads/vam-2-x-progress-update.8374/

Final Thoughts:
While there is still a ton of work ahead, we are more excited than ever for VaM2 and we have great forward momentum with a clear idea of what needs to be done. Thank you again for all of your amazing support on this project to date, and with your continued help and support we will make VaM2 the best adult sandbox application in existence!