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byteframe13-Xenian_Xenology

You've been teleported to an elaborate cyberpunk-ian stash house inside a comet hovering over the border world Xen. Everybody died or went out to get cigarettes or whatever.

First things first, this is about a 25 gigabyte download (tugs at collar), and is split up into 10 maps (with loading panels you click on). I truly am sorry to Steam claiming so much space on their server (my packaging script probably had to be overzealous). Please check that you are subscribed and have fully downloaded all the dependencies listed on the right.

I spent 4.5 years with this on my plate. This is bittersweet moment tangential to some other stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't even boot up for you, or has complications with level switching or multiple players. We'll see.

byteframe13 is/was intended to be 'visually salacious'. Umm... think "Gigeresque" meets Cinematic Mod for HL2. There were some scenes that are generally quite debaucherous... AND embarrassing! The intensity of this 'suggestive environmental smut' has made me feel shame, so a large portion has been kind of... disabled. It's hard to resist titillating yourself with a level editor, and I also take solace in that this will probably hit the right demographic (if any). Hobbyist-Posterity seems to be my number one concern when deciding to maintain/retain work or code.

Separate from the visuals, my GRAPHICAL styles (hopefully not going forward) are informed by my love of the best looking video game ever made, Rage. id had MegaTexture, while I would gain the realization that all my stupid junk hits frametime remarkably well, and double stuffed everything. When you have the ability to endlessly detail, it becomes hard to know when to stop (although I somewhat sense when a space is satiated). Doing teleports and assigning physics props at the start would have helped me hone, as well as make better decisions about model conversions and cut-ups. Also, twas too cavalier in regards to not maintaining various backup selection sets, principally for all those props I would convert to mesh without any need to modify the object. I usually did this to remove hidden faces (for lightmap space) or because the source1 overlays didn't apply to static props (dunno about that issue). What other peccadilloes am I not remembering?

Compounding all this was the special faculty source 1 assets have for looking bad in VR. Maybe it's just low texel count, seeing as the material conversion script(s) really do a proper job. I tried my best to reduce quality clash and low resolution asset usage, and became somewhat adept at lighting such that I could employ and tweak 'healthy' amounts of per pixel lights alongside (or in conjunction with) baked ones, which juices specular enough where needed to not make this all look like mud in the goggles. It runs fast (3060ti), and at this point, it all kinda holds up visually, ...but then... there's how high detail graphics like this (or say, Alyx) can get smothered under the compression fog when viewed through that damn Oculus.

The (gargantuan) asset pool at my disposal was composed of source 1 content, textures from ambientcg and freepbr, and other sources. Working on all the assorted scripting and converting the assets again and again took ages, ton's of hair pulling, waiting, and then I fried my SSD almost losing everything (might have been nice). This comprised 20-30% of active time spent overall. Output from the packaging script (later massaged and cleaned) will be the main constituent of the credits file. A special thank you to https://github.com/kristiker/source1import for assisting me (handily) with sorting out steamvr related material bugs and some WSL stuff. After packaging the assets and deselecting ~80 addons, I was amazed how much faster using the tools (and game) became. I'm considering just now how much time was consumed waiting for the endless amount of times hammer had to hitch over something for a few seconds -- all those endless interruptions of flow state. Ugh. A similar catastrophe has been playing off in my mind in regards to the detrimental effects of long term marijuana addiction.

On to sound. I almost skipped soundscapes, and was just going to ship a panorama youtube hack that simulated a 24/7 stream, but it was too impersonal. I used mp3s instead, and then gave it a well and good college try on some environmental audio and leveling everything. I apparently erased all the trillions of sounds from source1import and just had access to the assets packs on SteamVR workshop, but there was enough to work with to cover the space, and anyways, there's still music on top. Getting the tools/program in a state such that it would actually make sound and become ready for me to do the work was some huge pain in the ass, at first. So foggy on where the player actually is, vr_test vs noclip, why the soundscape doesn't activate, or why there isn't sound at all in some cases. Then once you're ready to go, you enable your bluetube headphones which crashes everything! I eventually got into a groove. I'm competent now, and the end result is quite nice to me.

(Sigh). The length of time if took to get this over the finish line bothers me. I bit off more than I could chew, and completing it seemed so daunting that my stamina was sapped. It was only when I was able to somehow blaze past alot of deferred skut work that it seemed possible to even complete it this year. Most of the time was spent agonizing over initial forays into new sections. Other than one shot from Star Trek, I didn't look at references (bad), so the layout as you see it has a strong element of 'stream of consciousness' throughout. Adding to that, I'm scared to block-out, so, the primary stage of my work involves staring off into the ether until Kier whispers through me, such that finally, topologically soothing mesh just kind of, flows forth from my fingers and a new space reveals itself. The prospect of a 3D diorama created for a dead medium is really just the underlying premise allowing myself to spend time in that mode of Zen.

The Megaverse only ever existed in our minds, and this is what I saw. A reaching-of-the-finish line like this should be good example of perseverance and not giving up on your creative drives (blah blah), but, at least right now, I suggest you consider letting go. This project in alot of ways exemplifies the totality of my technical and artistic abilities using The Computer, and I have given it the sum total of my affections. I'm chuffed about finally shipping it, and maybe even satiated enough at the level of quality, but overall, I feel as though this is a creative failure. I remember when I started (late 2020?)... the initial mesh work, designs of a much simpler structure, etc. I was watching Star Trek Enterprise, then. That was so long ago. ... It's beginning to really dawn on me that I may return to the mothership having never achieved self-actualization. This is my gift to the world.

CREDIT: github.com/byteframe/Game/blob/master/steamtours/byteframe13-Xenian_Xenology/byteframe13_credits.txt
DONATE: https://www.pcrf.net/ -- https://donate.ncteactionfund.org/a/a4te -- (no points pls)
PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/wKeQNrKs2f2eRCkL9
AUTHOR: https://bsky.app/profile/byteframe.bsky.social
ERRATA: ApertureSoundevents, IdaParticle, MostVizBoxesBroken
FUTURE: LessVmapsAndOrFinalVrad3, AllInOneVrad2Version, MoreFillAndFluffinCaret