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m0dus's Ps4 theme thread: creating themes, unseen concepts, and maybe ... uh, requests?
- Thread starter m0dus
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I couldn't find Christmas Cottage on the EU store but if we're okay to discuss general themes in this thread, the Festive Fireplace Slide n Go theme is pretty sweet.
Love your work modus and I will support you as much as possible. Your PS2 theme will be my main theme as long as I own a PS4 since the PS2 was my favorite console. The nostalgia feels I get from it almost brings grown man tears to my eyes, thank you.
I couldn't find Christmas Cottage on the EU store but if we're okay to discuss general themes in this thread, the Festive Fireplace Slide n Go theme is pretty sweet.
I had to grab it from the US store a while back, shame it's not up on the EU store still :(
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I'd prefer folks didn't, since it really isn't a theme catch all thread—it's more about concepts and prototypes :) and requests.
I just want to jump in and thank you for the Cozy Cottage theme. I use it every year during December and now associate that music with holiday comfort.
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Thanks! I didn't do one this year since the Legacy theme came out this month and I knew it would basically overshadow everything. :3
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Another fairly dry technical discussion, which gets to the heart of the most dreaded error / limitation that theme authors can encounter, which may highlight why it is uncommon to see many themes pushing the technical envelope on the marketplace.
This video also demonstrates behind the scenes look at our process, and also features a sneak peak at more to come.
I'll reiterate, none of this stuff is currently planned for release or sale, rather I was squashing bugs this weekend and realized it might be a good opportunity to give folks a little insight into this process.
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An update on this theme project, which ironically was born in this community.
A great deal of changes and additions since the last video. with additional optimization, the theme is now stable on a dev kit. additionally, I've added a cool street-level intro / transition to help reinforce the sense of scale. I've also worked in a very basic lighting shift tied to time of day - it's not a day / night cycle as the city lights are always lit, rather it a a tonal shift, with warm colors during the day, and cooler colors at night.
The music is also still a work in progress, but more fleshed out in this video. I'm going for a fusion between Akira and Bladerunner (no pressure), IE, mixing detuned and heavy synth with traditional drums and a moog.
A great deal of changes and additions since the last video. with additional optimization, the theme is now stable on a dev kit. additionally, I've added a cool street-level intro / transition to help reinforce the sense of scale. I've also worked in a very basic lighting shift tied to time of day - it's not a day / night cycle as the city lights are always lit, rather it a a tonal shift, with warm colors during the day, and cooler colors at night.
The music is also still a work in progress, but more fleshed out in this video. I'm going for a fusion between Akira and Bladerunner (no pressure), IE, mixing detuned and heavy synth with traditional drums and a moog.
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This is a big one.
The "intro' segment has been fleshed out today, with additional details added to the street scene immediately preceding the theme proper; Rebalancing texture memory has allowed me to inject needed detail into the buildings, and I've even come up with a way to make the street appear appropriately wet -- which brings me to the next major addition:
Through some VERY creative GPU load management, I've been able to implement a dynamic rain effect. this includes falling rain, as well as an out-of-focus wet-lens bokeh effect complete with randomly falling droplets on glass - the bokeh is additionally, subtly in motion and changes over time, so it will not create image-retention issues for OLED screens. ( I often mention that we create these themes with OLED TV's in mind: This is meant to reflect the fact that we use deep blacks, and leave NO static images onscreen to minimize image retention.). This is the first time we've done dynamic rain to this degree, and I'm actually happy with the results for once.
Additionally, primary foley and ambient effects have been added.
Audio features multiple inspirations, from Vangelis to Akira, with sweeping electronic ambient effects. Of course falling rain ambience has been added as well. Additionally, I'm going to be experimenting with multi-channel audio with this theme, so stay tuned.
The theme loop point is actually visible in the video - We set a seamless audio loop point in the music and the theme backdrop, so the intro and associated elements do not play again until the console is restarted.
(If this also happens to give you Midgar vibes . . . well, it wasn't my original aim, but as it's unfolded I decided to lean into it. Truthfully, I'd love to tackle that if Square Enix wants something special for FF-VII remake . . .) ;)
I think you need to speed up the intro, 20-25 seconds for the car start flying and go up in the sky is way too long, most of the users will boot the game and didn't even see the whole city, wich would be a shame since is fantastic ^^
For me the theme should start at 0:15, like turning on the PS4 > car and you are just ready for your adventure.
If you can, it could be nice to speed up the "ascending/access to the city" too at 0:22, even there I think the car is too slow to go up and access to the city.
Saying that, the theme itself is beautiful, congratulation :)
p.s. it could be possible to have the initial scene -but in reverse- when you close an application?
Like you close the game/app and when you are in the OS you see the car that is small like a dot (0:38) and then the descending/parking of the car, it will be cool... or maybe too much, I don't know XD
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Actually some people, in requesting this theme, wanted a street level scene as well—so this actually ticks that box too.
Honestly if folks are in a rush to get to whatever they are playing it probably won't matter too much - though remember the theme will already be set in the city loop once they go back to the dashboard.
It's not possible to have a theme respond to an app closing unfortunately ;)
I know you guys worked with Enhance on a Rez theme. Any chance you'll be doing one for Lumines?
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There haven't been any updates in 4 months. Has anything been released in that time? I know this place has rules about self promotion, but where can I go to find out when you release new themes?
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I like to design the theme around the music, or the music around the theme. Licensing music can be tricky (and expensive,) unfortunately. :) I also refuse to use royalty free.
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Final scene tracklist for the synthwave theme project. I'm going to do something crazy and completely unheard of with this one.
The Audio for the theme in question - went for a more laid back 'chillwave' feel for the beginning, but it picks up.
A question if I may m0dus, I'm trying to find somebody (anybody) that can upload an avatar to the PlayStation Store. I'm expecting it to be for a fee. Emailed/Tweeted a few companies including one on Resetera and have not had a single response. Could you point me in the right direction? Cheers!
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Well, to do it yourself, you'll need to be a registered developer to get anything published to PSN. I believe the best place to start is here: https://partners.playstation.com/apex/PO_AccountAppliPTR?lang=en
I'm excited about the synthwave project. Honestly I love themes on both the 3DS and PS4.
Went and found the Hanami, Tiny tropics, and Thunderstorm themes by Truant Pixel. Bought and downloaded. Keep up the great work =)
Went and found the Hanami, Tiny tropics, and Thunderstorm themes by Truant Pixel. Bought and downloaded. Keep up the great work =)
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Well I kind of have to convince Sony what I want to do. It's a bit insane.
What? You have to justify your own creative choices when making a theme? That really sucks to hear.
Why wouldn't it just be a matter of meeting a certain standard of quality\content and let devs go wild?
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Not creative choices. marketing and distribution ones ;)
Final scene tracklist for the synthwave theme project. I'm going to do something crazy and completely unheard of with this one.
The Audio for the theme in question - went for a more laid back 'chillwave' feel for the beginning, but it picks up.
congrats on these going live today. totally bought the bundle. keep up the great work m0dus
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Ah, thanks. I've been hesitant to update this thread as I'm worried about violating any new guidelines with regards to self promotion (even though, again, I won't post any live links). If one of the mods could give me clarification on this issue, I'd be grateful. Community engagement is important to me, but I realize it's treading a fine line.
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No Joke, I already have stuff in mind. We'd need to be commissioned for it tho :)
