HTML Abandoned Free Cities [v0.10.7.1] [Free Cities]

[UnwrappedGodiva]

I would like to summarize the pros and cons of the different ways to have images in Free Cities (pregmod). I have created the following table:

	Vector art or image packs	Interactive WebGL	AI (Stable Diffusion)
Compatibility (device and OS)	Works on all platforms	Works on most PCs (Windows, Mac, Linux) and some Android devices	Works on PCs with a recent enough GPU (Windows, Mac, Linux). Unlikely to work on Android devices.
Compatibility (browser)	FCHost, Firefox and derivatives. Chrome and Chromium-based browsers are very likely to run out of memory	FCHost, Firefox and derivatives. Chrome and Chromium-based browsers are very likely to run out of memory	FCHost, Firefox and derivatives. Chrome and Chromium-based browsers are very likely to run out of memory
Ease of use / setup	Easy (built-in, with optional image packs to download)	Easy (WebGL assets pack needs to be downloaded)	Medium to hard
Freshness / Maintenance	Outdated, not maintained anymore	Actively maintained, although the last update was in early 2023	Actively maintained
Image quality	Low	High	High, optionally very high
Interactivity	None: static images	Interactive images with different poses, can be rotated in 3D and zoomed in/out	None: static images
Animations	None	Idle animations for the characters (optional)	None
Image delays	Instant display and real-time updates: changes in clothing, physical traits or attitude are reflected immediately	Instant display and real-time updates: changes in clothing, physical traits or attitude are reflected immediately	Image generation typically takes 20-25 seconds per image, but can go from a few seconds to more than a minute depending on your GPU and image generation settings. Cached images are displayed immediately.
Image availability	Always available	Always available	Cached images may be lost and have to be regenerated if the browser was running in incognito/private mode
Accuracy: physical traits	Only a few archetypes are available. Physical traits added since 2018/2019 are ignored (piercings, tattoos, some hair styles, etc.). Changing one physical trait only changes the appropriate parts of the character. Sibling and descendants look alike and can be recognized easily.	Most physical traits are accurately represented. Changing one physical trait only changes the appropriate parts of the character. Sibling and descendants look alike and can be recognized easily.	Most physical traits are approximated. Changing one physical trait (e.g., hair color or breast size) usually changes many unrelated traits, as well as changes in clothing and attitude. Siblings and descendants may look different from each other and may be hard to recognize.
Accuracy: clothing	Only a few outfits and accessories are available. Outfits added since 2018/2019 are ignored, and even some older ones are missing, resulting in characters appearing naked when they should be fully clothed. Many accessories are ignored. The outfits that are available are displayed consistently and are easy to recognize.	Most outfits are available, but only a few accessories (shoes, collars) are displayed correctly. A few outfits are missing, resulting in characters appearing naked when they should be fully clothed. The outfits that are available are displayed consistently and are easy to recognize.	Most outfits and accessories are available. However, they are approximated and are usually never displayed consistently: the same outfit or accessories can look very different on two characters or on the same character over time. Changes in clothing causes unrelated changes in the physical traits or attitude of the character.
Accuracy: attitude/pose	Devotion and trust are displayed consistently and are very easy to recognize, although some image packs do not support all poses.	Devotion and trust are displayed consistently and are relatively easy to recognize.	Devotion and trust are approximated and sometimes hard to recognize. Changes in attitude causes unrelated changes in the clothing or physical traits of the character.
PA avatar art	Available	None / broken	None / broken
Styles / customization	None (besides selecting an image pack or creating own images)	None	Photorealistic, anime/hentai, or custom giving total freedom

Is anything wrong in the table? Am I missing any important criteria? Your feedback is welcome...

 

[aspar4gus]

I actually really like the original vector paperdoll system that can accurately reflect the changes we made, it really works well with the core mechanics of the game, it's just too bad it got discontinued and there's a lot of missing assets..

 

[kurosx]

I would like to summarize the pros and cons of the different ways to have images in Free Cities (pregmod).

That was useful, thanks.

 

[Zorlond]

Hey, anyone who's using AI gen for images in FC, can you give me a general sense of how much a PITA it was to setup? I've (briefly) looked over the provided instructions and the one thing that lept out at me was 'install and setup this, now install and setup that, now install and setup this other....'.

 

[UnwrappedGodiva]

I actually really like the original vector paperdoll system that can accurately reflect the changes we made, it really works well with the core mechanics of the game, it's just too bad it got discontinued and there's a lot of missing assets..

That's one of the main reasons I prefer the WebGL portraits: they really work well to reflect the changes to the slaves: if I change their clothes, hair color, hair style, or makeup, then this is reflected instantly. This is not just for cosmetic changes: changes in trust or devotion are also reflected instantly, as well as physical changes such as changes in height, musculature, breast size, etc. As the WebGL assets have been updated more recently than the vector art, the WebGL portraits are usually better at showing some clothes and hair styles that were not available some years ago. Also, WebGL correctly displays pubic hair or nail color, which are missing from the vector art.

WebGL is not perfect, though: for example, the testicles are usually shown as ten times larger than they should be, a medium penis can rival with a horse's, the pregnancy collar exists but most other collars are missing, the heavy nipple piercings exist but most other piercings are missing, etc.

That being said, the photorealistic option for the AI art can generate some great results. Three days ago, the user LimpRutabaga posted some nice examples in /r/freecitiesgame:

You must be registered to see the links

Although the second and especially the third image show the usual weird mix of photorealistic/rendered/painted styles that is so common in AI-generated art, the results are impressive anyway.

If it was possible for the AI to accurately and consistently reflect the changes in physical traits, clothing or attitude without modifying any other characteristics, then it would be perfect. Unfortunately, the current AI solution is frustrating because the facial features of a slave change if you pick different clothes, and twins (or any other slaves from the same family) usually look very different from each other. The AI results may look very nice, but they are not accurately reflecting what matters in the game.

 

[svornost]

If it was possible for the AI to accurately and consistently reflect the changes in physical traits, clothing or attitude without modifying any other characteristics, then it would be perfect. Unfortunately, the current AI solution is frustrating because the facial features of a slave change if you pick different clothes, and twins (or any other slaves from the same family) usually look very different from each other. The AI results may look very nice, but they are not accurately reflecting what matters in the game.

Make sure you're using a convergent, deterministic sampler (i.e. don't use one with "a" or "SDE" in the name). Twins and clones carry identical art seeds, just like with WebGL, so as long as you don't diverge their prompts/poses too much, don't reseed, and use a deterministic sampler, they'll look pretty similar. Same thing is true for attitude changes and most clothing changes.






Neither WebGL nor AI art can do anything special with related slaves that aren't twins or clones; if you notice similarities in WebGL it's just because they have similar physical parameters and WebGL doesn't have that much variation even between unrelated slaves of the same ethnicity.

 

[GammaXai]

Is anything wrong in the table? Am I missing any important criteria? Your feedback is welcome...

I have minor personal nitpicks but generally it is quite good.
Vector art is technically community maintained but you are correct that it hasn't seen notable love in years and badly needs it.

I think I have 'the average computer' but will have to revisit my views when I get my new one built. In general I rank WebGL lower than you do in almost every field as I find it exceedingly heavy compared to AI just being slow. AI I had to run overnight but I can have images for all my slaves that look passable while WebGL I either have to turn the per slave options way down to the point it looks like garbage or disable all settings for mass image display.

I have a number of nitpicks related to AI as it is technically two distinct parts that communicate over the network/internet but 99% of players aren't going to split the parts so no point wrecking the nice table.

 

[UnwrappedGodiva]

Make sure you're using a convergent, deterministic sampler (i.e. don't use one with "a" or "SDE" in the name). Twins and clones carry identical art seeds, just like with WebGL, so as long as you don't diverge their prompts/poses too much, don't reseed, and use a deterministic sampler, they'll look pretty similar. Same thing is true for attitude changes and most clothing changes.

This is unfortunately not sufficient, because I let my obedient slaves choose their own clothing. In combination with minor variations in height, breast size, obedience and trust, this is usually sufficient to cause twins and clones to look significantly different with AI, while they still look like twins with WebGL or vector art.

Neither WebGL nor AI art can do anything special with related slaves that aren't twins or clones; if you notice similarities in WebGL it's just because they have similar physical parameters and WebGL doesn't have that much variation even between unrelated slaves of the same ethnicity.

I agree, but in this case I consider the lack of variation in WebGL or vector art to be a feature, not a bug. This allows me to easily recognize slaves that are part of the same family (siblings or parents/children), usually because they share the same skin tone, hair color, and main facial features. WebGL and vector art only support a limited number of combinations of those, but this is a good thing because it makes it easier to recognize the slaves and the similarities between related slaves.

Here is an example of a (futanari) mother with three different sets of clothes. You can see immediately that these are all pictures of the same character:

And here are three of her daughters. They share the same skin tone and hair color. Although they have very different haircuts and clothes, you can see that they share some facial features with their mother, so it is easy to recognize them as being part of the same family:

On the other hand, if I pick another slave that is not related to them but that also has a fair skin tone, and if I dress that slave in the same schoolgirl outfit and the same haircut, then the faces (and body proportions, etc.) are still sufficiently different that it is easy to guess that they are not related:

With AI, these similarities and differences are drowned in the noise because there is just too much variability. AI-generated images can look incredibly good but the excessive variability in physical traits and attitudes is working against the playability aspect. I love the photorealistic portraits that can be generated with Stable Diffusion, but I still prefer WebGL for the playability because it is easier for me to recognize the slaves.

I think I have 'the average computer' but will have to revisit my views when I get my new one built. In general I rank WebGL lower than you do in almost every field as I find it exceedingly heavy compared to AI just being slow. AI I had to run overnight but I can have images for all my slaves that look passable while WebGL I either have to turn the per slave options way down to the point it looks like garbage or disable all settings for mass image display.

I am probably lucky, but WebGL is just working fine for me on my laptop. The CPU is an Intel Core i5-1145G7, which is about three years old. The graphics are handled by the built-in Intel Irix Xe Graphics (no Nvidia nor AMD GPU). I can easily scroll through a list of more than a hundred slaves rendered with WebGL and it works fine. Here is a cropped screenshot from one of my current games (an arcology populated with pairs of twins in incestuous relationships) that has 135 slaves, most of them in the penthouse:

On the other hand, the AI image generation with Stable Diffusion does not seem to benefit from any significant acceleration on my laptop, so it is unfortunately very slow.

 

[aspar4gus]

On the other hand, if I pick another slave that is not related to them but that also has a fair skin tone, and if I dress that slave in the same schoolgirl outfit and the same haircut, then the faces (and body proportions, etc.) are still sufficiently different(...)

Ok this line and that samples really sells me to try the webgl, just one more question.. how good is the "Mixed Race" model? does it actually reflect what the parent's race/genetics originated from? (like in Crusader Kings 3, so for example mixed race from black+asian parent will look different from mixed race from black+white parent? and not just on a superficial skin color level)

 

[FallenSoldierOfLight]

A question please...this version have the pregnancy mod installed already or not?

 

[RainbowConnection]

Is there anyone here who managed to get the AI art to work in game? I can't figure it out and I don't know where else to ask.

To clarify, I managed to get the stable diffusion webUI, together with all the models and I can use it myself to generate images just fine.

I'm stuck at the last step basically, I can't get the game to use it automatically. I gave it the API URL and I'm keeping it open while playing the game. But the game doesn't generate any images. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

 

[kurosx]

A question please...this version have the pregnancy mod installed already or not?

The version on this page doesn't have the pregmod and is obsolet. You will find the up-to-date version on gitgud. Ask Google.

 

[GammaXai]

Is there anyone here who managed to get the AI art to work in game? I can't figure it out and I don't know where else to ask.

To clarify, I managed to get the stable diffusion webUI, together with all the models and I can use it myself to generate images just fine.

I'm stuck at the last step basically, I can't get the game to use it automatically. I gave it the API URL and I'm keeping it open while playing the game. But the game doesn't generate any images. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

The web console on your browser and the cmd window for the SD usually report the errors.

 

[RainbowConnection]

The web console on your browser and the cmd window for the SD usually report the errors.

There aren't any errors, it just doesn't do anything.

 

[Zorlond]

Random idea:

Granting your slaves hairstyle freedoms, where they either randomly pick a hairstyle each week (ala dress freedom), or check every 5-8 weeks for a small random chance of changing hairstyle to something random.

I'm a little tired of having to pick everyone's hairstyles manually.

 

[GoldenEyeDrake]

I'm reading the comment threads, but I'm somewhat confused. Is the game still active on another site, and updates are still transpiring? If so, do they possess more content and image artwork? Additionally, how do I properly download the latest versions and is it safe for me to do so? I have started playing this game yesterday and I am honestly addicted.

 

[GammaXai]

I'm reading the comment threads, but I'm somewhat confused. Is the game still active on another site, and updates are still transpiring? If so, do they possess more content and image artwork? Additionally, how do I properly download the latest versions and is it safe for me to do so? I have started playing this game yesterday and I am honestly addicted.

The game has continued to be developed as Free Cities Pregmod, we can't link to it directly as some of the options added can enable content that is a no go for f95.

 

[GoldenEyeDrake]

The game has continued to be developed as Free Cities Pregmod, we can't link to it directly as some of the options added can enable content that is a no go for f95.

Well damn. That's unfortunate, since I'm not sure how to download the game off their website.

 

[GammaXai]

Well damn. That's unfortunate, since I'm not sure how to download the game off their website.

The best I can do without links is to suggest searching for "freecities pregmod releases" in your search engine of choice and that should take you to their milestone releases page, they aren't the most bleeding edge version but they include a precompiled download option so you don't need any extra programs.

You should see a file named fc_pregmod_'something'.##.zip which will contain the precompiled game html, you don't need any of the source code downloads there.

If you end up on the gitlab but it looks like it is just sourcecode try looking on the left hand side for deployment > releases to get to the release page.

 

[GoldenEyeDrake]

The best I can do without links is to suggest searching for "freecities pregmod releases" in your search engine of choice and that should take you to their milestone releases page, they aren't the most bleeding edge version but they include a precompiled download option so you don't need any extra programs.

You should see a file named fc_pregmod_'something'.##.zip which will contain the precompiled game html, you don't need any of the source code downloads there.

If you end up on the gitlab but it looks like it is just sourcecode try looking on the left hand side for deployment > releases to get to the release page.

Thank you very much. I was able to find the file, and now playing the game.