Sumrak

Yes, the terrain making tools are coming soon. In fact, some of the community members already started working on DayZ terrains as the process and tools are nearly identical to the one in Arma 2/3. So not much has to be done in order to get your map working in DayZ. Once you change the config a bit, you should be able to repack it and get it working in-game. Besides the obvious work of re-linking the Arma models to use ones in DayZ, there are some things you will need to do in case your map is using custom buildings, surface textures, vegetation and so on (ladder, door implementation is different, specular on detailed surface textures, wind shader on grass, trees,..).

No they are not. It never really made any sense to have the world such poorly lit under clear sky while having sun high enough. We've had some problems with getting this change ready for 62, otherwise you would see it in 62 already. I have been reading several comments about the fact this change removes the atmosphere, looks less post-apo etc., but frankly, civilisation may fell apart, but the nature and the laws of physics stay the same, why shouldn't clear sky full noon look like its supposed to? I like the diversity our game world offers - lighting config is tied to the overcast value of weather system and trust me, it can get really bleak when its supposed to. It did not really made any sense to show this brightness change on such weather as there have been little to no changes there (so all pics are basically clear sky - I should prob note that in SR). As mentioned in SR, this is still pretty much work-in-progress and we will continue tweaking it until we find the best values. It may be a bit darker than what you see on the pictures, but overall, we definitely do not plan to return to the 62 state of lighting. It is perhaps a bit hard to see in the small before-after window, full res pics here and here. The goal is to make the night sky easier to read and use to navigation - as you can see in the "after" image, major stars are easier to see (ultimately, its best to see it in the game).

First of all, welcome back! As stated before we do not plan to increase the size of the map anytime soon. While there are some ideas floating around (for the future - beyond 1.0), our top priority is currently getting all the remaining planned content in and huge polishing pass prior to the upcoming releases. I definitely get the benefits of having Arma 2-like borders, but we have to work within the dimensions we have (15.36x15.36 kilometers) at this point in time. Pre-62, there was this crazy quality difference between the N and W that we just had to equal it somehow. But the western border rework was definitely aimed at keeping its wilderness feel to it (unlike the northern rework, which has added a lot of settlements and unfortunately several of them too close to the border). Various damage states for the wells would definitely be needed if we ever are going to increase their presence on the map. We do plan to re-visit their locations, but if something like this will be implemented prior this pass is other thing (but I will mention it to designers).

1) Unfortunately, no. If nothing changes (which seems unlikely at the moment), roads in DayZ will continue be on A2/TKOH level. A3 TB still supports the old road network management, but you can of course go around it and create/import your road network from parts (as standard map objects). 2) I think numbers could actually be very similar (the object library grew quite a lot over time with new models made specifically for DayZ). You can find majority of classic A2 object library (improved of course) integrated in DayZ. As for the OA objects - we are not using many they are obviously not very fitting to the environment we work on. One exception that comes to my mind are the quarry objects. So yeah, if you are going to use OA objects, you will either need to do the port by yourself or wait for some variation of cup for DayZ to be released. I mentioned this in one of the SR, but I feel its fitting to mention it here now that we are digging deeper into the map making for DayZ. With the update .63, we have completely re-done the old Arma paths for models and changed 99% of model names. All models have now somewhat consistent names (all in english - yes, czech names are gone) and the whole structure is much simpler to work with (this also caused massive reduction in amount of client/server pbos). So if you happen to start making a map for DayZ now, some mass object re-importing will be necessary for your project once DayZ modding comes - I can supply a conversion table though (and possibly even tool that can use this table and process your TB export - we faced the same problem internally). All I can say that at this point in time, we focus on delivering ChernarusPlus in best possible shape we can, no other new maps, nor any ports of existing A3 maps are planned.

Yeah, that will not be doable, though if it is existing arma 2 building, you can use the already released sources for a2 meshes and implement your interior ideas from there (using dayz textures). As for the re-texturing, it is possible to re-texture even a binarized model, though quite a painful. I do not expect any extra content to be available in the official game pbos, what you find is what is used on Chernarus. Thats the general rule for env assets (we cannot have some extras that will not be used at all). As for the Namalsk itself, please remember, that it is un-official map that will be released as a mod for DayZ. You can surely expect that DayZ workshop will get populated over time with nice asset packages (similar to Arma 3).

You will be able to use any environment asset we use on ChernarusPlus in your own map project (placing and manipulating using TB / Buldozer), its just you wont be able to open any of them in OB and directly change the model (adding walls, proxies,..).

Majority of DayZ assets are still maintained by OB and kept in p3d format (same applies to textures - paa and materials - rvmat). As of now, there are no plans to use Enfusion file formats for environment / character / vehicle models. As for the tool parity, we are currently using A3 OB and TB, no additional DayZ-specific changes were needed so far. While nothing has been settled yet, looking at the history (Arma), it is almost certain that all the DayZ content will be only available as binarized for quite some time. Obviously with some exceptions (road parts) and most likely sample models.

Sure, already explained here

They are not, but its on todo list and we hope that they will return some day :) These changes are mostly tweaks and fixes to the object layout - better looking treelines, inner forest parts, forest borders, but also trees inside houses etc.

Regarding Tulga ski slopes and cable way - they will be back west of Sinistok (in phase 2 of "western expansion" task, coming in future updates), it was just question of priorities for update .62 - we wanted to have the forest layout somehow certain and so the removal of ski slopes was necessary. Yes, Rogovo revert was indeed intentional - Rogovo change in update .61 was not entirely finished and has had several flaws. We will be looking again on both villages in that area (Rogovo and Pogorevka) and their re-design will come in one package.

This is more or less a fix that is aimed at making stars viable for navigation (there was a bug - all stars had the same magnitude during night time and so searching for any known constellations was quite a challenge).

Most common grass models are roughly 2x2 meters, not sure how that would look when you would drop pile of ammo on ground for example. Haha, no, although some wrecks of for example v3s with crane for logs would be nice to have too! Functional vehicle that would be capable of picking and carying logs is a whole lot different story though :P I remember spending quite lot of time in Spintires doing that, such a fun game with awesome physics and visuals :) About the mid range texture - Chernarus uses mid range texture (without it, it would look waaay worse). Now if we are satisfied how it currently looks that is a bit different story. Given the fact that it is basically just one texture for the whole map, some compromises have to be made.

Not sure about cobwebs - how those would look in the environment with the current tech we have, but hornet nests and anthills is something that is definitely doable. We will see - as mentioned, work on upgrading the environment definitely does not end with .62, we will do our best to make the environment of Chernarus best we can in given time :) Just to give you an example - I would personally want to see more signs of forest harvesting - fences for the clearings with young trees, piles of branches and cut tree stumps.

Hello everyone, as senior map designer in DayZ Team, I may be the only one in the Q&A series so far that isnt lead on a paper, but nonetheless, in our small team of map designers, I'm the one with the responsibilities that covers how the environment look, plays and performs in the end. And with the environment, I mean nothing less than our beloved Chernarus terrain of course. I make sure that we always do what is best for Chernarus in a long-term. That often means preparing detailed analyses and in many cases this also means preparing placeholders for future map assets for the art team so they exactly know what we need for the environment. Luckily, my work is not always composed from swimming in pages of analyses, creating tasks and other "paperwork". Given the size of our team, I still very much get to enjoy the best part and that is an actual map design, which basicaly consists of manipulation with map objects, changing terrain mesh and texture data ("satellite" texture and surface mask). Work of a map designer is often a balancing act between making the environment believable and interesting to play in. Creating a nice environments for you to play in has been and will always be a pleasure and we always enjoy watching what you do in the places that we create everyday. So lets get to your questions and see you in Q&A video!

Amazing! :)