Status Report - 16 Feb 2016

[SMoss 2101]

 

Afternoon Survivors,

In this Status Report, we'll have Brian (Lead Producer), Peter (Lead Designer), and Viktor (Lead Animator) inform us of the latest work being conducted as we move closer to the 0.60 Update.

Contents This Week

• Development Board Spotlight
• Dev Update/Hicks
• Dev Update/Peter
• Dev Update/Viktor
• Community Spotlight: PRISON BREAK MOVIE! - DayZ Standalone (Finale)

 

Development Board Spotlight

 

Dev Update/Hicks

Greetings Survivors,

With PAX South behind us - we're all looking ahead to .60 and the steps towards 1.0 that are taken within it. We've discussed our intent to have a .60 build in the hands of the consumers at the end of February, and while that is still our goal - we'll have to see how bug fixing and implementation go over the coming weeks to see if that means Stable Branch, or Experimental.

As we've discussed before - part of the .60 build is our initial implementation of the new renderer (operating off of DirectX 11). Now, while keeping in mind this will be the first build of this in the hands of the Early Access userbase - I'm still cautiously (very) optimistic. 
The engine programming team are hard at work squashing a large chunk of visual and optimization related bugs - but even with those said bugs present, we're seeing some excellent performance gains across Chernarus. While it may not be quite ready for regular gameplay on the consumer branches, internal QA and the Engine Dev team are working hard at polishing the stone, so to speak.

Even with the current internal DX11 client running with AntiAliasing, Alpha Coverage, Edge Smoothing, Clouds, and Post Processing disabled - the improvement of visual fidelity vs the legacy DX 9 client is clearly visible.

Direct X 9 - Max Settings


Direct X 11 - Low Settings

Tasks Completed:

- Detailed Terrain Shadows
- Parallelization
- Initial Simulweather/True Sky Implementation

Current Focus:

- Optimization
- Lights
- Finalizing Simulweather / Truesky
- Bug Fix, Bug Fix, Bug Fix

Past the work on the new renderer technology - the design and art teams are working on the initial art/skinning for the Main Menu, Server Browser, and Inventory Screen - while the gameplay programming team works on finishing implementation of requested functionality, and bugfixing.

I'm personally excited for changes in the Central Economy coming with .60. As we've spent time triaging the root cause of repeated/grouped item spawns, and improper distribution globally (thanks to outstanding help on the feedback tracker ticket from twitch.tv/sacriel and his viewerbase) we've greatly improved the global item saturation and drastically dropped occurances of item spawns repeating within a cluster of structures.
As well as the above mentioned changes - the discussed randomization of vehicle part attachments has been iterated upon and the tech passed on to include firearms, and their attachments. What does this mean for the average survivor wandering across Chernarus?

Each weapon has a chance to spawn with random attachments fitting its configuration

In addition to its base attachments

The more varied the weapons potential attachments - the more random the potential configuration

Eg: An M4A1 with a BUIS sight, OE handguard, 40 round magazine, etc

In addition to this change in how weapons are spawned - magazine initial spawn capacity is now controlled dynamically via the central economy control. This allows the development team to set the initial ammo quantity for magazines to a lower value - thus increasing the global *quantity* of magazines.

But enough about the economy - as we continue to bugfix and optimize the new renderer, and user interface technology in preperation for .60 we'll keep the information coming on how it is performing, how its looking, and how it is expected to function.

- Brian Hicks / Lead Producer

 

Dev Update/Peter

Communication is one of the strongest direct player interaction in DayZ. The voice in particular is key to a rich and immersive experience. Volume, intonation, articulation and content of the message creates a wide scale of emotion and open DayZ up to great possibilities for players. With that in mind it's quite clear that providing more variety in voice communication will add to emergent gameplay.

We can divide voice communication in DayZ into two groups - direct speech, which can be amplified, and indirect speech which can be transmitted via radio transmissions. Direct speech is pretty clear, and with amplification done with the help of megaphone it can be quite fun. However, indirect speech is where all the real fun begins. Unlike traditional and classic DayZ personal radio transmitters with limited range, you can get your hands on portable radio transmitters which can range across the entire map, so survivors can coordinate all operations within Chernarus while remaining safe in a secure or hidden location. More interesting, there will be static radio stations where players can with interfere and hijack frequencies, or transmit crucial message from long distances to allies.

Radio stations will be located more or less in the middle of the map on the top of Altar Hill, so it will be fairly easy to trek to no matter where you are. To go even further, you can use public address systems with amplifiers locally in towns and villages. We are still considering extending radio cassette recorder use past the playback of online radios, perhaps adding an ability to record voice messages on tapes. This would not be an easy task to tackle right now, but we’ll see.

Our aim is to make usage of transceivers as simple as possible. For example, no need for a push-to-talk mechanic; simply ensure the device is on and transmitting on the selected frequency once a battery is attached, or connected to a running power generator. One set of universal frequencies will help survivors keep from getting lost, or find the right one you want to listen to/transmit on. Transmitted signals on the same frequency are simply mixed together via the receiver, so the frequency works much like a conference call. The environment profile and structures won’t block signals, and these signal will propagate without the need for repeaters.

Tune in... see you in Chernarus folks!

- Peter Nespesny / Lead Designer

 

Dev Update/Viktor

The animation team is busy with many things related to the new animation system.
Just recently we managed to implement in our animation graph and preview tool arming and disarming of rifles, and two-handed items in a much more detailed way than previously.

As you may know, players have always been able to pull out a gun while moving forward only, and there was an actual full-body animation which had to complete itself once started.
Obviously this led to many situations where one would lose control of their character. This was a big problem if say, you were doing this animation near a building edge or sharp drop.

This was because of limitations in how the whole animation system worked. In our new working prototype, we are now able to arm anything almost any time without the need to complete the full-body animation. For instance, if you are standing and unsling a rifle, you can simultaneously begin moving and vice versa, while moving players can unsling a rifle, stop in your tracks, and the animation will complete itself with the upper body only. No more Wile. E. Coyote moments!

You can even change stance to crouch while taking out your weapon. This is possible due to the recent introduction of additive blending and the ability to override body part animations that aren’t attached to additional animations. That said, although the basic functionality of arming is done on the animation side, we still have small adjustments and fixes to get rid of some unwanted issues. Our next task ahead in this area is also implementing some changes in how
ladders work, and focusing on improvement of basic character locomotion by adding
responsiveness and enhancing dynamics.

- Viktor Kostik / Lead Animator

 

Community Spotlight: PRISON BREAK MOVIE! - DayZ Standalone (Finale)

Afternoon people,

So, it's time for a bit of RP goodness. The video this time around depicts a whole bunch of players participating in a prison break event. It's an excellent watch, and it seems like it would be an absolute nightmare arranging something like this so kudos to all the players making the event possible!

Unfortunately, I missed Twig's "Escape From Prison" event, but I'll definitely keep an eye out for future events! If you feel like doing so as well, you can follow Twig via his Twitch, Twitter, and Youtube accounts:

http://www.twitch.tv/adventuresoftwig/v/44703359

http://twitter.com/adventuretwig

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_vT9JXBStNOchHwN5cYkqw

If you also have a nice video containing DayZ footage you'd like to share, or if you have come across some DayZ footage from other content creators, just post it in the Gallery section of the DayZ forums and we'll happily have a look.

Header image credit: Rixxiz01

- Michael aka SMoss / Community Manager

[joe_mcentire 2074]

Well finally! thanks SMoss

Can you tell us what will change with DX11 regarding "Lights" for example. I have no idea whatsoever and i'd like to be enlightend on what to expect. i also know that the engine had the issue with light shining through buildings. so can you give us a bit of an insight here? much appreciated!

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

Thanks for any and all information, devs/all!

I know myself and everyone I play with is anxious to see .60 as this month draws to a close.

DX11 and dynamic zombie spawn might be enough to get public DayZ builds headed in the right direction.

Good luck!

[Joseph1234 13]

Has me sitting in my chair going OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY!

[philbur 476]

4 hours ago, ☣BioHaze☣ said:

Thanks for any and all information, devs/all!

I know myself and everyone I play with is anxious to see .60 as this month draws to a close.

DX11 and dynamic zombie spawn might be enough to get public DayZ builds headed in the right direction.

Good luck!

Just...DON'T have the Infected respawn based on client-driven events.... It remains a mystery to me how they will get this feature perfect, as dynamic spawns might be tough on a full server where let's say we have a couple folks trying to clear Cherno and Elektro of all the infected....

Does this mean the overall number of infected will try to remain balanced by means of spawns out of the view of players (like loot)? or will they simply appear at random (which might be right beside you)? As I interpret it, "dynamic re spawn" means the bastards will re-enter the sever at random times NOT based on server restart (correct?) So if we have an example number of 1000 infected allocated to a server and let's say 100 of them get shot over a few minutes time where would they spawn and would it be a mechanic that would create situations like in the Mod...where this was an easy way to track other players?

I know Hicks touched on this late last year, but I am sceptical that they managed to get this right with 0.60... Here's hoping!

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

Dynamic spawning does NOT mean infected can spawn next to you.

It was already stated that they will spawn outside of view as you approach an area.

I do not think this will have quite the impact on tracking as it did in the mod.

Unless you see the infected pursuing someone, any infected you see at the edge of your field of view will be possibly spawned by your presence.

[pilgrim* 3514]

16 hours ago, philbur said:

..//..
... would create situations like in the Mod...where this was an easy way to track other players?
..//..

It is easy to use zombies to detect other players right now in SA. I guess you know.

xx p

 

Edited February 27, 2016 by pilgrim / pilgrim

[philbur 476]

Yeah...currently it varies on how the Zeds react to your presence but at least they don't spawn in and out based on a players' relationship to others...

In the last few builds (when you actually have infected in your area) you can navigate around them while stalking other players...but it will change dramatically if, for example, the player you are watching decides to empty a mag from his AK into a bunch of Zeds and all of a sudden the "dynamic" re spawn mechanic decides to pop in a couple right beside you. Or something like that.

I would hope that the full behavioral features of the infected will not be further developed and tweaked until deep into the Beta, so the devs won't waste time on it.

Do you guys think they should worry about the core world elements (weather, animals, structures, topography, CLE, etc.) before they determine the final preferred behavior of the Zeds? I thought they should get the "world" sorted out...then introduce the "Player" mechanic...and then the "Infected"...in that order. Perhaps simplistic, and it would have made for a far shorter Alpha cycle, but it just would have been easier to develop that way.

The news on 0.60 is not as clear-cut as I was hoping...and I thought the team were going to be better at implementing very specific improvements/additions so there would be a cleaner progress map...but who knows, I am just a tad sceptical about the level of improvement from build to build going forwards. (which is probably why I am not that concerned about the game's development timeline being as glacial as it seems).

 

[F3rnuX 0]

this month is ending..where update? cmon...

[philippj 103]

On 27.2.2016 at 9:55 PM, F3rnuX said:

this month is ending..where update? cmon...

Complaining wont bring the update

[pilgrim* 3514]

Changing the renderer is like changing the gearbox on a car - to you it looks nothing - but if you are a car freak you know this is major. A whole chunk of the software is being switched out and replaced.
This would justify 0.6 even if there was no change or addition to any aspect of the gameplay at all. It is a major block of totally solid work.