Status Report - 29 Mar 2016

[SMoss 2101]

 

Evening Survivors,

It's time for that update on what's been going on during the past two weeks. We have a bit of info on blocker issues for 0.60 as well as which subjects will be in focus for the immediate future.

 

Contents This Week

• Dev Update/Hicks
• Dev Update/Peter
• Dev Update/Viktor
• Community Spotlight: Days of Z

 

Dev Update/Hicks

Greetings Survivors,

Hey everyone. While I don't have an experimental build for you today - I do have good news and an update on what is going on with the blockers, how far we've got with them, and so on:

• Inventory UI
  • User controls within the new inventory look to be at parity with the old inventory system. The last few remaining issues are a few nasty blocking bugs on the functional side, such as items missing their icons. 
• Reload mechanics
  • The QA team have worked with the design and animation teams to get a firm handle on exactly where the inconsistencies are with the new reload mechanics, and said teams are working on resolving the issue. I think we can all agree that when we push a large change to how weapons reload - they damn better all reload with the same mechanics ;)
• Character Loading/Saving
  • Proper character loading/saving is back, and in the process some nice network optimizations in this area were made!
• Renderer based blocking issues
  • We've cut the list of blocker flagged issues tied to the new Enfusion renderer in half since the last time we talked - and in the time since our last Status Report the Enfusion engine team has made some outstanding optimizations across Chernarus - which you can see the result of in the latest .60 Dev Log video that you see below.
  • In addition, while the Enfusion engine team was able to commit and test their latest optimizations, the automated performance benchmarking tool briefly discussed in the latest .60 Dev Log video has enabled the environment team to begin to isolate problematic issues with certain areas of the map that would not otherwise be noticed. We're excited to see these fixes give us yet another small bump up in Enfusion's new renderer performance.

 

 

As we get closer to bringing .60 to experimental branch, I lightly urge you all to temper your excitement with a few brief statements of reality about public development of a title, and its engine:

• .60 is focused on UI, and Renderer - it does not feature the new animation system, player controller, or user actions
• We still have plenty of issues ahead of us to tackle, the renderer is but one hurdle on the road to a complete DayZ
• Network Optimizations, Server Performance Optimization (This is a big one, standing between us and more players, more infected, more animals), Animation System, Eden Update Audio Tech merge, and more are all ahead of us

So I encourage you to keep your eye on the proverbial prize here and report your bugs over on the official DayZ forums, be active in testing these new technology changes, and be a part of moving DayZ towards 1.0

Before I wrap up my part for this Status Report, I'd like to include an excerpt from a post I made over on the official forums - that I think a lot of you might have missed:

"I frequently get asked why a specific bug might not be resolved yet, or why something hasn't been addressed yet in development that from a players perspective might seem critical.
There are a lot of things to take into consideration in development when weighing a bugfix, not to mention when you're dealing with a title transitioning from one engine, to another one that is *in development* Lets take a quick look into a brief break down of how the thought process goes:

- First off - what is the risk of this fix at the current time?

• What are the goals for the upcoming build? Does this potentially represent larger issues that will push the build back?
• Is this issue tied to a technology that is going to be replaced?
  • For example - Is this an issue tied with the legacy renderer?
• Is this issue related to ongoing investigation of a larger issue with wider sweeping impact on the title?
• If this issue IS tied to a system scheduled to be rewritten or replaced - what is the estimated time involved in:
  • Work resolving the issue itself
  • Test pass on the issue
  • Overall BVT test pass to ensure related issues are not encountered
  • Regression testing on the issue 
• A lot of issues consumers see in the way of:
  • Duplicating (Old action system)
  • Glitching into models
  • Damage / Projectile cheats
  • Balancing / etc

Are all things that are slated to be resolved, or at least mitigated with new technologies that are being worked on *right now* - so the hard decision has to be made - Do we potentially waste valuable development time and resources on something that will *not* end up in the shipped title? Honestly - we try to do that as little as possible. We still end up going a very large amount of it to try and keep the consumer steam branches as playable as possible, but frequently the unpopular and hard decision has to be made to stay the course, and dedicated those resources towards the final product / final systems / final technology."

- Brian Hicks / Creative Director

 

 

Dev Update/Peter

I'll continue were I left off in my last Status Report entry and write a bit about the planned changes to the systems and functionality tied to such mechanics as attachments, crafting or the quick bar. As I said few times already I want to see DayZ's gameplay as much physicality as possible and controls as less obstructive as possible.

One of the problems we are facing is a quite non readable agenda or to say it better, limits of the game that we set - what can be done or achieved and how all these various mechanics work, coupled with a rather chaotic approach to the usage of these systems, it leads in most cases to force players to visit community wikis and find out there. Of course in the past with the dawn of the original DayZ mod it was really refreshing and stunning to find out all the obfuscated in-game mechanics by yourself or learn them directly in-game from other survivors and at the end it contributed to creating one of the most beautiful game communities out of these shared experiences. It was one of the key points of mod success without any doubt, even when it was a virtue of necessity in the light how it all began and was made. However do we still need to keep the same approach after such time, where most of the orthodox players already known everything and new players came to the game mainly for all sort of experiences and stories they seen or heard about? If this is what we are offering to the players - experiences and stories - then we should not stay in their way.

We decided to unveil how things work with addition of meaningful assistance especially in the inventory side. You will find ghosts/silhouette placeholders for all possible attachments that can be attached to systems like player character, weapons, vehicles, constructions, fireplaces, etc. Of course it can ignite pursuit for "filling those spots" notably for completionist style players. On the other hand it will help to orientate what is possible and what isn't as in reality you know that you can definitely can put a second rifle around your neck but you can’t in game, so instead of trying by yourself it's better to be told straight that these are the cards to play with instead of trying all the possible combinations to find proper one like in old school point and click adventures (which I love, to be clear). With the possibility to add and remove all attachments within the inventory screen and with the need of securing some of them with tools in mind comes a secured/unsecured icon - think of vehicle wheels which you can attach to the hub but you need to fasten them with lug wrench for proper functionality or they will simply fall off during the drive or nail down the planks to make a fence from simple frame. With this locking of attachments via user actions it comes hand in hand need of the unreachable functionality for attachments, again think of how visually unpleasant it will be to teleport wheels to front hubs of bus standing at very different side or by its back, this will get you to the right spot if you want it to drag and drop it from inventory instead using direct in-game attach user action. To quickly mention some other aids for convenient usage, we plan to introduce lighting bolt icon for electricity system to clearly overview if object it's plugged in/under current or needed amount of some specific item to be able to turn it into desired state like number of planks to barricade the doors.

Crafting is another important part of the game and it is critical to bring it out to the light from the darkness of the inventory screen. Intended plans for field crafting changes is that it always needs to be initiated from the hands with the one of the two required ingredients for said recipe. Combining wooden sticks with rags is a good example. Crafting can be initiated in different ways, solely in inventory by putting let's say rags to hands and drag and drop wooden sticks on them from vicinity or cargo, second possible approach is a bit of a shortcut when you have let's say wooden sticks already in hands and rags set in some quick slot and pressing this quick slot number to invoke the crafting recipe, or the last way is with direct interaction with the item in the world by pointing rags in hands onto sticks gathered from bush. All of these options of crafting initialization let you to choose how you want to craft directly in the world instead of the inventory, in that case a torch, splint or fireplace and by holding the right mouse button craft it the same as you would use a canteen to continuously drink from. Some of the positives of this approach is that it eliminates automatic removal of previous item in hands so you don't suddenly loose your precious double carried item, adding tangibility and actual feel to execution of crafting actions or the possibility to walk during some crafting actions like opening cans or feeding magazines with cartridges. Additionally feeding a magazine will be a continuous action, the same as feeding the internal magazine of a gun which takes some time, one by one cartridge loading as long as you perform that feeding action which leads to a much more believable tension with planning ahead and tactical approach instead of that game where the fastest fingers win the crucial situations. At the end of the day the advantage of magazines lays in how many rounds you can fire with the current set without manipulating too much with the weapon or magazine instead of making nearly endless stream of fire with juggling with just two mags and ammo piles. (Keep in mind, we aren't going for 1:1 realism - obviously in a video game, round by round loading will be a bit faster than in real life).

As in the good tradition of DayZ all new changes will have visual feedback to players like attaching something to gun, picking item from ground, dropping it, feeding the magazine or crafting something. Everything should be readable by other survivors to make it clear what's going on and to be able to react on your performed actions which can offer time windows to take advantage of. All these changes will shift how DayZ is played a bit but I truly believe these they are introduced for a good reason and help to form a higher principle.

Nothing should stand between you and your stories... see you in Chernarus folks!

- Peter Nespesny / Lead Designer

 

 

Dev Update/Viktor

We are now focused on adding missing animations for vehicles. For the new animation system we have been adding some offset poses to allow player to look around inside the vehicle and also changing slightly how steering wheel looks to allow animating shift gear in the future.

Obviously never ending work on guns is still in progress. That means we are adding chambering animations for more guns and polishing existing reloading anims. The player graph now containes some new actions like animation for emptying bottle. Some more wounded moves have been created. The bow and pistols now have the same set as rifle - standing walk and run.

I am also planning next mocap session to capture some animations for operating the vehicles like engine repairing or attaching doors and wheels. More wounded anims are also on mocap list so we can continue on this feature.

- Viktor / Lead Animator

 

 

Community Spotlight: Days of Z

Ah nice, another live action movie of DayZ. I know, it's a bit over a year old so some of you might already have seen it. Still, I'm always amazed at how some people are able to put together videos like these (looks like it was fun being part of this production), so here we go, I hope you'll like "Days of Z" as well:

Big thanks to Fleet Productions for sharing their video with us!

If you also have some videos, screenshots/artwork, or photos of you in your real life DayZ gear that you would like to share, just jump across to the DayZ Forums and post it. We always love to see what you guys come up with!

Header image credit: DOS_v1.05

- Michael aka SMoss / Community Manager

[Maxzy 2]

"Eden Update Audio Tech merge"? You mean. like, Arma 3 Eden update? It's audio tech comes to DayZ? Or is it something else?

[c4p 30]

sounds great, thank you devs!

really exited and I'm looking forward to it :-)

note: any words to the Q&A?

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

Quote

Some more wounded moves have been created. The bow and pistols now have the same set as rifle - standing walk and run.

I am also planning next mocap session to capture some animations for operating the vehicles like engine repairing or attaching doors and wheels. More wounded anims are also on mocap list so we can continue on this feature.

^All that sounds excellent! Thanks Victor!

And thank you Devs/all once again!

I hope this wait is the final test of resolve, the final deep dark abyss before a piercing light at the end of the tunnel becomes visible!

Edited March 29, 2016 by ☣BioHaze☣
Translation not as bad as first thought....

[Komalt 27]

The silhouette idea is very good for the game for new players and old players alike since there are so many changes every patch.

But this should just be under a separate menu, a crafting menu or whatever you want to call it. How is this going to work in your inventory screen? Inventory should just be showing what you have, otherwise it will get confusing or just plain annoying with silhouettes appearing on your screen while hovering over items or something.

[JayBiggs 16]

I hope they don't entirely get rid of one of the more unique parts of this game: the option to manually reload weapons/magazines. The way DayZ does it now is unlike any other game I am aware of and it really gives a physicality to your firearm. Those clutch moments where you are in a firefight and need to reload while still keeping on the move, frantically loading ammo into magazines in your inventory screen. By all means, have hotbar reloads like we have now, but don't remove the option to reload things the way we have been since early access began. It is unique and makes your weapon feel like something substantial. Almost a character of its own. It takes skill. Adds tension.

Peter's description of crafting sounds cool, immersive and such. However it sounds like perhaps you wont be able to craft by dragging items on top of each other like you can now, correct? You have to always put one item in your hands first? I'm not sure I like that too much if so. But we will see how it plays. It may turn out just fine.

[Woody188887 21]

Nothing new here. Devs are saying the same vauge stuff as always. Development is too slow and I don't blame the devs. The community is too harsh on experimental builds. 

I think the devs are scared to even break the experimental because all they get is harassed. Experimental should be broken.

look at star citizen. Updates all the time and a growing community with growing development funds. They aren't scared to test broken builds. 

[stinkenheim 249]

The devs aren't scared to 'break' experimental as you put it. There have been many experimental builds over the development cycle that were horrific to play on. They need to resolve the issues with the renderer to ensure that it works when they put it in otherwise it would be a pretty shitty patch if you couldn't see anything on screen.

[☣BioHaze☣ 7337]

16 minutes ago, stinkenheim said:

The devs aren't scared to 'break' experimental as you put it. There have been many experimental builds over the development cycle that were horrific to play on. They need to resolve the issues with the renderer to ensure that it works when they put it in otherwise it would be a pretty shitty patch if you couldn't see anything on screen.

Yup, a blocker is called a blocker because it blocks us from testing!

Weeeee!

[emuthreat 2837]

6 hours ago, SMoss said:

 

Dev Update/Hicks

...

• Reload mechanics
  • The QA team have worked with the design and animation teams to get a firm handle on exactly where the inconsistencies are with the new reload mechanics, and said teams are working on resolving the issue. I think we can all agree that when we push a large change to how weapons reload - they damn better all reload with the same mechanics ;)
    ...
• .60 is focused on UI, and Renderer - it does not feature the new animation system, player controller, or user actions
  ...

So does this mean that the reload mechanics are part of the new UI, rather than a part of the player controller?  Are they not considered user actions or part of the animation system?  I guess I'm just a little confused as to how this all works; though I also understand the trouble that releasing a diagram of the engine components, and functions, could cause.

Is it absolutely necessary that .60 have the new reloading animations included in it?  Can the pairitized new UI be put out without having the new reload animations incorporated into it?  I don't think many people, at this point, would hold it against you guys for putting out a slightly less feature-rich .60.

It seems as if the plate is still somewhat overfull for this round of development.  When I go to a buffet, sometimes I have to make the difficult decision to go back for another trip, rather than pile a can of spaghetti on top of my delicious plate of peaches and baked beans. : )

No worries, still patient, just wanting for a bit more understanding.

Edited March 30, 2016 by emuthreat
.->?

[philbur 476]

I am immensely pleased to hear a short reference to the Audio Module!

The way I looked at it was that Audio, while super critical to the immersion of a game like DayZ, was being set aside while the guts of the game were still being sorted out.

The fact that they are already including this in their scope of development brings joy to my 7.1 surround sound ears!

Yeah Baby!

[Kohlbar 268]

Will all machines be able to run the new DX11 features? Do you have to have Windows 10?

[igor-vk 909]

"or nail down the planks to make a fence from simple frame." - Id like to see more info on this! Maybe an ETA.

[HeXed MinD 5]

10 hours ago, Maxzy said:

"Eden Update Audio Tech merge"? You mean. like, Arma 3 Eden update? It's audio tech comes to DayZ? Or is it something else?

Correct, the audio technology added to ARMA 3 in the Eden update will be coming to DayZ. Some more details on what that means here: https://arma3.com/news/top-10-arma-3-eden-update-audio

[nl 986]

2 hours ago, Kohlbar said:

Will all machines be able to run the new DX11 features? Do you have to have Windows 10?

My win7 pc already runs DX11 ? Or is some functionality missing in 7?

[GaryWalnuts 1680]

I'm looking forward to the Audio merge too, and I wonder if directional sound will come with the first iteration?

5 hours ago, Kohlbar said:

Will all machines be able to run the new DX11 features? Do you have to have Windows 10?

 

3 hours ago, nl said:

My win7 pc already runs DX11 ? Or is some functionality missing in 7?

You can always check by opening the run box (windows key + R) and running dxdiag. It doesn't take long and will show your dx version and any possible problems.

[[Gen]Adzic 241]

Ability to run games in DX11 depends on if you have a capable supported DX11 GPU and the required prerequisites installed on your PC from Microsoft https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/179113 Also, if you keep your O/S up to date with windows updates and run other modern games, you most likely already have DX11 installed on your machine.

 

Of course you also need your GPU (and the rest of your system) to be good enough and able to run the game itself, regardless of DirectX. 

 

Edited March 30, 2016 by [Gen]Adzic

[S3V3N 1402]

9 hours ago, Kohlbar said:

Will all machines be able to run the new DX11 features? Do you have to have Windows 10?

That's more a question of your graphics card. I'm not sure how far back, but I know my card can and it's only a 580 Ti. I should upgrade, but in combination with an i7 and a fast HD most games look and run fine. I'm not playing the latest shit either.

---

Thats a big status report, and I appreciate especially Peter's lenghty part in it. It explains a few things that I've wondered about and it's worth taking the time writing and reading that.I got reminded again of what a crazy development Dayz is. Where we have features and even an entire engine replaced or renewed. It's like they are having to make the game twice.

I feel like this engine development is a much overdue update for Bohemia. Let's face it: Arma games by themselves are pretty cluncky and not that much fun to play without mods. Vanilla Arma to me was always a starting point to great mods, or at least to modded missions. But the engine was lacking and even ARMAIII doesn't feel right to me. Now it is as if the future of Bohemia's developments rests more on the engine development than on the success of Dayz. Dayz already was/is successful enough. It's a prototype for future games, and I can't wait for what we'll see made with EnFusion. There was a Jurassic mod in development for Arma I/II, which aimed at creating roaming and feeding routines for dinosaurs. Imagine being dropped in that kind of sandbox, aka "Jurassic Park". Just one example. If you add boats to the mix (which we'll see eventually in Dayz -> at least they are on the list for planned vehicles), there could be pirate-styled games with islands to capture and whale to hunt. Digital whale oil for everyone! 

Seriously, this is an exciting engine and all the tech seems right. I'm a bit surprised they never had a benchmark tool of sorts. In engines like Unreal the environment pretty much adapts texture and object resolution to your specs. Even in editor and during development. It's very handy and I'm glad EnFusion has something similar now.

I remember when Cryengine added their Mannequin or whatever they called it and most people hated the system, until they understood how much better it is. I figure something like this will get on with EnFusion, too. Hopefully it will be accessible and documented well enough for the moddest modder to understand and learn themselves. I think the engine technology here is in no way unique and in many ways overdue for an update. However, when that is done, I'm sure people would like to develop amazing projects with EnFusion. Because what EnFusion does is shine in large open environments. More so than most engines. And perhaps Bohemia could expand their business model of accepting promising mods and turning them into production. I'm sure future projects will be smoother and quicker than Dayz, since the bottleneck seems to be technological development, rather than actual game design. Good luck from me and keep up your stuff! I still need to see it though ;) Give us the booty.

Edited March 30, 2016 by S3V3N

[Girth Brooks 558]

1 hour ago, S3V3N said:

Because what EnFusion does is shine in large open environments.

You been playing the new internal builds? Doubt it. All you do is waffle on these subjects.

[S3V3N 1402]

41 minutes ago, Girth Brooks said:

You been playing the new internal builds? Doubt it. All you do is waffle on these subjects.

It's a large game. The only other engine I know that comes close to that performance and detail is Cryengine; but not quite. I like thinking that a large populated world (on a single server) is one selling point of the engine. Nobody can know for sure, but whatever games are released after Dayz are probably gonna be interesting. But for now, Dayz is all there is. So you're right, I should stay on point. Status reports just always get me thinking. 

[stinkenheim 249]

11 hours ago, igor-vk said:

"or nail down the planks to make a fence from simple frame." - Id like to see more info on this! Maybe an ETA.

Oh dear God no. No eta's please... the fuss people made when the devs said they hoped .60 would be out by the end of February and missed it was (and still is) ridiculous.

If they gave an ETA, even a broad 'q4' one, do you really think the vocal portion of the community would accept any form of delay. 

[Tigermonk 140]

18 minutes ago, stinkenheim said:

Oh dear God no. No eta's please... the fuss people made when the devs said they hoped .60 would be out by the end of February and missed it was (and still is) ridiculous.

If they gave an ETA, even a broad 'q4' one, do you really think the vocal portion of the community would accept any form of delay. 

no we don't.. 'there just is' xD
I agree with you, no more 'eta' or 'we hope' because all that does is lead to more anger/disappointment among the community over time.
but there's one comment that's even more annoying.. xD and those are the people that post the dean hall vids with his signature 'it will be done when its done' BS XD

[igor-vk 909]

24 minutes ago, Tigermonk said:

no we don't.. 'there just is' xD
I agree with you, no more 'eta' or 'we hope' because all that does is lead to more anger/disappointment among the community over time.
but there's one comment that's even more annoying.. xD and those are the people that post the dean hall vids with his signature 'it will be done when its done' BS XD

How about they actually push something in game withous us having to ask when?

[nl 986]

8 hours ago, GaryWalnuts said:

 

 

You can always check by opening the run box (windows key + R) and running dxdiag. It doesn't take long and will show your dx version and any possible problems.

yeah I know and that's what I did, running DX11 and no problems found. So I don't understand the original question about possibly needing windows 10 to utilize DX11 in the new renderer. I am running an Asus GTX 650 Ti Boost DCII OC,2GBm which is DX11 compatible, so should the original question have been about the graphics card rather than the OS version?

 

[stinkenheim 249]

2 hours ago, igor-vk said:

How about they actually push something in game withous us having to ask when?

They can do that anytime. It's not the devs that control the complaints coming from the community.

I get how annoying it is to see things constantly getting delayed and having to wait for something we all want so very badly but complaining about it doesn't help. Pressurising devs into giving timescales won't help either. I mean you may get a patch released on whatever date they'd said but I may not be of a high quality because they didn't wait a week or a month or however long to iron out massive bugs.

Far better to wait and let things happen.  The game currently is perfectly playable.  It's not like we are seeing the massive amounts of desynch that littered previous patches. The main bugs are not being able to loot bodies and the weapon glitching.

I could gladly play on this for a while as I wait for .60, I'd rather this than the mess that was .57.