eugenharton 1540 Posted February 17, 2017 (edited) This week, we've reached an important internal milestone of completely deprecating our old SQF scripting language (it's been with us, in some form, ever since the first Arma got released). From now on, our internal branch of DayZ only runs modules written in the Enforce Script. Since I wanted to cover that internal milestone and explain its implications, I`m going to be more outspoken than usual, but before I get slightly more in-depth, the most important part for majority of our fans is this: From now on, internally, most of us in the DayZ team no longer need to work with a game that uses legacy modules of DayZ and functionality scripted in SQF. The legacy modules and scripts were often incompatible with the new ones written in Enforce Script, which were clashing together as we have prepared to phase them out. We don't need to worry about these anymore, and can actually start connecting all the new engine modules,technical modules and data together, and focus only on these. In a sense, that means that internally, we no longer maintain two different versions of DayZ content and gameplay. Before you get excited, this does in no way mean that we are very close to a public BETA build release: there is still a lot of work ahead of us, but this milestone is a major relief for the team. Why? This is where I want to get more in-detail: If we define gameplay as action that player can take in the game, there are two ways in general to make that gameplay "work": having things "hard-coded" (in C++ in the case of DayZ) using a scripting language (Enforce Script for DayZ, previously SQF in DayZ and other Bohemia games from the Arma branch) Most games use both scripting and hard-coded functionality. In a world where community modding matters (= our world!), you try and keep as many things as possible written in script - you want to have the ability to easily edit them later on. Scripting also makes iteration faster and helps our own designers create things on their own, while not spending additional programming time that is needed elsewhere. In our particular example, there are direct advantages in moving away from legacy SQF to the new interpretation of our gameplay using the Enforce Script. In direct comparison, we can say Enforce Script is much faster and more flexible. It is also object oriented and will be the backbone for all of DayZ modding. Even for modders themselves we want to introduce a script editor with IDE and debug functionality. Maybe you're wondering now: does all the work we did on the public branches of DayZ get scrapped all of a sudden? The answer is: some of it does (script), and some of it doesn't (data). We don't need to quickly write some rushed version of everything in DayZ using the new script now though: we've been working with both legacy script and the new script at the same time, and what exists in the public branches of DayZ now already exists written in the Enforce Script, too - all of it. As there is no direct "backwards compatibility" between the two scripts, we had to re-write the gameplay to the new script entirely, dragging all these pipelines in parallel. At the same time, content like models, textures and other binary files remains functional - we've said many times that we were trying to balance our development in a way that avoids, as often as possible, doing things twice - in order to save time and effort. And that's what we've managed to do - while expanding on their quality and additional features. We tried to test things which made sense to be tested on the public branches - things that provided you with a reasonable gameplay experience, and things that provided us with necessary data. But from this point going forward, internally, we only run version 0.63 which is BETA for us. As in a version that will have all the new engine modules and technical modules implemented, along with all the data that was created to support these modules. So again: Removing SQF means that our internal client runs only the gameplay functionality that is either hardcoded, or written in the new Enforce Script. No legacy systems. And no legacy engine modules in the end. That is the game that most of us have worked for so hard for the better part of those last three years. We are excited and wanted to share this important milestone with you. Eugen Edited February 17, 2017 by eugenharton 53 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gobbokirk 546 Posted February 17, 2017 9 minutes ago, eugenharton said: No legacy systems. And no legacy engine modules. These 2 things puts a big smile on my face :D 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
OliverPlotTwist 458 Posted February 17, 2017 Fantastic post. Thank you for sharing this with us. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tatanko 5591 Posted February 17, 2017 40 minutes ago, eugenharton said: That is the game that most of us have worked for so hard for the better part of those last three years. It's been a long road, and I think at least most of us are happy to have been along for the journey so far. Thanks for all your hard work, and the rest of the team, in continuing to push forward this vision. Cheers! 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SacrificeDayz 13 Posted February 17, 2017 First time poster, long time listener. This is awesome news and a big thanks to the communication from yourself and status reports. It is clear that the game is due some big and nice changes over the year of 2017. 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
☣BioHaze☣ 7337 Posted February 17, 2017 (edited) Hi Eugen! I heard you like cats. This is my roommates cat, Boo! He's a great cat friend. :3 Thanks so much for this bit of helpful insight as to where exactly we've arrived in the dev cycle. I am fascinated and excited to see how all the changes transmogrify our favorite game into the sleek modern AAA beauty she should be. Cheers! Edited February 17, 2017 by ☣BioHaze☣ *you may note the tan line from my cycling gloves because cycling is the best. 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bingo_fuel 205 Posted February 17, 2017 Congratulations on this internal milestone! :) How many lines of code are removed with the all the SQF code gone? :-D 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DooD YC 4 Posted February 17, 2017 Been on this road ever since early 2014 and I am gonna keep playing this masterpiece for a long time. Great work dev team! 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FSHIR 7 Posted February 17, 2017 I have a question The animation module (and all other future modules/beta milestones) - is it all done with Enforce script, or C++ also takes place there? I'm asking because, from what i know, when things are hardcoded they are performance efficient (especially if it's C++ we talking about), does the same thing apply for Enforce script performance wise? Quote In a world where community modding matters (= our world!), you try and keep as many things as possible written in script I'm worrying about poor optimization in future, because most of the things might be done via scripting. Correct me if i'm wrong, i'm no programmer. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dogus58 2 Posted February 17, 2017 I like this post hahaha :D 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Skullyrprz 1 Posted February 17, 2017 Aghhhh head huets after trying to understand all that.....lol but keep it up.....awesome progression Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AmazingAussie 38 Posted February 17, 2017 Awesome work, you guys must be really pleased with yourselves :) When can we expect to receive a version that no longer uses SQF? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sqeezorz 839 Posted February 17, 2017 Congratulations, a big step for you Devs, and a bigger one for us players. Eugen's post says so many things why so much is (still) as it is. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Five_Seven_Clown 88 Posted February 17, 2017 It just goes to show, each games development path is different and there is no point in generalising or comparing any two. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lack of talent 0 Posted February 17, 2017 say whether it will affect the FPS? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Redseven 13 Posted February 17, 2017 Congrats, devs! Awesome job so far. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mad Scientist 73 Posted February 17, 2017 Great news that all the legacy poop has been removed internally!! Cant wait to see the new modules integrated into the game - 0.63 is going to make DayZ great again!!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Survivor 1969 3 Posted February 17, 2017 awesome news!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
odin_lowe 3686 Posted February 17, 2017 Thanks for sharing Eugene! Really appreciated!! Keep it up fellas, we're all behind you and you got our support! Cheers! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Coheed_IV 381 Posted February 17, 2017 Great..... .thanks for eradicating the only scripting language I've ever known in my life! Just kidding, a massive milestone, congrats! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
0xy 10 Posted February 17, 2017 Noice. My hat is of to the team. Have a great weekend. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BeefBacon 1185 Posted February 18, 2017 Does this mean we might start seeing more frequent updates, and updates that have a measurable effect on gameplay? Obviously .60 added the new renderer which improved playability massively, and .61 added wolves among other things, but it's been a while since we got a really juicy gameplay feature like, I don't know, in-depth diseases and a stamina system. So now that this milestone has been reached and you're not dancing between two completely different versions of DayZ, might we see more frequent updates that add more substantial elements to the game? I mean, I guess as we get closer to beta more gameplay features becomes inevitable, but I'm guessing that this optimises development somewhat? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
_jwalker 0 Posted February 18, 2017 Just wanted to say thanks for the update and a "tip of the Hatlo" to the whole Team! :j Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DerAnbieter 0 Posted February 18, 2017 This is great news, keep up the good work :) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
