The Turning Point

[Solopopo 330]

Does anyone else feel more confident and excited about the future of DayZ than ever before? We know that .62 and .63 have been worked on by two separate teams, which have now converged to work on .63. If .62 is any indication of the quality of the changes we can expect in .63, I cannot wait to experience them. .62 has addressed a serious issue with DayZ and Arma games in general that has been bothering me since I first started playing, and it is one I never thought the devs would legitimately address. I don't know how many players are aware of this, but grass and foliage has been effectively broken ever since the original DayZ mod. It was possible to gain a pretty significant advantage in PvP by putting your graphics on low, causing the ground foliage to completely disappear, along with any cover it provided. So basically by making your game look like garbage you could gain an edge, which is just crap we can all agree. On Arma servers hosts have attempted to address this issue themselves by forcing at least high object detail on their servers, but it was completely up to them to do this.

I have posted about this issue in the past, here and in the feedback tracker. I am overjoyed to see this issue finally taken care of, almost to the point of tears. If they have taken the time to address this issue, literally a year, just imagine the time they have put into everything else. They manually placed 1.7 million trees and who knows how many smaller foliage objects to accomplish this.

Another thing I noticed about .62 is that it isn't just the foliage that stays put on low settings now, but the clouds do as well, meaning that everyone is equally hindered by fog and weather. It's not like Battlefield 1 where everyone is subjected to their own unique, and fake,  whether. .62 has not only revitalized the visual aesthetics of the world, but has completely redefined how those pretty objects function as part of the game. We are all equally subjected to the elements. We experience the same wind, the same rain, the same fog, the same grass, the same everything. .62 has been a massive step towards making Chenaurus as real as it can be. I am down right flabbergasted by these changes. Please Bohemia Interactive keep doing what you are doing, and don't be deterred by the haters. You are truly treading new territory in game design, and preparing for a us a platform for gaming experiences unlike anything anyone has ever experienced. 

Edited June 24, 2017 by Solopopo

[Sqeezorz 839]

and this

New Render on night. 

Night (ambient light) are only Rendering on 8 bit, if you use a lightsource then are the lighted area on full colordepth.

Screenshot (edited) with max. Gamma.

Edit: I am happy for this change. I really tried to survive with 50% Gamma in Krasnostav. It was as dark as a bear's ass (3/4 fullmoon !!). Infected were almost not visible and I had to locate them with the noise. With a torch it was very pleasant, just making a torch no harm, a real challenge. Infected were also with max. Gamma is very bad to see, depending on the clothing and background they become almost invisible. The farther away they are, the more they become the environment.

Oh what I would have given everything for a headlight .... all my 2 cans of food.

The direction is right, even if there will be many "critics", the challenge slowly takes shape.

Edit2:

Yesterday I made a new observation. Moonlight directly acts like daylight. That means in the night the environment is illuminated by moonlight ---> full color rendering. This means when you move in the shadow of the moon, you are almost no longer visible on a long distance and with clothing the colors !! The surrounding area. (Observations with infected)

Find the right way on the darkness.

Edited June 27, 2017 by Sqeezorz

[Just Caused 423]

I really liked last few updates. I love how they divided them in small, but very important updates. 0.59 had tons of vehicles, 0.60 new renderer, 0.61 audio and predators and now 0.62 vegetation. And now they are adding animations and player controller. I really like how they managed to get on the right track, before they added some new fixes, weapons and nothing important.

[Irish. 4886]

9 hours ago, Solopopo said:

snip

I made some tests on experimental .62 shortly after it came out. What I noticed, is what you did. On low, almost everything in game stayed there. I was a little blown away. After a lot more testing I left my settings on low, for objects, then went into the new folder for our profile and adjusted my view distance and overall distance to much higher numbers. Jumped back in game and low and behold it worked. I can see forever, but my game runs at 80-90fps average in almost all areas. In Cherno Im getting a steady 60+. The only other setting I have on low is shadows, because that seems to give a large hit now and doesn't "increase" performance on very high-high any longer, like it used to with certain systems. All else is maxed out, and Im gaming in 1440p. The game looks gorgeous and is smooth as it ever has been.

Its such a great sign of things to come.

Edited June 25, 2017 by Irish.

[Mantasisg 172]

Yeah core game has been improoving constantly a lot, also nice to hear that foliage will be meaningful from now on. But I'm not confident, nor excited at all - because gameplay. I just don't have it.

All the hopes are for 0.63, as devs have stated it is going to be patch from which they are starting to create an actual game. So excited to get excited when we'll have 0.63. Maybe going to get happy when I'll see 0.63 being downloaded, not so much till that.

Right now I'm usually having just a run around, kill few zombies.... Don't have time to play for 3hours straight so I would have a possibility to meet someone. 

Edited June 25, 2017 by Mantasisg

[The_Lonely_Bandit 94]

The new foliage is a big step forward.

The main issue of it however is still there as the grass stops rendering at like 50 meters.. So while the new trees do have a decent affect at distance now grass is still nearly useless. One of my few main gripes with the new update :(

[Mantasisg 172]

Stops rendering at 50m ? So no win lol, false thread.


I haven't tried DayZ in low settings now, and believed. Trust no one in DayZ, gotta check it yourself. 

Edit: I feel stupid for not noticing it before. No grass at all in close distance...  I also died because of that, and with that in mind at the moment. noob

Also LODs switching is quite bad. 

P.S. I don't remember last time when I met someone in Novo lol, maybe a year ago lol, used to met rather many players there.

Edited June 25, 2017 by Mantasisg

[Solopopo 330]

4 hours ago, The_Lonely_Bandit said:

The new foliage is a big step forward.

The main issue of it however is still there as the grass stops rendering at like 50 meters.. So while the new trees do have a decent affect at distance now grass is still nearly useless. One of my few main gripes with the new update :(

 

3 hours ago, Mantasisg said:

snip

It does stop rendering at a certain distance, which I think is actually 200 meters. But the ground foliage was not the only change. This patch seems to have been focused on improving how well we can use natural objects as cover. It is no coincidence the patch came with a new ghillie suit to match the world, which was featured in the .62 showcase. Whereas foliage provides much better cover close up, trees provide much better cover at range. There are also many more small natural objects that do not dissappear until you are as far as your object distance is set, like trees. The new color changes and ambient sound also contribute to making stealth more feasible as well. As of .62, all of the nature in the game can effectively be used as cover at all ranges within reason. I have tested this for hours in multipe environments with enemy players present. Please do check for yourself. 

Edited June 25, 2017 by Solopopo

[The_Lonely_Bandit 94]

I can guarantee you it is not 200 meters. 100 meters would be a stretch, to me it seems 50-75 on average. 

[Solopopo 330]

32 minutes ago, The_Lonely_Bandit said:

I can guarantee you it is not 200 meters. 100 meters would be a stretch, to me it seems 50-75 on average. 

Regardless, this only applies to the foliage, not the new small natural objects that have been added, of which there are very many. It is relatively inconsequential that the foliage dosen't render at range now, because they have taken other measures to ensure players can cover themselves at range. I still wish that it would render further too, but server hosts will likely have the option to boost it up if they choose. The base game is more stable for more players this way, and all players will be able to use cover they see either way. It isn't perfect, but .62 is a massive leap in the right direction in regard to cover that's visible to the player providing equal advantage, and disadvantage, to everyone. 

Edited June 25, 2017 by Solopopo

[Mantasisg 172]

I would like to see someone laying down with the ghile in ~100-200m distance, I guess he would be totally visible. 

[Sqeezorz 839]

Oh people. Please keep your feet still a little.

The renderer on DX11 has still a lot of potential upward, since the introduction numerous improvements have been made.

The same also applies to the Ambientsound ... it is only at the beginning and also here is still much before us. What is still the case today, can be changed tomorrow.

There are simply very many things that depend on the "player controller".

[Solopopo 330]

8 hours ago, Mantasisg said:

I would like to see someone laying down with the ghile in ~100-200m distance, I guess he would be totally visible. 

Yeah, a totally visible bush. Even before this patch people failed to pick out ghillies that weren't moving. 

[Mantasisg 172]

TBH I have never seen somebody with ghile. And I have 500hours lol, maybe just once

But it is not the point. The point is that you will not be able to hide in the grass, unless in extremely close distance. Ghillie is different topic.

[Whyherro123 2283]

2 hours ago, Solopopo said:

Yeah, a totally visible bush. Even before this patch people failed to pick out ghillies that weren't moving. 

No. Ghillies are actually really easy to spot, since they look like bushed-up players as opposed to, you know, bushes. It is how characters vs vegetation gets loaded in at long range

Ghilles are only really effective when you physically insert yourself into a bush while wearing one. 

[Solopopo 330]

32 minutes ago, Whyherro123 said:

No. Ghillies are actually really easy to spot, since they look like bushed-up players as opposed to, you know, bushes. It is how characters vs vegetation gets loaded in at long range

Ghilles are only really effective when you physically insert yourself into a bush while wearing one. 

Please refrain from posting erroneous information. There are numerous accounts and videos online of players in ghillies not being seen by people right in front of them. A simple google search brings up many such examples. I did not say that the previous ghillie was perfect, nor is this topic about that ghillie. I said players failed to spot it, and they did. Maybe you were good enough to spot every old ghillie you saw, but you cannot claim they weren't effective in open fields because that's objectively false. Regardless, they are only better now. 

 

Edited June 26, 2017 by Solopopo

[St. Jimmy 1631]

Do ghillie suits still render player invisible after like 100m? It was like that long time ago so it was hard to spot a running ghillie on the middle of a road... That's one of the reasons why old one was good because it was basically a cheat to make you invisible unless beign very close.

[Kirov (DayZ) 585]

On 25.06.2017 at 1:11 AM, Sqeezorz said:

 

Night (ambient light) are only Rendering on 8 bit, if you use a lightsource then are the lighted area on full colordepth.

 

Screenshot (edited) with max. Gamma.

I'm not sure I understand what's going on in this image, what's on the left and right again?

[Sqeezorz 839]

On the left side you see the room was lighted by one Torc. The light of torc spread "real light" into this room. The render take "real light" to render in normaly coloring. (Same at the Sunlight). On the right side you can see the dark room (no real light). The render-engine  render all this areas with darkness, only in a 8bit color depht. (Same colors from a .gif picture --> 256 various colors [16bit colordepht have over 64000 colors...and 24 more then 16 kk colors) with hight gamma  now you have more brightness, the brightness alone make not better the small colors in the night... you can better hide in dark zones... if the render make not many differents by the colors.

Edit: if you play with 50% gamma then are the right side of screenshot black...only little litte details...the light from the room make very strange to see different "black shapes" on the right side. (The screenshot are edited with paint.net only with "auto brightness option ---> simultane max Gamma, because F12 dont work).

(Sry its not easy to write this mechanics... german is my first language)

Edited June 27, 2017 by Sqeezorz

[FlimFlamm 509]

For me the turning point was when they began to complete and install the engine/renderer, but technically we're still mid turn....

Until I get an aircraft to fly the game won't feel like the DayZ of old (epoch mod style)....

Good thing my patience is nearly infinite ;)

[Mantasisg 172]

Newest issues, and I only played for a few hours: 

1. You die from one zombie hit. I read, someone already posted about that, that it is because of players bones status. And it is BS in my opinion. It is just dumb. A major deal breaker. I also used splint multiple times on a character - either it doesn't help, or doesn't work.
2. Characters became stupidly slow climbing up the hill, the steeper the climb, the slower it goes. As it is logical from one side. It is totally nonsense when you are being chased. If you would be running for your life, you would climb faster than in slowest possible walking pace. Also zombies are moving much faster up the hills, so it is 2x issue. It used to be slower before, but now it is terribly slow up the hills, doesn't even have to be super steep.

Feels more like turning away point... 

Just too frustrating... seems like putting DayZ to dust for a few months more, unless someone will invite me to play.

So many problems, so many.... and as some goes away new comes. Some seems like very bad design choices and so on...

Without knowing the hotpoints in the server its just pointless. You will not have battles, will not have interactions. Finding a car is incredible luck - don't even expect.
 

Edited June 27, 2017 by Mantasisg

[Eventuality_ 15]

I couldn't agree with you more Solopopo! I found myself playing far less DayZ in .61, but when .62 released into experimental I just couldn't put it down. The ambient sounds and immersive environments made me play and re-visit so many locations. What I believed was a great yet small change was actually one of it's larger changes in terms of immersion and gameplay. I found myself constantly asking my friends whether or not they could see the fog, grass, trees, clouds the way I saw them! The only thing I was somewhat upset about was the ambient sounds being played differently for myself. However I have found myself obsessing over status reports and DayZDevTeam tweets. I get myself a few snacks and a nice drink before every status report releases. I constantly re-visit the GIFs and video showcases. This is the most excited I have been for the future and present of DayZ in a very long time. This is the best time to be a DayZ fan imo. Greater times are coming to the kingdom!

[blackberrygoo 1416]

I don't believe now is the turning point . Too much fluff and not enough , well , turning . The animation and new player controller is just taking far too long , I say this based off of the initial 3 roadmaps , all planning on having all of the features for the game in by beta - obviously those marks have been missed and that's ok I suppose but it has created a stagnant feeling for dayz IMO .

 

When they finally manage to push out the new animation and player controller systems maybe that will be the "turning point" as we will be much closer to seeing some of the mechanics we have been long waiting for , but right now I have to say we are in a stagnant period of nothing but fluff to keep us strung along so to speak . 

 

The interactions of dayz are great , but with such a spread out map now (lots of points of interest) the game feels dull and empty after so many years of running around the map doing nothing but legit waiting for better days(z). I used to be able to put in 10 hours a day to this game , but the novelty has worn off and after all these years of waiting for something better to evolve out of this old carcass , I believe I have burnt out and cannot even put in 2 hours on a day off as I just get more satisfaction out of almost anything now adays .

i can't wait to see the game complete , hell I can't wait to see the condition of the first "beta" patch , but that's likely still another 6 months or so away , so any excitement I may have is quickly destroyed by realistic expectations based off of dayzs patching history .

[Solopopo 330]

4 hours ago, blackberrygoo said:

snip

Making it so that everyone is equally effected by the elements and the cover it provides is in no way "fluff." DayZ has always provided an advantage to players that reduce their object quality, and that is no longer the case now. They have effectively addressed a problem that has existed since the original mod, and without this change, the game would always be inherently broken. To say this is "fluff" is just absurd, because it is actually the complete opposite. The new trees and foliage have a function. They provide fair and even cover to everyone, no matter their settings, and the way they sway in the wind communicates to the player which way the wind is blowing, which is an important feature of the game, again, by no means "fluff." Aside from the fact that trees and forests are obviously better, the devs have addressed important subtitles in the world that will have a significant impact on how we will play the game, now and in the future.

I say that this is the turning point because .62 and .63 are part of the same project. We know .63 is coming for a fact, we know it's beta for a fact, and we know we can expect it reasonably soon because again, .62 and .63 are part of the same project. The last push to beta is intended to be a two pronged approach, so to speak, and the first prong is already in place. This is the turning point because we have been given a glimpse of what beta is. .62 contains everything that was meant for beta that can be implemented as of now. .63 contains everything dependent on the new player controller, as well as some Enfusion powered goodness. Whatever any roadmap says, .63 is confirmed to be beta. 6 months sounds like a reasonable estimate to me, though I hope to be surprised every day.  Personally, I am perfectly fine waiting that time with the certainty that it is beta. You should probably take a break. I came back from a long break only a little over a month ago. It rejuvenated me, but at this point I'm considering putting it back down again myself. It helps to make things feel more fresh. 

As odd as it may sound, appreciate this time now. These forums, and this game, will never be the same again in only a short while. 

Edit: I think it's kind of funny that no one, including myself, has brought up the new weapon sway, which is also a significant change, and likely emblematic of what the sway in .63 will be, again considering that .62 and .63 have been done together. The devs have spoken a lot about avoiding "doing things twice." Unless they made an exception for .62, being that it is the last patch before beta, it's not unreasonable to expect the sway in .62 to carry straight over to .63.

Edited July 3, 2017 by Solopopo