A first look at DayZ Modding

[Tom_48_97 181]

Hello, I'm Julien, Senior Producer at Bohemia Interactive, taking care of the modding component of DayZ.

A fair number of you have been asking about DayZ Modding, and the more adventurous even found Buldozer (sub-program of the game) or played around with the community-made offline mode. And as the BETA is closing in and we haven't shared anything for a while, we feel like it's finally time to share some information.

At the moment, modding is projected to be a PC exclusive feature, integrated via the Steam Workshop. It will work in a pretty similar way to how it does with Arma 3. As for when modding will be available: We aim for a partial release together with the BETA. However, this is not set in stone.

From the technological point of view, at its core, DayZ is a hybrid between the Real Virtuality (RV) and Enfusion Engine - those who played and modded Arma 3 will recognize most of the tools which have been adjusted and optimized to support DayZ. Assets are still being made via Object and Terrain Builder; the packing process remains mostly unchanged, and sharing of creations will go through the loop Publisher / Game Launcher. We're also planning to add Workbench to the Tools package. This is a powerful all-in-one tool developed to handle modifications related to the new Enfusion engine game core such as scripting, particles editing, UI editing, and others. In addition to these, the tools will contain a few more DayZ specifics like NavMesh Generator and the editor for the Central Economy.

More information is coming, and we can't wait to unleash the tools into your hands and see how far you can push your imagination!

[DannyDog 532]

Wow what a genuine surprise. Thought we'd get more info at gamescom. Super excited to upgrade from notepad++ xD

[FSHIR 7]

Are new tools allow for direct .FBX/.OBJ asset import, or does it still need to be converted to P3D first?

(If it's P3D route are there more robust tools being planned for convert out there that won't break normals?)

[Jacob_Mango 33]

5 minutes ago, DannyDog said:

Wow what a genuine surprise. Thought we'd get more info at gamescom. Super excited to upgrade from notepad++ xD

Really, notepad++?

 

Come on and join the VSCODE train!

[GrosTon1 26]

Amazing.

Are you also planning to release server files nearly at the same time as modding ?

[Uro 1]

Awesome news, however I have a few questions Julien.

• Will you be supporting native import of models and animations from standard asset pipelines and file formats such as FBX (Models+Animation) ?
• Will there be updated Object Builder  & Terrain Builder application equivalents?
• If not, are pipeline tools being make available to smooth out the workflows involved in importing assets?  For example updated maxscript/maya/blender exporters?
• Which texture workflows are being supported? Specular/Gloss, Metal/Roughness, both? :)
• Lastly, will you be offering IDE/API plugins for existing development suites such as Visual Studio, IntelliJ etc?

Glad to hear things are shaping up with Enfusion and that we'll soon get to play with the guts of the thing :)

Edited August 15, 2018 by Uro

[exacomvm 101]

Will we be able to extract original assets? I would like to render them using RS/Octane etc. 
If not, please add this feature! 

Edited August 15, 2018 by exacomvm

[lappihuan 26]

Will shapfile support for roads be added to DayZ TB and DayZ Game since it is already used in A3?

[DannyDog 532]

1 hour ago, lappihuan said:

Will shapfile support for roads be added to DayZ TB and DayZ Game since it is already used in A3?

On 10/6/2017 at 6:45 AM, Sumrak said:

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).

Take that with a grain of salt however. Posted awhile ago so not sure if anything's changed.

 

2 hours ago, Jacob_Mango said:

Really, notepad++?

 

Come on and join the VSCODE train!

Intellij for life mate.

Edited August 15, 2018 by DannyDog

[HopperNL 5]

exciting to see this becoming reality :D

[L.Trale 1]

Animations are a huge part of story telling. An animation editor is something I wanted to see in ArmA 3, just to make stories feel more real.

[Funkdoc 46]

6 hours ago, Uro said:

• Will you be supporting native import of models and animations from standard asset pipelines and file formats such as FBX (Models+Animation) ?
• Will there be updated Object Builder  & Terrain Builder application equivalents?
• ...

as i m interpreting things, the dev environment for level design will be equal to A3. same tools like OB & TB, probably enhanced...

i can imagine that it will be sometime one for both games. i think we can expect all existing A3 TB/OB functions and also the updates to it

Edited August 15, 2018 by Funkdoc

[HIHBGaming 14]

Can't wait to get our hands on these modding tools!

[tony cross 1]

I'm so happy and I cant wait to play this on xbox this game has taking a long time but the chances to play it for myself and not watch others I'm so HYPE thanks to all the hard work the team is putting in I just cant wait 

[mitch2GNAR 11]

awesome!

 

[FSHIR 7]

Aren't developers supposed to answer questions on here?

Tom_48_97, Why did you create this thread if it's otherwise

[Krzaqq 1]

Another question that is related to modding. I love a little different type of gameplay than the standard one, i.e. DayZ Epoch. These programs give you the opportunity to add many assets. But those who played in Epoch know that the fun there was also in AI bandits (as a variety). I once read that a lot of work at DayZ SA went to the removal of Arma's logic from AI. Therefore, the question is: does DayZ SA allow spawn an AI to use various types of weapons, as was the case with Epoch modification?

[Funkdoc 46]

8 minutes ago, Krzaqq said:

... Therefore, the question is: does DayZ SA allow spawn an AI to use various types of weapons, as was the case with Epoch modification?

what do u mean with allows it? its simply not implemented.

for modding, A2/A3 content must be ported or rewritten into Enscript. but it will be not so hard i think. 

[kostik856 0]

вы патчи все прековеркали  лучше бы 0 62 исправляли баги а не меняли каждый патч локацию и города вы определитись что вам нужно

[Nerv12 1]

 

hello, I want to say something that took me a long time hoping to make mistakes but no, I think you have no shame you are literally years behind with the launch of the game and only with the last promise you have been more than a year and a half late with the 0.63, and that you started with half a game echo since all this came from the weapon ... I understand that this is an alpha but there are other more ambitious alphas in the same time or less removed the final version of their game, You have been basically selling smoke for 5 years because as I repeat you started with textures models and a map of weapon 2, what you said is not embarrassing.

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Nerv12 said:

 

hello, I want to say something that took me a long time hoping to make mistakes but no, I think you have no shame you are literally years behind with the launch of the game and only with the last promise you have been more than a year and a half late with the 0.63, and that you started with half a game echo since all this came from the weapon ... I understand that this is an alpha but there are other more ambitious alphas in the same time or less removed the final version of their game, You have been basically selling smoke for 5 years because as I repeat you started with textures models and a map of weapon 2, what you said is not embarrassing.

Sorry, we don't talk martian here.

[Tom_48_97 181]

Here some answers to a few questions I can reply to. I will keep an eye open on the topic so keep the questions, thoughts, and suggestions coming!

Quote

Are new tools allow for direct .FBX/.OBJ asset import, or does it still need to be converted to P3D first?

The 3D format still goes through the P3D, as said previously, the packing process remains mostly unchanged. About conversion scripts and plugins, nothing is sure at the moment.

Quote

Are you also planning to release server files nearly at the same time as modding ?

The release of the server files isn’t tight to the modding tools and should arrive very soon after the Beta if not at the same time.

Quote

Will there be updated Object Builder  & Terrain Builder application equivalents?

Correct, as mentioned in the blog, assets and terrains are still being made via Object and Terrain Builder with indeed, some adjustments and improvements.

Quote

Lastly, will you be offering IDE/API plugins for existing development suites such as Visual Studio, IntelliJ etc?

Not at the time of release. This may or may not happen later but keep in mind it’s not something trivial to do.

Quote

Will we be able to extract original assets? I would like to render them using RS/Octane etc. 

Yes but the unpacked data mustn't be used for anything else than creating / support content creation (E.g. new terrains). The usage of the data for another purpose than modding as well as redistributing (modified or not) it isn't allowed. Therefore, using original assets to render them with a 3rd party tools represents a breach of the EULA.

Quote

for modding, A2/A3 content must be ported or rewritten into Enscript. but it will be not so hard i think. 

Yes and no, the Enforce is very different from the SQF and porting scripts from one to another can sometimes lead to re-design the feature and/or architecture itself.

Quote

does DayZ SA allow spawn an AI to use various types of weapons, as was the case with Epoch modification?

The AI implementation has been totally overhauled and, in short, it isn't possible to properly spawn complex AI like with Arma 2/3, at the moment.

Here a little bonus, the particle editor (Workbench), for those who did some on Arma 2/3, it's quite a change:

[Yuval 221]

How lightweight is the workbench as an IDE (scripting)?

.edit

Also, please elaborate on AI/NPC. Is it not something to be featured by the DayZ development team?

Edited August 26, 2018 by Yuval

[Funkdoc 46]

On 24.8.2018 at 10:59 AM, Tom_48_97 said:

Yes and no, the Enforce is very different from the SQF and porting scripts from one to another can sometimes lead to re-design the feature and/or architecture itself.

yes of course, porting mission/server SQF scripts from arma wont work very well... thats why i wrote "rewritten".

as i see at the first image, scripting code is kept in C...

Just 2 really important question:

Will we get a Wiki and Tutorials/guides for the new scripting lenguage like for Arma (scripting commands, BI_functions...)?

Thinking of server performance, will there be also a HeadlessClient support (for animal and infected AI) ?

[Tom_48_97 181]

On 8/26/2018 at 1:41 PM, Yuval said:

How lightweight is the workbench as an IDE (scripting)?

Like with all IDEs, it's hard to answer without a use case - it depends on the hardware/software used, the project size and its file count, and what operations are ongoing.

E.g. It should be roughly as follow when editing particles within a mid-size project (with i7 4790, 16GB and GTX760): CPU: ~5-10%; RAM: 800MB; GPU: ~5/40% Preview/Edit)

On 8/26/2018 at 1:41 PM, Yuval said:

Also, please elaborate on AI/NPC. Is it not something to be featured by the DayZ development team?

In short, at the moment, it should be possible to create an AI character, and play with movement states and animations but it would be difficult to deal with collisions since the pathfinding isn't available from scripts yet. We plan to add such support (pathfinding) but the timeline is unknown.

16 hours ago, Funkdoc said:

Will we get a Wiki and Tutorials/guides for the new scripting lenguage like for Arma (scripting commands, BI_functions...)?

Yes. While its initial content is defined, the platform is to be validated, even if it's very likely to be Mediawiki.

16 hours ago, Funkdoc said:

Thinking of server performance, will there be also a HeadlessClient support (for animal and infected AI) ?

Dayz won't support headless clients.