faatal
-
Posts
2,947 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
104
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Articles
A20 Bugs
A21 Bugs
Events
Posts posted by faatal
-
-
36 minutes ago, Trankitas said:
Is Alpha 21 coming this year right?
I sure hope so!
7 -
3 hours ago, Vintorez said:
As a player I feel like an intuitive enough way to fix the terrain gap would be to have a tool, like a trowel or alternate function for the shovel, that sets terrain voxels to fill their area. Not sure how feasible that would be on the dev side but it sounds better than having like a special block to select and would work with any voxel terrain type.
Terrain voxels by themselves are diamonds, so they can't fill a block voxel, which is a cube. Terrain voxels only fill a cube when blending into adjacent terrain or multiple terrain voxels together blending into air blocks, but that shape is a spike in that direction. Adjacent terrain spikes merge together and then remove hidden faces. You can change an adjacent block voxel's density to blend terrain into it, but that is a spike, not a flat face.
1 -
On 3/3/2023 at 2:38 PM, Roland said:
Terrain blocks are not cubes like player placed blocks are. They are octahedrons I believe. The terrain used to be cubes in the earliest alphas but they changed them from cubes and actually experimented with a few different polyhedra before settling on what we still have currently. I'm pretty sure most if not all other voxel games base blocks on the same cube shapes whether they are crafted or terrain-- so they fit together perfectly.
Terrain uses the marching cubes algorithm, which makes a diamond shape that merges into their neighbors, so they stretch in each direction. They also stretch into air, so the density of the surrounding air also effects the shape and there are some density combinations that make a bad mesh, but normal terrain manipulation does not create those combinations.
4 -
8 hours ago, Aldranon said:
With the hole appearing when a POI is reset MF bug: (This is just spit-balling but might help somehow) Can you do an area wide function that is similar to when a person is digging a hole and the system will keep the player from falling through the world by making ground under their feet?
The bug might be when a POI is on two or more chunks and not all the chunks get updated.
Or the player digs around the POI (for whatever reason) and that throws off the POI reset?
It is a terrain collision mesh generation issue. Could be timing and/or a combination of density values or simply a code error. I've never seen someone fall through the world digging down.
2 -
8 hours ago, DuHast_Play said:
I'm glad that there was news directly from the team) I'm glad to see them with my own eyes) I would like to ask if there is an approximate date for at least the first streams of the new alpha? just an approximate date according to your plans and expectations)
No date yet. Streams would be x amount of time before we anticipate release as we don't want streams too early. Multiple people, including myself have tasks to finish with unknown durations. A good example is a hole in terrain bug I have when quest resetting some POIs. I've looked at it before and why it happens is unknown, which means it could take a day or a week or more. There is no way to know, only guess.
7 -
On 3/1/2023 at 11:36 PM, Aldranon said:
Faatal how much improvement did they make on this one?
Any improvement is good news If I'm understanding it correctly.
-
IL2CPP: Improved performance of awaiting async operations on Windows. (UUM-20917)
-
That one does not matter since the computer version of the game does not use IL2CPP as it would break code mods. Console is using IL2CPP. Console needed a fix in .17 for a PS5 occlusion bug and we currently try to keep versions in sync between computer and console dev, so the update from .16 to latest.
3 -
-
11 hours ago, bdubyah said:
@faatal All that sounds awesome. The more zombies the better. The terrain tool improvements sound good if they will work how I think. I never saw much use for that tool as is due to it being too destructive either way. Giving it a smoothing ability would be pretty sweet if that is possible. Battlecraft 1942 had some good terrain abilities back in the day for BF42. Something like that would be perfect.
Have you guys started the MF counter for A21 yet? Soon, maybe?
To be clear, this is more zombies on the server, spread across multiple players, while improvements like disabling jiggle is client side.
If you as a client had 100 zombies around you, the overhead of animating, colliding and rendering them is still expensive and you would probably have a low FPS.
Must Fixes was started a few months ago, but that is just a guide. Multiple systems are still being worked on, polished and tested, which are not often in MFs. There is some overlap, like my vehicle damage task is marked MF, yet it is a system improvement task, not a bug. That one is basically done, but I'm not closing it yet as the values are still open to tweaking and I would like to work on vehicles smoking when highly damaged, if I spend the time. That could also be done during experimental, so not a high priority to me.
9 -
8 hours ago, Blake_ said:
Now Sir, you are treading on dangerous waters here. How do you sleep at night?
Jokes aside, I love those changes. I have a question about the Zd count: does that mean that you guys will set the max Zd count on the new map/continue map menu to 128 or something like that? Please do tell !
The cap currently is the same. Different spawning systems can now scale the cap as they check the count. Blood moon is x1.9. Sleeper volumes x2.1.
2 -
Some news.
The basics of an entity activity throttling system have been added to A21 to allow servers to handle more zombies. Large AI counts would overload pathing causing all zombies to be delayed in moving, so this decreases the update rate based on distance from players while still allowing each player to always have some fully active zombies. With this change, max zombie counts for blood moons and sleeper volumes are allowed to be scaled around double what the the cap is set to. The system also disables jiggle components for clients with distance as these were getting expensive as more zombies have them. The system will continue to be improved to throttle other activities.
I noticed last week we had an old Terrain Tool that was not being used, as it did not work very well, so it has gotten some changes and bug fixes. It now grows terrain in all directions (was just upwards before) and you can select the fill block. Undo also works. This will allow POI designers to make easier and faster terrain instead of the old add/paste/cut blocks and modify density using the cursor keys. Other improvements are planned.Grass like plants now have shadows, which were removed years ago for performance reasons. Based on tests enabling shadows for grass near the player, I saw no reason we can't have these shadows and it looks nicer. Enabling and distance is controlled by shadow and grass quality settings.
We are also finishing the process of doing one more Unity update to 2021.3.19.
41 -
3 hours ago, khzmusik said:
With all the talk of climbing - are there any plans to add climbing animations? If not in A21, are they at least on the roadmap?
Maybe, but that does not make it look better all by itself. Players like myself still want to point in any direction while on the ladder, so you will see what exactly? My gun pointed away from the ladder with my torso twisted backwards? Zombies need to be able to attack in any direction yet still be hanging on the ladder somehow. There is no good solution for the direction issue, which is why some games lock feet/hands/camera while climbing, which always feels like garbage, just so it looks nice.
3 -
On 2/11/2023 at 8:43 PM, gunner1912 said:
@faatal do you think this new crafting change will not just change the standard method of progressing from grind xp for crafting to grind quest bc why not when i can get t6 loot in a week doing quests vs lootings for 3 weeks for a t4 lower tech lv item? or is the quest system going to be reworked to balance this new system as well?
I'm not sure. I would like to see the quests restricted somewhat and pushed out farther but I am not a big quester and others on the team have their own opinions.
1 -
2 hours ago, Aldranon said:
Sooo, Unity build 2021.3.19 will probably be out next month....
Are you trying to "Roland Hint" us?
I'm OK with March 30 or April 1st for a release date!!
I'm using .18 for testing now and our console devs need a fix in .17 for an occlusion bug and since they are parallel developing, we try to stay on the same version, hence the stop at .18 or .19 if that drops soon. Release wise it will come down to how fast bugs get fixed, which depends on when we stop finding major bugs.
2 -
On 2/9/2023 at 8:42 PM, Morloc said:
Pfff....I'm not sure that'd get you all the Stellaris DLC these days.
😋
-Arch Necromancer Morloc 💀
The constant stream of DLC makes me not want to buy the game. Maybe someday if they package everything together for 20 bucks, they can have my money.
On the other hand, I find I never play the extra gameplay type DLCs in most gold editions of games I buy, as I am sick of the game by the time I finish...if I even make it to the end.
6 -
On 2/7/2023 at 9:00 AM, Quagmire1428 said:
@faatal So with this extended period of developement, is A21 a larger update than usual, or is it moreover that is has been a trickier one? i'm in no rush for it as i know it will happen when it happens, just wondering.
. . . anyway, hope your sanity is holding up with all this 🤣 and things are good for you!
It is a large amount of changes, in line with any other big alpha. We have more programmers than ever working on it, and there are a lot of system level updates going on or planning to happen, which are not necessarily flashy features to players, but help the game run better. Much of that will be needed to get all the PC features running on the new gen of consoles, as they may be better than the last, but are still limited in some ways compared to a mid tier gaming PC.
Thanks
On 2/8/2023 at 4:50 PM, Riamus said:You need to understand that players jump all over the place and with maxed parkour, the jumps are really crazy. Making a pet that walks do that isn't something they want to do and, without it, the pet would have to constantly reset it's position to follow you. Not to mention a dog climbing a ladder is kind of dumb even if they added super jumping to a dog. Yes, some dogs have been taught to climb a vertical ladder, but that also is dumb, imo.
*Maybe* you could convince them to add alternate flying "pets" as that would just be a different skin and it's different mods, but unlikely any walking pets.
Of course, they could add Q*Bert considering it is used to jumping up and down voxels. 😁
Flying dogs with no collision will work perfectly.
3 -
On 2/6/2023 at 9:46 AM, WhiteLion said:
@faatal in my opinion the biggest disadvantage is the multiplayer sync problem. As soon as I play with 3 or people on a privat server and some more zombies are spawned in the attacking movements of the zeds get out of sync. The zed beat animation is before or after the hit will occur - with a noticeable delay / a-sync. We do not have any potato as clients nor the server is a potato. - Will there be fixes for this in A21 or in future?
Last year a few of our consultant programmers analyzed our net traffic and greatly reduced the amount of data sent. Then one of them reworked delays and frequency of entity updates, so I expect it to feel better.
3 -
On 2/5/2023 at 3:21 AM, Strengthinside said:
Hey, can we expect improved Vulkan support in A21?
The only changes are us using never versions of Unity in which they sometimes fix issues. We recently updated to 2021.3.16, but may end up on .18 or .19 for A21.
On 2/5/2023 at 12:18 PM, Roland said:
From what I’ve seen everyone on the team is optimistic and excited to get these changes in the hands of the players. Nobody is feeling bad. All I feel is amazed that such an unorthodox and unexpected set of changes has resulted in a game that is so much more fun than it was.We should feel lucky this team is willing to take risks and experiment with their designs instead of being limited by execs that care more about delivery dates and sticking to existing and known and safe mechanics. I think A21 will blow everyone away. It’s definitely a risk though and could result in failure but that will make the success that much more sweet.
Yes, from the few hours here and there I have played a new game to get the feel of it, that feel was great. The UI for it is a bit confusing at first, but I adapted.
3 -
On 1/30/2023 at 2:21 AM, Burrfly said:
if cementMixer == enabled then
animation.Rotate:Play()
else
animation.Rotate:Stop()
(I know it's not that simple)
It is not as I looked at it last week and the mixer is a single mesh, so you can't rotate the drum. I was thinking at least it should have a particle effect, but the code for that type of object did not support it and ten seconds later I was distracted by something else and several other things since then.
On 1/30/2023 at 11:44 AM, Trankitas said:@faatal How many MF's are left? I was going to start a new A20 server but I feel like A21 is close to release.
That does not really matter yet, as several systems have changes in the works and bugs are being found daily in them, then back around to fixing.
On 1/30/2023 at 4:19 PM, DocRussel said:For A20, the first dev stream was Sep 11 and the game was released Dec 6, so nearly 3 months.
@faatal Do you expect similar timing for A21?
Should be closer together.
On 2/1/2023 at 11:33 PM, Aldranon said:Will there be any tweaks to pathing or are there options to change the type of pathing?
IE: Non blood moon pathing remains the same, but blood moon pathing is "Charge in and start hitting something."
I ask because I'm sure that Bandit pathing with be distinctly different from zombie pathing. So, introducing various pathing's just makes sense.
Also, a special pathing that deals with a known OP player! Also let Bandits call for backup! (For said OP players. Not exactly pathing but a behavior)
That would be stupendously great!
Not in A21.
2 -
On 1/24/2023 at 2:51 AM, Annihilatorza said:
@Roland @faatal @madmoleWith A21 taking so long and if I am not mistaken this is the longest time between Alphas yet.
We are dying for some meaty news, I mean it's been over a year now, I have literally watched my daughter been born and she is now 1.
I know you don't owe us anything and you already do so much for this community as is.
So thank you so much for everything you guys do!
The vehicles update is awesome and all but according to @madmole, you guys were going to try for gold end of this year.
Is going gold this year still in the pipeline or has the new changes pushed it WID?
Is A21 getting closer to daylight?
With the long Dev time of A21 will bandits possibly see the light of day in A21?
Are there more environmental hazards besides fire, say toxic gas, electrical, cold, radiation, bio hazard?
Will radiation make a return?
Will zombie smelling ever return or is it dead and buried?
Does water collected from a dew collector need to be boiled?
Thanks
Anni
It may seem like that, but A17 took 1.5 years and A20 was about 1.4 years.
Thoughts of going gold with various dates have happened many times before. No one knows when that will happen.
A21 gets closer every day.
No bandits in A21, as Steve and I are the ones working on bandits from the programming side, and we are working on bugs and other improvements until A21 is stable.
6 -
On 1/23/2023 at 12:48 AM, Milkshakes said:
@faatal Hi Faatal, I have a question regarding the painting system
'flipping' run-down broken stuff, houses, even neighborhoods is something I rather enjoy as an endgame activity, and yet the current selection of textures is quite scarce
I'm reasonably proficient at texture making and would love to be able to jump on that boat for myself (and others who may feel as i do)
so on that note, are there any plans to facilitate the introduction of new textures into the game?Sorry, but I don't know of any plans to change it.
1 -
9 hours ago, Rabbitslovecactus said:
@faatal How's development and testing going? Do you have a news update for us by any chance? Thanks
Fine.
Sure, I fixed the reflection probe bug.
6 -
18 hours ago, vergilsparda said:
Since player animation updates are coming to A22, are there any plans to update the animal animations and/or models any further, or at least fix the death rag-doll on mountain lions and zombie dogs so their necks don't hyper extend so awkwardly when they die?
Some or all animal models were in the works to be fixed, a few worked on, but put on hold for other art updates.
I don't know if we have plans for the anims, but they are ugly and should get improved at some point.2 -
On 1/16/2023 at 7:41 AM, Annihilatorza said:
Hi Faatal
Please don't make it radioactive water, it does my head in, I know it's a game but radiation just does not work that way.
Toxic water sure, dirty water can do, unclean water not a problem.
A biological agent released into the air during the nuclear war has contaminated all water sources and you need a Charcoal water filter (charcoal, crushed sand, stone, plastic, cloth, scrap iron and two buckets) or a dew collector and then the water has to be boiled for you to drink it.
You would have the do that in real world with most water sources anyway as most are not clean enough to drink from.
I'm not going to do it in any form, because I'm not designing this stuff. The point of the feature change was that you don't get to scoop out endless water from lake/rivers. My toxic suggestion was just a way to make it plausible why it is useless, not a way to loop back around so players can clean it and end up with tons of water. Dew collectors serve as that mechanism, if you built a lot.
On 1/15/2023 at 10:13 PM, Callum123456789 said:there's a bug right now with alpha 20.6 world generation basically it has a small chance of creating no spawn points for some reason it happens to me every 2/5 maps that i generated for a test is this currently fixed in a21? i think this bug came with 20.6 and didnt get noticed or ironed out before it launched.
There are many changes to RWG in a21, which means old bugs may be gone or still there and there will probably be new ones.
4 -
On 1/15/2023 at 12:55 AM, Blake_ said:
@faatal I have a few questions:
1- Do you know if there are any major features in the works for a21 that have not been revealed yet?
2- Are wandering sleepers a thing in a21?
3- Is Zd dismemberment implemented in all the models for a21?
4- How are the bug fixes coming along? How many MF are getting on the team's nerves?
5- Are you guys in content lock for a21?
6- What are you working on at the moment?
1 I don't think so
2 No
3 Most if not all
4 45, but they are still coming in
5 Mostly
6 Reflection probe texture corruption bug fix and blending improvement
8 -
3 hours ago, WarWren said:
TFP can absolutely make lore to justify dew collectors in a zombie apocalypse. Toxic water cannot be made clean by simply boiling it. Personally I'd like to see a distilling device as an advancement on the dew collector. Moreover, taking jars to a river for water isn't a done thing. Taking buckets however....we can still do that. Whatever we feel about what should or shouldn't happen we are really just accepting our own version of fantasy because there are zombies after all.
Toxic water is a solution I've thought would work, but it means no drinking from lakes and maybe swimming causes health loss, so not as nice to players.
Or radioactive...4
Alpha 21 Dev Diary
in News & Announcements
Posted
Last week we made some graphics improvements to fix two old issues. Ambient occlusion did not render on certain plants properly, so that was fixed by switching to a new mode. Unity's screen space reflections were disabled because they barely did anything, so we switched SSR systems, which now definitely shows reflections and has more features than Unity's and complements the reflection probe system.