Alpha 20 Dev Diary

[Matt115]

Well zombies get hd models so can we expect we will get hd player models too soon?

[faatal]

On 8/6/2021 at 11:42 PM, Roland said:

 

so..jaggies that will have has had been caused tomorrow don't show up today? Cool, but don't spawn unnecessary extra timelines while driving around in your DeLorean.

Yes. It time travels and exterminates them!

[faatal]

On 8/7/2021 at 6:18 AM, Kirill_226RUS said:

@faatal, I have a few questions for you. How well does TAA work? Does it consume a lot of resources compared to what it is now? And what kind of smoothing does the game use now? FXAA and SMAA?

Well enough that I made it the default on High and Ultra presets. I am still performance testing, but it looks like a few FPS drop. The game looks much clearer with the sharpening, so worth the FPS to me, but TAA can be easily turned off.

 

Currently we have FXAA for lower and SMAA for higher settings. These are still there if AA Type is set to Standard.

[Zeal]

I have been watching Glock9's newest video on Lockdown. And he actually raised a good question in it. From 4:09 to 4:45. Mostly speaking about how there should be some fishes in the water, mostly to create the fish tacos. Or even zombie fishes, alligators or anything that could be a possible threat. So i hope for a fish type to be implemented in the next few alphas. Maybe a crocodile.

[meilodasreh]

I just started my "bootcamp" on a fresh installation of ArmA2 (recently on steam sale), and I was wondering if we could have some similar "dodge-moves" in 7D2D. 

Like (depentent on your key bindings) double-hit left or right key to make a fast evasive step (with corresponding stamina impact).

 

To add some "tactical" movement / variety  for melee playstyles? 

 

Some kind of blocking stance would be also cool, to be able to at least deflect some percentage of taken damage.

Edited August 9, 2021 by meilodasreh (see edit history)

[Blake_]

1 hour ago, faatal said:

Well enough that I made it the default on High and Ultra presets. I am still performance testing, but it looks like a few FPS drop. The game looks much clearer with the sharpening, so worth the FPS to me, but TAA can be easily turned off.

 

Currently we have FXAA for lower and SMAA for higher settings. These are still there if AA Type is set to Standard.

Thank you for that. SMAA is not that great. Not that I care with my potatoe. Last optimization update made my system (arguably) able to handle full settings at an average 20-30 fps (with dips in the 10 fps range)  1080p 65 FOV no VSync no Occluder (CPU bottlenecked system :GTX 780M intel 4800MQ 4/8 2.7ghz). Horde nights are unplayable though, mostly due to Zd skin resolution (biggest problem) + CPU stuff (moderate problem: lights, pathing, block damage...etc) . I believe that will change in a20 (you did say that you optimized Zd skin quality presets a while ago).

 

On a similar topic. Question:

 

 

Will there be reflection handling improvements in a20 and/or the future?

 

 

I have seen reinforced glass panels and other reflective surfaces reflect only sky and trees. I'm unsure if it's a custom shader of if Screen Space reflections are directly responsible for that. It will be cool if every reflective surface was directly and completely controlled bia that or other option and  if -in those particular shader cases-  objects could reflect everything to various degrees of quality depending on player's selection.

 

 

 

[wolfarus]

It was mentioned in an earlier post, but i did not see a reply, so i thought i'd ask as well: Is there any plans (or is it even a program-able possibility) to add in some sort of filter system for poi's that have been looted? Say for example: Poi's that have yet to have their main loot box opened (be it a reinforced chest or a gun safe) show up as normal on the map, but once the player has opened up the main loot box, the poi gets a red-x thru it, or maybe gets a tint change on the map, so it shows up as much darker then un-looted poi's?

 

Also, any plans or possibility for dyes to be stack-able?

[unholyjoe]

4 hours ago, Zeal said:

I have been watching Glock9's newest video on Lockdown. And he actually raised a good question in it. From 4:09 to 4:45. Mostly speaking about how there should be some fishes in the water, mostly to create the fish tacos. Or even zombie fishes, alligators or anything that could be a possible threat. So i hope for a fish type to be implemented in the next few alphas. Maybe a crocodile.

i prefer to see the resources go towards the bandits. while not everyone will agree and understandable that some would rather see other things instead.

[MechanicalLens]

We haven't heard about traders in a while. Is the plan still in the works for the inventory stock / quest rewards to get rebalanced in A20, or has this been pushed to A21? With all the patience in the world, just checking in.

[Roland]

11 hours ago, MechanicalLens said:

We haven't heard about traders in a while. Is the plan still in the works for the inventory stock / quest rewards to get rebalanced in A20, or has this been pushed to A21? With all the patience in the world, just checking in.

Madmole usually does these balancing tune ups once he dives into dedicated play testing once feature lock has happened. 
 

I know there was some price adjustment done near the beginning of A20 and he will most likely make the rest of the adjustments  soon. 

[Matt115]

Well anyone know if cities will have "freestanding building" on borders of cites? 

 

Well i have a questions : well most cities have irregular buildings like  : i mean i city center there is usually buliding near another building etc but suburbs have sometimes "random" skyscraper or factory near forest. will be something like that in a20?

[faatal]

On 8/8/2021 at 9:01 AM, Yeppi said:

1. Can you tell us please, how many alphas there are still to gold? Is A20 possibly A21 the last or are A22,23,24.. coming??

I love the game, but I would like to build something big again, since I built 2 castles with 250K and 300K blocks in over 500 hours in A11 and they didn't work after a big update, since then I don't dare to build big

 

2. Or can you insert a function that creates a blueprint of buildings?

 

3. With A11 you added beautiful caves, which unfortunately were changed in one of the later alphas, i think it was a15 or a16, and from then on they are unfortunately no longer so beautiful. It used to be a real labyrinths, but now are small and unspectacular. Any chance we can get the old caves back? 

 

4. In the past, every animal dropped different meat, resulting in different recipes with different buff, you were proud to have killed a bear and cooked excellent stew from bear meat, or I chased half a map of a chicken with a stone ax to make a roast leg, which I got today you always get the same meat, whether chicken, bear, rabbit, pork, why should you take the risk of chasing a bear when you can kill a rabbit with a bazooka? Can we have different types of meat again, so that it is also worthwhile to hunt a bear, for example? Can you perhaps add old recipes again, so that it is worthwhile to hunt dangerous animals again?

 

5. In the past you could crawl through 1 block, it would be possible to insert this again, e.g. that you can turn it on or off in settings (if it has been made away because of pvp)?

 

I would be happy if you could answer some questions, especially if all of them😊.  (everything translated by google translate, no liability for errors 😃 )

1 A20 is not the last. Unknown beyond that.

2 Don't know

3 Definitely not the old ones

4 Don't know

5 Not planned for players

On 8/9/2021 at 9:16 AM, Adam the Waster said:

So in terms of the Burnt zombie, we have 2 the burnt zombie and the burning zombie
will the Burnt zombie spawn in with normal zombies like Moe, boa etc. while the Burning zombie spawns in the burnt forest/wasteland
Or will they both spawn in that one biome?

Don't think that is decided.

On 8/9/2021 at 4:40 PM, Blake_ said:

Thank you for that. SMAA is not that great. Not that I care with my potatoe. Last optimization update made my system (arguably) able to handle full settings at an average 20-30 fps (with dips in the 10 fps range)  1080p 65 FOV no VSync no Occluder (CPU bottlenecked system :GTX 780M intel 4800MQ 4/8 2.7ghz). Horde nights are unplayable though, mostly due to Zd skin resolution (biggest problem) + CPU stuff (moderate problem: lights, pathing, block damage...etc) . I believe that will change in a20 (you did say that you optimized Zd skin quality presets a while ago).

 

On a similar topic. Question:

Will there be reflection handling improvements in a20 and/or the future?

 

I have seen reinforced glass panels and other reflective surfaces reflect only sky and trees. I'm unsure if it's a custom shader of if Screen Space reflections are directly responsible for that. It will be cool if every reflective surface was directly and completely controlled bia that or other option and  if -in those particular shader cases-  objects could reflect everything to various degrees of quality depending on player's selection.

I reworked the AA settings today so it goes Off, Low, Medium, High, Temporal. AA Type is now AA Sharpening, which allows you to set temporal's sharpening from 0 to 100 percent for more control. Team feedback has been good, with little performance loss and only a few complaints of too sharp, hence the changes.

 

After talking about some gfx settings changes and seeing that 55% of players use the medium preset, which is the default, I decided to add an auto detect today, which should get some of those people on better settings.

"Added auto setting of graphics quality preset (6GB+ VRAM sets High. nVidia 2080, 3070, 3080, 3090 or AMD 6800, 6900 sets Ultra)."

Edited August 11, 2021 by faatal (see edit history)

[playlessNamer]

Are you planning crafting out of the box? Its pretty annoying and feels like outdated by ages to get all the stuff needed to craft from the storage in your inventory, bring it to the workbench and then sort it back. Can you give any crafting a 15-20 block radius searching fo the needed materials in all chests?

Subnautica and Valheim has this by mod and its absolutely awesome, its a gigantic quality of life feature.

 

There are so many different little items to think about taking with you. Repairing would be way easier then too, just bring your tool, nailgun and the ressources are anyway anywhere in your base.

 

As a alternative in Conan the workbenches have storages integrated where you have to put all the stuff in. This solution is also better than manually carry it around.

 

Ever thought about that?

 

edit: Is this technical to do for modders or a big issue to code this in?

Edited August 11, 2021 by playlessNamer (see edit history)

[TWORDY]

3 hours ago, playlessNamer said:

Are you planning crafting out of the box? Its pretty annoying and feels like outdated by ages to get all the stuff needed to craft from the storage in your inventory, bring it to the workbench and then sort it back. Can you give any crafting a 15-20 block radius searching fo the needed materials in all chests?

Subnautica and Valheim has this by mod and its absolutely awesome, its a gigantic quality of life feature.

 

There are so many different little items to think about taking with you. Repairing would be way easier then too, just bring your tool, nailgun and the ressources are anyway anywhere in your base.

 

As a alternative in Conan the workbenches have storages integrated where you have to put all the stuff in. This solution is also better than manually carry it around.

 

Simply amazing. Such crafting options/mechanics have to be implemented someday in 7DTD. I hope only private/locked chests may stay excluded from the process.

[Matt115]

3 hours ago, playlessNamer said:

Are you planning crafting out of the box? Its pretty annoying and feels like outdated by ages to get all the stuff needed to craft from the storage in your inventory, bring it to the workbench and then sort it back. Can you give any crafting a 15-20 block radius searching fo the needed materials in all chests?

Subnautica and Valheim has this by mod and its absolutely awesome, its a gigantic quality of life feature.

 

There are so many different little items to think about taking with you. Repairing would be way easier then too, just bring your tool, nailgun and the ressources are anyway anywhere in your base.

 

As a alternative in Conan the workbenches have storages integrated where you have to put all the stuff in. This solution is also better than manually carry it around.

 

Ever thought about that?

 

edit: Is this technical to do for modders or a big issue to code this in?

even i support this idea , but i want to suggest to add cement mixer, chemistry and campfire to this too! i sometimes have problem to find can of chill or tuna because there is to many items there 😅

[Adam the Waster]

On 8/10/2021 at 7:57 PM, faatal said:

 

Don't think that is decided.

I think the crispy one should spawn in other biomes. would fit in ALOT of areas as a aged zombie 

On 8/10/2021 at 11:40 AM, Matt115 said:

Well anyone know if cities will have "freestanding building" on borders of cites? 

 

Well i have a questions : well most cities have irregular buildings like  : i mean i city center there is usually buliding near another building etc but suburbs have sometimes "random" skyscraper or factory near forest. will be something like that in a20?

Can you explain... in english

[sinda]

On 8/10/2021 at 7:57 PM, faatal said:

After talking about some gfx settings changes and seeing that 55% of players use the medium preset, which is the default, I decided to add an auto detect today, which should get some of those people on better settings.

"Added auto setting of graphics quality preset (6GB+ VRAM sets High. nVidia 2080, 3070, 3080, 3090 or AMD 6800, 6900 sets Ultra)."

fantastic! any changes to how texture streaming will work? there are plenty with computers that can handle streaming off when the game throws the switch (mods with additional assets, etc).. having to manually toss the command in console each time can get tedious; a perma true would be awesome. there are modlets floating around to handle this, but some don't like to rely on modlets for such things. thanks 👍

Edited August 12, 2021 by sinda
nearly 2am. (see edit history)

[Games'n'Grumble]

Hello there, @faatal ! Once on Twitter, we were shown a new technology for destroying doors. Can you tell us something about this? Should we wait for this mechanic in the A20? Will it affect the FPS? And thank you for your great work! 🙂

 

[MechanicalLens]

8 hours ago, Roland said:

 

Cities look better than they ever have in my opinion. If you are wondering if urban areas blend into suburban and then rural I would say that there is some of that in some places but in others there is a definite edge to the city and forest begins a short distance.

 

Can traders spawn in all the types of settlements (cities, towns, etc.)? And if you're allowed to answer this, do they spawn in all biomes like before? How many traders can we expect for a 10k map?

Edited August 12, 2021 by MechanicalLens (see edit history)

[unholyjoe]

2 hours ago, MechanicalLens said:

 

Can traders spawn in all the types of settlements (cities, towns, etc.)? And if you're allowed to answer this, do they spawn in all biomes like before? How many traders can we expect for a 10k map?

without revealing too much i did create an a20 rwg vanilla settings and as you can see by the screen shot i had a lot of traders, and yes some were at cities and some were not.

 

WARNING - things can and probably will change and the next seed may not have as many.  so as for what can be expected is unknown to be announce because of WIP. wait until later development and maybe some more answers.

 

sorry for blurring the pic but i am not a dev and not PR.

 

Edited August 13, 2021 by unholyjoe (see edit history)

[Kirill_226RUS]

@faatal, will there ever be a realistic spatial sound in 7 Days To Die? Now, both in a closed space and on the street, shots and the rest sound the same. I'm not asking about the A20, but in general: will there be such a sound in the game, sounding different depending on the environment? Even the old sounds will be felt in a new way, the immersion in the world will improve. And yes - I know that it's not just a couple of ticks to put in Unity.

[Xeen]

@TFP

 

Would anyone care to take a stab at explaining CPU core utilization, specifically the maximum number of cores the game engine will utilize.
Also are there any improvements that could be made in the area of multi-core efficiency, specifically in the area of thread loading.

 

Thanks in advance.

[MAlgol]

When will we see an upgrade to the fireplace, like a stove to cook food quicker?

[Rabbitslovecactus]

Hi

What will the default setting for the below be? Day, or?

Thanks

 

7) Feral Sense Game Option

• When turned on Zombies can sense the player from much farther away and stay focused on the optimal path to where the player is
• Stealth still works but zombie senses are heightened so stealth play is much more challenging
• Settings are: Off, Day, Night, All

[jorbascrumps]

37 minutes ago, Rabbitslovecactus said:

Hi

What will the default setting for the below be? Day, or?

Thanks

 

7) Feral Sense Game Option

• When turned on Zombies can sense the player from much farther away and stay focused on the optimal path to where the player is
• Stealth still works but zombie senses are heightened so stealth play is much more challenging
• Settings are: Off, Day, Night, All

 

I'd imagine off as enabling this will make zombies more of a threat.