A20 Developer Diary Discussions

[jeromeN7]

11 hours ago, Fanatical_Meat said:

Would forcing the game to run on physical cores or select cores inprove

performance as opposed to letting it run on any of the 16 cores when unity only needs a few cores to run.

It depends on your computer. If your GPU usage is not at or near 100% usage, you can most likely increase performance by forcing 7DTD to run on 4 cores. Doing this, I'll see about a 20% increase in GPU usage and FPS. First I tried running it on my 4 fastest cores. But I got the best results by running it on 4 cores from only one XCC, the XCC with my fastest core. You can find out which cores are fastest and how many XCC's you have with Ryzen Master.

[Naz]

11 hours ago, littlegreen said:

I normally get "Access Denied" when trying to set process affinity in windows task manager... even though I am the PC admin... any work around that?

 

EDIT: Nevermind, I've got it.

 

For the other people that are having this issue:

 

1. Right click on Taskbar.

2. Click on Task Manager.

3. Search for the process 7dtd.exe

4. Right click on it and click on Properties.

5. Click on Security tab and click on Edit.

6. Then give full permission to the Administrator. (Or your current user account)

Doing it through task manager while the game is running won't work if you're running Eac. You can set up a desktop shortcut which launches the game with the specified affinity that will work with eac. I cover the details on that in the conclusion of the affinity benchmarks I did here

[meganoth]

12 hours ago, Khalagar said:

 

 

Well yeah you could plan around them to a degree, just like you plan around demolishers, vultures, cops, regular zombies etc. But it would add an interesting and dangerous element to base designs and horde nights, and you'd have an extra resource tax for spikes, and have the risk of the zombies taking out your spikes etc. They could also make webs coat spikes too and make them safer to climb over

 

ATM spider zombie is by far the least unique special zombie and is only annoying because it's mildly harder to hit. The web idea would be pretty neat and create very memorable horde nights where you were standing on a roof shooting away at zombies when suddenly they started swarming up one side or got to an upper floor you weren't expecting them to get to etc

 

That depends on what type of base you build. For example f you have a base with the players on largely the same level but distanced by gaps then the spider can provide a challenge. 

11 hours ago, bdubyah said:

Who knew simplifying something would be so confusing? 🤣

 

Not a surprise when every change prompts an avalanche of fearful questions whether balance will be taken into account or whether change A means also change B,C and D.

 

TFP: "We changed the grass to look greener"

User1: "Does that mean it will give more food value when I eat it?"

User2: "Won't that upset the balance when zombies are better visible because they are not green at all?"

User3: "Does that mean cars will also look greener? I would not like that to be honest"

User4: "Green? How absurd is that. Can we have a grass detector now?"

 

😆

 

TFP: "Oh, we forgot to say that because of this we removed the sky, we needed the texture space"

 

😆😆

Edited September 20, 2021 by meganoth (see edit history)

[meganoth]

7 hours ago, new7daylive said:

havent had a chance to catch up on the dev streams.  Has there been any mentions about caves or other underground features being a part of the released game?

 

Apologies if this has already been covered somewhere else recently.

 

Thanks

 

There will be (maybe relatively small?) sewers under the cities in the new RWG. In A20. It is just my assumption that they will expand on that feature in A21 (and what they won't get done, modders wll do)

 

Edited September 20, 2021 by meganoth (see edit history)

[jorbascrumps]

1 hour ago, meganoth said:

 

There will be (maybe relatively small?) sewers under the cities in the new RWG. In A20. It is just my assumption that they will expand on that feature in A21 (and what they won't get done, modders wll do)

 

 

Let's clarify that sewers in A20 will be part of POIs so they won't span entire towns or connect multiple POIs.

[Jost Amman]

8 hours ago, new7daylive said:

havent had a chance to catch up on the dev streams.  Has there been any mentions about caves or other underground features being a part of the released game?

They're putting back caves, cavemen (insted of bandits) and  a new vehicle:

Spoiler

 

 

[Matt115]

1 hour ago, meganoth said:

 

That depends on what type of base you build. For example f you have a base with the players on largely the same level but distanced by gaps then the spider can provide a challenge. 

 

Not a surprise when every change prompts an avalanche of fearful questions whether balance will be taken into account or whether change A means also change B,C and D.

 

TFP: "We changed the grass to look greener"

User1: "Does that mean it will give more food value when I eat it?"

User2: "Won't that upset the balance when zombies are better visible because they are not green at all?"

User3: "Does that mean cars will also look greener? I would not like that to be honest"

User4: "Green? How absurd is that. Can we have a grass detector now?"

 

😆

 

TFP: "Oh, we forgot to say that because of this we removed the sky, we needed the texture space"

 

😆😆

this sound fun but .... even small change can do a lot -  if they decided to add  zombie in ghilled suit spawning in forest biome (let's say he looks almost invisible lying on long grass) change of grass can make him useless or even less visibile. 

If they decided to change water it can create questions like : can zombie respawn in water? 

This sound like small thing but sometimes could this happens

[dcsobral]

49 minutes ago, jorbascrumps said:

 

Let's clarify that sewers in A20 will be part of POIs so they won't span entire towns or connect multiple POIs.

They could connect multiple POIs, I think. One tile has multiple POIs and if you can customize the restriction on which POIs can go there then you could create POIs that have sewer "attachments" in standard places so they would all be interconnected. Within a tile. A tile is 150x150, and that's a lot of space.

[MajorMunchy]

On 9/18/2021 at 5:53 PM, littlegreen said:

 

I'm not quite sure that's the case at 3440x1440 ... besides, my CPU activity usually resides in the 70% usage area with browsers, Discord and a few other apps open in the background (streaming in Discord as well)... while playing the game.

 

The thing is, I get more than decent FPS during normal gameplay, but during horde nights with all the models and textures around the bases we build - especially during night, when light reflections factor in etc, frames very often dip down to below 60 which on a 144hz screen does not feel nice...

i got a 2080 and 3440x1440. MAX settings is around 40-50FPS average and 20 during spikes. Unity just doesn't like Ryzen processors. tested it by just going to another pc with the same card etc but with an i7 equivalent processor, got 20+fps average. its insane 

[Maxley]

10 hours ago, new7daylive said:

havent had a chance to catch up on the dev streams.  Has there been any mentions about caves or other underground features being a part of the released game?

 

Apologies if this has already been covered somewhere else recently.

 

Thanks

They said they need to implement some better terrain editing tools for the level designers to use before they really produce any caves. I dont know if thats actually going to happen but that is what they said.

[dcsobral]

5 minutes ago, Maxley said:

They said they need to implement some better terrain editing tools for the level designers to use before they really produce any caves. I dont know if thats actually going to happen but that is what they said.

Was that on last week's dev stream, with the level designers?

[jorbascrumps]

55 minutes ago, dcsobral said:

Was that on last week's dev stream, with the level designers?

 

Yes. I believe they said that currently they have to place terrain blocks individually so it's a pain.

[dcsobral]

34 minutes ago, Astronomical said:

 

 

From what I saw it looked like the sewers and spillways were part of the tile itself independent of pois. In this case they could span most of the city.

 

Maybe @Roland or one of tfps could clarify?

They could if you make it so sewers would connect in the same way as roads. For example, if your sewers are centered underneath the roads, it's easy. If they are to the side of the roads then you need to place them on both side to account for all rotations. Or you could make it independent of roads if you make them fully connected. For example, imagine tiles always provide a connection on the 4 sides, independently of what the road above looks like.

 

What you cannot do as far as Kinkyajuu told us is having a sewer grid that connects independently of the road grid above.

 

Here's a little thought exercise. Suppose you have a city tiled like this:

 

┌ ┬ ┬ ┐
│ ├ ┼ ┤
├ ┼ ┘ ╵
└ ┴ ─ ╴

What kind of sewer arrangement you could make for each tile to make sure they all connect to each other? How bad would it be if a sewer just ends in dirt on the next tile/wilderness?

23 minutes ago, jorbascrumps said:

 

Yes. I believe they said that currently they have to place terrain blocks individually so it's a pain.

Well, maybe underground. On surface there's a couple of tools to easily make mounds and dips, which are available since alpha 18 I think.

Edited September 20, 2021 by dcsobral
Add cul-de-sacs (see edit history)

[Guppycur]

6 hours ago, Maxley said:

They said they need to implement some better terrain editing tools for the level designers to use before they really produce any caves. I dont know if thats actually going to happen but that is what they said.

What's a better cave tool than a rocket launcher? 

[Laz Man]

He was probably referring to better terrain tools then what we have in the editor today.

 

Something like this as an example.

 

[Nuketown]

Will you remove old reinforced concrete blocks? Or we can craft them? 

[Roland]

1 hour ago, Nuketown said:

Will you remove old reinforced concrete blocks? Or we can craft them? 

Removed. There is only concrete blocks now. The upgrade from that is straight to steel. 

[Guppycur]

5 hours ago, Laz Man said:

He was probably referring to better terrain tools then what we have in the editor today.

 

Something like this as an example.

 

That's already doable. Like, all of it. 

[7daystodierocks]

12 hours ago, Guppycur said:

What's a better cave tool than a rocket launcher? 

none better

[Guppycur]

On 9/15/2021 at 3:54 PM, Jost Amman said:

I see Madmole didn't have time to play test A20 and give feedback... otherwise we would have a much more sleek system now.

Nothing against the QA guys, mind you, but MM has his own Fun Pimp perspective that others lack IMO. 

I'm confused; he's one of the owners, you don't think he has input in the game?

 

...with all of the "rust buddy" changes he's made that I've railed against for years, I disagree.

[meganoth]

1 hour ago, Ianua said:

 

I appreciate the way that TFP looks out for the player base by encouraging us to get up and move our behinds.  My play time would be 5 mins of game play. My motion sickness is really very awful. if I watch someone else play it, it happens as well. I've heard that those curved monitors help.  Still a great game, just might have to limit the playing.  I do adapt a little after long playing cycles, but I have to concentrate really hard and not jump around.

 

 

I'm only playing on something like a 22inch as it is.  Since it happens when I watch other people play (standing or sitting behind them or to the side, I don't think it is distance that will help.  I get motion sick in carwashes. It is pretty ridiculous.

 

I have no problems playing shooters or 7days myself, but watching other people play, especially from the side, can make me motion sick. I think this is more because you never know the direction of movement, whereas you know that when you play yourself.

 

 

Edited September 21, 2021 by meganoth (see edit history)

[Morloc]

10 hours ago, Aldranon said:

Around 1400 new shapes and POI"S ???

 

Holy cow that is new game hype train right there for me!!!

 

(Almost 1,100 are cast iron weight plates and dumbells. 🤔)

 

 

-Arch Necromancer Morloc

[cammel]

1 hour ago, meganoth said:

 

I have no problems playing shooters or 7days myself, but watching other people play, especially from the side, can make me motion sick. I think this is more because you never know the direction of movement, whereas you know that when you play yourself.

 

 

I suffered motion sickness for about 2 1/2 months. It was so bad that even scrolling a page would make me sick. Turned out it was caused by my vitamin C supplement, which was not non-gmo. I can take the non-gmo  supplement without problem.

[Jost Amman]

3 hours ago, Guppycur said:

I'm confused; he's one of the owners, you don't think he has input in the game?

Where did you read that? I said he probably didn't play-test the game like he did in previous versions, just that.

I remember when he actually made all those videos of him actually playing the (unreleased) upcoming new alpha from day 1 to day 100 or something.

 

Did you see him doing that for A20? I don't think so.

Hence why I said that.

[Khalagar]

I'm sure he's played A20 a fair bit since he's MadMole, but yeah I don't think he's the primary play tester anymore. They mentioned in one of the videos that he's been in charge of the drone stuff, but he also said once he played A20 he couldn't go back to A19 so I'd say he's getting his share of time in even if he's not active on the forum anymore