Alpha 21 Dev Diary

[Jugginator]

11 minutes ago, Xeen said:

Did anyone else notice a considerable performance drop with win 11 vs win 10?
For me it was about a 70 FPS drop, I went from 127 to 58 FPS, that is insane.

I'm tempted to go back to win 10 for another 6 months so that Microsoft can get their @%$# together.

 

Personally no difference between windows 10/11 here. 

[Xeen]

1 hour ago, Jugginator said:

 

Personally no difference between windows 10/11 here. 

Well that is interesting because with a AMD 5900X and Asus 3800ti I shouldn't be getting only 58 FPS.

 

Upon further examination, I get 180 FPS outside of my base so it seems that the performance drop happens only when I am inside my base or if I turn around and look directly at my base, how odd.

 

I wonder if it has something to do with all the bullet proof glass I have in my base.

Edited September 15, 2022 by Xeen (see edit history)

[Outlaw_187]

5 hours ago, Doomofman said:

 

Socks confirmed for A21

I was thinking more along the lines of some tricky landmines 💥.....but you could be on to something there 🧦

[Riamus]

On 8/15/2022 at 9:36 PM, Roland said:

 

 

But as for the exact formula, you will have to wait until you taste the secret sauce before you get its recipe.

 

New archipelago map confirmed with 1000 islands. 😁

On 8/16/2022 at 12:09 PM, Roland said:

 

It's imperceptible to me. In my last run by day 13 I had found and read more spear magazines than I had archery magazines even though I was perked into bows. Was it annoying that I could craft a better spear than bow? A bit but the key is that I was still progressing in bows and never could point to a period of time where I just could not find ANY archery magazines. I definitely didn't feel like I was getting less of everything else. 

Considering in every A20 gamer I play, I get way more archery books than anything else and easily max it out before any others even though I never use archery, it doesn't sound like much of a change. 😀

[Xeen]

@Kinyajuu
Wish list for a21, larger cities with more skyscrapers.

Does that sound doable? 

 

P.S.
TY Unholyjoe

Edited September 16, 2022 by Xeen (see edit history)

[beerfly]

12 minutes ago, Xeen said:

@fataal 
Wish list for a21, larger cities with more skyscrapers.

Does that sound doable? 

Hub City 2.0. 

 

In my first game in 7 days to die, I was spawned near it (Hub City) and of course, oh a town, there could be fun in there. Looted around trying to avoid my smelly ass eaten, because of the food I had in my inventory (back in the days the food had smell and zeds would follow it for those who don`t know). First night became closer and I climbed up in this 4-5 story building. That`s when I found out zeds can climb up also and found me. The bullets weren`t enough, of course. 

 

In the morning I found out I can build. A base. Of my own. And oh boy. 

 

Larger towns with skyscrapers, indeed ! 

[unholyjoe]

23 minutes ago, Xeen said:

@fataal 
Wish list for a21, larger cities with more skyscrapers.

Does that sound doable? 

you need to address the world editing team and or Kinyajuu..

[Matt115]

Bigger city sounds great but without skeletons.... cities are empty as void....☠️

[Blake_]

@faatal I have a bunch of brand new questions. 

 

1. Now that the New character models are in the works, do you know if there will be "head swaps" for the bandit models or will they be fixed ones/always the same set?

2. What about the character creation system? Will it be able to allow us to modify the head or will we just pick one full model when creating a new player profile?

3. Do you guys plan for npcs to be able to talk and have Lip sync or will it be just sounds and/ or text?

4. Are there any plans for a "water armour" or something similar with bonuses of the sort?

5. Can the player shoot or swing weapons underwater? Any code for that?

6. Can npcs swim?

7. Any news on water threats?

8. Do you plan on bandits placing temporary assets like a pole, a barrel, a tiny barricade... etc for combat in completely flat places artificially created by the player or otherwise (like a mesa)? I bet they might get confused and/or just plain "attack" the player. Noobs.

9. What are you most excited about regarding a21 at the moment?

10. Any juicy stuff you can tell us about the new perks?

 

Thank you very much in advance.

 

[Laz Man]

44 minutes ago, Blake_ said:

4. Are there any plans for a "water armour" or something similar with bonuses of the sort?

Not sure about bonuses but when you spawn into the world for the first time, you are already wearing the best water apparel..😆

Edited September 16, 2022 by Laz Man (see edit history)

[Blake_]

1 hour ago, Laz Man said:

Not sure about bonuses but when you spawn into the world for the first time, you are already wearing the best water apparel..😆

Both in the game and in real life. We also swim by default. Or did you mean it as a pick up line? Lol

Edited September 16, 2022 by Blake_ (see edit history)

[Xeen]

27 minutes ago, Blake_ said:

Both in the game and in real life. We also swim by default. Or did you mean it as a pick up line? Lol

HAHAHAHAHA!

[Jost Amman]

4 hours ago, Blake_ said:

Do you guys plan for npcs to be able to talk and have Lip sync or will it be just sounds and/ or text?

[WarWren]

The trader seems to be placed on the same t-junction, in every town, opposite the same vacant plot. I hope that part of random gen gets a bit more randomisation especially considering the trader is a focal point in each town. There was a certain character in the old alphas when traders were in unique locations. Traders in the middle of town wouldn't be so bad.

[gizmomelb]

17 hours ago, mstdv inc said:

TFP updates the Unity version once in a while.FSR requires HDRP, which is not planned to be supported.

 

Thanks for the reply.  No updating to HDRP is a shame, I would have thought that would be perfect for the XBOX X and PS5 releases in the future.

[Gamida]

8 hours ago, Laz Man said:

Not sure about bonuses but when you spawn into the world for the first time, you are already wearing the best water apparel..😆

Oh no, are we going to see other players in MP now in Speedos while in water?

[Fanatical_Meat]

7 minutes ago, Gamida said:

Oh no, are we going to see other players in MP now in Speedos while in water?

And will there be a Conan Exiles style dong slider?

[mstdv inc]

2 hours ago, gizmomelb said:

 

Thanks for the reply. No updating to HDRP is a shame, I would have thought that would be perfect for the XBOX X and PS5 releases in the future.

I think everyone will agree that 7 days is not about ultra modern graphics.Nevertheless, over the last 2 alphas, the game has received great improvements in graphics.Just download 18 alpha or older and you will see for yourself.People get used to good things quickly.And you need to understand that TFP is not an AAA studio and they could put the graphics in the back drawer, but they improve the game on all fronts by how much they have enough resources.So shame is too big a word.

There is still no and unlikely to be a game in the world with a completely destructible world and not looking like minecraft.You should always remember this when you want to criticize non-AAA studio developers.Even they (AAA) did not undertake the implementation of such a large-scale project.

Edited September 16, 2022 by mstdv inc (see edit history)

[gizmomelb]

1 minute ago, mstdv inc said:

I think everyone will agree that 7 days is not about ultra modern graphics.Nevertheless, over the last 2 alphas, the game has received great improvements in graphics.Just download 18 alpha or older and you will see for yourself.They get used to good things quickly.And you need to understand that TFP is not an AAA studio and they could put the graphics in the back drawer, but they improve the game on all fronts by how much they have enough resources.So shame is too big a word.

There is still no and unlikely to be a game in the world with a completely destructible world and not looking like minecraft.You should always remember this when you want to criticize non-AAA studio developers.Even they (AAA) did not undertake the implementation of such a large-scale project.

 

firstly, I'm not criticising - I'm simply asking if the version of unity was going to be updated so it could accomodate FSR (or similar upscalers) for faster frame rates - which would also benefit the upcoming console versions.  Not having FSR or similar being a 'shame' is not a disparaging word or comment, it means it is slightly disappointing that it's not planned (especially when it would benefit the consoles ports, as well as speed up rendering for every PC out there).

 

The number of HD assets and HD remodelling over the past 2 alphas was giving me the indication that it was also to 'modernize' the game's assets for a HD 4K console version.

 

I've been with 7D2D since alpha 7.8 (bought it on the 23rd March 2014) as I was unsure about jumping on the kickstarter (I'd also kickstarted a few other zombie games around the same time and some eventually came out and have been great (Project Zomboid) and others never made it past early access).  I've enjoyed every alpha so far (though I do have reservations about the major rpg mechanic changes going to be in alpha 21, but we'll see what it's like when it finally arrives) and do appreciate the work that has gone into the game because I *HAVE* worked in the video game industry (Torus Games, Bluetongue Software and Stromlo Entertainment) which is exactly why I'm curious when the engine will be updated (knowing what a large amount of work that can entail) because to my eyes all of the work improving the assets is directly about giving the game ultra modern graphics.   While it would look amazing, I doubt we'll see ray tracing or physical based rendering ever happen in THIS game - but anything to speed up and upscale rendering would certainly be of use to the entire player base (most of whom aren't running the game on laptop or built in GPUs - or at least I hope they aren't).

 

[Xeen]

1 hour ago, gizmomelb said:

To my eyes all of the work improving the assets is directly about giving the game ultra modern graphics.   While it would look amazing, I doubt we'll see ray tracing or physical based rendering ever happen in THIS game - but anything to speed up and upscale rendering would certainly be of use to the entire player base (most of whom aren't running the game on laptop or built in GPUs - or at least I hope they aren't).

 

I would kill for just 2 more CPU cores that the game can use, but i would hide the bodies for an additional two cores. 

Edited September 16, 2022 by Xeen (see edit history)

[faatal]

On 9/14/2022 at 10:25 PM, Outlaw_187 said:

Hey faatal. You gave us a "bug count" before alpha 20 dropped.

 

Is it too early to start this kind of countdown or can we get a hint of how many major/minor bugs you guys are working on for A21?

 

Thanks for everything Fun Pimps team. Can't wait to dive back into some zombie slaying....& possibly some bandit slaying 😁

It is too early. We have not started the A21 list yet.

There are many bugs to be fixed and no doubt many more to be found, but there is a good amount of play testing going on, so it is certainly playable now.

On 9/15/2022 at 2:35 AM, gizmomelb said:

hi - game mechanics aside, I was wondering if / when TFP were going to update the engine to a newer version of UNITY and hopefully it will be a version which supports FSR upscaling?  This would help a lot of players as it would improve fps.  Thank you.

 

A21 should be on Unity 2021.3.x, which is a year newer version than A20 uses.

 

We are not planning on switching 7dtd to HDRP, which means newer graphics features like that are not available to us.

[Roland]

A21 will have HDRP in the sense of How Dew Really Perpetuates. Small comfort I know.

[XCOUNTRY]

@Roland Any Katniss Everdeen-esque insight into A21 you can share that won't get you in trouble?

[gizmomelb]

5 hours ago, faatal said:

A21 should be on Unity 2021.3.x, which is a year newer version than A20 uses.

 

We are not planning on switching 7dtd to HDRP, which means newer graphics features like that are not available to us.

Thank you for the info and update.  Unity 2021.3 has numerous optimisations which will hopefully also mean better performance for the 'average' PC gamer (GTX 1060 and urgh Intel HD 4000 iGPU according to steam hardware survey).  I don't know what upscaling technique is being used by the 7D2D 'dynamic resolution' shader but with FSR source code being freely available maybe that might be worthwhile looking at?  Intel's XeSS is also GPU independent and is supposedly going to be open source as well.

 

Also I really hope development path includes multi-threading at least zombie A.I. (running in sync with the world clock would be an obvious global event in my mind) for the future at least, since again according to the steam hardware survery 60% of users have 4-6 CPUs (10% have dual core CPU systems), so multi-threading is available to the majority of systems that would run this game.

These comments are not meant as criticism but rather as an end user's hope (with some background programming and game dev experience) to see the game improve (with frame rate being one of the most common end user complaints - especially on horde nights) for the future.

Thank you.

 

[Fanatical_Meat]

17 hours ago, faatal said:

It is too early. We have not started the A21 list yet.

There are many bugs to be fixed and no doubt many more to be found, but there is a good amount of play testing going on, so it is certainly playable now.

A21 should be on Unity 2021.3.x, which is a year newer version than A20 uses.

 

We are not planning on switching 7dtd to HDRP, which means newer graphics features like that are not available to us.

What benefit is there for you guys the developers and to us the players regarding the newer version of Unity?