Alpha 21 Dev Diary

[Jost Amman]

3 hours ago, Laz Man said:

 

Love your profile meme....I mean photo....😅

No. You don't understand... THAT'S REAL! 

[Morloc]

11 hours ago, Guppycur said:

We actually got an official answer for this once, but damned if I can remember. It was a very long time ago.

 

(I'm pretty sure...)

Mouse wheel ticks are tracked as a static array with only 254 positions.

This limitation frees up valuable game resources for other things.

 

Better add this jic....

 

-Arch Necromancer Morloc 💀

Edited April 5, 2023 by Morloc (see edit history)

[Blake_]

11 hours ago, Guppycur said:

We actually got an official answer for this once, but damned if I can remember. It was a very long time ago.

 

... Some sort of technical limitation. I don't know if it's still a thing, but it used to be you could explore a lot of the map and part of the  map that you already explored early on would be blacked out again.

 

Or a concussion has finally sunk in and I'm babbling. 

Well, zooming and grey area cleaning are both done by the GPU I gather, but the map data isn't, so long story short, there just shouldn't be a technical limitation anymore, it's just that they didn't touch zooming since ages ago. The map "blacking out" when exploring lots of it? I haven't tested it yet in this alpha.

 

Speaking of which, @faatal do you know if there are changes regarding map exploring/ zooming in a21? 

Also, Can we fully explore a 10k or even a 20k custom map in multiplayer and will it remain explored even after thousands of hours of restarting the session and spitting at our motherboards?

[Trankitas]

10 hours ago, Laz Man said:

 

Love your profile meme....I mean photo....😅

Actual photo of him, don't know what you're talking about.

My arm is itching too...Got some of those A21 features?

[Annihilatorza]

@faatal Do you use Frustum culling?

Frustum culling is a graphics optimization technique used in 3D rendering to improve performance by eliminating the need to draw objects that are not visible within the camera's field of view. The camera's field of view is defined by a frustum, which is a truncated pyramid-shaped volume that extends from the camera's position outward in the direction it's facing.

Frustum culling works by checking whether an object (or a part of it) is inside the camera's view frustum or not. If an object is entirely outside the frustum, it's culled, meaning it won't be processed for rendering. This reduces the computational workload on the GPU, as it only needs to process and render the objects that are visible to the camera.

To perform frustum culling, the view frustum is typically divided into six planes: top, bottom, left, right, near, and far. Each object (or its bounding volume, such as a bounding box or bounding sphere) is tested against these planes to determine if it's inside or outside the frustum. If it's inside or intersecting the frustum, the object is rendered; otherwise, it's culled.

 

Frustum culling is particularly effective in scenes with a large number of objects or complex geometry, as it can significantly reduce the number of objects that need to be rendered, improving the overall performance of the game or application.

[Jost Amman]

12 minutes ago, Annihilatorza said:

@faatal Do you use Frustum culling?

Spoiler

 

 

[Oshen.Oliver]

The only thing I BEG YOU, Is that I don't have to start a new world to play the new update, my partner and I are so far in this world, I would be devastated, but I'm so freaking excited for the update!!! Let me work for you

[Trankitas]

1 minute ago, Oshen.Oliver said:

The only thing I BEG YOU, Is that I don't have to start a new world to play the new update, my partner and I are so far in this world, I would be devastated, but I'm so freaking excited for the update!!! Let me work for you

I hate to bring bad news, but every Alpha until A20 needed a fresh start, but imagine all the new props and generated cities! It's a good thing if you think about it, you can save your world by backing up %appdata%/7daystodie folder just in case, if you want to play it again just go back to A20 (properties/betas) on steam.

[faatal]

4 hours ago, Blake_ said:

Well, zooming and grey area cleaning are both done by the GPU I gather, but the map data isn't, so long story short, there just shouldn't be a technical limitation anymore, it's just that they didn't touch zooming since ages ago. The map "blacking out" when exploring lots of it? I haven't tested it yet in this alpha.

 

Speaking of which, @faatal do you know if there are changes regarding map exploring/ zooming in a21? 

Also, Can we fully explore a 10k or even a 20k custom map in multiplayer and will it remain explored even after thousands of hours of restarting the session and spitting at our motherboards?

It is the same. The limit is it renders into a texture and the texture is a fixed size to not use too much memory.

 

I did change zoom a while back in Unity editor, so I can teleport around better or zoom in very close to check the art, but it is not for release as the texture no longer fills the window, so you would see the edges. No plans to change.

Never looked at how it saves/loads the explored area.

3 hours ago, Annihilatorza said:

@faatal Do you use Frustum culling?

Every 3d game engine uses culling by the camera's view. Our occlusion manager goes beyond that and culls based on areas being hidden behind rendered objects.

5 minutes ago, Trankitas said:

I hate to bring bad news, but every Alpha until A20 needed a fresh start, but imagine all the new props and generated cities! It's a good thing if you think about it, you can save your world by backing up %appdata%/7daystodie folder just in case, if you want to play it again just go back to A20 (properties/betas) on steam.

Yes, A21 has many changes that would break an A20 world.

[Trankitas]

16 minutes ago, faatal said:

Yes, A21 has many changes that would break an A20 world.

Per example: Bandits. If you're on A20 they wouldn't generate correctly right Faatal?

[Syphon583]

16 minutes ago, Trankitas said:

Per example: Bandits. If you're on A20 they wouldn't generate correctly right Faatal?

I think even players running a brand new A21 world will have trouble generating bandits since bandits aren't an A21 feature

[Trankitas]

5 minutes ago, Syphon583 said:

I think even players running a brand new A21 world will have trouble generating bandits since bandits aren't an A21 feature

Bro shhhh I'm trying to do something

[Sir Negan]

53 minutes ago, faatal said:

It is the same. The limit is it renders into a texture and the texture is a fixed size to not use too much memory.

 

I did change zoom a while back in Unity editor, so I can teleport around better or zoom in very close to check the art, but it is not for release as the texture no longer fills the window, so you would see the edges. No plans to change.

Thanks for clarifying, shame to hear it won't be changed, but it is what it is, it's not the end of the world. Thanks for the quick reply ❤️ 

[Roland]

2 hours ago, Trankitas said:

Bro shhhh I'm trying to do something

And you were so close. Faatal’s hand hovered over the bandit button poised to press but then he came to his senses after Syphon’s reminder. We could have had it!!!

 

Maybe wait a day and try again. Everyone knows programmers suffer from short term memory loss. 

Edited April 5, 2023 by Roland (see edit history)

[Trankitas]

4 minutes ago, Roland said:

And you were so close. Faatal’s hand hovered over the bandit button poised to press but then he came to his senses after Syphon’s reminder. We could have had it!!!

 

Maybe wait a day and try again. Everyone knows programmers suffer from short term memory loss. 

I knew it, I'll try again in a couple of hours.

Btw it's Syphon's fault we don't have any bandits now, get him boys!

Edited April 5, 2023 by Trankitas (see edit history)

[drkstardragon]

3 minutes ago, Trankitas said:

I knew it, I'll try again in a couple of hours.

Btw it's Syphon's fault we don't have any bandits now, get him boys!

Yea, dunno about you, but i have plenty of bandits in my 7dtd.

[Laz Man]

38 minutes ago, drkstardragon said:

Yea, dunno about you, but i have plenty of bandits in my 7dtd.

 

[Old Crow]

Unrelated to the current convo about bandits, but I have a theory regarding the new trader compounds.

 

I believe they may be related to each trader's specialties (despite Rekt's not working properly currently). Trader Rekt received a new compound resembling a small farm in A20, and his specialty is supposed to be seeds and food. Bob's new compound in A21 is a salvage yard - his specialty is tools.

 

If I'm right (and this is just a theory/guess), Jen may receive a new compound resembling some sort of clinic or medical station, Hugh may receive something like an old gun store, and Joel.. I'm not sure.

[HB_H4wk]

10 minutes ago, Old Crow said:

If I'm right (and this is just a theory/guess), Jen may receive a new compound resembling some sort of clinic or medical station.

Or the Boobie trap.

[Old Crow]

15 minutes ago, HB_H4wk said:

Or the Boobie trap.

 

I see what you did there.

[Weazelsun]

32 minutes ago, Old Crow said:

and Joel.. I'm not sure.

 

Joel if I recall is the general goods. So maybe a pawn shop for him! lol

[khzmusik]

3 hours ago, Roland said:

Everyone knows programmers suffer from short term memory loss. 

 

We just think fast. A minute to normal people is like an hour to a programmer. So if we forget something after a day, it's like a normal person forgetting something after a couple months.

 

...Who are you again?

[RyceKaeks]

If there adding a chunk reset option in A21 i dont think prefabs would have issues, though i can imagine perhaps with the amount of player progression changed there would be conflict.

[hiemfire]

Iirc the trader specialties are supposed to be (per the a19 and a20 dev threads, I am not going diving to pull up a damn link so don't ask):

Jen; Meds

Rekt; farming/seeds

Bob; vehicles

Hugh; weapons

Joel; armor

[Syphon583]

6 hours ago, Trankitas said:

I knew it, I'll try again in a couple of hours.

Btw it's Syphon's fault we don't have any bandits now, get him boys!