Version 1.0 (Alpha 22) Dev Diary

[meganoth]

14 hours ago, Doomofman said:

 

I really don't think you could

 

Again, it's fine that things are jazzed up for a 1.0 gameplay trailer, companies do it all the time, but to try and say that's how the game actually looks/plays to people who are already familiar with the how the game looks/runs... C'mon

 

 

 

When I watched the trailer I noticed that staged scene as well.

 

Though your picture is not showing what is possible. A wandering horde (in A21) can have 12 zombies (if I looked in the right place).

 

There is a small hope in my mind that the event system might make the trailer scene possible in actual game play. Vanilla code allows 64 concurrent zombies, more than enough for that scene, the difficult part is getting that many zombies to show up outside horde nights.

 

 

Edited May 5 by meganoth (see edit history)

[Doomofman]

27 minutes ago, meganoth said:

 

When I watched the trailer I noticed that staged scene as well.

 

Though your picture is not showing what is possible. A wandering horde (in A21) can have 12 zombies (if I looked in the right place).

 

There is a small hope in my mind that the event system might make the trailer scene possible in actual game play. Vanilla code allows 64 concurrent zombies, more than enough for that scene, the difficult part is getting that many zombies to show up outside horde nights.

 

 

 

To be fair, all I did is what Laz Man said... Turned on Feral Sense and went to the wasteland. For laughs I put all graphics to the max to try match the trailer, even on a 12700k/3080 system, performance was so bad the zombies at times would resort to slow motion which was funny to see

[meganoth]

1 hour ago, Doomofman said:

 

To be fair, all I did is what Laz Man said... Turned on Feral Sense and went to the wasteland. For laughs I put all graphics to the max to try match the trailer, even on a 12700k/3080 system, performance was so bad the zombies at times would resort to slow motion which was funny to see

 

I can't talk about graphics fidelitely, literally. I don't have an eye for that, I can see the scene in the trailer is more diffuse because of video resolution and has lighing with an evening sun, but whether that and other graphical details are better or worse or in the game or not in the game I don't have the slightest idea.

 

The idea with feral sense might generate a bigger group, maybe not as big as the trailer, but >20 zombies should be possible. But you need to set it up correctly first, not just venture there and take a random picture. First of all you need a high stealth character with the corresponding perks maxed, so that you get them into a waiting state again. Shoot and run around, probably first going into a building with a big room full of zombies and activate them. Then, after a big group of z's is running behind you, go behind a corner, stealth and wait a few seconds and possibly silently eliminate the one or two that didn't lose your trail. Then turn the corner again and make a picture.

 

EDIT: And maybe you get more zombies in multiplayer with more than one player "collecting" zombies. Possibly some of them have to get themselves killed to get the zombies to stop somewhere. And if you have enough players one could even be the dedicated stealth player to take the picture, so he never leaves stealth, that makes it much easier

 

 

 

 

Edited May 5 by meganoth (see edit history)

[HeLLKnight]

On 5/4/2024 at 10:49 AM, Teezer said:

 

If the lightning isn't the same as here i'm gonna be really upset.

 

 

The lighting seen in gameplay trailer is fantastic! I love how that deep makes everything scarier, and the game suddenly feels at least 5 years newer than a21. Devs commented here back in january they added new contact shadows and ambient occlusion, so I think the huge improvement in 1.0 comes from there. 

 

@faatal can you comment a few more details about that new lighting and shadowing? Which AO technique has been possible to fit in old Unity built-in render pipeline, GTAO maybe? Any other gfx improvements coming like new antialiasing?

[Roland]

 

5 hours ago, Doomofman said:

 

To be fair, all I did is what Laz Man said... Turned on Feral Sense and went to the wasteland. For laughs I put all graphics to the max to try match the trailer, even on a 12700k/3080 system, performance was so bad the zombies at times would resort to slow motion which was funny to see

So you did an experiment for the next major version using the previous version which has an update gap of about 9 months and it didn’t work very well. I’m not surprised. 
 

People keep using A21 as their frame of reference when judging whether the game is 1.0 worthy. It could be that the current internal build for 1.0 might fail such an experiment but nobody knows that. All anyone knows is that the game they are playing right now which hasn’t seen an update in months falls short of the trailer and falls short of feeling like a 1.0 version.  
 

Well no duh. Thats why they didn’t call a21 version 1.0…

 

4 hours ago, meganoth said:

The idea with feral sense might generate a bigger group, maybe not as big as the trailer, but >20 zombies should be possible. But you need to set it up correctly first, not just venture there and take a random picture. First of all you need a high stealth character with the corresponding perks maxed, so that you get them into a waiting state again. Shoot and run around, probably first going into a building with a big room full of zombies and activate them. Then, after a big group of z's is running behind you, go behind a corner, stealth and wait a few seconds and possibly silently eliminate the one or two that didn't lose your trail. Then turn the corner again and make a picture.

Oh, and be running the build the trailer is based on rather than the build from last year… 😉

Edited May 5 by Roland (see edit history)

[Doomofman]

25 minutes ago, Roland said:

 

So you did an experiment for the next major version using the previous version which has an update gap of about 9 months and it didn’t work very well. I’m not surprised. 
 

People keep using A21 as their frame of reference when judging whether the game is 1.0 worthy. It could be that the current internal build for 1.0 might fail such an experiment but nobody knows that. All anyone knows is that the game they are playing right now which hasn’t seen an update in months falls short of the trailer and falls short of feeling like a 1.0 version.  
 

Well no duh. Thats why they didn’t call a21 version 1.0…

 

Oh, and be running the build the trailer is based on rather than the build from last year… 😉

 

I'll hold my hands up and admit I'm wrong if 1.0 delivers visuals (at usable framerates) and zombie counts as shown in the 1.0 trailer

 

But I'd genuinely be shocked if that much progress has been made from A21 to 1.0

[Arez]

43 minutes ago, HeLLKnight said:

The lighting seen in gameplay trailer is fantastic! I love how that deep makes everything scarier, and the game suddenly feels at least 5 years newer than a21. Devs commented here back in january they added new contact shadows and ambient occlusion, so I think the huge improvement in 1.0 comes from there. 

 

@faatal can you comment a few more details about that new lighting and shadowing? Which AO technique has been possible to fit in old Unity built-in render pipeline, GTAO maybe? Any other gfx improvements coming like new antialiasing?

Seeing as there hasn't been an answer given to whether the lighting in the trailer is going to be the same as in the game is kinda telling me that it won't, and that cinematic vibe was done specific for the trailer. 

 

If the lighting was to look like that I think they would've been quick to confirm it. 

 

I could be wrong, and I would be more than happy if that's the case.

 

And it's not that big of a deal to me at least. I'm a big fan of how the lighting looks now anyway.

[Jost Amman]

1 hour ago, Roland said:

It could be that the current internal build for 1.0 might fail such an experiment but nobody knows that.

Well, The Fun Pimps do. 

 

I don't understand all this bickering over the teaser video... the new version is either like that, or not.

@faatal: could you please confirm if we can expect (at least) a similar video quality in 1.0 or not?

 

If it's all done in post-processing in a video editor, that's fine. It's just silly to keep arguing over something you can easily clarify, isn't it? 

Cheers 

 

Edited May 5 by Jost Amman
typo (see edit history)

[Adam the Waster]

2 hours ago, Roland said:

 

Oh, and be running the build the trailer is based on rather than the build from last year… 😉

I guess we will have to find out

[Roland]

2 hours ago, Doomofman said:

 

I'll hold my hands up and admit I'm wrong if 1.0 delivers visuals (at usable framerates) and zombie counts as shown in the 1.0 trailer

 

But I'd genuinely be shocked if that much progress has been made from A21 to 1.0

 

That's fair and it's healthy to be skeptical.  I wish I could be definitive for you but my hardware isn't good enough to run such a test. My game will never look like the trailer until the next time I upgrade my system.  My monitor isn't even good enough to play the trailer video in its full resolution....😰

Edited May 5 by Roland (see edit history)

[MechanicalLens]

10 hours ago, Jugom said:

how did you even catch that. lol. watching frame by frame at 0.25x?

I studied that trailer for like 2 hours lmao.

[meganoth]

3 hours ago, Arez said:

Seeing as there hasn't been an answer given to whether the lighting in the trailer is going to be the same as in the game is kinda telling me that it won't, and that cinematic vibe was done specific for the trailer. 

 

If the lighting was to look like that I think they would've been quick to confirm it. 

 

I could be wrong, and I would be more than happy if that's the case.

 

And it's not that big of a deal to me at least. I'm a big fan of how the lighting looks now anyway.

 

It's the weekend. What do you expect?

 

[Chaton Noir]

@faatal , are you planning to add SSAA or another option to increase the resolution of the render? I have an RTX 4060, and since the game depends on the processor, the GPU often has a small load. I think it would be possible to get the GPU to render the game at 1440p without any problems. This would be especially true for owners of even more powerful GPUs. Moreover, the anti aliasing in the game does not work too well.

I tried to increase the resolution using the console command, as well as DSR and DLDSR, but nothing worked. Therefore, I would like to have such a setting in the game.

Edited May 5 by Chaton Noir (see edit history)

[Arez]

3 hours ago, meganoth said:

 

It's the weekend. What do you expect?

 

That's understandable, but other questions have been answered since people have been asking about the lighting. 

 

Again, I don't really care that much about it. I'm just curious. It would be nice if the lighting was more cinematic but I would be more than fine if it stays the way it is now. 

  

4 hours ago, Roland said:

 

That's fair and it's healthy to be skeptical.  I wish I could be definitive for you but my hardware isn't good enough to run such a test. 

My hardware can handle it. Just send me a copy of the 1.0, and I'll let you know.

Edited May 5 by Arez (see edit history)

[Grimace521]

On 5/4/2024 at 10:57 AM, Adam the Waster said:

Ohh and Last thing.... We're is the plasma baton. Gotta have my nerd set grind 🤓 🤓 🤓 

yah i'm curious about that because awhile back when i was watching videos about potential updates or additions someone mentioned that there was a reference to a plasma baton in the game's code or something. dunno the validity of that but honestly i'm very curious as to why batons don't have three tiers like all the other melee weapons

[Roland]

Plasma baton? May the Fourth was yesterday...

 

Today is a day for Maracas.

[Adam the Waster]

16 minutes ago, Roland said:

Plasma baton? May the Fourth was yesterday...

 

Today is a day for Maracas.

Exactly when can I kill those younglings. No for real are we getting a tier 3 or na

[Wandering Hippie]

Has the unstable build dropped for play yet?

 

[Kalex]

2 hours ago, Wandering Hippie said:

Has the unstable build dropped for play yet?

 

No, not even close

[Teezer]

10 hours ago, Arez said:

Again, I don't really care that much about it. I'm just curious. It would be nice if the lighting was more cinematic but I would be more than fine if it stays the way it is now. 

 

The lighting can be way way better, I really don't like the actual one, lot of designs are getting improved drastically but are kinda "bottlenecked" by the render of the actual lighting and it breaks immersion imo (this + the HUD).

[DaVegaNL]

The trailer itself is quite nice though.

Of course, it's not at all what's in the game itself, but it's a nice fantasy!

 

Putting 'Gameplay' in the title doesn't make it so..

 

18 hours ago, Jost Amman said:

Well, The Fun Pimps do. 

 

I don't understand all this bickering over the teaser video... the new version is either like that, or not.

@faatal: could you please confirm if we can expect (at least) a similar video quality in 1.0 or not?

 

If it's all done in post-processing in a video editor, that's fine. It's just silly to keep arguing over something you can easily clarify, isn't it? 

Cheers 

 

You can't claim something to be 'gameplay', if it's not in-game.
They could've just called it 'trailer', or something like that.

 

I mean, I wouldn't really go so far as to call it false advertisement, but it's on par with fastfood restaurants showing their burgers in commercials.

 

Edited May 6 by DaVegaNL (see edit history)

[pattyboy27]

Wait, you guys just renamed A22 to 1.0? Also, basically every update coming to 1.0 and beyond is ... art or graphics? 🤨

 

I'm grateful for the game being maintained for so long, but can't help feel a bit of a sour taste in my mouth how it ended. Cheers anyway, good luck for whatever comes next.

[HeLLKnight]

1 hour ago, DaVegaNL said:

I mean, I wouldn't really go so far as to call it false advertisement.

 

Yeah, it would be false advertisement, no half-measures. 

 

If the graphics or the amount of zombies were fake in a gameplay trailer.... Maybe in this forum where we are all big fans it could be moderately forgotten. But in other communities like Steam the lack of honesty could be extremely damaging to The Fun Pimps reputation in the future. Fortunately it seems that most developers have learned and nowadays you see few cases of downgrade.
 

Personally I think the gameplay trailer is real. I play 7D2D with Reshade to add some post-processing gfx in real-time, and just adding better AO and temporal AA the improvement vs vanilla is HUGE with the cost of just a few FPS. Not to mention fake global illumination techniques like CompleteRT or the free Alucard's DH_UBER_RT, once you do some fine-tuning the result is mind-blowing.

[SylenThunder]

1 minute ago, pattyboy27 said:

Wait, you guys just renamed A22 to 1.0? Also, basically every update coming to 1.0 and beyond is ... art or graphics? 🤨

 

I'm grateful for the game being maintained for so long, but can't help feel a bit of a sour taste in my mouth how it ended. Cheers anyway, good luck for whatever comes next.

You might want to actually read the news about the 1.0 release instead of making baseless assumptions.

Alpha Exodus: Leaving Early Access | 7 Days to Die

[Chaton Noir]

Does TFP have plans to expand the use of the POI parts system? Now it is used quite pointwise for the accidental appearance of poles, accidents on roads, chicken coops at locations, etc. But this system can be significantly expanded to entire POI segments.
For example, for one house, you can make several options for the second floor. Moreover, they can be exactly the same from the outside, but only the internal layout, the player's path, and the location of the main loot will change.
Or, for example, you can make several variations for the same building, which will differ only in the colors of the walls outside and other wallpapers inside.
With this, it would be possible to greatly diversify the existing locations, and in different ways. Somewhere to change the colors, somewhere - the internal layout, and somewhere in general it would be possible to add a burned—out attic instead of the whole, change the player's path in the building, hide the top loot in different places, change the location of groups of zombies.
I understand that level designers have a lot of work to do for this, but it will be very, very cool if this is ever implemented. Yes, it will not be possible to do this for all buildings at once, and it will have to be introduced gradually over several updates. But even the appearance of this for at least part of the buildings would bring the variety of POIs to a new level.
In the game now, POIs and cities look great, better than ever. I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who worked on this — you did an amazing job. But this system would make POI even better. There would be much more variety. Moreover, I have heard that you once discussed such a thing.