PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

  • A18 Stable is Out!

    Votes: 2 66.7%

  • <img alt=":)" data-src="" src="___base_url___/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />

    Votes: 1 33.3%
  • Total voters
    3
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Are the new Character controllers gonna be in A17.3 or A18? Gonna be sweet to have 300 zombie horde nights. Occlusion is gonna be A18 I assume?

 
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That person would be a graphic artist, a person with the least amount of influence on the frame rate.
The coding is fine, only the textures are basic.
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Im not talking frame rates..im talking about an artsy/ visual person spending time on a new zombie instead of a UI improvement

 
Are the new Character controllers gonna be in A17.3 or A18? Gonna be sweet to have 300 zombie horde nights. Occlusion is gonna be A18 I assume?
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300? I will eat my only pair of underwear if this is possible at more than 15 frames a second.

 
Im not talking frame rates..im talking about an artsy/ visual person spending time on a new zombie instead of a UI improvement
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The current zombie limit has very little do with not enough time to do the graphics, it's a system resources problem.

The amount of system resources required for a new zombie is substantial whereas the system resources required for new UI graphics doesn't change at all if you just change the textures.

If memory serves TFP have three or four zombies ready to add if they can free up enough resources to use them, a female in a biohazard suit is one unless I'm very much mistaken.

 
The current zombie limit has very little do with not enough time to do the graphics, it's a system resources problem.
The amount of system resources required for a new zombie is substantial whereas the system resources required for new UI graphics doesn't change at all if you just change the textures.

If memory serves TFP have three or four zombies ready to add if they can free up enough resources to use them, a female in a biohazard suit is one unless I'm very much mistaken.
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Not talking technical details AT ALL, can someone get gronk out of the weeds for me

One last try, id rather the effort of a human employee of TFP with art/design experience work on a new zombie model than new UI elements

 
Not talking technical details AT ALL, can someone get gronk out of the weeds for me
One last try, id rather the effort of a human employee of TFP with art/design experience work on a new zombie model than new UI elements
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Okay, I'll explain it simpler.

There are already new zombie models and textures created and ready to add to the game, that work has already been done.

There's no non-technical way to explain why they aren't already in the game.

 
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I think you are taking my original statement way too literal. Maybe my fault. I meant , if there is anything else AT ALL that person could be working on rather than redoing the UI i would rather them NOT work on the UI. "One new zombie" was simply an example which would illustrate the point.

UI would be dead last on my list to have someone waste time on.

 
I think you are taking my original statement way too literal. Maybe my fault. I meant , if there is anything else AT ALL that person could be working on rather than redoing the UI i would rather them NOT work on the UI. "One new zombie" was simply an example which would illustrate the point.
UI would be dead last on my list to have someone waste time on.
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The bottleneck for pretty much everything is, as always, the programming. The graphic designers are not particularly rushed.

A few UI backgrounds is something you can do on a lazy afternoon and still have time to drink your own body weight in coffee.

My point is, it wouldn't slow down the development process at all.

 
The bottleneck for pretty much everything is, as always, the programming. The graphic designers are not particularly rushed.
A few UI backgrounds is something you can do on a lazy afternoon and still have time to drink your own body weight in coffee.

My point is, it wouldn't slow down the development process at all.
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5 minutes is too much time wasted :)

 
After reading the UI discussion going on here I would also like to see an improvement, or something more in line with the game setting, to the HUD and UI. Now, I am not saying that I want TFP to concentrate on that at this very moment.

The current UI has been with us since what? A13? And it does what it does very good, it is easy and intuitive. I am not saying that it is not somewhat lacking in the artistic department though...just not important enough at THIS current time an place of the game.

I noticed someone talk about how the new icons got priority. Icons are kinda an artists forte and you can crank out a lot of icons in the same time you would have to spend redoing/redesigning even parts of the UI.

We are a small and rare breed but there are those of us in the modding community to this game that are actually working on our own visions for how we would like the game to present HUD/UI wise. I am one of those and I will, shamelessly, link this evenings upload from Games4Kickz where he is sporting my latest version so that those that wish to can have a look.

That said, anyone can pickup UI modding. You just need a design, some assets and a LOT of patience! But I encourage you all to have a go at doing it, see if you can shape the UI into how you envision the game should look like.

Now, this is MY vision for it...it is a work in progress, and far from done, so be kind.

 
Now, this is MY vision for it...it is a work in progress, and far from done, so be kind.

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Okay, I thought I was done with this but now I have to say that I understand the appeal of a pleasing UI. Very well done and beautiful. I like the dark background with the white text. Sometimes a picture is worth a 1000 words. :)

But it still isn't a priority in my mind and I think the point can also be made that modding will eventually provide many cool skins to choose from.

 
I wonder why you redid the icons then.. they were not in the Kickstarter, they were functional and nobody cared about them.
Don't get me wrong, I love that you improved them. I'm just saying there is incoherence in disregarding any UI improvement as not worth it, but them do the icons over.
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I think I mentioned this, they were blurry. I'm not saying we won't ever look at it, its just not on the table for A18. But its kind like wow, really? Out of all the stuff that is totally trashy yet, you want us to improve one of the things that is totally fine?

Anyhow right now its all about random gen, performance, bugs, balance and adding new content and continue to upgrade art to pbr.

 
The high-def icons probably weren’t absolutely necessary, but definitely helps out more than simply changing the look of the UI. It opens things up to scale down the UI and still have it comfortable for viewing.
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Yes they are squares now instead of rectangles so they will look good at different resolutions.

 
No wonder Steve Jobs made Apple so freaking valuable ... he was one of the few who knew the value of visual design in technical products. If some engineer would have said: huh, the UI looks fine, we have more important things to do ... well, that would have ended badly for him.
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Yes, we overhauled the UI around alpha 13 I think. I think some people forgot the horror show we used to have for crafting, etc.

 
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