PC Alpha 18 Dev Diary!!

[Gamida]

Can you spot all the ores in this image?View attachment 29691

I'm gonna need a better auger... :laser:

Same here

 

[Khurune]

What are your system specs and games settings (screen resolution)?
Did you try the console command:

gfx af 0

Are there any server commands / command line switches like this I can try to use to lower the IDLE CPU usage? Like disable systems server side like audio ect...

Thanks.

:EDIT: Command line switches would be better if possible, as I can apply this to all the servers at once.

 

[faatal]

So to expand on a previous post of mine, my game wouldn't run well in Fullscreen mode. Choppy, getting 20 fps or lower. It didn't matter what resolution I was at, what my quality settings were in game, whether EAC was on or off, NOTHING changed the outcome. Low, choppy fps. Until I just discovered something odd. Here's my system settings again:
OS: Windows 10 64-bit, version 1809

CPU: Intel i7 4790k 4.0GHz

GPU: MSI Gaming GTX 1080 8GB, latest drivers installed (436.48)

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR3 1600

Motherboard: MSI Z97 Gaming 5

Typically when I play games, I have twitch streams, youtube videos or something of the like going on my other monitor to watch while I play. Turns out if a video is playing, that's what causes my low and choppy fps. As soon as I pause the video, performance increases dramatically! Oh it gets even stranger. Let's say I have the video playing, and I mute my system using my keyboard's mute button. Windows 10 add this little overlay when you mute and unmute your system in the corner of your screen:

Super handy! Especially considering that when this overlay is up, even while a video is playing which normally demolishes my performance... my framerate is buttery smooth. No hitching, no chop. As soon as it goes away, it's back to being unplayable. So this clearly is not a game issue, it's a Windows issue. I have no clue what it's doing to cause this or how to stop it. Funny enough, I get better performance using the Vulkan renderer, until it crashes after a few minutes of play. Maybe some weird interaction with the DX11 renderer? I have no idea. Hopefully someone out there can shed some light on this issue, so I can enjoy A18 in all its glory.

Playing video typically uses the GPU to decode and some of its VRAM is used. You can see that in task manger on the Details tab, if you add the GPU columns. A18 uses more VRAM, so the competition for VRAM on your computer is higher, which is why lowering texture quality helps.

Lowering or turning off AF helps, since it is much slower to filter the texture if the texture is in system RAM instead of VRAM.

Hopefully Vulkan will not crash once we update Unity, since 2019.2+ have Vulkan fixes.

 

[Laz Man]

Did they change it since A17? Found one yesterday and snuck into the loot room, still in the same place!
Can’t wait to do the skyscraper, wonder if that has gotten any dungeon touch ups

I didnt play too much A17 dungeon POIs but I think I know what you mean about the loot room *wink*

 

[Gamida]

Are those craftable? Last I checked crafting menu it didnt show up. I've only found one and used it right before having to munch down a bunch of sham sandwiches lol..

I was lucky enough to find the recipe for sham chowder fairly early. Was a while getting some corn and potatos going but it was worth saving my sandwiches for making it. The stats for the chowder are great. Means having to eat less so less chance of vomiting.

 

[Silver Werewolf]

Try console command (f1 to open) Gfx af 0Set texture streaming and occlusion to on.

And that will give me my +90fps back? i don't think so xD, yes, is all max out, so text streaming and AO on... i have lots of vram and ram for any game, even most because i play on 900p...

 

[Laz Man]

What are your system specs and games settings (screen resolution)?
Did you try the console command:

gfx af 0

@Faatal, Are there any confirmed fixed/not fixed snow biome specific FPS issues? If not, I can try to gather more data for bug reporting.

 

[Odetta]

I had 250+ rolls of it in my 100 hour game sitting in my box. Harvest all gore piles, vultures, dogs and skulls. Use the chem bench for the discount on glue crafting, and you should easily have a surplus of duct tape. I repair every q2 item and above before selling too, so I use a ton of repair kits/duct tape.

What's the best method to harvest the desert skulls? I only get 2 bones from each one.

 

[madmole]

i was wondering is it intended that there is so littlle .44 ammo in loot? Cause its almost 5x less than any other ammo.

Its equally distributed by the number of guns that use it, so since 2 weapons use 9mm ammo you will find twice the amount of 9mm than 44.

 

[madmole]

I love them, kinda adds customization and certainly helps weather protection while maintaining armor. Was a neat and thoughtful thing to add. I also love the ability to add cargo pockets to clothes! Just found one of those tailoring books that unlocked the schematic from a book store!

Yep my first duct tape and sewing kits go to the new clothing pockets.

 

[madmole]

Oh, here's a question.
Should we be able to kill a zombie just by out repairing the block she's trying to break? Happened the other night.

She settled on one block to try and bash through, so I'd keep repair it from my side.

Eventually, I did a 'tap" with my stone axe to repair the block, heard the 'squawk!' and that was it. dead zed.

Hilarious, but is that intended or a bug? (and good luck trying to reproduce it)

Zombies have a very short life span, it probably just starved to death. If you drive a lot you will see dead zombies on the roads a lot, and not the gore piles either, but regular zombies.

 

[Lonestarcanuck]

so is Barb Wire gone? we used it to slow down zombies.

 

[Jedo]

I finally got a chance to play. I tried 2560x1440 on ultra settings and was getting a solid 40fps. Not bad! It looked so good at that level too. I dropped the settings down to 1920x1080 because I want a smoother experience, but I can't wait for the optimizations so that I can play the game smoothly in all of its beautiful glory. Good job, TFP!

One complaint: I'm only getting 4fps in the main menu. I want my 1745fps in the main menu back!!!

 

[ZombieSurvivor]

I want my 1745fps in the main menu back!!!

why?

EDIT: What graphics card do u have?

 

[madmole]

What's the best method to harvest the desert skulls? I only get 2 bones from each one.

It doesn't matter on that.

 

[Odetta]

It doesn't matter on that.

2 bones Madmole! 2 Bones! lol

 

[Peakit]

Try console command (f1 to open) Gfx af 0

And that will give me my +90fps back? i don't think so xD, ...

Did you even try

 

[Moonflower]

Its equally distributed by the number of guns that use it, so since 2 weapons use 9mm ammo you will find twice the amount of 9mm than 44.

Is it only the amount that is affected or it it the probability as well? It would be fine if it was just the amount, but i feel like i can use any type of weapon freely, since i always have extra bullets, but if i want to use magnum i have to craft them. I have found only 120 .44 ammo vs 1000 + of 9mm, 800+ of 7.62 and it has been like that in previous alfas as well.

 

[Jugginator]

30 mb to free? Very few

Every bit helps man. All of that uses CPU too, and there was a bug that got "patched" by Windows that caused Cortana to have large CPU spikes. But we all know Microsoft and "patches" lately. I fixed major lag on someone's laptop recently (3 weeks ago), and even with the patch disabling Cortana gave a massive boost in performance.

If you go to Settings > Privacy (why windows, is this is privacy...) you can see a huge list of apps that start up with boot. Disable them at will.

 

[Darthjake]

Buddy logged out at our kill base after we tested both of us on Turrets, he logged out just behind the 2 dart traps, and I came out to do some upgrades the next day and this is what I see where we tested the turrets.

The turret on the right is mine, the one on the left was his, it appears to be still active. Bug????