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
Status
Not open for further replies.
We just had a 5 player night 28 BM and we were in the upper stories of the 6 floor apartment building on a tier V quest when it started. Building unreinforced, unfortified, un-everything. We all lived but it was apparently crazy down below. One of our players reported the center of the lower stories is pretty much not there anymore. Gutted like a pumpkin. Building is still standing for the most part. I didn't go look, I'll probably return in a day or two to get the other loot and see the carnage.

My framerate was all over the place, I was the host, partly due to the pathing and partly due to that building always killing framerate near the roof(s). I kind of missed out because I didn't dare try to navigate the ledges with FPS bouncing around from 30ish to single digits. I understand one player wound up down on the ground for part of it and another was sniping everything chasing him for around 5 minutes real time. Then the sniper fell off a ledge and wound up partway down the building, alive still at least.

I really enjoy taking a structure like that and doing BM hordes with it. So much better than the ridiculous player built tower defense structures we used to make. The added gamble the Z's won't manage to take out enough structure to bring the whole thing down adds to it.

 
Of all the A17 hate this is the worst I’ve seen—wanting us to go back to March of this year and edit out all references to ever having been involved with A17 takes the cake. ;)
Don't say its name! It's the alpha that shall not be spoken of; simply saying its name poisons the air around us.

 
Don't say its name! It's the alpha that shall not be spoken of; simply saying its name poisons the air around us.
I think LBD should come back, and zombies shouldn't be able to damage walls... uh oh, I think I got the infection from the poison...

Quick, you look like a wizard, cast a cure spell plz. I have 700 gold.

 
I think LBD should come back, and zombies shouldn't be able to damage walls... uh oh, I think I got the infection from the poison...
Quick, you look like a wizard, cast a cure spell plz. I have 700 gold.
Let me consult Sauron first. I'll get back to you on that one.

P.S. I'm an Istari, folk sent to your world to observe and aid when needed. Due to our appearances however, we're often confused with wizard-folk.

 
Let me consult Sauron first. I'll get back to you on that one.
P.S. I'm an Istari, folk sent to your world to observe and aid when needed. Due to our appearances however, we're often confused with wizard-folk.
Please tell Sauron I'm sorry for what I did last Tuesday. Snowdog coerced me to do it.

Hey, appearances are all that makes a wizard a wizard. This is a grand need for aid - the poison is rather contagious. The database had an error just now after I posted that I got the infection.

 
Please tell Sauron I'm sorry for what I did last Tuesday. Snowdog coerced me to do it.
Hey, appearances are all that makes a wizard a wizard. This is a grand need for aid - the poison is rather contagious. The database had an error just now after I posted that I got the infection.
Sauron wishes to contact you himself. You'll need a Palantir to communicate with him. (Or what do you kids call them these days? Smartstones?)

 
P.S. I'm an Istari, folk sent to your world to observe and aid when needed. Due to our appearances however, we're often confused with wizard-folk.
No pointy hat. No one will confuse you for a wizard.

 
It really isn't that bad of an idea.
3hgjv9.jpg
You ever think that some times the men in black might be ♥♥♥♥ faced on the job and accidentally have the ♥♥♥♥♥ looking thing pointed the wrong way and accidentally use it on drunk self?........

Agent K: Agent J I think you might be a little to drun....

Agent J: naw man I'm good....

Agent K: *closes eyes*

Agent J: man I'm so...........https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czI4d8ziaPA

Agent K: what was that?

Agent J: I don't remember...........

giphy.gif
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sorry for sounding negative here but what good does that micro splat map bring to the table that forces a rather good gaming pc to it's knees?(I'm genuinely curious, not just old and grumpy)
It supports a lot of settings and modules, but we use it for triplanar and procedural blending of 24 textures with noise variations. Bottom line, the artists like it and say it looks much better.

 
It supports a lot of settings and modules, but we use it for triplanar and procedural blending of 24 textures with noise variations. Bottom line, the artists like it and say it looks much better.
Definitely don't disagree there, it makes the terrain/underground beautiful.

I did find a mod that removed the microsplat, kinda making the terrain look old school.

Average 70 FPS outdoors on the same settings as before on a higher resolution which previously I got 30 FPS on a lower resolution.

40 - 60 FPS on high-textures on a slightly higher resolution (1600x900).

I did this on GLcore, though, haven't had time to try it out on DX11. But, previously with the microsplat there was nominal difference between GLcore and DX11, infact the GLcore had stutters every 30 seconds or so, so unsure what to do with assumptions on that info lol.

 
I added a Terrain Quality slider which will be in A18.2.

Low - 3x3 terrain chunks. Simplified shader (testers have gotten up to x2 FPS and that was before the 3x3 reduction)

Medium - 3x3 terrain chunks

High - 4x4 terrain chunks

Ultra - 5x5 terrain chunks (what you have now)

 
I added a Terrain Quality slider which will be in A18.2.
Low - 3x3 terrain chunks. Simplified shader (testers have gotten up to x2 FPS and that was before the 3x3 reduction)

Medium - 3x3 terrain chunks

High - 4x4 terrain chunks

Ultra - 5x5 terrain chunks (what you have now)
You are the man, Stan. As much as I like pretty, it's good to have options for those of us that don't have beast computers :)

Btw, your AI optmizations def do well with zombies. I spawned 75 demolishioners in my world just for funs, after the initial lag from the spawning, I maintained 30 FPS haha.

 
I added a Terrain Quality slider which will be in A18.2.
Low - 3x3 terrain chunks. Simplified shader (testers have gotten up to x2 FPS and that was before the 3x3 reduction)

Medium - 3x3 terrain chunks

High - 4x4 terrain chunks

Ultra - 5x5 terrain chunks (what you have now)
Again...music to my ears. Time will tell but I'm sure I'll be able to say, good job sir. :)

 
I think the distant texture for certain landscapes (especially forest) could use an updated version.

While the desert looks nice on distant vertical surfaces, the forest texture (stone on slopes) looks very tiled, and overshadows the terrains natural diffuse shading. It makes mountain-slopes look like a tiled blob in the distance.

A version with less contrast would help.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Definitely don't disagree there, it makes the terrain/underground beautiful.
I did find a mod that removed the microsplat, kinda making the terrain look old school.

Average 70 FPS outdoors on the same settings as before on a higher resolution which previously I got 30 FPS on a lower resolution.

40 - 60 FPS on high-textures on a slightly higher resolution (1600x900).

I did this on GLcore, though, haven't had time to try it out on DX11. But, previously with the microsplat there was nominal difference between GLcore and DX11, infact the GLcore had stutters every 30 seconds or so, so unsure what to do with assumptions on that info lol.
Ohh. Do you remember the name or where you found it?

The terrain I could give less then 10 cents about how it looked and was perfectly happy with A15/16 looks :D

Would rather have that then a GPU that runs at 99% all the times with awful framerates.

 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top