PC Alpha 20 Dev Diary

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Guppycur said:
So instead of being able to get to day 60, you'd get to what, day 20 and be done?
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I am guessing this is directed at me?

Nah, I just would not have lost my chemistry station, because I would not have had an extra station to craft that does not act like a normal voxel(?). 

Was just annoying because I have had really bad luck with loot in that world, and was looking forward to using it.  Then it died in front of me.  Although it was also kinda funny.  More annoying at the time... more funny as time passes. 

Pretty sure the simplified system will have a similar progression to what we have now, just it will be gated by upgrades, similar to the crucible, instead of crafting a new station, or something like that. 

 
@faatal, Can DX12 be implemented on the current version, or does it require a Unity update? And will it improve performance? There aren't many games right now where DX12 improves FPS, and it's usually only needed for RT or DLSS. And how do GLCore and Vulkan work, which can already be activated?

 
Kirill_226RUS said:
@faatal, Can DX12 be implemented on the current version, or does it require a Unity update? And will it improve performance? There aren't many games right now where DX12 improves FPS, and it's usually only needed for RT or DLSS. And how do GLCore and Vulkan work, which can already be activated?
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I actually tested DX12 a few weeks back (you just add to the project as a gfx choice), but it caused a crash when the occlusion manager was on. Unity replicated and thinks it was nVidia's drivers, so I retested yesterday with the latest drivers and did not crash, but I do get a DX12 error (x2) on world exit, which I told Unity about. We do want to support it, but FPS seems the same. I still have DX12 enabled in the Unity editor, which also has that error (x2), but they don't seem to break anything other than making the console open.

 
Kirill_226RUS said:
@faatal, Can DX12 be implemented on the current version, or does it require a Unity update? And will it improve performance? There aren't many games right now where DX12 improves FPS, and it's usually only needed for RT or DLSS. And how do GLCore and Vulkan work, which can already be activated?
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I'm using vulkan on Linux for months now. Apart from a strange frame update problem that only showed up in a specific mod I am very pleased with it. FPS is better than with opengl/GLcore

 
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@faatalAnd on Windows, will Vulkan give any error-free performance boost? Or should I limit myself to DX11? In parentheses after Vulkan, it says: not fully supported yet. 

 
Kirill_226RUS said:
@faatalAnd on Windows, will Vulkan give any error-free performance boost? Or should I limit myself to DX11? In parentheses after Vulkan, it says: not fully supported yet. 
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I tried Vulkan last month on Windows and the Unity editor crashed in Vulkan mode while making a build. I have a ticket open with Unity and they have reproduced the crash. I stopped testing at that point and did not try a normal build and switching it to Vulkan. I will probably try again once Unity fixes the editor crash.

 
Hello

I noticed we are going to get a new type of quest in Alpha 20 "power restore" and since quests are what i like the most i would like to propose adding even more. Some suggestions:

1) "Street cleaning" => You go to specific spot located outside (preferably in city) and after activating quest mark groups of zombies will spawn in certain distance. Your objective is to kill them (maybe one group at once for performance reasons).

2) "Clear and protect" => After activating quest mark you have to clear area (building) as we usually have to do in "clear" type quest. But after we are done with first part of mission we get X amount of time to foritfy our place before horde spawns. You can also add objective we have to protect.

3) "Fetch v2.0" => Currently we lack variety in t5 quests. Buildings that can be choosen are few. New fetch v2.0 instead of picking one t5 building could also choose area (few t1-3 buildings) and location of our objective is unknown.

Just some random ideas. I would really love to see improvements and more variety in higher tier quests. hope you can consider my suggestions and surprise me when alpha 20 will be released :)  

 
petruherro said:
How big of an improvement should we expect due to the optimizations?
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Most of the optimizations have to do with making the game smoother, not higher peak FPS, so less frequent and milder FPS drops.

For example, I can run at 60 FPS, but it would often drop to 30, 20, 15 for multiple frames, which feels bad. Now I rarely drop below 30 and it just feels much smoother. I have yet to try A20 optimizations on lower end computers, so results there many be more, less or the same as a higher end computer.

 
Crater Creator said:
I can't help but point out that, in the time it would take to concept/model/texture/rig a new zombie type so that the snowy biome isn't all the same lumberjack, one could make dozens of complementary beanie colors, beard colors, shirt colors, pants colors, suspender colors, skin colors, etc.
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Im all for that but we need variation in silhouettes too. Having more variation of the same zombies would be amazing for immersion.

I think they need to do what they did with the stripper zombie (retooling her into the 'socialite' zombie) and retool another zombie into a more versatile one that fits in more biomes.

One idea i had was a wild-man trapper kind of character with furs and stuff. He'd fit right in with gun ranges, snow biome, shanty town and forest biome and would look great in the middle of a forest where the socialite would be out of place.

The cowboy could be a little more versatile as an example and could possibly be a candidate, though i do enjoy seeing the ol cowboy, but he's ridiculously niche

Roland said:
Just got word that the beanie color is going to be changed.
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Thats awesome. How easy/hard is it to do? it would be great if we could get a few color variations of each zombie to break the monotony

 
faatal said:
Most of the optimizations have to do with making the game smoother, not higher peak FPS, so less frequent and milder FPS drops.

For example, I can run at 60 FPS, but it would often drop to 30, 20, 15 for multiple frames, which feels bad. Now I rarely drop below 30 and it just feels much smoother. I have yet to try A20 optimizations on lower end computers, so results there many be more, less or the same as a higher end computer.
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For lowest end there is no better test than 64 alive and level 300 day 70000 horde + a big squared base that takes  time to break to reach you and is equipped with ramps and pathing while you are using bombs and even dinamite.

If you never go below 30 fps for a lowest end PC then there's absolutely no instance in the game that can be lower than that.

My system currently achieves (at lowest 720p but shadows near) from 7 to 22 fps in the peaks of  that test IF Occluder off or else 0-14fps if on. Quad Core/8 T 2.7ghz CPU 4gb VRAM GPU. 

This test will be invalid in a system with only 1 slot of RAM (single channel) at 2400MHZ or less, as it will freeze constantly in that case. It might also be more unstable for higher speeds of single channel rams(30% lower fps drop threshold when they do drop). It will also be invalid in a dual core/ 4 T system as it will run like rotten sham (7dtd CAN'T do dual core with stable 30fps 1% or 0.1%).

I am very interested in testing a 19.5 and a20 with your new changes.

 
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It's long been known that the burnt biome is, to a certain extent, being merged as a part of the wasteland in A20. As a result, will clay patches now be present within the wasteland biome?

Also, will the radiated zones encompass the entire biome, or just towns, or perhaps instead random splotches across the map? Will it be possible for the player to survive in the wasteland, or will the tactic from now on always be to get in and get out as soon as possible?

 
Added Feral Sense option (None, Day, Night, All).
 

I'm still tweaking it, but I expect to be playing with it set to Night and actually being afraid of the dark.

 
faatal said:
Added Feral Sense option (None, Day, Night, All).
 

I'm still tweaking it, but I expect to be playing with it set to Night and actually being afraid of the dark.
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Excellent work Faatal!

I can't wait to get my hands on this feature whenever A20 EXP hits. I personally edit my forest biome XML's to add wights, cops, and soldiers to nighttime spawning, so this shall prove to be... interesting.

 
MechanicalLens said:
Excellent work Faatal!

I can't wait to get my hands on this feature whenever A20 EXP hits. I personally edit my forest biome XML's to add wights, cops, and soldiers to nighttime spawning, so this shall prove to be... interesting.
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but.... try playing it with GodMode off... its a whole new game then. i was amazed :)

 
I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but I'm going to add one final point to the "brass predicament". What is one the most inconvenient tasks in 7D2D? That would be babysitting brass as it smelts into your forge. At least with candlesticks, trophies, and doorknobs they stack up to, what is it? 500? Brass radiators are the main culprit here. Having to place 10 in at a time (max stack size is 5) and wait for 10 minutes before you can deposit more into the input slots is a far less elegant method than any other smeltable item in the game. I'm no game developer, but I don't see how increasing their stack size to 25 or even 50 would affect much balance wise. The constructive consequence of this is that instead of being forced to hang around your base tending to your forge in between tasks (this all depends on your current situation) we could simply plonk in a large stack of the suckers and let them smelt while we perform other tasks. What do you think @madmole?

 
Faatal:

This is a question regarding the Feral sense.

I am using prior alpha references, only as a reference.

In a prior alpha there was a visual screen indicator, the reactional eye.
There was also for a short period a LUT screen overlay.
Will there be an indicator as the feral sense is being active or inactive?

Potential thoughts along the lines of a tinted Lut, or using the music system;
the sound of a heartbeat. At a low volume it could be an auditory enhancement
consisting of whispers or chattering teeth or clicking claws.

References Infrasonic sound 18.98 - 19 HZ binaural beats, Friday the 13th movie
series, Aliens, resident evil, doom adrenal shot, TWD the whisperers.

Or is it intended to be an on\off parameter? My personal wish would be a temp
light level over-ride, combined with a black LUT overlay so no matter the \
brightness or gamma setting the closer you are to getting caught the darker and
less colored the screen.  Just don't use this theme or you'll cause
someone a heart attack.

https://youtu.be/9WcU_PrauOQ

 
4sheetzngeegles said:
Faatal:

This is a question regarding the Feral sense.

I am using prior alpha references, only as a reference.

In a prior alpha there was a visual screen indicator, the reactional eye.
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There is no indicator other than zombies coming to kill you like they do any other time you are detected. Dynamic music would react when they target you like it does now.

The system simply gives zombie hearing and seeing distances a big bonus (defined in xml), so they hear and see you more easily. The Feral Sense bonus is either on or off depending on if set to day, night or both.

 
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Ok I understand now, I was thinking it would be situational
Like horde night. Will they possibly have their own pulse
raising music, and will they detect you in a barrier and attack?

The reason I ask is because id like to attach a heat bloom to a
perimeter attack that draws other zombies if not dispatched quickly.

Thanks for the answer.

 
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