PC Alpha 21 Dev Diary

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faatal said:
Skyscraper windows are expensive and need to be improved. I actually have a meeting tomorrow to discuss with art/design devs.
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Can you tell us how the meeting went? What is the problem with windows? Will it be solved in skyscrapers (how?)? In high hopes...🙏

 
faatal said:
Skyscraper windows are expensive and need to be improved. I actually have a meeting tomorrow to discuss with art/design devs.
Click to expand...


Games'n'Grumble said:
Can you tell us how the meeting went? What is the problem with windows? Will it be solved in skyscrapers (how?)? In high hopes...[SIZE=14.6px]🙏[/SIZE]
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j7qDkUn.png


 
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faatal said:
It can also be set in the serverconfig.xml file.
<property name="UserDataFolder" value="absolute path" /> <!-- Use this to override where the server stores all generated data, including RWG generated worlds. Do not forget to uncomment the entry! -->
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Will it work the same for single player?

 
faatal said:
We already allow you to specify a location on the command line for data files, which you could specify in the launcher. You can then place a Mods folder there.

-UserDataFolder=x:\7DTDData
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@faatal can players use this setting for the desktop shortcut that launches the game?
Thus, it was possible to make several folders with different sets of modifications in the game folder, and make several shortcuts on the desktop with different launch options, which would allow the game to be launched with the desired set of modifications, without having to make a copy of the game folder.

And another question: did I understand correctly that using this command you can specify a new location for storing game saves, screenhots and logs?

 
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Survager said:
@faatal can players use this setting for the desktop shortcut that launches the game?
Thus, it was possible to make several folders with different sets of modifications in the game folder, and make several shortcuts on the desktop with different launch options, which would allow the game to be launched with the desired set of modifications, without having to make a copy of the game folder.
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Yes. A shortcut is how I tested it.

image.png

Games'n'Grumble said:
Can you tell us how the meeting went? What is the problem with windows? Will it be solved in skyscrapers (how?)? In high hopes...🙏
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It went fine. Skyscraper windows are block models, so they are each a draw call and it uses a sub mesh for trim and glass, so they are actually two draw calls each. They need to be changed to a standard block. We spent more of the time talking about making normal blocks that have opaque and transparent sections and decided we could support that if our mesh naming system handled marking meshes transparent, so that those would end up in the transparent chunk mesh. I have a prototype working of an arch with glass inside the arch. Still thinking on if I like this solution.

 
faatal said:
We can't have it in the Mods folder for installing from the Microsoft store or Game Pass, because MS does not want users changing files in the install location.

We already allow you to specify a location on the command line for data files, which you could specify in the launcher. You can then place a Mods folder there.

-UserDataFolder=x:\7DTDData

It can also be set in the serverconfig.xml file.
<property name="UserDataFolder" value="absolute path" /> <!-- Use this to override where the server stores all generated data, including RWG generated worlds. Do not forget to uncomment the entry! -->
Click to expand...
But, why does this change have to affect those of us who bought the game via Steam? Can it not be set to only affect those obtain 7 Days to Die via the Microsoft Store of Game Pass only?

 
Survager said:
@faatal can players use this setting for the desktop shortcut that launches the game?
Thus, it was possible to make several folders with different sets of modifications in the game folder, and make several shortcuts on the desktop with different launch options, which would allow the game to be launched with the desired set of modifications, without having to make a copy of the game folder.

And another question: did I understand correctly that using this command you can specify a new location for storing game saves, screenhots and logs?
Click to expand...
I've been doing it like that for years. Nowadays I even have a powershell script(*) to launch the game that makes a backup of the saves -- the userdata folder was the location of generated worlds and save games are saved, so now it also has mods, screenshots and logs.

(*) available at https://github.com/dcsobral/7DaysToDieAutomaticBackup

 
Sorry if I overlooked this post, but how many alphas are planned until A21? And how many alphas are planned until the final release (if there is already a deadline for the release ... year)?

 
grendelwolf said:
Sorry if I overlooked this post, but how many alphas are planned until A21? And how many alphas are planned until the final release (if there is already a deadline for the release ... year)?
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A .5 is planned. Beyond that, none are planned other than if we need to fix major bugs.

We don't know how many more alphas there will be before gold. Way too many variables.

 
So are we never getting new water related things then? I know 2 years ago it was toyed with @faatal I know zombies can swim which does make water a bit more interesting but I also caught wind of potential sharks - zombie sharks and just a bit more ocean based polish. (If that is not accurate I understand - I did hear it 2 years ago and just become an active forum poster after that a20.4 debacle.)  

 
faatal said:
It went fine. Skyscraper windows are block models, so they are each a draw call and it uses a sub mesh for trim and glass, so they are actually two draw calls each. They need to be changed to a standard block. We spent more of the time talking about making normal blocks that have opaque and transparent sections and decided we could support that if our mesh naming system handled marking meshes transparent, so that those would end up in the transparent chunk mesh. I have a prototype working of an arch with glass inside the arch. Still thinking on if I like this solution.
Click to expand...


So basically, if I want better performance in a skyscraper, just break all of the window?  

Occam's 'Mallet hypothesis - The easiest solution involves the biggest hammer

 
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