PC Developer Discussions: Alpha 17

[Crater Creator]

Cannot run in any direction but forwards. Rapid backpedaling is gone. 8/26/18
1 * then the letter "S" is already obsolete? since we can not go back with the "S" can someone clarify this to me?

Thank you so much guys! I use a translator to read the news and also to read them and that is what I understood, thank you very much for the answer, now I understood it well!

Multiple people have asked this, so I've taken the liberty of updating the list to hopefully explain it less ambiguously.

 

[SittingDuck]

They could go all the way to Alpha 17.9 taking six months between each .x and then go to Beta and technically there never will have been an A18...

Alpha 17.99 ( Alpha 17.999 might also happen but i am not interestet... except i become a BrainerGamer in a Jar)

 

[iejen]

I just spoke to Madmole on the phone.

Stream event is this weekend and we all get stable release mondaymorning.

Also; the vehicle pack DLC will be available on this monday.

Everyone who buys the DLC on the first day gets a free bike with 5 extra inventory slots.

If you pre-order today you get 75.000 dukes coins to buy a Chevrolet Camaro with 25 inventory slots from the new Car dealer.

Or pre-order the Deluxe DLC Edition and get 100.000 dukes coins for a Dodge Ram with 50 inventory slots!!

 

[Brandox471]

I just spoke to Madmole on the phone. Stream event is this weekend and we all get stable release mondaymorning.

Also; the vehicle pack DLC will be available on this monday.

Everyone who buys the DLC on the first day gets a free bike with 5 extra inventory slots.

If you pre-order today you get 75.000 dukes coins to buy a Chevrolet Camaro with 25 inventory slots from the new Car dealer.

Or pre-order the Deluxe DLC Edition and get 100.000 dukes coins for a Dodge Ram with 50 inventory slots!!

and how much is it for the Brooklyn bridge? Maybe the Chrysler building as a POI as well?

 

[KingSlayerGM]

+1I use sidesteps really often if i run longer distances to view arround

+1 me too

 

[iejen]

I said it as a joke.

But a car dealer (or any others NPC) whom sells a bike, minibike, motor, sedan, 4v4 for different amount of duke coins would awesome.

If we could have small settlements in stead of a trader I would be very hyped.

Like in an old mall.

Seperate NPC's for vehicles, medicines, food, weapons, spare parts...

#UnpopularOpinion

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and how much is it for the Brooklyn bridge? Maybe the Chrysler building as a POI as well?

Skyscraper DLC is planned for next summer.

Christmas DLC is first, including snowball fight in the snow biome.

 

[Guest]

If we could have small settlements in stead of a trader I would be very hyped. Like in an old mall.

Seperate NPC's for vehicles, medicines, food, weapons, spare parts...

#UnpopularOpinion

Actually it's a nice idea, we do have that abandoned outpost/settlement implemented, maybe a variation of it could have (alive) traders inside. Of course with outrageous prices for anything as that's human nature to profit from the unfortunate.

 

[KingSlayerGM]

You singled out view distance but that is only part of the issue.

The setting 'view distance' in the menu is what determines how many chunks are loaded around you.

Even if not rendered on your screen the game still has to keep this much more map data in memory

Yes, however RAM usage doesn't affect FPS, if you have enough RAM (and RAM is cheap nowadays). So it should be the players' choice to determine how much map the want to load.

..and run AI/pathing for an exponentially increased number of actors.

I don't agree. There is still a cap on living things in the game, and, in the case of zombies, it is potentially reached every 7 days during horde night. So If you make the game run smoothly during horde night with those many zombies, then the same number of zombies wouldn't be an issue in a larger loaded map around the player.

If it runs with 32 zombies during a horde, it should run with 32 zombies spread across an area of up to 400 meters away.

We were talking about firearm ranges and it would be redundant to have a 400m active range but nothing moving and shootable at that range, no? =)

Yes, you are right.

This is not the kind of game where displaying the graphics is 98% of all the work done.

You are right.

Gazz, please consider increasing the 'view distance' setting. It is just a number to be changed, right? Currently it is 12, maybe move the cap to 20? I think that many players with big rigs would enjoy it a lot and for the others, they should just keep the default view distance. No one loses. We all win.

(maybe add a message when it is increased past 12 to warn the players that it is very demanding and can affect performance)

 

[DaVegaNL]

I'm wondering whether melee combat will be balanced enough with A17, so that it's still viable? I know MM said that you had to take one to give one (don't remember the exact wording), but is there any work done on making armor work? Reduced stunn chance?

 

[DUST2DEATH]

Gazz, please consider increasing the 'view distance' setting. It is just a number to be changed, right? Currently it is 12, maybe move the cap to 20? I think that many players with big rigs would enjoy it a lot and for the others, they should just keep the default view distance. No one loses. We all win.

(maybe add a message when it is increased past 12 to warn the players that it is very demanding and can affect performance)

What type of "Big Rig" would run the game at "Max Settings" + 20 @ 60fps?

 

[Royal Deluxe]

What type of "Big Rig" would run the game at "Max Settings" + 20 @ 60fps?

 

[Guest]

Gazz, please consider increasing the 'view distance' setting. It is just a number to be changed, right? Currently it is 12, maybe move the cap to 20?

I will affect performance a lot to the point where an 1080ti will be struggling to keep 10 fps. The main limiting factor would be the CPU bottleneck as this is a voxel based game, so unless you have a Threadripper with 16+ cores the impact will be massive. And this IF the game supports that level of multi-threading being capable of using more than 4-8 threads in an efficient way.

It is just a number theoretically, but it can lead to various threads crashing, desync and pathfinding issues.

 

[KingSlayerGM]

What type of "Big Rig" would run the game at "Max Settings" + 20 @ 60fps?

I will affect performance a lot to the point where an 1080ti will be struggling to keep 10 fps. The main limiting factor would be the CPU bottleneck as this is a voxel based game, so unless you have a Threadripper with 16+ cores the impact will be massive. And this IF the game supports that level of multi-threading being capable of using more than 4-8 threads in an efficient way.It is just a number theoretically, but it can lead to various threads crashing, desync and pathfinding issues.

Guys, TFP have always been in favor of allowing the players to make choices. Most of the times through xml.

Increasing that number would allow us to make a choice. Still, if you don't want or can't have 20, you could pick a smaller one, nobody would force you.

 

[Guest]

Guys, TFP have always been in favor of giving the players a choice. Most of the times through xml.Increasing that number would allow us to make a choice. Still, if you don't want or can't have 20, you could pick a smaller one, nobody would force you.

The settings usually have a certain psychological effect on the player. For example if someone with a "beefy" PC which can play other games on ultra settings will be tempted to maximize all settings here, disregarding messages like "this will highly affect your performance". When that player enters the game and it's a slideshow or under the 60fps he is used to in most games it will automatically think the game is bad/unoptimized.

I agree with you that choice is good and maybe the change will be implemented in the next version (or maybe possible through the XML already, i don't recall seeing that) but it's a rather large change at the moment.

 

[KingSlayerGM]

I just did the math guys:

a view distance of 20 instead of 12 loads an area of the map that is 2.78 times bigger. It also allows you to see up to 320 blocks away, compared to the 192 we currently have.

That would be awesome

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The settings usually have a certain psychological effect on the player. For example if someone with a "beefy" PC which can play other games on ultra settings will be tempted to maximize all settings here, disregarding messages like "this will highly affect your performance". When that player enters the game and it's a slideshow or under the 60fps he is used to in most games it will automatically think the game is bad/unoptimized.

I understand your point.

I agree with you that choice is good and maybe the change will be implemented in the next version (or maybe possible through the XML already, i don't recall seeing that) but it's a rather large change at the moment.

It is not a large change. It is just number in the code to be changed.

 

[iejen]

Actually it's a nice idea, we do have that abandoned outpost/settlement implemented, maybe a variation of it could have (alive) traders inside. Of course with outrageous prices for anything as that's human nature to profit from the unfortunate.

Ofcourse, it would make more sense than one local trader who sells everything in the world.

 

[DUST2DEATH]

I just did the math guys:
a view distance of 20 instead of 12 loads an area of the map that is 2.78 times bigger. It also allows you to see up to 320 blocks away, compared to the 192 we currently have.

That would be awesome

It is not a large change. It is just number in the code to be changed.

The question was not one of "choices".

The question was: What machine will run the game at those settings @ 60 fps.

 

[Guest]

I just did the math guys:a view distance of 20 instead of 12 loads an area of the map that is 2.78 times bigger. It also allows you to see up to 320 blocks away, compared to the 192 we currently have.

It doesn't sound like extremely much but increasing 2.78 times means going from 36,864 blocks to 102,400, where the performance drop is not linear in this type of game, saying you go down from 60fps to ~22.

Gazz explained some pages back that going to 400m would give you 1/16 of the FPS.

 

[Royal Deluxe]

192m radius = 115811 m²

320m radius = 321699 m²

 

[Royal Deluxe]