Advanced Role-Play Systems 

  • [GUIDE] 0.63 How to Play the Stress Tests

  • Guides for the beginner, intermediate, as well as advanced level player
Guides for the beginner, intermediate, as well as advanced level player
 #6889  by Weyland
 
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Survivors, the DayZ Dev Team needs your help! In order to proceed to a 0.63 Experimental release, our programmers need to stress-test the game = evaluate and debug the server performance of our current 0.63 builds.

This can only be done in an environment where we have lots of players connecting to 0.63 servers.

That's why we've decided to open these Stress Tests to the public and let everyone play 0.63 even BEFORE we can call it an Experimental build. It's going to be a "stress test" for the Dev Team as well, as the game is not yet fully ready to be played normally. However, stress-testing is an important step to ensure stability of DayZ when we reach Experimental.

We will usually have about 50 servers running a 0.63 build utilizing a new Stress Test Branch on Steam. However, the number of available servers can be intentionally decreased if we decide to test some specific features (e.g. login queue behavior under heavy load).

Servers will only be online when the Dev Team needs to run a specific test scenario. That means you will only be able to play for shorter periods of time (usually about 2 hours) and on an irregular schedule. Since we need to evaluate the tests live, they will usually run during the business hours of Central European Time.

What version of DayZ is running on Stress Tests?

It is a completely new branch of DayZ on Steam, where we will be running one of our internal 0.63 builds. This is not an Experimental release, and certainly NOT a DayZ BETA release!

Why is this not considered an Experimental release?

this build does not represent a typical DayZ gameplay experience, and is in general less polished and stable compared to our goals for the 0.63 Experimental

some features and content can be switched on / off in Stress Tests, based on the specific part of the game we need to test at the moment

we may spawn players with some items already in their inventory to speed up the Stress Tests. The same is true for spawn points, as those can be different for each Stress Test, and do not represent a typical DayZ experience that we aim for

Is this the DayZ BETA?

NO!

What are you, the Dev Team, expecting from these Stress Tests?

We mainly want to test server performance and see the number of players our servers can handle. Unfortunately, we are not able to do such large scale tests internally. We will be auto-collecting logs and server crashes for further analysis, as well as profiling the server performance.

How can we, the players, help the Dev Team?

We would love to kindly ask you to report all issues (except those listed below) that you encounter and provide us with data from potential client crashes.

How to report it?

We need you to send everything to our Feedback Tracker so that our lovely Dev Team can figure out what's going on. If you don't know how to make a Feedback Tracker ticket, this thread can help you.

In case your game crashes, we will require more information from you - please make a Feedback Tracker ticket and add files from the folder

C:\Users\PCName\AppData\Local\DayZ to your ticket. Your feedback is important to us, and you can help us release 0.63 Experimental faster!

What is the schedule for running the Stress Tests?

There is not a fixed day or a specific time of the day when we will run the Stress Tests, but it will usually happen during, or after CET business hours.

Stress Tests will run only when they are needed for specific development purposes. We will do our best to provide at least a 2 hour notice before the next Stress Test begins.

Please follow our Twitter Channel and make sure to participate on our forums as well to stay up to date.

I am a content creator. Am I allowed to stream the Stress Tests and record the gameplay? Is there a server for content creators?

We do not prevent anyone from streaming/recording the game, but we advise all content creators to wait for a more stable version of the game. It's also not ideal to stream the Stress Tests because of their ad-hoc nature, and unpredictable behavior.

Please get in touch with our Community Manager BatyAlquawen in case you're interested in having a Content Creators Server - currently, there is no Content Creators Server for the Stress Test Branch.

Known issues (= please DO NOT REPORT these issues on the Feedback Tracker):
  • • vaulting over fences happens automatically, and with a weird animation (this is a placeholder implementation before jumping/vaulting works as intended)
    • using RMB (right mouse button) in some gestures can freeze the character (your character will be fixed after you reconnect to a server)
    • setting key binds does not work properly at the moment
    • the character can become desynced when moving at prone/crouch speed in the opposite stance
    • the character can become desynced animation-wise = plays different animation than it should
    • players are misplaced when more of them attempt to climb one ladder at the same time
    • in rare cases, it might not be possible to exit a ladder
    • when in a close proximity of some the environment objects, your character may be unable to raise hands
    • players may glitch when attempting to prone on top of each other
    • the camera may clip through the ground when in prone
    • other players do not see your chat messages when you have a megaphone switched on
    • ladder climbing animation can be glitched (wrong hand placement)
    • clothing cannot be swapped in some circumstances
    • weapons/magazines can occasionally become stuck in the inventory
    • there are various visual animation glitches
    • the visual representation of sky is incorrect
    • there are various lighting/shadow glitches
    • you may experience brief client-side freezes
    • combining of magazines with ammo piles (as well as firearms with magazines/ammo piles) are working one way only
    • after the spawn, character's camera can be stuck in free-look
    • using free-look camera with a raised firearm (and eventually firing it) can lead to a mismatch of raised hands direction against camera direction
    • while aiming down iron sights, a firearm may become shifted, and can be slightly rotated • randomly around its vertical axis, which leads to some accuracy issues
    • after fall impact, the player character is stunned for a while before he can move again
    • the client can freeze briefly shortly after connecting to a server
    • characters can become locked in database, preventing connection (try another server)
    • possible connection issues due to large number of simultaneous connects
    • character animations for hit impacts after being hit with projectiles are missing
    • post process for hit impact is not played properly sometimes

What IS NOT to be expected of Stress Tests:
  • • authentic DayZ survival experience, this is mostly a PvP stress test to gather server performance data
    • the infected - they are intentionally switched off in Stress Tests
    • intended/final balance across game features, mechanics, systems and central economy
    • intended/final design of GUI of menus, inventory, and HUD
    features not ready for Experimental
    features planned for the future releases (Experimental, BETA, 1.0)
    • intended/final item's names, descriptions, sizes, capacities and inventory icons
    • intended/final sound and visual effects like post processes, particles, rain, fog and lighting setup

What IS to be expected during Stress tests
  • • a new Steam branch - you need to download 12 GB of files
    • 52 stress test servers for 3120 players
    • spawn points in Zelenogorsk
    • work-in-progress iteration of the brand new player controller and some other features
    • bugs and game crashes - servers may crash seconds after their start, be ready for that just in case
STRESS TEST BRANCH OPT IN DETAILS
  • → right click DayZ in your Steam Library
    → click Properties
    → click the Betas tab
    → go all the way down to Enter beta access code to unlock private betas"
    → enter the ireallywanttotest opt-in access code
    → the "Stress Test Branch" is unlocked - select that branch in a drop down menu and let the client files download
    → play DayZ
How to revert back to Stable Branch?
  • → right click DayZ in your Steam Library
    → click Properties
    → click the Betas tab
    → in the drop down menu choose NONE = opt out of all beta programs and close the properties
How to find Stress test servers?
  • → click the Change Server tab on the welcome page
    → write "Stress test" into the Search prompt on the right side of the screen
    → select a server of your choice