Greetings Survivors!
We're going to mostly cover Status Updates on the critical engine work this Status Report - as well, we'll talk a bit about infected spawning changes, and our current goals for .59 experimental builds.
We've been hard at work on resolving issues with both server performance, player position desync, and problems plaguing dual core CPU users. We've been testing out several different builds, both with profiling running and without to try and nail down the root cause of the issue. Those participating in testing and reporting from experimental branch are *greatly* appreciated.
.59 Exp Critical Must-Fixes
- Player Position Desync (Potential fixes being pushed to exp tonight)
- Poor Server Performance (Potential fixes being pushed to exp tonight)
- Local (Visual) Item Duplication (Potential fixes being pushed to exp tonight)
- Dual Core bugfixing
- Standing/Frozen Corpses
That said - we mentioned in previous Status Reports potential changes to how infected are spawned in DayZ. Historically, throughout the entirety of the project we have spawned our infected globally - distributed evenly across the whole of Chernarus. Now while this resolved the previous metagaming vulnerability that DayZ Mod suffered from - it led to the infected being -way- too spread out. Internally we've recently settled on a hybrid system - entirely not dependant on the original trigger system used by DayZ Mod. Instead relying on the same tech that runs the dynamic events and spawns - allowing us to (in addition to globally spawning a specific number of infected) dynamically spawn large amounts of infected around cities/villages/bases/etc that players congrate to.
Pairing this dynamic spawning method with the existing global spawning of infected means players shouldn't be able to sight into a location and identify it as "free of players" because it does not have any infected - HOWEVER, it will also allow for an overwhelming feeling of constantly having to fight off the attention of large numbers of infected in high-traffic areas such as Chernogorsk, Berezino, Zelenogorsk, or so on.
We're expecting this to hopefully be one of the first changes within the begining of the new year.
In addition to this - regional loot control is being prepared for internal testing. CLE functionality is present, and the designers are now working with a fairly versatile new tool allowing them to set location types, regional areas, and even more - with rapid flexability. In addition to allowing us even more precise control over the in-game economy, this should also be a huge tool for mod authors.
Now lets take a look at the current status of some of the major engine changes under way:
Renderer:
Completed
- Post Processes
- HDR
Current Focus
- Multithreaded Optimizations
- Ocean/Ponds Rendering
- New UI changes to support DX 11
Physics:
Completed in November
- Helicopter Support
- Small Object Interaction
Current Focus
- New Character Controller support
Next Up
- Physical Doors support
- Manipulating bodies (Dead/Unconscious)
Animation System/Player Controller:
Completed Recently
- Improved Handling of Animation Events
- Animation Groups/Sets
Current Focus
- Improved Animation Graph Nodes
- Adding Subgraphs/Conditional Nodes
- Polishing Animation Graph for Player
- Implementing User Actions (Drinking, Eating, Medical)
- Adding Gestures to new Sys
Next Up
- Inverse IK for Feet/Hands
- Sync of Animation Loops
- Rewrite of functionality for additive and override animations
- Improving Vehicles w/ Additional Animations (Turning, Reacting to Speed, etc)
Lastly, I'd like to leave you all with two little gems from Lead Designer Peter Nespesny, and Lead Animator Viktor Kostik.