Dev Update/Hicks
Happy Holidays everyone!
This Status Report will be the last one for this year, as for the last two weeks of this month the team slowly starts heading home to spend the holidays with their families.
That said, we have some cool stuff to talk about and show this week, as well as updates on the major engine work everyone is curious about - and even a few new screenshots.
ONCE AGAIN - BE AWARE THAT 0.59 STABLE UPDATE BRINGS A COMPLETE AND TOTAL WIPE OF CHARACTERS, ITEMS, AND SERVER DATA!
Later today we will bring the Stable Branch servers offline for the 0.59 update. Changelog should follow shortly after the update - and notifications on the service will come from the official DayZ Dev Team twitter account. (twitter.com/dayzdevteam)
Please keep in mind - this is but one build on the path of development. It will have its own issues, absent features, bugs, and so on - the best thing you can do to help bring DayZ towards the game we all can't wait to see it become is to file those bugs over at feedback.dayzgame.com !
This report, I'd like to give you all an update on where the new animation system, as well as the new renderer are - and what the next goals in their development are.
Animation System:
Currently Completed:
- Animation Engine Base
- Animation Engine Editor
Current Focus:
- Infected, Player, and Animal skeleton support/graph production
- Finishing synchronizations
- Finishing differential animations
- Ramp up for animators on new technology
Next Up:
- Add nodes to support more extensive functionality
- Synthetic Rotations
- Removing legacy animation system tech once deprecated
Renderer:
Currently Completed:
- DX 11 Water Surface Rendering
- DX 11 Ambient Occlusion
Current Focus:
- Optimization / Parrellization
- Clouds Rendering
While at PAX Australia I spoke briefly on how I'd like to be able to bring the Little Bird to stable branch before Christmas - and how if anything prevented that I'd make sure to let you all know. That said - the programming teams now have the first of our aircraft operating on the proper physics system, however multiplayer sync is not quite ready for the Steam branches. While we won't be seeing in time for Christmas - I'm confident we're not too far off now. :)
Keep an eye on the DayZ Trello board to track the progress of this task!
That said! The art team has finished on the upcoming Jana Dirtbike - which you can see in the below screenshots:
Now that the Jana is complete, work has just begun on everyone’s favorite DayZ method of transportation - THE BICYCLE
Lastly this week - I'd like to give you all a sneak peek at some of the awesome stuff some of the team in Bratislava have been working on. It’s no secret that we've wanted to bring dangerous predatory animal threats to the woods and fields of Chernarus - and we're getting close to being able to do just that!
- Brian Hicks / Lead Producer
Dev Update/Peter
Along with scavenging for non-perishable food and cultivation of your own crops, the wildlife of Chernarus offers yet another way how to gather food important for survival. As most of you know or guessed gathering food thru horticulture and hunting will be promoted in the future over non-perishable food as that should be quite rare to find.
Animals in DayZ have their day cycle and you can learn by observation what their territories are and where are the points of their interests, may it be water reservoirs, grazing or resting areas. Hunting shouldn't be trivial as animals are very sensitive to your presence and will flee if they notice something unusual going on. However what will the hunting be without the possibility to track your prey down? Tracking is a must have to deepen the hunting experience and make it more enjoyable. Not to mention it as a necessity for following fleeing animals by different signs and marks they leave. Hooves or paws prints, blood stains and scraped ground, even stomped grass patches will help you with localization if you follow them carefully.
The same system will be used for tracking of survivors by their foot prints or blood stains and also vehicles, which can leave tracks or stains from leaking operation fluids and don't forget destroyed small items as mileages, sign posts and others as shown in the last Status Report. I'm happy to see how such small details generated by dynamic entities will add to the overall authenticity of static world.
Keep your eyes open... see you in Chernarus folks!
- Peter Nespesny / Lead Designer