new info on DayZ stand-alone

daze23

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Dev Report: November 2012 | DAYZ

Dev Report: November 2012

The current phase:

Our development focus is 100% on core technology, the key architecture, and not on features (yet). A major stream developing assets also runs in parallel to the core development team.

Due to the success of the development so far, and the interest in the project in general - we decided we want to do things properly. This means we have been very bold with our architectural changes. We are moving to the server-client MMO architecture model. We are making weapons and items ‘entities”, meaning we can support customization and variables assigned against items. As discussed previously, this is a massive departure from the previous engine. In many ways, once this phase is completed - one could effectively say that DayZ is running on a new version of the engine. While the graphics may look the same (for now), under the hood so much is being completely rewritten.

Let me make this very clear, our foundation release (targeted for this year), is simply the beginning. We are committed to a period of development of at least 12 months beyond that. Our aim is to make this foundation strong, and use that time to improve the mechanics not through hacks, but through sound and quality development. Our initial build will test that this base architecture works.

I want to confirm the following:

-Most settings will be forced server-side, such as gameplay and graphical settings (view distance, shadow distance, etc…). The exact nature of this and specific settings is very much subject to change, but this will be a significant departure from how it is currently with the mod.

-Release will be on steam, using many of steams key features such as delta patching, VAC, server browsing technology. Patches to steam can be deployed by the click of a button in our build pipeline thanks to new technology developed by Steam, that is making our process extremely easy and exciting. We are very pleased that Steam is working with us so actively to make DayZ a great game and supporting us with quality features. I met many at the team at Valve at PAX, and really want to get them playing the game and getting their feedback to help in development. I’m incredibly thankful to people like Chet Faliszek (creator of L4D) who has been very supportive and helpful to me.

-In using Steam for authentication, distribution, server browsing, etc… we are able to tap into their awesome resources in terms of scalability. The only hardware we then need to manage is the central database, which we already have some experience managing thanks to the DayZ mod. This means we can work towards avoiding the usual launch problems, by relying on the experience of Steam.

-The controls have been completely rethought, using inspiration and design lessons from games such as Minecraft to make the player more engaged with their environment

-Animations are being cleaned up to feel more responsive. This means trimming some transitions, so that you get quicker feedback from pressing the key to action (removing he “clunkiness” or “sluggishness”)

-Player clothing is being implemented including: headwear, jackets, trousers, footwear, etc..

-Weapons and items are now “entities”. This means they are more object oriented in structure, allowing weapon customization, degradation - the possibilities become endless. This is a major, huge, shift in engine architecture.

-The Server controls character actions, a player’s client sends its requests and the server decides if this is possible. Our lead programmer in the company, Ondrej Spanel, is working on this currently. I believe this is one of the most radical changes ever implemented in the engine since Operation Flashpoint was released, and turns DayZ from an FPS into a true MMO.

-A full-time map designer has also started work on ChernarusPlus now, redeveloping the world, placing new assets and buildings, fixing bugs, and creating new areas. This is in addition to the work done by Ivan and Maxell and will continue for the remainder of DayZ development.

-The UI has been completely reworked, focusing on simplicity. We have studied games that we believe are leaders in this area, such as Minecraft, and are focusing on providing functionality without fancy complexity in this regard.

-We have some outstanding former community members working on the project as paid members of the team. I hope to showcase their work and interview them on here for you, in the coming weeks and months. We are actively searching for more to bring them onto the team.

The future:

We are still working towards a target for an initial foundation before the end of the year. But we will slip this date if needed, we will not compromise the project for the short-term gain of meeting this date. The reasons for any slippage would be publicly discussed, and would most likely represent a failure personally on my part to plan correctly. We will be assessing the results of our major architectural changes at the end of next week, and reporting the results to everyone when we have assessed that.

Screenshots, videos, etc… will unfortunately have to wait. As they say, loose lips sink ships.
 

daze23

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Where is the Standalone Release? I suppose I... | DAYZ

Where is the Standalone Release?

I suppose I should start with the question everyone wants to know… where is DayZ Standalone? Obviously, it’s not here. At Eurogamer I said that DayZ had to be out before the end of the year and that’s come and gone. I still stand by that comment, to achieve what we had originally wanted, we did have to be out by the end of the year - and we’ve failed to achieve that.

Put simply, DayZ Standalone isn’t here because we had the chance to go from making a game that was just the mod improved slightly, packaged simply, and sold - to actually redeveloping the engine and making the game the way we all dreamed it could be. This blew any initial plans we had dictated to pieces.

The plan going forward

The plan from here is straightforward. We will be releasing a closed test imminently, during which approximately 500-1000 people will assist in ensuring our architecture is correctly functioning. This closed test will be focused purely on architecture, not the game design. Once we have confirmed fixes for issues arising from the closed test, we will then reschedule an internal date for our public release.

What has been done?

One of the most profound and major architectural changes has had its initial implementation completed, this is the overhaul of the inventory system. In fact, the inventory and item management system was completely removed and rewritten from the ground by Jirka, one of the original engine programmers. The work that has been completed on this groundbreaking, and it going to fundamentally change the DayZ experience.

You scavenge for items now, as individual parts, picking up pieces rather than piles, looking for cans on shelves or under beds. The new system opens the door for durability of items, disease tracking (cholera lingering on clothes a player wears…), batteries, addon components, and much more. If you shoot a player in the head to take his night vision, you will damage the night vision. The changes to this inventory system are huge.

An additional area of change has been to make the inventory system more intuitive along with a key focus on providing visceral feedback on your progress through what inventory you have. The use of drag-and-drop, 3D models rather than 2D pictures, and being able to add items/clothing to your character in 3D in the inventory screen - have all come out of months of design work and research. I’m extremely pleased with the results of Jirka and Hladas, two of the programmers who have been working on implementing the design ideas. I believe the changes to this inventory system will fundamentally change the nature of the DayZ experience.

We are not at the point where we can release meaningful videos or screenshots of the system, but we have now confirmed the base architecture is working in game. Likely, the first that will come out about the inventory system will be during the closed test when people are actually using it.

UI Changes

ArmA community legend kju has been part of the DayZ development for some time, and is now one of your key development members. He has been working with our CEO (Marek) and me to develop the DayZ UI. We have been greatly inspired by Minecraft to make the UI simple and effective, rather than flashy and complex. All our art and code efforts are going into the game, the UI is being designed to be straightforward and functional just like in Minecraft.

Art Progress

A huge amount of work is being completed on art. I’m including some more additional pictures taken from around Chernarus. We have some massive plans now that all interiors have been completed, as rather than moving them on to other projects we are now giving them exciting new things to create.

One of the new artists on the team is a texture artist, and has been working on revising the textures for our new building interiors so they look more post-apocalyptic. Some of these changes can be seen in the work-in-progress pictures I have included.

Map Progress

The lead architect of the revised (and original) Chernarus map, Ivan Buchta, is still imprisoned in Greece on charges of espionage - and is a great loss to the team. Luckily, through letters, Ivan is able to provide some input and insight into the development of the map. Regardless, the continued imprisonment of him and Martin Pezlar has a significant impact on our ability to redevelop Chernarus.

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daze23

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it should run better and be less hackable. Arma II is a very 'open' game, and that's what makes it so easy to mod... but it also makes it easy to hack. the standalone won't be like that. first of all, all the extra crap that's not supposed to be in dayz (thermal snipers, weapons crates, etc) just straight up won't be there, so there's no way for a hacker to spawn that type of shyt. plus they'll be shutting down other crap people would exploit to do things like teleport, god mode, etc. VAC (valve) will be their anti-cheat, not Battleye. that all being said, hacking can never be 100% eliminated, but things should be way better

they also totally changed up the server-client shyt to a more traditional MMO model, so hopefully a lot of the weird server/cpu bottleneck lag will go away
 
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