trombonaught

Amazing. If this was available in MP, development on the whole game could stop and I'd still be happy.

Hello! Today we’re releasing an early version of our vehicles build as a Tech Test. We are currently streamlining performance, and as such need to know how the build runs on the many/various/countless different machines that make up the PZ community.
 
It's a Work in Progress version (and still needs a bunch of gameplay and features attached to it) but it’s also quite fun to drive around and see the sights in – so we do hope you enjoy it and like where it’s all headed.
 
The only fly in the ointment is that we don't have a Mac build right now, and this will be coming later this week. So apologies to our non-Linux and non-PC people.
 
Our thanks to EasyPickins, Yuri and all the General Arcade gang for all their work so far on this!
 
HOW TO GET IT
 
First off, if you currently have an ongoing PZ game then be sure to back up all your save files. Right click on Project Zomboid in your Steam library and select ‘Properties’ Navigate to the ‘Steam Beta’ tab A beta branch called ‘vehicle’ can be selected on the dropdown menu.  
WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW
 
We need to know about (computer-based) crashes that we haven’t come across in our internal testing. Please report these alongside the crash log in this thread. We need to know how your game performs on your machine for the first 10 minutes of play, and of course your system specs – and the platform version of PZ you’re running. (MSI Afterburner is a good program for this task, and its set-up instructions are here). Reports should again be put into this thread. Online capabilities are enabled but not widely tested. Any feedback from testing it out online would be appreciated.  
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
 
This is a Vehicles Tech Test and, as such, is unpolished and unfinished. You should be aware of the following:
 
At present cars are overpowered, and general gameplay balance is out of whack. The art-style of cars is temporary and hasn’t had the new, less intrusive, Mash textures added yet. Likewise, they are not ‘grounded’ by shadows right now. To aid community testing all cars are unlocked and fuelled. Current work on locked cars, gas tanks of varying emptiness and other gameplay can be seen with the startup command –disableeasyvehicles. Vehicle sounds are WIP and will improve, we're aware they aren't perfect but are just a first bash to make sure people have some audio feedback. Due to the current draw order some sprites and zombies car appear over cars. This means some ground sprites such as grass and zombie bodies can be drawn over cars, and occasionally cars may be drawn in the wrong order. Due to this being worked on on a separate branch, expect more bugs than usual in the non-vehicle-related realm and don't expect this to work as a stable or even IWBUMS version  
DRIVING LESSON
 
Once you have loaded up a new game then you’ll find cars in some driveways, and most parking lots. You can enter a car with ‘E’, though be sure to get in on the driver’s side if you want a swift exit.
 
Press ‘V’ to open up a vehicle’s radial menu – from which you’ll find access to the ignition, car radio, headlights and more.
 

 
Important: You use the key icon to start the car BUT sometimes repeated attempts at ignition will be required. The lack of sound effects means that failed start attempts are not made clear. When the icon at the bottom of the screen turns green then the engine is on, and you can drive.
 
The keyboard shortcut for ‘start engine’ is ‘N’ – and this is a less fussy way to turn the key.
Once the car has started then use the WSAD keys to drive. Other keyboard shortcuts you can use when in the vehicle are ‘L’ (Headlights) and ‘U’ (vehicle info).
 
WHAT WE’LL BE DOING NEXT
 
Yuri’s focus is currently on performance, and we will be updating the Vehicles Tech Test branch this week with whatever fixes are required as and when they become clear. In coming weeks we will also be working on zombie collision and vehicle impact, the exaggeration of tilts and leans when you take corners and implementing greater differences in handling between vehicles.
 
There’s also some ‘reverse momentum physics’ when the front of the car moves up when hitting the brakes instead of pushing down which we need to add the fix for.
 
Yuri has a full tasklist, but it’s one that’s being ticked through at a steady rate. We’re hoping that we’ll be able to release further vehicles test builds to the community whenever milestones are hit, so that we can harvest feedback whenever it’s most required in the run-up to vehicles becoming one with the main game.
 
It’s cool to stream, as long as you clearly tell your viewers the WIP status and it being a tech test version.
 
EDIT: 11 May 2017
 
A new build has been released, improved the decreasing FPS in long drives (though those that start with low FPS will likely still have it), and also adding a WIP first stab at some placeholder vehicle sounds. They are not final and just to fill the silence, so no need to report issues with them.

I think it's enough to just roll a die and communicate the result to the player. Quick click and done. No separate UI or controls.
 
If the character has a key, the door or vehicle just unlocks. It just starts. If not, perhaps if the character has sufficient skill in lock picking or other methods bypass (tools), they just do it.
 
Not interested in minigame systems for this. Particularly when you can just break a window or the door itself to bypass it.

Build 37.13:
 
[BUG FIX]
Fixed missing "Pour Into". Fixed exterior lights not working.

449: Skill Books for Blunt/Blade Maintenance skills.
 
450: Possibly add a skill book that increases that permanent modifier you receive on character creation for a certain skill. Raising it only one step from your starting modifier after reading (.25 > .75 modifier, .75 > 1.0 and so on)
 
450a: I only really hope to see this specifically in the agility tree of skills, because they seem like the skills that would have the most reasonable impact. Having a magazine full of pointers about proper execution and practice does go a long way how well you can progress or train.
 
451: (Potentially combine with 450) Teaching other people in skill levels you possess for temporary modifier bonuses like the books give. (This would also help teach those illiterate characters )
 
451a. Do or don't make them stack with the skill book modifiers. If they don't stack give obvious benefits and drawbacks to using either.
 
(451 for me adds a very interesting way to interact with other players and potentially later NPCs if you don't plan to stick together or work together in the long term.)

Hurrah!

Thank you very much)!! I was worried about this bug fix but you delivered the goods in making them(gens) still viable in multi-player 

Build 37.12:
 
[New]
[MP] Added a GeneratorFuelConsumed Server option. The default is 1.0: if you set it to 0.5 your generators will consume half the amount of fuel, if it's set to 2.0 they'll consume twice as much. [MP] Added a WorldItemRemovalExlusionList server option. This is used to exclude some items removed by the HoursForWorldItemRemoval options, with the default being logs & water items. You can now craft a remote controller for your traps with a Radio Receiver and not only a remote tv Receiver.  
[Balance]
Microwave default timer is now set to 60 minutes. A full petrol can now fill a generator up to 80% (from 40%). Generators have now twice less chance of losing condition while running. Changed toaster capacity from 50 to 3.  
[Bug Fix]
Fixed save bug with stash map. When destroying a generator it now disables it. Fixed pouring into objects creating duplicate entries in context menu. Fixed pouring into objects not updating the weight of items. Fixed pouring into objects not having a name in the action bar, not updating job delta. "Transfer All" inventory button now is locked to the size of the inventory panel. Added missing event "OnTileRemoved". Fixed equipped backpacks icons being missplaced when starting a game. Fixed lights not working in a building connected to a generator.

Interesting in principle, but I feel like that would make it unnecessarily gamey when it could just be a single button press and a visual indicator plus sound if the car is not starting up. 

Greetings on a May Day Mondoid everyone, hope you’ve had a good holiday if that’s an international thing as well as in good old Blighty.
VEHICLES
We’re currently prepping a public test build for our crash/smash physics-enhanced vehicles that we can release on a Steam beta branch, so we can get performance feedback from the community.
To this end Yuri has been concentrating on the more obvious performance issues that would dominate forum feedback, as well as making stuff clearer for a wider test group – such as textual indications when engines aren’t starting while we don’t have engine noise, and keyboard control alternatives for the new UI so you don’t need to navigate menus just to turn the key.
We’re going to create a new internal build tomorrow to test out Yuri’s work on crash-quashing and his fixes for the performance dip when you zoom in and out. The plan is for him to continue addressing the strange performance cataclysm you get after 20-30 minutes of play and incidents of magical parked car pop-in this week (and hopefully other niggly stuff too) and then we’ll see where we are in terms of a tech build release on a beta branch.
In last week’s blog we showed you all an image of different styles of car textures that we were considering – and internally we were pretty split between the more metallic versions cooked up by Martin, and those painted over by Mash that used flatter colours and more baked-in shading. Feedback on the forum almost universally pointed towards the flatter and more neutral green-y olive car, and as such this is the way we’ll be going.
It’s doubtful that every vehicle will have been given the Mash once-over by the time the test build emerges, but once they’re all done they’ll look (more-or-less) like this:

 
MAP
As mentioned previously, Mash is currently being seconded onto vehicle textures – but her next map expansion is also nearing completion. While it doesn’t contain any urban conglomerations larger than Rosewood and March Ridge it does contains fun stuff to hold up in, explore (and drive) around – for example the Knox Heights Country Club, golf course and the clusters of posh houses that can be found around its greens.
This is another addition that can’t be found on the real world map, but we hope will add some variety and also some interesting places to appear into once our more detailed ‘character spawns’ plans are realised in post-anims builds.

 
ANIMS
Speaking of, new boy Mark has almost finished implementing Assimp in the place of our old and more troublesome animation loader – and the current animation system (which is now operating more pleasantly with vehicles, post-merge) is now waiting for it to be tied in. After this we can walk through all issues we’ve been up against during the long, long wait for the system together (starting with rotational root movement, most likely) and get you some solutions.
 
37 to 38
RJ’s week has largely been in fixing up issues that appeared once Build 37 went live this time last week – seen here in builds 37.9, 37.10 and 37.11. There will be another fix build going out over the next few days, then once we’re sure the dust has settled we’ll call time on 37 and update the version on GOG. In the meantime, for 38, RJ has been looking into greater Admin powers over player inventories [seen in WIP form here], some anti-hack bits/bobs and additional sandbox options.
 
This week’s PAWS-loving safehouse from Eddie. The Centralized Block of Italicised Text would like to direct your attention to the PZ Wiki should you feel like editing or amending something, and the PZ Mailing List that can send blogs like this and patch notes direct to your mailbox. We also live on Twitter right here! Our Discord is now open for chat and hijinks too. A general overview of the content of PZ builds past, in testing and upcoming can be found here.

These things are being worked on simultaneously (animations are one part of the team, NPCs another). It doesn't matter if all the focus went into one thing because the dev team is divided into their specialties. Animators and people who code animations won't be as good with NPC code as animation stuff and vice versa. What we have now is probably best because people are divided by their skill set and instead of one item very far down the dev pipeline, we have three. Keep in mind as well that much of this stuff depends on each other and is easier to code at the same time. Animating driving stuff, animating crashes, teaching NPCs how to drive without the result being Carmaggedeon, etc. All of these have to be working at a reasonable enough standard that the IWBUMS doesn't destroy peoples' computers. These aren't half-finished old ideas being displaced by new ideas, but rather a logical progression of features so that they mesh together well.
 
Hope that helps,
-Strats

Build 37.10:
Live on public & IWBUMS (in case someone forget to go back to public)
 
[Bug Fix]
 
Fixed crash when throwing bomb with explosion power over 100 (hydrocraft).
Fixed being able to respawn stash container.
Fixed zombies thumping on hidden floorboard container.
Fixed being blocked by hidden floorboard container.
Fixed some compatibility with hydrocraft when scavenging.

RE: map. The coming expansion isn't a 'big name' location-wise. It has a few interesting places to hold out for sure, but it's filling in the gaps before we reach those areas more than anything. It's a fairly spread out area though, and should be fun to explore once cars hit.
 
RE: vehicles question. One step at a time! Though clearly bicycles etc will require a ton more effort in terms of animation (and physics most likely if they were done well).

This!!
 
The Animations will change nearly everything I guess - how the game feels, how combat is fought and not last how the game will look like - (hopefully) lots more different clothes, weapons, bags on charakters, etcpp - so it would be important that the cars match with the future look of PZ

The shading on the textures of the darker cars doesn't match the duller (less than shiny?) look of the PZ world. Green car wins in my books for its flatness.

The shading on the textures of the darker cars doesn't match the duller (less than shiny?) look of the PZ world. Green car wins in my books for its flatness.

Hello! A public build release today, along with a general overview of where we’ll be at with different stuff in the coming weeks.
 
37 RELEASED
This morning we pushed Build 37.8 to Stable. This is predominantly an RJ build, apart from the Mash maps and some Yuri fixes, so our thanks to him keeping the wheel turning while work continues in our various other branches. It contains lots of fiddly longstanding fix stuff that can be read here, but the highlights run as follows:
 
Maps of urban locations within the Knox Event Exclusion Zone can be found in relevant towns, in particular spawning in gas stations. They look a bit like this.
You can make text and emblem markings on maps and share with friends and faction members in MP. In SP you also run a chance of discovering pre-annotated maps that’ve been marked up by deceased fellow survivors. These are mainly found on zombies and can lead you to stashes of weapons, tools and general places of interest. Loot at these locations could be hidden in cupboards, crates, bags left on the floor or even hidden under the floorboards. General improvements to cooking, cooking systems and food. Split screen co-op fixes. Gamepad fixes. Improved sleeping system for online servers who like to snooze. New forage UI to limit item build-up on the map. Portuguese Brazilian community translation by HiveFuse. Clearer moodle impact descriptions. New ‘version info’ box on main screen.  
 
VEHICLES
The internal tests and updates of our new physics-enhanced vehicles continue, if you haven’t seen it then our latest vid (made by Mark.exe) can be seen here. The current focus is in fixing up what we have now so that it’s all in a state that could be considered for wider testing. We will need, after all, performance feedback from as many PC set ups as we can.
 
This week, then, Yuri had been looking at the build’s most glaring performance issues and glitches. There’s an oddly catastrophic slowdown that hits after twenty minutes of play that’s being looked at right now, for example, while vehicle and tree pop-in also needs addressing. Likewise frame-rate stutters seemingly tied to zooming. In recent days we’ve made good progress on reported (non-vehicular) crashes and garbage collection hang-ups, so we’ll keep on ticking off the list. Likewise, it’d be nice if we could solve some clipping and draw order issues.
 
As a general ‘where we’re at’ overview, right now we have pick-ups, station wagons, ambulances, sports cars, small cars and vans in-game (although they’re yet to have different handling stats). They spawn in relevant places, and according to the affluence/role of area on the Exclusion Zone map. They crash and roll, and they really, really attract zombies – potentially a little too much. They have working headlights and are generally found locked – although keys can be found on zombies or in houses. Every car has storage in the boot, and have a handy glove box too.
 
We’re also looking at two (subtle) different ways of colouring vehicle textures – so answers on a postcard if you can tell us your opinion of which if these vehicles fits in best with the PZ game world.
 

 
What vehicles haven’t got is much ‘Zomboid’ gameplay tied to them right now – mechanic profession, maintenance, damage, player injury and other vital stuff isn’t in yet. Likewise they have no engine sound playing, the info panel UI is temporary and collision with zeds and survivors needs work. The focus right now, however, is getting their operation as glitch-free as possible – so all this will come in future weeks.
 
 
ANIMS
We mentioned it last week but now have an extra body on-board in TIS Towers, in the form of Mark – a man who comes with a wealth of games industry experience and battle-hardiness.
 
He’s going to be jumping into the trenches fairly imminently to help us sort out various other technical issues surrounding the new animation system, as well as tie up any other loose ends or missing bits that are holding back the release.
 
In the meantime he has been implementing Assimp as our default model and animation loader, this will allow models to be loaded in in a variety of common formats that will not only aid modders in being able to easily expand the game, but will hopefully unearth a few issues with the existing loader that have prevented the rotational root motion system from being finished off.
 
Mark’s experience in animation systems could then lead onto other improvements once everything is in-game, but we’ll leave expanding on that until we finally have the basic models in testing. In the mean-time it’s now clear that vehicles will release before animations, so we’re continuing the work required to let them make the best of each other.
 
Work in and around animations will provide some advantages to the vehicles once they land, such as the elimination of the old system of off-screen textures that are rendered every frame in 3D and drawn in place as sprites, being replaced with the game actually drawing the 3D models directly into the screen at the correct position in a more accurate ISO perspective. This will hopefully improve things such as zombie like vehicle collisions, and make multiple vehicles integrate into the scene together better.
 
 
IWBUMS NEXT
With the release of 37 work begins on the more general features and improvements for 38. Its overall contents are currently under discussion but the new map expansion is pretty much certain to be in 38, alongside the MP Discord integration. Hopefully Turbo’s devices code rewrite will also be ready in time, as well as some of the improvements it can provide.
 
 
MOD SPOTLIGHT
We ran an interview with prolific PZ modder Nolan the other week, but forgot to give it a Mondoid flag. Do check it out though, as he’s a very interesting chap.

This week’s last stand from Isnah81. The Centralized Block of Italicised Text would like to direct your attention to the PZ Wiki should you feel like editing or amending something, and the PZ Mailing List that can send blogs like this and patch notes direct to your mailbox. We also live on Twitter right here! Our Discord is now open for chat and hijinks too. A general overview of the content of PZ builds past, in testing and upcoming can be found here.
 

My understanding is that there are different people working these different features, and I imagine that if they thought moving all people onto one feature would improve progress, then they would do that.
 
Developing these features concurrently is probably the more advantageus route anyways because they can better prepare to integrate these things as they go, instead of making one system and then realizing they need to redo it all using a different system in order to make future features work together best.

My understanding is that there are different people working these different features, and I imagine that if they thought moving all people onto one feature would improve progress, then they would do that.
 
Developing these features concurrently is probably the more advantageus route anyways because they can better prepare to integrate these things as they go, instead of making one system and then realizing they need to redo it all using a different system in order to make future features work together best.

I've seen this in 37.8 too.  A bookshelf that looks full of books, but in the entire house, nothing in any container.  Huge bummer.

YESSSSSSS
 
Best update of 2017!!!!!!
 
Down with the compost-fortresses!

Why don't you do zombies will be able to destroy the composter like other furniture?

Yep, only way to do it for now, we don't have climb over a full tile animation

YESSSSSSS
 
Best update of 2017!!!!!!
 
Down with the compost-fortresses!

Build IWBUMS 37.8:
 
[New]
Updated translations.
 
[Balance]
Reduced the odd of having an annoted map to 30% (from 50%).
 
[Bug Fix]
Fixed some of the moodles descriptions.
Fixed adding fuel to a BBQ displayed "add petrol" action.
Fixed wrong items distribution in bar.
Composter are now hoppable.