thejoker954

Have to agree with you...  The aim vs movement direction has got to be an oversight... I can see no good reason to alter the result of the input for any immersion bonus... It just makes it impossible to side step into a room while keeping the muzzle pointed & ready to fire... You just end up grinding into the door frame which slows you down, making it counter intuitive to even try to be careful entering rooms.... As it stands, it's safer to run straight in.... At least your directional input is correct...
 
Fingers crossed that this is just an oversight, and not by design....
 
On that note, the momentum system.... though looks appealing for the first 10 minutes, is extremely taxing and tiresome to play...  I mean a simple task of walking through a house to look through cabinets, makes you have to pull literal U-Turns in a square space which again, sends you grinding into everything and anything nearby...  I've been testing since this afternoon, and can barely take anymore of my controller feeling like its out of calibration or something...
 
I wonder if this feeling will go away if the aim vs movement direction is corrected... But I don't think so, because i'm not aiming while looting through a house... and it feels like i'm pushing a shopping cart everywhere I go...
 

Delightful experience. The gameplay feels much deeper overall and it's like playing for the first time all over again. I love the variety and atmosphere.
 
The main issue that has consistently stuck out to me is that controlling the character is much more of an ordeal-- It's almost like tank controls and the turning animations are really sluggish. There's also the issue of aiming changing your walking direction which has turned my attempts to glance around for danger into stumbling right at pursuers at the worst times. While I understand there are trade offs to be made from the old system, there's still definitely room for fine tuning this.
 

I've only played for about a half hour so far, and I'm liking it.  However, movements while walking seem too heavy(?).  like turning left/right or around takes too long/is clunky. Movement while jogging seems "easier" for the character than movements while walking.   
 
I'm not sure if its a bug or I just need time to adapt, but there seems to be a delay after actions (not sure if its timing or key presses not registering).  for example I opened a door and couldn't step back or swing my bat and immediately got chomped on by a zombie.   (this one seems more of a bug/ fine tuning issue -  same delay without the zombie in the equation, the zombie just made the delay more noticeable.)
 
Same thing after smashing a car window.  it takes a couple of seconds before i can enter the car after smashing the window. (this one I can see being more in the need to adapt category )
 
It would be nice if the isometric helper was a little more visible, I have to zoom in a lot in order to see it.
I'm not sure how much of a help it really is either because while it definitely helps with smashing prone zombies head's in, at other times it causes me to get confused perspective-wise where I didn't before.  I'm sure using it more will eliminate some of the confusion, but maybe a "smart" feature would be nice.  like it would only show up in certain circumstances or something.  
 
I hope the giant hand cursor is only a temporary one,  I think its kind of distracting.

I love the build so far. Especially the updated fence-jump. Its much more immersive now.
Only 2 things that Id critizise so far:
- aiming 180° while walking feels sluggish compared to the old build. It was always a nice way to "look over your shoulder" and now you are forced into making this strange U-move. I really hope that changes.
- hammer combat feels a bit too slow. the speed works well for the pan, but not the hammer.

The public ‘I Will Back Up My Save’ beta for the long-awaited Build 41 is now open for testing by the Project Zomboid community.
HOW?
The IWBUMS beta is accessible to anyone who plays Project Zomboid. Right click Project Zomboid in your Steam library and hit “Properties”. Then, navigate to the betas tab and select the “iwillbackupmysave” branch from the dropdown menu.

Those who test IWBUMS beta builds must be aware that what they’re playing is a work in progress.
If you're having problems with IWBUMS, it is advised that you try verifying the steam cache, and if that doesn't work, completely uninstall and reinstall the game (while also deleting or renaming the installation folder as well as your userfolder in C:\Users\YourUsername\Zomboid). Steam is awkward at times
The beta is put out for public consumption for player feedback and bug reports. Please direct gameplay feedback to our forum beta release thread, and bugs to this section of our forums.
For further details on what IWBUMS testing entails, please check here.
WHAT?
Build 41 is the most fundamental and wide-ranging update that Project Zomboid has ever had. We intend it to be a stable foundation for us to build on for many years ahead. For this reason too,however, we anticipate a fairly long public beta while all the various issues presented to us by community testers are spotlit and remedied.
Some key features, primarily MP, are initially disabled in the IWBUMS beta build – and will be turned on during the testing process.
Build 41 currently contains:
New gameplay styles: Builder, Brawler and Survivor More deadly ‘Survivor’ (Survival) gameplay balance – player can be dragged down by horde and feasted upon etc. New survivor abilities: sitting, sneaking, sprinting, jogging, racking, reloading, climbing, fence-jumping, collapsing and much much more. New combat, new weapons, new difficulty balance. New character creation – many, many different new clothing options both on spawn and discoverable in the world as loot or on zombies. New zombie behaviour: feasting on recent corpses, lolling against walls, falling over fences etc. Blood system that progressively bloodies bodies and clothing of survivors and zombies New injury system – movement and combat visibly hampered when injured. Lacerations now possible, an injury state that lies between bites and scratches. Improved gunplay: green/red aiming outline, new guns, improved racking and reloading, increased gun loot spawn. Zombie Death Scenes – zombies discovered in the situations in which people died. Prayer meetings, sports-viewing parties, survivor zeds wearing backpacks etc. Situational zombie type/clothing and inventories – cop zeds in police station, firemen zeds in burnt buildings, Chef zeds in restaurant kitchens, bride and groom zeds at a wedding ceremony in church etc. Clothing protection: different clothing provides different levels of protection from zombie attacks. Visibly ripped and damaged clothing. New Sims-style cutaway vision system. Vehicle handling improvements, resizing and appearance tweaks. Updated, remastered and improved Kentucky-themed soundtrack. Original music still in rotation, and also accessible through game options. New SFX: weaponry, zombie moans etc. New water visuals – including visible flow direction. New puddle system during heavy rain. Broken glass and related injuries. Garage doors may be opened / closed and shake when hit. New Challenge maps: Film Set and Kingsmouth Vacation Island 3D Store Mannequins – can be dressed however you like Working washing machines and driers Server-side saving: MP save system now in a server-side database. Offline SP-side, also means no more lost cars via irl power outages. New game cursor New level-up sound, and tweaked levelling system. Faint isometric aiming cursor that shows where you’re aiming in iso space. New loot balance and loot balance system: houses and stores now have loot in the containers you would expect from real life – and not in a jumble. Two tiers of loot priority – allowing for more realistic ‘filler’ loot amidst the more valuable gameplay items. Many, many general fixes including remedies for: floating cars, farming issues, inaudible house alarms, erosion shrubs blocking vehicles, desensitized survivors being panicked by crawlers and much more. VISIBLE BACKPACKS! Build 41 and is the first (biggest) step in our overall plan to bring more life, variety and activity to the Knox Event. From this build onwards we will be adding in (and improving) our existing AI work layer-by-layer.
Build 42, for example, will use the power of the Build 41 animations build to introduce animals and wildlife.
We will also be releasing AnimZed, our animation tool, to the community during the IWBUMS beta process – meaning that modders will receive a huge boost in what they can create within PZ.
WHAT NEXT?
During the IWBUMS beta process for Build 41 the following features will be re-enabled and/or improved.
Multiplayer – alongside significant MP Networking improvements Improved visual fidelity of survivor character and zombies Further optimization to improve performance on both low and high end systems. Sprinter Zeds Fire visuals Tutorial Zombie skin appearance/decay Ability to repair ripped clothing WHAT ELSE?
Due to the extent of engine and gameplay changes in Build 41, existing savegames will NOT be compatible.
At the time of the full build release, for those wishing to continue playing on old saves, a Steam beta branch of the current Build 40 will be available – and will continue to be available at all times.
This will be known as ‘PZ Classic’, and will also allow people to continue to play with their favourite mods until such a time as they are updated.
Click here for a sneak vision into the future beyond build 41!

 

The public ‘I Will Back Up My Save’ beta for the long-awaited Build 41 is now open for testing by the Project Zomboid community.
HOW?
The IWBUMS beta is accessible to anyone who plays Project Zomboid. Right click Project Zomboid in your Steam library and hit “Properties”. Then, navigate to the betas tab and select the “iwillbackupmysave” branch from the dropdown menu.

Those who test IWBUMS beta builds must be aware that what they’re playing is a work in progress.
If you're having problems with IWBUMS, it is advised that you try verifying the steam cache, and if that doesn't work, completely uninstall and reinstall the game (while also deleting or renaming the installation folder as well as your userfolder in C:\Users\YourUsername\Zomboid). Steam is awkward at times
The beta is put out for public consumption for player feedback and bug reports. Please direct gameplay feedback to our forum beta release thread, and bugs to this section of our forums.
For further details on what IWBUMS testing entails, please check here.
WHAT?
Build 41 is the most fundamental and wide-ranging update that Project Zomboid has ever had. We intend it to be a stable foundation for us to build on for many years ahead. For this reason too,however, we anticipate a fairly long public beta while all the various issues presented to us by community testers are spotlit and remedied.
Some key features, primarily MP, are initially disabled in the IWBUMS beta build – and will be turned on during the testing process.
Build 41 currently contains:
New gameplay styles: Builder, Brawler and Survivor More deadly ‘Survivor’ (Survival) gameplay balance – player can be dragged down by horde and feasted upon etc. New survivor abilities: sitting, sneaking, sprinting, jogging, racking, reloading, climbing, fence-jumping, collapsing and much much more. New combat, new weapons, new difficulty balance. New character creation – many, many different new clothing options both on spawn and discoverable in the world as loot or on zombies. New zombie behaviour: feasting on recent corpses, lolling against walls, falling over fences etc. Blood system that progressively bloodies bodies and clothing of survivors and zombies New injury system – movement and combat visibly hampered when injured. Lacerations now possible, an injury state that lies between bites and scratches. Improved gunplay: green/red aiming outline, new guns, improved racking and reloading, increased gun loot spawn. Zombie Death Scenes – zombies discovered in the situations in which people died. Prayer meetings, sports-viewing parties, survivor zeds wearing backpacks etc. Situational zombie type/clothing and inventories – cop zeds in police station, firemen zeds in burnt buildings, Chef zeds in restaurant kitchens, bride and groom zeds at a wedding ceremony in church etc. Clothing protection: different clothing provides different levels of protection from zombie attacks. Visibly ripped and damaged clothing. New Sims-style cutaway vision system. Vehicle handling improvements, resizing and appearance tweaks. Updated, remastered and improved Kentucky-themed soundtrack. Original music still in rotation, and also accessible through game options. New SFX: weaponry, zombie moans etc. New water visuals – including visible flow direction. New puddle system during heavy rain. Broken glass and related injuries. Garage doors may be opened / closed and shake when hit. New Challenge maps: Film Set and Kingsmouth Vacation Island 3D Store Mannequins – can be dressed however you like Working washing machines and driers Server-side saving: MP save system now in a server-side database. Offline SP-side, also means no more lost cars via irl power outages. New game cursor New level-up sound, and tweaked levelling system. Faint isometric aiming cursor that shows where you’re aiming in iso space. New loot balance and loot balance system: houses and stores now have loot in the containers you would expect from real life – and not in a jumble. Two tiers of loot priority – allowing for more realistic ‘filler’ loot amidst the more valuable gameplay items. Many, many general fixes including remedies for: floating cars, farming issues, inaudible house alarms, erosion shrubs blocking vehicles, desensitized survivors being panicked by crawlers and much more. VISIBLE BACKPACKS! Build 41 and is the first (biggest) step in our overall plan to bring more life, variety and activity to the Knox Event. From this build onwards we will be adding in (and improving) our existing AI work layer-by-layer.
Build 42, for example, will use the power of the Build 41 animations build to introduce animals and wildlife.
We will also be releasing AnimZed, our animation tool, to the community during the IWBUMS beta process – meaning that modders will receive a huge boost in what they can create within PZ.
WHAT NEXT?
During the IWBUMS beta process for Build 41 the following features will be re-enabled and/or improved.
Multiplayer – alongside significant MP Networking improvements Improved visual fidelity of survivor character and zombies Further optimization to improve performance on both low and high end systems. Sprinter Zeds Fire visuals Tutorial Zombie skin appearance/decay Ability to repair ripped clothing WHAT ELSE?
Due to the extent of engine and gameplay changes in Build 41, existing savegames will NOT be compatible.
At the time of the full build release, for those wishing to continue playing on old saves, a Steam beta branch of the current Build 40 will be available – and will continue to be available at all times.
This will be known as ‘PZ Classic’, and will also allow people to continue to play with their favourite mods until such a time as they are updated.
Click here for a sneak vision into the future beyond build 41!

 

Issue fixed, I am an idiot.
Been searching for different folder locations, files, running local searches, even ftp to server and looked in nearly every folder.
 
Fix:  ......  At the top of the Favorite screen "Favorite Name:'   just change that and you can save a new favorite.

Ok, I managed to get it working. I tried your recommendations, but still had the same problem. so I just started farting around other windows options.
 
I ended up going into windows display settings/advanced display options/display adapter properties. 
 
Then in the window that popped up I went to the monitor tab.  the screen refresh rate was at 24 hertz under monitor settings.  (don't know why it was set at that, but it didn't seem to affect anything else besides PZ) . 
 
I then had to re-enable high scaling DPI override (set to application-haven't tried the other ones) as  it was doing the 'ole non full-screen full-screen where it doesn't actually use the entire screen but only a portion of it.
 
no crashing and resolutions now change.

you could always try destroying it with a sledgehammer.

OMG!! This is good news for server admin.

Менеджер Сервера PZ   /   Developed Server Manager PZ
Пользуйтесь кому нужен, разрабатывал для себя  /  Use who needs, developed for yourself
Поддержка 41 билда / Working 41 Build
 
Скачать/Download
Actual version 2.4.0
 
Discord for support
 
                                   RU                                                                      ENG
Реализовано                                                                      |          Implemented :
1) Установка, Переустановка Steam                              |          Install, Reinstall Steam
2) Установка, Обновление сервера PZ                         |          Installation, Update PZ Server
3) Запуск, Остановка, Перезагрузка сервера               |          Start, Stop, Restart Server
4) Перезапуск Сервера по таймеру                               |          Restart Server Timer
5) Выставление используемой памяти сервера         |          Exposing server memory used
6) Статус сервера                                                              |          Server status
7) Поддерживаемые языки RU\ENG                               |           Supported Languages RU\ENG
8 ) Подключение модов                                                   |           Add mods
9) Обновление программы                                             |           Update Program
10) Отправка сообщения на сервер                             |           Sending a message to the server
11) Отправка команд на сервер                                    |           Sending a command to the server
12) Все Настройки сервера                                            |           All Server Setting
13) Лёгкий Вайп                                                                |           Soft Reset
14) Белый лист предметов                                              |           White list items
15) Вывод онлайна сервера                                           |           Online Server
16) Автообновление модов                                            |           Auto update mods        
17) Статус сервера в Discord                                          |           Discord Server Status  
18) Авторестарт при краше                                            |           Crash auto-start  
                                   
 
Установка   /    Install
 
1) Распаковать Архив  /  Unpack Archive
2) Остановить сервер если он запущен / Stop the server if it is running
3) Установить используемую память сервера -Xmx2048m (если менялось) / Set the used memory server -Xmx2048m (if changed)
4) Запустить программу и выставить папки Steam и сервер PZ / Run the program and set the folder Steam and PZ server
 
ВАЖНО
Имя сервера, должно быть "servertest" иначе программа не будет работать. (название конфига)
 
IMPORTANT
The server name must be "servertest" otherwise the program will not work. (name of config)
 

Hello! Today we are celebrating animation technology to do anim transitions going into the codebase of the internal Build 41 test version. ‘What are these?’ I hear you cry. Well, we have a clever man in Australia who can explain. Over to Zac!
“Up until now, the character would go from standing, to walking,to sneaking, to running, to standing again. At every state change, there was no lead-in. We were using some maths to blend from one pose to another, but it really wasn’t enough.
“The change was still looking fairly unnatural in some cases. The character had an air of defying gravity, for example, when he/she suddenly went from standing still to full sprint.”
“As of now in the internal test build, we can add transition animations. So in the described instance it’s: StandingToRunning. This is where the character will change stance, shift their weight, and launch into a run. As a result it all seems much more lifelike.
So, check this out:
As you can see above, another area where this is helping a lot is in aiming animations where there’s an object in the character’s hands. Formerly, due to some complex under the bonnet maths, when it did this blend between the two poses you ended up with, say, a gun floating in the air between the hands rather than being realistically held.
Now, however, with this Zac anim-transitioning magic we can have a handcrafted tailor-made animation to make the character aim down the sights and bridge the gap between the two poses. So this makes everything looks much more sleek and cool.
Here comes the traditional disclaimer: although these videos are still looking super-cool we’re still not at a point we can release a public beta. There’s a bunch of optimization to go in, some MP and SP save system improvements we need to test and mix in, Zac needs to work on the rotation blending for wheeling on spot / zombie alert walking toward player angles etc.
We also need to work on zed hordes – pooling what states zombies are in, and sharing a smaller pool of zombie skeletons for the same anims so we get better performance when there’s a horde on-screen.
(Seeing as Zac was previously the guy who got two million dancing penguin models on the Wiithough, we’ve undoubtedly got the best man for the job.)
We should also probably fix the bug in the current build that makes survivors look like this. Maybe.
Slenderman likes to bake cakes This week’s character creation screen-created dictator from our hardy bunch of internal testers. A general list of stuff added to PZ, and vids of features being worked on, is kept here – so you don’t have to plough through endless dev blogs for info. 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 open for chat and hijinks too!

Tries to understand all the technical info above
 
So, uh.... Magic, right? You guys are Mathemagicians, I reckon. My brain almost BSODed by trying to make sense to just one of those images....

I never thought doing animations would be this complex. These insights really cleared my mind how many little sneaky issues there can be. Although I didn't understand everything there it's great to have a technical insight behind the curtains

Gj guys and keep it going

Happy Thursday all. First things first:
PROJECT ZOMBOID 40% OFF, NOW AND ALL WEEKEND. TELL YOUR FRIENDS. ALL YOUR FRIENDS. Etc. Etc.
(Sorry about all this.) 
So anyway, it’s been a week of fixing stuff on the animations build generally this week – and usually we’d be doing a ‘sorry, dull blog today’ blog.
HOWEVER some of you might find the deeper elements of the animations system interesting, and we’re also secretly hoping that a fair few of you will be interested in digging into the dev/modding tool yourselves once AnimZed is released alongside Build 41.
Sooooo… Zac has kindly written something up for us that’s a bit more technical than we usually talk about – but thankfully RJ has also provided a quick vid of something fun he’s implementing before we get into the nitty-gritty.
 
LIMPIN’
What you can see in the vid below is our first pass on the various animations that can impact on your walking and running – all of which will get some balance love before any test release.
First off the video you see a scratch cause a light limp – and a limping run. Burns will also have the same impact, alongside cuts – a new injury type that’s somewhere between our existing scratch and deep wound.
After this: a deep wound that triggers heavy walk limps. You can still try to run, but it’ll be slow – on a par with the walk speed with a light limp. Finally in the vid: a fracture. This is currently a heavy limp, but it will forbid a run. This will also be the case if you have glass shards, bad burns or a leg bite.
Okay, with that all explained: here comes the science.
Over to you Zac.
THE ANIM PROBLEM
The Animation system needed a big quality pass. Plagued by dozens of tiny issues with snaps and odd transitions, the system was functional – but a rough diamond in need of refinement.
 
THE ANIM OVERVIEW
So, basically, the Animation system is divided into three layers: the AnimState, AnimNode and AnimTracks.
The AnimState handles the big picture: what the character is currently doing. For example, the character is standing idle, walking, sneaking, and so on. The character can only ever be in any one state at a time.
Next layer down is the AnimNode. These handle the middle-detail of what the character is up to, like walking while holding a crowbar, sneaking while walking sideways, etc. The state determines what nodes should be active, and assigns a weight to each. As nodes come and go, their weights are faded in and out.
Finally, the bottom-most layer is the AnimTracks. These are the fine-grained animations that get mixed and applied to the character’s bones. Tracks are also weighted and transitioned, similar to nodes.
One of the common issues we had was visible snapping between nodes. For example, when a character goes from strafing to sprinting, while holding a 2-handed weapon, the weapon would go from being nearly vertical to suddenly snapping to being horizontal, in under 3 frames.
THE FIX
The first step was to refactor the code itself. From the ground up, the code was tidied and tightened up to be cleaner and more efficient.
Next, it was a matter of finding out exactly what the weightings were at the time the issues were occurring.
There was no easy way to make the game stop and show us the data. There was no crash, no exception, no stackdump.
So, a recorder was written up to take the values of weights and times, and dump them out to the console in a comma-separated format. Next, it was a simple matter of putting it into a spreadsheet, and having a close look at the various curves.
It was immediately apparent that the curves were not smooth. The blending algorithm needed some work.
So, we needed to use math(s).
THE MATH(S)
A set of quadratic tweening functions were written up, called EaseOut, EaseIn, and EaseOutIn. A square-root function was also written, but turned out to be too CPU-intensive for what it was intended.
The AnimNode weight transitions were upgraded with these easing functions, and pretty soon we had some nice and smooth transitions between nodes.
The AnimTracks got the same treatment, and transitions between tracks became much smoother as well. The number of snapping issues greatly decreased, and much joy was had. However, a few issues continued to stubbornly evade us.
Deciding to focus on one issue at a time, we chose the crowbar strafe->run transition. A video was taken, alongside the recorded weight data for states, nodes, and tracks. The individual frames were then painstakingly arranged alongside the generated curves, and then closely examined.
Once the track weight curves were stacked and normalized, a problem became visible. There was a rogue Idle animation sneaking into the mix. Its weight would reach barely 40% before it disappeared, over a period of just 10 frames. This made us intrigued, but also sad and weary.
THE SOLUTION
With this clue, the field of possibilities was greatly narrowed. The cause was soon found. As the strafe node was transitioning out, it was still processing its blend-field. Even though the character was now in the sprint state, its strafe state was still active, and it thought that the character was standing still.
So, in its few last dying frames, the strafe state would blend in the Idle animation, just before snapping it off again.
With the root cause discovered, the solution was simple. Stop any transitioning-out nodes from applying their blend-field. The fix was made, and the last remaining snapping issues were conquered. HOORAY!

  LESSON LEARNED
There were a few lessons learned. Firstly, Math(s) is great – even when we got down to brass tacks and went old school on this issue.
The second was how helpful it was to observe, reproduce, and document every known issue in a visible list. Then performing a ground-up service and tune-up, systematically fixing each issue one at a time.
Finally, that it is important to have visibility on the internal workings of the system. Instead of relying on stop-start debugging, we need a mechanism for recording all state data as it changes over time, and present it in a human-readable format.
Thing was, the spreadsheet and curves were incredibly useful, but were slow and cumbersome to use.
So! We are now building a fully-fledged recording viewer as a part and parcel of the AnimZed dev and modding tool. Huzzah!
We’re sorry this has been such a technical Thursdoid, easily the most involved one we’ve ever done, but in amongst all the cool vids we’ve been showing in past weeks we wanted to spotlight some of the work that’s been happening that’s not quite as sexy. (Well, not mainstream sexy anyway.)
We also know that there are some among you who really dig this sort of thing – but apologise whole-heartedly if you’re not. We’ll be a lot less clever-clever next week, and that’s a promise/inevitability. 
This week’s winter that’s coming from eHxAtoMiic. A general list of stuff added to PZ, and vids of features being worked on, is kept here – so you don’t have to plough through endless dev blogs for info. 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 open for chat and hijinks too!

Howdy all, and happy spring Eastoid festival if you are a participator in such activities.
A few bits and bobs this week. Overall a variety of code-level tasks are being done: blending issues being addressed, optimization, cutaway behaviours, items that should be used as weapons but hadn’t been previously, weapons being held when animations are playing and they should be removed… all that fun stuff.
Something that might be of worthy of mention, and a quick vid, though are some examples of where the new animations system are highlighting ‘in-between’ states that the game could previously got away with – but now either look weird, or have resulted in a show-stopper bug.
A good example of this is when a player either bumped into a zed when escaping through a window, or was very closely pursued by zeds when escaping – this was not only resulting in visual weirdness in the anims build, but also was trapping the player in the window frame for all perpetuity. As such, after a consultation with Animator Martin, we can use this sort of situation for some cool new gameplay considerations.
PLEASE NOTE: This is a WIP animation, and whatever anyone tells you – the big saucepan is a bug that’s already been fixed and won’t be in the final build. (We’re also working on more ‘table against window’ polish).
On top of this we will be improving this further – perhaps with a zed grabbing and pulling you into the window instead of pushing you out. Another example of a similar blemish that we’re fixing up meanwhile (known internally as being on The Sasha Shitlist) is the way that based on the existing game when the zeds are currently pushed left or right their animation is that of staggering backwards instead of the relevant direction – a Martin-provided remedy for which is currently being added into the game.
Other work that’s gone on this week meanwhile includes fixes and improvements for the in-game radio communication system, work on a community translation tool and Zac’s work on a function that will allow us to more directly play with colour saturation/hue of the scene and make the most of our new character models. Oh and finally, Yuri is working out a way to stop saves losing vehicles on irregular shutdowns.
Thanks all, hopefully a more extended gameplay vid next week.
This week’s overgrown safehouse from Dark Oracle. A general list of stuff added to PZ, and vids of features being worked on, is kept here – so you don’t have to plough through endless dev blogs for info. 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 open for chat and hijinks too.

Actualy I preffer less skills but more important ones. Instead of 8 combat related skills 1 would be fine. Just add perk system each 2 lvls, where you can choose 1 combat perk on top of passive buff. Same goes for Agility skills. Its weird that I can fight like a champ with long blunt and at the same time have no idea what to do with short ones.

Beside that the update looks cool.

Hey all, another busy week in Build 41 development – so here’s a few of the different things that people are up to.
An area that was proving strange in terms of 41 development was that somewhere along the way some of the visual fidelity of characters had been lost – and simultaneously, somehow, models looked far more buff/hunky than intended. Feet, also, seemed a little on the large side. After a bit of a dig, this week we finally located a bug in the exported model data that explained it.
Due to this bug, the lighting of the characters was broken, which resulted in very washed out characters with little lighting shading – which in turn removed definition that made muscles look bulkier. This has now been fixed and will, after re-exporting all the clothing, allow us to achieve much better character model rendering and lighting than we’ve shown off previously during this recent leg of anim development.
With that said, this Before and After shot should still be taken as WIP. We have a lot of the definition back, but we’ve still not balanced the colouring, saturation, definition and lighting. We’re now in a far better position to polish though, and future Thursday screens and videos should look MUCH improved. This screenshot is taken with evening light.
Next up, a key aspect of PZ mapping is zoning – which we primarily use to mark up areas that are (for example) suitable for foraging and car spawns. Now however, with different clothing for zombies, we can flag which parts of the PZ map can spawn which particular zombie – or which group of particular zombies.
This, then, is how we can spawn only guards and orange jumpsuit-wearing prisoners in Rosewood prison.
(Please note the following screens still have slightly wonky colours and lighting)
Likewise, RJ has created a ‘wedding’ spawn zone over one of the churches on the map – which ensures that all zombies inside it, and outside for the selected area, have a very high chance of dressing in smart clothing, with a guaranteed bride, groom and church minister amongst them.
This system will allow us to have many and varied different pockets of particular zeds – police in police stations, military in military areas etc. Likewise, we will be examining the best methods to make sure that zeds in bathrobes or not wearing clothes are only found in homes and home bathrooms in particular.
(It should be noted that aspects of this will also involve a very slight rewrite of PZ lore in terms of the outbreak, but we had intended to return to the radio/TV broadcasts soon in any case).
RJ has been experimenting with this system while waiting for additional work on rotational anim movements and programmable anim-speed support in AnimZed from Zac and Turbo – but has also this week worked on knife attack animations, and tying survivors and zeds getting bloodied to them in-game.
This has also involved us adding some additional combat skills, and in the process removing the skill point system. From Build 41 onwards skills will automatically level up when you gain the XP requirements, as we felt the manual skill point system never worked particularly well and would do so even less with many more skills.
Elsewhere Mash has begun creating icons for new clothing and weapons, Will had begun setting naming conventions for them, and Connall has continued to implement new timed actions. Yuri is finishing off adapting his water/puddles into Zac’s revamped shader system, and starting to make plans for fire improvement. The other Zac meanwhile, Young Zach, continues to deliver new South-tinged music, and Xeonyx is currently chasing map bugs in his now complete Kingsmouth Island challenge map.  
We’ll try and get a gameplay video showing the improved lighting, blood and blade combat next week, have a good one until then!
This week’s home on the range from Old Gregg. Bailey’s. Mmm… creamy. Soft creamy beige. A general list of stuff added to PZ, and vids of features being worked on, is kept here– so you don’t have to plough through endless dev blogs for info. 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 open for chat and hijinks too.

Hey all, this week has largely comprised of bug-fixing, optimization and general necessary busywork around what was discussed and shown last week, alongside the compilation anims vid.
That said we have implemented zombies that get covered in blood, which can be seen below, and are continuing to tick items off the list from Connall and Turbo’s vast timed action spreadsheet. Screenshots of which can also be seen below.
Please note that in Build 41’s final form blood will slowly accumulate on zombies and player through combat, though clearly a certain number will be gory from the word go.
(It should also be underlined at this point that we’re now in the process of working out exactly which anims will be included in the first release, and which won’t – ducking behind fences and wall-hugging, for example, is a confirmed ‘not 41’ at this point as we want to get the fundamentals right first.)
CONTROLLER BETA
Stas has been going great guns with our public controller beta, and we’re now well into the bug fixing and polish stage. If you want to check out the latest version, number 14, details can be found here. We’re approaching the end of this work now, and would like to thank Stas and General Arcade for all the great effort that’s been put into this aspect of the code.
MAP EXPANSION
While the rest of the team works on Build 41, we currently have three people on map content. Mash is developing our take on Louisville, while RingoD is providing her with variations on our current housing models so that its suburbs don’t feel too cookie-cutter.
Here’s a rare glimpse of a WIP urban location that’s been prised from Mash’s iron grip, shown with the understanding that the release will be a fair few builds into the future
Seeing as the main map expansion is still so far away, however, we now also have the New Denver creator Xeonyx working on new locations that will come as a part of new challenges in the main game. Here,for example, is the main resort building on the fictional paradise island of Kingsmouth.
This week’s parking lot pyre from David8 [FOR ALL]. A general list of stuff added to PZ, and vids of features being worked on, is kept here– so you don’t have to plough through endless dev blogs for info.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 open for chat and hijinks too.
 
 

Hello,
 
I noticed with new weather system that my character sometimes is forced to stay indoor for some time. Therefore i started to organize all my c.... stuff and i noticed few things which might be beneficial/add some more micromanagement (or simplify it) in game. so:
1. Possibility to hang map on a wall - to make like "station" in your safehouse where you can walk in and interact with map/maps - mark stuff etc. - i know there are already maps in game but many times i just forget to update them
2. Calendar on the wall (i think i already mentioned this in other post) - similar to hanging maps on a wall possibility to hang and update calendar
3. Fixing clothing - so you can fix some clothes using needle,
4. Workout - since we have new weight system, maybe we can add a book of two about fitness/strength training? and actually practice (instead of running to the wall to lvl up sprinting - really hardcore grinding)
5. Recipe book - clear book you can write your favorites recipes and make them "new Recipes" (so if you equip recipe book in secondary hand and you would like to make cabbage soup you added to it there will be option to do cabbage soup instead of re-adding all ingredients again - of course timing will sum up

I need all the things, in all the containers. :p 

I think they will end up adding it, but it will be a while.  At the very least animations need to be out and relatively finalized before they would add it. (I see it more as a post 1.0 release though - or at least close to it.) 

I need all the things, in all the containers. :p 

Hey Rathlord! 
Here was the clip from the stream earlier: 
 
 This was really one of the only things I experienced with the zombies. There was some player lag too but that could be due to Real Life locations.
 

Hey guys- we've got another multiplayer madness megatest coming up for anyone who'd like to participate! The Spiffospace server is running a brand new IWBUMS build, featuring some exciting new multiplayer zombie performance improvements! We're trying to test out multiplayer stability with this new system, so having as many people on as possible would be great!
 
All we need is for you to be running around on the server for an hour or so and having fun!
 
Event begins at roughly 5 PM on December 18th!
 
The main testing point is how zombie movement looks on the server, especially zombies close to you. Zombies farther away may not be as consistent, but we're hoping the closest zombies to you should be more consistent now.
 
KEY GIVEAWAY IS FINISHED!
 
During the event we will check all players active on the server and those will be given codes. You'll want to post in this thread or message Rathlord on Discord to claim your code if you are online for the giveaway!
 
SERVER DETAILS:
 
*Join the IWBUMS testing branch of the game. If you don't know how, follow the instructions here.
*Join the official Spiffospace Canada server through the game's server listing.
 
IMPORTANT INFO WE NEED:
 
Please report any buginess, crashes, etc that you find here in this thread. This test is to check on multiplayer stability and general playability of the build. We'd really like to hear how consistent zombie behavior is, especially those closest to you.