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Vehicle Cutaways: A Solution to the Camper Conundrum


Heavy Gustav

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Vehicle Cutaways: A Solution to the Camper Conundrum

Hi everyone,

 

I've been giving some thought to the vehicle interior issue. There have been suggestions in the past of having interiors on large vehicles like RVs/Campervans, but it seems the discussion always ends at something along the lines of "you'd need the car to convert to a structure when you stop, which is not possible on the Project Zomboid engine." 

 

What's different about my proposal is that I suggest that we utilize a feature that is presumably on the way to Zomboid already. Let's look back at a teased feature from an older Thursdoid:

 

image-7.png

Lowdown

August 15, 2019

 

As you can see, Easy Pickins has managed to add an interior to this car. Sure, you can't move inside it like you're in the game world, but its a fine addition to the game. Now I suggest that we use the same system, and give the illusion of an interior in the campervan. Here is a concept I've produced in Photoshop:

 

image.thumb.png.42fb5c8401c9ab55d44aab4a7092db89.png

I'm not the greatest editor, so obviously the scaling and quality will be off, but I think it gets the idea across. (The camper van here is courtesy of Filibuster Rhymes' mod)

 

There should be an option to seamlessly toggle the view of the cutaways on and off while in the game, but bear in mind that these interiors would not be an actual part of the game world, but rather just a look inside the car in the same way Easy Pickins' interior was. As a passenger when you press V I think should get the option to click on an appliance in the RV and then depending on what is feasible for the developers to do, the game will A: play an animation of you walking in the van to the fridge and opening it, or B: teleport you to the fridge. Tangentially, I imagine that having system in place will also permit the addition of interiors for more ambitious vehicles in mods, in case someone wants to make a boat, plane, or a train with an interior. I think it would also be nice for characters to have idle animations while sitting in the vehicles.

 

Please leave your thoughts below, and thanks for reading!

Edited by Heavy Gustav
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I wonder if they could make an "van interior" off the map that you could teleport to when you enter the back of the camper van?  That would allow you to interact naturally with the furniture and then you could move the van around without converting things, even while someone else is driving.  

The windows would be weird to figure out but I think it might solve a few of the bigger problems.

Edited by loudboomaker
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1 hour ago, loudboomaker said:

I wonder if they could make an "van interior" off the map that you could teleport to when you enter the back of the camper van?  That would allow you to interact naturally with the furniture and then you could move the van around without converting things, even while someone else is driving.  

The windows would be weird to figure out but I think it might solve a few of the bigger problems.

That's an interesting take, but I'm not sure how the linkage with the map would be maintained. If you're in the faraway interior structure you'd still need to be under the threat of whatever's outside, be it zombies or players. This raises some questions, if I fire off some rounds at the van will players in the interior affected? If the trailer is lit on fire will the off-map interior also have a fire go off inside? Its something to consider for sure, and the technicalities are far beyond the scope of my comprehension.

 

I primarily play multiplayer, so the continuity/link with the in game world and what other people see is very important to me. I think with my concept you retain the feeling that you're in the map, you don't have any issues with the windows as its still the same type of car with an additional display, and you would be able to interact with furniture via your proximity inventory i.e having the oven icon the same way you have access to store items in the glovebox. Actual movement would be a nice thing to aim for, but its not paramount for me, I would settle for this system, perhaps supplementing the movement with a number of pre-designated "seat positions," in the interior where you can stand around for the sake of screenshots and whatnot.

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1 hour ago, Heavy Gustav said:

That's an interesting take, but I'm not sure how the linkage with the map would be maintained. If you're in the faraway interior structure you'd still need to be under the threat of whatever's outside, be it zombies or players. This raises some questions, if I fire off some rounds at the van will players in the interior affected? If the trailer is lit on fire will the off-map interior also have a fire go off inside? Its something to consider for sure, and the technicalities are far beyond the scope of my comprehension.

 

I primarily play multiplayer, so the continuity/link with the in game world and what other people see is very important to me. I think with my concept you retain the feeling that you're in the map, you don't have any issues with the windows as its still the same type of car with an additional display, and you would be able to interact with furniture via your proximity inventory i.e having the oven icon the same way you have access to store items in the glovebox. Actual movement would be a nice thing to aim for, but its not paramount for me, I would settle for this system, perhaps supplementing the movement with a number of pre-designated "seat positions," in the interior where you can stand around for the sake of screenshots and whatnot.

Those are a lot of good points, it would certainly be easier to implement the animations for the interior of the van the way you suggest.  It doesn't sound like it would even be that hard to implement now that animations are in and car interiors are being worked on.

Edited by loudboomaker
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