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Upstairs Downstairs


nasKo

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Now then, survivors. Let’s do the thing.

 

NEXT

This week we released version 41.77 into our Unstable beta. This is primarily aimed at fixing the Linux crashes that have been plaguing server hosts, and so far seems to be a mission success in that regard.

 

It also improves client to server connections by preferring a direct connection to the server. Servers now have two ports for clients to connect to, configurable through the server options. The game port (UDP 16261 by default) is used to handle Steam queries. The additional port (UDP 16262 by default) is used to handle the direct connection.

 

We’ve had a successful wider test of 41.77 with more than 30 people on a server without any crashes, and we’ve tested a modded setup afterwards as well.

 

Upon release there were servers running mods with 41.77 just fine, but unfortunately it seemed that some mod setup constellations caused conflicts that resulted in black screens for some servers.

 

We have just pushed a hotfix we believe will resolve this.

 

If, however, you run a 41.77 server and you are still experiencing players unable to log on (only seeing a black screen) then please send us: the list of ModIDs (specifically the “Mods=” line from their server.ini, the workshop= line, and your server logs.

 

Posting these in the forum release thread or in our Discord techsupport channel would probably be best.

 

Likewise, any reports of ongoing server instability or general misbehaviour – please let us know ASAP.

 

THEN

We’re still adding tweaks and polish to our final B41 patch that we’ll put out once the current network improvements are fully tested, released and stable.

 

This is the current changelist, with notable additions in the past few weeks on show here if you already read up on what was incoming in our last blog.

 

OOH, 42

Build 42 will be a very big update, and it will appear a sizable amount of time after Build 41 is fully wrapped. We’ve announced most of the things that we currently have brewing for it, but there’s one thing we’ve only hinted at so far – and which is very likely to feature.

As regular readers may remember, a while ago we wrote a blog called Techdoid that detailed some of the big engine improvements we have slated for 42.

 

Amongst them is a new rendering pipeline which allows for entire chunks to be cached with a depth buffer, which will afford us MASSIVE rendering and scene construction improvements and should rid us of all the performance issues we’ve been plagued with due to the isometric draw order over the years.

 

 

There’s also a new light propagation system, which allows for light to naturally leak through doors and windows, providing much more atmospheric and believable lighting

 

We also got rid of the 8 storey limit on chunks: specifically we allowed each chunk to have its own unique defined height up to 32 levels.

Finally, we discussed that we’d fixed the many areas of the codebase that used static casts to round the player’s position to determine what chunk or tile they were on to using Math.floors instead. This method allows for negative coordinates to work where prior the calculations would have failed if the player was stood on a tile with a negative coordinate.

 

This in theory will allow for us, or modders, to build north or west to the same extents as we currently build to the east and south, effectively quadrupling the maximum size the map could be extended to and open up a great deal of extra land to populate should we need to in future.

Whilst all these features are gamechangers in themselves, they were also done in service of another very specific feature we’ve had planned for a long time, which required each of them to be made feasible in any way.

 

The current in-game lighting system means that the indoor ambience levels are defined solely by the time of day. If it’s daytime, the ambient light levels inside a building are above zero, giving just sub-daylight levels, even if there are no sources of natural light that should fall on a tile just by virtue of it being day. That wouldn’t work very well if we were wanting to do… a certain other feature.

 

The previous eight level hard limit and high rendering cost of multiple levels was rather restrictive if we were to… want to do a certain something.

 

The lack of support for negative coordinates for character positions? Well that was IMMENSELY restrictive if we… were to want to do a certain something.

 

A few people may have been able to read between the lines of what all these lead toward. Many more will have just watched the video already.

 

The plan we have for basements and sub-levels is an interesting one, as it will provide a lot more replayability to the game map, which is otherwise completely static at the moment.

 

Essentially in 42 we, or modders, can list positions on the map (along with staircase orientation) that have the space for a basement and can be allocated the potential to have one. However, no basements are placed within the map itself.

 

When an area is streamed in for the first time, an appropriate basement ‘building’ created in the building editor and exported as a binary file is selected randomly from the list of all possible basements and will be injected into the map as it is loaded.

 

We could add tags to make it pick an appropriate category of basement to fit the specific house, though right now the code has it set as completely random. Each basement has stairs leading up from its ‘top’ floor and these stairs will be aligned to the correct position when it is injected into the map.

 

This means that despite the map being static, any areas with basements will yield surprises in every playthrough. This will also, clearly, cause the least disruption to the existing map development, modded maps and everything else.

 

Whilst most of the basements will be modest basement rooms, that will have their own unique layout and lootable containers and will change on every new world and be populated with our own collection as well as any collections of mod basements that are subscribed to.

There may be a few, however, which are more extensive, the player could happen upon a super rare and extensive underground complex. We have 32 levels to work with that can be distributed in any way above or below ground per chunk as required, so there’ll be few limits particularly in what modders can do with this.

 

We can also hardcode some specific basement levels, so we could say provide key buildings within the map with bespoke basement levels that fit that particular building and will always be the same on every map.

 

Also, with the new light propagation system, you better bring a torch – because unless there are light switches, its gonna be dark even if it’s daytime!

 

We’re also considering the possibility of other sub-surface structures, such as sewers for locations like Louisville. We’re still researching what would be appropriate and sufficiently realistic for this, however, and it’s not certain what could/would appear in b42 beyond what’s discussed above at this stage.

 

SPIFFO: BEYOND

If you are a Terraria player then right now you are likely enjoying the amazing Labor of Love update, and maybe you’ve even discovered a certain someone has made the jump into another game – heralding the beginning of some sort of Spiffo Cinematic Universe.

Our endless thanks to everyone at Re-Logic for letting our little dude spread his wings (or spin his tail, I guess) and treating him so well.

 

This week’s stunning outdoor scene from Citro. A changelist of all our pre-release and post-release patches since the 41 beta began can be found here. 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 you update notifications once builds get released. We also live on Twitter right here! Our Discord is open for chat and hijinks too. Experienced games dev and want to work with us, especially if you’re an Animations Engineer as Christ alive that would be handy? Details here.

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This all sounds awesome, but there is one thing I am *really* hoping ...

 

The layout of the example basement shown in the video is very strange, in that it "sticks off" from the side of the main / above-ground house.  So far as I know, in modern homes, basements generally have the exact same footprint as the above-ground house (or at least, the footprint is very similar, and the basement almost never extends out from under the main / ground floor of the house).  I sincerely hope this is the default plan for basements, i.e., that they would generally be limited to the borders of the house.  Otherwise they're going to feel very weird and immersion-breaking.  

 

Beyond that, in most multi-level houses, the basement stairs are typically located underneath the stairs going to the upper floor(s).  This makes sense, as the space under the stairs going up is otherwise more or less wasted (which is pretty much the case with below-staircase areas in the current build).  Not sure how feasible it is, but it would be really cool if the stairs down to basements in multi-level homes could generally be set up this way ... 

 

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32 minutes ago, Bullet_Magnate said:

Otherwise they're going to feel very weird and immersion-breaking.

 

Why do people do this every single time? You've just read that it is a WIP system and yet still can't help yourself.

It is a game about zombies roaming the earth but sure, a few wonky basements would make it unrealistic.

Keep it up TIS. Looking forward to seeing what map makers can create.

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Really excited for everything in the pipeline (especially animals finally coming to the game, as it's been my most anticipated feature for years) but I do have to say, I really dislike the idea of having the basements spawn randomly and be random each time. In general I find procedurally generated maps and locations lack character, get repetitive (ultimately taking away from re-playability for me) and sometimes they just simply don't even make sense (as it was mentioned above that the floor layout in the WIP video was completely off from what a real basement for that house would look like, and yes, I realize it is WIP and this will most likely be improved upon but it was to the point). I personally really like the idea of the map being static (to the degree it is now) with buildings being real landmarks you can recognize through multiple playthroughs and make plans for them, even if it's a simple house. Anyway, that's my two cents. Been forever since I posted here but wanted to voice my opinion on the basements being random each playthrough. That being said, I am again, super excited for everything on the way! Keep up the great work TIS :)

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With regard to the basements, there's probably a bit of an opportunity here to further enhance realism by including something that's noticeably absent right now -- utility and HVAC infrastructure (like furnaces, hot water heaters, etc.).  That would be a nice touch, and realistic given that many homes and other structures have these utility areas in their basements.  

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In my opinion there are two major things that help build atmosphere in the game - sound and lighting. Sound already got a big improvement and thats great, but it feels that lighting and shadows is lacking in the game (for example buildings/structures not casting directional shadows, no ambient occlusion etc). For example, if there is barrel standing next to a wall, you could make that wall area next to the barrel a bit darker. Currently

 light in game looks monotonous.

 

Also, just curious, are there any plans to shift game more into 3d? For example walls/structures being 3d instead of 2d sprites?

Edited by Toshis
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Regarding light propagation, maybe there could be subtle god rays going through windows/doors in foggy or dusty environments.

 

Edit:

Maybe a subtle glow effect around light sources, varying light intensity for campfires/fires, flickering light bulbs that are about to die etc.

 

Edit:

Its a bit off topic, but there could also be leaves falling of the trees in autumn or during strong wind. Wind gusts picking dust off the ground etc. Oh my, there are so many ways to make static world feel livelier :)

Edited by Toshis
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On 10/5/2022 at 10:39 AM, lunaricecake said:

Ok I'm really look forward to update 42 but what I want to ask is if we will be able to dig and make our own basements like the building system that's in the game right now?

I will assume that if this is possible, it will be only in mods.

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