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Project Zomboid
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Project Zomboid Trailer: This Is How I Died
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42 Techdoid
Thu, 3 February 2022
Hey all, here’s a general update from TIS Towers on various things. We do hope this finds y’all well.
First off a quick heads-up on the forthcoming 41.66 patch. It’s now content locked, and is now receiving required fixes reported by our internal testers. We will look to put it out into a new unstable beta branch as soon as we can.
The full current changelist can be found here for those interested
Next up, a few details on our Build 42 work.
As previously mentioned the core MP team will be sticking with Build 41 patches to improve life out on the servers for the immediate future, but work on the next big build has nevertheless now begun/continued in earnest.
Already announced for Build 42 was a major expansion of late game crafting and a major focus on game balance – details on which can be found here https://projectzomboid.com/blog/news/2022/01/2022-and-beyond/
There are a few other irons in the fire for this build too though. As ever, no ETAs on any of this.
We are very much still in the early versions of this build, and indeed much of the late game crafting update is currently in the ‘pen and paper’ planning stage. More on this in future blogs.
Engine Tech Improvements
We have recently taken some time to get rid of a bunch of our longest standing issues with the game’s engine.
Whilst this is definitely not a b41-style level of disruption, we’re digging deep inside our renderer and looking for ways to get rid of the quite severe problems that have been baked into our engine for a long time in terms of both capabilities and performance.
Performance
Of course, the biggest issue our engine struggles with daily is the extreme CPU and GPU heavy requirements of having a map composed of so many unique tiles, shaders and other stuff without the ability to use a z-buffer to let us render in an optimized way like most 3D games.
Ironically the fact that its ‘a simpler looking 2D game’ is what works against using a lot of the power of the GPU to render the map fast. This results in large FPS drops, particularly when zooming out due to the mind meltingly inefficient draw method that the ISO perspective forces on us.
We’ve had a few rather bold ideas on how to solve this, using the caching of chunks that have already been rendered, which we hope will vastly increase the FPS in B42.
It’s early days, but looks promising. This tech requires heavier use of the GPU memory, however, so it may be that this optimization will only be able to benefit cards with a few gigs of free VRAM. We’ll have to see which generations of GPUs will be best able to leverage it when its dev time is a little further down the line.
Speaking of not being able to use a z-buffer to render things in an optimized way: in actual fact, we’ve also been working towards being able to use a z-buffer to render things in an optimized way.
This essentially frees us from having to slot the draws of zombies, vehicles or players in between the appropriate tile draws in ‘back to front’ order.
We’ll be able to simply draw all the characters and vehicles on-screen at the end, their pixels then discarded if they are deeper into the scene than an existing building object’s pixel.
This should massively optimize the rendering speed of zombies, and allow us to sort them by materials. It will free us to use cached chunks indefinitely, until the lighting or cutaways demand a change, rather than rendering all the tiles individually.
We have had some surprising FPS results in 4k on max zoom,
however
we also expect this will likely fall a lot in practice – once the work is complete and everything is drawing. Please excuse any visual glitches at the moment!
Due to all this, in B42 it currently feels safe to assume that zooming out will have significantly lower performance penalty – and that higher resolutions will become more feasible for at least mid-range GPUs, and possibly lower end GPUs too.
Read on.... https://steamcommunity.com/games/108600/announcements/detail/3121559923978499941
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Project Zomboid UNSTABLE 41.68 Released
Mon, March 7, 2022
41.68 RELEASED TO UNSTABLE BETA
NEW
- Added allow changing safehouse owner to players which are a member
- Added extended server quit logging
- Print 'command entered via server console (System.in): "xxx"' in GameServer.launchCommandHandler().
- Added isConsistent() call to GameServer.receiveSyncClothing().
FORAGING
- Updated focus check to occur before item preview is placed
- Added blocking search focus for sprite affinity items
FIXES
- Fixed the result of FMOD Studio System getCoreSystem() not being checked properly for errors.
- Fixed Lua error clicking the close button in the titlebar of the Horde Manager debug ui.
- Fixed a BufferOverflowException when the number of reanimated player zombies is high. (It was taking about 600 player zombies (assuming 1.6KB per descriptor and 1e6KB packet buffer)
to be loaded for this exception to happen)
- Fixed dragging VHS tapes from world containers to the Device Options ui not being synced in multiplayer.
- Fixed repairing a hole in a long Leather Jacket with level 8 Tailoring not restoring condition.
- Fixed phantom item-transfer actions playing after crafting sometimes.
- Fixed IndexOutOfBoundsException in WorldItemModelDrawer.renderMain().
- Fixed starting the MusicCombined event doing network stuff.
- Fixed the MusicCombined event being stopped and then restarted the first time Lua is reloaded.
Asid:
41.68 RELEASED
Mon, 14 March 2022
41.68 compiled changelist
(Also including 41.67 from the unstable branch)
MP
• Cheat control
• Each anti-cheat can now be disabled via server option
• Several anti-cheats can now be configured via server option
• Anti-cheats are disabled by default for co-op hosted servers
• Max/Min/Default values hint is added to ServerOptionChange UI window for double and integer server options
• Old SafetySystem tooltip text is changed in accordance with new icon
• GhostMod and NoClip are removed when admin gets player access level
• Adjusted anti-cheat thresholds
• Player is not kicked on coop host server
• Adjust MP gain XP limit by sandbox XPMultiplier value
• Fixed typo in UI\_ValidationFailed\_Type9
• System property "rconlo" is added to make RCON server listen on loopback interface only
• New IsoObjectID class replaces ZombieIDMap.
• Limit the "mods" string reported by Steam servers to 128 characters. A new keyvalue "modCount" reports the actual number of mods used by the server. The server browser and favorites list will display "... and N more" after the list of mods, when there are more mods than are displayed. This is to fix some servers reporting ??? as their version number, which prevents people from joining.
• The server will exit if there are syntax errors in the servername\_SandboxVars.lua file.
• The server's servername\_SandboxVars.lua is saved after loading it to update it to the latest version with comments.
• Added missing buttons to disable toggle in admin panel UI
• Added closing admin panel UI if player has no access level or revoked privileges
• Added closing safezone tool UI if player has no access level or revoked privileges
• Clarified safehouse tooltip - show all reasons why a safehouse cannot be claimed
• Added server option "SafehouseAllowNonResidential" to allow claiming all buildings
• Added confirmation before releasing a safe house
• Fixed the owner sometimes showing in safehouse member list
• Added check when releasing safehouse if player is the current owner or an admin
• Fixed DisableSafehouseWhenPlayerConnected teleporting players outside when a player is removed while there are members online
• Fixed DisableSafehouseWhenPlayerConnected never replacing the safehouse after a player disconnects
• Added updating of the safehouse online member count periodically
• Added allow changing safehouse owner to players which are a member
• Added extended server quit logging
• Print 'command entered via server console (System.in): "xxx"' in GameServer.launchCommandHandler().
• Added isConsistent() call to GameServer.receiveSyncClothing().
• Fixed both options on yes/no confirmation when quitting a safehouse removed the player
• Fixed zombie that can be deleted by admin or zombie owner
• Fixed server hanging on quit command because of active RCON connection
• Fixed CD and VHS tapes possibly being different for each client.
• Fixed GlobalModData.save() not being called on the server.
• Fixed ZomboidRadio.Save() not being called when other things are saved on the server. It was called every 10 game-world minutes, however.
• Fixed Lua error in ISPlayerStatsManageInvUI after calling the /additem command in multiplayer.
• Fixed issues with the Stitch packet.
• Fixed repeated exceptions in GameClient.sendAddedRemovedItems() when a container object is null for some reason.
• Fixed adding items to or removing items from containers not being synced in multiplayer if the player teleports before the changes are reported to the server. This was one cause of the issue fixed above.
NEW
• Added "Enable left joystick radial menu" accessibility option.
• Updated community translations.
• Added 3D models (not all in-game yet)
ENGINE
• Updated Windows and Linux FMOD to 2.02.05.
• Added error checking and logging when initializing FMOD. The sound system is disabled when errors occur.
MODDING
• Made the maximum allowed tiledef file number 16382. File numbers 0-99 are reserved for the game, as was already the case. The old unenforced maximum was 1000, which some mods ignored. Sprite IDs must fit in a signed 32-bit integer (2,147,483,647). Each tiledef file is reserved 512 tilesheets of 512 tiles each. However: please note that values higher than 8190 result in NEGATIVE sprite IDs. Numbers higher than 16382 definitely aren't allowed due to using 32-bit integers to hold sprite IDs.
FORAGING
• Added Search Focus system for foraging
• focus is set in the investigate area window
• only one focus may be active at a time
• increases chance to find certain categories of item when searching
• player must be skilled enough to identify the item category to focus on it
• focus effectiveness is determined by player skill and category
• hidden item categories will not be rerolled (rare find protection)
• square must be valid to roll the item type (cannot be used to find plants on roads)
• Fixed duplicate clothing effect displayed in ZoneDisplay tooltip
• Fixed missing per player render flag in ISBaseIcon
• Tidied spriteAffinities definitions
• General tidying and alignment of tables
• Removed stone/firewood identify category skill requirement
• Added translations for search focus functions
• Added controller support for search focus
• Fixed medicinal herbs requirement - check for recipe instead of trait "Herbalist"
• Fixed tooltips flickering in Zone Display
• Added tooltip to make long tips easier to read without scrolling
• Added zone display tip for using search focus
• Updated focus check to occur before item preview is placed
• Added blocking search focus for sprite affinity items
BALANCE
• Fixed Axeman not applying bonus for swing speed
• Added correct adjustment of exercise fatigue.
• Updated community translations.
FIXES
• Fixed car dashboard delay when taking damage
• Fixed doors missing their glass, and the triangle-shaped floors\_exterior\_natural\_01 dirt tile.
• Fixed disassembling player-built floors resulting in two floor tiles after reloading, an auto-generated wood floor plus a dirt tile.
• Fixed the result of FMOD::Studio::System::getCoreSystem() not being checked properly for errors.
• Fixed Lua error clicking the close button in the titlebar of the Horde Manager debug ui.
• Fixed a BufferOverflowException when the number of reanimated player zombies is high. (It was taking about 600 player zombies (assuming 1.6KB per descriptor and 1e6KB packet buffer) to be loaded for this exception to happen)
• Fixed dragging VHS tapes from world containers to the Device Options ui not being synced in multiplayer.
• Fixed repairing a hole in a long Leather Jacket with level 8 Tailoring not restoring condition.
• Fixed phantom item-transfer actions playing after crafting sometimes.
• Fixed IndexOutOfBoundsException in WorldItemModelDrawer.renderMain().
• Fixed starting the MusicCombined event doing network stuff.
• Fixed the MusicCombined event being stopped and then restarted the first time Lua is reloaded.
• Fixed split-screen players, except the last, being unable to drive vehicles in multiplayer.
• Fixed unnecessary pause when starting in debug
Asid:
Milky Milky
Thu, 31 March 2022
How do, all. Let’s visit a few different PZ departments to see what’s cooking.
41 PATCHING
We are currently partway through the journey to the 41.69 patch. Planned patches to Build 41 are intended to be, generally, not feature-led and instead focus on balance, QOL, fixes and polish. The current contents of 41.69 includes:
• New items and 3D models
• New foraging discoveries.
• Many improvements for controller and Steamdeck play
• Many improvements to the MP experience in areas such as: the sometimes weird vehicle physics, the PvP safety system, the PvP cooldown timer, safehouse bugs, sleeping and radio/VHS sync.
There’s a lot more incoming next week, but we intend to keep this patch relatively short and sharp if we can – though of course will also need to be sure of MP stability before any release (even to unstable) as there’s still quite a lot of large adjustments to the MP code going into the pot.
Read on: https://steamcommunity.com/games/108600/announcements/detail/3211636989459977867
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