faatal

We are definately CPU bound. Profiling last week after the terrain shader update and related tweaks, show that even more. Just tested a build and 4k res is running better than I've ever seen it at high quality, which is what I normally play at.

I would be interested to see your numbers when 19.2 comes out.

Thanks

I thought the deco writes were 0 as the log says, so it was confusing what was going on, but it turns out the list is cleared before the log happens, so it is writing out, in a 8k world, about 71000 entries, totally over 1 MB. Tried on my HD, but still not horribly slow, then on a flash drive, which gave a 7 second write time! The save timer is every minute, but there is a dirty check, so it does not always do the save.

The deco save code was changed a few months ago by another programmer to fix a problem with old saves, so it might have been only doing partial saves before, but since it does the whole thing now in any event, and on the main thread, it does lead to a large frame spike.

The simple solution was to write it into a memory stream, which is faster than a file stream anyway, then another thread does the actual file save, so minimal frame spike. This probably won't make 19.2, but hopefully 19.3.

Except that save message only happens on a full save, like when you Exit the world, do a save in the prefab editor or generate a world.
I am flying around the world and blowing the ground up with dynamite and that code is never called.

Are you using any mods?

I played the game on a HD up until maybe a year ago. I did not have write issues as you describe. I would suspect your hardware/software.

Do you have a good amount of free drive space? Free up space and defrag the drive.

Is your antivirus software aggressively scanning written data? Try excluding the save folders.

Is your free RAM low when playing? Shut down other programs and/or background tasks.

Not a win for a lot of people, since a primary complaint is performance.
I actually enjoy optimizing code. One of my favorite things to do, because sometimes you do find that big win and multiple small gains together do lead to moderate gains.
Updating our terrain shader got me 15 to 20 more FPS at 4k. That is a big gain and definitely worth it.

You often don't know how it will turn out until you do it. That is life.

Those "catchers" are actually cosmetic and don't have collision data for them, so there is nothing to remove. The normal colliders would have to be moved up or suspension changed, which can cause other problems.

Do you know that this is a team with many different skill sets, like pretty much every game team? Most people on the team can't fix FPS issues, so they do spent their time working on their "stupid" stuff.

FPS issues don't have an "I Win" button you can press to make it all better. It takes lots of time to analyze performance and find bottlenecks, which then often have no easy fix, but to rewrite and retest something, which often results in minimal gains. Features have maximum limits at which they can be optimized to run.

I've actually been spending half my time the last few weeks doing that and cleaning up the project of old/unused files. For example, I found an old unneeded water depth camera, that was rendering nothing each frame. After time spend researching it, removing and testing, I saw a 3% FPS gain. Not much. Path grid updates have also been optimized, which is not something increasing overall FPS, but reduc...

Not intended. Saw a similar thing weeks ago, then seemed fine. Could be a side effect of something. I do have a bug with new stripper zombie missing attacks, which may be just her or others also. I will be looking out for weird stuff, like I always do.

Head offset is generally an issue with the root positions of old art. Root position near front feet would fix that, but you might have lesser butt issues. Low priority, but could be fixed as a part of animal models getting updated someday.

Well, it does require code too and we already have a ton of other features queued up.

We will probably have more choices down the road once we get to it.

I've not seen that bug or heard anything about it. If testers can repro, they will make a ticket.

We have talked about similar features. Don't know when or if we would do that.

I've not heard anyone mention utility vehicles.

They don't and may never. I like and use that player advantage.

These should be all the ladder related changed:
Fixed AI could not jump while on a ladder.
Fixed AI obstacle check was disabled on ladder if not climbing.
Improved AI ladder use (Use direct motion. Slow animation. Don't face if up or down motion. GetMoveToLocation, FindSupportingBlockPos, CanNavigatePath and zombie fall anims handle elevators).
Added path navigate can advance if near line of travel.

Changed ladder type blocks to only be climbable when vertical.

Fixed AI pathing not making horizontal ladder connections.
Fixed AI pathing making unneeded inside drop connections.
Fixed AI jumping from the top of ladders when blocked but no head room.

Fixed player jumping to a ladder block after having used a ladder would not attach unless jump was still pressed after entering the ladder block.
Fixed player or AI moving down from air to a ladder would fall 1m.
Fixed player moving down...

DLSS would be interesting to try. We are planning a Unity update soon, but Unity does not support it yet.

Love a new video card! I am hoping to get a 3070 or 3080 by end of year. Possibly AMD has cool new tech coming soon.

Yes, an alert zombie by any source can not be sneak attacked.

Exactly.

A primary point of the system is to reduce the active zombie count. I specifically put spawned sleepers in a passive state, so they can't hear or see and run very little code. Player touches volume and they go active, so then they can hear/see.

A better choice might be stealth provides you some resistance to the targeting, so based on distance and randomness, you may only get a partial amount targeting you while the rest just look around.

I don't even try to get melee stealth kills. I basically just use the bow when I can. Enemy in field or sleeper laying there? Free damage. Head shot even better.

Except you are talking about a good case. I'm talking about all the cases. A group of players running around the walls and through POIs. Near all manner of sleeper volumes. We would be spawning tons of zombies and FPS declining. Someday having cheap bare bones non animated versions appear or just plain cheaper zeds allowing more volume padding, would be improvements, but not in A19.x.

Sleeper volume spawning tries to pick spawn blocks you can't see, but given limited choices that are visible it spawns far to near. Designers don't like it when you don't spawn their zombies. If they place 1 block in a volume, it will always spawn there regardless of how you busted into the volume, since there are no other choices.

Sleeper volumes are independent of each other unless grouped. Having a party in one, does nothing to the rest.

Bone knife has a 2m range against entities. 2.5m against blocks.

Stealth is a play style for having fun. In its current form, like other things in the game, it may not be the best for min/maxer play styles.

Cosmetic items also do nothing for succeeding in the game, but some play styles like them for having fun. I generally don't touch cosmetic items and often play stealth. Why? That is my combination of fun.

Your version of fun is not mine.

1 - Pretty sure the noise originates at the player, so that would be a bug.

2 - Your sneak meter is based on your light level, not what any specific zombie can or can't see. It the zombie facing you? AI does not see light on walls. It sees you or not.

3 - When you get near a volume it spawns, so you may see things appear. Just like a lot of other stuff appears out of nothing in games. Low FPS really breaks 'immersion'.

4 - Yep

People underestimate zombie hearing. They detect you more by hearing than seeing. We do not have audio occlusion, so walls do not block sounds.

With zero light and maximum stealth perks, they will always see/hear at some minimum distance like 1m.