DayZ

Current top issues for a hotfix are:

- AI Related Server Crash
- Container Lifetime Refresh Issue
- Known Duplication Methods
- Vehicle Location/Position Persistence

0.61 Milestone Goals:

- Server Login Queue
- Merge of New Audio Technology from Arma 3 Eden Update
- Update of Weapon Sounds for New Audio Technology
- Dynamic Spawning of Infected
- Predators (Wolves)

In past week there have been some cool animations finished. To mention some of them, we have now attaching and detaching doors for vehicles, new reload animations include Winchester and there is also completely new reload for M249. The infected have received idle variations and few different door attacks.

The upcoming player character can hold items and aim using new aim spaces. We are still polishing existing animations for changing stances and movements. The way the character reacts to controls is great, the fact that we can blend multiple animations means it's fluent, not limiting and it looks much better. For instance you can start running and go to crouch at the same time and you can raise your weapon as well, or you can change your mind and go back to the original pose - all in the transition itself - without any limitation or interruption.

Our programmers worked hard on implementing our new Audio system which will also be the core of the Enfusion Audio. In the coming updates we will have completely new gunshots sounds with new distance parameters and attenuation and frequency curves which are enormous improvement over existing ones. You will be able to distinguish distance and position of the shots fired with greater precision. Also new sound effects we made are better quality and have greater diversity, so you could recognize which type of weapon is firing more easily.

In the coming updates we also plan to consecutively upgrade ambient sounds which will be an enormous core upgrade, but also vehicle sounds, melee and all character sounds that will compliment the new character animations you've been told about.

0.61 Milestone Goals:

Server Login Queue:
Feature implemented, system under review with internal QA teams.

Merge of New Audio Technology from Arma 3 Eden Update:
Tech implemented fully into DayZ. Existing sounds and configs from legacy system functioning properly. (Backwards compatibility with legacy sound technology).

Update of Weapon Sounds for New Audio Technology:
21 weapons ready, work continues on remaining firearms. Youtube channel dev log preview upcoming!
SKS
Sporter
Trumpet
Repeater
AKM
Steyr
FAL
SVD
MP5K
1911
CR75
Derringer
Flaregun
FNX
Glock 19
Longhorn
Magnum
Amphibia
P1
Makarov
Red 9

Dynamic Spawning of Infected:
Feature implemented into internal branch. QA teams are doing initial passes and providing programmers with initial issues.

Predators (Wolves)
The team are currently working on several key issues with predators (wolves). Specifically being addressed currently are:
Issues with navigation in urban / dense areas.
Overall physics related issues.
Damage application against non player targets.
AI Targeting priority.

At the main menu you will be able to thoroughly list all your available characters across all shards. Coupled with additional information like visualization of character and his gear, name and actual stats helps you to select the character you want to play with. The selected character at the main menu then acts as a filter in the optional next step which is the server browser. The new server browser will filter out only the available servers from that shard where the selected character belongs to. This added layer of filtration eliminates the need of memorizing what character you have where, as well as any possible confusion after logging on to a server just to find out that it isn't the character you wanted to play with.

The new server browser also comes with other useful changes and functions to provide a better and uncluttered user experience. There will be only three tabs used for high level and clear differentiation between official servers, community servers and servers on LAN as other unnecessary tabs for favorites, friends, history and remote will be removed and become filters instead. Filters are now part of the server browser screen directly so they are always visible and at hand to easier check what's being filtered. Filter parameters have 3 different states - include, exclude and ignore so their setting can be handcrafted to exactly what you want to see. Columns in the server list were also reduced to a bare minimum as most of their information were doubled in server details. You can see and sort filtered servers according to their name, time of day, population and ping. Similar to filters, server details is no longer a separate pop up dialog window as every row in the server list is independently expandable to unveil additional server details like description, public/private, mode, version, IP and others so it's easy to compare two or more servers.

New animations and graph for drawing a bow have been added. With advantages of upcoming system drawing will be available while walking as well. The jamming/unjamming for pistols has been created and there is already ongoing work on bolt action rifles.

Not to forget about vehicles we have finished set of animations for upcoming vehicle and started on the next one. Also some more specific animations for attaching vehicle parts have been created.

Last week I was going through process of reviewing and updating poses. Since the character can put almost anything in his hands we have at the moment poses for clothes, small items, large items, firearms, weapons and many more. That makes in total over 800 animation poses. I have updated some and polished to give them more natural look.

These past weeks I have been heavily focused on making the movement system feel more natural, for such a simple term it is quite the complex task. I started reviewing the stance-system from the player's viewpoint and I think I've got a quite nice iteration for the stance changes.

For example, you're lying down in the grass near the airfield's tents and you thought you saw movement in the distance. You start to stand up but realize that it was in fact another player, and any time during that animation you can decide to go back to prone, finish standing up, or to go crouch instead and aim your weapon (at the same time). If you then realize that the bandits noticed you, you start to run (still in crouch) and stand up while moving and leg it (and ultimately get picked off by their SVDs).

While it is a small change, it has added a whole new dimension of feel, and I can't wait to put it in your hands!

0.61 Milestone Goals:

- Server Login Queue
Ready for experimental branch testing - no current issues preventing this at this time.
- Merge of New Audio Technology from Arma 3 Eden Update.
Technology successfully merged into DayZ branch. Ready for further testing on experimental branch.
- Update of Weapon Sounds for New Audio Technology.
All current firearms configured - Audio team is working on completing SFX for future firearms. In addition, this week several issues were encountered with impact noises on some weapons not operating properly, this issue is being addressed by the audio team as of the time of this report.
- Dynamic Spawning of Infected.
Gameplay Programmers are still working on fully plugging in animal spawns to this system. While this is ongoing, the design and gameplay programming teams have been discussing ways to evenly distribute dynamic spawns across all vilages and points of interest, and ways to provide a compelling experience without impacting the server performance budget during the lifetime of the server.
- Predators (Wolves)
Still cautiously optimistic here. However at this point it is looking like we *will* be testing wolves on some of the initial 0.61 experimental pushes to see if they behave and operate as expected in a live environment.

Beyond our defined milestone goals, we have several additional changes that are looking to be rolled into 0.61, lets take a quick look at those right now.

- Dynamic Shadows
Programmers from the Enfusion engine team have been working to resolve the last remaining issues encountered in internal testing with this. As of the current build in internal testing right now we still have a few small issues with light in some edge cases ignoring geometry, however this is looking really good for 0.61 experimental. Below you'll see an example of how this is looking right now, both in the Status Report and on our Trello.
- Network Synchronization Improvements
As Miroslav, our Lead Gameplay Programmer discussed in a previous Status Report - he has been working hard on improving our client/server synchronization in an effort to improve quality-of-life and reduce frustrating deaths and poor gameplay experiences due to client/server disagreements. Things are looking very, very promising. That said, as tends to happen in development, internal testing has encountered several issues that can potentially cause unexpected changes to player position and movement under less than ideal network conditions. As everyone that plays DayZ has different connection conditions, and communities are spread across the globe, ensuring that gameplay and network synchronization works properly under all reasonable pings and connection speeds is critical. So that said, the gameplay programming team and the quality assurance teams are working hand in hand to resolve this issue for 0.61 experimental.
- New Server Browser
Many players have reported large frame drops and client unresponsiveness in our legacy server browser (currently used in 0.60 stable branch), and due to that we have pushed up the merge of our new server browser to 0.61 in an attempt to address this sooner, rather than later. Keep in mind however, this is only the first iteration of this and some functionality will not be present or working entirely. However, functionality we fully expect the first iteration to be 1:1 with the current 0.60 server browser.

Currently, our QA Lead Ondrej (Andy) is tracking 16 must-fix bugs for 0.61, including but not limited to:

Player Sounds significantly quieter than environment and AI
Client crash after exiting
Player position hitching under less than ideal network conditions (150+ms)
Animation Issues related to swimming
Certain walls and objects not displaying shadows at certain angles
Characters getting stuck when climbing ladders
Player to Player magazine capacity synchronization
Item Duplication Exploit (Thanks to the new security feedback form!)
Client crash related to connecting to server
Characters stuck in weapon raised pose in certain conditions