Hey all, a few WIP videos and updates from the team’s collective work inside the anims code for Build 41 this week.

ANIMATIONS

This week a lot of progress has been made with the TIS coders implementing the game code side to tie in the new animation system to all the game systems. RJ has been handling the combat system, tying up all the weapon swing, zombie reactions and various other related anims, and the system is getting close to the quality of the earlier videos of animations you’ve seen, though now tied 100% into the PZ combat, character and simulation systems.

Connall and Turbo have been concentrating on non-combat related animations, such as reading, chopping wood, painting, eating, crafting,and the countless other in-game actions characters can do in-game that were previously performed like a stock-still robot with a progress bar.

EP has been doing his usual precision striking all across the code base, wiring up the character creation system, connecting model clothing to inventory items in the world, and fixing issues and integrating the codebase across the board.

In the mean-time TEA are optimizing and improving the AnimZed toolset with our requests the more we use it, and alongside general animation requests and polish Martin is experimenting with the gore potential of the system with visible guts hanging out of the front of zombies and such.

There are still numerous bugs and issues as long as all our combined arms, and it’s hard to get a sustained video without issues and glitches popping up, so here’s a carefully curated compilation to give you an idea of the where we are.

If you see something that looks wrong or glitchy, or think ‘hmm, there should be more variation anims in that…’, then we’re probably already on it.

CUTAWAYS

ChrisW’s sims-style cutaway work has really started to approach the point where we can see the vast improvement it will make to visibility in buildings. There are still a few small issues to address,not least we may still need to explore transparent doors and tall furniture (such as wardrobes or fridges) in certain circumstances to avoid obstructing the view of the player, but we’re very excited to get this in as it makes the experience so much more solid.

GROUND WATER

Yuri has been putting the finishing touches on the puddle system, as well as tying it into the 40’s climate stuff, and we’re super happy with how he’s been able to add that visual spark to the water effects in the game.

Our next plans for Yuri’s visual effects overhaul couldn’t be more opposite, as we’re finally getting some visual love and attention put into fire, one of our most ancient and jankiest looking systems. We’re excited to see what he does with it, and at the same time as a visual boost, we’re planning on rebalancing the way fire works to make it behave more sensibly and better simulate its spread over different materials and tiles.

This week’s group shot from Corusuke3. A general list of stuff added to PZ, and vids of features being worked on, is kept here– so you don’t have to plough through endless dev blogs for info.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 blogs like this and patch notes direct to your mailbox. We also live on Twitter right here! Our Discord is open for chat and hijinks too.