DayZ Standalone isn’t even in beta mode yet, but the studio behind the cult hit are still planning new features and improvements.
In a recent interview with Gamespot, developer Dean “Rocket” Hall outlined some of the major changes coming to the open-world multiplayer zombie game, including upgrades that should increase both performance and graphical fidelity.
The first move involves overhauling those dodgily-optimised graphics so that everyone can play the game at a reasonable clip. Among other engine enhancements, a major source of increased performance will be newly added DirectX 11 support.
“We lose a lot of (development) time,” Hall reveals. ”But implementing DirectX 10 or 11 will have a dramatic, instant visual difference and quite a significant performance difference. The big benefit we get is being able to implement dynamic lighting so we can have dynamic shadows. If you’ve got a good computer, you’ll be able to play with more lights. If there’s a lot of people using torches in the distance, you’ll be able to see their lights.”
The game is also upgrading to 64-bit servers, which should help with the lag issues and bugs that players often experience. “It’s working and it’s great,” enthuses Hall. ”It allows us to use a lot more RAM, which helps us a great deal with spawning in thousands more items into the world. It means we can have more zombies. It means we can have more loot items.”
In terms of gameplay additions Hall promises an enhanced hunting system, a more forgiving early game for new players and a more inctricate loot system that will allow the developers to control the scarcity of certain items across each server.
It’s worth checking out the full interview, which has lots of interesting information about Hall’s vision for DayZ.
