No DX12 changes other than using a newer version of Unity. No DLSS support, but there is a chance someday.

FSR has been updated to a slightly newer version of 3.1. Based on some of the FSR setting confusion on this forum, I did get one of our programmers to add an upscaling setting to the video options, so is no longer in the AA settings.

I was not going to say anything until it was more done, but yes I started prototyping our existing storm weather being more dangerous looking and harmful to the player. That was approved yesterday and our particle artist has started doing better effects as I just did a cranked up version of snow for the snow biome. The timing was global, but is now per biome as harder biomes will probably have more frequent storms. There will be some new UI messaging telling you to take cover or get out of the biome if it is also hazardous to you as the hazard system runs in parallel with the storms, so both could be happening to you.

April 15 is a Tuesday, so that was an approximate date as we would not initially release a major new experimental on a Tuesday. An actual public release date would be a Monday, so maybe the 21st. I probably need 3 more days of work on it code/xml wise. I also have new zombie work to be finished, so it will be tight. On the other hand, we don't have to get everything perfect to start experimental, so some changes can happen during exp.

My general target is once a day with some days being skipped, but that is just a guess until the team plays it a while. They will not last anywhere near an hour of realtime.
No Man's Sky and Stalker both have similar concepts which I refer to as examples of how it could work.

Storms are in biomes.xml and per biome like this:

The buff does the damage, so that can be modded too.

I don't think so.

Yesterday I worked more on weather storms. It is happening in all biomes now, with increasing frequency/duration based on biome difficulty. Split rain and snow into light/heavy so we still have that variety which is separate from storms. Today back to finishing improvements to RWG wilderness road connections.

There is nothing weird about our rendering. Everything comes down to draw calls of which there are thousands. Many blocks use a merged mesh, meaning combined with others of the same category in their chunk to be draw in a single draw call. Combining does add overhead of making that mesh each time a block is added or removed. Many other blocks are props, which have their own renders, models, LODs and mats, which makes a draw call and because of instancing many of those of the same type can also be rendered in a single draw call. Those do not have the overhead of combining and get to use LODs to be culled at a customized distance based on their size. Everything is tradeoffs.

Turning off any type of draw calls would of course make FPS higher, but the whole point of the video in video games is to render things otherwise you would be staring at a black screen.

Sorry, no "true" fire zombie in the burnt forest. We already have the burnt zombie, but I believe there is more fire on him or her (hard to tell) 🔥.

This should be no surprise, but it will be pushed back at least a few weeks. Features not yet complete, some major bugs and heavy testing needed.

I was only stating facts as I know them and yes it should be no surprise to those who follow the game. Companies are not monolithic entities, but composed of individuals with different opinions, skills and goals. I do programming and am not an official spokesperson for the company and can not and do not make official posts, only giving out bits of info as I can. Anything I say, may or may not be correct and is generally only my opinion or what I observe.

Sure, someone could update the roadmap, but if I was making it, you would not see any dates on it as I know disclaimers are ignored by a large part of the player base.

True. Every day means more work gets done.

Yes, that was a basic estimate equivalent to saying "middle of the month" as initial experimental releases have been on Friday for streamers and the following Monday for many years now. Quiz: If I said early May or mid May or late May, could anyone guess a date?

Working on lightning right now for storms. Making it player specific for storms and not using the old weird global triggering that was averaging player positions and accidentally including non player entities. Many times when I make changes I end up rewriting parts of systems that were done years ago by programmers that no longer work here. Also trying some shader tweaks.

It is pretty scary, but it does not need to damage you as you will already be taking damage from the storm.

That image is from the game. That is what the Frostclaw looks like and that screen effect is real. Andres, our particle artist, has added for each biome hazard, screen effects and screen particles. He is now doing the same for each storm type.

Basically. Storms are an extension of the weather system. They trigger based on very high precipitation amount. Precipitation, temperature, etc all ramp up and down, so you would see rain/snow before and after a storm. There will be some type of messaging, but that still needs to be done.

There are 2 levels of effects for biome hazards and the screen effect system stacks, so we can mix and match combinations.

I have the same thoughts and we have discussed it, but opinions vary. We will be doing polish changes as we wrap it all up and changes will be ongoing during experimental.

Storms will damage you, survival kits do not count as protection and being indoors will be safe.

The normal HUD is still there.

If you have a survival kit that covers the snow biome, then going out in the snow biome during regular weather you would see no screen effects. They are shown to tell you something bad is happening.

There is no clothing. Wetness does not matter. There are specific drinks for each biome's hazards. The only protection from storms is to go indoors. We have talked about a future item that gives more time before the storm damage starts.

No protection in vehicles. That could change, but the only enclosed vehicle is the 4x4 anyway. Being underground is being inside. Rain and snow particles inside has to do with particle collision issues and nothing to do with the player detecting if inside.

There is code to check areas of blocks to determine if any location is an interior. It is not perfect, but it works well enough and is tolerant of holes in walls or even entire walls missing as you mainly need to have an area above you being solid.

We have no plans for seasons. Biomes will remain distinct.

Frostclaw is primarily a snow biome spawned zombie. Allan may have him in other spawn groups, but I don't know.

Enclosure size matters. I did a test a few weeks ago with 1 small wall and a fairly large roof. It stopped damage once the roof was big enough and I stood next to the wall.

It is basically the same, but is sequenced differently, so has new/changed code.

You would need to enter the biome and it would fade in.

Storms have some randomness to their duration, but are basically 2-4 game hours with the harder biomes being on the upper end, but none of that is final.

The mutated zombie is the wasteland zombie.

Don't know.

That might change.

I don't remember any alternate shoulder anim. What was it used for?

I don't recall it ever being mentioned and not planning on it.

I take that as a joke as I know of no one actually working on new weapons. We need to get the current features done and bugs fixed, not add more stuff.