Zomboid Engine

[Orici Vintarion]

First of all I'm not an Developer i don't have any clue.
But I have one question
Is there an possibility to change the current 2d ish engine to let's say UE5 while maintaining the overall style like top down and so on ?? In a recent video from the devs they explained the hell out of the way the game engine generates images like a card system one tile on top of another which results in a heavy load. As I said I don't have an understanding when it comes to game development.

I'm just curious if it's in any way possible and if it is what's the downside in changing it. Like I think an engine like US5 would take more processing power from the GPU instead of torturing my CPU all the time.


Thx a lot ...

[TeeJay]

Imagine "Zomboid 2" built in true 3d from the ground up. One can only hope

[VANGUARD]

It probably is possible but would take too much time.
Ther're already too many complaining about how much time NPCs take, so I doubt they'd want to wait for an engine change without any new content in the mean time.
Plus most of the game assets are 2D sprites, which would have to be redone into 3D assets, which require another skillset.
The code base would also need to be converted from Java to C++ with a mountain of fixes that comes with this.

tl;dr
Too much time and effort for the benefit it brings.

[Shenji]

I like the 2D feeling. They could make PZ 2 in 3D, I'm also would like to see, in 2040.

[Orici Vintarion]

Not 3d as in first person I meant just the engine the isometric view is one of the things I love most about the game

[wawawiwa]

If you want isometric 3d zombie game, check out dead state reanimated

[Orici Vintarion]

Originally posted by 강남스타일:

If you want isometric 3d zombie game, check out dead state reanimated

Sadly that one has no depth whatsoever;)

[Orici Vintarion]

Originally posted by EnigmaGrey:

Originally posted by Sceadugengan:

It probably is possible but would take too much time.
Ther're already too many complaining about how much time NPCs take, so I doubt they'd want to wait for an engine change without any new content in the mean time.
Plus most of the game assets are 2D sprites, which would have to be redone into 3D assets, which require another skillset.
The code base would also need to be converted from Java to C++ with a mountain of fixes that comes with this.

tl;dr
Too much time and effort for the benefit it brings.

Pretty much.

It'd take a few years to port everything (it's not like we'd have to necessarily recreate everything) but it's also geared towards different kinds of games than PZ, so would likely need a ton of work to convert it to something that works with PZ. And, if we don't have sourcecode access, that'll be a pretty major nightmare that could span who-knows-how-long.

Ironically, this is sort of what happened with Age of Decadence /Dead State early. Both were really ambitious projects built in an engine that's geared towards FPSes/racing games (Torque) that required extensive changes to the engine's source code to make them play well with an isometric 3D turn-based game. Instead of making things go faster, it feels like it hurt them in the long run.

Generally, you want to avoid switching engines at all costs. Look at Bethesda, for example. Despite renaming GameBryo to Creation, they've been riding that thing since 2006. You switch, and all that expertise and knowledge is more-or-less gone vs. rolling your own or building off something appropriate to the task in the first place. So, throwing out 13 years of work on our own to learn Unreal or Unity and likely hit a wall with map streaming or multiplayer or multi-platform support or just to get scuttled by an update that requires considerable overhaul to update just isn't a practical choice.

And if we could do it again? Starting today? It'd still be a tough choice. Unreal and Unity as companies have been acting pretty weird in their competition with one another, Steam, and chasing money. Maybe Godot is the lesser of two weevils.

So If u guys ever plan to do a sequel go different ;) engine wise or make an enhanced one of the one u used in pz but thx for the answer I guess it gave me a quick look behind the curtain.

I learned something yayyyy :)