DevTools QnA

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Last week, we hosted a Q&A with the team behind Developer Tools on Discord. The team of Rafał Polito, Katarzyna Klarowicz, Michał Pegza, and Wojciech Czarny answered your questions regarding the tool and the future plans for it.

Basics:

Q: What exactly are developer tools and what purpose do they serve
A: You can find all the details here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2217480/Dying_Light_2_Stay_Human_Developer_Tools/ 😀

Q: How do you get devtools?
A: Check out the playlist we have created full of video tutorials for beginners: Developer Tools Tutorial - How To Download And Open The Project (Dying Light 2 Stay Human)

Q: Can we expect full documentation on how to use specific features and generally a full playlist of tutorials?
A: Yes! We are working on preparing more tutorials.

Updates/Changes:

Q: How often will updates be released?
A: Right now, we plan to release updates as and when we can (or if they are urgently needed)! Rest assured, this is something we will be supporting as much as we can.

Q: Are there any plans to expose a public roadmap for feature additions to the tools? So that there is less ambiguity as to what we can expect from the tools in the future.
A: Given the dynamic nature of devtools and it being based on community requests, we don’t really have anything we can share as the entire roadmap could be instantly outdated after being published.

Q: When will the Dev Tools receive a full release?
A: When we are sure that everything works as expected. Unfortunately, we cannot give a specific date. 😅 However, as soon as we can share something about the full release, you will be the first to hear about it!

Q: Are Developer Tools coming to Consoles?
A: This isn’t something in our current plans. However, console gamers will be able to enjoy the maps created in devtools in the future.

Q: Will the devs make a guide specifically for the nodes in the story editor? there're many nodes that we can't figure out how to use ourselves.
A: Yes! We will prepare tutorials for the most useful nodes.

DevTools Features:

Q: Are you planning to implement a mesh categorization feature for the asset browser? This was something you could do in DL1 that made it very easy to find meshes you frequently use.
A: Yes! You can actually do it already, but it requires some hacking. You can make your own atlas just like any other prefab but in your text editor you have to add the magic line: "IsAtlas": "1". But better do this with your editor closed. In the future, we will add a more user-friendly way to do this.

Q: Instead of just making maps, Would you consider adding a cutscene feature for story creation, etc?
A: We have already added a cutscene creation feature. 🙂

Q: What limitations are there to Devtool as in if there is a specific amount you can put into it like a memory limit?
A: We will add some indicators to show those limits. It's hard to say because it depends on used objects, map complexity, etc.

New features/options:

Q: Will we get a city builder?
A: Unfortunately, we have to exclude the city builder from devtools. It’s just too complex and has too many dependencies (for example, with Jenkins and pipelines that require a lot of resources to build a whole map and generate content).

Q: Are you planning to make a way for us to create content that can be implemented directly into the base game?
A: We don’t have plans to add the possibility of integration into the campaign.

Q: Are you planning to implement save games for custom maps? This was a big stickler in the DL1 dev tools, as it makes it very difficult to create long-running maps if the player needs to restart each time they jump in.
A: At the moment, no. But it’s not impossible that this will change sometime in the future.

Q: Are you planning to implement external resources importing tools? For things such as: meshes, audio, textures, etc.
A: It depends because, for example with audio, there are licenses, and it's not always easy to share such things. Meshes - we have that in our backlog. 😉

Q: Are you planning to implement tools to allow map/mod makers to replace/remove HUD elements?
A; You can already change the HUD in the game.

Q: Are you planning to integrate with mod.io to support the sharing of prefabs? It would be really nice if we could share our prefabs as a community without the overhead of having to download a map and pull them out.
A: Nice idea, we will see. 😉

Q: Can we get an option for having 4+ Coop players up to 8 if possible? So we can make minigames? (bad blood)
A: Currently, the maximum number of players in a game is 4 and we don’t see that changing.

Other questions:

Q: Are you planning to expose an API for us to write custom tools functionality and plugins?
A: Unfortunately, we don’t have any plans for this.

Q: Are you guys open to using devtool-created stuff in a DLC? like a community-made DLC?
A: Maps/campaigns created in devtools are available for all users, so they can be treated as "unofficial" DLC. We do not plan to steal users' content and pretend that we made it. Take all the credit for your hard work! 😀

Q: Can we lock our projects so people don't steal from each other and claim the ideas for their own?
A: One of the available report types on the mod.io platform is "Stolen content", so right now it's being handled by users and moderators.

Q: Any plans on having a steam workshop?
A: mod.io is a cross-platform UGC solution, supporting 11 game systems and stores. We are launching with PC support, which includes our Steam and Epic Games player bases. Console versions with in-game integration will follow later this year, and partnering with mod.io ensures we can provide official mod support for all Dying Light 2 Stay Human players, regardless of platform or store preference.

Q: Will we get tools that can help us analyze and optimize resource usage such as memory, CPU, and GPU utilization? Could be useful in order to properly optimize for console
A: Consoles? Who said that? 😄 We have tools for that! 😉

Q: And relating to my previous question, how can we work on optimizing our maps to work properly on the console if we do not own the game on the console?
A: We are developing Techland games for consoles and PCs, and we have some indicators in our editor. 😉

Q: Do you plan to give us the Villedor map in devtools to be used and tested?
A: The example town.map is the only map that we have created in devtools. Now, the stage is yours.

Features you asked about that our team has in our backlogs:

• A LOD system for us to either generate LODs in the tools or modify the LODs of existing objects to improve the performance on custom maps.
  
• A tool / Provide fine-tuned control over performance features? Such as control over render distance, LOD distance switchover, etc.
  
• Importing own assets
  
• Multiplayer
  
• Mini-dev menu in order to test things directly on our map without rebooting the game 100x times to see changes (dev menu)
  
• Character/model pose editing tool
  
• Access to Bloody Ties assets (and later DLC2 assets)
  
• More sorted atlases for certain stuff

We can’t really provide any further details or a roadmap for those listed options, but we do have them in future plans and updates.

Features we cannot implement/add to the tools for various reasons:

• Telemetry data from maps
  
• Adding game tutorials/interactive tooltips
  
• Change my character's outfit into a different one for my custom map without using preset levels
  
• Expanding the Story nodes in a way that can allow us to create loop missions or missions that can have randomness to a mission
  
• Modifying base game maps

[Format_Mensch.exe]

Dear Techland,

my friend and I experience the same immersion breaking problems:

a.) Desync for my teammate joined my party
b.) every ramp / roof triggers sliding and makes every fight near them so frustrating


Please fix that soon1

[ƒ(x)=0∫t - [H9RR9R]]

I have loads of meshes that say "no mesh" and are empty. Is this normal?
Additionally, you mentioned importing but not exporting.
I think it would be great to add this function to DT1 and DT2 because it is very likely that in a few years, you might release a new DL and another DT (and DT1 is not compatible with DT2). At least this way we could export prefabs and import it back into new versions.
I ask this as my previous project has more than 1,000 hours and it would be lovely to continue it in DL2.