The survival MMO H1Z1 aims to encompass huge worlds with the help of new world-building tools while still looking handcrafted.
Once a week, a different developer working on H1Z1 steps out of the shadows at SOE and presents their work. This time it is Timothy Lochner, a tool and game system programmer at H1Z1: someone who deals with the technical nuances.
In H1Z1, you switch between first-person and third-person perspective
In a blog post, he explains in detail how H1Z1 wants to ensure that both first-person and third-person perspectives are synchronized. To achieve this, they needed to steer the Forgelight engine tested in Planetside 2 into unknown territory. Such synchronization was simply not necessary for PS2.
Entering this new land caused difficulties: during the perspective switch, it was noticeable in the streams that the perspectives simply did not run in sync. Lochner has since fixed the error. His last weeks were likely spent on this.
SOE has more experience with “huge” than the competition
One of the fan questions Lochner answered in the video was how H1Z1 intends to stand out from the mass of zombie games. Lochner cited the size and experience of SOE as an advantage here. After all, they have gained extensive experience with huge worlds populated by many players through Everquest, Everquest 2, Planetside 2, and DC Universe Online. Individual developers or smaller indie studios in the zombie genre often struggle with this, according to Lochner.
With the new world-building tools, it is possible through special tricks to automatically generate large landscapes that still look handcrafted. Lochner envisions a huge yet soulful world from this advantage, which he – and certainly many fans – want to dive into as soon as possible.
Still no hint about Early Access for H1Z1
This week, there is not even a crumb of indication as to when it will go into Early Access.
H1Z1 is a survival MMO from Sony Online Entertainment. It is planned to be released first for PC and later for Playstation 4. It is designed as a free-to-play game. Players have been waiting for months for an Early Access on Steam. After an initial start date was given in spring that couldn’t be met, there has been silence since then. Whether it will be ready for Early Access in November remains unknown. Fans are impatient, though they are likely slowly getting used to the situation.
https://youtu.be/F5pf_uZEplc
