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The Fun Pimps have released a new experimental build of their survival game 7 Days to Die, with it some new options you can tweak to get a much better experience.

It's no secret that 7 Days has been a bit of a system hog, it hasn't historically performed well but they're finally making progress on that front. With the "Alpha 17.4 Experimental B4" release put out a few days ago, it now allows you to disable SS Reflections and that one single option makes it perform much nicer while off (and it still looks good).

Doing my own tests, turning it off gives an instant boost of 10-20FPS depending on where you are and what you're looking at. Times where it would often dip down hard to 40FPS and below, are now mostly for me sitting around 55-60FPS and the way the game feels is a huge amount smoother. Thanks to that, I've been able to give it a run on High settings and have a very smooth ride.

This experimental release also adds in the ability to let you turn off Bloom, a new Medium shadow distance option with Low reduced to faster values, an Ultra graphics preset along with Medium and High seeing adjustments, trader opening times should be fixed and an Automove console command. They've also fixed numerous bugs as well like a nasty memory leak causing crashes, explosion kills not giving XP, Molotov burning kills only giving XP for the first enemy and so on.

As for the next major version of 7 Days, Alpha 18, they've already confirmed a lot of new content is coming. There's going to be a bunch of new weapons like the M60 Heavy Machine Gun, Double Barrel Shotgun, C4, Taser Baton, a Junk Turret and more. We're also going to see higher resolution item icons, new desert textures and terrain, a dynamic music system, an overhaul to the Book system to permanently unlock perks and loads more.

It sounds like both 7 Days to Die Alpha 17.4 and Alpha 18 are going to be some great steps forward for this survival game. Hope to see even more focus on the performance during the Alpha 18 development cycle, still plenty of areas that do need improving.

You can find your own copy of 7 Days to Die on Humble Store and Steam. If you wish to try the current experimental, it's an opt-in beta on Steam, no password needed.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Liam Dawe May 27, 2019
Quoting: GuestIn order to keep constantly above 60fps (~80+) in general I need to run the Windows build through proton because the Linux build is lagging massive performance optimizations o.o I would not call it "running nicely"
My testing was done on the latest experimental, and as said, for me it does run nicely with the noted tweak.

"Nicely" is subjective of course, like any time I talk about my own experience with something. In this case, I stand by what I said with it set on "High", with one thing turned off keeping me mostly at 60FPS - that is nice to me.


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 27 May 2019 at 2:46 pm UTC
stud68 May 27, 2019
Vulkan still not working yet, for myself at least.
I get a pink and black world.
scaine May 27, 2019
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Quoting: stud68Vulkan still not working yet, for myself at least.
I get a pink and black world.

Yep, their Vulkan build is still borked on Linux. No idea what the issue is, but it's pink and black for me too, although weirdly, the toolbar and compass/map display over it perfectly. Presumably some kind of shader-related weirdness.

I can also confirm that this ss setting punts my performance back into the 65-100fps bracket on my 1080. Before, it was typically in the 45-75 region. And apart from an ever-so-slightly brighter world, I couldn't see what turning off ss actually did!

Loving A17.4 right now - such a lot of fun once you get to grips with how many houses are now absolute death traps! :)
stud68 May 27, 2019
Just tested for an hour and now I can play on Ultra preset smoothly at 50fps.
Call me impressed. Last build 30fps of stuttering mess.
All on my ageing Fx8350 and 290x.
gabber May 27, 2019
Does the ded. server run on linux now ?
WorMzy May 27, 2019
Quoting: gabberDoes the ded. server run on linux now ?

It used to, I haven't run it in a while though.
monnef May 28, 2019
I run most games at low-mid setting with 60 or more FPS (e.g. Overwatch). But not 7dtd, it was awful. On lowest settings 30-40 with common drops to much lower numbers. I really hope they fixed this now, because I don't consider unstable 30FPS being playable (same issue with Grim Dawn).
Alloc May 28, 2019
Quoting: GuestI tried telling the Fun Pimps about this but didn't hear back. Please everyone tell them so that they can make sure this issue which looks seemingly easy to fix is on the roadmap and gets fixed.
If it was that easy to fix it would have been fixed by now ;)
(More precisely it would have never been an issue, I wanted Vulkan to be fully supported from the start on with A17, but I'm not a shader guy :( )


Last edited by Alloc on 28 May 2019 at 8:53 am UTC
Nanobang May 28, 2019
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My favorite changes to 7d2d have been less about graphics and more about game options and play.

I love that I can now make it harder for the Zs to damage materials ... they're rotting flesh, after all ;). It doesn't even have to be 7d2d; it can be 14d2d or even 30d2d, allowing the game to go from a primarily-horde-survival-with-a-little-bit-of-exploration game to a primarily-exploration-with-a-little-bit-of-horde-survival game. Oh, and I can slow the Zs down to be walking dead, individually not too dangerous to the wary, but it's easy to get swarmed.

The progressive skill system is welcome too. I haven't played since, like, alpha 10 I think, so it's a waaayyy different and waaayyyyy better experience now.

And vehicles. Vrrrrooooommmm!


Last edited by Nanobang on 29 May 2019 at 10:04 am UTC
scaine May 28, 2019
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Quoting: NanobangMy favorite changes to 7d2d have been less about graphics and more about game options and play.

I love that I can now make it harder for the Zs to damage materials ... they're rotting flesh, after all ;). It doesn't even have to be 7d2d; it can be 14d2d or even 30d2d, allowing the game to go from a primarily-horde-survival-with-a-little-bit-of-exploration game to a primarily-horde-survival-with-a-little-bit-of-exploration game. Oh, and I can slow the Zs down to be walking dead, individually not too dangerous to the wary, but it's easy to get swarmed.

The progressive skill system is welcome too. I haven't played since, like, alpha 10 I think, so it's a waaayyy different and waaayyyyy better experience now.

And vehicles. Vrrrrooooommmm!

I think you misquoted your little-bit thing there... aren't they both the same? Either way, since almost every house will try to kill you with Zeds exploding from cupboards, false floors and collapsing stairs, exploration takes absolute balls of steel.

Great game though. Loving the look and feel of A17 and with A18 adding in so much content, I'm excited to see what the finished game will look like.
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