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The Big Dying Light 2 Q&A – Techland Opens Up on C-Engine Tech, Delays, Game Length & Much More

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

After a long silence, we can offer a lengthy interview with the game's developers as they go over pretty much every aspect of the game, from the technology used to build Dying Light 2 to the open world itself, from the RPG elements to the game length, and more still. Enjoy!

What are the main technical improvements of the C-Engine over Dying Light's Chrome Engine 6?

Tomasz Szałkowski, Rendering Director:
From my perspective, it is support for the new generation of consoles. And new technologies like ray tracing. Also worth mentioning are the very extensive AI systems compared to CE6 and many other game systems. Everything is held together by the new component-based welding system. We also have a new game world editor. C-Engine makes even better use of multi-core processors.

Łukasz Burdka, Senior Technology Programmer: We’ve upgraded almost every core system of the engine. The new Game Components system allows us to pack a magnitude of objects into the levels. The World Streaming technology lets players explore our vast city without loading screens. We’ve upgraded our physics engine to the Bullet Physics featured in some of the most popular open world blockbusters. The brand-new animation and facial expressions system allow us to present lifelike characters. Thanks to the new Artificial Intelligence system, they not only look but also behave realistically. The Audio system has been upgraded to WWise, which led to more immersive sound design and support for interactive music. The new Story System allows for branching narratives and large-scale changes in the world that players can shape through their choices.

How many Infected can be displayed at once in Dying Light 2? Will there be veritable hordes, like in Days Gone, for example?

Andrzej Płaczek, Game Engine Director:
We have a different opponent design than in Days Gone. Our AI has more diverse and complex behaviours, and their distribution is also different. Thanks to the new Crowd system, we can display more infected than in DL1, and by using a more extensive LOD system, we have also increased the number of simulated AI.

A recent report mentioned that the C-Engine's complexity of use was partly to blame for the game's delays. Can you comment on this?

Łukasz:
The transition to C-Engine overlapped with the pre-production stage of Dying Light 2. These changes were unavoidable in order to create the detailed world of Dying Light 2. Our developers needed time to adapt to the technology, and our Engine department needed time to improve the user experience of the new editor. The early stage of C-Engine’s deployment was a difficult period for our production, but it was necessary to fulfill the ambitions of Dying Light 2.

You previously confirmed ray tracing (and NVIDIA DLSS) for the PC version of Dying Light 2. Which effects will be ray traced, specifically? Do you plan to use any other DirectX 12 Ultimate features (VRS, Mesh Shaders, Sampler Feedback) in Dying Light 2?

Tomasz:
All the effects mentioned, i.e., shadows, AO, and light reflections, e.g., from the player's flashlight. We're also experimenting with Nvidia to expand the effects base.

Ray tracing is a great technology. We are exploring new possibilities related to DX12 Ultimate, such as VRS. Mesh shaders are rather a matter for the next project. DL2 will continue to be developed for a long time, so the results of our research will also be visible after the game's release if they significantly affect the quality of the game.

Will Dying Light 2 feature a '60 FPS' or 'Performance' mode option on XSX and PS5? Also, will there be a mode that supports ray tracing on these next-gen consoles?

Tomasz:
Yes. We plan to allow you to choose: Quality (including ray tracing), Performance (60+ FPS), and 4K. As we are working hard on performance, I cannot provide more details at this point. We try to cram as much as possible onto the next- gens.

Check the link for more
 
NO GUNS?! WHAT???
Eh. In my opinion, the guns in Dying light weren't particularly fun, nor did they make the gameplay more interesting/engaging even when using them against human enemies.

On the other hand, It would be a really odd decision to omit guns in an open world zombie game. Also, trying to explain the lack of guns will be difficult when this game boasts larger, more organized groups than the previous Dying light.
 
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