Apr 7, 2017

Z1 Battle Royale - Greg

Our latest content update is now LIVE! This update is the result of our new product development process and is the first of many updates designed to rapidly improve the overall quality of the game. It contains many great improvements - including a new HUD for vehicles, new team follow camera, and hit feedback changes - and we are excited to share them with everyone. We’d like to thank all the players who participated in the testing process. Your feedback and participation will always be important to the overall quality of the game!

Team Follow Cam and Grouping

Team Follow Camera and the associated UI changes allow you to stay in the match (2s and 5s) if you die before your teammates to see how the match plays out. The UI gives you information on your team and allows you to switch between different teammates to watch. We also applied consistent colors to your teammates’ names in the HUD and their individual outlines to make it easier to know who is who - no more jumping up and down to let someone know who you are!

A new element was added to the HUD to indicate how many teams are remaining in the game along with the number of individual players. Grouping has also been reconfigured; you can now get your team together in the Main Menu.

Service Improvements

Early game lag had some side effects of not being able to interact with objects, or in severe cases, falling through the world. This should be much improved with this update. This can be a difficult problem to solve because there are so many variables that impact each individual’s connection to our servers, but we believe the added safeguards will significantly improve this.

On the hardware side of things, our North America East Coast servers are now live and operating. Region selection has been moved to the character select screen, so please ensure that you are selecting the best region for your location. Both East Coast and West Coast servers in North America all feed into the same Leaderboard.

This update also includes region locking changes, which are now part of the character select screen. If you have a poor connection to a region, you will see it turn red. If you have an unacceptable connection to a region, you will see it completely locked. If you have a poor connection to all regions, you will still be allowed to play on your home region, which is determined by your location. In order to improve gameplay and server performance for all players, we will slowly be decreasing the acceptable threshold to be able to connect to a server. With this update, it will be pretty generous, but we will incrementally turn down the threshold to our desired threshold of 150ms.

Vehicle Changes

To help reduce the number of vehicles at the end of a game, we’ve tweaked performance so that vehicles degrade over time. We’ve updated the HUD with a new vehicle health meter that will change colors based on the current condition to help communicate this. Green is good, red is bad. Warning lights will appear if you need gas or something isn’t working well. We also had tested a solution that prevented players from existing vehicles above a certain speed but found it really didn’t improve the endgame, so we are still exploring other solutions.

Hot wiring is now a little easier. If you get in a vehicle without keys, you can now hold whatever key you mapped to forward and you will see the hotwire operation start. Just keep the key held down through the duration of the timer. Lastly, vehicle parts can be removed with a drag and drop instead of being restricted to a right-click operation.

The Magnum was a bit too powerful against vehicles, especially in team games, so we’ve slowed down the Magnum bullets beyond 60 yards and increased the drop rate at 80 yards. Magnums will be just as effective at close range, but it will be more difficult to shoot players and vehicles at long distances.

Hit Feedback Changes

We updated the effects and sounds to make it a lot more obvious when you are hitting armor vs. flesh vs. vehicle. This should make it a lot more obvious when you are on target, or when your armor pops off in the middle of a gunfight. Based on player feedback while on Test, we added an option that will give you the “classic” hit marker (the small x) but updated with the new colors to indicate what you are hitting. This option will also disable the sound effects when hitting a vehicle.

Some players have also requested reticle changes, so we turned the existing square reticle into a dot reticle. The bug that tied hit feedback audio to the UI audio slider has been fixed. It has been moved to the game audio slider, so you can balance it as part of the overall game audio.

The Arena

We made a number of changes and improvements to The Arena, which included:

Cleaned up floating objects and objects penetrating other objects.
Fixed ability to pick up objects off of other objects.
Updated each ammo type to be distinct and easy to see on a quick visual scan of the environment.
Updated some collision volumes to help with vehicles randomly exploding when least expected.
Made optimizations to the residential areas: Some homes are boarded up completely, while others have their windows boarded up; house layouts have been tweaked to make them easier to navigate.
Tweaked office building layouts to make navigation easier while moving through them.
Made optimizations to Ranchito and Pleasant Valley to increase framerate in those cities.

If you continue to experience any of these issues, please let us know by sending us a video or a screenshot so we can track it down and fix it.

Bug Fixes

We fixed a number of bugs with this Content Update, which included:

Removed the ability to instantly go prone by side-stepping
Removed the ability to switch seats in a vehicle while hotwiring
Removed the ability to switch seats in a vehicle while moving
Fixed an exploit that would allow players to shoot behind them using alt-look
Switching to ADS while strafing from free look will no longer make you lose mouse input
Fixed the smoke grenades so that they do not render out while in gas
Aligned the range of the gas grenades visual effect and its damage
Fixed a rare case that could cause vehicle horns to get stuck on
Synced up the AK-47 reload animation with the actual reload timing
Fixed an issue where shift-dragging items could double the amount requested
Numpad 0 will no longer act like “enter” when splitting stacks of items
Laminated Armor will correctly show damaged state when in the Inventory
Teammate health will be updated reliably even when at long range

We are really excited about this update and look forward to your feedback. H1Z1: King of the Kill’s speed, tension, and fun will continue to get better and better with each update. Expect to see the next one on Test soon!

Apr 7, 2017

Producer's Letter 4/7

Z1 Battle Royale - Halo117

Team Follow Cam and Grouping

Service Improvements

Vehicle Changes

Hit Feedback Changes

The Arena

We made a number of changes and improvements to The Arena, which included:

Cleaned up floating objects and objects penetrating other objects.
Fixed ability to pick up objects off of other objects.
Updated each ammo type to be distinct and easy to see on a quick visual scan of the environment.
Updated some collision volumes to help with vehicles randomly exploding when least expected.
Made optimizations to the residential areas: Some homes are boarded up completely, while others have their windows boarded up; house layouts have been tweaked to make them easier to navigate.
Tweaked office building layouts to make navigation easier while moving through them.
Made optimizations to Ranchito and Pleasant Valley to increase framerate in those cities.

If you continue to experience any of these issues, please let us know by sending us a video or a screenshot so we can track it down and fix it.

Bug Fixes

We fixed a number of bugs with this Content Update, which included:

Removed the ability to instantly go prone by side-stepping
Removed the ability to switch seats in a vehicle while hotwiring
Removed the ability to switch seats in a vehicle while moving
Fixed an exploit that would allow players to shoot behind them using alt-look
Switching to ADS while strafing from free look will no longer make you lose mouse input
Fixed the smoke grenades so that they do not render out while in gas
Aligned the range of the gas grenades visual effect and its damage
Fixed a rare case that could cause vehicle horns to get stuck on
Synced up the AK-47 reload animation with the actual reload timing
Fixed an issue where shift-dragging items could double the amount requested
Numpad 0 will no longer act like “enter” when splitting stacks of items
Laminated Armor will correctly show damaged state when in the Inventory
Teammate health will be updated reliably even when at long range

Apr 7, 2017

King of the Kill update adds team spectate cam, tweaks hit feedback, and nerfs Magnum

Z1 Battle Royale

After taking servers down for a few hours Thursday, Daybreak's popular battle royale shooter H1Z1: King of the Kill came roaring back with a meaty update. Many of the changes focus on team-based play—in particular, a nice new spectate mode has been added that allows you to watch your teammates finish the match after you've been killed. I played a few team matches last night, and since I spend most of my time dead because I suck, I have to say the new spectate cam is pretty great.

There were changes to the team HUD as well. At a glance, you can get information on your teammates to tell if they're re wearing helmets and armor and which weapon they have equipped. Each team member is also now outlined in a different color.

New KotK East Coast servers have been added for North America, and players are now restricted from playing on servers "where your ping exceeds acceptable thresholds."

Hit feedback has been tweaked, with color-coded hit-markers "and new animations to help differentiate different impact types such as hitting or breaking armor versus body shots." (If you don't care for them, you can switch to classic hit-markers in your settings.) And, the Magnum, which was perhaps a bit too powerful—"particularly against vehicles in team games where a group of players with magnums can bring down a vehicle in seconds from hundreds of meters away"—has been re-tuned for greater bullet slowdown and an increased bullet drop rate beyond 80 yards.

Below, check out the full patch notes. You can also read the Producer's Letter about the changes here.

New feature: Team follow cam

In Duos and Fives, once eliminated there is now an option to “Spectate” to watch your teammates play out the rest of the match.
Pressing Camera Toggle View (default: T) will swap between locked to players POV and free cam (still locked to character).
New In-Game Group HUD has been added to Duos and Fives to provide more information on your team, such as weapon equipped and whether they have a helmet.
Team members now all have unique outline colors which match their color in the Group HUD.
Teams Remaining will now display next to Players Remaining in Duos and Fives
On the Main Menu, the new Lobby allows you to invite friends from anywhere in the UI.

Region connection test

Selecting your region now happens upon initial login rather than in the Main Menu.
Region select will indicate your connection quality to each region, and you will not be allowed to play in a region where your ping exceeds acceptable thresholds.
We’ve added new East Coast Servers in North America.

Vehicle updates

Vehicles now lose performance as they take damage.
50% health – 50% torque reduction
35% health – loss of turbo functionality
20% health – 75% torque reduction, vehicle takes damage over time
10% health – 90% torque reduction, vehicle takes increased damage over time
Vehicle health states as well as lost functionality are now displayed in an all-new HUD element.
Vehicles can now be hotwired by holding the Gas button (default: W). This addresses a known exploit where players could change seats while hotwiring.
Items in the Vehicle Inventory (e.g. Sparkplugs) can now be moved via drag and drop.

New hit feedback

Incoming and outgoing hit-markers have been updated with colors and new animations to help differentiate different impact types such as hitting or breaking armor versus body shots.
Red – Body
Yellow – Armor or Helmet
White – Vehicle
Green – Friendly Fire
New animations and sound effects have been added to better indicate when armor and helmets have been broken.
You can use the classic hit-markers (with new colors) via Settings -> Use Classic Hit Feedback.

The Arena

Optimized Pleasant Valley, Ranchito, and all residential areas for improved performance.
Some homes have been boarded up, which is made clear when parachuting when you look at the yard. Green grass means loot!
Interior layouts have been improved to make them easier to navigate.
Zimms has a new storefront and interior layout that will improve performance and navigation.
There should be far fewer floating or clipping objects, or objects that prevent looting.
Smoothed out the collision of many objects and structures in the world that could cause vehicles to unexpectedly explode when running into them.
Wheelbarrows and gravestones are now destructible.

Magnum tuning

The following changes should make the Magnum a bit more difficult to use at higher distances, without compromising its effectiveness at close range or overall damage.

Magnum bullet slowdown will now occur over 60 yards
Magnum bullet drop rate has been increased after 80 yards

Quality of life updates

Ammunition boxes, gas grenades, and smoke grenades have new, unique models to be more easily distinguishable at a glance.
Hit feedback audio is now tied to sound effects volume instead of interface volume.
Balanced out the sound effects in the Main Menu.
Rounded out the edges of the “dot” reticle.

Bug fixes

Fixed an issue that could cause players to fall through the world and get stuck when dismounting their parachute.
Removed the ability to instantly go prone by side-stepping.
Removed the ability to switch seats in a vehicle while hotwiring.
Removed the ability to switch seats in a vehicle while moving.
Fixed an issue where players could exit vehicles, particularly at high speeds, at inconsistent locations. The location where players exit should be much more consistent now.
Fixed an exploit that would allow players to shoot behind them using alt-look.
Switching to ADS while strafing from free look will no longer make you lose mouse input.
Aligned the range of the gas grenades visual effect and its damage.
Fixed a rare case that could cause vehicle horns to get stuck on.
Synced up the AK-47 reload animation with the actual reload timing.
Fixed an issue where shift-dragging items could double the amount requested.
Numpad 0 will no longer act like “enter” when splitting stacks of items.
Laminated Armor will correctly show damaged state when in the Inventory.
Teammate health will be updated reliably even when at long range.
Cleaned up several issues that could cause the client or UI to become unresponsive when using Alt+Tab or Alt+Enter.
Victory music should correctly play after winning the match.
Removed durability from weapons.
Nightmare Mask should now correctly show in your Steam inventory.

Known issues

In team games, the winner may see incorrect information on their end-screens if all their teammates have exited the match.
The “Kill Count” field in the UI doesn’t count kills that occur when your target bleeds out after you die. You should still get credit (XP, Score) for the kill, however.
Field bandages currently do not have an aura attractor while on the ground.
The Twitch link account button can lose functionality if the user cancels authorization or closes the web page. Backing out of the screen and back in will fix this issue.
The Gas Grenade’s visual effects will carry over into the spectate mode if the user dies while under gas grenade effects.
The Spectate cam may become less smooth if the client spectating has a high (above 100) ping.
Going from Training to a team match may cause the Team HUD UI to disappear. Re-logging with fix this issue.
Smoke grenades will render out while in gas.

Apr 5, 2017

Game Update 4/6 Team Follow Camera & More!

Z1 Battle Royale - Greg

New Feature: Team Follow Cam

In Duos and Fives, once eliminated there is now an option to “Spectate” to watch your teammates play out the rest of the match.
Pressing Camera Toggle View (default: T) will swap between locked to players POV and free cam (still locked to character).
New In-Game Group HUD has been added to Duos and Fives to provide more information on your team, such as weapon equipped and whether they have a helmet.
Team members now all have unique outline colors which match their color in the Group HUD.
Teams Remaining will now display next to Players Remaining in Duos and Fives
On the Main Menu, the new Lobby allows you to invite friends from anywhere in the UI.

Region Connection Test

Selecting your region now happens upon initial login rather than in the Main Menu.
Region select will indicate your connection quality to each region, and you will not be allowed to play in a region where your ping exceeds acceptable thresholds.
We’ve added new East Coast Servers in North America.

Vehicle Updates

Vehicles now lose performance as they take damage.

50% health – 50% torque reduction
35% health – loss of turbo functionality
20% health – 75% torque reduction, vehicle takes damage over time
10% health – 90% torque reduction, vehicle takes increased damage over time

Vehicle health states as well as lost functionality are now displayed in an all-new HUD element.

Vehicles can now be hotwired by holding the Gas button (default: W). This addresses a known exploit where players could change seats while hotwiring.

Items in the Vehicle Inventory (e.g. Sparkplugs) can now be moved via drag and drop.

New Hit Feedback

Incoming and outgoing hit-markers have been updated with colors and new animations to help differentiate different impact types such as hitting or breaking armor versus body shots.

Red – Body
Yellow – Armor or Helmet
White – Vehicle
Green – Friendly Fire

New animations and sound effects have been added to better indicate when armor and helmets have been broken.

You can use the classic hit-markers (with new colors) via Settings -> Use Classic Hit Feedback.

The Arena

Optimized Pleasant Valley, Ranchito, and all residential areas for improved performance.
Some homes have been boarded up, which is made clear when parachuting when you look at the yard. Green grass means loot!
Interior layouts have been improved to make them easier to navigate.
Zimms has a new storefront and interior layout that will improve performance and navigation.
There should be far fewer floating or clipping objects, or objects that prevent looting.
Smoothed out the collision of many objects and structures in the world that could cause vehicles to unexpectedly explode when running into them.
Wheelbarrows and gravestones are now destructible.

Magnum Tuning

The Magnum is a bit too powerful at long range right now, particularly against vehicles in team games where a group of players with magnums can bring down a vehicle in seconds from hundreds of meters away. The following changes should make the Magnum a bit more difficult to use at higher distances, without compromising its effectiveness at close range or overall damage.

Magnum bullet slowdown will now occur over 60 yards
Magnum bullet drop rate has been increased after 80 yards

Quality of Life Updates

Ammunition boxes, gas grenades, and smoke grenades have new, unique models to be more easily distinguishable at a glance.
Hit feedback audio is now tied to sound effects volume instead of interface volume.
Balanced out the sound effects in the Main Menu.
Rounded out the edges of the “dot” reticle.

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue that could cause players to fall through the world and get stuck when dismounting their parachute.
Removed the ability to instantly go prone by side-stepping.
Removed the ability to switch seats in a vehicle while hotwiring.
Removed the ability to switch seats in a vehicle while moving.
Fixed an issue where players could exit vehicles, particularly at high speeds, at inconsistent locations. The location where players exit should be much more consistent now.
Fixed an exploit that would allow players to shoot behind them using alt-look.
Switching to ADS while strafing from free look will no longer make you lose mouse input.
Fixed the smoke grenades so that they do not render out while in gas.
Aligned the range of the gas grenades visual effect and its damage.
Fixed a rare case that could cause vehicle horns to get stuck on.
Synced up the AK-47 reload animation with the actual reload timing.
Fixed an issue where shift-dragging items could double the amount requested.
Numpad 0 will no longer act like “enter” when splitting stacks of items.
Laminated Armor will correctly show damaged state when in the Inventory.
Teammate health will be updated reliably even when at long range.
Cleaned up several issues that could cause the client or UI to become unresponsive when using Alt+Tab or Alt+Enter.
Victory music should correctly play after winning the match.
Removed durability from weapons.
Nightmare Mask should now correctly show in your Steam inventory.

Known issues:

In team games, the winner may see incorrect information on their end-screens if all their teammates have exited the match.
The “Kill Count” field in the UI doesn’t count kills that occur when your target bleeds out after you die. You should still get credit (XP, Score) for the kill, however.
Field bandages currently do not have an aura attractor while on the ground.
The Twitch link account button can lose functionality if the user cancels authorization or closes the web page. Backing out of the screen and back in will fix this issue.
The Gas Grenade’s visual effects will carry over into the spectate mode if the user dies while under gas grenade effects.
The Spectate cam may become less smooth if the client spectating has a high (above 100) ping.
Going from Training to a team match may cause the Team HUD UI to disappear. Re-logging with fix this issue.

Apr 5, 2017

Game Update 4/6 Team Follow Camera & More!

Z1 Battle Royale - Halo117

New Feature: Team Follow Cam

In Duos and Fives, once eliminated there is now an option to “Spectate” to watch your teammates play out the rest of the match.
Pressing Camera Toggle View (default: T) will swap between locked to players POV and free cam (still locked to character).
New In-Game Group HUD has been added to Duos and Fives to provide more information on your team, such as weapon equipped and whether they have a helmet.
Team members now all have unique outline colors which match their color in the Group HUD.
Teams Remaining will now display next to Players Remaining in Duos and Fives
On the Main Menu, the new Lobby allows you to invite friends from anywhere in the UI.

Region Connection Test

Selecting your region now happens upon initial login rather than in the Main Menu.
Region select will indicate your connection quality to each region, and you will not be allowed to play in a region where your ping exceeds acceptable thresholds.
We’ve added new East Coast Servers in North America.

Vehicle Updates

Vehicles now lose performance as they take damage.

50% health – 50% torque reduction
35% health – loss of turbo functionality
20% health – 75% torque reduction, vehicle takes damage over time
10% health – 90% torque reduction, vehicle takes increased damage over time

New Hit Feedback

Incoming and outgoing hit-markers have been updated with colors and new animations to help differentiate different impact types such as hitting or breaking armor versus body shots.

Red – Body
Yellow – Armor or Helmet
White – Vehicle
Green – Friendly Fire

The Arena

Optimized Pleasant Valley, Ranchito, and all residential areas for improved performance.
Some homes have been boarded up, which is made clear when parachuting when you look at the yard. Green grass means loot!
Interior layouts have been improved to make them easier to navigate.
Zimms has a new storefront and interior layout that will improve performance and navigation.
There should be far fewer floating or clipping objects, or objects that prevent looting.
Smoothed out the collision of many objects and structures in the world that could cause vehicles to unexpectedly explode when running into them.
Wheelbarrows and gravestones are now destructible.

Magnum Tuning

Magnum bullet slowdown will now occur over 60 yards
Magnum bullet drop rate has been increased after 80 yards

Quality of Life Updates

Ammunition boxes, gas grenades, and smoke grenades have new, unique models to be more easily distinguishable at a glance.
Hit feedback audio is now tied to sound effects volume instead of interface volume.
Balanced out the sound effects in the Main Menu.
Rounded out the edges of the “dot” reticle.

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue that could cause players to fall through the world and get stuck when dismounting their parachute.
Removed the ability to instantly go prone by side-stepping.
Removed the ability to switch seats in a vehicle while hotwiring.
Removed the ability to switch seats in a vehicle while moving.
Fixed an issue where players could exit vehicles, particularly at high speeds, at inconsistent locations. The location where players exit should be much more consistent now.
Fixed an exploit that would allow players to shoot behind them using alt-look.
Switching to ADS while strafing from free look will no longer make you lose mouse input.
Fixed the smoke grenades so that they do not render out while in gas.
Aligned the range of the gas grenades visual effect and its damage.
Fixed a rare case that could cause vehicle horns to get stuck on.
Synced up the AK-47 reload animation with the actual reload timing.
Fixed an issue where shift-dragging items could double the amount requested.
Numpad 0 will no longer act like “enter” when splitting stacks of items.
Laminated Armor will correctly show damaged state when in the Inventory.
Teammate health will be updated reliably even when at long range.
Cleaned up several issues that could cause the client or UI to become unresponsive when using Alt+Tab or Alt+Enter.
Victory music should correctly play after winning the match.
Removed durability from weapons.
Nightmare Mask should now correctly show in your Steam inventory.

Known issues:

In team games, the winner may see incorrect information on their end-screens if all their teammates have exited the match.
The “Kill Count” field in the UI doesn’t count kills that occur when your target bleeds out after you die. You should still get credit (XP, Score) for the kill, however.
Field bandages currently do not have an aura attractor while on the ground.
The Twitch link account button can lose functionality if the user cancels authorization or closes the web page. Backing out of the screen and back in will fix this issue.
The Gas Grenade’s visual effects will carry over into the spectate mode if the user dies while under gas grenade effects.
The Spectate cam may become less smooth if the client spectating has a high (above 100) ping.
Going from Training to a team match may cause the Team HUD UI to disappear. Re-logging with fix this issue.

Mar 29, 2017

Q&A with 3D Artist Ryan Zimmerman

Z1 Battle Royale - Greg

Ryan Zimmerman, Sr. Artist

How many hours does a mask like this take to create?

It really depends on the complexity of the mask, and whether or not I’m coming up with the concept. These particular masks were developed late night, and the results of coming off of serious H1Z1 binges, which gets my creative juices flowing from the player’s perspective. Most of these masks took about a week to model and a few days to texture.

What do you do outside of work hours to keep your skills sharp?

I tend to have a few side projects in the works at all times and that helps, but overall I would say that you need to keep learning. Watching videos tutorials and demos of emergent tools is a good way to see what you may be missing from your workflow. The industry and tools are rapidly changing so continued growth and openness to change is a must.

Where do you get your inspirations from?

Pure, unadulterated gameplay. When playing H1Z1, I think about the kind of character I’d want to be and I ask the people I play with regularly what they’d like to see in the game. So, I create masks to help give life to a certain persona. Once I come up with an idea, I seek reference images and develop a concept that leverages what I like best, and then I start modeling.

What are your favorite H1Z1 items you’ve created so far?

The Scarecrow and Ape Masks are my personal favorites. The Scarecrow portrays a more sinister character, and the Ape Mask represents cool and confidence. The Patriotic AR is by far my favorite gun. It’s kinda flashy and I’m not gonna lie, I feel powerful wielding the Patriotic AR. I also love the Anarchy Pants. These are all my go-to items. I’m always wearing one of these while playing H1Z1.

What tools do you use to create these 3D models?

All of my modeling is done in Maya and ZBrush, and texturing is done in Photoshop or Quixel.

When did you first start getting interested in creating these types of models?

H1Z1 provides the perfect landscape for character customization, and as a player, I know I like to stand out and personify myself in game. Masks are the easiest way to do this. Because of the camera placement, your head is in constant view. The characters are like paper dolls, and giving players the ability to make them uniquely their own lends to their experience and ability to brand themselves in the game.

What other games impress you with their 3D models?

Games like The Last of Us are incredible and beautifully done, but coming from the era of Pong to today’s contemporary games, it’s all pretty mind blowing. But to be honest, as a player, what draws me to a game is good gameplay. Aesthetics are important, but what makes a game fun and addictive is a solid foundation in design.

Can you recommend any books or programs if someone wants to get started?

To model, learning Maya and ZBrush are essential. The programs are not cheap, but there are so many great tutorials and online courses to help people become proficient. YouTube can be a great resource!

How long have you been with Daybreak?

I’ve been at Daybreak (formerly Sony Online Entertainment) most of my 17 years in the industry.

What other games have you worked on in the past?

PlanetSide 2, DC Universe Online, Free Realms, EverQuest 2, Vanguard and EverQuest.

You’re known for your masks; do you have any other types of items you love to create?

Of all the things I made in H1Z1, I would have to say that the masks and rifle skins were my favorite because as a player, the guns make you feel powerful while the masks give you an identity.

Mar 29, 2017

Q&A with 3D Artist Ryan Zimmerman

Z1 Battle Royale - Halo117

Ryan Zimmerman, Sr. Artist

How many hours does a mask like this take to create?

What do you do outside of work hours to keep your skills sharp?

Where do you get your inspirations from?

What are your favorite H1Z1 items you’ve created so far?

What tools do you use to create these 3D models?

All of my modeling is done in Maya and ZBrush, and texturing is done in Photoshop or Quixel.

When did you first start getting interested in creating these types of models?

What other games impress you with their 3D models?

Can you recommend any books or programs if someone wants to get started?

How long have you been with Daybreak?

I’ve been at Daybreak (formerly Sony Online Entertainment) most of my 17 years in the industry.

What other games have you worked on in the past?

PlanetSide 2, DC Universe Online, Free Realms, EverQuest 2, Vanguard and EverQuest.

You’re known for your masks; do you have any other types of items you love to create?

Of all the things I made in H1Z1, I would have to say that the masks and rifle skins were my favorite because as a player, the guns make you feel powerful while the masks give you an identity.