Programming

So Project Zomboid is a 2.5D (2D sprites, 3D characters) Isometric game. For years people fantasized about it being in the first person perspective. The devs clearly stated that this is impossible on a fundamental engine level. Over the past 2 months people used AI to completely dissect the source code of the game and do the impossible. They created a mod called Project Viewpoint that turned all the 2D assets into 3D models and allowed to play in third and first person perspective.

This is an incredible feat. Imagine somebody would make a mod to freely rotate the camera in Age of Empires 2, a fully sprite driven 2D isometric game.

Further than that, people started to decomplie a lot of other games and scrap them for mechanics and assets. Project Viewpoint has become the driving force for advanced modding. They added the animations and weapons from Escape from Tarkov, the parkour mechanics from Mirrors Edge, the vehicle physics from BeamNG and so on and so on.

Project Zomboid is on it's way to truly become an everything game driven by AI assisted modding.

Even if it seems like the devs are losing control over their own game, for now they did the right thing. They acknowledged the current situation and warned people to be carefull with Javascript based mods that can execute malicious code, while not condoning the development of the modding scene and AI use.

Here's the devs community post:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/108600/view/672883630592229814?l=english

Someone vibe-coded a mod that turns the whole game first person.