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Citizens,\nIt\u2019s no secret that Star Citizen\u2019s next major release is Star Marine, previously known as the FPS module. In much the same way that Arena Commander (or the Dogfighting Module) is helping us build a better space sim, Star Marine is intended to introduce the first person shooter gameplay that will be part of the core of both Squadron 42 and Star Citizen.\n\nSince the days of Wing Commander, I\u2019ve dreamed of integrating a first person shooter with a space sim. It\u2019s such an exciting idea: you might land your fighter on a carrier and then race into battle to repel alien boarders\u2026 or you might put down on a seedy border world and fight off pirates eager to steal your cargo! And on a broader level, it speaks to our longtime goal of increasing immersion: you\u2019re no longer taken out of the action with between-mission gameflow menus or worse. Instead, from the moment you start the game to the minute you exit, you\u2019re living in and interacting with the Star Citizen world!\n\nThat\u2019s why we kicked off Star Citizen as a \u2018First Person Universe\u2019 right from the start, and it\u2019s why we picked an FPS engine to build on. Star Citizen isn\u2019t like my previous games: you aren\u2019t directly \u2018playing\u2019 a ship\u2026 you\u2019re controlling a character who is flying a ship. You\u2019ve had first person action against fighters in Arena Commander, you\u2019ve explored your hangar\u2026 you\u2019ve even drawn your pistol in combat to take shots at other players and their ships! Thanks to the support of Star Citizen\u2019s backers, the framework of our modular development process and the incredible talent of the teams working on the game, melding elements of a first person shooter with a space combat adventure are no longer a distant dream\u2026 it\u2019s an impending reality! Star Marine, like the upcoming multicrew module, means a leap far ahead in this process; it\u2019s something many of us (and I suspect many of you) have dreamed about for many years.\n\nWhere Star Marine differs from Arena Commander is that we\u2019re not launching it in its most basic game. Instead, we\u2019re trying for something more. It includes animation fidelity and attention to detail that you wouldn\u2019t normally expect in an \u201calpha\u201d gameplay module. There\u2019s even an entire sci-fi sports game with zero-G movement fully simulated and animated in there! (And don\u2019t worry, there\u2019s traditional FPS action too\u2026 with some new ideas that aim to set Star Citizen apart from the crowd.)\n\nWe know you\u2019re eager to try Star Marine, and our job today is to get it ready for you. That doesn\u2019t mean releasing the end-all finished product; as with Arena Commander, we\u2019re going to be revising and updating and expanding the game based both on our schedule and your future feedback. What it does mean is that we need to address everything we possibly can before we release the first version, because there\u2019s no sense getting feedback where we know further work is needed. Recent weeks have focused on getting our ducks in a row based on our internal testing, which has lead us to revamp everything from overhauling the network backend to improving the character animations you saw at PAX East to the revamping the zero-g portion of the game to better match our lore.\n\nToday, I\u2019ve asked some of Cloud Imperium\u2019s department heads who are involved in developing the module to update you on the status of Star Marine. Not the broad \u2018how cool is it\u2019 information that you get at events and in the press, but the nitty gritty: what are we doing right now? What are we improving and why? I hope you find it an interesting read and that you understand why Star Marine isn\u2019t like anything I\u2019ve ever developed!\n\n\u2014 Chris Roberts\n\nfrom CIG Austin & Santa Monica\n\nOver the past couple months our character team has made great strides in pushing visual fidelity. With technology consistently being pushed forward, we at Cloud Imperium Games feel the need to always move forward and push the bar. The characters in development have had a major overhaul. We trust that the extra time we spend early in creation will improve the quality of your universe immensely. We strive to provide the best quality experience that our citizens deserve.\n\nDuring our first approach at these Characters we noticed certain opportunities for improvement that we felt inclined to take advantage of. With these recent discoveries we have started the development of a new and exciting approach to allow Citizens to express themselves with a customizable character system. While Squadron 42 will not allow customization of characters in the same way, the characters available have provided the research we need and has given us valuable insight (pilots in Squadron 42 will still pick their gender and look, but won\u2019t customize outfits, gear, etc. during their military assignment.)\n\nSome of the more major development has been reconstructing and adopting ship techniques and using them on the characters. This brings the characters into the same world and quality standard as our ships. Our ships have really taken off after a few years of development. We have also introduced an entirely new level of material detail for certain characters. Our development on using true PBR materials on character assets and tileable textures to increase texture density allows us to increase the look of the characters while providing our game with less memory intensive techniques. We are also looking into multi-layer blending per material.\n\nThe multi-layer blending will be the next step in character development. It will allow for modularity, optimization, and look continuity. Rather than having custom characters and materials traditionally, we are creating a system where materials are reused, physically accurate, and will be able to continually update and improve. It is an extremely difficult process but above all else an exciting one. The time taken in pre-production and development will help make the citizens more believable and beautiful. We feel great about the future of our character system, and just like the ships, the more we do, the better they will become.\n\nThe Marines and Outlaws have undergone an extreme home makeover to get them ready for battle in Star Marine! The CIG Character Team, supervised by CG Supervisor Forrest Stephan, has improved the look and feel of these characters by leaps and bounds over the past couple of months. We\u2019ve also been using these characters as a testbed for some new techniques to better improve the overall character pipeline at CIG. A major focus has been making these characters feel truly next generation, and they look the part.\n\nWe\u2019ve addressed several glaring issues that were present with the characters before, chief among them was a lack of visual cohesiveness amongst the various archetypes. The Outlaws now all look like they come from the same gang, and the Marines now look like they belong in the same outfit. This will prove crucial when trying to pick your teammates out in a firefight. Another sore spot that has been fixed up were the materials themselves. Every piece of metal, carbon fiber, and leather can be picked out at first glance thanks to the efforts made to get the characters looking as close to real-world as possible.\n\nIn addition, time was spent on beefing up some of the characters\u2019 armor to make them feel a little more protected and \u201cheavier\u201d than their lighter counterparts. The Helmets themselves were also addressed, revamping the interiors so that they properly reflect the geometry on the exterior. Lastly, we\u2019ve been upgrading the RSI Space Suit characters to get them ready to go head-to-head in Astro Arena playing SATABall. We\u2019re giving them team colors, uprezzing various parts to reach our latest quality bar (it was one of the first characters we made, after all), and improving the materials. All in all it has been an incredibly productive few months, and we can\u2019t wait to show these beauties off to you soon!\n\nSpecifics in Development:\n\nIncreased poly-count\n\nMore physically accurate materials\n\nFixing and limiting Anti-Aliasing issues\n\nLaying the Groundwork for customization system\n\nCharacter Modularity\n\nCharacter Optimization and levels of detail\n\nMulti-Layer Blending\n\nCharacter Class and Type specifics\n\nPU Character Standards\n\nfrom CIG Santa Monica\n\nRe-vamping the First Person Simulation has been a monumental task for Animation. First, while we are making a ground combat FPS, we are also, at the same time, building a Zero-G combat set. The CryEngine had never had a shipped game that focused on zero-g combat for any considerable extent, so there has been a considerable amount of R&D and hand-keyed animation that has been going into that portion. We also had problems getting a really solid zero-g motion set in the game and it took a while before our partners at Illfonic and our very own Sean Tracy were able to help us solve that. While it is still an ongoing development, really getting good zero-g feel is certainly not a simple thing and will undoubtedly continue to require future development from animation. On the ground combat side, we are working on making animations for no weapon, rifles (including sniper rifles and smgs), pistols, grenades, and 2 handed gadgets for the normal Marine plus a new set of animations we are working on for the Heavy Marine. Sliding, cover, vaulting, and climbing over are all also beginning their process into game. Gunplay is important, if not paramount, in any FPS, and our team has been working on re-vamping the gunplay and feel from what was seen at PAX. To support that feel, we are also working on reloads and jukes- systems that will give more weight and realism to the movement of players. For those Citizens not in-the-know, we started re-vamping everything in January of this year, starting from scratch on most animation sets to make sure that we\u2019re delivering the high-quality results we are all expecting of Star Citizen. But it all takes time- delivering a v0 for both a ground-based FPS and a Zero-G FPS as are both challenging tasks. I expect our first release will have many bugs, glitches and things that just overall need polish to make a truly great game. The Star Citizen dev team is dedicated to seeing this through and delivering the Best Damn First Person Space Sim ever and we all appreciate your support as we work towards that goal!\n\nfrom Illfonic\n\nWith the coming release of the FPS module we wanted to update everyone with changes to the environment artwork in terms of lighting, and support for the various game modes. We recently we made many changes to implement a new lighting approach that enhanced the game visuals for both the Astro Arena environment and the Gold Horizon station.\n\nThe new lighting model is a pretty big step over what we have been able to achieve in the past, and is being applied to the entire game as a whole. The lighting effects are much more realistic and have provided the artist with a greater scope of control. Every single light is now physically calculated in terms of its volume, and brightness. Previously, most lights were simple point lights that generated a faked specular highlight which wasn\u2019t truly leveraging PBR to the fullest. Now surfaces calculate and bounce light much more accurately. You can see in the before and after images just how big a difference the change has made.\n\nAlong with the new game mode for the Astro Arena, SATA Ball, new artwork had to be created as well. The actual ball asset was needed, and a bunch of small supporting effects and animations had to be implemented as well. The ball itself needed to be easily identifiable within the environment, as well as the player who currently had possession of it. For this a heavy glow was attached to the ball, along with HUD iconography to make it easy to spot from any distance. An outline was also added to the player holding the ball so they could be picked out of a crowd.\n\nDuring the PAX Demo, we also realized that players were having trouble seeing the edges of the cover objects placed within the level. To address this, we added varied lights to the edge of each piece, and gave them a solid glow and light to reflect the side of the arena that the piece is on. This made a huge difference in helping players navigate in full 360 zero-g, which can get pretty disorienting if everything looks the same from the art side.\n\nWith the lighting change and adding additional game-play elements the environment art needed to reflect the realism that we all shoot for in Star Citizen. Global art improvements included :\nAdjusting the ambient lights\nGame-play layout changes in the Golden Horizon level\nAdding stadium style canned lighting on the ring and above the goals\nIncreased fidelity on the advertisements on both ring and ad drones\nAdded frosted back-lite panels on the cover modules\nOverall increased the global lighting contrast\nAdded smaller human scale lights\nAdded more smaller human sized details for scale across many assets in each level\nCreating animated advertisements that are used on the Ad drones buzzing around the exterior of the Astro-Arena\nAn Improved skybox with additional nebula assets\nAn additional lighting pass on Golden Horizon\nGame-play specific artistic level changes for both Astro-Arena and Golden Horizon\nFinally, its important to note that when the lighting integration changes came online there was a ripple effect. This means that not only did we update the lighting scheme; we also had to made edits to the PBR materials to ensure the best image quality you all expect.\n\nfrom Illfonic\n\nYou guys have probably heard quite a bit about SATA Ball if you\u2019ve been following the monthly studio reports or watching the Around the Verse episodes. It\u2019s something that is very different and unique to Star Citizen in comparison to what you are probably used to with with traditional FPS games.\n\nThe rules for SATA Ball are fairly simple. Two teams spawn in at opposite ends of the Astro Arena, a large zero gravity room with scattered cover objects suspended in the air. Meanwhile, the SATA Ball is spawned in the center of the room. Both teams must race towards the ball to gain control of it, using thier legs and arms for movement, as well as a grappling hook device that is attached to their sidearm. Players can disable their enemies for a short period of time by shooting them, but they can\u2019t actually kill them, it\u2019s only a temporary stun affect.\n\nWhen a player reaches or grapples the SATA Ball towards themselves, they can interact with it to grab it. The player who currently has possession of the ball is lit up so they are easy to spot by both their own team and the enemy team. As the ball carrier you cannot fire your sidearm, but you can pass, shoot or drop the ball. Players pass the ball back and forth while avoiding enemy fire until they are able to shoot the ball through the enemy gate at their spawn. Once a point is scored, the round is over and the game resets. A full match consists of seven rounds.\n\nWhile SATA Ball does involve some gun-play, that isn\u2019t the main point of interest. Really what we are using SATA Ball for is a test bed to make the zero-g locomotion system something very robust, and ultimately a viable movement strategy when you are in that environment. Typically you would expect to see thrusters for movement in zero-g, but for Star Citizen the easy way out doesn\u2019t make sense. You should have the choice to move around without thrusters\u2026 and be successful if you are skilled, and we want players to be able to do that.\n\nThis is something that hasn\u2019t really been done before, and it\u2019s no easy task. First, the controls must feel natural and accessible. Second, we want to simulate how physics and rag-doll play into that control system. Lastly, after both of those two goals are accomplished we need a robust set of full body look poses and animations to make that happen visually with the fidelity and attention to detail you have all come to expect from Star Citizen, even in an alpha state.\n\nWorking towards the goal of how rag-doll and physics play together, a new system needed to be developed which Travis Day has coined the term AEGIS. This system allows for partial or full-body transitions in and out of what is basically a ragdoll state, using both procedural and artist-driven techniques. In other words, this will allow us to change the character (or portions of the character) to collide with and be affected by their surroundings, instead of animating normally.\n\nExamples of this include:\nGetting stunned by a weapon, and having the character go temporarily \u201climp\u201d before returning control.\nAllowing the extremities to go limp while incapacitated or injured.\n\nThis is currently functional for full-body transitions, with partial-body support coming next.\n\nIn Star Marine (as with the rest of Star Citizen) the goal is to simulate reality as much as possible. In most 1st person games the player is able to stop on a dime and change directions instantly, forgoing all previous motion in favor of new input. For Star Citizen we wanted not only better looking motion but more realistic transitions between motions to simulate this. This is where the movement transition system comes in.\n\nCryEngine already has support for movement transitions on AI, but we needed something player driven as well. Building on those ideas we wrote a system that takes snapshots of the player\u2019s requested movement and determines if the player is making a large enough change that would require extra steps to slow down or change direction. This comes in the form of starts (idle to moving), stops (moving to idle) and jukes (quickly changing directions). This encourages players to think more tactically about their movement and to stay aware of their surroundings. It also makes the animations look much smoother by removing pops from quick input changes. So we\u2019re sorry to say but we won\u2019t be supporting 180 no-scoping or strafe-jumping.\n\nThe video below shows the system, but not the final result. We\u2019re still waiting on mo-cap to be cleaned up and integrated to have truly smooth transitions. Keep watching the Comm-Link for more updates!\n\nfrom CIG Austin\n\nLast Fall, we made a concerted effort to lock down the entirety of the networking architecture that would drive Star Citizen in the years to come. Prior to that, in order to get Arena Commander out the door, some corners were cut a bit too closely and as a result stability and performance have suffered, and the system\u2019s extensibility hasn\u2019t been nearly as robust as it needed to be. We greatly appreciate the patience that the community has afforded us, and are happy to announce that we\u2019ve made tremendous progress and are getting close to beginning a phased rollout of the new features and functionality that we\u2019ve been developing.\n\nThe first pieces of the comprehensive update will arrive with the Star Marine FPS module. It will include a completely new matchmaker, game instance manager, and party service, and we refer to the collective solution as the Generic Instance Manager. That technology, linked with the new backend services and completely recrafted game server interface logic, will ultimately result in a far smoother multiplayer experience. Queue times will be dramatically reduced and you should encounter far fewer problems overall when attempting to create or join multiplayer games. The more elegantly abstracted system will considerably simplify the creation of new game modes, which we\u2019ll utilize to great effect as we gradually reveal additional bits and pieces of the larger set of gameplay that you\u2019ll eventually be able to experience in the full game. Under the hood, the new system will expose a lot more information to the component systems. For example, in order to provide a better, more enjoyable experience, matchmaking will now be able to take into account skill levels, player ships and their associated armaments, prioritized map preferences, ping times, and much more.\n\nWhereas until recently we were still experiencing intermittent problems when player loads reached a particular level, the new system has been built from the ground up to scale to far greater heights. While we fully expect for there to be some minor hiccups along the way, the modular architecture should allow us to deal with most issues with far greater speed than we\u2019ve been able to in the past. This scalability was a very important goal for us as we expect to see the player count rising pretty significantly as we begin to accelerate the release of more playable functionality, and while we haven\u2019t yet relaxed we\u2019re all breathing a bit easier as everything is starting to come together quite well.\n\nWhile the new system certainly improves upon the existing functionality, it also adds support for a lot of new features that will be released throughout 2015. Arena Commander will soon gain the ability to support multi-crew operations. A full-blown chat system \u2013 replete with a multitude of powerful capabilities \u2013 is in the final stages of testing. The upcoming Social Module will allow players to invite others into their hangars and automatically form parties, and the same instance management and player routing functionality that drives it and the other game modules will soon enable multiplayer landing zones and other points of interest.\n\nWe\u2019re very excited to finally be approaching the point where we can put some of the major networking improvements that we\u2019ve been working on for so long into your hands. It\u2019s been a lot of work, but we think you\u2019ll agree that it\u2019s all been worth it once you see the results.\n\nfrom CIG Austin\n\nThe technological requirements to achieve the vision of Star Citizen are incredible and it regularly pushes the boundaries of what is achievable with current generation engines. This requires a top level team of specialists and generalist coming together from around the world to solve some very difficult problems in unique and novel ways.\n\nIt also requires the intelligent usage and re-allocation of available technology as we can\u2019t take too long to make this all possible!\n\nInternally, major focus has been given to performance and some massive strides have started to be made some of which you\u2019ll experience come the release of the 1.1.2 patch. Upon performing deep profiling and load time analysis there were many areas where wins could be made. Some of these changes leverage streaming better through the splitting of assets to avoid long blocking loads for said asset. An \u201cin the verse\u201d example of this is if you say take all the geometric data for a single ship and you pack it all up together into a single file (again consider this includes the lod\u2019s and all the damage states) it\u2019s extremely large and takes a very long time to load. When you split this geometry up into separate files and load it from bottom to top (low LOD to high LOD) it yields far faster loading and streaming. This optimization can also be made for textures and we\u2019ve done this recently. This is going to be an obvious performance improvement for most users.\n\nWith that said, there are even bigger changes to come for Star Marine and we want to be sure that the experience is as smooth as possible right out of the gate. We\u2019ve updated the CryEngine version internally which is no small task as Star Citizen has diverged quite significantly from the base of CryEngine. Some of the major updates CIG has made additionally to the updated engine version are fundamental ones that might sound obscure but are important pillars for many of the major changes that are to come to scale Star Citizen to the level that the community demands.\n\nSome of these include important updates to x64 bit world coordinate system, the conversion to x64 global entity id\u2019s, geometry streaming, GOST (Game Object State Machine), Voxelized Local\/Multi Physics Grids and many more. Star Marine will also sport an updated renderer using a unified diffuse\/spec attenuation model and re-factored area lights, visually this makes quite an improvement and we know the community will appreciate the extra time we\u2019ve taken to make the Star Marine release look and perform at the highest level.\n\nThese are just a few of the major underlying features that we, from the tech team, want to get into the community\u2019s hands as soon as possible but no sooner!\n\nFinally I\u2019d like to touch a bit on stability. Development for Star Citizen has scaled extremely quickly and there are difficulties with a project of this scale, which averages 1500 check-ins per week, to keeping builds stable for our players, testers as well as internally for our developers. Major changes were made to the development flow of features internally and the process in which they make it out to release builds. Whilst this might sound a bit boring, to maintain the tempo of development star citizen demands it\u2019s important this stability is built into the development process which is what is being done internally.\n\nfrom Foundry 42 Manchester\n\nAs you may have heard, Star Citizen uses an integrated, interactive sound engine called Wwise. Wwise, though its authoring toolset, gives Sound Designers the ability to manage resources such as memory, CPU, and audible bandwidth \u2013 and make decisions as to how the balance between them falls; this empowerment has exponential positive effects.\n\nWith sound designers empowered, and able to balance quality against practicalities via tools and profiling, more time is made available for them to create better sounds. Thus more time is available for audio engineers to concentrate on improving game-engine audio integration tools, and improve how audio is integrated with other disciplines. Ultimately this equates to better integration of higher quality audio across the board; with VFX, with animation, with cinematics, with design through dialogue and musical score, with environments through richer ambient sound, with more accurately responsive audio for physical props and objects, with deeper audio systems for player-agency driven elements such as ships, weapons, doors, and other interactive assets. All of which leads to higher perceived quality of the entire product in the players\u2019 hands. Better it sounds, better it looks!\n\nWwise allows us to iterate better, more quickly, and non-destructively; we can try things out, audition changes and revert them if need be. We can more readily pick our battles and devote higher quality audio to those assets that require them most. Once you have a better appreciation of context it\u2019s possible to make more informed decisions about what assets should be more expensive, and I don\u2019t know of any other audio middleware that realises this requirement as much as WWise; entirely necessary on a project of expanding scale and scope such as Star Citizen.\n\nThere are a number of incremental improvements in moving over to to Wwise. On the mixing side alone, we have the following tools available to us, integrated as standard:\n\nWwise Meter: As well as assisting with mixing, with this we can actually feed signal back to the game: we\u2019re talking with VFX about driving certain parameters based on audio signal. Fire sounds can change fire VFX, for instance. We sample reality and that can drive things realistically\n\nDucking: If you absolutely require critical-path dialogue to be heard, it can move the rest of the soundscape down so it\u2019s definitely delivered\n\nLoudness Metering: We want to ensure consistency and dynamic range, and this can be configured to match the hardware that the player is using, to their preference\n\nHDR: Perceived loudness can be achieved without assailing the player with sound pressure that would be actually deafening\n\nWe can more realistically model spaces with Convolution Reverb \u2013 we can even sample real-world spaces ourselves and model them in-game so that a cockpit interior reflects audio like a real cockpit interior.\n\nWe have plug-in suites to affect audio much as we would in offline digital audio workstations from the likes of iZotope and McDSP; we\u2019ll be able to route and process vocals at runtime to sound as if they\u2019re coming from a dynamic radio system rather than rely on offline processed static assets.\n\nWe have the Wwise interactive music system to more readily change music in response to changing game states, important to be able to do this without breaking the inherent rules that music needs to follow.\n\nAll the above represent our main \u2018wins\u2019. It\u2019s a complex system and bringing that together with another complex system (Cryengine) is a tricky docking procedure, and we\u2019re hoping to complete it without too much friction!\n\nWhere the longer term goals of Star Citizen are concerned: we\u2019re restructuring our sounds and approaches to audio to be more extensible, more re-configurable and layered and\/or granular. Rather than mixing complex layers of sound down into single assets, which can be quite inflexible, we can cater for a more variable open-world (or open-universe, even) by recombining them at runtime. We will have a higher voice count, but with careful management and balancing, we can have exponentially more variation than the more linear approach to game sound design affords us. Where the game is based around components that the player can reconfigure into any number of permutations, the audio can follow.\n\nThis is the core of a more \u2018audio systems\u2019 led approach, that can scale and vary as Star Citizen itself expands. We\u2019ll have the tools to do this while also maintaining a more cinematic aesthetic audio scheme where that\u2019s required for our linear swathes of gameplay (i.e. Squadron 42).\n\nWe hope this update has helped you better understand all the pieces going in to Star Marine, with teams from studios around the world contributing essential elements to its development. We will continue to provide regular updates on the Comm-Link and during Around the Verse until we\u2019re ready to kick off the first public release. Trust us when we say, we are as eager as you are to kick off playtesting and let the Star Citizen community see what we\u2019ve been putting our all into. Star Marine is an important building block to the complete Star Citizen experience, it\u2019s a showcase for how far we\u2019ve come with many of our technologies and processes\u2026 and it\u2019s going to be a lot of fun, too! We\u2019ll see you on Gold Horizon.","de_DE":"Gr\u00fc\u00dfe B\u00fcrger,\nEs ist kein Geheimnis, dass Star Citizen's n\u00e4chstes gro\u00dfes Release Star Marine ist, fr\u00fcher bekannt als FPS-Modul. In \u00e4hnlicher Weise, wie Arena Commander (oder das Dogfighting Module) uns hilft, eine bessere Weltraumsimulation zu bauen, soll Star Marine das First-Person-Shooter-Gameplay vorstellen, das Teil des Kerns von Squadron 42 und Star Citizen sein wird.\n\nSeit den Tagen des Wing Commander tr\u00e4ume ich davon, einen Ego-Shooter in eine Weltraumsimulation zu integrieren. Es ist eine so aufregende Idee: Du k\u00f6nntest deinen K\u00e4mpfer auf einem Tr\u00e4ger landen und dann in den Kampf ziehen, um au\u00dferirdische Grenzen abzuwehren.... oder du k\u00f6nntest dich auf eine sch\u00e4bige Grenzlandschaft begeben und Piraten bek\u00e4mpfen, die deine Fracht stehlen wollen! Und auf einer breiteren Ebene spricht es f\u00fcr unser langfristiges Ziel, die Immersion zu erh\u00f6hen: Sie werden nicht mehr aus der Aktion herausgenommen, mit Gameflow-Men\u00fcs zwischen den Missionen oder schlimmer noch. Stattdessen lebst du vom Beginn des Spiels bis zur Beendigung des Spiels in der Star Citizen-Welt und interagierst mit ihr!\n\nDeshalb haben wir Star Citizen von Anfang an als \"First Person Universe\" gestartet, und deshalb haben wir uns f\u00fcr eine FPS-Engine entschieden, auf der wir aufbauen k\u00f6nnen. Star Citizen ist nicht wie meine vorherigen Spiele: Sie spielen nicht direkt ein Schiff.... Sie kontrollieren einen Charakter, der ein Schiff fliegt. Du hattest in Arena Commander eine First-Person-Aktion gegen K\u00e4mpfer, du hast deinen Hangar erkundet.... du hast sogar deine Pistole im Kampf gezogen, um Sch\u00fcsse auf andere Spieler und ihre Schiffe zu machen! Dank der Unterst\u00fctzung von Star Citizen's Geldgebern, dem Rahmen unseres modularen Entwicklungsprozesses und dem unglaublichen Talent der Teams, die am Spiel arbeiten, ist es nicht mehr fern, Elemente eines Ego-Shooters mit einem Weltraum-Abenteuer zu verschmelzen.... es ist eine bevorstehende Realit\u00e4t! Star Marine, wie das kommende Multicrew-Modul, bedeutet einen Sprung weit voraus in diesem Prozess; es ist etwas, wovon viele von uns (und ich vermute, viele von euch) seit vielen Jahren getr\u00e4umt haben.\n\nWas Star Marine von Arena Commander unterscheidet, ist, dass wir es nicht in seinem einfachsten Spiel auf den Markt bringen. Stattdessen versuchen wir, etwas mehr zu erreichen. Es beinhaltet Animationstreue und Liebe zum Detail, die man normalerweise in einem \"Alpha\"-Spielmodul nicht erwarten w\u00fcrde. Es gibt sogar ein ganzes Sci-Fi-Sportspiel mit Null-G-Bewegung, das vollst\u00e4ndig simuliert und animiert ist! (Und keine Sorge, es gibt auch traditionelle FPS-Action.... mit einigen neuen Ideen, die darauf abzielen, Star Citizen von der Masse abzuheben...)\n\nWir wissen, dass Sie begierig darauf sind, Star Marine auszuprobieren, und unser Job ist es heute, es f\u00fcr Sie vorzubereiten. Das bedeutet nicht, dass wir das Endprodukt freigeben m\u00fcssen; wie bei Arena Commander werden wir das Spiel \u00fcberarbeiten und aktualisieren und erweitern, basierend auf unserem Zeitplan und Ihrem zuk\u00fcnftigen Feedback. Was es bedeutet, ist, dass wir alles in unserer Macht Stehende tun m\u00fcssen, bevor wir die erste Version ver\u00f6ffentlichen, denn es hat keinen Sinn, Feedback zu erhalten, wenn wir wissen, dass weitere Arbeiten erforderlich sind. Die letzten Wochen haben sich darauf konzentriert, unsere Enten auf der Grundlage unserer internen Tests in eine Reihe zu bringen, was uns dazu veranlasst hat, alles neu zu gestalten, von der \u00dcberholung des Netzwerk-Backends \u00fcber die Verbesserung der Charakteranimationen, die Sie auf der PAX East gesehen haben, bis hin zur \u00dcberarbeitung des Null-Gramm-Teils des Spiels, um unserer \u00dcberlieferung besser gerecht zu werden.\n\nHeute habe ich einige der Abteilungsleiter von Cloud Imperium gefragt, die an der Entwicklung des Moduls beteiligt sind, um Sie \u00fcber den Status von Star Marine zu informieren. Nicht die breite \"Wie cool ist es\" Information, die man bei Veranstaltungen und in der Presse erh\u00e4lt, sondern das Wesentliche: Was machen wir gerade? Was verbessern wir und warum? Ich hoffe, dass du es interessant findest und dass du verstehst, warum Star Marine nicht wie alles ist, was ich je entwickelt habe!\n\n- Chris Roberts\n\nvon CIG Austin & Santa Monica\n\nIn den letzten Monaten hat unser Charakter-Team gro\u00dfe Fortschritte bei der F\u00f6rderung der Sehtreue gemacht. Da die Technologie konsequent vorangetrieben wird, f\u00fchlen wir bei Cloud Imperium Games das Bed\u00fcrfnis, uns immer weiter nach vorne zu bewegen und die Messlatte zu dr\u00fccken. Die Charaktere in der Entwicklung haben eine grundlegende \u00dcberarbeitung erfahren. Wir hoffen, dass die zus\u00e4tzliche Zeit, die wir in der fr\u00fchen Sch\u00f6pfung verbringen, die Qualit\u00e4t eures Universums erheblich verbessern wird. Wir sind bestrebt, die beste Qualit\u00e4t zu bieten, die unsere B\u00fcrger verdienen.\n\nW\u00e4hrend unseres ersten Ansatzes bei diesen Charakteren bemerkten wir bestimmte Verbesserungsm\u00f6glichkeiten, die wir gerne nutzen w\u00fcrden. Mit diesen j\u00fcngsten Entdeckungen haben wir die Entwicklung eines neuen und aufregenden Ansatzes begonnen, der es den B\u00fcrgern erm\u00f6glicht, sich mit einem anpassbaren Charaktersystem auszudr\u00fccken. W\u00e4hrend Staffel 42 keine Anpassung der Charaktere auf die gleiche Weise zul\u00e4sst, haben die verf\u00fcgbaren Charaktere die Forschung bereitgestellt, die wir ben\u00f6tigen, und uns wertvolle Einblicke gegeben (Piloten in Staffel 42 werden immer noch ihr Geschlecht und Aussehen w\u00e4hlen, aber keine Outfits, Ausr\u00fcstung usw. w\u00e4hrend ihres milit\u00e4rischen Einsatzes anpassen).\n\nEinige der wichtigsten Entwicklungen waren die Rekonstruktion und \u00dcbernahme von Schiffstechniken und deren Einsatz bei den Figuren. Dies bringt die Charaktere in die gleiche Welt und den gleichen Qualit\u00e4tsstandard wie unsere Schiffe. Unsere Schiffe sind nach einigen Jahren der Entwicklung richtig abgehoben. Wir haben auch eine v\u00f6llig neue Ebene der Materialdetails f\u00fcr bestimmte Charaktere eingef\u00fchrt. Unsere Entwicklung zur Verwendung echter PBR-Materialien f\u00fcr Charakteranlagen und kachelbarer Texturen zur Erh\u00f6hung der Texturdichte erm\u00f6glicht es uns, das Aussehen der Charaktere zu verbessern und gleichzeitig unserem Spiel weniger speicherintensive Techniken zur Verf\u00fcgung zu stellen. Wir untersuchen auch die mehrschichtige Mischung pro Material.\n\nDie mehrschichtige Mischung wird der n\u00e4chste Schritt in der Charakter-Entwicklung sein. Es wird Modularit\u00e4t, Optimierung und Look Continuity erm\u00f6glichen. Anstatt traditionell individuelle Charaktere und Materialien zu haben, schaffen wir ein System, bei dem Materialien wiederverwendet werden, physisch genau und in der Lage sind, sie st\u00e4ndig zu aktualisieren und zu verbessern. Es ist ein \u00e4u\u00dferst schwieriger, aber vor allem spannender Prozess. Die Zeit, die in die Vorproduktion und Entwicklung investiert wird, wird dazu beitragen, die B\u00fcrger glaubw\u00fcrdiger und sch\u00f6ner zu machen. Wir f\u00fchlen uns wohl in Bezug auf die Zukunft unseres Charaktersystems, und genau wie die Schiffe, je mehr wir tun, desto besser werden sie werden.\n\nDie Marines und Gesetzlosen haben sich einer extremen Heim\u00fcberholung unterzogen, um sie auf den Kampf in Star Marine vorzubereiten! Das CIG Character Team, das von CG Supervisor Forrest Stephan betreut wird, hat in den letzten Monaten das Aussehen und das Gef\u00fchl dieser Charaktere durch Spr\u00fcnge und Grenzen verbessert. Wir haben diese Charaktere auch als Testbed f\u00fcr einige neue Techniken verwendet, um die gesamte Charakterpipeline bei CIG besser zu verbessern. Ein Hauptaugenmerk liegt darauf, dass sich diese Charaktere wie die n\u00e4chste Generation f\u00fchlen, und sie sehen aus wie ein Teil davon.\n\nWir haben mehrere eklatante Probleme angesprochen, die mit den Charakteren vorher pr\u00e4sent waren, vor allem ein Mangel an visueller Koh\u00e4sion zwischen den verschiedenen Archetypen. Die Gesetzlosen sehen jetzt alle so aus, als ob sie aus der gleichen Bande stammen, und die Marines sehen jetzt so aus, als ob sie in das gleiche Outfit geh\u00f6ren. Dies wird sich als entscheidend erweisen, wenn Sie versuchen, Ihre Teamkollegen in einem Feuergefecht auszusuchen. Eine weitere wunde Stelle, die behoben wurde, waren die Materialien selbst. Jedes St\u00fcck Metall, Kohlefaser und Leder kann auf den ersten Blick erkannt werden, dank der Bem\u00fchungen, die Charaktere so realit\u00e4tsnah wie m\u00f6glich zu gestalten.\n\nDar\u00fcber hinaus wurde Zeit damit verbracht, die R\u00fcstung einiger Charaktere zu verst\u00e4rken, damit sie sich etwas gesch\u00fctzter und \"schwerer\" als ihre leichteren Gegenst\u00fccke f\u00fchlen. Die Helme selbst wurden ebenfalls angesprochen und die Innenr\u00e4ume so umgestaltet, dass sie die Geometrie der Au\u00dfenseite richtig widerspiegeln. Schlie\u00dflich haben wir die RSI Space Suit-Charaktere aufger\u00fcstet, um sie in der Astro Arena, die SATABall spielt, direkt einsatzbereit zu machen. Wir geben ihnen Teamfarben, begeistern verschiedene Teile, um unsere neueste Qualit\u00e4tsbar zu erreichen (es war immerhin einer der ersten Charaktere, die wir gemacht haben), und verbessern die Materialien. Alles in allem waren es ein paar unglaublich produktive Monate, und wir k\u00f6nnen es kaum erwarten, Ihnen diese Sch\u00f6nheiten bald zu zeigen!\n\nBesonderheiten in der Entwicklung:\n\nErh\u00f6hte Anzahl von Polygonen Physikalisch genauere Materialien Fixierung und Begrenzung von Anti-Aliasing-Problemen Grundsteinlegung f\u00fcr das Individualisierungssystem Charakter Modularit\u00e4t Charakteroptimierung und Detaillierungsstufen Mehrschichtige Mischzeichenklasse und Typspezifika PU-Charakterstandards von CIG Santa Monica\n\nDie Neugestaltung der First Person Simulation war eine monumentale Aufgabe f\u00fcr die Animation. Erstens, w\u00e4hrend wir einen Bodenkampf-FPS durchf\u00fchren, bauen wir gleichzeitig auch einen Zero-G-Kampfsatz auf. Die CryEngine hatte noch nie ein ausgeliefertes Spiel gehabt, das sich in erheblichem Umfang auf den Kampf ohne Gramm konzentrierte, so dass es eine betr\u00e4chtliche Menge an Forschung und Entwicklung und handgemachten Animationen gab, die in diesen Teil eingeflossen sind. Wir hatten auch Probleme, einen wirklich soliden Zero-G Motion Set im Spiel zu bekommen, und es dauerte eine Weile, bis unsere Partner bei Illfonic und unser eigener Sean Tracy uns helfen konnten, das zu l\u00f6sen. Obwohl es sich immer noch um eine laufende Entwicklung handelt, ist es sicherlich nicht einfach, ein gutes Zero-g-Gef\u00fchl zu erhalten, und wird zweifellos auch weiterhin eine zuk\u00fcnftige Entwicklung aus der Animation erfordern. Auf der Seite des Bodenkampfes arbeiten wir daran, Animationen f\u00fcr keine Waffe, Gewehre (einschlie\u00dflich Scharfsch\u00fctzengewehre und Smgs), Pistolen, Granaten und 2-Hand-Gadgets f\u00fcr die normale Marine sowie eine neue Reihe von Animationen zu erstellen, an denen wir f\u00fcr den Heavy Marine arbeiten. Rutschen, Abdecken, Springen und Klettern beginnen ebenfalls ihren Prozess ins Spiel. Gunplay ist wichtig, wenn nicht sogar vorrangig, in jedem FPS, und unser Team hat daran gearbeitet, das Waffenspiel zu \u00fcberarbeiten und sich von dem zu \u00fcberzeugen, was auf der PAX gesehen wurde. Um dieses Gef\u00fchl zu unterst\u00fctzen, arbeiten wir auch an Reloads und Jukes-Systemen, die der Bewegung der Spieler mehr Gewicht und Realismus verleihen. F\u00fcr diejenigen, die es nicht wissen, haben wir im Januar dieses Jahres damit begonnen, alles neu zu gestalten, angefangen bei den meisten Animationssets, um sicherzustellen, dass wir die hochwertigen Ergebnisse liefern, die wir alle von Star Citizen erwarten. Aber es braucht Zeit, um einen v0 sowohl f\u00fcr ein bodengebundenes FPS als auch f\u00fcr ein Zero-G FPS zu liefern, da es sich um anspruchsvolle Aufgaben handelt. Ich erwarte, dass unsere erste Version viele Fehler, St\u00f6rungen und Dinge enthalten wird, die nur insgesamt poliert werden m\u00fcssen, um ein wirklich tolles Spiel zu machen. Das Star Citizen Entwicklerteam hat es sich zur Aufgabe gemacht, dies durchzuziehen und die beste verdammte First Person Space Sim aller Zeiten zu liefern, und wir alle sch\u00e4tzen Ihre Unterst\u00fctzung bei der Erreichung dieses Ziels!\n\nvon Illfonic\n\nMit der kommenden Ver\u00f6ffentlichung des FPS-Moduls wollten wir alle mit \u00c4nderungen am Umgebungsbild in Bezug auf Beleuchtung und Unterst\u00fctzung der verschiedenen Spielmodi auf den neuesten Stand bringen. Wir haben k\u00fcrzlich viele \u00c4nderungen vorgenommen, um einen neuen Beleuchtungsansatz zu implementieren, der die Visualisierung der Spiele sowohl f\u00fcr die Astro Arena-Umgebung als auch f\u00fcr die Gold Horizon Station verbessert.\n\nDas neue Beleuchtungsmodell ist ein ziemlich gro\u00dfer Schritt gegen\u00fcber dem, was wir in der Vergangenheit erreicht haben, und wird auf das gesamte Spiel als Ganzes angewendet. Die Lichteffekte sind viel realistischer und haben dem K\u00fcnstler einen gr\u00f6\u00dferen Spielraum gegeben. Jedes einzelne Licht wird nun physikalisch in Bezug auf Volumen und Helligkeit berechnet. Fr\u00fcher waren die meisten Lichter einfache Punktleuchten, die ein gef\u00e4lschtes Glanzlicht erzeugten, das PBR nicht wirklich optimal nutzte. Jetzt berechnen und springen Oberfl\u00e4chen das Licht viel genauer. Sie k\u00f6nnen in den Vorher-Nachher-Bildern sehen, wie gro\u00df der Unterschied ist, den die \u00c4nderung gemacht hat.\n\nNeben dem neuen Spielmodus f\u00fcr die Astro-Arena, dem SATA-Ball, mussten auch neue Grafiken erstellt werden. Das eigentliche Ball-Asset wurde ben\u00f6tigt, und eine Reihe kleiner unterst\u00fctzender Effekte und Animationen mussten ebenfalls implementiert werden. Der Ball selbst musste in der Umgebung sowie der Spieler, der ihn derzeit besa\u00df, leicht erkennbar sein. Dazu wurde dem Ball ein starkes Gl\u00fchen beigef\u00fcgt, zusammen mit einer HUD-Ikonographie, die es aus jeder Entfernung leicht macht, ihn zu erkennen. Ein Umriss wurde auch dem Spieler hinzugef\u00fcgt, der den Ball h\u00e4lt, damit er aus der Menge ausgew\u00e4hlt werden kann.\n\nW\u00e4hrend der PAX-Demo stellten wir auch fest, dass die Spieler Schwierigkeiten hatten, die Kanten der Cover-Objekte innerhalb des Levels zu sehen. Um dies zu beheben, f\u00fcgten wir verschiedene Lichter an den Rand jedes St\u00fcckes hinzu und gaben ihnen ein solides Gl\u00fchen und Licht, um die Seite der Arena zu reflektieren, auf der sich das St\u00fcck befindet. Dies machte einen gro\u00dfen Unterschied in der Unterst\u00fctzung von Spielern bei der Navigation in vollen 360 Zero-g, was ziemlich desorientiert werden kann, wenn von der Kunstseite alles gleich aussieht.\n\nMit dem Lichtwechsel und dem Hinzuf\u00fcgen zus\u00e4tzlicher Gameplay-Elemente ben\u00f6tigte die Umgebungskunst den Realismus, den wir alle in Star Citizen anstreben. Globale Kunstverbesserungen inklusive:\nEinstellen der Umgebungslichter\n\u00c4nderungen des Gameplay-Layouts im Golden Horizont-Level\nHinzuf\u00fcgen von Dosenbeleuchtung im Stadion-Stil auf dem Ring und \u00fcber den Toren.\nErh\u00f6hte Treue bei den Anzeigen auf den Ring- und Ad-Drohnen.\nZus\u00e4tzliche mattierte hinterleuchtete Paneele auf den Abdeckungsmodulen\nInsgesamt erh\u00f6hte sich der globale Lichtkontrast.\nKleinere Lichter im menschlichen Ma\u00dfstab hinzugef\u00fcgt\nMehr kleinere Details in menschlicher Gr\u00f6\u00dfe f\u00fcr die Skalierung \u00fcber viele Assets in jeder Ebene hinzugef\u00fcgt.\nErstellung von animierten Anzeigen, die auf den Ad-Drohnen verwendet werden, die um das \u00c4u\u00dfere der Astro-Arena herumschwirren.\nEine verbesserte Skybox mit zus\u00e4tzlichen Nebelwerten\nEin zus\u00e4tzlicher Lichtpass auf Golden Horizon\nGameplay-spezifische k\u00fcnstlerische Niveau\u00e4nderungen sowohl f\u00fcr die Astro-Arena als auch f\u00fcr den Goldenen Horizont\nSchlie\u00dflich ist es wichtig zu beachten, dass, als die \u00c4nderungen der Beleuchtungsintegration online kamen, ein Welleneffekt auftrat. Das bedeutet, dass wir nicht nur das Beleuchtungskonzept aktualisiert haben, sondern auch die PBR-Materialien \u00fcberarbeitet haben, um die beste Bildqualit\u00e4t zu gew\u00e4hrleisten, die Sie alle erwarten.\n\nvon Illfonic\n\nIhr habt wahrscheinlich schon einiges \u00fcber SATA Ball geh\u00f6rt, wenn ihr die monatlichen Studio-Berichte verfolgt oder die Around the Vers-Episoden gesehen habt. Es ist etwas ganz anderes und einzigartiges f\u00fcr Star Citizen im Vergleich zu dem, was Sie wahrscheinlich von traditionellen FPS-Spielen gewohnt sind.\n\nDie Regeln f\u00fcr SATA Ball sind ziemlich einfach. Zwei Teams spazieren an den gegen\u00fcberliegenden Enden der Astro-Arena ein, einem gro\u00dfen Schwerelosigkeitsraum mit verstreuten Deckobjekten, die in der Luft schweben. In der Zwischenzeit wird der SATA Ball in der Mitte des Raumes gelaicht. Beide Teams m\u00fcssen in Richtung des Balls rasen, um die Kontrolle \u00fcber ihn zu erlangen, indem sie ihre Beine und Arme f\u00fcr die Bewegung verwenden, sowie eine Greifhakenvorrichtung, die an ihrem Seitenarm befestigt ist. Spieler k\u00f6nnen ihre Feinde f\u00fcr kurze Zeit deaktivieren, indem sie sie erschie\u00dfen, aber sie k\u00f6nnen sie nicht wirklich t\u00f6ten, es ist nur ein tempor\u00e4rer Bet\u00e4ubungseffekt.\n\nWenn ein Spieler den SATA-Ball erreicht oder in Richtung sich selbst packt, kann er mit ihm interagieren, um ihn zu greifen. Der Spieler, der derzeit den Ball besitzt, wird beleuchtet, so dass er sowohl von der eigenen Mannschaft als auch von der feindlichen Mannschaft leicht zu erkennen ist. Als Balltr\u00e4ger kannst du deine Waffe nicht feuern, aber du kannst den Ball passieren, schie\u00dfen oder fallen lassen. Die Spieler f\u00fchren den Ball hin und her und vermeiden dabei das feindliche Feuer, bis sie in der Lage sind, den Ball durch das feindliche Tor an ihrem Spawn zu schie\u00dfen. Sobald ein Punkt erzielt wurde, ist die Runde beendet und das Spiel beginnt wieder. Ein komplettes Spiel besteht aus sieben Runden.\n\nW\u00e4hrend SATA Ball einige Waffenspiele beinhaltet, ist das nicht der Hauptpunkt des Interesses. Wirklich, wof\u00fcr wir SATA Ball verwenden, ist ein Pr\u00fcfstand, um das Null-Gang-Bewegungssystem zu etwas sehr Robustem zu machen, und letztendlich eine brauchbare Bewegungsstrategie, wenn man sich in dieser Umgebung befindet. Normalerweise w\u00fcrde man erwarten, Triebwerke f\u00fcr die Bewegung in Null-Gramm zu sehen, aber f\u00fcr Star Citizen macht der einfache Weg nach drau\u00dfen keinen Sinn. Du solltest die Wahl haben, dich ohne Triebwerke zu bewegen.... und erfolgreich zu sein, wenn du geschickt bist, und wir wollen, dass die Spieler das tun k\u00f6nnen.\n\nDas ist etwas, was noch nie wirklich getan wurde, und es ist keine leichte Aufgabe. Erstens m\u00fcssen sich die Bedienelemente nat\u00fcrlich und zug\u00e4nglich anf\u00fchlen. Zweitens wollen wir simulieren, wie Physik und Ragdoll in diesem Steuerungssystem spielen. Nachdem diese beiden Ziele erreicht sind, ben\u00f6tigen wir einen robusten Satz von Ganzk\u00f6rper-Look-Posen und Animationen, um dies visuell mit der Treue und Detailgenauigkeit zu erreichen, die Sie alle von Star Citizen erwartet haben, selbst in einem Alpha-Zustand.\n\nIm Hinblick auf das Ziel, wie Lumpenpuppe und Physik zusammenspielen, musste ein neues System entwickelt werden, das Travis Day den Begriff AEGIS gepr\u00e4gt hat. Dieses System erm\u00f6glicht partielle oder ganzk\u00f6rperliche \u00dcberg\u00e4nge in und aus einem im Grunde genommen ragdoll\u00e4ren Zustand, sowohl mit prozeduralen als auch mit k\u00fcnstlerischen Techniken. Mit anderen Worten, dies wird es uns erm\u00f6glichen, den Charakter (oder Teile des Charakters) zu \u00e4ndern, mit dem wir kollidieren und von seiner Umgebung beeinflusst werden, anstatt normal zu animieren.\n\nBeispiele daf\u00fcr sind:\nVon einer Waffe bet\u00e4ubt werden und den Charakter vor\u00fcbergehend \"schlaff\" machen lassen, bevor er die Kontrolle zur\u00fcckgibt.\nLassen Sie die Extremit\u00e4ten bei Unf\u00e4higkeit oder Verletzung schlaff werden.\n\nDies ist derzeit f\u00fcr Ganzk\u00f6rper\u00fcberg\u00e4nge funktionsf\u00e4hig, wobei die Unterst\u00fctzung von Teilk\u00f6rpern folgt.\n\nIn Star Marine (wie auch im Rest von Star Citizen) ist das Ziel, die Realit\u00e4t so weit wie m\u00f6glich zu simulieren. In den meisten Spielen der 1. Person ist der Spieler in der Lage, auf einen Cent zu stoppen und die Richtung sofort zu \u00e4ndern, wobei er auf alle vorherigen Bewegungen zugunsten neuer Eingaben verzichtet. F\u00fcr Star Citizen wollten wir nicht nur eine besser aussehende Bewegung, sondern auch realistischere \u00dcberg\u00e4nge zwischen den Bewegungen, um dies zu simulieren. Hier setzt das Bewegungs\u00fcbergangssystem an.\n\nCryEngine unterst\u00fctzt bereits Bewegungs\u00fcberg\u00e4nge auf KI, aber wir brauchten auch etwas, das vom Spieler gesteuert wird. Aufbauend auf diesen Ideen haben wir ein System geschrieben, das Schnappsch\u00fcsse von der gew\u00fcnschten Bewegung des Spielers macht und bestimmt, ob der Spieler eine gro\u00dfe \u00c4nderung vornimmt, die zus\u00e4tzliche Schritte erfordert, um die Richtung zu verlangsamen oder zu \u00e4ndern. Dies geschieht in Form von Starts (Leerlauf zu Bewegung), Stopps (Bewegung zu Leerlauf) und Jukes (schnell wechselnde Richtungen). Dies ermutigt die Spieler, taktischer \u00fcber ihre Bewegung nachzudenken und sich ihrer Umgebung bewusst zu bleiben. Es l\u00e4sst die Animationen auch viel glatter aussehen, indem es Pops von schnellen Eingabever\u00e4nderungen entfernt. Es tut uns leid zu sagen, aber wir werden 180 No-Scoping oder Strafe-Springen nicht unterst\u00fctzen.\n\nDas folgende Video zeigt das System, aber nicht das Endergebnis. Wir warten immer noch darauf, dass mo-cap bereinigt und integriert wird, um wirklich reibungslose \u00dcberg\u00e4nge zu erzielen. Achten Sie auf den Comm-Link, um weitere Updates zu erhalten!\n\nvon CIG Austin\n\nIm vergangenen Herbst haben wir uns gemeinsam bem\u00fcht, die gesamte Netzwerkarchitektur, die Star Citizen in den kommenden Jahren antreiben w\u00fcrde, zu sichern. Um den Arena Commander aus der T\u00fcr zu bekommen, wurden einige Ecken etwas zu eng geschnitten und dadurch Stabilit\u00e4t und Leistung beeintr\u00e4chtigt, und die Erweiterbarkeit des Systems war nicht ann\u00e4hernd so robust wie n\u00f6tig. Wir sch\u00e4tzen die Geduld, die uns die Community entgegengebracht hat, sehr und freuen uns, Ihnen mitteilen zu k\u00f6nnen, dass wir enorme Fortschritte gemacht haben und kurz vor dem Beginn einer schrittweisen Einf\u00fchrung der neuen Funktionen und Funktionen stehen, die wir entwickelt haben.\n\nDie ersten Teile des umfassenden Updates werden mit dem Star Marine FPS-Modul geliefert. Es wird einen v\u00f6llig neuen Matchmaker, Spielinstanzmanager und Partyservice beinhalten, und wir bezeichnen die Kollektivl\u00f6sung als Generic Instance Manager. Diese Technologie, verbunden mit den neuen Backend-Diensten und der komplett neu gestalteten Interface-Logik des Spielservers, wird letztendlich zu einem wesentlich reibungsloseren Mehrspielererlebnis f\u00fchren. Die Wartezeiten werden drastisch verk\u00fcrzt und Sie sollten insgesamt weitaus weniger Probleme haben, wenn Sie versuchen, Multiplayer-Spiele zu erstellen oder sich ihnen anzuschlie\u00dfen. Das eleganter abstrahierte System wird die Erstellung neuer Spielmodi erheblich vereinfachen, die wir sehr effektiv nutzen werden, da wir allm\u00e4hlich zus\u00e4tzliche Teile des gr\u00f6\u00dferen Spielsets enth\u00fcllen, die Sie schlie\u00dflich im gesamten Spiel erleben k\u00f6nnen. Unter der Haube wird das neue System den Komponentensystemen viel mehr Informationen liefern. Um beispielsweise eine bessere und angenehmere Erfahrung zu erm\u00f6glichen, kann das Matchmaking nun das Qualifikationsniveau, die Spielerschiffe und die damit verbundenen Waffen, priorisierte Kartenpr\u00e4ferenzen, Ping-Zeiten und vieles mehr ber\u00fccksichtigen.\n\nW\u00e4hrend wir bis vor kurzem noch mit zeitweiligen Problemen zu k\u00e4mpfen hatten, wenn die Spielerlasten ein bestimmtes Niveau erreichten, wurde das neue System vom Boden bis in weitaus gr\u00f6\u00dfere H\u00f6hen gebaut. Auch wenn wir davon ausgehen, dass es auf dem Weg dorthin einige kleine Probleme geben wird, sollte die modulare Architektur es uns erm\u00f6glichen, die meisten Probleme mit weitaus gr\u00f6\u00dferer Geschwindigkeit zu l\u00f6sen, als wir es in der Vergangenheit konnten. Diese Skalierbarkeit war f\u00fcr uns ein sehr wichtiges Ziel, da wir erwarten, dass die Spielerzahl ziemlich deutlich ansteigt, wenn wir beginnen, die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung von spielbareren Funktionen zu beschleunigen, und w\u00e4hrend wir uns noch nicht entspannt haben, atmen wir alle ein wenig leichter, da alles anf\u00e4ngt, ziemlich gut zusammenzukommen.\n\nDas neue System verbessert zwar die bestehende Funktionalit\u00e4t, bietet aber auch Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr viele neue Funktionen, die im Laufe des Jahres 2015 ver\u00f6ffentlicht werden. Arena Commander wird bald die M\u00f6glichkeit erhalten, Operationen mit mehreren Besatzungen zu unterst\u00fctzen. Ein vollwertiges Chat-System - vollgepackt mit einer Vielzahl von leistungsstarken Funktionen - befindet sich in der Endphase der Tests. Das kommende Sozialmodul wird es Spielern erm\u00f6glichen, andere in ihre Hangars einzuladen und automatisch Gruppen zu bilden, und die gleiche Instanzverwaltungs- und Spielerrouting-Funktionalit\u00e4t, die es antreibt, und die anderen Spielmodule werden bald Mehrspieler-Landezonen und andere interessante Punkte erm\u00f6glichen.\n\nWir freuen uns sehr, dass wir uns endlich dem Punkt n\u00e4hern k\u00f6nnen, an dem wir Ihnen einige der wichtigsten Verbesserungen im Netzwerkbereich, an denen wir so lange gearbeitet haben, in die Hand geben k\u00f6nnen. Es war eine Menge Arbeit, aber wir denken, dass Sie uns zustimmen werden, dass es sich alles gelohnt hat, wenn Sie die Ergebnisse sehen.\n\nvon CIG Austin\n\nDie technologischen Anforderungen, um die Vision von Star Citizen zu verwirklichen, sind unglaublich und es werden regelm\u00e4\u00dfig die Grenzen dessen, was mit Motoren der aktuellen Generation erreichbar ist, \u00fcberschritten. Dies erfordert ein hochkar\u00e4tiges Team von Spezialisten und Generalisten aus der ganzen Welt, um einige sehr schwierige Probleme auf einzigartige und neuartige Weise zu l\u00f6sen.\n\nEs erfordert auch die intelligente Nutzung und Neuzuordnung der verf\u00fcgbaren Technologie, da wir nicht allzu lange brauchen, um dies alles zu erm\u00f6glichen!\n\nIntern wurde der Schwerpunkt auf die Performance gelegt und es wurden einige massive Fortschritte gemacht, von denen Sie einige mit der Ver\u00f6ffentlichung des 1.1.2-Patches erleben werden. Nach der Durchf\u00fchrung von Deep Profiling und Ladezeitanalyse gab es viele Bereiche, in denen Gewinne erzielt werden konnten. Einige dieser \u00c4nderungen nutzen das Streaming durch die Aufteilung von Assets besser, um lange Blockierlasten f\u00fcr diese Assets zu vermeiden. Ein \"im Vers\" Beispiel daf\u00fcr ist, wenn man sagt, man nimmt alle Geometriedaten f\u00fcr ein einzelnes Schiff und packt alles zusammen in eine einzige Datei (man bedenke wiederum, dass dies die Lod's und alle Schadenszust\u00e4nde beinhaltet), es ist extrem gro\u00df und braucht sehr viel Zeit zum Laden. Wenn Sie diese Geometrie in separate Dateien aufteilen und von unten nach oben laden (Low LOD bis High LOD), ergibt sich ein wesentlich schnelleres Laden und Streaming. Diese Optimierung kann auch f\u00fcr Texturen durchgef\u00fchrt werden, und das haben wir in letzter Zeit getan. Dies wird f\u00fcr die meisten Benutzer eine deutliche Leistungssteigerung darstellen.\n\nMit dem, was gesagt wird, gibt es noch gr\u00f6\u00dfere \u00c4nderungen, die f\u00fcr Star Marine kommen, und wir wollen sicher sein, dass die Erfahrung so reibungslos wie m\u00f6glich direkt aus dem Tor heraus ist. Wir haben die CryEngine-Version intern aktualisiert, was keine leichte Aufgabe ist, da Star Citizen ganz erheblich von der Basis der CryEngine abgewichen ist. Einige der wichtigsten Aktualisierungen, die CIG zus\u00e4tzlich zur aktualisierten Motorversion vorgenommen hat, sind grundlegende, die vielleicht obskur klingen, aber wichtige S\u00e4ulen f\u00fcr viele der gro\u00dfen Ver\u00e4nderungen sind, die kommen werden, um Star Citizen auf das Niveau zu bringen, das die Gemeinschaft verlangt.\n\nEinige davon beinhalten wichtige Updates des x64-Bit-Weltkoordinatensystems, die Konvertierung in x64 globale Entity-IDs, Geometrie-Streaming, GOST (Game Object State Machine), Voxelized Local\/Multi Physics Grids und vieles mehr. Star Marine wird auch einen aktualisierten Renderer mit einem einheitlichen Diffus-\/Spektrald\u00e4mpfungsmodell und neu gestalteten Fl\u00e4chenleuchten einsetzen, was optisch eine echte Verbesserung darstellt, und wir wissen, dass die Gemeinschaft die zus\u00e4tzliche Zeit zu sch\u00e4tzen wei\u00df, die wir uns genommen haben, um die Star Marine Version auf h\u00f6chstem Niveau aussehen zu lassen und zu leisten.\n\nDies sind nur einige der wichtigsten grundlegenden Funktionen, die wir vom Tech-Team in die H\u00e4nde der Community legen wollen, so schnell wie m\u00f6glich, aber nicht fr\u00fcher!\n\nAbschlie\u00dfend m\u00f6chte ich noch ein wenig auf die Stabilit\u00e4t eingehen. Die Entwicklung von Star Citizen ist extrem schnell skaliert, und es gibt Schwierigkeiten mit einem Projekt dieser Gr\u00f6\u00dfenordnung, das durchschnittlich 1500 Check-Ins pro Woche durchf\u00fchrt, um die Builds f\u00fcr unsere Spieler, Tester und intern f\u00fcr unsere Entwickler stabil zu halten. Wesentliche \u00c4nderungen wurden am Entwicklungsfluss der Features intern und am Prozess, in dem sie es schaffen, Builds zu ver\u00f6ffentlichen, vorgenommen. Auch wenn das ein wenig langweilig klingt, ist es wichtig, dass diese Stabilit\u00e4t in den Entwicklungsprozess integriert wird, was intern geschieht, um das Tempo der Entwicklungsstars zu halten.\n\naus der Gie\u00dferei 42 Manchester\n\nWie Sie vielleicht schon geh\u00f6rt haben, verwendet Star Citizen eine integrierte, interaktive Sound-Engine namens Wwise. Wise, obwohl das Authoring-Toolset, gibt Sound Designern die M\u00f6glichkeit, Ressourcen wie Speicher, CPU und h\u00f6rbare Bandbreite zu verwalten - und Entscheidungen dar\u00fcber zu treffen, wie das Gleichgewicht zwischen ihnen f\u00e4llt; diese Erm\u00e4chtigung hat exponentielle positive Auswirkungen.\n\nMit den bef\u00e4higten Sound-Designern, die in der Lage sind, Qualit\u00e4t und Praxisn\u00e4he \u00fcber Tools und Profiling in Einklang zu bringen, wird ihnen mehr Zeit zur Verf\u00fcgung gestellt, um bessere Sounds zu erzeugen. Dadurch steht den Toningenieuren mehr Zeit zur Verf\u00fcgung, um sich auf die Verbesserung der Werkzeuge zur Audiointegration von Game-Engines zu konzentrieren und die Integration von Audio in andere Disziplinen zu verbessern. Letztendlich bedeutet dies eine bessere Integration von qualitativ h\u00f6herwertigem Audio auf breiter Front; mit VFX, mit Animation, mit Filmen, mit Design durch Dialog und Musikpartitur, mit Umgebungen durch reichhaltigeren Umgebungsklang, mit genauer reagierendem Audio f\u00fcr physische Requisiten und Objekte, mit tieferen Audiosystemen f\u00fcr von der Spieleragentur gesteuerte Elemente wie Schiffe, Waffen, T\u00fcren und andere interaktive Objekte. All dies f\u00fchrt zu einer h\u00f6heren wahrgenommenen Qualit\u00e4t des gesamten Produkts in den H\u00e4nden der Spieler. Besser klingt es, besser sieht es aus!\n\nWise erlaubt es uns, besser, schneller und zerst\u00f6rungsfrei zu iterieren; wir k\u00f6nnen Dinge ausprobieren, \u00c4nderungen am Vorsingen vornehmen und sie bei Bedarf r\u00fcckg\u00e4ngig machen. Wir k\u00f6nnen unsere K\u00e4mpfe leichter austragen und hochwertigere Audiodateien f\u00fcr die Objekte verwenden, die sie am meisten ben\u00f6tigen. Sobald Sie ein besseres Verst\u00e4ndnis des Kontextes haben, ist es m\u00f6glich, fundiertere Entscheidungen dar\u00fcber zu treffen, welche Assets teurer sein sollten, und ich kenne keine andere Audio-Middleware, die diese Anforderung so sehr realisiert wie WWise; absolut notwendig bei einem Projekt mit erweitertem Umfang und Umfang wie Star Citizen.\n\nEs gibt eine Reihe von inkrementellen Verbesserungen beim \u00dcbergang zu Wwise. Allein auf der Mischseite stehen uns folgende Tools zur Verf\u00fcgung, die standardm\u00e4\u00dfig integriert sind:\n\nWise Meter: Neben der Unterst\u00fctzung beim Mischen k\u00f6nnen wir damit auch das Signal an das Spiel zur\u00fcckgeben: Wir sprechen mit VFX \u00fcber das Steuern bestimmter Parameter auf der Grundlage des Audiosignals. Feuerschall kann z.B. das Feuer VFX ver\u00e4ndern. Wir probieren die Realit\u00e4t aus und das kann die Dinge realistisch antreiben Ducking: Wenn Sie unbedingt m\u00f6chten, dass der Dialog \u00fcber kritische Pfade geh\u00f6rt wird, kann er den Rest der Klanglandschaft nach unten verschieben, so dass er definitiv mit der Loudness Metering-Funktion ausgestattet ist: Wir wollen Konsistenz und Dynamik sicherstellen, und das kann so konfiguriert werden, dass es der Hardware, die der Spieler verwendet, entspricht, wie sie HDR bevorzugt: Wahrgenommene Lautst\u00e4rke kann erreicht werden, ohne den Spieler mit einem Schalldruck anzugreifen, der tats\u00e4chlich ohrenbet\u00e4ubend w\u00e4re Wir k\u00f6nnen mit Convolution Reverb R\u00e4ume realistischer modellieren - wir k\u00f6nnen sogar selbst reale R\u00e4ume probieren und sie im Spiel so modellieren, dass ein Cockpitinnenraum Audio wie ein echter Cockpitinnenraum reflektiert.\n\nWir haben Plug-in-Suiten, um den Klang so stark zu beeinflussen, wie wir es von digitalen Offline-Audio-Workstations wie iZotope und McDSP gewohnt sind; wir werden in der Lage sein, Gesang zur Laufzeit so zu routen und zu verarbeiten, als ob er von einem dynamischen Radiosystem kommt, anstatt auf offline verarbeitete statische Objekte zu vertrauen.\n\nWir haben das interaktive Musiksystem Wwise, um die Musik als Reaktion auf sich \u00e4ndernde Spielst\u00e4nde leichter zu \u00e4ndern, wichtig, um dies tun zu k\u00f6nnen, ohne die inh\u00e4renten Regeln zu brechen, denen die Musik folgen muss.\n\nAlle oben genannten Punkte stellen unsere wichtigsten \"Gewinne\" dar. Es ist ein komplexes System und die Zusammenf\u00fchrung mit einem anderen komplexen System (Cryengine) ist ein kniffliges Andockverfahren, und wir hoffen, es ohne allzu gro\u00dfe Reibung abzuschlie\u00dfen!\n\nWas die l\u00e4ngerfristigen Ziele von Star Citizen betrifft: Wir strukturieren unsere Sounds und Ans\u00e4tze f\u00fcr Audio um, um sie erweiterbarer, rekonfigurierbarer und \u00fcberlagerter und\/oder granularer zu gestalten. Anstatt komplexe Klangschichten in einzelne Assets zu mischen, was ziemlich unflexibel sein kann, k\u00f6nnen wir f\u00fcr eine variablere Open-World (oder sogar ein Open-Universum) sorgen, indem wir sie zur Laufzeit neu kombinieren. Wir werden eine h\u00f6here Stimmenzahl haben, aber mit sorgf\u00e4ltigem Management und Ausgleich k\u00f6nnen wir exponentiell mehr Variationen haben, als der linearere Ansatz f\u00fcr das Sound-Design von Spielen uns bietet. Wenn das Spiel auf Komponenten basiert, die der Spieler in eine beliebige Anzahl von Permutationen umkonfigurieren kann, kann das Audio folgen.\n\nDies ist der Kern eines eher auf Audiosysteme ausgerichteten Ansatzes, der skalierbar und variabel ist, wenn Star Citizen selbst expandiert. Wir werden die Werkzeuge haben, um dies zu tun, w\u00e4hrend wir gleichzeitig ein filmischeres, \u00e4sthetisches Audioschema beibehalten, wo dies f\u00fcr unsere linearen Spielbahnen (z.B. Staffel 42) erforderlich ist.\n\nWir hoffen, dass dieses Update Ihnen geholfen hat, alle St\u00fccke, die in Star Marine gehen, besser zu verstehen, wobei Teams aus Studios auf der ganzen Welt wesentliche Elemente zu seiner Entwicklung beigetragen haben. Wir werden weiterhin regelm\u00e4\u00dfig \u00fcber den Comm-Link und w\u00e4hrend Around the Vers informieren, bis wir bereit sind, die erste \u00f6ffentliche Ver\u00f6ffentlichung zu starten. Vertrauen Sie uns, wenn wir sagen, dass wir genauso begierig wie Sie darauf sind, mit dem Spieltest zu beginnen und die Star Citizen-Community sehen zu lassen, in was wir alles investiert haben.  Star Marine ist ein wichtiger Baustein f\u00fcr das komplette Star Citizen Erlebnis, es ist ein Schaufenster daf\u00fcr, wie weit wir mit vielen unserer Technologien und Prozesse gekommen sind.... und es wird auch viel Spa\u00df machen! Wir sehen uns am Gold Horizon.","zh_CN":"Greetings Citizens,\nIt\u2019s no secret that Star Citizen\u2019s next major release is Star Marine, previously known as the FPS module. In much the same way that Arena Commander (or the Dogfighting Module) is helping us build a better space sim, Star Marine is intended to introduce the first person shooter gameplay that will be part of the core of both Squadron 42 and Star Citizen.\n\nSince the days of Wing Commander, I\u2019ve dreamed of integrating a first person shooter with a space sim. It\u2019s such an exciting idea: you might land your fighter on a carrier and then race into battle to repel alien boarders\u2026 or you might put down on a seedy border world and fight off pirates eager to steal your cargo! And on a broader level, it speaks to our longtime goal of increasing immersion: you\u2019re no longer taken out of the action with between-mission gameflow menus or worse. Instead, from the moment you start the game to the minute you exit, you\u2019re living in and interacting with the Star Citizen world!\n\nThat\u2019s why we kicked off Star Citizen as a \u2018First Person Universe\u2019 right from the start, and it\u2019s why we picked an FPS engine to build on. Star Citizen isn\u2019t like my previous games: you aren\u2019t directly \u2018playing\u2019 a ship\u2026 you\u2019re controlling a character who is flying a ship. You\u2019ve had first person action against fighters in Arena Commander, you\u2019ve explored your hangar\u2026 you\u2019ve even drawn your pistol in combat to take shots at other players and their ships! Thanks to the support of Star Citizen\u2019s backers, the framework of our modular development process and the incredible talent of the teams working on the game, melding elements of a first person shooter with a space combat adventure are no longer a distant dream\u2026 it\u2019s an impending reality! Star Marine, like the upcoming multicrew module, means a leap far ahead in this process; it\u2019s something many of us (and I suspect many of you) have dreamed about for many years.\n\nWhere Star Marine differs from Arena Commander is that we\u2019re not launching it in its most basic game. Instead, we\u2019re trying for something more. It includes animation fidelity and attention to detail that you wouldn\u2019t normally expect in an \u201calpha\u201d gameplay module. There\u2019s even an entire sci-fi sports game with zero-G movement fully simulated and animated in there! (And don\u2019t worry, there\u2019s traditional FPS action too\u2026 with some new ideas that aim to set Star Citizen apart from the crowd.)\n\nWe know you\u2019re eager to try Star Marine, and our job today is to get it ready for you. That doesn\u2019t mean releasing the end-all finished product; as with Arena Commander, we\u2019re going to be revising and updating and expanding the game based both on our schedule and your future feedback. What it does mean is that we need to address everything we possibly can before we release the first version, because there\u2019s no sense getting feedback where we know further work is needed. Recent weeks have focused on getting our ducks in a row based on our internal testing, which has lead us to revamp everything from overhauling the network backend to improving the character animations you saw at PAX East to the revamping the zero-g portion of the game to better match our lore.\n\nToday, I\u2019ve asked some of Cloud Imperium\u2019s department heads who are involved in developing the module to update you on the status of Star Marine. Not the broad \u2018how cool is it\u2019 information that you get at events and in the press, but the nitty gritty: what are we doing right now? What are we improving and why? I hope you find it an interesting read and that you understand why Star Marine isn\u2019t like anything I\u2019ve ever developed!\n\n\u2014 Chris Roberts\n\nfrom CIG Austin & Santa Monica\n\nOver the past couple months our character team has made great strides in pushing visual fidelity. With technology consistently being pushed forward, we at Cloud Imperium Games feel the need to always move forward and push the bar. The characters in development have had a major overhaul. We trust that the extra time we spend early in creation will improve the quality of your universe immensely. We strive to provide the best quality experience that our citizens deserve.\n\nDuring our first approach at these Characters we noticed certain opportunities for improvement that we felt inclined to take advantage of. With these recent discoveries we have started the development of a new and exciting approach to allow Citizens to express themselves with a customizable character system. While Squadron 42 will not allow customization of characters in the same way, the characters available have provided the research we need and has given us valuable insight (pilots in Squadron 42 will still pick their gender and look, but won\u2019t customize outfits, gear, etc. during their military assignment.)\n\nSome of the more major development has been reconstructing and adopting ship techniques and using them on the characters. This brings the characters into the same world and quality standard as our ships. Our ships have really taken off after a few years of development. We have also introduced an entirely new level of material detail for certain characters. Our development on using true PBR materials on character assets and tileable textures to increase texture density allows us to increase the look of the characters while providing our game with less memory intensive techniques. We are also looking into multi-layer blending per material.\n\nThe multi-layer blending will be the next step in character development. It will allow for modularity, optimization, and look continuity. Rather than having custom characters and materials traditionally, we are creating a system where materials are reused, physically accurate, and will be able to continually update and improve. It is an extremely difficult process but above all else an exciting one. The time taken in pre-production and development will help make the citizens more believable and beautiful. We feel great about the future of our character system, and just like the ships, the more we do, the better they will become.\n\nThe Marines and Outlaws have undergone an extreme home makeover to get them ready for battle in Star Marine! The CIG Character Team, supervised by CG Supervisor Forrest Stephan, has improved the look and feel of these characters by leaps and bounds over the past couple of months. We\u2019ve also been using these characters as a testbed for some new techniques to better improve the overall character pipeline at CIG. A major focus has been making these characters feel truly next generation, and they look the part.\n\nWe\u2019ve addressed several glaring issues that were present with the characters before, chief among them was a lack of visual cohesiveness amongst the various archetypes. The Outlaws now all look like they come from the same gang, and the Marines now look like they belong in the same outfit. This will prove crucial when trying to pick your teammates out in a firefight. Another sore spot that has been fixed up were the materials themselves. Every piece of metal, carbon fiber, and leather can be picked out at first glance thanks to the efforts made to get the characters looking as close to real-world as possible.\n\nIn addition, time was spent on beefing up some of the characters\u2019 armor to make them feel a little more protected and \u201cheavier\u201d than their lighter counterparts. The Helmets themselves were also addressed, revamping the interiors so that they properly reflect the geometry on the exterior. Lastly, we\u2019ve been upgrading the RSI Space Suit characters to get them ready to go head-to-head in Astro Arena playing SATABall. We\u2019re giving them team colors, uprezzing various parts to reach our latest quality bar (it was one of the first characters we made, after all), and improving the materials. All in all it has been an incredibly productive few months, and we can\u2019t wait to show these beauties off to you soon!\n\nSpecifics in Development:\n\nIncreased poly-count\n\nMore physically accurate materials\n\nFixing and limiting Anti-Aliasing issues\n\nLaying the Groundwork for customization system\n\nCharacter Modularity\n\nCharacter Optimization and levels of detail\n\nMulti-Layer Blending\n\nCharacter Class and Type specifics\n\nPU Character Standards\n\nfrom CIG Santa Monica\n\nRe-vamping the First Person Simulation has been a monumental task for Animation. First, while we are making a ground combat FPS, we are also, at the same time, building a Zero-G combat set. The CryEngine had never had a shipped game that focused on zero-g combat for any considerable extent, so there has been a considerable amount of R&D and hand-keyed animation that has been going into that portion. We also had problems getting a really solid zero-g motion set in the game and it took a while before our partners at Illfonic and our very own Sean Tracy were able to help us solve that. While it is still an ongoing development, really getting good zero-g feel is certainly not a simple thing and will undoubtedly continue to require future development from animation. On the ground combat side, we are working on making animations for no weapon, rifles (including sniper rifles and smgs), pistols, grenades, and 2 handed gadgets for the normal Marine plus a new set of animations we are working on for the Heavy Marine. Sliding, cover, vaulting, and climbing over are all also beginning their process into game. Gunplay is important, if not paramount, in any FPS, and our team has been working on re-vamping the gunplay and feel from what was seen at PAX. To support that feel, we are also working on reloads and jukes- systems that will give more weight and realism to the movement of players. For those Citizens not in-the-know, we started re-vamping everything in January of this year, starting from scratch on most animation sets to make sure that we\u2019re delivering the high-quality results we are all expecting of Star Citizen. But it all takes time- delivering a v0 for both a ground-based FPS and a Zero-G FPS as are both challenging tasks. I expect our first release will have many bugs, glitches and things that just overall need polish to make a truly great game. The Star Citizen dev team is dedicated to seeing this through and delivering the Best Damn First Person Space Sim ever and we all appreciate your support as we work towards that goal!\n\nfrom Illfonic\n\nWith the coming release of the FPS module we wanted to update everyone with changes to the environment artwork in terms of lighting, and support for the various game modes. We recently we made many changes to implement a new lighting approach that enhanced the game visuals for both the Astro Arena environment and the Gold Horizon station.\n\nThe new lighting model is a pretty big step over what we have been able to achieve in the past, and is being applied to the entire game as a whole. The lighting effects are much more realistic and have provided the artist with a greater scope of control. Every single light is now physically calculated in terms of its volume, and brightness. Previously, most lights were simple point lights that generated a faked specular highlight which wasn\u2019t truly leveraging PBR to the fullest. Now surfaces calculate and bounce light much more accurately. You can see in the before and after images just how big a difference the change has made.\n\nAlong with the new game mode for the Astro Arena, SATA Ball, new artwork had to be created as well. The actual ball asset was needed, and a bunch of small supporting effects and animations had to be implemented as well. The ball itself needed to be easily identifiable within the environment, as well as the player who currently had possession of it. For this a heavy glow was attached to the ball, along with HUD iconography to make it easy to spot from any distance. An outline was also added to the player holding the ball so they could be picked out of a crowd.\n\nDuring the PAX Demo, we also realized that players were having trouble seeing the edges of the cover objects placed within the level. To address this, we added varied lights to the edge of each piece, and gave them a solid glow and light to reflect the side of the arena that the piece is on. This made a huge difference in helping players navigate in full 360 zero-g, which can get pretty disorienting if everything looks the same from the art side.\n\nWith the lighting change and adding additional game-play elements the environment art needed to reflect the realism that we all shoot for in Star Citizen. Global art improvements included :\nAdjusting the ambient lights\nGame-play layout changes in the Golden Horizon level\nAdding stadium style canned lighting on the ring and above the goals\nIncreased fidelity on the advertisements on both ring and ad drones\nAdded frosted back-lite panels on the cover modules\nOverall increased the global lighting contrast\nAdded smaller human scale lights\nAdded more smaller human sized details for scale across many assets in each level\nCreating animated advertisements that are used on the Ad drones buzzing around the exterior of the Astro-Arena\nAn Improved skybox with additional nebula assets\nAn additional lighting pass on Golden Horizon\nGame-play specific artistic level changes for both Astro-Arena and Golden Horizon\nFinally, its important to note that when the lighting integration changes came online there was a ripple effect. This means that not only did we update the lighting scheme; we also had to made edits to the PBR materials to ensure the best image quality you all expect.\n\nfrom Illfonic\n\nYou guys have probably heard quite a bit about SATA Ball if you\u2019ve been following the monthly studio reports or watching the Around the Verse episodes. It\u2019s something that is very different and unique to Star Citizen in comparison to what you are probably used to with with traditional FPS games.\n\nThe rules for SATA Ball are fairly simple. Two teams spawn in at opposite ends of the Astro Arena, a large zero gravity room with scattered cover objects suspended in the air. Meanwhile, the SATA Ball is spawned in the center of the room. Both teams must race towards the ball to gain control of it, using thier legs and arms for movement, as well as a grappling hook device that is attached to their sidearm. Players can disable their enemies for a short period of time by shooting them, but they can\u2019t actually kill them, it\u2019s only a temporary stun affect.\n\nWhen a player reaches or grapples the SATA Ball towards themselves, they can interact with it to grab it. The player who currently has possession of the ball is lit up so they are easy to spot by both their own team and the enemy team. As the ball carrier you cannot fire your sidearm, but you can pass, shoot or drop the ball. Players pass the ball back and forth while avoiding enemy fire until they are able to shoot the ball through the enemy gate at their spawn. Once a point is scored, the round is over and the game resets. A full match consists of seven rounds.\n\nWhile SATA Ball does involve some gun-play, that isn\u2019t the main point of interest. Really what we are using SATA Ball for is a test bed to make the zero-g locomotion system something very robust, and ultimately a viable movement strategy when you are in that environment. Typically you would expect to see thrusters for movement in zero-g, but for Star Citizen the easy way out doesn\u2019t make sense. You should have the choice to move around without thrusters\u2026 and be successful if you are skilled, and we want players to be able to do that.\n\nThis is something that hasn\u2019t really been done before, and it\u2019s no easy task. First, the controls must feel natural and accessible. Second, we want to simulate how physics and rag-doll play into that control system. Lastly, after both of those two goals are accomplished we need a robust set of full body look poses and animations to make that happen visually with the fidelity and attention to detail you have all come to expect from Star Citizen, even in an alpha state.\n\nWorking towards the goal of how rag-doll and physics play together, a new system needed to be developed which Travis Day has coined the term AEGIS. This system allows for partial or full-body transitions in and out of what is basically a ragdoll state, using both procedural and artist-driven techniques. In other words, this will allow us to change the character (or portions of the character) to collide with and be affected by their surroundings, instead of animating normally.\n\nExamples of this include:\nGetting stunned by a weapon, and having the character go temporarily \u201climp\u201d before returning control.\nAllowing the extremities to go limp while incapacitated or injured.\n\nThis is currently functional for full-body transitions, with partial-body support coming next.\n\nIn Star Marine (as with the rest of Star Citizen) the goal is to simulate reality as much as possible. In most 1st person games the player is able to stop on a dime and change directions instantly, forgoing all previous motion in favor of new input. For Star Citizen we wanted not only better looking motion but more realistic transitions between motions to simulate this. This is where the movement transition system comes in.\n\nCryEngine already has support for movement transitions on AI, but we needed something player driven as well. Building on those ideas we wrote a system that takes snapshots of the player\u2019s requested movement and determines if the player is making a large enough change that would require extra steps to slow down or change direction. This comes in the form of starts (idle to moving), stops (moving to idle) and jukes (quickly changing directions). This encourages players to think more tactically about their movement and to stay aware of their surroundings. It also makes the animations look much smoother by removing pops from quick input changes. So we\u2019re sorry to say but we won\u2019t be supporting 180 no-scoping or strafe-jumping.\n\nThe video below shows the system, but not the final result. We\u2019re still waiting on mo-cap to be cleaned up and integrated to have truly smooth transitions. Keep watching the Comm-Link for more updates!\n\nfrom CIG Austin\n\nLast Fall, we made a concerted effort to lock down the entirety of the networking architecture that would drive Star Citizen in the years to come. Prior to that, in order to get Arena Commander out the door, some corners were cut a bit too closely and as a result stability and performance have suffered, and the system\u2019s extensibility hasn\u2019t been nearly as robust as it needed to be. We greatly appreciate the patience that the community has afforded us, and are happy to announce that we\u2019ve made tremendous progress and are getting close to beginning a phased rollout of the new features and functionality that we\u2019ve been developing.\n\nThe first pieces of the comprehensive update will arrive with the Star Marine FPS module. It will include a completely new matchmaker, game instance manager, and party service, and we refer to the collective solution as the Generic Instance Manager. That technology, linked with the new backend services and completely recrafted game server interface logic, will ultimately result in a far smoother multiplayer experience. Queue times will be dramatically reduced and you should encounter far fewer problems overall when attempting to create or join multiplayer games. The more elegantly abstracted system will considerably simplify the creation of new game modes, which we\u2019ll utilize to great effect as we gradually reveal additional bits and pieces of the larger set of gameplay that you\u2019ll eventually be able to experience in the full game. Under the hood, the new system will expose a lot more information to the component systems. For example, in order to provide a better, more enjoyable experience, matchmaking will now be able to take into account skill levels, player ships and their associated armaments, prioritized map preferences, ping times, and much more.\n\nWhereas until recently we were still experiencing intermittent problems when player loads reached a particular level, the new system has been built from the ground up to scale to far greater heights. While we fully expect for there to be some minor hiccups along the way, the modular architecture should allow us to deal with most issues with far greater speed than we\u2019ve been able to in the past. This scalability was a very important goal for us as we expect to see the player count rising pretty significantly as we begin to accelerate the release of more playable functionality, and while we haven\u2019t yet relaxed we\u2019re all breathing a bit easier as everything is starting to come together quite well.\n\nWhile the new system certainly improves upon the existing functionality, it also adds support for a lot of new features that will be released throughout 2015. Arena Commander will soon gain the ability to support multi-crew operations. A full-blown chat system \u2013 replete with a multitude of powerful capabilities \u2013 is in the final stages of testing. The upcoming Social Module will allow players to invite others into their hangars and automatically form parties, and the same instance management and player routing functionality that drives it and the other game modules will soon enable multiplayer landing zones and other points of interest.\n\nWe\u2019re very excited to finally be approaching the point where we can put some of the major networking improvements that we\u2019ve been working on for so long into your hands. It\u2019s been a lot of work, but we think you\u2019ll agree that it\u2019s all been worth it once you see the results.\n\nfrom CIG Austin\n\nThe technological requirements to achieve the vision of Star Citizen are incredible and it regularly pushes the boundaries of what is achievable with current generation engines. This requires a top level team of specialists and generalist coming together from around the world to solve some very difficult problems in unique and novel ways.\n\nIt also requires the intelligent usage and re-allocation of available technology as we can\u2019t take too long to make this all possible!\n\nInternally, major focus has been given to performance and some massive strides have started to be made some of which you\u2019ll experience come the release of the 1.1.2 patch. Upon performing deep profiling and load time analysis there were many areas where wins could be made. Some of these changes leverage streaming better through the splitting of assets to avoid long blocking loads for said asset. An \u201cin the verse\u201d example of this is if you say take all the geometric data for a single ship and you pack it all up together into a single file (again consider this includes the lod\u2019s and all the damage states) it\u2019s extremely large and takes a very long time to load. When you split this geometry up into separate files and load it from bottom to top (low LOD to high LOD) it yields far faster loading and streaming. This optimization can also be made for textures and we\u2019ve done this recently. This is going to be an obvious performance improvement for most users.\n\nWith that said, there are even bigger changes to come for Star Marine and we want to be sure that the experience is as smooth as possible right out of the gate. We\u2019ve updated the CryEngine version internally which is no small task as Star Citizen has diverged quite significantly from the base of CryEngine. Some of the major updates CIG has made additionally to the updated engine version are fundamental ones that might sound obscure but are important pillars for many of the major changes that are to come to scale Star Citizen to the level that the community demands.\n\nSome of these include important updates to x64 bit world coordinate system, the conversion to x64 global entity id\u2019s, geometry streaming, GOST (Game Object State Machine), Voxelized Local\/Multi Physics Grids and many more. Star Marine will also sport an updated renderer using a unified diffuse\/spec attenuation model and re-factored area lights, visually this makes quite an improvement and we know the community will appreciate the extra time we\u2019ve taken to make the Star Marine release look and perform at the highest level.\n\nThese are just a few of the major underlying features that we, from the tech team, want to get into the community\u2019s hands as soon as possible but no sooner!\n\nFinally I\u2019d like to touch a bit on stability. Development for Star Citizen has scaled extremely quickly and there are difficulties with a project of this scale, which averages 1500 check-ins per week, to keeping builds stable for our players, testers as well as internally for our developers. Major changes were made to the development flow of features internally and the process in which they make it out to release builds. Whilst this might sound a bit boring, to maintain the tempo of development star citizen demands it\u2019s important this stability is built into the development process which is what is being done internally.\n\nfrom Foundry 42 Manchester\n\nAs you may have heard, Star Citizen uses an integrated, interactive sound engine called Wwise. Wwise, though its authoring toolset, gives Sound Designers the ability to manage resources such as memory, CPU, and audible bandwidth \u2013 and make decisions as to how the balance between them falls; this empowerment has exponential positive effects.\n\nWith sound designers empowered, and able to balance quality against practicalities via tools and profiling, more time is made available for them to create better sounds. Thus more time is available for audio engineers to concentrate on improving game-engine audio integration tools, and improve how audio is integrated with other disciplines. Ultimately this equates to better integration of higher quality audio across the board; with VFX, with animation, with cinematics, with design through dialogue and musical score, with environments through richer ambient sound, with more accurately responsive audio for physical props and objects, with deeper audio systems for player-agency driven elements such as ships, weapons, doors, and other interactive assets. All of which leads to higher perceived quality of the entire product in the players\u2019 hands. Better it sounds, better it looks!\n\nWwise allows us to iterate better, more quickly, and non-destructively; we can try things out, audition changes and revert them if need be. We can more readily pick our battles and devote higher quality audio to those assets that require them most. Once you have a better appreciation of context it\u2019s possible to make more informed decisions about what assets should be more expensive, and I don\u2019t know of any other audio middleware that realises this requirement as much as WWise; entirely necessary on a project of expanding scale and scope such as Star Citizen.\n\nThere are a number of incremental improvements in moving over to to Wwise. On the mixing side alone, we have the following tools available to us, integrated as standard:\n\nWwise Meter: As well as assisting with mixing, with this we can actually feed signal back to the game: we\u2019re talking with VFX about driving certain parameters based on audio signal. Fire sounds can change fire VFX, for instance. We sample reality and that can drive things realistically\n\nDucking: If you absolutely require critical-path dialogue to be heard, it can move the rest of the soundscape down so it\u2019s definitely delivered\n\nLoudness Metering: We want to ensure consistency and dynamic range, and this can be configured to match the hardware that the player is using, to their preference\n\nHDR: Perceived loudness can be achieved without assailing the player with sound pressure that would be actually deafening\n\nWe can more realistically model spaces with Convolution Reverb \u2013 we can even sample real-world spaces ourselves and model them in-game so that a cockpit interior reflects audio like a real cockpit interior.\n\nWe have plug-in suites to affect audio much as we would in offline digital audio workstations from the likes of iZotope and McDSP; we\u2019ll be able to route and process vocals at runtime to sound as if they\u2019re coming from a dynamic radio system rather than rely on offline processed static assets.\n\nWe have the Wwise interactive music system to more readily change music in response to changing game states, important to be able to do this without breaking the inherent rules that music needs to follow.\n\nAll the above represent our main \u2018wins\u2019. It\u2019s a complex system and bringing that together with another complex system (Cryengine) is a tricky docking procedure, and we\u2019re hoping to complete it without too much friction!\n\nWhere the longer term goals of Star Citizen are concerned: we\u2019re restructuring our sounds and approaches to audio to be more extensible, more re-configurable and layered and\/or granular. Rather than mixing complex layers of sound down into single assets, which can be quite inflexible, we can cater for a more variable open-world (or open-universe, even) by recombining them at runtime. We will have a higher voice count, but with careful management and balancing, we can have exponentially more variation than the more linear approach to game sound design affords us. Where the game is based around components that the player can reconfigure into any number of permutations, the audio can follow.\n\nThis is the core of a more \u2018audio systems\u2019 led approach, that can scale and vary as Star Citizen itself expands. We\u2019ll have the tools to do this while also maintaining a more cinematic aesthetic audio scheme where that\u2019s required for our linear swathes of gameplay (i.e. Squadron 42).\n\nWe hope this update has helped you better understand all the pieces going in to Star Marine, with teams from studios around the world contributing essential elements to its development. We will continue to provide regular updates on the Comm-Link and during Around the Verse until we\u2019re ready to kick off the first public release. Trust us when we say, we are as eager as you are to kick off playtesting and let the Star Citizen community see what we\u2019ve been putting our all into. Star Marine is an important building block to the complete Star Citizen experience, it\u2019s a showcase for how far we\u2019ve come with many of our technologies and processes\u2026 and it\u2019s going to be a lot of fun, too! We\u2019ll see you on Gold Horizon."},"links_count":0,"comment_count":469,"created_at":"2015-05-09T00:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"11 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-09 01:12:26","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":14696,"next_id":14698}}