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to March\u2019s Monthly Studio Report with updates from all our studios to provide insight into what they\u2019ve been working on. This month, the team delivered Alpha 3.1, the first quarterly release of 2018, continued development of Squadron 42, and much more. With that said, let\u2019s get to it.\nCLOUD IMPERIUM: LOS ANGELES\n\n\n\nVEHICLE FEATURES\nThe US Vehicle Feature Team, which includes team members from Tech Design, Engineering and QA, accomplished a lot this past month. They made some vehicle-related performance improvements, such as with the Vehicle Item Thruster and Landing\/Spawning Components. From there, they looked into the previous progress made on the Scanning feature. This included some further investigations, planning, and initial tasks to get this large feature moving towards delivery, and the team is eager to press forward on the feature. Finally, a large percentage of the team\u2019s time was spent fixing over 50 bugs, including several game crash issues, in our SC Alpha 3.1 branch.\n\n\nVEHICLE PIPELINE\nThe Los Angeles portion of the US Vehicle Pipeline, which includes team members from Art, Tech Design and Tech Art, had a busy March. Working together with other teams outside of LA, such as Animation, VFX, SFX and UI, they launched two new vehicles: the Anvil Terrapin and the Tumbril Cyclone. The Art Team completed their pass prior to March, but continued to provide needed adjustments as other teams wrapped up these two vehicles for the SC Alpha 3.1 release, with all teams working through bugs right up to the release.\n\nTech Art, being a shared resource, worked on some additional vehicles for the 3.1 release: the MISC Razor and the Aegis Reclaimer. Tech Art not only handled the ship damage, but also the rigging, animation and hook-up for landing gear compression. They can\u2019t wait for players to experience landing the Reclaimer in the \u2019verse.\n\nMeanwhile, Art and Tech Design moved forward on vehicles that will be released after 3.1. Art made advances on both the Anvil Hurricane and the updated Consolidated Outland Mustang. Tech Design worked on design briefs for some vehicles that will be slated for future release.\n\nGAMEPLAY FEATURES\nThe Gameplay Feature Team continued to polish the Character Customizer, with the ordering of options, minor UI tweaks, the introduction of idle animations to give characters a more lifelike representation, and the implementation of preview sprites for customization options available in the initial roll out. This should allow players some personal expression so they don\u2019t look too similar to others, while more advanced tech is being developed to realize the rich vision CIG has for this feature.\nAfter polishing the Character Customizer, the team shifted their focus to cleaning up bugs around core experiences initially released for SC Alpha 3.0., beginning with UI and reliability bugs in the insurance claim flow for vehicles. There was general ship improvement in missiles and countermeasures, including 3D radar UI for missiles and proper locking functionality when switching between targets. Issues with ship repair at Cry-Astro were also addressed. The team ensured weapons and attachments were being fully restored to repaired vehicles and that the proper aUEC was withdrawn. Finally, some light and cargo-related issues recently introduced were addressed to restore previous functionality.\nNARRATIVE\nThe Narrative Team handled a wide variety of tasks. They delivered lore content to the site every Tuesday, including part one of the new serialized short story One Good Deed about a Vulcan pilot that runs into trouble during a refueling operation. Subscribers got access to a new portfolio focused on the history of Dumper\u2019s Depot. Time was also spent on this month\u2019s issue of Jump Point, delivering content for marketing materials, and filming a new batch of Loremaker\u2019s episodes.\n\nBesides the usual workload, the team turned their attention to building out the narrative surrounding Hurston and the Lorville landing zone. They used the location to set up highly detailed templates that track specifics of a landing zone and its surrounding biomes. As part of this, a Plant and Flora page was designed to catalogue all the different space plant varieties, their placement in-game, and more. One of those plants, the Emperor\u2019s Bloom, even received a brief Galactapedia write-up in March\u2019s Jump Point.\n\nNarrative also began revamping the system for generic NPCs to help breath more life into a location. They also focused on the Xi\u2019an by creating a document that outlines their habitation spaces. Finally, they wrote numerous descriptions for various weapons and special weapons skins.\nCHARACTERS\n\n\nThe Character Team worked on a multitude of assets across both Star Citizen and Squadron 42. The Legacy armor variants for Outlaws and Marines are close to being finalized, while the Hurston and Olisar Clothing Collections continue to be developed and should get into the \u2019verse soon.\n\n\nA lot of work went into the principle characters, outfits, and weapons that will appear in Squadron 42, including the fleshing out of various alien species. In addition to all these assets, the team fixed several bugs across different character related features.\n\nCLOUD IMPERIUM: AUSTIN\n\nDESIGN\nATX Designers helped get Alpha 3.1 out the door, while also planning work for 3.2. In this last month they:\nThe team wrapped up the last Service Beacon features for the 3.1 release. The final touches included the ability for players to see the required reputation for each Beacon, and their own reputation values, so they can better understand the specifics. Everyone is extremely excited to see how fans receive this, since a lot of games don\u2019t allow for player-created content.\nThe shopping service was unified under one umbrella, instead of tracking each server\u2019s economic status. Now, all game servers will pull the pricing information from a single source. This was always the original intention, and it fixes a few commodity trading exploits. With this unification, the team also restructured commodities to better represent the flow of goods. Outposts are now the main \u201cproducers\u201d of goods, and stations are now the major \u201cconsumers\u201d of goods. This presents a complication though, instead of balancing the game for a single server of 50 people, the team must now balance it for the concurrent player base. This will require a few iterations, since designers need to see the amount of goods being traded by a larger segment of the population. The team is looking forward to the first batch of analytics so they can hone this system for you.\nOn the character front, the Hawkers are back up and running. While there wasn\u2019t the bandwidth to clean up additional animations, designers did hook up the original animations from the demo where they were originally shown off.\nThey also converted a lot of basic flair items to the Item 2.0 system. Previously, they were using a lot of prefab spawning, but that system has been deprecated for the new object container system. There are known issues with some of the more complex objects, such as the liquor cabinet and the Jukebox, but there should be a vast improvement in the number of flair items working in the hangars.\nFinally, the team fixed quite a few trivial issues, and overall, are happy with the Alpha 3.1 build. They hope you\u2019re happy with the progress and look forward to giving you more in 3.2.\n\nART\n\nThe Constellation Phoenix continues through the high poly modeling phase. The current focus is on the Aquarium (interior set pieces) and other corners of the interior, which are being brought up to almost final detail stage. This work includes POMs (parallax occlusion maps) and decals. There has also been work done on \u2018fancy\u2019 custom textures to give the interior a luxurious feel.\nThe F8 Lightning is currently in the final, high poly (detail) phase that applies the POMs, decals, and final geo tweaks. There was also another pass on the ship lighting (exterior and interior) and materials. Finally, the team addressed ship related bugs for the release of 3.1.0.\n\nBACKEND SERVICES\nThis month, the Server Engineering Team supported 3.1, assisting in work required for the Service Beacon. They also made an extension to Diffusion, which makes some communications between services during startup more reliable.\n\nThe team discovered performance issues in the one of the back-end caches responsible for holding player inventory (ships, personal items, etc.). They applied optimizations that will greatly increase the responsiveness of those services, and have also been working with the Platform Team to complete the API between Diffusion and Platform services, allowing for easy and seamless communication.\n\nFinally, they finished \u201cDiffusionizing\u201d the game client. Previously, the game client could only communicate with the services via a legacy communication system, which was very rigid and not so easy to extend. Now that it is using Diffusion APIs, the game client will not only be able to more easily communicate with the back end, but all services can communicate with any game client in ways they were never able to before.\n\nANIMATION\nATX PU Animation focused on finishing two mission givers, Luca Brunt and Wallace Klim, and started on a third mission giver, Recco Battaglia. They are working closely with the Facial Animation Team and providing weekly progress updates to ensure the quality is up to snuff. These animations will next go to Design where they will be hooked into the AI system so players can interact with these characters for new mission content. They are also processing data for mission givers and cinematics, and are working to make sure that the quality control of the data is as close to 1-to-1 as possible. The team is having a blast playing with data from actors Mark Hamill and Gillian Anderson.\n\nThe ATX Ship Animation Team created new enter\/exit animations for the Aegis Reclaimer. There was a strong push to complete the ships featured in the Alpha 3.1 release, as well as various bug fixes for the game. In addition, they made a new Dual Throttle Cockpit Type that will be showcased in an upcoming release.\n\nOPERATIONS\nMarch was an exciting month for the DevOps Teams. BuildOps made dramatic advances in the stability and performance of the build system with times being again cut in half in certain areas of the build pipeline. Internal build quantity and delivery numbers doubled during the month in support of the 3.1 quarterly release. Publishing Ops worked around the clock most days to identify and deliver the painstakingly detailed performance analytics needed by the dev teams, along with multiple daily internal and external publishes, including Evocati and PTU. It has been highly rewarding to see the dramatic impact of performance work by the dev teams.\n\nMarch was all about 3.1. At the time of writing, the team has tested over 30 builds as an Evocati or PTU candidate. Each build requires checking of core functionality, the environment, and the launcher to make sure everything is ready to go before backers get access. Each build signed-off for PTU requires additional support after it goes to the environment. They monitor stability, provide reports of new crashes, capture performance data, and hand off everything to the Engineers and Producers to examine the next morning. The day after a publish, UK and ATX QA go over the top bug reports coming from players (via Game Support and Issue Council). They track new issues players are seeing, what is already ticketed, and what new bugs need to be investigated. As you can imagine, it\u2019s a tremendous amount of work for each publish and the team pulled long hours to support the schedule.\n\nBetween publishes, there\u2019s also been extensive test passes on actor synchronization, network message conversion, Ship AI, Shopkeeper animations, loadout improvements for Star Marine, outpost updates for the moons, service beacons, and new weapon skins. Ship testers were kept extremely busy as the Reclaimer, Cyclone, Terrapin, Razor variants, and the Nox Kue all come online to test. With the developer sprint teams going full-tilt, testing also started on potential 3.2 content, like the lean system and FPS Combat AI.\n\nThe Player Relations Team was all hands-on deck, coordinating with several other teams to get 3.1 through PTU to Live! The 3.1 testing cycle was the first in the new quarterly release schedule, and the team could not have done it without the heroic efforts of the Evocati and PTU testers. While work on features continued, Player Relations primarily focused on troubleshooting particularly nasty server and client crashes and working with DevOps and QA each night to sort them out.\n\nWith 3.1 now Live, the team would like to remind and encourage everyone to use the Issue Council to help triage and rate bugs and functionality. They will use that data to prioritize future updates. Plus, Issue Council participation makes players eligible to get into earlier PTU waves.\nFOUNDRY 42: UK\n\nSHIPS\nThe Ship Art Team continued their work on the game\u2019s ever-expanding fleet. The interior of the Aegis Hammerhead is mostly set out except for the crew dorm and kitchen. Currently, the cargo bay and bridge are receiving a detail pass.\n\nThe Eclipse, another Aegis ship, is in full production with the current focus being the exterior. The team is reinforcing its stealthy appearance by tightening the pom (panel-line details), enhancing the materials, and making sure all the moving parts are operational.\n\n\n\nAUDIO\nThe weapon audio system underwent a substantial refactor. Work began on designing full NLPC weapon perspective sets, along with specific sounds for various distances. An environmental weapon report, or tail layer, was added for all weapons on planetside locations to better reflect the environmental response of weapon fire.\n\nRecently, the Audio Team took part in a sound effects recording session at Oscillate Studios, focusing on vibrating various metallic objects using transducers that respond to low frequency sounds. The metals were stimulated via synthesized tones from a MIDI keyboard that played with the pitch to impart different resonances and sympathetic rattles to a diverse range of scrap metal objects. The session\u2019s primary focus was to create source material for ships. This was partly inspired by the sound production on the film \u2018Interstellar,\u2019 which used large scale subwoofers to resonate aircraft fuselages, modeling the behavior of spaceships under duress, simulating atmospheric entry and strong gravitational fields, and so on.\n\nGRAPHICS\nThe Graphics Team implemented some major performance savings when rendering characters. All characters are split up into many different meshes, not only for swapping out clothing and armor, but also to hide individual portions of an object to avoid interpenetrating geometry. Shaders, textures, and geometry have been organized to render multiple adjacent meshes in one go, which vastly reduces the CPU cost of submitting the work to the GPU and maintains flexibility.\n\nThe team improved the quality and legibility of various UI screens with two new shader effects for the render-to-texture system. The first is an edge-highlighting effect for ship targeting displays, and the second is a drop shadow effect to help text and icons stand out against bright backgrounds.\n\nUI\nThe UI Team researched ways to improve performance by analyzing where the CPU spends its time. Optimizations made to the code of the ECG graph on the visor significantly reduced the CPU cost without effecting visual quality. The ECG graph has a buffer for the heartbeat values. With every update, the game added a new value onto the front of the buffer and removed the oldest from the back, which caused an expensive memory shifting. To prevent this, the team now uses a circular buffer that stores an index to the oldest location in the buffer. When the index reaches the end of the buffer it loops back to the start in cyclical fashion. This is more efficient because memory is only written to rather than being moved around.\n\nAlongside the UI Visual Team, the EU-1 Gameplay Team has had UI involvement with the team focusing on polishing up the VMA and PMA mobiGlas apps. For these two apps, a strong focus has been put on improving the overall user-experience by fixing bugs present in the current iteration, as well as overhauling the mobiGlas layout in general to make more use of screen real estate and breaking the menu layout into a more intuitive structure. On the engineering side, the Star Marine Loadout Customization screen in the Front End has been converted to use the PMA code. This will make fixing issues on this screen much easier, as the PMA replaces the custom code that was previously released.\n\nThe second optimization applied to the ECG was to stop redrawing the whole graph each frame. Instead, it now adds the new value to the right-hand side and moves the whole graph along to the left. It uses a clip-window to ensure only the essential parts are drawn, and the graphic data is recycled in a similar fashion to the circular buffer.\n\nGAMEPLAY STORY\nAThe Gameplay Story Team organized all the required scenes in Shotgun. Currently, they are working with Design to get the first few scenes implemented in-game and up to standard.\n\nENVIRONMENT\nWork is underway on the next generation of space stations. This begins with Rest Stops that are created semi-procedurally, allowing the team to easily populate the PU with many variations. To accomplish this feat, they have focused on developing the tools and workflow needed to achieve it.\n\nThe first iteration of the Rest Stop will feature three main location components. The first being an exterior that presents a unique silhouette to maximize readability from a distance. The team also can vary layout and architecture to allow for individual personality and variety between stations. Diverse building materials, color schemes, and ad placement mean that a great number of visual possibilities are achievable through the modular construction of these stations. That means the team can automate layout generation while maintaining artistic control.\n\nHangars are the second component. Rest Stops will be the first station type to fully utilize the \u2018Common Element\u2019 type of hangar, which can be used in every utilitarian hangar in the game. Even though the \u2018Common Element\u2019 hangar will share the same core design functionality, they are built to allow for the mixing and matching of walls, entrances, exits and service modules to achieve varied looks across locations.\n\nThe third location component is the interior. The development of a procedural layout tool to generate these Rest Stops has been a big, and admittedly challenging, project. Work has advanced to where many layouts can automatically be generated using the tool and a set library of room and connector prefabs. Maintaining visual consistency and coherence, while still making each location appear different, remains an artistic challenge for the tool and team. Like the exterior, the trick is to randomize many of the smaller choices, like prop placement and lighting, rather than alter the larger room forms. This method allows the team to maintain artistic control over the main spaces flow and form.\n\nPROPS\nThe Prop Team made improvements to the entity system within data forge. The change allows for one entity to contain both gameplay features and visual keys, while being set-up and controlled using one system. This means a set-up entity dropped it into any level will retain all working functionality. This makes syncing easier between animation and material effects, such as glows or UI elements. This has significantly reduced the number of lights needed to fake glowing materials or flashing lights during different stages of animation.\nAnother task had the team revising metrics and template assets for usables and interactive props. This makes them easier to understand and allows for improved scalability and functionality support. Building on these tech improvements, they can now create destructible props that mesh swap and update environmental effects, such as lights, VFX, and audio accordingly. These tech developments are still in the early stages, and laying the foundation for future releases.\nA new set of \u201clow-tech\u201d medical props are being built out, alongside new medical dressings. Both are planned for use throughout the PU as common medical elements. Finally, the team worked on the sub-items that will be used to customize the performance of ship components. They are also making sure that there is a wide variety of visuals to support the gameplay when the feature comes online.\n\nDESIGN\nThe Missions Team is in the early stages of replacing the existing AI with an upgraded version. They have been focused on balancing and implementing wildlines for the AI controlled characters. Wildlines are pieces of dialogue that play systemically when the AI receives a trigger, such as damage. The lines personalize each player\u2019s experience, as the AI will communicate with players differently depending on their relationship and history.\n\nAs the AI continues to develop, the team also took the opportunity to reassess Arena Commander\u2019s Vanduul and Pirate Swarm game modes. They rebalanced both with the focus on delivering a satisfying experience, rather than an extremely difficulty one. Another exciting creation is a prototype scramble race event, which can occur in space or planetside. These death races have opponents battling to collect randomly generated checkpoints and, more importantly, to stay alive. The races rely heavily on dialogue, so there\u2019s a recording session planned to capture the necessary clips. Finally, the team has been rebalancing the reputation progression system. This was done because it became apparent that accruing a negative reputation was too easy and attaining a positive one too challenging.\n\nVFX\nThe VFX department collaborated with Graphics to improve the GPU particle system. VFX Artists are implementing lean production techniques to prioritize features that will provide maximum impact. Examples would be improved Spawn Inheritance and Curl Noise. Both features create better, cheaper electrical and plasma effects for things like the Coil interior and EMP weapons.\n\nThey also worked through a large \u201csnag list\u201d for the Alpha 3.1 release. Tasks tackled included toning down the dust mote opacity in certain environments that underwent lighting updates, and re-adding planet\/moon effects to work with the planetary tech improvements.\n\nTECH DESIGN\nTech Design finalized Alpha 3.1 work by implementing and tuning new weapons like the Gallenson Tactical Systems ballistic gatling, Preacher Armament distortion scattergun, and Amon & Reese Co. laser cannon. They also supported the conversion of existing gear to Weapon 2.0.\n\nThe team also focused on rebalancing. A lot was covered, including distortion weapons, after fixes allowed them to affect items instead of just shields. Countermeasures were made more effective post Item 2.0 implementation. Iterations of flight balance continued with a focus on atmospheric landing turbulence. Shield setback and regeneration rates were also rebalanced.\n\nAt the other end of the pipeline, they worked with Art on exciting new ship concepts. These designs will be revealed throughout the year during Ship Shape segments in Around the Verse.\nDERBY ANIMATION\nThe Derby office continued to expand its operations and prepare for motion capture shoots to further refine the player and AI movement sets. It was a pleasure to welcome several valued backers during the recent Imperator Subscribers event, where developers demonstrated core elements of their workflow, including facial animation, motion capture, and technical animation. The tour also offered the opportunity to scan three more faces that you can look forward to seeing in the \u2019verse.\n\nProgress was made on R&D for the Vanduul face rig and internal facial rig technologies, along with iterations to female rigs in Maya. The new 1:1 conversion updates to the rig will break a lot of animations that use props so the team has been developing an automated solution to fix the animation files without an Animator having to manually go through and re-work everything.\n\nFinally, the Facial Animation Team was busy finalizing animations on various PU shopkeepers, bartenders, and mission givers. This includes blending all the animations from the same facial poses, so they all play seamlessly from one to another.\nFOUNDRY 42: DE\n\nENVIRONMENT ART\nThe Environment Art Team recently wrapped up polishing the existing moons in the persistent universe. Cellin, Yela, Daymar and Delamar all received a visual update that will further enrich the experience at each location for the 3.1 release. With the update of the existing locations completed, the team is shifting focus to Hurston. Hurston will benefit massively from new planet tech updates, and further additions to the planet tech are on the roadmap for the coming weeks. The numerous updates will help make Hurston a unique experience, pushing biomes further than what players have seen so far on the existing moons. The team is also close to wrapping up the whitebox stage of the Lorville landing zone. Layout and locations have been approved by all departments involved, and the team is preparing to start full production to bring the city to its next stage.\n\n\n\nENGINE\nThe Engine Team regularly works on both long-term items as well as low level bugs and performance, and this month was no exception. They refined the auto performance capture code and tools used to track heavy stalls on both client and server. The tools automatically take performance captures if the frame rate falls below a given threshold for a specified amount of time. They then analyze the captures and optimize code, content, and level set up if necessary.\n\nThey made further progress on the performance telemetry system that will submit data so the team can analyze what typically happens on servers and clients, what actions cause performance slowdowns, etc. The data should allow them to tweak the game and improve the overall player experience. They also continued to work on reducing the initial startup time of the game. They found a lot of inefficient data parsing meant that the game would launch slowly, especially during the first startup on HDDs after the computer had been booted up.\n\nThe Engine Team worked on optimizations of the physics terrain mesh generation, and optimized data layout and SSE instructions to improve computation speed. They reworked API for component updates to provide more flexibility and opportunity for further code optimizations, batching of updates, etc. The team handled rendering improvements for the vegetation shader. Good progress was made on skin rendering improvements, which included work on rendering eyes, teeth and tongues. An investigation into pushing the quality and fidelity of facial animations was kicked off. Plus, they continued code size and build time investigations. It\u2019s an ongoing effort to uncover the reasons for increased code size and compile times to see what can be reduced. This is an ongoing task and the findings will be applied globally.\n\nTECH ART\nThe Tech Art Team built a new tool called cigXfer. It helps artists transfer skin data on various meshes, as well as on LOD meshes, without any assistance from a tech artist. This significantly speeds up the art update process, enabling artists to be more self-sufficient. They also implemented a large amount of animations that will be used for Squadron 42 cinematics.\nThey collaborated with the Weapons Team to complete the previsualization rig and game entity for the Kastak Arms Scalpel sniper rifle. Work was done on a run time physic simulation for a portion of the handle of the combat knife. Research and development was done to refine the alignment of the camera with the sight of a weapon while leaning. They developed content with an additional bone titled \u201cADS_align\u201d to help achieve the desired results. They are currently testing the new approach on the Klaus & Werner Gallant rifle, and once verified it will be replicated to additional weapons.\nThe team worked with Art and Tech Design to produce Centurion and Imperator weapon skins for the Gemini LH86 pistol, Kastak Arms Devastator shotgun, and Klaus & Werner Arrowhead sniper rifle. They also continued R&D and implementation of the tools required for the next iteration of the Character Customizer. They primarily focused on consolidating how hundreds of head and head attachment assets (i.e. hair, beards or helmets) are being authored in Maya and then exported into the engine. Since every attachment is supposed to work with every possible head shape, even procedurally generated ones, they had to ensure the head topology remained 100% consistent during export.\n\nLEVEL DESIGN\nThe PU Level Design Team had several locations to design, and tech needed for future content building to work on. Lorville, a flagship landing zones, received quite a bit of attention, and is being used as a test bed for numerous systems and Common Elements. These systems include Security, Smuggling, Transit, Air Traffic Control, Hangars, etc. The Common Elements work in tandem with these systems and serve as their representation in the game world: for example, a Security Office and guards for Security, Customs for Smuggling, Train Stations for Transit, and a Spaceport for the Air Traffic Controller and Hangars. To connect everything there needs to be transitional spaces, arrival areas, and terminals to make it feel believable, while being diligent about not inflating the playable space too much. Here are some examples of these transitional spaces:\n\nThey also continued work on the Procedural Tool for generating interior spaces. This tool is essential for Level Design to efficiently deliver the amount of content needed for generic locations like Rest Stops, Refineries, Cargo Depots etc. The tool is still in progress and will require more iterations and additions before it\u2019s ready, which is a natural part of the R&D process. Here are examples of two generated layouts seen top down as a comparison:\n\n\nCINEMATICS\nThe Cinematics Team supported Squadron 42 level design efforts that previously had a lower priority. For these chapters, they blocked out and completed quick previs animation exports where level sections are still in the whitebox phase. For locations that are further along, like the Idris (Stanton) and the Bengal carrier, they did performance capture animation exports aligned to geometry and a defined scene root for all actors in the scene. This is an ongoing effort, as each chapter has a huge number of narrative scenes ranging from comms calls, conversations, walk & talk greetings, NPC chatter, and more complex scenes with multiple key characters in full-on filmic cinematics. In addition to the previs exports, they also focused on a handful of scenes featuring Gillian Anderson as Captain Rachel Maclaren. With the Vanduul Kingship bridge almost finished, they did a first camera pass on the cinematic Vanduul character sequences required for the story. This work coincides with a concentrated push for the Vanduul across different departments. Currently, Tech Animation is working on the Vanduul face rig, Character Art and Animation tackling costumes, key poses & silhouettes, and the Weapons Team focusing on Vanduul weaponry.\n\nAn important part of cinematics work is to regularly sync with ship and environment artists. The teams discuss issues with the default metrics dictated for mechanisms like doors, displays, chairs and the existing geometry, or address problems that arise when performance capture deviates slightly from metrics or meshes. Most of these metrics were in place for the main shoot, but occasional tweaks or updates must be made to either meshes or the animation. It always requires the teams to carefully weigh what requires the least amount of rework and impact. Cinematics also supported Graphics Engineering to upgrade the human skin shading. They built a test lighting setup that mimicked reference photographs and replicated a PCAP head-camera setup in the engine. Results of this R&D and shading work will be seen in the coming months.\n\nLIGHTING\nThe DE Lighting Team supported the 3.1 patch. Their recent focus was finalizing a new lighting pass on the Echo 11, as changes to the lighting tools and technology have left the Star Marine maps visually out of sync. They\u2019ve also helped the planet team with minor tweaks and polish to the atmospheres and color grading for Crusader\u2019s three moons and Delamar. In addition, they assisted with several 3.1 goals, such as the new mobiGlas PMA\/VMA character and item rendering, the Character Customizer, and general optimizations.\n\nVFX\n\nThe DE VFX Team worked with UK programmers to further improve various tools, such as curl noise. This is a 3D noise field that perturbs the particles as they travel through the field, which creates some very unique and volumetric looking effects. They\u2019ve also been fleshing out the Vanduul tech style, experimenting with the curl noise in combination with vector fields to create a visual style that sets the Vanduul apart.\n\nWEAPONS\n\nThe DE Weapons Team finished the first art pass for the Kastak Arms Scalpel sniper rifle, and completed the Centurion and Imperator subscriber flair skins for a few weapons.\n\nSYSTEM DESIGN\nThe DE System Design Team moved forward with the mining system. Their first goal is to get mining functional for planet\/moon surfaces, so the Prospector will be fully operational. They will move on to additional mining types once that is completed. Mining is still being prototyped but the current results are promising from a gameplay and visual perspective. They are currently able to shatter mineable rocks, and are working on the harvesting functionality that will transfer resources from those smaller pieces into the Prospector\u2019s mining containers. Once completed, they will integrate mining with other systems like radar and scanning, which will be used to find mineable deposits and analyze their contents.\nProgress was made on FPS Combat AI. After solving low cover, they implemented high cover for Human AI, and focused on making the timings and transitions as snappy as possible. Now, they are slowly moving into more complex behaviors like flanking, which allows the AI to work better as a team and force the player to think tactically and constantly adapt to what the AI is doing. They also considered what elements from human combat could be used by alien races, and experimented with ways to make them feel unique, so players must deal with aliens differently than their human counterparts.\nThe first batch of the reworked ship AI is now in 3.1, though some additional functionality is still outstanding. The system is being built so players can choose how to train and specialize their hired NPCs. FPS AI will use the same system in the future to achieve similar goals. On the non-combatant side of AI, they experimented with creating small story vignettes for locations, focusing on Lorville. This should infuse the location with more life and grant the AI more storytelling ability than walking around and sitting on benches. The hope is for players to experience what the lives of the population in a location are like, sympathize with them, and potentially choose sides. To achieve that, the non-combatants need to become more lively and complex.\nTowards the end of the month, the team worked closely with Level Designers and Artists on the procedural location tool. They focused on the functionality needed for the tool to create nice environments and connect gameplay systems, like rooms, oxygen, gravity, security and generated AI populations. The tool must do it in a way that once the location is generated, there will be only minor adjustments before it can be released. The goal with this system is to ensure the team can output quality content at lightning speeds with a minimal amount of menial work. That way the team can quickly fill an entire universe, while keeping it feeling specific, depending on the location.\n\nBUILD ENGINEERING\nThe DE Build Engineers added a sanity check for the RC to TryBuilder. While engineers work, they may change the Resource Compiler (RC), which can sometimes lead to failed builds. With so many unique asset types, it becomes difficult for an engineer to ensure that nothing is going to break. Additionally, engineers may touch a cpp file without even being aware that it may affect the RC. To alleviate this, they isolated a minimal subset of assets and now have them compiled whenever any code in the main branch changes. Each code change that goes into p4 is checked and the whole process is quick, essentially compiling one sample of every type of assets in the Engine. Now, before starting the process of creating a new a build, the team can check the state of RC. If it\u2019s red (as in, the process described above is failing) they know there\u2019s an issue to address. They also added some powerful dedicated hardware to the TryBuild cluster for profiling speed improvements in compilation. This has brought compilation times down significantly, which shifted focus back to optimizing other steps whose build-times now contribute a proportionally significant amount towards the entire build time.\n\n\n\n\nThe above illustrates a Perforce-state caching mechanism and smart querying method for comparing local workspace to the relevant global branch the code is being built on. This simplified state-caching mechanism is used to determine if any further version-control communication is necessary. Initial optimizations removed 30 seconds from any build regardless of the machine\u2019s state. In further precise situations, where the slave is confirmed up-to-date, it skips syncing entirely. That saves an additional 30 seconds minimum, yielding build results that can potentially be as low as 15 seconds total. In addition to adding dedicated hardware and eliminating time-costing checks from bootstrap steps for code validation, the team is now looking at binary caching mechanisms so the code-building machines can simply retrieve the compilation results that have already been processed.\n\nQA\nFor the DE QA team, most of March centered around Subsumption testing with a new version available to test each week. As new features are implemented into the Subsumption Tool, the team maintains and revamps the existing documentation and checklists to ensure QA covers all necessary test cases for Subsumption testing. DE QA also supported the in-house development team with various requests from simple tests to verify if issues devs have encountered are due to their local files or an actual issue within the current build, to the more complex tests that require custom binaries and comparing differences between builds. One recent request involved testing changes that could potentially affect prefabs within the Engine. Extensive prefab testing was performed using custom binaries and test cases to intentionally attempt to break the prefab system. When an issue was discovered, this was brought to the Engine Team\u2019s attention, and they proceeded to fix the issue and return new binaries to continue the testing. Similarly, the team focused on numerous physics test requests for changes that could potentially break other functionality within the client. These changes contained stability improvements to address various physics crashes that were plaguing Evocati in the PTU. While they normally work in the Game-Dev stream, most of the testing was focused on 3.1 as the live release date closed in.\n\nAI\nFocus was primarily devoted to stabilizing the dogfight behavior. Flight AI is a young system, and the team is working on the skill characterization of the pilot\u2019s abilities to balance the overall combat experience. A pass was made on the target chase velocities and attack ranges, two important factors to render the combat dynamics less prone to collide with obstacles or escape the assigned boundaries. The AI team also worked on improving player interaction with combat AI. This comes in the form of new behaviors, internally tweakable parameters (like accuracy and missile usage) for designers, and adding wildlines for PU pilots. For AI FPS Combat, they are currently implementing flanking behavior. Further work was done to update the logic for bullet rain, and improve flinch reactions when an AI\u2019s cover gets compromised and they need to leave quickly or target and shoot. In addition, the team addressed bugs and optimized the code for the 3.1 release. TURBULENT\n\n\nMarch saw major developments in Spectrum with a new release to PTU and Public, a new connectivity API between the platform and the game services, and cosmetic upgrades to promotion pages.\nSPECTRUM\nSpectrum version 3.7.4 was released to PTU. This version included custom roles, custom emojis and a user block list. The release to PTU gave the team much needed insight, and as a result they created a list of improvements around these features to be included in the live release.\n\nThe team had help from the Evocati, who have been instrumental in hunting down bugs and providing direct feedback, in preparation for the live release of 3.7.4. The UX and Design Team has been building interactions for organizations in Spectrum, which includes direct interaction and survey support with Evocati to ensure that the teams are building with community needs at the forefront.\nOver the next month, Turbulent\u2019s Spectrum development team will refocus their efforts on the game overlay, work towards 3.2 deliveries, and make process changes to align their efforts with CIG\u2019s internal pipeline.\n\nLAUNCHER\nSome minor changes were made to the Launcher, with the latest version, 1.0.1-alpha, including consistency check and bug fixes that affect the analytics reporting.\n\nRSI PLATFORM\nThe team continues to make minor adjustments to the site\u2019s new elements. You may notice some changes to readability as well as the resolution of some bugs on IE11.\n\nThe biggest platform changes are not visible to the user. The team rebuilt the Backend API to prepare for new services with Diffusion. Although the work is not complete, the team took on this three-week crunch project to build the base required to move forward. The rework will open the door for new features, most notably Spectrum chat.\nA new weekly newsletter was launched, with a cleaner sleeker design, includes optimizations for those reading on mobile phones.\n\nKNOWLEDGE BASE\nThe knowledge base designs have been approved and are in development. This project is needed resource for backers and the Player Relations Team. Here\u2019s a sneak peek at the final designs.\n\nThe site\u2019s contact form and mobile design are being polished to provide the best possible user experience. The objective is to help citizens find the information they need, and reduce queue times when they need help from Player Relations.\n\n\nST. PATRICK\u2019S DAY & 3.1 FLYABLE PROMOTION\nThe team supported the setup and design for the St Patrick\u2019s and 3.1 Flyable promotion. It was exciting to see all the in-game shots coming from the new 3.1 flyable ships, and integrate them into the design of the sales page.\n\nYou can visit the sale here. Community\n\n\nAnd this is how quickly a quarter of a year can pass. After announcing the switch to a quarterly release cycle at last year\u2019s CitizenCon, everyone at Cloud Imperium Games was eager to hit this self-imposed deadline and provide players with a content update. The team even provided the community with a public roadmap updated directly from internal project management tools. The weeks leading up to the Alpha 3.1 release have been hectic, but the team made the deadline and released the first update of 2018!\n\nThanks to all the dedicated testers who helped make the release of Alpha 3.1 possible. The entire CIG team sincerely appreciates your efforts during the Evocati and PTU phases, and hopes you have a blast playing the latest version on the live servers!\n\nEven with Alpha 3.1 in the hands of all backers, the team isn\u2019t going to rest. The Alpha 3.2 Feature Survey took the opportunity to reassess development priorities with feedback from the community. It let you vote on what features you were most excited to see implemented or improved, ensuring a fun and lasting gaming experience. Voting is closed, but you can check the results on this page.\n\nAs always, the team produced content across various social media channels. If you haven\u2019t already, check out the new crowd favorite Calling All Devs, where Jared Huckaby calls developers from his desk to ask questions voted on by the Star Citizen community. Episodes of Around the Verse focused on performance and optimization, the AI on the living Idris, the sounds of science, and a magnificent Ship Shape featuring the impressive Aegis Reclaimer and the nimble Tumbril Cyclone.\n\nSpeaking of ships, the Aegis Vulcan was the first concept ship in 2018 and a gateway to a versatile support career in Star Citizen. The team celebrated St. Patrick\u2019s Day with special offers and the Constellation Phoenix Emerald \u2013 an appropriate variation to celebrate the spirit of the Irish holiday. Alongside the promotion ran a St. Patrick\u2019s Day Screenshot contest where you had the opportunity to win game packages, including the aforementioned Phoenix. Check out the event thread to see all the entries. Well done everyone and congratulations to the winners!\n\nAlso, the team celebrated a marvelous milestone when the number of citizens hit the 2,000,000 mark! Thank you for joining us on this journey. You inspire us every day through your creations, and we\u2019re happy to be part of such an active and creative community.\n\nAnd with that, see you in the \u2019verse! WE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026","de_DE":"Willkommen zum monatlichen Studio-Bericht vom M\u00e4rz mit Updates aus allen unseren Studios, um einen Einblick in das zu geben, woran sie gearbeitet haben. In diesem Monat lieferte das Team Alpha 3.1, die erste Quartalsversion von 2018, die Weiterentwicklung von Squadron 42 und vieles mehr. Wenn das so ist, kommen wir zur Sache.\nWOLKENIMPERIUM: LOS ANGELES\n\nFAHRZEUGEIGENSCHAFTEN\nDas US Vehicle Feature Team, zu dem Teammitglieder aus den Bereichen Tech Design, Engineering und QA geh\u00f6ren, hat im vergangenen Monat viel geleistet. Sie f\u00fchrten einige fahrzeugbezogene Leistungssteigerungen durch, wie beispielsweise mit dem Vehicle Item Thruster und den Landing\/Spawning Components. Von dort aus untersuchten sie die bisherigen Fortschritte bei der Scan-Funktion. Dies beinhaltete einige weitere Untersuchungen, Planungen und erste Aufgaben, um dieses gro\u00dfe Feature in Richtung Auslieferung zu bringen, und das Team ist bestrebt, das Feature weiterzuentwickeln. Schlie\u00dflich wurde ein gro\u00dfer Teil der Zeit des Teams damit verbracht, \u00fcber 50 Fehler, einschlie\u00dflich mehrerer Spielabst\u00fcrze, in unserem SC Alpha 3.1 Zweig zu beheben.\n\nFAHRZEUGLEITUNG\nDer Los Angeles-Teil der US-Fahrzeugpipeline, zu dem Teammitglieder von Art, Tech Design und Tech Art geh\u00f6ren, hatte einen arbeitsreichen M\u00e4rz. In Zusammenarbeit mit anderen Teams au\u00dferhalb von LA, wie Animation, VFX, SFX und UI, starteten sie zwei neue Fahrzeuge: den Anvil Terrapin und den Tumbril Cyclone. Das Art Team beendete seinen Pass vor M\u00e4rz, sorgte aber weiterhin f\u00fcr die notwendigen Anpassungen, da andere Teams diese beiden Fahrzeuge f\u00fcr das SC Alpha 3.1 Release fertig stellten, wobei alle Teams bis zum Release Fehler durcharbeiteten.\nTech Art, eine gemeinsame Ressource, arbeitete an einigen zus\u00e4tzlichen Fahrzeugen f\u00fcr die Version 3.1: dem MISC Rasierer und dem Aegis Reclaimer. Tech Art k\u00fcmmerte sich nicht nur um den Schiffsschaden, sondern auch um das Rigging, die Animation und den Anschluss f\u00fcr die Fahrwerkskompression. Sie k\u00f6nnen es kaum erwarten, dass Spieler die Landung des R\u00fcckgewinners im Vers erleben.\nIn der Zwischenzeit hat Art and Tech Design die Fahrzeuge weiterentwickelt, die nach 3.1 freigegeben werden. Art machte Fortschritte sowohl beim Anvil Hurricane als auch bei der aktualisierten Consolidated Outland Mustang. Tech Design arbeitete an Designvorgaben f\u00fcr einige Fahrzeuge, die f\u00fcr die zuk\u00fcnftige Freigabe vorgesehen sind.\nGAMEPLAY-FUNKTIONEN\nDas Gameplay Feature Team hat den Character Customizer weiter verfeinert, mit der Bestellung von Optionen, kleineren UI-Tweaks, der Einf\u00fchrung von Leerlaufanimationen, um den Charakteren eine naturgetreuere Darstellung zu geben, und der Implementierung von Vorschausprites f\u00fcr Anpassungsoptionen, die beim ersten Rollout verf\u00fcgbar sind. Dies sollte den Spielern einen pers\u00f6nlichen Ausdruck erm\u00f6glichen, damit sie nicht zu \u00e4hnlich aussehen, w\u00e4hrend fortschrittlichere Technologien entwickelt werden, um die reiche Vision zu realisieren, die CIG f\u00fcr diese Funktion hat.\nNach dem Polieren des Character Customizer verlagerte das Team seinen Fokus auf die Bereinigung von Bugs rund um die urspr\u00fcnglich f\u00fcr SC Alpha 3.0 freigegebenen Core-Erfahrungen, beginnend mit UI und Zuverl\u00e4ssigkeitsfehlern im Versicherungsablauf f\u00fcr Fahrzeuge. Es gab allgemeine Schiffsverbesserungen bei Raketen und Gegenma\u00dfnahmen, einschlie\u00dflich einer 3D-Radaroberfl\u00e4che f\u00fcr Raketen und einer korrekten Verriegelungsfunktion beim Wechsel zwischen den Zielen. Auch Probleme mit der Schiffsreparatur bei Cry-Astro wurden angesprochen. Das Team stellte sicher, dass Waffen und Anbauger\u00e4te vollst\u00e4ndig an reparierten Fahrzeugen wiederhergestellt wurden und dass die eigentliche aUEC zur\u00fcckgezogen wurde. Schlie\u00dflich wurden einige k\u00fcrzlich eingef\u00fchrte leichte und ladungsbezogene Probleme behoben, um die bisherige Funktionalit\u00e4t wiederherzustellen.\nNARRATIV\nDas Narrative Team erledigte eine Vielzahl von Aufgaben. Sie lieferten jeden Dienstag \u00dcberlieferungsinhalte an die Website, darunter Teil eins der neuen serialisierten Kurzgeschichte One Good Deed \u00fcber einen vulkanischen Piloten, der w\u00e4hrend eines Tankvorgangs in Schwierigkeiten ger\u00e4t. Die Abonnenten erhielten Zugang zu einem neuen Portfolio, das sich auf die Geschichte von Dumper's Depot konzentriert. Die Zeit wurde auch mit der diesmonatigen Ausgabe von Jump Point verbracht, die Inhalte f\u00fcr Marketingmaterialien lieferte und eine neue Serie von Loremakers Episoden drehte.\nNeben der \u00fcblichen Arbeitsbelastung richtete das Team sein Augenmerk auf den Aufbau der Erz\u00e4hlung um Hurston und die Landezone von Lorville. Sie nutzten den Standort, um hochdetaillierte Vorlagen zu erstellen, die die Besonderheiten einer Landezone und ihrer umliegenden Biome verfolgen. In diesem Zusammenhang wurde eine Seite \u00fcber Pflanzen und Flora erstellt, auf der alle verschiedenen Weltraumpflanzenarten, ihre Platzierung im Spiel und vieles mehr katalogisiert werden. Eine dieser Pflanzen, die Emperor's Bloom, erhielt sogar eine kurze Galactapedia-Aufarbeitung im March's Jump Point.\nNarrative begann auch, das System f\u00fcr generische NSCs zu \u00fcberarbeiten, um mehr Leben in einen Ort zu bringen. Sie konzentrierten sich auch auf das Xi'an, indem sie ein Dokument schufen, das ihre Wohnr\u00e4ume umrei\u00dft. Schlie\u00dflich schrieben sie zahlreiche Beschreibungen f\u00fcr verschiedene Waffen und spezielle Waffenh\u00e4ute.\nCHARAKTERS\n\n\nDas Charakter-Team arbeitete an einer Vielzahl von Objekten sowohl in Star Citizen als auch in Squadron 42. Die Legacy-R\u00fcstungsvarianten f\u00fcr Outlaws und Marines stehen kurz vor dem Abschluss, w\u00e4hrend die Hurston- und Olisar-Kleidungskollektionen weiter entwickelt werden und bald in den \"Vers\" kommen sollten.\nViel Arbeit wurde in die Hauptfiguren, Outfits und Waffen gesteckt, die in Staffel 42 erscheinen werden, einschlie\u00dflich der Ausgestaltung verschiedener fremder Arten. Zus\u00e4tzlich zu all diesen Vorteilen hat das Team mehrere Fehler in verschiedenen charakterbezogenen Funktionen behoben.\n\nWOLKENIMPERIUM: AUSTIN\nDESIGN\nATX-Designer halfen dabei, Alpha 3.1 vor die T\u00fcr zu bekommen, w\u00e4hrend sie auch die Arbeiten f\u00fcr 3.2 planten. In diesem letzten Monat haben sie:\nDas Team hat die letzten Service Beacon-Funktionen f\u00fcr das Release 3.1 abgeschlossen. Der letzte Schliff beinhaltete die M\u00f6glichkeit f\u00fcr die Spieler, den erforderlichen Ruf f\u00fcr jeden Beacon und ihre eigenen Rufwerte zu sehen, damit sie die Besonderheiten besser verstehen k\u00f6nnen. Alle sind sehr gespannt, wie die Fans dies erhalten, da viele Spiele keine vom Spieler erstellten Inhalte zulassen.\nDer Einkaufsservice wurde unter einem Dach vereint, anstatt den wirtschaftlichen Status jedes Servers zu verfolgen. Nun werden alle Spielserver die Preisinformationen aus einer Hand beziehen. Das war schon immer die urspr\u00fcngliche Absicht, und es werden einige wenige Handelsaktivit\u00e4ten festgelegt. Mit dieser Vereinheitlichung hat das Team auch die Waren neu strukturiert, um den Warenfluss besser abzubilden. Au\u00dfenposten sind heute die wichtigsten \"Produzenten\" von Waren, und Bahnh\u00f6fe sind heute die gr\u00f6\u00dften \"Konsumenten\" von Waren. Dies stellt jedoch eine Komplikation dar, denn anstatt das Spiel f\u00fcr einen einzelnen Server von 50 Personen auszugleichen, muss das Team es nun f\u00fcr die gleichzeitige Spielerbasis ausgleichen. Dies erfordert einige Iterationen, da die Designer die Menge der Waren sehen m\u00fcssen, die von einem gr\u00f6\u00dferen Teil der Bev\u00f6lkerung gehandelt wird. Das Team freut sich auf die erste Charge der Analytik, damit sie dieses System f\u00fcr Sie verfeinern k\u00f6nnen.\nAuf der Charakterfront sind die Hawker wieder einsatzbereit. W\u00e4hrend es nicht die Bandbreite gab, um zus\u00e4tzliche Animationen zu bereinigen, schlossen die Designer die urspr\u00fcnglichen Animationen aus der Demo an, wo sie urspr\u00fcnglich gezeigt wurden.\nSie haben auch viele grundlegende Flairartikel in das Item 2.0-System umgewandelt. Fr\u00fcher verwendeten sie viel Prefab Spawning, aber dieses System wurde f\u00fcr das neue Objektcontainersystem veraltet. Es gibt bekannte Probleme mit einigen der komplexeren Objekte, wie dem Spirituosenschrank und der Jukebox, aber es sollte eine enorme Verbesserung der Anzahl der Flairgegenst\u00e4nde in den Hangars geben.\nSchlie\u00dflich hat das Team einige triviale Probleme behoben, und insgesamt sind sie mit dem Alpha 3.1 Build zufrieden. Sie hoffen, dass du mit dem Fortschritt zufrieden bist und freuen sich darauf, dir in 3.2 mehr zu bieten.\nKUNST\n\nDas Sternbild Phoenix durchl\u00e4uft die High-Poly-Modellierungsphase. Der aktuelle Schwerpunkt liegt auf dem Aquarium (Innenausstattungsst\u00fccke) und anderen Ecken des Innenraums, die bis zur fast letzten Detailstufe gebracht werden. Zu diesen Arbeiten geh\u00f6ren POMs (Parallaxe Occlusion Maps) und Decals. Es wurde auch an \"ausgefallenen\" individuellen Texturen gearbeitet, um dem Interieur ein luxuri\u00f6ses Ambiente zu verleihen.\nDer F8 Lightning befindet sich derzeit in der finalen, hochpolymeren (Detail-)Phase, in der die POMs, Decals und endg\u00fcltigen Geover\u00e4nderungen aufgebracht werden. Es gab auch einen weiteren Durchgang \u00fcber die Schiffsbeleuchtung (au\u00dfen und innen) und Materialien. Schlie\u00dflich bearbeitete das Team schiffsbezogene Fehler f\u00fcr die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung von 3.1.0.\nBACKEND-SERVICES\nIn diesem Monat unterst\u00fctzte das Server Engineering Team 3.1 und unterst\u00fctzte die f\u00fcr den Service Beacon erforderlichen Arbeiten. Sie machten auch eine Erweiterung von Diffusion, die einige Verbindungen zwischen Diensten w\u00e4hrend des Starts zuverl\u00e4ssiger macht.\nDas Team entdeckte Performance-Probleme in einem der Backend-Caches, die f\u00fcr das Halten des Spielerinventars (Schiffe, pers\u00f6nliche Gegenst\u00e4nde usw.) verantwortlich sind. Sie wendeten Optimierungen an, die die Reaktionsf\u00e4higkeit dieser Dienste erheblich erh\u00f6hen werden, und arbeiteten auch mit dem Plattformteam zusammen, um die API zwischen Diffusions- und Plattformdiensten zu vervollst\u00e4ndigen, was eine einfache und nahtlose Kommunikation erm\u00f6glicht.\nSchlie\u00dflich haben sie die \"Diffusionierung\" des Spielclients abgeschlossen. Bisher konnte der Spielclient mit den Diensten nur \u00fcber ein Legacy-Kommunikationssystem kommunizieren, das sehr starr und nicht so einfach zu erweitern war. Jetzt, da es Diffusions-APIs verwendet, wird der Spielclient nicht nur einfacher mit dem Backend kommunizieren k\u00f6nnen, sondern alle Dienste k\u00f6nnen auch mit jedem Spielclient auf eine Art und Weise kommunizieren, die sie vorher nie konnten.\nANIMATION\nATX PU Animation konzentrierte sich auf die Fertigstellung der beiden Missionsgeber Luca Brunt und Wallace Klim und begann mit einem dritten Missionsgeber, Recco Battaglia. Sie arbeiten eng mit dem Facial Animation Team zusammen und bieten w\u00f6chentliche Updates, um sicherzustellen, dass die Qualit\u00e4t auf dem neuesten Stand ist. Diese Animationen gehen als n\u00e4chstes zu Design, wo sie in das KI-System eingebunden werden, so dass die Spieler mit diesen Charakteren f\u00fcr neue Missionsinhalte interagieren k\u00f6nnen. Sie verarbeiten auch Daten f\u00fcr Missionsgeber und Kinofilme und arbeiten daran, die Qualit\u00e4tskontrolle der Daten so nah wie m\u00f6glich an 1:1 zu gestalten. Das Team spielt sehr gerne mit Daten von den Schauspielern Mark Hamill und Gillian Anderson.\nDas ATX Ship Animation Team erstellte neue Enter\/Exit-Animationen f\u00fcr den Aegis Reclaimer. Es gab einen starken Schub, um die in der Alpha 3.1-Version vorgestellten Schiffe zu vervollst\u00e4ndigen, sowie verschiedene Bugfixes f\u00fcr das Spiel. Dar\u00fcber hinaus haben sie einen neuen Dual Throttle Cockpit Typ entwickelt, der in einer kommenden Version vorgestellt wird.\nBETRIEB\nDer M\u00e4rz war ein aufregender Monat f\u00fcr die DevOps Teams. BuildOps machte dramatische Fortschritte in Bezug auf die Stabilit\u00e4t und Leistung des Bausystems, wobei die Zeiten in bestimmten Bereichen der Baupipeline erneut halbiert wurden. Die interne Baumenge und die Liefernummer haben sich im Laufe des Monats verdoppelt, um die Quartalsrelease 3.1 zu unterst\u00fctzen. Publishing Ops arbeiteten rund um die Uhr, um die akribisch detaillierten Leistungsanalysen zu identifizieren und zu liefern, die von den Entwicklungsteams ben\u00f6tigt wurden, sowie mehrere t\u00e4gliche interne und externe Ver\u00f6ffentlichungen, darunter Evocati und PTU. Es war sehr lohnend, die dramatischen Auswirkungen der Performance-Arbeit der Entwicklungsteams zu sehen.\nIm M\u00e4rz ging es nur um den 3.1. Zum Zeitpunkt des Schreibens hat das Team \u00fcber 30 Builds als Evocati- oder PTU-Kandidat getestet. Jeder Build erfordert die \u00dcberpr\u00fcfung der Kernfunktionalit\u00e4t, der Umgebung und des Launcher, um sicherzustellen, dass alles bereit ist, bevor Backer Zugriff erhalten. Jeder f\u00fcr PTU freigegebene Build erfordert zus\u00e4tzliche Unterst\u00fctzung, nachdem er in die Umgebung gelangt ist. Sie \u00fcberwachen die Stabilit\u00e4t, liefern Berichte \u00fcber neue Abst\u00fcrze, erfassen Leistungsdaten und \u00fcbergeben alles an die Ingenieure und Produzenten, die am n\u00e4chsten Morgen untersucht werden. Am Tag nach einer Ver\u00f6ffentlichung gehen UK und ATX QA die wichtigsten Fehlerberichte von Spielern durch (\u00fcber Game Support and Issue Council). Sie verfolgen neue Probleme, die Spieler sehen, was bereits registriert ist und welche neuen Fehler untersucht werden m\u00fcssen. Wie Sie sich vorstellen k\u00f6nnen, ist es eine enorme Menge an Arbeit f\u00fcr jede Ver\u00f6ffentlichung und das Team hat lange Stunden gebraucht, um den Zeitplan zu unterst\u00fctzen.\nZwischen den Ver\u00f6ffentlichungen gab es auch umfangreiche Testp\u00e4sse \u00fcber die Synchronisation der Akteure, die Konvertierung von Netzwerkmeldungen, die SchiffskI, Animationen des Ladenbesitzers, Verladeverbesserungen f\u00fcr Star Marine, Au\u00dfenposten-Updates f\u00fcr die Monde, Servicebaken und neue Waffenskins. Die Schiffstester waren extrem besch\u00e4ftigt, da die Varianten Reclaimer, Cyclone, Terrapin, Razor und Nox Kue alle online zum Testen kommen. Da die Entwickler-Sprint-Teams auf Vollneigetechnik umgestellt wurden, begannen die Tests auch mit potenziellen 3.2-Inhalten, wie dem Lean-System und der FPS Combat AI.\nDas Player Relations Team war ganz praktisch und koordinierte sich mit mehreren anderen Teams, um 3.1 \u00fcber PTU nach Live! zu bringen. Der 3.1-Testzyklus war der erste im neuen viertelj\u00e4hrlichen Release-Terminplan, und das Team h\u00e4tte es ohne die heroischen Bem\u00fchungen der Evocati- und PTU-Tester nicht geschafft. W\u00e4hrend die Arbeit an den Features fortgesetzt wurde, konzentrierte sich Player Relations in erster Linie auf die Fehlerbehebung bei besonders b\u00f6sen Server- und Client-Crashes und die n\u00e4chtliche Zusammenarbeit mit DevOps und QA, um diese zu beheben.\nMit 3.1 jetzt Live m\u00f6chte das Team alle daran erinnern und ermutigen, den Issue Council zu nutzen, um Fehler und Funktionalit\u00e4t zu testen und zu bewerten. Sie werden diese Daten verwenden, um zuk\u00fcnftige Updates zu priorisieren. Dar\u00fcber hinaus erm\u00f6glicht die Teilnahme am Issue Council den Spielern, in fr\u00fchere PTU-Wellen einzusteigen.\nGIE\u00dfEREI 42: GRO\u00dfBRITANNIEN\nSCHIFFE\nDas Ship Art Team setzte seine Arbeit an der st\u00e4ndig wachsenden Flotte des Spiels fort. Der Innenraum des Aegis Hammerhead ist bis auf das Mannschaftswohnheim und die K\u00fcche weitgehend ausgearbeitet. Derzeit erhalten der Frachtraum und die Br\u00fccke einen Detailpass.\nDie Eclipse, ein weiteres Aegis-Schiff, ist in voller Produktion, wobei der aktuelle Schwerpunkt auf dem \u00c4u\u00dferen liegt. Das Team verst\u00e4rkt seinen heimlichen Auftritt, indem es die Pom (Details der Panel-Linie) strafft, die Materialien verbessert und sicherstellt, dass alle beweglichen Teile funktionsf\u00e4hig sind.\n\nAUDIO\nDas Waffen-Audiosystem wurde einem erheblichen Refaktor unterzogen. Die Arbeit begann mit der Entwicklung kompletter NLPC-Waffenperspektiven-Sets, zusammen mit spezifischen Sounds f\u00fcr verschiedene Entfernungen. Ein Umweltwaffenbericht oder Leitwerk wurde f\u00fcr alle Waffen an Standorten auf Planeten hinzugef\u00fcgt, um die Reaktion der Umwelt auf Waffenfeuer besser widerzuspiegeln.\nVor kurzem nahm das Audio-Team an einer Sound-Effekt-Aufnahmesession in den Oscillate Studios teil, bei der es darum ging, verschiedene metallische Objekte mit Hilfe von Schallk\u00f6pfen, die auf niederfrequente Ger\u00e4usche reagieren, zu vibrieren. Die Metalle wurden durch synthetisierte T\u00f6ne eines MIDI-Keyboards stimuliert, das mit der Tonh\u00f6he spielte, um einer Vielzahl von Schrottobjekten unterschiedliche Resonanzen und sympathische Rasseln zu verleihen. Der Schwerpunkt der Sitzung lag auf der Erstellung von Quellmaterial f\u00fcr Schiffe. Dies wurde zum Teil durch die Tonproduktion des Films \"Interstellar\" inspiriert, der gro\u00dfformatige Subwoofer zur Resonanz von Flugzeugr\u00fcmpfen, zur Modellierung des Verhaltens von Raumschiffen unter Zwang, zur Simulation des atmosph\u00e4rischen Eintritts und starker Gravitationsfelder usw. einsetzte.\nGRAFIK\nDas Grafik-Team hat beim Rendern von Charakteren erhebliche Leistungseinsparungen erzielt. Alle Charaktere sind in viele verschiedene Netze aufgeteilt, nicht nur zum Austauschen von Kleidung und R\u00fcstung, sondern auch zum Ausblenden einzelner Teile eines Objekts, um eine sich gegenseitig durchdringende Geometrie zu vermeiden. Shader, Texturen und Geometrie wurden so organisiert, dass sie mehrere benachbarte Meshes in einem Arbeitsgang darstellen, was die CPU-Kosten f\u00fcr die \u00dcbertragung der Arbeit an den Grafikprozessor erheblich reduziert und die Flexibilit\u00e4t erh\u00e4lt.\nDas Team verbesserte die Qualit\u00e4t und Lesbarkeit verschiedener UI-Screens mit zwei neuen Shader-Effekten f\u00fcr das Render-to-Texture-System. Der erste ist ein Kantenhighlighting-Effekt f\u00fcr Schiffszielanzeigen, und der zweite ist ein Schlagschatteneffekt, der Text und Symbole vor hellen Hintergr\u00fcnden hervorhebt.\nUI\nDas UI-Team untersuchte M\u00f6glichkeiten zur Leistungssteigerung, indem es analysierte, wo die CPU ihre Zeit verbringt. Optimierungen im Code des EKG-Diagramms auf dem Visier haben die CPU-Kosten deutlich reduziert, ohne die visuelle Qualit\u00e4t zu beeintr\u00e4chtigen. Die EKG-Grafik verf\u00fcgt \u00fcber einen Puffer f\u00fcr die Herzschlagwerte. Mit jedem Update f\u00fcgte das Spiel einen neuen Wert auf die Vorderseite des Puffers hinzu und entfernte den \u00e4ltesten von der R\u00fcckseite, was zu einer teuren Speicherverlagerung f\u00fchrte. Um dies zu verhindern, verwendet das Team nun einen Ringspeicher, der einen Index an der \u00e4ltesten Stelle im Puffer speichert. Wenn der Index das Ende des Puffers erreicht hat, wird er zyklisch zum Anfang zur\u00fcckgeschleift. Dies ist effizienter, da der Speicher nur beschrieben und nicht verschoben wird.\nNeben dem UI Visual Team war das EU-1 Gameplay Team auch an der Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che beteiligt, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf dem Polieren der VMA und PMA mobiGlas Apps lag. Bei diesen beiden Apps wurde ein starker Fokus auf die Verbesserung des gesamten Benutzererlebnisses gelegt, indem Fehler in der aktuellen Iteration behoben wurden, sowie auf die \u00dcberarbeitung des mobiGlas-Layouts im Allgemeinen, um die Bildschirmfl\u00e4che st\u00e4rker zu nutzen und das Men\u00fc-Layout in eine intuitivere Struktur zu \u00fcberf\u00fchren. Auf der technischen Seite wurde der Star Marine Loadout Customization Bildschirm im Frontend in den PMA-Code umgewandelt. Dies erleichtert die Behebung von Problemen auf diesem Bildschirm erheblich, da der PMA den zuvor freigegebenen benutzerdefinierten Code ersetzt.\nDie zweite Optimierung, die auf das EKG angewendet wurde, bestand darin, die Neuzeichnung des gesamten Graphen f\u00fcr jeden Frame zu stoppen. Stattdessen wird nun der neue Wert auf der rechten Seite hinzugef\u00fcgt und das gesamte Diagramm nach links verschoben. Es verwendet ein Clip-Fenster, um sicherzustellen, dass nur die wesentlichen Teile gezeichnet werden, und die Bilddaten werden in \u00e4hnlicher Weise wie der Ringspeicher recycelt.\nGAMEPLAY-GESCHICHTE\nDas Gameplay Story Team organisierte alle erforderlichen Szenen in Shotgun. Derzeit arbeiten sie mit Design zusammen, um die ersten Szenen im Spiel zu implementieren und auf den neuesten Stand zu bringen.\nUMWELT\nDie Arbeiten an der n\u00e4chsten Generation von Raumstationen sind im Gange. Dies beginnt mit Rest Stops, die halbprozedural erstellt werden, so dass das Team die PU leicht mit vielen Variationen f\u00fcllen kann. Um dieses Ziel zu erreichen, haben sie sich auf die Entwicklung der Werkzeuge und des Workflows konzentriert, die daf\u00fcr erforderlich sind.\nDie erste Iteration des Rastplatzes wird aus drei Hauptstandortkomponenten bestehen. Das erste ist ein \u00c4u\u00dferes, das eine einzigartige Silhouette bietet, um die Lesbarkeit aus der Ferne zu maximieren. Das Team kann auch Layout und Architektur variieren, um eine individuelle Pers\u00f6nlichkeit und Vielfalt zwischen den Stationen zu erm\u00f6glichen. Unterschiedliche Baumaterialien, Farbgestaltungen und Anzeigenplatzierungen erm\u00f6glichen durch den modularen Aufbau dieser Stationen eine Vielzahl von visuellen M\u00f6glichkeiten. Das bedeutet, dass das Team die Layouterstellung automatisieren und gleichzeitig die k\u00fcnstlerische Kontrolle behalten kann.\nHangars sind die zweite Komponente. Die Rastst\u00e4tten werden der erste Stationstyp sein, der den Hangartyp \"Common Element\" vollst\u00e4ndig nutzt, der in jedem utilitaristischen Hangar im Spiel verwendet werden kann. Obwohl der Hangar \"Common Element\" die gleiche Kernfunktionalit\u00e4t aufweist, ist er so konzipiert, dass er das Mischen und Anpassen von W\u00e4nden, Eing\u00e4ngen, Ausg\u00e4ngen und Servicemodulen erm\u00f6glicht, um ein abwechslungsreiches Erscheinungsbild an verschiedenen Orten zu erzielen.\nDie dritte Standortkomponente ist der Innenraum. Die Entwicklung eines prozeduralen Layout-Tools zur Generierung dieser Reststopps war ein gro\u00dfes und zugegebenerma\u00dfen anspruchsvolles Projekt. Die Arbeit ist so weit fortgeschritten, dass viele Layouts mit dem Tool und einer Set-Bibliothek von Raum- und Konnektorvorlagen automatisch generiert werden k\u00f6nnen. Die Aufrechterhaltung der visuellen Konsistenz und Koh\u00e4renz, w\u00e4hrend die einzelnen Standorte dennoch unterschiedlich erscheinen, bleibt eine k\u00fcnstlerische Herausforderung f\u00fcr das Werkzeug und das Team. Wie das \u00c4u\u00dfere ist der Trick, viele der kleineren Entscheidungen, wie Requisitenplatzierung und Beleuchtung, zu randomisieren, anstatt die gr\u00f6\u00dferen Raumformen zu ver\u00e4ndern. Diese Methode erm\u00f6glicht es dem Team, die k\u00fcnstlerische Kontrolle \u00fcber die Hauptr\u00e4ume Fluss und Form zu behalten.\nREQUISITEN\nDas Prop-Team hat das Entity-System innerhalb der Data Forge verbessert. Die \u00c4nderung erm\u00f6glicht es, dass eine Einheit sowohl Spielfunktionen als auch visuelle Tasten enth\u00e4lt, w\u00e4hrend sie \u00fcber ein System eingerichtet und gesteuert wird. Das bedeutet, dass ein Setup, das es in eine beliebige Ebene fallen gelassen hat, alle funktionierenden Funktionen beibeh\u00e4lt. Dies erleichtert die Synchronisation zwischen Animation und Materialeffekten, wie z.B. Glows oder UI-Elementen. Dies hat die Anzahl der Lichter, die ben\u00f6tigt werden, um gl\u00fchende Materialien oder blinkende Lichter in verschiedenen Phasen der Animation zu f\u00e4lschen, erheblich reduziert.\nEine weitere Aufgabe bestand darin, dass das Team Metriken und Vorlagen f\u00fcr Usables und interaktive Requisiten \u00fcberarbeitete. Dies macht sie leichter verst\u00e4ndlich und erm\u00f6glicht eine verbesserte Skalierbarkeit und Unterst\u00fctzung der Funktionalit\u00e4t. Aufbauend auf diesen technischen Verbesserungen k\u00f6nnen sie nun zerst\u00f6rbare Requisiten erstellen, die den Austausch ineinander greifen und Umwelteffekte wie Licht, VFX und Audio entsprechend aktualisieren. Diese technischen Entwicklungen befinden sich noch in der Anfangsphase und legen den Grundstein f\u00fcr zuk\u00fcnftige Releases.\nNeben neuen medizinischen Verb\u00e4nden wird ein neuer Satz \"low-tech\" medizinischer Requisiten gebaut. Beide sind f\u00fcr den Einsatz in der gesamten PU als gemeinsame medizinische Elemente vorgesehen. Schlie\u00dflich arbeitete das Team an den Unterpunkten, die zur Anpassung der Leistung von Schiffskomponenten verwendet werden. Sie stellen auch sicher, dass es eine Vielzahl von Visuals gibt, die das Gameplay unterst\u00fctzen, wenn das Feature online kommt.\nDESIGN\nDas Missions-Team befindet sich in der Anfangsphase, die bestehende KI durch eine aktualisierte Version zu ersetzen. Sie haben sich auf das Balancieren und Implementieren von Wildlines f\u00fcr die KI-Controlled-Characters konzentriert. Wildlinien sind Dialogst\u00fccke, die systemisch spielen, wenn die KI einen Ausl\u00f6ser erh\u00e4lt, z.B. Schaden. Die Linien personalisieren die Erfahrung jedes Spielers, da die KI mit den Spielern je nach Beziehung und Geschichte unterschiedlich kommunizieren wird.\nW\u00e4hrend sich die KI weiter entwickelt, nutzte das Team auch die Gelegenheit, die Spielmodi Vanduul und Piratenschwarm des Arena Commander neu zu bewerten. Sie haben beide wieder ins Gleichgewicht gebracht, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf einer befriedigenden und nicht auf einer extrem schwierigen Erfahrung lag. Eine weitere spannende Kreation ist ein Prototyp eines Scramble Race Events, das im Weltraum oder auf Planeten stattfinden kann. Diese Todesrassen haben Gegner, die darum k\u00e4mpfen, zuf\u00e4llig erzeugte Kontrollpunkte zu sammeln und, was noch wichtiger ist, am Leben zu bleiben. Die Rennen sind stark dialogorientiert, so dass eine Aufnahmesession geplant ist, um die notwendigen Clips aufzunehmen. Schlie\u00dflich hat das Team das Reputationsprogressionssystem neu ausbalanciert. Dies geschah, weil sich herausstellte, dass es zu einfach war, einen negativen Ruf aufzubauen und einen positiven zu erreichen.\nVFX\nDie VFX-Abteilung arbeitete mit Graphics zusammen, um das GPU-Partikelsystem zu verbessern. VFX-K\u00fcnstler implementieren Lean-Produktionstechniken, um Funktionen zu priorisieren, die eine maximale Wirkung erzielen. Beispiele daf\u00fcr sind verbesserte Spawn-Vererbung und Curl Noise. Beide Funktionen erzeugen bessere, billigere Elektro- und Plasmaeffekte f\u00fcr Dinge wie das Spuleninnere und EMP-Waffen.\nSie arbeiteten auch eine gro\u00dfe \"Snaglist\" f\u00fcr das Alpha 3.1-Release durch. Zu den Aufgaben, die bew\u00e4ltigt wurden, geh\u00f6rten unter anderem die Reduzierung der Deckkraft von Staubpartikeln in bestimmten Umgebungen, in denen die Beleuchtung aktualisiert wurde, und das Neu Hinzuf\u00fcgen von Planeten\/Mond-Effekten, um mit den planetarischen technischen Verbesserungen zu arbeiten.\nTECH DESIGN\nTech Design beendete die Arbeit an Alpha 3.1 durch die Implementierung und Abstimmung neuer Waffen wie dem Gallenson Tactical Systems Ballistic Gatling, Prediger Armament Verzerrungs-Streugesch\u00fctz und Amon & Reese Co. Laserkanone. Sie unterst\u00fctzten auch die Umstellung der vorhandenen Ausr\u00fcstung auf Waffe 2.0.\nDas Team konzentrierte sich auch auf das Rebalancing. Eine Menge wurde abgedeckt, einschlie\u00dflich Verzerrungswaffen, nachdem Fixes es ihnen erlaubten, Gegenst\u00e4nde statt nur Schilde zu beeinflussen. Die Gegenma\u00dfnahmen wurden nach der Implementierung von Item 2.0 effektiver gestaltet. Die Iterationen der Flugbilanz wurden fortgesetzt, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf atmosph\u00e4rischen Landungsturbulenzen lag. Schildr\u00fcckschlag und Regenerationsraten wurden ebenfalls neu ausbalanciert.\nAm anderen Ende der Pipeline arbeiteten sie mit Art an spannenden neuen Schiffskonzepten. Diese Entw\u00fcrfe werden das ganze Jahr \u00fcber w\u00e4hrend der Schiffsformsegmente in Around the Vers gezeigt.\nDERBY-ANIMATION\nDas Derby-B\u00fcro baute seine Aktivit\u00e4ten weiter aus und bereitete sich auf Bewegungsaufnahmen vor, um die Bewegungss\u00e4tze f\u00fcr Spieler und KI weiter zu verfeinern. Es war eine Freude, mehrere gesch\u00e4tzte Unterst\u00fctzer w\u00e4hrend der letzten Imperator Subscribers Veranstaltung begr\u00fc\u00dfen zu d\u00fcrfen, bei der Entwickler Kernelemente ihres Workflows demonstrierten, darunter Gesichtsanimation, Bewegungserfassung und technische Animation. Die Tour bot auch die M\u00f6glichkeit, drei weitere Gesichter zu scannen, auf die man sich im Vers freuen kann.\nBei der Forschung und Entwicklung f\u00fcr das Vanduul-Gesichtsrigg und die internen Gesichtsrigg-Technologien wurden Fortschritte erzielt, ebenso wie bei den Iterationen f\u00fcr weibliche Rigs in Maya. Die neuen 1:1-Updates f\u00fcr die Konvertierung des Rigs werden viele Animationen zerst\u00f6ren, die Requisiten verwenden, so dass das Team eine automatisierte L\u00f6sung entwickelt hat, um die Animationsdateien zu reparieren, ohne dass ein Animator manuell durchlaufen und alles neu bearbeiten muss.\nSchlie\u00dflich war das Facial Animation Team damit besch\u00e4ftigt, Animationen \u00fcber verschiedene PU-Gesch\u00e4fte, Barkeeper und Missionsgeber zu erstellen. Dazu geh\u00f6rt auch, dass alle Animationen aus den gleichen Gesichtsausdr\u00fccken kombiniert werden, so dass sie alle nahtlos von einer zur anderen wiedergegeben werden.\nGIE\u00dfEREI 42: DE\nUMWELTKUNST\nDas Environment Art Team hat k\u00fcrzlich das Polieren der vorhandenen Monde im persistenten Universum abgeschlossen. Cellin, Yela, Daymar und Delamar erhielten alle ein visuelles Update, das die Erfahrung an jedem Standort f\u00fcr die Version 3.1 weiter bereichern wird. Mit dem Abschluss der Aktualisierung der bestehenden Standorte verlagert das Team den Fokus auf Hurston. Hurston wird massiv von neuen planetaren Tech-Updates profitieren, und weitere Erg\u00e4nzungen der planetaren Tech sind f\u00fcr die kommenden Wochen geplant. Die zahlreichen Updates werden dazu beitragen, Hurston zu einer einzigartigen Erfahrung zu machen, indem sie die Biome weiter voranbringen, als es die Spieler bisher auf den bestehenden Monden gesehen haben. Das Team ist auch kurz davor, die Whitebox-B\u00fchne der Landezone von Lorville fertigzustellen. Das Layout und die Standorte wurden von allen beteiligten Abteilungen genehmigt, und das Team bereitet sich darauf vor, die volle Produktion aufzunehmen, um die Stadt in die n\u00e4chste Phase zu bringen.\n\nMOTOR\nDas Motor-Team arbeitet regelm\u00e4\u00dfig sowohl an Langzeit-Items als auch an Low-Level-Bugs und Performance, und dieser Monat war keine Ausnahme. Sie verfeinerten den automatischen Leistungserfassungscode und die Tools, mit denen schwere Stalls auf Client und Server verfolgt werden k\u00f6nnen. Die Tools nehmen automatisch Leistungsaufzeichnungen vor, wenn die Bildrate f\u00fcr eine bestimmte Zeit einen bestimmten Schwellenwert unterschreitet. Anschlie\u00dfend analysieren sie die Captures und optimieren bei Bedarf Code, Inhalt und Level.\nSie machten weitere Fortschritte beim Performance-Telemetriesystem, das Daten \u00fcbermittelt, damit das Team analysieren kann, was typischerweise auf Servern und Clients passiert, welche Aktionen zu Leistungseinbu\u00dfen f\u00fchren, etc. Die Daten sollten es ihnen erm\u00f6glichen, das Spiel zu optimieren und das Spielerlebnis insgesamt zu verbessern. Sie arbeiteten auch weiter daran, die anf\u00e4ngliche Startzeit des Spiels zu verk\u00fcrzen. Sie fanden heraus, dass viele ineffizientes Datenparsing bedeutet, dass das Spiel langsam starten w\u00fcrde, besonders beim ersten Start auf Festplatten, nachdem der Computer hochgefahren wurde.\nDas Motorenteam arbeitete an Optimierungen der physikalischen Gel\u00e4ndemaschengenerierung sowie an optimiertem Datenlayout und SSE-Anweisungen zur Verbesserung der Berechnungsgeschwindigkeit. Sie \u00fcberarbeiteten die API f\u00fcr Komponenten-Updates, um mehr Flexibilit\u00e4t und die M\u00f6glichkeit f\u00fcr weitere Codeoptimierungen, Batching von Updates usw. zu bieten. Das Team k\u00fcmmerte sich um die Rendering-Verbesserungen f\u00fcr den Vegetationsschattierer. Gute Fortschritte wurden bei der Verbesserung des Hautbildes erzielt, darunter auch bei der Darstellung von Augen, Z\u00e4hnen und Zungen. Eine Untersuchung zur Verbesserung der Qualit\u00e4t und Genauigkeit von Gesichtsanimationen wurde eingeleitet. Au\u00dferdem f\u00fchrten sie die Untersuchungen zur Codegr\u00f6\u00dfe und zur Bauzeit fort. Es ist ein st\u00e4ndiges Bestreben, die Gr\u00fcnde f\u00fcr die erh\u00f6hte Codegr\u00f6\u00dfe aufzudecken und die Kompilierungszeiten zu ermitteln, um zu sehen, was reduziert werden kann. Dies ist eine st\u00e4ndige Aufgabe, und die Ergebnisse werden weltweit angewendet.\nTECH ART\nDas Tech Art Team entwickelte ein neues Tool namens cigXfer. Es hilft K\u00fcnstlern, Hautdaten auf verschiedenen Netzen sowie auf LOD-Netzen ohne jegliche Unterst\u00fctzung durch einen technischen K\u00fcnstler zu \u00fcbertragen. Dies beschleunigt den Prozess der Kunstaktualisierung erheblich und erm\u00f6glicht es den K\u00fcnstlern, sich selbst zu versorgen. Sie implementierten auch eine gro\u00dfe Anzahl von Animationen, die f\u00fcr die Kinofilme der Staffel 42 verwendet werden.\nSie arbeiteten mit dem Waffenteam zusammen, um das Vorvisualisierungsger\u00e4t und die Spieleinheit f\u00fcr das Kastak Arms Scalpel Scharfsch\u00fctzengewehr zu vervollst\u00e4ndigen. Es wurde an einer physikalischen Laufzeit-Simulation f\u00fcr einen Teil des Griffs des Kampfmessers gearbeitet. Forschung und Entwicklung wurden durchgef\u00fchrt, um die Ausrichtung der Kamera mit dem Visier einer Waffe beim Lehnen zu verfeinern. Sie entwickelten Inhalte mit einem zus\u00e4tzlichen Knochen namens \"ADS_align\", um die gew\u00fcnschten Ergebnisse zu erzielen. Sie testen derzeit den neuen Ansatz auf dem Klaus & Werner Gallant Gewehr, und nach \u00dcberpr\u00fcfung wird er auf weitere Waffen \u00fcbertragen.\nDas Team arbeitete mit Art and Tech Design zusammen, um Centurion und Imperator Waffenh\u00e4ute f\u00fcr die Gemini LH86 Pistole, Kastak Arms Devastator Schrotflinte und Klaus & Werner Arrowhead Scharfsch\u00fctzengewehr herzustellen. Sie setzten auch die Forschung und Entwicklung sowie die Implementierung der Werkzeuge fort, die f\u00fcr die n\u00e4chste Iteration des Character Customizer erforderlich sind. Sie konzentrierten sich in erster Linie darauf, zu konsolidieren, wie Hunderte von Kopf- und Kopfbefestigungselementen (z.B. Haare, B\u00e4rte oder Helme) in Maya geschrieben und dann in den Motor exportiert werden. Da jeder Anhang mit jeder m\u00f6glichen Kopfform arbeiten soll, auch mit prozedural erzeugten, mussten sie sicherstellen, dass die Kopftopologie beim Export 100% konsistent bleibt.\nLEVEL DESIGN\nDas PU Level Design Team hatte mehrere Standorte zu entwerfen, und die Technik, die f\u00fcr die zuk\u00fcnftige Erstellung von Inhalten ben\u00f6tigt wurde, arbeitete daran. Lorville, eine der Flaggschiff-Landezonen, erregte viel Aufmerksamkeit und wird als Pr\u00fcfstand f\u00fcr zahlreiche Systeme und Common Elements genutzt. Diese Systeme umfassen Sicherheit, Schmuggel, Transit, Flugsicherung, Hangars, etc. Die Common Elements arbeiten mit diesen Systemen zusammen und dienen als deren Vertretung in der Spielwelt: zum Beispiel ein Sicherheitsb\u00fcro und Wachen f\u00fcr Sicherheit, Zoll f\u00fcr Schmuggel, Bahnh\u00f6fe f\u00fcr Transit und ein Raumhafen f\u00fcr den Fluglotsen und Hangars. Um alles zu verbinden, braucht es \u00dcbergangsr\u00e4ume, Ankunftsbereiche und Terminals, damit es sich glaubw\u00fcrdig anf\u00fchlt, w\u00e4hrend man darauf achtet, den bespielbaren Raum nicht zu sehr aufzublasen. Hier sind einige Beispiele f\u00fcr diese \u00dcbergangsr\u00e4ume:\n\nSie setzten auch die Arbeit am Verfahrensinstrument zur Erzeugung von Innenr\u00e4umen fort. Dieses Tool ist f\u00fcr das Leveldesign unerl\u00e4sslich, um effizient zu liefern.  die Menge an Inhalten, die f\u00fcr allgemeine Standorte wie Rastst\u00e4tten, Raffinerien, Frachtdepots usw. ben\u00f6tigt werden. Das Tool ist noch in Arbeit und erfordert weitere Iterationen und Erg\u00e4nzungen, bevor es fertig ist, was ein nat\u00fcrlicher Bestandteil des F&E-Prozesses ist. Hier sind Beispiele f\u00fcr zwei generierte Layouts, die von oben nach unten als Vergleich betrachtet werden:\n\nKINEMATIK\nDas Cinematics-Team unterst\u00fctzte die Entwicklung der Squadron 42 Level Design Bem\u00fchungen, die zuvor eine geringere Priorit\u00e4t hatten. F\u00fcr diese Kapitel haben sie schnelle Previs-Animationsexporte blockiert und abgeschlossen, bei denen sich Level-Abschnitte noch in der Whitebox-Phase befinden. F\u00fcr weiter entfernte Orte wie das Idris (Stanton) und den bengalischen Tr\u00e4ger wurden Performance Capture-Animationsexporte durchgef\u00fchrt, die auf die Geometrie und eine definierte Szenenwurzel f\u00fcr alle Akteure in der Szene ausgerichtet waren. Dies ist eine st\u00e4ndige Anstrengung, da jedes Kapitel eine gro\u00dfe Anzahl von narrativen Szenen hat, die von Kommunkanrufen, Gespr\u00e4chen, Walk & Talk-Gr\u00fc\u00dfen, NSC-Chatter und komplexeren Szenen mit mehreren Schl\u00fcsselpersonen in vollwertigen filmischen Filmen reichen. Neben den vorhergehenden Exporten konzentrierten sie sich auch auf eine Handvoll Szenen mit Gillian Anderson als Captain Rachel Maclaren. Nachdem die Vanduul-K\u00f6nigsbr\u00fccke fast fertig gestellt war, f\u00fchrten sie einen ersten Kamerapass \u00fcber die f\u00fcr die Geschichte erforderlichen filmischen Vanduul-Charaktersequenzen durch. Diese Arbeit f\u00e4llt mit einem konzentrierten Vorsto\u00df f\u00fcr die Vanduul in verschiedenen Abteilungen zusammen. Derzeit arbeitet Tech Animation an dem Vanduul Face Rig, Character Art und Animation, die Kost\u00fcme, Schl\u00fcsselpositionen und Silhouetten in Angriff nehmen, und das Waffenteam, das sich auf Vanduul Waffen konzentriert.\nEin wichtiger Teil der filmischen Arbeit ist die regelm\u00e4\u00dfige Synchronisation mit Schiffs- und Umweltk\u00fcnstlern. Die Teams besprechen Probleme mit den Standardmetriken, die f\u00fcr Mechanismen wie T\u00fcren, Displays, St\u00fchle und die vorhandene Geometrie vorgeschrieben sind, oder beheben Probleme, die auftreten, wenn die Leistungserfassung geringf\u00fcgig von den Metriken oder Netzen abweicht. Die meisten dieser Metriken waren f\u00fcr den Hauptshoot vorhanden, aber gelegentliche Optimierungen oder Aktualisierungen m\u00fcssen entweder an den Meshes oder der Animation vorgenommen werden. Es erfordert immer, dass die Teams sorgf\u00e4ltig abw\u00e4gen, was den geringsten Aufwand an Nacharbeit und Auswirkungen erfordert. Cinematics unterst\u00fctzte auch die Grafikentwicklung, um die menschliche Hautabschattung zu verbessern. Sie bauten einen Testbeleuchtungsaufbau, der Referenzfotos nachahmte und einen PCAP-Kopfkamera-Aufbau im Motor reproduzierte. Die Ergebnisse dieser F&E- und Beschattungsarbeiten werden in den kommenden Monaten sichtbar sein.\nLICHT\nDas DE Lighting Team unterst\u00fctzte den 3.1 Patch. Ihr j\u00fcngster Schwerpunkt lag auf der Fertigstellung eines neuen Beleuchtungspasses f\u00fcr den Echo 11, da \u00c4nderungen an den Beleuchtungswerkzeugen und -technologien dazu gef\u00fchrt haben, dass die Star Marine Karten optisch nicht mehr synchronisiert sind. Sie haben auch dem Planetenteam mit kleinen Optimierungen und Verbesserungen an den Atmosph\u00e4ren und der Farbabstufung f\u00fcr die drei Monde von Crusader und Delamar geholfen. Dar\u00fcber hinaus halfen sie bei mehreren 3.1-Zielen, wie dem neuen mobiGlas PMA\/VMA Charakter- und Item-Rendering, dem Character Customizer und allgemeinen Optimierungen.\nVFX\n\nDas DE VFX Team arbeitete mit britischen Programmierern zusammen, um verschiedene Tools wie Curl Noise weiter zu verbessern. Dies ist ein 3D-Rauschfeld, das die Partikel auf ihrem Weg durch das Feld st\u00f6rt, was einige sehr einzigartige und volumetrisch wirkende Effekte erzeugt. Sie haben auch den Vanduul Tech Style ausgearbeitet und mit dem Curl Noise in Kombination mit Vektorfeldern experimentiert, um einen visuellen Stil zu kreieren, der den Vanduul auszeichnet.\nWEAPONS\n\nDas DE Weapons Team fertigte den ersten Kunstpass f\u00fcr das Kastak Arms Scalpel Scharfsch\u00fctzengewehr und vervollst\u00e4ndigte das Centurion und Imperator Abonnenten-Flair f\u00fcr ein paar Waffen.\nSYSTEM-DESIGN\nDas DE System Design Team hat das Mining-System weiterentwickelt. Ihr erstes Ziel ist es, den Bergbau f\u00fcr Planeten-\/Mondoberfl\u00e4chen funktionsf\u00e4hig zu machen, damit der Prospektor voll funktionsf\u00e4hig ist. Nach Abschluss der Arbeiten werden sie zu weiteren Minentypen \u00fcbergehen. Mining befindet sich noch in der Prototypenphase, aber die aktuellen Ergebnisse sind aus spielerischer und visueller Sicht vielversprechend. Sie sind derzeit in der Lage, abbaubare Gesteine zu zerschlagen, und arbeiten an der Erntefunktionalit\u00e4t, die Ressourcen aus diesen kleineren St\u00fccken in die Minencontainer des Prospektors \u00fcbertr\u00e4gt. Nach ihrer Fertigstellung werden sie den Abbau mit anderen Systemen wie Radar und Scanning integrieren, mit denen abbaubare Lagerst\u00e4tten gefunden und deren Inhalt analysiert werden kann.\nBei der FPS Combat AI wurden Fortschritte erzielt. Nachdem sie die niedrige Deckung gel\u00f6st hatten, implementierten sie eine hohe Deckung f\u00fcr die menschliche KI und konzentrierten sich darauf, die Timings und \u00dcberg\u00e4nge so z\u00fcgig wie m\u00f6glich zu gestalten. Jetzt bewegen sie sich langsam in komplexere Verhaltensweisen wie Flankierung, was es der KI erm\u00f6glicht, besser als Team zu arbeiten und den Spieler zu zwingen, taktisch zu denken und sich st\u00e4ndig an das anzupassen, was die KI tut. Sie \u00fcberlegten auch, welche Elemente aus dem menschlichen Kampf von au\u00dferirdischen Rassen verwendet werden k\u00f6nnten, und experimentierten mit M\u00f6glichkeiten, wie sie sich einzigartig f\u00fchlen k\u00f6nnen, so dass die Spieler mit Au\u00dferirdischen anders umgehen m\u00fcssen als mit ihren menschlichen Gegenst\u00fccken.\nDie erste Charge der \u00fcberarbeiteten SchiffskI befindet sich nun in 3.1, obwohl noch einige zus\u00e4tzliche Funktionen offen sind. Das System wird so aufgebaut, dass die Spieler w\u00e4hlen k\u00f6nnen, wie sie ihre eingestellten NSCs trainieren und spezialisieren wollen. FPS AI wird in Zukunft das gleiche System verwenden, um \u00e4hnliche Ziele zu erreichen. Auf der nicht k\u00e4mpferischen Seite der KI experimentierten sie mit der Erstellung kleiner Geschichtenvignetten f\u00fcr Orte, wobei sie sich auf Lorville konzentrierten. Dies sollte dem Ort mehr Leben einhauchen und der KI mehr F\u00e4higkeit zum Geschichtenerz\u00e4hlen verleihen, als herumzulaufen und auf B\u00e4nken zu sitzen. Die Hoffnung ist, dass die Spieler erleben, wie das Leben der Bev\u00f6lkerung an einem Ort aussieht, mit ihnen sympathisieren und sich f\u00fcr eine Seite entscheiden. Um dies zu erreichen, m\u00fcssen die Nicht-K\u00e4mpfer lebendiger und komplexer werden.\nGegen Ende des Monats arbeitete das Team eng mit Leveldesignern und K\u00fcnstlern an dem verfahrenstechnischen Ortungswerkzeug. Sie konzentrierten sich auf die Funktionalit\u00e4t, die das Tool ben\u00f6tigt, um sch\u00f6ne Umgebungen zu schaffen und Gameplay-Systeme wie R\u00e4ume, Sauerstoff, Schwerkraft, Sicherheit und generierte KI-Populationen zu verbinden. Das Werkzeug muss dies so tun, dass nach der Generierung der Position nur geringf\u00fcgige Anpassungen vorgenommen werden, bevor es freigegeben werden kann. Das Ziel dieses Systems ist es, sicherzustellen, dass das Team mit minimalem Aufwand qualitativ hochwertige Inhalte blitzschnell ausgeben kann. Auf diese Weise kann das Team schnell ein ganzes Universum f\u00fcllen, w\u00e4hrend es sich je nach Standort spezifisch anf\u00fchlt.\nGEB\u00c4UDETECHNIK\nDie DE Build Engineers haben einen Sanity Check f\u00fcr den RC zu TryBuilder hinzugef\u00fcgt. W\u00e4hrend die Ingenieure arbeiten, k\u00f6nnen sie den Resource Compiler (RC) \u00e4ndern, was manchmal zu fehlgeschlagenen Builds f\u00fchren kann. Bei so vielen einzigartigen Anlagentypen wird es f\u00fcr einen Ingenieur schwierig, sicherzustellen, dass nichts kaputt geht. Dar\u00fcber hinaus k\u00f6nnen Ingenieure eine cpp-Datei ber\u00fchren, ohne sich \u00fcberhaupt bewusst zu sein, dass sie den RC beeinflussen kann. Um dies zu beheben, isolierten sie eine minimale Teilmenge von Assets und lassen sie nun kompilieren, wenn sich ein Code im Hauptzweig \u00e4ndert. Jede Code-\u00c4nderung, die in p4 einflie\u00dft, wird \u00fcberpr\u00fcft und der gesamte Prozess ist schnell, im Wesentlichen wird eine Stichprobe von jeder Art von Assets in der Engine zusammengestellt. Nun, bevor das Team mit dem Prozess der Erstellung eines neuen Build beginnt, kann es den Status von RC \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen. Wenn es rot ist (wie in, der oben beschriebene Prozess scheitert), wissen sie, dass es ein Problem zu l\u00f6sen gibt. Sie haben auch einige leistungsstarke dedizierte Hardware zum TryBuild-Cluster hinzugef\u00fcgt, um die Geschwindigkeit bei der Kompilierung zu erh\u00f6hen. Dies hat die Kompilierungszeiten deutlich verk\u00fcrzt, was den Fokus wieder auf die Optimierung anderer Schritte verlagerte, deren Build-times nun einen proportional signifikanten Anteil an der gesamten Build-Zeit beitragen.\n\n\n\n\nDas obige Beispiel veranschaulicht einen Perforce-State Caching-Mechanismus und ein intelligentes Abfrageverfahren zum Vergleichen des lokalen Arbeitsbereichs mit dem relevanten globalen Zweig, auf dem der Code basiert. Dieser vereinfachte Zustands-Cache Mechanismus wird verwendet, um festzustellen, ob eine weitere Versionskontrollkommunikation erforderlich ist. Erste Optimierungen wurden 30 Sekunden lang aus jedem Build entfernt, unabh\u00e4ngig vom Zustand der Maschine. In weiteren pr\u00e4zisen Situationen, in denen der Slave aktuell best\u00e4tigt wird, \u00fcberspringt er die Synchronisation vollst\u00e4ndig. Das spart zus\u00e4tzliche 30 Sekunden Minimum und f\u00fchrt zu Build-Ergebnissen, die potenziell bis zu 15 Sekunden insgesamt betragen k\u00f6nnen. Zus\u00e4tzlich zum Hinzuf\u00fcgen von dedizierter Hardware und dem Wegfall von zeitaufw\u00e4ndigen Pr\u00fcfungen aus Bootstrap-Schritten zur Codevalidierung untersucht das Team nun bin\u00e4re Caching-Mechanismen, damit die Code-Building-Maschinen die bereits verarbeiteten Kompilierungsergebnisse einfach abrufen k\u00f6nnen.\nQA\nF\u00fcr das DE QA-Team konzentrierte sich der gr\u00f6\u00dfte Teil des Monats M\u00e4rz auf den Subsumption-Test mit einer neuen Version, die jede Woche getestet werden kann. W\u00e4hrend neue Funktionen in das Subsumption Tool implementiert werden, pflegt und \u00fcberarbeitet das Team die bestehenden Dokumentationen und Checklisten, um sicherzustellen, dass die Qualit\u00e4tssicherung alle notwendigen Testf\u00e4lle f\u00fcr den Subsumptionstest abdeckt. DE QA unterst\u00fctzte das interne Entwicklungsteam auch mit verschiedenen Anfragen, von einfachen Tests, um zu \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen, ob die aufgetretenen Probleme auf ihre lokalen Dateien oder ein tats\u00e4chliches Problem innerhalb des aktuellen Builds zur\u00fcckzuf\u00fchren sind, bis hin zu komplexeren Tests, die benutzerdefinierte Bin\u00e4rdateien erfordern und Unterschiede zwischen Builds vergleichen. Eine aktuelle Anfrage betraf das Testen von \u00c4nderungen, die sich m\u00f6glicherweise auf Prefabs innerhalb der Engine auswirken k\u00f6nnten. Umfangreiche Prefab-Tests wurden mit Hilfe von benutzerdefinierten Bin\u00e4rdateien und Testf\u00e4llen durchgef\u00fchrt, um absichtlich zu versuchen, das Prefab-System zu unterbrechen. Als ein Problem entdeckt wurde, wurde das Engine Team darauf aufmerksam gemacht, und sie fuhren fort, das Problem zu beheben und neue Bin\u00e4rdateien zur\u00fcckzugeben, um die Tests fortzusetzen. Ebenso konzentrierte sich das Team auf zahlreiche physikalische Testanforderungen f\u00fcr \u00c4nderungen, die andere Funktionen innerhalb des Clients beeintr\u00e4chtigen k\u00f6nnten. Diese \u00c4nderungen enthielten Stabilit\u00e4tsverbesserungen, um verschiedene physikalische Abst\u00fcrze zu beheben, die Evocati in der PTU plagten. W\u00e4hrend sie normalerweise im Game-Dev-Stream arbeiten, konzentrierten sich die meisten Tests auf 3.1, da das Live-Release Datum abgelaufen ist.\nKI\nDer Fokus lag vor allem auf der Stabilisierung des Luftkampfverhaltens. Die Flug-KI ist ein junges System, und das Team arbeitet an der Charakterisierung der F\u00e4higkeiten des Piloten, um die allgemeine Kampferfahrung auszugleichen. Ein Pass wurde auf die Zieljagd Geschwindigkeiten und Angriffsbereiche gemacht, zwei wichtige Faktoren, um die Kampfdynamik weniger anf\u00e4llig f\u00fcr Kollisionen mit Hindernissen zu machen oder die zugewiesenen Grenzen zu verlassen. Das KI-Team arbeitete auch daran, die Interaktion der Spieler mit der Kampf-KI zu verbessern. Dies geschieht in Form von neuen Verhaltensweisen, intern ver\u00e4nderbaren Parametern (wie Genauigkeit und Raketeneinsatz) f\u00fcr Designer und dem Hinzuf\u00fcgen von Wildlinien f\u00fcr PU-Piloten. F\u00fcr KI FPS Combat implementieren sie derzeit flankierendes Verhalten. Weitere Arbeiten wurden unternommen, um die Logik f\u00fcr den Kugelregen zu aktualisieren und die Zuckreaktionen zu verbessern, wenn die Abdeckung einer KI kompromittiert wird und sie schnell gehen oder zielen und schie\u00dfen m\u00fcssen. Dar\u00fcber hinaus hat das Team Fehler behoben und den Code f\u00fcr die Version 3.1 optimiert. TURBULENT\n\nIm M\u00e4rz gab es wichtige Entwicklungen in Spectrum mit einer neuen Version f\u00fcr PTU und Public, einer neuen Konnektivit\u00e4ts-API zwischen der Plattform und den Spiele-Diensten sowie kosmetischen Upgrades f\u00fcr Promotion-Seiten.\nSPEZTRUM\nSpectrum Version 3.7.4 wurde f\u00fcr PTU freigegeben. Diese Version enthielt benutzerdefinierte Rollen, benutzerdefinierte Emojis und eine Benutzerblockliste. Die Freigabe an PTU gab dem Team einen dringend ben\u00f6tigten Einblick, und als Ergebnis erstellten sie eine Liste von Verbesserungen rund um diese Funktionen, die in die Live-Version aufgenommen werden sollten.\n\nDas Team wurde von den Evocati unterst\u00fctzt, die bei der Jagd auf Bugs und der Bereitstellung von direktem Feedback zur Vorbereitung auf die Live-Ver\u00f6ffentlichung von 3.7.4 entscheidend waren. Das UX- und Designteam hat Interaktionen f\u00fcr Unternehmen in Spectrum aufgebaut, was direkte Interaktion und Unterst\u00fctzung bei Umfragen mit Evocati beinhaltet, um sicherzustellen, dass die Teams mit den Bed\u00fcrfnissen der Community im Vordergrund stehen.\nIm Laufe des n\u00e4chsten Monats wird sich das Spectrum-Entwicklungsteam von Turbulent wieder auf das Game-Overlay konzentrieren, auf 3.2-Lieferungen hinarbeiten und Prozess\u00e4nderungen vornehmen, um seine Bem\u00fchungen an die interne Pipeline der CIG anzupassen.\nLAUNCHER\nEinige kleinere \u00c4nderungen wurden am Launcher vorgenommen, mit der neuesten Version 1.0.1-alpha, einschlie\u00dflich Konsistenzpr\u00fcfung und Bugfixes, die sich auf das Analysebericht auswirken.\nRSI PLATTFORM\nDas Team nimmt weiterhin kleinere Anpassungen an den neuen Elementen der Anlage vor. Sie werden m\u00f6glicherweise einige \u00c4nderungen an der Lesbarkeit sowie die Behebung einiger Fehler im IE11 bemerken.\nDie gr\u00f6\u00dften Plattform\u00e4nderungen sind f\u00fcr den Benutzer nicht sichtbar. Das Team baute die Backend-API neu auf, um sich auf neue Dienste mit Diffusion vorzubereiten. Obwohl die Arbeit noch nicht abgeschlossen ist, \u00fcbernahm das Team dieses dreiw\u00f6chige Crunch-Projekt, um die Grundlage f\u00fcr den Fortschritt zu schaffen. Die \u00dcberarbeitung wird die T\u00fcr f\u00fcr neue Funktionen \u00f6ffnen, insbesondere f\u00fcr den Spectrum-Chat.\nEin neuer w\u00f6chentlicher Newsletter mit einem schlankeren Design wurde eingef\u00fchrt, der Optimierungen f\u00fcr das Lesen auf Mobiltelefonen enth\u00e4lt.\nWISSENSDATENBANK\nDie Designs der Wissensdatenbank wurden genehmigt und befinden sich in der Entwicklung. Dieses Projekt ist eine notwendige Ressource f\u00fcr Geldgeber und das Player Relations Team. Hier ist ein kleiner Einblick in die endg\u00fcltigen Designs.\nDas Kontaktformular und das mobile Design der Website werden \u00fcberarbeitet, um ein bestm\u00f6gliches Benutzererlebnis zu gew\u00e4hrleisten. Ziel ist es, den B\u00fcrgern zu helfen, die ben\u00f6tigten Informationen zu finden und die Wartezeiten zu verk\u00fcrzen, wenn sie Hilfe von Player Relations ben\u00f6tigen.\n\nST. PATRICK'S DAY & 3.1 FLYABLE PROMOTION\nDas Team unterst\u00fctzte den Aufbau und das Design der St. Patrick's und 3.1 Flyable Promotion. Es war spannend, alle Sch\u00fcsse aus den neuen 3.1-Flugzeugen im Spiel zu sehen und in das Design der Verkaufsseite zu integrieren.\nSie k\u00f6nnen den Verkauf hier besuchen. Community\n\nUnd so schnell kann ein Vierteljahr vergehen. Nachdem auf der letztj\u00e4hrigen CitizenCon die Umstellung auf einen viertelj\u00e4hrlichen Release-Zyklus angek\u00fcndigt wurde, war jeder bei Cloud Imperium Games bestrebt, diese selbst gesetzte Frist einzuhalten und den Spielern ein Content-Update zur Verf\u00fcgung zu stellen. Das Team stellte der Community sogar eine \u00f6ffentliche Roadmap zur Verf\u00fcgung, die direkt aus internen Projektmanagement-Tools aktualisiert wurde. Die Wochen vor dem Alpha 3.1 Release waren hektisch, aber das Team hat die Frist eingehalten und das erste Update von 2018 ver\u00f6ffentlicht!\nVielen Dank an alle engagierten Tester, die dazu beigetragen haben, die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung von Alpha 3.1 zu erm\u00f6glichen. Das gesamte CIG-Team sch\u00e4tzt Ihre Bem\u00fchungen w\u00e4hrend der Evocati- und PTU-Phase sehr und w\u00fcnscht Ihnen viel Spa\u00df beim Spielen der neuesten Version auf den Live-Servern!\nSelbst wenn Alpha 3.1 in den H\u00e4nden aller Geldgeber liegt, wird das Team nicht ruhen. Die Alpha 3.2 Feature Survey nutzte die Gelegenheit, die Entwicklungspriorit\u00e4ten mit Feedback aus der Community neu zu bewerten. Sie k\u00f6nnen dar\u00fcber abstimmen, welche Funktionen Sie am meisten begeistert haben, wenn sie implementiert oder verbessert wurden, was ein unterhaltsames und nachhaltiges Spielerlebnis garantiert. Die Abstimmung ist geschlossen, aber Sie k\u00f6nnen die Ergebnisse auf dieser Seite \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen.\nWie immer produzierte das Team Inhalte \u00fcber verschiedene Social Media Kan\u00e4le. Wenn du es noch nicht getan hast, schau dir den neuen Publikumsliebling Calling All Devs an, bei dem Jared Huckaby Entwickler von seinem Schreibtisch aus anruft, um Fragen zu stellen, \u00fcber die die Star Citizen Community abgestimmt hat. Episoden von Around the Vers konzentrierten sich auf Leistung und Optimierung, die KI auf das lebende Idris, die Kl\u00e4nge der Wissenschaft und eine pr\u00e4chtige Schiffsform mit dem beeindruckenden Aegis Reclaimer und dem wendigen Tumbril Cyclone.\nApropos Schiffe: Die Aegis Vulcan war das erste Konzeptschiff im Jahr 2018 und das Tor zu einer vielseitigen Unterst\u00fctzungskarriere bei Star Citizen. Das Team feierte den St. Patrick's Day mit Sonderangeboten und das Sternbild Phoenix Emerald - eine passende Variante, um den Geist des irischen Feiertages zu feiern. Parallel zur Promotion fand ein St. Patrick's Day Screenshot-Wettbewerb statt, bei dem Sie die M\u00f6glichkeit hatten, Spielepakete zu gewinnen, darunter den bereits erw\u00e4hnten Phoenix. Schauen Sie sich den Event Thread an, um alle Eintr\u00e4ge zu sehen. Gute Arbeit an alle und herzlichen Gl\u00fcckwunsch an die Gewinner!\nAu\u00dferdem feierte das Team einen wunderbaren Meilenstein, als die Zahl der B\u00fcrger die 2.000.000.000er Marke erreichte! Vielen Dank, dass Sie uns auf dieser Reise begleiten. Du inspirierst uns jeden Tag durch deine Kreationen, und wir freuen uns, Teil einer so aktiven und kreativen Gemeinschaft zu sein.\nUnd damit seht ihr euch im Vers! WIR SEHEN UNS N\u00c4CHSTEN MONAT.....","zh_CN":"Welcome to March\u2019s Monthly Studio Report with updates from all our studios to provide insight into what they\u2019ve been working on. This month, the team delivered Alpha 3.1, the first quarterly release of 2018, continued development of Squadron 42, and much more. With that said, let\u2019s get to it.\nCLOUD IMPERIUM: LOS ANGELES\n\n\n\nVEHICLE FEATURES\nThe US Vehicle Feature Team, which includes team members from Tech Design, Engineering and QA, accomplished a lot this past month. They made some vehicle-related performance improvements, such as with the Vehicle Item Thruster and Landing\/Spawning Components. From there, they looked into the previous progress made on the Scanning feature. This included some further investigations, planning, and initial tasks to get this large feature moving towards delivery, and the team is eager to press forward on the feature. Finally, a large percentage of the team\u2019s time was spent fixing over 50 bugs, including several game crash issues, in our SC Alpha 3.1 branch.\n\n\nVEHICLE PIPELINE\nThe Los Angeles portion of the US Vehicle Pipeline, which includes team members from Art, Tech Design and Tech Art, had a busy March. Working together with other teams outside of LA, such as Animation, VFX, SFX and UI, they launched two new vehicles: the Anvil Terrapin and the Tumbril Cyclone. The Art Team completed their pass prior to March, but continued to provide needed adjustments as other teams wrapped up these two vehicles for the SC Alpha 3.1 release, with all teams working through bugs right up to the release.\n\nTech Art, being a shared resource, worked on some additional vehicles for the 3.1 release: the MISC Razor and the Aegis Reclaimer. Tech Art not only handled the ship damage, but also the rigging, animation and hook-up for landing gear compression. They can\u2019t wait for players to experience landing the Reclaimer in the \u2019verse.\n\nMeanwhile, Art and Tech Design moved forward on vehicles that will be released after 3.1. Art made advances on both the Anvil Hurricane and the updated Consolidated Outland Mustang. Tech Design worked on design briefs for some vehicles that will be slated for future release.\n\nGAMEPLAY FEATURES\nThe Gameplay Feature Team continued to polish the Character Customizer, with the ordering of options, minor UI tweaks, the introduction of idle animations to give characters a more lifelike representation, and the implementation of preview sprites for customization options available in the initial roll out. This should allow players some personal expression so they don\u2019t look too similar to others, while more advanced tech is being developed to realize the rich vision CIG has for this feature.\nAfter polishing the Character Customizer, the team shifted their focus to cleaning up bugs around core experiences initially released for SC Alpha 3.0., beginning with UI and reliability bugs in the insurance claim flow for vehicles. There was general ship improvement in missiles and countermeasures, including 3D radar UI for missiles and proper locking functionality when switching between targets. Issues with ship repair at Cry-Astro were also addressed. The team ensured weapons and attachments were being fully restored to repaired vehicles and that the proper aUEC was withdrawn. Finally, some light and cargo-related issues recently introduced were addressed to restore previous functionality.\nNARRATIVE\nThe Narrative Team handled a wide variety of tasks. They delivered lore content to the site every Tuesday, including part one of the new serialized short story One Good Deed about a Vulcan pilot that runs into trouble during a refueling operation. Subscribers got access to a new portfolio focused on the history of Dumper\u2019s Depot. Time was also spent on this month\u2019s issue of Jump Point, delivering content for marketing materials, and filming a new batch of Loremaker\u2019s episodes.\n\nBesides the usual workload, the team turned their attention to building out the narrative surrounding Hurston and the Lorville landing zone. They used the location to set up highly detailed templates that track specifics of a landing zone and its surrounding biomes. As part of this, a Plant and Flora page was designed to catalogue all the different space plant varieties, their placement in-game, and more. One of those plants, the Emperor\u2019s Bloom, even received a brief Galactapedia write-up in March\u2019s Jump Point.\n\nNarrative also began revamping the system for generic NPCs to help breath more life into a location. They also focused on the Xi\u2019an by creating a document that outlines their habitation spaces. Finally, they wrote numerous descriptions for various weapons and special weapons skins.\nCHARACTERS\n\n\nThe Character Team worked on a multitude of assets across both Star Citizen and Squadron 42. The Legacy armor variants for Outlaws and Marines are close to being finalized, while the Hurston and Olisar Clothing Collections continue to be developed and should get into the \u2019verse soon.\n\n\nA lot of work went into the principle characters, outfits, and weapons that will appear in Squadron 42, including the fleshing out of various alien species. In addition to all these assets, the team fixed several bugs across different character related features.\n\nCLOUD IMPERIUM: AUSTIN\n\nDESIGN\nATX Designers helped get Alpha 3.1 out the door, while also planning work for 3.2. In this last month they:\nThe team wrapped up the last Service Beacon features for the 3.1 release. The final touches included the ability for players to see the required reputation for each Beacon, and their own reputation values, so they can better understand the specifics. Everyone is extremely excited to see how fans receive this, since a lot of games don\u2019t allow for player-created content.\nThe shopping service was unified under one umbrella, instead of tracking each server\u2019s economic status. Now, all game servers will pull the pricing information from a single source. This was always the original intention, and it fixes a few commodity trading exploits. With this unification, the team also restructured commodities to better represent the flow of goods. Outposts are now the main \u201cproducers\u201d of goods, and stations are now the major \u201cconsumers\u201d of goods. This presents a complication though, instead of balancing the game for a single server of 50 people, the team must now balance it for the concurrent player base. This will require a few iterations, since designers need to see the amount of goods being traded by a larger segment of the population. The team is looking forward to the first batch of analytics so they can hone this system for you.\nOn the character front, the Hawkers are back up and running. While there wasn\u2019t the bandwidth to clean up additional animations, designers did hook up the original animations from the demo where they were originally shown off.\nThey also converted a lot of basic flair items to the Item 2.0 system. Previously, they were using a lot of prefab spawning, but that system has been deprecated for the new object container system. There are known issues with some of the more complex objects, such as the liquor cabinet and the Jukebox, but there should be a vast improvement in the number of flair items working in the hangars.\nFinally, the team fixed quite a few trivial issues, and overall, are happy with the Alpha 3.1 build. They hope you\u2019re happy with the progress and look forward to giving you more in 3.2.\n\nART\n\nThe Constellation Phoenix continues through the high poly modeling phase. The current focus is on the Aquarium (interior set pieces) and other corners of the interior, which are being brought up to almost final detail stage. This work includes POMs (parallax occlusion maps) and decals. There has also been work done on \u2018fancy\u2019 custom textures to give the interior a luxurious feel.\nThe F8 Lightning is currently in the final, high poly (detail) phase that applies the POMs, decals, and final geo tweaks. There was also another pass on the ship lighting (exterior and interior) and materials. Finally, the team addressed ship related bugs for the release of 3.1.0.\n\nBACKEND SERVICES\nThis month, the Server Engineering Team supported 3.1, assisting in work required for the Service Beacon. They also made an extension to Diffusion, which makes some communications between services during startup more reliable.\n\nThe team discovered performance issues in the one of the back-end caches responsible for holding player inventory (ships, personal items, etc.). They applied optimizations that will greatly increase the responsiveness of those services, and have also been working with the Platform Team to complete the API between Diffusion and Platform services, allowing for easy and seamless communication.\n\nFinally, they finished \u201cDiffusionizing\u201d the game client. Previously, the game client could only communicate with the services via a legacy communication system, which was very rigid and not so easy to extend. Now that it is using Diffusion APIs, the game client will not only be able to more easily communicate with the back end, but all services can communicate with any game client in ways they were never able to before.\n\nANIMATION\nATX PU Animation focused on finishing two mission givers, Luca Brunt and Wallace Klim, and started on a third mission giver, Recco Battaglia. They are working closely with the Facial Animation Team and providing weekly progress updates to ensure the quality is up to snuff. These animations will next go to Design where they will be hooked into the AI system so players can interact with these characters for new mission content. They are also processing data for mission givers and cinematics, and are working to make sure that the quality control of the data is as close to 1-to-1 as possible. The team is having a blast playing with data from actors Mark Hamill and Gillian Anderson.\n\nThe ATX Ship Animation Team created new enter\/exit animations for the Aegis Reclaimer. There was a strong push to complete the ships featured in the Alpha 3.1 release, as well as various bug fixes for the game. In addition, they made a new Dual Throttle Cockpit Type that will be showcased in an upcoming release.\n\nOPERATIONS\nMarch was an exciting month for the DevOps Teams. BuildOps made dramatic advances in the stability and performance of the build system with times being again cut in half in certain areas of the build pipeline. Internal build quantity and delivery numbers doubled during the month in support of the 3.1 quarterly release. Publishing Ops worked around the clock most days to identify and deliver the painstakingly detailed performance analytics needed by the dev teams, along with multiple daily internal and external publishes, including Evocati and PTU. It has been highly rewarding to see the dramatic impact of performance work by the dev teams.\n\nMarch was all about 3.1. At the time of writing, the team has tested over 30 builds as an Evocati or PTU candidate. Each build requires checking of core functionality, the environment, and the launcher to make sure everything is ready to go before backers get access. Each build signed-off for PTU requires additional support after it goes to the environment. They monitor stability, provide reports of new crashes, capture performance data, and hand off everything to the Engineers and Producers to examine the next morning. The day after a publish, UK and ATX QA go over the top bug reports coming from players (via Game Support and Issue Council). They track new issues players are seeing, what is already ticketed, and what new bugs need to be investigated. As you can imagine, it\u2019s a tremendous amount of work for each publish and the team pulled long hours to support the schedule.\n\nBetween publishes, there\u2019s also been extensive test passes on actor synchronization, network message conversion, Ship AI, Shopkeeper animations, loadout improvements for Star Marine, outpost updates for the moons, service beacons, and new weapon skins. Ship testers were kept extremely busy as the Reclaimer, Cyclone, Terrapin, Razor variants, and the Nox Kue all come online to test. With the developer sprint teams going full-tilt, testing also started on potential 3.2 content, like the lean system and FPS Combat AI.\n\nThe Player Relations Team was all hands-on deck, coordinating with several other teams to get 3.1 through PTU to Live! The 3.1 testing cycle was the first in the new quarterly release schedule, and the team could not have done it without the heroic efforts of the Evocati and PTU testers. While work on features continued, Player Relations primarily focused on troubleshooting particularly nasty server and client crashes and working with DevOps and QA each night to sort them out.\n\nWith 3.1 now Live, the team would like to remind and encourage everyone to use the Issue Council to help triage and rate bugs and functionality. They will use that data to prioritize future updates. Plus, Issue Council participation makes players eligible to get into earlier PTU waves.\nFOUNDRY 42: UK\n\nSHIPS\nThe Ship Art Team continued their work on the game\u2019s ever-expanding fleet. The interior of the Aegis Hammerhead is mostly set out except for the crew dorm and kitchen. Currently, the cargo bay and bridge are receiving a detail pass.\n\nThe Eclipse, another Aegis ship, is in full production with the current focus being the exterior. The team is reinforcing its stealthy appearance by tightening the pom (panel-line details), enhancing the materials, and making sure all the moving parts are operational.\n\n\n\nAUDIO\nThe weapon audio system underwent a substantial refactor. Work began on designing full NLPC weapon perspective sets, along with specific sounds for various distances. An environmental weapon report, or tail layer, was added for all weapons on planetside locations to better reflect the environmental response of weapon fire.\n\nRecently, the Audio Team took part in a sound effects recording session at Oscillate Studios, focusing on vibrating various metallic objects using transducers that respond to low frequency sounds. The metals were stimulated via synthesized tones from a MIDI keyboard that played with the pitch to impart different resonances and sympathetic rattles to a diverse range of scrap metal objects. The session\u2019s primary focus was to create source material for ships. This was partly inspired by the sound production on the film \u2018Interstellar,\u2019 which used large scale subwoofers to resonate aircraft fuselages, modeling the behavior of spaceships under duress, simulating atmospheric entry and strong gravitational fields, and so on.\n\nGRAPHICS\nThe Graphics Team implemented some major performance savings when rendering characters. All characters are split up into many different meshes, not only for swapping out clothing and armor, but also to hide individual portions of an object to avoid interpenetrating geometry. Shaders, textures, and geometry have been organized to render multiple adjacent meshes in one go, which vastly reduces the CPU cost of submitting the work to the GPU and maintains flexibility.\n\nThe team improved the quality and legibility of various UI screens with two new shader effects for the render-to-texture system. The first is an edge-highlighting effect for ship targeting displays, and the second is a drop shadow effect to help text and icons stand out against bright backgrounds.\n\nUI\nThe UI Team researched ways to improve performance by analyzing where the CPU spends its time. Optimizations made to the code of the ECG graph on the visor significantly reduced the CPU cost without effecting visual quality. The ECG graph has a buffer for the heartbeat values. With every update, the game added a new value onto the front of the buffer and removed the oldest from the back, which caused an expensive memory shifting. To prevent this, the team now uses a circular buffer that stores an index to the oldest location in the buffer. When the index reaches the end of the buffer it loops back to the start in cyclical fashion. This is more efficient because memory is only written to rather than being moved around.\n\nAlongside the UI Visual Team, the EU-1 Gameplay Team has had UI involvement with the team focusing on polishing up the VMA and PMA mobiGlas apps. For these two apps, a strong focus has been put on improving the overall user-experience by fixing bugs present in the current iteration, as well as overhauling the mobiGlas layout in general to make more use of screen real estate and breaking the menu layout into a more intuitive structure. On the engineering side, the Star Marine Loadout Customization screen in the Front End has been converted to use the PMA code. This will make fixing issues on this screen much easier, as the PMA replaces the custom code that was previously released.\n\nThe second optimization applied to the ECG was to stop redrawing the whole graph each frame. Instead, it now adds the new value to the right-hand side and moves the whole graph along to the left. It uses a clip-window to ensure only the essential parts are drawn, and the graphic data is recycled in a similar fashion to the circular buffer.\n\nGAMEPLAY STORY\nAThe Gameplay Story Team organized all the required scenes in Shotgun. Currently, they are working with Design to get the first few scenes implemented in-game and up to standard.\n\nENVIRONMENT\nWork is underway on the next generation of space stations. This begins with Rest Stops that are created semi-procedurally, allowing the team to easily populate the PU with many variations. To accomplish this feat, they have focused on developing the tools and workflow needed to achieve it.\n\nThe first iteration of the Rest Stop will feature three main location components. The first being an exterior that presents a unique silhouette to maximize readability from a distance. The team also can vary layout and architecture to allow for individual personality and variety between stations. Diverse building materials, color schemes, and ad placement mean that a great number of visual possibilities are achievable through the modular construction of these stations. That means the team can automate layout generation while maintaining artistic control.\n\nHangars are the second component. Rest Stops will be the first station type to fully utilize the \u2018Common Element\u2019 type of hangar, which can be used in every utilitarian hangar in the game. Even though the \u2018Common Element\u2019 hangar will share the same core design functionality, they are built to allow for the mixing and matching of walls, entrances, exits and service modules to achieve varied looks across locations.\n\nThe third location component is the interior. The development of a procedural layout tool to generate these Rest Stops has been a big, and admittedly challenging, project. Work has advanced to where many layouts can automatically be generated using the tool and a set library of room and connector prefabs. Maintaining visual consistency and coherence, while still making each location appear different, remains an artistic challenge for the tool and team. Like the exterior, the trick is to randomize many of the smaller choices, like prop placement and lighting, rather than alter the larger room forms. This method allows the team to maintain artistic control over the main spaces flow and form.\n\nPROPS\nThe Prop Team made improvements to the entity system within data forge. The change allows for one entity to contain both gameplay features and visual keys, while being set-up and controlled using one system. This means a set-up entity dropped it into any level will retain all working functionality. This makes syncing easier between animation and material effects, such as glows or UI elements. This has significantly reduced the number of lights needed to fake glowing materials or flashing lights during different stages of animation.\nAnother task had the team revising metrics and template assets for usables and interactive props. This makes them easier to understand and allows for improved scalability and functionality support. Building on these tech improvements, they can now create destructible props that mesh swap and update environmental effects, such as lights, VFX, and audio accordingly. These tech developments are still in the early stages, and laying the foundation for future releases.\nA new set of \u201clow-tech\u201d medical props are being built out, alongside new medical dressings. Both are planned for use throughout the PU as common medical elements. Finally, the team worked on the sub-items that will be used to customize the performance of ship components. They are also making sure that there is a wide variety of visuals to support the gameplay when the feature comes online.\n\nDESIGN\nThe Missions Team is in the early stages of replacing the existing AI with an upgraded version. They have been focused on balancing and implementing wildlines for the AI controlled characters. Wildlines are pieces of dialogue that play systemically when the AI receives a trigger, such as damage. The lines personalize each player\u2019s experience, as the AI will communicate with players differently depending on their relationship and history.\n\nAs the AI continues to develop, the team also took the opportunity to reassess Arena Commander\u2019s Vanduul and Pirate Swarm game modes. They rebalanced both with the focus on delivering a satisfying experience, rather than an extremely difficulty one. Another exciting creation is a prototype scramble race event, which can occur in space or planetside. These death races have opponents battling to collect randomly generated checkpoints and, more importantly, to stay alive. The races rely heavily on dialogue, so there\u2019s a recording session planned to capture the necessary clips. Finally, the team has been rebalancing the reputation progression system. This was done because it became apparent that accruing a negative reputation was too easy and attaining a positive one too challenging.\n\nVFX\nThe VFX department collaborated with Graphics to improve the GPU particle system. VFX Artists are implementing lean production techniques to prioritize features that will provide maximum impact. Examples would be improved Spawn Inheritance and Curl Noise. Both features create better, cheaper electrical and plasma effects for things like the Coil interior and EMP weapons.\n\nThey also worked through a large \u201csnag list\u201d for the Alpha 3.1 release. Tasks tackled included toning down the dust mote opacity in certain environments that underwent lighting updates, and re-adding planet\/moon effects to work with the planetary tech improvements.\n\nTECH DESIGN\nTech Design finalized Alpha 3.1 work by implementing and tuning new weapons like the Gallenson Tactical Systems ballistic gatling, Preacher Armament distortion scattergun, and Amon & Reese Co. laser cannon. They also supported the conversion of existing gear to Weapon 2.0.\n\nThe team also focused on rebalancing. A lot was covered, including distortion weapons, after fixes allowed them to affect items instead of just shields. Countermeasures were made more effective post Item 2.0 implementation. Iterations of flight balance continued with a focus on atmospheric landing turbulence. Shield setback and regeneration rates were also rebalanced.\n\nAt the other end of the pipeline, they worked with Art on exciting new ship concepts. These designs will be revealed throughout the year during Ship Shape segments in Around the Verse.\nDERBY ANIMATION\nThe Derby office continued to expand its operations and prepare for motion capture shoots to further refine the player and AI movement sets. It was a pleasure to welcome several valued backers during the recent Imperator Subscribers event, where developers demonstrated core elements of their workflow, including facial animation, motion capture, and technical animation. The tour also offered the opportunity to scan three more faces that you can look forward to seeing in the \u2019verse.\n\nProgress was made on R&D for the Vanduul face rig and internal facial rig technologies, along with iterations to female rigs in Maya. The new 1:1 conversion updates to the rig will break a lot of animations that use props so the team has been developing an automated solution to fix the animation files without an Animator having to manually go through and re-work everything.\n\nFinally, the Facial Animation Team was busy finalizing animations on various PU shopkeepers, bartenders, and mission givers. This includes blending all the animations from the same facial poses, so they all play seamlessly from one to another.\nFOUNDRY 42: DE\n\nENVIRONMENT ART\nThe Environment Art Team recently wrapped up polishing the existing moons in the persistent universe. Cellin, Yela, Daymar and Delamar all received a visual update that will further enrich the experience at each location for the 3.1 release. With the update of the existing locations completed, the team is shifting focus to Hurston. Hurston will benefit massively from new planet tech updates, and further additions to the planet tech are on the roadmap for the coming weeks. The numerous updates will help make Hurston a unique experience, pushing biomes further than what players have seen so far on the existing moons. The team is also close to wrapping up the whitebox stage of the Lorville landing zone. Layout and locations have been approved by all departments involved, and the team is preparing to start full production to bring the city to its next stage.\n\n\n\nENGINE\nThe Engine Team regularly works on both long-term items as well as low level bugs and performance, and this month was no exception. They refined the auto performance capture code and tools used to track heavy stalls on both client and server. The tools automatically take performance captures if the frame rate falls below a given threshold for a specified amount of time. They then analyze the captures and optimize code, content, and level set up if necessary.\n\nThey made further progress on the performance telemetry system that will submit data so the team can analyze what typically happens on servers and clients, what actions cause performance slowdowns, etc. The data should allow them to tweak the game and improve the overall player experience. They also continued to work on reducing the initial startup time of the game. They found a lot of inefficient data parsing meant that the game would launch slowly, especially during the first startup on HDDs after the computer had been booted up.\n\nThe Engine Team worked on optimizations of the physics terrain mesh generation, and optimized data layout and SSE instructions to improve computation speed. They reworked API for component updates to provide more flexibility and opportunity for further code optimizations, batching of updates, etc. The team handled rendering improvements for the vegetation shader. Good progress was made on skin rendering improvements, which included work on rendering eyes, teeth and tongues. An investigation into pushing the quality and fidelity of facial animations was kicked off. Plus, they continued code size and build time investigations. It\u2019s an ongoing effort to uncover the reasons for increased code size and compile times to see what can be reduced. This is an ongoing task and the findings will be applied globally.\n\nTECH ART\nThe Tech Art Team built a new tool called cigXfer. It helps artists transfer skin data on various meshes, as well as on LOD meshes, without any assistance from a tech artist. This significantly speeds up the art update process, enabling artists to be more self-sufficient. They also implemented a large amount of animations that will be used for Squadron 42 cinematics.\nThey collaborated with the Weapons Team to complete the previsualization rig and game entity for the Kastak Arms Scalpel sniper rifle. Work was done on a run time physic simulation for a portion of the handle of the combat knife. Research and development was done to refine the alignment of the camera with the sight of a weapon while leaning. They developed content with an additional bone titled \u201cADS_align\u201d to help achieve the desired results. They are currently testing the new approach on the Klaus & Werner Gallant rifle, and once verified it will be replicated to additional weapons.\nThe team worked with Art and Tech Design to produce Centurion and Imperator weapon skins for the Gemini LH86 pistol, Kastak Arms Devastator shotgun, and Klaus & Werner Arrowhead sniper rifle. They also continued R&D and implementation of the tools required for the next iteration of the Character Customizer. They primarily focused on consolidating how hundreds of head and head attachment assets (i.e. hair, beards or helmets) are being authored in Maya and then exported into the engine. Since every attachment is supposed to work with every possible head shape, even procedurally generated ones, they had to ensure the head topology remained 100% consistent during export.\n\nLEVEL DESIGN\nThe PU Level Design Team had several locations to design, and tech needed for future content building to work on. Lorville, a flagship landing zones, received quite a bit of attention, and is being used as a test bed for numerous systems and Common Elements. These systems include Security, Smuggling, Transit, Air Traffic Control, Hangars, etc. The Common Elements work in tandem with these systems and serve as their representation in the game world: for example, a Security Office and guards for Security, Customs for Smuggling, Train Stations for Transit, and a Spaceport for the Air Traffic Controller and Hangars. To connect everything there needs to be transitional spaces, arrival areas, and terminals to make it feel believable, while being diligent about not inflating the playable space too much. Here are some examples of these transitional spaces:\n\nThey also continued work on the Procedural Tool for generating interior spaces. This tool is essential for Level Design to efficiently deliver the amount of content needed for generic locations like Rest Stops, Refineries, Cargo Depots etc. The tool is still in progress and will require more iterations and additions before it\u2019s ready, which is a natural part of the R&D process. Here are examples of two generated layouts seen top down as a comparison:\n\n\nCINEMATICS\nThe Cinematics Team supported Squadron 42 level design efforts that previously had a lower priority. For these chapters, they blocked out and completed quick previs animation exports where level sections are still in the whitebox phase. For locations that are further along, like the Idris (Stanton) and the Bengal carrier, they did performance capture animation exports aligned to geometry and a defined scene root for all actors in the scene. This is an ongoing effort, as each chapter has a huge number of narrative scenes ranging from comms calls, conversations, walk & talk greetings, NPC chatter, and more complex scenes with multiple key characters in full-on filmic cinematics. In addition to the previs exports, they also focused on a handful of scenes featuring Gillian Anderson as Captain Rachel Maclaren. With the Vanduul Kingship bridge almost finished, they did a first camera pass on the cinematic Vanduul character sequences required for the story. This work coincides with a concentrated push for the Vanduul across different departments. Currently, Tech Animation is working on the Vanduul face rig, Character Art and Animation tackling costumes, key poses & silhouettes, and the Weapons Team focusing on Vanduul weaponry.\n\nAn important part of cinematics work is to regularly sync with ship and environment artists. The teams discuss issues with the default metrics dictated for mechanisms like doors, displays, chairs and the existing geometry, or address problems that arise when performance capture deviates slightly from metrics or meshes. Most of these metrics were in place for the main shoot, but occasional tweaks or updates must be made to either meshes or the animation. It always requires the teams to carefully weigh what requires the least amount of rework and impact. Cinematics also supported Graphics Engineering to upgrade the human skin shading. They built a test lighting setup that mimicked reference photographs and replicated a PCAP head-camera setup in the engine. Results of this R&D and shading work will be seen in the coming months.\n\nLIGHTING\nThe DE Lighting Team supported the 3.1 patch. Their recent focus was finalizing a new lighting pass on the Echo 11, as changes to the lighting tools and technology have left the Star Marine maps visually out of sync. They\u2019ve also helped the planet team with minor tweaks and polish to the atmospheres and color grading for Crusader\u2019s three moons and Delamar. In addition, they assisted with several 3.1 goals, such as the new mobiGlas PMA\/VMA character and item rendering, the Character Customizer, and general optimizations.\n\nVFX\n\nThe DE VFX Team worked with UK programmers to further improve various tools, such as curl noise. This is a 3D noise field that perturbs the particles as they travel through the field, which creates some very unique and volumetric looking effects. They\u2019ve also been fleshing out the Vanduul tech style, experimenting with the curl noise in combination with vector fields to create a visual style that sets the Vanduul apart.\n\nWEAPONS\n\nThe DE Weapons Team finished the first art pass for the Kastak Arms Scalpel sniper rifle, and completed the Centurion and Imperator subscriber flair skins for a few weapons.\n\nSYSTEM DESIGN\nThe DE System Design Team moved forward with the mining system. Their first goal is to get mining functional for planet\/moon surfaces, so the Prospector will be fully operational. They will move on to additional mining types once that is completed. Mining is still being prototyped but the current results are promising from a gameplay and visual perspective. They are currently able to shatter mineable rocks, and are working on the harvesting functionality that will transfer resources from those smaller pieces into the Prospector\u2019s mining containers. Once completed, they will integrate mining with other systems like radar and scanning, which will be used to find mineable deposits and analyze their contents.\nProgress was made on FPS Combat AI. After solving low cover, they implemented high cover for Human AI, and focused on making the timings and transitions as snappy as possible. Now, they are slowly moving into more complex behaviors like flanking, which allows the AI to work better as a team and force the player to think tactically and constantly adapt to what the AI is doing. They also considered what elements from human combat could be used by alien races, and experimented with ways to make them feel unique, so players must deal with aliens differently than their human counterparts.\nThe first batch of the reworked ship AI is now in 3.1, though some additional functionality is still outstanding. The system is being built so players can choose how to train and specialize their hired NPCs. FPS AI will use the same system in the future to achieve similar goals. On the non-combatant side of AI, they experimented with creating small story vignettes for locations, focusing on Lorville. This should infuse the location with more life and grant the AI more storytelling ability than walking around and sitting on benches. The hope is for players to experience what the lives of the population in a location are like, sympathize with them, and potentially choose sides. To achieve that, the non-combatants need to become more lively and complex.\nTowards the end of the month, the team worked closely with Level Designers and Artists on the procedural location tool. They focused on the functionality needed for the tool to create nice environments and connect gameplay systems, like rooms, oxygen, gravity, security and generated AI populations. The tool must do it in a way that once the location is generated, there will be only minor adjustments before it can be released. The goal with this system is to ensure the team can output quality content at lightning speeds with a minimal amount of menial work. That way the team can quickly fill an entire universe, while keeping it feeling specific, depending on the location.\n\nBUILD ENGINEERING\nThe DE Build Engineers added a sanity check for the RC to TryBuilder. While engineers work, they may change the Resource Compiler (RC), which can sometimes lead to failed builds. With so many unique asset types, it becomes difficult for an engineer to ensure that nothing is going to break. Additionally, engineers may touch a cpp file without even being aware that it may affect the RC. To alleviate this, they isolated a minimal subset of assets and now have them compiled whenever any code in the main branch changes. Each code change that goes into p4 is checked and the whole process is quick, essentially compiling one sample of every type of assets in the Engine. Now, before starting the process of creating a new a build, the team can check the state of RC. If it\u2019s red (as in, the process described above is failing) they know there\u2019s an issue to address. They also added some powerful dedicated hardware to the TryBuild cluster for profiling speed improvements in compilation. This has brought compilation times down significantly, which shifted focus back to optimizing other steps whose build-times now contribute a proportionally significant amount towards the entire build time.\n\n\n\n\nThe above illustrates a Perforce-state caching mechanism and smart querying method for comparing local workspace to the relevant global branch the code is being built on. This simplified state-caching mechanism is used to determine if any further version-control communication is necessary. Initial optimizations removed 30 seconds from any build regardless of the machine\u2019s state. In further precise situations, where the slave is confirmed up-to-date, it skips syncing entirely. That saves an additional 30 seconds minimum, yielding build results that can potentially be as low as 15 seconds total. In addition to adding dedicated hardware and eliminating time-costing checks from bootstrap steps for code validation, the team is now looking at binary caching mechanisms so the code-building machines can simply retrieve the compilation results that have already been processed.\n\nQA\nFor the DE QA team, most of March centered around Subsumption testing with a new version available to test each week. As new features are implemented into the Subsumption Tool, the team maintains and revamps the existing documentation and checklists to ensure QA covers all necessary test cases for Subsumption testing. DE QA also supported the in-house development team with various requests from simple tests to verify if issues devs have encountered are due to their local files or an actual issue within the current build, to the more complex tests that require custom binaries and comparing differences between builds. One recent request involved testing changes that could potentially affect prefabs within the Engine. Extensive prefab testing was performed using custom binaries and test cases to intentionally attempt to break the prefab system. When an issue was discovered, this was brought to the Engine Team\u2019s attention, and they proceeded to fix the issue and return new binaries to continue the testing. Similarly, the team focused on numerous physics test requests for changes that could potentially break other functionality within the client. These changes contained stability improvements to address various physics crashes that were plaguing Evocati in the PTU. While they normally work in the Game-Dev stream, most of the testing was focused on 3.1 as the live release date closed in.\n\nAI\nFocus was primarily devoted to stabilizing the dogfight behavior. Flight AI is a young system, and the team is working on the skill characterization of the pilot\u2019s abilities to balance the overall combat experience. A pass was made on the target chase velocities and attack ranges, two important factors to render the combat dynamics less prone to collide with obstacles or escape the assigned boundaries. The AI team also worked on improving player interaction with combat AI. This comes in the form of new behaviors, internally tweakable parameters (like accuracy and missile usage) for designers, and adding wildlines for PU pilots. For AI FPS Combat, they are currently implementing flanking behavior. Further work was done to update the logic for bullet rain, and improve flinch reactions when an AI\u2019s cover gets compromised and they need to leave quickly or target and shoot. In addition, the team addressed bugs and optimized the code for the 3.1 release. TURBULENT\n\n\nMarch saw major developments in Spectrum with a new release to PTU and Public, a new connectivity API between the platform and the game services, and cosmetic upgrades to promotion pages.\nSPECTRUM\nSpectrum version 3.7.4 was released to PTU. This version included custom roles, custom emojis and a user block list. The release to PTU gave the team much needed insight, and as a result they created a list of improvements around these features to be included in the live release.\n\nThe team had help from the Evocati, who have been instrumental in hunting down bugs and providing direct feedback, in preparation for the live release of 3.7.4. The UX and Design Team has been building interactions for organizations in Spectrum, which includes direct interaction and survey support with Evocati to ensure that the teams are building with community needs at the forefront.\nOver the next month, Turbulent\u2019s Spectrum development team will refocus their efforts on the game overlay, work towards 3.2 deliveries, and make process changes to align their efforts with CIG\u2019s internal pipeline.\n\nLAUNCHER\nSome minor changes were made to the Launcher, with the latest version, 1.0.1-alpha, including consistency check and bug fixes that affect the analytics reporting.\n\nRSI PLATFORM\nThe team continues to make minor adjustments to the site\u2019s new elements. You may notice some changes to readability as well as the resolution of some bugs on IE11.\n\nThe biggest platform changes are not visible to the user. The team rebuilt the Backend API to prepare for new services with Diffusion. Although the work is not complete, the team took on this three-week crunch project to build the base required to move forward. The rework will open the door for new features, most notably Spectrum chat.\nA new weekly newsletter was launched, with a cleaner sleeker design, includes optimizations for those reading on mobile phones.\n\nKNOWLEDGE BASE\nThe knowledge base designs have been approved and are in development. This project is needed resource for backers and the Player Relations Team. Here\u2019s a sneak peek at the final designs.\n\nThe site\u2019s contact form and mobile design are being polished to provide the best possible user experience. The objective is to help citizens find the information they need, and reduce queue times when they need help from Player Relations.\n\n\nST. PATRICK\u2019S DAY & 3.1 FLYABLE PROMOTION\nThe team supported the setup and design for the St Patrick\u2019s and 3.1 Flyable promotion. It was exciting to see all the in-game shots coming from the new 3.1 flyable ships, and integrate them into the design of the sales page.\n\nYou can visit the sale here. Community\n\n\nAnd this is how quickly a quarter of a year can pass. After announcing the switch to a quarterly release cycle at last year\u2019s CitizenCon, everyone at Cloud Imperium Games was eager to hit this self-imposed deadline and provide players with a content update. The team even provided the community with a public roadmap updated directly from internal project management tools. The weeks leading up to the Alpha 3.1 release have been hectic, but the team made the deadline and released the first update of 2018!\n\nThanks to all the dedicated testers who helped make the release of Alpha 3.1 possible. The entire CIG team sincerely appreciates your efforts during the Evocati and PTU phases, and hopes you have a blast playing the latest version on the live servers!\n\nEven with Alpha 3.1 in the hands of all backers, the team isn\u2019t going to rest. The Alpha 3.2 Feature Survey took the opportunity to reassess development priorities with feedback from the community. It let you vote on what features you were most excited to see implemented or improved, ensuring a fun and lasting gaming experience. Voting is closed, but you can check the results on this page.\n\nAs always, the team produced content across various social media channels. If you haven\u2019t already, check out the new crowd favorite Calling All Devs, where Jared Huckaby calls developers from his desk to ask questions voted on by the Star Citizen community. Episodes of Around the Verse focused on performance and optimization, the AI on the living Idris, the sounds of science, and a magnificent Ship Shape featuring the impressive Aegis Reclaimer and the nimble Tumbril Cyclone.\n\nSpeaking of ships, the Aegis Vulcan was the first concept ship in 2018 and a gateway to a versatile support career in Star Citizen. The team celebrated St. Patrick\u2019s Day with special offers and the Constellation Phoenix Emerald \u2013 an appropriate variation to celebrate the spirit of the Irish holiday. Alongside the promotion ran a St. Patrick\u2019s Day Screenshot contest where you had the opportunity to win game packages, including the aforementioned Phoenix. Check out the event thread to see all the entries. Well done everyone and congratulations to the winners!\n\nAlso, the team celebrated a marvelous milestone when the number of citizens hit the 2,000,000 mark! Thank you for joining us on this journey. You inspire us every day through your creations, and we\u2019re happy to be part of such an active and creative community.\n\nAnd with that, see you in the \u2019verse! WE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026"},"links_count":1,"comment_count":24,"created_at":"2018-04-06T00:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"8 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-07 23:21:57","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":16491,"next_id":16495}}