{"data":{"id":16963,"title":"Star Citizen Monthly Report: January 2019","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/16963-Star-Citizen-Monthly-Report-January-2019","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/16963","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/16963","channel":"Undefined","category":"Undefined","series":"Monthly 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first Persistent Universe monthly report of the year details all the work done by the Star Citizen team throughout December and January. While the devs and studio teams took a break for the holidays, the early winter months saw a ton of tasks completed, progress made, and new ideas seeded.\n\nAI\nThe AI Team put effort into stability and optimization for the recent alpha releases and patches. AI gunships gained new tactical options, including the introduction of a new behavior that allows them to circle enemies and use their turrets to attack from a constant distance. Designers can easily modify this behavior to change things like the optimal attack range and when to disengage the target. The \u2018fly-by\u2019 and \u2018breakaway\u2019 tactics were also amended to make better use of the predicted hit position and allow ships to better evaluate the environment to determine the optimal direction for evasion. An ongoing focus for the team is converting all new movement logics to utilize the new Intelligent Flight Control System in preparation for its upcoming release. For human combat, the team worked to improve the behaviors released in Alpha 3.4, making sure basic structures were in place to enable AI to decide which cover location to use, when to shoot, and when to relocate. The cover selection has been expanded to order the query based on the amount of protection it gives when multiple targets are taken into account. They also implemented an improved way to debug behaviors and can now visualize the debug tree on multiple characters at the same time as well as use the Subsumption debug draw in a server\/client environment. Time was spent on the perception system, which was expanded to handle damage stimuli; AI characters now have proper awareness of damage, so they know the exact location of the source and will behave accordingly, tracking if a specific enemy they lost sight of is the source of damage and updating the knowledge they have about them. Progress was made on the Usable Builder, which allows the team to easily visualize usables, edit their properties, and test the different use channels. For the mission system, they exposed several new functionalities to the designers, such as a variety of task nodes, new variable types, and new core functionalities. A \u2018group\u2019 variable was introduced that can automatically be filled up when spawning AI characters to let designers track the dynamic elements they\u2019re interested in. Currently, the AI Team is implementing global callbacks to help the designers track environmental events specific to the data they\u2019re interested in without the need to explicitly create variables for each entity.\n\nAnimation\nThe PU Animation Team spent the pre-holiday period finalizing mission givers, including Constantine Hurston and Tecia Pacheco, and are currently working on ship dealers to give players a salesman-like experience when buying vehicles in-game. They\u2019re also continuing to actualize the emotes shot at CitizenCon.\n\nAudio\nThe team worked hard to improve the ship audio experience in-line with the new flight model, which included implementing improvements to thrusters, powerplants, and the overall sound mix. They\u2019re also integrating greater levels of complexity via new components, including ship vibration and environmental feedback variants, that deliver greater feedback from turbulence, impact, and atmospheric flight. Physicalized props and physical objects received audio support recently to ensure they have appropriate impact, role, slide, and topple sound effects. A recent addition to this is the team\u2019s work on implied contents for carriable items, such as crates. The Foley system is continually being iterated on, with the team improving the footstep and cloth systems in relation to various contexts, e.g. material\/surface types and pressurized\/unpressurized environments. The sounds will all vary for the upcoming female player character, too. Working closely with the PU music composer, Pedro Camacho, the team has been laying the groundwork for various upcoming locations, including ArcCorp and Area 18. This includes creative conversations with the Narrative, Art, and the wider Audio Team to establish appropriate sound pallets, instrumentation, styles, and motifs. The Audio Code Team drove significant progress on the new CIG Audio System, which will hugely improve the audio implementation pipelines and consolidate functionality into a single tool with much wider scope and flexibility. In other news, the Audio Department is hiring! They are looking to fill two sound design and one dialog specialist positions. This is in line with the team\u2019s planned expansion and all talented audio professionals are encouraged to apply.\n\nBackend Services\nBackend Services completed a large portion of the foundation work for the new diffusion backend architecture. This includes the continued break-up of the general instance manager into smaller scalable services. The dedicated game server needs to communicate properly with the new services, so hooks and proper calls have been set up between them. Support was also given to the Alpha 3.4 release and subsequent smaller releases to ensure communication on the backend was as efficient as possible. Plans were laid out in January for the new diffusion network and work was done to ensure the services scripting language continues to function efficiently. Finally for Backend Services, a handful of alterations were made to the various new services and existing databases for increased efficiency.\nCharacter Art\nCharacter Art brought the Shipjacker Armor to players along with the holiday-themed Shipjacker skull helmet. They also set out to unify all armors and undersuits for female playable characters and finalized the concept for mission-giver Tecia \u2018Twitch\u2019 Pacheco. After a nice holiday break, the team started on tasks for the upcoming DNA feature. For this, the team needed to convert, mark-up, and unify all head assets to work with the male and female protos, including the unification of all Data Forge assets. DNA is a major feature that affects the entire facial setup and pipeline for characters in Star Citizen. This significant feature touches a lot of teams, and through a lot of dedicated collaborative work, is progressing very well. The teams are currently updating mesh formats to support the data sets required, wrapping up and fixing any bugs relating to GPU skinning, and updating all the attachments in the game with the mark-up required for DNA compatibility. The system has begun to roll out in the PU on NPC characters and is already yielding performance wins. Lots of cooperation and iteration between all DNA teams has resulted in a fun and intuitive interface that allows the player to easily create their own face for their player character. The DNA feature is on track to meet its scheduled release. Finally, The team is also concepting new mission givers and outfits to bring more life to the Persistent Universe.\nCommunity\nThe Community Team held two holiday-themed competitions: One invited Citizens to create greetings cards to express their love and gratitude and wish each other happy holidays. The other put the festive helmet and cargo to good use by asking everyone to show how they celebrate the holidays in the \u2018verse. The new Star Citizen Fankit was released that offers a wealth of free assets along with a style guide to help content creators use them at their best. Looking for wallpapers, manufacturer logos, music, and more? Download the kit and check out the FAQ answering all the questions about what a content creator can and can\u2019t do with official Star Citizen assets. In January, the team celebrated Australia Day with a screenshot contest that had everyone showing off their best flight formations in the Gladius Valiant (which was made available to all backers for the occasion). They also kicked off another contest highlighting Tumbril\u2019s rough and rugged Cyclone series that challenged content creators to take their filmmaking skills off-road. A few of the Community Team members spent a weekend exploring PAX South and attended the annual Bar Citizen event on the River Walk. Selfies were taken, stories shared, and friendships made. Have you checked out your hangar lately? The \u2018One Empire Anniversary Coin\u2019 was distributed to all backers who pledged before to the $200 million milestone. Lastly, the Daymar Rally took place on January 27th, with three different divisions (Rover, Buggy, and Bike) battling it out for glory and rewards. Everyone involved should feel very proud of themselves, as seeing the filthiest race in the \u2018verse come together was an incredible experience for everyone. Well done!\nDesign\nThe Economy Features Team focused on adding new weapons to the various shops around the \u2018verse. Once complete, shop inventories were set up for all the new locations and various bugs were squashed. Tweaks to missions and the overall economy were also made to move the game closer to the end economic goals of the team. In January, testing began on a new formula that dynamically alters certain commodity parameters within the wider economy. A new approach is also being taken towards vehicle components to help create interesting choices for players when in shops \u2013 even if they have enough money to buy anything they want. Polish was added to various NPCs throughout the \u2018verse, with the aim to make them as realistic and believable as possible. The design was complete for a new nav marker ruleset that makes how and when players see destination markers more intuitive. Rulesets were also created to add functionality to the Quantum Travel and Service Beacon systems to give players more options when traveling in a party and choosing a location for service beacon transport respectively.\nDevOps\nDevOps broke their previous record of the number of internal builds published to the PTU and live service. \u201cOne of the most satisfying things for the team is seeing the results of our work. The Alpha 3.4 publish was one of those times we really felt proud.\u201d 2018 was the first year that scaling automation was used on the live service, which allows the servers to keep up with demand when needed but cut back as necessary. The new system exceeded all expectations and led to one of the smoothest holiday seasons ever. Build Operations was hard at work developing new systems to support a major pipeline upgrade to the overall game development process and continues to build new systems and improve on old ones.\n\nEngineering\nThe Engine Team supported the Alpha 3.4 release and subsequent patches with general assistance, profiling, optimization, and bug fixes. For compute skinning, they made tangent reconstruction optimizations for character faces, data optimizations and compression to lower bandwidth requirements, separated static and dynamic GPU data, and moved bone-remapping to the GPU (to save CPU memory and provide more flexibility). Work began on HDR color grading and output on supported displays, while splat map support for planet terrain was added, as was an improved film grain with unified dithering. The development of planetary ground fog began along with significant improvements to temporal sample anti-aliasing (TSAA). The physics engineers enabled joint limits on driven ragdolls and fixed instability caused by a threshold in the solver. They also made the first steps in exposing the spatial grid structure for walking and exploring and added physics support for planetary oceans. Improvements were made to crash handling, including various thread-safety improvements to enable more robust handling of obscure crashes, and the addition of extra information into minidumps to allow for better debugging of fibres.\nEnvironment Art\nWinter saw work begin on the Environment Art Team\u2019s next big target: microTech and its landing zone, New Babbage. In preparation, designs were trialled for the \u2018Hi-Tech\u2019 common elements, which include habs, garages, and hangars in an all-new architectural style. These new sets will help the team build New Babbage and ensure the visual style feels fresh and different. Recent improvements to the organics shaders and pipeline will improve the look of geology and planets. This update has been a long time in the making and the team is looking forward to giving all planet assets a visual upgrade. The team is currently moving from whitebox towards release for both the planet ArcCorp and its main landing zone, Area 18. Some necessary changes have been made to Area 18\u2019s original layout, mainly for performance reasons but also to improve the general layout and city \u2018feel\u2019. \u201cThe task of creating a planet-wide city that players can circumnavigate which also blends well into the major landing zone remains a constant challenge, but one that\u2019s bearing impressive fruit. Progress has been good on improvements to the believability and read of ArcCorp as a city, with the space taking a huge visual step forward from when it was last seen.\u201d\nGameplay Feature\nLike many others, the Gameplay Feature Team put in a concentrated effort to fix as many bugs as possible for the Alpha 3.4 release. Specifically, they overcame issues with FoIP & VoIP, Comms, and the Group System. They also supported the US Vehicle Feature Team with their UI-needs for item sub-targeting and the ongoing turret improvements. The team kicked off 2019 supporting patches for Alpha 3.4.0 before moving straight into feature work for 3.5, including the UI for DNA face customization, continued improvements to Comms video streaming, and a refactor of shop population.\nGraphics\nThe Graphics Team\u2019s focus has been on performance and memory saving: The performance gains mainly came from improvements to shadow culling and optimization to video comms, especially on lower-spec machines (though there are some quality issues still to address). The largest memory saving came from fixing a particularly nasty bug in the mesh streaming code which could result in all levels-of-detail loading for a mesh rather than just the ones needed. Other savings came from increasing the sharing textures used by various effects and improvements to the logic in which textures should be streamed in (interestingly, the game can now run with as little as 400mb of textures!). On top of this, the team resurrected the water volume tech and made it compatible with the zone system so it can be used on planets, space stations, and ships.\nLevel Design\nLevel Design finished the current iteration of Lorville\u2019s Central Business District (CBD) and added it to the city. They are now looking into the trainlines that connect it to Teasa spaceport. However, the majority of the team is currently focussing on ArcCorp and Area18, with the hangar, shop, vendor, spaceport, and overall layout now finalized. They also gave the planet and its moons a necessary design setup, began an investigation into quantum traveling AI, and introduced a variety of new narcotics during the prototyping of a new mission from \u2018Twitch\u2019 Pacheco.\nLighting\nThe Lighting Team focused on finishing the CBD and supported the addition of mission-giver Klim to Levski for the Alpha 3.4.0 release. They also looked at the small and medium-sized common elements for the player hangars and created different lighting variations for the Rest Stop, Lorville, and upcoming Area 18 styles. They\u2019re currently fleshing out the development tools by creating an asset zoo for all current \u2018utilitarian-style\u2019 lighting fixtures in use throughout the PU to help them quickly and efficiently add lighting to new locations.\nNarrative\nThe Narrative Team returned from the holidays to tackle the Alpha 3.5 update, including developing ideas for the branding of street and food stalls in Area 18 and outlining the NPC archetypes needed to populate the city and mission content. The team is also excited to welcome a new producer to the group; not only will he help keep the team organized, he\u2019ll act as the point of contact for the other teams to make requests through.\nPlayer Relations\nPlayer Relations busily wrapped up the Alpha 3.4 publishes along with all of the work created over the holiday period. They teamed up with the Evocati for several builds to make sure everything was properly tested and completed several rounds of PTU publishing and testing. Progress was also made on an internal quality-of-life feedback report that comes straight from backers\u2019 experiences. \u201cAs always, we can\u2019t thank our volunteers enough for the effort they put into helping us build this game (especially our wonderful Avocados!).\u201d Planning has already begun for the upcoming Alpha 3.5 release \u2013 particularly the testing of the new flight model.\nProps\nFrom the small dressing items on Constantine\u2019s desk to the giant Hurston statue, Props mainly spent December finishing up Lorville\u2019s CBD. New mission props were created that focused on the illegal drug trade and surface relay kit. Finally, for December, ideas were floated for cockpit flair and work began on ship sub-items. In January, some of the team moved onto looking at the ship items themselves, initially taking stock of where they\u2019re up to and looking at how they can integrate sub-items into interiors. The majority of the team have now shifted onto the new Area 18 landing zone and are looking into white-boxing props and supplying basic block outs so other teams can start to build and dress the level.\nQA\nQA tackled some of the more difficult-to-reproduce issues in the run-up to the Alpha 3.4 release. Dedicated feature testers for both AI and the Gameplay Feature Teams continued to test their respective areas (combat AI, ship AI, non-combat AI, and transit system) via sanity and smoke tests along with standard testing and regression. QA now provide dedicated support to the Locations Team to ensure that current and new locations are set up and working as expected by Art and Design. A few notable requests involved testing fixes for server deadlock and various changes to the physics of jumping and going down stairs. Changes to the Entity IDs in Track View were tested in the editor to make sure they were seamless and bug-free. A new restricted area for ground vehicles was also added to Lorville, which was thoroughly tested by both the German and UK teams. Further investigation was made into the issue of Ship AI idling during mercenary and Emergency Communication Network (ECN) missions to ascertain whether it was AI or network related. The team could only reproduce it during ship AI missions in the live environment and encountered something close to it during a 20-player playtest. The one consistent factor was that it only seemed to occur when performance took a dip. So, it was deemed not an AI issue and will be further investigated by the Network Team. On the publishing side, QA tested the Alpha 3.4 builds before they reached the Evocati and Live service. In January, they worked through the 3.4.# fixes. Recently, attention turned to preparing for Alpha 3.5. The holiday period saw four new testers join the extended QA family, too.\nShips\nThe UK Ship Team continued developments of the Origin 890 Jump, with further greybox work done on the atrium, master suite, guest suites, and engineering deck. They also refined the exterior hull styling to try and move a few areas closer to the original concept and make the overall ship less \u2018cartoon-looking\u2019.\nEveryone\u2019s favorite pathfinder, the Anvil Carrack, has progressed since it was last seen. It\u2019s currently in greybox, with the team tackling the feedback generated from the discussions on RTV, particularly the controversial landing gear changes and bridge layout. Finally, the team made steady progress with the updates to the Aegis Vanguard in preparation for the Harbinger and Sentinel, with focus primarily on interior adjustments along with some quality-of-life fixes for those aboard. Greybox is progressing nicely, so the team will be moving onto the exterior and tackling feedback points to ensure the base Warden model is properly prepared to accommodate the variants.\nShip Art\nShip Art is currently hard at work to bring the new 300i series to life. They\u2019re in the process of getting the damage and customization pass complete, finishing up detail work on various parts, and finalizing the materials. Alongside the 300i, they\u2019re chugging away on the Defender; the first in-game asset from the mysterious Banu alien race. Extra care was taken to ensure the Defender represents the overall Banu design aesthetic and can be built on in the future. The exterior is currently going through the greybox modeling process and is nearly complete. Afterwards, it moves to interior greybox modeling.\nSystem Design\nThe System Design Team investigated how to improve the FPS AI experience and social AI was introduced to the Lorville CBD. Gunships piloted by AI now circle their targets and orient themselves to maximize their firepower, while fighter AI was updated to take full advantage of the new flight model.\nTech Art\nTech Art made steps to finalize the implementation and pipeline of the new facial customization tech, which was previewed at CitizenCon 2018. They switched the system\u2019s source data format from the CDF-based system (which was used during R&D) to the newer component-based loadout currently used throughout the game. This system allows players\u2019 customized faces to be stored persistently in the database and the corresponding data packets to transfer efficiently over the network and be applied to the correct avatar at runtime. Likewise, it allows all key NPCs (every shopkeeper, security guard, civilian, and eventually mission giver) to have a unique face built internally by the designers. While R&D on the DNA system was done using male faces, the face pool for female characters is being populated and is planned to come online at the same time. Tech Art also supported the Weapons Team with animation debugging, weapon rigging, in-engine setup, and debugging multiple render and resource compiler issues. They added a new system for weapons in Maya to allow animators to quickly attach different attachments, making it easier for them to author specific animations. They also updated the underlying metasystem in the weapon rigs to enable animators to export weapons without double transforms on the root or magazine controls.\nTurbulent\nTurbulent supported the release of the 2018 holiday promotion, featuring a new giftable pledge called \u2018For Your Friends\u2019. This new pledge allows a customizable message to be sent along with the gift, making it ideal for friends and family. The holiday promotion also featured screenshot and greeting card contests. The team supported the availability of the Alpha 3.4 flyable ships on the website, including the Anvil Hawk, Origin 600i Touring, MISC Freelancer series, and the MISC Reliant Kore. The Cloud Imperium Games corporate website was released in December. Its slick new look is a much better representation of the company\u2019s values and mission and properly communicates the vision behind Star Citizen. The \u2018Join Us\u2019 section has details of each location and over 100 job postings across 9 different categories, so see if there\u2019s something to suit you at your nearest studio! Updates are continually being made to the latest news and job postings sections. Long overdue, the website navigation was improved with a new and improved platform bar and footer. Additional efforts went into creating the bar as a component to make future updates to the site easier. The Starmap is now accessible via the Apps menu to make it easier to find too! There were major updates to the Squadron 42 Roadmap, which is now tied into the internal project management tool, Jira. A new chapter design was introduced, showing the development progress as phases and chapters, while descriptions for each expose the details of what it actually takes to build the game. Turbulent supported the release of the Gladius Valiant Free-Fly promotion in celebration of Australia Day. A screenshot contest was available with prizes to be won. A customizable preference feature was added to the Group, Lobby, and Voice services to allow custom properties to be set for each user with each respective entity. The Voice service can start a call within a channel, inviting all those allowed to join. The new mobiGlas service will allow single endpoints that will appropriately gather the information from the Group, Lobby, and Voice service with a single call. Options can be passed that will select the type of information returned. The error catching software, Sentry, has also been added to each service to allow previously-uncaught errors to be tracked and reported to the appropriate Sentry project.\nUI\nDuring December and January, UI supported the Environment Team with in-fiction advertisements and branding for ArcCorp. They implemented new features on the tech-side to enable the designers to create \u2018user variables\u2019, which are used internally but can still persist on the entity the UI is bound to. For example, a designer may want to capture game-data values and store them internally within the UI to gain reference to previous values when the data changes. This functionality fulfills certain presentational needs that contribute to improving the user-experience. Another interesting implication is that, because they are sent across the network, they open up the potential for players to see each other\u2019s UI state (what app they\u2019re currently on, which particular item in a list they\u2019ve highlighted, etc.). The team also implemented a new node allowing the ability to set up switch logic on a variable (as well as a widget) to dynamically load images on the fly. Together, these features enable the designers to build out a fully-functioning in-world weapon UI screen with an ammo counter, charge levels, and fire mode states.\nVehicle Features\nTo help ensure that Alpha 3.4 was released in December, the team spent a lot of time supporting the release (and subsequent patches) by fixing bugs, including turret, vehicle, and crash problems. The team also completed modifications to the vehicle targeting system so that external items, such as ship engines, can be specifically targeted. Improvements to ship combat systems continued via automated gimbals, HUD changes to support Ping & Scanning, and the vehicle \u2018XML to DataForge\u2019 migration began. Wrapping up January, a vehicle gimbal aim-assist feature is on its way to completion.\nVehicle Content\nThe Vehicle Content Team\u2019s 2018 wrapped up with the launch of the Anvil Hawk and improvements to the Reliant Kore, which entailed a rework of the cargo section, ramp, and landing gear. A number of vehicle bugs were also fixed for the 3.4 release. Additionally, the team worked on the three Reliant variants for Alpha 3.5, while the designers have been working with the ship artists in Austin on the Origin 300 series rework.\nVFX\nFor much of December, the VFX Team focused heavily on polish and optimization for the Alpha 3.4 release. In particular, significant effort was put into making sure Hurston and Lorville\u2019s environmental effects were optimized while remaining as high-quality as possible. In early January, they re-evaluated their sprint planning practices and implemented some simple production-led changes to improve overall workflow. Following on from that, they began R&D work on the Tachyon cannon; a weapon type with faster-than-light projectiles. They began implementing thruster damage effects in keeping with the new flight model planned for Alpha 3.5 and began R&D on how to use particle effects to help make Area 18\u2019s volumetrics more visually interesting. They also worked on effects for the new Kahix rocket launcher \u2013 a handheld anti-vehicle rocket launcher with a unique tech style. New tools were created within Houdini to help design various assets. This includes a new, more accurate way to generate signed distance fields (SDF) on the surface of the gas cloud. These SDFs are used as an arbitrary surface that enable the ability to spawn and manipulate effects with, such as lightning crawling along the surface.\nWeapons\nThe Weapon Art Team worked on the Multi-Tool rework, Kastak Arms Ravager-212, and the level two and three upgrades for the Hurston Dynamics Laser Repeaters. They also made minor adjustments to the iron sights on a handful of weapons to improve the sight picture and to make them more user-friendly when no optics are attached. WE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026","de_DE":"Der erste Monatsbericht des Jahres \u00fcber Persistent Universe beschreibt die gesamte Arbeit des Star Citizen-Teams im Dezember und Januar. W\u00e4hrend die Entwickler und Studioteams eine Pause f\u00fcr die Feiertage einlegten, wurden in den ersten Wintermonaten eine Menge Aufgaben erledigt, Fortschritte gemacht und neue Ideen gesetzt.\n\nKI\nDas KI-Team hat sich f\u00fcr die letzten Alpha-Releases und Patches um Stabilit\u00e4t und Optimierung bem\u00fcht. KI-Kampfhubschrauber gewannen neue taktische Optionen, einschlie\u00dflich der Einf\u00fchrung eines neuen Verhaltens, das es ihnen erlaubt, Feinde zu umkreisen und ihre T\u00fcrme f\u00fcr Angriffe aus konstanter Entfernung zu benutzen. Designer k\u00f6nnen dieses Verhalten leicht \u00e4ndern, um Dinge wie die optimale Angriffsreichweite und den Zeitpunkt des Auskuppelns des Ziels zu \u00e4ndern. Die Taktiken des Vorbeifliegens und des Abrei\u00dfens wurden ebenfalls ge\u00e4ndert, um die vorhergesagte Trefferposition besser zu nutzen und es den Schiffen zu erm\u00f6glichen, die Umgebung besser zu bewerten und die optimale Ausweichrichtung zu bestimmen. Ein st\u00e4ndiger Fokus des Teams liegt auf der Umstellung aller neuen Bewegungslogiken, um das neue Intelligent Flight Control System in Vorbereitung auf das kommende Release zu nutzen. F\u00fcr den menschlichen Kampf arbeitete das Team daran, das in Alpha 3.4 ver\u00f6ffentlichte Verhalten zu verbessern und sicherzustellen, dass grundlegende Strukturen vorhanden waren, damit die KI entscheiden konnte, welchen Abdeckungsstandort sie verwenden sollte, wann sie schie\u00dfen und wann sie umziehen sollte. Die Cover-Auswahl wurde erweitert, um die Abfrage nach dem Grad des Schutzes zu ordnen, den sie bietet, wenn mehrere Ziele ber\u00fccksichtigt werden. Sie implementierten auch eine verbesserte M\u00f6glichkeit, das Verhalten zu debuggen und k\u00f6nnen nun den Debug-Baum auf mehreren Zeichen gleichzeitig visualisieren sowie die Subsumption Debug-Zeichnung in einer Server\/Client-Umgebung verwenden. Die Zeit wurde auf das Wahrnehmungssystem verwendet, das um Schadensreize erweitert wurde; die KI-Charaktere haben jetzt ein richtiges Bewusstsein f\u00fcr Sch\u00e4den, so dass sie den genauen Standort der Quelle kennen und sich entsprechend verhalten werden, indem sie verfolgen, ob ein bestimmter Feind, den sie aus den Augen verloren haben, die Schadensquelle ist, und ihr Wissen \u00fcber ihn aktualisieren. Fortschritte wurden beim Usable Builder erzielt, der es dem Team erm\u00f6glicht, Usables einfach zu visualisieren, ihre Eigenschaften zu bearbeiten und die verschiedenen Nutzungskan\u00e4le zu testen. F\u00fcr das Missionssystem stellten sie den Designern mehrere neue Funktionalit\u00e4ten zur Verf\u00fcgung, wie beispielsweise eine Vielzahl von Aufgabenknoten, neue Variablentypen und neue Kernfunktionalit\u00e4ten. Es wurde eine Variable \"Gruppe\" eingef\u00fchrt, die automatisch aufgef\u00fcllt werden kann, wenn KI-Charaktere erzeugt werden, damit Designer die dynamischen Elemente, an denen sie interessiert sind, verfolgen k\u00f6nnen. Derzeit implementiert das KI-Team globale R\u00fcckrufe, um den Designern zu helfen, Umweltereignisse zu verfolgen, die spezifisch f\u00fcr die Daten sind, die sie interessieren, ohne dass sie explizit Variablen f\u00fcr jede Entit\u00e4t erstellen m\u00fcssen.\nAnimation\nDas PU-Animationsteam verbrachte die Vorferienzeit damit, Missionsgeber, darunter Constantine Hurston und Tecia Pacheco, fertigzustellen, und arbeitet derzeit an Schiffsh\u00e4ndlern, um den Spielern ein verkaufsorientiertes Erlebnis beim Kauf von Fahrzeugen im Spiel zu bieten. Sie aktualisieren auch weiterhin die auf der CitizenCon aufgenommenen Emotes.\nAudio\nDas Team arbeitete hart daran, das Audioerlebnis des Schiffes im Einklang mit dem neuen Flugmodell zu verbessern, wozu auch Verbesserungen an Triebwerken, Triebwerken und dem gesamten Klangmix geh\u00f6rten. Sie integrieren auch eine h\u00f6here Komplexit\u00e4t durch neue Komponenten, einschlie\u00dflich Schiffsschwingungen und Varianten von Umweltfeedbacks, die eine h\u00f6here R\u00fcckmeldung von Turbulenzen, St\u00f6\u00dfen und Atmosph\u00e4renflug liefern. Physicalized Requisiten und physische Objekte wurden in letzter Zeit mit Audiounterst\u00fctzung ausgestattet, um sicherzustellen, dass sie \u00fcber angemessene Auswirkungen, Rollen, Folien und St\u00fcrzeffekte verf\u00fcgen. Neu hinzugekommen ist die Arbeit des Teams an impliziten Inhalten f\u00fcr transportable G\u00fcter, wie z.B. Kisten. Das Foley-System wird kontinuierlich weiterentwickelt, wobei das Team die Tritt- und Stoffsysteme in Bezug auf verschiedene Zusammenh\u00e4nge verbessert, z.B. Material\/Oberfl\u00e4chentypen und druckbeaufschlagte\/unbeaufschlagte Umgebungen. Die Sounds variieren auch f\u00fcr den kommenden weiblichen Spielercharakter. In enger Zusammenarbeit mit dem PU-Musikkomponisten Pedro Camacho hat das Team die Grundlagen f\u00fcr verschiedene zuk\u00fcnftige Standorte gelegt, darunter ArcCorp und Area 18. Dazu geh\u00f6ren kreative Gespr\u00e4che mit der Erz\u00e4hlung, der Kunst und dem breiteren Audio-Team, um geeignete Klangpaletten, Instrumente, Stile und Motive zu entwickeln. Das Audio Code Team hat bedeutende Fortschritte bei der Entwicklung des neuen CIG-Audiosystems erzielt, das die Audio-Implementierungspipelines enorm verbessern und die Funktionalit\u00e4t in einem einzigen Tool mit viel mehr Umfang und Flexibilit\u00e4t konsolidieren wird. In weiteren Nachrichten stellt die Audioabteilung neue Mitarbeiter ein! Sie suchen zwei Stellen f\u00fcr Sounddesign und eine Stelle f\u00fcr Dialogspezialisten. Dies steht im Einklang mit der geplanten Expansion des Teams und alle talentierten Audio-Profis werden ermutigt, sich zu bewerben.\nBackend Services\nBackend Services hat einen gro\u00dfen Teil der Fundamentarbeiten f\u00fcr die neue Diffusions-Backend-Architektur abgeschlossen. Dazu geh\u00f6rt auch die weitere Aufteilung des General Instance Managers in kleinere skalierbare Dienste. Der dedizierte Spielserver muss ordnungsgem\u00e4\u00df mit den neuen Diensten kommunizieren, so dass zwischen ihnen Hooks und richtige Aufrufe eingerichtet wurden. Auch das Alpha 3.4 Release und nachfolgende kleinere Releases wurden unterst\u00fctzt, um die Kommunikation im Backend so effizient wie m\u00f6glich zu gestalten. Im Januar wurden Pl\u00e4ne f\u00fcr das neue Diffusionsnetz aufgestellt und es wurde daran gearbeitet, sicherzustellen, dass die Skriptsprache der Dienste weiterhin effizient funktioniert. Schlie\u00dflich wurden bei den Backend Services eine Reihe von \u00c4nderungen an den verschiedenen neuen Diensten und bestehenden Datenbanken vorgenommen, um die Effizienz zu steigern.\nCharakter-Kunst\nCharacter Art brachte den Spielern die Shipjacker-R\u00fcstung zusammen mit dem festtagsbezogenen Shipjacker-Sch\u00e4delhelm. Sie machten sich auch daran, alle R\u00fcstungen und Unterteile f\u00fcr weibliche spielbare Charaktere zu vereinheitlichen und finalisierten das Konzept f\u00fcr den Missionsgeber Tecia \"Twitch\" Pacheco. Nach einer sch\u00f6nen Urlaubspause begann das Team mit den Aufgaben f\u00fcr das kommende DNA-Feature. Dazu musste das Team alle Head Assets konvertieren, aufschlagen und vereinheitlichen, um mit den m\u00e4nnlichen und weiblichen Protos zu arbeiten, einschlie\u00dflich der Vereinheitlichung aller Data Forge Assets. DNA ist ein wichtiges Merkmal, das die gesamte Gesichtseinrichtung und Pipeline f\u00fcr Charaktere in Star Citizen beeinflusst. Diese wichtige Funktion betrifft viele Teams und macht durch viele engagierte Zusammenarbeit sehr gute Fortschritte. Die Teams aktualisieren derzeit die Mesh-Formate, um die erforderlichen Datens\u00e4tze zu unterst\u00fctzen, verpacken und beheben alle Fehler im Zusammenhang mit dem Skinning von GPUs und aktualisieren alle Anh\u00e4nge im Spiel mit dem f\u00fcr die DNA-Kompatibilit\u00e4t erforderlichen Aufschlag. Das System hat mit der Einf\u00fchrung in der PU auf NSC-Charaktere begonnen und bringt bereits Leistungsgewinne. Viele Kooperationen und Iterationen zwischen allen DNA-Teams haben zu einer lustigen und intuitiven Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che gef\u00fchrt, die es dem Spieler erm\u00f6glicht, sein eigenes Gesicht f\u00fcr seinen Spielercharakter zu gestalten. Die DNA-Funktion ist auf dem richtigen Weg, um die geplante Freigabe zu erreichen. Schlie\u00dflich konzipiert das Team auch neue Missionsgeber und Outfits, um dem Persistent Universe mehr Leben einzuhauchen.\nCommunity\nDas Community-Team veranstaltete zwei Wettbewerbe zum Thema Urlaub: Einer lud die B\u00fcrger ein, Gru\u00dfkarten zu erstellen, um ihre Liebe und Dankbarkeit auszudr\u00fccken und sich gegenseitig frohe Feiertage zu w\u00fcnschen. Der andere nutzte den festlichen Helm und die Ladung, indem er alle bat, zu zeigen, wie sie die Feiertage in der Strophe feiern. Der neue Star Citizen Fankit wurde ver\u00f6ffentlicht, der eine F\u00fclle von kostenlosen Assets zusammen mit einem Style Guide bietet, der Inhaltserstellern hilft, diese optimal zu nutzen. Suchen Sie nach Hintergrundbildern, Herstellerlogos, Musik und mehr? Laden Sie das Kit herunter und lesen Sie die FAQ, in der Sie alle Fragen dar\u00fcber beantworten, was ein Inhaltsersteller mit offiziellen Star Citizen Assets machen kann und was nicht. Im Januar feierte das Team den Australia Day mit einem Screenshot-Wettbewerb, bei dem alle ihre besten Flugformationen im Gladius Valiant zeigten (der allen Geldgebern zu diesem Anlass zur Verf\u00fcgung gestellt wurde). Sie starteten auch einen weiteren Wettbewerb, bei dem Tumbrils raue und robuste Cyclone-Serie im Mittelpunkt stand, die Inhaltsersteller herausforderte, ihre Filmemacher-F\u00e4higkeiten auf die Stra\u00dfe zu bringen. Einige der Mitglieder des Community-Teams verbrachten ein Wochenende damit, die PAX South zu erkunden und nahmen an der j\u00e4hrlichen Bar Citizen Veranstaltung am River Walk teil. Selfies wurden genommen, Geschichten geteilt und Freundschaften geschlossen. Hast du dir in letzter Zeit deinen Hangar angesehen? Die'One Empire Anniversary Coin' wurde an alle Geldgeber verteilt, die sich zuvor auf den 200 Millionen Dollar Meilenstein verpflichtet hatten. Schlie\u00dflich fand am 27. Januar die Daymar-Rallye statt, bei der drei verschiedene Divisionen (Rover, Buggy und Bike) um Ruhm und Belohnung k\u00e4mpften. Alle Beteiligten sollten sehr stolz auf sich selbst sein, denn das schmutzigste Rennen im Vers zusammenkommen zu sehen, war f\u00fcr alle ein unglaubliches Erlebnis. Gut gemacht!\nDesign\nDas Economy Features Team konzentrierte sich darauf, den verschiedenen Gesch\u00e4ften rund um den Vers neue Waffen hinzuzuf\u00fcgen. Nach Fertigstellung wurden f\u00fcr alle neuen Standorte Werkstattinventuren angelegt und verschiedene Fehler beseitigt. Auch an den Missionen und der Gesamtwirtschaft wurde gefeilt, um das Spiel den wirtschaftlichen Zielen des Teams n\u00e4her zu bringen. Im Januar begannen die Tests mit einer neuen Formel, die bestimmte Rohstoffparameter innerhalb der Gesamtwirtschaft dynamisch ver\u00e4ndert. Auch bei den Fahrzeugkomponenten wird ein neuer Ansatz verfolgt, um den Spielern in den Gesch\u00e4ften eine interessante Auswahl zu bieten - auch wenn sie genug Geld haben, um alles zu kaufen, was sie wollen. Im Laufe des Verses wurde den verschiedenen NSCs Polnisch hinzugef\u00fcgt, um sie so realistisch und glaubw\u00fcrdig wie m\u00f6glich zu gestalten. Das Design war komplett f\u00fcr ein neues Nav-Marker-Regelset, das das Sehen von Zielmarken intuitiver macht. Au\u00dferdem wurden Regels\u00e4tze erstellt, um den Systemen Quantum Travel und Service Beacon Funktionen hinzuzuf\u00fcgen, die den Spielern mehr M\u00f6glichkeiten bieten, wenn sie in einer Gruppe reisen und einen Ort f\u00fcr den Transport von Servicebaken w\u00e4hlen.\nDevOps\nDevOps brach den bisherigen Rekord bei der Anzahl der internen Builds, die f\u00fcr die PTU und den Live-Service ver\u00f6ffentlicht wurden. \"Eines der befriedigendsten Dinge f\u00fcr das Team ist es, die Ergebnisse unserer Arbeit zu sehen. Der Alpha 3.4-Verlag war einer der F\u00e4lle, in denen wir wirklich stolz waren.\" 2018 war das erste Jahr, in dem die Skalierungsautomatisierung f\u00fcr den Live-Service eingesetzt wurde, die es den Servern erm\u00f6glicht, bei Bedarf mit der Nachfrage Schritt zu halten und bei Bedarf zu reduzieren. Das neue System \u00fcbertraf alle Erwartungen und f\u00fchrte zu einer der reibungslosesten Ferienzeiten aller Zeiten. Build Operations hat hart an der Entwicklung neuer Systeme gearbeitet, um ein wichtiges Pipeline-Upgrade des gesamten Spiel-Entwicklungsprozesses zu unterst\u00fctzen, und baut weiterhin neue Systeme und verbessert alte.\nIngenieurwesen\nDas Engine Team unterst\u00fctzte die Alpha 3.4 Version und nachfolgende Patches mit allgemeiner Unterst\u00fctzung, Profilerstellung, Optimierung und Fehlerbehebung. F\u00fcr das Compute Skinning f\u00fchrten sie tangentiale Rekonstruktionsoptimierungen f\u00fcr Zeichenfl\u00e4chen, Datenoptimierungen und Komprimierung auf geringere Bandbreitenanforderungen, getrennte statische und dynamische GPU-Daten und verschobenes Bone-Remapping auf die GPU (um CPU-Speicher zu sparen und mehr Flexibilit\u00e4t zu bieten) durch. Die Arbeiten an der HDR-Farbabstufung und der Ausgabe auf unterst\u00fctzten Displays begannen, w\u00e4hrend die Unterst\u00fctzung von Platinenkarten f\u00fcr Planetengel\u00e4nde hinzugef\u00fcgt wurde, ebenso wie eine verbesserte Filmk\u00f6rnung mit einheitlichem Dithering. Die Entwicklung des planetarischen Bodennebels begann zusammen mit signifikanten Verbesserungen des tempor\u00e4ren Proben-Anti-Aliasing (TSAA). Die Physikingenieure erm\u00f6glichten gemeinsame Grenzen f\u00fcr angetriebene Ragdolls und fixierte Instabilit\u00e4t durch einen Schwellenwert im Solver. Sie machten auch die ersten Schritte bei der Aufdeckung der r\u00e4umlichen Gitterstruktur f\u00fcr das Gehen und Erkunden und f\u00fcgten physikalische Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr planetarische Ozeane hinzu. Verbesserungen wurden am Crash-Handling vorgenommen, einschlie\u00dflich verschiedener Verbesserungen der Thread-Sicherheit, um eine robustere Handhabung von obskuren Crashs zu erm\u00f6glichen, und das Hinzuf\u00fcgen zus\u00e4tzlicher Informationen in Minidumps, um ein besseres Debugging von Fasern zu erm\u00f6glichen.\nUmwelt Kunst\nIm Winter begannen die Arbeiten f\u00fcr das n\u00e4chste gro\u00dfe Ziel des Environment Art Teams: microTech und seine Landezone New Babbage. In Vorbereitung wurden Entw\u00fcrfe f\u00fcr die gemeinsamen Elemente der \"Hi-Tech\" getestet, zu denen Habs, Garagen und Hangars in einem v\u00f6llig neuen Architekturstil geh\u00f6ren. Diese neuen Sets werden dem Team helfen, New Babbage aufzubauen und sicherstellen, dass sich der visuelle Stil frisch und anders anf\u00fchlt. J\u00fcngste Verbesserungen an den organischen Shadern und der Pipeline werden das Aussehen von Geologie und Planeten verbessern. Dieses Update ist seit langem in Arbeit und das Team freut sich darauf, allen planetaren Assets ein visuelles Upgrade zu geben. Das Team bewegt sich derzeit von der Whitebox zur Ver\u00f6ffentlichung sowohl f\u00fcr den Planeten ArcCorp als auch f\u00fcr seine Hauptlandestelle, Area 18. Einige notwendige \u00c4nderungen am urspr\u00fcnglichen Layout von Area 18 wurden vorgenommen, haupts\u00e4chlich aus Performancegr\u00fcnden, aber auch zur Verbesserung des allgemeinen Layouts und des Stadtgef\u00fchls. \"Die Aufgabe, eine planetweite Stadt zu schaffen, die von den Spielern umrundet werden kann und die sich auch gut in die gro\u00dfe Landezone einf\u00fcgt, bleibt eine st\u00e4ndige Herausforderung, die aber beeindruckende Fr\u00fcchte tr\u00e4gt. Die Fortschritte bei der Verbesserung der Glaubw\u00fcrdigkeit und des Lesens von ArcCorp als Stadt waren gut, wobei der Raum einen gro\u00dfen visuellen Schritt nach vorne gemacht hat, als er zuletzt gesehen wurde.\"\nGameplay-Funktionalit\u00e4t\nWie viele andere hat sich auch das Gameplay Feature Team bem\u00fcht, so viele Fehler wie m\u00f6glich f\u00fcr das Alpha 3.4 Release zu beheben. Insbesondere haben sie Probleme mit FoIP & VoIP, Comms und dem Gruppensystem \u00fcberwunden. Sie unterst\u00fctzten auch das US Vehicle Feature Team mit ihren UI-Bed\u00fcrfnissen f\u00fcr das Item Sub-Targeting und die laufenden Turmverbesserungen. Das Team startete 2019 mit der Unterst\u00fctzung von Patches f\u00fcr Alpha 3.4.0, bevor es direkt in die Featurearbeit f\u00fcr 3.5 einstieg, einschlie\u00dflich der Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che f\u00fcr die DNA-Gesichtsanpassung, der kontinuierlichen Verbesserung des Comms-Video-Streaming und eines Refactors der Shop-Population.\nGrafiken\nDer Schwerpunkt des Grafikteams lag auf Leistung und Speicherplatzersparnis: Die Leistungssteigerungen resultierten haupts\u00e4chlich aus Verbesserungen bei der Schattensammlung und der Optimierung von Videokommunikationen, insbesondere bei Maschinen mit niedrigerer Spezifikation (obwohl es noch einige Qualit\u00e4tsprobleme zu l\u00f6sen gibt). Die gr\u00f6\u00dfte Speichereinsparung kam durch die Behebung eines besonders b\u00f6sen Fehlers im Mesh-Streaming-Code, der dazu f\u00fchren konnte, dass alle Detaillierungsebenen f\u00fcr ein Mesh geladen wurden und nicht nur die ben\u00f6tigten. Weitere Einsparungen ergaben sich aus der Erh\u00f6hung der Sharing-Texturen, die von verschiedenen Effekten verwendet werden, und aus der Verbesserung der Logik, in die Texturen gestreamt werden sollen (interessanterweise kann das Spiel nun mit nur 400 MB Texturen laufen!). Dar\u00fcber hinaus hat das Team die Wasservolumentechnik wiederbelebt und mit dem Zonensystem kompatibel gemacht, so dass sie auf Planeten, Raumstationen und Schiffen eingesetzt werden kann.\nLeveldesign\nLevel Design hat die aktuelle Iteration des Lorville's Central Business District (CBD) abgeschlossen und der Stadt hinzugef\u00fcgt. Sie untersuchen nun die Zuglinien, die sie mit dem Raumhafen Teasa verbinden. Der Gro\u00dfteil des Teams konzentriert sich jedoch derzeit auf ArcCorp und Area18, wobei Hangar, Shop, Vendor, Spaceport und Gesamtlayout nun fertig gestellt sind. Sie gaben dem Planeten und seinen Monden auch ein notwendiges Design, begannen eine Untersuchung der QuantenreisekI und f\u00fchrten eine Vielzahl neuer Bet\u00e4ubungsmittel w\u00e4hrend des Prototypings einer neuen Mission von \"Twitch\" Pacheco ein.\nBeleuchtung\nDas Beleuchtungsteam konzentrierte sich auf die Fertigstellung der CBD und unterst\u00fctzte die Erweiterung von Levski um den Missionsspender Klim f\u00fcr das Release Alpha 3.4.0. Sie betrachteten auch die kleinen und mittleren gemeinsamen Elemente f\u00fcr die Spielerhallen und entwickelten verschiedene Beleuchtungsvarianten f\u00fcr die Rastst\u00e4tte, Lorville und die kommenden Area 18-Stile. Sie arbeiten derzeit daran, die Entwicklungstools zu vervollst\u00e4ndigen, indem sie einen Asset-Zoo f\u00fcr alle aktuellen Leuchten im utilitaristischen Stil einrichten, die in der gesamten PU verwendet werden, um ihnen zu helfen, schnell und effizient neue Standorte zu beleuchten.\nNarrativ\nDas Narrative Team kehrte von den Feiertagen zur\u00fcck, um das Alpha 3.5-Update in Angriff zu nehmen, einschlie\u00dflich der Entwicklung von Ideen f\u00fcr das Branding von Stra\u00dfen- und Essensst\u00e4nden in Area 18 und der Darstellung der NSC-Archetypen, die f\u00fcr die Besiedlung der Stadt- und Missionsinhalte ben\u00f6tigt werden. Das Team freut sich auch, einen neuen Produzenten in der Gruppe willkommen zu hei\u00dfen; er wird nicht nur helfen, das Team zu organisieren, er wird auch als Ansprechpartner f\u00fcr die anderen Teams fungieren, um Anfragen zu stellen.\nSpielerbeziehungen\nPlayer Relations haben die Alpha 3.4 Ver\u00f6ffentlichungen zusammen mit allen Arbeiten, die w\u00e4hrend der Ferienzeit entstanden sind, eifrig abgeschlossen. Sie arbeiteten mit der Evocati f\u00fcr mehrere Builds zusammen, um sicherzustellen, dass alles richtig getestet wurde und beendeten mehrere Runden PTU-Publishing und -Tests. Fortschritte wurden auch bei einem internen Feedback-Bericht zur Lebensqualit\u00e4t erzielt, der direkt aus den Erfahrungen der Geldgeber stammt. \"Wie immer k\u00f6nnen wir unseren Freiwilligen nicht genug f\u00fcr die M\u00fche danken, die sie in die Entwicklung dieses Spiels gesteckt haben (besonders unsere wunderbaren Avocados!).\" Die Planung f\u00fcr das kommende Alpha 3.5-Release hat bereits begonnen - insbesondere der Test des neuen Flugmodells.\nRequisiten\nVon den kleinen Kleidungsst\u00fccken auf Konstantins Schreibtisch bis hin zur riesigen Hurston-Statue verbrachten Requisiten haupts\u00e4chlich den Dezember damit, Lorvilles CBD fertigzustellen. Neue Missionsrequisiten wurden geschaffen, die sich auf den illegalen Drogenhandel und das Oberfl\u00e4chenrelais konzentrierten. Im Dezember schlie\u00dflich wurden Ideen f\u00fcr das Cockpit-Flair umgesetzt und mit den Arbeiten an den Schiffsunterpositionen begonnen. Im Januar machte sich ein Teil des Teams daran, sich die Schiffsartikel selbst anzusehen, indem es zun\u00e4chst eine Bestandsaufnahme machte und sich Gedanken dar\u00fcber machte, wie es m\u00f6glich ist, Unterpunkte in den Innenraum zu integrieren. Die Mehrheit des Teams ist nun auf die neue Landezone der Area 18 verlagert worden und untersucht White-Boxing-Requisiten und liefert grundlegende Blockouts, damit andere Teams mit dem Bau und der Ausstattung der Ebene beginnen k\u00f6nnen.\nQA\nQA hat einige der schwieriger zu reproduzierenden Probleme im Vorfeld des Alpha 3.4-Release angegangen. Dedizierte Funktionstester f\u00fcr die KI und die Gameplay Feature Teams testeten weiterhin ihre jeweiligen Bereiche (Kampf-KI, SchiffskI, Nicht-Kampf-KI und Transitsystem) mittels Sanit\u00e4ts- und Rauchtest sowie Standardtests und Regression. QA bietet nun dem Locations-Team eine engagierte Unterst\u00fctzung, um sicherzustellen, dass aktuelle und neue Standorte eingerichtet werden und wie von Art and Design erwartet funktionieren. Einige bemerkenswerte Anfragen betrafen das Testen von Fixes f\u00fcr Server-Deadlocks und verschiedene \u00c4nderungen in der Physik des Sprungs und des Hinuntergehens von Treppen. \u00c4nderungen an den Entity-IDs in der Track View wurden im Editor getestet, um sicherzustellen, dass sie nahtlos und fehlerfrei sind. Auch in Lorville wurde ein neuer Sperrbereich f\u00fcr Bodenfahrzeuge eingerichtet, der sowohl von den deutschen als auch von den britischen Teams gr\u00fcndlich getestet wurde. Es wurden weitere Untersuchungen zur Frage des Leerlaufs der Schiffskrippe w\u00e4hrend der Missionen des S\u00f6ldner- und Notfallkommunikationsnetzes (ECN) durchgef\u00fchrt, um festzustellen, ob es sich um eine Krippe oder ein Netzwerk handelte. Das Team konnte es nur w\u00e4hrend SchiffskI-Missionen in der Live-Umgebung reproduzieren und begegnete bei einem 20-Spieler-Spieltest etwas \u00c4hnlichem. Der einzige konsequente Faktor war, dass er nur dann auftrat, wenn die Leistung nachlie\u00df. Es wurde also nicht als KI-Problem angesehen und wird vom Netzwerkteam weiter untersucht. Auf der Verlagsseite testete QA die Alpha 3.4 Builds, bevor sie den Evocati und Live Service erreichten. Im Januar haben sie die 3.4.#-Fixes durchgearbeitet. Vor kurzem wurde der Vorbereitung auf Alpha 3.5 Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt. In den Ferien kamen vier neue Tester in die erweiterte QA-Familie.\nSchiffe\nDas britische Schiffsteam setzte die Entwicklung des Origin 890 Jump fort, wobei weitere Arbeiten an Atrium, Mastersuite, G\u00e4ste-Suiten und Engineering-Deck durchgef\u00fchrt wurden. Sie verfeinerten auch das \u00e4u\u00dfere Rumpfdesign, um zu versuchen, einige Bereiche n\u00e4her an das urspr\u00fcngliche Konzept heranzuf\u00fchren und das Gesamtschiff weniger \"cartoon-looking\" zu machen.\nDer Lieblingspfadfinder aller, der Amboss Carrack, hat sich seit seiner letzten Entdeckung weiterentwickelt. Es befindet sich derzeit in der Greybox, wobei das Team die R\u00fcckmeldungen aus den Diskussionen \u00fcber RTV, insbesondere die umstrittenen Fahrwerkswechsel und das Br\u00fcckenlayout, in Angriff nimmt. Schlie\u00dflich machte das Team stetige Fortschritte bei den Aktualisierungen der Aegis Vanguard in Vorbereitung auf den Harbinger und Sentinel, wobei der Schwerpunkt vor allem auf Innenausstattungen sowie auf einigen Quality of Life Fixes f\u00fcr diejenigen an Bord lag. Greybox schreitet gut voran, so dass das Team nach au\u00dfen gehen und Feedback-Punkte angehen wird, um sicherzustellen, dass das Basis-W\u00e4rter-Modell richtig vorbereitet ist, um die Varianten aufzunehmen.\nSchiffskunst\nShip Art arbeitet derzeit intensiv daran, die neue 300i-Serie zum Leben zu erwecken. Sie sind dabei, den Schadens- und Anpassungspass abzuschlie\u00dfen, die Detailarbeit an verschiedenen Teilen abzuschlie\u00dfen und die Materialien fertigzustellen. Neben dem 300i tummeln sie sich auf dem Defender, dem ersten Aktivposten im Spiel der mysteri\u00f6sen Banu-Alienrasse. Es wurde besonders darauf geachtet, dass der Defender die gesamte \u00c4sthetik des Banu-Designs repr\u00e4sentiert und in Zukunft weiter ausgebaut werden kann. Das Exterieur durchl\u00e4uft derzeit den Greybox-Modellierungsprozess und ist nahezu vollst\u00e4ndig. Anschlie\u00dfend geht es zur internen Greybox-Modellierung \u00fcber.\nSystemdesign\nDas System Design Team untersuchte, wie man die FPS KI-Erfahrung verbessern kann und die soziale KI wurde in der Lorville CBD eingef\u00fchrt. Die von der KI gef\u00fchrten Kanonenboote kreisen nun um ihre Ziele und orientieren sich an der Maximierung ihrer Feuerkraft, w\u00e4hrend die Kampfflugzeug-KI aktualisiert wurde, um die Vorteile des neuen Flugmodells voll auszusch\u00f6pfen.\nTechnische Kunst\nTech Art unternahm Schritte, um die Implementierung und Pipeline der neuen Gesichtsanpassungstechnologie abzuschlie\u00dfen, die auf der CitizenCon 2018 vorgestellt wurde. Sie wechselten das Quelldatenformat des Systems von dem CDF-basierten System (das w\u00e4hrend der F&E verwendet wurde) auf das neuere komponentenbasierte Loadout, das derzeit im gesamten Spiel verwendet wird. Dieses System erm\u00f6glicht es, die individuellen Gesichter der Spieler dauerhaft in der Datenbank zu speichern und die entsprechenden Datenpakete effizient \u00fcber das Netzwerk zu \u00fcbertragen und zur Laufzeit auf den richtigen Avatar anzuwenden. Ebenso erm\u00f6glicht es allen wichtigen NSCs (jedem Ladenbesitzer, Wachmann, Zivilisten und schlie\u00dflich Missionsgeber), ein einzigartiges Gesicht zu haben, das von den Designern intern entworfen wurde. W\u00e4hrend die Forschung und Entwicklung am DNA-System mit m\u00e4nnlichen Gesichtern durchgef\u00fchrt wurde, wird der Gesichtspool f\u00fcr weibliche Charaktere gef\u00fcllt und soll gleichzeitig online gehen. Tech Art unterst\u00fctzte das Waffenteam auch beim Animations-Debugging, beim Waffen-Rigging, beim In-Engine-Setup und beim Debuggen mehrerer Render- und Ressourcen-Compiler-Probleme. Sie haben in Maya ein neues System f\u00fcr Waffen hinzugef\u00fcgt, mit dem Animatoren schnell verschiedene Anh\u00e4nge anh\u00e4ngen k\u00f6nnen, was es ihnen erleichtert, spezifische Animationen zu erstellen. Sie aktualisierten auch das zugrundeliegende Metasystem in den Waffenrigs, um es Animatoren zu erm\u00f6glichen, Waffen zu exportieren, ohne doppelte Transformationen bei den Wurzel- oder Magazinkontrollen.\nTurbulent\nTurbulent unterst\u00fctzte die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung der Ferienaktion 2018 mit einem neuen geschenkten Pfand namens \"For Your Friends\". Dieses neue Versprechen erm\u00f6glicht es, eine anpassbare Nachricht zusammen mit dem Geschenk zu senden, was es ideal f\u00fcr Freunde und Familie macht. Die Weihnachtsaktion beinhaltete auch Screenshot- und Gru\u00dfkartenwettbewerbe. Das Team unterst\u00fctzte die Verf\u00fcgbarkeit der Alpha 3.4 fliegenden Schiffe auf der Website, darunter die Anvil Hawk, Origin 600i Touring, MISC Freelancer Series und die MISC Reliant Kore. Die Unternehmenswebsite von Cloud Imperium Games wurde im Dezember ver\u00f6ffentlicht. Der elegante neue Look ist eine viel bessere Darstellung der Werte und Mission des Unternehmens und vermittelt die Vision hinter Star Citizen richtig. Der Abschnitt \"Join Us\" enth\u00e4lt Details zu jedem Standort und \u00fcber 100 Stellenausschreibungen in 9 verschiedenen Kategorien, also sehen Sie, ob es in Ihrem n\u00e4chsten Studio etwas f\u00fcr Sie gibt! Die Rubrik News und Stellenausschreibungen wird st\u00e4ndig aktualisiert. L\u00e4ngst \u00fcberf\u00e4llig, wurde die Navigation der Website mit einer neuen und verbesserten Plattformleiste und -fu\u00dfzeile verbessert. Zus\u00e4tzliche Anstrengungen wurden unternommen, um die Bar als Komponente zu erstellen, um zuk\u00fcnftige Updates der Website zu erleichtern. Die Starmap ist nun \u00fcber das Apps-Men\u00fc zug\u00e4nglich, um das Auffinden zu erleichtern! Es gab wichtige Aktualisierungen der Squadron 42 Roadmap, die nun in das interne Projektmanagement-Tool Jira eingebunden ist. Ein neues Kapiteldesign wurde eingef\u00fchrt, das den Entwicklungsfortschritt in Form von Phasen und Kapiteln darstellt, w\u00e4hrend die Beschreibungen f\u00fcr jedes Kapitel die Details dar\u00fcber aufzeigen, was es tats\u00e4chlich braucht, um das Spiel zu bauen. Turbulent unterst\u00fctzte die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung der Gladius Valiant Free-Fly Promotion zur Feier des Australia Day. Es gab einen Screenshot-Wettbewerb mit Preisen, die gewonnen werden konnten. Den Diensten Gruppe, Lobby und Sprache wurde eine anpassbare Einstellungsfunktion hinzugef\u00fcgt, mit der benutzerdefinierte Eigenschaften f\u00fcr jeden Benutzer mit der jeweiligen Entit\u00e4t festgelegt werden k\u00f6nnen. Der Sprachdienst kann einen Anruf innerhalb eines Kanals starten und alle Personen einladen, die teilnehmen d\u00fcrfen. Der neue mobiGlas-Dienst erm\u00f6glicht einzelne Endpunkte, die mit einem einzigen Anruf die Informationen aus dem Gruppen-, Lobby- und Sprachdienst entsprechend sammeln. Es k\u00f6nnen Optionen \u00fcbergeben werden, die die Art der zur\u00fcckgegebenen Informationen ausw\u00e4hlen. Die Fehlererkennungssoftware Sentry wurde ebenfalls zu jedem Dienst hinzugef\u00fcgt, damit zuvor nicht erfasste Fehler verfolgt und an das entsprechende Sentry-Projekt gemeldet werden k\u00f6nnen.\nUI\nIm Dezember und Januar unterst\u00fctzte UI das Umweltteam mit fiktiven Anzeigen und Branding f\u00fcr ArcCorp. Sie implementierten neue Funktionen auf der technischen Seite, um es den Designern zu erm\u00f6glichen, \"Benutzervariablen\" zu erstellen, die intern verwendet werden, aber dennoch auf der Entit\u00e4t bestehen bleiben k\u00f6nnen, an die die Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che gebunden ist. So kann beispielsweise ein Designer Spieldatenwerte erfassen und intern in der Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che speichern, um bei Daten\u00e4nderungen auf fr\u00fchere Werte zur\u00fcckzugreifen. Diese Funktionalit\u00e4t erf\u00fcllt bestimmte Darstellungsanforderungen, die zur Verbesserung des Benutzererlebnisses beitragen. Eine weitere interessante Schlussfolgerung ist, dass sie, da sie \u00fcber das Netzwerk gesendet werden, den Spielern das Potenzial er\u00f6ffnen, den Oberfl\u00e4chenstatus des anderen zu sehen (welche App sie gerade benutzen, welches bestimmte Element in einer Liste sie hervorgehoben haben, usw.). Das Team implementierte auch einen neuen Knoten, der es erm\u00f6glicht, eine Switch-Logik f\u00fcr eine Variable (sowie ein Widget) einzurichten, um Bilder dynamisch w\u00e4hrend der Laufzeit zu laden. Zusammen erm\u00f6glichen diese Funktionen den Konstrukteuren, einen voll funktionsf\u00e4higen In-World-Waffenbenutzerbildschirm mit Munitionsz\u00e4hler, Ladezustand und Feuermoduszust\u00e4nden zu erstellen.\nFahrzeugmerkmale\nUm sicherzustellen, dass Alpha 3.4 im Dezember ver\u00f6ffentlicht wurde, verbrachte das Team viel Zeit damit, das Release (und nachfolgende Patches) zu unterst\u00fctzen, indem es Fehler wie Turm-, Fahrzeug- und Crashprobleme behebt. Das Team hat auch Modifikationen am Fahrzeugzielsystem vorgenommen, so dass externe Elemente, wie z.B. Schiffsmotoren, gezielt angesprochen werden k\u00f6nnen. Die Verbesserungen an Schiffskampfsystemen wurden \u00fcber automatisierte Kardanringe fortgesetzt, HUD-\u00c4nderungen zur Unterst\u00fctzung von Ping & Scanning und die Migration des Fahrzeugs \"XML zu DataForge\" begann. Zum Abschluss des Januars befindet sich ein Fahrzeug-Kardangelenk-Assistenzfunktion auf dem Weg zur Fertigstellung.\nFahrzeuginhalt\nDie 2018er Ausgabe des Vehicle Content Teams endete mit der Einf\u00fchrung des Anvil Hawk und der Verbesserung des Reliant Kore, was eine \u00dcberarbeitung des Frachtabschnitts, der Rampe und des Fahrwerks zur Folge hatte. Eine Reihe von Fahrzeugfehlern wurden auch f\u00fcr das Release 3.4 behoben. Zus\u00e4tzlich arbeitete das Team an den drei Reliant Varianten f\u00fcr Alpha 3.5, w\u00e4hrend die Designer mit den Schiffsk\u00fcnstlern in Austin an der \u00dcberarbeitung der Origin 300 Serie gearbeitet haben.\nVFX\nF\u00fcr die meiste Zeit im Dezember konzentrierte sich das VFX-Team stark auf die Feinabstimmung und Optimierung f\u00fcr das Alpha 3.4 Release. Insbesondere wurde darauf geachtet, dass die Umweltauswirkungen von Hurston und Lorville optimiert und gleichzeitig so hochwertig wie m\u00f6glich gehalten werden. Anfang Januar \u00fcberpr\u00fcften sie ihre Sprint-Planungspraktiken und f\u00fchrten einige einfache produktionsbedingte \u00c4nderungen durch, um den Gesamtworkflow zu verbessern. Daraufhin begannen sie mit der F&E-Arbeit an der Tachyon-Kanone, einem Waffentyp mit \u00fcberlichtgeschossenen Geschossen. Sie begannen mit der Implementierung von Thruster-Schadenseffekten in Anlehnung an das f\u00fcr Alpha 3.5 geplante neue Flugmodell und begannen mit der Forschung und Entwicklung, wie man Partikeleffekte nutzen kann, um die Volumetrie der Area 18 optisch interessanter zu gestalten. Sie arbeiteten auch an Effekten f\u00fcr den neuen Kahix-Raketenwerfer - einen tragbaren Anti-Fahrzeug-Raketenwerfer mit einem einzigartigen technischen Stil. Innerhalb von Houdini wurden neue Tools entwickelt, die bei der Gestaltung verschiedener Assets helfen. Dazu geh\u00f6rt eine neue, genauere Methode, um signierte Distanzfelder (SDF) auf der Oberfl\u00e4che der Gaswolke zu erzeugen. Diese SDFs werden als beliebige Oberfl\u00e4che verwendet, die es erm\u00f6glichen, Effekte zu erzeugen und zu manipulieren, wie z.B. Blitze, die entlang der Oberfl\u00e4che kriechen.\nWaffen\nDas Weapon Art Team arbeitete an der \u00dcberarbeitung des Multi-Tool, Kastak Arms Ravager-212, und an den Upgrades der Level zwei und drei f\u00fcr die Hurston Dynamics Laser Repeater. Sie haben auch kleinere Anpassungen an den Eisenvisieren an einer Handvoll Waffen vorgenommen, um das Visierbild zu verbessern und es benutzerfreundlicher zu gestalten, wenn keine Optik angebracht ist. WIR SEHEN UNS N\u00c4CHSTEN MONAT.....","zh_CN":"The first Persistent Universe monthly report of the year details all the work done by the Star Citizen team throughout December and January. While the devs and studio teams took a break for the holidays, the early winter months saw a ton of tasks completed, progress made, and new ideas seeded.\n\nAI\nThe AI Team put effort into stability and optimization for the recent alpha releases and patches. AI gunships gained new tactical options, including the introduction of a new behavior that allows them to circle enemies and use their turrets to attack from a constant distance. Designers can easily modify this behavior to change things like the optimal attack range and when to disengage the target. The \u2018fly-by\u2019 and \u2018breakaway\u2019 tactics were also amended to make better use of the predicted hit position and allow ships to better evaluate the environment to determine the optimal direction for evasion. An ongoing focus for the team is converting all new movement logics to utilize the new Intelligent Flight Control System in preparation for its upcoming release. For human combat, the team worked to improve the behaviors released in Alpha 3.4, making sure basic structures were in place to enable AI to decide which cover location to use, when to shoot, and when to relocate. The cover selection has been expanded to order the query based on the amount of protection it gives when multiple targets are taken into account. They also implemented an improved way to debug behaviors and can now visualize the debug tree on multiple characters at the same time as well as use the Subsumption debug draw in a server\/client environment. Time was spent on the perception system, which was expanded to handle damage stimuli; AI characters now have proper awareness of damage, so they know the exact location of the source and will behave accordingly, tracking if a specific enemy they lost sight of is the source of damage and updating the knowledge they have about them. Progress was made on the Usable Builder, which allows the team to easily visualize usables, edit their properties, and test the different use channels. For the mission system, they exposed several new functionalities to the designers, such as a variety of task nodes, new variable types, and new core functionalities. A \u2018group\u2019 variable was introduced that can automatically be filled up when spawning AI characters to let designers track the dynamic elements they\u2019re interested in. Currently, the AI Team is implementing global callbacks to help the designers track environmental events specific to the data they\u2019re interested in without the need to explicitly create variables for each entity.\n\nAnimation\nThe PU Animation Team spent the pre-holiday period finalizing mission givers, including Constantine Hurston and Tecia Pacheco, and are currently working on ship dealers to give players a salesman-like experience when buying vehicles in-game. They\u2019re also continuing to actualize the emotes shot at CitizenCon.\n\nAudio\nThe team worked hard to improve the ship audio experience in-line with the new flight model, which included implementing improvements to thrusters, powerplants, and the overall sound mix. They\u2019re also integrating greater levels of complexity via new components, including ship vibration and environmental feedback variants, that deliver greater feedback from turbulence, impact, and atmospheric flight. Physicalized props and physical objects received audio support recently to ensure they have appropriate impact, role, slide, and topple sound effects. A recent addition to this is the team\u2019s work on implied contents for carriable items, such as crates. The Foley system is continually being iterated on, with the team improving the footstep and cloth systems in relation to various contexts, e.g. material\/surface types and pressurized\/unpressurized environments. The sounds will all vary for the upcoming female player character, too. Working closely with the PU music composer, Pedro Camacho, the team has been laying the groundwork for various upcoming locations, including ArcCorp and Area 18. This includes creative conversations with the Narrative, Art, and the wider Audio Team to establish appropriate sound pallets, instrumentation, styles, and motifs. The Audio Code Team drove significant progress on the new CIG Audio System, which will hugely improve the audio implementation pipelines and consolidate functionality into a single tool with much wider scope and flexibility. In other news, the Audio Department is hiring! They are looking to fill two sound design and one dialog specialist positions. This is in line with the team\u2019s planned expansion and all talented audio professionals are encouraged to apply.\n\nBackend Services\nBackend Services completed a large portion of the foundation work for the new diffusion backend architecture. This includes the continued break-up of the general instance manager into smaller scalable services. The dedicated game server needs to communicate properly with the new services, so hooks and proper calls have been set up between them. Support was also given to the Alpha 3.4 release and subsequent smaller releases to ensure communication on the backend was as efficient as possible. Plans were laid out in January for the new diffusion network and work was done to ensure the services scripting language continues to function efficiently. Finally for Backend Services, a handful of alterations were made to the various new services and existing databases for increased efficiency.\nCharacter Art\nCharacter Art brought the Shipjacker Armor to players along with the holiday-themed Shipjacker skull helmet. They also set out to unify all armors and undersuits for female playable characters and finalized the concept for mission-giver Tecia \u2018Twitch\u2019 Pacheco. After a nice holiday break, the team started on tasks for the upcoming DNA feature. For this, the team needed to convert, mark-up, and unify all head assets to work with the male and female protos, including the unification of all Data Forge assets. DNA is a major feature that affects the entire facial setup and pipeline for characters in Star Citizen. This significant feature touches a lot of teams, and through a lot of dedicated collaborative work, is progressing very well. The teams are currently updating mesh formats to support the data sets required, wrapping up and fixing any bugs relating to GPU skinning, and updating all the attachments in the game with the mark-up required for DNA compatibility. The system has begun to roll out in the PU on NPC characters and is already yielding performance wins. Lots of cooperation and iteration between all DNA teams has resulted in a fun and intuitive interface that allows the player to easily create their own face for their player character. The DNA feature is on track to meet its scheduled release. Finally, The team is also concepting new mission givers and outfits to bring more life to the Persistent Universe.\nCommunity\nThe Community Team held two holiday-themed competitions: One invited Citizens to create greetings cards to express their love and gratitude and wish each other happy holidays. The other put the festive helmet and cargo to good use by asking everyone to show how they celebrate the holidays in the \u2018verse. The new Star Citizen Fankit was released that offers a wealth of free assets along with a style guide to help content creators use them at their best. Looking for wallpapers, manufacturer logos, music, and more? Download the kit and check out the FAQ answering all the questions about what a content creator can and can\u2019t do with official Star Citizen assets. In January, the team celebrated Australia Day with a screenshot contest that had everyone showing off their best flight formations in the Gladius Valiant (which was made available to all backers for the occasion). They also kicked off another contest highlighting Tumbril\u2019s rough and rugged Cyclone series that challenged content creators to take their filmmaking skills off-road. A few of the Community Team members spent a weekend exploring PAX South and attended the annual Bar Citizen event on the River Walk. Selfies were taken, stories shared, and friendships made. Have you checked out your hangar lately? The \u2018One Empire Anniversary Coin\u2019 was distributed to all backers who pledged before to the $200 million milestone. Lastly, the Daymar Rally took place on January 27th, with three different divisions (Rover, Buggy, and Bike) battling it out for glory and rewards. Everyone involved should feel very proud of themselves, as seeing the filthiest race in the \u2018verse come together was an incredible experience for everyone. Well done!\nDesign\nThe Economy Features Team focused on adding new weapons to the various shops around the \u2018verse. Once complete, shop inventories were set up for all the new locations and various bugs were squashed. Tweaks to missions and the overall economy were also made to move the game closer to the end economic goals of the team. In January, testing began on a new formula that dynamically alters certain commodity parameters within the wider economy. A new approach is also being taken towards vehicle components to help create interesting choices for players when in shops \u2013 even if they have enough money to buy anything they want. Polish was added to various NPCs throughout the \u2018verse, with the aim to make them as realistic and believable as possible. The design was complete for a new nav marker ruleset that makes how and when players see destination markers more intuitive. Rulesets were also created to add functionality to the Quantum Travel and Service Beacon systems to give players more options when traveling in a party and choosing a location for service beacon transport respectively.\nDevOps\nDevOps broke their previous record of the number of internal builds published to the PTU and live service. \u201cOne of the most satisfying things for the team is seeing the results of our work. The Alpha 3.4 publish was one of those times we really felt proud.\u201d 2018 was the first year that scaling automation was used on the live service, which allows the servers to keep up with demand when needed but cut back as necessary. The new system exceeded all expectations and led to one of the smoothest holiday seasons ever. Build Operations was hard at work developing new systems to support a major pipeline upgrade to the overall game development process and continues to build new systems and improve on old ones.\n\nEngineering\nThe Engine Team supported the Alpha 3.4 release and subsequent patches with general assistance, profiling, optimization, and bug fixes. For compute skinning, they made tangent reconstruction optimizations for character faces, data optimizations and compression to lower bandwidth requirements, separated static and dynamic GPU data, and moved bone-remapping to the GPU (to save CPU memory and provide more flexibility). Work began on HDR color grading and output on supported displays, while splat map support for planet terrain was added, as was an improved film grain with unified dithering. The development of planetary ground fog began along with significant improvements to temporal sample anti-aliasing (TSAA). The physics engineers enabled joint limits on driven ragdolls and fixed instability caused by a threshold in the solver. They also made the first steps in exposing the spatial grid structure for walking and exploring and added physics support for planetary oceans. Improvements were made to crash handling, including various thread-safety improvements to enable more robust handling of obscure crashes, and the addition of extra information into minidumps to allow for better debugging of fibres.\nEnvironment Art\nWinter saw work begin on the Environment Art Team\u2019s next big target: microTech and its landing zone, New Babbage. In preparation, designs were trialled for the \u2018Hi-Tech\u2019 common elements, which include habs, garages, and hangars in an all-new architectural style. These new sets will help the team build New Babbage and ensure the visual style feels fresh and different. Recent improvements to the organics shaders and pipeline will improve the look of geology and planets. This update has been a long time in the making and the team is looking forward to giving all planet assets a visual upgrade. The team is currently moving from whitebox towards release for both the planet ArcCorp and its main landing zone, Area 18. Some necessary changes have been made to Area 18\u2019s original layout, mainly for performance reasons but also to improve the general layout and city \u2018feel\u2019. \u201cThe task of creating a planet-wide city that players can circumnavigate which also blends well into the major landing zone remains a constant challenge, but one that\u2019s bearing impressive fruit. Progress has been good on improvements to the believability and read of ArcCorp as a city, with the space taking a huge visual step forward from when it was last seen.\u201d\nGameplay Feature\nLike many others, the Gameplay Feature Team put in a concentrated effort to fix as many bugs as possible for the Alpha 3.4 release. Specifically, they overcame issues with FoIP & VoIP, Comms, and the Group System. They also supported the US Vehicle Feature Team with their UI-needs for item sub-targeting and the ongoing turret improvements. The team kicked off 2019 supporting patches for Alpha 3.4.0 before moving straight into feature work for 3.5, including the UI for DNA face customization, continued improvements to Comms video streaming, and a refactor of shop population.\nGraphics\nThe Graphics Team\u2019s focus has been on performance and memory saving: The performance gains mainly came from improvements to shadow culling and optimization to video comms, especially on lower-spec machines (though there are some quality issues still to address). The largest memory saving came from fixing a particularly nasty bug in the mesh streaming code which could result in all levels-of-detail loading for a mesh rather than just the ones needed. Other savings came from increasing the sharing textures used by various effects and improvements to the logic in which textures should be streamed in (interestingly, the game can now run with as little as 400mb of textures!). On top of this, the team resurrected the water volume tech and made it compatible with the zone system so it can be used on planets, space stations, and ships.\nLevel Design\nLevel Design finished the current iteration of Lorville\u2019s Central Business District (CBD) and added it to the city. They are now looking into the trainlines that connect it to Teasa spaceport. However, the majority of the team is currently focussing on ArcCorp and Area18, with the hangar, shop, vendor, spaceport, and overall layout now finalized. They also gave the planet and its moons a necessary design setup, began an investigation into quantum traveling AI, and introduced a variety of new narcotics during the prototyping of a new mission from \u2018Twitch\u2019 Pacheco.\nLighting\nThe Lighting Team focused on finishing the CBD and supported the addition of mission-giver Klim to Levski for the Alpha 3.4.0 release. They also looked at the small and medium-sized common elements for the player hangars and created different lighting variations for the Rest Stop, Lorville, and upcoming Area 18 styles. They\u2019re currently fleshing out the development tools by creating an asset zoo for all current \u2018utilitarian-style\u2019 lighting fixtures in use throughout the PU to help them quickly and efficiently add lighting to new locations.\nNarrative\nThe Narrative Team returned from the holidays to tackle the Alpha 3.5 update, including developing ideas for the branding of street and food stalls in Area 18 and outlining the NPC archetypes needed to populate the city and mission content. The team is also excited to welcome a new producer to the group; not only will he help keep the team organized, he\u2019ll act as the point of contact for the other teams to make requests through.\nPlayer Relations\nPlayer Relations busily wrapped up the Alpha 3.4 publishes along with all of the work created over the holiday period. They teamed up with the Evocati for several builds to make sure everything was properly tested and completed several rounds of PTU publishing and testing. Progress was also made on an internal quality-of-life feedback report that comes straight from backers\u2019 experiences. \u201cAs always, we can\u2019t thank our volunteers enough for the effort they put into helping us build this game (especially our wonderful Avocados!).\u201d Planning has already begun for the upcoming Alpha 3.5 release \u2013 particularly the testing of the new flight model.\nProps\nFrom the small dressing items on Constantine\u2019s desk to the giant Hurston statue, Props mainly spent December finishing up Lorville\u2019s CBD. New mission props were created that focused on the illegal drug trade and surface relay kit. Finally, for December, ideas were floated for cockpit flair and work began on ship sub-items. In January, some of the team moved onto looking at the ship items themselves, initially taking stock of where they\u2019re up to and looking at how they can integrate sub-items into interiors. The majority of the team have now shifted onto the new Area 18 landing zone and are looking into white-boxing props and supplying basic block outs so other teams can start to build and dress the level.\nQA\nQA tackled some of the more difficult-to-reproduce issues in the run-up to the Alpha 3.4 release. Dedicated feature testers for both AI and the Gameplay Feature Teams continued to test their respective areas (combat AI, ship AI, non-combat AI, and transit system) via sanity and smoke tests along with standard testing and regression. QA now provide dedicated support to the Locations Team to ensure that current and new locations are set up and working as expected by Art and Design. A few notable requests involved testing fixes for server deadlock and various changes to the physics of jumping and going down stairs. Changes to the Entity IDs in Track View were tested in the editor to make sure they were seamless and bug-free. A new restricted area for ground vehicles was also added to Lorville, which was thoroughly tested by both the German and UK teams. Further investigation was made into the issue of Ship AI idling during mercenary and Emergency Communication Network (ECN) missions to ascertain whether it was AI or network related. The team could only reproduce it during ship AI missions in the live environment and encountered something close to it during a 20-player playtest. The one consistent factor was that it only seemed to occur when performance took a dip. So, it was deemed not an AI issue and will be further investigated by the Network Team. On the publishing side, QA tested the Alpha 3.4 builds before they reached the Evocati and Live service. In January, they worked through the 3.4.# fixes. Recently, attention turned to preparing for Alpha 3.5. The holiday period saw four new testers join the extended QA family, too.\nShips\nThe UK Ship Team continued developments of the Origin 890 Jump, with further greybox work done on the atrium, master suite, guest suites, and engineering deck. They also refined the exterior hull styling to try and move a few areas closer to the original concept and make the overall ship less \u2018cartoon-looking\u2019.\nEveryone\u2019s favorite pathfinder, the Anvil Carrack, has progressed since it was last seen. It\u2019s currently in greybox, with the team tackling the feedback generated from the discussions on RTV, particularly the controversial landing gear changes and bridge layout. Finally, the team made steady progress with the updates to the Aegis Vanguard in preparation for the Harbinger and Sentinel, with focus primarily on interior adjustments along with some quality-of-life fixes for those aboard. Greybox is progressing nicely, so the team will be moving onto the exterior and tackling feedback points to ensure the base Warden model is properly prepared to accommodate the variants.\nShip Art\nShip Art is currently hard at work to bring the new 300i series to life. They\u2019re in the process of getting the damage and customization pass complete, finishing up detail work on various parts, and finalizing the materials. Alongside the 300i, they\u2019re chugging away on the Defender; the first in-game asset from the mysterious Banu alien race. Extra care was taken to ensure the Defender represents the overall Banu design aesthetic and can be built on in the future. The exterior is currently going through the greybox modeling process and is nearly complete. Afterwards, it moves to interior greybox modeling.\nSystem Design\nThe System Design Team investigated how to improve the FPS AI experience and social AI was introduced to the Lorville CBD. Gunships piloted by AI now circle their targets and orient themselves to maximize their firepower, while fighter AI was updated to take full advantage of the new flight model.\nTech Art\nTech Art made steps to finalize the implementation and pipeline of the new facial customization tech, which was previewed at CitizenCon 2018. They switched the system\u2019s source data format from the CDF-based system (which was used during R&D) to the newer component-based loadout currently used throughout the game. This system allows players\u2019 customized faces to be stored persistently in the database and the corresponding data packets to transfer efficiently over the network and be applied to the correct avatar at runtime. Likewise, it allows all key NPCs (every shopkeeper, security guard, civilian, and eventually mission giver) to have a unique face built internally by the designers. While R&D on the DNA system was done using male faces, the face pool for female characters is being populated and is planned to come online at the same time. Tech Art also supported the Weapons Team with animation debugging, weapon rigging, in-engine setup, and debugging multiple render and resource compiler issues. They added a new system for weapons in Maya to allow animators to quickly attach different attachments, making it easier for them to author specific animations. They also updated the underlying metasystem in the weapon rigs to enable animators to export weapons without double transforms on the root or magazine controls.\nTurbulent\nTurbulent supported the release of the 2018 holiday promotion, featuring a new giftable pledge called \u2018For Your Friends\u2019. This new pledge allows a customizable message to be sent along with the gift, making it ideal for friends and family. The holiday promotion also featured screenshot and greeting card contests. The team supported the availability of the Alpha 3.4 flyable ships on the website, including the Anvil Hawk, Origin 600i Touring, MISC Freelancer series, and the MISC Reliant Kore. The Cloud Imperium Games corporate website was released in December. Its slick new look is a much better representation of the company\u2019s values and mission and properly communicates the vision behind Star Citizen. The \u2018Join Us\u2019 section has details of each location and over 100 job postings across 9 different categories, so see if there\u2019s something to suit you at your nearest studio! Updates are continually being made to the latest news and job postings sections. Long overdue, the website navigation was improved with a new and improved platform bar and footer. Additional efforts went into creating the bar as a component to make future updates to the site easier. The Starmap is now accessible via the Apps menu to make it easier to find too! There were major updates to the Squadron 42 Roadmap, which is now tied into the internal project management tool, Jira. A new chapter design was introduced, showing the development progress as phases and chapters, while descriptions for each expose the details of what it actually takes to build the game. Turbulent supported the release of the Gladius Valiant Free-Fly promotion in celebration of Australia Day. A screenshot contest was available with prizes to be won. A customizable preference feature was added to the Group, Lobby, and Voice services to allow custom properties to be set for each user with each respective entity. The Voice service can start a call within a channel, inviting all those allowed to join. The new mobiGlas service will allow single endpoints that will appropriately gather the information from the Group, Lobby, and Voice service with a single call. Options can be passed that will select the type of information returned. The error catching software, Sentry, has also been added to each service to allow previously-uncaught errors to be tracked and reported to the appropriate Sentry project.\nUI\nDuring December and January, UI supported the Environment Team with in-fiction advertisements and branding for ArcCorp. They implemented new features on the tech-side to enable the designers to create \u2018user variables\u2019, which are used internally but can still persist on the entity the UI is bound to. For example, a designer may want to capture game-data values and store them internally within the UI to gain reference to previous values when the data changes. This functionality fulfills certain presentational needs that contribute to improving the user-experience. Another interesting implication is that, because they are sent across the network, they open up the potential for players to see each other\u2019s UI state (what app they\u2019re currently on, which particular item in a list they\u2019ve highlighted, etc.). The team also implemented a new node allowing the ability to set up switch logic on a variable (as well as a widget) to dynamically load images on the fly. Together, these features enable the designers to build out a fully-functioning in-world weapon UI screen with an ammo counter, charge levels, and fire mode states.\nVehicle Features\nTo help ensure that Alpha 3.4 was released in December, the team spent a lot of time supporting the release (and subsequent patches) by fixing bugs, including turret, vehicle, and crash problems. The team also completed modifications to the vehicle targeting system so that external items, such as ship engines, can be specifically targeted. Improvements to ship combat systems continued via automated gimbals, HUD changes to support Ping & Scanning, and the vehicle \u2018XML to DataForge\u2019 migration began. Wrapping up January, a vehicle gimbal aim-assist feature is on its way to completion.\nVehicle Content\nThe Vehicle Content Team\u2019s 2018 wrapped up with the launch of the Anvil Hawk and improvements to the Reliant Kore, which entailed a rework of the cargo section, ramp, and landing gear. A number of vehicle bugs were also fixed for the 3.4 release. Additionally, the team worked on the three Reliant variants for Alpha 3.5, while the designers have been working with the ship artists in Austin on the Origin 300 series rework.\nVFX\nFor much of December, the VFX Team focused heavily on polish and optimization for the Alpha 3.4 release. In particular, significant effort was put into making sure Hurston and Lorville\u2019s environmental effects were optimized while remaining as high-quality as possible. In early January, they re-evaluated their sprint planning practices and implemented some simple production-led changes to improve overall workflow. Following on from that, they began R&D work on the Tachyon cannon; a weapon type with faster-than-light projectiles. They began implementing thruster damage effects in keeping with the new flight model planned for Alpha 3.5 and began R&D on how to use particle effects to help make Area 18\u2019s volumetrics more visually interesting. They also worked on effects for the new Kahix rocket launcher \u2013 a handheld anti-vehicle rocket launcher with a unique tech style. New tools were created within Houdini to help design various assets. This includes a new, more accurate way to generate signed distance fields (SDF) on the surface of the gas cloud. These SDFs are used as an arbitrary surface that enable the ability to spawn and manipulate effects with, such as lightning crawling along the surface.\nWeapons\nThe Weapon Art Team worked on the Multi-Tool rework, Kastak Arms Ravager-212, and the level two and three upgrades for the Hurston Dynamics Laser Repeaters. They also made minor adjustments to the iron sights on a handful of weapons to improve the sight picture and to make them more user-friendly when no optics are attached. WE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026"},"links_count":3,"comment_count":30,"created_at":"2019-02-08T00:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"7 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-07 22:30:08","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":16961,"next_id":16965}}