{"data":{"id":17031,"title":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report: February 2019","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/17031-Squadron-42-Monthly-Report-February-2019","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/17031","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/17031","channel":"Undefined","category":"Undefined","series":"Monthly 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is a cross-post of the report that was recently sent out via the monthly Squadron 42 newsletter. We\u2019re publishing this a second time as a Comm-Link to make it easier for the community to reference back to, and plan on following this process for future Squadron 42 Monthly Reports.\nAttention Recruits,\n\nWhat you are about to read is the latest information on the continuing development of Squadron 42 (SCI des: SQ42).\n\nRead on for classified details from every corner of the planet, collected over the course of the last month, concerning Squadron 42-related work. The information contained in this communication is extremely sensitive and it is of paramount importance that it does not fall into the wrong hands. Purge all records after reading.\n\nUEE Naval High Command\n\n\nAI (Ships)\nFebruary\u2019s roundup starts with the AI Team, whom improved various aspects of dogfighting, which included the addition of evasive maneuvers to enemy ships. Now, when an AI pilot has an enemy on its tail, it will try to utilize \u2018break-aways\u2019 with increasingly-varied directions and angles, try to keep momentum, and chain attacks together. The team achieved this by adding new \u2018SmoothTurning\u2019 subsumption tasks to the behavior logic. AI pilots will also attempt to create diversions using evasive maneuvers. Automatic incoming\/outgoing ship traffic over planetary landing areas was implemented this month, too. The team are currently generalizing ship behaviors to enable the designers to easily set up traffic on cities, capital ships, and other required areas.\n\nAI (Character)\nThe AI Team also made improvements to the existing character collision avoidance system. The changes began with adjustments to the smooth locomotion path, with data coming from the collision avoidance calculation to make sure the character has enough free space to move. Time was spent combining the different features required for dynamic cinematic scenes and dynamic patrolling, with focus on the transitions into and from trackview scenes and generalizing guard behaviors to correctly use \u2018walk & talk\u2019 functionality. For social behaviors, the team refactored vendor behavior to be generic and reusable in multiple contexts, first implementing a way for supporting motion-capture animations to be used as transitions between usables (which they\u2019re temporarily referring to as \u2018schooching\u2019). This allows the designers to set up additional animations for specific usables\/characters so that an actor\u2019s performance can be maintained alongside the regular systemic behavior. For example, several levels have vendors with animations driven by specific actor performances. These need to be played without creating unique behaviors, so the special transition positions are highlighted within the level to allow the designers to verify the setup of the environment matches the existing animations. The options that vendors can use were also generalized so that the designers no longer have to write them into their behaviors. Instead, the correct options are automatically selected based on the environment and (eventually) from the shop services.\n\nArt (Characters)\nThis month, Character Art revisited the hair development pipeline. With the help of the Graphics Team, they developed new tools and shader tech to improve realism while maintaining quality and performance. They\u2019re currently modeling characters and new hairstyles to test their new pipeline with. Progress also continues on the Vanduul character model. The head and body mesh are complete, with texturing currently underway.\n\nArt (Environment)\nThe internal lighting for scripted events on the Javelin is now completed. Art are currently focusing their efforts on the ship\u2019s exterior, as the player will see certain events play out from both inside and outside of the ship. Two key campaign areas are now grey-box complete, soft gate reviews have been carried out, and the go-ahead has been given to start planning out the shaders and textures. As mentioned last month, Archon Station\u2019s exterior is \u2018watertight\u2019. And now, all surfaces are complete, with collision meshes added for good measure. The layout does a fantastic job of selling the station\u2019s scale when both far away and up close. The main transit system is also integrated, with all stops and secondary systems being finished throughout March. A focus-team has moved back onto the Krugeri to help refine several areas with key cinematics. Alongside this, new areas are being added throughout the ship, including medical bays and an armory.\n\nArt (Ships)\nThe Retaliator is one of several ships currently receiving tweaks to suit SQ42\u2019s needs. The ship plays an important role in certain missions, so requires some subtle amends to suit. The updated ship will eventually make its way to the Persistent Universe, too.\n\nAudio\nThe Audio Code Team and sound designers finished their collaborative work on the new camera-shake and ship-vibration systems. Now, when an engine kicks in, the ship shakes and hums. This also extends to the player, with events like a ship powering up causing minor camera shake. The sound designers added new sound samples to a range of ships as part of the rollout of the New Flight Model. By adding \u2018one-shot\u2019 samples to each of the various thrusters, they\u2019ve brought out more complexity to the sounds heard during flight. Additionally, they created the sound profiles and samples for the Gemini S71 assault rifle and Kastak Arms CODA pistol, which will both appear in SQ42 and the Persistent Universe (PU). Currently, everyone from Audio is working towards an updated tool that better allows the sound designers to implement new assets in-engine whilst simultaneously testing how they sound.\n\nCinematics\nThe Cinematics Team made substantial progress on major scenes encountered late-on in the campaign and prototyped an important [REDACTED] that will take place at [REDECATED]. This included recording a total of 56 motion capture (mocap) lines and a handful of new wildlines. Another significant sequence that garnered attention involves the Bengal carrier. A scene in the pilot ready-room required the mocap cast to use a circular table of 1.5m diameter and four chairs that could swivel, had no wheels, but could be pushed around. Although seemingly trivial, specific information like this is carefully shared between all teams involved to ensure the prop dimensions fit into the intended location, animations have enough space to run unimpeded, and the distance between conversing characters is maintained. Compared to the size of SQ42\u2019s ships and planets, relatively small things like table and chairs can be very important for cinematics!\n\nEngineering\nFebruary saw the Engine Team optimize the instance system used in compute skinning. This was achieved through a refactor of it on the CPU and shader for better maintainability, created a budget-based output-buffer system for skinning results (so they only have to skin once per frame), made more tangent reconstruction optimizations, and worked on wrap-deformation using the color stream. Basic HDR display support was also added to the editor, as was a new hue-preserving display mapping curve suitable for HDR display output. The team provided material layer support for planet tech v4 and continued to improve character hair, which included initial support for edge masking and pixel depth offset. Game physics is progressing with Projectile Manager improvements, as are optimizations to wrapped grids and state updates. Support was added for ocean Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) wave generation to physics buoyancy calculations, as well as exposed optimized terrain meshes. A major system initialization clean-up was completed as part of an initiative to share core engine functionality with PU services, the lockless job manager was worked on (a complete overhaul for faster response in high-load scenarios), and a new load time profiler was created. The team are currently wrapping up the \u2018ImGUI\u2019 integration and are introducing a temporary allocator for more efficiency when containers are used on stack. They made the switch to the Clang 6 compiler to build Linux targets (including compilation cleanup of the entire code base) and plan to switch to the latest stable release (Clang 8.x) in the near future. Finally, a \u2018create compile time\u2019 analysis tool (utilizing new Visual C++ front and backend profiler flags) was completed to gather, condense, and visualize reasons for slow compile and link times. As a result, various improvements have already been submitted and further action items defined.\n\nFeatures (Vehicles)\nMost of the vehicle work completing in February will eventually appear in both SQ42 and PU:\nGimbal Assist and its related HUD improvements were finalized and polished to allow for better balancing of this new weapon control scheme. Turrets were also improved, with the team adding a HUD and keybinds for input sensitivity, implementing adjustable speeds for gimbal target-movement based on proximity to center aim, and fixing bugs the caused snapping and erratic movement. A lot of time went towards scanning improvements, which included adjusting the area for navpoint scanning, adding the ability to utilize the navpoint hierarchy, and adding a Boolean to opt into the scanning data. This endeavor also covered adjustments to make scanning more involving by setting up AI turrets to generate signatures and be scannable and adding specific icons for scanned\/unscanned targets. Ping and blob were implemented to display on the radar too, including focus angle and ping fire. They also continued to make item port tech optimizations, developed tech for utilizing geometry component tags in the paint system, and fixed a handful of crash bugs. Exclusively for SQ42, the team continued to work with the designers to implement various Subsumption callbacks for mission-specific requirements.\n\nGraphics\nA large part of the Graphics Team\u2019s time throughout February was spent closing down the final features for the volumetric rendering of gas clouds. This included unifying the lighting between volumetric effects and opaque objects, which required adding support for deep Fourier shade maps into the general lighting pipeline. Several other changes were made to allow gas clouds to be built from smaller modular pieces, which helps overcome the large storage requirements of volumetric data. Another focus was adding multi-threaded rendering support to the editor, which will improve the performance for artists and designers working in complex scenes. In some cases, this can almost double the framerate and get much closer to the performance of the optimized \u2018shipping\u2019 build of the game. The editor code was written before the engine was multi-threaded and, as a result, there are many bugs that have to be painstakingly found and fixed. However, it is now nearing completion.\n\nLevel Design\nEach of the four design teams progressed towards the goal of completing a handover flow for the first third of the game. This involved an in-depth dive into the details of planetary bodies in the Odin system, with the aim to get accurate Quantum Travel distances and create glorious backdrops for the various space battles. Great progress was made on the social AI and usables technology that allows NPCs to systematically demonstrate different behaviors within the Idris corvette. The Design Team integrated the Air Traffic Controller feature (which coordinates all take-offs and landings) into the game-flow to help promote the \u2018busy\u2019 feel you\u2019d expect when visiting a huge military capital ship. Refinements of both FPS and ground combat in-line with the current roadmap continued, too.\n\nNarrative\nBoth Dave and Will spent most of the month visiting the UK office. That time was spent not only reviewing the latest progress on several chapters, but on capturing a few additional pickup performances needed for the completion of the game. This included recording tests for the female player character to ensure the pipeline is working correctly before the team proceeds with recording all of her performances. The wider Narrative Team made progress on generating the specific text needed for on-screen mission objectives. Previously, this had been placeholder text as designers worked on levels, but moving forward, the hope is to begin using the proper in-lore objectives.\n\nProgramming\nAlongside making more improvements to Vault & Mantle\u2019, work began on Player Jump v2. They\u2019re currently re-evaluating how the animations are set up in the code to help simplify and reduce the number of assets. The team revisited stealth takedown mechanics and re-evaluated the previous work done on knife takedowns. They continued work on the free-look view limits (where the player\u2019s range of view is restricted depending on their helmet\/armor) and separated out the range when weapon aiming from free-look. SQ42 Features began improving the in-game workflow for iterating on cinematic scenes and evaluated potentially suitable existing tech for suitability. For example, being able to jump to a specific conversation, skip to the end of a scene, replay scenes, etc. They also added additional ways of triggering conversations based on the distance or the direction the player is approaching an NPC from.\n\nQA\nWhile most AI testing took place in the Persistent Universe and Arena Commander (AC), the same systems will also appear in various aspects within SQ42. In most cases, testing in the PU and Arena Commander is sufficient, but QA now regularly undertakes flow testing for those features most relevant to the SQ42 campaign. Any issues encountered are cross-checked with the findings of other testers and JIRA tasks are created accordingly. Usually, the issues tend to be related to setup rather than code, as most code problems are discovered during preliminary testing in the PU\/AC. The testing of various cutscenes from the SQ42 campaign is on-going by a dedicated tester and will support the Cinematics Team with any issues that prevent them from creating Track View sequences.\n\nSystem Design\nThe System Design Team predominantly focused on AI throughout February:\nFor Ship AI, they made general improvements throughout, including the way AI ships attempt to avoid the player\u2019s fire. For social AI, they\u2019re working on Duncan Chakma, the Idris\u2019 master at arms. This character has some of the more complex behaviors and solving him should speed up the development of all other characters that encompass complex player choices (such as movement from station to station, interacting with items, and giving\/taking back weapons). On the FPS AI side, they focused on restructuring behaviors so that they become more modular, with the goal to make it easier to implement specific chunks of logic and influence the AI\u2019s skillset. The team also spent time on set filming new animation sets for NPCs that should create a lot more depth and bring them to life.\n\nUser Interface (UI)\nDuring February, UI began working on the branding and theming for the Aciedo, Shubin, and OMC environmental UI displays, as well as the GRIN manufacturer.\n\nVFX\nThe VFX Team updated the existing particle lighting system to a more modern iteration. The previous version was based on tessellation, which increased the rendering cost and had limitations on shadow resolution. The new system is a global change that will remove the need for tessellation and improve shadow receiving for a crisper, smoother appearance. They\u2019re also continuing work on the cinematics for SQ42. This includes a lot of soft\/rigid body destruction simulations that will be required for scenes where objects are destroyed (peeling back metal panels, fracturing and breaking of glass, concrete, etc.). The UK-based team put most of their focus on vehicle damage and destruction, which is always an enjoyable task for the artists. Specifically, they blocked out several destruction sequences after an extended R&D period with Art and Design to help determine exactly where and when certain story-driven destruction sequences should occur. They also continued to iterate on the lightning effects after receiving several new features from the graphics and game code engineers. For example, a new seed option allows the artist to remove all behavioral randomization from the effect, which makes it much easier to fine tune. This is also beneficial for cinematic sequences to ensure lightning looks the same each time it strikes.\n\nWeapons\nThe Weapon Art Team completed the Gemini S71, Kastak Arms Coda, Banu Singe tachyon cannons, Gallenson Tactical ballistic cannon reworks, and five variants of the Aegis Vanguard nose guns.\n\nCovert Intel\nRide \u2018em in, cut \u2018em out WE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026","de_DE":"Dies ist ein Querverweis auf den Bericht, der k\u00fcrzlich \u00fcber den monatlichen Squadron 42 Newsletter verschickt wurde. Wir ver\u00f6ffentlichen dies ein zweites Mal als Comm-Link, um es der Community zu erleichtern, auf diesen Prozess f\u00fcr zuk\u00fcnftige Squadron 42 Monatsberichte zur\u00fcckzugreifen und ihn zu verfolgen.\nAchtung Rekruten,\n\nWas Sie hier lesen werden, sind die neuesten Informationen \u00fcber die Weiterentwicklung der Squadron 42 (SCI des: SQ42).\n\nLesen Sie weiter, um geheime Details aus allen Ecken des Planeten zu erfahren, die im Laufe des letzten Monats gesammelt wurden und die sich auf die Arbeit der Staffel 42 beziehen. Die in dieser Mitteilung enthaltenen Informationen sind \u00e4u\u00dferst sensibel, und es ist von gr\u00f6\u00dfter Bedeutung, dass sie nicht in die falschen H\u00e4nde geraten. Alle Datens\u00e4tze nach dem Lesen l\u00f6schen.\n\nUEE Naval Oberkommando\n\n\nKI (Schiffe)\nDie Zusammenstellung im Februar beginnt mit dem KI-Team, das verschiedene Aspekte des Luftkampfes verbessert hat, darunter die Einf\u00fchrung von Ausweichman\u00f6vern f\u00fcr feindliche Schiffe. Nun, wenn ein KI-Pilot einen Feind im Visier hat, wird er versuchen, Ausbr\u00fcche mit immer vielf\u00e4ltigeren Richtungen und Winkeln zu nutzen, den Schwung zu halten und Kettenangriffe gemeinsam durchzuf\u00fchren. Das Team erreichte dies, indem es die Verhaltenslogik um neue'SmoothTurning'-Aufgaben erweiterte. Die KI-Piloten werden auch versuchen, mit Ausweichman\u00f6vern Ablenkungen zu schaffen. Auch in diesem Monat wurde der automatische ein- und ausgehende Schiffsverkehr \u00fcber planetarische Landepl\u00e4tze eingef\u00fchrt. Das Team verallgemeinert derzeit das Schiffsverhalten, damit die Designer den Verkehr auf St\u00e4dten, Gro\u00dfschiffen und anderen erforderlichen Gebieten einfach einrichten k\u00f6nnen.\nAI (Charakter)\nDas KI-Team hat auch das bestehende System zur Vermeidung von Charakterkollisionen verbessert. Die \u00c4nderungen begannen mit Anpassungen des glatten Bewegungspfades, wobei die Daten aus der Kollisionsvermeidungsberechnung stammten, um sicherzustellen, dass der Charakter gen\u00fcgend Freiraum zum Bewegen hat. Es wurde viel Zeit damit verbracht, die verschiedenen Funktionen, die f\u00fcr dynamische Filmszenen und dynamisches Patrouillieren erforderlich sind, zu kombinieren, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf den \u00dcberg\u00e4ngen in und aus Trackview-Szenen lag und das Wachverhalten verallgemeinert wurde, um die Walk & Talk\"-Funktionalit\u00e4t korrekt zu nutzen. F\u00fcr das Sozialverhalten hat das Team das Verhalten der Anbieter neu gestaltet, um generisch und in mehreren Kontexten wiederverwendbar zu sein, indem es zun\u00e4chst eine M\u00f6glichkeit zur Unterst\u00fctzung von Motion-Capture-Animationen implementiert hat, die als \u00dcberg\u00e4nge zwischen Usables (die es vor\u00fcbergehend als \"Schooching\" bezeichnet) verwendet werden k\u00f6nnen. Dies erm\u00f6glicht es den Designern, zus\u00e4tzliche Animationen f\u00fcr bestimmte Nutzgegenst\u00e4nde\/Charaktere einzurichten, so dass die Leistung eines Schauspielers neben dem normalen systemischen Verhalten erhalten bleiben kann. So haben beispielsweise mehrere Ebenen Anbieter mit Animationen, die von bestimmten Schauspielerleistungen gesteuert werden. Diese m\u00fcssen gespielt werden, ohne eindeutige Verhaltensweisen zu erzeugen, so dass die speziellen \u00dcbergangspositionen innerhalb der Ebene hervorgehoben werden, damit die Designer \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen k\u00f6nnen, ob das Setup der Umgebung den vorhandenen Animationen entspricht. Die Optionen, die Anbieter nutzen k\u00f6nnen, wurden ebenfalls verallgemeinert, so dass die Designer sie nicht mehr in ihr Verhalten schreiben m\u00fcssen. Stattdessen werden die richtigen Optionen je nach Umgebung und (eventuell) aus den Shop-Services automatisch ausgew\u00e4hlt.\nKunst (Charaktere)\nDiesen Monat hat Character Art die Haarentwicklungspipeline erneut besucht. Mit Hilfe des Grafik-Teams entwickelten sie neue Tools und Shader-Technologie, um den Realismus zu verbessern und gleichzeitig Qualit\u00e4t und Leistung zu erhalten. Sie modellieren derzeit Charaktere und neue Frisuren, um ihre neue Pipeline zu testen. Auch beim Vanduul-Charaktermodell werden die Fortschritte fortgesetzt. Das Kopf- und K\u00f6rpermesh ist komplett, die Texturierung l\u00e4uft derzeit.\nKunst (Umwelt)\nDie Innenbeleuchtung f\u00fcr Drehbuchveranstaltungen auf dem Speer ist nun abgeschlossen. Die Kunst konzentriert ihre Bem\u00fchungen derzeit auf die Au\u00dfenseite des Schiffes, da der Spieler bestimmte Ereignisse sowohl innerhalb als auch au\u00dferhalb des Schiffes abspielen sehen wird. Zwei wichtige Kampagnenbereiche sind nun in der Grey-Box abgeschlossen, Soft-Gate-Reviews wurden durchgef\u00fchrt, und es wurde gr\u00fcnes Licht f\u00fcr die Planung der Shader und Texturen gegeben. Wie bereits im letzten Monat erw\u00e4hnt, ist die Au\u00dfenseite der Archon Station wasserdicht\". Und jetzt sind alle Oberfl\u00e4chen komplett, mit Kollisionsnetzen, die aus Sicherheitsgr\u00fcnden hinzugef\u00fcgt wurden. Das Layout leistet hervorragende Arbeit beim Verkauf der Skala der Station, sowohl in der Ferne als auch aus der N\u00e4he. Auch das Hauptverkehrssystem ist integriert, wobei alle Haltestellen und Nebenanlagen im Laufe des Monats M\u00e4rz fertig gestellt werden. Ein Fokus-Team ist zur\u00fcck auf die Kr\u00fcgeri gezogen, um mehrere Bereiche mit wichtigen Filmen zu verfeinern. Daneben kommen auf dem gesamten Schiff neue Bereiche hinzu, darunter medizinische Buchten und eine Waffenkammer.\nKunst (Schiffe)\nDer Retaliator ist eines von mehreren Schiffen, die derzeit an den Bed\u00fcrfnissen von SQ42 angepasst werden. Das Schiff spielt eine wichtige Rolle bei bestimmten Missionen und erfordert daher einige subtile \u00c4nderungen. Das aktualisierte Schiff wird schlie\u00dflich auch den Weg ins Persistente Universum finden.\nAudio\nDas Audio Code Team und die Sound-Designer haben ihre gemeinsame Arbeit an den neuen Kamera-Shake- und Schiffsvibrationssystemen abgeschlossen. Jetzt, wenn ein Motor anspringt, zittert und summt das Schiff. Dies gilt auch f\u00fcr den Spieler, wobei Ereignisse wie das Hochfahren eines Schiffes zu leichten Kameraverwacklungen f\u00fchren. Im Rahmen des Rollouts des neuen Flugmodells haben die Sound-Designer einer Reihe von Schiffen neue Sound-Samples hinzugef\u00fcgt. Durch das Hinzuf\u00fcgen von One-Shot-Samples zu jedem der verschiedenen Triebwerke haben sie eine gr\u00f6\u00dfere Komplexit\u00e4t der w\u00e4hrend des Fluges h\u00f6rbaren Ger\u00e4usche hervorgebracht. Zus\u00e4tzlich erstellten sie die Klangprofile und Samples f\u00fcr das Gemini S71 Sturmgewehr und die Kastak Arms CODA Pistole, die beide in SQ42 und dem Persistent Universe (PU) erscheinen werden. Derzeit arbeiten alle von Audio an einem aktualisierten Tool, das es den Sound-Designern besser erm\u00f6glicht, neue Assets in der Engine zu implementieren und gleichzeitig zu testen, wie sie klingen.\nKinematiken\nDas Cinematics-Team machte erhebliche Fortschritte bei den wichtigsten Szenen, die sp\u00e4ter in der Kampagne zu sehen waren, und prototypisierte ein wichtiges[REDACTED], das im[REDECATED] stattfinden wird. Dazu geh\u00f6rten insgesamt 56 Motion Capture (Mocap)-Linien und eine Handvoll neuer Wildlinien. Eine weitere wichtige Sequenz, die Aufmerksamkeit erregte, ist der bengalische Tr\u00e4ger. Eine Szene im Pilotvorbereitungsraum erforderte, dass der Mocap-Guss einen runden Tisch mit einem Durchmesser von 1,5 m und vier St\u00fchle verwendete, die sich drehen lie\u00dfen, keine R\u00e4der hatten, aber geschoben werden konnten. Obwohl scheinbar trivial, werden solche spezifischen Informationen sorgf\u00e4ltig zwischen allen beteiligten Teams ausgetauscht, um sicherzustellen, dass die Requisitenabmessungen an den vorgesehenen Ort passen, Animationen haben genug Platz, um ungehindert zu laufen, und der Abstand zwischen den sprechenden Charakteren wird eingehalten. Im Vergleich zur Gr\u00f6\u00dfe der Schiffe und Planeten von SQ42 k\u00f6nnen relativ kleine Dinge wie Tisch und St\u00fchle f\u00fcr die Filmkunst sehr wichtig sein!\nIngenieurwesen\nIm Februar optimierte das Engine Team das Instanzensystem f\u00fcr das Compute Skinning. Dies wurde durch einen Refaktor auf der CPU und dem Shader f\u00fcr eine bessere Wartbarkeit erreicht, ein budgetbasiertes Output-Puffersystem f\u00fcr Skinning-Ergebnisse geschaffen (so dass sie nur einmal pro Frame skinnen m\u00fcssen), tangentiale Rekonstruktions-Optimierungen vorgenommen und an der Wrap-Verformung mit dem Farbstrom gearbeitet. Der Editor wurde um grundlegende HDR-Anzeigeunterst\u00fctzung erweitert, ebenso wie um eine neue, farberhaltende Display-Mapping-Kurve, die f\u00fcr die Ausgabe von HDR-Displays geeignet ist. Das Team unterst\u00fctzte die Materialschicht f\u00fcr planet tech v4 und verbesserte weiterhin die Charakterhaare, einschlie\u00dflich der anf\u00e4nglichen Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr Kantenmaskierung und Pixeltiefenversatz. Die Spielphysik schreitet mit den Verbesserungen des Projectile Managers voran, ebenso wie die Optimierung von verpackten Gittern und Zustandsaktualisierungen. Es wurde Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr die Wellengenerierung der Ozean-Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)-Wellen zur physikalischen Auftriebsberechnung sowie f\u00fcr freiliegende optimierte Gel\u00e4ndemaschen hinzugef\u00fcgt. Eine umfangreiche Bereinigung der Systeminitialisierung wurde im Rahmen einer Initiative zur gemeinsamen Nutzung der Kernfunktionalit\u00e4t der Engine mit PU-Diensten durchgef\u00fchrt, der Lockless Job Manager wurde bearbeitet (eine komplette \u00dcberarbeitung f\u00fcr schnellere Reaktionen in Hochlastszenarien) und ein neuer Load Time Profiler wurde erstellt. Das Team arbeitet derzeit an der Integration von ImGUI und f\u00fchrt einen tempor\u00e4ren Allokator f\u00fcr mehr Effizienz ein, wenn Container auf dem Stapel eingesetzt werden. Sie haben den Wechsel zum Clang 6 Compiler vorgenommen, um Linux-Ziele zu erstellen (einschlie\u00dflich der Kompilierung der gesamten Codebasis) und planen, in naher Zukunft auf die neueste stabile Version (Clang 8.x) umzusteigen. Schlie\u00dflich wurde ein Analysetool \"create compile time\" (unter Verwendung neuer Visual C++ Front- und Backend-Profiler-Flags) entwickelt, um Gr\u00fcnde f\u00fcr langsame Kompilierungs- und Linkzeiten zu sammeln, zu verdichten und zu visualisieren. Infolgedessen wurden bereits verschiedene Verbesserungen eingereicht und weitere Handlungsfelder definiert.\nMerkmale (Fahrzeuge)\nDer Gro\u00dfteil der im Februar abgeschlossenen Fahrzeugarbeiten wird schlie\u00dflich sowohl in SQ42 als auch in PU erscheinen:\nDer Gimbal Assist und die damit verbundenen HUD-Verbesserungen wurden fertiggestellt und poliert, um eine bessere Balance dieses neuen Waffenkontrollschemas zu erm\u00f6glichen. Auch die Gesch\u00fctzt\u00fcrme wurden verbessert, wobei das Team ein HUD und Tastenbindungen f\u00fcr die Eingabesensitivit\u00e4t hinzuf\u00fcgte, einstellbare Geschwindigkeiten f\u00fcr die kardanische Zielbewegung basierend auf der N\u00e4he zum Zentrumsziel implementierte und Fehler behebte, die das verursachte Schnappen und unregelm\u00e4\u00dfige Bewegen verursachten. Viel Zeit wurde f\u00fcr Verbesserungen beim Scannen aufgewendet, darunter das Anpassen des Bereichs f\u00fcr das Scannen von Navigationspunkten, das Hinzuf\u00fcgen der M\u00f6glichkeit, die Navigationspunkthierarchie zu nutzen, und das Hinzuf\u00fcgen eines Bools zur Option in die Scandaten. Dieses Bestreben umfasste auch Anpassungen, um das Scannen durch die Einrichtung von KI-Revolvern zur Erzeugung von Unterschriften und Scanf\u00e4higkeiten sowie das Hinzuf\u00fcgen spezifischer Symbole f\u00fcr gescannte\/ungescannte Ziele zu vereinfachen. Ping und Blob wurden implementiert, um auch auf dem Radar anzuzeigen, einschlie\u00dflich Fokuswinkel und Ping-Feuer. Sie f\u00fchrten auch weiterhin Optimierungen der Item-Port-Technologie durch, entwickelten Technologien zur Verwendung von Geometriekomponenten-Tags im Lacksystem und beendeten eine Handvoll Crash-Bugs. Exklusiv f\u00fcr SQ42 arbeitete das Team weiterhin mit den Designern zusammen, um verschiedene Subsumption Callbacks f\u00fcr missionsspezifische Anforderungen zu implementieren.\nGrafiken\nEin gro\u00dfer Teil der Zeit des Grafik-Teams im Februar wurde damit verbracht, die letzten Features f\u00fcr die volumetrische Darstellung von Gaswolken zu schlie\u00dfen. Dazu geh\u00f6rte die Vereinheitlichung der Beleuchtung zwischen volumetrischen Effekten und undurchsichtigen Objekten, was eine Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr tiefe Fourier-Tonkarten in der allgemeinen Beleuchtungspipeline erforderte. Mehrere weitere \u00c4nderungen wurden vorgenommen, um den Aufbau von Gaswolken aus kleineren modularen Teilen zu erm\u00f6glichen, wodurch der gro\u00dfe Speicherbedarf an volumetrischen Daten \u00fcberwunden werden kann. Ein weiterer Schwerpunkt war die Hinzuf\u00fcgung von Multi-Threaded-Rendering-Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr den Editor, was die Leistung f\u00fcr K\u00fcnstler und Designer, die in komplexen Szenen arbeiten, verbessern wird. In einigen F\u00e4llen kann dies die Framerate fast verdoppeln und der Leistung des optimierten \"Shipping\"-Buildes des Spiels viel n\u00e4her kommen. Der Editorcode wurde geschrieben, bevor die Engine multi-threaded wurde, und als Ergebnis gibt es viele Fehler, die sorgf\u00e4ltig gefunden und behoben werden m\u00fcssen. Sie steht jedoch kurz vor der Fertigstellung.\nLeveldesign\nJedes der vier Designteams kam dem Ziel n\u00e4her, einen \u00dcbergabeablauf f\u00fcr das erste Drittel des Spiels abzuschlie\u00dfen. Dies beinhaltete einen tiefen Einblick in die Details der Planetenk\u00f6rper im Odin-System, mit dem Ziel, genaue Quantenreise-Distanzen zu erhalten und glorreiche Kulissen f\u00fcr die verschiedenen Raumschlachten zu schaffen. Gro\u00dfe Fortschritte wurden bei der sozialen KI- und Usables-Technologie erzielt, die es NSCs erm\u00f6glicht, systematisch verschiedene Verhaltensweisen innerhalb der Idris-Korvette zu demonstrieren. Das Designteam integrierte die Fluglotsenfunktion (die alle Starts und Landungen koordiniert) in den Spielablauf, um das \"gesch\u00e4ftige\" Gef\u00fchl zu f\u00f6rdern, das man beim Besuch eines riesigen milit\u00e4rischen Hauptschiffes erwarten w\u00fcrde. Auch die Weiterentwicklung der FPS und des Bodenkampfes im Einklang mit der aktuellen Roadmap wurde fortgesetzt.\nNarrativ\nSowohl Dave als auch Will verbrachten den gr\u00f6\u00dften Teil des Monats damit, das britische B\u00fcro zu besuchen. Diese Zeit wurde nicht nur damit verbracht, die neuesten Fortschritte in mehreren Kapiteln zu \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen, sondern auch damit, ein paar zus\u00e4tzliche Pickup-Leistungen zu erfassen, die f\u00fcr den Abschluss des Spiels erforderlich sind. Dazu geh\u00f6rte auch die Aufnahme von Tests f\u00fcr die weibliche Spielerin, um sicherzustellen, dass die Pipeline korrekt funktioniert, bevor das Team mit der Aufzeichnung aller ihrer Leistungen beginnt. Das breitere Narrative Team machte Fortschritte bei der Erstellung des spezifischen Textes, der f\u00fcr die Missionsziele auf dem Bildschirm ben\u00f6tigt wird. Fr\u00fcher war dies ein Platzhaltertext gewesen, als Designer an Ebenen arbeiteten, aber wenn man vorankommt, ist die Hoffnung, dass man mit der Verwendung der richtigen In-Lore Ziele beginnt.\nProgrammierung\nNeben weiteren Verbesserungen an Vault & Mantle' wurde mit der Arbeit an Player Jump v2 begonnen, das derzeit neu bewertet wird, wie die Animationen im Code eingerichtet sind, um die Anzahl der Assets zu vereinfachen und zu reduzieren. Das Team besuchte erneut die Tarnkappenabzugsmechanik und bewertete die bisherige Arbeit an Messerabnahmen neu. Sie setzten die Arbeit an den Free-Look-Sichtgrenzen fort (wobei die Sichtweite des Spielers je nach Helm\/R\u00fcstung eingeschr\u00e4nkt ist) und trennten die Reichweite, wenn die Waffe vom Free-Look zielt. SQ42 Features begann, den In-Game-Workflow f\u00fcr die Iteration in Filmszenen zu verbessern und evaluierte potenziell geeignete vorhandene Technologien auf ihre Eignung. Beispielsweise k\u00f6nnen Sie zu einem bestimmten Gespr\u00e4ch springen, zum Ende einer Szene springen, Szenen wiedergeben usw. Sie f\u00fcgten auch zus\u00e4tzliche M\u00f6glichkeiten hinzu, Gespr\u00e4che auszul\u00f6sen, die auf der Entfernung oder der Richtung basieren, aus der sich der Spieler einem NSC n\u00e4hert.\nQA\nW\u00e4hrend die meisten KI-Tests im Persistent Universe und Arena Commander (AC) stattfanden, werden die gleichen Systeme auch in verschiedenen Aspekten innerhalb von SQ42 erscheinen. In den meisten F\u00e4llen sind Tests in der PU und im Arena Commander ausreichend, aber QA f\u00fchrt jetzt regelm\u00e4\u00dfig Flow-Tests f\u00fcr die f\u00fcr die SQ42-Kampagne wichtigsten Funktionen durch. Alle aufgetretenen Probleme werden mit den Ergebnissen anderer Tester verglichen und JIRA-Aufgaben entsprechend erstellt. Normalerweise beziehen sich die Probleme eher auf das Setup als auf den Code, da die meisten Codeprobleme w\u00e4hrend der Vorpr\u00fcfung in der PU\/AC entdeckt werden. Das Testen verschiedener Cutscenes aus der SQ42-Kampagne wird von einem speziellen Tester durchgef\u00fchrt und unterst\u00fctzt das Cinematics-Team bei allen Problemen, die das Erstellen von Track View-Sequenzen verhindern.\nSystemdesign\nDas System Design Team konzentrierte sich im Februar haupts\u00e4chlich auf die KI:\nF\u00fcr die KI des Schiffes haben sie allgemeine Verbesserungen vorgenommen, einschlie\u00dflich der Art und Weise, wie KI-Schiffe versuchen, das Feuer des Spielers zu vermeiden. F\u00fcr die soziale KI arbeiten sie an Duncan Chakma, dem Waffenmeister der Idris. Dieser Charakter hat einige der komplexeren Verhaltensweisen und die L\u00f6sung sollte die Entwicklung aller anderen Charaktere beschleunigen, die komplexe Spielerentscheidungen umfassen (wie z.B. Bewegung von Station zu Station, Interaktion mit Gegenst\u00e4nden und Geben und Zur\u00fccknehmen von Waffen). Auf der Seite der FPS-KI konzentrierten sie sich auf die Umstrukturierung des Verhaltens, um es modularer zu gestalten, mit dem Ziel, die Implementierung bestimmter Logikbausteine zu erleichtern und das Kompetenzspektrum der KI zu beeinflussen. Das Team verbrachte auch Zeit damit, neue Animationssets f\u00fcr NSCs zu drehen, die viel mehr Tiefe schaffen und zum Leben erwecken sollten.\nBenutzeroberfl\u00e4che (UI)\nIm Februar begann UI mit der Arbeit an der Markenbildung und dem Theme f\u00fcr die Umwelt-UI-Displays Aciedo, Shubin und OMC sowie den GRIN-Hersteller.\nVFX\nDas VFX-Team hat das bestehende Partikelbeleuchtungssystem auf eine modernere Iteration umgestellt. Die vorherige Version basierte auf Tessellierung, was die Rendering-Kosten erh\u00f6hte und Einschr\u00e4nkungen bei der Schattenaufl\u00f6sung mit sich brachte. Das neue System ist eine globale \u00c4nderung, die die Notwendigkeit einer Mosaikierung \u00fcberfl\u00fcssig macht und den Schattenempfang f\u00fcr ein klareres, glatteres Aussehen verbessert. Au\u00dferdem wird an den Kinofilmen f\u00fcr SQ42 gearbeitet. Dazu geh\u00f6ren viele Simulationen zur Zerst\u00f6rung von weichen und starren K\u00f6rpern, die f\u00fcr Szenen ben\u00f6tigt werden, in denen Objekte zerst\u00f6rt werden (Abl\u00f6sen von Metallplatten, Bruch und Bruch von Glas, Beton usw.). Das in Gro\u00dfbritannien ans\u00e4ssige Team konzentrierte sich haupts\u00e4chlich auf Fahrzeugbesch\u00e4digungen und -zerst\u00f6rung, was f\u00fcr die K\u00fcnstler immer eine angenehme Aufgabe ist. Konkret blockierten sie nach einer l\u00e4ngeren F&E-Zeit mit Art and Design mehrere Zerst\u00f6rungssequenzen, um genau zu bestimmen, wo und wann bestimmte geschichtengesteuerte Zerst\u00f6rungssequenzen stattfinden sollten. Sie wiederholten auch weiterhin die Blitzeffekte, nachdem sie mehrere neue Funktionen von den Grafik- und Gamecode-Ingenieuren erhalten hatten. Eine neue Seed-Option erm\u00f6glicht es dem K\u00fcnstler beispielsweise, alle Verhaltens-Randomisierungen aus dem Effekt zu entfernen, was die Feinabstimmung erheblich erleichtert. Dies ist auch f\u00fcr Filmsequenzen von Vorteil, um sicherzustellen, dass der Blitz bei jedem Schlag gleich aussieht.\nWaffen\nDas Waffenkunstteam fertigte die Gemini S71, Kastak Arms Coda, Banu Singe Tachyonkanonen, Gallenson Tactical ballistische Kanonen\u00fcberarbeitungen und f\u00fcnf Varianten der Aegis Vanguard Bugwaffen.\nVerdeckte Intel\nReiten Sie sie rein, schneiden Sie sie aus, wir sehen Sie den n\u00e4chsten Monat.....","zh_CN":"This is a cross-post of the report that was recently sent out via the monthly Squadron 42 newsletter. We\u2019re publishing this a second time as a Comm-Link to make it easier for the community to reference back to, and plan on following this process for future Squadron 42 Monthly Reports.\nAttention Recruits,\n\nWhat you are about to read is the latest information on the continuing development of Squadron 42 (SCI des: SQ42).\n\nRead on for classified details from every corner of the planet, collected over the course of the last month, concerning Squadron 42-related work. The information contained in this communication is extremely sensitive and it is of paramount importance that it does not fall into the wrong hands. Purge all records after reading.\n\nUEE Naval High Command\n\n\nAI (Ships)\nFebruary\u2019s roundup starts with the AI Team, whom improved various aspects of dogfighting, which included the addition of evasive maneuvers to enemy ships. Now, when an AI pilot has an enemy on its tail, it will try to utilize \u2018break-aways\u2019 with increasingly-varied directions and angles, try to keep momentum, and chain attacks together. The team achieved this by adding new \u2018SmoothTurning\u2019 subsumption tasks to the behavior logic. AI pilots will also attempt to create diversions using evasive maneuvers. Automatic incoming\/outgoing ship traffic over planetary landing areas was implemented this month, too. The team are currently generalizing ship behaviors to enable the designers to easily set up traffic on cities, capital ships, and other required areas.\n\nAI (Character)\nThe AI Team also made improvements to the existing character collision avoidance system. The changes began with adjustments to the smooth locomotion path, with data coming from the collision avoidance calculation to make sure the character has enough free space to move. Time was spent combining the different features required for dynamic cinematic scenes and dynamic patrolling, with focus on the transitions into and from trackview scenes and generalizing guard behaviors to correctly use \u2018walk & talk\u2019 functionality. For social behaviors, the team refactored vendor behavior to be generic and reusable in multiple contexts, first implementing a way for supporting motion-capture animations to be used as transitions between usables (which they\u2019re temporarily referring to as \u2018schooching\u2019). This allows the designers to set up additional animations for specific usables\/characters so that an actor\u2019s performance can be maintained alongside the regular systemic behavior. For example, several levels have vendors with animations driven by specific actor performances. These need to be played without creating unique behaviors, so the special transition positions are highlighted within the level to allow the designers to verify the setup of the environment matches the existing animations. The options that vendors can use were also generalized so that the designers no longer have to write them into their behaviors. Instead, the correct options are automatically selected based on the environment and (eventually) from the shop services.\n\nArt (Characters)\nThis month, Character Art revisited the hair development pipeline. With the help of the Graphics Team, they developed new tools and shader tech to improve realism while maintaining quality and performance. They\u2019re currently modeling characters and new hairstyles to test their new pipeline with. Progress also continues on the Vanduul character model. The head and body mesh are complete, with texturing currently underway.\n\nArt (Environment)\nThe internal lighting for scripted events on the Javelin is now completed. Art are currently focusing their efforts on the ship\u2019s exterior, as the player will see certain events play out from both inside and outside of the ship. Two key campaign areas are now grey-box complete, soft gate reviews have been carried out, and the go-ahead has been given to start planning out the shaders and textures. As mentioned last month, Archon Station\u2019s exterior is \u2018watertight\u2019. And now, all surfaces are complete, with collision meshes added for good measure. The layout does a fantastic job of selling the station\u2019s scale when both far away and up close. The main transit system is also integrated, with all stops and secondary systems being finished throughout March. A focus-team has moved back onto the Krugeri to help refine several areas with key cinematics. Alongside this, new areas are being added throughout the ship, including medical bays and an armory.\n\nArt (Ships)\nThe Retaliator is one of several ships currently receiving tweaks to suit SQ42\u2019s needs. The ship plays an important role in certain missions, so requires some subtle amends to suit. The updated ship will eventually make its way to the Persistent Universe, too.\n\nAudio\nThe Audio Code Team and sound designers finished their collaborative work on the new camera-shake and ship-vibration systems. Now, when an engine kicks in, the ship shakes and hums. This also extends to the player, with events like a ship powering up causing minor camera shake. The sound designers added new sound samples to a range of ships as part of the rollout of the New Flight Model. By adding \u2018one-shot\u2019 samples to each of the various thrusters, they\u2019ve brought out more complexity to the sounds heard during flight. Additionally, they created the sound profiles and samples for the Gemini S71 assault rifle and Kastak Arms CODA pistol, which will both appear in SQ42 and the Persistent Universe (PU). Currently, everyone from Audio is working towards an updated tool that better allows the sound designers to implement new assets in-engine whilst simultaneously testing how they sound.\n\nCinematics\nThe Cinematics Team made substantial progress on major scenes encountered late-on in the campaign and prototyped an important [REDACTED] that will take place at [REDECATED]. This included recording a total of 56 motion capture (mocap) lines and a handful of new wildlines. Another significant sequence that garnered attention involves the Bengal carrier. A scene in the pilot ready-room required the mocap cast to use a circular table of 1.5m diameter and four chairs that could swivel, had no wheels, but could be pushed around. Although seemingly trivial, specific information like this is carefully shared between all teams involved to ensure the prop dimensions fit into the intended location, animations have enough space to run unimpeded, and the distance between conversing characters is maintained. Compared to the size of SQ42\u2019s ships and planets, relatively small things like table and chairs can be very important for cinematics!\n\nEngineering\nFebruary saw the Engine Team optimize the instance system used in compute skinning. This was achieved through a refactor of it on the CPU and shader for better maintainability, created a budget-based output-buffer system for skinning results (so they only have to skin once per frame), made more tangent reconstruction optimizations, and worked on wrap-deformation using the color stream. Basic HDR display support was also added to the editor, as was a new hue-preserving display mapping curve suitable for HDR display output. The team provided material layer support for planet tech v4 and continued to improve character hair, which included initial support for edge masking and pixel depth offset. Game physics is progressing with Projectile Manager improvements, as are optimizations to wrapped grids and state updates. Support was added for ocean Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) wave generation to physics buoyancy calculations, as well as exposed optimized terrain meshes. A major system initialization clean-up was completed as part of an initiative to share core engine functionality with PU services, the lockless job manager was worked on (a complete overhaul for faster response in high-load scenarios), and a new load time profiler was created. The team are currently wrapping up the \u2018ImGUI\u2019 integration and are introducing a temporary allocator for more efficiency when containers are used on stack. They made the switch to the Clang 6 compiler to build Linux targets (including compilation cleanup of the entire code base) and plan to switch to the latest stable release (Clang 8.x) in the near future. Finally, a \u2018create compile time\u2019 analysis tool (utilizing new Visual C++ front and backend profiler flags) was completed to gather, condense, and visualize reasons for slow compile and link times. As a result, various improvements have already been submitted and further action items defined.\n\nFeatures (Vehicles)\nMost of the vehicle work completing in February will eventually appear in both SQ42 and PU:\nGimbal Assist and its related HUD improvements were finalized and polished to allow for better balancing of this new weapon control scheme. Turrets were also improved, with the team adding a HUD and keybinds for input sensitivity, implementing adjustable speeds for gimbal target-movement based on proximity to center aim, and fixing bugs the caused snapping and erratic movement. A lot of time went towards scanning improvements, which included adjusting the area for navpoint scanning, adding the ability to utilize the navpoint hierarchy, and adding a Boolean to opt into the scanning data. This endeavor also covered adjustments to make scanning more involving by setting up AI turrets to generate signatures and be scannable and adding specific icons for scanned\/unscanned targets. Ping and blob were implemented to display on the radar too, including focus angle and ping fire. They also continued to make item port tech optimizations, developed tech for utilizing geometry component tags in the paint system, and fixed a handful of crash bugs. Exclusively for SQ42, the team continued to work with the designers to implement various Subsumption callbacks for mission-specific requirements.\n\nGraphics\nA large part of the Graphics Team\u2019s time throughout February was spent closing down the final features for the volumetric rendering of gas clouds. This included unifying the lighting between volumetric effects and opaque objects, which required adding support for deep Fourier shade maps into the general lighting pipeline. Several other changes were made to allow gas clouds to be built from smaller modular pieces, which helps overcome the large storage requirements of volumetric data. Another focus was adding multi-threaded rendering support to the editor, which will improve the performance for artists and designers working in complex scenes. In some cases, this can almost double the framerate and get much closer to the performance of the optimized \u2018shipping\u2019 build of the game. The editor code was written before the engine was multi-threaded and, as a result, there are many bugs that have to be painstakingly found and fixed. However, it is now nearing completion.\n\nLevel Design\nEach of the four design teams progressed towards the goal of completing a handover flow for the first third of the game. This involved an in-depth dive into the details of planetary bodies in the Odin system, with the aim to get accurate Quantum Travel distances and create glorious backdrops for the various space battles. Great progress was made on the social AI and usables technology that allows NPCs to systematically demonstrate different behaviors within the Idris corvette. The Design Team integrated the Air Traffic Controller feature (which coordinates all take-offs and landings) into the game-flow to help promote the \u2018busy\u2019 feel you\u2019d expect when visiting a huge military capital ship. Refinements of both FPS and ground combat in-line with the current roadmap continued, too.\n\nNarrative\nBoth Dave and Will spent most of the month visiting the UK office. That time was spent not only reviewing the latest progress on several chapters, but on capturing a few additional pickup performances needed for the completion of the game. This included recording tests for the female player character to ensure the pipeline is working correctly before the team proceeds with recording all of her performances. The wider Narrative Team made progress on generating the specific text needed for on-screen mission objectives. Previously, this had been placeholder text as designers worked on levels, but moving forward, the hope is to begin using the proper in-lore objectives.\n\nProgramming\nAlongside making more improvements to Vault & Mantle\u2019, work began on Player Jump v2. They\u2019re currently re-evaluating how the animations are set up in the code to help simplify and reduce the number of assets. The team revisited stealth takedown mechanics and re-evaluated the previous work done on knife takedowns. They continued work on the free-look view limits (where the player\u2019s range of view is restricted depending on their helmet\/armor) and separated out the range when weapon aiming from free-look. SQ42 Features began improving the in-game workflow for iterating on cinematic scenes and evaluated potentially suitable existing tech for suitability. For example, being able to jump to a specific conversation, skip to the end of a scene, replay scenes, etc. They also added additional ways of triggering conversations based on the distance or the direction the player is approaching an NPC from.\n\nQA\nWhile most AI testing took place in the Persistent Universe and Arena Commander (AC), the same systems will also appear in various aspects within SQ42. In most cases, testing in the PU and Arena Commander is sufficient, but QA now regularly undertakes flow testing for those features most relevant to the SQ42 campaign. Any issues encountered are cross-checked with the findings of other testers and JIRA tasks are created accordingly. Usually, the issues tend to be related to setup rather than code, as most code problems are discovered during preliminary testing in the PU\/AC. The testing of various cutscenes from the SQ42 campaign is on-going by a dedicated tester and will support the Cinematics Team with any issues that prevent them from creating Track View sequences.\n\nSystem Design\nThe System Design Team predominantly focused on AI throughout February:\nFor Ship AI, they made general improvements throughout, including the way AI ships attempt to avoid the player\u2019s fire. For social AI, they\u2019re working on Duncan Chakma, the Idris\u2019 master at arms. This character has some of the more complex behaviors and solving him should speed up the development of all other characters that encompass complex player choices (such as movement from station to station, interacting with items, and giving\/taking back weapons). On the FPS AI side, they focused on restructuring behaviors so that they become more modular, with the goal to make it easier to implement specific chunks of logic and influence the AI\u2019s skillset. The team also spent time on set filming new animation sets for NPCs that should create a lot more depth and bring them to life.\n\nUser Interface (UI)\nDuring February, UI began working on the branding and theming for the Aciedo, Shubin, and OMC environmental UI displays, as well as the GRIN manufacturer.\n\nVFX\nThe VFX Team updated the existing particle lighting system to a more modern iteration. The previous version was based on tessellation, which increased the rendering cost and had limitations on shadow resolution. The new system is a global change that will remove the need for tessellation and improve shadow receiving for a crisper, smoother appearance. They\u2019re also continuing work on the cinematics for SQ42. This includes a lot of soft\/rigid body destruction simulations that will be required for scenes where objects are destroyed (peeling back metal panels, fracturing and breaking of glass, concrete, etc.). The UK-based team put most of their focus on vehicle damage and destruction, which is always an enjoyable task for the artists. Specifically, they blocked out several destruction sequences after an extended R&D period with Art and Design to help determine exactly where and when certain story-driven destruction sequences should occur. They also continued to iterate on the lightning effects after receiving several new features from the graphics and game code engineers. For example, a new seed option allows the artist to remove all behavioral randomization from the effect, which makes it much easier to fine tune. This is also beneficial for cinematic sequences to ensure lightning looks the same each time it strikes.\n\nWeapons\nThe Weapon Art Team completed the Gemini S71, Kastak Arms Coda, Banu Singe tachyon cannons, Gallenson Tactical ballistic cannon reworks, and five variants of the Aegis Vanguard nose guns.\n\nCovert Intel\nRide \u2018em in, cut \u2018em out WE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026"},"links_count":0,"comment_count":2,"created_at":"2019-04-05T00:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"7 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-07 22:21:08","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":17030,"next_id":17032}}