{"data":{"id":17065,"title":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report: March 2019","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/17065-Squadron-42-Monthly-Report-March-2019","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/17065","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/17065","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.\nAttention Recruits,\n\nWhat you are about to read is the latest information on the continuing development of Squadron 42 (SCI des: SQ42).\n\nFrom alien concepts to player control over cutscenes, momentum remains strong. Naturally, there\u2019s a litany of restricted intelligence awaiting review for potential declassification, so keep an eye on these updates for access when release is permitted.\n\nThe 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 (Character)\nThe SQ42 Character AI Team kicks us off this month. They spent the month making general improvements, firstly to combat behaviors enabling the team to assign different tactics to different characters more easily. This work fixed a few bugs with vision perception and cover selection too. Secondly, NPC locomotion saw the integration of the collision avoidance system into smooth locomotion, which now takes into consideration the edge of walkable navigation areas. A handful of dynamic cinematic scenes were also worked on and the first pass of a new solution for blending gameplay animations into cinematic scenes was finished.\n\nAI (Ships)\nShip AI implemented new pilot skill levels to vary the agility of enemy ships and determine how they balance self-preservation and aggression. Improvements were also made to how non-player traffic behaves around landing zones.\n\nAI (Social)\nThe Social AI Team finished the first pass of \u2018scooching\u2019, which made its monthly report debut last month. If you missed it, scooching enables a character to fluidly move from one action to another within a group of useables. Design supported the setup of Master at Arms Duncan Chakma by providing necessary tech pieces where needed. Optimization started on usables too, including the caching of usable entries and TPS query time-slicing.\n\nAnimation\nMarch saw the Animation Team focusing on two important features: the finalized system for jumping and completing the first iteration of the female playable character. They also teamed up with AI to start connecting character animations to specific usable dimensions for more realism when picking up and inspecting items. Although currently in development for SQ42, these developments will eventually make their way to the Persistent Universe.\n\nFinally for Animation, they worked on the combat AI system to give enemies several new weapon options to choose from when encountering the player and hostile NPCs.\n\nArt\nThe Art Team worked on two important locations throughout March: one near a blasted and dying planet and the other close to the Coil. In the coming weeks, more of the team will move onto these locations, with the aim to get them \u2018content complete\u2019 for a handful of chapters by the end of the quarter.\nDeep space has been getting an art overhaul too, with three key locations (called \u2018mini-systems\u2019 internally) now in place and ready for polish. These systems form three separate parts of the overall Squadron 42 map and each has its own unique flavor.\n\n\nA capital ship is being brought up to scratch by the same team who worked on the Idris. They\u2019re also designing a social hub, a foundry for a major space station, a visual target for an asteroid base, and a number of other tasks that can\u2019t be divulged just yet. All of this is alongside working closely with the design, UI, and cinematic teams to ensure they each have what they need to move forward.\n\n\n\nArt (Characters)\nLast month, the Character Art Team further developed concepts for SQ42\u2019s alien species, including finalizing textures for the Vanduul. Modeling work continued on several outfits too, such as the Basilisk armor and pilot flight-suit, both of which are awaiting low-poly texturing. Progress continues on the female character model too, which is closely related to the customizer features recently added to the Persistent Universe.\n\nCinematics\nWhen the team planned cinematics for SQ42, they were torn between using the player perspective for increased immersion and a more \u2018filmic\u2019 camera that could focus on the cast and reveal performance details the player could otherwise miss. As the game doesn\u2019t \u2018cheat\u2019 the player\u2019s presence in cutscenes (due to the unified first and third person player rig), they realized they could potentially have both. Additional code was added to enable the player entity and camera to be controlled via Trackview, which allows the team (and player) to switch between points of view (POV) with a button press. By default, these new \u2018breakfree\u2019 scenes use third person, but players can choose to break free and watch the scene from the player character\u2019s POV when they want. The player can return to the filmic version with a press of the same button. This also allows the team to show more of the customized player face and body. And, when the player looks around in first person (via limited look ranges specifically for that cinematic), their actions are visible when switching back to third person.\n\nEngineering\nThe Engine Team continued work on Temporal Sample Antialiasing (TSAA) with general quality improvements that translated to less flickering and a sharper picture. They also adjusted the TSAA bicubic filter frame time to prevent the accumulation of ringing artifacts at high framerates. For hair, they added an experimental option for custom tangents, removed the temporary scatter model, moved the hair mask to variation map alpha, improved edge masking, and added card support for the hair physically-based rendering (PBR) shader.\nThey also completed rendering support for CPU-accessible textures for RTT video comms calls and optimized shaders to avoided unnecessary resource creation (e.g in GPU skinning). The Initial ImGUI integration was completed and will be used to unify and improve the in-game profiling tools. System and module integration were added to avoid an unorganized collection of tools and a text\/tag searchable configuration system for registered tools (similar to Visual Code) was implemented. To better improve load times, the team created a new load time profiler to track file access (times accessed, data transfer, etc.), amended the IO scheduler for SSDs and HDDs to give faster load times and response, and vastly improved file access in the shader system to speed up initialization at start-up.\n\n\nIn addition to the compile-time analysis tool developed last month, they finalized an add-in tool to generate optimal uber file sets and, as a result, reshuffled game uber files for even better compile times. Work also began on a physics debugger that will allow the team to record issues, play them back, freeze time, etc. to help understand and speed up fixing complex physics issues.\n\n\n\n\nEngineering\/Programming\nThe Actor Feature Team finished off Vault & Mantling, which included validating the mechanic with the new female player character. They\u2019ve now moved onto the next iteration of jumping, making progress on animations by simplifying the selection count, giving more weight and polish, and utilizing time-warping tech. The first pass of unarmed, non-lethal stealth takedowns has been implemented, which allows the player to punch and knock down enemies.\nThe team experimented with a new over-the-shoulder camera for cinematics and started looking into how to track the player\u2019s mission performance and what variables need to be exposed to the designers.\n\n\nThe AI Team adjusted the way story scenes are set up and how NPCs enter and exit to make sure they\u2019re positioned correctly. AI \u2018push\/pull\u2019 behavior has been improved too, so NPCs flying with the player can\u2019t get too far ahead or fall behind.\n\n\n\nGameplay Story\nThe Gameplay Story Team tackled scenes from chapter four, with the majority now either done or planned for implementation. The remaining scenes will be worked on for the next few months until complete. They also managed to get a couple of scenes properly interacting with the environment and working correctly in operator seats, which was a significant technical achievement. They\u2019re currently working closely with the Social AI Team on usables and are starting to see improvements throughout the system.\n\nGraphics\nRegarding vid-comms and general render-to-texture, the teams fixed a few issues that were interfering with brightness along with intermittent cases where lights on holograms were disappearing. They also switched most holographic scenes over to a forward-shaded render pipeline to improve efficiency.\n\nLevel Design\nThe SQ42 Design Team continued the push towards \u2018broader\u2019 vertical slice gameplay for the first third of the game. This focus threw up a number of technical challenges that had to be overcome to get all of the game chapters linking correctly and consistently within the mission flow.\nUpdates to performance capture and in-cockpit scenes are currently being swapped from the narrative placeholders to more polished final representations that support branching conversations, reputation, and player actions.\n\n\nAI focus was mostly on the social side, with the team building behaviors and schedules for ship crews, which is now possible thanks to the usables pipeline delivering final templates for integration.\n\n\n\nNarrative\nNarrative continued to sync with the Art Team on the new characters being introduced in Squadron 42. They\u2019re also moving ahead on how mission markers and placement are to be perceived.\n\nQA\nQA assisted with mocap recordings for a few scenes where AI characters were missing transitions between their animations. Fixing this makes the animations during certain movements entirely seamless and fluid.\nThey also worked on creating a cinematics ship zoo test map. Different ship issues will sometimes occur in-game rather than in Trackview, so having them pre-set up makes reproducing (and fixing) bugs much quicker and easier.\n\n\nThey\u2019re currently providing dedicated support to the Cinematics Team, investigating any issues they may encounter that hinder their workflow.\n\n\n\nTech Art\nTech Art continued work on the \u2018look-at\u2019 system for redirecting mocap animations, in particular, the head and eyes. Due to recent improvements, eyes are now perfectly aligned and look right into the camera and the player\u2019s eyes in a natural way. Following on, the team began investigating ways to add saccadic eye movements. These rapid and often subtle eye movements happen subconsciously during conversation, with eyes \u2018scanning\u2019 the face rather than staying entirely focused on one spot. If these quasi-random movements are missing entirely, the eyes appear to stare at you in an uncanny, almost robotic way. Soft rotation limits were also added to character eyes and the look-at system to improve on the unnatural cutoffs used previously.\nThe team also worked on multiple prop rigs for cinematic and gameplay-story animations and began work on the first version of a remote exporter for animations. In its final version, this will speed up the team\u2019s workflow, especially for cinematic animation, because the animator can outsource the export to another machine and continue working.\n\n\n\nUI\nThroughout March, UI supported the SQ42 Environment Team with graphic design needs, such as keypad iconography and background UI displays for Aciedo Station.\n\nVFX\nThe VFX Team have been working on a custom VDB batch tool for the designers. This allows them to run a simple mesh shape through several custom Houdini presets and have it automatically create a volume the designers can use without them having to open the program themselves. This way, the designers can efficiently iterate on layouts without requiring direct support from the VFX artists.\nThey also worked on various cinematics using vector fields to make particles move in a more realistic and interesting way around certain ships. For example, particles flowing around a ship\u2019s hull.\n\nLast month, the team continued to block out key destruction sequences whilst working closely with the Art and Design teams. They also began reworking EMP effects, making use of some of the newer GPU particle improvements to make sure it doesn\u2019t look too similar to lightning. The EMP doesn\u2019t deal physical damage, so it\u2019s important to emphasize that from a readability standpoint.\n\nWeapons\nThe Weapon Art Team started work on the Apocalypse Arms Animus missile launcher, the Klaus & Werner Lumin SMG, and new upgrade levels for various ship weapons.\n\nCovert Intel\nTo everything (turn, turn, turn) 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 die man zur\u00fcckgreifen kann.\nAchtung Rekruten,\n\nWas Sie hier lesen werden, sind die neuesten Informationen \u00fcber die Weiterentwicklung der Squadron 42 (SCI des: SQ42).\n\nVon au\u00dferirdischen Konzepten bis hin zur Kontrolle der Spieler \u00fcber Cutscenes bleibt die Dynamik stark. Nat\u00fcrlich gibt es eine Litanei eingeschr\u00e4nkter Intelligenz, die auf eine \u00dcberpr\u00fcfung f\u00fcr eine m\u00f6gliche Deklassifizierung wartet, also halten Sie ein Auge auf diese Updates f\u00fcr den Zugriff, wenn die Freigabe erlaubt ist.\n\nDie 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\nAI (Charakter)\nDas SQ42 Character AI Team tritt uns diesen Monat an. Sie verbrachten den Monat damit, allgemeine Verbesserungen vorzunehmen, zun\u00e4chst um das Verhalten zu bek\u00e4mpfen, so dass das Team verschiedene Taktiken leichter verschiedenen Charakteren zuordnen konnte. Diese Arbeit behebt ein paar Fehler bei der Sehwahrnehmung und der Coverauswahl. Zweitens wurde bei der NSC-Lokomotion das Kollisionsvermeidungssystem in eine reibungslose Lokomotion integriert, die nun den Rand begehbarer Navigationsbereiche ber\u00fccksichtigt. Eine Handvoll dynamischer Filmszenen wurden ebenfalls bearbeitet und der erste Durchlauf einer neuen L\u00f6sung zur Mischung von Gameplay-Animationen in Filmszenen wurde abgeschlossen.\nKI (Schiffe)\nDie SchiffskI implementierte neue Fertigkeiten f\u00fcr Piloten, um die Agilit\u00e4t feindlicher Schiffe zu variieren und zu bestimmen, wie sie Selbsterhaltung und Aggression ausbalancieren. Au\u00dferdem wurde das Verhalten des Nicht-Player-Verkehrs in den Landezonen verbessert.\nKI (Sozial)\nDas Social AI Team beendete den ersten Durchgang von \"scooching\", das letzten Monat sein Deb\u00fct im Monatsbericht gab. Wenn du es verpasst hast, erm\u00f6glicht Scooching einem Charakter, innerhalb einer Gruppe von n\u00fctzlichen Gegenst\u00e4nden flie\u00dfend von einer Aktion zur anderen zu wechseln. Design unterst\u00fctzte den Aufbau von Master at Arms Duncan Chakma, indem es bei Bedarf die notwendigen technischen Teile zur Verf\u00fcgung stellte. Die Optimierung begann auch bei Usables, einschlie\u00dflich des Cachings von brauchbaren Eintr\u00e4gen und des TPS-Abfragezeitscheibens.\nAnimation\nIm M\u00e4rz konzentrierte sich das Animationsteam auf zwei wichtige Features: das fertige System zum Springen und die erste Iteration der weiblichen spielbaren Figur. Sie haben sich auch mit der KI zusammengetan, um Charakteranimationen mit bestimmten nutzbaren Dimensionen zu verbinden, um bei der Aufnahme und Inspektion von Gegenst\u00e4nden realistischer zu werden. Obwohl sich diese Entwicklungen derzeit in der Entwicklung f\u00fcr SQ42 befinden, werden sie schlie\u00dflich ihren Weg in das Persistente Universum finden.\n\nSchlie\u00dflich arbeiteten sie f\u00fcr Animation an dem Kampf-KI-System, um den Gegnern mehrere neue Waffenoptionen zur Auswahl zu geben, wenn sie auf den Spieler und feindliche NSCs treffen.\n\n\nKunst\n\n\nDas Art Team arbeitete den ganzen M\u00e4rz \u00fcber an zwei wichtigen Orten: einem in der N\u00e4he eines gesprengten und sterbenden Planeten und einem in der N\u00e4he der Spule. In den kommenden Wochen werden weitere Mitarbeiter des Teams an diese Standorte ziehen, mit dem Ziel, sie bis zum Ende des Quartals f\u00fcr eine Handvoll Kapitel inhaltlich abzuschlie\u00dfen.\nAuch der Weltraum wurde einer Kunst\u00fcberholung unterzogen, mit drei wichtigen Standorten (intern Mini-Systeme genannt), die jetzt an Ort und Stelle sind und f\u00fcr den Poliervorgang bereit sind. Diese Systeme bilden drei getrennte Teile der gesamten Staffel 42-Karte und haben jeweils ihren eigenen einzigartigen Geschmack.\n\n\nEin gro\u00dfes Schiff wird von dem gleichen Team, das an den Idris gearbeitet hat, auf den Kopf gestellt. Sie entwerfen auch ein soziales Zentrum, eine Gie\u00dferei f\u00fcr eine gro\u00dfe Raumstation, ein visuelles Ziel f\u00fcr eine Asteroidenbasis und eine Reihe anderer Aufgaben, die noch nicht bekannt sind. All dies geschieht neben der engen Zusammenarbeit mit den Design-, Benutzeroberfl\u00e4chen- und Filmteams, um sicherzustellen, dass jeder von ihnen das hat, was er braucht, um voranzukommen.\n\n\nKunst (Charaktere)\nLetzten Monat entwickelte das Character Art Team weitere Konzepte f\u00fcr die au\u00dferirdischen Arten von SQ42, einschlie\u00dflich der Fertigstellung von Texturen f\u00fcr die Vanduul. Auch an mehreren Outfits, wie der Basilisk-R\u00fcstung und dem Piloten-Fluganzug, die beide auf eine Low-Poly-Texturierung warten, wurde die Modellarbeit fortgesetzt. Auch beim weiblichen Charaktermodell, das eng mit den k\u00fcrzlich dem Persistent Universe hinzugef\u00fcgten Customizer-Funktionen verbunden ist, geht der Fortschritt weiter.\nKinematiken\nAls das Team die Filmkunst f\u00fcr das SQ42 plante, waren sie hin und her gerissen zwischen der Verwendung der Spielerperspektive f\u00fcr ein verst\u00e4rktes Eintauchen und einer eher \"filmischen\" Kamera, die sich auf den Cast konzentrieren und Leistungsdetails enth\u00fcllen konnte, die der Spieler sonst verpassen k\u00f6nnte. Da das Spiel die Pr\u00e4senz des Spielers in Zwischensequenzen nicht \"betr\u00fcgt\" (aufgrund des einheitlichen First- und Third-Person-Spieler-Rigs), erkannten sie, dass sie m\u00f6glicherweise beides haben k\u00f6nnten. Zus\u00e4tzlicher Code wurde hinzugef\u00fcgt, um die Steuerung der Spielereinheit und der Kamera \u00fcber die Trackview zu erm\u00f6glichen, wodurch das Team (und der Spieler) per Knopfdruck zwischen den Blickwinkeln (POV) wechseln k\u00f6nnen. Standardm\u00e4\u00dfig verwenden diese neuen \"bruchfreien\" Szenen eine dritte Person, aber die Spieler k\u00f6nnen sich entscheiden, sich zu befreien und die Szene aus dem POV des Spielercharakters zu sehen, wann immer sie wollen. Der Spieler kann mit einem Druck auf die gleiche Taste zur filmischen Version zur\u00fcckkehren. Dies erm\u00f6glicht es dem Team auch, mehr von dem individuellen Gesicht und K\u00f6rper des Spielers zu zeigen. Und wenn sich der Spieler in der ersten Person umsieht (\u00fcber begrenzte Suchbereiche speziell f\u00fcr diesen Film), sind seine Aktionen sichtbar, wenn er zu einer dritten Person zur\u00fcckkehrt.\nIngenieurwesen\nDas Engine Team setzte die Arbeit an Temporal Sample Antialiasing (TSAA) mit allgemeinen Qualit\u00e4tsverbesserungen fort, die zu weniger Flackern und einem sch\u00e4rferen Bild f\u00fchrten. Sie passten auch die TSAA-Bikubikfilter-Rahmenzeit an, um die Ansammlung von Ringartefakten bei hohen Frameraten zu verhindern. F\u00fcr das Haar wurde eine experimentelle Option f\u00fcr benutzerdefinierte Tangenten hinzugef\u00fcgt, das tempor\u00e4re Scatter-Modell entfernt, die Haarmaske auf die Variationskarte Alpha verschoben, die Kantenmaskierung verbessert und die Kartenunterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr den physisch basierten Rendering (PBR)-Shader hinzugef\u00fcgt.\nSie vervollst\u00e4ndigten auch die Rendering-Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr CPU-zug\u00e4ngliche Texturen f\u00fcr RTT-Video-Kommandos und optimierte Shader, um unn\u00f6tige Ressourcenbildung zu vermeiden (z.B. beim GPU-Skinning). Die erste ImGUI-Integration wurde abgeschlossen und wird zur Vereinheitlichung und Verbesserung der In-Game-Profiling-Tools verwendet. Die System- und Modulintegration wurde hinzugef\u00fcgt, um eine unorganisierte Sammlung von Tools zu vermeiden, und ein Text\/Tag-suchbares Konfigurationssystem f\u00fcr registrierte Tools (\u00e4hnlich Visual Code) wurde implementiert. Um die Ladezeiten besser zu verbessern, entwickelte das Team einen neuen Ladezeit-Profiler zur Verfolgung des Dateizugriffs (Zugriffszeiten, Daten\u00fcbertragung usw.), \u00e4nderte den IO-Scheduler f\u00fcr SSDs und HDDs, um schnellere Ladezeiten und Reaktionen zu erm\u00f6glichen, und verbesserte den Dateizugriff im Shader-System, um die Initialisierung beim Start zu beschleunigen.\n\n\nZus\u00e4tzlich zu dem im letzten Monat entwickelten Tool zur Kompilierungszeitanalyse wurde ein Add-In-Tool fertiggestellt, um optimale \u00dcber-Dateisets zu generieren und damit die Spiel\u00fcberdateien f\u00fcr noch bessere Kompilierungszeiten neu zu mischen. Die Arbeit begann auch mit einem Physik-Debugger, der es dem Team erm\u00f6glicht, Probleme aufzuzeichnen, abzuspielen, die Zeit einzufrieren usw., um komplexe physikalische Probleme zu verstehen und zu beschleunigen.\n\n\n\nIngenieurwesen\/Programmierung\nDas Actor Feature Team beendete Vault & Mantling, wozu auch die Validierung des Mechanikers mit dem neuen weiblichen Spielercharakter geh\u00f6rte. Sie sind nun zur n\u00e4chsten Iteration des Springens \u00fcbergegangen und machen Fortschritte bei Animationen, indem sie die Anzahl der Auswahlen vereinfachen, mehr Gewicht und Glanz verleihen und die Zeitverzerrungstechnologie nutzen. Der erste Durchgang von unbewaffneten, nicht t\u00f6dlichen Tarnaktionen wurde implementiert, der es dem Spieler erm\u00f6glicht, Feinde zu schlagen und niederzuschlagen.\nDas Team experimentierte mit einer neuen Over-the-Shoulder-Kamera f\u00fcr die Filmkunst und begann zu untersuchen, wie man die Missionsleistung des Spielers verfolgt und welche Variablen den Designern pr\u00e4sentiert werden m\u00fcssen.\n\n\nDas KI-Team hat die Art und Weise, wie Geschichtenszenen eingerichtet werden und wie NSCs ein- und ausgehen, angepasst, um sicherzustellen, dass sie richtig positioniert sind. Das Verhalten von KI'Push\/Pull' wurde ebenfalls verbessert, so dass NSCs, die mit dem Spieler fliegen, nicht zu weit voraus oder zur\u00fcckfallen k\u00f6nnen.\n\n\nGameplay-Geschichte\nDas Gameplay Story Team besch\u00e4ftigte sich mit Szenen aus dem vierten Kapitel, wobei die Mehrheit nun entweder fertig ist oder f\u00fcr die Umsetzung geplant ist. Die restlichen Szenen werden f\u00fcr die n\u00e4chsten Monate bis zur Fertigstellung bearbeitet. Sie schafften es auch, dass einige Szenen richtig mit der Umgebung interagierten und auf den Fahrersitzen korrekt funktionierten, was eine bedeutende technische Errungenschaft war. Sie arbeiten derzeit eng mit dem Social AI Team an Usables zusammen und beginnen, Verbesserungen im gesamten System zu sehen.\nGrafiken\nIn Bezug auf Videokompositionen und allgemeine Render-zu-Textur beheben die Teams einige Probleme, die die Helligkeit st\u00f6rten, sowie intermittierende F\u00e4lle, in denen Lichter auf Hologrammen verschwanden. Sie haben auch die meisten holographischen Szenen auf eine vorw\u00e4rts gerichtete Render-Pipeline umgestellt, um die Effizienz zu verbessern.\nLeveldesign\nDas SQ42 Design Team setzte die Bem\u00fchungen um ein \"breiteres\" vertikales Slice-Gameplay f\u00fcr das erste Drittel des Spiels fort. Dieser Fokus stellte eine Reihe von technischen Herausforderungen, die es zu meistern galt, um alle Spielkapitel, die korrekt und konsistent innerhalb des Missionsflusses verkn\u00fcpft waren, zu erhalten.\nAktualisierungen von Performance Capture- und In-Cockpit-Szenen werden derzeit von den narrativen Platzhaltern zu ausgefeilteren Enddarstellungen ausgetauscht, die verzweigte Gespr\u00e4che, Reputation und Spieleraktionen unterst\u00fctzen.\n\n\nDer Schwerpunkt der KI lag haupts\u00e4chlich auf der sozialen Seite, mit dem Teambuilding-Verhalten und den Zeitpl\u00e4nen f\u00fcr Schiffsbesatzungen, was nun dank der nutzbaren Pipeline m\u00f6glich ist, die endg\u00fcltige Vorlagen f\u00fcr die Integration liefert.\n\n\nNarrativ\nDie Erz\u00e4hlung wurde weiterhin mit dem Art Team \u00fcber die neuen Charaktere synchronisiert, die in Staffel 42 eingef\u00fchrt wurden. Sie treiben auch voran, wie Missionsmarker und -platzierungen wahrgenommen werden sollen.\nQA\nQA unterst\u00fctzte mit Mocap-Aufnahmen f\u00fcr einige Szenen, in denen KI-Charaktere keine \u00dcberg\u00e4nge zwischen ihren Animationen hatten. Durch die Fixierung werden die Animationen bei bestimmten Bewegungen v\u00f6llig nahtlos und fl\u00fcssig.\nSie arbeiteten auch an der Erstellung einer Testkarte f\u00fcr das Filmschiff Zoo. Verschiedene Schiffsprobleme treten manchmal eher im Spiel als in Trackview auf, so dass deren Voreinstellung die Reproduktion (und Behebung) von Fehlern viel schneller und einfacher macht.\n\n\nDerzeit unterst\u00fctzen sie das Cinematics-Team bei der Untersuchung von Problemen, die ihren Arbeitsablauf behindern.\n\n\nTechnische Kunst\nTech Art setzte die Arbeit am \"look-at\"-System fort, um Mocap-Animationen, insbesondere Kopf und Augen, umzuleiten. Durch die j\u00fcngsten Verbesserungen sind die Augen nun perfekt ausgerichtet und schauen auf nat\u00fcrliche Weise direkt in die Kamera und die Augen des Spielers. Anschlie\u00dfend begann das Team zu untersuchen, wie man sakkadische Augenbewegungen hinzuf\u00fcgen kann. Diese schnellen und oft subtilen Augenbewegungen geschehen unbewusst w\u00e4hrend des Gespr\u00e4chs, wobei die Augen das Gesicht \"scannen\", anstatt sich ganz auf eine Stelle zu konzentrieren. Fehlen diese quasizuf\u00e4lligen Bewegungen ganz, scheinen die Augen einen auf eine unheimliche, fast robotische Weise anzustarren. Weiche Rotationsbegrenzungen wurden auch den Charakteraugen und dem Look-at-System hinzugef\u00fcgt, um die bisher verwendeten unnat\u00fcrlichen Cutoffs zu verbessern.\nDas Team arbeitete auch an mehreren Requisiten-Rigs f\u00fcr Film- und Gameplay-Story-Animationen und begann mit der Arbeit an der ersten Version eines Remote-Exporteurs f\u00fcr Animationen. In der endg\u00fcltigen Version wird dies den Workflow des Teams beschleunigen, insbesondere bei der filmischen Animation, da der Animator den Export an eine andere Maschine auslagern und weiterarbeiten kann.\n\n\nUI\nW\u00e4hrend des gesamten Monats M\u00e4rz unterst\u00fctzte die Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che das SQ42 Environment Team bei grafischen Designanforderungen, wie z.B. Tastatursymbolografie und Hintergrundbedienoberfl\u00e4chen f\u00fcr Aciedo Station.\nVFX\nDas VFX-Team hat an einem kundenspezifischen VDB-Batch-Tool f\u00fcr die Designer gearbeitet. Dies erm\u00f6glicht es ihnen, eine einfache Mesh-Form durch mehrere benutzerdefinierte Houdini-Presets zu f\u00fchren und automatisch ein Volume zu erstellen, das die Designer verwenden k\u00f6nnen, ohne dass sie das Programm selbst \u00f6ffnen m\u00fcssen. Auf diese Weise k\u00f6nnen die Designer effizient auf Layouts iterieren, ohne direkte Unterst\u00fctzung durch die VFX-K\u00fcnstler zu ben\u00f6tigen.\nSie arbeiteten auch an verschiedenen Kinematiken, die Vektorfelder verwenden, um Partikel realistischer und interessanter um bestimmte Schiffe herum bewegen zu lassen. Zum Beispiel Partikel, die um den Rumpf eines Schiffes herumflie\u00dfen.\n\nIm vergangenen Monat hat das Team wichtige Zerst\u00f6rungssequenzen weiter blockiert und dabei eng mit den Teams f\u00fcr Kunst und Design zusammengearbeitet. Sie begannen auch mit der \u00dcberarbeitung von EMP-Effekten und nutzten einige der neueren Verbesserungen der GPU-Partikel, um sicherzustellen, dass sie nicht zu \u00e4hnlich wie Blitze aussehen. Das EMP verursacht keinen physischen Schaden, daher ist es wichtig, dies aus Sicht der Lesbarkeit zu betonen.\nWaffen\nDas Weapon Art Team begann mit der Arbeit am Apocalypse Arms Animus Raketenwerfer, der Klaus & Werner Lumin SMG und neuen Upgrade-Levels f\u00fcr verschiedene Schiffswaffen.\nVerdeckte Intel\nF\u00fcr alles (drehen, drehen, drehen, drehen) werden wir dich den n\u00e4chsten Monat sehen......","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.\nAttention Recruits,\n\nWhat you are about to read is the latest information on the continuing development of Squadron 42 (SCI des: SQ42).\n\nFrom alien concepts to player control over cutscenes, momentum remains strong. Naturally, there\u2019s a litany of restricted intelligence awaiting review for potential declassification, so keep an eye on these updates for access when release is permitted.\n\nThe 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 (Character)\nThe SQ42 Character AI Team kicks us off this month. They spent the month making general improvements, firstly to combat behaviors enabling the team to assign different tactics to different characters more easily. This work fixed a few bugs with vision perception and cover selection too. Secondly, NPC locomotion saw the integration of the collision avoidance system into smooth locomotion, which now takes into consideration the edge of walkable navigation areas. A handful of dynamic cinematic scenes were also worked on and the first pass of a new solution for blending gameplay animations into cinematic scenes was finished.\n\nAI (Ships)\nShip AI implemented new pilot skill levels to vary the agility of enemy ships and determine how they balance self-preservation and aggression. Improvements were also made to how non-player traffic behaves around landing zones.\n\nAI (Social)\nThe Social AI Team finished the first pass of \u2018scooching\u2019, which made its monthly report debut last month. If you missed it, scooching enables a character to fluidly move from one action to another within a group of useables. Design supported the setup of Master at Arms Duncan Chakma by providing necessary tech pieces where needed. Optimization started on usables too, including the caching of usable entries and TPS query time-slicing.\n\nAnimation\nMarch saw the Animation Team focusing on two important features: the finalized system for jumping and completing the first iteration of the female playable character. They also teamed up with AI to start connecting character animations to specific usable dimensions for more realism when picking up and inspecting items. Although currently in development for SQ42, these developments will eventually make their way to the Persistent Universe.\n\nFinally for Animation, they worked on the combat AI system to give enemies several new weapon options to choose from when encountering the player and hostile NPCs.\n\nArt\nThe Art Team worked on two important locations throughout March: one near a blasted and dying planet and the other close to the Coil. In the coming weeks, more of the team will move onto these locations, with the aim to get them \u2018content complete\u2019 for a handful of chapters by the end of the quarter.\nDeep space has been getting an art overhaul too, with three key locations (called \u2018mini-systems\u2019 internally) now in place and ready for polish. These systems form three separate parts of the overall Squadron 42 map and each has its own unique flavor.\n\n\nA capital ship is being brought up to scratch by the same team who worked on the Idris. They\u2019re also designing a social hub, a foundry for a major space station, a visual target for an asteroid base, and a number of other tasks that can\u2019t be divulged just yet. All of this is alongside working closely with the design, UI, and cinematic teams to ensure they each have what they need to move forward.\n\n\n\nArt (Characters)\nLast month, the Character Art Team further developed concepts for SQ42\u2019s alien species, including finalizing textures for the Vanduul. Modeling work continued on several outfits too, such as the Basilisk armor and pilot flight-suit, both of which are awaiting low-poly texturing. Progress continues on the female character model too, which is closely related to the customizer features recently added to the Persistent Universe.\n\nCinematics\nWhen the team planned cinematics for SQ42, they were torn between using the player perspective for increased immersion and a more \u2018filmic\u2019 camera that could focus on the cast and reveal performance details the player could otherwise miss. As the game doesn\u2019t \u2018cheat\u2019 the player\u2019s presence in cutscenes (due to the unified first and third person player rig), they realized they could potentially have both. Additional code was added to enable the player entity and camera to be controlled via Trackview, which allows the team (and player) to switch between points of view (POV) with a button press. By default, these new \u2018breakfree\u2019 scenes use third person, but players can choose to break free and watch the scene from the player character\u2019s POV when they want. The player can return to the filmic version with a press of the same button. This also allows the team to show more of the customized player face and body. And, when the player looks around in first person (via limited look ranges specifically for that cinematic), their actions are visible when switching back to third person.\n\nEngineering\nThe Engine Team continued work on Temporal Sample Antialiasing (TSAA) with general quality improvements that translated to less flickering and a sharper picture. They also adjusted the TSAA bicubic filter frame time to prevent the accumulation of ringing artifacts at high framerates. For hair, they added an experimental option for custom tangents, removed the temporary scatter model, moved the hair mask to variation map alpha, improved edge masking, and added card support for the hair physically-based rendering (PBR) shader.\nThey also completed rendering support for CPU-accessible textures for RTT video comms calls and optimized shaders to avoided unnecessary resource creation (e.g in GPU skinning). The Initial ImGUI integration was completed and will be used to unify and improve the in-game profiling tools. System and module integration were added to avoid an unorganized collection of tools and a text\/tag searchable configuration system for registered tools (similar to Visual Code) was implemented. To better improve load times, the team created a new load time profiler to track file access (times accessed, data transfer, etc.), amended the IO scheduler for SSDs and HDDs to give faster load times and response, and vastly improved file access in the shader system to speed up initialization at start-up.\n\n\nIn addition to the compile-time analysis tool developed last month, they finalized an add-in tool to generate optimal uber file sets and, as a result, reshuffled game uber files for even better compile times. Work also began on a physics debugger that will allow the team to record issues, play them back, freeze time, etc. to help understand and speed up fixing complex physics issues.\n\n\n\n\nEngineering\/Programming\nThe Actor Feature Team finished off Vault & Mantling, which included validating the mechanic with the new female player character. They\u2019ve now moved onto the next iteration of jumping, making progress on animations by simplifying the selection count, giving more weight and polish, and utilizing time-warping tech. The first pass of unarmed, non-lethal stealth takedowns has been implemented, which allows the player to punch and knock down enemies.\nThe team experimented with a new over-the-shoulder camera for cinematics and started looking into how to track the player\u2019s mission performance and what variables need to be exposed to the designers.\n\n\nThe AI Team adjusted the way story scenes are set up and how NPCs enter and exit to make sure they\u2019re positioned correctly. AI \u2018push\/pull\u2019 behavior has been improved too, so NPCs flying with the player can\u2019t get too far ahead or fall behind.\n\n\n\nGameplay Story\nThe Gameplay Story Team tackled scenes from chapter four, with the majority now either done or planned for implementation. The remaining scenes will be worked on for the next few months until complete. They also managed to get a couple of scenes properly interacting with the environment and working correctly in operator seats, which was a significant technical achievement. They\u2019re currently working closely with the Social AI Team on usables and are starting to see improvements throughout the system.\n\nGraphics\nRegarding vid-comms and general render-to-texture, the teams fixed a few issues that were interfering with brightness along with intermittent cases where lights on holograms were disappearing. They also switched most holographic scenes over to a forward-shaded render pipeline to improve efficiency.\n\nLevel Design\nThe SQ42 Design Team continued the push towards \u2018broader\u2019 vertical slice gameplay for the first third of the game. This focus threw up a number of technical challenges that had to be overcome to get all of the game chapters linking correctly and consistently within the mission flow.\nUpdates to performance capture and in-cockpit scenes are currently being swapped from the narrative placeholders to more polished final representations that support branching conversations, reputation, and player actions.\n\n\nAI focus was mostly on the social side, with the team building behaviors and schedules for ship crews, which is now possible thanks to the usables pipeline delivering final templates for integration.\n\n\n\nNarrative\nNarrative continued to sync with the Art Team on the new characters being introduced in Squadron 42. They\u2019re also moving ahead on how mission markers and placement are to be perceived.\n\nQA\nQA assisted with mocap recordings for a few scenes where AI characters were missing transitions between their animations. Fixing this makes the animations during certain movements entirely seamless and fluid.\nThey also worked on creating a cinematics ship zoo test map. Different ship issues will sometimes occur in-game rather than in Trackview, so having them pre-set up makes reproducing (and fixing) bugs much quicker and easier.\n\n\nThey\u2019re currently providing dedicated support to the Cinematics Team, investigating any issues they may encounter that hinder their workflow.\n\n\n\nTech Art\nTech Art continued work on the \u2018look-at\u2019 system for redirecting mocap animations, in particular, the head and eyes. Due to recent improvements, eyes are now perfectly aligned and look right into the camera and the player\u2019s eyes in a natural way. Following on, the team began investigating ways to add saccadic eye movements. These rapid and often subtle eye movements happen subconsciously during conversation, with eyes \u2018scanning\u2019 the face rather than staying entirely focused on one spot. If these quasi-random movements are missing entirely, the eyes appear to stare at you in an uncanny, almost robotic way. Soft rotation limits were also added to character eyes and the look-at system to improve on the unnatural cutoffs used previously.\nThe team also worked on multiple prop rigs for cinematic and gameplay-story animations and began work on the first version of a remote exporter for animations. In its final version, this will speed up the team\u2019s workflow, especially for cinematic animation, because the animator can outsource the export to another machine and continue working.\n\n\n\nUI\nThroughout March, UI supported the SQ42 Environment Team with graphic design needs, such as keypad iconography and background UI displays for Aciedo Station.\n\nVFX\nThe VFX Team have been working on a custom VDB batch tool for the designers. This allows them to run a simple mesh shape through several custom Houdini presets and have it automatically create a volume the designers can use without them having to open the program themselves. This way, the designers can efficiently iterate on layouts without requiring direct support from the VFX artists.\nThey also worked on various cinematics using vector fields to make particles move in a more realistic and interesting way around certain ships. For example, particles flowing around a ship\u2019s hull.\n\nLast month, the team continued to block out key destruction sequences whilst working closely with the Art and Design teams. They also began reworking EMP effects, making use of some of the newer GPU particle improvements to make sure it doesn\u2019t look too similar to lightning. The EMP doesn\u2019t deal physical damage, so it\u2019s important to emphasize that from a readability standpoint.\n\nWeapons\nThe Weapon Art Team started work on the Apocalypse Arms Animus missile launcher, the Klaus & Werner Lumin SMG, and new upgrade levels for various ship weapons.\n\nCovert Intel\nTo everything (turn, turn, turn) WE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026"},"links_count":0,"comment_count":18,"created_at":"2019-05-03T00:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"7 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-07 22:16:29","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":17063,"next_id":17066}}