{"data":{"id":17144,"title":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report: June 2019","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/17144-Squadron-42-Monthly-Report-June-2019","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/17144","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/17144","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).\nThrough our thorough investigations, we\u2019ve obtained intel on recent operations pertaining to Track View cinematics, AI enhancements, stun mechanics, and more.\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\nJune\u2019s Squadron 42 roundup starts as always with the AI Team, who enabled a multithreaded update of the Subsumption component, which will have a big impact on overall game performance. They also updated the Tactical Point System to support asynchronous generation, which improves the efficiency of large usable search radiuses and has less impact on frame update. The Character Combat Team spent time refactoring human combat \u2013 new tactics have been added, NPCs understand open environments better, and a lot of bugs have been fixed. The first version of an \u2018investigate\u2019 behavior was also completed, which will enable NPCs to search for players if they manage to escape during combat.\n\nShip AI implemented a component that better balances the targeting selection of AI ships. One new element allows the designers to set up suggestions on how the AI should spread individual ships within a group, which in turn allows systemic behaviors to choose which target should be attacked first.\n\nCombat wise, behaviors were added to make better use of the pilot skills and all initial \u2018skill sheets\u2019 were completed. Several flying maneuvers, such as the \u2018fly by\u2019 and \u2018breakaway\u2019 mentioned a couple of reports ago, were reworked to support strafing and the afterburner has been improved when flying over splines. They continued work on 3D pathfinding and are currently implementing a more efficient way to evaluate the environment and build flight paths using information from the distance field calculated by the physics code. This will also allow AI ships to better navigate highly complex environments, such as dense asteroid fields and intricate structures.\n\nFinally for AI, the Social Team introduced several new functionalities to the vendor AI, such as enabling NPCs and players to interact with usables without the need to explicitly trigger interactions.\n\n\n\nAnimation\nLast month, Animation continued to develop human-style enemies, including enabling them to use sidearms and the previsualization of two new enemy types. They worked closely with the Design Team to prototype melee combat and began working out the kinks in the takedown system. Jumping, and closing out the technical needs for it, was a priority too. They also began creating animations for \u2018first selects\u2019 (a unique animation for the first time a player holds\/equips a weapon) and worked with Design on weapon inspection and how they\u2019re picked up. The team moved forward with ship-to-ship communications, including getting the g-force animations playing properly for AI pilots. Once the pipeline is completed, they\u2019ll be able to start producing ship-to-ship comms calls in earnest. Tying into the AI Team\u2019s work above, Animation started on the motion capture data for the updated bartender and bar patron behavior and began work on a new mission giver coming later in the year.\n\nThey also continued on usables, with the aim to have all requested animations complete within the next few months.\n\n\n\nArt (Characters)\nCharacter Art continued to focus heavily on bringing up the quality of hair. Work continued on the Vanduul, while the concept stage of the Xi\u2019an race made great headway. Refinements were made to existing outfits and the material library was further expanded, which will help improve the overall quality of costumes in the game.\n\nArt (Environment)\nThe Environment Art Team finished work on the base asteroid set and began trialing new shaders to great result. The finished set was handed over to Design and features asteroids ranging from 30 meters to 3 kilometers. The current challenge is how to texture such a wide range of sizes and shapes. The team pushed further with Archon Station\u2019s traversable sections, which are now essentially content complete. They\u2019re now moving onto creating the detail, such as the masses of machinery and pipework that fill the station. As mentioned in previous updates, the team is keen to get away from the \u2018room, corridor, room, corridor\u2019 mentality and are instead working in traversable paths around important structural features. For example, an oil rig is predominantly designed for a single purpose \u2013 how people get around and live on it is worked in afterwards. The team are pushing this approach to really nail believable and natural gameplay spaces.\n\nWork on an important comms array continued. The structure is huge and the team are currently working to ensure both the interior and exterior are fun to explore and play, which involves working on a visual language that makes it clear where and what the various gameplay options are. Players will be encouraged to play the way they want, so rather than holding their hands, they\u2019ll be \u2018channeled\u2019 at certain points to ensure they witness crucial scenes relevant to the story.\n\nVDB remains in focus and the team are currently in the process of merging it with their asteroid belt work. The goal is to create \u2018sea beds\u2019 of asteroid rings and belts that not only stretch as far as the eye can see but are a challenge to navigate.\n\n\n\nArt (Weapons)\nThe Weapon Art Team finished modeling and texturing the Hedeby Gunworks Salvo frag pistol and Behring GP33 \u2018MOD\u2019 grenade launcher. They also spent time cleaning up optical attachments and polished a few other weapons, including the Klaus & Werner Lumin V SMG\n\nAudio\nJune saw the Audio Team focusing on chapter four and building on the extensive work the other departments have delivered so far. The levels are already incredibly impressive and present the team with some interesting challenges on how to approach sound and audio effects.\n\nCinematics\nThis month took a major step forward in terms of new tech and tools. These new additions will give the Cinematics Team a thorough pipeline to aid scene integration within the campaign. New code allows sequences from the cinematic timeline tool to blend seamlessly with AI locomotion before and after the scene ends. This is still being tweaked, but the majority of the heavy lifting is done and is functioning as intended. Another new addition is what the team calls the \u2018AI>Trackview>AI sandwich\u2019. This code made positive changes to Track View functionality and made some other internal tools redundant. The update went through QA and was extensively tested by the Cinematics Team to make sure their workflow wasn\u2019t compromised. Initial bugs such as slowdowns in performance while scrubbing the timeline were quickly fixed and the team is now benefiting from a smoother and faster workflow.\n\nAnother update gives the team a visual method of selecting a ship\u2019s interior and items. Any ship they pull into the editor can now be opened and its entities visually selected and added to Track View (previously, items were only selectable via a dropdown menu, which was less intuitive).\n\nImprovements were also made to the \u2018Actor Action\u2019 track in the sequencer tool. The team can now grab, handover, holster, unholster, and equip items not just from a character\u2019s loadout but any item from the world put into the sequence. For example, this makes scenes possible where a character hands over a weapon to the player and they hand it back.\n\nIn addition to testing the new code, the team progressed on some major campaign scenes.\n\n\n\nEngineering\nThe Actor Team began developing animation-driven ragdoll death sequences. This tech enables death animations to play while the body collides with the environment or reacts to external factors in a realistic and believable way. It\u2019s still in the early stages but is beginning to work as intended. More progress has been made on melee attacks, with support added for different attack types, blocks, and directional dodges.\n\nThe team also looked at the player status system and began rebalancing the stamina system to improve gameplay. They\u2019re currently implementing a \u2018stun\u2019 mechanic, where a player can become unsteady until they\u2019re eventually knocked unconscious for a period.\n\nFinally for Engineering, a new system is currently in development that ties together all the different things that trigger camera shakes into a unified system. It also applies camera shake differently depending on whether the player is in first-person, third-person, or cinematic camera mode.\n\n\n\nGameplay Story\nThe Gameplay Story Team had another highly productive month, implementing 12 scenes to a high standard and achieving their goal of completing all of chapter 4\u2019s scenes by the end of 2019\u2019s second quarter. They also supported the Design Team, who have begun triggering these scenes in significant numbers. Alongside this, they added new audio to a handful of scenes and fixed errors that could have blocked the exporting of object containers in the future. They\u2019re currently working with the recently integrated Universe Outliner that allow them to animate many doors, cupboards, and flaps that were previously inaccessible.\n\n\n\nGraphics\nLast month, Graphics finished the optimization of gas clouds, which should bring the cost to under 2ms on most GPUs. They\u2019ll reassess the performance once the assets are finalized and decide whether further steps are required for lower-spec GPUs. The UK studio hosted a mini-summit for the graphics and engine teams to plan out the next stage of the major renderer rework. This rework involves fundamental changes to the structure of the renderer to allow pre-calculation of as much rendering data and entity creation as possible to minimize the work in each frame. When complete, it should result in significant CPU performance improvements, but will take several months to complete.\n\n\n\nLevel Design\nThe Design Team continued their work on the various levels, improving the flow and refining technology with the various feature teams. The Social Team continue their work on the interstitial spaces, with improvements to the crew behaviors in numerous areas and implementation of vital narrative scenes. The Tech Team are still improving the wider team\u2019s workflow for consistency and stability, with oversight from the various specialist engineers. The goal here is to have this section in a highly polished state in Q3 to enable them to move forward with the other chapters, all of which have design owners and are being worked on concurrently.\n\n\n\nNarrative\nThe Narrative Team went through an assortment of editorial selects for key Squadron 42 characters. They also wrote several set-dressing documents to guide Environment Art and Props with environmental storytelling. In addition, they had multiple reviews with Design on several chapter\u2019s narrative moments and made further progress on their ongoing task to complete all in-game text.\n\nQA\nChanges to AI actors went into the build, which had an impact on the Cinematics Team\u2019s workflow, so QA undertook extensive testing and test map creation specifically for Track View. The team are currently making improvements to the current automated test map as well as creating additional maps, which will make it easier to reproduce the issues the Cinematics Team may encounter.\n\nTech Animation\nTechnical Animation worked closely with many other teams on ship comms calls, animation workflows, and processes. They also continued to work through the backlog of outstanding wildline and dogfighting comms animations and are currently implementing the ones already processed. The Maya tools source control refactoring is complete too, which will allow the animators to work unhindered whether there is a source control connection or not. The Vanduul also made a comeback \u2013 the team are working with Facial Animation to refine the look and feel of the race to showcase to the game directors very soon.\n\n\n\nTech Art\nLast month, Tech Art (together with Core Engine and Tech Animation) took strides towards establishing the new updated in-house facial rigging pipeline. In order to flesh out the DNA gene pool and populate the game with unique looking characters, a large number of face rigs for both female and male characters need to be created. An in-house facial rigging solution will give devs the required flexibility and full control over production scheduling and rig asset quality (and therefore animation and deformation quality). The first test case and benchmark for this new system was the face rig for the female playable character. The challenge now lies in ensuring that the animation quality now matches (or surpasses) that of the male playable character. Initial results look very promising and the team is excited to take the next steps.\n\nUI\nThe UI Tech Team spent time upgrading the new UI system to include scrolling lists and flexible layouts, as well as supplying the tech for the new Gladius HUD. The Graphic Design Team worked on logos for the three main squadrons in the game, created UI screens to help bring the Archon bridge to life, and looking into retro sci-fi branding for the Aciedo environment.\n\nVFX\nAlongside the vertical slice worked on with Environment Art, VFX continued to support the various art and design teams on a couple of key locations.\n\nWE\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).\nDurch unsere gr\u00fcndlichen Untersuchungen haben wir Informationen \u00fcber die j\u00fcngsten Operationen im Zusammenhang mit Track View-Kinematiken, KI-Verbesserungen, Bet\u00e4ubungsmechaniken und mehr erhalten.\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\nKI\nDie Staffel 42 im Juni beginnt wie immer mit dem KI-Team, das ein Multithreading-Update der Subsumption-Komponente erm\u00f6glichte, was einen gro\u00dfen Einfluss auf die gesamte Spielleistung haben wird. Sie aktualisierten auch das Tactical Point System, um die asynchrone Generierung zu unterst\u00fctzen, was die Effizienz gro\u00dfer nutzbarer Suchradien verbessert und weniger Auswirkungen auf die Aktualisierung von Frames hat. Das Charakter-Kampfteam verbrachte Zeit damit, den menschlichen Kampf neu zu gestalten - neue Taktiken wurden hinzugef\u00fcgt, NSCs verstehen offene Umgebungen besser, und viele Fehler wurden behoben. Die erste Version eines \"Untersuchungsverhaltens\" wurde ebenfalls fertiggestellt, das es den NSCs erm\u00f6glichen wird, nach Spielern zu suchen, wenn sie es schaffen, im Kampf zu entkommen.\n\nShip AI implementierte eine Komponente, die die Zielauswahl der KI-Schiffe besser ausgleicht. Ein neues Element erm\u00f6glicht es den Designern, Vorschl\u00e4ge zu erarbeiten, wie die KI einzelne Schiffe innerhalb einer Gruppe verteilen soll, was wiederum systemischen Verhaltensweisen die Wahl l\u00e4sst, welches Ziel zuerst angegriffen werden soll.\n\nKampfm\u00e4\u00dfig wurden Verhaltensweisen hinzugef\u00fcgt, um die Pilotf\u00e4higkeiten besser zu nutzen, und alle ersten \"Qualifikationsbl\u00e4tter\" wurden ausgef\u00fcllt. Mehrere Flugman\u00f6ver, wie das vor einigen Berichten erw\u00e4hnte \"Fly-by\" und \"Breakaway\", wurden zur Unterst\u00fctzung des Strafings \u00fcberarbeitet und der Nachbrenner beim Fliegen \u00fcber Splines verbessert. Sie setzten ihre Arbeit an der 3D-Pfadfindung fort und implementieren derzeit eine effizientere Methode zur Bewertung der Umgebung und zum Aufbau von Flugrouten unter Verwendung von Informationen aus dem durch den Physikcode berechneten Entfernungsfeld. Dies wird es auch KI-Schiffen erm\u00f6glichen, hochkomplexe Umgebungen wie dichte Asteroidenfelder und komplexe Strukturen besser zu navigieren.\n\nSchlie\u00dflich hat das Social Team f\u00fcr die KI des Anbieters mehrere neue Funktionalit\u00e4ten eingef\u00fchrt, wie z.B. die M\u00f6glichkeit, NSCs und Spieler mit Usables zu interagieren, ohne dass explizit Interaktionen ausgel\u00f6st werden m\u00fcssen.\n\n\nAnimation\nIm vergangenen Monat hat Animation die Entwicklung von Feinden im menschlichen Stil fortgesetzt, einschlie\u00dflich der M\u00f6glichkeit, Seitenwaffen zu benutzen und die Visualisierung von zwei neuen Feindtypen. Sie arbeiteten eng mit dem Designteam zusammen, um einen Prototyp des Nahkampfes zu entwickeln, und begannen, die Knicke im Takedown-System zu erarbeiten. Das Springen und das Schlie\u00dfen der technischen Anforderungen war ebenfalls eine Priorit\u00e4t. Sie begannen auch mit der Erstellung von Animationen f\u00fcr \"first selects\" (eine einzigartige Animation, die zum ersten Mal, wenn ein Spieler eine Waffe h\u00e4lt\/ausr\u00fcstet) und arbeiteten mit Design an der Waffeninspektion und wie sie aufgenommen werden. Das Team machte Fortschritte bei der Kommunikation zwischen Schiff und Schiff, einschlie\u00dflich der Bereitstellung der g-force-Animationen, die f\u00fcr KI-Piloten richtig ablaufen. Sobald die Pipeline fertiggestellt ist, k\u00f6nnen sie mit der Produktion von Schiff-zu-Schiff-Kommunkommandos beginnen. In Anlehnung an die oben beschriebene Arbeit des KI-Teams begann Animation mit der Erfassung der Bewegungsdaten f\u00fcr das aktualisierte Barkeeperverhalten und begann mit der Arbeit an einem neuen Missionsgeber, der sp\u00e4ter im Jahr kam.\n\nSie setzten auch auf Usables fort, mit dem Ziel, alle angeforderten Animationen innerhalb der n\u00e4chsten Monate fertigzustellen.\n\n\nKunst (Charaktere)\nCharacter Art konzentrierte sich weiterhin stark darauf, die Qualit\u00e4t der Haare zu verbessern. Die Arbeiten an der Vanduul wurden fortgesetzt, w\u00e4hrend die Konzeptphase der Xi'an-Rasse gro\u00dfe Fortschritte machte. Die bestehenden Outfits wurden verfeinert und die Materialbibliothek weiter ausgebaut, was zur Verbesserung der Gesamtqualit\u00e4t der Kost\u00fcme im Spiel beitragen wird.\nKunst (Umwelt)\nDas Environment Art Team beendete die Arbeit am Basis-Asteroiden-Set und begann, neue Shader mit gro\u00dfem Erfolg zu testen. Das fertige Set wurde an Design \u00fcbergeben und verf\u00fcgt \u00fcber Asteroiden von 30 Meter bis 3 Kilometer L\u00e4nge. Die aktuelle Herausforderung besteht darin, wie man eine so gro\u00dfe Bandbreite an Gr\u00f6\u00dfen und Formen strukturiert. Das Team trieb die Arbeit mit den \u00fcberfahrbaren Abschnitten der Archon Station voran, die nun im Wesentlichen zufriedenstellend abgeschlossen sind. Sie arbeiten nun daran, das Detail zu schaffen, wie z.B. die Massen von Maschinen und Rohrleitungen, die die Station f\u00fcllen. Wie bereits in fr\u00fcheren Updates erw\u00e4hnt, ist das Team bestrebt, von der Mentalit\u00e4t des \"Zimmers, des Korridors, des Zimmers, des Korridors\" wegzukommen und arbeitet stattdessen auf begehbaren Wegen um wichtige strukturelle Merkmale herum. So ist beispielsweise eine Bohrinsel \u00fcberwiegend f\u00fcr einen einzigen Zweck konzipiert - wie Menschen herumkommen und auf ihr leben, wird anschlie\u00dfend eingearbeitet. Das Team treibt diesen Ansatz voran, um wirklich glaubw\u00fcrdige und nat\u00fcrliche Spielr\u00e4ume zu schaffen.\n\nDie Arbeiten an einem wichtigen Comms-Array wurden fortgesetzt. Die Struktur ist riesig und das Team arbeitet derzeit daran, sicherzustellen, dass sowohl das Innere als auch das \u00c4u\u00dfere Spa\u00df am Erkunden und Spielen haben, was die Arbeit an einer Bildsprache beinhaltet, die deutlich macht, wo und was die verschiedenen Spieloptionen sind. Die Spieler werden ermutigt, so zu spielen, wie sie es sich w\u00fcnschen, so dass sie nicht an den H\u00e4nden halten, sondern an bestimmten Stellen \"kanalisiert\" werden, um sicherzustellen, dass sie wichtige, f\u00fcr die Geschichte relevante Szenen erleben.\n\nDer VDB bleibt im Fokus und das Team ist derzeit dabei, es mit seiner Asteroideng\u00fcrtelarbeit zu verschmelzen. Ziel ist es, \"Meeresb\u00f6den\" aus Asteroidenringen und -g\u00fcrteln zu schaffen, die sich nicht nur so weit erstrecken, wie das Auge sehen kann, sondern auch eine Herausforderung bei der Navigation darstellen.\n\n\nKunst (Waffen)\nDas Weapon Art Team beendete die Modellierung und Texturierung der Hedeby Gunworks Salvo frag Pistole und des Behring GP33'MOD' Granatwerfer. Sie verbrachten auch Zeit damit, optische Aufs\u00e4tze zu reinigen und polierten ein paar andere Waffen, darunter die Klaus & Werner Lumin V SMG.\nAudio\nIm Juni konzentrierte sich das Audio-Team auf Kapitel vier und baute auf der umfangreichen Arbeit auf, die die anderen Abteilungen bisher geleistet haben. Die Pegel sind bereits unglaublich beeindruckend und stellen das Team vor einige interessante Herausforderungen, wie man mit Sound- und Audioeffekten umgeht.\nKinematiken\nIn diesem Monat wurde ein gro\u00dfer Schritt nach vorne gemacht, was neue Technologien und Werkzeuge betrifft. Mit diesen Neuzug\u00e4ngen verf\u00fcgt das Cinematics-Team \u00fcber eine umfassende Pipeline zur Unterst\u00fctzung der Szenenintegration innerhalb der Kampagne. Neuer Code erm\u00f6glicht es, Sequenzen aus dem filmischen Timeline Tool nahtlos in die KI-Lokation vor und nach dem Ende der Szene einzuf\u00fcgen. Dies wird immer noch optimiert, aber der Gro\u00dfteil des Schwertransports ist erledigt und funktioniert wie vorgesehen. Eine weitere Neuerung ist das so genannte 'AI>Trackview>AI Sandwich'. Dieser Code hat die Track View Funktionalit\u00e4t positiv ver\u00e4ndert und einige andere interne Tools \u00fcberfl\u00fcssig gemacht. Das Update durchlief die QS und wurde vom Cinematics-Team ausgiebig getestet, um sicherzustellen, dass der Workflow nicht beeintr\u00e4chtigt wird. Erste Fehler wie Leistungseinbu\u00dfen beim Scrubben der Timeline wurden schnell behoben, und das Team profitiert nun von einem reibungsloseren und schnelleren Workflow.\n\nEin weiteres Update bietet dem Team eine visuelle Methode zur Auswahl des Schiffsinnenraums und der Gegenst\u00e4nde. Jedes Schiff, das sie in den Editor ziehen, kann nun ge\u00f6ffnet und seine Entit\u00e4ten visuell ausgew\u00e4hlt und der Track View hinzugef\u00fcgt werden (fr\u00fcher waren die Elemente nur \u00fcber ein Dropdown-Men\u00fc w\u00e4hlbar, was weniger intuitiv war).\n\nVerbesserungen wurden auch an der Spur \"Actor Action\" im Sequenzer-Tool vorgenommen. Das Team kann nun Gegenst\u00e4nde greifen, \u00fcbergeben, haltern, entfalten und ausr\u00fcsten, nicht nur von der Auslastung eines Charakters, sondern von jedem Gegenstand aus der Welt, der in die Sequenz eingef\u00fcgt wird. So werden beispielsweise Szenen m\u00f6glich, in denen ein Charakter dem Spieler eine Waffe \u00fcbergibt und diese zur\u00fcckgibt.\n\nZus\u00e4tzlich zum Testen des neuen Codes machte das Team Fortschritte bei einigen wichtigen Kampagnenszenen.\n\n\nIngenieurwesen\nDas Actor Team begann mit der Entwicklung von animationsgetriebenen Ragdoll-Todessequenzen. Diese Technologie erm\u00f6glicht es, Todesanimationen zu spielen, w\u00e4hrend der K\u00f6rper mit der Umgebung kollidiert oder realistisch und glaubw\u00fcrdig auf \u00e4u\u00dfere Faktoren reagiert. Es befindet sich noch in der Anfangsphase, beginnt aber, wie geplant zu funktionieren. Bei Nahkampfangriffen wurden weitere Fortschritte erzielt, wobei die Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr verschiedene Angriffstypen, Bl\u00f6cke und Richtungsweichen hinzugef\u00fcgt wurde.\n\nDas Team betrachtete auch das Spieler-Statussystem und begann, das Ausdauer-System neu auszugleichen, um das Gameplay zu verbessern. Sie implementieren derzeit einen Bet\u00e4ubungsmechanismus, bei dem ein Spieler unsicher werden kann, bis er schlie\u00dflich f\u00fcr eine gewisse Zeit bewusstlos geschlagen wird.\n\nSchlie\u00dflich f\u00fcr das Engineering befindet sich derzeit ein neues System in der Entwicklung, das all die verschiedenen Dinge, die das Ersch\u00fcttern der Kamera ausl\u00f6sen, zu einem einheitlichen System zusammenf\u00fchrt. Es wendet auch die Verwacklung der Kamera unterschiedlich an, je nachdem, ob sich der Spieler im First-Person-, Third-Person- oder Filmkameramodus befindet.\n\n\nGameplay-Geschichte\nDas Gameplay Story Team hatte einen weiteren hochproduktiven Monat, in dem es 12 Szenen auf hohem Niveau implementierte und sein Ziel, alle Szenen von Kapitel 4 bis Ende des zweiten Quartals 2019 abzuschlie\u00dfen, erreichte. Sie unterst\u00fctzten auch das Designteam, das damit begonnen hat, diese Szenen in gro\u00dfer Zahl auszul\u00f6sen. Daneben f\u00fcgten sie einer Handvoll Szenen neues Audio hinzu und beheben Fehler, die den Export von Objektcontainern in Zukunft h\u00e4tten verhindern k\u00f6nnen. Sie arbeiten derzeit mit dem k\u00fcrzlich integrierten Universe Outliner zusammen, der es ihnen erm\u00f6glicht, viele T\u00fcren, Schr\u00e4nke und Klappen zu animieren, die bisher unzug\u00e4nglich waren.\n\n\nGrafiken\nIm vergangenen Monat beendete Graphics die Optimierung der Gaswolken, was die Kosten f\u00fcr die meisten GPUs auf unter 2 ms senken sollte. Sie werden die Leistung nach Fertigstellung der Anlagen neu bewerten und entscheiden, ob weitere Schritte f\u00fcr GPUs mit niedrigerer Spezifikation erforderlich sind. Das britische Studio veranstaltete einen Mini-Gipfel f\u00fcr die Grafik- und Engineteams, um die n\u00e4chste Phase der gro\u00dfen Renderer-\u00dcberarbeitung zu planen. Diese \u00dcberarbeitung beinhaltet grundlegende \u00c4nderungen an der Struktur des Renderers, um eine Vorberechnung so vieler Rendering-Daten wie m\u00f6glich zu erm\u00f6glichen und eine Entit\u00e4tsbildung zu erm\u00f6glichen, um den Aufwand in jedem Frame zu minimieren. Nach Fertigstellung sollte dies zu erheblichen Verbesserungen der CPU-Leistung f\u00fchren, die jedoch mehrere Monate dauern werden.\n\n\nLeveldesign\nDas Designteam setzte seine Arbeit auf den verschiedenen Ebenen fort und verbesserte die Str\u00f6mungs- und Verfeinerungstechnologie mit den verschiedenen Funktionsteams. Das Sozialteam setzt seine Arbeit an den Zwischenr\u00e4umen fort, mit Verbesserungen des Crewverhaltens in zahlreichen Bereichen und der Umsetzung wichtiger narrativer Szenen. Das Tech Team verbessert weiterhin den Workflow des breiteren Teams f\u00fcr Konsistenz und Stabilit\u00e4t, unter der Aufsicht der verschiedenen Fachingenieure. Ziel ist es, diesen Abschnitt im dritten Quartal in einem hochglanzpolierten Zustand zu haben, damit sie mit den anderen Kapiteln, die alle Designeigent\u00fcmer haben und gleichzeitig bearbeitet werden, weitermachen k\u00f6nnen.\n\n\nNarrativ\nDas Narrative Team durchlief eine Reihe von redaktionellen Auswahlverfahren f\u00fcr die wichtigsten 42 Charaktere der Staffel. Sie schrieben auch mehrere Set-Dressing-Dokumente, um Environment Art und Requisiten mit Umwelt-Storytelling zu leiten. Dar\u00fcber hinaus hatten sie mehrere Rezensionen mit Design zu den Erz\u00e4hlmomenten mehrerer Kapitel und machten weitere Fortschritte bei ihrer laufenden Aufgabe, den gesamten Text im Spiel zu vervollst\u00e4ndigen.\nQA\n\u00c4nderungen an den KI-Akteuren gingen in den Build ein, was sich auf den Workflow des Cinematics-Teams auswirkte, so dass QA umfangreiche Tests und die Erstellung von Testkarten speziell f\u00fcr die Track View durchf\u00fchrte. Das Team arbeitet derzeit an der Verbesserung der aktuellen automatisierten Testkarte und erstellt zus\u00e4tzliche Karten, die es erleichtern, die Probleme, auf die das Cinematics-Team sto\u00dfen kann, zu reproduzieren.\nTechnische Animation\nTechnical Animation arbeitete eng mit vielen anderen Teams zusammen, um Schiffskommunikationsaufrufe, Animationsabl\u00e4ufe und Prozesse zu entwickeln. Sie haben auch den R\u00fcckstand an hervorragenden Wildline und Dogfighting Comms Animationen weiter bearbeitet und implementieren derzeit die bereits verarbeiteten. Das Refactoring der Maya-Tools f\u00fcr die Versionskontrolle ist ebenfalls abgeschlossen, so dass die Animatoren ungehindert arbeiten k\u00f6nnen, unabh\u00e4ngig davon, ob eine Versionskontrollverbindung besteht oder nicht. Die Vanduul feierten auch ein Comeback - das Team arbeitet mit Facial Animation zusammen, um das Look-and-Feel des Rennens zu verfeinern und den Game-Direktoren sehr bald zu pr\u00e4sentieren.\n\n\nTechnische Kunst\nLetzten Monat hat Tech Art (zusammen mit Core Engine und Tech Animation) Schritte unternommen, um die neue, aktualisierte firmeneigene Facial Rigging Pipeline zu etablieren. Um den DNA-Genpool zu vervollst\u00e4ndigen und das Spiel mit einzigartig aussehenden Charakteren zu f\u00fcllen, muss eine gro\u00dfe Anzahl von Face-Rigs f\u00fcr weibliche und m\u00e4nnliche Charaktere erstellt werden. Eine hauseigene Facial Rigging-L\u00f6sung gibt den Entwicklern die erforderliche Flexibilit\u00e4t und volle Kontrolle \u00fcber die Produktionsplanung und die Qualit\u00e4t der Rigg Assets (und damit die Qualit\u00e4t der Animation und Deformation). Der erste Testfall und Ma\u00dfstab f\u00fcr dieses neue System war das Gesichtsger\u00e4t f\u00fcr die weibliche spielbare Figur. Die Herausforderung besteht nun darin, sicherzustellen, dass die Animationsqualit\u00e4t nun derjenigen des m\u00e4nnlichen spielbaren Charakters entspricht (oder diese \u00fcbertrifft). Die ersten Ergebnisse sehen sehr vielversprechend aus und das Team ist gespannt auf die n\u00e4chsten Schritte.\nUI\nDas UI Tech Team verbrachte Zeit damit, das neue UI-System mit Scroll-Listen und flexiblen Layouts zu erweitern und die Technik f\u00fcr das neue Gladius HUD zu liefern. Das Grafikdesign-Team arbeitete an Logos f\u00fcr die drei Hauptgeschwader des Spiels, erstellte Benutzeroberfl\u00e4chen, um die Archon-Br\u00fccke zum Leben zu erwecken, und untersuchte das Retro-Science-Fi-Branding f\u00fcr die Aciedo-Umgebung.\nVFX\nNeben dem vertikalen Schnitt, an dem mit Environment Art gearbeitet wurde, unterst\u00fctzte VFX weiterhin die verschiedenen Kunst- und Designteams an einigen wichtigen Standorten.\nWIR SEHEN UNS N\u00c4CHSTEN 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.\nAttention Recruits,\n\nWhat you are about to read is the latest information on the continuing development of Squadron 42 (SCI des: SQ42).\nThrough our thorough investigations, we\u2019ve obtained intel on recent operations pertaining to Track View cinematics, AI enhancements, stun mechanics, and more.\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\nJune\u2019s Squadron 42 roundup starts as always with the AI Team, who enabled a multithreaded update of the Subsumption component, which will have a big impact on overall game performance. They also updated the Tactical Point System to support asynchronous generation, which improves the efficiency of large usable search radiuses and has less impact on frame update. The Character Combat Team spent time refactoring human combat \u2013 new tactics have been added, NPCs understand open environments better, and a lot of bugs have been fixed. The first version of an \u2018investigate\u2019 behavior was also completed, which will enable NPCs to search for players if they manage to escape during combat.\n\nShip AI implemented a component that better balances the targeting selection of AI ships. One new element allows the designers to set up suggestions on how the AI should spread individual ships within a group, which in turn allows systemic behaviors to choose which target should be attacked first.\n\nCombat wise, behaviors were added to make better use of the pilot skills and all initial \u2018skill sheets\u2019 were completed. Several flying maneuvers, such as the \u2018fly by\u2019 and \u2018breakaway\u2019 mentioned a couple of reports ago, were reworked to support strafing and the afterburner has been improved when flying over splines. They continued work on 3D pathfinding and are currently implementing a more efficient way to evaluate the environment and build flight paths using information from the distance field calculated by the physics code. This will also allow AI ships to better navigate highly complex environments, such as dense asteroid fields and intricate structures.\n\nFinally for AI, the Social Team introduced several new functionalities to the vendor AI, such as enabling NPCs and players to interact with usables without the need to explicitly trigger interactions.\n\n\n\nAnimation\nLast month, Animation continued to develop human-style enemies, including enabling them to use sidearms and the previsualization of two new enemy types. They worked closely with the Design Team to prototype melee combat and began working out the kinks in the takedown system. Jumping, and closing out the technical needs for it, was a priority too. They also began creating animations for \u2018first selects\u2019 (a unique animation for the first time a player holds\/equips a weapon) and worked with Design on weapon inspection and how they\u2019re picked up. The team moved forward with ship-to-ship communications, including getting the g-force animations playing properly for AI pilots. Once the pipeline is completed, they\u2019ll be able to start producing ship-to-ship comms calls in earnest. Tying into the AI Team\u2019s work above, Animation started on the motion capture data for the updated bartender and bar patron behavior and began work on a new mission giver coming later in the year.\n\nThey also continued on usables, with the aim to have all requested animations complete within the next few months.\n\n\n\nArt (Characters)\nCharacter Art continued to focus heavily on bringing up the quality of hair. Work continued on the Vanduul, while the concept stage of the Xi\u2019an race made great headway. Refinements were made to existing outfits and the material library was further expanded, which will help improve the overall quality of costumes in the game.\n\nArt (Environment)\nThe Environment Art Team finished work on the base asteroid set and began trialing new shaders to great result. The finished set was handed over to Design and features asteroids ranging from 30 meters to 3 kilometers. The current challenge is how to texture such a wide range of sizes and shapes. The team pushed further with Archon Station\u2019s traversable sections, which are now essentially content complete. They\u2019re now moving onto creating the detail, such as the masses of machinery and pipework that fill the station. As mentioned in previous updates, the team is keen to get away from the \u2018room, corridor, room, corridor\u2019 mentality and are instead working in traversable paths around important structural features. For example, an oil rig is predominantly designed for a single purpose \u2013 how people get around and live on it is worked in afterwards. The team are pushing this approach to really nail believable and natural gameplay spaces.\n\nWork on an important comms array continued. The structure is huge and the team are currently working to ensure both the interior and exterior are fun to explore and play, which involves working on a visual language that makes it clear where and what the various gameplay options are. Players will be encouraged to play the way they want, so rather than holding their hands, they\u2019ll be \u2018channeled\u2019 at certain points to ensure they witness crucial scenes relevant to the story.\n\nVDB remains in focus and the team are currently in the process of merging it with their asteroid belt work. The goal is to create \u2018sea beds\u2019 of asteroid rings and belts that not only stretch as far as the eye can see but are a challenge to navigate.\n\n\n\nArt (Weapons)\nThe Weapon Art Team finished modeling and texturing the Hedeby Gunworks Salvo frag pistol and Behring GP33 \u2018MOD\u2019 grenade launcher. They also spent time cleaning up optical attachments and polished a few other weapons, including the Klaus & Werner Lumin V SMG\n\nAudio\nJune saw the Audio Team focusing on chapter four and building on the extensive work the other departments have delivered so far. The levels are already incredibly impressive and present the team with some interesting challenges on how to approach sound and audio effects.\n\nCinematics\nThis month took a major step forward in terms of new tech and tools. These new additions will give the Cinematics Team a thorough pipeline to aid scene integration within the campaign. New code allows sequences from the cinematic timeline tool to blend seamlessly with AI locomotion before and after the scene ends. This is still being tweaked, but the majority of the heavy lifting is done and is functioning as intended. Another new addition is what the team calls the \u2018AI>Trackview>AI sandwich\u2019. This code made positive changes to Track View functionality and made some other internal tools redundant. The update went through QA and was extensively tested by the Cinematics Team to make sure their workflow wasn\u2019t compromised. Initial bugs such as slowdowns in performance while scrubbing the timeline were quickly fixed and the team is now benefiting from a smoother and faster workflow.\n\nAnother update gives the team a visual method of selecting a ship\u2019s interior and items. Any ship they pull into the editor can now be opened and its entities visually selected and added to Track View (previously, items were only selectable via a dropdown menu, which was less intuitive).\n\nImprovements were also made to the \u2018Actor Action\u2019 track in the sequencer tool. The team can now grab, handover, holster, unholster, and equip items not just from a character\u2019s loadout but any item from the world put into the sequence. For example, this makes scenes possible where a character hands over a weapon to the player and they hand it back.\n\nIn addition to testing the new code, the team progressed on some major campaign scenes.\n\n\n\nEngineering\nThe Actor Team began developing animation-driven ragdoll death sequences. This tech enables death animations to play while the body collides with the environment or reacts to external factors in a realistic and believable way. It\u2019s still in the early stages but is beginning to work as intended. More progress has been made on melee attacks, with support added for different attack types, blocks, and directional dodges.\n\nThe team also looked at the player status system and began rebalancing the stamina system to improve gameplay. They\u2019re currently implementing a \u2018stun\u2019 mechanic, where a player can become unsteady until they\u2019re eventually knocked unconscious for a period.\n\nFinally for Engineering, a new system is currently in development that ties together all the different things that trigger camera shakes into a unified system. It also applies camera shake differently depending on whether the player is in first-person, third-person, or cinematic camera mode.\n\n\n\nGameplay Story\nThe Gameplay Story Team had another highly productive month, implementing 12 scenes to a high standard and achieving their goal of completing all of chapter 4\u2019s scenes by the end of 2019\u2019s second quarter. They also supported the Design Team, who have begun triggering these scenes in significant numbers. Alongside this, they added new audio to a handful of scenes and fixed errors that could have blocked the exporting of object containers in the future. They\u2019re currently working with the recently integrated Universe Outliner that allow them to animate many doors, cupboards, and flaps that were previously inaccessible.\n\n\n\nGraphics\nLast month, Graphics finished the optimization of gas clouds, which should bring the cost to under 2ms on most GPUs. They\u2019ll reassess the performance once the assets are finalized and decide whether further steps are required for lower-spec GPUs. The UK studio hosted a mini-summit for the graphics and engine teams to plan out the next stage of the major renderer rework. This rework involves fundamental changes to the structure of the renderer to allow pre-calculation of as much rendering data and entity creation as possible to minimize the work in each frame. When complete, it should result in significant CPU performance improvements, but will take several months to complete.\n\n\n\nLevel Design\nThe Design Team continued their work on the various levels, improving the flow and refining technology with the various feature teams. The Social Team continue their work on the interstitial spaces, with improvements to the crew behaviors in numerous areas and implementation of vital narrative scenes. The Tech Team are still improving the wider team\u2019s workflow for consistency and stability, with oversight from the various specialist engineers. The goal here is to have this section in a highly polished state in Q3 to enable them to move forward with the other chapters, all of which have design owners and are being worked on concurrently.\n\n\n\nNarrative\nThe Narrative Team went through an assortment of editorial selects for key Squadron 42 characters. They also wrote several set-dressing documents to guide Environment Art and Props with environmental storytelling. In addition, they had multiple reviews with Design on several chapter\u2019s narrative moments and made further progress on their ongoing task to complete all in-game text.\n\nQA\nChanges to AI actors went into the build, which had an impact on the Cinematics Team\u2019s workflow, so QA undertook extensive testing and test map creation specifically for Track View. The team are currently making improvements to the current automated test map as well as creating additional maps, which will make it easier to reproduce the issues the Cinematics Team may encounter.\n\nTech Animation\nTechnical Animation worked closely with many other teams on ship comms calls, animation workflows, and processes. They also continued to work through the backlog of outstanding wildline and dogfighting comms animations and are currently implementing the ones already processed. The Maya tools source control refactoring is complete too, which will allow the animators to work unhindered whether there is a source control connection or not. The Vanduul also made a comeback \u2013 the team are working with Facial Animation to refine the look and feel of the race to showcase to the game directors very soon.\n\n\n\nTech Art\nLast month, Tech Art (together with Core Engine and Tech Animation) took strides towards establishing the new updated in-house facial rigging pipeline. In order to flesh out the DNA gene pool and populate the game with unique looking characters, a large number of face rigs for both female and male characters need to be created. An in-house facial rigging solution will give devs the required flexibility and full control over production scheduling and rig asset quality (and therefore animation and deformation quality). The first test case and benchmark for this new system was the face rig for the female playable character. The challenge now lies in ensuring that the animation quality now matches (or surpasses) that of the male playable character. Initial results look very promising and the team is excited to take the next steps.\n\nUI\nThe UI Tech Team spent time upgrading the new UI system to include scrolling lists and flexible layouts, as well as supplying the tech for the new Gladius HUD. The Graphic Design Team worked on logos for the three main squadrons in the game, created UI screens to help bring the Archon bridge to life, and looking into retro sci-fi branding for the Aciedo environment.\n\nVFX\nAlongside the vertical slice worked on with Environment Art, VFX continued to support the various art and design teams on a couple of key locations.\n\nWE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026"},"links_count":0,"comment_count":11,"created_at":"2019-07-09T00:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"6 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-07 22:07:23","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":17143,"next_id":17146}}