{"data":{"id":17232,"title":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report: August 2019","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/17232-Squadron-42-Monthly-Report-August-2019","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/17232","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/17232","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).\nOperatives around the world collected the intel needed to provide you with this progress report. Intelligence suggests we\u2019ve uncovered intel on operations concerning cinematic techniques, the creation of derelict ships, and a new Vulkan-friendly pipeline.\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\nCharacter AI worked towards completing the first pass on the new iteration of combat behaviors. This implementation includes better structural organization of the different tactics characters can evaluate during combat and helps the programmers to implement and test all possible options. It\u2019s also great for the player as it makes the overall combat experience more stable and interesting. For example, enemies now have proper tactics for handling open spaces and have a better selection of cover options when fighting in locations with multiple floors. They also started implementing different weapon fire modes so that NPCs can decide which one best suits their current situation. The choice is also affected by the AI\u2019s \u2018experience\u2019 \u2013 so a scared, inexperienced soldier might shoot as much as possible with reduced accuracy and bullet conservation. Several fixes were made to ensure aiming and shooting syncs correctly between the client and server too. Ship AI worked on behavior and technical improvements. So of these allow the designers to access more behavior parameters, such as the option to look at a target while flying to a specific offset or to the beginning of a Track View scene. They implemented the first version of the Defend Target behavior that makes great use of the new target selection functionalities \u2013 the designers can now customize weights and threat scores to enable the AI to select the most appropriate target. This selection is influenced by several factors, such as the enemy ship\u2019s threat score, the number of enemies targeting a specific entity, or damage inflicted. This provides a more realistic fight experience and allows players to witness more meaningful decisions during firefights.\n\nFurther progress was made towards the new ship 3D pathfinding implementation. This new approach has two basic control modes: position and velocity. Positional control means that a spaceship wants to reach a specific location, so a path will be generated incrementally as it moves in space. Velocity control means that a spaceship is going to maneuver related to a specific target or location. Both approaches make use of the physical data stored in the signed distance fields (SDF).\n\n\n\nAnimation\nAnimation continued R&D into the motion matching tech mentioned last month, including looking at how seamlessly it can transition from locomotion into a usable enter animation. They also looked into interrupt and resume tech for story scenes, which will allow a player to leave a scene, have the characters pause naturally, and start again seamlessly when they rejoin. The SQ42 Feature Team also started implementing a firing range.\n\nArt (Characters)\nThe Character Team finished the first hairstyle under the finalized hair creation pipeline, and while they\u2019re still expecting updates on the tech end, the artists are ready to start working through the remaining tasks. They also made revisions to various uniforms and wrapped up a key piece of enemy armor. An extremely important character concept was also completed and will soon move into the implementation phase.\n\nArt (Environment)\nArchon Station\u2019s interiors progressed well throughout August \u2013 the social hub is coming to a close and many of the team have moved onto the engineering sections seen during key parts of the campaign. The exterior of the comms array was tweaked slightly and work continued on the geometry and shaders. The station is about to receive a lighting pass and has been handed to the Space Scaping Team for placing.\n\nThe development of derelict ships began, with a few interesting variations created, including rotting, frozen, and attacked \u2013 all of which are being hand-sculpted to give maximum visual and emotional impact.\n\n\n\nCinematics\nSQ42 allows players to create a character at the beginning of the story. This presents a unique challenge for cinematics and narrative, as most things relating to the story feature full performance capture and one of the team\u2019s goals is to keep all cinematic sequences unified. To test this, they picked sequences they\u2019re currently working on and switched between the male and female facial performance capture and evaluated where they can keep the player body motion unified, where they can edit and adjust, and where they have to split the performances. To help, Tech Art unified the player actor records and loadout options and now have an easy way to change the tag from male to female. A lot of scenes worked well with slight adjustment and polish, but areas benefiting from the individual actor\u2019s performance will be split. Audio timing and syncing were also considered. The team don\u2019t want direct copies of line readings and want to give the actors freedom of expression, but the overall cadence and timing must match, particularly the start times for each capture. The female character model is also smaller than the male version, both in terms of body size and camera framing. So, further adjustments to the character motions were made, such as adjusting the hands and back to fit in chairs properly. To solve the framing issue, a camera tag was created to reduce the \u201ctripod\u201d height by 10cm in scenes that show the female player close up.\n\n\n\nEngineering\nThe Engine Team finished supporting tri-mesh splitting, which optimizes collisions and intersection tests, implements collision filtering and collision merging, and fixes foliage skinning. They also made batch process physics proxy updates which now don\u2019t update the physics proxy if the entity has network serialization disabled. Rendering wise, the first draft of the new graphics pipeline was submitted. The goal is to gradually transition to a Vulkan\/DX12-friendly pipeline and the implement the Vulkan backend. The first pass includes initial interfaces and implementation, tone mapping, and the first Vulkan code added to renderer. For planet rendering, they moved from the explicit table-based evaluation of atmosphere inscatter to an incremental raymarch stepping process. This now allows additional evaluation of ground fog density samples (and clouds at a later stage) and incorporates them into the scatter equations.\n\n\n\nGameplay Story\nThe Gameplay Story Team made progress on a wide range of scenes last month. Some had already been worked on and only required modest updates, while others were new so were built up from scratch. Mo-cap was delivered quickly throughout the month and enabled the team to make progress at an impressive pace. The also worked closely with Props to finalize several handheld objects and complete all scenes they\u2019re included in.\n\nGraphics\nThe Graphics Team continued with the same core features as last month, including gas cloud sun shadows. Volumetric sun shadows are now computed on the GPU and correctly account for shadows between adjacent and parented gas clouds. The remaining work involves factoring these volumetric shadows into the general lighting equation for opaque meshes. Alongside this, improvements were made to the glass shader refraction effect, which is used to render plastic sheets and icicles. Work also continued on the updated renderer design. This will continue over the next few months alongside a huge clean-up of old code and redundant features.\n\nLevel Design\nThe Social Team continued to work on narrative scenes, working out conversation breaks and re-joins, directional triggers, and other specific details relating to social AI and player conversations. Most of the Level Design Team worked with Art to finalize the layout and AI operation of a major FPS combat zone. The Dogfight Team is still focused on the various use-cases for the more complicated AI requirements of space combat, while the Tech Team finalized the templates for various crew behaviors.\n\nNarrative\nAs levels continue to be refined and the pacing of gameplay is solidified, the Narrative Team worked closely with Design to identify areas where additional narrative moments could help to flesh out the world and story. After creating scripts, they worked with Animation, Audio, and Design to implement placeholder assets for playtesting and polishing. Last month also saw the team assisting Environment Art by providing additional environmental storytelling and props documentation. These writeups provide detailed backstory and references for everything from key hero assets intended to catch players\u2019 eyes to small props that make the universe feel more alive. Additionally, they continued writing all the text that players will encounter throughout the game.\n\nQA\nQA\u2019s August support predominantly went to Cinematics, who are working on a wide range of cutscenes. A new level was created for the testing of ship explosions and AA-turret setup via Track View to make it easier to quickly test any issues they encounter. Work on a new level to test character animations and lighting began too. Testing for the newest AI collision avoidance changes is also underway. While AI testing in DE is primarily done for the Persistent Universe, any new AI issues are cross-checked with the SQ42 test team in the UK as there\u2019s often overlap.\n\n\n\nTech Animation\nTech Animation supported the Social AI Team with in-engine animation setups and animation rigs for a wide variety of props. They completed technical setups for new weapon attachment types and bugs were fixed for the animation, design, and art teams.\n\nTech Art\nTech Art revisited the facial expression scanning pipeline and evaluated various new photogrammetry-based scan solutions. Since highly detailed scans of facial expressions are the core of the new in-house rigging pipeline, efficient creation, processing, and manual touch-ups of the scan meshes are crucial for quick turnaround. This new solution will ultimately help the team expand the character creator\u2019s \u2018DNA\u2019 gene pool and give both the designers and players more options to create unique and interesting faces.\n\nVFX\nThe VFX Team continued their close collaboration with Art and Design on some of the key space environments. As part of this, they added improvements to the \u2018VFX transparent shader\u2019, which is used to fill environments with moving dust and debris. The VFX tech artists continued to work with the graphics engineers to improve the gas cloud tools and began investigating the destruction pipeline to further improve the campaigns more epic destruction events. They also started developing effects for a new rocket launcher, including the muzzle flashes, backblast, missile trails, and missile impact on various surfaces.\n\nCovert Intel\nAn\u2019 I\u2019m only doing good when I\u2019m havin\u2019 fun. 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).\nMitarbeiter auf der ganzen Welt sammelten die notwendigen Informationen, um Ihnen diesen Fortschrittsbericht zur Verf\u00fcgung zu stellen. Der Geheimdienst geht davon aus, dass wir Informationen \u00fcber Operationen im Zusammenhang mit filmischen Techniken, der Herstellung verfallener Schiffe und einer neuen Vulkan-freundlichen Pipeline gefunden haben.\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\nCharakter-KI arbeitete darauf hin, den ersten Durchgang \u00fcber die neue Iteration des Kampfverhaltens abzuschlie\u00dfen. Diese Implementierung beinhaltet eine bessere strukturelle Organisation der verschiedenen Taktikcharaktere, die w\u00e4hrend des Kampfes bewertet werden k\u00f6nnen, und hilft den Programmierern, alle m\u00f6glichen Optionen zu implementieren und zu testen. Es ist auch gro\u00dfartig f\u00fcr den Spieler, da es die gesamte Kampferfahrung stabiler und interessanter macht. Zum Beispiel haben Feinde jetzt die richtige Taktik im Umgang mit offenen R\u00e4umen und eine bessere Auswahl an Deckungsm\u00f6glichkeiten, wenn sie an Orten mit mehreren Etagen k\u00e4mpfen. Sie begannen auch, verschiedene Waffenfeuerarten zu implementieren, damit die NSCs entscheiden k\u00f6nnen, welcher am besten zu ihrer aktuellen Situation passt. Die Wahl wird auch durch die \"Erfahrung\" der KI beeinflusst - so k\u00f6nnte ein \u00e4ngstlicher, unerfahrener Soldat so viel wie m\u00f6glich mit reduzierter Genauigkeit und Kugelschutz schie\u00dfen. Es wurden mehrere Korrekturen vorgenommen, um sicherzustellen, dass das Zielen und Schie\u00dfen auch zwischen Client und Server korrekt synchronisiert wird. Die SchiffskI arbeitete an Verhaltensweisen und technischen Verbesserungen. So k\u00f6nnen die Designer auf weitere Verhaltensparameter zugreifen, wie z.B. die Option, ein Ziel zu betrachten, w\u00e4hrend sie zu einem bestimmten Offset oder zum Beginn einer Track View Szene fliegen. Sie implementierten die erste Version des Defend Target Verhaltens, die die neuen Funktionen der Zielauswahl stark nutzt - die Designer k\u00f6nnen nun Gewichte und Bedrohungswerte anpassen, damit die KI das am besten geeignete Ziel ausw\u00e4hlen kann. Diese Auswahl wird von mehreren Faktoren beeinflusst, wie z.B. dem Bedrohungswert des gegnerischen Schiffes, der Anzahl der Feinde, die auf eine bestimmte Einheit abzielen, oder dem zugef\u00fcgten Schaden. Dies bietet ein realistischeres Kampferlebnis und erm\u00f6glicht es den Spielern, bedeutsamere Entscheidungen w\u00e4hrend der Feuerwehr zu erleben.\n\nWeitere Fortschritte wurden bei der neuen Implementierung der 3D-Pfadfindung f\u00fcr Schiffe erzielt. Dieser neue Ansatz verf\u00fcgt \u00fcber zwei grundlegende Steuermodi: Position und Geschwindigkeit. Positionskontrolle bedeutet, dass ein Raumschiff einen bestimmten Ort erreichen m\u00f6chte, so dass ein Pfad schrittweise generiert wird, w\u00e4hrend es sich im Raum bewegt. Geschwindigkeitssteuerung bedeutet, dass ein Raumschiff auf ein bestimmtes Ziel oder einen bestimmten Standort bezogen man\u00f6vriert wird. Beide Ans\u00e4tze nutzen die physikalischen Daten, die in den signierten Abstandsfeldern (SDF) gespeichert sind.\n\n\n\nAnimation\nAnimation setzte die Forschung und Entwicklung in der im letzten Monat erw\u00e4hnten Motion-Matching-Technologie fort, einschlie\u00dflich der Frage, wie nahtlos sie von der Fortbewegung in eine brauchbare Enter-Animation \u00fcbergehen kann. Sie untersuchten auch die Unterbrechungs- und Fortsetzungstechnik f\u00fcr Geschichtenszenen, die es einem Spieler erm\u00f6glichen, eine Szene zu verlassen, die Charaktere nat\u00fcrlich pausieren zu lassen und nahtlos wieder anzufangen, wenn sie sich wieder treffen. Das SQ42 Feature Team begann auch mit der Implementierung eines Schie\u00dfplatzes.\n\nKunst (Charaktere)\nDas Charakter-Team hat die erste Frisur unter der abgeschlossenen Haarkreationspipeline fertiggestellt, und w\u00e4hrend sie noch Updates auf der technischen Seite erwarten, sind die K\u00fcnstler bereit, mit der Bearbeitung der restlichen Aufgaben zu beginnen. Sie \u00fcberarbeiteten auch verschiedene Uniformen und packten ein Schl\u00fcsselst\u00fcck der feindlichen R\u00fcstung ein. Ein \u00e4u\u00dferst wichtiges Charakterkonzept wurde ebenfalls fertiggestellt und wird bald in die Umsetzungsphase \u00fcbergehen.\n\nKunst (Umwelt)\nDie Innenr\u00e4ume der Archon Station entwickelten sich im Laufe des Monats August gut - die soziale Drehscheibe n\u00e4hert sich ihrem Ende und viele des Teams haben sich auf die technischen Bereiche konzentriert, die w\u00e4hrend der wichtigsten Teile der Kampagne zu sehen waren. Das \u00c4u\u00dfere des Comms-Arrays wurde leicht optimiert und die Arbeit an der Geometrie und den Shadern fortgesetzt. Die Station ist dabei, einen Lichtpass zu erhalten und wurde dem Space Scaping Team zur Platzierung \u00fcbergeben.\n\nDie Entwicklung verfallener Schiffe begann, mit einigen interessanten Variationen, darunter F\u00e4ulnis, Vereisung und Angriff - allesamt handgefertigt, um eine maximale visuelle und emotionale Wirkung zu erzielen.\n\n\n\nKinematiken\nSQ42 erm\u00f6glicht es Spielern, einen Charakter am Anfang der Geschichte zu erstellen. Dies stellt eine einzigartige Herausforderung f\u00fcr die Filmkunst und die Erz\u00e4hlung dar, da die meisten Dinge im Zusammenhang mit der Geschichte eine vollst\u00e4ndige Leistungserfassung beinhalten und eines der Ziele des Teams darin besteht, alle Filmsequenzen einheitlich zu gestalten. Um dies zu testen, w\u00e4hlten sie Sequenzen aus, an denen sie gerade arbeiten, und wechselten zwischen der m\u00e4nnlichen und weiblichen Gesichtsleistungserfassung und bewerteten, wo sie die K\u00f6rperbewegung des Spielers einheitlich halten k\u00f6nnen, wo sie bearbeiten und anpassen k\u00f6nnen und wo sie die Leistungen aufteilen m\u00fcssen. Um zu helfen, vereinheitlichte Tech Art die Aufzeichnungen der Spielerakteure und Ladungsoptionen und bietet nun eine einfache M\u00f6glichkeit, das Tag von m\u00e4nnlich auf weiblich zu \u00e4ndern. Viele Szenen funktionierten gut mit leichter Anpassung und Politur, aber Bereiche, die von der Leistung des einzelnen Schauspielers profitieren, werden aufgeteilt. Audio-Timing und Synchronisation wurden ebenfalls ber\u00fccksichtigt. Das Team will keine direkten Kopien von Zeilenlesungen und m\u00f6chte den Akteuren die Freiheit des Ausdrucks geben, aber die Gesamtrhythmen und das Timing m\u00fcssen \u00fcbereinstimmen, insbesondere die Startzeiten f\u00fcr jede Aufnahme. Das weibliche Charaktermodell ist ebenfalls kleiner als die m\u00e4nnliche Version, sowohl in Bezug auf die K\u00f6rpergr\u00f6\u00dfe als auch auf die Kamerafassung. So wurden weitere Anpassungen an den Charakterbewegungen vorgenommen, wie z.B. das Anpassen der H\u00e4nde und des R\u00fcckens, um in den Stuhl zu passen. Um das Problem des Framings zu l\u00f6sen, wurde ein Kamera-Tag erstellt, um die H\u00f6he des \"Stativs\" in Szenen, die die weibliche Spielerin aus n\u00e4chster N\u00e4he zeigen, um 10 cm zu reduzieren.\n\n\n\nIngenieurwesen\nDas Motorenteam beendete die Unterst\u00fctzung des Tri-Mesh-Splittings, das Kollisionen und Kreuzungstests optimiert, Kollisionsfilterung und Kollisionszusammenf\u00fchrung implementiert und Laubhautabl\u00f6sung behebt. Sie haben auch Updates f\u00fcr Physikproxy-Updates im Batch-Verfahren durchgef\u00fchrt, die nun den Physikproxy nicht mehr aktualisieren, wenn die Entit\u00e4t die Netzwerkserialisierung deaktiviert hat. Rendering weise wurde der erste Entwurf der neuen Grafikpipeline eingereicht. Ziel ist es, schrittweise auf eine Vulkan\/DX12-freundliche Pipeline umzustellen und das Vulkan-Backend zu implementieren. Der erste Durchgang beinhaltet erste Schnittstellen und Implementierung, Tonemapping und den ersten Vulkan-Code, der dem Renderer hinzugef\u00fcgt wurde. F\u00fcr das Planeten-Rendering wechselten sie von der expliziten tabellenbasierten Auswertung der Atmosph\u00e4renstreuung zu einem inkrementellen Raymarch-Schrittprozess. Dies erm\u00f6glicht nun eine zus\u00e4tzliche Auswertung von Bodennebeldichteproben (und Wolken zu einem sp\u00e4teren Zeitpunkt) und integriert sie in die Streugleichungen.\n\n\n\nGameplay-Geschichte\nDas Gameplay Story Team hat im vergangenen Monat bei einer Vielzahl von Szenen Fortschritte gemacht. Einige waren bereits bearbeitet worden und erforderten nur bescheidene Updates, w\u00e4hrend andere neu waren und so von Grund auf neu aufgebaut wurden. Mo-cap wurde den ganzen Monat \u00fcber schnell geliefert und erm\u00f6glichte es dem Team, in beeindruckendem Tempo Fortschritte zu erzielen. Das Team arbeitete auch eng mit Requisiten zusammen, um mehrere Handheld-Objekte fertigzustellen und alle Szenen, in denen sie enthalten sind, zu vervollst\u00e4ndigen.\n\nGrafiken\nDas Grafik-Team fuhr mit den gleichen Kernfunktionen wie im letzten Monat fort, einschlie\u00dflich der Sonnenschatten der Gaswolke. Volumetrische Sonnenschatten werden nun auf dem Grafikprozessor berechnet und ber\u00fccksichtigen korrekt die Schatten zwischen benachbarten und \u00fcbergeordneten Gaswolken. Der Rest besteht darin, diese volumetrischen Schatten in die allgemeine Beleuchtungsgleichung f\u00fcr opake Netze einzubeziehen. Daneben wurde der Glas-Shader-Brechungseffekt verbessert, der f\u00fcr die Herstellung von Kunststoffplatten und Eiszapfen verwendet wird. Auch am aktualisierten Renderer-Design wurde weiter gearbeitet. Dies wird sich in den n\u00e4chsten Monaten fortsetzen, zusammen mit einer umfangreichen Bereinigung von altem Code und redundanten Funktionen.\n\nLeveldesign\nDas Sozialteam arbeitete weiterhin an narrativen Szenen, arbeitete an Gespr\u00e4chsbr\u00fcchen und -zusammenf\u00fchrungen, Richtungsausl\u00f6sungen und anderen spezifischen Details im Zusammenhang mit sozialen KI- und Spielergespr\u00e4chen. Die meisten des Level Design Teams arbeiteten mit Art zusammen, um das Layout und den KI-Betrieb einer gro\u00dfen FPS-Kampfzone zu finalisieren. Das Dogfight Team konzentriert sich weiterhin auf die verschiedenen Anwendungsf\u00e4lle f\u00fcr die komplizierteren KI-Anforderungen im Weltraumkampf, w\u00e4hrend das Tech Team die Vorlagen f\u00fcr verschiedene Verhaltensweisen der Besatzung fertig gestellt hat.\n\nNarrativ\nW\u00e4hrend die Levels weiter verfeinert werden und das Tempo des Gameplays verfestigt wird, arbeitete das Narrative Team eng mit Design zusammen, um Bereiche zu identifizieren, in denen zus\u00e4tzliche narrative Momente dazu beitragen k\u00f6nnten, die Welt und Geschichte zu konkretisieren. Nach der Erstellung von Skripten arbeiteten sie mit Animation, Audio und Design zusammen, um Platzhalter-Assets f\u00fcr Playtests und Polieren zu implementieren. Im vergangenen Monat unterst\u00fctzte das Team auch Environment Art, indem es zus\u00e4tzliche Geschichten und Requisiten f\u00fcr die Umwelt erz\u00e4hlte. Diese Aufzeichnungen liefern detaillierte Hintergrundgeschichten und Referenzen f\u00fcr alles, von wichtigen Heldenressourcen, die dazu dienen, die Aufmerksamkeit der Spieler auf sich zu ziehen, bis hin zu kleinen Requisiten, die das Universum lebendiger erscheinen lassen. Dar\u00fcber hinaus schrieben sie weiterhin den gesamten Text, auf den die Spieler w\u00e4hrend des Spiels treffen werden.\n\nQA\nDer August-Support von QA ging haupts\u00e4chlich an Cinematics, die an einer Vielzahl von Filmszenen arbeiten. Eine neue Ebene wurde f\u00fcr die Pr\u00fcfung von Schiffsexplosionen und die Einrichtung von AA-T\u00fcrmen \u00fcber die Track View geschaffen, um es einfacher zu machen, alle auftretenden Probleme schnell zu testen. Auch die Arbeit an Charakteranimationen und Beleuchtung begann auf einer neuen Ebene. Die Pr\u00fcfung auf die neuesten \u00c4nderungen der KI-Kollisionsvermeidung ist ebenfalls im Gange. W\u00e4hrend KI-Tests in DE haupts\u00e4chlich f\u00fcr das Persistent Universe durchgef\u00fchrt werden, werden alle neuen KI-Probleme mit dem SQ42-Testteam in Gro\u00dfbritannien verglichen, da es oft \u00dcberschneidungen gibt.\n\n\n\nTechnische Animation\nTech Animation unterst\u00fctzte das Social AI Team mit In-Engine-Animationsaufbauten und Animationsanlagen f\u00fcr eine Vielzahl von Requisiten. Sie schlossen die technischen Vorbereitungen f\u00fcr neue Waffenbefestigungstypen ab und Fehler wurden f\u00fcr die Animations-, Design- und Kunstteams behoben.\n\nTechnische Kunst\nTech Art besuchte erneut die Mimik-Scan-Pipeline und evaluierte verschiedene neue photogrammetriebasierte Scan-L\u00f6sungen. Da hochdetaillierte Gesichtsausdruckscans das Herzst\u00fcck der neuen hauseigenen Rigging-Pipeline bilden, ist eine effiziente Erstellung, Bearbeitung und manuelle Nachbearbeitung der Scan-Netze entscheidend f\u00fcr eine schnelle Bearbeitung. Diese neue L\u00f6sung wird dem Team letztendlich helfen, den Genpool des Charakters \"DNA\" zu erweitern und sowohl den Designern als auch den Spielern mehr M\u00f6glichkeiten bieten, einzigartige und interessante Gesichter zu kreieren.\n\nVFX\nDas VFX-Team setzte die enge Zusammenarbeit mit Art and Design in einigen der wichtigsten Weltraumumgebungen fort. In diesem Zusammenhang haben sie den \"VFX transparent Shader\" verbessert, mit dem Umgebungen mit sich bewegendem Staub und Schmutz gef\u00fcllt werden. Die VFX Tech-K\u00fcnstler arbeiteten weiterhin mit den Grafikern zusammen, um die Gas Cloud Tools zu verbessern und begannen, die Zerst\u00f6rungspipeline zu untersuchen, um die Kampagnen weiter zu verbessern. Sie begannen auch mit der Entwicklung von Effekten f\u00fcr einen neuen Raketenwerfer, einschlie\u00dflich der M\u00fcndungsfeuer, R\u00fccksto\u00df, Raketenspuren und Raketeneinschl\u00e4ge auf verschiedenen Oberfl\u00e4chen.\n\nVerdeckte Intel\nUnd ich tue nur Gutes, wenn ich Spa\u00df habe. WIR 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).\nOperatives around the world collected the intel needed to provide you with this progress report. Intelligence suggests we\u2019ve uncovered intel on operations concerning cinematic techniques, the creation of derelict ships, and a new Vulkan-friendly pipeline.\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\nCharacter AI worked towards completing the first pass on the new iteration of combat behaviors. This implementation includes better structural organization of the different tactics characters can evaluate during combat and helps the programmers to implement and test all possible options. It\u2019s also great for the player as it makes the overall combat experience more stable and interesting. For example, enemies now have proper tactics for handling open spaces and have a better selection of cover options when fighting in locations with multiple floors. They also started implementing different weapon fire modes so that NPCs can decide which one best suits their current situation. The choice is also affected by the AI\u2019s \u2018experience\u2019 \u2013 so a scared, inexperienced soldier might shoot as much as possible with reduced accuracy and bullet conservation. Several fixes were made to ensure aiming and shooting syncs correctly between the client and server too. Ship AI worked on behavior and technical improvements. So of these allow the designers to access more behavior parameters, such as the option to look at a target while flying to a specific offset or to the beginning of a Track View scene. They implemented the first version of the Defend Target behavior that makes great use of the new target selection functionalities \u2013 the designers can now customize weights and threat scores to enable the AI to select the most appropriate target. This selection is influenced by several factors, such as the enemy ship\u2019s threat score, the number of enemies targeting a specific entity, or damage inflicted. This provides a more realistic fight experience and allows players to witness more meaningful decisions during firefights.\n\nFurther progress was made towards the new ship 3D pathfinding implementation. This new approach has two basic control modes: position and velocity. Positional control means that a spaceship wants to reach a specific location, so a path will be generated incrementally as it moves in space. Velocity control means that a spaceship is going to maneuver related to a specific target or location. Both approaches make use of the physical data stored in the signed distance fields (SDF).\n\n\n\nAnimation\nAnimation continued R&D into the motion matching tech mentioned last month, including looking at how seamlessly it can transition from locomotion into a usable enter animation. They also looked into interrupt and resume tech for story scenes, which will allow a player to leave a scene, have the characters pause naturally, and start again seamlessly when they rejoin. The SQ42 Feature Team also started implementing a firing range.\n\nArt (Characters)\nThe Character Team finished the first hairstyle under the finalized hair creation pipeline, and while they\u2019re still expecting updates on the tech end, the artists are ready to start working through the remaining tasks. They also made revisions to various uniforms and wrapped up a key piece of enemy armor. An extremely important character concept was also completed and will soon move into the implementation phase.\n\nArt (Environment)\nArchon Station\u2019s interiors progressed well throughout August \u2013 the social hub is coming to a close and many of the team have moved onto the engineering sections seen during key parts of the campaign. The exterior of the comms array was tweaked slightly and work continued on the geometry and shaders. The station is about to receive a lighting pass and has been handed to the Space Scaping Team for placing.\n\nThe development of derelict ships began, with a few interesting variations created, including rotting, frozen, and attacked \u2013 all of which are being hand-sculpted to give maximum visual and emotional impact.\n\n\n\nCinematics\nSQ42 allows players to create a character at the beginning of the story. This presents a unique challenge for cinematics and narrative, as most things relating to the story feature full performance capture and one of the team\u2019s goals is to keep all cinematic sequences unified. To test this, they picked sequences they\u2019re currently working on and switched between the male and female facial performance capture and evaluated where they can keep the player body motion unified, where they can edit and adjust, and where they have to split the performances. To help, Tech Art unified the player actor records and loadout options and now have an easy way to change the tag from male to female. A lot of scenes worked well with slight adjustment and polish, but areas benefiting from the individual actor\u2019s performance will be split. Audio timing and syncing were also considered. The team don\u2019t want direct copies of line readings and want to give the actors freedom of expression, but the overall cadence and timing must match, particularly the start times for each capture. The female character model is also smaller than the male version, both in terms of body size and camera framing. So, further adjustments to the character motions were made, such as adjusting the hands and back to fit in chairs properly. To solve the framing issue, a camera tag was created to reduce the \u201ctripod\u201d height by 10cm in scenes that show the female player close up.\n\n\n\nEngineering\nThe Engine Team finished supporting tri-mesh splitting, which optimizes collisions and intersection tests, implements collision filtering and collision merging, and fixes foliage skinning. They also made batch process physics proxy updates which now don\u2019t update the physics proxy if the entity has network serialization disabled. Rendering wise, the first draft of the new graphics pipeline was submitted. The goal is to gradually transition to a Vulkan\/DX12-friendly pipeline and the implement the Vulkan backend. The first pass includes initial interfaces and implementation, tone mapping, and the first Vulkan code added to renderer. For planet rendering, they moved from the explicit table-based evaluation of atmosphere inscatter to an incremental raymarch stepping process. This now allows additional evaluation of ground fog density samples (and clouds at a later stage) and incorporates them into the scatter equations.\n\n\n\nGameplay Story\nThe Gameplay Story Team made progress on a wide range of scenes last month. Some had already been worked on and only required modest updates, while others were new so were built up from scratch. Mo-cap was delivered quickly throughout the month and enabled the team to make progress at an impressive pace. The also worked closely with Props to finalize several handheld objects and complete all scenes they\u2019re included in.\n\nGraphics\nThe Graphics Team continued with the same core features as last month, including gas cloud sun shadows. Volumetric sun shadows are now computed on the GPU and correctly account for shadows between adjacent and parented gas clouds. The remaining work involves factoring these volumetric shadows into the general lighting equation for opaque meshes. Alongside this, improvements were made to the glass shader refraction effect, which is used to render plastic sheets and icicles. Work also continued on the updated renderer design. This will continue over the next few months alongside a huge clean-up of old code and redundant features.\n\nLevel Design\nThe Social Team continued to work on narrative scenes, working out conversation breaks and re-joins, directional triggers, and other specific details relating to social AI and player conversations. Most of the Level Design Team worked with Art to finalize the layout and AI operation of a major FPS combat zone. The Dogfight Team is still focused on the various use-cases for the more complicated AI requirements of space combat, while the Tech Team finalized the templates for various crew behaviors.\n\nNarrative\nAs levels continue to be refined and the pacing of gameplay is solidified, the Narrative Team worked closely with Design to identify areas where additional narrative moments could help to flesh out the world and story. After creating scripts, they worked with Animation, Audio, and Design to implement placeholder assets for playtesting and polishing. Last month also saw the team assisting Environment Art by providing additional environmental storytelling and props documentation. These writeups provide detailed backstory and references for everything from key hero assets intended to catch players\u2019 eyes to small props that make the universe feel more alive. Additionally, they continued writing all the text that players will encounter throughout the game.\n\nQA\nQA\u2019s August support predominantly went to Cinematics, who are working on a wide range of cutscenes. A new level was created for the testing of ship explosions and AA-turret setup via Track View to make it easier to quickly test any issues they encounter. Work on a new level to test character animations and lighting began too. Testing for the newest AI collision avoidance changes is also underway. While AI testing in DE is primarily done for the Persistent Universe, any new AI issues are cross-checked with the SQ42 test team in the UK as there\u2019s often overlap.\n\n\n\nTech Animation\nTech Animation supported the Social AI Team with in-engine animation setups and animation rigs for a wide variety of props. They completed technical setups for new weapon attachment types and bugs were fixed for the animation, design, and art teams.\n\nTech Art\nTech Art revisited the facial expression scanning pipeline and evaluated various new photogrammetry-based scan solutions. Since highly detailed scans of facial expressions are the core of the new in-house rigging pipeline, efficient creation, processing, and manual touch-ups of the scan meshes are crucial for quick turnaround. This new solution will ultimately help the team expand the character creator\u2019s \u2018DNA\u2019 gene pool and give both the designers and players more options to create unique and interesting faces.\n\nVFX\nThe VFX Team continued their close collaboration with Art and Design on some of the key space environments. As part of this, they added improvements to the \u2018VFX transparent shader\u2019, which is used to fill environments with moving dust and debris. The VFX tech artists continued to work with the graphics engineers to improve the gas cloud tools and began investigating the destruction pipeline to further improve the campaigns more epic destruction events. They also started developing effects for a new rocket launcher, including the muzzle flashes, backblast, missile trails, and missile impact on various surfaces.\n\nCovert Intel\nAn\u2019 I\u2019m only doing good when I\u2019m havin\u2019 fun. WE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026"},"links_count":0,"comment_count":10,"created_at":"2019-09-10T00:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"6 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-07 21:57:49","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":17230,"next_id":17233}}