{"data":{"id":17341,"title":"Star Citizen Monthly Report: October 2019","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/17341-Star-Citizen-Monthly-Report-October-2019","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/17341","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/17341","channel":"Undefined","category":"Undefined","series":"Monthly 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time next month, CitizenCon 2949 will be but a fond memory. As you can imagine, most teams touched on the event one way or another in October, be it preparing presentations or putting the final touches to tech being demonstrated. To avoid spoilers and undermining the hard work put into the event, this month\u2019s report is a little light on juicy details. However, we\u2019ll get back to normal next month!\n\nAI\nWe kick off October\u2019s report with the AI Character Combat Team, who spent time iterating on NPC aiming. They simplified the ability to control if and when they want the lower body turning while aiming at a target and improved the way aim-tracking works. This makes it easier to determine when the movement should blend slowly or snap quickly. They also fixed a look-target synchronization bug that was causing general issues.\nOn the behaviors side, they improved cover selection during combat by introducing new ways to weight cover locations based on target direction. NPCs can now choose between using a weapon\u2019s predefined fire mode or actively selecting auto, burst, or single shot. They added more wild lines and flavor to the behaviors too, such as NPCs taunting a target before they start investigating.\nShip AI moved the first pass of their new 3D pathfinding functionality into the main game-development branch. This approach is based on a non-canonical A* implementation that uses the signed distance field (SDF) to incrementally compute a path in a 3D environment. Progress is currently being made on the first version of 3D ORCA implementation and is getting close to a first working version.\nA new way for the designers to request that a ship follow a \u2018spline\u2019 (a tunnel that guides a ship\u2019s movement rather than a prescriptive track) was exposed. At runtime, the calculation automatically adjusts the tunnel size based on the environment and the information reported by the SDF. They also added new nodes to monitor target distance and the vehicle\u2019s relative state and make decisions according to the reported values.\nSocial AI optimized the \u2018usable search\u2019 function and are now able to cache the location of usables on the navmesh. This means they don\u2019t have to constantly recalculate the time an object is static in one location. They also continued the unification of operator and generic seats so that behaviors can utilize them regardless of height.\nImplementation of generic vendors continued, which employs usables that can \u2018provide\u2019 or \u2018accept\u2019 specific object types. This allows designers to create many different object types. For example, drinks bartenders can offer to patrons. They\u2019re currently progressing on the patrol functionality that defines paths for AI to follow. This path will carry information on which types of logic to activate while hitting the different path nodes.\nRegarding core services, the team now have navmesh support on planetary locations and are moving towards a more dynamic creation of navigation data on planet surfaces. They\u2019re also working on different bug fixes and optimizations, including multithreading the AI audio component to enable them to process audio events quicker on the servers.\n\n\nAnimation\nIn October, the team developed melee and stealth takedown animations, effort movement sets, and reaction animations for NPCs that aren\u2019t holding stocked weapons. They also worked on animations for a new mission type and \u201cstuff\u201d for CitizenCon.\nArt (Environment)\nLast month, the Frankfurt-based team focused on microTech, with multiple biomes and assets finalized and distributed across the surface. TESTING\n\u201cProgress is going really well and we look forward to sharing microTech\u2019s full visual range in the near future.\u201d\nEnvironment Art Team\nTime was also spent on quality support and bug fixing for Alpha 3.7.\n\n\nArt (Ships)\nShip Art spent the month finalizing a few important ships for upcoming patch releases. Tune in to the CitizenCon stream on November the 23rd for a firsthand look and what they\u2019ve been up to.\nArt (Weapons)\nWeapon Art\u2019s main focus last month was the Behring P6-LR ballistic sniper rifle. The weapon went through iteration early on in the month to ensure the visuals match the desired gameplay. It is currently heading into the final art stage. They also fixed a few issues with the combat knife and Animus missile launcher.\nFor ship weapons, Esperia\u2019s latest ballistic and laser cannons are well into production. These two new weapons will be closed out over the next couple of weeks.\n\nAudio\nAudio worked closely with their upstream departments on something very cool for CitizenCon. They also supported various upcoming actor features, including close combat and the player character responding to temperature.\nA big push was made on the in-progress procedural Rest Stops, with Audio providing ambiance and spot SFX. Two major upcoming ships received thruster, ambiance, spot SFX, and weapon audio. Quantum travel was revamped across all ships to better support shorter jumps too.\nLastly, Audio added their final touches to the Apocalypse Arms Animus missile launcher and Behring P6-LR sniper rifle, supporting all fire modes, reloads, and animations.\nBackend Services\nLast month, the team spent much of their time working towards Alpha 3.7 and 3.7.1, including isolating and resolving various backend issues. Several optimizations to backend persistence were also deployed to ensure all players can get into and enjoy the game.\nCharacters\nOctober saw the Character Art Team successfully release the RSI Mantis suit. They also helped a beloved spectrum star prepare for a return to the limelight and worked on various things for CitizenCon and beyond.\n\n\nCommunity\nThe month began with the unveiling of the RSI Mantis, which the team supported by publishing a Q&A to answer the community\u2019s most-voted-on questions about the new ship and quantum enforcement gameplay. They also ran a Mantis-themed commercial contest, this time asking the community to carry on from the tense cliffhanger of the official ad. Head to Spectrum to find out what they came up with.\nOctober saw the finale of the Ship Showdown, an event that tasked players with voting for their favorite ships. In an unexpected finish, the Drake Caterpillar was crowned the overall champion. Is a winner\u2019s title everything the ship will receive? Find out later this month\u2026\nThe team also kicked off two spooky contests for Halloween. The citizens that carved the best Star Citizen-themed pumpkin and captured the spookiest subterranean terrors took home shipshape prizes. To support the caves contest, October\u2019s subscriber flair pays homage to one of the \u2018verses most infamous horror franchises, Parasite.\nTo celebrate the release of the Alpha 3.7, a free-fly let everyone try out five of the most versatile ships in the \u2018verse. And as a token of appreciation, a Kruger P-52 Merlin was handed out to everyone who referred a new backer during the event.\nLast but not least, the CitizenCon 2949 schedule was released. With it came the first annual Star Citizen cosplay contest that will reward the hard work that goes into your incredible cosplays with in-game goodies and prizes!\n\u201cLess than a month away, we\u2019re sure this is going to be an epic event and we can\u2019t wait to see you at CitizenCon 2949!\u201d\nCommunity Team\n\nDesign\nAlongside some incredibly exciting but equally secret \u201cthings\u201d, Design are prototyping features for next year\u2019s releases.\n\u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to finally showing everyone what we\u2019ve been working on over the past few months and look forward to talking with you later this month at CitizenCon.\u201d\nDesign Team\nEngineering\nEngineering spent time in October supporting the physics proxy refactor stream integration, working on soft-body physics simulation for both character and cloth, and adding physics-level support to planetary wind.\nFor the renderer, they continued to work on the new graphics pipeline and render interface (Gen12). This included adding: an improved render pass handling and pipeline state setup, support for compute, a pipeline teardown, improved DXC compatibility for shaders, a simplified resource layout setup, improved support for pooled render targets and resolution changes, support for reflected shader constant arrays, and porting DOF to the render pass system. The global render state removal also began.\nPlanet-side, they refactored and extended multi-cascade support for terrain height maps so dependent effects can better incorporate it for their own purposes (such as terrain shadows), and worked on cascade debug visualization to allow artists to efficiently tweak important height map properties. Regarding planet terrain shadows, they added a simple code interface and shared shader code for the application on the client side, provided support for temporal anti-aliasing, and completed the initial code and logic support for multi cascades. Work on planetary ground fog continued too. This involved the initial release of SOCS, adjusting code to cope with very large objects, making exception handler improvements, and adding API to asynchronously create a core dump without affecting the calling process. This will be mainly used to take snapshots of the DGS process state in case of non-fatal errors for efficient debugging without interrupting its service and affecting clients (previously, it was forced to crash).\nFor Animation, the team created a new dual quaternion skinning\/elastic blend wrap deformer for CPU+GPU skinning. They also completed tangent reconstruction \u2013 a pixel perfect version for software and compute skinning (both protos and original skins).\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nThe US-based Gameplay Team had a busy October delivering tasks for Alpha 3.8. One important task received an expected completion date of early 2020 and is sure to make for an engaging experience when it goes live.\nEfforts were also focused on Server-Side Object Container Streaming, which is a major engineering overhaul that will eventually result in the dramatic improvement of in-game performance. The team is currently addressing several quality-of-life fixes that players have been requesting for a while.\nFeatures (Vehicles)\nIn the US, the team\u2019s primary focus was wrapping up quantum enforcement for the RSI Mantis. They also completed their work on the ongoing physics proxy refactor. Various bugs for Alpha 3.7 and 3.7.1 were squashed too, including game crashes and vehicle-related issues.\nThe EU-based Vehicle Team helped the content teams set up annunciator panels for ships, which included adapting the process for different models and brands. They also finished the latest restricted area implementation. Players can expect new UI messaging and guide tunnels to help them approach spaceports when it goes live. They\u2019re currently experimenting with improvements to atmospheric flight.\nGraphics\nLast month saw the graphics and engine teams further developed the new planetary terrain shadow system. This will eventually allow shadows over greater distances with large scale softness (penumbra) at less cost than the current system. Development of planet surface shading continued and is nearing completion, with improvements to the accuracy of surface normals at every scale and the addition of a separate layer of textures for cliffs.\nThe last major task of October was designing the \u2018biome accumulation\u2019 system, which is the basis for a variety of effects such as snow, frost, dirt, mud, and dust. The system itself will require a combined effort from the art, graphics, and code teams over the coming weeks and months.\nLevel Design\nOctober saw Level Design finalize the caves of Alpha 3.7, which are the first natural design environments built using the procedural tool. The team consider them a great proof of concept and welcome addition to the tool itself. With more content being tied into procedural generation, the speed in which they create new content will increase going forward .\nThey also continued to work on microTech and New Babbage. The frozen planet type provided challenges but also opened up many exciting opportunities and possibilities. They also spent time planning out locations they\u2019re working on in 2020.\nLighting\nLast month, the Lighting Team moved off Caves and Alpha 3.7 to the new Rest Stop interiors. With so many new rooms and multiple versions of each, the challenge is to ensure visual consistency between each location, that lighting blends nicely between rooms, and that pathways are clear to the player. The lighting of New Babbage is also underway, with the team currently making a pass on the main city and spaceport exteriors.\n\n\n\n\nNarrative\nThis past month the Narrative team wrote several scripts and recorded VO for upcoming game releases, including some tannoy announcements for New Babbage. They met with Live Design to coordinate and create text for new missions being worked on for 3.8. and beyond. They named and wrote descriptions for several items ranging from mining gear, terrifying helmets, to new armor and more. The team also generated ideas for possible additional harvestables to be added in the future with a focus on microTech\u2019s cold climate. Additionally, the Narrative team spent some time working on a couple of upcoming events. The specifics of CitizenCon can\u2019t be discussed yet, but since so much of the event takes place in-lore, Narrative provided vital backstory, scripts and more to help support the events and the content that will be shown. The team will also have several members attending CitizenCon and they look forward to sharing their presentations with everyone. Finally, October saw the release of another Jump Point subscriber magazine that featured an interview with a G-Loc bartender. Spectrum featured a special Empire Report highlighting a recent crime spree in Terra and brand new episode of Far From Home where Old Jegger spends some time out of his comfort zone.\nProps\nAt the start of the month, the Props teams continued with the \u2018hi-tech\u2019 props for New Babbage. This involved focusing on the landing zone\u2019s infrastructure, consoles, information signs, counter sets, and wall dressing. Work on interactive props for the same environment began too.\nProps worked alongside several other teams to create physicalized cloth assets. The development of large-size ship items continued and will be completed shortly, giving the PU its first proper large quantum and jump drives.\n\n\n\nQA\nPlanet Tech v4 was enabled in game-dev and with it came a lot of QA testing. QA regularly test each star system, with individual planets being tested daily to stay on top of any new issues that may crop up as a result of changes. They\u2019re also working closely with Environment Art to debug issues and determine which ones need to be investigated by Engineering. The latter half of the month saw them testing and verifying new changes to moons and planets using locally exported object containers. The next step is to perform a QA test request for each location once Design have completed their re-drop of all surface-side locations.\nFrankfurt gained an embedded QA tester to support the Tools Team. Their focus will be on all new and current tools coming down the pipeline and will include some Lumberyard Editor testing.\nSupport for the Level Design Team ramped up, with further requests to test AI placement and bug fixes across various landing zones. They also worked to ensure new issues aren\u2019t introduced from the dev teams\u2019 fixes and to provide feedback on usable placements in existing and upcoming landing zones.\nSystem Design\nLast month, the Frankfurt designers spent time training the UK designers on how to build ship behaviors, as they will be taking over the bulk of the work in the future.\nRegarding combat AI, they built and adjusted behaviors for shotgun and pistol AI. This involved setting up timings and distances, making sure they reflect what a soldier equipped with these weapons would do in real life.\nThe team are also working on a large, overarching feature that deals with quantum fuel mining and refining. As part of this, they\u2019ve had to tackle several smaller features, such as introducing new mining lasers with different properties and consumables that can alter the mining process. A related but as-yet-undetermined feature is how to deal with dangerous and volatile cargo. To kick it off, the team are building a management interface to allow players to monitor the status of their cargo in situ. They also began designing the station refining UI which will allow players to take refining jobs, choose which elements they want to refine from their mixed materials, and how they want to refine it.\nTech Animation\nThe Tech Animation Team refined the Visio-to-Mannequin pipeline to make it easier to import state machines straight to Mannequin, which will save a lot of time. They also worked with the props and usable teams on several new and old usables, implementing new animations and providing animation-ready templates in Maya for quicker authoring. A socket addition to the pipeline was also created to give animators the possibility of swapping props around between different attach points on the character rig. They also investigated and fixed several small bugs in weapons content, usables, cinematics, gameplay animations, props, and design.\nTech Art\nTech Art started a refactor of the engine code base for the DNA system pipeline (DNA v2) and the facial runtime rig logic system. Both systems have gone through phases of heavy R&D and subsequent tech-hardening, so a refactor that will lead to greater modularity and versatility is the next logical step. The methodology and code behind the existing facial runtime rig logic for human heads will be generalized so that it can be applied not only to the face rigs of other alien species, but also to their bodies. It will even work with the arbitrary rigs that drive creatures and other animated entities that will eventually populate planets and the wider universe in general. This will allow the team to dynamically and procedurally create unique-looking variants from a limited-size pool of manually authored assets.\nTurbulent\n\nThe unified deployment of all services developed and maintained by Turbulent was also completed. This project suppressed the intermediary steps (both human and technical) needed to deploy services and will enable smoother future deployments. Streamlining service deployment also improves overall reliability and enables the easier creation of multiple independent and isolated QA environments, benefitting both DevOps and QA.\nThe Feature Team focused on polishing VoIP\/FoIP and started a new project aiming to review and evaluate architectural setup to optimize scalability.\nFor the RSI website, Turbulent supported the release of the RSI Mantis, Alpha 3.7, the Ship Showdown, and the CitizenCon microsite update. Regarding merchandise, they also integrated two warehouses \u2013 one for US orders and a second for international orders.\n\n\n\n\nUser Interface (UI)\nOne of the team\u2019s tasks last month was creating the interior screens of New Babbage, which involved defining a UI style that fits the microTech brand. They also kicked off animated adverts for microTech products. Another area of focus was the new \u2018actor status\u2019 display. This is a new way to display a player character\u2019s health and will eventually form part of the updated visor. As usual, they worked on new features for the custom UI system, including an animation system that\u2019ll make it easier to move away from the legacy flash UI, and one to add text decals to ships.\nVFX\nAside from bug fixing and polishing for the Alpha 3.7 patches, VFX worked heavily on planet effect improvements, specifically on the engineering side. This included particle scattering queries, height-based wind calculations, a new half-resolution option for particles, and the ability to spawn volumetric fog as part of near-effect LODs.\nThe VFX artists started on mining improvements, including VFX for different beam types and modifiers to the existing beams. They also refined the upcoming Rest Stop interior effects, weapons, and ships. The VFX tech artists continued to improve the workflow for gas clouds and the low-poly building generator tool. WE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026","de_DE":"N\u00e4chsten Monat um diese Zeit wird die CitizenCon 2949 nur eine sch\u00f6ne Erinnerung sein. Wie Sie sich vorstellen k\u00f6nnen, haben die meisten Teams die Veranstaltung im Oktober auf die eine oder andere Weise ber\u00fchrt, sei es bei der Vorbereitung von Pr\u00e4sentationen oder bei der Verfeinerung der zu demonstrierenden Technologie. Um Spoiler zu vermeiden und die harte Arbeit, die in die Veranstaltung gesteckt wurde, zu untergraben, ist der Bericht dieses Monats ein wenig auf saftige Details reduziert. Aber n\u00e4chsten Monat werden wir wieder zur Normalit\u00e4t zur\u00fcckkehren!\n\nKI\nWir beginnen den Bericht vom Oktober mit dem AI Character Combat Team, das Zeit damit verbrachte, \u00fcber das Ziel des NSCs zu sprechen. Sie vereinfachten die F\u00e4higkeit zu kontrollieren, ob und wann sie wollen, dass sich der Unterk\u00f6rper dreht, w\u00e4hrend er auf ein Ziel zielt, und verbesserten die Art und Weise, wie das Zielverfolgen funktioniert. Dadurch ist es einfacher zu bestimmen, wann die Bewegung langsam \u00fcberblenden oder schnell abbrechen soll. Sie beheben auch einen Look-Target-Synchronisationsfehler, der allgemeine Probleme verursacht.\nAuf der Verhaltensseite verbesserten sie die Deckungsauswahl im Kampf, indem sie neue M\u00f6glichkeiten zur Gewichtung der Deckungspositionen basierend auf der Zielrichtung einf\u00fchrten. NSCs k\u00f6nnen nun w\u00e4hlen, ob sie den vordefinierten Feuermodus einer Waffe verwenden oder aktiv Auto, Burst oder Einzelschuss w\u00e4hlen m\u00f6chten. Sie f\u00fcgten den Verhaltensweisen auch mehr wilde Linien und Geschmacksrichtungen hinzu, wie z.B. NSCs, die ein Ziel verspotten, bevor sie mit der Untersuchung beginnen.\nShip AI hat den ersten Durchgang seiner neuen 3D-Pfadfindungsfunktionalit\u00e4t in den Hauptgesch\u00e4ftsbereich der Spieleentwicklung verschoben. Dieser Ansatz basiert auf einer nicht-kanonischen A*-Implementierung, die das signed distance field (SDF) verwendet, um einen Pfad in einer 3D-Umgebung schrittweise zu berechnen. Derzeit werden Fortschritte bei der ersten Version der 3D ORCA-Implementierung erzielt und n\u00e4hern sich einer ersten funktionierenden Version.\nEine neue M\u00f6glichkeit f\u00fcr die Konstrukteure, ein Schiff einer \"Spline\" folgen zu lassen (ein Tunnel, der eine Schiffsbewegung und nicht eine vorgeschriebene Spur f\u00fchrt), wurde freigelegt. Zur Laufzeit passt die Berechnung die Tunnelgr\u00f6\u00dfe automatisch an die Umgebung und die vom SDF gemeldeten Informationen an. Sie haben auch neue Knoten hinzugef\u00fcgt, um die Soll-Distanz und den relativen Zustand des Fahrzeugs zu \u00fcberwachen und Entscheidungen anhand der gemeldeten Werte zu treffen.\nSocial AI hat die Funktion \"Usable Search\" optimiert und kann nun die Position von Usables auf dem Navmesh zwischenspeichern. Das bedeutet, dass sie nicht st\u00e4ndig die Zeit neu berechnen m\u00fcssen, in der ein Objekt an einem Ort statisch ist. Sie setzten auch die Vereinheitlichung von Operator- und generischen Sitzen fort, so dass Verhaltensweisen sie unabh\u00e4ngig von der H\u00f6he nutzen k\u00f6nnen.\nDie Implementierung von generischen Anbietern wurde fortgesetzt, bei der Usables verwendet werden, die bestimmte Objekttypen \"bereitstellen\" oder \"akzeptieren\" k\u00f6nnen. Dies erm\u00f6glicht es Designern, viele verschiedene Objekttypen zu erstellen. Beispielsweise k\u00f6nnen Getr\u00e4nke-Barkeeper den G\u00e4sten anbieten. Sie arbeiten derzeit an der Patrouillenfunktionalit\u00e4t, die Wege f\u00fcr die KI definiert. Dieser Pfad enth\u00e4lt Informationen dar\u00fcber, welche Arten von Logik beim Auftreffen auf die verschiedenen Pfadknoten aktiviert werden m\u00fcssen.\nWas die Kerndienstleistungen betrifft, so verf\u00fcgt das Team nun \u00fcber Navmesh-Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr Planetenstandorte und bewegt sich in Richtung einer dynamischeren Erstellung von Navigationsdaten auf Planetenoberfl\u00e4chen. Sie arbeiten auch an verschiedenen Bugfixes und Optimierungen, darunter das Multithreading der KI-Audiokomponente, damit sie Audioereignisse auf den Servern schneller verarbeiten k\u00f6nnen.\n\n\nAnimation\nIm Oktober entwickelte das Team Nahkampf- und Tarnanimationen, Bewegungsabl\u00e4ufe und Reaktionsanimationen f\u00fcr NSCs, die keine Waffen im Lager haben. Sie arbeiteten auch an Animationen f\u00fcr einen neuen Missionstyp und an \"Sachen\" f\u00fcr CitizenCon.\nKunst (Umwelt)\nIm vergangenen Monat konzentrierte sich das Frankfurter Team auf die Mikrotechnik, wobei mehrere Biome und Anlagen fertig gestellt und \u00fcber die Oberfl\u00e4che verteilt wurden.\n\"Die Fortschritte gehen wirklich gut voran und wir freuen uns darauf, in naher Zukunft das gesamte Sichtfeld der microTech zu teilen.\"\nUmwelt Kunst Team\nAu\u00dferdem wurde viel Zeit mit Qualit\u00e4tsunterst\u00fctzung und Fehlerbehebung f\u00fcr Alpha 3.7 verbracht.\n\n\nKunst (Schiffe)\nShip Art verbrachte den Monat damit, einige wichtige Schiffe f\u00fcr die kommenden Patch-Releases fertigzustellen. Schauen Sie sich den CitizenCon-Stream am 23. November an, um aus erster Hand zu erfahren, was sie vorhaben.\nKunst (Waffen)\nIm vergangenen Monat lag der Schwerpunkt auf dem ballistischen Scharfsch\u00fctzengewehr Behring P6-LR. Die Waffe durchlief Anfang des Monats eine Iteration, um sicherzustellen, dass die Visuals dem gew\u00fcnschten Gameplay entsprechen. Derzeit befindet sie sich auf dem Weg in die Endphase der Kunst. Sie haben auch ein paar Probleme mit dem Kampfmesser und dem Animus Raketenwerfer behoben.\nF\u00fcr Schiffswaffen sind die neuesten ballistischen und Laserkanonen von Esperia bereits in Produktion. Diese beiden neuen Waffen werden in den n\u00e4chsten Wochen geschlossen.\n\nAudio\nAudio arbeitete eng mit den vorgelagerten Abteilungen zusammen, um etwas sehr Cooles f\u00fcr CitizenCon zu entwickeln. Sie unterst\u00fctzten auch verschiedene kommende Darsteller-Features, darunter den Nahkampf und den auf die Temperatur reagierenden Spielercharakter.\nEin gro\u00dfer Fortschritt wurde bei den laufenden prozeduralen Rest Stops gemacht, wobei Audio f\u00fcr Atmosph\u00e4re und Spot SFX sorgt. Zwei gro\u00dfe kommende Schiffe erhielten Thruster, Ambiance, Spot SFX und Waffen-Audio. Quantenreisen wurden auf allen Schiffen \u00fcberarbeitet, um auch k\u00fcrzere Spr\u00fcnge besser zu unterst\u00fctzen.\nSchlie\u00dflich gab Audio dem Apocalypse Arms Animus Raketenwerfer und dem Behring P6-LR Scharfsch\u00fctzengewehr den letzten Schliff und unterst\u00fctzt alle Feuerarten, Nachladungen und Animationen.\nBackend Services\nIm vergangenen Monat verbrachte das Team einen Gro\u00dfteil seiner Zeit damit, auf Alpha 3.7 und 3.7.1 hinzuarbeiten, einschlie\u00dflich der Isolierung und L\u00f6sung verschiedener Backend-Probleme. Mehrere Optimierungen zur Backend-Persistenz wurden ebenfalls implementiert, um sicherzustellen, dass alle Spieler in das Spiel einsteigen und es genie\u00dfen k\u00f6nnen.\nCharaktere\nIm Oktober brachte das Character Art Team den RSI Mantis-Anzug erfolgreich auf den Markt. Sie halfen auch einem geliebten Spektrum-Stern bei der Vorbereitung auf die R\u00fcckkehr ins Rampenlicht und arbeiteten an verschiedenen Dingen f\u00fcr CitizenCon und dar\u00fcber hinaus.\n\n\nCommunity\nDer Monat begann mit der Enth\u00fcllung des RSI Mantis, den das Team durch die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung eines Q&A zur Beantwortung der am h\u00e4ufigsten gestellten Fragen der Community zum neuen Schiff und zum Quantendurchsetzungsspiel unterst\u00fctzte. Sie f\u00fchrten auch einen kommerziellen Wettbewerb zum Thema Mantis durch, diesmal mit der Bitte an die Community, von dem angespannten Cliffhanger der offiziellen Anzeige fortzufahren. Gehen Sie zu Spectrum, um herauszufinden, was sie sich ausgedacht haben.\nIm Oktober fand das Finale des Ship Showdown statt, ein Ereignis, das die Spieler damit beauftragte, f\u00fcr ihre Lieblingsschiffe zu stimmen. In einem unerwarteten Finale wurde die Drake Caterpillar zum Gesamtsieger gek\u00fcrt. Ist ein Siegtitel alles, was das Schiff erh\u00e4lt? Finde es Ende dieses Monats heraus.....\nDas Team startete auch zwei gruselige Wettbewerbe zu Halloween. Die B\u00fcrger, die den besten K\u00fcrbis zum Thema Star Citizen geschnitzt und die gruseligsten unterirdischen Schrecken eingefangen haben, nahmen Preise in Form von Ships mit nach Hause. Um den Wettbewerb der H\u00f6hlen zu unterst\u00fctzen, w\u00fcrdigt das Flair der Abonnenten im Oktober einen der ber\u00fchmtesten Horror-Franchise, Parasite.\nUm den Release der Alpha 3.7 zu feiern, lie\u00df eine Freiwillige jeden f\u00fcnf der vielseitigsten Schiffe im Vers ausprobieren. Und als Dankesch\u00f6n wurde eine Kr\u00fcger P-52 Merlin an alle verteilt, die w\u00e4hrend der Veranstaltung einen neuen Geldgeber empfohlen haben.\nLast but not least wurde der Zeitplan der CitizenCon 2949 ver\u00f6ffentlicht. Mit ihm kam der erste j\u00e4hrliche Star Citizen Cosplay-Wettbewerb, der die harte Arbeit, die in Ihre unglaublichen Cosplays geht, mit Ingame-Goodies und Preisen belohnen wird!\n\"Weniger als einen Monat entfernt, sind wir sicher, dass dies ein episches Ereignis werden wird und wir k\u00f6nnen es kaum erwarten, Sie bei der CitizenCon 2949 zu sehen!\"\nCommunity-Team\n\nDesign\nNeben einigen unglaublich aufregenden, aber ebenso geheimen \"Dingen\" sind Design Prototyping-Funktionen f\u00fcr die Ver\u00f6ffentlichungen im n\u00e4chsten Jahr.\n\"Wir freuen uns darauf, allen endlich zu zeigen, woran wir in den letzten Monaten gearbeitet haben, und wir freuen uns auf das Gespr\u00e4ch mit Ihnen Ende dieses Monats auf der CitizenCon.\"\nDesign-Team\nIngenieurwesen\nEngineering verbrachte im Oktober Zeit damit, die Integration des physikalischen Proxy-Refaktor-Streams zu unterst\u00fctzen, an der Simulation der Weichk\u00f6rperphysik f\u00fcr Charakter und Stoff zu arbeiten und dem Planetenwind Unterst\u00fctzung auf Physikebene hinzuzuf\u00fcgen.\nF\u00fcr den Renderer arbeiteten sie weiter an der neuen Grafikpipeline und dem Renderinterface (Gen12). Dazu geh\u00f6rten: ein verbessertes Renderpasshandling und die Einrichtung des Pipelinestatus, Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr die Berechnung, ein Pipeline-Teardown, verbesserte DXC-Kompatibilit\u00e4t f\u00fcr Shader, ein vereinfachtes Ressourcen-Layout, verbesserte Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr gepoolte Renderziele und Aufl\u00f6sungs\u00e4nderungen, Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr reflektierte Shader-Konstanten-Arrays und die Portierung von DOF auf das Renderpasssystem. Die Entfernung des globalen Renderstatus begann ebenfalls.\nAuf der Planetenseite haben sie die Multi-Cascade-Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr Gel\u00e4ndeh\u00f6henkarten \u00fcberarbeitet und erweitert, so dass abh\u00e4ngige Effekte sie besser f\u00fcr ihre eigenen Zwecke (z.B. Gel\u00e4ndeschatten) integrieren k\u00f6nnen, und an der Visualisierung von Cascade Debug gearbeitet, um es K\u00fcnstlern zu erm\u00f6glichen, wichtige H\u00f6henkarteneigenschaften effizient zu optimieren. In Bezug auf Planeten-Terrain-Schatten f\u00fcgten sie eine einfache Codeschnittstelle und gemeinsamen Shader-Code f\u00fcr die Anwendung auf der Clientseite hinzu, unterst\u00fctzten zeitliches Anti-Aliasing und erg\u00e4nzten die anf\u00e4ngliche Code- und Logikunterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr mehrere Kaskaden. Die Arbeiten am planetarischen Bodennebel wurden ebenfalls fortgesetzt. Dies beinhaltete die erste Version von SOCS, die Anpassung des Codes an sehr gro\u00dfe Objekte, die Verbesserung des Exception-Handlers und das Hinzuf\u00fcgen einer API zur asynchronen Erstellung eines Core Dumps, ohne den aufrufenden Prozess zu beeintr\u00e4chtigen. Dies wird haupts\u00e4chlich verwendet, um Momentaufnahmen des DGS-Prozesszustands im Falle von nicht schwerwiegenden Fehlern zu machen, um effizientes Debugging zu erm\u00f6glichen, ohne den Service zu unterbrechen und die Clients zu beeintr\u00e4chtigen (vorher war es zum Absturz gezwungen).\nF\u00fcr die Animation erstellte das Team einen neuen Dual-Quaternion Skinning\/elastische Mischung Wrap Deformer f\u00fcr CPU+GPU Skinning. Sie haben auch die Tangentenrekonstruktion abgeschlossen - eine pixelgenaue Version f\u00fcr Software und Compute Skinning (sowohl Protos als auch Originalskins).\nFunktionen (Gameplay)\nDas in den USA ans\u00e4ssige Gameplay-Team hatte im Oktober viel zu tun und lieferte Aufgaben f\u00fcr Alpha 3.8. Eine wichtige Aufgabe hat einen voraussichtlichen Fertigstellungstermin Anfang 2020 erhalten und wird sicher f\u00fcr ein ansprechendes Erlebnis sorgen, wenn sie in Betrieb geht.\nDie Bem\u00fchungen konzentrierten sich auch auf das Server-Side Object Container Streaming, das eine umfassende technische \u00dcberarbeitung darstellt, die schlie\u00dflich zu einer drastischen Verbesserung der Leistung im Spiel f\u00fchren wird. Das Team befasst sich derzeit mit mehreren Ma\u00dfnahmen zur Verbesserung der Lebensqualit\u00e4t, die von den Spielern seit einiger Zeit gefordert werden.\nMerkmale (Fahrzeuge)\nIn den USA konzentrierte sich das Team vor allem darauf, die Quantendurchsetzung f\u00fcr den RSI Mantis abzuschlie\u00dfen. Sie haben auch ihre Arbeit an dem laufenden Physik-Proxy-Refaktor abgeschlossen. Verschiedene Fehler f\u00fcr Alpha 3.7 und 3.7.1 wurden ebenfalls beseitigt, darunter Spielabbr\u00fcche und fahrzeugbezogene Probleme.\nDas in der EU ans\u00e4ssige Fahrzeugteam unterst\u00fctzte die Content-Teams beim Aufbau von Meldepanels f\u00fcr Schiffe, darunter die Anpassung des Prozesses an verschiedene Modelle und Marken. Sie haben auch die neueste Implementierung des Sperrbereichs abgeschlossen. Die Spieler k\u00f6nnen von neuen UI-Messaging- und F\u00fchrungstunneln erwarten, die ihnen helfen, sich den Raumh\u00e4fen zu n\u00e4hern, wenn sie live gehen. Sie experimentieren derzeit mit der Verbesserung des atmosph\u00e4rischen Flugverhaltens.\nGrafiken\nIm vergangenen Monat haben die Grafik- und Motorenteams das neue planetarische Gel\u00e4ndeschattensystem weiterentwickelt. Dies wird schlie\u00dflich Schatten \u00fcber gr\u00f6\u00dfere Entfernungen mit gro\u00dfer Weichheit (Halbschatten) zu geringeren Kosten als das aktuelle System erm\u00f6glichen. Die Entwicklung der Planetenoberfl\u00e4chenbeschattung wurde fortgesetzt und n\u00e4hert sich dem Abschluss, mit Verbesserungen der Genauigkeit der Oberfl\u00e4chennormale in jeder Gr\u00f6\u00dfenordnung und dem Hinzuf\u00fcgen einer separaten Schicht von Texturen f\u00fcr Klippen.\nDie letzte gro\u00dfe Aufgabe im Oktober war die Entwicklung des Systems \"Biome Accumulation\", das die Grundlage f\u00fcr eine Vielzahl von Effekten wie Schnee, Frost, Schmutz, Schlamm und Staub bildet. Das System selbst wird in den kommenden Wochen und Monaten einen gemeinsamen Aufwand von Kunst-, Grafik- und Code-Teams erfordern.\nLeveldesign\nIm Oktober hat Level Design die H\u00f6hlen von Alpha 3.7 fertiggestellt, die die ersten nat\u00fcrlichen Designumgebungen sind, die mit dem Verfahrenswerkzeug gebaut wurden. Das Team betrachtet sie als einen gro\u00dfartigen Proof of Concept und eine willkommene Erg\u00e4nzung des Tools selbst. Da mehr Inhalte in die verfahrenstechnische Generierung eingebunden werden, wird die Geschwindigkeit, mit der sie neue Inhalte erstellen, in Zukunft zunehmen.\nSie arbeiteten auch weiter an MicroTech und New Babbage. Der gefrorene Planetentyp stellte Herausforderungen dar, er\u00f6ffnete aber auch viele spannende M\u00f6glichkeiten und M\u00f6glichkeiten. Sie haben auch Zeit damit verbracht, die Standorte zu planen, an denen sie im Jahr 2020 arbeiten.\nBeleuchtung\nLetzten Monat zog das Beleuchtungsteam von Caves und Alpha 3.7 in die neuen Innenr\u00e4ume der Rastst\u00e4tte. Bei so vielen neuen R\u00e4umen und mehreren Versionen von jedem besteht die Herausforderung darin, die visuelle Konsistenz zwischen den einzelnen Standorten zu gew\u00e4hrleisten, dass sich die Beleuchtung gut in die R\u00e4ume einf\u00fcgt und dass die Wege f\u00fcr den Spieler frei sind. Auch die Beleuchtung von New Babbage ist im Gange, wobei das Team derzeit die Au\u00dfenfl\u00e4chen der Hauptst\u00e4dte und Weltraumh\u00e4fen durchquert.\n\n\nNarrativ\nIm vergangenen Monat schrieb das Narrative Team mehrere Skripte und nahm VO f\u00fcr kommende Spielversionen auf, darunter einige Tannoy-Ank\u00fcndigungen f\u00fcr New Babbage. Sie trafen sich mit Live Design, um Texte f\u00fcr neue Missionen zu koordinieren und zu erstellen, an denen f\u00fcr den 3.8. und dar\u00fcber hinaus gearbeitet wird. Sie benannten und schrieben Beschreibungen f\u00fcr verschiedene Gegenst\u00e4nde, die von Bergbauausr\u00fcstung, schrecklichen Helmen bis hin zu neuen R\u00fcstungen und mehr reichen. Das Team entwickelte auch Ideen f\u00fcr m\u00f6gliche zus\u00e4tzliche Ernteg\u00fcter, die in Zukunft hinzugef\u00fcgt werden sollen, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf dem kalten Klima der Mikrotechnik lag. Dar\u00fcber hinaus verbrachte das Narrative Team einige Zeit damit, an einer Reihe von bevorstehenden Veranstaltungen zu arbeiten. Die Besonderheiten von CitizenCon k\u00f6nnen noch nicht diskutiert werden, aber da so viel von der Veranstaltung in der Geschichte stattfindet, lieferte Narrative wichtige Hintergrundgeschichten, Skripte und mehr, um die Veranstaltungen und die Inhalte, die gezeigt werden, zu unterst\u00fctzen. Das Team wird auch mehrere Mitglieder haben, die an der CitizenCon teilnehmen, und sie freuen sich darauf, ihre Pr\u00e4sentationen mit allen zu teilen. Im Oktober erschien schlie\u00dflich ein weiteres Jump Point Abonnentenmagazin, das ein Interview mit einem G-Loc Barkeeper vorstellte. Spectrum pr\u00e4sentierte einen speziellen Empire-Report, der eine k\u00fcrzlich stattgefundene Verbrechenswelle in Terra und eine brandneue Episode von Far From Home beleuchtete, in der Old Jegger einige Zeit au\u00dferhalb seiner Komfortzone verbringt.\nRequisiten\nAnfang des Monats setzten die Requisiten-Teams die \"High-Tech\"-Requisiten f\u00fcr New Babbage fort. Dabei ging es um die Infrastruktur der Landezone, Konsolen, Informationsschilder, Theken und Wandverkleidungen. Auch die Arbeit an interaktiven Requisiten f\u00fcr die gleiche Umgebung begann.\nRequisiten arbeiteten mit mehreren anderen Teams zusammen, um physische Stoffressourcen zu erstellen. Die Entwicklung von gro\u00dfformatigen Schiffsteilen wurde fortgesetzt und wird in K\u00fcrze abgeschlossen sein, so dass der PU seine ersten richtigen gro\u00dfen Quanten- und Sprungantriebe erh\u00e4lt.\n\n\n\nQA\nPlanet Tech v4 wurde im Game-Device aktiviert und mit ihm kamen viele QA-Tests. QA testet regelm\u00e4\u00dfig jedes Sternensystem, wobei einzelne Planeten t\u00e4glich getestet werden, um \u00fcber alle neuen Probleme informiert zu sein, die durch Ver\u00e4nderungen entstehen k\u00f6nnen. Sie arbeiten auch eng mit Environment Art zusammen, um Probleme zu beheben und festzustellen, welche von Engineering untersucht werden m\u00fcssen. In der zweiten Monatsh\u00e4lfte wurden neue \u00c4nderungen an Monden und Planeten mit lokal exportierten Objektcontainern getestet und verifiziert. Der n\u00e4chste Schritt besteht darin, eine QS-Testanforderung f\u00fcr jeden Standort durchzuf\u00fchren, sobald das Design seinen Re-Drop aller oberfl\u00e4chenseitigen Standorte abgeschlossen hat.\nFrankfurt erhielt einen integrierten QA-Tester zur Unterst\u00fctzung des Tools-Teams. Ihr Fokus liegt auf allen neuen und aktuellen Tools, die in die Pipeline kommen, und wird einige Tests des Lumberyard Editor beinhalten.\nDie Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr das Level Design Team wurde erh\u00f6ht, mit weiteren Anfragen zum Testen der KI-Platzierung und Bugfixes in verschiedenen Landezonen. Sie arbeiteten auch daran, sicherzustellen, dass keine neuen Probleme aus den Korrekturen der Entwicklungsteams eingef\u00fchrt werden und um Feedback \u00fcber nutzbare Platzierungen in bestehenden und zuk\u00fcnftigen Landezonen zu geben.\nSystemdesign\nIm vergangenen Monat haben die Frankfurter Designer die britischen Designer darin geschult, wie man Schiffsverhalten baut, da sie in Zukunft den Gro\u00dfteil der Arbeit \u00fcbernehmen werden.\nBez\u00fcglich der Kampf-KI bauten sie Verhaltensweisen f\u00fcr Schrotflinte und Pistole KI auf und passten diese an. Dazu geh\u00f6rte die Einrichtung von Zeitpl\u00e4nen und Entfernungen, um sicherzustellen, dass sie das widerspiegeln, was ein mit diesen Waffen ausgestatteter Soldat im wirklichen Leben tun w\u00fcrde.\nDas Team arbeitet auch an einem gro\u00dfen, \u00fcbergreifenden Feature, das sich mit dem Abbau und der Veredelung von Quantenkraftstoffen befasst. In diesem Zusammenhang mussten sie mehrere kleinere Funktionen in Angriff nehmen, wie z.B. die Einf\u00fchrung neuer Mining-Laser mit unterschiedlichen Eigenschaften und Verbrauchsmaterialien, die den Mining-Prozess ver\u00e4ndern k\u00f6nnen. Ein verwandtes, aber noch unbestimmtes Merkmal ist der Umgang mit gef\u00e4hrlicher und fl\u00fcchtiger Ladung. Zum Auftakt baut das Team eine Managementschnittstelle auf, \u00fcber die die Spieler den Status ihrer Ladung vor Ort \u00fcberwachen k\u00f6nnen. Sie begannen auch mit dem Design der Station Refining UI, die es den Spielern erm\u00f6glicht, Raffinationsaufgaben zu \u00fcbernehmen, zu w\u00e4hlen, welche Elemente sie aus ihren gemischten Materialien veredeln m\u00f6chten und wie sie diese veredeln wollen.\nTechnische Animation\nDas Tech Animation Team hat die Visio-to-Mannequin-Pipeline weiterentwickelt, um den Import von Zustandsmaschinen direkt nach Mannequin zu erleichtern, was viel Zeit spart. Sie arbeiteten auch mit den Requisiten und brauchbaren Teams an mehreren neuen und alten Usables, implementierten neue Animationen und stellten in Maya animationsreife Vorlagen f\u00fcr ein schnelleres Authoring zur Verf\u00fcgung. Au\u00dferdem wurde ein Socket-Additiv f\u00fcr die Pipeline geschaffen, um Animateuren die M\u00f6glichkeit zu geben, Requisiten zwischen verschiedenen Befestigungspunkten auf dem Charakterger\u00e4t auszutauschen. Sie untersuchten und beheben auch mehrere kleine Fehler in Waffeninhalten, Gebrauchsgegenst\u00e4nden, Filmen, Gameplay-Animationen, Requisiten und Design.\nTechnische Kunst\nTech Art startete einen Refactor der Motorcodebasis f\u00fcr die DNA-System-Pipeline (DNA v2) und das Logiksystem des Gesichts-Laufzeit-Rigs. Beide Systeme haben Phasen intensiver Forschung und Entwicklung und anschlie\u00dfender Technologie-H\u00e4rtung durchlaufen, so dass ein Refactor, der zu mehr Modularit\u00e4t und Vielseitigkeit f\u00fchrt, der n\u00e4chste logische Schritt ist. Die Methodik und der Code hinter der bestehenden Logik der Gesichts-Laufzeit-Riggs f\u00fcr menschliche K\u00f6pfe werden verallgemeinert, so dass sie nicht nur auf die Gesichts-Rigs anderer fremder Arten, sondern auch auf deren K\u00f6rper angewendet werden k\u00f6nnen. Es wird sogar mit den willk\u00fcrlichen Rigs funktionieren, die Kreaturen und andere animierte Wesen antreiben, die schlie\u00dflich Planeten und das weitere Universum im Allgemeinen bev\u00f6lkern werden. Dies erm\u00f6glicht es dem Team, dynamisch und prozedural einzigartig aussehende Varianten aus einem begrenzten Pool von manuell erstellten Assets zu erstellen.\nTurbulent\n\nAuch die einheitliche Bereitstellung aller von Turbulent entwickelten und betreuten Services wurde abgeschlossen. Dieses Projekt unterdr\u00fcckte die f\u00fcr die Bereitstellung von Diensten erforderlichen Zwischenschritte (sowohl personell als auch technisch) und wird eine reibungslosere zuk\u00fcnftige Bereitstellung erm\u00f6glichen. Die Optimierung der Servicebereitstellung verbessert auch die allgemeine Zuverl\u00e4ssigkeit und erm\u00f6glicht die einfachere Erstellung mehrerer unabh\u00e4ngiger und isolierter QA-Umgebungen, wovon sowohl DevOps als auch QA profitieren.\nDas Feature-Team konzentrierte sich auf das Polieren von VoIP\/FoIP und startete ein neues Projekt mit dem Ziel, die Architektur zu \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen und zu bewerten, um die Skalierbarkeit zu optimieren.\nF\u00fcr die RSI-Website unterst\u00fctzte Turbulent die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung des RSI Mantis, Alpha 3.7, des Ship Showdown und des CitizenCon Microsite Updates. Im Bereich der Waren wurden auch zwei Lager integriert - eines f\u00fcr US-Auftr\u00e4ge und ein zweites f\u00fcr internationale Auftr\u00e4ge.\n\n\n\n\nBenutzeroberfl\u00e4che (UI)\nEine der Aufgaben des Teams im vergangenen Monat war die Erstellung der Innenw\u00e4nde von New Babbage, bei der es darum ging, einen UI-Stil zu definieren, der zur Marke microTech passt. Au\u00dferdem starteten sie animierte Anzeigen f\u00fcr microTech-Produkte. Ein weiterer Schwerpunkt lag auf der neuen Anzeige \"Akteurstatus\". Dies ist eine neue Methode, um die Gesundheit eines Spielercharakters anzuzeigen und wird schlie\u00dflich Teil des aktualisierten Visiers sein. Wie \u00fcblich arbeiteten sie an neuen Funktionen f\u00fcr das benutzerdefinierte UI-System, darunter ein Animationssystem, das es einfacher macht, sich von der alten Flash-Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che zu l\u00f6sen und Textabbildungen auf Schiffen hinzuzuf\u00fcgen.\nVFX\nAbgesehen von der Fehlerbehebung und dem Polieren f\u00fcr die Alpha 3.7-Patches arbeitete VFX intensiv an der Verbesserung des Planeteneffekts, insbesondere auf der technischen Seite. Dazu geh\u00f6rten Fragen zur Partikelstreuung, h\u00f6henbasierte Windberechnungen, eine neue Option zur Halbaufl\u00f6sung f\u00fcr Partikel und die M\u00f6glichkeit, volumetrischen Nebel als Teil von Near-Effect LODs zu erzeugen.\nDie VFX-K\u00fcnstler begannen mit Verbesserungen im Bergbau, einschlie\u00dflich VFX f\u00fcr verschiedene Strahltypen und Modifikatoren f\u00fcr die vorhandenen Tr\u00e4ger. Sie verfeinerten auch die bevorstehenden Innenausstattungen, Waffen und Schiffe der Rastst\u00e4tte. Die VFX-Techniker haben den Workflow f\u00fcr Gaswolken und das Low-Poly Building Generator Tool weiter verbessert. WIR SEHEN UNS N\u00c4CHSTEN MONAT.....","zh_CN":"This time next month, CitizenCon 2949 will be but a fond memory. As you can imagine, most teams touched on the event one way or another in October, be it preparing presentations or putting the final touches to tech being demonstrated. To avoid spoilers and undermining the hard work put into the event, this month\u2019s report is a little light on juicy details. However, we\u2019ll get back to normal next month!\n\nAI\nWe kick off October\u2019s report with the AI Character Combat Team, who spent time iterating on NPC aiming. They simplified the ability to control if and when they want the lower body turning while aiming at a target and improved the way aim-tracking works. This makes it easier to determine when the movement should blend slowly or snap quickly. They also fixed a look-target synchronization bug that was causing general issues.\nOn the behaviors side, they improved cover selection during combat by introducing new ways to weight cover locations based on target direction. NPCs can now choose between using a weapon\u2019s predefined fire mode or actively selecting auto, burst, or single shot. They added more wild lines and flavor to the behaviors too, such as NPCs taunting a target before they start investigating.\nShip AI moved the first pass of their new 3D pathfinding functionality into the main game-development branch. This approach is based on a non-canonical A* implementation that uses the signed distance field (SDF) to incrementally compute a path in a 3D environment. Progress is currently being made on the first version of 3D ORCA implementation and is getting close to a first working version.\nA new way for the designers to request that a ship follow a \u2018spline\u2019 (a tunnel that guides a ship\u2019s movement rather than a prescriptive track) was exposed. At runtime, the calculation automatically adjusts the tunnel size based on the environment and the information reported by the SDF. They also added new nodes to monitor target distance and the vehicle\u2019s relative state and make decisions according to the reported values.\nSocial AI optimized the \u2018usable search\u2019 function and are now able to cache the location of usables on the navmesh. This means they don\u2019t have to constantly recalculate the time an object is static in one location. They also continued the unification of operator and generic seats so that behaviors can utilize them regardless of height.\nImplementation of generic vendors continued, which employs usables that can \u2018provide\u2019 or \u2018accept\u2019 specific object types. This allows designers to create many different object types. For example, drinks bartenders can offer to patrons. They\u2019re currently progressing on the patrol functionality that defines paths for AI to follow. This path will carry information on which types of logic to activate while hitting the different path nodes.\nRegarding core services, the team now have navmesh support on planetary locations and are moving towards a more dynamic creation of navigation data on planet surfaces. They\u2019re also working on different bug fixes and optimizations, including multithreading the AI audio component to enable them to process audio events quicker on the servers.\n\n\nAnimation\nIn October, the team developed melee and stealth takedown animations, effort movement sets, and reaction animations for NPCs that aren\u2019t holding stocked weapons. They also worked on animations for a new mission type and \u201cstuff\u201d for CitizenCon.\nArt (Environment)\nLast month, the Frankfurt-based team focused on microTech, with multiple biomes and assets finalized and distributed across the surface. TESTING\n\u201cProgress is going really well and we look forward to sharing microTech\u2019s full visual range in the near future.\u201d\nEnvironment Art Team\nTime was also spent on quality support and bug fixing for Alpha 3.7.\n\n\nArt (Ships)\nShip Art spent the month finalizing a few important ships for upcoming patch releases. Tune in to the CitizenCon stream on November the 23rd for a firsthand look and what they\u2019ve been up to.\nArt (Weapons)\nWeapon Art\u2019s main focus last month was the Behring P6-LR ballistic sniper rifle. The weapon went through iteration early on in the month to ensure the visuals match the desired gameplay. It is currently heading into the final art stage. They also fixed a few issues with the combat knife and Animus missile launcher.\nFor ship weapons, Esperia\u2019s latest ballistic and laser cannons are well into production. These two new weapons will be closed out over the next couple of weeks.\n\nAudio\nAudio worked closely with their upstream departments on something very cool for CitizenCon. They also supported various upcoming actor features, including close combat and the player character responding to temperature.\nA big push was made on the in-progress procedural Rest Stops, with Audio providing ambiance and spot SFX. Two major upcoming ships received thruster, ambiance, spot SFX, and weapon audio. Quantum travel was revamped across all ships to better support shorter jumps too.\nLastly, Audio added their final touches to the Apocalypse Arms Animus missile launcher and Behring P6-LR sniper rifle, supporting all fire modes, reloads, and animations.\nBackend Services\nLast month, the team spent much of their time working towards Alpha 3.7 and 3.7.1, including isolating and resolving various backend issues. Several optimizations to backend persistence were also deployed to ensure all players can get into and enjoy the game.\nCharacters\nOctober saw the Character Art Team successfully release the RSI Mantis suit. They also helped a beloved spectrum star prepare for a return to the limelight and worked on various things for CitizenCon and beyond.\n\n\nCommunity\nThe month began with the unveiling of the RSI Mantis, which the team supported by publishing a Q&A to answer the community\u2019s most-voted-on questions about the new ship and quantum enforcement gameplay. They also ran a Mantis-themed commercial contest, this time asking the community to carry on from the tense cliffhanger of the official ad. Head to Spectrum to find out what they came up with.\nOctober saw the finale of the Ship Showdown, an event that tasked players with voting for their favorite ships. In an unexpected finish, the Drake Caterpillar was crowned the overall champion. Is a winner\u2019s title everything the ship will receive? Find out later this month\u2026\nThe team also kicked off two spooky contests for Halloween. The citizens that carved the best Star Citizen-themed pumpkin and captured the spookiest subterranean terrors took home shipshape prizes. To support the caves contest, October\u2019s subscriber flair pays homage to one of the \u2018verses most infamous horror franchises, Parasite.\nTo celebrate the release of the Alpha 3.7, a free-fly let everyone try out five of the most versatile ships in the \u2018verse. And as a token of appreciation, a Kruger P-52 Merlin was handed out to everyone who referred a new backer during the event.\nLast but not least, the CitizenCon 2949 schedule was released. With it came the first annual Star Citizen cosplay contest that will reward the hard work that goes into your incredible cosplays with in-game goodies and prizes!\n\u201cLess than a month away, we\u2019re sure this is going to be an epic event and we can\u2019t wait to see you at CitizenCon 2949!\u201d\nCommunity Team\n\nDesign\nAlongside some incredibly exciting but equally secret \u201cthings\u201d, Design are prototyping features for next year\u2019s releases.\n\u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to finally showing everyone what we\u2019ve been working on over the past few months and look forward to talking with you later this month at CitizenCon.\u201d\nDesign Team\nEngineering\nEngineering spent time in October supporting the physics proxy refactor stream integration, working on soft-body physics simulation for both character and cloth, and adding physics-level support to planetary wind.\nFor the renderer, they continued to work on the new graphics pipeline and render interface (Gen12). This included adding: an improved render pass handling and pipeline state setup, support for compute, a pipeline teardown, improved DXC compatibility for shaders, a simplified resource layout setup, improved support for pooled render targets and resolution changes, support for reflected shader constant arrays, and porting DOF to the render pass system. The global render state removal also began.\nPlanet-side, they refactored and extended multi-cascade support for terrain height maps so dependent effects can better incorporate it for their own purposes (such as terrain shadows), and worked on cascade debug visualization to allow artists to efficiently tweak important height map properties. Regarding planet terrain shadows, they added a simple code interface and shared shader code for the application on the client side, provided support for temporal anti-aliasing, and completed the initial code and logic support for multi cascades. Work on planetary ground fog continued too. This involved the initial release of SOCS, adjusting code to cope with very large objects, making exception handler improvements, and adding API to asynchronously create a core dump without affecting the calling process. This will be mainly used to take snapshots of the DGS process state in case of non-fatal errors for efficient debugging without interrupting its service and affecting clients (previously, it was forced to crash).\nFor Animation, the team created a new dual quaternion skinning\/elastic blend wrap deformer for CPU+GPU skinning. They also completed tangent reconstruction \u2013 a pixel perfect version for software and compute skinning (both protos and original skins).\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nThe US-based Gameplay Team had a busy October delivering tasks for Alpha 3.8. One important task received an expected completion date of early 2020 and is sure to make for an engaging experience when it goes live.\nEfforts were also focused on Server-Side Object Container Streaming, which is a major engineering overhaul that will eventually result in the dramatic improvement of in-game performance. The team is currently addressing several quality-of-life fixes that players have been requesting for a while.\nFeatures (Vehicles)\nIn the US, the team\u2019s primary focus was wrapping up quantum enforcement for the RSI Mantis. They also completed their work on the ongoing physics proxy refactor. Various bugs for Alpha 3.7 and 3.7.1 were squashed too, including game crashes and vehicle-related issues.\nThe EU-based Vehicle Team helped the content teams set up annunciator panels for ships, which included adapting the process for different models and brands. They also finished the latest restricted area implementation. Players can expect new UI messaging and guide tunnels to help them approach spaceports when it goes live. They\u2019re currently experimenting with improvements to atmospheric flight.\nGraphics\nLast month saw the graphics and engine teams further developed the new planetary terrain shadow system. This will eventually allow shadows over greater distances with large scale softness (penumbra) at less cost than the current system. Development of planet surface shading continued and is nearing completion, with improvements to the accuracy of surface normals at every scale and the addition of a separate layer of textures for cliffs.\nThe last major task of October was designing the \u2018biome accumulation\u2019 system, which is the basis for a variety of effects such as snow, frost, dirt, mud, and dust. The system itself will require a combined effort from the art, graphics, and code teams over the coming weeks and months.\nLevel Design\nOctober saw Level Design finalize the caves of Alpha 3.7, which are the first natural design environments built using the procedural tool. The team consider them a great proof of concept and welcome addition to the tool itself. With more content being tied into procedural generation, the speed in which they create new content will increase going forward .\nThey also continued to work on microTech and New Babbage. The frozen planet type provided challenges but also opened up many exciting opportunities and possibilities. They also spent time planning out locations they\u2019re working on in 2020.\nLighting\nLast month, the Lighting Team moved off Caves and Alpha 3.7 to the new Rest Stop interiors. With so many new rooms and multiple versions of each, the challenge is to ensure visual consistency between each location, that lighting blends nicely between rooms, and that pathways are clear to the player. The lighting of New Babbage is also underway, with the team currently making a pass on the main city and spaceport exteriors.\n\n\n\n\nNarrative\nThis past month the Narrative team wrote several scripts and recorded VO for upcoming game releases, including some tannoy announcements for New Babbage. They met with Live Design to coordinate and create text for new missions being worked on for 3.8. and beyond. They named and wrote descriptions for several items ranging from mining gear, terrifying helmets, to new armor and more. The team also generated ideas for possible additional harvestables to be added in the future with a focus on microTech\u2019s cold climate. Additionally, the Narrative team spent some time working on a couple of upcoming events. The specifics of CitizenCon can\u2019t be discussed yet, but since so much of the event takes place in-lore, Narrative provided vital backstory, scripts and more to help support the events and the content that will be shown. The team will also have several members attending CitizenCon and they look forward to sharing their presentations with everyone. Finally, October saw the release of another Jump Point subscriber magazine that featured an interview with a G-Loc bartender. Spectrum featured a special Empire Report highlighting a recent crime spree in Terra and brand new episode of Far From Home where Old Jegger spends some time out of his comfort zone.\nProps\nAt the start of the month, the Props teams continued with the \u2018hi-tech\u2019 props for New Babbage. This involved focusing on the landing zone\u2019s infrastructure, consoles, information signs, counter sets, and wall dressing. Work on interactive props for the same environment began too.\nProps worked alongside several other teams to create physicalized cloth assets. The development of large-size ship items continued and will be completed shortly, giving the PU its first proper large quantum and jump drives.\n\n\n\nQA\nPlanet Tech v4 was enabled in game-dev and with it came a lot of QA testing. QA regularly test each star system, with individual planets being tested daily to stay on top of any new issues that may crop up as a result of changes. They\u2019re also working closely with Environment Art to debug issues and determine which ones need to be investigated by Engineering. The latter half of the month saw them testing and verifying new changes to moons and planets using locally exported object containers. The next step is to perform a QA test request for each location once Design have completed their re-drop of all surface-side locations.\nFrankfurt gained an embedded QA tester to support the Tools Team. Their focus will be on all new and current tools coming down the pipeline and will include some Lumberyard Editor testing.\nSupport for the Level Design Team ramped up, with further requests to test AI placement and bug fixes across various landing zones. They also worked to ensure new issues aren\u2019t introduced from the dev teams\u2019 fixes and to provide feedback on usable placements in existing and upcoming landing zones.\nSystem Design\nLast month, the Frankfurt designers spent time training the UK designers on how to build ship behaviors, as they will be taking over the bulk of the work in the future.\nRegarding combat AI, they built and adjusted behaviors for shotgun and pistol AI. This involved setting up timings and distances, making sure they reflect what a soldier equipped with these weapons would do in real life.\nThe team are also working on a large, overarching feature that deals with quantum fuel mining and refining. As part of this, they\u2019ve had to tackle several smaller features, such as introducing new mining lasers with different properties and consumables that can alter the mining process. A related but as-yet-undetermined feature is how to deal with dangerous and volatile cargo. To kick it off, the team are building a management interface to allow players to monitor the status of their cargo in situ. They also began designing the station refining UI which will allow players to take refining jobs, choose which elements they want to refine from their mixed materials, and how they want to refine it.\nTech Animation\nThe Tech Animation Team refined the Visio-to-Mannequin pipeline to make it easier to import state machines straight to Mannequin, which will save a lot of time. They also worked with the props and usable teams on several new and old usables, implementing new animations and providing animation-ready templates in Maya for quicker authoring. A socket addition to the pipeline was also created to give animators the possibility of swapping props around between different attach points on the character rig. They also investigated and fixed several small bugs in weapons content, usables, cinematics, gameplay animations, props, and design.\nTech Art\nTech Art started a refactor of the engine code base for the DNA system pipeline (DNA v2) and the facial runtime rig logic system. Both systems have gone through phases of heavy R&D and subsequent tech-hardening, so a refactor that will lead to greater modularity and versatility is the next logical step. The methodology and code behind the existing facial runtime rig logic for human heads will be generalized so that it can be applied not only to the face rigs of other alien species, but also to their bodies. It will even work with the arbitrary rigs that drive creatures and other animated entities that will eventually populate planets and the wider universe in general. This will allow the team to dynamically and procedurally create unique-looking variants from a limited-size pool of manually authored assets.\nTurbulent\n\nThe unified deployment of all services developed and maintained by Turbulent was also completed. This project suppressed the intermediary steps (both human and technical) needed to deploy services and will enable smoother future deployments. Streamlining service deployment also improves overall reliability and enables the easier creation of multiple independent and isolated QA environments, benefitting both DevOps and QA.\nThe Feature Team focused on polishing VoIP\/FoIP and started a new project aiming to review and evaluate architectural setup to optimize scalability.\nFor the RSI website, Turbulent supported the release of the RSI Mantis, Alpha 3.7, the Ship Showdown, and the CitizenCon microsite update. Regarding merchandise, they also integrated two warehouses \u2013 one for US orders and a second for international orders.\n\n\n\n\nUser Interface (UI)\nOne of the team\u2019s tasks last month was creating the interior screens of New Babbage, which involved defining a UI style that fits the microTech brand. They also kicked off animated adverts for microTech products. Another area of focus was the new \u2018actor status\u2019 display. This is a new way to display a player character\u2019s health and will eventually form part of the updated visor. As usual, they worked on new features for the custom UI system, including an animation system that\u2019ll make it easier to move away from the legacy flash UI, and one to add text decals to ships.\nVFX\nAside from bug fixing and polishing for the Alpha 3.7 patches, VFX worked heavily on planet effect improvements, specifically on the engineering side. This included particle scattering queries, height-based wind calculations, a new half-resolution option for particles, and the ability to spawn volumetric fog as part of near-effect LODs.\nThe VFX artists started on mining improvements, including VFX for different beam types and modifiers to the existing beams. They also refined the upcoming Rest Stop interior effects, weapons, and ships. The VFX tech artists continued to improve the workflow for gas clouds and the low-poly building generator tool. WE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026"},"links_count":8,"comment_count":46,"created_at":"2019-11-06T00:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"6 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-07 21:47:54","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":17339,"next_id":17342}}