{"data":{"id":17510,"title":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report: February 2020","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/17510-Squadron-42-Monthly-Report-February-2020","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/17510","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/17510","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. As a result, we now have key information on the methodology behind cinematics, approved unique UI designs, and how to make a perfect head of hair.\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\nAI\nCharacter Combat kick off February\u2019s report, who spent the month making progress on combat behaviors, specifically iterating on the assault and hold position tactics. They improved the Reservation Manager System usually employed to reserve object use in the world. This was achieved by adding the ability for NPCs to reserve volumes of space to correctly position themselves and retain the knowledge of where the AI wants them to go. They began adjusting the AI system to accommodate server meshing. The main requirement for this is to split the responsibility of the different systems by server so that the Networking Team can correctly test and identify problems as soon as possible. They\u2019re also tweaking the navigation system to better support the object container streaming level design workflow. This involves constructing a pipeline where navigation data is embedded in each container to improve control over which portions of data are loaded. Also, time was dedicated to the routine code clean-up that\u2019s crucial to keeping the ever-growing code base efficient and readable. This clean-up focused mostly on flight-related Subsumption tasks with heavily repeated (or \u2018boilerplate\u2019) code that could be abstracted away to reduce the likelihood of errors when implementing new tasks.\n\nShip AI completed the first iteration of the full 3D navigation system for NPC ships. The system is currently with QA for testing before it\u2019s integrated into Alpha 3.9. This is an important step as it offers new opportunities to implement more diverse missions not limited to open-space environments. Thanks to dynamic collision avoidance, they were able to remove the current speed limits on all AI ships. Instead of a capped standard combat mode (SCM) speed, NPCs can now set their own according to the desired relative goal velocity.\n\n\n\nSocial AI continued polishing vendor behavior, readying it for use in the bar setups and shops. Last month\u2019s focus was preparing and delivering drinks and cocktails \u2013 a multi-disciplinary effort that will define the pipeline for all future social environments work in the PU. When finished, the team will be able to generate content and create templates for multiple layouts much quicker. Currently, the vendor can pick up and deliver anything that already exists in the world, such as a bottle of beer, and prepare many things that don\u2019t, such as a cocktail. They\u2019re also working on other social behaviors, such as fitness and janitor activities. Both leverage the in-development \u2018path scripting\u2019 functionality. The purpose of this is to use the environment to define the AI\u2019s possible options, such as cleaning and patrolling, and can be used to simplify the scripting of story scenes. It works by allowing a designer to lay down paths in the environment, create branches for each vertex, and define which subsumption logic can be executed and which conditions should be met.\n\n\n\nArt (Characters)\nCharacter\u2019s February focus was on hair, uniforms, and quality. They completed two new hairstyles, including that of Captain Noah White. They thoroughly tested the Maya tools for hair authoring and are extremely pleased with the results and how the tool\u2019s holding up to full production. They currently working on blonde hair, investigating how it behaves with the current shader; the aim is to make it as realistic a shade as possible. They also continued making passes on character heads and have started work on the rest of the Bridge Officer Uniform assets. Next on the list are battledress uniforms, which are expected to take two months to complete in their entirety.\n\nCinematics\n\u201c\u2018Real-time, all the time\u2019 isn\u2019t just a mantra that veteran real-time engine users appreciate, it\u2019s often the reason they fell in love with the workflows and engine in the first place. It enables artists and designers to quickly iterate without having to resort to offline build processes or tools not capable of giving real-time results, making creative decision-making instant and not reliant on delayed feedback loops. During tools production, we have to write this mantra on a battle banner and wave it every time new tech is built. With a technologically challenging and beyond cutting-edge game universe, the push to keep things in real-time can become complex. For example, in cinematics, it\u2019s magnitudes easier to resort to a traditional offline rendering workflow. Offline, you can crank up the detail, lighting, shadows, motion blur, LODs, and depth of field to the max before rendering out an image sequence and cutting the final sequence together in video-editing software. However, the end-result is a video with fixed resolution and bitrate that then has to be added to the build using a video codec that can highlight that elements or full sequences aren\u2019t real-time. To maintain authenticity and immersion in SQ42, the goal has always been to push for real-time cinematics during even the biggest set-piece sequences.\u201d\n- The Cinematics Team\n\nFebruary saw Cinematics push one of the most challenging sequences through its second pass, locking down the timing before starting VFX and destruction simulation. The upgraded TrackView sequencer tool was completed, finally enabling the team to edit these long, epic sequences in real-time. They added several sub-sequence abilities and a camera priority logic based on the sequence sitting on top. These sequences behave like video clips, making it possible to edit complex setups in real-time, shifting each sub-sequence around on the master timeline. For example, the team can have individual capital ships and exterior fleets on separate sequences and combine them all in a master, with the ability to quickly assert where they want the camera cuts to happen. Another challenge is to get the streaming system working when cutting back and forth between several distant locations. Most game-streaming tech is built with the assumption shots aren\u2019t constantly cutting back and forth between different locales, so getting this polished is the upcoming focus for the team\u2019s workflow.\n\nEngineering\nIn Frankfurt, Engineering worked on physics threading and performance, including investigating the full parallelization of integration parts in physics time step-code, multithreading the polygonize function for interior volumes, continuing concurrent\/immediate queuing for physics, implementing local command queues, and adding an option to create queues on demand. They began finalizing and integrating the new signed distance field (SDF) system to accelerate collision checks on complex geometry and increase the precision of results. Unified fields can now be animated as any other part (they\u2019re still special in some regards, but can be seen as a regular part from the outside) and distance fields on objects can be taken into account when sampling distances.\n\nOptimization-wise, they disabled physics on skin attachments and made OC and SDF-size improvements and allocation optimizations for interior volumes. They enabled foliage to support 64-bit precision status updates and zones, made render proxy for ropes work with the zone system, continued work on death reaction animations, and provided support for actor\/ragdoll body dragging.\n\nWork was done to the zone system, while a culling update thread to parallelize updates of spatial culling structures was introduced. The team optimized streaming by skipping many unnecessary atomic operations on smart pointer copies and reduced the parallelization of occlusion culling. They also made improvements to the concurrent access check (support checking RW-lock semantics) and WAF improvements.\n\nIn support of the Gen12 renderer and Vulkan, they generalized texture views, refactored the texture creation process and remaining D3D texture view code, added MSAA support, removed old direct VB\/IB memory access code, added ViewInfo for access to common view\/camera related parameters, and looked into moving shader parsing into the resource container. The first improvement pass for hair AO was made, which is now coupled with color, and dye shift softness was introduced. Ocean shader improvements were made too by porting ocean rendering to deferred and further working on cube map reflections.\n\nThe raymarcher was simplified by removing the explicit evaluations of segments to significantly compact generated code and reduce register usage. Non-linear stepping for raymarching was also implemented to improve quality at a reduced number of samples. Planet terrain was iterated on to support the rendering of large ground-based objects on the height and shadow maps. A persona live mo-cap plugin for the editor was created too. Finally, animation code was amended to ensure ragdolls work with ground alignment and the CHR chunk loader was simplified to initialize physics (which is still ongoing).\n\nSpecifically for SQ42, the team completed their work on the interrupt, rejoin, and abandon functionality for story scenes. They\u2019re currently fixing various edge cases and visual problems, such as animation glitches, and adding a new system to give the designers better control over when and how events are triggered. Engineering also supported the cinematic designers with their required TrackView requirements, making sure everything works in the intended manner.\n\nGameplay Story\nFebruary was a busy but productive month for Gameplay Story, who worked on a wide variety of scenes, including supporting Design with animations for the abandon mechanic. They also reviewed NPC conversations with Design and Narrative, adding extra dialogue to make them more natural. All med-bay scenes in chapter six were updated to add proper start and end idles wherever possible. This was an extensive overhaul, resulting in conversations that can be triggered with much greater control. This will ensure the scenes look good and play out with the desired pacing. A scene with two characters carrying a large box up a ramp was completed after considerable mo-cap stitching and is currently looking great. Finally for Gameplay Story, new actor records and loadouts were created so several scene setups can be finalized.\n\nGraphics\nThe Graphics Team continued crucial work on the Gen12\/Vulkan renderer, converting the tiled-lighting and dynamic geometry systems to the new rendering paradigm. They also made various improvements to the automated testing system necessary to ensuring stability for the designers and artists.\n\nLevel Design\nThe Social Team, in collaboration with Animation and Engineering, continued work on narrative sequences and the abandon functionally. They\u2019re currently focusing on early full-chapter playthroughs that introduce players to the life of a UEEN pilot. They continue to work closely with the FPS AI Feature Team to place and refine AI behaviors. One of the main aims is to have NPCs behave realistically, regardless of the environment they\u2019re placed in. The game\u2019s levels are designed to be architecturally believable spaces, so the AI needs to adapt to them in believable ways. The Dogfighting Team are working with Flight AI to refine scenarios that require custom engineering support. They\u2019re also supporting the ongoing ambient ship-life work and take-off\/landing updates.\n\nNarrative\nSome of the US-based Narrative Team visited the UK studios to review the latest level progress and oversee a female-character mo-cap session. They also reviewed the smaller NPC conversations with the Gameplay Story Team to ensure they\u2019re as believable as possible.\n\nQA\nCombat and Ship AI test cases were implemented, which the team will start testing regularly. They\u2019re still tasked with creating recorded client scene captures of individual chapters and are currently investigating issues hindering the cinematics workflow.\n\nTech Animation\nTech Animation improved visuals for character loadouts alongside Character Art and Cinematic Design. They added engine loadouts to Maya to enable the animators to complete their polish pass on the same loadout the characters will wear in-game. The animation workflow was improved by fixing several bugs and adding tools to the pipeline to speed up the bake process for bigger scenes.\n\nSeveral new weapons reached Tech Animation, while the Social AI Team was supported with new usables for sitting, standing, exercise spots, and the bartender. They also worked with Props to solve problems with their rigger tool and fixed bugs for Design, Animation, and Art.\n\n\n\nTech Art\nLast month, Tech Animation implemented a new rig-logic editing plugin command for Maya. For performance and efficiency, the backend was implemented in C++. The Qt-based frontend\/UI layer is currently implemented using python. While the Vanduul face rigs already use this new runtime rig logic, all 120+ human face-rigs will soon be ported over to the new system.\n\nUser Interface (UI)\nFebruary saw UI helping the Actor Team finalize visuals for the Inner Thought radial menu. After a lot of concepting and UI design, the new SQ42-specific visor and visual target were approved. Prototyping is ongoing before code work begins next month.\n\nVFX\nThe UK\u2019s VFX Team closed out the month tweaking several existing background effects and taking advantage of recent improvements to the particle system\u2019s parent\/child hierarchy. Investigation into further methods of triggering particle effects through gas tech was started too.\n\nIn Frankfurt, the team worked with the programmers to lockdown the final list of features required for SQ42. This included fixing long-standing bugs on the GPU system, including inconsistencies with parent\/child spawning, to give a much deeper hierarchy and more complex effects. This was tested with firework VFX that pushed the system to its limits and helped uncover previously unknown bugs.\n\n\n\nWE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026","de_DE":"Dies ist ein Querverweis auf den Bericht, der k\u00fcrzlich \u00fcber den monatlichen Squadron 42-Newsletter verschickt wurde. Wir ver\u00f6ffentlichen ihn ein zweites Mal als Comm-Link, um es der Gemeinschaft zu erleichtern, auf ihn zur\u00fcckzugreifen.\nAchtung Rekruten,\n\nWas Sie gleich lesen werden, sind die neuesten Informationen \u00fcber die weitere Entwicklung der Staffel 42 (SCI des: SQ42).\nOperateure auf der ganzen Welt haben die notwendigen Informationen gesammelt, um Ihnen diesen Fortschrittsbericht zur Verf\u00fcgung zu stellen. Als Ergebnis haben wir nun Schl\u00fcsselinformationen \u00fcber die Methodik hinter der Kinematik, \u00fcber genehmigte einzigartige UI-Designs und dar\u00fcber, wie man einen perfekten Haarkopf herstellt.\n\nDie in dieser Mitteilung enthaltenen Informationen sind \u00e4u\u00dferst sensibel, und es ist von gr\u00f6\u00dfter Wichtigkeit, dass sie nicht in die falschen H\u00e4nde gelangen. L\u00f6schen Sie alle Aufzeichnungen nach dem Lesen.\n\nOberkommando der UEE-Marine\n\nKI\nCharacter Combat ist der Auftakt zum Februar-Bericht, der den Monat damit verbrachte, Fortschritte im Kampfverhalten zu erzielen, insbesondere durch Wiederholung der Angriffs- und Haltepositionstaktik. Sie verbesserten das Reservations-Manager-System, das normalerweise f\u00fcr den Einsatz von Objekten in der Welt eingesetzt wird. Dies wurde dadurch erreicht, dass die NPCs nun in der Lage sind, Raumvolumina zu reservieren, um sich korrekt zu positionieren und das Wissen dar\u00fcber zu behalten, wohin die KI sie f\u00fchren soll. Sie begannen damit, das KI-System so anzupassen, dass es die Vermaschung von Servern erm\u00f6glicht. Die wichtigste Voraussetzung daf\u00fcr ist die Aufteilung der Verantwortung der verschiedenen Systeme nach Servern, damit das Networking-Team Probleme so schnell wie m\u00f6glich korrekt testen und identifizieren kann. Au\u00dferdem passen sie das Navigationssystem an, um den Workflow f\u00fcr das Design der Streaming-Ebene von Objektcontainern besser zu unterst\u00fctzen. Dazu geh\u00f6rt der Aufbau einer Pipeline, bei der Navigationsdaten in jeden Container eingebettet werden, um die Kontrolle dar\u00fcber zu verbessern, welche Datenteile geladen werden. Au\u00dferdem wurde Zeit f\u00fcr die routinem\u00e4\u00dfige Code-Bereinigung aufgewendet, die entscheidend daf\u00fcr ist, die st\u00e4ndig wachsende Code-Basis effizient und lesbar zu halten. Diese Bereinigung konzentrierte sich vor allem auf flugbezogene Subsumtionsaufgaben mit stark wiederholtem (oder \"Boilerplate\"-)Code, der weg abstrahiert werden konnte, um die Wahrscheinlichkeit von Fehlern bei der Implementierung neuer Aufgaben zu verringern.\nDie Schiffs-KI schloss die erste Iteration des vollst\u00e4ndigen 3D-Navigationssystems f\u00fcr NPC-Schiffe ab. Das System wird derzeit von der QA getestet, bevor es in Alpha 3.9 integriert wird. Dies ist ein wichtiger Schritt, da es neue M\u00f6glichkeiten zur Umsetzung vielf\u00e4ltiger Missionen bietet, die nicht auf Freifeldumgebungen beschr\u00e4nkt sind. Dank der dynamischen Kollisionsvermeidung konnten die derzeitigen Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzungen auf allen KI-Schiffen aufgehoben werden. Statt einer begrenzten Standardkampfmodus-Geschwindigkeit (SCM) k\u00f6nnen die NPCs nun ihre eigene Geschwindigkeit entsprechend der gew\u00fcnschten relativen Zielgeschwindigkeit einstellen.\n\n\nDie soziale KI hat das Verhalten der Anbieter weiter poliert und f\u00fcr den Einsatz in den Barbetrieben und Gesch\u00e4ften vorbereitet. Im letzten Monat lag der Schwerpunkt auf der Vorbereitung und Lieferung von Getr\u00e4nken und Cocktails - eine multidisziplin\u00e4re Anstrengung, die die Pipeline f\u00fcr alle zuk\u00fcnftigen Arbeiten im sozialen Umfeld der PU definieren wird. Nach Abschluss der Arbeit wird das Team in der Lage sein, Inhalte zu generieren und Vorlagen f\u00fcr verschiedene Layouts viel schneller zu erstellen. Zurzeit kann der Anbieter alles abholen und liefern, was es bereits auf der Welt gibt, z.B. eine Flasche Bier, und viele Dinge vorbereiten, die es nicht gibt, z.B. einen Cocktail. Sie arbeiten auch an anderen sozialen Verhaltensweisen, wie z.B. Fitness und Hausmeistert\u00e4tigkeiten. Beide nutzen die in der Entwicklung befindliche \"Pfad-Scripting\"-Funktionalit\u00e4t. Sie dienen dazu, die Umgebung zu nutzen, um die m\u00f6glichen Optionen der KI zu definieren, wie z.B. Reinigung und Patrouillenfahrten, und k\u00f6nnen dazu verwendet werden, das Skripting von Geschichtenszenen zu vereinfachen. Es funktioniert, indem es einem Designer erlaubt, Pfade in der Umgebung festzulegen, Verzweigungen f\u00fcr jeden Vertex zu erstellen und zu definieren, welche Subsumtionslogik ausgef\u00fchrt werden kann und welche Bedingungen erf\u00fcllt sein sollten.\n\n\nKunst (Zeichen)\nDer Schwerpunkt von Character lag im Februar auf Haar, Uniformen und Qualit\u00e4t. Sie stellten zwei neue Frisuren fertig, darunter die von Captain Noah White. Sie testeten die Maya-Werkzeuge f\u00fcr das Haar-Authoring ausgiebig und sind mit den Ergebnissen und der Haltbarkeit des Werkzeugs bis zur vollen Produktion \u00e4u\u00dferst zufrieden. Derzeit arbeiten sie an blondem Haar und untersuchen, wie es sich mit dem aktuellen Shader verh\u00e4lt; Ziel ist es, es so realistisch wie m\u00f6glich zu machen. Sie haben auch weiterhin auf die Charakterk\u00f6pfe verzichtet und haben mit der Arbeit an den restlichen Vorz\u00fcgen der Br\u00fcckenoffizier-Uniform begonnen. Als n\u00e4chstes stehen die Kampfanz\u00fcge auf der Liste, deren vollst\u00e4ndige Fertigstellung voraussichtlich zwei Monate dauern wird.\nFilmkunst\n\"'Echtzeit, die ganze Zeit' ist nicht nur ein Mantra, das erfahrene Benutzer von Echtzeit-Engines sch\u00e4tzen, sondern oft auch der Grund, warum sie sich \u00fcberhaupt in die Workflows und die Engine verliebt haben. Sie erm\u00f6glicht es K\u00fcnstlern und Designern, schnell zu iterieren, ohne auf Offline-Bauprozesse oder Tools zur\u00fcckgreifen zu m\u00fcssen, die keine Echtzeitergebnisse liefern k\u00f6nnen, und macht kreative Entscheidungen sofort und ohne verz\u00f6gerte Feedback-Schleifen m\u00f6glich. W\u00e4hrend der Produktion von Werkzeugen m\u00fcssen wir dieses Mantra auf ein Kampfbanner schreiben und es jedes Mal schwenken, wenn neue Technik gebaut wird. In einem technologisch herausfordernden und \u00fcber die Grenzen des modernen Spieluniversums hinausgehenden Universums kann der Druck, die Dinge in Echtzeit zu halten, komplex werden. In der Filmkunst ist es beispielsweise einfacher, auf einen traditionellen Offline-Rendering-Workflow zur\u00fcckzugreifen. Offline k\u00f6nnen Sie die Details, Beleuchtung, Schatten, Bewegungsunsch\u00e4rfe, LODs und Tiefensch\u00e4rfe bis zum Maximum steigern, bevor Sie eine Bildsequenz rendern und die endg\u00fcltige Sequenz in einer Videobearbeitungssoftware zusammenschneiden. Das Endergebnis ist jedoch ein Video mit fester Aufl\u00f6sung und Bitrate, das dann mit Hilfe eines Videocodecs, der hervorheben kann, dass Elemente oder vollst\u00e4ndige Sequenzen nicht in Echtzeit vorliegen, in das Build eingef\u00fcgt werden muss. Um die Authentizit\u00e4t und das Eintauchen in SQ42 zu gew\u00e4hrleisten, war es schon immer das Ziel, selbst bei den gr\u00f6\u00dften Sequenzen des Filmsatzes auf Echtzeit-Kinofilme zu dr\u00e4ngen.\n- Das Filmteam\nIm Februar hat Cinematics eine der anspruchsvollsten Sequenzen durch den zweiten Durchgang geschoben und das Timing vor dem Start der VFX- und Zerst\u00f6rungssimulation festgelegt. Das aktualisierte TrackView-Sequenzer-Tool wurde fertiggestellt, so dass das Team diese langen, epischen Sequenzen nun endlich in Echtzeit bearbeiten kann. Es f\u00fcgte mehrere Untersequenz-F\u00e4higkeiten und eine auf der Sequenz basierende Kamerapriorit\u00e4tslogik hinzu. Diese Sequenzen verhalten sich wie Videoclips, so dass es m\u00f6glich ist, komplexe Setups in Echtzeit zu bearbeiten, wobei jede Teilsequenz auf der Master-Zeitachse verschoben wird. So kann das Team beispielsweise einzelne Gro\u00dfkampfschiffe und Au\u00dfenflotten auf separaten Sequenzen haben und sie alle in einem Master kombinieren, mit der F\u00e4higkeit, schnell zu behaupten, wo die Kameraschnitte stattfinden sollen. Eine weitere Herausforderung besteht darin, das Streaming-System zum Einsatz zu bringen, wenn zwischen mehreren entfernten Orten hin- und hergeschnitten wird. Bei den meisten Streaming-Technologien wird davon ausgegangen, dass die Aufnahmen nicht st\u00e4ndig zwischen verschiedenen Orten hin- und hergeschnitten werden. Daher wird der Schwerpunkt des Arbeitsablaufs des Teams in Zukunft darauf liegen, dies aufzupolieren.\nTechnik\nIn Frankfurt arbeitete die Technik an Physics Threading und Performance, einschlie\u00dflich der Untersuchung der vollst\u00e4ndigen Parallelisierung von Integrationsteilen im Physics Time Step Code, Multithreading der Polygonize-Funktion f\u00fcr Innenvolumen, Fortsetzung des Concurrent\/Intermediate Queuing f\u00fcr die Physik, Implementierung lokaler Befehlswarteschlangen und Hinzuf\u00fcgen einer Option zur Erstellung von Warteschlangen bei Bedarf. Sie begannen mit der Fertigstellung und Integration des neuen SDF-Systems (Signed Distance Field), um die Kollisionspr\u00fcfung komplexer Geometrien zu beschleunigen und die Pr\u00e4zision der Ergebnisse zu erh\u00f6hen. Vereinheitlichte Felder k\u00f6nnen nun wie jeder andere Teil animiert werden (sie sind in mancher Hinsicht immer noch speziell, k\u00f6nnen aber von au\u00dfen als regul\u00e4rer Teil betrachtet werden) und Abstandsfelder auf Objekten k\u00f6nnen bei der Abtastung von Abst\u00e4nden ber\u00fccksichtigt werden.\nIn Bezug auf die Optimierung haben sie die Physik auf Hautanh\u00e4ngen deaktiviert und Verbesserungen der OC- und SDF-Gr\u00f6\u00dfe sowie Zuordnungsoptimierungen f\u00fcr Innenvolumen vorgenommen. Sie erm\u00f6glichten die Unterst\u00fctzung von Statusaktualisierungen und Zonen mit 64-Bit-Pr\u00e4zision im Blattwerk, lie\u00dfen Proxy-Rendering f\u00fcr Seile mit dem Zonensystem arbeiten, setzten die Arbeit an Animationen der Todesreaktion fort und unterst\u00fctzten das Ziehen von Schauspielern\/Ragdoll-K\u00f6rpern.\nEs wurde an dem Zonensystem gearbeitet, w\u00e4hrend ein Aktualisierungs-Thread f\u00fcr die Keulung eingef\u00fchrt wurde, um Aktualisierungen der r\u00e4umlichen Keulungsstrukturen zu parallelisieren. Das Team optimierte das Streaming, indem es viele unn\u00f6tige atomare Operationen auf Smart-Pointer-Kopien \u00fcbersprang und die Parallelisierung des Occlusion Culling reduzierte. Sie nahmen auch Verbesserungen bei der Pr\u00fcfung des gleichzeitigen Zugriffs (Unterst\u00fctzung der Pr\u00fcfung der RW-Lock-Semantik) und Verbesserungen der WAF vor.\nZur Unterst\u00fctzung des Gen12-Renderers und von Vulkan wurden Texturansichten verallgemeinert, der Texturerzeugungsprozess und der verbleibende D3D-Texturansichtscode \u00fcberarbeitet, MSAA-Unterst\u00fctzung hinzugef\u00fcgt, der alte direkte VB\/IB-Speicherzugriffscode entfernt, ViewInfo f\u00fcr den Zugriff auf g\u00e4ngige ansichts- und kamerabezogene Parameter hinzugef\u00fcgt und das Verschieben des Shader-Parsing in den Ressourcencontainer untersucht. Der erste Verbesserungsdurchgang f\u00fcr Haar-AO wurde durchgef\u00fchrt, der nun mit Farbe gekoppelt ist, und es wurde eine Weichheit der Farbstoffverschiebung eingef\u00fchrt. Verbesserungen bei den Ozean-Shadern wurden ebenfalls vorgenommen, indem das Ozean-Rendering auf verz\u00f6gerte und weitere Arbeiten an W\u00fcrfelkartenreflexionen \u00fcbertragen wurden.\nDer Raymarcher wurde vereinfacht, indem die expliziten Auswertungen von Segmenten entfernt wurden, um den generierten Code deutlich zu verdichten und die Verwendung von Registern zu reduzieren. Au\u00dferdem wurde ein nichtlinearer Schritt f\u00fcr das Raymarchen implementiert, um die Qualit\u00e4t bei einer reduzierten Anzahl von Proben zu verbessern. Das Planetengel\u00e4nde wurde iterativ bearbeitet, um die Darstellung gro\u00dfer bodengebundener Objekte auf den H\u00f6hen- und Schattenkarten zu unterst\u00fctzen. Es wurde auch ein Live-Mo-Cap-Plugin f\u00fcr den Editor erstellt. Schlie\u00dflich wurde der Animationscode ge\u00e4ndert, um sicherzustellen, dass die Ragdolls mit der Bodenausrichtung arbeiten, und der CHR-Chunk-Lader wurde vereinfacht, um die Physik zu initialisieren (was noch nicht abgeschlossen ist).\nSpeziell f\u00fcr SQ42 schloss das Team seine Arbeit an der Unterbrechung, dem Wiedereintritt und dem Verzicht auf die Funktionalit\u00e4t f\u00fcr Story-Szenen ab. Sie beheben derzeit verschiedene Randf\u00e4lle und visuelle Probleme, wie z.B. Animationsst\u00f6rungen, und f\u00fcgen ein neues System hinzu, um den Designern eine bessere Kontrolle dar\u00fcber zu geben, wann und wie Ereignisse ausgel\u00f6st werden. Die Technik unterst\u00fctzte die Filmdesigner auch bei den erforderlichen TrackView-Anforderungen, um sicherzustellen, dass alles in der vorgesehenen Weise funktioniert.\nSpielgeschichte\nDer Februar war ein arbeitsreicher, aber produktiver Monat f\u00fcr Gameplay Story, der an einer Vielzahl von Szenen arbeitete, darunter auch die Unterst\u00fctzung des Designs mit Animationen f\u00fcr den Abandon-Mechaniker. Sie \u00fcberpr\u00fcften auch die Gespr\u00e4che der NPCs mit Design und Narrative und f\u00fcgten zus\u00e4tzliche Dialoge hinzu, um sie nat\u00fcrlicher zu gestalten. Alle Med-Bay-Szenen in Kapitel sechs wurden aktualisiert, um, wo immer m\u00f6glich, korrekte Start- und End-Idle-Szenen hinzuzuf\u00fcgen. Dies war eine umfassende \u00dcberarbeitung, die zu Gespr\u00e4chen f\u00fchrte, die mit viel mehr Kontrolle ausgel\u00f6st werden k\u00f6nnen. Dadurch wird sichergestellt, dass die Szenen gut aussehen und mit dem gew\u00fcnschten Tempo ablaufen. Eine Szene mit zwei Figuren, die eine gro\u00dfe Kiste eine Rampe hinauftragen, wurde nach einer betr\u00e4chtlichen Mo-Cap-Naht fertiggestellt und sieht derzeit gro\u00dfartig aus. Schlie\u00dflich wurden f\u00fcr die Gameplay-Story neue Schauspieleraufnahmen und Ladevorg\u00e4nge erstellt, so dass mehrere Szenen-Setups fertig gestellt werden k\u00f6nnen.\nGrafiken\nDas Grafikteam setzte die entscheidende Arbeit am Gen12\/Vulkan-Renderer fort und konvertierte die Systeme f\u00fcr Kachellicht und dynamische Geometrie in das neue Rendering-Paradigma. Sie machten auch verschiedene Verbesserungen am automatisierten Testsystem notwendig, um die Stabilit\u00e4t f\u00fcr die Designer und K\u00fcnstler zu gew\u00e4hrleisten.\nLevel-Design\nDas Sozialteam setzte in Zusammenarbeit mit Animation und Technik die Arbeit an den Erz\u00e4hlsequenzen und dem Verzicht auf die Funktion fort. Derzeit konzentrieren sie sich auf fr\u00fche, kapitelweise Durchspiele, die die Spieler in das Leben eines UEEN-Piloten einf\u00fchren. Sie arbeiten weiterhin eng mit dem FPS AI Feature Team zusammen, um das Verhalten der KI zu platzieren und zu verfeinern. Eines der Hauptziele ist es, dass sich die NPCs realistisch verhalten, unabh\u00e4ngig von der Umgebung, in der sie sich befinden. Die Ebenen des Spiels sind so gestaltet, dass sie architektonisch glaubw\u00fcrdige R\u00e4ume sind, daher muss sich die KI auf glaubw\u00fcrdige Weise an sie anpassen. Das Dogfighting-Team arbeitet mit der Flug-KI zusammen, um Szenarien zu verfeinern, die eine individuelle technische Unterst\u00fctzung erfordern. Sie unterst\u00fctzen auch die laufenden Arbeiten an der Umgebung und die Aktualisierungen der Schiffslebensdauer und der Start-\/Landung.\nErz\u00e4hlung\nEinige Mitglieder des in den USA ans\u00e4ssigen Erz\u00e4hlteams besuchten die britischen Studios, um die neuesten Fortschritte zu \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen und eine Sitzung mit Frauenfiguren zu beaufsichtigen. Sie \u00fcberpr\u00fcften auch die kleineren NPC-Gespr\u00e4che mit dem Gameplay Story Team, um sicherzustellen, dass sie so glaubw\u00fcrdig wie m\u00f6glich sind.\nQA\nEs wurden Kampf- und Schiffs-KI-Testf\u00e4lle implementiert, die das Team nun regelm\u00e4\u00dfig testen wird. Sie sind immer noch mit der Erstellung von aufgezeichneten Kundenszenenaufnahmen einzelner Kapitel beauftragt und untersuchen derzeit Probleme, die den filmischen Workflow behindern.\nTechnische Animation\nDie Tech-Animation verbesserte das visuelle Erscheinungsbild f\u00fcr das Laden von Charakteren neben Character Art und Cinematic Design. Sie f\u00fcgten den Maya-Engine-Auslastungen hinzu, damit die Animatoren ihren letzten Schliff mit derselben Auslastung erhalten, die die Charaktere im Spiel tragen werden. Der Animations-Workflow wurde durch die Behebung verschiedener Fehler und das Hinzuf\u00fcgen von Werkzeugen zur Pipeline verbessert, um den Backprozess f\u00fcr gr\u00f6\u00dfere Szenen zu beschleunigen.\nMehrere neue Waffen erreichten die Tech Animation, w\u00e4hrend das soziale KI-Team mit neuen Gebrauchsgegenst\u00e4nden f\u00fcr das Sitzen, Stehen, \u00dcbungspl\u00e4tze und den Barkeeper unterst\u00fctzt wurde. Sie arbeiteten auch mit Props zusammen, um Probleme mit ihrem Rigger-Tool zu l\u00f6sen und Fehler f\u00fcr Design, Animation und Kunst zu beheben.\n\n\nTechnische Kunst\nLetzten Monat implementierte Tech Animation einen neuen Rig-Logic-Editing-Plugin-Befehl f\u00fcr Maya. Aus Gr\u00fcnden der Leistung und Effizienz wurde das Backend in C++ implementiert. Die Qt-basierte Frontend\/UI-Schicht wird derzeit mit Python implementiert. W\u00e4hrend die Vanduul-Face-Rigs bereits diese neue Runtime-Rig-Logik verwenden, werden bald alle \u00fcber 120 Human Face-Rigs auf das neue System portiert werden.\nBenutzerschnittstelle (UI)\nIm Februar half die Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che dem Schauspieler-Team bei der Fertigstellung der Visuals f\u00fcr das Radialmen\u00fc \"Inner Thought\". Nach einer Menge an Konzepten und UI-Design wurden das neue SQ42-spezifische Visier und das visuelle Ziel genehmigt. Die Prototypentwicklung ist im Gange, bevor im n\u00e4chsten Monat die Code-Arbeiten beginnen.\nVFX\nDas britische VFX-Team schloss den Monat ab, indem es mehrere bestehende Hintergrundeffekte korrigierte und die j\u00fcngsten Verbesserungen der Eltern-Kind-Hierarchie des Partikelsystems nutzte. Die Untersuchung weiterer Methoden zur Ausl\u00f6sung von Partikeleffekten durch Gastechnik wurde ebenfalls begonnen.\nIn Frankfurt arbeitete das Team zusammen mit den Programmierern an der endg\u00fcltigen Liste der f\u00fcr SQ42 erforderlichen Funktionen. Dazu geh\u00f6rte die Behebung langj\u00e4hriger Fehler auf dem GPU-System, einschlie\u00dflich Inkonsistenzen mit der Eltern\/Kind-Laichf\u00e4higkeit, um eine viel tiefere Hierarchie und komplexere Effekte zu erreichen. Dies wurde mit dem Feuerwerk VFX getestet, das das System an seine Grenzen brachte und half, bisher unbekannte Fehler aufzudecken.\n\n\nWIR SEHEN UNS N\u00c4CHSTEN MONAT...","zh_CN":"This is a cross-post of the report that was recently sent out via the monthly Squadron 42 newsletter. We\u2019re publishing this a second time as a Comm-Link to make it easier for the community to reference back to.\nAttention Recruits,\n\nWhat you are about to read is the latest information on the continuing development of Squadron 42 (SCI des: SQ42).\nOperatives around the world collected the intel needed to provide you with this progress report. As a result, we now have key information on the methodology behind cinematics, approved unique UI designs, and how to make a perfect head of hair.\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\nAI\nCharacter Combat kick off February\u2019s report, who spent the month making progress on combat behaviors, specifically iterating on the assault and hold position tactics. They improved the Reservation Manager System usually employed to reserve object use in the world. This was achieved by adding the ability for NPCs to reserve volumes of space to correctly position themselves and retain the knowledge of where the AI wants them to go. They began adjusting the AI system to accommodate server meshing. The main requirement for this is to split the responsibility of the different systems by server so that the Networking Team can correctly test and identify problems as soon as possible. They\u2019re also tweaking the navigation system to better support the object container streaming level design workflow. This involves constructing a pipeline where navigation data is embedded in each container to improve control over which portions of data are loaded. Also, time was dedicated to the routine code clean-up that\u2019s crucial to keeping the ever-growing code base efficient and readable. This clean-up focused mostly on flight-related Subsumption tasks with heavily repeated (or \u2018boilerplate\u2019) code that could be abstracted away to reduce the likelihood of errors when implementing new tasks.\n\nShip AI completed the first iteration of the full 3D navigation system for NPC ships. The system is currently with QA for testing before it\u2019s integrated into Alpha 3.9. This is an important step as it offers new opportunities to implement more diverse missions not limited to open-space environments. Thanks to dynamic collision avoidance, they were able to remove the current speed limits on all AI ships. Instead of a capped standard combat mode (SCM) speed, NPCs can now set their own according to the desired relative goal velocity.\n\n\n\nSocial AI continued polishing vendor behavior, readying it for use in the bar setups and shops. Last month\u2019s focus was preparing and delivering drinks and cocktails \u2013 a multi-disciplinary effort that will define the pipeline for all future social environments work in the PU. When finished, the team will be able to generate content and create templates for multiple layouts much quicker. Currently, the vendor can pick up and deliver anything that already exists in the world, such as a bottle of beer, and prepare many things that don\u2019t, such as a cocktail. They\u2019re also working on other social behaviors, such as fitness and janitor activities. Both leverage the in-development \u2018path scripting\u2019 functionality. The purpose of this is to use the environment to define the AI\u2019s possible options, such as cleaning and patrolling, and can be used to simplify the scripting of story scenes. It works by allowing a designer to lay down paths in the environment, create branches for each vertex, and define which subsumption logic can be executed and which conditions should be met.\n\n\n\nArt (Characters)\nCharacter\u2019s February focus was on hair, uniforms, and quality. They completed two new hairstyles, including that of Captain Noah White. They thoroughly tested the Maya tools for hair authoring and are extremely pleased with the results and how the tool\u2019s holding up to full production. They currently working on blonde hair, investigating how it behaves with the current shader; the aim is to make it as realistic a shade as possible. They also continued making passes on character heads and have started work on the rest of the Bridge Officer Uniform assets. Next on the list are battledress uniforms, which are expected to take two months to complete in their entirety.\n\nCinematics\n\u201c\u2018Real-time, all the time\u2019 isn\u2019t just a mantra that veteran real-time engine users appreciate, it\u2019s often the reason they fell in love with the workflows and engine in the first place. It enables artists and designers to quickly iterate without having to resort to offline build processes or tools not capable of giving real-time results, making creative decision-making instant and not reliant on delayed feedback loops. During tools production, we have to write this mantra on a battle banner and wave it every time new tech is built. With a technologically challenging and beyond cutting-edge game universe, the push to keep things in real-time can become complex. For example, in cinematics, it\u2019s magnitudes easier to resort to a traditional offline rendering workflow. Offline, you can crank up the detail, lighting, shadows, motion blur, LODs, and depth of field to the max before rendering out an image sequence and cutting the final sequence together in video-editing software. However, the end-result is a video with fixed resolution and bitrate that then has to be added to the build using a video codec that can highlight that elements or full sequences aren\u2019t real-time. To maintain authenticity and immersion in SQ42, the goal has always been to push for real-time cinematics during even the biggest set-piece sequences.\u201d\n- The Cinematics Team\n\nFebruary saw Cinematics push one of the most challenging sequences through its second pass, locking down the timing before starting VFX and destruction simulation. The upgraded TrackView sequencer tool was completed, finally enabling the team to edit these long, epic sequences in real-time. They added several sub-sequence abilities and a camera priority logic based on the sequence sitting on top. These sequences behave like video clips, making it possible to edit complex setups in real-time, shifting each sub-sequence around on the master timeline. For example, the team can have individual capital ships and exterior fleets on separate sequences and combine them all in a master, with the ability to quickly assert where they want the camera cuts to happen. Another challenge is to get the streaming system working when cutting back and forth between several distant locations. Most game-streaming tech is built with the assumption shots aren\u2019t constantly cutting back and forth between different locales, so getting this polished is the upcoming focus for the team\u2019s workflow.\n\nEngineering\nIn Frankfurt, Engineering worked on physics threading and performance, including investigating the full parallelization of integration parts in physics time step-code, multithreading the polygonize function for interior volumes, continuing concurrent\/immediate queuing for physics, implementing local command queues, and adding an option to create queues on demand. They began finalizing and integrating the new signed distance field (SDF) system to accelerate collision checks on complex geometry and increase the precision of results. Unified fields can now be animated as any other part (they\u2019re still special in some regards, but can be seen as a regular part from the outside) and distance fields on objects can be taken into account when sampling distances.\n\nOptimization-wise, they disabled physics on skin attachments and made OC and SDF-size improvements and allocation optimizations for interior volumes. They enabled foliage to support 64-bit precision status updates and zones, made render proxy for ropes work with the zone system, continued work on death reaction animations, and provided support for actor\/ragdoll body dragging.\n\nWork was done to the zone system, while a culling update thread to parallelize updates of spatial culling structures was introduced. The team optimized streaming by skipping many unnecessary atomic operations on smart pointer copies and reduced the parallelization of occlusion culling. They also made improvements to the concurrent access check (support checking RW-lock semantics) and WAF improvements.\n\nIn support of the Gen12 renderer and Vulkan, they generalized texture views, refactored the texture creation process and remaining D3D texture view code, added MSAA support, removed old direct VB\/IB memory access code, added ViewInfo for access to common view\/camera related parameters, and looked into moving shader parsing into the resource container. The first improvement pass for hair AO was made, which is now coupled with color, and dye shift softness was introduced. Ocean shader improvements were made too by porting ocean rendering to deferred and further working on cube map reflections.\n\nThe raymarcher was simplified by removing the explicit evaluations of segments to significantly compact generated code and reduce register usage. Non-linear stepping for raymarching was also implemented to improve quality at a reduced number of samples. Planet terrain was iterated on to support the rendering of large ground-based objects on the height and shadow maps. A persona live mo-cap plugin for the editor was created too. Finally, animation code was amended to ensure ragdolls work with ground alignment and the CHR chunk loader was simplified to initialize physics (which is still ongoing).\n\nSpecifically for SQ42, the team completed their work on the interrupt, rejoin, and abandon functionality for story scenes. They\u2019re currently fixing various edge cases and visual problems, such as animation glitches, and adding a new system to give the designers better control over when and how events are triggered. Engineering also supported the cinematic designers with their required TrackView requirements, making sure everything works in the intended manner.\n\nGameplay Story\nFebruary was a busy but productive month for Gameplay Story, who worked on a wide variety of scenes, including supporting Design with animations for the abandon mechanic. They also reviewed NPC conversations with Design and Narrative, adding extra dialogue to make them more natural. All med-bay scenes in chapter six were updated to add proper start and end idles wherever possible. This was an extensive overhaul, resulting in conversations that can be triggered with much greater control. This will ensure the scenes look good and play out with the desired pacing. A scene with two characters carrying a large box up a ramp was completed after considerable mo-cap stitching and is currently looking great. Finally for Gameplay Story, new actor records and loadouts were created so several scene setups can be finalized.\n\nGraphics\nThe Graphics Team continued crucial work on the Gen12\/Vulkan renderer, converting the tiled-lighting and dynamic geometry systems to the new rendering paradigm. They also made various improvements to the automated testing system necessary to ensuring stability for the designers and artists.\n\nLevel Design\nThe Social Team, in collaboration with Animation and Engineering, continued work on narrative sequences and the abandon functionally. They\u2019re currently focusing on early full-chapter playthroughs that introduce players to the life of a UEEN pilot. They continue to work closely with the FPS AI Feature Team to place and refine AI behaviors. One of the main aims is to have NPCs behave realistically, regardless of the environment they\u2019re placed in. The game\u2019s levels are designed to be architecturally believable spaces, so the AI needs to adapt to them in believable ways. The Dogfighting Team are working with Flight AI to refine scenarios that require custom engineering support. They\u2019re also supporting the ongoing ambient ship-life work and take-off\/landing updates.\n\nNarrative\nSome of the US-based Narrative Team visited the UK studios to review the latest level progress and oversee a female-character mo-cap session. They also reviewed the smaller NPC conversations with the Gameplay Story Team to ensure they\u2019re as believable as possible.\n\nQA\nCombat and Ship AI test cases were implemented, which the team will start testing regularly. They\u2019re still tasked with creating recorded client scene captures of individual chapters and are currently investigating issues hindering the cinematics workflow.\n\nTech Animation\nTech Animation improved visuals for character loadouts alongside Character Art and Cinematic Design. They added engine loadouts to Maya to enable the animators to complete their polish pass on the same loadout the characters will wear in-game. The animation workflow was improved by fixing several bugs and adding tools to the pipeline to speed up the bake process for bigger scenes.\n\nSeveral new weapons reached Tech Animation, while the Social AI Team was supported with new usables for sitting, standing, exercise spots, and the bartender. They also worked with Props to solve problems with their rigger tool and fixed bugs for Design, Animation, and Art.\n\n\n\nTech Art\nLast month, Tech Animation implemented a new rig-logic editing plugin command for Maya. For performance and efficiency, the backend was implemented in C++. The Qt-based frontend\/UI layer is currently implemented using python. While the Vanduul face rigs already use this new runtime rig logic, all 120+ human face-rigs will soon be ported over to the new system.\n\nUser Interface (UI)\nFebruary saw UI helping the Actor Team finalize visuals for the Inner Thought radial menu. After a lot of concepting and UI design, the new SQ42-specific visor and visual target were approved. Prototyping is ongoing before code work begins next month.\n\nVFX\nThe UK\u2019s VFX Team closed out the month tweaking several existing background effects and taking advantage of recent improvements to the particle system\u2019s parent\/child hierarchy. Investigation into further methods of triggering particle effects through gas tech was started too.\n\nIn Frankfurt, the team worked with the programmers to lockdown the final list of features required for SQ42. This included fixing long-standing bugs on the GPU system, including inconsistencies with parent\/child spawning, to give a much deeper hierarchy and more complex effects. This was tested with firework VFX that pushed the system to its limits and helped uncover previously unknown bugs.\n\n\n\nWE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026"},"links_count":0,"comment_count":22,"created_at":"2020-03-12T00:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"6 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-07 21:22:19","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":17509,"next_id":17512}}