{"data":{"id":17958,"title":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report: November & December 2020","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/17958-Squadron-42-Monthly-Report-November-December-2020","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/17958","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/17958","channel":"Undefined","category":"Undefined","series":"Monthly Reports","images":[{"id":30963,"name":"source.png","rsi_url":"https:\/\/media.robertsspaceindustries.com\/vjhp2njbokvxb\/source.png","alt":"","size":4895804,"mime_type":"image\/png","last_modified":"2023-05-02T18:53:45+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/30963","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/30963\/similar"},{"id":31194,"name":"source.png","rsi_url":"https:\/\/media.robertsspaceindustries.com\/dyu8i559admn1\/source.png","alt":"","size":3831731,"mime_type":"image\/png","last_modified":"2023-06-06T16:13:24+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/31194","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/31194\/similar"},{"id":31403,"name":"source.png","rsi_url":"https:\/\/media.robertsspaceindustries.com\/p34sp3q2kl01b\/source.png","alt":"","size":3014864,"mime_type":"image\/png","last_modified":"2023-07-04T13:35:01+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/31403","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/31403\/similar"},{"id":31536,"name":"source.png","rsi_url":"https:\/\/media.robertsspaceindustries.com\/6u5x9e23ftrw7\/source.png","alt":"","size":3531870,"mime_type":"image\/png","last_modified":"2023-08-01T14:29:26+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/31536","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/31536\/similar"},{"id":31783,"name":"source.png","rsi_url":"https:\/\/media.robertsspaceindustries.com\/gaazjx0n1kop2\/source.png","alt":"","size":3223870,"mime_type":"image\/png","last_modified":"2023-09-12T14:59:52+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/31783","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/31783\/similar"},{"id":32961,"name":"source.png","rsi_url":"https:\/\/media.robertsspaceindustries.com\/8m2c1vusdb0hj\/source.png","alt":"","size":4757052,"mime_type":"image\/png","last_modified":"2023-10-03T12:11:38+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/32961","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/32961\/similar"},{"id":32962,"name":"source.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/media.robertsspaceindustries.com\/4x3lw5w4vk3o4\/source.jpg","alt":"","size":584749,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2023-10-31T19:13:02+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/32962","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/32962\/similar"},{"id":38000,"name":"source.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/media.robertsspaceindustries.com\/x5aus9nndxu4s\/source.jpg","alt":"","size":1186506,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2025-02-05T13:01:54+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/38000","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/38000\/similar"},{"id":38060,"name":"source.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/media.robertsspaceindustries.com\/fe6j2ifv3ash4\/source.jpg","alt":"","size":1773870,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2025-03-04T15:04:48+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/38060","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/38060\/similar"},{"id":38084,"name":"source.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/media.robertsspaceindustries.com\/pgmk7f9gt3j9y\/source.jpg","alt":"","size":2091105,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2025-04-01T17:29:16+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/38084","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/38084\/similar"},{"id":40391,"name":"source.png","rsi_url":"https:\/\/media.robertsspaceindustries.com\/svep7j1purh1f\/source.png","alt":"","size":5543040,"mime_type":"image\/png","last_modified":"2025-07-01T15:37:40+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/40391","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/40391\/similar"}],"images_count":42,"translations":{"en_EN":"This is a cross-post of the report that was recently sent out via the monthly Squadron 42 newsletter. We\u2019re publishing this a second time as a Comm-Link to make it easier for the community to reference back to.\nAttention Recruits,\n\nWhat you are about to read is the latest information on the continuing development of Squadron 42 (SCI des: SQ42).\n\nThanks to the work of dedicated field agents and operatives, we\u2019ve uncovered information on new FPS weapons, volumetric cloud rendering, and work continues on the Morrow Tour.\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 AI (Social)\nSocial AI worked on the usables required to implement a full cycle of the NPC chowline mentioned in the last SQ42 report. This process includes NPCs collecting crockery, dispensing food and drink, picking up cutlery, carrying food to a seat, sitting down, eating, drinking (with the levels of food and drink decreasing), and clearing up. This builds on existing usable work but uses features in ways that haven\u2019t been done before, where the state of a previous usable is necessary for the next one. For example, NPCs can\u2019t dispense food unless they have a bowl and can\u2019t eat food unless they have picked up the cutlery to eat it with.\n\nAnimation\nThe Animation Team spent the last two months of 2020 working on new FPS weapons, developing EVA traversal animations, MedPen blockouts, staggers, Vanduul combat, and surrender behaviors. They also updated running animations and locomotions.\n\nWork was completed alongside the AI Team on various tasks, including the chowline, mess hall, Aegis Gladius inspects, idle and jogging improvements, push\/pull, and several behavioral lines for many of the campaign cast. Various greetings, farewells, bumps, facial animations, and story-specific scenes were completed too.\n\nArt (Characters)\nNovember and December saw the Character Team complete a major polish pass on the characters of chapter four, including Morrow, White, Kelly, and Webster. This involved implementing more realistic eye geometry alongside texture passes and shader improvements courtesy of work done by the Graphics Team. Many SQ42-specific outfits, such as the deck crew and bridge officer uniforms, were improved too. The concept artists also worked on an in-game comic book.\n\nAudio (SQ42)\nNovember and December saw the Audio Team continue to make progress on chapter four, generating new SFX content and working closely with SQ42\u2019s composer Geoff Zanelli on new music.\n\nEngineering\nThe SQ42 Feature Team continued to support object container streaming, making it easier to set up and testing it on several levels. They also worked with the designers to get the firing range working in-situ in the Idris and now have NPCs using it systemically. Functionality for the designers to detect mission fail states (such as deliberate friendly fire) was added. Now, if conditions are met, the player will fail the mission and be taken to a predetermined scene. A push to polish interstitial levels led the team to fix several glitches and complete a number of small feature requests.\n\nThe Weapon Feature Team implemented the new Multi-Tool tractor beam functionality and made progress on a new hacking mechanic that allows players to bypass security systems.\n\nActor Tech spent most of the end-of-year period supporting the Morrow Tour, polishing push and pull, working on smooth locomotion, and getting the locomotion\/scene transitions to work seamlessly.\n\nThe mounted turret was worked on by Actor Features. This will allow a fixed weapon to be fired and aimed via the player\u2019s movement and is a sub-feature of the cooperative locomotion. They also implemented FPS radar and scanning and began work on zero-g push\/pull locomotion to allow players to traverse space by grabbing and releasing fixed items in the environment (similar to how astronauts maneuver around the ISS).\n\nCore Engine and Physics\nThe Physics Team worked on optimizations throughout November and December. This included an improved method of pre-physicalization for planet terrain patches for use in collision checks and improvements to event queueing. The first draft of \u2018propagating physicalized shockwaves\u2019 was submitted, and box-shaped physics grids and bullet drag were also added. SDF support was improved and work continued on soft-body deformation too.\n\nThe Vulkan initiative continued, with high-level render code refactor and optimizations. For example, the way material constants are uploaded to the GPU was simplified and optimized. A larger refactor of the shader cache backend system began too.\n\nOn the graphics side, various fixes for depth-of-field were delivered. The hair shader received several improvements, such as the ability to disable specular highlights on eyelashes, improved boundary occlusion at hairlines, support for ambient lights in forward shading, and better hair quality during camera cuts. Dual-lobe approximation for the skin shader was added and the eye shader received a couple of improvements as well.\n\nFor planetary atmosphere rendering, time was dedicated to volumetric cloud rendering. The initial draft was implemented and work on volumetric cloud shadows made great progress, which will ultimately lead to localized cloud shaping.\n\nThe Core Engine Team spread their efforts over a couple of areas. Firstly, a large number of bug fixes and improvements were completed, such as streaming meshes for animated vis areas and the ability to add vis areas to CGA joints. Various optimizations were also implemented in the entity and zone systems along with component updates.\n\nUsing telemetry from the PU and PTU, the Core Engine Team continued their ongoing investigation into memory usage. This led to the engine-wide memory allocator and tracking system (including its tool chain) to be substantially refactored and improved. To provide an additional performance boost to the servers, the Linux DGS was switched to a monolithic executable to allow the compiler to generate better code (for local thread storage access in particular), and a stress test for object container streaming was added.\n\nLastly, C++ 14 support was enabled for the entirety of the client-server editor and relevant tool projects.\n\nGameplay Story\nThe Morrow Tour was a major focus towards the end of the year. The gameplay section was reviewed regularly, with plenty of interesting feedback given and updates made as required. As they moved into December, focus moved to more minor updates, bug fixing, and polish work.\n\n\u201cIt has been great to see so many people working hard on this area of the game and this has meant that many long-standing tasks were addressed by other teams.\u201d Gameplay Story\n\nThis led to various scenes receiving updates based on new assets or requirements from other teams too.\n\nGraphics\nTowards the end of 2020, the Graphics Team improved stability and fixed bugs inline with the latest internal SQ42 milestones. Because of the very high quality bar, especially for the cinematic elements, many visual issues were addressed. For example, the depth of field effect needed several changes to work better with the new hair shader. Tweaks were also made to the sub-surface-scattering effect to improve occlusion at the boundary between materials, such as around teeth and hair.\n\nLevel Design\nLevel Design had a highly productive Q4, aiming to complete a slice of gameplay starting from when the player first arrives on their home ship. This milestone required the collaboration of many different departments, encompassed work from all the design teams, and utilized the social elements refined throughout the year. It was a hugely successful exercise, giving Level Design the tools and knowledge they need to complete the rest of the campaign.\n\nNarrative\nNarrative wrapped up the year adding more immersive details to SQ42. As environments are further dialed in, the team made several passes and write-ups to expand on the props and screens discoverable around the world. For example, in earlier high-level passes, it might have been called out that the inhabitant of a room enjoys working on art in their spare time. Now that development was focusing on the area, the Narrative Team created the specifics of what should be seen. For items like interactable books, this can be quite involved. Additionally, screens in locations like the flight control room aboard the UEES Stanton needed additional text passes to make the information on them more pertinent to their function.\n\nWork also continued on scripts to address gameplay needs as the Design Team progressed with various levels. Narrative reviewed several game sections to discuss whether additional dialogue could heighten gameplay or better highlight the player\u2019s objectives.\n\nDevelopment of the Vanduul language progressed too, with the team reviewing the latest updated dictionary.\n\nQA\nQA continued to deliver recordings of each level to Cinematics so they can ensure scenes are working as intended and are of the expected quality. They also created custom maps to test more focused parts of cinematics. They also continued to support the dev teams and tested the various updates to the wider project.\n\nTech Animation\nIn the run-up to the holiday period, Technical Animation prepared for a large update to the facial rigs. This consisted of a ground-up overhaul of all face assets to enable several long-term initiatives to coalesce in early 2021. There were many assets to upgrade and a great many that required a careful hand and due diligence to ensure continuing pipeline compatibility. They also completed skinning and rigging to support both old and new assets throughout the campaign.\n\nUI\nThe UI Team spent much of the past two months creating a new system to allow story cutscenes to trigger changes in the UI. This enables them to do things like animate screens in time with characters pressing buttons, or make on-screen warnings appear perfectly timed with cinematic explosions. Once the code was complete, the artists worked closely with the art and cinematics director to create an interesting movie-style UI in one of the holo-briefings, with floating UI drawing onto the screen, timed to complement what the officer was talking about.\n\nThey also worked closely with the Vehicle Team on the Gladius HUD. Using the concept video (which was shown on a recent ISC) as a reference, the functional version was built in-game using the new 3D UI tech.\n\nVFX\nVFX closed out the year working closely with Art and Cinematics to implement and polish the VFX for a key location. This included both epic effects and more subtle details. They also continued to support the Tech Art, Art, and Design teams with gas clouds. WE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026","de_DE":"Dies ist ein Cross-Post des Berichts, der k\u00fcrzlich \u00fcber den monatlichen Squadron 42 Newsletter verschickt wurde. Wir ver\u00f6ffentlichen ihn ein zweites Mal als Comm-Link, damit die Community leichter darauf zur\u00fcckgreifen kann.\nAchtung Rekruten,\n\nWas ihr gleich lesen werdet, sind die neuesten Informationen \u00fcber die weitere Entwicklung von Squadron 42 (SCI des: SQ42).\n\nDank der Arbeit von engagierten Feldagenten und Agenten haben wir Informationen \u00fcber neue FPS-Waffen, volumetrisches Cloud-Rendering und die Arbeit an der Morrow-Tour aufgedeckt.\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 geraten. L\u00f6sche alle Aufzeichnungen nach dem Lesen.\n\nUEE Marine Oberkommando\n\nKI (Sozial)\n\nSocial AI hat an den Usables gearbeitet, die ben\u00f6tigt werden, um einen kompletten Zyklus der im letzten SQ42-Bericht erw\u00e4hnten NPC-Chowline zu implementieren. Dieser Prozess beinhaltet NPCs, die Geschirr einsammeln, Essen und Trinken ausgeben, Besteck aufheben, Essen zu einem Sitzplatz tragen, sich hinsetzen, essen, trinken (wobei die Stufen von Essen und Trinken abnehmen) und abr\u00e4umen. Dies baut auf bestehende Nutzbarkeit auf, nutzt aber Features auf eine Art und Weise, die es vorher noch nicht gab, wobei der Zustand einer vorherigen Nutzbarkeit f\u00fcr die n\u00e4chste notwendig ist. Zum Beispiel k\u00f6nnen NSCs kein Essen ausgeben, wenn sie keine Sch\u00fcssel haben, und sie k\u00f6nnen kein Essen essen, wenn sie nicht das Besteck zum Essen mitgenommen haben.\nAnimation\n\nDas Animationsteam hat die letzten zwei Monate des Jahres 2020 damit verbracht, an neuen FPS-Waffen zu arbeiten, EVA-Traversal-Animationen, MedPen-Blockouts, Staggers, Vanduul-Kampf und Kapitulationsverhalten zu entwickeln. Sie aktualisierten auch Laufanimationen und Fortbewegungen.\nZusammen mit dem KI-Team wurde an verschiedenen Aufgaben gearbeitet, darunter die Chowline, die Kantine, Aegis Gladius Inspektionen, Verbesserungen im Leerlauf und beim Joggen, Push\/Pull und verschiedene Verhaltenslinien f\u00fcr viele der Kampagnenbesetzung. Verschiedene Begr\u00fc\u00dfungen, Verabschiedungen, Beulen, Gesichtsanimationen und storyspezifische Szenen wurden ebenfalls fertiggestellt.\nKunst (Charaktere)\n\nIm November und Dezember hat das Charakterteam die Charaktere des vierten Kapitels, darunter Morrow, White, Kelly und Webster, einem gr\u00f6\u00dferen Feinschliff unterzogen. Dies beinhaltete die Implementierung einer realistischeren Augengeometrie neben Textur\u00fcberg\u00e4ngen und Shader-Verbesserungen, die dank der Arbeit des Grafik-Teams durchgef\u00fchrt wurden. Viele SQ42-spezifische Outfits, wie die Uniformen der Deckcrew und des Br\u00fcckenoffiziers, wurden ebenfalls verbessert. Die Konzeptk\u00fcnstler arbeiteten auch an einem In-Game-Comic.\nAudio (SQ42)\n\nIm November und Dezember hat das Audio Team weiter an Kapitel 4 gearbeitet, neue SFX Inhalte erstellt und eng mit SQ42's Komponist Geoff Zanelli an neuer Musik gearbeitet.\nTechnik\n\nDas SQ42 Feature Team unterst\u00fctzte weiterhin das Streaming von Objektcontainern, vereinfachte dessen Einrichtung und testete es auf mehreren Ebenen. Sie arbeiteten auch mit den Designern zusammen, um den Schie\u00dfstand in Idris zum Laufen zu bringen, der nun von NPCs systematisch genutzt wird. Es wurde eine Funktionalit\u00e4t f\u00fcr die Designer hinzugef\u00fcgt, um Missionsfehler zu erkennen (z.B. absichtliches Friendly Fire). Wenn die Bedingungen erf\u00fcllt sind, scheitert der Spieler die Mission und wird zu einer vorher festgelegten Szene gebracht. Ein Vorsto\u00df zum Polieren der Zwischenlevels f\u00fchrte dazu, dass das Team mehrere Glitches behoben und eine Reihe kleinerer Feature-W\u00fcnsche erf\u00fcllt hat.\nDas Weapon Feature Team implementierte die neue Multi-Tool Traktorstrahl-Funktionalit\u00e4t und machte Fortschritte bei einer neuen Hacking-Mechanik, die es Spielern erlaubt, Sicherheitssysteme zu umgehen.\nDie Actor Tech verbrachte den gr\u00f6\u00dften Teil des Jahresendes damit, die Morrow Tour zu unterst\u00fctzen, Push und Pull zu polieren, an der reibungslosen Fortbewegung zu arbeiten und die \u00dcberg\u00e4nge zwischen Fortbewegung und Szene nahtlos zu gestalten.\nDer montierte Revolver wurde von Actor Features bearbeitet. Dieser wird es erm\u00f6glichen, eine feste Waffe \u00fcber die Bewegung des Spielers abzufeuern und zu zielen und ist ein Teilfeature der kooperativen Fortbewegung. Sie implementierten auch FPS-Radar und Scanning und begannen mit der Arbeit an der Zero-G-Push\/Pull-Lokomotion, die es den Spielern erm\u00f6glicht, den Raum zu durchqueren, indem sie feste Gegenst\u00e4nde in der Umgebung greifen und loslassen (\u00e4hnlich wie Astronauten auf der ISS man\u00f6vrieren).\nKern-Engine und Physik\n\nDas Physik-Team hat im November und Dezember an Optimierungen gearbeitet. Dies beinhaltete eine verbesserte Methode der Vorphysikalisierung f\u00fcr Planeten-Terrains zur Verwendung in Kollisionspr\u00fcfungen und Verbesserungen der Ereignis-Warteschlange. Der erste Entwurf von 'propagating physicalized shockwaves' wurde eingereicht, und kastenf\u00f6rmige Physikgitter und Geschosswiderstand wurden ebenfalls hinzugef\u00fcgt. Die SDF-Unterst\u00fctzung wurde verbessert und auch an der Soft-Body-Deformation wurde weiter gearbeitet.\nDie Vulkan-Initiative wurde fortgesetzt, mit High-Level Render Code Refactor und Optimierungen. Zum Beispiel wurde die Art und Weise, wie Materialkonstanten auf die GPU hochgeladen werden, vereinfacht und optimiert. Ein gr\u00f6\u00dferes Refactor des Shader Cache Backend Systems wurde ebenfalls begonnen.\nAuf der Grafikseite wurden verschiedene Fixes f\u00fcr die Tiefensch\u00e4rfe geliefert. Der Haar-Shader erhielt mehrere Verbesserungen, wie z.B. die M\u00f6glichkeit, spiegelnde Highlights auf Wimpern zu deaktivieren, verbesserte Boundary Occlusion an Haarlinien, Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr Ambient Lights im Forward Shading und bessere Haarqualit\u00e4t bei Kameraschnitten. Dual-Lobe-Approximation f\u00fcr den Haut-Shader wurde hinzugef\u00fcgt und der Augen-Shader erhielt ebenfalls einige Verbesserungen.\nF\u00fcr das Rendering der Planetenatmosph\u00e4re wurde Zeit in das volumetrische Wolkenrendering gesteckt. Der erste Entwurf wurde implementiert und die Arbeit an volumetrischen Wolkenschatten machte gro\u00dfe Fortschritte, was letztendlich zu einer lokalisierten Wolkenformung f\u00fchren wird.\nDas Core Engine Team verteilte seine Bem\u00fchungen auf mehrere Bereiche. Zum einen wurde eine gro\u00dfe Anzahl von Bugfixes und Verbesserungen abgeschlossen, wie z.B. Streaming Meshes f\u00fcr animierte Visfl\u00e4chen und die M\u00f6glichkeit, Visfl\u00e4chen zu CGA Joints hinzuzuf\u00fcgen. Verschiedene Optimierungen wurden auch in den Entity- und Zonensystemen zusammen mit Komponenten-Updates implementiert.\nMit Hilfe der Telemetrie von der PU und PTU setzte das Core Engine Team seine laufende Untersuchung der Speichernutzung fort. Dies f\u00fchrte dazu, dass der Engine-weite Speicherallokator und das Tracking-System (einschlie\u00dflich seiner Tool-Chain) erheblich \u00fcberarbeitet und verbessert wurden. Um den Servern einen zus\u00e4tzlichen Leistungsschub zu geben, wurde der Linux DGS auf ein monolithisches Executable umgestellt, um dem Compiler zu erm\u00f6glichen, besseren Code zu generieren (insbesondere f\u00fcr den lokalen Threadspeicherzugriff), und es wurde ein Stresstest f\u00fcr das Streaming von Objektcontainern hinzugef\u00fcgt.\nZu guter Letzt wurde die Unterst\u00fctzung von C++ 14 f\u00fcr den gesamten Client-Server-Editor und die relevanten Tool-Projekte aktiviert.\nGameplay Geschichte\n\nDie Morrow Tour war ein Hauptaugenmerk gegen Ende des Jahres. Die Gameplay-Sektion wurde regelm\u00e4\u00dfig \u00fcberarbeitet, wobei viel interessantes Feedback gegeben wurde und Updates nach Bedarf vorgenommen wurden. Als es in den Dezember ging, verlagerte sich der Fokus auf kleinere Updates, Bugfixing und Polierarbeiten.\n\"Es war gro\u00dfartig zu sehen, dass so viele Leute hart an diesem Bereich des Spiels gearbeitet haben und dies bedeutete, dass viele lange anstehende Aufgaben von anderen Teams angegangen wurden.\" Gameplay Story\nDies f\u00fchrte dazu, dass verschiedene Szenen Updates aufgrund neuer Assets oder Anforderungen auch von anderen Teams erhielten.\nGrafiken\n\nGegen Ende des Jahres 2020 verbesserte das Grafikteam die Stabilit\u00e4t und behob Bugs im Einklang mit den letzten internen SQ42-Meilensteinen. Aufgrund der sehr hohen Qualit\u00e4tsmesslatte, vor allem bei den cinematischen Elementen, wurden viele visuelle Probleme angegangen. Zum Beispiel ben\u00f6tigte der Tiefensch\u00e4rfe-Effekt einige \u00c4nderungen, um besser mit dem neuen Haar-Shader zu funktionieren. Auch der Sub-Surface-Scattering-Effekt wurde \u00fcberarbeitet, um die Okklusion an den Grenzen zwischen den Materialien zu verbessern, wie z.B. um Z\u00e4hne und Haare herum.\nLevel Design\n\nDas Level Design hatte ein sehr produktives 4. Quartal, in dem es darum ging, einen Abschnitt des Gameplays fertigzustellen, der mit der Ankunft des Spielers auf seinem Heimatschiff beginnt. Dieser Meilenstein erforderte die Zusammenarbeit vieler verschiedener Abteilungen, umfasste die Arbeit aller Designteams und nutzte die sozialen Elemente, die im Laufe des Jahres verfeinert wurden. Es war eine sehr erfolgreiche \u00dcbung, die dem Level Design die Werkzeuge und das Wissen gab, das sie f\u00fcr den Rest der Kampagne ben\u00f6tigten.\nNarrative\n\nDer Bereich Narrative schloss das Jahr ab und f\u00fcgte weitere immersive Details zu SQ42 hinzu. Um die Umgebungen weiter zu verfeinern, hat das Team mehrere Durchl\u00e4ufe und Schreibarbeiten durchgef\u00fchrt, um die Requisiten und Bildschirme, die in der Welt zu entdecken sind, zu erweitern. In fr\u00fcheren High-Level-P\u00e4ssen wurde zum Beispiel erw\u00e4hnt, dass der Bewohner eines Raumes in seiner Freizeit gerne an Kunst arbeitet. Nun, da sich die Entwicklung auf diesen Bereich konzentrierte, erstellte das Narrative Team die Besonderheiten dessen, was zu sehen sein sollte. Bei Gegenst\u00e4nden wie interaktiven B\u00fcchern kann das ziemlich aufw\u00e4ndig sein. Au\u00dferdem brauchten Bildschirme an Orten wie dem Flugkontrollraum an Bord der UEES Stanton zus\u00e4tzliche Textpassagen, um die Informationen auf ihnen relevanter f\u00fcr ihre Funktion zu machen.\nDie Arbeit an den Skripten wurde ebenfalls fortgesetzt, um die Bed\u00fcrfnisse des Gameplays zu erf\u00fcllen, w\u00e4hrend das Design Team mit den verschiedenen Levels fortschritt. Narrative \u00fcberpr\u00fcften mehrere Spielabschnitte, um zu diskutieren, ob zus\u00e4tzliche Dialoge das Gameplay erh\u00f6hen oder die Ziele des Spielers besser hervorheben k\u00f6nnten.\nDie Entwicklung der Vanduul-Sprache schritt ebenfalls voran, wobei das Team das letzte aktualisierte W\u00f6rterbuch \u00fcberpr\u00fcfte.\nQA\n\nDie QA lieferte weiterhin Aufnahmen von jedem Level an die Cinematics, damit sie sicherstellen k\u00f6nnen, dass die Szenen wie vorgesehen funktionieren und die erwartete Qualit\u00e4t aufweisen. Sie erstellten auch benutzerdefinierte Karten, um gezieltere Teile der Cinematics zu testen. Sie unterst\u00fctzten auch weiterhin die Entwicklerteams und testeten die verschiedenen Updates f\u00fcr das gesamte Projekt.\nTech Animation\n\nVor den Feiertagen bereitete sich die Technische Animation auf ein gro\u00dfes Update der Gesichts-Rigs vor. Es handelte sich dabei um eine grundlegende \u00dcberarbeitung aller Gesichts-Assets, damit mehrere langfristige Initiativen Anfang 2021 zusammengef\u00fchrt werden k\u00f6nnen. Es gab viele Assets zu aktualisieren und viele, die eine sorgf\u00e4ltige Hand und Sorgfalt erforderten, um eine fortlaufende Pipeline-Kompatibilit\u00e4t sicherzustellen. Sie vervollst\u00e4ndigten auch Skinning und Rigging, um sowohl alte als auch neue Assets w\u00e4hrend der gesamten Kampagne zu unterst\u00fctzen.\nUI\n\nDas UI-Team hat einen Gro\u00dfteil der letzten zwei Monate damit verbracht, ein neues System zu entwickeln, das es erm\u00f6glicht, dass Story-Cutscenes \u00c4nderungen in der Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che ausl\u00f6sen. Dies erm\u00f6glicht ihnen Dinge wie die Animation von Bildschirmen im Takt mit dem Dr\u00fccken von Kn\u00f6pfen durch die Charaktere oder das perfekte Timing von Warnungen auf dem Bildschirm mit filmischen Explosionen. Sobald der Code fertig war, arbeiteten die K\u00fcnstler eng mit dem Art- und Cinematics-Direktor zusammen, um eine interessante UI im Filmstil in einem der Holo-Briefings zu erstellen, mit schwebenden UI-Zeichnungen auf dem Bildschirm, die zeitlich auf das abgestimmt waren, wor\u00fcber der Offizier sprach.\nSie arbeiteten auch eng mit dem Fahrzeugteam am Gladius HUD zusammen. Unter Verwendung des Konzeptvideos (das auf einer k\u00fcrzlichen ISC gezeigt wurde) als Referenz, wurde die funktionale Version im Spiel unter Verwendung der neuen 3D UI Technologie gebaut.\nVFX\n\nVFX beendete das Jahr in enger Zusammenarbeit mit Art und Cinematics, um die VFX f\u00fcr eine Schl\u00fcsselstelle zu implementieren und zu polieren. Dies beinhaltete sowohl epische Effekte als auch subtilere Details. Sie unterst\u00fctzten auch weiterhin die Tech Art, Art und Design Teams mit Gaswolken. WIR SEHEN UNS N\u00c4CHSTEN MONAT...","zh_CN":"This is a cross-post of the report that was recently sent out via the monthly Squadron 42 newsletter. We\u2019re publishing this a second time as a Comm-Link to make it easier for the community to reference back to.\nAttention Recruits,\n\nWhat you are about to read is the latest information on the continuing development of Squadron 42 (SCI des: SQ42).\n\nThanks to the work of dedicated field agents and operatives, we\u2019ve uncovered information on new FPS weapons, volumetric cloud rendering, and work continues on the Morrow Tour.\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 AI (Social)\nSocial AI worked on the usables required to implement a full cycle of the NPC chowline mentioned in the last SQ42 report. This process includes NPCs collecting crockery, dispensing food and drink, picking up cutlery, carrying food to a seat, sitting down, eating, drinking (with the levels of food and drink decreasing), and clearing up. This builds on existing usable work but uses features in ways that haven\u2019t been done before, where the state of a previous usable is necessary for the next one. For example, NPCs can\u2019t dispense food unless they have a bowl and can\u2019t eat food unless they have picked up the cutlery to eat it with.\n\nAnimation\nThe Animation Team spent the last two months of 2020 working on new FPS weapons, developing EVA traversal animations, MedPen blockouts, staggers, Vanduul combat, and surrender behaviors. They also updated running animations and locomotions.\n\nWork was completed alongside the AI Team on various tasks, including the chowline, mess hall, Aegis Gladius inspects, idle and jogging improvements, push\/pull, and several behavioral lines for many of the campaign cast. Various greetings, farewells, bumps, facial animations, and story-specific scenes were completed too.\n\nArt (Characters)\nNovember and December saw the Character Team complete a major polish pass on the characters of chapter four, including Morrow, White, Kelly, and Webster. This involved implementing more realistic eye geometry alongside texture passes and shader improvements courtesy of work done by the Graphics Team. Many SQ42-specific outfits, such as the deck crew and bridge officer uniforms, were improved too. The concept artists also worked on an in-game comic book.\n\nAudio (SQ42)\nNovember and December saw the Audio Team continue to make progress on chapter four, generating new SFX content and working closely with SQ42\u2019s composer Geoff Zanelli on new music.\n\nEngineering\nThe SQ42 Feature Team continued to support object container streaming, making it easier to set up and testing it on several levels. They also worked with the designers to get the firing range working in-situ in the Idris and now have NPCs using it systemically. Functionality for the designers to detect mission fail states (such as deliberate friendly fire) was added. Now, if conditions are met, the player will fail the mission and be taken to a predetermined scene. A push to polish interstitial levels led the team to fix several glitches and complete a number of small feature requests.\n\nThe Weapon Feature Team implemented the new Multi-Tool tractor beam functionality and made progress on a new hacking mechanic that allows players to bypass security systems.\n\nActor Tech spent most of the end-of-year period supporting the Morrow Tour, polishing push and pull, working on smooth locomotion, and getting the locomotion\/scene transitions to work seamlessly.\n\nThe mounted turret was worked on by Actor Features. This will allow a fixed weapon to be fired and aimed via the player\u2019s movement and is a sub-feature of the cooperative locomotion. They also implemented FPS radar and scanning and began work on zero-g push\/pull locomotion to allow players to traverse space by grabbing and releasing fixed items in the environment (similar to how astronauts maneuver around the ISS).\n\nCore Engine and Physics\nThe Physics Team worked on optimizations throughout November and December. This included an improved method of pre-physicalization for planet terrain patches for use in collision checks and improvements to event queueing. The first draft of \u2018propagating physicalized shockwaves\u2019 was submitted, and box-shaped physics grids and bullet drag were also added. SDF support was improved and work continued on soft-body deformation too.\n\nThe Vulkan initiative continued, with high-level render code refactor and optimizations. For example, the way material constants are uploaded to the GPU was simplified and optimized. A larger refactor of the shader cache backend system began too.\n\nOn the graphics side, various fixes for depth-of-field were delivered. The hair shader received several improvements, such as the ability to disable specular highlights on eyelashes, improved boundary occlusion at hairlines, support for ambient lights in forward shading, and better hair quality during camera cuts. Dual-lobe approximation for the skin shader was added and the eye shader received a couple of improvements as well.\n\nFor planetary atmosphere rendering, time was dedicated to volumetric cloud rendering. The initial draft was implemented and work on volumetric cloud shadows made great progress, which will ultimately lead to localized cloud shaping.\n\nThe Core Engine Team spread their efforts over a couple of areas. Firstly, a large number of bug fixes and improvements were completed, such as streaming meshes for animated vis areas and the ability to add vis areas to CGA joints. Various optimizations were also implemented in the entity and zone systems along with component updates.\n\nUsing telemetry from the PU and PTU, the Core Engine Team continued their ongoing investigation into memory usage. This led to the engine-wide memory allocator and tracking system (including its tool chain) to be substantially refactored and improved. To provide an additional performance boost to the servers, the Linux DGS was switched to a monolithic executable to allow the compiler to generate better code (for local thread storage access in particular), and a stress test for object container streaming was added.\n\nLastly, C++ 14 support was enabled for the entirety of the client-server editor and relevant tool projects.\n\nGameplay Story\nThe Morrow Tour was a major focus towards the end of the year. The gameplay section was reviewed regularly, with plenty of interesting feedback given and updates made as required. As they moved into December, focus moved to more minor updates, bug fixing, and polish work.\n\n\u201cIt has been great to see so many people working hard on this area of the game and this has meant that many long-standing tasks were addressed by other teams.\u201d Gameplay Story\n\nThis led to various scenes receiving updates based on new assets or requirements from other teams too.\n\nGraphics\nTowards the end of 2020, the Graphics Team improved stability and fixed bugs inline with the latest internal SQ42 milestones. Because of the very high quality bar, especially for the cinematic elements, many visual issues were addressed. For example, the depth of field effect needed several changes to work better with the new hair shader. Tweaks were also made to the sub-surface-scattering effect to improve occlusion at the boundary between materials, such as around teeth and hair.\n\nLevel Design\nLevel Design had a highly productive Q4, aiming to complete a slice of gameplay starting from when the player first arrives on their home ship. This milestone required the collaboration of many different departments, encompassed work from all the design teams, and utilized the social elements refined throughout the year. It was a hugely successful exercise, giving Level Design the tools and knowledge they need to complete the rest of the campaign.\n\nNarrative\nNarrative wrapped up the year adding more immersive details to SQ42. As environments are further dialed in, the team made several passes and write-ups to expand on the props and screens discoverable around the world. For example, in earlier high-level passes, it might have been called out that the inhabitant of a room enjoys working on art in their spare time. Now that development was focusing on the area, the Narrative Team created the specifics of what should be seen. For items like interactable books, this can be quite involved. Additionally, screens in locations like the flight control room aboard the UEES Stanton needed additional text passes to make the information on them more pertinent to their function.\n\nWork also continued on scripts to address gameplay needs as the Design Team progressed with various levels. Narrative reviewed several game sections to discuss whether additional dialogue could heighten gameplay or better highlight the player\u2019s objectives.\n\nDevelopment of the Vanduul language progressed too, with the team reviewing the latest updated dictionary.\n\nQA\nQA continued to deliver recordings of each level to Cinematics so they can ensure scenes are working as intended and are of the expected quality. They also created custom maps to test more focused parts of cinematics. They also continued to support the dev teams and tested the various updates to the wider project.\n\nTech Animation\nIn the run-up to the holiday period, Technical Animation prepared for a large update to the facial rigs. This consisted of a ground-up overhaul of all face assets to enable several long-term initiatives to coalesce in early 2021. There were many assets to upgrade and a great many that required a careful hand and due diligence to ensure continuing pipeline compatibility. They also completed skinning and rigging to support both old and new assets throughout the campaign.\n\nUI\nThe UI Team spent much of the past two months creating a new system to allow story cutscenes to trigger changes in the UI. This enables them to do things like animate screens in time with characters pressing buttons, or make on-screen warnings appear perfectly timed with cinematic explosions. Once the code was complete, the artists worked closely with the art and cinematics director to create an interesting movie-style UI in one of the holo-briefings, with floating UI drawing onto the screen, timed to complement what the officer was talking about.\n\nThey also worked closely with the Vehicle Team on the Gladius HUD. Using the concept video (which was shown on a recent ISC) as a reference, the functional version was built in-game using the new 3D UI tech.\n\nVFX\nVFX closed out the year working closely with Art and Cinematics to implement and polish the VFX for a key location. This included both epic effects and more subtle details. They also continued to support the Tech Art, Art, and Design teams with gas clouds. WE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026"},"links_count":0,"comment_count":14,"created_at":"2021-01-28T00:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"5 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-07 20:27:04","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":17956,"next_id":17959}}