{"data":{"id":18025,"title":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report: February 2021","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/18025-Squadron-42-Monthly-Report-February-2021","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/18025","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/18025","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).\n\nThanks to the work of dedicated field agents and operatives, we\u2019ve uncovered information on the Vanduul language, gas-cloud effects, and work continues on character EVA movement.\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 (Content)\nThroughout February, AI Content continued with the engineer behavior, which helped identify further low-level improvements that could be extended to other systems to achieve even more complex behaviors (as they did with the bartender). They also started the downstream definitions of the usables required for the engineer, hygiene, and vendor shop extensions. The tier-zero implementations of the hawker, tourist, and tour guide behavior were completed too.\n\nAI (Features)\nAI Features made improvements to the communication system. First, they enabled a selection of communication variations to be aware of the animation options setup in Mannequin. This allows them to drive randomization in a way that prevents possible repetitions. Secondly, they improved the low-level patrol tech code to support the customization of input parameters on the Subsumption logic for each patrol vertex. To achieve this, they extended the serialization code to allow multiple interfaces for variable serializations. So, from the editor code, they can automatically call through the right function for each variable type. Some variable types are plain old data (POD) and the system allows the registration of a global function associated with that type, such as integers and doubles. As with other custom types, the team can now allow calling class member functions to make the code more structured.\n\nFor usables, the team extended the crafting dictionary used to understand which items a usable can produce to handle multiple tags. This will enable them to understand which operations can produce multiple objects in one interaction. The routing verification in the query system was extended so that usables that provide or accept items can also be retrieved when slotted into other usables. They continued to improve the automatic testing setup for Subsumption, allowing the flowgraph UI to create a specific popup of only available functions instead of manually typing the function name.\n\nFor Character Combat, improvements were made to the fire cadence skill calculation. This was initially done using a global modifier but now uses skill formulas to ensure different character abilities influence the actual ability to use weapons.\n\n\n\n\nPreviously AI rate of fire was globally controlled by two cvar(s), basically two global values designers could tweak. We now have transformed this into a proper \u201cformula\u201d that takes into account the weapon proficiency to allow each character to have a different confidence of how many bullets to use, how quickly to press the trigger based on their traits (is the NPC confident, a showoff?) and on their actual ability with the specific weapon.\n\nThe team are currently progressing on the sub-component targeting, extending the targeting system to better filter entity sub-targets. This system will be shared across spaceships and characters. For example, NPCs on foot could target a ship engine with a rocket launcher the same way a ship could target the engine with missiles.\n\n\n\n\nIn this test environment you can see how ships are now able to fully focus on a specific subcomponent of another ship. In this case one of the trusters are blown away and then the next one is targeted.\n\n\n\n\nIn this test environment we setup a character to replenish his magazines. This is a test map to validate the setup of the ammo crates and make sure that the character can correctly find a crate that can provide magazines\/ammos for the weapons he currently has and he can then use the usable correctly.\n\n\n\nAI (Tech)\nLast month, AI Tech supported character EVA movement. The idea is to reuse and extend the 3D pathfinding implemented for spaceships to characters in zero-g. The overall system was designed with this use-case in mind, so current work is to improve and extend the movement system to ensure the right context is available when an EVA or ship control movement is requested. They\u2019re planning to support automatic enters\/exits of ships from zero-g using the usable system too.\n\nThe team are currently extending the navigation system to give more context when in-game run-time regeneration requests are queued. The current system relies on physics events for regeneration, which makes it harder for the system to understand what entity type is causing a navigation mesh regeneration and what threshold can be tolerated. The new system utilizes an extension that enables the team to better understand ship states. For example, even if a ship is \u2018awake\u2019 in physics when landed, unless significant movements occur, they can accumulate modifications and only request a navmesh regeneration when the accumulated difference exceeds a certain threshold.\n\nThe team also progressed with porting the Subsumption editor into the game editor to better connect the editing interface with the runtime code. This involved adding a more advanced \u2018find\u2019 functionality that globally scans and finds references in Subsumption data.\n\n\n\nAnimation\nLast month, the Animation Team progressed with several cinematic and gameplay story scenes. This involved work on the mess hall life, Vanduul combat, zero-g movement, railings for officers, surrender and maintenance animations, hurt and stumble blockouts and mocap, and staggers. They also began blocking out the MedPen and medical beds, NPCs accessing emergency exits from useables, and \u2018stare spots\u2019 used by AI when idle. The final motion-capture was shot for animations in the blockout phase, including plane directors, like-idles, work zones, and inspects. They also completed mo-cap for stim smoking, conditional deaths (freezing, acid, etc), and all required facial animations for interactable performances.\n\n\n\nArt (Characters)\nFebruary saw the Character Art Team make significant progress on Trejo, whose head was improved and passed to Tech Animation. Concepting for her Basilisk Advocacy outfit approached completion, while a revision pass began on the main pilot flight suit used by the navy, and some characters were updated that couldn\u2019t be dealt with last year. The team set up two assets to test the new vertex cloth simulation. Vcloth, as it\u2019s known, was a major dependency for a long time and will significantly improve clothing and hair simulation. The team will soon move onto a full concept pass of the Screaming Galsons faction and the characters required for chapter four.\n\n\n\nEngine\nIn February, the Physics Team finished tier one of geometry instancing, which is the second of three. Further optimizations included an improved way to recompute the mass distribution of rigid bodies. Memory fragmentation related to geometry containers was reduced by allocating memory for all arrays from a single contiguous block. For zero-g traversal, Engineering continued their joint effort with Actor Features on the new passive ragdoll mode. Issues with the communication between the game code, animation system, and physics system were found and fixed. Alongside this, a new passive ragdoll mode was added to skeleton physics. For cooperative locomotion, an inconsistency was fixed in the damping of engaged movables. Additional support was given to the Planet Tech Team who were looking to improve vegetation touch-bending on shorter asset varieties.\n\nTime was spent improving wheeled-vehicle physics, with the team managing to get the lateral Pacejka tire model to work and further improving the longitudinal model. While they transition to this new model, a few improvements were provided for the legacy mode too. Contact handling for tanks was improved, while improvements were made to the engine and gearbox code. Prototyping started on the logic for polygon cutting, which is used on physics proxy meshes, and general-purpose work was started on the ISPC math library, with the first results being submitted. This will allow the team to port C++ code to ISPC more easily. A potential fix for ships becoming unresponsive after players leave the cockpit was submitted too.\n\nFor the renderer, work continued on the Gen12 transition, in particular finalizing the render graph. Support for the remaining secondary vertex streams, such as skinning attributes, velocity, and secondary UV streams, was added. Additionally, the gather-based depth-of-field implementation was optimized. The shaping of volumetric clouds was completed and a first draft is currently with the artists for prototyping and feedback. In the meantime, more improvements to cloud shading and shadowing were implemented. A believable multi-scatter approximation was also added. Cloud shading now includes atmosphere-based ambient light (reflected ground light will be added later), while cloud albedo was reduced at the edges to emphasize shape (it reveals subtle details) and light scattering in clouds is no longer monochromatic and now just as flexible as atmospheric scattering. To reduce aliasing when shaping clouds, proper texture LOD values are now computed at each raymarch step, while shadow rays are now jittered to reduce aliasing under motion. Research into the efficient skipping of empty space between clouds commenced.\n\nThe Engine Team continued working on the profiler, adding compatibility for hardware counters and a sampling profiler mode with dedicated Windows and Linux support. Memory tracking data can now be filtered so issues can be more easily delegated to their respective owners. Work and improvements on the entity component update scheduler continued. For the patcher libraries, time was spent investigating infrequent errors in data patching that resulted in corrupt p4k files; some improvements were implemented and more will be rolled out soon. Vis areas received further code updates and support for animated portals was implemented. Moving forward, the team will support work on the Vulkan backend.\n\n\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nThe SQ42 Feature Team continued submitting mission fail conditions. Now, the designers can set up default triggers, such as constantly shooting a friendly within a given time limit. These send an event to say the player has failed the mission and for what reason, with the ability for the designers to script bespoke failures. They can now also script what happens to the player if they fail via other means and display the given reason. The designers also received the ability to detect what the player is controlling in a ship, which will be used for the in-game tutorial. The distress beacon mechanic was further developed based on feedback during play reviews, so players can now use their scanners to detect weak distress signals.\n\n\n\nGameplay Story\nFebruary saw the Gameplay Story Team working through 18 \u2018random to NPC\u2019 scenes and adding text-to-speech placeholder audio. The audio will soon be replaced with the team\u2019s scratch recordings before planning for final recordings can begin. They also supported Design on chapters 4a and 14, making incremental improvements and delivering new abandon animations, and some important polish work was completed for the Morrow Tour. A key focus throughout the month was the development of \u2018play anywhere\u2019 scenes, which involve AI characters approaching the player to initiate a conversation. These moments involve integrating scenes with AI locomotion to achieve a natural result. The first of these requires further polish but is currently looking very promising.\n\nGameplay Story were also heavily involved in animation tech, providing investigation and support into removable helmets, seat standardization, and character walk speeds.\n\n\n\nGraphics\nLast month, the Graphics Team focused on two main areas \u2013 automated testing and the Gen12 renderer. Various improvements were made to automated testing to better reliability, which is crucial as major changes are rolled out to ensure Graphics don\u2019t break anything implemented by other teams. This included a rework of how the timers are set up in the renderer, ensuring they can pause and re-base the different animation systems used for things like lights, shaders, fog, and water. On the Gen12-front, work continued to reach parity with the old shadow code-path so that it can be enabled by default. Testing of the Vulkan backend was rolled out further across the team to get wider visibility on the new API. Finally, to aid debugging, the font-rendering system was ported to Gen12.\n\n\n\nLevel Design\nThe Social Design Team continued to benefit from the updated tech and toolset that allows for a more granular setup of scene work and usable interactions. Level Design worked closely with Art on several FPS spaces. These locations received a lot of polish from the FPS Design Team to ensure they\u2019re fully realized and believable places.\n\nThe push for \u2018gold-standard\u2019 pirate AI behavior was continued by the Space\/Dogfight Team, while the \u2018buddy\u2019 AI support was scoped out to determine its requirements.\n\n\n\nNarrative\nLast month, Narrative continued to participate in playthrough reviews. These reviews are extremely useful for ensuring narrative content has the desired impact and that the dialogue options cope with the range of player choices and actions. They also provided feedback to the team\u2019s Xenolinguist as progress continued with the Vanduul language.\n\n\u201cDeveloping the alien languages has been a very fruitful endeavor for the team because, beyond the language itself, the process has been great for creating cultural details and species behavior as languages often require an additional layer of specifics to be functional.\u201d -The Narrative Team\n\nLastly, the team wrote the text for interactive props that will be used to dress some of the game environments.\n\n\n\nQA\nCinematics continued to rely on QA for recordings of each level, while change and update testing was undertaken across the project. AI testing focused on FPS combat, particularly Vanduul behaviors and animations, while ship combat testing looked at the recent pilot behavior updates. A checklist for each was created to help the team keep on top of changes coming through the pipeline along with any bugs that may arise through development.\n\nTech Animation\nFebruary saw Tech Animation cleaning up assets, as a core change to the in-engine animation pipeline invalidated a large number of them. Development of the in-house animation graph toolset continued, which is going through early user-testing to collate feedback and bugs for the next phase of development. The team also worked with external options for skinning decomposition and changed them into working solutions. This toolset forms the basis of the technology that will be used to refactor a portion of the asset-authoring pipeline to expedite the whole process.\n\nThey also dedicated time to the ongoing creation of Xi\u2019an body and face rigs.\n\n\n\nVFX\nVFX spend February continuing their work on gas-cloud effects, including support for the creation of the actual gas clouds and interior effects, such as small debris that collides with the ship. They also began testing the recent particle-lighting improvements, which have a more physical-based setup. This makes it easier for the artists to create more natural and realistic-looking effects in a variety of environments and lighting conditions. 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 die Sprache der Vanduul, Gaswolkeneffekte und die Arbeit an der EVA-Bewegung der Charaktere 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 (Inhalt)\n\nIm Laufe des Februars arbeitete AI Content weiter am Verhalten des Ingenieurs, was dabei half, weitere Low-Level-Verbesserungen zu identifizieren, die auf andere Systeme ausgeweitet werden k\u00f6nnen, um noch komplexere Verhaltensweisen zu erreichen (wie sie es mit dem Barkeeper getan haben). Sie begannen auch mit den nachgelagerten Definitionen der Usables, die f\u00fcr die Engineer-, Hygiene- und Vendor-Shop-Erweiterungen ben\u00f6tigt werden. Die Tier-Null-Implementierungen des Hawker-, Tourist- und Tourguide-Verhaltens wurden ebenfalls fertiggestellt.\nKI (Funktionen)\n\nDie KI-Features brachten Verbesserungen f\u00fcr das Kommunikationssystem. Zun\u00e4chst wurde eine Auswahl von Kommunikationsvarianten aktiviert, die die Animationsoptionen in Mannequin ber\u00fccksichtigen. Dies erlaubt ihnen, die Randomisierung so zu steuern, dass m\u00f6gliche Wiederholungen verhindert werden. Zweitens verbesserten sie den Low-Level-Code der Patrouillentechnik, um die Anpassung der Eingabeparameter der Subsumptionslogik f\u00fcr jeden Patrouillenvertex zu unterst\u00fctzen. Um dies zu erreichen, haben sie den Serialisierungscode erweitert, um mehrere Schnittstellen f\u00fcr die Serialisierung von Variablen zu erm\u00f6glichen. So k\u00f6nnen sie vom Editor-Code aus automatisch die richtige Funktion f\u00fcr jeden Variablentyp aufrufen. Einige Variablentypen sind einfache alte Daten (POD) und das System erlaubt die Registrierung einer globalen Funktion, die mit diesem Typ verbunden ist, wie z.B. Integer und Doubles. Wie bei anderen benutzerdefinierten Typen, kann das Team nun den Aufruf von Klassenmitgliedfunktionen erlauben, um den Code strukturierter zu gestalten.\n\nF\u00fcr Usables hat das Team das Crafting-Dictionary erweitert, das verwendet wird, um zu verstehen, welche Items ein Usable produzieren kann, um mehrere Tags zu behandeln. Dies erm\u00f6glicht es ihnen zu verstehen, welche Operationen mehrere Gegenst\u00e4nde in einer Interaktion produzieren k\u00f6nnen. Die Routing-\u00dcberpr\u00fcfung im Abfragesystem wurde erweitert, so dass Usables, die Gegenst\u00e4nde bereitstellen oder annehmen, auch abgerufen werden k\u00f6nnen, wenn sie in andere Usables eingef\u00fcgt werden. Sie verbesserten weiterhin das automatische Test-Setup f\u00fcr Subsumption, so dass die Flowgraph UI ein spezifisches Popup mit nur verf\u00fcgbaren Funktionen erstellen kann, anstatt den Funktionsnamen manuell einzugeben.\n\nF\u00fcr Character Combat wurden Verbesserungen an der Berechnung der Feuerkadenz-F\u00e4higkeit vorgenommen. Urspr\u00fcnglich wurde dies mit einem globalen Modifikator gemacht, aber jetzt werden Fertigkeitsformeln verwendet, um sicherzustellen, dass verschiedene Charakterf\u00e4higkeiten die tats\u00e4chliche F\u00e4higkeit, Waffen zu benutzen, beeinflussen.\n\n\n\nZuvor wurde die Feuerkadenz der KI global durch zwei cvar(s) gesteuert, im Grunde zwei globale Werte, an denen die Designer drehen konnten. Wir haben dies nun in eine richtige \"Formel\" umgewandelt, die die Waffenfertigkeit ber\u00fccksichtigt, um jedem Charakter eine unterschiedliche Zuversicht zu geben, wie viele Kugeln er verwenden soll, wie schnell er den Abzug dr\u00fccken soll, basierend auf seinen Eigenschaften (ist der NSC selbstbewusst, ein Angeber?) und auf seiner tats\u00e4chlichen F\u00e4higkeit mit der spezifischen Waffe.\n\nDas Team arbeitet derzeit am Sub-Komponenten-Zielsystem und erweitert das Zielsystem, um Sub-Ziele von Entit\u00e4ten besser zu filtern. Dieses System wird \u00fcber Raumschiffe und Charaktere hinweg genutzt werden. Zum Beispiel k\u00f6nnten NSCs zu Fu\u00df einen Schiffsmotor mit einem Raketenwerfer anvisieren, genauso wie ein Schiff den Motor mit Raketen anvisieren k\u00f6nnte.\n\n\n\nIn dieser Testumgebung kannst du sehen, wie Schiffe nun in der Lage sind, sich vollst\u00e4ndig auf eine bestimmte Unterkomponente eines anderen Schiffes zu konzentrieren. In diesem Fall wird einer der Truster weggesprengt und dann wird der n\u00e4chste anvisiert.\n\n\n\nIn dieser Testumgebung stellen wir einen Charakter auf, um seine Magazine aufzuf\u00fcllen. Dies ist eine Testkarte, um das Setup der Munitionskisten zu validieren und sicherzustellen, dass der Charakter korrekt eine Kiste finden kann, die Magazine\/Ammos f\u00fcr die Waffen, die er aktuell hat, bereitstellen kann und er diese dann auch korrekt nutzen kann.\n\n\nKI (Tech)\n\nLetzten Monat hat die KI Tech die EVA-Bewegung des Charakters unterst\u00fctzt. Die Idee ist es, das 3D Pathfinding, das f\u00fcr Raumschiffe implementiert wurde, wiederzuverwenden und auf Charaktere in der Schwerelosigkeit zu erweitern. Das Gesamtsystem wurde mit diesem Anwendungsfall im Hinterkopf entworfen, daher besteht die aktuelle Arbeit darin, das Bewegungssystem zu verbessern und zu erweitern, um sicherzustellen, dass der richtige Kontext verf\u00fcgbar ist, wenn eine EVA- oder Schiffssteuerungsbewegung angefordert wird. Es ist geplant, automatische Ein- und Ausstiege von Schiffen aus der Schwerelosigkeit mit dem System zu unterst\u00fctzen.\n\nDas Team erweitert derzeit das Navigationssystem, um mehr Kontext zu liefern, wenn Regenerationsanfragen zur Laufzeit im Spiel anstehen. Das aktuelle System verl\u00e4sst sich auf Physik-Ereignisse f\u00fcr die Regeneration, was es f\u00fcr das System schwieriger macht, zu verstehen, welcher Entit\u00e4tstyp eine Regeneration des Navigationsnetzes verursacht und welcher Schwellenwert toleriert werden kann. Das neue System nutzt eine Erweiterung, die es dem Team erm\u00f6glicht, Schiffszust\u00e4nde besser zu verstehen. Zum Beispiel, selbst wenn ein Schiff in der Physik \"wach\" ist, wenn es gelandet ist, k\u00f6nnen sie Modifikationen akkumulieren und nur dann eine Navmesh-Regeneration anfordern, wenn die akkumulierte Differenz eine bestimmte Schwelle \u00fcberschreitet.\n\nDas Team machte auch Fortschritte bei der Portierung des Subsumption-Editors in den Game-Editor, um die Bearbeitungsoberfl\u00e4che besser mit dem Laufzeitcode zu verbinden. Dies beinhaltete das Hinzuf\u00fcgen einer erweiterten \"Find\"-Funktionalit\u00e4t, die global scannt und Referenzen in Subsumption-Daten findet.\n\n\nAnimation\n\nIm letzten Monat hat das Animationsteam mehrere filmische und Gameplay-Storyszenen weiterentwickelt. Dies beinhaltete die Arbeit am Leben in der Kantine, Vanduul-Kampf, Zero-G-Bewegung, Gel\u00e4nder f\u00fcr Offiziere, Kapitulations- und Wartungsanimationen, Verletzungs- und Stolper-Blockouts und Mocap und Torkeln. Au\u00dferdem begannen sie mit dem Ausblocken des MedPen und der Krankenbetten, der NPCs, die Notausg\u00e4nge aus den Usables erreichen, und der 'Stare Spots', die von der KI im Leerlauf benutzt werden. Das finale Motion-Capture wurde f\u00fcr die Animationen in der Blockout-Phase gedreht, einschlie\u00dflich der Ebenen-Direktoren, Like-Idles, Arbeitszonen und Inspektionen. Au\u00dferdem wurde Mo-Cap f\u00fcr Stim Smoking, bedingte Tode (Einfrieren, S\u00e4ure, etc.) und alle erforderlichen Gesichtsanimationen f\u00fcr interaktive Performances erstellt.\n\n\nKunst (Charaktere)\n\nIm Februar machte das Character Art Team bedeutende Fortschritte bei Trejo, deren Kopf verbessert und an die Tech Animation \u00fcbergeben wurde. Das Konzept f\u00fcr ihr Basilisk Advocacy-Outfit n\u00e4herte sich der Fertigstellung, w\u00e4hrend ein \u00dcberarbeitungsdurchgang f\u00fcr den Hauptpiloten-Fluganzug der Marine begann und einige Charaktere aktualisiert wurden, die im letzten Jahr nicht bearbeitet werden konnten. Das Team richtete zwei Assets ein, um die neue Vertex-Stoffsimulation zu testen. Vcloth, wie es genannt wird, war lange Zeit eine gro\u00dfe Abh\u00e4ngigkeit und wird die Kleidungs- und Haarsimulation deutlich verbessern. Das Team wird sich bald an einen vollst\u00e4ndigen Konzeptpass der Screaming Galsons Fraktion und der f\u00fcr Kapitel vier ben\u00f6tigten Charaktere machen.\n\n\nEngine\n\nIm Februar beendete das Physik-Team die erste Stufe der Geometrie-Instanzierung, welche die zweite von drei ist. Weitere Optimierungen beinhalteten einen verbesserten Weg zur Neuberechnung der Massenverteilung von Rigid Bodies. Die Speicherfragmentierung im Zusammenhang mit Geometriecontainern wurde reduziert, indem der Speicher f\u00fcr alle Arrays aus einem einzigen zusammenh\u00e4ngenden Block zugeteilt wurde. F\u00fcr das Zero-G-Traversal setzte das Engineering die gemeinsame Arbeit mit Actor Features an dem neuen passiven Ragdoll-Modus fort. Es wurden Probleme mit der Kommunikation zwischen dem Spielcode, dem Animationssystem und dem Physiksystem gefunden und behoben. Au\u00dferdem wurde der Skelettphysik ein neuer passiver Ragdoll-Modus hinzugef\u00fcgt. F\u00fcr die kooperative Fortbewegung wurde eine Inkonsistenz in der D\u00e4mpfung von eingekuppelten Movables behoben. Zus\u00e4tzliche Unterst\u00fctzung gab es f\u00fcr das Planet Tech Team, die das Vegetations-Touch-Bending bei k\u00fcrzeren Asset-Varianten verbessern wollten.\n\nEs wurde Zeit damit verbracht, die Radfahrzeugphysik zu verbessern, wobei es dem Team gelang, das seitliche Pacejka-Reifenmodell zum Laufen zu bringen und das L\u00e4ngsmodell weiter zu verbessern. W\u00e4hrend des \u00dcbergangs zu diesem neuen Modell wurden auch einige Verbesserungen f\u00fcr den Legacy-Modus bereitgestellt. Das Kontakthandling f\u00fcr Tanks wurde verbessert, w\u00e4hrend Verbesserungen am Motor- und Getriebecode vorgenommen wurden. Es wurde mit dem Prototyping der Logik f\u00fcr das Schneiden von Polygonen begonnen, die auf Physik-Proxy-Meshes verwendet wird, und es wurde mit der allgemeinen Arbeit an der ISPC-Mathe-Bibliothek begonnen, wobei die ersten Ergebnisse eingereicht wurden. Dies wird es dem Team erm\u00f6glichen, C++ Code leichter nach ISPC zu portieren. Ein m\u00f6glicher Fix f\u00fcr Schiffe, die nicht mehr reagieren, nachdem Spieler das Cockpit verlassen haben, wurde ebenfalls eingereicht.\n\nBeim Renderer wurde die Arbeit an der Gen12-Umstellung fortgesetzt, insbesondere die Fertigstellung des Rendergraphen. Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr die verbleibenden sekund\u00e4ren Vertex-Streams, wie Skinning-Attribute, Geschwindigkeit und sekund\u00e4re UV-Streams, wurde hinzugef\u00fcgt. Zus\u00e4tzlich wurde die Gathering-basierte Tiefensch\u00e4rfe-Implementierung optimiert. Das Shaping von volumetrischen Wolken wurde vervollst\u00e4ndigt und ein erster Entwurf befindet sich derzeit bei den K\u00fcnstlern zum Prototyping und Feedback. In der Zwischenzeit wurden weitere Verbesserungen der Wolkenschattierung und des Schattenwurfs implementiert. Eine glaubw\u00fcrdige Multi-Streuung wurde ebenfalls hinzugef\u00fcgt. Die Wolkenschattierung beinhaltet nun atmosph\u00e4risches Umgebungslicht (reflektiertes Bodenlicht wird sp\u00e4ter hinzugef\u00fcgt), w\u00e4hrend die Albedo der Wolken an den R\u00e4ndern reduziert wurde, um die Form zu betonen (sie enth\u00fcllt subtile Details) und die Lichtstreuung in Wolken ist nicht mehr monochromatisch und nun genauso flexibel wie die atmosph\u00e4rische Streuung. Um Aliasing bei der Formgebung von Wolken zu reduzieren, werden nun bei jedem Raymarch-Schritt korrekte Textur-LOD-Werte berechnet, w\u00e4hrend Schattenstrahlen nun gejittert werden, um Aliasing bei Bewegung zu reduzieren. Es wurde mit der Erforschung des effizienten \u00dcberspringens von Leerr\u00e4umen zwischen Wolken begonnen.\n\nDas Engine Team hat weiter am Profiler gearbeitet und Kompatibilit\u00e4t f\u00fcr Hardwarecounter und einen Sampling Profiler Modus mit dedizierter Windows und Linux Unterst\u00fctzung hinzugef\u00fcgt. Speicherverfolgungsdaten k\u00f6nnen nun gefiltert werden, so dass Probleme leichter an ihre jeweiligen Besitzer delegiert werden k\u00f6nnen. Die Arbeit und Verbesserungen am Entity Component Update Scheduler wurden fortgesetzt. F\u00fcr die Patcher-Bibliotheken wurde Zeit damit verbracht, seltene Fehler beim Daten-Patching zu untersuchen, die zu korrupten p4k-Dateien f\u00fchrten; einige Verbesserungen wurden implementiert und weitere werden bald ausgerollt. Vis-Bereiche erhielten weitere Code-Updates und die Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr animierte Portale wurde implementiert. In Zukunft wird das Team die Arbeit am Vulkan Backend unterst\u00fctzen.\n\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\n\nDas SQ42 Feature Team hat die Einreichung von Missions-Fail-Bedingungen fortgesetzt. Jetzt k\u00f6nnen die Designer Standardausl\u00f6ser einrichten, wie z.B. das konstante Abschie\u00dfen eines Gegners innerhalb eines bestimmten Zeitlimits. Diese senden ein Ereignis, das dem Spieler mitteilt, dass die Mission fehlgeschlagen ist und aus welchem Grund, mit der M\u00f6glichkeit f\u00fcr die Designer, ma\u00dfgeschneiderte Fehlschl\u00e4ge zu skripten. Sie k\u00f6nnen nun auch skripten, was mit dem Spieler passiert, wenn er auf andere Art und Weise scheitert und den gegebenen Grund anzeigen. Die Designer erhielten auch die F\u00e4higkeit zu erkennen, was der Spieler in einem Schiff steuert, was f\u00fcr das Tutorial im Spiel genutzt wird. Die Notsignal-Mechanik wurde basierend auf dem Feedback w\u00e4hrend der Play-Reviews weiterentwickelt, sodass die Spieler nun ihre Scanner nutzen k\u00f6nnen, um schwache Notsignale zu erkennen.\n\n\nGameplay Story\n\nIm Februar arbeitete das Gameplay Story Team an 18 'random to NPC' Szenen und f\u00fcgte Text-to-Speech Platzhalter Audio hinzu. Das Audio wird bald durch die Scratch-Aufnahmen des Teams ersetzt werden, bevor die Planung f\u00fcr die endg\u00fcltigen Aufnahmen beginnen kann. Au\u00dferdem unterst\u00fctzten sie das Design der Kapitel 4a und 14, indem sie schrittweise Verbesserungen vornahmen und neue Verlassen-Animationen lieferten, und es wurden einige wichtige Polierarbeiten f\u00fcr die Morrow-Tour abgeschlossen. Ein Hauptaugenmerk lag den ganzen Monat \u00fcber auf der Entwicklung von \"Play Anywhere\"-Szenen, bei denen sich KI-Charaktere dem Spieler n\u00e4hern, um ein Gespr\u00e4ch zu beginnen. Diese Momente beinhalten die Integration von Szenen mit KI-Lokomotion, um ein nat\u00fcrliches Ergebnis zu erzielen. Die erste dieser Szenen ben\u00f6tigt noch weiteren Feinschliff, sieht aber momentan sehr vielversprechend aus.\n\nGameplay Story war auch stark in die Animationstechnik involviert und hat abnehmbare Helme, die Standardisierung von Sitzen und die Laufgeschwindigkeit der Charaktere untersucht und unterst\u00fctzt.\n\n\nGrafiken\n\nIm letzten Monat konzentrierte sich das Grafikteam auf zwei Hauptbereiche - automatisierte Tests und den Gen12 Renderer. Es wurden verschiedene Verbesserungen an den automatisierten Tests vorgenommen, um die Zuverl\u00e4ssigkeit zu erh\u00f6hen. Das ist entscheidend, wenn gr\u00f6\u00dfere \u00c4nderungen ausgerollt werden, um sicherzustellen, dass die Grafik nicht irgendetwas kaputt macht, das von anderen Teams implementiert wurde. Dazu geh\u00f6rte auch eine \u00dcberarbeitung der Timer im Renderer, um sicherzustellen, dass die verschiedenen Animationssysteme, die f\u00fcr Dinge wie Lichter, Shader, Nebel und Wasser verwendet werden, pausieren und neu basen k\u00f6nnen. An der Gen12-Front wurde weiter daran gearbeitet, die Parit\u00e4t mit dem alten Schatten-Codepfad zu erreichen, sodass dieser standardm\u00e4\u00dfig aktiviert werden kann. Das Testen des Vulkan-Backends wurde weiter auf das gesamte Team ausgeweitet, um eine breitere Sichtbarkeit der neuen API zu erreichen. Schlie\u00dflich wurde das Font-Rendering-System auf Gen12 portiert, um das Debugging zu erleichtern.\n\n\nLevel Design\n\nDas Social Design Team profitierte weiterhin von der aktualisierten Technik und dem Toolset, das ein granulareres Setup der Szenenarbeit und nutzbare Interaktionen erm\u00f6glicht. Das Leveldesign arbeitete eng mit der Kunstabteilung an mehreren FPS-R\u00e4umen. Das FPS Design Team hat diesen Orten den letzten Schliff gegeben, um sicherzustellen, dass sie vollst\u00e4ndig realisiert und glaubw\u00fcrdig sind.\n\nDas Raumfahrt- und Dogfight-Team arbeitete weiter daran, das Verhalten der Piraten-KI auf den Goldstandard zu bringen, w\u00e4hrend die Anforderungen an die KI-Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr die \"Buddy\"-Szene ermittelt wurden.\n\n\nNarrative\n\nIm letzten Monat hat das Narrative Team weiterhin an den Playthrough Reviews teilgenommen. Diese \u00dcberpr\u00fcfungen sind \u00e4u\u00dferst n\u00fctzlich, um sicherzustellen, dass der erz\u00e4hlerische Inhalt die gew\u00fcnschte Wirkung hat und dass die Dialogoptionen mit der Bandbreite an Spielerentscheidungen und -aktionen zurechtkommen. Au\u00dferdem gaben sie dem Xenolinguisten des Teams Feedback zu den Fortschritten bei der Vanduul-Sprache.\n\n\"Die Entwicklung der Alien-Sprachen war ein sehr fruchtbares Unterfangen f\u00fcr das Team, denn neben der Sprache selbst war der Prozess gro\u00dfartig, um kulturelle Details und das Verhalten der Spezies zu erschaffen, da Sprachen oft eine zus\u00e4tzliche Ebene von Besonderheiten ben\u00f6tigen, um zu funktionieren.\" -Das Narrative Team\n\nZu guter Letzt hat das Team den Text f\u00fcr interaktive Requisiten geschrieben, die verwendet werden, um einige der Spielumgebungen zu gestalten.\n\n\nQA\n\nDie Cinematics verlie\u00dfen sich weiterhin auf die QA f\u00fcr Aufnahmen jedes Levels, w\u00e4hrend \u00c4nderungs- und Update-Tests im gesamten Projekt durchgef\u00fchrt wurden. Die KI-Tests konzentrierten sich auf den FPS-Kampf, insbesondere auf das Verhalten und die Animationen der Vanduul, w\u00e4hrend die Schiffskampftests die j\u00fcngsten Updates des Pilotenverhaltens untersuchten. Es wurde eine Checkliste f\u00fcr jeden Bereich erstellt, um dem Team zu helfen, den \u00dcberblick \u00fcber die \u00c4nderungen zu behalten, die durch die Pipeline kommen, sowie \u00fcber alle Bugs, die w\u00e4hrend der Entwicklung auftreten k\u00f6nnen.\nTech-Animation\n\nIm Februar hat Tech Animation die Assets aufger\u00e4umt, da eine zentrale \u00c4nderung an der In-Engine-Animationspipeline eine gro\u00dfe Anzahl von ihnen ung\u00fcltig gemacht hat. Die Entwicklung des hauseigenen Animationsgraphen-Toolsets wurde fortgesetzt, das sich in einem fr\u00fchen User-Testing befindet, um Feedback und Bugs f\u00fcr die n\u00e4chste Entwicklungsphase zu sammeln. Das Team arbeitete auch mit externen Optionen f\u00fcr die Skinning-Dekomposition und wandelte diese in funktionierende L\u00f6sungen um. Dieses Toolset bildet die Grundlage f\u00fcr die Technologie, die verwendet wird, um einen Teil der Asset-Authoring-Pipeline zu refaktorieren, um den gesamten Prozess zu beschleunigen.\n\nSie widmeten auch der laufenden Erstellung von Xi'an Body- und Face-Rigs Zeit.\n\n\nVFX\n\nDie VFX haben den Februar damit verbracht, ihre Arbeit an den Gaswolkeneffekten fortzusetzen, einschlie\u00dflich der Unterst\u00fctzung bei der Erstellung der eigentlichen Gaswolken und der Inneneffekte, wie zum Beispiel kleine Tr\u00fcmmer, die mit dem Schiff kollidieren. Sie begannen auch mit dem Testen der j\u00fcngsten Verbesserungen der Partikel-Beleuchtung, die ein mehr physikalisch basiertes Setup haben. Dies macht es den K\u00fcnstlern einfacher, nat\u00fcrlichere und realistischere Effekte in einer Vielzahl von Umgebungen und Lichtverh\u00e4ltnissen zu erzeugen. 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 the Vanduul language, gas-cloud effects, and work continues on character EVA movement.\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 (Content)\nThroughout February, AI Content continued with the engineer behavior, which helped identify further low-level improvements that could be extended to other systems to achieve even more complex behaviors (as they did with the bartender). They also started the downstream definitions of the usables required for the engineer, hygiene, and vendor shop extensions. The tier-zero implementations of the hawker, tourist, and tour guide behavior were completed too.\n\nAI (Features)\nAI Features made improvements to the communication system. First, they enabled a selection of communication variations to be aware of the animation options setup in Mannequin. This allows them to drive randomization in a way that prevents possible repetitions. Secondly, they improved the low-level patrol tech code to support the customization of input parameters on the Subsumption logic for each patrol vertex. To achieve this, they extended the serialization code to allow multiple interfaces for variable serializations. So, from the editor code, they can automatically call through the right function for each variable type. Some variable types are plain old data (POD) and the system allows the registration of a global function associated with that type, such as integers and doubles. As with other custom types, the team can now allow calling class member functions to make the code more structured.\n\nFor usables, the team extended the crafting dictionary used to understand which items a usable can produce to handle multiple tags. This will enable them to understand which operations can produce multiple objects in one interaction. The routing verification in the query system was extended so that usables that provide or accept items can also be retrieved when slotted into other usables. They continued to improve the automatic testing setup for Subsumption, allowing the flowgraph UI to create a specific popup of only available functions instead of manually typing the function name.\n\nFor Character Combat, improvements were made to the fire cadence skill calculation. This was initially done using a global modifier but now uses skill formulas to ensure different character abilities influence the actual ability to use weapons.\n\n\n\n\nPreviously AI rate of fire was globally controlled by two cvar(s), basically two global values designers could tweak. We now have transformed this into a proper \u201cformula\u201d that takes into account the weapon proficiency to allow each character to have a different confidence of how many bullets to use, how quickly to press the trigger based on their traits (is the NPC confident, a showoff?) and on their actual ability with the specific weapon.\n\nThe team are currently progressing on the sub-component targeting, extending the targeting system to better filter entity sub-targets. This system will be shared across spaceships and characters. For example, NPCs on foot could target a ship engine with a rocket launcher the same way a ship could target the engine with missiles.\n\n\n\n\nIn this test environment you can see how ships are now able to fully focus on a specific subcomponent of another ship. In this case one of the trusters are blown away and then the next one is targeted.\n\n\n\n\nIn this test environment we setup a character to replenish his magazines. This is a test map to validate the setup of the ammo crates and make sure that the character can correctly find a crate that can provide magazines\/ammos for the weapons he currently has and he can then use the usable correctly.\n\n\n\nAI (Tech)\nLast month, AI Tech supported character EVA movement. The idea is to reuse and extend the 3D pathfinding implemented for spaceships to characters in zero-g. The overall system was designed with this use-case in mind, so current work is to improve and extend the movement system to ensure the right context is available when an EVA or ship control movement is requested. They\u2019re planning to support automatic enters\/exits of ships from zero-g using the usable system too.\n\nThe team are currently extending the navigation system to give more context when in-game run-time regeneration requests are queued. The current system relies on physics events for regeneration, which makes it harder for the system to understand what entity type is causing a navigation mesh regeneration and what threshold can be tolerated. The new system utilizes an extension that enables the team to better understand ship states. For example, even if a ship is \u2018awake\u2019 in physics when landed, unless significant movements occur, they can accumulate modifications and only request a navmesh regeneration when the accumulated difference exceeds a certain threshold.\n\nThe team also progressed with porting the Subsumption editor into the game editor to better connect the editing interface with the runtime code. This involved adding a more advanced \u2018find\u2019 functionality that globally scans and finds references in Subsumption data.\n\n\n\nAnimation\nLast month, the Animation Team progressed with several cinematic and gameplay story scenes. This involved work on the mess hall life, Vanduul combat, zero-g movement, railings for officers, surrender and maintenance animations, hurt and stumble blockouts and mocap, and staggers. They also began blocking out the MedPen and medical beds, NPCs accessing emergency exits from useables, and \u2018stare spots\u2019 used by AI when idle. The final motion-capture was shot for animations in the blockout phase, including plane directors, like-idles, work zones, and inspects. They also completed mo-cap for stim smoking, conditional deaths (freezing, acid, etc), and all required facial animations for interactable performances.\n\n\n\nArt (Characters)\nFebruary saw the Character Art Team make significant progress on Trejo, whose head was improved and passed to Tech Animation. Concepting for her Basilisk Advocacy outfit approached completion, while a revision pass began on the main pilot flight suit used by the navy, and some characters were updated that couldn\u2019t be dealt with last year. The team set up two assets to test the new vertex cloth simulation. Vcloth, as it\u2019s known, was a major dependency for a long time and will significantly improve clothing and hair simulation. The team will soon move onto a full concept pass of the Screaming Galsons faction and the characters required for chapter four.\n\n\n\nEngine\nIn February, the Physics Team finished tier one of geometry instancing, which is the second of three. Further optimizations included an improved way to recompute the mass distribution of rigid bodies. Memory fragmentation related to geometry containers was reduced by allocating memory for all arrays from a single contiguous block. For zero-g traversal, Engineering continued their joint effort with Actor Features on the new passive ragdoll mode. Issues with the communication between the game code, animation system, and physics system were found and fixed. Alongside this, a new passive ragdoll mode was added to skeleton physics. For cooperative locomotion, an inconsistency was fixed in the damping of engaged movables. Additional support was given to the Planet Tech Team who were looking to improve vegetation touch-bending on shorter asset varieties.\n\nTime was spent improving wheeled-vehicle physics, with the team managing to get the lateral Pacejka tire model to work and further improving the longitudinal model. While they transition to this new model, a few improvements were provided for the legacy mode too. Contact handling for tanks was improved, while improvements were made to the engine and gearbox code. Prototyping started on the logic for polygon cutting, which is used on physics proxy meshes, and general-purpose work was started on the ISPC math library, with the first results being submitted. This will allow the team to port C++ code to ISPC more easily. A potential fix for ships becoming unresponsive after players leave the cockpit was submitted too.\n\nFor the renderer, work continued on the Gen12 transition, in particular finalizing the render graph. Support for the remaining secondary vertex streams, such as skinning attributes, velocity, and secondary UV streams, was added. Additionally, the gather-based depth-of-field implementation was optimized. The shaping of volumetric clouds was completed and a first draft is currently with the artists for prototyping and feedback. In the meantime, more improvements to cloud shading and shadowing were implemented. A believable multi-scatter approximation was also added. Cloud shading now includes atmosphere-based ambient light (reflected ground light will be added later), while cloud albedo was reduced at the edges to emphasize shape (it reveals subtle details) and light scattering in clouds is no longer monochromatic and now just as flexible as atmospheric scattering. To reduce aliasing when shaping clouds, proper texture LOD values are now computed at each raymarch step, while shadow rays are now jittered to reduce aliasing under motion. Research into the efficient skipping of empty space between clouds commenced.\n\nThe Engine Team continued working on the profiler, adding compatibility for hardware counters and a sampling profiler mode with dedicated Windows and Linux support. Memory tracking data can now be filtered so issues can be more easily delegated to their respective owners. Work and improvements on the entity component update scheduler continued. For the patcher libraries, time was spent investigating infrequent errors in data patching that resulted in corrupt p4k files; some improvements were implemented and more will be rolled out soon. Vis areas received further code updates and support for animated portals was implemented. Moving forward, the team will support work on the Vulkan backend.\n\n\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nThe SQ42 Feature Team continued submitting mission fail conditions. Now, the designers can set up default triggers, such as constantly shooting a friendly within a given time limit. These send an event to say the player has failed the mission and for what reason, with the ability for the designers to script bespoke failures. They can now also script what happens to the player if they fail via other means and display the given reason. The designers also received the ability to detect what the player is controlling in a ship, which will be used for the in-game tutorial. The distress beacon mechanic was further developed based on feedback during play reviews, so players can now use their scanners to detect weak distress signals.\n\n\n\nGameplay Story\nFebruary saw the Gameplay Story Team working through 18 \u2018random to NPC\u2019 scenes and adding text-to-speech placeholder audio. The audio will soon be replaced with the team\u2019s scratch recordings before planning for final recordings can begin. They also supported Design on chapters 4a and 14, making incremental improvements and delivering new abandon animations, and some important polish work was completed for the Morrow Tour. A key focus throughout the month was the development of \u2018play anywhere\u2019 scenes, which involve AI characters approaching the player to initiate a conversation. These moments involve integrating scenes with AI locomotion to achieve a natural result. The first of these requires further polish but is currently looking very promising.\n\nGameplay Story were also heavily involved in animation tech, providing investigation and support into removable helmets, seat standardization, and character walk speeds.\n\n\n\nGraphics\nLast month, the Graphics Team focused on two main areas \u2013 automated testing and the Gen12 renderer. Various improvements were made to automated testing to better reliability, which is crucial as major changes are rolled out to ensure Graphics don\u2019t break anything implemented by other teams. This included a rework of how the timers are set up in the renderer, ensuring they can pause and re-base the different animation systems used for things like lights, shaders, fog, and water. On the Gen12-front, work continued to reach parity with the old shadow code-path so that it can be enabled by default. Testing of the Vulkan backend was rolled out further across the team to get wider visibility on the new API. Finally, to aid debugging, the font-rendering system was ported to Gen12.\n\n\n\nLevel Design\nThe Social Design Team continued to benefit from the updated tech and toolset that allows for a more granular setup of scene work and usable interactions. Level Design worked closely with Art on several FPS spaces. These locations received a lot of polish from the FPS Design Team to ensure they\u2019re fully realized and believable places.\n\nThe push for \u2018gold-standard\u2019 pirate AI behavior was continued by the Space\/Dogfight Team, while the \u2018buddy\u2019 AI support was scoped out to determine its requirements.\n\n\n\nNarrative\nLast month, Narrative continued to participate in playthrough reviews. These reviews are extremely useful for ensuring narrative content has the desired impact and that the dialogue options cope with the range of player choices and actions. They also provided feedback to the team\u2019s Xenolinguist as progress continued with the Vanduul language.\n\n\u201cDeveloping the alien languages has been a very fruitful endeavor for the team because, beyond the language itself, the process has been great for creating cultural details and species behavior as languages often require an additional layer of specifics to be functional.\u201d -The Narrative Team\n\nLastly, the team wrote the text for interactive props that will be used to dress some of the game environments.\n\n\n\nQA\nCinematics continued to rely on QA for recordings of each level, while change and update testing was undertaken across the project. AI testing focused on FPS combat, particularly Vanduul behaviors and animations, while ship combat testing looked at the recent pilot behavior updates. A checklist for each was created to help the team keep on top of changes coming through the pipeline along with any bugs that may arise through development.\n\nTech Animation\nFebruary saw Tech Animation cleaning up assets, as a core change to the in-engine animation pipeline invalidated a large number of them. Development of the in-house animation graph toolset continued, which is going through early user-testing to collate feedback and bugs for the next phase of development. The team also worked with external options for skinning decomposition and changed them into working solutions. This toolset forms the basis of the technology that will be used to refactor a portion of the asset-authoring pipeline to expedite the whole process.\n\nThey also dedicated time to the ongoing creation of Xi\u2019an body and face rigs.\n\n\n\nVFX\nVFX spend February continuing their work on gas-cloud effects, including support for the creation of the actual gas clouds and interior effects, such as small debris that collides with the ship. They also began testing the recent particle-lighting improvements, which have a more physical-based setup. This makes it easier for the artists to create more natural and realistic-looking effects in a variety of environments and lighting conditions. WE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026"},"links_count":0,"comment_count":10,"created_at":"2021-03-10T21:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"5 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-07 20:21:06","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":18023,"next_id":18026}}