{"data":{"id":18040,"title":"Character Tech Team AMA Recap","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/18040-Character-Tech-Team-AMA-Recap","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/18040","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/18040","channel":"Undefined","category":"Undefined","series":"None","images":[{"id":26482,"name":"Shipdetail-Concept-Bg_bw.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/c2ae7q1c7cg63r\/source\/Shipdetail-Concept-Bg_bw.jpg","alt":"","size":1111159,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2017-05-24T19:35:00+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/26482","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/26482\/similar"},{"id":26871,"name":"AMA-CTT.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/a4laah7skhi5wr\/source\/AMA-CTT.jpg","alt":"","size":220501,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2021-03-17T13:40:07+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/26871","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/26871\/similar"}],"images_count":2,"translations":{"en_EN":"Character Tech Team AMA Recap\n\nEach month we host an open submission live Q&A on Spectrum joined by developers from various specialties across CIG. These questions and answers were collected from the Spectrum AMA on March 16, 2021.\n\n\nThis time, we welcomed four guests from the Character Tech Team, which is the link between purely code-focused programming and creative art. They\u2019re currently working on the character tech pipeline, providing the artists with the tools they need to achieve their visual goals.\n\nAndreas Rohr \u2013 Principal Technical Artist\nHey guys, my name is Andreas Rohr and I\u2019m a principal character tech artist\/technical animator\/tools programmer based in the Frankfurt office. I\u2019m part of the Tech Animation Team, which is split between our Wilmslow, Derby, and Frankfurt studios. Besides working at CIG, I\u2019m a proud veteran Star Citizen backer who hasn\u2019t missed a single Wingman\u2019s Hangar, Around the Verse, and Inside Star Citizen episode since our humble beginnings.\nMy main focus over the past years has been developing our in-house facial rigging pipeline\/toolset and improving our DNA character customization system.\nI also push our next-gen cloth and hair simulation tech and generally strive to ensure all our animation and deformation systems are both easy and efficient to work with and reach near-filmic quality levels when the big day comes.\n\n\n\nChris Van Compernolle \u2013 Technical Artist\nHi, my name is Christopher Van Compernolle, but call me CVC for short. I am an embedded technical artist for the Character Art Team.\nMy specialties include rigging, skinning, and coding tools. This includes modular armor, hair creation pipelines, and character optimizations. So if you have any Python tools questions, let\u2019s chat!\n\n\n\nJames Ku \u2013 Principal Character Artist\nHi, my name is James Ku and I\u2019m a principal character artist at CIG. I work in the LA studio with our great group of character artists on the Character Tech Team. My job is to create characters, R&D new tech and software for the character creation pipeline, and set a high quality bar for the look of our characters.\nIn the last few years, my primary task has been to focus on Squadron 42, specifically the faces of the main characters. I\u2019ve been working on things like the skin, eyes, and hair of these characters to try to make them more realistic and appealing.\n\n\n\nForrest Stephan \u2013 Principal Technical Artist\nGreetings citizens! Forrest Stephan here reporting for duty as a principal technical artist at CIG. I am a pipeline supervisor that helps our talented artists bring you the best darn looking pixels possible. I am heavily embedded in the Character Team and support the needs of departments scattered across the globe with character-related requests.\nI have a long investment in development and a huge love for the project as I have been working on Star Citizen since the beginning, starting way back on the original crowdfunding campaign. So whether you want to go down memory lane or chat about the latest and greatest in our character art pipelines, I\u2019m here for you!\n\nThis AMA is complete but keep an eye out for upcoming ones for your chance to ask us anything!\n\n\nWill backpacks also have exterior slots, with visible content (just like the armour)?\nChris Van Compernolle:\n\nYes, we are planning on having physical components on backpacks, just like we do with armors. The backpack itself is actually getting treated as attachable to an armor.\n\n\nBeards?\nChris Van Compernolle:\n\nWe do plan on including beards and other facial hair in the PU at some point down the line. However, they have many other things in front of it.\n\n\nAny new about the cloth tech animation we saw in a CitizenCon for characters?\nAndreas Rohr:\n\nMany thanks for this great question and for remembering our little presentation back in 2018 \u2013 always happy to see people care about our characters, their animation and deformation quality \u2013 and cloth simulation in particular.\n\n\n\nThe vcloth (vertex cloth) simulation tech is a great example of priorities shifting over the course of production \u2013 which is perfectly normal in game development. In the case of vcloth, the successful roll-out of the feature depends on three main pillars:\n\n\n1) The basic cloth solver needs to be implemented by our physics team, needs to have all the core features like tweakable dynamics parameters, collision, self-collision etc. and needs to run fast enough so it can be applied to a reasonable number of characters simultaneously. Apart from that it also needs to be robust and \u2018stable\u2019 in the sense of not \u2018exploding\u2019 due to the extreme accelerations that can often occur from one frame to the next in the context of games. Lastly, it needs to support the needs of the (tech) art and content centric teams and give them full control over how the cloth behaves and its look and feel, under all the drastically different conditions you\u2019ll end up seeing it in, from fps fights to slow-paced hero cinematic close-ups.\n\n\n\n2) An efficient pipeline between DCC (digital content creation) applications such as Maya and our engine needs to be established, as well as tools on the DCC side that allow efficient setup and markup of the simulation assets. The sheer number of assets in our game requires these solutions to be scalable since once the tech comes online, most existing assets (that are deemed worth it) will need to be moved over, i.e. all current assets that use the old \u2018pendulum sim\u2019 system, and then some. Good tools and pipelines glue everything together, it\u2019s where our productivity lies.\n\n\n\n3) Lastly, the assets themselves need to be there and need to be suitable for simulation in terms of how they were built and their structure. If you model, say some trousers that are rather baggy you\u2019ll find that they end up looking pretty bad and unnaturally stiff\/rigid in the game if they \u2018don\u2019t have sim\u2019 because the solver and pipeline aren\u2019t ready yet. But if you need the outfit for an upcoming release you\u2019ll likely concept and model them with a tighter fit so the deformation\/movement will match the expected behavior in motion. However, once the vcloth tech does come online you\u2019ll obviously want assets that allow it to shine and look super cool. You\u2019ll want cloaks and trenchcoats and cool leather jackets and all kinds of dynamic attachments \u2013 you\u2019ll want players to want to take off their armor in the landing zones cause it looks 10x cooler and more individualistic. But it\u2019s a all dependency on the solver and pipeline being fully ready.\n\n\n\nAt CitCon 2018 we were at a point where they were only about halfway there but initial results already looked so excitingly cool and promising that we wanted to share them with you. What happened then is simply game development.\n\n\n\nThe same physics wizards that can give us fancy cloth solvers for cool looking assets are also the folks that implement some core features of our engine which are the foundations for actual gameplay. They work i.e. on physics grids and spatial query acceleration structures which keep track of where objects are in space and whether they collide, are hit by projectiles etc. They are a core component of all AI path-finding logic without which all AI, both NPC ships and agents, would not have any awareness of their environment whatsoever \u2013 nothing that could even trigger a behavior\/action in the first place. They would just \u2018T-pose\u2019, even outside of server perf being an issue, and I guess nobody wants this. So in this case progress on some of the most fundamental systems our games are built upon, was prioritized over the cool shiny stuff, for more than two years.\n\n\n\nAs much as the visual tech nerd in me that hand-optimized the config.sys and autoexec.bat files on his DOS-PC in the 90s in order to see the fancy additional effects this enabled in the early Wing Commander games \u2013 as much as this part of me would have loved to bring you vcloth on characters by now \u2013 the other part of me that wants to see our game come together and Chris\u2019 vision realized, is fully convinced that this was exactly the right thing to do. And to be clear \u2013 we\u2019ve obviously already tried to clone our physics peeps in order to speed up the process, but it didn\u2019t quite work out, sadly.\n\n\n\nThat being said, work on \u2018vcloth\u2019 has been picked up again and will continue, gameplay-related physics-duties permitting. It\u2019s a highly complex technical challenge and we look forward to sharing more visual\/tangible progress with you at some point. Bear in mind that not all the teams that take part in this initiative are currently represented on the public roadmap yet, which is due to change though.\n\n\nAre ya\u2019ll committed to making GOOD Black (4C) hairstyles available, besides just afros and braids, such as high-top fades, curly tops, and waves? Tired of my character lookin\u2019 like he permed his hair straight like it\u2019s the 50s.\nChris Van Compernolle:\n\nWhile we havn\u2019t had the opportunity to implement any of these hairstyles just yet, this is definitely something we want to do and is very important to us. We want to make sure we achieve a good representation of these types of hairs styles.\n\n\nLayered armor anytime soon? I would love to use my helmet with my regular clothing or my jacket with my flight suit.\nChris Van Compernolle:\n\nCurrently there are no plans to do anything like this. Our armors and clothing adhere to a strict set of rules defining how they interact with one another. To allow for the layering of these two systems will require a major refactor of those rules.\n\n\nHi James Ku, you mentioned R&D\u2019ing new tech. Is there any tech in particular we do not yet know about you could tease us a little on?\nJames Ku:\n\nSorry I cant post any spoilers, but an example of the r&d that was done in the last two years is the new hair that you\u2019ve seen in SQ42. That involved creating an in house custom art tool to create the hair and new shader tech in the game engine.\n\n\nGood morning Character Tech team! What is the current status of being able to remove\/put on our helmets in-game?\nChris Van Compernolle::\n\nWe are currently in the process of researching how best to handle helmets. There are a lot of dependencies from the artwork, to animation, to UI. Once we have all of dependencies defines, we will begin refactoring all of previous assets to utilize the new tech.\n\n\nIs the new hair tech coming to the PU ?\nForrest Stephan:\n\nHair tech is built to support both SQ42 and PU.\n\n\nAre there plans for deeper customisation options like sliders for each facial feature?\nDNA blending system is great, but sometimes you just want to fine tune a specific feature.\nAndreas Rohr:\n\nAs a general answer to this and other PU character customizer related questions:\n\nWe acknowledge the fact that the current PU customizer is limited in terms of usability and choice, i.e. face options, hair options, beard options and other things.\n\nIt can be considered a v1 of the system \u2013 and wherever there\u2019s a v1, there\u2019s likely gonna be a v2 if and when it can be put on the schedule.\n\nThe current PU customizer uses a very old system for drawing and interacting with the UI elements since the new building blocks system wasn\u2019t ready by the time the v1 customizer was implemented.\n\nAs a result we didn\u2019t get the interaction model to be as easy and intuitive as we had wanted.\n\nThe quality of assets in there is not up to the same standards we can achieve internally by now.\n\n\nCan you tell us anything about the progress on alien characters?\nJames Ku:\n\nOnce again sorry I dont wanna post spoilers, but as you\u2019ve seen we have worked on the Vanduul. I can say our character artists are always excited to work on creatures and aliens.\n\n\nI believe it\u2019s been said there are problems with creating tattoos. Do you have ideas on how to overcome those problems?\nDo you face the same difficulties with badges for clothes and decals for armor \/ gear \/ vehicles or would those offer different problems?\nForrest Stephan:\n\nThere are two types of decals our character\u2019s shader supports. Stencil decals and diffuse decals. Stencil decals work similar to real-life stencils, think screen-printing or stickers. Stencils do minimal color with a mask to determine where the color is visibly projected. For more detailed art, such as tattoos, diffuse details are required which provide a fuller color and detailed spectrum. The challenge with this is they are projected through UV\u2019s onto the skin diffuse texture. This diffuse decal system requires material variants to support the extra texture slot. This can exponentially increase material counts. How to minimize physical material variants is a challenge we are continually trying to solve.\n\n\nAny update on the holo-skull helmet blockers?\nForrest Stephan:\n\nThe initial blocker with the hologram helmets was related to the shader\u2019s original design which was built for static objects or RTT projections. We tried it on the skin files and it was unable to animate with the character\u2019s skeleton\/rig. We decided to take the shader back to the drawing board and ensure it supports the needs specific to the characters.\n\n\nHello the team,\nFirst of all, thank you for taking the time to answer our questions.\nSimple one, what is your top priority at the moment concerning character art ? Do you plan to add more diversity into the character creation tab ? If so, what can we expect in the coming year ?\nRegards\nJames Ku:\n\nHi, thanks for taking the time to ask us questions in the AMA. I can tell you that my top priority in regards to character art is quality. When I build a character I\u2019m always trying to push myself in terms of quality and set a good example for the team.\n\n\nWhat lessons have you learned from players using the current character creator? How did they compare to your original assumptions and how will they change what you do going forward?\nForrest Stephan:\n\nWe learned how important the heads are that make up the pool. The initial selection of heads where arbitrary without taking the customizer into account. Once the customizer was fully functional, we quickly learned the importance of having a variety of shapes since the customer allows interpolation between DNA head shapes, \u201cex: ears, eyes, nose, etc.\u201d. Having a bigger DNA pool has necessary benefits; The more heads, the larger the variety options between the heads.\n\n\nWill we be able to equip armour for our left and right arms separately?\nForrest Stephan:\n\nThe armor is broken up in 5 items: core, arms, legs, hands and helmets. There is no armor a-symmetry due to increasing customization further can cause both texture memory and draw call implications which we decided to avoid for performance reasons.\n\n\nWhat major tech or pipeline improvements are you most excited for to improve your work?\nJames Ku:\n\nPersonally, I\u2019ve been recently trying improve my skill with using this art software called Marvelous Designer. We use it a lot to make clothing for our characters.\n\n\nForrest Stephan:\n\nThe authoring of character assets uses a combination of traditional sculpt and baking for normal maps with a shared PBR material library to define the surface of the character using blend masking texture techniques. The authoring of the blend maps required a more intuitive visual workflow than the current Photoshop to engine pipeline. In order to solve this we are implementing a Substance Painter and Substance Designer pipeline for surfacing to allow for 3d painting while being able to visualize the final look of the character simultaneously. This is an exciting pipeline improvement for the artists to allow a nex-gen texturing system to now match a nex-gen authoring workflow.\n\n\nCan we have navy \/ UEE uniforms please? and berets?\nJames Ku:\n\nUnfortunately I don\u2019t decide what uniforms the players get in the PU. I can say that I worked on a few uee uniforms and I liked working on them a lot.\n\n\nProcedurally generated clothing\/armor?\nForrest Stephan:\n\nA procedural approach to spawning NPCs built on loadout modularity using a system called \u201cspawn closets\u201d is in the works. In addition, we are expanding the ship tinting system onto the characters to allow for color palette customization.\n\n\nDisclaimer\nThe answers accurately reflect development\u2019s intentions at the time of writing, but the company and development team reserve the right to adapt, improve, or change feature and ship designs in response to feedback, playtesting, design revisions, or other considerations to improve balance or the quality of the game overall.","de_DE":"Charakter Tech Team AMA Recap\n\nJeden Monat veranstalten wir auf Spectrum eine offene Frage-Antwort-Runde, an der Entwickler aus verschiedenen Fachbereichen von CIG teilnehmen. Diese Fragen und Antworten wurden von der Spectrum AMA am 16. M\u00e4rz 2021 gesammelt.\n\nDieses Mal begr\u00fc\u00dften wir vier G\u00e4ste aus dem Character Tech Team, welches das Bindeglied zwischen rein codeorientierter Programmierung und kreativer Kunst ist. Sie arbeiten derzeit an der Character Tech Pipeline und versorgen die K\u00fcnstler mit den Werkzeugen, die sie brauchen, um ihre visuellen Ziele zu erreichen.\n\nAndreas Rohr - Principal Technical Artist\nHey Leute, mein Name ist Andreas Rohr und ich bin ein Principal Character Tech Artist\/Technical Animator\/Tools Programmer mit Sitz im Frankfurter B\u00fcro. Ich bin Teil des Tech Animation Teams, das zwischen unseren Studios in Wilmslow, Derby und Frankfurt aufgeteilt ist. Neben meiner Arbeit bei CIG bin ich ein stolzer Star Citizen Backer, der seit unseren bescheidenen Anf\u00e4ngen keine einzige Wingman's Hangar, Around the Verse und Inside Star Citizen Episode verpasst hat.\nMein Hauptaugenmerk lag in den letzten Jahren auf der Entwicklung unserer internen Gesichts-Rigging-Pipeline und der Verbesserung unseres DNA-Charakteranpassungssystems.\nIch treibe auch unsere Next-Gen Stoff- und Haarsimulationstechnologie voran und versuche generell sicherzustellen, dass alle unsere Animations- und Deformationssysteme sowohl einfach und effizient zu bedienen sind als auch eine nahezu filmische Qualit\u00e4t erreichen, wenn der gro\u00dfe Tag kommt.\nChris Van Compernolle - Technischer Zeichner\nHallo, mein Name ist Christopher Van Compernolle, aber nenn mich kurz CVC. Ich bin ein eingebetteter Technical Artist f\u00fcr das Character Art Team.\nZu meinen Spezialgebieten geh\u00f6ren Rigging, Skinning und Coding Tools. Dazu geh\u00f6ren modulare R\u00fcstungen, Haarerstellungspipelines und Charakteroptimierungen. Wenn du also Fragen zu Python-Tools hast, lass uns chatten!\nJames Ku - Principal Character Artist\nHi, mein Name ist James Ku und ich bin ein Principal Character Artist bei CIG. Ich arbeite im LA Studio mit unserer gro\u00dfartigen Gruppe von Character Artists im Character Tech Team. Meine Aufgabe ist es, Charaktere zu erstellen, neue Technologien und Software f\u00fcr die Charaktererstellungspipeline zu entwickeln und eine hohe Qualit\u00e4tsmesslatte f\u00fcr das Aussehen unserer Charaktere zu setzen.\nIn den letzten Jahren war meine Hauptaufgabe, mich auf Squadron 42 zu konzentrieren, speziell auf die Gesichter der Hauptcharaktere. Ich habe an Dingen wie der Haut, den Augen und den Haaren dieser Charaktere gearbeitet, um sie realistischer und ansprechender zu gestalten.\nForrest Stephan - Technischer Hauptzeichner\nGr\u00fc\u00dfe Citizens! Forrest Stephan hier meldet sich zum Dienst als Principal Technical Artist bei CIG. Ich bin ein Pipeline Supervisor, der unseren talentierten K\u00fcnstlern dabei hilft, euch die bestm\u00f6glich aussehenden Pixel zu liefern. Ich bin stark in das Charakterteam eingebunden und unterst\u00fctze die Bed\u00fcrfnisse der \u00fcber den Globus verstreuten Abteilungen mit charakterbezogenen Anfragen.\nIch habe eine lange Investition in die Entwicklung und eine gro\u00dfe Liebe f\u00fcr das Projekt, da ich von Anfang an an Star Citizen gearbeitet habe, angefangen bei der urspr\u00fcnglichen Crowdfunding-Kampagne. Egal, ob du in Erinnerungen schwelgen oder \u00fcber das Neueste und Gr\u00f6\u00dfte in unserer Character Art Pipeline plaudern m\u00f6chtest, ich bin f\u00fcr dich da! Dieses AMA ist abgeschlossen, aber halte Ausschau nach den n\u00e4chsten AMAs, damit du uns alles fragen kannst!\n\n\nWerden Rucks\u00e4cke auch Au\u00dfenslots haben, mit sichtbarem Inhalt (genau wie die R\u00fcstung)?\nChris Van Compernolle:\n\nJa, wir planen, physische Komponenten an Rucks\u00e4cken zu haben, genau wie bei den R\u00fcstungen. Der Rucksack selbst wird so behandelt, als ob er an einer R\u00fcstung befestigt werden k\u00f6nnte.\n\n\nB\u00e4rte?\nChris Van Compernolle:\n\nWir planen, irgendwann einmal B\u00e4rte und andere Gesichtsbehaarung in die PU aufzunehmen. Allerdings haben sie noch viele andere Dinge vor sich.\n\n\nGibt es etwas Neues \u00fcber die Stofftechnik-Animation, die wir auf der CitizenCon f\u00fcr Charaktere gesehen haben?\nAndreas Rohr:\n\nVielen Dank f\u00fcr diese tolle Frage und f\u00fcr die Erinnerung an unsere kleine Pr\u00e4sentation im Jahr 2018 - es freut uns immer wieder zu sehen, dass sich Leute f\u00fcr unsere Charaktere, ihre Animations- und Deformationsqualit\u00e4t - und insbesondere die Stoffsimulation - interessieren.\n\n\nDie vcloth (vertex cloth) Simulationstechnik ist ein gro\u00dfartiges Beispiel daf\u00fcr, dass sich die Priorit\u00e4ten im Laufe der Produktion verschieben - was in der Spieleentwicklung v\u00f6llig normal ist. Im Fall von vcloth h\u00e4ngt der erfolgreiche Rollout des Features von drei Hauptpfeilern ab:\n\n\n1) Der grundlegende Cloth Solver muss von unserem Physikteam implementiert werden, muss alle Kernfeatures wie ver\u00e4nderbare Dynamikparameter, Kollision, Selbstkollision etc. haben und muss schnell genug laufen, damit er auf eine vern\u00fcnftige Anzahl von Charakteren gleichzeitig angewendet werden kann. Abgesehen davon muss es auch robust und 'stabil' sein, in dem Sinne, dass es nicht 'explodiert' aufgrund der extremen Beschleunigungen, die im Kontext von Spielen oft von einem Frame zum n\u00e4chsten auftreten k\u00f6nnen. Zu guter Letzt muss es die Bed\u00fcrfnisse der (technischen) Art- und Content-Teams unterst\u00fctzen und ihnen die volle Kontrolle dar\u00fcber geben, wie sich der Stoff verh\u00e4lt und wie er sich anf\u00fchlt, und das unter all den drastisch unterschiedlichen Bedingungen, in denen man ihn am Ende sehen wird, von FPS-K\u00e4mpfen bis hin zu langsamen, filmischen Nahaufnahmen von Helden.\n\n\n2) Eine effiziente Pipeline zwischen DCC (Digital Content Creation) Anwendungen wie Maya und unserer Engine muss etabliert werden, ebenso wie Tools auf der DCC Seite, die ein effizientes Setup und Markup der Simulations-Assets erm\u00f6glichen. Die schiere Anzahl an Assets in unserem Spiel erfordert, dass diese L\u00f6sungen skalierbar sind, denn sobald die Technologie online ist, m\u00fcssen die meisten existierenden Assets (die es wert sind) r\u00fcbergeschoben werden, d.h. alle aktuellen Assets, die das alte \"Pendel-Sim\"-System nutzen, und noch einige mehr. Gute Werkzeuge und Pipelines halten alles zusammen, darin liegt unsere Produktivit\u00e4t.\n\n\n3) Schlie\u00dflich m\u00fcssen die Assets selbst vorhanden sein und f\u00fcr die Simulation geeignet sein, was ihre Bauweise und Struktur angeht. Wenn du z.B. eine Hose modellierst, die ziemlich ausgebeult ist, wirst du feststellen, dass sie im Spiel ziemlich schlecht und unnat\u00fcrlich steif\/rigid aussieht, wenn sie nicht simulationsf\u00e4hig ist, weil der Solver und die Pipeline noch nicht bereit sind. Aber wenn du das Outfit f\u00fcr einen kommenden Release brauchst, wirst du es wahrscheinlich mit einer engeren Passform konzipieren und modellieren, damit die Verformung\/Bewegung dem erwarteten Verhalten in der Bewegung entspricht. Wie auch immer, sobald die Vcloth-Technologie online ist, wirst du nat\u00fcrlich Assets haben wollen, die es erlauben zu gl\u00e4nzen und super cool auszusehen. Du wirst Umh\u00e4nge und Trenchcoats und coole Lederjacken und alle Arten von dynamischen Anbauteilen haben wollen - du wirst wollen, dass die Spieler ihre R\u00fcstung in den Landezonen ausziehen, weil es 10x cooler und individueller aussieht. Aber das h\u00e4ngt alles davon ab, dass der Solver und die Pipeline vollst\u00e4ndig fertig sind.\n\n\nAuf der CitCon 2018 waren wir an einem Punkt, an dem sie erst etwa zur H\u00e4lfte fertig waren, aber erste Ergebnisse sahen schon so aufregend cool und vielversprechend aus, dass wir sie mit euch teilen wollten. Was dann passierte, ist einfach Spielentwicklung.\n\n\nDie gleichen Physik-Assistenten, die uns schicke Clothesolver f\u00fcr cool aussehende Assets liefern k\u00f6nnen, sind auch die Leute, die einige Kernfunktionen unserer Engine implementieren, die die Grundlage f\u00fcr das eigentliche Gameplay sind. Sie arbeiten z.B. an Physik-Gittern und r\u00e4umlichen Abfrage-Beschleunigungsstrukturen, die verfolgen, wo sich Objekte im Raum befinden und ob sie kollidieren, von Projektilen getroffen werden etc. Sie sind ein Kernbestandteil aller KI-Pfadfindungslogik, ohne die alle KI, sowohl NPC-Schiffe als auch Agenten, keinerlei Bewusstsein f\u00fcr ihre Umgebung h\u00e4tten - nichts, was \u00fcberhaupt ein Verhalten\/eine Aktion ausl\u00f6sen k\u00f6nnte. Sie w\u00fcrden einfach nur 'T-posten', auch au\u00dferhalb von Server-Perf, und ich sch\u00e4tze, das will niemand. In diesem Fall wurde also der Fortschritt bei einigen der grundlegendsten Systeme, auf denen unsere Spiele aufgebaut sind, \u00fcber zwei Jahre lang gegen\u00fcber dem coolen, gl\u00e4nzenden Zeug priorisiert.\n\n\nSo sehr der visuelle Tech-Nerd in mir, der in den 90er Jahren die config.sys und autoexec.bat Dateien auf seinem DOS-PC von Hand optimiert hat, um die ausgefallenen zus\u00e4tzlichen Effekte zu sehen, die dies in den fr\u00fchen Wing Commander Spielen erm\u00f6glichte - so sehr dieser Teil von mir es geliebt h\u00e4tte, euch jetzt schon vcloth auf Charakteren zu bringen - der andere Teil von mir, der sehen will, wie unser Spiel zusammenkommt und Chris' Vision verwirklicht wird, ist v\u00f6llig davon \u00fcberzeugt, dass es genau das Richtige war, dies zu tun. Und um das klarzustellen - wir haben nat\u00fcrlich schon versucht, unsere Physik-People zu klonen, um den Prozess zu beschleunigen, aber das hat leider nicht ganz geklappt.\n\n\nNichtsdestotrotz haben wir die Arbeit an 'vcloth' wieder aufgenommen und werden sie fortsetzen, sofern es die Gameplay-bezogenen Aufgaben der Physik zulassen. Es ist eine hochkomplexe technische Herausforderung und wir freuen uns darauf, euch irgendwann mehr visuelle\/greifbare Fortschritte mitzuteilen. Bedenke, dass noch nicht alle Teams, die an dieser Initiative teilnehmen, auf der \u00f6ffentlichen Roadmap vertreten sind, was sich aber bald \u00e4ndern wird.\n\n\nSetzt ihr euch daf\u00fcr ein, dass es neben Afros und Z\u00f6pfen auch GUTE schwarze (4C) Frisuren gibt, wie z.B. High-Top Fades, Locken und Wellen? Ich bin es leid, dass mein Charakter aussieht, als h\u00e4tte er sich die Haare wie in den 50er Jahren dauergewellt.\nChris Van Compernolle:\n\nWir hatten zwar noch nicht die Gelegenheit, eine dieser Frisuren umzusetzen, aber das ist definitiv etwas, das wir machen wollen und das uns sehr wichtig ist. Wir wollen sicherstellen, dass wir eine gute Darstellung dieser Art von Frisuren erreichen.\n\n\nGibt es bald eine geschichtete R\u00fcstung? Ich w\u00fcrde gerne meinen Helm mit meiner normalen Kleidung oder meine Jacke mit meinem Fluganzug verwenden.\nChris Van Compernolle:\n\nDerzeit gibt es keine Pl\u00e4ne, so etwas zu machen. Unsere R\u00fcstungen und Kleidungsst\u00fccke halten sich an strenge Regeln, die definieren, wie sie miteinander interagieren. Um die \u00dcberlagerung dieser beiden Systeme zu erm\u00f6glichen, m\u00fcssten diese Regeln grundlegend \u00fcberarbeitet werden.\n\n\nHi James Ku, du hast die Entwicklung neuer Technologien erw\u00e4hnt. Gibt es eine bestimmte Technologie, die wir noch nicht kennen, \u00fcber die du uns etwas erz\u00e4hlen k\u00f6nntest?\nJames Ku:\n\nTut mir leid, dass ich keine Spoiler posten kann, aber ein Beispiel f\u00fcr die F&E, die in den letzten zwei Jahren gemacht wurde, sind die neuen Haare, die man in SQ42 gesehen hat. Das beinhaltete die Entwicklung eines hauseigenen Art-Tools, um die Haare zu erstellen und eine neue Shader-Technologie in der Spiel-Engine.\n\n\nGuten Morgen Character Tech Team! Wie ist der aktuelle Stand, dass wir unsere Helme im Spiel abnehmen\/aufsetzen k\u00f6nnen?\nChris Van Compernolle::\n\nWir sind gerade dabei zu erforschen, wie wir Helme am besten handhaben k\u00f6nnen. Es gibt eine Menge Abh\u00e4ngigkeiten von der Grafik, der Animation und der Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che. Sobald wir alle Abh\u00e4ngigkeiten definiert haben, werden wir damit beginnen, alle bisherigen Assets zu \u00fcberarbeiten, um die neue Technologie zu nutzen.\n\n\nKommt die neue Haar-Technologie auch in die PU?\nForrest Stephan:\n\nDie Haartechnologie ist so gebaut, dass sie sowohl SQ42 als auch PU unterst\u00fctzt.\n\n\nGibt es Pl\u00e4ne f\u00fcr tiefere Anpassungsm\u00f6glichkeiten wie Schieberegler f\u00fcr jedes Gesichtsmerkmal?\nDas DNA Blending System ist gro\u00dfartig, aber manchmal m\u00f6chte man nur ein bestimmtes Merkmal feinjustieren.\nAndreas Rohr:\n\nAls allgemeine Antwort auf diese und andere Fragen zum PU-Charakteranpassungssystem:\n\nWir erkennen die Tatsache an, dass der aktuelle PU Customizer in Bezug auf Benutzerfreundlichkeit und Auswahl begrenzt ist, d.h. Gesichtsoptionen, Haaroptionen, Bartoptionen und andere Dinge.\n\nEr kann als eine v1 des Systems betrachtet werden - und wo es eine v1 gibt, wird es wahrscheinlich auch eine v2 geben, wenn und sobald sie auf den Plan gesetzt werden kann.\n\nDer aktuelle PU Customizer nutzt ein sehr altes System zum Zeichnen und Interagieren mit den UI-Elementen, da das neue Bausteinsystem noch nicht fertig war, als der v1 Customizer implementiert wurde.\n\nDas Ergebnis war, dass wir das Interaktionsmodell nicht so einfach und intuitiv hinbekommen haben, wie wir es uns gew\u00fcnscht hatten.\n\nDie Qualit\u00e4t der Assets darin entspricht nicht dem Standard, den wir mittlerweile intern erreichen k\u00f6nnen.\n\n\nKannst du uns etwas \u00fcber den Fortschritt bei den Alien-Charakteren erz\u00e4hlen?\nJames Ku:\n\nNochmals sorry, ich m\u00f6chte keine Spoiler posten, aber wie du gesehen hast, haben wir an den Vanduul gearbeitet. Ich kann sagen, dass unsere Charakterk\u00fcnstler immer aufgeregt sind, an Kreaturen und Aliens zu arbeiten.\n\n\nIch glaube, es wurde gesagt, dass es Probleme bei der Erstellung von Tattoos gibt. Habt ihr Ideen, wie man diese Probleme \u00fcberwinden kann?\nHabt ihr die gleichen Schwierigkeiten mit Abzeichen f\u00fcr Kleidung und Abziehbildern f\u00fcr R\u00fcstungen \/ Ausr\u00fcstung \/ Fahrzeuge oder w\u00fcrden diese andere Probleme bieten?\nForrest Stephan:\n\nEs gibt zwei Arten von Abziehbildern, die der Shader unseres Charakters unterst\u00fctzt. Stencil-Abziehbilder und diffuse Abziehbilder. Stencil Decals funktionieren \u00e4hnlich wie Schablonen im echten Leben, man denke an Siebdruck oder Aufkleber. Stencils machen minimale Farbe mit einer Maske, um zu bestimmen, wo die Farbe sichtbar projiziert wird. F\u00fcr detailliertere Kunst, wie z.B. Tattoos, werden diffuse Details ben\u00f6tigt, die ein volleres Farb- und Detailspektrum bieten. Die Herausforderung dabei ist, dass sie durch UV's auf die diffuse Textur der Haut projiziert werden. Dieses diffuse Abziehbildsystem erfordert Materialvarianten, um den zus\u00e4tzlichen Texturslot zu unterst\u00fctzen. Dies kann die Materialanzahl exponentiell erh\u00f6hen. Wie man die physischen Materialvarianten minimiert, ist eine Herausforderung, die wir st\u00e4ndig versuchen zu l\u00f6sen.\n\n\nGibt es ein Update zu den Holo-Sch\u00e4del-Helm-Blockern?\nForrest Stephan:\n\nDer anf\u00e4ngliche Blocker mit den Hologrammhelmen hing mit dem urspr\u00fcnglichen Design des Shaders zusammen, der f\u00fcr statische Objekte oder RTT-Projektionen gebaut wurde. Wir haben ihn an den Skin-Dateien ausprobiert und er war nicht in der Lage, mit dem Skelett\/Rig des Charakters zu animieren. Wir entschieden uns, den Shader zur\u00fcck auf das Zeichenbrett zu bringen und sicherzustellen, dass er die spezifischen Bed\u00fcrfnisse der Charaktere unterst\u00fctzt.\n\n\nHallo das Team,\nZun\u00e4chst einmal vielen Dank, dass ihr euch die Zeit nehmt, unsere Fragen zu beantworten.\nGanz einfach, was ist im Moment eure oberste Priorit\u00e4t in Bezug auf die Charakterkunst? Habt ihr vor, mehr Vielfalt in die Charaktererstellung zu bringen ? Wenn ja, was k\u00f6nnen wir im kommenden Jahr erwarten ?\nMit freundlichen Gr\u00fc\u00dfen\nJames Ku:\n\nHi, danke, dass du dir die Zeit genommen hast, uns im AMA Fragen zu stellen. Ich kann dir sagen, dass meine oberste Priorit\u00e4t in Bezug auf die Charakterkunst die Qualit\u00e4t ist. Wenn ich einen Charakter baue, versuche ich immer, mich selbst in Bezug auf Qualit\u00e4t zu pushen und ein gutes Beispiel f\u00fcr das Team zu sein.\n\n\nWelche Lektionen hast du von Spielern gelernt, die den aktuellen Character Creator benutzen? Wie haben sie sich im Vergleich zu euren urspr\u00fcnglichen Annahmen entwickelt und wie werden sie euer Vorgehen in Zukunft ver\u00e4ndern?\nForrest Stephan:\n\nWir haben gelernt, wie wichtig die K\u00f6pfe sind, aus denen sich der Pool zusammensetzt. Die anf\u00e4ngliche Auswahl der K\u00f6pfe war willk\u00fcrlich, ohne den Customizer zu ber\u00fccksichtigen. Sobald der Customizer voll funktionsf\u00e4hig war, haben wir schnell gelernt, wie wichtig es ist, eine Vielzahl von Formen zu haben, da der Kunde die Interpolation zwischen DNA-Kopfformen erlaubt, z.B. Ohren, Augen, Nase, etc. Einen gr\u00f6\u00dferen DNA-Pool zu haben hat notwendige Vorteile; Je mehr K\u00f6pfe, desto gr\u00f6\u00dfer die Variationsm\u00f6glichkeiten zwischen den K\u00f6pfen.\n\n\nWerden wir in der Lage sein, die R\u00fcstung f\u00fcr den linken und rechten Arm getrennt auszustatten?\nForrest Stephan:\n\nDie R\u00fcstung ist in 5 Elemente aufgeteilt: Kern, Arme, Beine, H\u00e4nde und Helme. Es gibt keine A-Symmetrie der R\u00fcstung, da eine weitere Anpassung sowohl Auswirkungen auf den Texturspeicher als auch auf den Draw Call haben kann, was wir aus Performance-Gr\u00fcnden vermeiden wollten.\n\n\nAuf welche gr\u00f6\u00dferen Tech- oder Pipeline-Verbesserungen freust du dich am meisten, um deine Arbeit zu verbessern?\nJames Ku:\n\nIch pers\u00f6nlich habe in letzter Zeit versucht, meine F\u00e4higkeiten im Umgang mit dieser Art-Software namens Marvelous Designer zu verbessern. Wir benutzen es oft, um Kleidung f\u00fcr unsere Charaktere zu entwerfen.\n\n\nForrest Stephan:\n\nDas Authoring der Charakter-Assets nutzt eine Kombination aus traditionellem Sculpting und Baking f\u00fcr Normal Maps mit einer gemeinsamen PBR-Materialbibliothek, um die Oberfl\u00e4che des Charakters mit Blend-Masking-Texturtechniken zu definieren. Das Authoring der Blend Maps erforderte einen intuitiveren visuellen Workflow als die aktuelle Photoshop-to-Engine-Pipeline. Um dieses Problem zu l\u00f6sen, implementieren wir eine Substance Painter- und Substance Designer-Pipeline f\u00fcr die Oberfl\u00e4chengestaltung, um 3D-Malerei zu erm\u00f6glichen und gleichzeitig den endg\u00fcltigen Look des Charakters zu visualisieren. Dies ist eine aufregende Pipeline-Verbesserung f\u00fcr die K\u00fcnstler, die es erm\u00f6glicht, dass ein Nex-Gen-Texturierungssystem nun mit einem Nex-Gen-Authoring-Workflow \u00fcbereinstimmt.\n\n\nK\u00f6nnen wir bitte Marine \/ UEE Uniformen und Barette haben?\nJames Ku:\n\nLeider entscheide ich nicht, welche Uniformen die Spieler in der PU bekommen. Ich kann sagen, dass ich an ein paar UEE Uniformen gearbeitet habe und mir die Arbeit daran sehr gefallen hat.\n\n\nProzedural generierte Kleidung\/R\u00fcstung?\nForrest Stephan:\n\nEin prozeduraler Ansatz f\u00fcr das Spawnen von NSCs, der auf der Modularit\u00e4t der Ausr\u00fcstungen basiert und ein System namens \"Spawn Closures\" verwendet, ist in Arbeit. Au\u00dferdem erweitern wir das System zur Einf\u00e4rbung von Schiffen auf die Charaktere, um eine Anpassung der Farbpaletten zu erm\u00f6glichen.\n\n\nHaftungsausschluss\n\n\nDie Antworten spiegeln genau die Absichten der Entwickler zum Zeitpunkt des Schreibens wider. Das Unternehmen und das Entwicklerteam behalten sich jedoch das Recht vor, Features und Schiffsdesigns als Reaktion auf Feedback, Spieltests, Design\u00fcberarbeitungen oder andere \u00dcberlegungen zur Verbesserung der Balance oder der Qualit\u00e4t des Spiels insgesamt anzupassen, zu verbessern oder zu ver\u00e4ndern.","zh_CN":"Character Tech Team AMA Recap\n\nEach month we host an open submission live Q&A on Spectrum joined by developers from various specialties across CIG. These questions and answers were collected from the Spectrum AMA on March 16, 2021.\n\n\nThis time, we welcomed four guests from the Character Tech Team, which is the link between purely code-focused programming and creative art. They\u2019re currently working on the character tech pipeline, providing the artists with the tools they need to achieve their visual goals.\n\nAndreas Rohr \u2013 Principal Technical Artist\nHey guys, my name is Andreas Rohr and I\u2019m a principal character tech artist\/technical animator\/tools programmer based in the Frankfurt office. I\u2019m part of the Tech Animation Team, which is split between our Wilmslow, Derby, and Frankfurt studios. Besides working at CIG, I\u2019m a proud veteran Star Citizen backer who hasn\u2019t missed a single Wingman\u2019s Hangar, Around the Verse, and Inside Star Citizen episode since our humble beginnings.\nMy main focus over the past years has been developing our in-house facial rigging pipeline\/toolset and improving our DNA character customization system.\nI also push our next-gen cloth and hair simulation tech and generally strive to ensure all our animation and deformation systems are both easy and efficient to work with and reach near-filmic quality levels when the big day comes.\n\n\n\nChris Van Compernolle \u2013 Technical Artist\nHi, my name is Christopher Van Compernolle, but call me CVC for short. I am an embedded technical artist for the Character Art Team.\nMy specialties include rigging, skinning, and coding tools. This includes modular armor, hair creation pipelines, and character optimizations. So if you have any Python tools questions, let\u2019s chat!\n\n\n\nJames Ku \u2013 Principal Character Artist\nHi, my name is James Ku and I\u2019m a principal character artist at CIG. I work in the LA studio with our great group of character artists on the Character Tech Team. My job is to create characters, R&D new tech and software for the character creation pipeline, and set a high quality bar for the look of our characters.\nIn the last few years, my primary task has been to focus on Squadron 42, specifically the faces of the main characters. I\u2019ve been working on things like the skin, eyes, and hair of these characters to try to make them more realistic and appealing.\n\n\n\nForrest Stephan \u2013 Principal Technical Artist\nGreetings citizens! Forrest Stephan here reporting for duty as a principal technical artist at CIG. I am a pipeline supervisor that helps our talented artists bring you the best darn looking pixels possible. I am heavily embedded in the Character Team and support the needs of departments scattered across the globe with character-related requests.\nI have a long investment in development and a huge love for the project as I have been working on Star Citizen since the beginning, starting way back on the original crowdfunding campaign. So whether you want to go down memory lane or chat about the latest and greatest in our character art pipelines, I\u2019m here for you!\n\nThis AMA is complete but keep an eye out for upcoming ones for your chance to ask us anything!\n\n\nWill backpacks also have exterior slots, with visible content (just like the armour)?\nChris Van Compernolle:\n\nYes, we are planning on having physical components on backpacks, just like we do with armors. The backpack itself is actually getting treated as attachable to an armor.\n\n\nBeards?\nChris Van Compernolle:\n\nWe do plan on including beards and other facial hair in the PU at some point down the line. However, they have many other things in front of it.\n\n\nAny new about the cloth tech animation we saw in a CitizenCon for characters?\nAndreas Rohr:\n\nMany thanks for this great question and for remembering our little presentation back in 2018 \u2013 always happy to see people care about our characters, their animation and deformation quality \u2013 and cloth simulation in particular.\n\n\n\nThe vcloth (vertex cloth) simulation tech is a great example of priorities shifting over the course of production \u2013 which is perfectly normal in game development. In the case of vcloth, the successful roll-out of the feature depends on three main pillars:\n\n\n1) The basic cloth solver needs to be implemented by our physics team, needs to have all the core features like tweakable dynamics parameters, collision, self-collision etc. and needs to run fast enough so it can be applied to a reasonable number of characters simultaneously. Apart from that it also needs to be robust and \u2018stable\u2019 in the sense of not \u2018exploding\u2019 due to the extreme accelerations that can often occur from one frame to the next in the context of games. Lastly, it needs to support the needs of the (tech) art and content centric teams and give them full control over how the cloth behaves and its look and feel, under all the drastically different conditions you\u2019ll end up seeing it in, from fps fights to slow-paced hero cinematic close-ups.\n\n\n\n2) An efficient pipeline between DCC (digital content creation) applications such as Maya and our engine needs to be established, as well as tools on the DCC side that allow efficient setup and markup of the simulation assets. The sheer number of assets in our game requires these solutions to be scalable since once the tech comes online, most existing assets (that are deemed worth it) will need to be moved over, i.e. all current assets that use the old \u2018pendulum sim\u2019 system, and then some. Good tools and pipelines glue everything together, it\u2019s where our productivity lies.\n\n\n\n3) Lastly, the assets themselves need to be there and need to be suitable for simulation in terms of how they were built and their structure. If you model, say some trousers that are rather baggy you\u2019ll find that they end up looking pretty bad and unnaturally stiff\/rigid in the game if they \u2018don\u2019t have sim\u2019 because the solver and pipeline aren\u2019t ready yet. But if you need the outfit for an upcoming release you\u2019ll likely concept and model them with a tighter fit so the deformation\/movement will match the expected behavior in motion. However, once the vcloth tech does come online you\u2019ll obviously want assets that allow it to shine and look super cool. You\u2019ll want cloaks and trenchcoats and cool leather jackets and all kinds of dynamic attachments \u2013 you\u2019ll want players to want to take off their armor in the landing zones cause it looks 10x cooler and more individualistic. But it\u2019s a all dependency on the solver and pipeline being fully ready.\n\n\n\nAt CitCon 2018 we were at a point where they were only about halfway there but initial results already looked so excitingly cool and promising that we wanted to share them with you. What happened then is simply game development.\n\n\n\nThe same physics wizards that can give us fancy cloth solvers for cool looking assets are also the folks that implement some core features of our engine which are the foundations for actual gameplay. They work i.e. on physics grids and spatial query acceleration structures which keep track of where objects are in space and whether they collide, are hit by projectiles etc. They are a core component of all AI path-finding logic without which all AI, both NPC ships and agents, would not have any awareness of their environment whatsoever \u2013 nothing that could even trigger a behavior\/action in the first place. They would just \u2018T-pose\u2019, even outside of server perf being an issue, and I guess nobody wants this. So in this case progress on some of the most fundamental systems our games are built upon, was prioritized over the cool shiny stuff, for more than two years.\n\n\n\nAs much as the visual tech nerd in me that hand-optimized the config.sys and autoexec.bat files on his DOS-PC in the 90s in order to see the fancy additional effects this enabled in the early Wing Commander games \u2013 as much as this part of me would have loved to bring you vcloth on characters by now \u2013 the other part of me that wants to see our game come together and Chris\u2019 vision realized, is fully convinced that this was exactly the right thing to do. And to be clear \u2013 we\u2019ve obviously already tried to clone our physics peeps in order to speed up the process, but it didn\u2019t quite work out, sadly.\n\n\n\nThat being said, work on \u2018vcloth\u2019 has been picked up again and will continue, gameplay-related physics-duties permitting. It\u2019s a highly complex technical challenge and we look forward to sharing more visual\/tangible progress with you at some point. Bear in mind that not all the teams that take part in this initiative are currently represented on the public roadmap yet, which is due to change though.\n\n\nAre ya\u2019ll committed to making GOOD Black (4C) hairstyles available, besides just afros and braids, such as high-top fades, curly tops, and waves? Tired of my character lookin\u2019 like he permed his hair straight like it\u2019s the 50s.\nChris Van Compernolle:\n\nWhile we havn\u2019t had the opportunity to implement any of these hairstyles just yet, this is definitely something we want to do and is very important to us. We want to make sure we achieve a good representation of these types of hairs styles.\n\n\nLayered armor anytime soon? I would love to use my helmet with my regular clothing or my jacket with my flight suit.\nChris Van Compernolle:\n\nCurrently there are no plans to do anything like this. Our armors and clothing adhere to a strict set of rules defining how they interact with one another. To allow for the layering of these two systems will require a major refactor of those rules.\n\n\nHi James Ku, you mentioned R&D\u2019ing new tech. Is there any tech in particular we do not yet know about you could tease us a little on?\nJames Ku:\n\nSorry I cant post any spoilers, but an example of the r&d that was done in the last two years is the new hair that you\u2019ve seen in SQ42. That involved creating an in house custom art tool to create the hair and new shader tech in the game engine.\n\n\nGood morning Character Tech team! What is the current status of being able to remove\/put on our helmets in-game?\nChris Van Compernolle::\n\nWe are currently in the process of researching how best to handle helmets. There are a lot of dependencies from the artwork, to animation, to UI. Once we have all of dependencies defines, we will begin refactoring all of previous assets to utilize the new tech.\n\n\nIs the new hair tech coming to the PU ?\nForrest Stephan:\n\nHair tech is built to support both SQ42 and PU.\n\n\nAre there plans for deeper customisation options like sliders for each facial feature?\nDNA blending system is great, but sometimes you just want to fine tune a specific feature.\nAndreas Rohr:\n\nAs a general answer to this and other PU character customizer related questions:\n\nWe acknowledge the fact that the current PU customizer is limited in terms of usability and choice, i.e. face options, hair options, beard options and other things.\n\nIt can be considered a v1 of the system \u2013 and wherever there\u2019s a v1, there\u2019s likely gonna be a v2 if and when it can be put on the schedule.\n\nThe current PU customizer uses a very old system for drawing and interacting with the UI elements since the new building blocks system wasn\u2019t ready by the time the v1 customizer was implemented.\n\nAs a result we didn\u2019t get the interaction model to be as easy and intuitive as we had wanted.\n\nThe quality of assets in there is not up to the same standards we can achieve internally by now.\n\n\nCan you tell us anything about the progress on alien characters?\nJames Ku:\n\nOnce again sorry I dont wanna post spoilers, but as you\u2019ve seen we have worked on the Vanduul. I can say our character artists are always excited to work on creatures and aliens.\n\n\nI believe it\u2019s been said there are problems with creating tattoos. Do you have ideas on how to overcome those problems?\nDo you face the same difficulties with badges for clothes and decals for armor \/ gear \/ vehicles or would those offer different problems?\nForrest Stephan:\n\nThere are two types of decals our character\u2019s shader supports. Stencil decals and diffuse decals. Stencil decals work similar to real-life stencils, think screen-printing or stickers. Stencils do minimal color with a mask to determine where the color is visibly projected. For more detailed art, such as tattoos, diffuse details are required which provide a fuller color and detailed spectrum. The challenge with this is they are projected through UV\u2019s onto the skin diffuse texture. This diffuse decal system requires material variants to support the extra texture slot. This can exponentially increase material counts. How to minimize physical material variants is a challenge we are continually trying to solve.\n\n\nAny update on the holo-skull helmet blockers?\nForrest Stephan:\n\nThe initial blocker with the hologram helmets was related to the shader\u2019s original design which was built for static objects or RTT projections. We tried it on the skin files and it was unable to animate with the character\u2019s skeleton\/rig. We decided to take the shader back to the drawing board and ensure it supports the needs specific to the characters.\n\n\nHello the team,\nFirst of all, thank you for taking the time to answer our questions.\nSimple one, what is your top priority at the moment concerning character art ? Do you plan to add more diversity into the character creation tab ? If so, what can we expect in the coming year ?\nRegards\nJames Ku:\n\nHi, thanks for taking the time to ask us questions in the AMA. I can tell you that my top priority in regards to character art is quality. When I build a character I\u2019m always trying to push myself in terms of quality and set a good example for the team.\n\n\nWhat lessons have you learned from players using the current character creator? How did they compare to your original assumptions and how will they change what you do going forward?\nForrest Stephan:\n\nWe learned how important the heads are that make up the pool. The initial selection of heads where arbitrary without taking the customizer into account. Once the customizer was fully functional, we quickly learned the importance of having a variety of shapes since the customer allows interpolation between DNA head shapes, \u201cex: ears, eyes, nose, etc.\u201d. Having a bigger DNA pool has necessary benefits; The more heads, the larger the variety options between the heads.\n\n\nWill we be able to equip armour for our left and right arms separately?\nForrest Stephan:\n\nThe armor is broken up in 5 items: core, arms, legs, hands and helmets. There is no armor a-symmetry due to increasing customization further can cause both texture memory and draw call implications which we decided to avoid for performance reasons.\n\n\nWhat major tech or pipeline improvements are you most excited for to improve your work?\nJames Ku:\n\nPersonally, I\u2019ve been recently trying improve my skill with using this art software called Marvelous Designer. We use it a lot to make clothing for our characters.\n\n\nForrest Stephan:\n\nThe authoring of character assets uses a combination of traditional sculpt and baking for normal maps with a shared PBR material library to define the surface of the character using blend masking texture techniques. The authoring of the blend maps required a more intuitive visual workflow than the current Photoshop to engine pipeline. In order to solve this we are implementing a Substance Painter and Substance Designer pipeline for surfacing to allow for 3d painting while being able to visualize the final look of the character simultaneously. This is an exciting pipeline improvement for the artists to allow a nex-gen texturing system to now match a nex-gen authoring workflow.\n\n\nCan we have navy \/ UEE uniforms please? and berets?\nJames Ku:\n\nUnfortunately I don\u2019t decide what uniforms the players get in the PU. I can say that I worked on a few uee uniforms and I liked working on them a lot.\n\n\nProcedurally generated clothing\/armor?\nForrest Stephan:\n\nA procedural approach to spawning NPCs built on loadout modularity using a system called \u201cspawn closets\u201d is in the works. In addition, we are expanding the ship tinting system onto the characters to allow for color palette customization.\n\n\nDisclaimer\nThe answers accurately reflect development\u2019s intentions at the time of writing, but the company and development team reserve the right to adapt, improve, or change feature and ship designs in response to feedback, playtesting, design revisions, or other considerations to improve balance or the quality of the game overall."},"links_count":1,"comment_count":30,"created_at":"2021-03-17T19:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"5 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-07 20:20:17","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":18039,"next_id":18041}}