{"data":{"id":18223,"title":"Star Citizen Monthly Report: June 2021","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/18223-Star-Citizen-Monthly-Report-June-2021","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/18223","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/18223","channel":"Undefined","category":"Undefined","series":"Monthly 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3.14 is fast approaching the PU, so naturally it received development time throughout June. However, most Star Citizen teams also progressed with content coming in the future. From unannounced ships to the jump points that will lead players to Pyro, read on for all the exciting updates from last month\u2019s work.\n\nAI (Content)\nEarly in the month, the AI Content Team was heavily involved in preparing for a four-day motion capture session. Each related team attended and was able to provide information directly to the actor, which was a new experience for many and gave the team a greater appreciation of the process and learnings that will help with future sessions. Some of the recorded assets have already been delivered and are currently being made functional for game use.\nJune also saw the team extend the patron activity to handle the new shops they\u2019re working on and analyze the usables that will be required to populate the PU outposts. The security guard and vendor activities and their related usable setups were also finished.\nThe security guard became the primary use-case for dynamic conversations, with the devs setting up two conversations that can randomly be selected by a civilian approaching the guard \u2013 reporting a crime and asking for directions. They also completed a pass of the security guard\u2019s wildlines and began using the reputation system to influence the behavior logic flow.\nThe vendor behavior was expanded to support NPCs collecting combinations of food and drink items from different usables and delivering them to the player as a single order. AI Content also worked with the Dialogue Team to identify the assets needed to reinforce the flow.\n\u201cTo make serving food more tactile and realistic, we have identified \u201cfood grip types\u201d for the new items and we are working with the Props Team to package the food when served. No more hotdogs placed directly on dirty counters!\u201d -The AI Content Team\nAI (Features)\nFor spaceship combat, the AI Feature Team worked on the technology to allow AI to identify and target sub-components of other ships (engines, weapons, etc.). This will allow a greater range of tactics to be selected. For example, taking out the engines of a ship so it can\u2019t pursue and then firing at it from afar. The AI will retrieve the same type of information from the sub-components as it does from the whole spaceship, including the amount of damage dealt, which will allow the team to prioritize attacking the weapons causing the most damage. This new ability means some existing combat behaviors need to be modified (such as the orbital strafe maneuver) to consider the side of the spaceship that the targeted sub-component is on.\nThe team also implemented the \u2018chatty\u2019 and \u2018quiet\u2019 traits used in the spaceship dogfight behaviors that control how often AI communicate in combat. This involved identifying non-critical combat wildlines (eg. collisions, repeated dealt damage, and receiving damage) and undertaking a \u2018trait check\u2019 to see if they should be triggered.\nFor Human AI, they worked on the technology and animations to control how an NPC reacts to stimuli (such as a gunshot, seeing an enemy, or hearing an enemy) when interacting with a usable. This technology is needed to bridge the gap between the AI\u2019s usable and reaction behaviors while exiting the usable and getting the AI back to the nav-mesh. For example, if it spots an enemy player it may need to reach for a weapon to begin fighting, convey its level of reaction to the player, and get into a combat behavior position. With a range of different usables that can put them in different positions and postures, the team needed to identify the commonalities between usables to prevent having to create bespoke animations for each one. However, there are still lots of different variables (direction, reaction level, armed, unarmed, etc.) that need careful management to prevent a vast increase in the number of animation assets.\nThey also produced a prototype for the utility behavior that will allow AI agents to transfer cargo crates between areas. NPCs will identify loose crates, pick them up, then take them to an area and stack them. The next AI can take the stacked crates and transfer them to another area as desired. This behavior builds upon lots of different usable work: finding the crate usable, exiting the usable as part of the pickup action rather than as a separate exit animation, finding a place that can accept the crate for stacking, disabling agents from taking crates that have other crates stacked on top of them, and identifying when a stack is full. They also have an eye on how this will integrate with vehicular cargo storage.\nThe first version of the unmanned missile turret behavior was implemented. This has proven that all the work done for spaceships is easily portable to multiple entities and will correctly handle any vehicle that wants to shoot missiles to target.\nThey also continued to work on data and animation clean-up from the motion-capture session completed last month. All developers on the team supported optimizations, tweaks, and bug fixes for Alpha 3.14 too.\nAI (Tech)\nThe Tech Team started the month working on planetary navigation, improving the navigation mesh tiles to allow for a spherical surface representation of the mesh. They also added functionality to allow NPCs to correctly move along paths defined by the designers, giving a much more robust solution to allow characters to loop over open or closed paths of different shapes, restarting from the beginning where necessary.\nWork on 3D NPC navigation in EVA continued, with the team improving the collision avoidance system to support agents of different sizes. The rules were amended to allow smaller ships to try to avoid larger ones and to allow large ships to not care as much about avoiding smaller ones.\nThe first pass was finished on the code to allow NPCs to control and move trolleys in a similar way to the player. They\u2019re currently extending the movement system to enable the selection of multiple path followers, which is important for trolleys that have a force-based controller, as it allows NPCs to decide how much force to apply to maintain the desired momentum.\nFor the Subsumption editor, the team continued to embed the tool into the game engine, with a focus on allowing the main graph to include all the subgraphs in one view. This is particularly useful for the mission logic as it will allow designers to have a better global view of the logic of each mission and should reduce the mental effort needed to follow the logic between different graphs. The team was also busy with bug fixes and optimization for Alpha 3.14.\nAnimation\nAnimation created a rough space whale loop for AI to test with and to help Design determine what else they might need in terms of gameplay. They also worked on vendor sets to improve the various shops and vendors around the PU, which involved creating cowering assets to enable civilians to run and hide behind cover, janitor and arcade machine blockouts, and medical revival gameplay.\nThe Facial Animation Team developed animations for emotes, eating and drinking, and various other systemic AI features. They completed a breakdown of the AI in the main world locations and created a large list of assets that require placing by the AI Content Team, with the goal to better implement the content they already have. Animations were also created for the salvage weapon.\nArt (Characters)\nLast month, the character artists continued developing three armor sets, which will also receive variants for various events and programs. The tech designers completed their pass on the characters for Orison\u2019s initial release and are currently adjusting loadouts in line with feedback and addressing graphical issues.\nThe rest of the Tech Team supported Alpha 3.15 alongside the Actor Feature and Design teams, which involved setting up a system for players to equip and unequip backpacks. They\u2019ll also be adding new backpacks to the PU in support of the feature. They also worked on holographic props of all their assets for the physical inventory UI.\nThe concept artists spent time working on event-themed items, created additional concepts for the Pyro system, and explored possible gameplay interactions with the space whale creature.\nArt (Environment)\nThe Montreal-based Art Team worked to finish the remaining hospital locations, with the space clinics, Grim HEX\u2019s clinic, and Area18\u2019s hospital now whitebox complete. They then moved onto the greybox phase, where they\u2019ll define the various modules in more detail and begin adding details to properly show the art intentions.\nOn the design side, the team began using derelict pieces of spaceships to create puzzles, which will be populated with loot to encourage exploration and create pockets of new gameplay around Stanton. Their initial goal is to produce 24 derelict puzzles; half planetside and half in space.\nFinally, they looked into defining building-interior gameplay, creating a prototype layout and looking into adding proper missions to it. They\u2019re also defining how this layout will fit into the procedural location creation tool currently in development by the Tools Team.\nThe Landing Zone and Modular teams took the colonialism outposts through the final art phase before moving onto the second content set, which introduces more variation and additional themes.\nThey\u2019re also close to completing the gas clouds that will surround jump points, including a second look for greater variety. Orison is currently being closed out, with most focus on improving performance and fixing bugs.\nArt (Ships)\nIn the US, the Ships Team focused on closing out the Constellation Taurus, squashing bugs and undertaking a general polish pass. The Taurus will be flyable in the upcoming Alpha 3.14. There were also additional bug fixes across the wider Star Citizen fleet.\nThe team continued moving the two Crusader Ares variants, the Ion and Inferno, through the pipeline. They\u2019re aiming to move into the final art stage in the coming weeks for delivery in Q4. Whitebox for the Drake Vulture began alongside a new variant of a popular ship to be announced later in the year.\nJune saw the UK team complete the final art and lighting pass for an as-yet-unannounced ship. They then moved onto the LOD (level of detail) process and exterior damage setup.\nWith the Aegis Redeemer\u2019s exterior completed for Invictus Launch Week, the team moved onto the interior, completing the greybox phase ready for review in early July.\nGold-standard work also continued on the Sabre and Retaliator; the exterior lighting pass was done for the Sabre, while the Retaliator received reworked light and door controls throughout.\nFinally, Ships revisited the Crusader Hercules to get the A2 variant ready for release, which involved adding a kitchen area for the crew and two large bomb bays in the cargo hold.\nArt (Weapons)\nLast month, the Weapons Team continued with the mining gadget, taking the asset through to LOD-zero complete and updating the rigging before passing it to Animation. Three Subscriber weapon paints were finished and readied for release alongside a new knife for a future PU release.\nThe animation passes for both the standalone Greycat tractor beam and standalone salvage tool began, with iteration on their rigs being completed too. Other focus in July was on two new Size 7 Behring ship weapons, one ballistic and one energy. Both are for an upcoming ship release and are currently in the greybox phase.\nAudio\nAlongside trailers for Alien Week and Invictus, the Audio Team worked towards their Alpha 3.14 goals. This involved significant work on Orison:\n\u201cOrison is one of the largest locations we\u2019ve had to tackle for a while. It was a great opportunity for us all to work on something together to make the ambiances, music, and dialogue for the transport system, hospital, and gas giant. It was a challenge to keep the interiors sounding clean and balanced with the windy upper atmosphere of the Crusader planet. We are really excited by what we\u2019ve achieved!\u201d -The Audio Team\nThey also worked on the hospital locations and medical gameplay in general, adding effects to the CureLife medical tool and dialogue that makes the player sound injured and relieved when healed.\nFinally, Audio supported UI Features on Missile Operator Mode and capacitor gameplay to make dogfighting gameplay smoother.\nCommunity\nThe Community Team kicked off June with their Pride Month Celebration. To honor the diversity of our players, they launched the Show Us Your Colors Celebration 2021 and rewarded the ten most colorful entries with a Drake Cutlass Red. They also introduced the new multi-user private lobbies on Spectrum and talked about the user-friendly updates to the Issue Council.\nJune saw Star Citizen\u2019s annual Alien Week event, which introduced the Gatac Railen and new alien ship paints. Following its unveiling, the devs answered community questions on the new Xi\u2019an ship in the Gatac Railen Q&A. Community also held two contests, the Alien Trading Card Contest and the second Intragalactic Cook-Off.\n\n\nFinally for Community, the team launched the 2021 (Virtual) Cosplay Contest, whose winners will be announced at the digital CitizenCon event on October 9. Entries are open till August 31, so don\u2019t miss out!\nEngine\nIn June, the Physics Team moved the generation of surfel data used for radar cross-section queries to an offline precomputation step in the resource compiler which, in general, optimizes various types of assets (textures, meshes, sounds, metadata, etc.) for final consumption in-game. A great deal of time was also spent on various optimizations.\nAll tiers of physics geometry instancing were completed. As a result, the cloning and sharing of brush physics was enabled, leading to physics now using only 50% of the memory it previously had on the client and server. This was made possible by sharing all common geometry-related data (such as geometry transforms, sub-mtls, and surface types) across all clones of the same static instance. For example, a set of static objects using the same geometry. With the pending release of Orison in the PU, the tracking of terrain is skipped for gas giants. AVX instructions are now utilized to block set entries in spatial grids and ray-box intersections in spatial grids have been optimized.\nNetworking-related data was moved between internal structures for more efficient access and synchronization, while the structure size of physical entities and alignment was optimized to ensure hot members are always on the same cache line. Page sizes for event factories were tuned, resulting in a net gain of 100 MB in system memory. Additionally, the physics queue for the biome builder was reduced, several areas of thread contention were reduced, and a race condition in the optimized priority queue was fixed. Lastly, the precision of quantized bounding volume hierarchy trees was improved.\nFor the renderer, the team continued working on the transition to Gen12. A Gen12-exclusive mode for forward-rendered deferred pipelines was added, numerous rendering issues were fixed, and editor support was improved. Support for instance constant buffers with reflection data was added and vertex input caching was extended. In terms of visual features, support for detail cavity and gloss blending was added too.\nWith regards to volumetric clouds, the rendering of secondary views (runtime cubemaps, RTTs, etc.) including clouds was addressed. For empty space skipping, which is still in the very early experimental stages, computation of the narrow band SDF for cloud coverage has been revised along with the generation of associated MIP maps in a signed format. An initial set of quality options was exposed to the game menu (combined as a single quality option). These quality settings will see further refinement and extensions as the system matures in releases post Alpha 3.14. A driver issue on the 10xx GTX line of video cards affecting the computation of scattering queries was investigated and a workaround implemented. The team are still in the process of clarifying whether this issue is a driver bug and, if that\u2019s the case, hope that it can be fixed properly.\nThe Core Engine Team finalized the switch to Clang 11, which is used to compile the game server. Clang-related code vectorization and math optimizations were enabled and a code generation bug was identified, worked around, and reported. The memory tracker was improved to detect deallocation of memory that\u2019s not allocated (double free, without the use of page heap). Also, it can now filter allocation stacks by specified engine modules and the engine\u2019s memory statistics update has been optimized. Preliminary support for a new profiler frontend was added alongside various improvements and optimizations on relevant engine components to utilize the profiler to its full capabilities. The component update scheduler received support for multiple passes and event handlers were separated from component updates. Vis areas now use more fine-grained locking for updates to reduce contention and the queuing of animation vis area updates is now lockless, as is event queuing.\nFeatures (Characters & Weapons)\nJune saw the Feature Team continuing work on actor status, this time adding different ways the recently completed statuses affect the player. For example, if a player character\u2019s blood drug level (BDL) becomes too high, they\u2019ll utilize a specific intoxicated locomotion set and experience various on-screen effects. This will also affect the player\u2019s control while on foot and piloting a vehicle by adding degrees of randomness. These effects scale with the BDL, and there are several ways to increase it. For example, a player can visit a bar and over-indulge in alcohol or they can over-use injury medication in a short period of time.\nAnother recent addition is the downed state. Unless a player receives significant damage when hit by what is currently a killing shot, they will fall over similar to getting knocked out. In this state, they\u2019re essentially unconscious and slowly dying, though teammates can resuscitate them if they arrive in time.\nMeanwhile, work continues on different optimization initiatives, including better data encapsulation of the lower-level animation update logic. A while ago, the team began exploring component update frequency as an option to reduce the cost of characters the further away they are. A number of core actor components have now implemented this and testing is in the final stages. The team is hoping to use the PTU to get a more live-like test of a cut-down version of the performance improvements, with the hopes of shipping them in a future release.\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nThe US Gameplay Features Team spent June gearing up for the upcoming release of Alpha 3.14 and looking ahead to future initiatives.\nThroughout the month, they continued work on the player asset manager. With the baseline functionality implemented in May, the team began adding further features to the app, such as sorting and filtering. They also worked with the Narrative Team to name the app, with the final decision being \u201cNikNax.\u201d Once decided, the UI designers created a logo and general branding schem. They\u2019re currently wrapping up leftover tasks and preparing NikNax for its release in Q3 2021.\nThe team also further developed the Ninetails Lockdown, working with QA to test and balance the Dynamic Event before its release in Alpha 3.14.\nThe cargo refactor has been expanded to include resource container work, while the designs for persistent hangars and a selling refactor began, with larger discussions set to happen in July. The planning and documentation initiatives from May continued throughout June too.\nIn Germany and the UK, the teams focused on features for Alpha 3.15 and 3.16, including loot generation. They\u2019re now ensuring all setups are in place so that the boxes with loot are distributed with randomized valuable items.\nThey also began developing atmospheric depth damage for gas giants like Crusader. Once complete, the pressure within gas giants will damage players\u2019 ships if they attempt to reach the core.\nShip-to-ship refueling began its production phase, which is a significant collaboration between the Gameplay Feature, UI, and Vehicle teams. When live, players will be able to provide fuel to other players in exchange for credits.\nFeatures (Vehicles)\nLast month, Vehicle Features\u2019 work was a mix of supporting Alpha 3.14, ramping up the development of jump points, and supporting Vehicle Experience on their upcoming patch content. They also supported VFX in developing the new thruster dust effects mentioned in May\u2019s report, which is planned to debut in a coming patch. They also made improvements to the docking feature that didn\u2019t manage to make it into Alpha 3.13, such as allowing players to refuel, repair, and restock vehicles docked at a station.\nA key feature of Alpha 3.14 is the new HUD technology, which is a brand-new way of creating HUDs that allows for much more depth and complexity than was possible before. Recent work involved ironing out issues and filling gaps to ensure the HUD covers the many cases that exist across different ships.\nAs that work is nearing completion, a large portion of the team moved to build out jump points. Though this feature hasn\u2019t had significant development time recently, progress is increasing rapidly as focus switches and more devs begin working on it.\nThe Vehicle Experience Team predominantly progressed with Alpha 3.14 tasks, including Missile Operator Mode, the new power triangle, and the rebalance of various aspects of ship combat. As the features are tested by the Evocati, the team will continue to balance, tweak, and improve all aspects of the changes before they launch in Alpha 3.14.\nGraphics & VFX Programming\nJune saw the Graphics Team complete work on the window and PingCIG shaders. The window shader allows them to simulate the windows of static rooms without actually modeling the interior, enabling large buildings filled with \u2018fake\u2019 interiors for minimal cost. This approach has been used in several other games and, while the visuals are naturally constrained compared to bespoke rooms (which would be impractical for performance), the results are vastly better than black or empty spaces. The PingCIG shader is a new version of the ping effect that will be used for the upcoming improvements to the radar and scanning feature; it creates waves that trigger various visual effects when they intersect solid geometry, such as an edge highlight.\nFor Orison, improvements were made to the performance of real-time environment probes and bugs were squashed ahead of release. Improvements to the LOD Merger to support tint-palettes and wear were also completed to allow huge draw-call savings for distant renderings of the city.\nThe team also made improvements to the UI compositing and post-effect pipeline to achieve the specific look the team want, such as drop shadows, glow, brightness adaptation, and color correction while minimizing performance impact.\nThe VFX Programming Team added support for querying cloud density from planets and used this to trigger a variety of effects. Several particle-streaming issues were addressed and the final bugs with the new lighting system were resolved. The fire feature progressed well too.\nBoth the Graphics and VFX Programming teams also made great progress on the Gen12 renderer and Vulkan backends, with the vast majority of post effects now running Gen12 by default. This doesn\u2019t result in major CPU performance savings as the post effects were already cheap on the CPU side, though major benefits will be seen in scene rendering.\nLighting\nIn June, the Lighting Team closed out their work on Crusader\u2019s new landing zone.\n\u201cThe sheer size of explorable and landable areas around Orison and the line of sight across the platforms necessitates an enormous quantity of lights. The challenge here is to provide as much lighting as possible throughout the landing zone, with a focus on the primary playable spaces and within our current tech limitations.\u201d -The Lighting Team\nIn the final stages of their work, the team focused on the background elements in Orison, including ring platforms, habitation platforms, and flying barges.\n\n\n\nNarrative\nThe Narrative Team dedicated resources towards the upcoming patch release. All patches require bug fixes, string reviews, and quality-of-life improvements but special focus was placed on the final polish pass for Orison.\nThe team also provided narrative support for upcoming events, including IAE 2951 and several dynamic missions. The development of Pyro continued, with Narrative providing write-ups to the Art and Design teams to help further flesh out the system. Time was also spent on developing additional AI behavior flows and scripts to create more realistic interactions in the future. Narrative direction was also provided to further enhance the lore of the upcoming medical and hacking gameplay, and preparation was done in advance of an upcoming motion-capture shoot.\nIn celebration of Alien Week, Narrative participated in a special Inside Star Citizen about the various alien cultures in Star Citizen and released a Xi\u2019an letter for the community to translate. Lastly, the final part of A Gift For Baba was published and the entire story is now available to read on Spectum.\nPlayer Relations\nThe Player Relations Team expanded their services alongside the Player Experience Team and Live QA. This collective will focus on assessing the health of the game on the live service and working directly with stakeholders to identify, triage, and help fix key issues affecting the community.\nThey also further expanded the UK and US teams to broaden the level of support that players will receive and have been working extensively to support the launch of Alpha 3.14.\nProps\nLast month, the team focused on closing out their tasks for Orison, including the dressing props around the city and high-tech hospital props. They continued to work on the upcoming colonialism outposts too.\n\u201cThis was a welcome break from the clean, high-tech assets we\u2019ve been doing recently, and the team has been pushing our materials and really trying to hit the mark set out in the new colonialism art style guide.\u201d -The Props Team\nElsewhere, the team tackled tech debt and made great progress closing out bugs.\nQA\nQA\u2019s primary publishing focus was stabilizing Alpha 3.14 to test in the staging environment and preparing it for the Evocati, which was done later in the month. For development, QA worked through test requests for upcoming gameplay features and dynamic events.\nTime was also dedicated to scheduling, ensuring the team have proper coverage for upcoming content and events. They also planned out what\u2019s needed for staging streams as far as headcount and ownership.\nSystemic Services & Tools\nIn June, Systemic Services & Tools geared up for the next iteration of the Economy and AI Simulation, which has improved fidelity and interaction with the game itself and is easier to manage via new integrated tools.\nThe team also finished upgrades to Ubuntu 20.04 and continued the foundational work for various services, such as the AI Info service and ATC service. They\u2019re currently working towards applying tech created for direct connections to other services to help alleviate bottlenecks on the backend.\nTech Animation\nLooking back over the quarter, Tech Animation made great progress with their pipeline and tasks, balancing the fine line between user support and productivity to deliver many of the features and content they wanted to.\nR&D into streamlining the \u2018facial-scan\u2019 and \u2018scan-creation\u2019 pipelines was completed, with the outcome saving the art teams significant man-hours over the coming years. This also formed the cornerstone in Tech Animation\u2019s own facial rig building process and will ultimately expedite the entire facial pipeline.\nOne main aim of the quarter was to upgrade the head asset and facial animation system codebase, which is currently well underway. The team also managed to overhaul the weapons pipeline with a facelift and new toolsets to assist with technical elements.\nTech Animation were supported by Tech Art in upgrading their export processes. Once complete, they moved onto the skeletal optimization process that will improve character hitboxes when completed.\nTurbulent\nLast month, role-based access control in Hex received a new iteration, which allows for different levels of access to the tool based on more granular roles. The team also worked on a launcher update featuring quality of life fixes, an epilepsy warning before launch, and new channels for internal testing.\nThe Game Services Team continued to focus on the Server Meshing project alongside working on service improvements and documentation.\nAs they closed out 2021\u2019s second quarter, Turbulent\u2019s Web Team made great additions to the RSI website. Following on from improvements to the roadmap progress tracker earlier in the year, the team created more efficient automation tools for roadmap publishing to make it easier to review and publish content.\nJune also saw the completion of the new multi-user private lobbies in Spectrum. This is the first step in connecting Spectrum groups to in-game chat lobbies. The bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements were substantial and set the feature up well for connection to the game. The Spectrum Team also added more features into the app, with \u2018moderator tools\u2019 currently in development. Text anchoring was also worked on, which will be available to all users.\nOn the backend, the team focused on performance improvements, ensuring that the number of requests can exponentially grow with the size of the Star Citizen community. The team participated in two major tasks to support this. Firstly, they were able to split the database and store orders, helping to better distribute the load on the database structure during major events. Secondly, they split how they write log files for user activity in the database, making it execute into a queue, ensuring log activity never slows down writes that need to happen immediately. For example, when a player logs in. These efforts have shown significant performance gains on the platform and allowed Turbulent to downscale some of their servers in June.\nThe Web Team supported the release of the Gatac Railen and other promotions throughout the month.\nUI\nThe programmers on the UI Feature Team worked through large ongoing tasks in June. First, they worked closely with the Actor Feature Team on healing gameplay, specifically creating the medical UI screens used for healing and other functionality in the hospitals. Next, they further developed the core tech for the new Starmap and connected it to the radar system. They\u2019re currently focusing on the backend code that connects AR markers, the Starmap, interior map, and radar system. In-game functionality will come next, followed by UI in the future.\nThe UI Tech Team connected the Building Blocks UI system to the FlowGraph dev tool, which will give level designers more flexibility to connect UI to the game without relying on programmers for implementation. They also tackled UI-related bugs for the upcoming patch release.\nThe artists and designers worked on interactive screens for Orison and updated transit signs that will gradually make their way into the game. They\u2019re also thinking about the next iteration of the mobiGlas, with the designers and artists concepting potential layouts and animations for the overall feel of the system. Future vehicle HUD concepts and a variety of logos for use in the environments and UI were developed too.\nVehicle Tech\nThe Vehicle Tech Team spent time putting the finishing touches on the radar, scanning, and ping refactor, getting it ready for Alpha 3.14. Along with getting the feature polished, they squashed numerous bugs, including several relating to damage, repair, landing gear, targeting, and game crashes.\nMeanwhile, improvements were made to doors. This involved improving player interaction with door panels and airlocks and solving issues with the transition between the atmosphere and the vacuum of space.\nVFX\nThroughout June, the VFX team focused on Orison, finetuning the many effects required for this expansive location.\n\u201cWe are excited for the Alpha 3.14 release because it will be our first with the new particle lighting model. As mentioned in previous reports, this will allow a much better quality of lighting for particles, but more importantly, will allow us to create our effects in a more consistent way without worrying that different environment lighting will cause the effects to not work as well. For example, the same effect in a darkly lit room versus a brightly moonlit area in space.\u201d\n-The VFX Team\nThe team also continued their process of fleshing out the destruction pipeline, focusing on a Theaters of War map containing a huge explosion sequence. Final improvements were made to the new vehicle radar ping effects following feedback and several miscellaneous tweaks were made in the run-up to Alpha 3.14\u2019s release.\nWE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026","de_DE":"Die Alpha 3.14 n\u00e4hert sich schnell der PU, daher erhielt sie nat\u00fcrlich den ganzen Juni \u00fcber Entwicklungszeit. Die meisten Star Citizen-Teams haben aber auch Fortschritte gemacht, die in der Zukunft liegen. Von unangek\u00fcndigten Schiffen bis hin zu den Sprungpunkten, die die Spieler nach Pyro f\u00fchren werden, lies weiter f\u00fcr alle aufregenden Updates der Arbeit des letzten Monats.\n\nKI (Inhalt)\nAnfang des Monats war das KI-Content-Team stark in die Vorbereitungen f\u00fcr eine viert\u00e4gige Motion-Capture-Session eingebunden. Jedes zugeh\u00f6rige Team nahm daran teil und konnte dem Schauspieler direkt Informationen zur Verf\u00fcgung stellen, was f\u00fcr viele eine neue Erfahrung war und dem Team ein gr\u00f6\u00dferes Verst\u00e4ndnis f\u00fcr den Prozess und die Learnings gab, die bei zuk\u00fcnftigen Sessions helfen werden. Einige der aufgezeichneten Assets wurden bereits geliefert und werden derzeit f\u00fcr die Nutzung im Spiel funktionalisiert.\nIm Juni hat das Team auch die Patron-Aktivit\u00e4t erweitert, um die neuen L\u00e4den zu bearbeiten, an denen sie arbeiten, und die Usables zu analysieren, die ben\u00f6tigt werden, um die PU-Au\u00dfenposten zu bev\u00f6lkern. Die Aktivit\u00e4ten Wachmann und H\u00e4ndler und die dazugeh\u00f6rigen nutzbaren Setups wurden ebenfalls fertiggestellt.\nDer Wachmann wurde zum prim\u00e4ren Anwendungsfall f\u00fcr dynamische Konversationen, wobei die Entwickler zwei Konversationen einrichteten, die von einem Zivilisten, der sich dem Wachmann n\u00e4hert, zuf\u00e4llig ausgew\u00e4hlt werden k\u00f6nnen - ein Verbrechen melden und nach dem Weg fragen. Sie vervollst\u00e4ndigten auch einen Pass der Wildlines des Wachmanns und begannen, das Reputationssystem zu nutzen, um den Ablauf der Verhaltenslogik zu beeinflussen.\nDas Verk\u00e4uferverhalten wurde erweitert, um NSCs zu unterst\u00fctzen, die Kombinationen von Essens- und Trinkgegenst\u00e4nden von verschiedenen Nutzern sammeln und sie dem Spieler als eine einzige Bestellung ausliefern. AI Content arbeitete auch mit dem Dialog-Team zusammen, um die Assets zu identifizieren, die zur Verst\u00e4rkung des Flusses ben\u00f6tigt wurden.\n\"Um das Servieren von Essen taktiler und realistischer zu machen, haben wir \"Lebensmittel-Griff-Typen\" f\u00fcr die neuen Gegenst\u00e4nde identifiziert und arbeiten mit dem Props Team zusammen, um das Essen beim Servieren zu verpacken. Keine Hotdogs mehr, die direkt auf schmutzige Theken gelegt werden!\" -Das AI Content Team\nKI (Features)\nF\u00fcr den Raumschiffskampf hat das KI-Feature-Team an der Technologie gearbeitet, die es der KI erm\u00f6glicht, Unterkomponenten anderer Schiffe (Triebwerke, Waffen, etc.) zu identifizieren und anzuvisieren. Dies wird eine gr\u00f6\u00dfere Auswahl an Taktiken erm\u00f6glichen. Zum Beispiel, die Triebwerke eines Schiffes auszuschalten, damit es nicht verfolgen kann und es dann aus der Ferne zu beschie\u00dfen. Die KI wird die gleiche Art von Informationen von den Unterkomponenten abrufen, wie vom gesamten Raumschiff, einschlie\u00dflich der Menge an verursachtem Schaden, was es dem Team erm\u00f6glichen wird, den Angriff auf die Waffen zu priorisieren, die den meisten Schaden verursachen. Diese neue F\u00e4higkeit bedeutet, dass einige bestehende Kampfverhaltensweisen modifiziert werden m\u00fcssen (wie z.B. das Orbital Strafe Man\u00f6ver), um die Seite des Raumschiffs zu ber\u00fccksichtigen, auf der sich die anvisierte Unterkomponente befindet.\nDas Team implementierte auch die Eigenschaften \"gespr\u00e4chig\" und \"leise\", die in den Raumschiff-Dogfight-Verhaltensweisen verwendet werden, die steuern, wie oft die KI im Kampf kommuniziert. Dies beinhaltete die Identifizierung von unkritischen Kampfhandlungen (z.B. Kollisionen, wiederholtes Austeilen von Schaden und Empfangen von Schaden) und die Durchf\u00fchrung eines 'Trait-Checks', um zu sehen, ob sie ausgel\u00f6st werden sollten.\nF\u00fcr die menschliche KI arbeiteten sie an der Technologie und den Animationen, um zu steuern, wie ein NSC auf Reize (z.B. einen Schuss, das Sehen oder H\u00f6ren eines Feindes) reagiert, wenn er mit einem Nutzenden interagiert. Diese Technologie wird ben\u00f6tigt, um die L\u00fccke zwischen dem Verhalten der KI im Usable und der Reaktion beim Verlassen des Usable zu schlie\u00dfen und die KI zur\u00fcck zum Nav-Mesh zu bringen. Wenn sie z.B. einen feindlichen Spieler entdeckt, muss sie vielleicht nach einer Waffe greifen, um den Kampf zu beginnen, dem Spieler ihr Reaktionsniveau vermitteln und sich in eine Kampfverhaltensposition begeben. Mit einer Reihe von verschiedenen Usables, die sie in unterschiedliche Positionen und Haltungen bringen k\u00f6nnen, musste das Team die Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen den Usables identifizieren, um zu vermeiden, dass f\u00fcr jedes einzelne eine ma\u00dfgeschneiderte Animation erstellt werden muss. Allerdings gibt es immer noch viele verschiedene Variablen (Richtung, Reaktionslevel, bewaffnet, unbewaffnet, etc.), die sorgf\u00e4ltig verwaltet werden m\u00fcssen, um einen enormen Anstieg der Anzahl der Animations-Assets zu verhindern.\nSie haben auch einen Prototyp f\u00fcr das Utility-Verhalten erstellt, das es KI-Agenten erm\u00f6glichen wird, Frachtkisten zwischen Gebieten zu transferieren. NPCs werden lose Kisten identifizieren, sie aufheben, sie dann in einen Bereich bringen und stapeln. Die n\u00e4chste KI kann die gestapelten Kisten nehmen und sie in einen anderen Bereich transferieren, wie gew\u00fcnscht. Dieses Verhalten baut auf viele verschiedene Arbeiten auf: das Finden der Kiste als nutzbar, das Verlassen der Nutzbarkeit als Teil der Pickup-Aktion und nicht als separate Exit-Animation, das Finden eines Ortes, der die Kiste zum Stapeln annehmen kann, das Verhindern, dass Agenten Kisten nehmen, auf denen andere Kisten gestapelt sind, und das Erkennen, wenn ein Stapel voll ist. Sie haben auch ein Auge darauf, wie sich dies in die Fahrzeug-Ladungslagerung integrieren l\u00e4sst.\nDie erste Version des Verhaltens der unbemannten Raketent\u00fcrme wurde implementiert. Dies hat bewiesen, dass die ganze Arbeit, die f\u00fcr Raumschiffe gemacht wurde, leicht auf mehrere Entit\u00e4ten \u00fcbertragbar ist und jedes Fahrzeug, das Raketen auf ein Ziel schie\u00dfen will, korrekt behandeln wird.\nAu\u00dferdem wurde weiter an der Bereinigung der Daten und Animationen aus der Motion-Capture-Session gearbeitet, die letzten Monat abgeschlossen wurde. Alle Entwickler des Teams haben auch in der Alpha 3.14 an Optimierungen, Tweaks und Bugfixes gearbeitet.\nKI (Tech)\nDas Tech Team begann den Monat mit der Arbeit an der planetaren Navigation und verbesserte die Kacheln des Navigationsmeshs, um eine sph\u00e4rische Oberfl\u00e4chendarstellung des Meshs zu erm\u00f6glichen. Sie f\u00fcgten au\u00dferdem eine Funktionalit\u00e4t hinzu, die es NSCs erlaubt, sich korrekt entlang von Pfaden zu bewegen, die von den Designern definiert wurden.\nDie Arbeit an der 3D-NPC-Navigation in EVA wurde fortgesetzt, wobei das Team das Kollisionsvermeidungssystem verbesserte, um Agenten unterschiedlicher Gr\u00f6\u00dfe zu unterst\u00fctzen. Die Regeln wurden ge\u00e4ndert, um kleineren Schiffen zu erlauben, gr\u00f6\u00dferen auszuweichen und gro\u00dfen Schiffen zu erlauben, sich nicht so sehr darum zu k\u00fcmmern, kleineren auszuweichen.\nDer erste Durchgang des Codes wurde abgeschlossen, um NPCs zu erm\u00f6glichen, Trolleys auf \u00e4hnliche Weise wie der Spieler zu steuern und zu bewegen. Derzeit wird das Bewegungssystem erweitert, um die Auswahl mehrerer Pfadfolger zu erm\u00f6glichen, was f\u00fcr Trolleys, die eine kraftbasierte Steuerung haben, wichtig ist, da es den NSCs erlaubt, zu entscheiden, wie viel Kraft sie anwenden m\u00fcssen, um den gew\u00fcnschten Schwung beizubehalten.\nF\u00fcr den Subsumption-Editor hat das Team das Tool weiter in die Spiel-Engine eingebettet, mit dem Fokus darauf, dass der Hauptgraph alle Subgraphen in einer Ansicht enthalten kann. Dies ist besonders n\u00fctzlich f\u00fcr die Missionslogik, da es den Designern einen besseren globalen \u00dcberblick \u00fcber die Logik jeder Mission erm\u00f6glicht und den mentalen Aufwand reduzieren sollte, der n\u00f6tig ist, um der Logik zwischen verschiedenen Graphen zu folgen. Das Team war auch mit Fehlerbehebungen und Optimierungen f\u00fcr Alpha 3.14 besch\u00e4ftigt.\nAnimation\nDie Animation erstellte einen groben Weltraumwal-Loop f\u00fcr die KI, um damit zu testen und um dem Design zu helfen, herauszufinden, was sie in Bezug auf das Gameplay noch brauchen k\u00f6nnten. Sie arbeiteten auch an Vendor-Sets, um die verschiedenen L\u00e4den und Verk\u00e4ufer rund um die PU zu verbessern. Dazu geh\u00f6rten die Erstellung von Cowering-Assets, die es Zivilisten erm\u00f6glichen, zu rennen und sich hinter einer Deckung zu verstecken, Hausmeister- und Arcade-Automaten-Blockouts und medizinisches Wiederbelebungs-Gameplay.\nDas Facial Animation Team entwickelte Animationen f\u00fcr Emotes, Essen und Trinken und verschiedene andere systemische KI-Features. Sie vervollst\u00e4ndigten eine Aufschl\u00fcsselung der KI in den Hauptwelt-Locations und erstellten eine gro\u00dfe Liste von Assets, die vom AI Content Team platziert werden m\u00fcssen, mit dem Ziel, den bereits vorhandenen Content besser zu implementieren. Es wurden auch Animationen f\u00fcr die Bergungswaffe erstellt.\nKunst (Charaktere)\nIm letzten Monat setzten die Charakterk\u00fcnstler die Entwicklung von drei R\u00fcstungssets fort, die auch Varianten f\u00fcr verschiedene Events und Programme erhalten werden. Die Tech-Designer schlossen ihren Durchgang an den Charakteren f\u00fcr die erste Ver\u00f6ffentlichung von Orison ab und sind derzeit dabei, die Loadouts entsprechend dem Feedback anzupassen und grafische Probleme zu beheben.\nDer Rest des Tech-Teams unterst\u00fctzte die Alpha 3.15 zusammen mit den Actor Feature- und Design-Teams, was die Einrichtung eines Systems f\u00fcr die Spieler beinhaltete, um Rucks\u00e4cke an- und auszur\u00fcsten. Sie werden auch neue Rucks\u00e4cke zum PU hinzuf\u00fcgen, um das Feature zu unterst\u00fctzen. Au\u00dferdem arbeiteten sie an holografischen Requisiten aller Assets f\u00fcr die Inventar-UI.\nDie Konzeptk\u00fcnstler verbrachten Zeit mit der Arbeit an ereignisbezogenen Gegenst\u00e4nden, erstellten zus\u00e4tzliche Konzepte f\u00fcr das Pyro-System und erforschten m\u00f6gliche Gameplay-Interaktionen mit der Kreatur des Weltraumwals.\nKunst (Umgebung)\nDas in Montreal ans\u00e4ssige Art-Team arbeitete an der Fertigstellung der verbleibenden Krankenhausstandorte, wobei die Weltraumkliniken, die Klinik von Grim HEX und das Krankenhaus von Area18 nun in der Whitebox-Phase fertiggestellt wurden. Nun geht es in die Greybox-Phase, in der die verschiedenen Module genauer definiert werden und Details hinzugef\u00fcgt werden, um die k\u00fcnstlerischen Absichten zu verdeutlichen.\nAuf der Designseite hat das Team damit begonnen, verlassene Teile von Raumschiffen zu verwenden, um Puzzles zu erstellen, die mit Beute best\u00fcckt werden, um die Erkundung zu f\u00f6rdern und neue Spielbereiche rund um Stanton zu schaffen. Ihr anf\u00e4ngliches Ziel ist es, 24 verlassene Puzzles zu produzieren, die H\u00e4lfte auf dem Planeten und die andere H\u00e4lfte im Weltraum.\nZu guter Letzt haben sie sich mit der Definition des Gameplays im Geb\u00e4udeinneren befasst, ein Prototyp-Layout erstellt und \u00fcberlegt, wie sie es mit richtigen Missionen erg\u00e4nzen k\u00f6nnen. Sie definieren auch, wie dieses Layout in das prozedurale Tool zur Erstellung von Orten passen wird, das derzeit vom Tools-Team entwickelt wird.\nDie Teams f\u00fcr die Landezone und das Modulare Team haben die Kolonialismus-Au\u00dfenposten durch die finale Art-Phase gebracht, bevor sie sich dem zweiten Inhaltsset zuwenden, das mehr Variation und zus\u00e4tzliche Themen einf\u00fchrt.\nSie stehen auch kurz vor der Fertigstellung der Gaswolken, die die Sprungpunkte umgeben werden, einschlie\u00dflich eines zweiten Looks f\u00fcr mehr Vielfalt. Orison wird derzeit abgeschlossen, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf der Verbesserung der Performance und der Behebung von Bugs liegt.\nKunst (Schiffe)\nIn den USA konzentrierte sich das Schiffsteam auf die Fertigstellung der Constellation Taurus, die Beseitigung von Fehlern und einen allgemeinen Polishing-Pass. Die Taurus wird in der kommenden Alpha 3.14 fliegbar sein. Es gab auch zus\u00e4tzliche Fehlerbehebungen in der gesamten Star Citizen Flotte.\nDas Team hat die beiden Crusader Ares Varianten, die Ion und Inferno, weiter durch die Pipeline gebracht. Ihr Ziel ist es, in den kommenden Wochen in die finale Entwurfsphase zu gehen, um sie im vierten Quartal auszuliefern. Die Whitebox f\u00fcr den Drake Vulture begann zusammen mit einer neuen Variante eines beliebten Schiffes, das sp\u00e4ter im Jahr angek\u00fcndigt wird.\nIm Juni hat das britische Team den finalen Art- und Lighting-Pass f\u00fcr ein noch nicht angek\u00fcndigtes Schiff fertiggestellt. Danach ging es an den LOD-Prozess (Level of Detail) und das Setup der \u00e4u\u00dferen Sch\u00e4den.\nNachdem das \u00c4u\u00dfere der Aegis Redeemer f\u00fcr die Invictus Launch Week fertiggestellt war, wandte sich das Team dem Inneren zu und schloss die Greybox-Phase ab, die Anfang Juli zur \u00dcberpr\u00fcfung anstand.\nDie Gold-Standard-Arbeiten an der Sabre und der Retaliator wurden ebenfalls fortgesetzt; die \u00e4u\u00dfere Beleuchtung der Sabre wurde fertiggestellt, w\u00e4hrend die Retaliator durchgehend \u00fcberarbeitete Licht- und T\u00fcrsteuerungen erhielt.\nZu guter Letzt \u00fcberarbeitete Ships die Crusader Hercules, um die A2-Variante f\u00fcr die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung vorzubereiten, was das Hinzuf\u00fcgen eines K\u00fcchenbereichs f\u00fcr die Besatzung und zweier gro\u00dfer Bombensch\u00e4chte im Frachtraum beinhaltete.\nKunst (Weapons)\nLetzten Monat hat das Waffenteam mit dem Mining Gadget weitergemacht und das Asset komplett auf LOD-Null gebracht und das Rigging aktualisiert, bevor es an die Animation \u00fcbergeben wurde. Drei Subscriber-Waffen wurden fertiggestellt und f\u00fcr die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung vorbereitet, zusammen mit einem neuen Messer f\u00fcr eine zuk\u00fcnftige PU-Version.\nDie Animationsdurchl\u00e4ufe f\u00fcr den eigenst\u00e4ndigen Greycat-Traktorstrahl und das eigenst\u00e4ndige Bergungswerkzeug begannen, wobei auch die Iteration ihrer Rigs abgeschlossen wurde. Ein weiterer Fokus im Juli lag auf zwei neuen Size 7 Behring Schiffswaffen, eine ballistische und eine Energiewaffe. Beide sind f\u00fcr ein kommendes Schiffsrelease und befinden sich derzeit in der Greybox-Phase.\nAudio\nNeben den Trailern f\u00fcr Alien Week und Invictus arbeitete das Audio Team an den Zielen der Alpha 3.14. Dies beinhaltete signifikante Arbeit an Orison:\n\"Orison ist eine der gr\u00f6\u00dften Locations, die wir seit einer Weile in Angriff nehmen mussten. Es war eine gro\u00dfartige Gelegenheit f\u00fcr uns alle, gemeinsam an etwas zu arbeiten, um die Umgebungen, die Musik und die Dialoge f\u00fcr das Transportsystem, das Krankenhaus und den Gasriesen zu erstellen. Es war eine Herausforderung, die Innenr\u00e4ume sauber klingen zu lassen und mit der windigen oberen Atmosph\u00e4re des Planeten Crusader in Einklang zu bringen. Wir sind wirklich begeistert von dem, was wir erreicht haben!\" -Das Audio Team\nSie arbeiteten auch an den Krankenhaus-Locations und dem medizinischen Gameplay im Allgemeinen und f\u00fcgten Effekte f\u00fcr das medizinische Werkzeug CureLife und Dialoge hinzu, die den Spieler verletzt und erleichtert klingen lassen, wenn er geheilt ist.\nZu guter Letzt unterst\u00fctzte das Audio-Team die UI-Features im Missile Operator Mode und im Kondensator-Gameplay, um das Dogfighting-Gameplay fl\u00fcssiger zu gestalten.\nCommunity\nDas Community Team hat den Juni mit seiner Pride Month Celebration begonnen. Um die Vielfalt unserer Spieler zu ehren, starteten sie die Show Us Your Colors Celebration 2021 und belohnten die zehn farbenfrohsten Beitr\u00e4ge mit einem Drake Cutlass Red. Sie stellten auch die neuen privaten Multi-User-Lobbys auf Spectrum vor und sprachen \u00fcber die benutzerfreundlichen Updates f\u00fcr den Issue Council.\nIm Juni fand Star Citizen's j\u00e4hrliches Alien Week Event statt, bei dem die Gatac Railen und neue Alien Schiffsfarben vorgestellt wurden. Nach der Enth\u00fcllung beantworteten die Entwickler Fragen der Community zum neuen Xi'an Schiff im Gatac Railen Q&A. Au\u00dferdem veranstaltete die Community zwei Wettbewerbe, den Alien Trading Card Contest und das zweite Intragalactic Cook-Off.\n\n\nZu guter Letzt startete das Team der Community den (virtuellen) Cosplay-Wettbewerb 2021, dessen Gewinner auf dem digitalen CitizenCon-Event am 9. Oktober bekannt gegeben werden. Einsendungen sind bis zum 31. August m\u00f6glich, also verpass es nicht!\nEngine\nIm Juni hat das Physik-Team die Generierung von Surfel-Daten, die f\u00fcr Radar-Querschnittsabfragen verwendet werden, in einen Offline-Vorberechnungsschritt im Ressourcen-Compiler verlegt, der im Allgemeinen verschiedene Arten von Assets (Texturen, Meshes, Sounds, Metadaten, etc.) f\u00fcr den endg\u00fcltigen Verbrauch im Spiel optimiert. Es wurde auch viel Zeit auf verschiedene Optimierungen verwendet.\nAlle Ebenen der Physik-Geometrie-Instanzierung wurden abgeschlossen. Als Ergebnis wurde das Klonen und Teilen der Pinselphysik erm\u00f6glicht, was dazu f\u00fchrte, dass die Physik nun nur noch 50% des Speichers ben\u00f6tigt, den sie vorher auf dem Client und Server hatte. Dies wurde m\u00f6glich, indem alle gemeinsamen geometriebezogenen Daten (wie Geometrietransformationen, Sub-Mtls und Oberfl\u00e4chentypen) \u00fcber alle Klone der gleichen statischen Instanz geteilt wurden. Zum Beispiel ein Set von statischen Objekten, die die gleiche Geometrie verwenden. Mit der bevorstehenden Ver\u00f6ffentlichung von Orison in der PU wird das Tracking von Terrain f\u00fcr Gasriesen \u00fcbersprungen. AVX-Befehle werden nun genutzt, um Set-Eintr\u00e4ge in r\u00e4umlichen Gittern zu blockieren und Ray-Box-Schnittpunkte in r\u00e4umlichen Gittern wurden optimiert.\nNetzwerkbezogene Daten wurden zwischen internen Strukturen f\u00fcr effizienteren Zugriff und Synchronisation verschoben, w\u00e4hrend die Strukturgr\u00f6\u00dfe von physischen Entit\u00e4ten und die Ausrichtung optimiert wurden, um sicherzustellen, dass hei\u00dfe Mitglieder immer in der gleichen Cache-Zeile liegen. Die Seitengr\u00f6\u00dfen f\u00fcr Event Factories wurden angepasst, was zu einem Nettogewinn von 100 MB an Systemspeicher f\u00fchrte. Zus\u00e4tzlich wurde die Physik-Warteschlange f\u00fcr den Biome-Builder verkleinert, mehrere Bereiche mit Thread-Konflikten wurden reduziert und eine Race Condition in der optimierten Priorit\u00e4ts-Warteschlange wurde behoben. Zu guter Letzt wurde die Pr\u00e4zision der quantisierten Bounding Volume Hierarchy Trees verbessert.\nF\u00fcr den Renderer arbeitete das Team weiter an der Umstellung auf Gen12. Ein Gen12-exklusiver Modus f\u00fcr vorw\u00e4rtsgerenderte Deferred Pipelines wurde hinzugef\u00fcgt, zahlreiche Rendering-Probleme wurden behoben und die Editor-Unterst\u00fctzung wurde verbessert. Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr Instanzkonstantenpuffer mit Reflexionsdaten wurde hinzugef\u00fcgt und das Vertex-Input-Caching wurde erweitert. In Bezug auf visuelle Features wurde auch die Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr Detail Cavity und Gloss Blending hinzugef\u00fcgt.\nIn Bezug auf volumetrische Wolken wurde das Rendering von sekund\u00e4ren Ansichten (Runtime Cubemaps, RTTs, etc.) inklusive Wolken adressiert. F\u00fcr das Leerraum-Skipping, das sich noch in einem sehr fr\u00fchen experimentellen Stadium befindet, wurde die Berechnung der Schmalband-SDF f\u00fcr die Wolkenabdeckung \u00fcberarbeitet, zusammen mit der Generierung der zugeh\u00f6rigen MIP-Karten in einem signierten Format. Ein erstes Set von Qualit\u00e4tsoptionen wurde dem Spielmen\u00fc hinzugef\u00fcgt (kombiniert als eine einzige Qualit\u00e4tsoption). Diese Qualit\u00e4tseinstellungen werden weiter verfeinert und erweitert, wenn das System in Versionen nach Alpha 3.14 ausgereift ist. Ein Treiberproblem auf der 10xx GTX Serie von Grafikkarten, das die Berechnung von Streuungsabfragen beeinflusste, wurde untersucht und ein Workaround implementiert. Das Team ist immer noch dabei zu kl\u00e4ren, ob es sich bei diesem Problem um einen Treiberfehler handelt und hofft, dass dieser behoben werden kann, falls das der Fall ist.\nDas Core Engine Team hat die Umstellung auf Clang 11 abgeschlossen, welches zum Kompilieren des Gameservers verwendet wird. Clang-bezogene Code-Vektorisierung und mathematische Optimierungen wurden aktiviert und ein Code-Generierungs-Bug wurde identifiziert, umgangen und gemeldet. Der Memory Tracker wurde verbessert, um die Deallokation von Speicher zu erkennen, der nicht allokiert ist (double free, ohne die Verwendung des Page Heaps). Au\u00dferdem k\u00f6nnen nun Allokationsstapel nach bestimmten Engine-Modulen gefiltert werden und die Aktualisierung der Speicherstatistiken der Engine wurde optimiert. Vorl\u00e4ufige Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr ein neues Profiler-Frontend wurde zusammen mit verschiedenen Verbesserungen und Optimierungen an relevanten Engine-Komponenten hinzugef\u00fcgt, um den Profiler in vollem Umfang nutzen zu k\u00f6nnen. Der Komponenten-Update-Scheduler erhielt Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr mehrere Durchl\u00e4ufe und Event-Handler wurden von Komponenten-Updates getrennt. Vis-Areas verwenden nun ein feink\u00f6rnigeres Locking f\u00fcr Updates, um Konflikte zu reduzieren und die Warteschlange f\u00fcr Animations-Updates ist nun lockless, ebenso wie die Event-Warteschlange.\nFeatures (Charaktere & Waffen)\nIm Juni hat das Feature Team die Arbeit am Charakterstatus fortgesetzt und diesmal verschiedene M\u00f6glichkeiten hinzugef\u00fcgt, wie sich die k\u00fcrzlich abgeschlossenen Status auf den Spieler auswirken. Wenn zum Beispiel der Blutdrogenspiegel (BDL) eines Spielercharakters zu hoch wird, wird er ein spezielles berauschtes Fortbewegungsset verwenden und verschiedene Effekte auf dem Bildschirm erleben. Dies wirkt sich auch auf die Kontrolle des Spielers aus, wenn er zu Fu\u00df unterwegs ist oder ein Fahrzeug steuert, indem es den Grad der Zuf\u00e4lligkeit erh\u00f6ht. Diese Effekte skalieren mit dem BDL, und es gibt mehrere M\u00f6glichkeiten, diesen zu erh\u00f6hen. Zum Beispiel kann ein Spieler eine Bar besuchen und zu viel Alkohol zu sich nehmen oder er kann in kurzer Zeit zu viele Medikamente gegen Verletzungen nehmen.\nEine weitere Neuerung ist der Downed-Status. Wenn ein Spieler keinen signifikanten Schaden erleidet, wenn er von einem t\u00f6dlichen Schuss getroffen wird, f\u00e4llt er um, \u00e4hnlich wie wenn er ausgeknockt wird. In diesem Zustand sind sie im Wesentlichen bewusstlos und sterben langsam, obwohl Teamkameraden sie wiederbeleben k\u00f6nnen, wenn sie rechtzeitig eintreffen.\nIn der Zwischenzeit wird weiter an verschiedenen Optimierungsinitiativen gearbeitet, einschlie\u00dflich einer besseren Datenkapselung der Update-Logik der Animationen auf niedrigerer Ebene. Vor einiger Zeit hat das Team damit begonnen, die Aktualisierungsh\u00e4ufigkeit von Komponenten als Option zu erforschen, um die Kosten der Charaktere zu reduzieren, je weiter sie entfernt sind. Eine Reihe von Kern-Akteurs-Komponenten haben dies nun implementiert und die Tests befinden sich in der Endphase. Das Team hofft, die PTU nutzen zu k\u00f6nnen, um eine abgespeckte Version der Leistungsverbesserungen live zu testen, in der Hoffnung, sie in einer zuk\u00fcnftigen Version ausliefern zu k\u00f6nnen.\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nDas US Gameplay Features Team verbrachte den Juni damit, sich auf die bevorstehende Ver\u00f6ffentlichung der Alpha 3.14 vorzubereiten und einen Blick auf zuk\u00fcnftige Initiativen zu werfen.\nIm Laufe des Monats wurde die Arbeit am Spieler-Asset-Manager fortgesetzt. Nachdem die Basisfunktionalit\u00e4t im Mai implementiert wurde, begann das Team damit, der App weitere Funktionen hinzuzuf\u00fcgen, wie zum Beispiel Sortieren und Filtern. Sie arbeiteten auch mit dem Narrative Team zusammen, um der App einen Namen zu geben, wobei die endg\u00fcltige Entscheidung \"NikNax\" lautete. Sobald die Entscheidung gefallen war, entwarfen die UI-Designer ein Logo und ein allgemeines Branding-Schema. Zurzeit werden die restlichen Aufgaben erledigt und NikNax f\u00fcr die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung in Q3 2021 vorbereitet.\nDas Team hat auch den Ninetails Lockdown weiterentwickelt und mit der QA zusammengearbeitet, um das Dynamic Event vor der Ver\u00f6ffentlichung in Alpha 3.14 zu testen und zu balancieren.\nDer Cargo-Refactor wurde um die Arbeit an Ressourcencontainern erweitert, w\u00e4hrend die Entw\u00fcrfe f\u00fcr persistente Hangars und einen Verkaufs-Refactor begannen, wobei gr\u00f6\u00dfere Diskussionen im Juli stattfinden sollen. Die Planungs- und Dokumentationsinitiativen vom Mai wurden auch im Juni fortgesetzt.\nIn Gro\u00dfbritannien konzentrierte sich das Team auf Features f\u00fcr Alpha 3.15 und 3.16, einschlie\u00dflich der Beutegenerierung. Das Team stellt nun sicher, dass alle Setups vorhanden sind, damit die Kisten mit Beute mit zuf\u00e4llig ausgew\u00e4hlten wertvollen Gegenst\u00e4nden verteilt werden.\nAu\u00dferdem haben sie begonnen, atmosph\u00e4rischen Tiefenschaden f\u00fcr Gasriesen wie Crusader zu entwickeln. Sobald die Entwicklung abgeschlossen ist, wird der Druck innerhalb von Gasriesen die Schiffe der Spieler besch\u00e4digen, wenn sie versuchen, den Kern zu erreichen.\nDie Schiff-zu-Schiff-Betankung begann ihre Produktionsphase, was eine bedeutende Zusammenarbeit zwischen den Gameplay-Feature-, UI- und Fahrzeug-Teams darstellt. Sobald es live ist, werden Spieler anderen Spielern Treibstoff im Austausch gegen Credits zur Verf\u00fcgung stellen k\u00f6nnen.\nFeatures (Fahrzeuge)\nIm letzten Monat bestand die Arbeit der Vehicle Features aus einer Mischung aus der Unterst\u00fctzung der Alpha 3.14, der Entwicklung von Sprungpunkten und der Unterst\u00fctzung von Vehicle Experience bei den kommenden Patch-Inhalten. Au\u00dferdem unterst\u00fctzten sie VFX bei der Entwicklung der neuen Schubd\u00fcsenstaub-Effekte, die im Bericht vom Mai erw\u00e4hnt wurden und in einem kommenden Patch deb\u00fctieren sollen. Sie haben auch Verbesserungen am Docking-Feature vorgenommen, die es nicht in die Alpha 3.13 geschafft haben, wie z.B. die M\u00f6glichkeit f\u00fcr Spieler, an einer Station angedockte Fahrzeuge aufzutanken, zu reparieren und aufzuf\u00fcllen.\nEin Schl\u00fcsselfeature der Alpha 3.14 ist die neue HUD-Technologie, eine brandneue Art, HUDs zu erstellen, die viel mehr Tiefe und Komplexit\u00e4t erlaubt, als es bisher m\u00f6glich war. Die letzte Arbeit bestand darin, Probleme auszub\u00fcgeln und L\u00fccken zu f\u00fcllen, um sicherzustellen, dass das HUD die vielen F\u00e4lle abdeckt, die auf verschiedenen Schiffen existieren.\nDa diese Arbeit kurz vor dem Abschluss steht, hat sich ein gro\u00dfer Teil des Teams mit der Entwicklung von Sprungpunkten besch\u00e4ftigt. Obwohl dieses Feature in letzter Zeit nicht viel Entwicklungszeit in Anspruch genommen hat, nimmt der Fortschritt schnell zu, da sich der Fokus \u00e4ndert und mehr Entwickler daran arbeiten.\nDas Vehicle Experience Team machte vor allem mit den Aufgaben der Alpha 3.14 Fortschritte, darunter der Raketenbediener-Modus, das neue Kraftdreieck und die Neugewichtung verschiedener Aspekte des Schiffskampfes. W\u00e4hrend die Features von den Evocati getestet werden, wird das Team weiterhin alle Aspekte der \u00c4nderungen ausbalancieren, optimieren und verbessern, bevor sie in Alpha 3.14 ver\u00f6ffentlicht werden.\nGrafik & VFX Programmierung\nIm Juni hat das Grafikteam die Arbeit an den Fenster- und PingCIG-Shadern abgeschlossen. Der Fenstershader erlaubt es, die Fenster von statischen R\u00e4umen zu simulieren, ohne das Innere zu modellieren, was gro\u00dfe Geb\u00e4ude mit \"gef\u00e4lschten\" Innenr\u00e4umen zu minimalen Kosten erm\u00f6glicht. Dieser Ansatz wurde bereits in mehreren anderen Spielen verwendet und obwohl die Optik im Vergleich zu ma\u00dfgeschneiderten R\u00e4umen nat\u00fcrlich eingeschr\u00e4nkt ist (was f\u00fcr die Leistung unpraktisch w\u00e4re), sind die Ergebnisse weitaus besser als schwarze oder leere R\u00e4ume. Der PingCIG-Shader ist eine neue Version des Ping-Effekts, der f\u00fcr die kommenden Verbesserungen des Radars und des Scan-Features verwendet wird; er erzeugt Wellen, die verschiedene visuelle Effekte ausl\u00f6sen, wenn sie feste Geometrie schneiden, wie z.B. eine Kantenmarkierung.\nF\u00fcr Orison wurden Verbesserungen an der Leistung der Echtzeit-Umgebungssonden vorgenommen und Bugs wurden vor der Ver\u00f6ffentlichung ausgemerzt. Verbesserungen am LOD Merger zur Unterst\u00fctzung von Tint-Paletten und Abnutzung wurden ebenfalls fertiggestellt, um enorme Draw-Call-Einsparungen f\u00fcr weit entfernte Renderings der Stadt zu erm\u00f6glichen.\nDas Team hat auch Verbesserungen an der UI-Compositing- und Post-Effekt-Pipeline vorgenommen, um den vom Team gew\u00fcnschten spezifischen Look zu erreichen, wie z.B. Schlagschatten, Gl\u00fchen, Helligkeitsanpassung und Farbkorrekturen, w\u00e4hrend die Auswirkungen auf die Leistung minimiert wurden.\nDas VFX Programming Team f\u00fcgte Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr die Abfrage der Wolkendichte von Planeten hinzu und nutzte dies, um eine Vielzahl von Effekten auszul\u00f6sen. Mehrere Partikel-Streaming-Probleme wurden angegangen und die letzten Bugs mit dem neuen Beleuchtungssystem wurden behoben. Auch das Feuer-Feature kam gut voran.\nSowohl die Grafik- als auch die VFX-Programmierungsteams machten auch gro\u00dfe Fortschritte beim Gen12-Renderer und den Vulkan-Backends, wobei die \u00fcberwiegende Mehrheit der Post-Effekte nun standardm\u00e4\u00dfig mit Gen12 l\u00e4uft. Dies f\u00fchrt nicht zu gro\u00dfen Einsparungen bei der CPU-Leistung, da die Post-Effekte bereits auf der CPU-Seite billig waren, aber gro\u00dfe Vorteile werden beim Szenen-Rendering zu sehen sein.\nBeleuchtung\nIm Juni schloss das Lighting Team seine Arbeit an der neuen Landezone von Crusader ab.\n\"Die schiere Gr\u00f6\u00dfe der erkundbaren und landbaren Bereiche um Orison und die Sichtlinie \u00fcber die Plattformen erfordert eine enorme Menge an Lichtern. Die Herausforderung besteht darin, so viel Beleuchtung wie m\u00f6glich in der gesamten Landezone bereitzustellen, mit einem Fokus auf die prim\u00e4ren spielbaren Bereiche und innerhalb unserer aktuellen technischen Grenzen.\" -Das Beleuchtungsteam\nIn der letzten Phase ihrer Arbeit konzentrierte sich das Team auf die Hintergrundelemente in Orison, einschlie\u00dflich der Ringplattformen, der Wohnplattformen und der fliegenden K\u00e4hne.\n\n\n\nNarrative\nDas Narrative Team widmete seine Ressourcen dem kommenden Patch-Release. Alle Patches erfordern Fehlerbehebungen, String-Reviews und Verbesserungen der Lebensqualit\u00e4t, aber ein besonderer Fokus lag auf dem letzten Polishing-Pass f\u00fcr Orison.\nDas Team leistete auch narrativen Support f\u00fcr kommende Events, darunter IAE 2951 und mehrere dynamische Missionen. Die Entwicklung von Pyro wurde fortgesetzt, wobei das Narrative-Team den Art- und Design-Teams Schreibarbeiten zur Verf\u00fcgung stellte, um das System weiter auszubauen. Es wurde auch Zeit darauf verwendet, zus\u00e4tzliche KI-Verhaltensabl\u00e4ufe und Skripte zu entwickeln, um in Zukunft realistischere Interaktionen zu schaffen. Narrative Anweisungen wurden auch gegeben, um die Geschichte des kommenden medizinischen und Hacking-Gameplays weiter zu verbessern, und es wurden Vorbereitungen f\u00fcr einen bevorstehenden Motion-Capture-Dreh getroffen.\nUm die Alien-Woche zu feiern, nahm Narrative an einem speziellen Inside Star Citizen \u00fcber die verschiedenen Alien-Kulturen in Star Citizen teil und ver\u00f6ffentlichte einen Xi'an-Brief, den die Community \u00fcbersetzen konnte. Zu guter Letzt wurde der letzte Teil von A Gift For Baba ver\u00f6ffentlicht und die gesamte Geschichte ist nun auf Spectum zu lesen.\nSpieler Beziehungen\nDas Player Relations Team erweiterte seine Dienste neben dem Player Experience Team und der Live QA. Dieses Kollektiv wird sich darauf konzentrieren, den Zustand des Spiels im Live-Service zu bewerten und direkt mit den Beteiligten zusammenzuarbeiten, um wichtige Probleme, die die Community betreffen, zu identifizieren, zu triagieren und zu beheben.\nAu\u00dferdem wurden die Teams in Gro\u00dfbritannien und den USA weiter ausgebaut, um den Support f\u00fcr die Spieler zu erweitern, und sie arbeiten intensiv daran, den Start der Alpha 3.14 zu unterst\u00fctzen.\nProps\nIm letzten Monat konzentrierte sich das Team auf den Abschluss der Aufgaben f\u00fcr Orison, einschlie\u00dflich der Ankleide-Requisiten in der Stadt und der Hightech-Krankenhaus-Requisiten. Sie arbeiteten auch weiter an den kommenden Kolonialismus-Au\u00dfenposten.\n\"Das war eine willkommene Abwechslung zu den sauberen High-Tech-Assets, die wir in letzter Zeit gemacht haben, und das Team hat unsere Materialien vorangetrieben und wirklich versucht, die Vorgaben des neuen Kolonialismus-Art-Style-Guides zu erf\u00fcllen.\" -Das Requisiten-Team\nAn anderer Stelle hat sich das Team um die technischen Schulden gek\u00fcmmert und gro\u00dfe Fortschritte beim Schlie\u00dfen von Bugs gemacht.\nQA\nDer prim\u00e4re Ver\u00f6ffentlichungsfokus von QA war die Stabilisierung der Alpha 3.14, um sie in der Staging-Umgebung zu testen und sie f\u00fcr die Evocati vorzubereiten, was sp\u00e4ter im Monat geschah. F\u00fcr die Entwicklung arbeitete QA Testanfragen f\u00fcr kommende Gameplay-Features und dynamische Events durch.\nEs wurde auch Zeit f\u00fcr die Zeitplanung aufgewendet, um sicherzustellen, dass das Team eine angemessene Abdeckung f\u00fcr kommende Inhalte und Events hat. Au\u00dferdem wurde geplant, was f\u00fcr die Staging Streams ben\u00f6tigt wird, was die Anzahl der Mitarbeiter und die Verantwortlichkeiten angeht.\nSystemic Services & Tools\nIm Juni bereitete sich das Team von Systemic Services & Tools auf die n\u00e4chste Iteration der Wirtschafts- und KI-Simulation vor, die eine verbesserte Wiedergabetreue und Interaktion mit dem Spiel selbst aufweist und durch neue integrierte Tools einfacher zu verwalten ist.\nDas Team beendete auch Upgrades auf Ubuntu 20.04 und setzte die Grundlagenarbeit f\u00fcr verschiedene Dienste fort, wie z.B. den AI Info Service und ATC Service. Sie arbeiten derzeit daran, die Technologie f\u00fcr direkte Verbindungen zu anderen Diensten anzuwenden, um Engp\u00e4sse im Backend zu vermeiden.\nTech Animation\nR\u00fcckblickend auf das Quartal hat Tech Animation gro\u00dfe Fortschritte in der Pipeline und bei den Aufgaben gemacht und dabei den Spagat zwischen Benutzerunterst\u00fctzung und Produktivit\u00e4t geschafft, um viele der gew\u00fcnschten Features und Inhalte zu liefern.\nDie Forschungs- und Entwicklungsarbeiten zur Rationalisierung der Gesichts-Scan- und Scan-Erstellungs-Pipelines wurden abgeschlossen, wodurch die Art-Teams in den kommenden Jahren erhebliche Arbeitsstunden einsparen werden. Dies bildete auch den Grundstein f\u00fcr Tech Animations eigenen Prozess zur Erstellung von Gesichts-Rigs und wird letztendlich die gesamte Gesichts-Pipeline beschleunigen.\nEin Hauptziel des Quartals war es, die Codebasis des Head-Asset- und Facial-Animationssystems zu aktualisieren, was derzeit in vollem Gange ist. Das Team schaffte es auch, die Waffenpipeline mit einem Facelifting und neuen Toolsets zu \u00fcberarbeiten, um die technischen Elemente zu unterst\u00fctzen.\nTech Animation wurde von Tech Art bei der Verbesserung ihrer Exportprozesse unterst\u00fctzt. Nach der Fertigstellung ging es an die Optimierung des Skeletts, das die Hitboxen der Charaktere verbessern wird, wenn es fertig ist.\nTurbulent\nLetzten Monat erhielt die rollenbasierte Zugriffskontrolle in Hex eine neue Iteration, die verschiedene Zugriffsebenen auf das Tool basierend auf granulareren Rollen erm\u00f6glicht. Das Team arbeitete au\u00dferdem an einem Launcher-Update, das Lebensqualit\u00e4tskorrekturen, eine Epilepsie-Warnung vor dem Launch und neue Kan\u00e4le f\u00fcr interne Tests beinhaltete.\nDas Game Services Team konzentrierte sich weiterhin auf das Server Meshing Projekt und arbeitete an Serviceverbesserungen und Dokumentation.\nZum Abschluss des zweiten Quartals 2021 hat das Web-Team von Turbulent die RSI-Webseite stark erweitert. Nach den Verbesserungen des Roadmap-Fortschritts-Trackers Anfang des Jahres hat das Team effizientere Automatisierungstools f\u00fcr die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung der Roadmap entwickelt, um die \u00dcberpr\u00fcfung und Ver\u00f6ffentlichung von Inhalten zu erleichtern.\nIm Juni wurden auch die neuen privaten Multi-User-Lobbys in Spectrum fertiggestellt. Dies ist der erste Schritt, um Spectrum-Gruppen mit In-Game-Chat-Lobbys zu verbinden. Die Fehlerbehebungen und Qualit\u00e4tsverbesserungen waren betr\u00e4chtlich und haben das Feature gut f\u00fcr die Verbindung mit dem Spiel vorbereitet. Das Spectrum Team f\u00fcgte au\u00dferdem weitere Funktionen in die App ein, wobei sich die \"Moderatoren-Tools\" derzeit in der Entwicklung befinden. Auch an der Textverankerung wurde gearbeitet, die f\u00fcr alle Nutzer verf\u00fcgbar sein wird.\nIm Backend konzentrierte sich das Team auf Leistungsverbesserungen, um sicherzustellen, dass die Anzahl der Anfragen exponentiell mit der Gr\u00f6\u00dfe der Star Citizen Community wachsen kann. Um dies zu unterst\u00fctzen, beteiligte sich das Team an zwei gro\u00dfen Aufgaben. Erstens waren sie in der Lage, die Datenbank aufzuteilen und Bestellungen zu speichern, was dabei hilft, die Loa d auf die Datenbankstruktur w\u00e4hrend wichtiger Ereignisse. Zweitens haben sie die Art und Weise, wie sie Logdateien f\u00fcr Benutzeraktivit\u00e4ten in die Datenbank schreiben, aufgeteilt und in eine Warteschlange gestellt, um sicherzustellen, dass die Logaktivit\u00e4ten nie die Schreibvorg\u00e4nge verlangsamen, die sofort passieren m\u00fcssen. Zum Beispiel, wenn sich ein Spieler einloggt. Diese Bem\u00fchungen haben signifikante Leistungssteigerungen auf der Plattform gezeigt und erlaubten Turbulent, einige ihrer Server im Juni herunterzuskalieren.\nDas Web Team unterst\u00fctzte die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung der Gatac Railen und andere Aktionen im Laufe des Monats.\nUI\nDie Programmierer des UI Feature Teams arbeiteten im Juni gro\u00dfe laufende Aufgaben ab. Zun\u00e4chst arbeiteten sie eng mit dem Actor Feature Team am Heilungs-Gameplay, insbesondere an der Erstellung der medizinischen UI-Bildschirme, die f\u00fcr die Heilung und andere Funktionen in den Krankenh\u00e4usern verwendet werden. Als n\u00e4chstes haben sie die Kerntechnologie f\u00fcr die neue Starmap weiterentwickelt und mit dem Radarsystem verbunden. Derzeit konzentrieren sie sich auf den Backend-Code, der die AR-Marker, die Starmap, die Innenkarte und das Radarsystem miteinander verbindet. Die In-Game Funktionalit\u00e4t wird als n\u00e4chstes kommen, gefolgt von der UI in der Zukunft.\nDas UI Tech Team hat das Building Blocks UI System mit dem FlowGraph Entwicklungswerkzeug verbunden, was den Leveldesignern mehr Flexibilit\u00e4t gibt, um die UI mit dem Spiel zu verbinden, ohne auf die Programmierer f\u00fcr die Implementierung angewiesen zu sein. Sie nahmen auch UI-bezogene Bugs f\u00fcr den kommenden Patch-Release in Angriff.\nDie K\u00fcnstler und Designer arbeiteten an interaktiven Bildschirmen f\u00fcr Orison und aktualisierten Verkehrsschilder, die nach und nach ihren Weg ins Spiel finden werden. Sie denken auch \u00fcber die n\u00e4chste Iteration des mobiGlas nach, wobei die Designer und K\u00fcnstler potentielle Layouts und Animationen f\u00fcr das Gesamtgef\u00fchl des Systems entwerfen. Zuk\u00fcnftige Fahrzeug-HUD-Konzepte und eine Vielzahl von Logos f\u00fcr die Umgebungen und das UI wurden ebenfalls entwickelt.\nFahrzeugtechnik\nDas Vehicle Tech Team verbrachte viel Zeit damit, dem Radar, dem Scanning und dem Ping Refactor den letzten Schliff zu geben, um sie f\u00fcr die Alpha 3.14 bereit zu machen. Neben dem Feinschliff des Features wurden zahlreiche Bugs beseitigt, unter anderem in Bezug auf Schaden, Reparatur, Fahrwerk, Targeting und Spielabst\u00fcrze.\nIn der Zwischenzeit wurden Verbesserungen an den T\u00fcren vorgenommen. Dies beinhaltete die Verbesserung der Interaktion des Spielers mit den T\u00fcrpaneelen und Luftschleusen und die L\u00f6sung von Problemen mit dem \u00dcbergang zwischen der Atmosph\u00e4re und dem Vakuum des Weltraums.\nVFX\nDen ganzen Juni \u00fcber konzentrierte sich das VFX-Team auf Orison und feilte an den vielen Effekten, die f\u00fcr diesen weitl\u00e4ufigen Schauplatz ben\u00f6tigt wurden.\n\"Wir sind aufgeregt f\u00fcr die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung der Alpha 3.14, weil es unsere erste mit dem neuen Partikel-Lichtmodell sein wird. Wie bereits in fr\u00fcheren Berichten erw\u00e4hnt, wird dies eine viel bessere Qualit\u00e4t der Beleuchtung f\u00fcr Partikel erm\u00f6glichen, aber noch wichtiger ist, dass wir unsere Effekte auf eine konsistentere Weise erstellen k\u00f6nnen, ohne uns Sorgen machen zu m\u00fcssen, dass unterschiedliche Umgebungsbeleuchtungen dazu f\u00fchren, dass die Effekte nicht so gut funktionieren. Zum Beispiel der gleiche Effekt in einem dunkel beleuchteten Raum im Gegensatz zu einem hell erleuchteten Bereich im Weltraum.\"\n-Das VFX Team\nDas Team setzte auch die Arbeit an der Zerst\u00f6rungspipeline fort und konzentrierte sich dabei auf die Karte Theaters of War, die eine gro\u00dfe Explosionssequenz enth\u00e4lt. Letzte Verbesserungen wurden an den neuen Fahrzeug-Radar-Ping-Effekten vorgenommen, die auf das Feedback der Spieler zur\u00fcckgehen, und verschiedene andere Optimierungen wurden im Vorfeld der Ver\u00f6ffentlichung von Alpha 3.14 vorgenommen.\nWIR SEHEN UNS N\u00c4CHSTEN MONAT...","zh_CN":"Alpha 3.14 is fast approaching the PU, so naturally it received development time throughout June. However, most Star Citizen teams also progressed with content coming in the future. From unannounced ships to the jump points that will lead players to Pyro, read on for all the exciting updates from last month\u2019s work.\n\nAI (Content)\nEarly in the month, the AI Content Team was heavily involved in preparing for a four-day motion capture session. Each related team attended and was able to provide information directly to the actor, which was a new experience for many and gave the team a greater appreciation of the process and learnings that will help with future sessions. Some of the recorded assets have already been delivered and are currently being made functional for game use.\nJune also saw the team extend the patron activity to handle the new shops they\u2019re working on and analyze the usables that will be required to populate the PU outposts. The security guard and vendor activities and their related usable setups were also finished.\nThe security guard became the primary use-case for dynamic conversations, with the devs setting up two conversations that can randomly be selected by a civilian approaching the guard \u2013 reporting a crime and asking for directions. They also completed a pass of the security guard\u2019s wildlines and began using the reputation system to influence the behavior logic flow.\nThe vendor behavior was expanded to support NPCs collecting combinations of food and drink items from different usables and delivering them to the player as a single order. AI Content also worked with the Dialogue Team to identify the assets needed to reinforce the flow.\n\u201cTo make serving food more tactile and realistic, we have identified \u201cfood grip types\u201d for the new items and we are working with the Props Team to package the food when served. No more hotdogs placed directly on dirty counters!\u201d -The AI Content Team\nAI (Features)\nFor spaceship combat, the AI Feature Team worked on the technology to allow AI to identify and target sub-components of other ships (engines, weapons, etc.). This will allow a greater range of tactics to be selected. For example, taking out the engines of a ship so it can\u2019t pursue and then firing at it from afar. The AI will retrieve the same type of information from the sub-components as it does from the whole spaceship, including the amount of damage dealt, which will allow the team to prioritize attacking the weapons causing the most damage. This new ability means some existing combat behaviors need to be modified (such as the orbital strafe maneuver) to consider the side of the spaceship that the targeted sub-component is on.\nThe team also implemented the \u2018chatty\u2019 and \u2018quiet\u2019 traits used in the spaceship dogfight behaviors that control how often AI communicate in combat. This involved identifying non-critical combat wildlines (eg. collisions, repeated dealt damage, and receiving damage) and undertaking a \u2018trait check\u2019 to see if they should be triggered.\nFor Human AI, they worked on the technology and animations to control how an NPC reacts to stimuli (such as a gunshot, seeing an enemy, or hearing an enemy) when interacting with a usable. This technology is needed to bridge the gap between the AI\u2019s usable and reaction behaviors while exiting the usable and getting the AI back to the nav-mesh. For example, if it spots an enemy player it may need to reach for a weapon to begin fighting, convey its level of reaction to the player, and get into a combat behavior position. With a range of different usables that can put them in different positions and postures, the team needed to identify the commonalities between usables to prevent having to create bespoke animations for each one. However, there are still lots of different variables (direction, reaction level, armed, unarmed, etc.) that need careful management to prevent a vast increase in the number of animation assets.\nThey also produced a prototype for the utility behavior that will allow AI agents to transfer cargo crates between areas. NPCs will identify loose crates, pick them up, then take them to an area and stack them. The next AI can take the stacked crates and transfer them to another area as desired. This behavior builds upon lots of different usable work: finding the crate usable, exiting the usable as part of the pickup action rather than as a separate exit animation, finding a place that can accept the crate for stacking, disabling agents from taking crates that have other crates stacked on top of them, and identifying when a stack is full. They also have an eye on how this will integrate with vehicular cargo storage.\nThe first version of the unmanned missile turret behavior was implemented. This has proven that all the work done for spaceships is easily portable to multiple entities and will correctly handle any vehicle that wants to shoot missiles to target.\nThey also continued to work on data and animation clean-up from the motion-capture session completed last month. All developers on the team supported optimizations, tweaks, and bug fixes for Alpha 3.14 too.\nAI (Tech)\nThe Tech Team started the month working on planetary navigation, improving the navigation mesh tiles to allow for a spherical surface representation of the mesh. They also added functionality to allow NPCs to correctly move along paths defined by the designers, giving a much more robust solution to allow characters to loop over open or closed paths of different shapes, restarting from the beginning where necessary.\nWork on 3D NPC navigation in EVA continued, with the team improving the collision avoidance system to support agents of different sizes. The rules were amended to allow smaller ships to try to avoid larger ones and to allow large ships to not care as much about avoiding smaller ones.\nThe first pass was finished on the code to allow NPCs to control and move trolleys in a similar way to the player. They\u2019re currently extending the movement system to enable the selection of multiple path followers, which is important for trolleys that have a force-based controller, as it allows NPCs to decide how much force to apply to maintain the desired momentum.\nFor the Subsumption editor, the team continued to embed the tool into the game engine, with a focus on allowing the main graph to include all the subgraphs in one view. This is particularly useful for the mission logic as it will allow designers to have a better global view of the logic of each mission and should reduce the mental effort needed to follow the logic between different graphs. The team was also busy with bug fixes and optimization for Alpha 3.14.\nAnimation\nAnimation created a rough space whale loop for AI to test with and to help Design determine what else they might need in terms of gameplay. They also worked on vendor sets to improve the various shops and vendors around the PU, which involved creating cowering assets to enable civilians to run and hide behind cover, janitor and arcade machine blockouts, and medical revival gameplay.\nThe Facial Animation Team developed animations for emotes, eating and drinking, and various other systemic AI features. They completed a breakdown of the AI in the main world locations and created a large list of assets that require placing by the AI Content Team, with the goal to better implement the content they already have. Animations were also created for the salvage weapon.\nArt (Characters)\nLast month, the character artists continued developing three armor sets, which will also receive variants for various events and programs. The tech designers completed their pass on the characters for Orison\u2019s initial release and are currently adjusting loadouts in line with feedback and addressing graphical issues.\nThe rest of the Tech Team supported Alpha 3.15 alongside the Actor Feature and Design teams, which involved setting up a system for players to equip and unequip backpacks. They\u2019ll also be adding new backpacks to the PU in support of the feature. They also worked on holographic props of all their assets for the physical inventory UI.\nThe concept artists spent time working on event-themed items, created additional concepts for the Pyro system, and explored possible gameplay interactions with the space whale creature.\nArt (Environment)\nThe Montreal-based Art Team worked to finish the remaining hospital locations, with the space clinics, Grim HEX\u2019s clinic, and Area18\u2019s hospital now whitebox complete. They then moved onto the greybox phase, where they\u2019ll define the various modules in more detail and begin adding details to properly show the art intentions.\nOn the design side, the team began using derelict pieces of spaceships to create puzzles, which will be populated with loot to encourage exploration and create pockets of new gameplay around Stanton. Their initial goal is to produce 24 derelict puzzles; half planetside and half in space.\nFinally, they looked into defining building-interior gameplay, creating a prototype layout and looking into adding proper missions to it. They\u2019re also defining how this layout will fit into the procedural location creation tool currently in development by the Tools Team.\nThe Landing Zone and Modular teams took the colonialism outposts through the final art phase before moving onto the second content set, which introduces more variation and additional themes.\nThey\u2019re also close to completing the gas clouds that will surround jump points, including a second look for greater variety. Orison is currently being closed out, with most focus on improving performance and fixing bugs.\nArt (Ships)\nIn the US, the Ships Team focused on closing out the Constellation Taurus, squashing bugs and undertaking a general polish pass. The Taurus will be flyable in the upcoming Alpha 3.14. There were also additional bug fixes across the wider Star Citizen fleet.\nThe team continued moving the two Crusader Ares variants, the Ion and Inferno, through the pipeline. They\u2019re aiming to move into the final art stage in the coming weeks for delivery in Q4. Whitebox for the Drake Vulture began alongside a new variant of a popular ship to be announced later in the year.\nJune saw the UK team complete the final art and lighting pass for an as-yet-unannounced ship. They then moved onto the LOD (level of detail) process and exterior damage setup.\nWith the Aegis Redeemer\u2019s exterior completed for Invictus Launch Week, the team moved onto the interior, completing the greybox phase ready for review in early July.\nGold-standard work also continued on the Sabre and Retaliator; the exterior lighting pass was done for the Sabre, while the Retaliator received reworked light and door controls throughout.\nFinally, Ships revisited the Crusader Hercules to get the A2 variant ready for release, which involved adding a kitchen area for the crew and two large bomb bays in the cargo hold.\nArt (Weapons)\nLast month, the Weapons Team continued with the mining gadget, taking the asset through to LOD-zero complete and updating the rigging before passing it to Animation. Three Subscriber weapon paints were finished and readied for release alongside a new knife for a future PU release.\nThe animation passes for both the standalone Greycat tractor beam and standalone salvage tool began, with iteration on their rigs being completed too. Other focus in July was on two new Size 7 Behring ship weapons, one ballistic and one energy. Both are for an upcoming ship release and are currently in the greybox phase.\nAudio\nAlongside trailers for Alien Week and Invictus, the Audio Team worked towards their Alpha 3.14 goals. This involved significant work on Orison:\n\u201cOrison is one of the largest locations we\u2019ve had to tackle for a while. It was a great opportunity for us all to work on something together to make the ambiances, music, and dialogue for the transport system, hospital, and gas giant. It was a challenge to keep the interiors sounding clean and balanced with the windy upper atmosphere of the Crusader planet. We are really excited by what we\u2019ve achieved!\u201d -The Audio Team\nThey also worked on the hospital locations and medical gameplay in general, adding effects to the CureLife medical tool and dialogue that makes the player sound injured and relieved when healed.\nFinally, Audio supported UI Features on Missile Operator Mode and capacitor gameplay to make dogfighting gameplay smoother.\nCommunity\nThe Community Team kicked off June with their Pride Month Celebration. To honor the diversity of our players, they launched the Show Us Your Colors Celebration 2021 and rewarded the ten most colorful entries with a Drake Cutlass Red. They also introduced the new multi-user private lobbies on Spectrum and talked about the user-friendly updates to the Issue Council.\nJune saw Star Citizen\u2019s annual Alien Week event, which introduced the Gatac Railen and new alien ship paints. Following its unveiling, the devs answered community questions on the new Xi\u2019an ship in the Gatac Railen Q&A. Community also held two contests, the Alien Trading Card Contest and the second Intragalactic Cook-Off.\n\n\nFinally for Community, the team launched the 2021 (Virtual) Cosplay Contest, whose winners will be announced at the digital CitizenCon event on October 9. Entries are open till August 31, so don\u2019t miss out!\nEngine\nIn June, the Physics Team moved the generation of surfel data used for radar cross-section queries to an offline precomputation step in the resource compiler which, in general, optimizes various types of assets (textures, meshes, sounds, metadata, etc.) for final consumption in-game. A great deal of time was also spent on various optimizations.\nAll tiers of physics geometry instancing were completed. As a result, the cloning and sharing of brush physics was enabled, leading to physics now using only 50% of the memory it previously had on the client and server. This was made possible by sharing all common geometry-related data (such as geometry transforms, sub-mtls, and surface types) across all clones of the same static instance. For example, a set of static objects using the same geometry. With the pending release of Orison in the PU, the tracking of terrain is skipped for gas giants. AVX instructions are now utilized to block set entries in spatial grids and ray-box intersections in spatial grids have been optimized.\nNetworking-related data was moved between internal structures for more efficient access and synchronization, while the structure size of physical entities and alignment was optimized to ensure hot members are always on the same cache line. Page sizes for event factories were tuned, resulting in a net gain of 100 MB in system memory. Additionally, the physics queue for the biome builder was reduced, several areas of thread contention were reduced, and a race condition in the optimized priority queue was fixed. Lastly, the precision of quantized bounding volume hierarchy trees was improved.\nFor the renderer, the team continued working on the transition to Gen12. A Gen12-exclusive mode for forward-rendered deferred pipelines was added, numerous rendering issues were fixed, and editor support was improved. Support for instance constant buffers with reflection data was added and vertex input caching was extended. In terms of visual features, support for detail cavity and gloss blending was added too.\nWith regards to volumetric clouds, the rendering of secondary views (runtime cubemaps, RTTs, etc.) including clouds was addressed. For empty space skipping, which is still in the very early experimental stages, computation of the narrow band SDF for cloud coverage has been revised along with the generation of associated MIP maps in a signed format. An initial set of quality options was exposed to the game menu (combined as a single quality option). These quality settings will see further refinement and extensions as the system matures in releases post Alpha 3.14. A driver issue on the 10xx GTX line of video cards affecting the computation of scattering queries was investigated and a workaround implemented. The team are still in the process of clarifying whether this issue is a driver bug and, if that\u2019s the case, hope that it can be fixed properly.\nThe Core Engine Team finalized the switch to Clang 11, which is used to compile the game server. Clang-related code vectorization and math optimizations were enabled and a code generation bug was identified, worked around, and reported. The memory tracker was improved to detect deallocation of memory that\u2019s not allocated (double free, without the use of page heap). Also, it can now filter allocation stacks by specified engine modules and the engine\u2019s memory statistics update has been optimized. Preliminary support for a new profiler frontend was added alongside various improvements and optimizations on relevant engine components to utilize the profiler to its full capabilities. The component update scheduler received support for multiple passes and event handlers were separated from component updates. Vis areas now use more fine-grained locking for updates to reduce contention and the queuing of animation vis area updates is now lockless, as is event queuing.\nFeatures (Characters & Weapons)\nJune saw the Feature Team continuing work on actor status, this time adding different ways the recently completed statuses affect the player. For example, if a player character\u2019s blood drug level (BDL) becomes too high, they\u2019ll utilize a specific intoxicated locomotion set and experience various on-screen effects. This will also affect the player\u2019s control while on foot and piloting a vehicle by adding degrees of randomness. These effects scale with the BDL, and there are several ways to increase it. For example, a player can visit a bar and over-indulge in alcohol or they can over-use injury medication in a short period of time.\nAnother recent addition is the downed state. Unless a player receives significant damage when hit by what is currently a killing shot, they will fall over similar to getting knocked out. In this state, they\u2019re essentially unconscious and slowly dying, though teammates can resuscitate them if they arrive in time.\nMeanwhile, work continues on different optimization initiatives, including better data encapsulation of the lower-level animation update logic. A while ago, the team began exploring component update frequency as an option to reduce the cost of characters the further away they are. A number of core actor components have now implemented this and testing is in the final stages. The team is hoping to use the PTU to get a more live-like test of a cut-down version of the performance improvements, with the hopes of shipping them in a future release.\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nThe US Gameplay Features Team spent June gearing up for the upcoming release of Alpha 3.14 and looking ahead to future initiatives.\nThroughout the month, they continued work on the player asset manager. With the baseline functionality implemented in May, the team began adding further features to the app, such as sorting and filtering. They also worked with the Narrative Team to name the app, with the final decision being \u201cNikNax.\u201d Once decided, the UI designers created a logo and general branding schem. They\u2019re currently wrapping up leftover tasks and preparing NikNax for its release in Q3 2021.\nThe team also further developed the Ninetails Lockdown, working with QA to test and balance the Dynamic Event before its release in Alpha 3.14.\nThe cargo refactor has been expanded to include resource container work, while the designs for persistent hangars and a selling refactor began, with larger discussions set to happen in July. The planning and documentation initiatives from May continued throughout June too.\nIn Germany and the UK, the teams focused on features for Alpha 3.15 and 3.16, including loot generation. They\u2019re now ensuring all setups are in place so that the boxes with loot are distributed with randomized valuable items.\nThey also began developing atmospheric depth damage for gas giants like Crusader. Once complete, the pressure within gas giants will damage players\u2019 ships if they attempt to reach the core.\nShip-to-ship refueling began its production phase, which is a significant collaboration between the Gameplay Feature, UI, and Vehicle teams. When live, players will be able to provide fuel to other players in exchange for credits.\nFeatures (Vehicles)\nLast month, Vehicle Features\u2019 work was a mix of supporting Alpha 3.14, ramping up the development of jump points, and supporting Vehicle Experience on their upcoming patch content. They also supported VFX in developing the new thruster dust effects mentioned in May\u2019s report, which is planned to debut in a coming patch. They also made improvements to the docking feature that didn\u2019t manage to make it into Alpha 3.13, such as allowing players to refuel, repair, and restock vehicles docked at a station.\nA key feature of Alpha 3.14 is the new HUD technology, which is a brand-new way of creating HUDs that allows for much more depth and complexity than was possible before. Recent work involved ironing out issues and filling gaps to ensure the HUD covers the many cases that exist across different ships.\nAs that work is nearing completion, a large portion of the team moved to build out jump points. Though this feature hasn\u2019t had significant development time recently, progress is increasing rapidly as focus switches and more devs begin working on it.\nThe Vehicle Experience Team predominantly progressed with Alpha 3.14 tasks, including Missile Operator Mode, the new power triangle, and the rebalance of various aspects of ship combat. As the features are tested by the Evocati, the team will continue to balance, tweak, and improve all aspects of the changes before they launch in Alpha 3.14.\nGraphics & VFX Programming\nJune saw the Graphics Team complete work on the window and PingCIG shaders. The window shader allows them to simulate the windows of static rooms without actually modeling the interior, enabling large buildings filled with \u2018fake\u2019 interiors for minimal cost. This approach has been used in several other games and, while the visuals are naturally constrained compared to bespoke rooms (which would be impractical for performance), the results are vastly better than black or empty spaces. The PingCIG shader is a new version of the ping effect that will be used for the upcoming improvements to the radar and scanning feature; it creates waves that trigger various visual effects when they intersect solid geometry, such as an edge highlight.\nFor Orison, improvements were made to the performance of real-time environment probes and bugs were squashed ahead of release. Improvements to the LOD Merger to support tint-palettes and wear were also completed to allow huge draw-call savings for distant renderings of the city.\nThe team also made improvements to the UI compositing and post-effect pipeline to achieve the specific look the team want, such as drop shadows, glow, brightness adaptation, and color correction while minimizing performance impact.\nThe VFX Programming Team added support for querying cloud density from planets and used this to trigger a variety of effects. Several particle-streaming issues were addressed and the final bugs with the new lighting system were resolved. The fire feature progressed well too.\nBoth the Graphics and VFX Programming teams also made great progress on the Gen12 renderer and Vulkan backends, with the vast majority of post effects now running Gen12 by default. This doesn\u2019t result in major CPU performance savings as the post effects were already cheap on the CPU side, though major benefits will be seen in scene rendering.\nLighting\nIn June, the Lighting Team closed out their work on Crusader\u2019s new landing zone.\n\u201cThe sheer size of explorable and landable areas around Orison and the line of sight across the platforms necessitates an enormous quantity of lights. The challenge here is to provide as much lighting as possible throughout the landing zone, with a focus on the primary playable spaces and within our current tech limitations.\u201d -The Lighting Team\nIn the final stages of their work, the team focused on the background elements in Orison, including ring platforms, habitation platforms, and flying barges.\n\n\n\nNarrative\nThe Narrative Team dedicated resources towards the upcoming patch release. All patches require bug fixes, string reviews, and quality-of-life improvements but special focus was placed on the final polish pass for Orison.\nThe team also provided narrative support for upcoming events, including IAE 2951 and several dynamic missions. The development of Pyro continued, with Narrative providing write-ups to the Art and Design teams to help further flesh out the system. Time was also spent on developing additional AI behavior flows and scripts to create more realistic interactions in the future. Narrative direction was also provided to further enhance the lore of the upcoming medical and hacking gameplay, and preparation was done in advance of an upcoming motion-capture shoot.\nIn celebration of Alien Week, Narrative participated in a special Inside Star Citizen about the various alien cultures in Star Citizen and released a Xi\u2019an letter for the community to translate. Lastly, the final part of A Gift For Baba was published and the entire story is now available to read on Spectum.\nPlayer Relations\nThe Player Relations Team expanded their services alongside the Player Experience Team and Live QA. This collective will focus on assessing the health of the game on the live service and working directly with stakeholders to identify, triage, and help fix key issues affecting the community.\nThey also further expanded the UK and US teams to broaden the level of support that players will receive and have been working extensively to support the launch of Alpha 3.14.\nProps\nLast month, the team focused on closing out their tasks for Orison, including the dressing props around the city and high-tech hospital props. They continued to work on the upcoming colonialism outposts too.\n\u201cThis was a welcome break from the clean, high-tech assets we\u2019ve been doing recently, and the team has been pushing our materials and really trying to hit the mark set out in the new colonialism art style guide.\u201d -The Props Team\nElsewhere, the team tackled tech debt and made great progress closing out bugs.\nQA\nQA\u2019s primary publishing focus was stabilizing Alpha 3.14 to test in the staging environment and preparing it for the Evocati, which was done later in the month. For development, QA worked through test requests for upcoming gameplay features and dynamic events.\nTime was also dedicated to scheduling, ensuring the team have proper coverage for upcoming content and events. They also planned out what\u2019s needed for staging streams as far as headcount and ownership.\nSystemic Services & Tools\nIn June, Systemic Services & Tools geared up for the next iteration of the Economy and AI Simulation, which has improved fidelity and interaction with the game itself and is easier to manage via new integrated tools.\nThe team also finished upgrades to Ubuntu 20.04 and continued the foundational work for various services, such as the AI Info service and ATC service. They\u2019re currently working towards applying tech created for direct connections to other services to help alleviate bottlenecks on the backend.\nTech Animation\nLooking back over the quarter, Tech Animation made great progress with their pipeline and tasks, balancing the fine line between user support and productivity to deliver many of the features and content they wanted to.\nR&D into streamlining the \u2018facial-scan\u2019 and \u2018scan-creation\u2019 pipelines was completed, with the outcome saving the art teams significant man-hours over the coming years. This also formed the cornerstone in Tech Animation\u2019s own facial rig building process and will ultimately expedite the entire facial pipeline.\nOne main aim of the quarter was to upgrade the head asset and facial animation system codebase, which is currently well underway. The team also managed to overhaul the weapons pipeline with a facelift and new toolsets to assist with technical elements.\nTech Animation were supported by Tech Art in upgrading their export processes. Once complete, they moved onto the skeletal optimization process that will improve character hitboxes when completed.\nTurbulent\nLast month, role-based access control in Hex received a new iteration, which allows for different levels of access to the tool based on more granular roles. The team also worked on a launcher update featuring quality of life fixes, an epilepsy warning before launch, and new channels for internal testing.\nThe Game Services Team continued to focus on the Server Meshing project alongside working on service improvements and documentation.\nAs they closed out 2021\u2019s second quarter, Turbulent\u2019s Web Team made great additions to the RSI website. Following on from improvements to the roadmap progress tracker earlier in the year, the team created more efficient automation tools for roadmap publishing to make it easier to review and publish content.\nJune also saw the completion of the new multi-user private lobbies in Spectrum. This is the first step in connecting Spectrum groups to in-game chat lobbies. The bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements were substantial and set the feature up well for connection to the game. The Spectrum Team also added more features into the app, with \u2018moderator tools\u2019 currently in development. Text anchoring was also worked on, which will be available to all users.\nOn the backend, the team focused on performance improvements, ensuring that the number of requests can exponentially grow with the size of the Star Citizen community. The team participated in two major tasks to support this. Firstly, they were able to split the database and store orders, helping to better distribute the load on the database structure during major events. Secondly, they split how they write log files for user activity in the database, making it execute into a queue, ensuring log activity never slows down writes that need to happen immediately. For example, when a player logs in. These efforts have shown significant performance gains on the platform and allowed Turbulent to downscale some of their servers in June.\nThe Web Team supported the release of the Gatac Railen and other promotions throughout the month.\nUI\nThe programmers on the UI Feature Team worked through large ongoing tasks in June. First, they worked closely with the Actor Feature Team on healing gameplay, specifically creating the medical UI screens used for healing and other functionality in the hospitals. Next, they further developed the core tech for the new Starmap and connected it to the radar system. They\u2019re currently focusing on the backend code that connects AR markers, the Starmap, interior map, and radar system. In-game functionality will come next, followed by UI in the future.\nThe UI Tech Team connected the Building Blocks UI system to the FlowGraph dev tool, which will give level designers more flexibility to connect UI to the game without relying on programmers for implementation. They also tackled UI-related bugs for the upcoming patch release.\nThe artists and designers worked on interactive screens for Orison and updated transit signs that will gradually make their way into the game. They\u2019re also thinking about the next iteration of the mobiGlas, with the designers and artists concepting potential layouts and animations for the overall feel of the system. Future vehicle HUD concepts and a variety of logos for use in the environments and UI were developed too.\nVehicle Tech\nThe Vehicle Tech Team spent time putting the finishing touches on the radar, scanning, and ping refactor, getting it ready for Alpha 3.14. Along with getting the feature polished, they squashed numerous bugs, including several relating to damage, repair, landing gear, targeting, and game crashes.\nMeanwhile, improvements were made to doors. This involved improving player interaction with door panels and airlocks and solving issues with the transition between the atmosphere and the vacuum of space.\nVFX\nThroughout June, the VFX team focused on Orison, finetuning the many effects required for this expansive location.\n\u201cWe are excited for the Alpha 3.14 release because it will be our first with the new particle lighting model. As mentioned in previous reports, this will allow a much better quality of lighting for particles, but more importantly, will allow us to create our effects in a more consistent way without worrying that different environment lighting will cause the effects to not work as well. For example, the same effect in a darkly lit room versus a brightly moonlit area in space.\u201d\n-The VFX Team\nThe team also continued their process of fleshing out the destruction pipeline, focusing on a Theaters of War map containing a huge explosion sequence. Final improvements were made to the new vehicle radar ping effects following feedback and several miscellaneous tweaks were made in the run-up to Alpha 3.14\u2019s release.\nWE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026"},"links_count":12,"comment_count":39,"created_at":"2021-07-12T00:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"4 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-07 19:54:11","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":18222,"next_id":18224}}