{"data":{"id":18251,"title":"Star Citizen Monthly Report: July 2021","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/18251-Star-Citizen-Monthly-Report-July-2021","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/18251","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/18251","channel":"Undefined","category":"Undefined","series":"Monthly 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Citizen Alpha 3.14 is rapidly approaching, with many of the PU teams pushing throughout July to implement content and polish features for release. However, significant progress was also made on tasks for Alpha 3.15 and beyond, so read on for all the exciting details!\n\nAI (Content)\nJuly\u2019s PU report starts with AI Content, who received a large amount of data from a recent mo-cap shoot. The vendor behavior was the first to be addressed, with the team finishing the first polish pass alongside Design who sanity-checked the coffee shop setup. The next steps are to internally review the behavior with final data, retarget it onto the female skeleton, and complete a Look IK pass.\nThe doctor and nurse elements of the medical behavior received data too, which is currently being implemented and polished. The doctor is now set up to react to the player respawning or entering the room in-flow, while the nurse inspects the relevant usables. Dialogue and facial animations to match the flow will be added shortly.\nAI Content also rectified bugs for Alpha 3.14, with a focus on Orison\u2019s Voyager Bar. Some feature work was put on hold to sanity check the setups and bring the AI to a better standard for release.\nFinally, they kicked off the pre-production of future behaviors with outpost, hospital, and patron behaviors all well received by the directors.\nAI (Features)\nLast month, the AI Feature team primarily focused on reviewing combat, with the aim of refining the existing behaviors and functionality to provide a more intelligible and enjoyable experience. The first part of this was reviewing the settings for perception and reactions to give the designers greater control over how the AI behaves when encountering a stimulus. Next, they worked on the basic combat behaviors, ensuring cover selection is working as intended and that the AI provides the base level of functionality after the first reaction to the enemy.\n\u201cOften the majority of the technology for improving combat already exists; it\u2019s more a case of reviewing very specific situations and ensuring that the AI behaves as intended and fixing sometimes simple bugs that produce bad behavior. From these beginnings, we hope to do a full review over all of the combat behaviors, which will lead to better and more enjoyable gameplay.\u201d \u2013 AI Feature Team\nThey also worked on specific behaviors to enable AI to spread out and surround the player and taunt them while in melee combat. This required changes to the tactical point system to support a new metric allowing them to weight points spread out from other AI. Melee behaviors received attention to ensure they quickly switch to combat when the situation requires too\nFinally, the animators continued working on the \u2018speed protocol\u2019 and \u2018polish\u2019 stages for the mo-capped cowering and surrendering animations. This will be useful for both unarmed and untrained AI and the AI combat behaviors currently under review.\nAI (Tech)\nAI Tech enabled the planetary navigation system to make connections between adjacent mesh tiles, which is part of the base work to add support for planetary pathfinding. This means that triangles from a navigation mesh tile will create links to triangles from other adjacent tiles at the generation step.\nThey updated the tile generator debug draw to also work with planetary navigation mesh tiles to help them debug issues that could appear during the planet mesh generation step.\nWork was submitted to allow NPCs to push a trolley along a path. The work for this includes playing an animation to connect to the trolley, selecting a path, pushing the trolley along the path, disconnecting from the trolley at the end, and moving away. For movement with the trolley, the team considered the size of the agent for collision avoidance and looked at the animations used for pushing it uphill and downhill or when NPC needs to turn the trolley to orient it with the path.\nWork was also done to automate testing by extending functionality on the flowgraph to use references to other entities inside the same object container. Related to this, the AI teams began creating small levels and test behaviors that will be enabled later for automated testing, which will ultimately provide better stability to their systems. The previously mentioned collision avoidance work continued in July, this time on performance optimization and creating cleaner functionality. Time was also dedicated to improving quantum travel behavior in a group. Now, the leader checks that all participants (including the player if they\u2019re part of the group) have finished spooling before sending the signal to jump.\nDevelopment of the Subsumption editor continued too, with AI Tech adding functionality to watch or modify multiple Subsumption functions from the same view, which was named the \u2018multi-graph view.\u2019 They also adjusted save functionality to work alongside it.\nAnimation\nThroughout July, the Animation team looked into the useables used throughout the PU and how they\u2019re laid out. They then created TrackView-based pre-vis videos showing existing assets used in better ways (such as using the rail leaning at the bar counter), created poses for useables that don\u2019t already exist (such as beatdowns in prison), and drove the visual feel of AI layout in certain areas. So far, this has been completed for the prisons, medical locations, shanty towns, casaba stores, and Gloc Bar. The goal of this is to meld the animation and design disciplines together to lay out existing and new animations in a way that simulates how Humans behave.\nArt (Characters)\nJuly saw Character Art progress with new in-shop armor and Subscriber armor and helmets. The team began designing cybernetics and wrapped up new outfits for shopkeepers and the inhabitants of Pyro; the latter of which were passed onto the Character Art team.\nAlongside work on characters, Tech Art supported Actor Features in delivering a medical gown asset and medical skeleton. They also supported UI with shader R&D and provided exports of all character assets in support of the physical inventory UI. The backpacks mentioned in previous reports were completed too, including ensuring they appear correctly on characters and in shops.\nArt (Environment)\nJuly saw the Environment Art team continuing to polish Pyro\u2019s planets and moons to the expected quality standards.\nIn Montreal, the team progressed with the greybox phase for the rest stop and Grim HEX medical clinics. Devs can now walk into both locations and experience the correct mood, volumes, and flow. The rest stop clinics were the ideal opportunity to start working on module-based locations, which involves covering many rest stops with a restricted library of medical modules.\nArea18 and Lorville\u2019s hospitals are approaching whitebox-complete. These locations are much larger in scope and require adaptation and revisiting to ensure they live up to their potential.\n\u201cAs the scope of these is closer to those of New Babbage and Orison, we want to make sure that the volumes and general feeling of the areas are spot-on before moving onto the detail pass.\u201d -The Locations Team\nOn the design side, the team further supported hospitals by ensuring the flow is fully operational and populating the locations with AI. In parallel, they iterated on the creation and placement of the derelict spaceship puzzles mentioned in last month\u2019s report. These puzzles will ultimately be scattered across planets and space and will represent minor points of interest. They\u2019re currently in the proof-of-concept phase, with the team investigating various future opportunities.\nArt (Ships)\nThe US-based Ships team began the month preparing the Constellation Taurus for release. They also resolved bugs affecting various ships across the fleet.\nAlongside release prep, Ships pushed other vehicles through the pipeline, including both Crusader Ares variants, which entered the final art stages. The Drake Vulture continued to progress through the whitebox phase, an all-new vehicle entered the pipeline, and the upcoming variant mentioned in last month\u2019s report moved into greybox.\nIn the UK, last month\u2019s yet-to-be-announced ship had its damage, LODs, and final art completed, with the team currently wrapping up the finishing touches before handing it over to Tech Art and other downstream teams.\nThe Redeemer received its exterior damage meshes and a final polish pass. The team are currently working on the exterior LODs, while the interior is going through its final art pass with the cockpit, turrets, and lower level nearing completion.\n\nA new yet-to-be-announced vehicle (that the team is excited to share) moved from whitebox to greybox, while the Sabre\u2019s cockpit and lighting were wrapped up.\nFor the Retaliator, the first round of interior gold-standard work is coming to a close, with the interior spaces corrected for metrics and AI navigation. New ship item compartments were added and the cockpit received a pass too\n\nAnother unannounced ship is deep into the greybox phase:\n\u201cWith some issues with its exterior mechanisms now resolved, it\u2019s moving through the pipeline well. There are a number of artists working together on this one and each area of the ship\u2019s interior is coming along nicely.\u201d -The Ship Team\nFinally, work began on a new fuel arm for the MISC Starfarer to support the refueling feature work coming soon.\nArt (Weapons)\nThe Weapon Content team had another busy month, completing the two Size 7 Behring weapons for the Crusader Ares before closing out bugs for Alpha 3.14.\nWork also kicked off for a new Size 3 bomb for the A2 Starlifter and a variant of the mounted weapon turret for an upcoming ship.\nAudio\nThe Audio team began July working on Grim HEX\u2019s medical center, which received effects and music passes to help compound the run-down aesthetic. They also added effects to the A2 Starlifter, including the onboard kitchen. The Dialogue team recorded VO and are currently preparing it to go in-game.\nThe Technical Sound Design team made improvements to dogfighting and ship weapons. When live, players will hear weapons from a greater distance and the battles themselves will sound more intense, which will be most notable in Arena Commander. They also fixed bugs for Orison.\nWork on the Orison score continued with composer Pedro Camacho. Having had great results from the planetary and industrial platform pieces, they\u2019re looking to complete the location with a final piece for the spaceport. The spaceport also received ambiances, as did the wind sculpture. Audio also created sound for the RSI Constellation Taurus trailer.\nCommunity\nThe Community team began July with the finale of the Show Us Your Colors Celebration, putting together a selection of the best submissions into a gallery.\n\nAdding to the cosplay contest announced in June, they kicked off a video contest, the winners of which will be a part of this year\u2019s CitizenCon show.\nCommunity also continued to update the Star Citizen Public Roadmap, including the notable additions of the Q3 schedule for downstream development teams and a further look into what\u2019s coming in Alpha 3.17.\nIn the leadup to the release of Alpha 3.14, a series of Patch Watch posts were shared on Spectrum, highlighting some of the specific ship changes and tuning going into the latest update. Additionally, a postmortem on Alpha 3.13 and Invictus Launch Week 2951 was published, highlighting what went well, what didn\u2019t, and what will be improved in the future.\nEngine\nIn June, the Physics team finished support for compressed meshes. This means the representation of render meshes inside physics is now compressed, leading to memory and bandwidth savings. More code, such as preparation of vertex positions and normals for planetary patches, was also moved from C++ to ISPC to allow for faster processing on the CPU. Further optimizations include pre-allocating mesh blocks to avoid stalls during on-demand allocation, caching the current grid of vehicles to prevent stalls in physics, optimized binding of secondary node data during CGF loading, and a new round of terrain mesh generation improvements. Additionally, the set of analytical SDF primitives supported by physics was extended and torus added.\nFor the renderer, the team continued with the transition to Gen12. A lot of work was completed on the global draw packet cache and related changes on the high-level render and 3D engine code, which will be used to speed up the streaming in of object containers and sharing of data for multiple instances. Additionally, Gen12 received the following changes: support for referencing refraction during rendering, tessellation support in the G-buffer pass, and a ported z-prepass. Several pieces of legacy code were removed to simplify the render pipeline. Also, Gen12 now runs with async shader compilation enabled by default. This is mostly relevant for development but is also useful in shipping builds as the shader cache isn\u2019t fully deterministic (yet) and compilation of infrequently used shaders can happen in the PU.\nVolumetric clouds and atmospheric rendering saw improvements throughout July as well as continued research. For Alpha 3.14, several performance improvements were implemented when rendering clouds into cube maps. For example, runtime cube maps that are used for ambient lighting around the player. Density queries now also include the cloud\u2019s tint at the requested location, which is important for the seamless integration of particles into cloud volumes. Cloud shaping was changed slightly to improve the local vs global read, particularly with regards to combatting the occasional tiled look of cloud details when viewed from orbit.\nFor rendering performance, the entire filter chain that reprojects and upsamples raymarching results is being revisited to improve quality so that this performance mode can always be enabled. The PU currently raymarches either at full resolution, which is very taxing, or uses a simple form of lower-resolution raymarching, which leaves a lot to be desired in terms of quality vs gained performance. Lastly, work on SDF integration into the raymarcher (efficient empty space skipping) is still ongoing.\nOn the core engine side, work continued on the entity component update scheduler (ECUS). Its internal structure was revisited to allow more than one update within a pass. Several improvements were also made to support and improve the new profiler frontend that was introduced in June. For instance, CPU sampling support was added for Linux builds of the server. Moreover, several tree optimizations were made inside StarHash.\nFeatures (Characters & Weapons)\nThe Features team continued working on the new player inventory, with daily reviews on the user experience.\n\u201cThere are a lot of hard choices being made on what has to make it into the first release and what can be postponed. Even with some aspects of the inventory coming online later, the new player inventory is shaping up to be a significant improvement to the existing PMA.\u201d -The Features Team\nA key aspect of where the new player inventory differs significantly compared to the PMA is the limit to physical space and location. While the various landing zones will have a generous amount of storage available to the player, anything left in one location cannot be accessed from another. So, the player will need to make sure they transfer any items they need when exploring into their backpack or vehicle. Items purchased from shops will also be delivered to local storage.\nOn the technical side, there was a push to solve NPCs standing on chairs and benches (again). Simply put, if an AI is in the process of exiting their usable as they stream out, they will now teleport to the position where they would have exited to when they stream back in.\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nThe US Gameplay Features team spent part of July polishing features for Alpha 3.14 and planning for future initiatives. The former including work on NikNax, the player asset management mobiGlas app. As the feature\u2019s functionality nears completion, the team conducted feedback and revision sessions to begin finalizing the look and feel of the app. They\u2019ll wrap up development at the end of the quarter and are aiming to launch NikNax in Alpha 3.15.\nGameplay features also continued to focus on the latest Dynamic Event, Ninetails Lockdown, working alongside QA and Player Experience to gather feedback and refine it before release.\nFor future initiatives, the designers and Environment team began setting up the new shops on Orison and planned the expo hall setup for IAE 2951. Meanwhile, the engineers worked on TDDs for the cargo refactor and character archetype editor, both of which will reach the review stage soon.\nThe European Gameplay Feature team began finalizing the first iteration of the loot generation system. Once live, they\u2019ll look for feedback from the community for future improvements and balancing.\nFeatures (Vehicles)\nThe Vehicle Experience team focused on the combat balance in Alpha 3.14, working closely with the community to iterate on, improve, and balance the various new features. The same went for the Vehicle Technical team, who focused on fixing bugs and supporting their latest feature, scanning.\nAlongside supporting the other vehicle teams in fixing bugs and improving upcoming features, Vehicle Features continued to develop the new ship HUDs alongside the UI team.\n\u201cOne of the more exciting things we\u2019ve helped support for Alpha 3.14 is the new thruster dust VFX. Driven by the VFX team, we helped with the code and functionality of this new highly detailed thruster effects system that works per thruster and changes as the thruster animates and moves around.\u201d -The Vehicle Feature Team\nVehicle Features also continued to develop jump points, which recently went through design adjustments to improve functionality. The team collaborated with Narrative to ensure they don\u2019t stray from lore and are confident the recent adjustments will make the feature better in the long run. Internally, they also made jump points easier to work with and test, making sure they can rapidly iterate and improve the look and feel of the whole experience.\nGraphics & VFX Programming\nJuly was a busy month for Graphics and VFX Programming, with Alpha 3.14 issues such as fog popping, flashing objects and particles, and blurry UI screens and holograms requiring attention.\nFor the shader, they made improvements to the quality of hair rendering in comms calls, though work continues, and refactored the shared code responsible for the depth pass, shadows, motion blur, and silhouette rendering. This will fix various bugs and prepare for some of the Gen12 features and requirements.\nThe reworked render-to-texture post-effect pipeline was completed and is now with the UI artists for testing. This introduces custom bloom, drop shadow, color correction, and brightness adaptation that will apply to all visor and lens UIs, improving the visuals and legibility. The logic controlling the allocation of memory between the various UI screens was also adjusted to maximize quality while sticking to a fixed memory budget.\nFor Gen12, various validation issues were fixed along with issues on specific laptops where the dedicated GPU was disabled from the OS\/driver level, meaning the Vulkan renderer wouldn\u2019t initialize. Several architectural amendments were also made to improve the readability and usability of the new renderer.\nOn the VFX-programming side, various new features were added such as tinting for space-loop particles based on planetary cloud albedo, new rotation features for particles, and the ability to attach vector fields to characters to achieve effects. The latter includes leaves being pushed around by character\u2019s feet.\nLighting\nThe Lighting team\u2019s July included tasks for Orison, Alpha 3.14, and adding lighting interaction into the remaining habs. The personal manager app\u2019s (PMA) lighting was updated to make it more user-friendly when selecting clothing and armor. Work also continued on the colonial outposts and hospital lighting for Lorville and Grim HEX.\n\nFinally, they started atmosphere and color grading for Pyro\u2019s planets and moons and progressed with the lighting for Pyro\u2019s jump point gas cloud.\nNarrative\nNarrative began the month with a mo-cap shoot in the UK to capture the first set of vendor voice packs. This archetype was the result of working closely with the AI and Audio teams and will include lines used by bartenders and food stall vendors across the PU. Some additional lines were also recorded to support upcoming mission content.\nThere was a lot of discussion with the various environment teams over the upcoming outposts and hospitals currently in development. This work included write-ups for the various types of NPC encountered in these locations and additional documentation to describe the branding, posters, and other environmental text that might be needed. Additional work was done to flesh out some of the gangs of Pyro, delving into their hierarchies, leaders, and wealth levels.\nAs with previous months, Narrative worked closely with AI Content to outline script and character needs for some of the archetypes in development. This time, discussion focused on the security and patron behaviors. These conversations ensure both teams are in sync when developing characters and make sure scripts are generated using known AI triggers and contexts, and that the behaviors align with the intended purpose of the characters.\nOn the dispatch front, the team released another installment of Loremakers: Community Questions, where they answered questions from the forum. The recent Jump Point Vault featured a story about the Crossroads of Crime in Nexus, Joker returned for a new episode of B0otycall, and another update of the Galactapedia was published, including articles on Levski, Dr. Scott Childress, Whitley\u2019s Guide, and Jax McCleary.\nProps\nThe Props Team spent the month working up the utilitarian variants of the medical gameplay props. These match the metrics and functionality of the high-tech props seen in Alpha 3.14 but have the appropriate art style to match more lawless or low-tech hospital locations, such as Grim HEX.\nTime was also spent creating new assets for Orison\u2019s Crusader Showroom, including furniture, signage, and installations. Work continued on props for the colonial outposts too.\nQA\nQA spent July making near-daily publishes for Alpha 3.14, which were primarily for logging server health and making fixes.\nThe team\u2019s development focus focused on the Ninetails event, with QA provided daily support for the US-based PU team along with internal playtests as needed. Towards the end of the month, this expanded to supporting the personal inventory system.\nOn the management side, the team focused on scheduling to ensure they have proper coverage for the upcoming Alpha 3.14 content and coordinated with the UK studio to divide feature QATRs and events to better fit the release schedule. They also planned what\u2019s needed for staging streams, including headcount and ownership.\nSystemic Services & Tools\nIn July, Systemic Services & Tools (SST) continued the development of Quantum (the economy and AI simulation). This involved improving fidelity and interaction with the game itself to provide further intelligent reasoning as to why certain service beacons spawn and why shop and fuel prices shift.\nThe team are currently dealing with the final edge cases for the Super pCache for Alpha 3.14 and optimizing other dependencies on the services.\nTech Animation\nTech Animation completed their planning for the rest of the quarter and are well underway with deliveries, including assisting in the creation and implementation of upcoming key deliverables. For example, AI combat iteration, usables, and art refinement to head assets.\nAdditionally, the team took on some interesting challenges, one of which is to create a cross-platform RBF solder to assist in character deformation. The mandate is to create the same codebase to be used in Maya and the engine for improved usability. This will also speed up the processing of Maya animation assets and potentially the game too.\nThe team also began alembic cache animation support. While existing tools already support this technology, the team need to further integrate it into the animation toolset for a number of key deliverables.\nTurbulent (Services)\nLast month, the Live Tools team fixed bugs and made improvements to the previously released role-based access in Hex. They also improved the crash-handling pipeline and supported the Publishing Technology team with the Alpha 3.14 release.\nThe Game Service team continued working on the server meshing project alongside making supportive fixes to Hex and Alpha 3.14.\nTurbulent (Web Platform)\nIn July, the Platform Tech team delivered an automation mechanism to make it easier and quicker for the Platform team to ensure players have the right items in their accounts.\nThey\u2019re currently working on a project to make some database functionality asynchronous using Kafka technology. The first proof-of-concept will be in the Pledge Store fulfillment processes and will make it more efficient and less prone to bugs.\nUI\nJuly saw the UI Feature and Actor Feature teams work closely on UI screens for the upcoming hospitals and healing gameplay. Once functional, they ironed out teething problems with showing a 3D skeleton on a UI screen for the first time. They also fixed bugs and completed feature requests to support other teams and Alpha 3.14.\nInitial design work was done for tools and re-usable components, which will help less-experienced designers and artists build UI screens.\nThe UI Tech team improved the visuals of holographic 3D items in the UI and optimized ways to display large lists without overloading the game. Work also continued on common controls for 3D objects that can be used in future screens across the game, including the new map system.\nVehicle Tech\nVehicle Tech spent last month fixing bugs and polishing the gameplay experience for Alpha 3.14. This included addressing feedback for the radar, ping, and scanning features provided by the community to ensure they work at their best, particularly when searching for hard-to-find entities in space, such as faraway spaceships, mineables, and other commodities.\nAdditionally, they began preparing to expand these features to first-person gameplay, where players will be able to ping for hidden lifeforms on foot and then scan them for vital mission-related information.\n\u201cIt will be nice to condense the macro-level vehicle scanning features into a more granular, on-foot experience, where players will be able to perform actions on entities that are only a few meters in front of them as opposed to dozens of kilometers away.\u201d -The Vehicle Tech Team\nFinally, support began for showing player-emitted signatures and ambient levels around their vehicles in the HUD. This will give players an idea of how detectable they are and how well they can detect others.\nVFX\nJuly saw the VFX team continue their overhaul of vehicle radar ping effects, including making use of a new shader for the ping itself, which is assigned to a rapidly expanding sphere highlighting any geometry it intersects.\n\u201cWe have been very encouraged by the positive reaction to this overhaul so far, because as well as looking much neater than the old version, a lot of effort went into making sure the effects are respectful of the gameplay requirements. There is more work to be done on this for a future release though, as we want the effect to change depending on the player\u2019s choice of ping angle.\u201d\u201d -The VFX Team\nThey also focused heavily on bug fixing and tech debt alongside polishing the new thruster landing dust effects for Alpha 3.14.\nWE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026","de_DE":"Die Star Citizen Alpha 3.14 n\u00e4hert sich mit gro\u00dfen Schritten und viele der PU-Teams arbeiten den ganzen Juli \u00fcber daran, Inhalte zu implementieren und Features f\u00fcr die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung zu polieren. Aber auch bei den Aufgaben f\u00fcr die Alpha 3.15 und dar\u00fcber hinaus wurden gro\u00dfe Fortschritte gemacht, also lies weiter f\u00fcr alle spannenden Details!\n\nKI (Inhalt)\nDer PU-Bericht f\u00fcr den Juli beginnt mit AI Content, der eine gro\u00dfe Menge an Daten von einem k\u00fcrzlichen Mo-Cap-Dreh erhalten hat. Das Verhalten des Verk\u00e4ufers war das erste, das angegangen wurde, wobei das Team den ersten Polishing-Pass zusammen mit dem Design abschloss, das das Coffeeshop-Setup auf seine Tauglichkeit \u00fcberpr\u00fcfte. Die n\u00e4chsten Schritte sind die interne \u00dcberpr\u00fcfung des Verhaltens mit finalen Daten, das Retargeting auf das weibliche Skelett und ein Look IK Pass.\nDie Arzt- und Krankenschwester-Elemente des medizinischen Verhaltens haben ebenfalls Daten erhalten, die derzeit implementiert und poliert werden. Der Arzt ist nun so eingestellt, dass er auf das Respawning des Spielers oder das Betreten des Raumes im Flow reagiert, w\u00e4hrend die Krankenschwester die relevanten Usables inspiziert. Dialoge und Gesichtsanimationen, die zum Flow passen, werden in K\u00fcrze hinzugef\u00fcgt.\nAI Content hat auch Bugs f\u00fcr Alpha 3.14 behoben, mit einem Fokus auf Orisons Voyager Bar. Die Arbeit an einigen Features wurde auf Eis gelegt, um die Setups auf Herz und Nieren zu pr\u00fcfen und die KI auf einen besseren Standard f\u00fcr die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung zu bringen.\nZu guter Letzt wurde mit der Vorproduktion zuk\u00fcnftiger Verhaltensweisen begonnen, wobei die Verhaltensweisen Au\u00dfenposten, Krankenhaus und G\u00f6nner alle gut von den Regisseuren aufgenommen wurden.\nKI (Features)\nIm letzten Monat konzentrierte sich das KI-Feature-Team haupts\u00e4chlich auf die \u00dcberpr\u00fcfung der K\u00e4mpfe, mit dem Ziel, die bestehenden Verhaltensweisen und Funktionen zu verfeinern, um ein verst\u00e4ndlicheres und angenehmeres Erlebnis zu bieten. Der erste Teil davon war die \u00dcberarbeitung der Einstellungen f\u00fcr Wahrnehmung und Reaktionen, um den Designern mehr Kontrolle dar\u00fcber zu geben, wie sich die KI verh\u00e4lt, wenn sie auf einen Reiz trifft. Als n\u00e4chstes arbeiteten sie an den grundlegenden Kampfverhalten, um sicherzustellen, dass die Auswahl der Deckung wie vorgesehen funktioniert und dass die KI nach der ersten Reaktion auf den Feind das Basisniveau an Funktionalit\u00e4t bietet.\n\"Oftmals existiert der Gro\u00dfteil der Technologie zur Verbesserung des Kampfes bereits; es geht eher darum, sehr spezifische Situationen zu \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen und sicherzustellen, dass sich die KI wie beabsichtigt verh\u00e4lt und manchmal einfache Bugs zu beheben, die schlechtes Verhalten produzieren. Von diesen Anf\u00e4ngen ausgehend, hoffen wir, eine vollst\u00e4ndige \u00dcberpr\u00fcfung aller Kampfverhaltensweisen durchzuf\u00fchren, was zu einem besseren und angenehmeren Gameplay f\u00fchren wird.\" - AI Feature Team\nSie arbeiteten auch an bestimmten Verhaltensweisen, um es der KI zu erm\u00f6glichen, sich auszubreiten, den Spieler zu umzingeln und ihn im Nahkampf zu verspotten. Dies erforderte \u00c4nderungen am taktischen Punktesystem, um eine neue Metrik zu unterst\u00fctzen, die es ihnen erlaubt, Punkte zu gewichten, die sich von anderen KIs ausbreiten. Das Verhalten im Nahkampf wurde \u00fcberarbeitet, um sicherzustellen, dass sie schnell in den Kampf wechseln, wenn es die Situation erfordert.\nZu guter Letzt arbeiteten die Animatoren weiter an dem 'Geschwindigkeitsprotokoll' und dem 'Feinschliff' f\u00fcr die Animationen des Kauerns und des Sich-Ergebens. Dies wird sowohl f\u00fcr die unbewaffnete und untrainierte KI als auch f\u00fcr die KI-Kampfverhaltensweisen, die derzeit \u00fcberarbeitet werden, n\u00fctzlich sein.\nKI (Tech)\nAI Tech hat das planetare Navigationssystem in die Lage versetzt, Verbindungen zwischen benachbarten Mesh-Tiles herzustellen, was Teil der Basisarbeit ist, um Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr planetare Pfadfindung hinzuzuf\u00fcgen. Das bedeutet, dass Dreiecke aus einer Navigations-Mesh-Tile beim Generierungsschritt Links zu Dreiecken aus anderen benachbarten Tiles erstellen.\nSie aktualisierten die Debug-Zeichnung des Kachelgenerators, um auch mit planetaren Navigationsnetzkacheln zu arbeiten, um Probleme zu beheben, die w\u00e4hrend des Generierungsschritts des Planetennetzes auftreten k\u00f6nnen.\nEs wurden Arbeiten eingereicht, die es NSCs erlauben, einen Wagen entlang eines Pfades zu schieben. Die Arbeit daf\u00fcr beinhaltet das Abspielen einer Animation, um sich mit dem Wagen zu verbinden, die Auswahl eines Pfades, das Schieben des Wagens entlang des Pfades, das Abkoppeln vom Wagen am Ende und das Wegfahren. F\u00fcr die Bewegung mit dem Trolley ber\u00fccksichtigte das Team die Gr\u00f6\u00dfe des Agenten zur Kollisionsvermeidung und schaute sich die Animationen an, die f\u00fcr das Schieben bergauf und bergab verwendet werden oder wenn der NPC den Trolley drehen muss, um ihn mit dem Pfad auszurichten.\nEs wurde auch daran gearbeitet, das Testen zu automatisieren, indem die Funktionalit\u00e4t des Flowgraphs erweitert wurde, um Referenzen auf andere Entit\u00e4ten innerhalb des gleichen Objektcontainers zu verwenden. In diesem Zusammenhang begannen die KI-Teams damit, kleine Level und Testverhalten zu erstellen, die sp\u00e4ter f\u00fcr automatisiertes Testen aktiviert werden, was letztendlich f\u00fcr eine bessere Stabilit\u00e4t ihrer Systeme sorgen wird. Die bereits erw\u00e4hnte Arbeit an der Kollisionsvermeidung wurde im Juli fortgesetzt, dieses Mal mit dem Ziel der Leistungsoptimierung und der Schaffung einer saubereren Funktionalit\u00e4t. Es wurde auch Zeit darauf verwendet, das Quantenreiseverhalten in einer Gruppe zu verbessern. Jetzt pr\u00fcft der Anf\u00fchrer, ob alle Teilnehmer (einschlie\u00dflich des Spielers, wenn er Teil der Gruppe ist) das Spulen beendet haben, bevor er das Signal zum Sprung sendet.\nDie Entwicklung des Subsumption-Editors wurde ebenfalls fortgesetzt. AI Tech f\u00fcgte eine Funktion hinzu, mit der man mehrere Subsumption-Funktionen von derselben Ansicht aus beobachten oder ver\u00e4ndern kann, was als \"Multi-Graph-Ansicht\" bezeichnet wurde. Sie passten auch die Speicherfunktion an.\nAnimation\nIm Juli hat sich das Animationsteam mit den Useables besch\u00e4ftigt, die in der PU verwendet werden und wie sie angeordnet sind. Sie haben dann TrackView-basierte Pre-Vis-Videos erstellt, die zeigen, wie vorhandene Assets besser genutzt werden (z.B. die Schiene an der Theke), Posen f\u00fcr Useables erstellt, die es noch nicht gibt (z.B. Beatdowns im Gef\u00e4ngnis), und das visuelle Gef\u00fchl des KI-Layouts in bestimmten Bereichen verbessert. Bisher wurde dies f\u00fcr die Gef\u00e4ngnisse, die medizinischen Standorte, die Shanty Towns, die Casaba Stores und die Gloc Bar abgeschlossen. Das Ziel ist es, die Disziplinen Animation und Design miteinander zu verschmelzen, um bestehende und neue Animationen so zu gestalten, dass sie das Verhalten der Menschen simulieren.\nArt (Charaktere)\nIm Juli machte die Charakterkunst Fortschritte mit neuen R\u00fcstungen f\u00fcr den Shop und f\u00fcr Abonnenten sowie Helmen. Das Team begann mit dem Design von Kybernetik und verpackte neue Outfits f\u00fcr Ladenbesitzer und die Bewohner von Pyro; letztere wurden an das Character Art Team weitergegeben.\nNeben der Arbeit an den Charakteren unterst\u00fctzte Tech Art die Actor Features bei der Bereitstellung eines medizinischen Kittels und eines medizinischen Skeletts. Sie unterst\u00fctzten auch die UI mit Shader-F&E und lieferten Exporte aller Charakter-Assets zur Unterst\u00fctzung der physischen Inventar-UI. Die in fr\u00fcheren Berichten erw\u00e4hnten Rucks\u00e4cke wurden ebenfalls fertiggestellt, einschlie\u00dflich der Sicherstellung, dass sie korrekt auf den Charakteren und in den L\u00e4den erscheinen.\nKunst (Umwelt)\nIm Juli fuhr das Environment Art Team fort, die Planeten und Monde von Pyro auf die erwarteten Qualit\u00e4tsstandards zu polieren.\nIn Montreal machte das Team mit der Greybox-Phase f\u00fcr die Rastst\u00e4tte und die Grim HEX-Kliniken Fortschritte. Devs k\u00f6nnen nun beide Orte betreten und die richtige Stimmung, Lautst\u00e4rke und den Fluss erleben. Die Rastst\u00e4ttenkliniken waren die ideale Gelegenheit, um mit der Arbeit an modulbasierten Locations zu beginnen, was bedeutet, dass viele Rastst\u00e4tten mit einer begrenzten Bibliothek an medizinischen Modulen abgedeckt werden.\nArea18 und Lorvilles Krankenh\u00e4user n\u00e4hern sich der Whitebox-Komplettierung. Diese Standorte haben einen viel gr\u00f6\u00dferen Umfang und erfordern Anpassungen und \u00dcberarbeitungen, um sicherzustellen, dass sie ihr Potenzial aussch\u00f6pfen.\n\"Da diese vom Umfang her n\u00e4her an New Babbage und Orison dran sind, wollen wir sicherstellen, dass die Volumina und das allgemeine Gef\u00fchl der Gebiete stimmen, bevor wir zum Detailpass \u00fcbergehen.\" -The Locations Team\nAuf der Designseite unterst\u00fctzte das Team die Krankenh\u00e4user weiter, indem es sicherstellte, dass der Fluss voll funktionsf\u00e4hig ist und die Locations mit KI bev\u00f6lkert. Parallel dazu wurde an der Erstellung und Platzierung der R\u00e4tsel f\u00fcr die verlassenen Raumschiffe gearbeitet, die im letzten Bericht erw\u00e4hnt wurden. Diese R\u00e4tsel werden letztendlich \u00fcber Planeten und den Weltraum verstreut sein und kleinere Sehensw\u00fcrdigkeiten darstellen. Sie befinden sich derzeit in der Proof-of-Concept-Phase, wobei das Team verschiedene zuk\u00fcnftige M\u00f6glichkeiten untersucht.\nKunst (Ships)\nDas in den USA ans\u00e4ssige Schiffsteam hat den Monat damit begonnen, die Constellation Taurus f\u00fcr die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung vorzubereiten. Au\u00dferdem wurden Bugs behoben, die verschiedene Schiffe der Flotte betrafen.\nNeben den Vorbereitungen f\u00fcr die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung schob Ships weitere Fahrzeuge durch die Pipeline, darunter die beiden Crusader Ares-Varianten, die in die finale Art-Phase gingen. Der Drake Vulture durchlief weiterhin die Whitebox-Phase, ein komplett neues Fahrzeug wurde in die Pipeline aufgenommen und die im letzten Bericht erw\u00e4hnte kommende Variante ging in die Greybox.\nIn Gro\u00dfbritannien wurden f\u00fcr das im letzten Monat angek\u00fcndigte Schiff der Schaden, die LODs und die finale Grafik fertiggestellt, wobei das Team derzeit den letzten Feinschliff vornimmt, bevor es es an Tech Art und andere nachgelagerte Teams \u00fcbergibt.\nDie Redeemer erhielt ihre \u00e4u\u00dferen Schadensmeshes und einen letzten Polierdurchgang. Das Team arbeitet derzeit an den \u00e4u\u00dferen LODs, w\u00e4hrend der Innenraum mit dem Cockpit, den Gesch\u00fctzt\u00fcrmen und der unteren Ebene kurz vor der Fertigstellung steht.\n\nEin neues, noch nicht angek\u00fcndigtes Fahrzeug (auf das sich das Team sehr freut) ist von der Whitebox in die Greybox \u00fcbergegangen, w\u00e4hrend das Cockpit und die Beleuchtung des Sabre fertiggestellt wurden.\nF\u00fcr den Retaliator geht die erste Runde der Innenraum-Goldstandard-Arbeiten dem Ende entgegen, wobei die Innenr\u00e4ume f\u00fcr die Metrik und die KI-Navigation korrigiert wurden. Neue Schiffsgegenstandsf\u00e4cher wurden hinzugef\u00fcgt und auch das Cockpit erhielt einen Pass\n\nEin weiteres unangek\u00fcndigtes Schiff befindet sich tief in der Greybox-Phase:\n\"Nachdem einige Probleme mit den \u00e4u\u00dferen Mechanismen behoben wurden, bewegt es sich gut durch die Pipeline. Es gibt eine Reihe von K\u00fcnstlern, die zusammen an diesem Schiff arbeiten und jeder Bereich des Schiffsinneren kommt gut voran.\" -Das Schiffsteam\nZu guter Letzt wurde mit der Arbeit an einem neuen Treibstoffarm f\u00fcr die MISC Starfarer begonnen, um die baldige Arbeit am Betankungs-Feature zu unterst\u00fctzen.\nKunst (Waffen)\nDas Waffenteam hatte einen weiteren arbeitsreichen Monat, in dem die beiden Gr\u00f6\u00dfe 7 Behring Waffen f\u00fcr den Crusader Ares fertiggestellt wurden, bevor die Bugs f\u00fcr Alpha 3.14 geschlossen wurden.\nAu\u00dferdem wurde mit der Arbeit an einer neuen Gr\u00f6\u00dfe 3 Bombe f\u00fcr den A2 Starlifter und einer Variante des montierten Waffenturms f\u00fcr ein kommendes Schiff begonnen.\nAudio\nDas Audioteam begann im Juli mit der Arbeit am medizinischen Zentrum von Grim HEX, das Effekte und Musikp\u00e4sse erhielt, um die heruntergekommene \u00c4sthetik zu unterst\u00fctzen. Au\u00dferdem wurden Effekte f\u00fcr den A2 Starlifter hinzugef\u00fcgt, einschlie\u00dflich der K\u00fcche an Bord. Das Dialog-Team hat die Sprachausgabe aufgenommen und bereitet sie derzeit f\u00fcr das Spiel vor.\nDas Technical Sound Design Team hat Verbesserungen an Dogfighting und Schiffswaffen vorgenommen. Wenn sie live sind, werden die Spieler die Waffen aus gr\u00f6\u00dferer Entfernung h\u00f6ren und die K\u00e4mpfe selbst werden intensiver klingen, was vor allem im Arena Commander zu h\u00f6ren sein wird. Au\u00dferdem wurden Bugs f\u00fcr Orison behoben.\nDie Arbeit an der Orison-Partitur wurde mit dem Komponisten Pedro Camacho fortgesetzt. Nachdem sie mit den St\u00fccken f\u00fcr den Planeten und die Industrieplattform gute Ergebnisse erzielt haben, wollen sie die Location mit einem letzten St\u00fcck f\u00fcr den Raumhafen vervollst\u00e4ndigen. Der Raumhafen erhielt ebenfalls Ambientes, ebenso wie die Windskulptur. Audio kreierte auch den Sound f\u00fcr den RSI Constellation Taurus Trailer.\nCommunity\nDas Community-Team begann den Juli mit dem Finale der Show Us Your Colors Celebration und stellte eine Auswahl der besten Einsendungen in einer Galerie zusammen.\n\nZus\u00e4tzlich zum Cosplay-Wettbewerb, der im Juni angek\u00fcndigt wurde, starteten sie einen Video-Wettbewerb, dessen Gewinner ein Teil der diesj\u00e4hrigen CitizenCon-Show sein werden.\nDie Community aktualisierte auch die \u00f6ffentliche Star Citizen Roadmap, einschlie\u00dflich der bemerkenswerten Erg\u00e4nzungen des Q3 Zeitplans f\u00fcr die nachgelagerten Entwicklungsteams und einem weiteren Blick auf das, was in der Alpha 3.17 kommen wird.\nIm Vorfeld der Ver\u00f6ffentlichung der Alpha 3.14 wurde eine Reihe von Patch Watch Posts auf Spectrum geteilt, die einige der spezifischen Schiffs\u00e4nderungen und Tuningma\u00dfnahmen des letzten Updates hervorheben. Au\u00dferdem wurde ein Postmortem zu Alpha 3.13 und Invictus Launch Week 2951 ver\u00f6ffentlicht, in dem hervorgehoben wird, was gut gelaufen ist, was nicht und was in Zukunft verbessert werden soll.\nEngine\nIm Juni hat das Physics Team die Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr komprimierte Meshes fertiggestellt. Das bedeutet, dass die Darstellung von Rendermeshes innerhalb der Physik nun komprimiert ist, was zu Einsparungen bei Speicher und Bandbreite f\u00fchrt. Weiterer Code, wie z.B. die Vorbereitung von Vertex-Positionen und Normalen f\u00fcr planetare Patches, wurde ebenfalls von C++ zu ISPC verschoben, um eine schnellere Verarbeitung auf der CPU zu erm\u00f6glichen. Weitere Optimierungen beinhalten die Vorab-Zuweisung von Mesh-Bl\u00f6cken, um Stalls w\u00e4hrend der On-Demand-Allokation zu vermeiden, das Zwischenspeichern des aktuellen Fahrzeuggitters, um Stalls in der Physik zu verhindern, optimiertes Binden von sekund\u00e4ren Node-Daten w\u00e4hrend des CGF-Ladens und eine neue Runde von Verbesserungen bei der Terrain-Mesh-Generierung. Zus\u00e4tzlich wurde das Set der analytischen SDF-Primitive, die von der Physik unterst\u00fctzt werden, erweitert und Torus hinzugef\u00fcgt.\nF\u00fcr den Renderer setzte das Team den \u00dcbergang zu Gen12 fort. Es wurden viele Arbeiten am globalen Draw Packet Cache und damit verbundene \u00c4nderungen am High-Level Render- und 3D-Engine-Code abgeschlossen, die das Einstr\u00f6men von Objekt-Containern und das Teilen von Daten f\u00fcr mehrere Instanzen beschleunigen werden. Zus\u00e4tzlich erhielt Gen12 die folgenden \u00c4nderungen: Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr die Referenzierung von Refraktion w\u00e4hrend des Renderings, Tesselation-Unterst\u00fctzung im G-Buffer-Pass und einen portierten z-Prepass. Mehrere Teile des Legacy-Codes wurden entfernt, um die Render-Pipeline zu vereinfachen. Au\u00dferdem l\u00e4uft Gen12 nun mit standardm\u00e4\u00dfig aktivierter asynchroner Shaderkompilierung. Dies ist vor allem f\u00fcr die Entwicklung relevant, aber auch f\u00fcr die Auslieferung von Builds n\u00fctzlich, da der Shader-Cache (noch) nicht vollst\u00e4ndig deterministisch ist und die Kompilierung von selten genutzten Shadern in der PU passieren kann.\nVolumetrische Wolken und atmosph\u00e4risches Rendering wurden im Juli verbessert und weiter erforscht. F\u00fcr Alpha 3.14 wurden mehrere Leistungsverbesserungen beim Rendering von Wolken in Cube Maps implementiert. Zum Beispiel Laufzeit-W\u00fcrfelkarten, die f\u00fcr die Umgebungsbeleuchtung um den Spieler herum verwendet werden. Dichteabfragen beinhalten nun auch den Farbton der Wolke an der angefragten Stelle, was f\u00fcr die nahtlose Integration von Partikeln in Wolkenvolumen wichtig ist. Die Wolkenformung wurde leicht ver\u00e4ndert, um das lokale vs. globale Lesen zu verbessern, insbesondere im Hinblick auf die Bek\u00e4mpfung des gelegentlichen Kachel-Looks von Wolkendetails, wenn sie aus dem Orbit betrachtet werden.\nF\u00fcr die Rendering-Performance wird die gesamte Filterkette, die die Ergebnisse des Raymarchings reprojiziert und upsamplet, \u00fcberarbeitet, um die Qualit\u00e4t zu verbessern, so dass dieser Performance-Modus immer aktiviert werden kann. Die PU raymarched derzeit entweder mit voller Aufl\u00f6sung, was sehr anstrengend ist, oder verwendet eine einfache Form des niedriger aufgel\u00f6sten Raymarching, was in Bezug auf Qualit\u00e4t und Leistung sehr zu w\u00fcnschen \u00fcbrig l\u00e4sst. Die Arbeit an der SDF-Integration in den Raymarcher (effizientes \u00dcberspringen von leeren R\u00e4umen) ist noch nicht abgeschlossen.\nAuf der Seite der Core Engine wurde die Arbeit am Entity Component Update Scheduler (ECUS) fortgesetzt. Seine interne Struktur wurde \u00fcberarbeitet, um mehr als ein Update innerhalb eines Durchgangs zu erm\u00f6glichen. Es wurden auch einige Verbesserungen vorgenommen, um das neue Profiler-Frontend, das im Juni eingef\u00fchrt wurde, zu unterst\u00fctzen und zu verbessern. Zum Beispiel wurde CPU-Sampling-Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr Linux-Builds des Servers hinzugef\u00fcgt. Au\u00dferdem wurden mehrere Baumoptimierungen innerhalb von StarHash vorgenommen.\nFeatures (Charaktere & Waffen)\nDas Features-Team arbeitete weiter an dem neuen Spielerinventar, wobei es t\u00e4glich an der Benutzererfahrung arbeitete.\n\"Es werden viele harte Entscheidungen getroffen, was es in den ersten Release schaffen muss und was verschoben werden kann. Auch wenn einige Aspekte des Inventars erst sp\u00e4ter online gehen werden, wird das neue Spielerinventar eine deutliche Verbesserung gegen\u00fcber dem bestehenden PMA sein.\" -The Features Team\nEin Hauptaspekt, in dem sich das neue Spielerinventar deutlich vom PMA unterscheidet, ist die Begrenzung des physischen Raums und des Standorts. W\u00e4hrend die verschiedenen Landezonen dem Spieler eine gro\u00dfz\u00fcgige Menge an Speicherplatz zur Verf\u00fcgung stellen, kann auf alles, was sich an einem Ort befindet, nicht von einem anderen aus zugegriffen werden. Der Spieler muss also sicherstellen, dass er alle Gegenst\u00e4nde, die er bei der Erkundung ben\u00f6tigt, in seinen Rucksack oder sein Fahrzeug packt. Gegenst\u00e4nde, die in Gesch\u00e4ften gekauft wurden, werden ebenfalls in das lokale Lager gebracht.\nAuf der technischen Seite gab es einen Vorsto\u00df, um NPCs zu l\u00f6sen, die auf St\u00fchlen und B\u00e4nken stehen (wieder). Einfach ausgedr\u00fcckt, wenn eine KI dabei ist, ihren nutzbaren Bereich zu verlassen, wenn sie herausstr\u00f6men, werden sie sich nun an die Position teleportieren, an der sie ausgestiegen w\u00e4ren, wenn sie wieder hineinstr\u00f6men.\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nDas US Gameplay Features Team hat einen Teil des Juli damit verbracht, Features f\u00fcr die Alpha 3.14 zu polieren und f\u00fcr zuk\u00fcnftige Initiativen zu planen. Ersteres beinhaltete die Arbeit an NikNax, der mobiGlas-App zur Verwaltung von Spieler-Assets. W\u00e4hrend sich die Funktionalit\u00e4t des Features der Fertigstellung n\u00e4hert, f\u00fchrte das Team Feedback- und \u00dcberarbeitungssitzungen durch, um das Aussehen und die Bedienung der App zu finalisieren. Sie werden die Entwicklung am Ende des Quartals abschlie\u00dfen und wollen NikNax in der Alpha 3.15 ver\u00f6ffentlichen.\nDie Gameplay-Funktionen konzentrierten sich weiterhin auf das neueste dynamische Event, Ninetails Lockdown, und arbeiteten mit QA und Player Experience zusammen, um Feedback zu sammeln und es vor der Ver\u00f6ffentlichung zu verfeinern.\nF\u00fcr zuk\u00fcnftige Initiativen begannen die Designer und das Umgebungsteam mit dem Aufbau der neuen L\u00e4den auf Orison und planten das Setup der Expo-Halle f\u00fcr IAE 2951. In der Zwischenzeit arbeiteten die Ingenieure an den TDDs f\u00fcr den Fracht-Refactor und den Charakter-Archetypen-Editor, die beide bald das Review-Stadium erreichen werden.\nDas europ\u00e4ische Gameplay Feature Team begann mit der Fertigstellung der ersten Iteration des Beutegenerierungssystems. Sobald es live ist, werden sie nach Feedback aus der Community f\u00fcr zuk\u00fcnftige Verbesserungen und Balancing suchen.\nFeatures (Fahrzeuge)\nDas Vehicle Experience Team konzentrierte sich in der Alpha 3.14 auf die Kampfbalance und arbeitete eng mit der Community zusammen, um die verschiedenen neuen Features zu \u00fcberarbeiten, zu verbessern und auszubalancieren. Das gleiche gilt f\u00fcr das technische Fahrzeugteam, das sich auf die Behebung von Fehlern und die Unterst\u00fctzung des neuesten Features, dem Scannen, konzentrierte.\nNeben der Unterst\u00fctzung der anderen Fahrzeug-Teams bei der Behebung von Fehlern und der Verbesserung kommender Features, entwickelten die Fahrzeug-Features weiterhin die neuen Schiffs-HUDs zusammen mit dem UI-Team.\n\"Eines der aufregendsten Dinge, die wir f\u00fcr Alpha 3.14 unterst\u00fctzt haben, ist das neue Thruster-Staub-VFX. Angetrieben vom VFX-Team haben wir beim Code und der Funktionalit\u00e4t dieses neuen, hochdetaillierten Triebwerkseffektsystems geholfen, das pro Triebwerk funktioniert und sich ver\u00e4ndert, wenn das Triebwerk animiert wird und sich bewegt.\" -Das Vehicle Feature Team\nVehicle Features hat auch die Entwicklung der Sprungpunkte fortgesetzt, die k\u00fcrzlich Designanpassungen zur Verbesserung der Funktionalit\u00e4t erfahren haben. Das Team hat mit Narrative zusammengearbeitet, um sicherzustellen, dass sie nicht von der Lore abweichen und ist zuversichtlich, dass die j\u00fcngsten Anpassungen das Feature auf lange Sicht besser machen werden. Auch intern wurden die Sprungpunkte einfacher gestaltet, um die Arbeit und das Testen zu vereinfachen und sicherzustellen, dass sie schnell iteriert werden k\u00f6nnen, um das Aussehen und das Gef\u00fchl des gesamten Erlebnisses zu verbessern.\nGrafik & VFX Programmierung\nDer Juli war ein arbeitsreicher Monat f\u00fcr die Grafik- und VFX-Programmierung. Probleme mit der Alpha 3.14, wie z.B. das Auftauchen von Nebel, blinkende Objekte und Partikel sowie verschwommene UI-Bildschirme und Hologramme erforderten Aufmerksamkeit.\nF\u00fcr den Shader wurden Verbesserungen an der Qualit\u00e4t des Haarrenderings in den Komm-Aufrufen vorgenommen, obwohl die Arbeit weitergeht, und der gemeinsame Code, der f\u00fcr den Tiefenpass, Schatten, Bewegungsunsch\u00e4rfe und Silhouettenrendering verantwortlich ist, wurde \u00fcberarbeitet. Dies behebt verschiedene Bugs und bereitet auf einige der Gen12 Features und Anforderungen vor.\nDie \u00fcberarbeitete Render-to-Texture-Post-Effekt-Pipeline wurde fertiggestellt und ist nun bei den UI-Artists zum Testen. Dies f\u00fchrt benutzerdefinierte Bloom-, Schlagschatten-, Farbkorrektur- und Helligkeitsanpassungen ein, die auf alle Visor- und Linsen-UIs angewendet werden, um die Optik und Lesbarkeit zu verbessern. Die Logik, die die Zuweisung des Speichers zwischen den verschiedenen UI-Bildschirmen steuert, wurde ebenfalls angepasst, um die Qualit\u00e4t zu maximieren und gleichzeitig ein festes Speicherbudget einzuhalten.\nF\u00fcr die Gen12 wurden verschiedene Validierungsprobleme behoben sowie Probleme auf bestimmten Laptops, bei denen die dedizierte GPU auf Betriebssystem-\/Treiberebene deaktiviert war, was bedeutete, dass der Vulkan-Renderer nicht initialisiert werden konnte. Es wurden auch einige architektonische \u00c4nderungen vorgenommen, um die Lesbarkeit und Nutzbarkeit des neuen Renderers zu verbessern.\nAuf der Seite der VFX-Programmierung wurden verschiedene neue Features hinzugef\u00fcgt, wie z.B. die F\u00e4rbung von Space-Loop-Partikeln basierend auf der Albedo der planetaren Wolken, neue Rotationsfunktionen f\u00fcr Partikel und die M\u00f6glichkeit, Vektorfelder an Charaktere anzuh\u00e4ngen, um Effekte zu erzielen. Letzteres beinhaltet Bl\u00e4tter, die von den F\u00fc\u00dfen der Charaktere herumgeschoben werden.\nBeleuchtung\nDer Juli des Lighting Teams beinhaltete Aufgaben f\u00fcr Orison, Alpha 3.14 und das Hinzuf\u00fcgen von Beleuchtungsinteraktion in die verbleibenden Habs. Die Beleuchtung der Personal Manager App (PMA) wurde aktualisiert, um sie bei der Auswahl von Kleidung und R\u00fcstung benutzerfreundlicher zu machen. Au\u00dferdem wurde die Arbeit an den kolonialen Au\u00dfenposten und der Krankenhausbeleuchtung f\u00fcr Lorville und Grim HEX fortgesetzt.\n\nZu guter Letzt begannen sie mit der Atmosph\u00e4re und dem Color Grading f\u00fcr Pyros Planeten und Monde und machten Fortschritte bei der Beleuchtung von Pyros Sprungpunkt-Gaswolke.\nNarrative\nNarrative begann den Monat mit einem Mo-Cap-Dreh in Gro\u00dfbritannien, um das erste Set von Vendor Voice Packs aufzunehmen. Dieser Archetyp war das Ergebnis einer engen Zusammenarbeit mit den KI- und Audio-Teams und wird S\u00e4tze enthalten, die von Barkeepern und Verk\u00e4ufern von Essensst\u00e4nden in der PU verwendet werden. Es wurden auch einige zus\u00e4tzliche Zeilen aufgenommen, um kommende Missionsinhalte zu unterst\u00fctzen.\nEs gab eine Menge Diskussionen mit den verschiedenen Umgebungsteams \u00fcber die kommenden Au\u00dfenposten und Krankenh\u00e4user, die sich derzeit in der Entwicklung befinden. Diese Arbeit beinhaltete Aufschreibungen f\u00fcr die verschiedenen Arten von NSC, die an diesen Orten anzutreffen sind, und zus\u00e4tzliche Dokumentation, um das Branding, die Poster und andere Umgebungstexte zu beschreiben, die eventuell ben\u00f6tigt werden. Zus\u00e4tzliche Arbeit wurde geleistet, um einige der Gangs von Pyro zu beschreiben und ihre Hierarchien, Anf\u00fchrer und Reichtumsstufen zu erl\u00e4utern.\nWie schon in den vergangenen Monaten arbeitete Narrative eng mit AI Content zusammen, um die Anforderungen an Skripte und Charaktere f\u00fcr einige der Archetypen in der Entwicklung zu umrei\u00dfen. Dieses Mal konzentrierte sich die Diskussion auf die Sicherheit und das Verhalten der G\u00f6nner. Diese Gespr\u00e4che stellen sicher, dass beide Teams bei der Entwicklung der Charaktere auf dem gleichen Stand sind und dass die Skripte mit bekannten KI-Ausl\u00f6sern und Kontexten erstellt werden und dass die Verhaltensweisen mit dem beabsichtigten Zweck der Charaktere \u00fcbereinstimmen.\nAn der Versandfront ver\u00f6ffentlichte das Team eine weitere Folge von Loremakers: Community Questions, in der Fragen aus dem Forum beantwortet wurden. Im aktuellen Jump Point Vault gab es eine Geschichte \u00fcber die Kreuzung des Verbrechens im Nexus, Joker kehrte f\u00fcr eine neue Episode von B0otycall zur\u00fcck und ein weiteres Update der Galactapedia wurde ver\u00f6ffentlicht, das Artikel \u00fcber Levski, Dr. Scott Childress, Whitley's Guide und Jax McCleary enth\u00e4lt.\nRequisiten\nDas Requisitenteam hat den Monat damit verbracht, die utilitaristischen Varianten der medizinischen Gameplay-Requisiten auszuarbeiten. Diese entsprechen der Metrik und Funktionalit\u00e4t der High-Tech-Requisiten aus Alpha 3.14, haben aber den passenden Art-Style, um zu gesetzlosen oder Low-Tech-Krankenh\u00e4usern zu passen, wie zum Beispiel Grim HEX.\nEs wurde auch Zeit damit verbracht, neue Assets f\u00fcr Orison's Crusader Showroom zu erstellen, einschlie\u00dflich M\u00f6bel, Beschilderung und Installationen. Die Arbeit an den Requisiten f\u00fcr die kolonialen Au\u00dfenposten wurde ebenfalls fortgesetzt.\nQA\nDie QA verbrachte den Juli damit, fast t\u00e4glich Ver\u00f6ffentlichungen f\u00fcr die Alpha 3.14 vorzunehmen, die haupts\u00e4chlich dazu dienten, den Zustand des Servers zu protokollieren und Korrekturen vorzunehmen.\nDer Entwicklungsfokus des Teams lag auf dem Ninetails-Event, wobei QA t\u00e4glich Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr das in den USA ans\u00e4ssige PU-Team leistete und bei Bedarf interne Playtests durchf\u00fchrte. Gegen Ende des Monats wurde dies auf den Support des pers\u00f6nlichen Inventarsystems ausgeweitet.\nAuf der Management-Seite konzentrierte sich das Team auf die Zeitplanung, um sicherzustellen, dass sie eine angemessene Abdeckung f\u00fcr die kommenden Inhalte der Alpha 3.14 haben und koordinierte sich mit dem UK-Studio, um Feature-QATRs und Events aufzuteilen, damit sie besser in den Release-Zeitplan passen. Sie planten auch, was f\u00fcr die Staging Streams ben\u00f6tigt wird, einschlie\u00dflich der Anzahl der Mitarbeiter und der Verantwortlichkeiten.\nSystemic Services & Tools\nIm Juli setzte Systemic Services & Tools (SST) die Entwicklung von Quantum (der Wirtschafts- und KI-Simulation) fort. Dies beinhaltete die Verbesserung der Wiedergabetreue und der Interaktion mit dem Spiel selbst, um weitere intelligente Argumente zu liefern, warum bestimmte Service-Leuchten spawnen und warum sich Shop- und Kraftstoffpreise \u00e4ndern.\nDas Team besch\u00e4ftigt sich derzeit mit den letzten Edge Cases f\u00fcr den Super pCache f\u00fcr Alpha 3.14 und optimiert andere Abh\u00e4ngigkeiten der Dienste.\nTech Animation\nDie Tech Animation hat ihre Planung f\u00fcr den Rest des Quartals abgeschlossen und ist mit den Auslieferungen weit fortgeschritten. Zum Beispiel die Iteration von KI-K\u00e4mpfen, Usables und die k\u00fcnstlerische Verfeinerung von Head Assets.\nZus\u00e4tzlich hat das Team einige interessante Herausforderungen angenommen, eine davon ist die Erstellung eines plattform\u00fcbergreifenden RBF-Lots zur Unterst\u00fctzung der Charakterverformung. Der Auftrag ist es, die gleiche Codebasis zu erstellen, die in Maya und der Engine f\u00fcr eine verbesserte Benutzerfreundlichkeit verwendet werden kann. Dies wird auch die Verarbeitung von Maya-Animations-Assets und potentiell auch das Spiel beschleunigen.\nDas Team begann auch mit der Unterst\u00fctzung von Alembic Cache Animationen. W\u00e4hrend existierende Tools diese Technologie bereits unterst\u00fctzen, muss das Team sie weiter in das Animationstoolset f\u00fcr eine Reihe von Schl\u00fcsselergebnissen integrieren.\nTurbulent (Dienstleistungen)\nIm letzten Monat hat das Team der Live Tools Fehler behoben und Verbesserungen f\u00fcr den zuvor ver\u00f6ffentlichten rollenbasierten Zugriff in Hex vorgenommen. Sie verbesserten auch die Pipeline zur Behandlung von Abst\u00fcrzen und unterst\u00fctzten das Publishing Technology Team bei der Ver\u00f6ffentlichung der Alpha 3.14.\nDas Game Service Team arbeitete weiter am Server Meshing Projekt und nahm gleichzeitig unterst\u00fctzende Korrekturen an Hex und Alpha 3.14 vor.\nTurbulent (Web Plattform)\nIm Juli lieferte das Platform Tech Team einen Automatisierungsmechanismus, der es f\u00fcr das Platform Team einfacher und schneller macht, sicherzustellen, dass die Spieler die richtigen Gegenst\u00e4nde in ihren Accounts haben.\nDerzeit arbeiten sie an einem Projekt, um einige Datenbankfunktionen mit Hilfe der Kafka-Technologie asynchron zu machen. Der erste Proof-of-Concept wird in den Abwicklungsprozessen des Pledge Stores stattfinden und wird diesen effizienter und weniger fehleranf\u00e4llig machen.\nUI\nIm Juli haben die UI Feature und Actor Feature Teams eng an den UI Screens f\u00fcr die kommenden Krankenh\u00e4user und das Heilungsgameplay gearbeitet. Sobald sie funktionst\u00fcchtig waren, b\u00fcgelten sie Kinderkrankheiten aus, die bei der Darstellung eines 3D-Skeletts auf einem UI-Bildschirm zum ersten Mal auftraten. Au\u00dferdem wurden Bugs behoben und Feature Requests abgeschlossen, um andere Teams und die Alpha 3.14 zu unterst\u00fctzen.\nErste Designarbeiten wurden f\u00fcr Werkzeuge und wiederverwendbare Komponenten durchgef\u00fchrt, die weniger erfahrenen Designern und K\u00fcnstlern bei der Erstellung von UI-Screens helfen werden.\nDas UI Tech Team verbesserte die visuelle Darstellung von holografischen 3D-Gegenst\u00e4nden in der UI und optimierte Wege, um gro\u00dfe Listen anzuzeigen, ohne das Spiel zu \u00fcberladen. Au\u00dferdem wurde die Arbeit an gemeinsamen Steuerelementen f\u00fcr 3D-Objekte fortgesetzt, die in zuk\u00fcnftigen Bildschirmen im gesamten Spiel verwendet werden k\u00f6nnen, einschlie\u00dflich des neuen Kartensystems.\nFahrzeugtechnik\nDie Fahrzeugtechnik hat den letzten Monat damit verbracht, Bugs zu beheben und das Spielerlebnis f\u00fcr die Alpha 3.14 zu polieren. Dazu geh\u00f6rte auch das Feedback der Community zu den Radar-, Ping- und Scan-Funktionen, um sicherzustellen, dass sie optimal funktionieren, insbesondere bei der Suche nach schwer zu findenden Objekten im Weltraum, wie z.B. weit entfernten Raumschiffen, Minen und anderen Rohstoffen.\nZus\u00e4tzlich begannen sie mit den Vorbereitungen, diese Features auf das First-Person-Gameplay auszuweiten, wo die Spieler zu Fu\u00df nach versteckten Lebensformen suchen und sie dann nach wichtigen missionsbezogenen Informationen scannen k\u00f6nnen.\n\"Es wird sch\u00f6n sein, die Fahrzeug-Scan-Features auf der Makroebene zu einem granulareren Erlebnis zu Fu\u00df zu verdichten, bei dem die Spieler in der Lage sein werden, Aktionen an Entit\u00e4ten durchzuf\u00fchren, die sich nur ein paar Meter vor ihnen befinden, im Gegensatz zu Dutzenden von Kilometern entfernt.\" -The Vehicle Tech Team\nZu guter Letzt wurde damit begonnen, die von Spielern ausgestrahlten Signaturen und Umgebungspegel um ihre Fahrzeuge im HUD anzuzeigen. Dies wird den Spielern eine Vorstellung davon geben, wie auffindbar sie sind und wie gut sie andere entdecken k\u00f6nnen.\nVFX\nIm Juli hat das VFX-Team die \u00dcberarbeitung der Fahrzeugradar-Ping-Effekte fortgesetzt, einschlie\u00dflich der Verwendung eines neuen Shaders f\u00fcr den Ping selbst, der einer sich schnell ausdehnenden Kugel zugeordnet ist, die jede Geometrie hervorhebt, die sie schneidet.\n\"Wir sind sehr ermutigt von der positiven Reaktion auf diese \u00dcberarbeitung, denn die Effekte sehen nicht nur viel ordentlicher aus als die alte Version, sondern es wurde auch viel Aufwand betrieben, um sicherzustellen, dass die Effekte die Anforderungen des Gameplays respektieren. Es gibt allerdings noch mehr Arbeit f\u00fcr eine zuk\u00fcnftige Version, da wir wollen, dass sich der Effekt abh\u00e4ngig von der Wahl des Ping-Winkels durch den Spieler \u00e4ndert.\" -The VFX Team\nNeben dem Polieren der neuen Schubd\u00fcsen-Landestaub-Effekte f\u00fcr Alpha 3.14 konzentrierten sie sich auch auf Bugfixing und Tech Debt.\nWIR SEHEN UNS N\u00c4CHSTEN MONAT WIEDER...","zh_CN":"Star Citizen Alpha 3.14 is rapidly approaching, with many of the PU teams pushing throughout July to implement content and polish features for release. However, significant progress was also made on tasks for Alpha 3.15 and beyond, so read on for all the exciting details!\n\nAI (Content)\nJuly\u2019s PU report starts with AI Content, who received a large amount of data from a recent mo-cap shoot. The vendor behavior was the first to be addressed, with the team finishing the first polish pass alongside Design who sanity-checked the coffee shop setup. The next steps are to internally review the behavior with final data, retarget it onto the female skeleton, and complete a Look IK pass.\nThe doctor and nurse elements of the medical behavior received data too, which is currently being implemented and polished. The doctor is now set up to react to the player respawning or entering the room in-flow, while the nurse inspects the relevant usables. Dialogue and facial animations to match the flow will be added shortly.\nAI Content also rectified bugs for Alpha 3.14, with a focus on Orison\u2019s Voyager Bar. Some feature work was put on hold to sanity check the setups and bring the AI to a better standard for release.\nFinally, they kicked off the pre-production of future behaviors with outpost, hospital, and patron behaviors all well received by the directors.\nAI (Features)\nLast month, the AI Feature team primarily focused on reviewing combat, with the aim of refining the existing behaviors and functionality to provide a more intelligible and enjoyable experience. The first part of this was reviewing the settings for perception and reactions to give the designers greater control over how the AI behaves when encountering a stimulus. Next, they worked on the basic combat behaviors, ensuring cover selection is working as intended and that the AI provides the base level of functionality after the first reaction to the enemy.\n\u201cOften the majority of the technology for improving combat already exists; it\u2019s more a case of reviewing very specific situations and ensuring that the AI behaves as intended and fixing sometimes simple bugs that produce bad behavior. From these beginnings, we hope to do a full review over all of the combat behaviors, which will lead to better and more enjoyable gameplay.\u201d \u2013 AI Feature Team\nThey also worked on specific behaviors to enable AI to spread out and surround the player and taunt them while in melee combat. This required changes to the tactical point system to support a new metric allowing them to weight points spread out from other AI. Melee behaviors received attention to ensure they quickly switch to combat when the situation requires too\nFinally, the animators continued working on the \u2018speed protocol\u2019 and \u2018polish\u2019 stages for the mo-capped cowering and surrendering animations. This will be useful for both unarmed and untrained AI and the AI combat behaviors currently under review.\nAI (Tech)\nAI Tech enabled the planetary navigation system to make connections between adjacent mesh tiles, which is part of the base work to add support for planetary pathfinding. This means that triangles from a navigation mesh tile will create links to triangles from other adjacent tiles at the generation step.\nThey updated the tile generator debug draw to also work with planetary navigation mesh tiles to help them debug issues that could appear during the planet mesh generation step.\nWork was submitted to allow NPCs to push a trolley along a path. The work for this includes playing an animation to connect to the trolley, selecting a path, pushing the trolley along the path, disconnecting from the trolley at the end, and moving away. For movement with the trolley, the team considered the size of the agent for collision avoidance and looked at the animations used for pushing it uphill and downhill or when NPC needs to turn the trolley to orient it with the path.\nWork was also done to automate testing by extending functionality on the flowgraph to use references to other entities inside the same object container. Related to this, the AI teams began creating small levels and test behaviors that will be enabled later for automated testing, which will ultimately provide better stability to their systems. The previously mentioned collision avoidance work continued in July, this time on performance optimization and creating cleaner functionality. Time was also dedicated to improving quantum travel behavior in a group. Now, the leader checks that all participants (including the player if they\u2019re part of the group) have finished spooling before sending the signal to jump.\nDevelopment of the Subsumption editor continued too, with AI Tech adding functionality to watch or modify multiple Subsumption functions from the same view, which was named the \u2018multi-graph view.\u2019 They also adjusted save functionality to work alongside it.\nAnimation\nThroughout July, the Animation team looked into the useables used throughout the PU and how they\u2019re laid out. They then created TrackView-based pre-vis videos showing existing assets used in better ways (such as using the rail leaning at the bar counter), created poses for useables that don\u2019t already exist (such as beatdowns in prison), and drove the visual feel of AI layout in certain areas. So far, this has been completed for the prisons, medical locations, shanty towns, casaba stores, and Gloc Bar. The goal of this is to meld the animation and design disciplines together to lay out existing and new animations in a way that simulates how Humans behave.\nArt (Characters)\nJuly saw Character Art progress with new in-shop armor and Subscriber armor and helmets. The team began designing cybernetics and wrapped up new outfits for shopkeepers and the inhabitants of Pyro; the latter of which were passed onto the Character Art team.\nAlongside work on characters, Tech Art supported Actor Features in delivering a medical gown asset and medical skeleton. They also supported UI with shader R&D and provided exports of all character assets in support of the physical inventory UI. The backpacks mentioned in previous reports were completed too, including ensuring they appear correctly on characters and in shops.\nArt (Environment)\nJuly saw the Environment Art team continuing to polish Pyro\u2019s planets and moons to the expected quality standards.\nIn Montreal, the team progressed with the greybox phase for the rest stop and Grim HEX medical clinics. Devs can now walk into both locations and experience the correct mood, volumes, and flow. The rest stop clinics were the ideal opportunity to start working on module-based locations, which involves covering many rest stops with a restricted library of medical modules.\nArea18 and Lorville\u2019s hospitals are approaching whitebox-complete. These locations are much larger in scope and require adaptation and revisiting to ensure they live up to their potential.\n\u201cAs the scope of these is closer to those of New Babbage and Orison, we want to make sure that the volumes and general feeling of the areas are spot-on before moving onto the detail pass.\u201d -The Locations Team\nOn the design side, the team further supported hospitals by ensuring the flow is fully operational and populating the locations with AI. In parallel, they iterated on the creation and placement of the derelict spaceship puzzles mentioned in last month\u2019s report. These puzzles will ultimately be scattered across planets and space and will represent minor points of interest. They\u2019re currently in the proof-of-concept phase, with the team investigating various future opportunities.\nArt (Ships)\nThe US-based Ships team began the month preparing the Constellation Taurus for release. They also resolved bugs affecting various ships across the fleet.\nAlongside release prep, Ships pushed other vehicles through the pipeline, including both Crusader Ares variants, which entered the final art stages. The Drake Vulture continued to progress through the whitebox phase, an all-new vehicle entered the pipeline, and the upcoming variant mentioned in last month\u2019s report moved into greybox.\nIn the UK, last month\u2019s yet-to-be-announced ship had its damage, LODs, and final art completed, with the team currently wrapping up the finishing touches before handing it over to Tech Art and other downstream teams.\nThe Redeemer received its exterior damage meshes and a final polish pass. The team are currently working on the exterior LODs, while the interior is going through its final art pass with the cockpit, turrets, and lower level nearing completion.\n\nA new yet-to-be-announced vehicle (that the team is excited to share) moved from whitebox to greybox, while the Sabre\u2019s cockpit and lighting were wrapped up.\nFor the Retaliator, the first round of interior gold-standard work is coming to a close, with the interior spaces corrected for metrics and AI navigation. New ship item compartments were added and the cockpit received a pass too\n\nAnother unannounced ship is deep into the greybox phase:\n\u201cWith some issues with its exterior mechanisms now resolved, it\u2019s moving through the pipeline well. There are a number of artists working together on this one and each area of the ship\u2019s interior is coming along nicely.\u201d -The Ship Team\nFinally, work began on a new fuel arm for the MISC Starfarer to support the refueling feature work coming soon.\nArt (Weapons)\nThe Weapon Content team had another busy month, completing the two Size 7 Behring weapons for the Crusader Ares before closing out bugs for Alpha 3.14.\nWork also kicked off for a new Size 3 bomb for the A2 Starlifter and a variant of the mounted weapon turret for an upcoming ship.\nAudio\nThe Audio team began July working on Grim HEX\u2019s medical center, which received effects and music passes to help compound the run-down aesthetic. They also added effects to the A2 Starlifter, including the onboard kitchen. The Dialogue team recorded VO and are currently preparing it to go in-game.\nThe Technical Sound Design team made improvements to dogfighting and ship weapons. When live, players will hear weapons from a greater distance and the battles themselves will sound more intense, which will be most notable in Arena Commander. They also fixed bugs for Orison.\nWork on the Orison score continued with composer Pedro Camacho. Having had great results from the planetary and industrial platform pieces, they\u2019re looking to complete the location with a final piece for the spaceport. The spaceport also received ambiances, as did the wind sculpture. Audio also created sound for the RSI Constellation Taurus trailer.\nCommunity\nThe Community team began July with the finale of the Show Us Your Colors Celebration, putting together a selection of the best submissions into a gallery.\n\nAdding to the cosplay contest announced in June, they kicked off a video contest, the winners of which will be a part of this year\u2019s CitizenCon show.\nCommunity also continued to update the Star Citizen Public Roadmap, including the notable additions of the Q3 schedule for downstream development teams and a further look into what\u2019s coming in Alpha 3.17.\nIn the leadup to the release of Alpha 3.14, a series of Patch Watch posts were shared on Spectrum, highlighting some of the specific ship changes and tuning going into the latest update. Additionally, a postmortem on Alpha 3.13 and Invictus Launch Week 2951 was published, highlighting what went well, what didn\u2019t, and what will be improved in the future.\nEngine\nIn June, the Physics team finished support for compressed meshes. This means the representation of render meshes inside physics is now compressed, leading to memory and bandwidth savings. More code, such as preparation of vertex positions and normals for planetary patches, was also moved from C++ to ISPC to allow for faster processing on the CPU. Further optimizations include pre-allocating mesh blocks to avoid stalls during on-demand allocation, caching the current grid of vehicles to prevent stalls in physics, optimized binding of secondary node data during CGF loading, and a new round of terrain mesh generation improvements. Additionally, the set of analytical SDF primitives supported by physics was extended and torus added.\nFor the renderer, the team continued with the transition to Gen12. A lot of work was completed on the global draw packet cache and related changes on the high-level render and 3D engine code, which will be used to speed up the streaming in of object containers and sharing of data for multiple instances. Additionally, Gen12 received the following changes: support for referencing refraction during rendering, tessellation support in the G-buffer pass, and a ported z-prepass. Several pieces of legacy code were removed to simplify the render pipeline. Also, Gen12 now runs with async shader compilation enabled by default. This is mostly relevant for development but is also useful in shipping builds as the shader cache isn\u2019t fully deterministic (yet) and compilation of infrequently used shaders can happen in the PU.\nVolumetric clouds and atmospheric rendering saw improvements throughout July as well as continued research. For Alpha 3.14, several performance improvements were implemented when rendering clouds into cube maps. For example, runtime cube maps that are used for ambient lighting around the player. Density queries now also include the cloud\u2019s tint at the requested location, which is important for the seamless integration of particles into cloud volumes. Cloud shaping was changed slightly to improve the local vs global read, particularly with regards to combatting the occasional tiled look of cloud details when viewed from orbit.\nFor rendering performance, the entire filter chain that reprojects and upsamples raymarching results is being revisited to improve quality so that this performance mode can always be enabled. The PU currently raymarches either at full resolution, which is very taxing, or uses a simple form of lower-resolution raymarching, which leaves a lot to be desired in terms of quality vs gained performance. Lastly, work on SDF integration into the raymarcher (efficient empty space skipping) is still ongoing.\nOn the core engine side, work continued on the entity component update scheduler (ECUS). Its internal structure was revisited to allow more than one update within a pass. Several improvements were also made to support and improve the new profiler frontend that was introduced in June. For instance, CPU sampling support was added for Linux builds of the server. Moreover, several tree optimizations were made inside StarHash.\nFeatures (Characters & Weapons)\nThe Features team continued working on the new player inventory, with daily reviews on the user experience.\n\u201cThere are a lot of hard choices being made on what has to make it into the first release and what can be postponed. Even with some aspects of the inventory coming online later, the new player inventory is shaping up to be a significant improvement to the existing PMA.\u201d -The Features Team\nA key aspect of where the new player inventory differs significantly compared to the PMA is the limit to physical space and location. While the various landing zones will have a generous amount of storage available to the player, anything left in one location cannot be accessed from another. So, the player will need to make sure they transfer any items they need when exploring into their backpack or vehicle. Items purchased from shops will also be delivered to local storage.\nOn the technical side, there was a push to solve NPCs standing on chairs and benches (again). Simply put, if an AI is in the process of exiting their usable as they stream out, they will now teleport to the position where they would have exited to when they stream back in.\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nThe US Gameplay Features team spent part of July polishing features for Alpha 3.14 and planning for future initiatives. The former including work on NikNax, the player asset management mobiGlas app. As the feature\u2019s functionality nears completion, the team conducted feedback and revision sessions to begin finalizing the look and feel of the app. They\u2019ll wrap up development at the end of the quarter and are aiming to launch NikNax in Alpha 3.15.\nGameplay features also continued to focus on the latest Dynamic Event, Ninetails Lockdown, working alongside QA and Player Experience to gather feedback and refine it before release.\nFor future initiatives, the designers and Environment team began setting up the new shops on Orison and planned the expo hall setup for IAE 2951. Meanwhile, the engineers worked on TDDs for the cargo refactor and character archetype editor, both of which will reach the review stage soon.\nThe European Gameplay Feature team began finalizing the first iteration of the loot generation system. Once live, they\u2019ll look for feedback from the community for future improvements and balancing.\nFeatures (Vehicles)\nThe Vehicle Experience team focused on the combat balance in Alpha 3.14, working closely with the community to iterate on, improve, and balance the various new features. The same went for the Vehicle Technical team, who focused on fixing bugs and supporting their latest feature, scanning.\nAlongside supporting the other vehicle teams in fixing bugs and improving upcoming features, Vehicle Features continued to develop the new ship HUDs alongside the UI team.\n\u201cOne of the more exciting things we\u2019ve helped support for Alpha 3.14 is the new thruster dust VFX. Driven by the VFX team, we helped with the code and functionality of this new highly detailed thruster effects system that works per thruster and changes as the thruster animates and moves around.\u201d -The Vehicle Feature Team\nVehicle Features also continued to develop jump points, which recently went through design adjustments to improve functionality. The team collaborated with Narrative to ensure they don\u2019t stray from lore and are confident the recent adjustments will make the feature better in the long run. Internally, they also made jump points easier to work with and test, making sure they can rapidly iterate and improve the look and feel of the whole experience.\nGraphics & VFX Programming\nJuly was a busy month for Graphics and VFX Programming, with Alpha 3.14 issues such as fog popping, flashing objects and particles, and blurry UI screens and holograms requiring attention.\nFor the shader, they made improvements to the quality of hair rendering in comms calls, though work continues, and refactored the shared code responsible for the depth pass, shadows, motion blur, and silhouette rendering. This will fix various bugs and prepare for some of the Gen12 features and requirements.\nThe reworked render-to-texture post-effect pipeline was completed and is now with the UI artists for testing. This introduces custom bloom, drop shadow, color correction, and brightness adaptation that will apply to all visor and lens UIs, improving the visuals and legibility. The logic controlling the allocation of memory between the various UI screens was also adjusted to maximize quality while sticking to a fixed memory budget.\nFor Gen12, various validation issues were fixed along with issues on specific laptops where the dedicated GPU was disabled from the OS\/driver level, meaning the Vulkan renderer wouldn\u2019t initialize. Several architectural amendments were also made to improve the readability and usability of the new renderer.\nOn the VFX-programming side, various new features were added such as tinting for space-loop particles based on planetary cloud albedo, new rotation features for particles, and the ability to attach vector fields to characters to achieve effects. The latter includes leaves being pushed around by character\u2019s feet.\nLighting\nThe Lighting team\u2019s July included tasks for Orison, Alpha 3.14, and adding lighting interaction into the remaining habs. The personal manager app\u2019s (PMA) lighting was updated to make it more user-friendly when selecting clothing and armor. Work also continued on the colonial outposts and hospital lighting for Lorville and Grim HEX.\n\nFinally, they started atmosphere and color grading for Pyro\u2019s planets and moons and progressed with the lighting for Pyro\u2019s jump point gas cloud.\nNarrative\nNarrative began the month with a mo-cap shoot in the UK to capture the first set of vendor voice packs. This archetype was the result of working closely with the AI and Audio teams and will include lines used by bartenders and food stall vendors across the PU. Some additional lines were also recorded to support upcoming mission content.\nThere was a lot of discussion with the various environment teams over the upcoming outposts and hospitals currently in development. This work included write-ups for the various types of NPC encountered in these locations and additional documentation to describe the branding, posters, and other environmental text that might be needed. Additional work was done to flesh out some of the gangs of Pyro, delving into their hierarchies, leaders, and wealth levels.\nAs with previous months, Narrative worked closely with AI Content to outline script and character needs for some of the archetypes in development. This time, discussion focused on the security and patron behaviors. These conversations ensure both teams are in sync when developing characters and make sure scripts are generated using known AI triggers and contexts, and that the behaviors align with the intended purpose of the characters.\nOn the dispatch front, the team released another installment of Loremakers: Community Questions, where they answered questions from the forum. The recent Jump Point Vault featured a story about the Crossroads of Crime in Nexus, Joker returned for a new episode of B0otycall, and another update of the Galactapedia was published, including articles on Levski, Dr. Scott Childress, Whitley\u2019s Guide, and Jax McCleary.\nProps\nThe Props Team spent the month working up the utilitarian variants of the medical gameplay props. These match the metrics and functionality of the high-tech props seen in Alpha 3.14 but have the appropriate art style to match more lawless or low-tech hospital locations, such as Grim HEX.\nTime was also spent creating new assets for Orison\u2019s Crusader Showroom, including furniture, signage, and installations. Work continued on props for the colonial outposts too.\nQA\nQA spent July making near-daily publishes for Alpha 3.14, which were primarily for logging server health and making fixes.\nThe team\u2019s development focus focused on the Ninetails event, with QA provided daily support for the US-based PU team along with internal playtests as needed. Towards the end of the month, this expanded to supporting the personal inventory system.\nOn the management side, the team focused on scheduling to ensure they have proper coverage for the upcoming Alpha 3.14 content and coordinated with the UK studio to divide feature QATRs and events to better fit the release schedule. They also planned what\u2019s needed for staging streams, including headcount and ownership.\nSystemic Services & Tools\nIn July, Systemic Services & Tools (SST) continued the development of Quantum (the economy and AI simulation). This involved improving fidelity and interaction with the game itself to provide further intelligent reasoning as to why certain service beacons spawn and why shop and fuel prices shift.\nThe team are currently dealing with the final edge cases for the Super pCache for Alpha 3.14 and optimizing other dependencies on the services.\nTech Animation\nTech Animation completed their planning for the rest of the quarter and are well underway with deliveries, including assisting in the creation and implementation of upcoming key deliverables. For example, AI combat iteration, usables, and art refinement to head assets.\nAdditionally, the team took on some interesting challenges, one of which is to create a cross-platform RBF solder to assist in character deformation. The mandate is to create the same codebase to be used in Maya and the engine for improved usability. This will also speed up the processing of Maya animation assets and potentially the game too.\nThe team also began alembic cache animation support. While existing tools already support this technology, the team need to further integrate it into the animation toolset for a number of key deliverables.\nTurbulent (Services)\nLast month, the Live Tools team fixed bugs and made improvements to the previously released role-based access in Hex. They also improved the crash-handling pipeline and supported the Publishing Technology team with the Alpha 3.14 release.\nThe Game Service team continued working on the server meshing project alongside making supportive fixes to Hex and Alpha 3.14.\nTurbulent (Web Platform)\nIn July, the Platform Tech team delivered an automation mechanism to make it easier and quicker for the Platform team to ensure players have the right items in their accounts.\nThey\u2019re currently working on a project to make some database functionality asynchronous using Kafka technology. The first proof-of-concept will be in the Pledge Store fulfillment processes and will make it more efficient and less prone to bugs.\nUI\nJuly saw the UI Feature and Actor Feature teams work closely on UI screens for the upcoming hospitals and healing gameplay. Once functional, they ironed out teething problems with showing a 3D skeleton on a UI screen for the first time. They also fixed bugs and completed feature requests to support other teams and Alpha 3.14.\nInitial design work was done for tools and re-usable components, which will help less-experienced designers and artists build UI screens.\nThe UI Tech team improved the visuals of holographic 3D items in the UI and optimized ways to display large lists without overloading the game. Work also continued on common controls for 3D objects that can be used in future screens across the game, including the new map system.\nVehicle Tech\nVehicle Tech spent last month fixing bugs and polishing the gameplay experience for Alpha 3.14. This included addressing feedback for the radar, ping, and scanning features provided by the community to ensure they work at their best, particularly when searching for hard-to-find entities in space, such as faraway spaceships, mineables, and other commodities.\nAdditionally, they began preparing to expand these features to first-person gameplay, where players will be able to ping for hidden lifeforms on foot and then scan them for vital mission-related information.\n\u201cIt will be nice to condense the macro-level vehicle scanning features into a more granular, on-foot experience, where players will be able to perform actions on entities that are only a few meters in front of them as opposed to dozens of kilometers away.\u201d -The Vehicle Tech Team\nFinally, support began for showing player-emitted signatures and ambient levels around their vehicles in the HUD. This will give players an idea of how detectable they are and how well they can detect others.\nVFX\nJuly saw the VFX team continue their overhaul of vehicle radar ping effects, including making use of a new shader for the ping itself, which is assigned to a rapidly expanding sphere highlighting any geometry it intersects.\n\u201cWe have been very encouraged by the positive reaction to this overhaul so far, because as well as looking much neater than the old version, a lot of effort went into making sure the effects are respectful of the gameplay requirements. There is more work to be done on this for a future release though, as we want the effect to change depending on the player\u2019s choice of ping angle.\u201d\u201d -The VFX Team\nThey also focused heavily on bug fixing and tech debt alongside polishing the new thruster landing dust effects for Alpha 3.14.\nWE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026"},"links_count":12,"comment_count":24,"created_at":"2021-08-04T23:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"4 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-07 19:51:20","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":18250,"next_id":18252}}