{"data":{"id":18535,"title":"Star Citizen Monthly Report: January 2022","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/SCW\/18535-API","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/18535","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/18535","channel":"Undefined","category":"Undefined","series":"None","images":[{"id":26651,"name":"STARCITIZEN_WHITE.png","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/y1f0boj8fak5rr\/source\/STARCITIZEN_WHITE.png","alt":"","size":73278,"mime_type":"image\/png","last_modified":"2021-02-03T06:54:29+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/26651","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/26651\/similar"}],"images_count":7,"translations":{"en_EN":"PU Monthly Report\nJanuary 2022\nHot on the heels of November\/December\u2019s PU Report, January\u2019s publication details everything done in the opening month of 2022. From the final stages of upcoming features to opening tasks for exciting future content, there\u2019s a wealth of information to get your teeth into.\n\nAI Content\nAI Content began 2022 by completing their \u2018speed protocol\u2019 pass on the arcade and vending machines. Speed protocol is a CIG animation term that describes the implementation of motion capture data in a fast but rough way. Replacing blockout animations with new speed assets gives the team their first impression of what the final usable and behavior will look like and allows them to verify if the speed, length, and performance will deliver what\u2019s intentioned.\n\nThe vending machine is a food and drink item provider used by hungry and thirsty NPCs. The current implementation provides a single fizzy drink option but after this groundwork is done, the team will be able to rapidly implement more consumables such as alcoholic drinks, noodles, soup, and sandwiches.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re pleased with the results - the AI animation feels natural, though the hardest part was keeping the AI looking realistic while waiting for the item to dispense from the machine. The next step is to implement NPCs that steal from the machines and frustrated NPCs that shake them after they fail to dispense.\u201d AI Content\n\nThe arcade machine is a usable that NPCs can interact with as part of the \u2018leisure\u2019 activity, which is used when they aren\u2019t assigned to a particular job. The initial iteration allows NPCs to play multiple rounds of a game before ending victorious or with a \u2018game over.' This is reflected in their animations, with cheerfulness or disappointment depending on the outcome.\n\nBoth machines passed the current sign-off stage and have moved into the implementation and polish phases.\n\nAI Tech\nIn January, AI Tech continued with the first implementation of planetary navigation. The designers are currently testing the feature in concrete use-cases and providing feedback to improve usability.\n\nThe team dedicated time to optimizing the tile adjacency calculation. When a navigation mesh tile calculation is done in one frame, new data replaces the old calculation. The close-by edges of the triangles are then processed to validate which one should be considered the same and allow NPCs to transition from one another.\n\nOn the ship side, the team started work to enable NPC spaceships to land at random planetary locations. The aim is to allow players to request reinforcements, be rescued, or be given a lift somewhere.\n\nAI Tech continued to bring the Subsumption editor into the game engine, with the designers now actively involved in using the tool. Work will continue for a few more sprints as the team remove blockers and prepare to move onto the next phase.\n\nFor NPC locomotion, a plan was devised to address the majority of existing locomotion issues. One critical part is utilizing feature testmaps to verify all locomotion functionality. For example, automatically verifying NPCs moving along paths, moving to destinations, moving and aiming, and moving and looking.\n\nAlongside this, they split collision types between players and AI to enable proper collision without characters getting stuck. For example, in narrow corridors and doorways. Though collision avoidance is a complex topic that will be solved through multiple, interconnected systems, this is a step towards verifying some of the existing functionalities and seeing how they can be best utilized. They also continued looking at unifying the look and aim component.\n\nWhile continuing support for NPCs using trolleys, the team worked on simplifying the way NPCs push objects before moving to another location, leaving the objects behind. This involved investigating several use-cases to allow all the systems (TrackView, editor simulation, Subsumption behaviors, etc.) to work together so that NPCs have a consistent way of understanding their state and intention.\n\nAn inverted index data structure was implemented to allow the Subsumption XML library to efficiently cache different data and index it based on its associated tags. This was necessary to implementing an efficient conversation search. The goal is to provide a way to correctly select appropriate conversations between multiple NPCs based on the topics they want to talk about, their roles, their locations, and more.\n\nBugs and issues were also fixed for the Alpha 3.16.1 release.\n\nAnimation\nThe Animation team began the year fixing issues with the bartender and patrons and creating the vendor behavior, the first of which is a basic coffee vendor. They also worked on animation for the security behavior and progressed with the arcade and vending machine useables.\n\nOn the facial front, time was dedicated to creating facial animations for various useables.\n\n\u201cIf you notice NPCs no longer giving you the thousand-mile stare all the time, thank the Facial team!\u201d Animation Team\n\nArt (Characters)\nJanuary saw the artists wrap up concepts for the XenoThreat and Headhunters gang outfits for Pyro. They also finished the concept for a backpack intended to work with the upcoming salvage mechanics. The character artists progressed with the frontier-style clothing for Pyro, upcoming Subscriber items, and Nine Tails asset variants.\n\nArt (Ships)\nIn the UK, the Ship team progressed with the MISC Hull A, finalizing the cockpit and dashboard layout, exterior lighting, and all component bays. A vis-area pass was completed too.\n\nThe RSI Scorpius progressed throughout January, with most of the exterior now final-art complete. Significant effort went into the component bays and other hatches needed across the hull. The interior and wings are progressing well and are approaching final art.\n\nThe Banu Merchantman is approaching whitebox complete, with the team doing more in the whitebox phase due to the ship\u2019s sheer size and complexity.\n\nPlus, great progress was made on the unannounced vehicle mentioned last month, while another began its whitebox phase.\n\nThe US-based team moved the Drake Vulture through final art, lighting both the interior and exterior and finishing the wear and damage passes. They\u2019re currently closing out LODs and cleaning up loose items in preparation for release.\n\nThe Consolidated Outland HoverQuad received final polish and received a few minor additions to the dashboard and thrusters.\n\nThe team progressed with final art for the Drake Corsair\u2019s cockpit and mess hall. They\u2019re currently working through solutions for adding chowline features and other ship items to the limited space of the mess hall. They also polished the walls, framework, and canopy frame for the cockpit.\n\nCommunity\nThe Community team kicked off the year by announcing the winners of the Manufacturer Season's Greetings, 2951 Luminalia Screenshots, and Payday Videos contests.\n\nThey also supported the release of Alpha 3.16.1 with a Patch Watch that offered additional insight into the Derelict Ship puzzles and a CDF infographic for the upcoming XenoThreat Dynamic Event. They also published their usual This Month in Star Citizen post, showcasing all the highlights coming in February.\n\nIn addition, the Community team kicked off Lunar New Year 2022 and Red Festival 2952 alongside the Red Festival 2952 Screenshot Contest.\n\nOutside of events, the team took time to evaluate the effectiveness of the Guide System, and worked to set out a plan for improvements\/new additions, including exploring additional incentives. They also took a deep dive into a holistic look at engagement and sentiment throughout 2021, establishing goals set to raise the bar even higher in 2022.\n\nLastly, the team has been hyper-focused on a complete overhaul of the web-based Community Hub, which will soon become a one-stop-shop for all things community content, events, and more (it's super cool).\n\nEngine\nIn January, the Physics teams prepared for the configuration and setup of sim and cloth skins via item ports. Furthermore, code was restructured to allow mesh baking on soft body instances within the animation system. For vehicles, anti-flip measures were implemented for \u201cturtling\u201d vehicles using physical movement. The vehicle inspector tool that's used for development now also allows the team to control stiffness properties.\n\nFor the renderer, further progress was made on the transition to Gen12. Various instance buffers are now precreated to prevent slowdowns at runtime that were caused if created on demand per frame. Render support for not-yet-streamed-in meshes was added. CGA attachments now also render via Gen12. Support for GBuffer decals was added, and empty render passes can now be skipped in the render graph. Additionally, various optimizations for the reference counting of PSO cache instances during rendering were committed. The team are now looking at supporting HW skinning for Gen12.\n\nRegarding atmosphere and cloud rendering, last month's code cleanup for back integration was completed and the latest code (including various improvements to features and optimized techniques that are still in progress) was submitted to the main development branch. The adoption of volumetric clouds in Squadron 42 revealed an issue with parameters passing into relevant systems during level loading, which was fixed. The next steps are looking at another new idea for data reprojection and to start porting code to Gen12.\n\nOn the core systems, the team refactored the recently introduced arena allocator into a buddy allocator. The entity component update scheduler's (ECUS) visibility culling was improved and old ECUS code was removed now that the new entity-centric component update code is actively used. Furthermore, the job manager's wake-up code was further optimized. Part of the team is currently working on area and tag refactoring as well as continuing to investigate a potential integration of EASTL.\n\nFeatures (Characters & Weapons)\nThe start of the year saw the Features team wrapping up code-driven inverse kinematics (IK). This feature offers an alternative to the existing animation-driven IK by using asset-specific mark-up instead of skeleton joints to drive the IK targets and blends at run-time. This will allow for reduced joints in skeletons, which is good for performance but also greatly improves iteration time when trying different IK solutions. The name comes from code assigning meaning to the asset mark-up, so the animated feature and its gameplay logic are working hand in hand.\n\nAnother significant undertaking nearing completion is a full fidelity pass on the player animations used when grabbing something from the suit or putting it back. For example, a grenade from a chest slot or MedPen from a side pocket. There are a large number of poses to consider for the various stances the player may assume and the conditions they may be in, such as running while drunk or crouching while injured. Currently, the team are reviewing the timings to hit the sweet spot of responsive and fast interaction without losing animation quality and readability.\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nIn January, the EU team continued to work on ship-to-ship refueling for release. The remaining bugs for the laser trip mine were fixed in support of derelicts, while the last issues with mining gadgets were attended to.\n\nAdditional work for loot generation began that will allow NPCs to carry procedurally generated items in their pockets. This also included adding the ability for the Mission Feature team to control the items in NPC inventories. Development of the engineering gameplay loop and life support kicked off too.\n\nThe US team worked on item selling and reputation gameplay improvements along with background tasks for the Q2 cargo refactor.\n\nFeatures (Vehicles)\nIn January, Vehicle Features finalized the grav-lev update.\n\n\u201cThe release of the grav-lev rework last year was very successful but there were still some issues we wanted to work on. The most significant being the issue of bikes jumping around and moving wildly when players got off. This was due to a sampling rate issue with harmonic motion only occurring on the server due to its framerate. Fixing it proved quite challenging and required us to refactor some parts of the new grav-lev code. This was completed in early January and the fix, among others, will come in the Alpha 3.16.1 patch.\u201d Vehicle Features Team\n\nAlongside grav-lev, the team worked on additional goals including jump points, restricted areas, and the transit-system refactor. They also supported the EUPU team with their work on resource networks, exploring how to integrate the system into vehicles to improve how power, heat, fuel, and other resources work.\n\nGraphics & VFX Programming\nThe Graphics and VFX Programming team continued to work on shaders, with various improvements to screen space reflections resulting in much sharper and stable reflections with softer falloff where they can\u2019t be calculated. They also cleaned up the volumetric lighting shader for water and continued to iterate on new wear shaders with the various art teams.\n\nFor render-to-texture (RTT), fixes were implemented to async creation\/deletion relating to streaming and reference counting.\n\nFor Gen12, the team fixed multiple issues including particles not being visible and various cubemap problems. They added support for particle GPU refraction and split render-passes to inject another pass, began testing Gen12 shadows, and investigated issues with RTT in Gen12. They also began converting the game\u2019s post-effect system and G-force effect.\n\nFor Vulkan, the team looked at validation\/regression issues and investigated the spec of Vulkan 1.3.\n\nThe VFX team focused on damage map work, code interface support for the Weapons team, and made a start on the CPU damage map. They also continued with the fire-hazard feature, investigating issues with the fire igniter not working and fixing issues with resetting fire.\n\nLighting\nThe Lighting team began the year making headway into the performance optimizations planned for all landing zones. This time, they focused on the main domes of New Babbage, simplifying lighting setups where possible.\n\nLocations\nThe Montreal-based Locations team started 2022 polishing and debugging the derelict crash sites.\n\n\u201cWe want to thank the community for the comments and feedback given through Issue Council, Spectrum, Reddit, Twitch, etc. during the PTU. This allowed us to tweak the crash sites in various ways: Making the lootboxes more visible, doing a lighting pass so navigation is easier at night, revisiting the lootbox content (ammo should now be the same as the gun offered in the lootbox and there should be more scopes and muzzles spawning), fixing some layout issues where some of you would get stuck, and generally adding more laser mines to the various sites.\u201d Locations Team\n\nThey also wrapped up their work on the upcoming hospital locations. This involved putting the finishing touches to the Maria Pure of Heart Hospital in Lorville, adding variations to the space clinics, and finishing the Levski clinic so it\u2019s ready to ship once the location is available. Part of the team has since moved on to preproduction and proof-of-concept for Derelicts v2.\n\nMontreal Tools Team\nMontreal\u2019s Tools team completed their Mighty Bridge tool, which is the integration of Houdini into the editor. This allows various teams to use Houdini to create new tools that will help content creation across development. For example, the Tools team is using it to develop the \u2018procedural locations creation tool\u2019 alongside developing solutions that will be used for derelicts and other locations.\n\nThe team also integrated workflow improvements to Robohesse, a tool used to facilitate more stable development builds and the editor toolbar used by the designers.\n\nNarrative\nNarrative started the year writing scripts for a new mission type in anticipation of an upcoming motion-capture session. They also worked closely with Design on a new Dynamic Event, walking through the dialogue and what would trigger each line. Once complete, they drafted scripts for the event\u2019s various characters.\n\nThe team also recorded new announcement sets to improve the ambient life across several upcoming locations. Additional lore was required for Lorville\u2019s environmental set dressing too.\n\nElsewhere, the team continued to support Design with text for various game items. New lore dispatches were published, including a Traveler\u2019s Day themed Something Every Tuesday and an Empire Report detailing a shakeup within the Addison administration. They also planned 2022\u2019s dispatch and Jump Point content.\n\nSystemic Services & Tools\nSystemic Services & Tools (SST) started the year working on various internal tools, including a visualizer for certain parts of the simulation. Work was done to make older internal tools easier to access through CopyBuild, and development on automation and scheduling for Dynamic Events began that will be used when manual activation isn't appropriate.\n\nDevelopment on the various services from last year was completed, while direct connection work was done to help alleviate certain bottlenecks in the backend. Support for the selling feature is still underway, with SST working closely with the gameplay teams on the final elements.\n\nTech Animation\nTech Animation spent January addressing long-standing issues and upgraded all team members to the latest version of Maya. This transition created some complications with the source files, which were addressed.\n\nThe team had the mandate of batch-upgrading all Maya animations (around 41000). Legacy character sets were the root cause of some bad animation parsing on file load, so these were dealt with at the same time.\n\n\u201cOur animation repository is now in the best state it\u2019s been in a long time, and our users have moved over to the new software with minimal problems.\u201d Tech Animation Team\n\nUI\nIn January, the UI Feature and Tech teams supported the release of Alpha 3.16.1 and XenoThreat by addressing bugs, crashes, and performance issues. They also started transferring ownership of some UI features to the SQ42 Feature Team to fast-track their development.\n\nFor refueling gameplay, polishing was done on the MISC Starfarer\u2019s screens and support was given to the EUPU team to address any outstanding issues. Work on the new Starmap continued, with progress made on concepts, prototypes, and core technology.\n\nThe team continued building the core systems for the new AR markers while working on icons for the various marker types and states. Like many other teams, they continued to update features to support Persistent Streaming and worked closely with the Persistent Tech team to ensure they were on schedule.\n\nUI Tech continued developing additional Building Blocks features, some of which will be used in the hacking feature. Additional planning went into the pre-production process of the new Building Blocks editor too, which involved creating wireframes.\n\nFinally, additional concepts for the new mobiGlas and Origin UI styles were created and iterated on.\n\nVehicle Tech\nThe Vehicle Tech team worked on bugs for Alpha 3.16.1, including XenoThreat and its new ship content. Attention was also given to fixing ship-related quality-of-life issues in the gameplay experience.\n\nIn addition, tasks were completed for the upcoming radar and scanning improvements, which will make it easier and more fun to locate and find various entities across space, including receiving better feedback results for the scanner operator.\n\nFinally for Vehicle Tech, major work on future doors and connected components progressed, which will create a unified system of items that are more easily implemented by designers and artists.\n\n\u201cThis is particularly important as some of our vehicles were created using some legacy systems that don\u2019t always work well with the concept of the room system or portals. As our ships are essentially flying superstructures of connected rooms and spaces, the need to optimize this system has become quite evident - no one wants a door control panel to become inoperable or to get stuck in an entrance elevator!\u201d Vehicle Tech Team\n\nVFX\nVFX started the year with a full pass on the Consolidated Outland HoverQuad. They also took the opportunity to work on improvements to the wake effects for all hover vehicles. As this requires code changes from both the VFX and Vehicle Programming teams, it will be rolled out in a future release. They also continued to work on effects for the salvage tool, moving into the production phase.\n\nThe team also cleaned up some of the older particle libraries being used in several locations, such as derelict ships. This included converting several particle effects from the CPU to the GPU, which gives performance benefits but also allows the artists to make visual improvements where necessary.","de_DE":"PU-Monatsbericht\nJanuar 2022\nNach dem PU-Bericht vom November\/Dezember folgt nun der Januar-Bericht mit allen Informationen \u00fcber den ersten Monat des Jahres 2022. Von der Endphase kommender Features bis hin zu ersten Aufgaben f\u00fcr spannende zuk\u00fcnftige Inhalte gibt es eine F\u00fclle von Informationen, in die du dich vertiefen kannst.\n\nKI-Inhalte\nAI Content begann das Jahr 2022 mit der Fertigstellung des \"Geschwindigkeitsprotokolls\" f\u00fcr die Spielhalle und die Verkaufsautomaten. Geschwindigkeitsprotokoll ist ein CIG-Animationsbegriff, der die Umsetzung von Motion-Capture-Daten auf eine schnelle, aber grobe Art und Weise beschreibt. Das Ersetzen von Blockout-Animationen durch neue Geschwindigkeits-Assets gibt dem Team einen ersten Eindruck davon, wie das endg\u00fcltige Verhalten aussehen wird, und erm\u00f6glicht es ihnen zu \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen, ob die Geschwindigkeit, L\u00e4nge und Leistung den Erwartungen entspricht.\n\nDer Verkaufsautomat ist ein Anbieter von Lebensmitteln und Getr\u00e4nken, der von hungrigen und durstigen NSCs genutzt wird. Die derzeitige Implementierung bietet nur eine einzige Option f\u00fcr kohlens\u00e4urehaltige Getr\u00e4nke, aber nach dieser Vorarbeit wird das Team in der Lage sein, schnell weitere Konsumg\u00fcter wie alkoholische Getr\u00e4nke, Nudeln, Suppe und Sandwiches zu implementieren.\n\n\"Wir sind mit den Ergebnissen zufrieden - die KI-Animation f\u00fchlt sich nat\u00fcrlich an, obwohl es am schwierigsten war, die KI realistisch aussehen zu lassen, w\u00e4hrend sie darauf wartet, dass der Artikel aus dem Automaten kommt. Der n\u00e4chste Schritt ist die Implementierung von NSCs, die von den Automaten stehlen, und von frustrierten NSCs, die sie sch\u00fctteln, wenn sie nicht ausgeben.\" KI-Inhalt\n\nDer Spielautomat kann von NSCs als Teil der \"Freizeit\"-Aktivit\u00e4t genutzt werden, wenn sie nicht f\u00fcr einen bestimmten Job eingeteilt sind. In der ersten Version k\u00f6nnen NSCs mehrere Runden eines Spiels spielen, bevor sie siegreich oder mit einem \"Game Over\" enden. Das spiegelt sich in ihren Animationen wider, die je nach Ergebnis fr\u00f6hlich oder entt\u00e4uscht sind.\n\nBeide Maschinen haben die aktuelle Freigabephase bestanden und sind nun in die Umsetzungs- und Optimierungsphase \u00fcbergegangen.\n\nAI Tech\nIm Januar hat AI Tech mit der ersten Implementierung der planetarischen Navigation weitergemacht. Die Designer\/innen testen die Funktion derzeit in konkreten Anwendungsf\u00e4llen und geben Feedback, um die Benutzerfreundlichkeit zu verbessern.\n\nDas Team hat sich mit der Optimierung der Berechnung der Kachelnachbarschaft besch\u00e4ftigt. Wenn eine Berechnung der Kacheln des Navigationsnetzes in einem Frame durchgef\u00fchrt wird, ersetzen neue Daten die alte Berechnung. Die nahe beieinander liegenden Kanten der Dreiecke werden dann verarbeitet, um zu pr\u00fcfen, welche als gleichwertig betrachtet werden sollten und den NSCs den \u00dcbergang voneinander zu erm\u00f6glichen.\n\nAuf der Schiffsseite hat das Team damit begonnen, NSC-Raumschiffe an zuf\u00e4lligen Planetenstandorten landen zu lassen. Ziel ist es, dass die Spieler\/innen Verst\u00e4rkung anfordern, gerettet werden oder irgendwo hin mitgenommen werden k\u00f6nnen.\n\nAI Tech hat weiter daran gearbeitet, den Subsumption-Editor in die Spiel-Engine einzubinden, so dass die Designer jetzt aktiv an der Nutzung des Tools beteiligt sind. Die Arbeit wird noch einige Sprints andauern, w\u00e4hrend das Team Blockaden beseitigt und sich auf die n\u00e4chste Phase vorbereitet.\n\nF\u00fcr die Fortbewegung der NSCs wurde ein Plan ausgearbeitet, um die meisten bestehenden Probleme bei der Fortbewegung zu l\u00f6sen. Ein wichtiger Teil ist die Verwendung von Testmaps, um alle Funktionen der Fortbewegung zu \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen. So wird zum Beispiel automatisch \u00fcberpr\u00fcft, ob sich NSCs entlang von Pfaden bewegen, sich zu Zielen bewegen, sich bewegen und zielen oder sich bewegen und schauen.\n\nAu\u00dferdem werden die Kollisionsarten zwischen Spielern und KI aufgeteilt, um eine korrekte Kollision zu erm\u00f6glichen, ohne dass die Charaktere stecken bleiben. Zum Beispiel in engen G\u00e4ngen und T\u00fcr\u00f6ffnungen. Obwohl die Kollisionsvermeidung ein komplexes Thema ist, das durch mehrere, miteinander verbundene Systeme gel\u00f6st werden muss, ist dies ein Schritt, um einige der bestehenden Funktionen zu \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen und zu sehen, wie sie am besten genutzt werden k\u00f6nnen. Au\u00dferdem wurde weiter an der Vereinheitlichung der Look-and-Go-Komponente gearbeitet.\n\nDas Team unterst\u00fctzte weiterhin NSCs, die Trolleys benutzen, und arbeitete daran, die Art und Weise zu vereinfachen, wie NSCs Objekte schieben, bevor sie sich zu einem anderen Ort bewegen und die Objekte zur\u00fccklassen. Dazu wurden mehrere Anwendungsf\u00e4lle untersucht, damit alle Systeme (TrackView, Editor-Simulation, Subsumption-Verhalten usw.) zusammenarbeiten k\u00f6nnen, damit NSCs ihren Zustand und ihre Absicht auf einheitliche Weise verstehen k\u00f6nnen.\n\nEine invertierte Index-Datenstruktur wurde implementiert, damit die Subsumption XML-Bibliothek verschiedene Daten effizient zwischenspeichern und anhand der zugeh\u00f6rigen Tags indizieren kann. Dies war notwendig, um eine effiziente Konversationssuche zu implementieren. Ziel ist es, die richtigen Gespr\u00e4che zwischen mehreren NSCs auszuw\u00e4hlen, basierend auf den Themen, \u00fcber die sie sprechen wollen, ihren Rollen, ihren Standorten und mehr.\n\nIn der Alpha-Version 3.16.1 wurden au\u00dferdem Fehler und Probleme behoben.\n\nAnimation\nDas Animationsteam hat das Jahr damit begonnen, Probleme mit dem Barkeeper und den G\u00e4sten zu beheben und das Verhalten von Verk\u00e4ufern zu erstellen, von denen der erste ein einfacher Kaffeeverk\u00e4ufer ist. Au\u00dferdem hat das Animationsteam an der Animation des Sicherheitsverhaltens gearbeitet und die Spielhallen und Verkaufsautomaten weiterentwickelt.\n\nBei den Gesichtern wurde viel Zeit darauf verwendet, Gesichtsanimationen f\u00fcr verschiedene Nutzgegenst\u00e4nde zu erstellen.\n\n\"Wenn du merkst, dass die NSCs dich nicht mehr st\u00e4ndig anstarren, bedanke dich beim Facial-Team!\" Animationsteam\n\nKunst (Charaktere)\nIm Januar haben die K\u00fcnstler die Konzepte f\u00fcr die XenoThreat- und Headhunters-Gang-Outfits f\u00fcr Pyro fertiggestellt. Au\u00dferdem haben sie das Konzept f\u00fcr einen Rucksack fertiggestellt, der mit der kommenden Bergungsmechanik funktionieren soll. Die Charakterk\u00fcnstler arbeiteten an der Kleidung f\u00fcr Pyro im Grenzland-Stil, an den kommenden Abonnenten-Gegenst\u00e4nden und an den Nine Tails-Varianten.\n\nKunst (Schiffe)\nIn Gro\u00dfbritannien arbeitete das Schiffsteam an der MISC-H\u00fclle A und stellte das Layout des Cockpits und des Armaturenbretts, die Au\u00dfenbeleuchtung und alle Komponentensch\u00e4chte fertig. Au\u00dferdem wurde ein Vis-area Pass fertiggestellt.\n\nDie RSI Scorpius wurde im Januar fertiggestellt, wobei der gr\u00f6\u00dfte Teil des Exterieurs nun fertiggestellt ist. An den Bauteilsch\u00e4chten und anderen Luken am Rumpf wurden erhebliche Anstrengungen unternommen. Der Innenraum und die Tragfl\u00e4chen kommen gut voran und n\u00e4hern sich der Fertigstellung.\n\nDie Banu Merchantman n\u00e4hert sich der Whitebox-Fertigstellung, wobei das Team aufgrund der Gr\u00f6\u00dfe und Komplexit\u00e4t des Schiffes mehr in der Whitebox-Phase arbeitet.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurden gro\u00dfe Fortschritte bei dem im letzten Monat erw\u00e4hnten, noch unangek\u00fcndigten Fahrzeug gemacht, w\u00e4hrend die Whitebox-Phase f\u00fcr ein weiteres Fahrzeug begann.\n\nDas Team in den USA hat den Drake Vulture in die finale Phase \u00fcberf\u00fchrt, indem es sowohl das Innere als auch das \u00c4u\u00dfere beleuchtet und die Abnutzungs- und Schadenspassagen abgeschlossen hat. Derzeit werden die LODs abgeschlossen und lose Teile aufger\u00e4umt, um die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung vorzubereiten.\n\nDas Consolidated Outland HoverQuad erhielt den letzten Schliff und einige kleinere Erg\u00e4nzungen am Armaturenbrett und den Triebwerken.\n\nDas Team hat mit der endg\u00fcltigen Gestaltung des Cockpits und der Kantine der Drake Corsair begonnen. Zurzeit arbeiten sie an L\u00f6sungen, wie sie den begrenzten Platz in der Kantine f\u00fcr die Essensausgabe und andere Schiffsgegenst\u00e4nde nutzen k\u00f6nnen. Au\u00dferdem wurden die W\u00e4nde, das Ger\u00fcst und der Rahmen der Kabinenhaube f\u00fcr das Cockpit poliert.\n\nCommunity\nDas Community-Team hat das Jahr mit der Bekanntgabe der Gewinner der Wettbewerbe \"Weihnachtsgr\u00fc\u00dfe der Hersteller\", \"2951 Luminalia Screenshots\" und \"Payday Videos\" begonnen.\n\nAu\u00dferdem unterst\u00fctzten sie die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung der Alpha 3.16.1 mit einem Patch Watch, der zus\u00e4tzliche Einblicke in die Derelict Ship-R\u00e4tsel und eine CDF-Infografik f\u00fcr das kommende XenoThreat Dynamic Event bot. Au\u00dferdem wurde der \u00fcbliche Beitrag \"Dieser Monat in Star Citizen\" ver\u00f6ffentlicht, in dem alle Highlights des Monats Februar vorgestellt werden.\n\nAu\u00dferdem gab das Community-Team den Startschuss f\u00fcr das Mondneujahrsfest 2022 und das Rote Fest 2952 sowie f\u00fcr den Screenshot-Wettbewerb zum Roten Fest 2952.\n\nAu\u00dferhalb der Events nahm sich das Team Zeit, um die Effektivit\u00e4t des Guide-Systems zu bewerten und einen Plan f\u00fcr Verbesserungen\/Neuerungen aufzustellen, einschlie\u00dflich der Erforschung zus\u00e4tzlicher Anreize. Au\u00dferdem hat das Team einen ganzheitlichen Blick auf das Engagement und die Stimmung im Jahr 2021 geworfen und Ziele festgelegt, um die Messlatte f\u00fcr 2022 noch h\u00f6her zu legen.\n\nSchlie\u00dflich hat sich das Team intensiv mit der kompletten \u00dcberarbeitung des webbasierten Community Hubs besch\u00e4ftigt, der bald eine zentrale Anlaufstelle f\u00fcr alle Inhalte, Veranstaltungen und mehr sein wird (super cool).\n\nEngine\nIm Januar bereiteten die Physik-Teams die Konfiguration und Einrichtung von Sim- und Stoff-Skins \u00fcber Item-Ports vor. Au\u00dferdem wurde der Code umstrukturiert, um das Backen von Meshes auf weichen K\u00f6rperinstanzen innerhalb des Animationssystems zu erm\u00f6glichen. F\u00fcr Fahrzeuge wurden Anti-Flip-Ma\u00dfnahmen f\u00fcr das \"Turtling\" von Fahrzeugen mit physischen Bewegungen implementiert. Das Fahrzeuginspektionstool, das f\u00fcr die Entwicklung verwendet wird, erm\u00f6glicht es dem Team jetzt auch, die Steifigkeitseigenschaften zu kontrollieren.\n\nBeim Renderer wurden weitere Fortschritte bei der Umstellung auf Gen12 gemacht. Verschiedene Instanzpuffer werden jetzt im Voraus erstellt, um Verlangsamungen zur Laufzeit zu vermeiden, die bei der Erstellung auf Anfrage pro Frame auftraten. Renderunterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr noch nicht gestreamte Meshes wurde hinzugef\u00fcgt. CGA-Anh\u00e4nge werden jetzt auch \u00fcber Gen12 gerendert. Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr GBuffer-Decals wurde hinzugef\u00fcgt, und leere Render-Passes k\u00f6nnen jetzt im Rendergraphen \u00fcbersprungen werden. Au\u00dferdem wurden verschiedene Optimierungen f\u00fcr die Referenzz\u00e4hlung von PSO-Cache-Instanzen w\u00e4hrend des Renderns vorgenommen. Das Team pr\u00fcft nun die Unterst\u00fctzung von HW-Skinning f\u00fcr Gen12.\n\nIn Bezug auf das Atmosph\u00e4ren- und Wolkenrendering wurde die Codebereinigung f\u00fcr die R\u00fcckintegration im letzten Monat abgeschlossen und der neueste Code (einschlie\u00dflich verschiedener Verbesserungen an Funktionen und optimierten Techniken, die noch in Arbeit sind) wurde an den Hauptentwicklungszweig \u00fcbergeben. Bei der Einf\u00fchrung von volumetrischen Wolken in Squadron 42 wurde ein Problem mit der \u00dcbergabe von Parametern an relevante Systeme beim Laden von Leveln festgestellt, das behoben wurde. Die n\u00e4chsten Schritte sind die Pr\u00fcfung einer weiteren neuen Idee f\u00fcr die Datenwiedergabe und die Portierung des Codes auf Gen12.\n\nBei den Kernsystemen hat das Team den k\u00fcrzlich eingef\u00fchrten Arenazuteiler in einen Buddy-Zuteiler umgewandelt. Das Sichtbarkeits-Culling des Entity-Component-Update-Schedulers (ECUS) wurde verbessert und der alte ECUS-Code wurde entfernt, da der neue entit\u00e4tszentrierte Komponenten-Update-Code nun aktiv genutzt wird. Au\u00dferdem wurde der Wake-up-Code des Jobmanagers weiter optimiert. Ein Teil des Teams arbeitet derzeit am Refactoring von Bereichen und Tags und untersucht weiterhin eine m\u00f6gliche Integration von EASTL.\n\nFeatures (Charaktere & Waffen)\nZu Beginn des Jahres hat das Features-Team die codegesteuerte inverse Kinematik (IK) fertiggestellt. Diese Funktion bietet eine Alternative zur bestehenden animationsgesteuerten IK, indem sie Asset-spezifisches Markup anstelle von Skeleton Joints verwendet, um die IK-Ziele und Blends zur Laufzeit zu steuern. Dadurch k\u00f6nnen weniger Gelenke in den Skeletten verwendet werden, was sich positiv auf die Leistung auswirkt, aber auch die Iterationszeit beim Ausprobieren verschiedener IK-L\u00f6sungen erheblich verbessert. Der Name kommt vom Code, der dem Asset-Markup eine Bedeutung zuweist, sodass das animierte Feature und seine Spiellogik Hand in Hand arbeiten.\n\nEin weiteres wichtiges Projekt, das kurz vor der Fertigstellung steht, ist ein Full Fidelity Pass f\u00fcr die Spieleranimationen, die verwendet werden, wenn man etwas aus dem Anzug holt oder zur\u00fccklegt. Zum Beispiel eine Granate aus einem Brustfach oder einen MedPen aus einer Seitentasche. Es gibt eine gro\u00dfe Anzahl von Posen f\u00fcr die verschiedenen Stellungen, die der Spieler einnehmen kann, und f\u00fcr die Zust\u00e4nde, in denen er sich befindet, z. B. rennen, w\u00e4hrend er betrunken ist, oder sich hinhocken, w\u00e4hrend er verletzt ist. Zurzeit \u00fcberpr\u00fcft das Team die Timings, um den Sweetspot einer reaktionsschnellen Interaktion zu erreichen, ohne dass die Qualit\u00e4t der Animationen und die Lesbarkeit darunter leiden.\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nIm Januar arbeitete das EU-Team weiter an der Schiff-zu-Schiff-Betankung f\u00fcr die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung. Die verbleibenden Bugs f\u00fcr die Lasertrip-Mine wurden zur Unterst\u00fctzung der Wracks behoben, w\u00e4hrend die letzten Probleme mit den Bergbau-Gadgets behoben wurden.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurde mit der Arbeit an der Beutegenerierung begonnen, die es NSCs erm\u00f6glichen wird, prozedural generierte Gegenst\u00e4nde in ihren Taschen zu tragen. Dazu geh\u00f6rte auch die M\u00f6glichkeit f\u00fcr das Missions-Team, die Gegenst\u00e4nde in den NSC-Inventaren zu kontrollieren. Au\u00dferdem wurde mit der Entwicklung des Spielablaufs der Technik und der Lebenserhaltung begonnen.\n\nDas US-Team arbeitete an der Verbesserung des Verkaufs von Gegenst\u00e4nden und des Rufs sowie an Hintergrundaufgaben f\u00fcr die \u00dcberarbeitung der Fracht in Q2.\n\nFeatures (Fahrzeuge)\nIm Januar hat Vehicle Features das Grav-Lev-Update fertiggestellt.\n\n\"Die \u00dcberarbeitung der Grav-Levs im letzten Jahr war sehr erfolgreich, aber es gab noch einige Probleme, an denen wir arbeiten wollten. Das wichtigste war das Problem, dass die Motorr\u00e4der herumsprangen und sich wild bewegten, wenn die Spieler\/innen ausstiegen. Das lag an einem Problem mit der Abtastrate, da die harmonische Bewegung aufgrund der Framerate nur auf dem Server stattfand. Die Behebung dieses Problems erwies sich als ziemlich schwierig und erforderte ein Refactoring einiger Teile des neuen Grav-Lev-Codes. Dies wurde Anfang Januar abgeschlossen und die L\u00f6sung wird unter anderem im Alpha 3.16.1 Patch enthalten sein.\" Team Fahrzeugfunktionen\n\nNeben dem Grav-Lev arbeitete das Team an weiteren Zielen wie Sprungpunkten, Sperrgebieten und dem Refactor des Transitsystems. Au\u00dferdem unterst\u00fctzte das Team das EUPU-Team bei der Arbeit an Ressourcennetzwerken und untersuchte, wie das System in Fahrzeuge integriert werden kann, um die Funktionsweise von Strom, W\u00e4rme, Kraftstoff und anderen Ressourcen zu verbessern.\n\nGrafik- und VFX-Programmierung\nDas Team f\u00fcr Grafik- und VFX-Programmierung hat weiter an Shadern gearbeitet und verschiedene Verbesserungen an den Bildschirmreflexionen vorgenommen, die zu deutlich sch\u00e4rferen und stabileren Reflexionen f\u00fchren und dort, wo sie nicht berechnet werden k\u00f6nnen, weicher ausfallen. Au\u00dferdem wurde der volumetrische Beleuchtungs-Shader f\u00fcr Wasser aufger\u00e4umt und gemeinsam mit den verschiedenen Art-Teams wurde an neuen Verschlei\u00df-Shadern gearbeitet.\n\nF\u00fcr Render-to-Texture (RTT) wurden Korrekturen an der asynchronen Erstellung\/L\u00f6schung in Bezug auf Streaming und Referenzz\u00e4hlung vorgenommen.\n\nF\u00fcr Gen12 hat das Team mehrere Probleme behoben, darunter nicht sichtbare Partikel und verschiedene Cubemap-Probleme. Sie f\u00fcgten Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr die GPU-Refraktion von Partikeln und geteilte Render-Passes hinzu, um einen weiteren Pass zu injizieren, begannen mit dem Testen von Gen12-Schatten und untersuchten Probleme mit RTT in Gen12. Au\u00dferdem begannen sie, das Post-Effekt-System und den G-Kraft-Effekt des Spiels zu konvertieren.\n\nIn Bezug auf Vulkan untersuchte das Team Validierungs-\/Regressionsprobleme und untersuchte die Spezifikationen von Vulkan 1.3.\n\nDas VFX-Team konzentrierte sich auf die Arbeit an der Schadenskarte, auf die Unterst\u00fctzung der Codeschnittstelle f\u00fcr das Waffenteam und machte einen Anfang mit der CPU-Schadenskarte. Au\u00dferdem arbeiteten sie weiter an der Feuergefahr, untersuchten Probleme mit dem Feuerz\u00fcnder und behoben Probleme beim Zur\u00fccksetzen des Feuers.\n\nBeleuchtung\nDas Beleuchtungsteam begann das Jahr damit, die f\u00fcr alle Landezonen geplanten Leistungsoptimierungen voranzutreiben. Diesmal konzentrierten sie sich auf die Hauptkuppeln von New Babbage und vereinfachten die Beleuchtungseinstellungen, wo es m\u00f6glich war.\n\nStandorte\nDas in Montreal ans\u00e4ssige Locations-Team begann im Jahr 2022 mit dem Feinschliff und der Fehlerbehebung an den verlassenen Absturzstellen.\n\n\"Wir m\u00f6chten uns bei der Community f\u00fcr die Kommentare und das Feedback bedanken, das sie w\u00e4hrend des PTU \u00fcber Issue Council, Spectrum, Reddit, Twitch usw. abgegeben haben. Dadurch konnten wir die Absturzstellen auf verschiedene Arten verbessern: Wir haben die Beutekisten sichtbarer gemacht, die Beleuchtung \u00fcberarbeitet, damit die Navigation bei Nacht einfacher ist, die Inhalte der Beutekisten \u00fcberarbeitet (die Munition sollte jetzt die gleiche sein wie die Waffe, die in der Beutekiste angeboten wird, und es sollten mehr Zielfernrohre und M\u00fcndungen spawnen), einige Layout-Probleme behoben, bei denen einige von euch stecken geblieben sind, und generell mehr Laserminen zu den verschiedenen Standorten hinzugef\u00fcgt.\" Standorte Team\n\nDas Team schloss auch die Arbeit an den kommenden Krankenhausstandorten ab. Dazu geh\u00f6rten der letzte Schliff f\u00fcr das Maria Pure of Heart Hospital in Lorville, das Hinzuf\u00fcgen von Variationen zu den Weltraumkliniken und die Fertigstellung der Levski-Klinik, damit sie fertig ist, sobald der Standort verf\u00fcgbar ist. Ein Teil des Teams ist inzwischen zur Vorproduktion und zum Proof-of-Concept f\u00fcr Derelicts v2 \u00fcbergegangen.\n\nMontreal Tools Team\nDas Tools-Team von Montreal hat sein Tool Mighty Bridge fertiggestellt, das Houdini in den Editor integriert. Dadurch k\u00f6nnen verschiedene Teams Houdini nutzen, um neue Tools zu erstellen, die die Erstellung von Inhalten in der Entwicklung unterst\u00fctzen. Das Tools-Team nutzt es zum Beispiel, um das Tool zur Erstellung von prozeduralen Schaupl\u00e4tzen zu entwickeln und um L\u00f6sungen f\u00fcr verlassene Geb\u00e4ude und andere Schaupl\u00e4tze zu entwickeln.\n\nDas Team hat auch Workflow-Verbesserungen in Robohesse integriert, ein Werkzeug, das stabilere Entwicklungs-Builds und die Editor-Symbolleiste f\u00fcr die Designer\/innen erm\u00f6glicht.\n\nNarrative\nDas Team Narrative begann das Jahr mit dem Schreiben von Skripten f\u00fcr einen neuen Missionstyp im Hinblick auf eine bevorstehende Motion-Capture-Session. Au\u00dferdem arbeiteten sie eng mit den Designern an einem neuen dynamischen Ereignis, indem sie die Dialoge und die Ausl\u00f6ser f\u00fcr die einzelnen Zeilen durchgingen. Anschlie\u00dfend entwarfen sie Skripte f\u00fcr die verschiedenen Charaktere des Events.\n\nDas Team nahm auch neue Ansagen auf, um die Umgebungsger\u00e4usche an mehreren kommenden Orten zu verbessern. Auch f\u00fcr Lorvilles Umgebungsdesign wurden zus\u00e4tzliche Informationen ben\u00f6tigt.\n\nAn anderer Stelle unterst\u00fctzte das Team das Design mit Texten f\u00fcr verschiedene Spielgegenst\u00e4nde. Es wurden neue Informationen ver\u00f6ffentlicht, darunter ein Traveler's Day mit dem Thema \"Jeden Dienstag etwas\" und ein Empire Report, in dem es um eine Ver\u00e4nderung innerhalb der Addison-Regierung geht. Au\u00dferdem planten sie die Meldung f\u00fcr das Jahr 2022 und die Inhalte f\u00fcr den Jump Point.\n\nSystemische Dienste & Tools\nSystemic Services & Tools (SST) begann das Jahr mit der Arbeit an verschiedenen internen Tools, darunter ein Visualisierungsprogramm f\u00fcr bestimmte Teile der Simulation. Es wurde daran gearbeitet, \u00e4ltere interne Tools \u00fcber CopyBuild leichter zug\u00e4nglich zu machen, und es wurde mit der Entwicklung von Automatisierungs- und Zeitplanungsfunktionen f\u00fcr dynamische Ereignisse begonnen, die eingesetzt werden, wenn eine manuelle Aktivierung nicht sinnvoll ist.\n\nDie Entwicklung der verschiedenen Dienste aus dem letzten Jahr wurde abgeschlossen, w\u00e4hrend an der Direktverbindung gearbeitet wurde, um bestimmte Engp\u00e4sse im Backend zu beseitigen. Die Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr die Verkaufsfunktion ist noch im Gange, wobei SST eng mit den Gameplay-Teams an den letzten Elementen arbeitet.\n\nTechnische Animation\nTech Animation hat sich im Januar mit langj\u00e4hrigen Problemen befasst und alle Teammitglieder auf die neueste Version von Maya umgestellt. Diese Umstellung f\u00fchrte zu einigen Komplikationen mit den Quelldateien, die behoben wurden.\n\nDas Team hatte den Auftrag, alle Maya-Animationen (ca. 41000) in einem Batch-Upgrade zu aktualisieren. Veraltete Zeichens\u00e4tze waren die Ursache daf\u00fcr, dass die Animationen beim Laden der Dateien nicht richtig geparst wurden, also wurden diese gleichzeitig bearbeitet.\n\n\"Unser Animations-Repository ist jetzt so gut wie schon lange nicht mehr, und unsere Benutzer\/innen sind ohne gro\u00dfe Probleme auf die neue Software umgestiegen. Tech Animation Team\n\nUI\nIm Januar unterst\u00fctzten die Teams UI Feature und Tech die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung von Alpha 3.16.1 und XenoThreat, indem sie Bugs, Abst\u00fcrze und Leistungsprobleme behoben. Au\u00dferdem wurde damit begonnen, einige UI-Funktionen an das SQ42 Feature Team zu \u00fcbertragen, um ihre Entwicklung zu beschleunigen.\n\nF\u00fcr das Tanken wurden die Bildschirme des MISC Starfarers aufpoliert und das EUPU-Team bei der Behebung offener Probleme unterst\u00fctzt. Die Arbeit an der neuen Starmap wurde fortgesetzt und es wurden Fortschritte bei Konzepten, Prototypen und der Kerntechnologie gemacht.\n\nDas Team setzte die Entwicklung der Kernsysteme f\u00fcr die neuen AR-Marker fort und arbeitete gleichzeitig an den Symbolen f\u00fcr die verschiedenen Markertypen und -zust\u00e4nde. Wie viele andere Teams auch, aktualisierte das Team die Funktionen zur Unterst\u00fctzung von Persistent Streaming und arbeitete eng mit dem Persistent Tech Team zusammen, um den Zeitplan einzuhalten.\n\nDie UI-Tech-Abteilung entwickelte weitere Building Blocks-Funktionen, von denen einige im Hacking-Feature zum Einsatz kommen werden. Auch die Vorproduktion des neuen Bausteineditors wurde weiter geplant und es wurden Wireframes erstellt.\n\nSchlie\u00dflich wurden weitere Konzepte f\u00fcr die neuen UI-Stile von mobiGlas und Origin erstellt und \u00fcberarbeitet.\n\nFahrzeugtechnik\nDas Vehicle Tech Team arbeitete an Bugs f\u00fcr Alpha 3.16.1, darunter XenoThreat und die neuen Schiffsinhalte. Au\u00dferdem wurden Probleme mit der Lebensqualit\u00e4t der Schiffe im Spiel behoben.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurden Aufgaben f\u00fcr die kommenden Radar- und Scan-Verbesserungen erledigt, die es einfacher und unterhaltsamer machen, verschiedene Objekte im Weltraum zu orten und zu finden, einschlie\u00dflich besserer Feedback-Ergebnisse f\u00fcr den Scanner-Operator.\n\nBei der Fahrzeugtechnik schlie\u00dflich wurde die Arbeit an den zuk\u00fcnftigen T\u00fcren und den damit verbundenen Komponenten vorangetrieben, die ein einheitliches System von Gegenst\u00e4nden schaffen werden, das von Designern und K\u00fcnstlern leichter umgesetzt werden kann.\n\n\"Das ist besonders wichtig, da einige unserer Fahrzeuge mit alten Systemen erstellt wurden, die nicht immer gut mit dem Konzept des Raumsystems oder der Portale zusammenarbeiten. Da unsere Schiffe im Wesentlichen fliegende Aufbauten aus miteinander verbundenen R\u00e4umen sind, ist die Notwendigkeit, dieses System zu optimieren, ganz offensichtlich geworden - niemand will, dass ein T\u00fcrbedienfeld nicht mehr funktioniert oder in einem Eingangsaufzug stecken bleibt!\" Team Fahrzeugtechnik\n\nVFX\nVFX begann das Jahr mit einem kompletten Durchlauf des Consolidated Outland HoverQuad. Sie nutzten auch die Gelegenheit, um an der Verbesserung der Nachlaufeffekte f\u00fcr alle Schwebefahrzeuge zu arbeiten. Da dies Code-\u00c4nderungen sowohl von den VFX- als auch von den Fahrzeugprogrammierungsteams erfordert, wird es in einer zuk\u00fcnftigen Version eingef\u00fchrt werden. Au\u00dferdem arbeiteten sie weiter an den Effekten f\u00fcr das Bergungswerkzeug, das nun in die Produktionsphase geht.\n\nDas Team hat auch einige der \u00e4lteren Partikelbibliotheken bereinigt, die an verschiedenen Stellen verwendet werden, z. B. bei verlassenen Schiffen. Dazu geh\u00f6rte auch die Umstellung mehrerer Partikeleffekte von der CPU auf die GPU, was nicht nur der Leistung zugute kommt, sondern es den K\u00fcnstlern auch erm\u00f6glicht, bei Bedarf visuelle Verbesserungen vorzunehmen.","zh_CN":"PU Monthly Report\nJanuary 2022\nHot on the heels of November\/December\u2019s PU Report, January\u2019s publication details everything done in the opening month of 2022. From the final stages of upcoming features to opening tasks for exciting future content, there\u2019s a wealth of information to get your teeth into.\n\nAI Content\nAI Content began 2022 by completing their \u2018speed protocol\u2019 pass on the arcade and vending machines. Speed protocol is a CIG animation term that describes the implementation of motion capture data in a fast but rough way. Replacing blockout animations with new speed assets gives the team their first impression of what the final usable and behavior will look like and allows them to verify if the speed, length, and performance will deliver what\u2019s intentioned.\n\nThe vending machine is a food and drink item provider used by hungry and thirsty NPCs. The current implementation provides a single fizzy drink option but after this groundwork is done, the team will be able to rapidly implement more consumables such as alcoholic drinks, noodles, soup, and sandwiches.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re pleased with the results - the AI animation feels natural, though the hardest part was keeping the AI looking realistic while waiting for the item to dispense from the machine. The next step is to implement NPCs that steal from the machines and frustrated NPCs that shake them after they fail to dispense.\u201d AI Content\n\nThe arcade machine is a usable that NPCs can interact with as part of the \u2018leisure\u2019 activity, which is used when they aren\u2019t assigned to a particular job. The initial iteration allows NPCs to play multiple rounds of a game before ending victorious or with a \u2018game over.' This is reflected in their animations, with cheerfulness or disappointment depending on the outcome.\n\nBoth machines passed the current sign-off stage and have moved into the implementation and polish phases.\n\nAI Tech\nIn January, AI Tech continued with the first implementation of planetary navigation. The designers are currently testing the feature in concrete use-cases and providing feedback to improve usability.\n\nThe team dedicated time to optimizing the tile adjacency calculation. When a navigation mesh tile calculation is done in one frame, new data replaces the old calculation. The close-by edges of the triangles are then processed to validate which one should be considered the same and allow NPCs to transition from one another.\n\nOn the ship side, the team started work to enable NPC spaceships to land at random planetary locations. The aim is to allow players to request reinforcements, be rescued, or be given a lift somewhere.\n\nAI Tech continued to bring the Subsumption editor into the game engine, with the designers now actively involved in using the tool. Work will continue for a few more sprints as the team remove blockers and prepare to move onto the next phase.\n\nFor NPC locomotion, a plan was devised to address the majority of existing locomotion issues. One critical part is utilizing feature testmaps to verify all locomotion functionality. For example, automatically verifying NPCs moving along paths, moving to destinations, moving and aiming, and moving and looking.\n\nAlongside this, they split collision types between players and AI to enable proper collision without characters getting stuck. For example, in narrow corridors and doorways. Though collision avoidance is a complex topic that will be solved through multiple, interconnected systems, this is a step towards verifying some of the existing functionalities and seeing how they can be best utilized. They also continued looking at unifying the look and aim component.\n\nWhile continuing support for NPCs using trolleys, the team worked on simplifying the way NPCs push objects before moving to another location, leaving the objects behind. This involved investigating several use-cases to allow all the systems (TrackView, editor simulation, Subsumption behaviors, etc.) to work together so that NPCs have a consistent way of understanding their state and intention.\n\nAn inverted index data structure was implemented to allow the Subsumption XML library to efficiently cache different data and index it based on its associated tags. This was necessary to implementing an efficient conversation search. The goal is to provide a way to correctly select appropriate conversations between multiple NPCs based on the topics they want to talk about, their roles, their locations, and more.\n\nBugs and issues were also fixed for the Alpha 3.16.1 release.\n\nAnimation\nThe Animation team began the year fixing issues with the bartender and patrons and creating the vendor behavior, the first of which is a basic coffee vendor. They also worked on animation for the security behavior and progressed with the arcade and vending machine useables.\n\nOn the facial front, time was dedicated to creating facial animations for various useables.\n\n\u201cIf you notice NPCs no longer giving you the thousand-mile stare all the time, thank the Facial team!\u201d Animation Team\n\nArt (Characters)\nJanuary saw the artists wrap up concepts for the XenoThreat and Headhunters gang outfits for Pyro. They also finished the concept for a backpack intended to work with the upcoming salvage mechanics. The character artists progressed with the frontier-style clothing for Pyro, upcoming Subscriber items, and Nine Tails asset variants.\n\nArt (Ships)\nIn the UK, the Ship team progressed with the MISC Hull A, finalizing the cockpit and dashboard layout, exterior lighting, and all component bays. A vis-area pass was completed too.\n\nThe RSI Scorpius progressed throughout January, with most of the exterior now final-art complete. Significant effort went into the component bays and other hatches needed across the hull. The interior and wings are progressing well and are approaching final art.\n\nThe Banu Merchantman is approaching whitebox complete, with the team doing more in the whitebox phase due to the ship\u2019s sheer size and complexity.\n\nPlus, great progress was made on the unannounced vehicle mentioned last month, while another began its whitebox phase.\n\nThe US-based team moved the Drake Vulture through final art, lighting both the interior and exterior and finishing the wear and damage passes. They\u2019re currently closing out LODs and cleaning up loose items in preparation for release.\n\nThe Consolidated Outland HoverQuad received final polish and received a few minor additions to the dashboard and thrusters.\n\nThe team progressed with final art for the Drake Corsair\u2019s cockpit and mess hall. They\u2019re currently working through solutions for adding chowline features and other ship items to the limited space of the mess hall. They also polished the walls, framework, and canopy frame for the cockpit.\n\nCommunity\nThe Community team kicked off the year by announcing the winners of the Manufacturer Season's Greetings, 2951 Luminalia Screenshots, and Payday Videos contests.\n\nThey also supported the release of Alpha 3.16.1 with a Patch Watch that offered additional insight into the Derelict Ship puzzles and a CDF infographic for the upcoming XenoThreat Dynamic Event. They also published their usual This Month in Star Citizen post, showcasing all the highlights coming in February.\n\nIn addition, the Community team kicked off Lunar New Year 2022 and Red Festival 2952 alongside the Red Festival 2952 Screenshot Contest.\n\nOutside of events, the team took time to evaluate the effectiveness of the Guide System, and worked to set out a plan for improvements\/new additions, including exploring additional incentives. They also took a deep dive into a holistic look at engagement and sentiment throughout 2021, establishing goals set to raise the bar even higher in 2022.\n\nLastly, the team has been hyper-focused on a complete overhaul of the web-based Community Hub, which will soon become a one-stop-shop for all things community content, events, and more (it's super cool).\n\nEngine\nIn January, the Physics teams prepared for the configuration and setup of sim and cloth skins via item ports. Furthermore, code was restructured to allow mesh baking on soft body instances within the animation system. For vehicles, anti-flip measures were implemented for \u201cturtling\u201d vehicles using physical movement. The vehicle inspector tool that's used for development now also allows the team to control stiffness properties.\n\nFor the renderer, further progress was made on the transition to Gen12. Various instance buffers are now precreated to prevent slowdowns at runtime that were caused if created on demand per frame. Render support for not-yet-streamed-in meshes was added. CGA attachments now also render via Gen12. Support for GBuffer decals was added, and empty render passes can now be skipped in the render graph. Additionally, various optimizations for the reference counting of PSO cache instances during rendering were committed. The team are now looking at supporting HW skinning for Gen12.\n\nRegarding atmosphere and cloud rendering, last month's code cleanup for back integration was completed and the latest code (including various improvements to features and optimized techniques that are still in progress) was submitted to the main development branch. The adoption of volumetric clouds in Squadron 42 revealed an issue with parameters passing into relevant systems during level loading, which was fixed. The next steps are looking at another new idea for data reprojection and to start porting code to Gen12.\n\nOn the core systems, the team refactored the recently introduced arena allocator into a buddy allocator. The entity component update scheduler's (ECUS) visibility culling was improved and old ECUS code was removed now that the new entity-centric component update code is actively used. Furthermore, the job manager's wake-up code was further optimized. Part of the team is currently working on area and tag refactoring as well as continuing to investigate a potential integration of EASTL.\n\nFeatures (Characters & Weapons)\nThe start of the year saw the Features team wrapping up code-driven inverse kinematics (IK). This feature offers an alternative to the existing animation-driven IK by using asset-specific mark-up instead of skeleton joints to drive the IK targets and blends at run-time. This will allow for reduced joints in skeletons, which is good for performance but also greatly improves iteration time when trying different IK solutions. The name comes from code assigning meaning to the asset mark-up, so the animated feature and its gameplay logic are working hand in hand.\n\nAnother significant undertaking nearing completion is a full fidelity pass on the player animations used when grabbing something from the suit or putting it back. For example, a grenade from a chest slot or MedPen from a side pocket. There are a large number of poses to consider for the various stances the player may assume and the conditions they may be in, such as running while drunk or crouching while injured. Currently, the team are reviewing the timings to hit the sweet spot of responsive and fast interaction without losing animation quality and readability.\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nIn January, the EU team continued to work on ship-to-ship refueling for release. The remaining bugs for the laser trip mine were fixed in support of derelicts, while the last issues with mining gadgets were attended to.\n\nAdditional work for loot generation began that will allow NPCs to carry procedurally generated items in their pockets. This also included adding the ability for the Mission Feature team to control the items in NPC inventories. Development of the engineering gameplay loop and life support kicked off too.\n\nThe US team worked on item selling and reputation gameplay improvements along with background tasks for the Q2 cargo refactor.\n\nFeatures (Vehicles)\nIn January, Vehicle Features finalized the grav-lev update.\n\n\u201cThe release of the grav-lev rework last year was very successful but there were still some issues we wanted to work on. The most significant being the issue of bikes jumping around and moving wildly when players got off. This was due to a sampling rate issue with harmonic motion only occurring on the server due to its framerate. Fixing it proved quite challenging and required us to refactor some parts of the new grav-lev code. This was completed in early January and the fix, among others, will come in the Alpha 3.16.1 patch.\u201d Vehicle Features Team\n\nAlongside grav-lev, the team worked on additional goals including jump points, restricted areas, and the transit-system refactor. They also supported the EUPU team with their work on resource networks, exploring how to integrate the system into vehicles to improve how power, heat, fuel, and other resources work.\n\nGraphics & VFX Programming\nThe Graphics and VFX Programming team continued to work on shaders, with various improvements to screen space reflections resulting in much sharper and stable reflections with softer falloff where they can\u2019t be calculated. They also cleaned up the volumetric lighting shader for water and continued to iterate on new wear shaders with the various art teams.\n\nFor render-to-texture (RTT), fixes were implemented to async creation\/deletion relating to streaming and reference counting.\n\nFor Gen12, the team fixed multiple issues including particles not being visible and various cubemap problems. They added support for particle GPU refraction and split render-passes to inject another pass, began testing Gen12 shadows, and investigated issues with RTT in Gen12. They also began converting the game\u2019s post-effect system and G-force effect.\n\nFor Vulkan, the team looked at validation\/regression issues and investigated the spec of Vulkan 1.3.\n\nThe VFX team focused on damage map work, code interface support for the Weapons team, and made a start on the CPU damage map. They also continued with the fire-hazard feature, investigating issues with the fire igniter not working and fixing issues with resetting fire.\n\nLighting\nThe Lighting team began the year making headway into the performance optimizations planned for all landing zones. This time, they focused on the main domes of New Babbage, simplifying lighting setups where possible.\n\nLocations\nThe Montreal-based Locations team started 2022 polishing and debugging the derelict crash sites.\n\n\u201cWe want to thank the community for the comments and feedback given through Issue Council, Spectrum, Reddit, Twitch, etc. during the PTU. This allowed us to tweak the crash sites in various ways: Making the lootboxes more visible, doing a lighting pass so navigation is easier at night, revisiting the lootbox content (ammo should now be the same as the gun offered in the lootbox and there should be more scopes and muzzles spawning), fixing some layout issues where some of you would get stuck, and generally adding more laser mines to the various sites.\u201d Locations Team\n\nThey also wrapped up their work on the upcoming hospital locations. This involved putting the finishing touches to the Maria Pure of Heart Hospital in Lorville, adding variations to the space clinics, and finishing the Levski clinic so it\u2019s ready to ship once the location is available. Part of the team has since moved on to preproduction and proof-of-concept for Derelicts v2.\n\nMontreal Tools Team\nMontreal\u2019s Tools team completed their Mighty Bridge tool, which is the integration of Houdini into the editor. This allows various teams to use Houdini to create new tools that will help content creation across development. For example, the Tools team is using it to develop the \u2018procedural locations creation tool\u2019 alongside developing solutions that will be used for derelicts and other locations.\n\nThe team also integrated workflow improvements to Robohesse, a tool used to facilitate more stable development builds and the editor toolbar used by the designers.\n\nNarrative\nNarrative started the year writing scripts for a new mission type in anticipation of an upcoming motion-capture session. They also worked closely with Design on a new Dynamic Event, walking through the dialogue and what would trigger each line. Once complete, they drafted scripts for the event\u2019s various characters.\n\nThe team also recorded new announcement sets to improve the ambient life across several upcoming locations. Additional lore was required for Lorville\u2019s environmental set dressing too.\n\nElsewhere, the team continued to support Design with text for various game items. New lore dispatches were published, including a Traveler\u2019s Day themed Something Every Tuesday and an Empire Report detailing a shakeup within the Addison administration. They also planned 2022\u2019s dispatch and Jump Point content.\n\nSystemic Services & Tools\nSystemic Services & Tools (SST) started the year working on various internal tools, including a visualizer for certain parts of the simulation. Work was done to make older internal tools easier to access through CopyBuild, and development on automation and scheduling for Dynamic Events began that will be used when manual activation isn't appropriate.\n\nDevelopment on the various services from last year was completed, while direct connection work was done to help alleviate certain bottlenecks in the backend. Support for the selling feature is still underway, with SST working closely with the gameplay teams on the final elements.\n\nTech Animation\nTech Animation spent January addressing long-standing issues and upgraded all team members to the latest version of Maya. This transition created some complications with the source files, which were addressed.\n\nThe team had the mandate of batch-upgrading all Maya animations (around 41000). Legacy character sets were the root cause of some bad animation parsing on file load, so these were dealt with at the same time.\n\n\u201cOur animation repository is now in the best state it\u2019s been in a long time, and our users have moved over to the new software with minimal problems.\u201d Tech Animation Team\n\nUI\nIn January, the UI Feature and Tech teams supported the release of Alpha 3.16.1 and XenoThreat by addressing bugs, crashes, and performance issues. They also started transferring ownership of some UI features to the SQ42 Feature Team to fast-track their development.\n\nFor refueling gameplay, polishing was done on the MISC Starfarer\u2019s screens and support was given to the EUPU team to address any outstanding issues. Work on the new Starmap continued, with progress made on concepts, prototypes, and core technology.\n\nThe team continued building the core systems for the new AR markers while working on icons for the various marker types and states. Like many other teams, they continued to update features to support Persistent Streaming and worked closely with the Persistent Tech team to ensure they were on schedule.\n\nUI Tech continued developing additional Building Blocks features, some of which will be used in the hacking feature. Additional planning went into the pre-production process of the new Building Blocks editor too, which involved creating wireframes.\n\nFinally, additional concepts for the new mobiGlas and Origin UI styles were created and iterated on.\n\nVehicle Tech\nThe Vehicle Tech team worked on bugs for Alpha 3.16.1, including XenoThreat and its new ship content. Attention was also given to fixing ship-related quality-of-life issues in the gameplay experience.\n\nIn addition, tasks were completed for the upcoming radar and scanning improvements, which will make it easier and more fun to locate and find various entities across space, including receiving better feedback results for the scanner operator.\n\nFinally for Vehicle Tech, major work on future doors and connected components progressed, which will create a unified system of items that are more easily implemented by designers and artists.\n\n\u201cThis is particularly important as some of our vehicles were created using some legacy systems that don\u2019t always work well with the concept of the room system or portals. As our ships are essentially flying superstructures of connected rooms and spaces, the need to optimize this system has become quite evident - no one wants a door control panel to become inoperable or to get stuck in an entrance elevator!\u201d Vehicle Tech Team\n\nVFX\nVFX started the year with a full pass on the Consolidated Outland HoverQuad. They also took the opportunity to work on improvements to the wake effects for all hover vehicles. As this requires code changes from both the VFX and Vehicle Programming teams, it will be rolled out in a future release. They also continued to work on effects for the salvage tool, moving into the production phase.\n\nThe team also cleaned up some of the older particle libraries being used in several locations, such as derelict ships. This included converting several particle effects from the CPU to the GPU, which gives performance benefits but also allows the artists to make visual improvements where necessary."},"links_count":0,"comment_count":0,"created_at":"2022-02-02T21:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"4 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-04-30 11:02:12","valid_relations":["images","links","translations"],"prev_id":18534,"next_id":18536}}