{"data":{"id":18617,"title":"Star Citizen Monthly Report: March 2022","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/18617-Star-Citizen-Monthly-Report-March-2022","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/18617","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/18617","channel":"Feedback","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":13,"translations":{"en_EN":"PU Monthly Report\nMarch 2022\nWith Alpha 3.17 approaching fast, many teams spent the month finalizing tasks for the impending release. However, significant progress was made on important features coming later in the year, including Pyro and salvage. Read on for everything done throughout March.\n\nAI Content\nLast month, the AI Content team added the final polish to the drink\u2019s vendor feature, which will release in the upcoming Alpha 3.17 patch. The animation polish process begins with the animation director playing through the feature and uploading a video to ShotGrid. From there, it\u2019s annotated with text overlays, painted sketches, and narrated commentary. These points are then actioned by the animator owning the feature to improve the overall visual quality of the delivered product.\n\nWork on the food vendor is coming to an end, with the designers creating tutorial videos and written documentation to help the Level Design teams implement more food vendors throughout the \u2018verse in an upcoming patch.\n\nAdditionally, the team provided bug-fixing support for an upcoming event, including for the tourist and tour guide AI behaviors released last year. These behaviors didn\u2019t move or speak since they were last used which, after an initial investigation, turned out to be caused by changes to the animation database.\n\nThe security, vending machine, and arcade machine work mentioned in previous reports progressed well, with final animation polish passes currently underway.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re really looking forward to sharing our recent vendor work, so come to Area18 for a drink when Alpha 3.17 releases!\u201d AI Content Team\n\nAI Features\nThroughout March, AI Features worked on quality-of-life tasks for AI Content, including how they author usables and how they work with \u2018stances,\u2019 which are different character body positions that affect all movement and idle animations. For example, stand, crouch, and prone.\n\nPreviously, stances were set up for use in a specific alignment slot (the different options for accessing a usable). Now, stances are set up for different uses. For example, the wall panel usable has only one place to enter it but has different use slots for the upper and lower panels that require the stand and crouch stances respectively. The team also set up enter and scooch animations that blend correctly from the current stance into the usable\u2019s target stance. This allows them to have different enter animations for each panel.\n\nHaving the correct stance setup in the usable is also important when the character exits the usable unexpectedly. With this in mind, the team recorded first-reaction animations for various stances.\n\nFinally for AI Features, functionality was implemented to allow the team to process Subsumption events through the audio map, which simulates event propagation as audio stimuli. This is currently used to allow NPCs to alert friendly characters that they\u2019ve found a dead body.\n\nAI Tech\nAI Tech began the month addressing feedback on the initial implementation of planetary navigation tech, which was then passed onto several teams for use in various scenarios.\n\nOne improvement is the addition of a priority manager to help calculate which areas require navigation mesh regeneration; the positions of players, NPCs, and vehicles are currently used to determine where nav-mesh is required.\n\nTo enable the designers to request realistic NPC reinforcements on planets via spaceship (as mentioned in February\u2019s report), the team began developing functionality to allow NPC pilots to spawn and adjust the dynamic landing and take-off splines. They also improved the spline creation process for smoother landings and takeoffs, and adjusted the tactical point system queries to work on planets and find the points where NPCs will move to as they disembark. Simple behaviors were implemented to showcase this new feature too.\n\nThe development of technology allowing NPCs to correctly push and operate movable entities, like trolleys, continued. The team also added further improvements for locomotion and grip-posing on trolleys with different layouts and began implementing parking spots for movable objects.\n\nSeveral fixes and improvements were implemented into the Subsumption editor tool, including a full graph map of outlier behaviors, a visual grid and snap functionality, the ability to quick-insert nodes at the mouse cursor position, and an easier way to drop connections from a node.\n\nAI Tech continued to refactor the NPC movement request system to allow for more consistent synchronization of states between server and client and to unify the way NPC movements are processed to reduce inconsistencies.\n\nThey also created more automated feature tests to improve stability and fixed bugs for Alpha 3.17.\n\nAI Vehicle Features\nThe Vehicle Features team was working alongside AI on behaviors that will benefit both the PU and Squadron 42. The aim is to improve flight behaviors to be more dynamic and closer to how Human players behave in combat. They also focused on a ship tactic for fighters taking on capital ships.\n\nAnimation\nAnimation spent the month focusing on facial animations for numerous shipbound characters. They also worked on the Shubin Interstellar mining tool and finalized the first version of vendors.\n\nArt (Characters)\nCharacter Art focused on the frontier outfits for Pyro alongside various Nine Tails assets for an event later in the year. Subscriber items and a salvage-themed backpack progressed too.\n\nThe team also welcomed new character artists in Montreal, with onboarding and training completed throughout March.\n\nArt (Ships)\nIn the UK, Ship Art progressed with a number of vehicles, including the Hull A, which is currently being closed out for its release in Alpha 3.17.\n\nThe Scorpius\u2019 cockpit was finalized, including lighting and LODs, while the Banu Merchantman progressed through the exterior R&D phase.\n\nThe first of three unannounced vehicles is now close to being final-art complete. The second is progressing through the greybox stage, while the third had its initial kick-off and is now in the early stages of whiteboxing.\nIn the US, the team moved the Drake Vulture down the pipeline, which involved creating further art to support mobile repair as part of repair and salvage gameplay. They also added additional functionality to the pilot\u2019s overhead dashboard to support salvage modes.\n\nSignificant progress was made on various parts of the Drake Corsair too: The co-pilot dashboard was designed and built with an overhang for better visibility, while the co-pilot\u2019s seat is nearly complete and now features a mechanism that moves it down into its final position. The ship\u2019s foyer was finalized, work on the turret interiors began, and development kicked off on the crew quarters and engineering room. The team also progressed with the exterior greybox, with work moving from the now-completed nose back towards the tail.\n\nCommunity\nThe Community team started March debriefing the last XenoThreat Dynamic Event, sharing an\u202finfographic\u202fof how much work players put into defending the Stanton system. They then kicked off the in-lore St. Patrick's Day equivalent,\u202fStella Fortuna, and its\u202fToast the Stars contest.\n\nIn preparation for Alpha 3.17, they published two Patch Watch comm-links, featuring details of lesser-known upcoming features, including the weapons refactor\u202fand Quantum. Community also published a step-by-step guide on\u202fship-to-ship refueling.\n\nAlongside supporting various engagements, work continued on a revamp to the Community Hub, improvements to the Guide System, and other unannounced events.\n\nEngine\nIn March, the Physics team added a new soft-body deformation approach for character cloth. They also implemented island-wide, broad phase collision detection to reduce the number of external parts of entities to check against. The steering of vehicles' rear wheels at high speeds was reduced too.\n\n\nFor physical damage, initial changes were submitted for the tracking of breakable clusters. Furthermore, an action was added to move a spaceship entity to a specific state in a set amount of time. Lastly, a prototype using batch workers to step physics to improve thread wakeups and concurrency was implemented.\n\n\nOn the renderer, the transition to Gen12 continued. For example, the handling of decals in RTT passes was refactored, and various bugs casued by the enabling of brush rendering via Gen12 were fixed. Planet terrain rendering was optimized and support for the sunlight render node was added. Various APIs were improved to make them more consistent, efficient, and less verbose to use. The team also started refining the const correctness of APIs when dealing with returned weak pointers. The shadow mask stage was also refactored to use transient constant buffers and remove reflected constants and binding constants via an explicit layout and buffer instead.\n\n\nPlanet terrain height maps and planet terrain shadows are now fully ported. Tessellation code for rendering planet terrain patches into height maps was improved for a more consistent triangle density. Meanwhile, a bug in the processing of scattering queries for clouds was revealed to be an application issue and fixed (it was previously worked around).\n\n\nOn the core engine side, more code was cleaned up using Include-What-You-Use. Additionally, more time was spent on integrating EASTL. Various optimizations were made, including updates to animated lights. More system updates (to the main camera and flagging of vis areas affected by the sun) were moved into parallel jobs to reduce the runtime cost of the main thread. Lastly, global locks were replaced with per-instance locks for fuzzy entity access.\n\nSupport was also given to Alpha 3.17.\n\nFeatures (Arena Commander)\nThe Vehicle Technical team completed their transition to the Arena Commander Feature team. As part of the move, they reviewed the backlog of Arena Commander bugs to determine their immediate priorities.\n\nRadar and scanning is also nearing completion. Door and control panel implementation tool improvements are also underway, paving the ways for easier and more reliable interactions in vehicles and space stations.\n\nFeatures (Characters & Weapons)\nIn March, the team improved various features based on feedback from testing Alpha 3.17 in the PTU, including making the inventory more robust. They also worked on issues with the initial spawning flow that caused players to spawn without a body.\n\nCorpse-spawning logic was also improved to ensure quitting out early doesn't break the flow and to make the flow less likely to timeout or fail to spawn the corpse entity itself.\n\nThe Features team also revisited grenade throwing, as it was reported to be highly unreliable. Grenades should now be significantly less likely to explode in the hands or at the feet of the player throwing them. They should now no longer \u2018rubber band\u2019 back into the hand after being thrown and always visibly explode on the local client too.\n\nA large number of bug fixes were done. For example, ensuring that certain hairstyles don\u2019t clip through helmets, and dropping a carried helmet will no longer cause the player to suffocate. A fault causing some vendor interaction menus and weapon customization UIs to appear offset was rectified too.\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nThe PU team worked through user feedback and bug fixes for the upcoming release of refueling. Progress was also made on the HUD UI for salvage, which is currently going through the iteration process.\n\nFor engineering gameplay, an example scene was created featuring a village with a battery, power supply unit, and lamp post. The goal was to give an easy introduction to other teams to help them begin utilizing a systemic approach to resources.\n\nLife support progressed well, with the life-support generator now able to remove the atmosphere from a room and convert CO2 into O2.\n\nFeatures (Mission)\nMission Features continued to provide game-code support and bug fixes for the new selling UI screens. They also fixed various issues with law and hostility alongside general bugs for the upcoming Alpha 3.17 release.\n\nFeatures (Vehicles)\nLast month, the Vehicle Features team worked on refueling, including integrating the docking systems and rebalancing vehicle fuel efficiency and scooping. They also rebalanced and retuned distortion so that it\u2019s more about negatively affecting a ship rather than outright disabling it.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re still actively working on this feature, which is planned for release in Alpha 3.17. However, we\u2019re hoping you can give feedback on this and help us improve the balance!\u201d Vehicle Features Team\n\nThey also progressed with a lot of upcoming ship releases, particularly the MISC Hull A and RSI Scorpius, which both use new animation and ship-state tech. On the Hull A, this new tech is used on the extending cargo arms and how they integrate with the cargo system. For the Scorpius, it allows the turret to move along its rail.\n\nAI flight behavior was further developed alongside the AI team, which will benefit both the PU and Squadron 42. When complete, AI behavior will be more dynamic and closer to how Human players would behave in combat.\n\nFinally, the team began a deep investigation into net sync issues currently being experienced in the PU. They made some great improvements that are currently being tested in the Alpha 3.17 builds at the moment.\n\nGraphics & VFX Programming\nLast month, the Graphics team focused on fixing bugs for Alpha 3.17 and GameDev stability. For example, adding fixes for water volumes not rendering, solving issues with exporting light links, and cleaning up RTT.\n\nThere were also updates to various shaders, with submits for the per-material auto C-buffer layout and minor improvements for Booleans as shader parameters.\n\nFor the ongoing Gen12 transition, the team fixed various bugs from integration into the Alpha 3.17 stream, such as shadow flickering, LOD ratio issues caused by the porting of skinned meshes, and multiple crash fixes. The team continued with the Gen12 scaleform porting, making modifications to the execution order and interface to match the current behavior of RTTM. Work also began on moving scattering query analytical shadows to Gen12.\n\nFor Vulkan, minor changes were made to descriptor indexing for internal bugs, while fixes were made to a crash relating to headless client metric gathering and warning updates for RenderDoc.\n\nLighting\nThroughout March, the Lighting team focused on an upcoming event, with a split between supporting new mission locations and sanity checking existing spaces. A full lighting pass was done on a key exterior location too.\n\nLocations (EU)\nLast month, the Locations teams worked across a variety of different areas, all of which are in various stages of completion, from early pre-production to nearing completion.\n\nWork continued towards \u2018final\u2019 on the colonialism outposts, with more variants and modules being completed. In conjunction with the new \u2018Rastar\u2019 tool gaining a wider feature set, the team began dedicated playtesting in the lead up to a wider distribution across the systems they\u2019ll first be seen in.\n\n\u201cVery early pre-production began on some interesting space-based locations, which won\u2019t be seen for a while but are already getting Design and Art\u2019s creative juices flowing.\u201d Locations Team\n\nThe next iteration of the underground facility progressed through whitebox, with layouts being tested to ensure good gameplay and flow. An update to caves is also in whitebox, with a focus on improving the readability and traverse-ability alongside a visual facelift.\n\nWhitebox work also continued for the rundown space station variants, which are planned for Pyro\u2019s initial release. The wider team supported hardening and bug fixing for Alpha 3.17 too.\n\nLocations (Montreal)\nIn Montreal, the Sandbox team iterated on the Reclaimer-based derelict settlement. On the art side, they tweaked the silhouette of the crash site and continued progressing toward the final phase. They also continued onboarding the missions system and now have three fully functional missions in this settlement. They\u2019ll be able to iterate further when planetary navmesh becomes available to wider development.\n\nThe derelict 600i and Crusader Mercury derelicts mentioned in last month\u2019s report are progressing smoothly. Last month, the team completed the initial versions of the crashed ships and currently looking into the pipeline to make them salvageable.\n\nPart of the team began creating space-based missions inside a Reclaimer, with the basic flow and mission logic implemented and working properly. This is part of the team\u2019s onboarding to the mission system, with the objective to start by reusing existing modules. Once they\u2019re more comfortable with the systems, they\u2019ll create variations of the existing missions.\n\n\u201cWe noticed that the Grim HEX hospital could get quite busy, especially during the Jump Town event. To fix this issue, we significantly expanded its size. There used to be only 3 medical rooms available; with this update, we\u2019ll have over 60. This way, all players will be able to respawn and get back into the action as quickly as possible.\u201d Sandbox Team\n\nFinally, the team officially started the Lorville cityscape update. The concepting phase is done and the layout was blocked out. When complete, the scale of Lorville will be dramatically increased and allow more space for building interiors.\n\nNarrative\nThroughout March, Narrative continued to support Design implement an upcoming event scenario, providing mission text and written content to further sell the story.\n\nThe team went through the editorial process on one of the new mission NPCs captured during last month\u2019s mo-cap session and submitted the data for processing. Once the assets make their way through the Animation and Audio teams, Narrative will test the mission with final dialogue. Once complete, they\u2019ll record alternative versions of the script to add variety.\n\nLooking forward, Narrative began building out some of the shops and franchises that players will visit in the future. Working from a list devised by Design, the initial goal was to outline the various services and items currently provided by stores and build a list to ensure coverage and variety moving forward. Once the types and numbers were decided, the team began brainstorming names and brief descriptions to help sell the flavor of the stores and intended shopping experience.\n\nNarrative continued to work alongside AI on a system designed to breathe a new level of life into the universe.\n\nSeveral members of the team answered community questions on an episode of Star Citizen Live. On the RSI website, the team posted a Portfolio of the armor manufacturer Tehachapi, published a new episode of Showdown that debated the hotly contested issue of AI development, and shared a new Aremis Post article about a Tevarin\u2019s attempts to find a home for their family. The month was capped off with another update to the Galactapedia.\n\nProps\nProps spent March finalizing the requested assets for an upcoming event. They also worked on several unannounced items for the community that are coming along well.\n\nSignificant work was also done for Pyro, specifically on the vendor shop signs, trash, and some special extras.\n\nQA\nQA\u2019s primary publishing focus was delivering Alpha 3.17 to the Evocati. Live QA shadowed this process, running their own feature and LTP testing. Live QA also took on more publishing tasks as needed and focused on future QATRs for upcoming in-game events.\n\nDevelopment-wise, the QA team handed off the process between Dev QA and Live QA, gated Alpha 3.17 before Evocati, and verified fixes and stability issues. They then began publishing to Evocati and continued to support publishing. Testing also continued on must-fix issues and in-game spaces for an upcoming event.\n\nNew testers were also onboarded and trained, while new processes between publishing and development were created.\n\nTech Animation\nThe Technical Animation team spent the month iterating on their rework of the internal DNA system. This update will allow them to expand the gene pool used to create believable heads in-game and ultimately offer more variety to players.\n\n\u201cIt has been a lengthy initiative but it is finally coming to a close with a heavy round of testing and bug fixing to make it ready for integration into the game.\u201d Technical Animation Team\n\nAlongside this, they revisited several head assets requiring updates and, in some cases, a complete overhaul. The ongoing head-scanning initiative is currently supplying the team with new archetypes that are being extracted and turned into full, game-ready facial rigs.\n\nTech Animation also maintained the existing animation pipeline alongside spearheading initiatives to supersede older technology to expedite in-house workflows.\n\nTools (Montreal)\nFollowing on from last month\u2019s report, the Tools team completed the integration of Mighty Bridge into the editor and the inclusion of Houdini to Mighty Bridge. This makes Houdini-based tools accessible to everyone inside the company both on the PU and Squadron 42.\n\nOn the code side, the team are adding Houdini-related functionality to Mighty Bridge, including the ability to utilize terrain geometry.\n\nOn the technical art side, two major areas of development progressed. The first is the Procedural Location tool, which will speed up the production of certain locations. The team are currently designing the tool\u2019s template system to allow the designers and artists to procedurally generate various locations, such as derelict outposts and settlements, caves, and underground facilities.\n\nThe second area is biome integration, which involves a collection of tools to help the Art teams better integrate locations into a planet\u2019s specific biome. The first case study uses the derelict Reclaimer settlement. Tools are taking the Art team\u2019s handcrafted proof-of-concept and automating some of the processes to make creating more easier. For example, one tool automatically places vines and dirt around the crashed spaceship, which is usually a time-consuming task.\n\nTurbulent (Services)\nIn March, Turbulent\u2019s Online Services team delivered the reputation service, which passed QATR with zero reported bugs so far. They also completed the majority of work for the login-flow refactor project, including the rental service, putting together the main login loop, entitlement service, and login service.\n\nThe Live Tools team rolled out improvements to the local dev environment system. They\u2019re now using the new Hex modular UI on the PTU and are starting to leverage the templating system to quickly add new tools in the Network Operation Center.\n\nThe team began drafting new modules to enable the developers, Player Support, and QA to monitor and troubleshoot login issues users might encounter.\n\nTurbulent (Web Platform)\nThe Web team in Montreal began adding new web features for upcoming events, ensuring all components are reusable and of the highest possible quality.\n\nThe Turbulent Architecture and E-Commerce team added several tools, including a new flow to make redeeming promotion codes easier.\n\nTwo CI pipeline flows were further developed for increased performance and reduced wait time on builds.\n\nThe Turbulent and internal Community teams progressed with the rework of the Community Hub. The Home and Discover pages are ready for launch, while progress was made on the post-creation and follow tools.\n\nUI\nThroughout March, UI continued with two long-term projects that will benefit both the PU and SQ42: the visor refactor and the new radar and maps. The visor refactor involves updating the visor and lens so that they work in Building Blocks, which will make it perform better and be easier to work with. Last month\u2019s work focused on weapons, the actor status display, and law-related elements.\n\nFor radar and maps, the team focused on the basics of the full-screen version of the radar and added the ability to zoom in on contacts to see their 3D models.\n\nOn the tech side, support was given and bugs were fixed for radar and maps alongside tasks for Alpha 3.17. The team also updated the mouse cursor to run in-hardware, which makes it more responsive and allows it to change between different elements, such as sliders and 3D controls.\n\nVFX\nMarch saw the team complete the VFX production pass for the MISC Hull A alongside pre-production passes for the RSI Scorpius and an as-yet-unannounced vehicle.\n\nProgress was also made on salvage effects, with the team adding more refinement to the visuals, including hull scraping and repair effects. They also worked on the refueling effects, which were completed to a functional standard for the feature\u2019s initial release (they will be improved upon at a later date).\n\nFinally, UI provided bug-fixing and clean-up support for Alpha 3.17.","de_DE":"PU-Monatsbericht\nM\u00e4rz 2022\nDa Alpha 3.17 immer n\u00e4her r\u00fcckt, haben viele Teams den Monat damit verbracht, Aufgaben f\u00fcr die bevorstehende Ver\u00f6ffentlichung abzuschlie\u00dfen. Aber auch bei wichtigen Features, die im Laufe des Jahres kommen werden, wie Pyro und Bergung, wurden gro\u00dfe Fortschritte gemacht. Lies weiter, um zu erfahren, was im M\u00e4rz passiert ist.\n\nKI-Inhalte\nIm vergangenen Monat hat das Team f\u00fcr KI-Inhalte die letzte Feinabstimmung f\u00fcr die H\u00e4ndlerfunktion des Getr\u00e4nks vorgenommen, die mit dem kommenden Patch Alpha 3.17 ver\u00f6ffentlicht wird. Der Feinschliff der Animation beginnt damit, dass der Animationsdirektor das Feature durchspielt und ein Video in ShotGrid hochl\u00e4dt. Von dort aus wird es mit Text\u00fcberlagerungen, gemalten Skizzen und Kommentaren versehen. Diese Punkte werden dann von dem Animator, der f\u00fcr den Film verantwortlich ist, bearbeitet, um die visuelle Qualit\u00e4t des fertigen Produkts zu verbessern.\n\nDie Arbeit an den Essensverk\u00e4ufern neigt sich dem Ende zu. Die Designer erstellen Tutorial-Videos und schriftliche Dokumentationen, die den Level-Design-Teams helfen sollen, in einem kommenden Patch weitere Essensverk\u00e4ufer im ganzen Spiel zu implementieren.\n\nAu\u00dferdem hat das Team Fehlerbehebungen f\u00fcr ein bevorstehendes Event vorgenommen, u. a. f\u00fcr das Verhalten der Touristen- und Reiseleiter-KI, die letztes Jahr ver\u00f6ffentlicht wurde. Diese Verhaltensweisen bewegten sich seit ihrer letzten Verwendung nicht mehr und sprachen auch nicht mehr, was nach einer ersten Untersuchung auf \u00c4nderungen in der Animationsdatenbank zur\u00fcckzuf\u00fchren war.\n\nDie Arbeiten an den Sicherheits-, Automaten- und Spielhallenautomaten, die in fr\u00fcheren Berichten erw\u00e4hnt wurden, sind gut vorangekommen, und die letzten Animationen werden derzeit poliert.\n\n\"Wir freuen uns schon sehr darauf, unsere Arbeit an den Automaten mit euch zu teilen, also kommt auf einen Drink in die Area18, wenn die Alpha 3.17 ver\u00f6ffentlicht wird!\" AI Content Team\n\nKI-Funktionen\nDen ganzen M\u00e4rz \u00fcber hat das AI Features Team an der Lebensqualit\u00e4t von AI Content gearbeitet. Dazu geh\u00f6rt auch, wie sie Usables erstellen und wie sie mit \"Stances\" arbeiten, also verschiedenen K\u00f6rperpositionen, die sich auf alle Bewegungen und Leerlaufanimationen auswirken. Zum Beispiel: Stehen, Hocken und Bauchlage.\n\nFr\u00fcher wurden Stellungen f\u00fcr die Verwendung in einem bestimmten Ausrichtungsslot eingerichtet (die verschiedenen Optionen f\u00fcr den Zugriff auf eine nutzbare Position). Jetzt sind die Stellungen f\u00fcr verschiedene Verwendungen eingerichtet. Das Wandpaneel hat zum Beispiel nur einen Platz, um es zu betreten, aber verschiedene Slots f\u00fcr das obere und untere Paneel, die die Stellungen Stehen bzw. Hocken erfordern. Das Team hat au\u00dferdem Animationen zum Betreten und Hocken erstellt, die korrekt von der aktuellen Haltung in die Zielhaltung des Nutzers \u00fcbergehen. So k\u00f6nnen sie f\u00fcr jedes Feld unterschiedliche Eintrittsanimationen haben.\n\nDie richtige Haltung ist auch dann wichtig, wenn die Spielfigur unerwartet aus der benutzbaren Position herauskommt. Zu diesem Zweck hat das Team Animationen f\u00fcr die erste Reaktion auf verschiedene Haltungen aufgenommen.\n\nBei den KI-Funktionen schlie\u00dflich wurde eine Funktion implementiert, mit der das Team Subsumption-Ereignisse \u00fcber die Audiomap verarbeiten kann, die die Ausbreitung von Ereignissen als Audiostimuli simuliert. Damit k\u00f6nnen NSCs befreundete Charaktere darauf hinweisen, dass sie eine Leiche gefunden haben.\n\nKI-Technik\nZu Beginn des Monats befasste sich die KI-Abteilung mit dem Feedback zur ersten Implementierung der Planetennavigationstechnologie, die dann an mehrere Teams zur Verwendung in verschiedenen Szenarien weitergegeben wurde.\n\nEine Verbesserung ist die Hinzuf\u00fcgung eines Priorit\u00e4tsmanagers, der bei der Berechnung der Gebiete hilft, die eine Regeneration des Navigationsnetzes ben\u00f6tigen. Die Positionen von Spielern, NSCs und Fahrzeugen werden derzeit verwendet, um zu bestimmen, wo ein Navigationsnetz ben\u00f6tigt wird.\n\nUm den Designern die M\u00f6glichkeit zu geben, realistische NSC-Verst\u00e4rkungen auf Planeten per Raumschiff anzufordern (wie im Bericht vom Februar erw\u00e4hnt), begann das Team mit der Entwicklung von Funktionen, die es NSC-Piloten erm\u00f6glichen, zu spawnen und die dynamischen Lande- und Startsplines anzupassen. Au\u00dferdem verbesserten sie die Spline-Erstellung f\u00fcr sanftere Landungen und Starts und passten die Abfragen des taktischen Punktesystems so an, dass sie auf Planeten funktionieren und die Punkte finden, zu denen sich NSCs bewegen, wenn sie von Bord gehen. Au\u00dferdem wurden einfache Verhaltensweisen implementiert, um diese neue Funktion zu pr\u00e4sentieren.\n\nDie Entwicklung von Technologien, die es NSCs erm\u00f6glichen, bewegliche Objekte wie Trolleys korrekt zu schieben und zu bedienen, wurde fortgesetzt. Das Team f\u00fcgte au\u00dferdem weitere Verbesserungen f\u00fcr die Fortbewegung und das Greifen von Trolleys mit verschiedenen Layouts hinzu und begann mit der Implementierung von Parkpl\u00e4tzen f\u00fcr bewegliche Objekte.\n\nIm Subsumption-Editor wurden mehrere Korrekturen und Verbesserungen vorgenommen, darunter eine vollst\u00e4ndige Graphikkarte f\u00fcr Ausrei\u00dferverhalten, ein visuelles Raster und eine Fangfunktion, die M\u00f6glichkeit, Knoten an der Position des Mauszeigers schnell einzuf\u00fcgen, und eine einfachere M\u00f6glichkeit, Verbindungen von einem Knoten zu l\u00f6schen.\n\nAI Tech hat das System zur Anforderung von NSC-Bewegungen weiter \u00fcberarbeitet, um eine konsistentere Synchronisierung von Zust\u00e4nden zwischen Server und Client zu erm\u00f6glichen und die Verarbeitung von NSC-Bewegungen zu vereinheitlichen, um Inkonsistenzen zu verringern.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurden mehr automatisierte Funktionstests erstellt, um die Stabilit\u00e4t zu verbessern, und Bugs f\u00fcr Alpha 3.17 behoben.\n\nKI-Fahrzeugfunktionen\nDas Team f\u00fcr Fahrzeugfunktionen hat zusammen mit der KI an Verhaltensweisen gearbeitet, die sowohl der PU als auch dem Geschwader 42 zugute kommen werden. Das Ziel ist es, das Flugverhalten zu verbessern, damit es dynamischer wird und dem Verhalten der menschlichen Spieler im Kampf n\u00e4her kommt. Au\u00dferdem haben sie sich auf eine Schiffstaktik f\u00fcr J\u00e4ger konzentriert, die es mit Gro\u00dfkampfschiffen aufnehmen.\n\nAnimation\nDie Animationsabteilung konzentrierte sich in diesem Monat auf die Gesichtsanimationen f\u00fcr zahlreiche schiffsgebundene Charaktere. Au\u00dferdem haben sie am Shubin Interstellar Mining Tool gearbeitet und die erste Version der Verk\u00e4ufer fertiggestellt.\n\nArt (Charaktere)\nCharacter Art konzentrierte sich auf die Frontier-Outfits f\u00fcr Pyro und verschiedene Nine Tails-Assets f\u00fcr ein Event sp\u00e4ter im Jahr. Au\u00dferdem wurden Gegenst\u00e4nde f\u00fcr Abonnenten und ein Rucksack mit Bergungsmotiven entwickelt.\n\nAu\u00dferdem begr\u00fc\u00dfte das Team in Montreal neue Character Artists, die im M\u00e4rz eingearbeitet und geschult wurden.\n\nKunst (Schiffe)\nIn Gro\u00dfbritannien wurde die Schiffskunst an einer Reihe von Fahrzeugen weiterentwickelt, darunter die H\u00fclle A, die derzeit f\u00fcr die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung in Alpha 3.17 fertiggestellt wird.\n\nDas Cockpit der Scorpius wurde fertiggestellt, einschlie\u00dflich Beleuchtung und LODs, w\u00e4hrend der Banu Merchantman die \u00e4u\u00dfere Forschungs- und Entwicklungsphase durchlief.\n\nDas erste der drei unangek\u00fcndigten Fahrzeuge steht nun kurz vor der Fertigstellung. Das zweite Fahrzeug durchl\u00e4uft die Greybox-Phase, w\u00e4hrend das dritte Fahrzeug den ersten Kick-off hatte und sich jetzt in der fr\u00fchen Whitebox-Phase befindet.\nIn den USA hat das Team den Drake Vulture in der Pipeline weiter vorangebracht und weitere Grafiken erstellt, um die mobile Reparatur als Teil des Reparatur- und Bergungsspiels zu unterst\u00fctzen. Au\u00dferdem wurde das Dashboard des Piloten um zus\u00e4tzliche Funktionen erweitert, um den Bergungsmodus zu unterst\u00fctzen.\n\nAuch an verschiedenen Teilen des Drake Corsair wurden erhebliche Fortschritte gemacht: Das Armaturenbrett des Co-Piloten wurde mit einem \u00dcberhang f\u00fcr bessere Sicht entworfen und gebaut, w\u00e4hrend der Sitz des Co-Piloten fast fertig ist und nun \u00fcber einen Mechanismus verf\u00fcgt, mit dem er in seine endg\u00fcltige Position gebracht werden kann. Das Foyer des Schiffes wurde fertiggestellt, die Arbeiten an der Innenausstattung der T\u00fcrme begannen und die Entwicklung der Mannschaftsunterk\u00fcnfte und des Maschinenraums wurde in Angriff genommen. Das Team machte auch Fortschritte bei der Au\u00dfengestaltung des Graukastens, wobei die Arbeiten von der nun fertiggestellten Nase zur\u00fcck zum Heck gingen.\n\nCommunity\nDas Community-Team begann den M\u00e4rz mit einer Nachbesprechung des letzten XenoThreat Dynamic Events und stellte eine Infografik zur Verf\u00fcgung, die zeigt, wie viel Arbeit die Spieler in die Verteidigung des Stanton-Systems gesteckt haben. Dann gaben sie den Startschuss f\u00fcr das St. Patrick's Day-\u00c4quivalent, Stella Fortuna, und den Toast the Stars-Wettbewerb.\n\nIn Vorbereitung auf die Alpha 3.17 wurden zwei Patch Watch Comm-Links ver\u00f6ffentlicht, die Details zu weniger bekannten kommenden Features wie dem Waffen-Refactor und Quantum enthielten. Au\u00dferdem hat die Community eine Schritt-f\u00fcr-Schritt-Anleitung f\u00fcr das Tanken von Schiff zu Schiff ver\u00f6ffentlicht.\n\nNeben der Unterst\u00fctzung verschiedener Engagements wurde auch an der \u00dcberarbeitung des Community Hubs, an Verbesserungen des Guide-Systems und an weiteren unangek\u00fcndigten Events gearbeitet.\n\nMotor\nIm M\u00e4rz f\u00fcgte das Physik-Team einen neuen Ansatz f\u00fcr die Verformung von Stoffen f\u00fcr Charaktere hinzu. Au\u00dferdem wurde eine inselweite, breit angelegte Kollisionserkennung implementiert, um die Anzahl der zu pr\u00fcfenden externen Teile von Entit\u00e4ten zu reduzieren. Die Lenkung der Hinterr\u00e4der von Fahrzeugen bei hohen Geschwindigkeiten wurde ebenfalls reduziert.\n\n\nF\u00fcr physischen Schaden wurden erste \u00c4nderungen f\u00fcr die Verfolgung von zerbrechlichen Clustern eingereicht. Au\u00dferdem wurde eine Aktion hinzugef\u00fcgt, um ein Raumschiff in einer bestimmten Zeit in einen bestimmten Zustand zu versetzen. Schlie\u00dflich wurde ein Prototyp implementiert, der Batch-Worker f\u00fcr die Physik einsetzt, um das Aufwachen von Threads und die Gleichzeitigkeit zu verbessern.\n\n\nBeim Renderer wurde der \u00dcbergang zu Gen12 fortgesetzt. So wurde zum Beispiel die Behandlung von Abziehbildern in RTT-Durchl\u00e4ufen \u00fcberarbeitet und verschiedene Fehler behoben, die durch die Aktivierung des Brush-Renderings mit Gen12 entstanden waren. Das Rendering des Planetengel\u00e4ndes wurde optimiert und die Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr den Sonnenlicht-Rendering-Knoten wurde hinzugef\u00fcgt. Verschiedene APIs wurden verbessert, um sie konsistenter, effizienter und weniger langatmig zu machen. Das Team hat au\u00dferdem damit begonnen, die Korrektheit der APIs im Umgang mit zur\u00fcckgegebenen schwachen Zeigern zu verbessern. Die Schattenmaskenstufe wurde ebenfalls \u00fcberarbeitet, um transiente Konstantenpuffer zu verwenden und stattdessen reflektierte Konstanten und Bindungskonstanten \u00fcber ein explizites Layout und Puffer zu entfernen.\n\n\nDie H\u00f6henkarten f\u00fcr das Planetengel\u00e4nde und die Schatten des Planetengel\u00e4ndes sind nun vollst\u00e4ndig portiert. Der Tessellierungscode f\u00fcr das Rendern von Planetengel\u00e4ndest\u00fccken in H\u00f6henkarten wurde verbessert, um eine einheitlichere Dreiecksdichte zu erreichen. Ein Fehler bei der Verarbeitung von Streuungsabfragen f\u00fcr Wolken wurde als Anwendungsproblem erkannt und behoben (er wurde zuvor umgangen).\n\n\nAuf der Seite der Kern-Engine wurde mehr Code mit Include-What-You-Use bereinigt. Au\u00dferdem wurde mehr Zeit auf die Integration von EASTL verwendet. Es wurden verschiedene Optimierungen vorgenommen, darunter auch Aktualisierungen der animierten Lichter. Weitere Systemaktualisierungen (f\u00fcr die Hauptkamera und die Markierung der von der Sonne betroffenen Sichtbereiche) wurden in parallele Jobs ausgelagert, um die Laufzeitkosten des Hauptthreads zu reduzieren. Schlie\u00dflich wurden globale Sperren durch Sperren pro Instanz f\u00fcr den unscharfen Zugriff auf Entit\u00e4ten ersetzt.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurde die Alpha 3.17 unterst\u00fctzt.\n\nFunktionen (Arena Commander)\nDas technische Fahrzeugteam hat den Wechsel zum Arena Commander Feature-Team abgeschlossen. Im Rahmen des Wechsels wurde der R\u00fcckstand bei den Arena Commander-Fehlern \u00fcberpr\u00fcft, um die unmittelbaren Priorit\u00e4ten zu bestimmen.\n\nRadar und Scanning stehen ebenfalls kurz vor der Fertigstellung. Au\u00dferdem werden die Werkzeuge f\u00fcr die Implementierung von T\u00fcren und Bedienfeldern verbessert, um die Interaktion in Fahrzeugen und Raumstationen einfacher und zuverl\u00e4ssiger zu gestalten.\n\nFeatures (Charaktere & Waffen)\nIm M\u00e4rz hat das Team auf der Grundlage des Feedbacks aus den Tests der Alpha 3.17 in der PTU verschiedene Funktionen verbessert, u. a. wurde das Inventar robuster gestaltet. Au\u00dferdem wurden Probleme beim anf\u00e4nglichen Spawnen behoben, die dazu f\u00fchrten, dass Spieler ohne K\u00f6rper spawnen konnten.\n\nDie Logik f\u00fcr das Spawnen von Leichen wurde ebenfalls verbessert, um sicherzustellen, dass das vorzeitige Verlassen des Spiels den Ablauf nicht unterbricht und um zu verhindern, dass der Ablauf eine Zeit\u00fcberschreitung verursacht oder die Leiche selbst nicht spawnen kann.\n\nDas Feature-Team hat auch das Werfen von Granaten \u00fcberarbeitet, da es sich als sehr unzuverl\u00e4ssig erwiesen hat. Die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass Granaten in den H\u00e4nden oder an den F\u00fc\u00dfen des werfenden Spielers explodieren, sollte nun deutlich geringer sein. Sie sollten nun nicht mehr nach dem Werfen zur\u00fcck in die Hand \"gummiert\" werden und auch auf dem lokalen Client immer sichtbar explodieren.\n\nEine gro\u00dfe Anzahl von Fehlerkorrekturen wurde durchgef\u00fchrt. So wird z. B. sichergestellt, dass bestimmte Frisuren nicht durch Helme schneiden und das Fallenlassen eines getragenen Helms nicht mehr dazu f\u00fchrt, dass der Spieler erstickt. Au\u00dferdem wurde ein Fehler behoben, der dazu f\u00fchrte, dass die Men\u00fcs f\u00fcr die Interaktion mit dem H\u00e4ndler und die Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che f\u00fcr die Waffenanpassung versetzt angezeigt wurden.\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nDas PU-Team arbeitete sich durch das Benutzerfeedback und die Fehlerbehebungen f\u00fcr die bevorstehende Ver\u00f6ffentlichung der Betankung. Au\u00dferdem wurden Fortschritte bei der HUD-Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che f\u00fcr die Bergung gemacht, die derzeit den Iterationsprozess durchl\u00e4uft.\n\nF\u00fcr das technische Gameplay wurde eine Beispielszene erstellt, die ein Dorf mit einer Batterie, einer Stromversorgungseinheit und einem Laternenpfahl zeigt. Das Ziel war es, anderen Teams einen einfachen Einstieg zu erm\u00f6glichen, um ihnen zu helfen, einen systemischen Ansatz f\u00fcr Ressourcen zu nutzen.\n\nDie Lebenserhaltung kam gut voran. Der Lebenserhaltungsgenerator kann nun die Atmosph\u00e4re aus einem Raum entfernen und CO2 in O2 umwandeln.\n\nFunktionen (Mission)\nMission Features hat weiterhin den Spielcode unterst\u00fctzt und Fehler f\u00fcr die neuen Verkaufs-UI-Bildschirme behoben. Au\u00dferdem wurden verschiedene Probleme mit dem Gesetz und der Feindseligkeit sowie allgemeine Bugs f\u00fcr die kommende Alpha 3.17 behoben.\n\nFeatures (Fahrzeuge)\nIm letzten Monat arbeitete das Team f\u00fcr Fahrzeug-Features an der Betankung, einschlie\u00dflich der Integration der Andocksysteme und der \u00dcberarbeitung der Treibstoffeffizienz und des Sch\u00f6pfens von Fahrzeugen. Au\u00dferdem wurde die Verzerrung neu ausbalanciert und abgestimmt, so dass sie sich eher negativ auf ein Schiff auswirkt, als dass sie es komplett au\u00dfer Gefecht setzt.\n\n\"Wir arbeiten immer noch aktiv an diesem Feature, das in der Alpha 3.17 ver\u00f6ffentlicht werden soll. Wir hoffen aber, dass du uns Feedback gibst und uns hilfst, die Balance zu verbessern!\" Team Fahrzeugeigenschaften\n\nAuch bei vielen kommenden Schiffsversionen wurden Fortschritte gemacht, vor allem bei der MISC Hull A und der RSI Scorpius, die beide neue Animations- und Schiffszustands-Technologien nutzen. Beim Hull A wird diese neue Technologie f\u00fcr die ausfahrbaren Ladungsarme und deren Integration in das Ladungssystem verwendet. Bei der Scorpius kann sich der Gesch\u00fctzturm entlang seiner Schiene bewegen.\n\nDas KI-Flugverhalten wurde zusammen mit dem KI-Team weiterentwickelt, was sowohl der PU als auch dem Geschwader 42 zugute kommen wird. Wenn die Entwicklung abgeschlossen ist, wird das Verhalten der KI dynamischer sein und n\u00e4her am Verhalten der menschlichen Spieler im Kampf liegen.\n\nSchlie\u00dflich begann das Team mit einer gr\u00fcndlichen Untersuchung der Netzsynchronisationsprobleme, die derzeit in der PU auftreten. Sie haben einige gro\u00dfartige Verbesserungen vorgenommen, die derzeit in den Alpha 3.17-Builds getestet werden.\n\nGrafik & VFX-Programmierung\nIm letzten Monat konzentrierte sich das Grafikteam auf die Behebung von Fehlern f\u00fcr die Alpha 3.17 und die GameDev-Stabilit\u00e4t. So wurden z.B. Probleme mit dem Rendering von Wasservolumen behoben, Probleme mit dem Export von Lichtverbindungen gel\u00f6st und die RTT bereinigt.\n\nAu\u00dferdem gab es Aktualisierungen f\u00fcr verschiedene Shader, mit Vorschl\u00e4gen f\u00fcr das automatische C-Buffer-Layout pro Material und kleineren Verbesserungen f\u00fcr Boolesche Parameter als Shader.\n\nF\u00fcr den laufenden Gen12-\u00dcbergang hat das Team verschiedene Fehler aus der Integration in den Alpha 3.17-Stream behoben, z. B. Schattenflimmern, Probleme mit dem LOD-Verh\u00e4ltnis, die durch die Portierung von Skinned Meshes verursacht wurden, und mehrere Absturzbehebungen. Das Team setzte die Portierung der Gen12-Skalenform fort und nahm \u00c4nderungen an der Ausf\u00fchrungsreihenfolge und der Schnittstelle vor, um sie an das aktuelle Verhalten von RTTM anzupassen. Au\u00dferdem wurde damit begonnen, die analytischen Schatten der Streuungsabfrage auf Gen12 zu \u00fcbertragen.\n\nF\u00fcr Vulkan wurden kleinere \u00c4nderungen an der Deskriptor-Indizierung vorgenommen, um interne Fehler zu beheben, w\u00e4hrend ein Absturz im Zusammenhang mit dem Sammeln von Metriken f\u00fcr den Headless-Client behoben wurde und Warnmeldungen f\u00fcr RenderDoc aktualisiert wurden.\n\nBeleuchtung\nIm M\u00e4rz konzentrierte sich das Beleuchtungsteam auf ein bevorstehendes Event, wobei es sich auf die Unterst\u00fctzung neuer Missionsorte und die \u00dcberpr\u00fcfung bestehender R\u00e4ume konzentrierte. Au\u00dferdem wurde ein kompletter Beleuchtungsdurchlauf an einem wichtigen Au\u00dfenstandort durchgef\u00fchrt.\n\nSchaupl\u00e4tze (EU)\nIm letzten Monat arbeiteten die Locations-Teams an einer Vielzahl verschiedener Bereiche, die sich alle in unterschiedlichen Stadien der Fertigstellung befinden, von der fr\u00fchen Vorproduktion bis hin zur nahen Fertigstellung.\n\nDie Arbeit an den Kolonialismus-Au\u00dfenposten wurde fortgesetzt und weitere Varianten und Module wurden fertiggestellt. In Verbindung mit der Erweiterung des neuen \"Rastar\"-Werkzeugs um einen gr\u00f6\u00dferen Funktionsumfang begann das Team mit gezielten Spieltests, um eine gr\u00f6\u00dfere Verbreitung in den Systemen zu erreichen, in denen sie zuerst zu sehen sein werden.\n\n\"Wir haben mit der Vorproduktion einiger interessanter weltraumbasierter Orte begonnen, die zwar noch nicht zu sehen sein werden, aber schon jetzt die kreativen S\u00e4fte von Design und Art in Wallung bringen. Das Team der Schaupl\u00e4tze\n\nDie n\u00e4chste Iteration der unterirdischen Anlage wurde in der Whitebox getestet, um ein gutes Gameplay und einen guten Spielfluss zu gew\u00e4hrleisten. Ein Update f\u00fcr die H\u00f6hlen befindet sich ebenfalls in der Whitebox, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf der Verbesserung der Lesbarkeit und der Durchquerbarkeit sowie auf einem optischen Facelift liegt.\n\nAuch die Whitebox-Arbeiten an den heruntergekommenen Raumstationen, die f\u00fcr die erste Ver\u00f6ffentlichung von Pyro geplant sind, wurden fortgesetzt. Das breitere Team unterst\u00fctzte auch die H\u00e4rtung und Fehlerbehebung f\u00fcr Alpha 3.17.\n\nStandorte (Montreal)\nIn Montreal \u00fcberarbeitete das Sandbox-Team die verlassene Siedlung der Reclaimer. Auf der k\u00fcnstlerischen Seite haben sie die Silhouette der Absturzstelle \u00fcberarbeitet und sich auf die Endphase zubewegt. Au\u00dferdem haben sie das Missionssystem weiter ausgebaut und verf\u00fcgen nun \u00fcber drei voll funktionsf\u00e4hige Missionen in dieser Siedlung. Sobald das planetare Navmesh f\u00fcr eine breitere Entwicklung zur Verf\u00fcgung steht, k\u00f6nnen sie weiter iterieren.\n\nDie im letzten Bericht erw\u00e4hnten verfallenen Schiffe 600i und Crusader Mercury kommen gut voran. Letzten Monat hat das Team die ersten Versionen der abgest\u00fcrzten Schiffe fertiggestellt und pr\u00fcft derzeit die Pipeline, um sie zu bergen.\n\nEin Teil des Teams hat damit begonnen, weltraumbasierte Missionen in einem Reclaimer zu erstellen, wobei der grundlegende Ablauf und die Missionslogik bereits implementiert sind und einwandfrei funktionieren. Dies ist Teil der Einarbeitung des Teams in das Missionssystem, mit dem Ziel, zun\u00e4chst bestehende Module wiederzuverwenden. Sobald sie sich mit dem System vertraut gemacht haben, werden sie Variationen der bestehenden Missionen erstellen.\n\n\"Uns ist aufgefallen, dass das Grim HEX Krankenhaus ziemlich voll sein kann, besonders w\u00e4hrend des Jump Town Events. Um dieses Problem zu beheben, haben wir es deutlich vergr\u00f6\u00dfert. Fr\u00fcher gab es nur 3 Krankenzimmer; mit diesem Update werden wir \u00fcber 60 haben. So k\u00f6nnen alle Spielerinnen und Spieler so schnell wie m\u00f6glich wieder auftauchen und ins Spielgeschehen einsteigen. Sandkasten-Team\n\nSchlie\u00dflich hat das Team offiziell mit dem Update f\u00fcr die Stadt Lorville begonnen. Die Konzeptionsphase ist abgeschlossen und der Grundriss wurde abgesteckt. Nach der Fertigstellung wird die Stadt Lorville deutlich gr\u00f6\u00dfer sein und mehr Platz f\u00fcr die Innenr\u00e4ume der Geb\u00e4ude bieten.\n\nNarrative\nDen ganzen M\u00e4rz \u00fcber unterst\u00fctzte Narrative das Design bei der Umsetzung eines kommenden Ereignisszenarios und lieferte Missionstexte und schriftliche Inhalte, um die Geschichte weiter zu verkaufen.\n\nDas Team durchlief den Redaktionsprozess f\u00fcr einen der neuen Missions-NSCs, die w\u00e4hrend der Mo-Cap-Sitzung im letzten Monat aufgenommen wurden, und reichte die Daten zur Bearbeitung ein. Sobald die Daten den Weg durch die Animations- und Audioteams gefunden haben, wird Narrative die Mission mit dem endg\u00fcltigen Dialog testen. Sobald sie fertig sind, werden sie alternative Versionen des Skripts aufnehmen, um f\u00fcr Abwechslung zu sorgen.\n\nMit Blick auf die Zukunft hat Narrative damit begonnen, einige der L\u00e4den und Gesch\u00e4fte zu entwerfen, die die Spieler\/innen in Zukunft besuchen werden. Anhand einer Liste, die von Design erstellt wurde, ging es zun\u00e4chst darum, die verschiedenen Dienstleistungen und Gegenst\u00e4nde, die derzeit in den Gesch\u00e4ften angeboten werden, zu skizzieren und eine Liste zu erstellen, um die Abdeckung und Vielfalt in Zukunft sicherzustellen. Sobald die Arten und Nummern feststanden, begann das Team, Namen und kurze Beschreibungen zu entwerfen, um den Geschmack der L\u00e4den und das geplante Einkaufserlebnis zu vermitteln.\n\nDie Narrative arbeiteten zusammen mit der KI an einem System, das dem Universum neues Leben einhauchen sollte.\n\nMehrere Mitglieder des Teams beantworteten Fragen der Community in einer Folge von Star Citizen Live. Auf der RSI-Website stellte das Team ein Portfolio des R\u00fcstungsherstellers Tehachapi vor, ver\u00f6ffentlichte eine neue Folge von Showdown, in der das hei\u00df umstrittene Thema der KI-Entwicklung diskutiert wurde, und ver\u00f6ffentlichte einen neuen Artikel der Aremis Post \u00fcber die Versuche einer Tevarin, ein Zuhause f\u00fcr ihre Familie zu finden. Abgerundet wurde der Monat mit einem weiteren Update der Galactapedia.\n\nRequisiten\nDie Requisiteure verbrachten den M\u00e4rz mit der Fertigstellung der ben\u00f6tigten Materialien f\u00fcr ein bevorstehendes Event. Au\u00dferdem haben sie an mehreren unangek\u00fcndigten Artikeln f\u00fcr die Community gearbeitet, die gut vorankommen.\n\nAuch f\u00fcr Pyro wurde viel gearbeitet, vor allem an den Schildern f\u00fcr den Verkaufsladen, am M\u00fcll und an einigen besonderen Extras.\n\nQA\nDas Hauptaugenmerk der QA lag auf der Ver\u00f6ffentlichung der Alpha 3.17 f\u00fcr die Evocati. Die Live-QA begleitete diesen Prozess und f\u00fchrte ihre eigenen Funktions- und LTP-Tests durch. Die Live-QA \u00fcbernahm bei Bedarf auch weitere Ver\u00f6ffentlichungsaufgaben und konzentrierte sich auf k\u00fcnftige QATRs f\u00fcr kommende Ereignisse im Spiel.\n\nBei der Entwicklung \u00fcbergab das QA-Team den Prozess zwischen Dev QA und Live QA, gab die Alpha 3.17 vor Evocati frei und \u00fcberpr\u00fcfte Korrekturen und Stabilit\u00e4tsprobleme. Anschlie\u00dfend begann das Team mit der Ver\u00f6ffentlichung auf Evocati und unterst\u00fctzte die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung weiterhin. Au\u00dferdem wurden die Tests zu den Must-Fix-Problemen und den Spielr\u00e4umen f\u00fcr ein bevorstehendes Event fortgesetzt.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurden neue Tester\/innen eingestellt und geschult, w\u00e4hrend neue Prozesse zwischen Ver\u00f6ffentlichung und Entwicklung geschaffen wurden.\n\nTechnische Animation\nDas Team der Technischen Animation verbrachte den Monat mit der \u00dcberarbeitung des internen DNA-Systems. Mit diesem Update k\u00f6nnen sie den Genpool erweitern, um glaubw\u00fcrdige K\u00f6pfe im Spiel zu erschaffen und den Spielern mehr Vielfalt zu bieten.\n\n\"Es war ein langwieriges Unterfangen, aber jetzt kommt es endlich zum Abschluss, mit einer gro\u00dfen Runde von Tests und Fehlerbehebungen, damit es in das Spiel integriert werden kann\". Technisches Animationsteam\n\nParallel dazu wurden mehrere K\u00f6pfe \u00fcberarbeitet, die aktualisiert und in einigen F\u00e4llen sogar komplett \u00fcberarbeitet werden mussten. Die laufende Head-Scanning-Initiative versorgt das Team derzeit mit neuen Archetypen, die extrahiert und in vollst\u00e4ndige, spielfertige Gesichts-Rigs verwandelt werden.\n\nTech Animation hat auch die bestehende Animationspipeline gepflegt und gleichzeitig Initiativen zur Abl\u00f6sung \u00e4lterer Technologien eingeleitet, um die internen Arbeitsabl\u00e4ufe zu beschleunigen.\n\nWerkzeuge (Montreal)\nIm Anschluss an den Bericht des letzten Monats schloss das Tools-Team die Integration von Mighty Bridge in den Editor und die Einbindung von Houdini in Mighty Bridge ab. Damit sind Houdini-basierte Werkzeuge f\u00fcr alle im Unternehmen zug\u00e4nglich, sowohl in der PU als auch in Squadron 42.\n\nAuf der Codeseite f\u00fcgt das Team Houdini-Funktionen zu Mighty Bridge hinzu, darunter die M\u00f6glichkeit, Gel\u00e4ndegeometrie zu nutzen.\n\nAuf der technischen Seite wurden zwei wichtige Bereiche der Entwicklung vorangetrieben. Der erste ist das Werkzeug f\u00fcr prozedurale Orte, das die Produktion bestimmter Orte beschleunigen wird. Das Team entwirft derzeit das Vorlagensystem des Tools, mit dem die Designer und K\u00fcnstler verschiedene Orte wie verlassene Au\u00dfenposten und Siedlungen, H\u00f6hlen und unterirdische Anlagen prozedural erzeugen k\u00f6nnen.\n\nDer zweite Bereich ist die Biome-Integration, die eine Sammlung von Werkzeugen umfasst, die den Art-Teams helfen, Orte besser in das jeweilige Biome eines Planeten zu integrieren. In der ersten Fallstudie geht es um die verlassene Reclaimer-Siedlung. Die Tools nehmen die handgefertigten Proof-of-Concept des Art-Teams und automatisieren einige der Prozesse, um die Erstellung zu vereinfachen. Ein Tool platziert zum Beispiel automatisch Ranken und Erde um das abgest\u00fcrzte Raumschiff, was normalerweise eine zeitraubende Aufgabe ist.\n\nTurbulent (Dienstleistungen)\nIm M\u00e4rz lieferte das Team von Turbulent Online Services den Reputationsdienst aus, der den QATR mit bisher null gemeldeten Fehlern bestanden hat. Au\u00dferdem haben sie den Gro\u00dfteil der Arbeit f\u00fcr das Login-Flow-Refactor-Projekt abgeschlossen, einschlie\u00dflich des Vermietungsdienstes, der Zusammenstellung der Hauptloginschleife, des Berechtigungsdienstes und des Login-Dienstes.\n\nDas Live-Tools-Team hat Verbesserungen am System der lokalen Entwicklungsumgebung vorgenommen. Sie nutzen jetzt die neue modulare Hex-Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che auf der PTU und fangen an, das Templating-System zu nutzen, um schnell neue Tools im Network Operation Center hinzuzuf\u00fcgen.\n\nDas Team begann mit dem Entwurf neuer Module, die es den Entwicklern, dem Spieler-Support und der Qualit\u00e4tssicherung erm\u00f6glichen, Probleme bei der Anmeldung der Nutzer zu \u00fcberwachen und zu beheben.\n\nTurbulent (Web-Plattform)\nDas Webteam in Montreal begann mit dem Hinzuf\u00fcgen neuer Webfunktionen f\u00fcr kommende Veranstaltungen und stellte sicher, dass alle Komponenten wiederverwendbar und von h\u00f6chstm\u00f6glicher Qualit\u00e4t sind.\n\nDas Turbulent Architektur- und E-Commerce-Team hat mehrere Tools hinzugef\u00fcgt, darunter einen neuen Ablauf, der das Einl\u00f6sen von Aktionscodes erleichtert.\n\nZwei CI-Pipeline-Flows wurden weiterentwickelt, um die Leistung zu steigern und die Wartezeit bei Builds zu verk\u00fcrzen.\n\nDie Teams von Turbulent und der internen Community haben die \u00dcberarbeitung des Community Hubs vorangetrieben. Die Home- und Discover-Seiten sind bereit f\u00fcr den Start, w\u00e4hrend die Post-Creation- und Follow-Tools weiterentwickelt wurden.\n\nUI\nIm M\u00e4rz wurden im Bereich UI zwei langfristige Projekte fortgesetzt, die sowohl der PU als auch SQ42 zugute kommen werden: der Visor-Refactor und das neue Radar und die Karten. Bei der \u00dcberarbeitung des Visiers geht es darum, das Visier und die Linse so zu aktualisieren, dass sie in Building Blocks funktionieren, was die Leistung verbessert und die Arbeit erleichtert. Die Arbeit des letzten Monats konzentrierte sich auf Waffen, die Statusanzeige der Akteure und gesetzesbezogene Elemente.\n\nBei Radar und Karten konzentrierte sich das Team auf die Grundlagen der Vollbildversion des Radars und f\u00fcgte die M\u00f6glichkeit hinzu, Kontakte heranzuzoomen, um ihre 3D-Modelle zu sehen.\n\nAuf der technischen Seite wurden neben den Aufgaben f\u00fcr Alpha 3.17 auch Support geleistet und Bugs f\u00fcr Radar und Karten behoben. Das Team hat auch den Mauszeiger aktualisiert, so dass er nun in der Hardware l\u00e4uft, was ihn reaktionsschneller macht und es ihm erm\u00f6glicht, zwischen verschiedenen Elementen wie Schiebereglern und 3D-Steuerungen zu wechseln.\n\nVFX\nIm M\u00e4rz schloss das Team den VFX-Produktionspass f\u00fcr die MISC-H\u00fclle A ab, ebenso wie die Vorproduktionsp\u00e4sse f\u00fcr den RSI Scorpius und ein noch nicht angek\u00fcndigtes Fahrzeug.\n\nAuch bei den Bergungseffekten wurden Fortschritte gemacht: Das Team verfeinerte die visuellen Effekte, einschlie\u00dflich der Sch\u00fcrf- und Reparatureffekte am Schiffsrumpf. Au\u00dferdem wurde an den Betankungseffekten gearbeitet, die f\u00fcr die erste Ver\u00f6ffentlichung des Features bereits funktionst\u00fcchtig waren (sie werden zu einem sp\u00e4teren Zeitpunkt noch verbessert).\n\nSchlie\u00dflich hat UI die Alpha 3.17 mit Fehlerbehebungen und Aufr\u00e4umarbeiten unterst\u00fctzt.","zh_CN":"PU Monthly Report\nMarch 2022\nWith Alpha 3.17 approaching fast, many teams spent the month finalizing tasks for the impending release. However, significant progress was made on important features coming later in the year, including Pyro and salvage. Read on for everything done throughout March.\n\nAI Content\nLast month, the AI Content team added the final polish to the drink\u2019s vendor feature, which will release in the upcoming Alpha 3.17 patch. The animation polish process begins with the animation director playing through the feature and uploading a video to ShotGrid. From there, it\u2019s annotated with text overlays, painted sketches, and narrated commentary. These points are then actioned by the animator owning the feature to improve the overall visual quality of the delivered product.\n\nWork on the food vendor is coming to an end, with the designers creating tutorial videos and written documentation to help the Level Design teams implement more food vendors throughout the \u2018verse in an upcoming patch.\n\nAdditionally, the team provided bug-fixing support for an upcoming event, including for the tourist and tour guide AI behaviors released last year. These behaviors didn\u2019t move or speak since they were last used which, after an initial investigation, turned out to be caused by changes to the animation database.\n\nThe security, vending machine, and arcade machine work mentioned in previous reports progressed well, with final animation polish passes currently underway.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re really looking forward to sharing our recent vendor work, so come to Area18 for a drink when Alpha 3.17 releases!\u201d AI Content Team\n\nAI Features\nThroughout March, AI Features worked on quality-of-life tasks for AI Content, including how they author usables and how they work with \u2018stances,\u2019 which are different character body positions that affect all movement and idle animations. For example, stand, crouch, and prone.\n\nPreviously, stances were set up for use in a specific alignment slot (the different options for accessing a usable). Now, stances are set up for different uses. For example, the wall panel usable has only one place to enter it but has different use slots for the upper and lower panels that require the stand and crouch stances respectively. The team also set up enter and scooch animations that blend correctly from the current stance into the usable\u2019s target stance. This allows them to have different enter animations for each panel.\n\nHaving the correct stance setup in the usable is also important when the character exits the usable unexpectedly. With this in mind, the team recorded first-reaction animations for various stances.\n\nFinally for AI Features, functionality was implemented to allow the team to process Subsumption events through the audio map, which simulates event propagation as audio stimuli. This is currently used to allow NPCs to alert friendly characters that they\u2019ve found a dead body.\n\nAI Tech\nAI Tech began the month addressing feedback on the initial implementation of planetary navigation tech, which was then passed onto several teams for use in various scenarios.\n\nOne improvement is the addition of a priority manager to help calculate which areas require navigation mesh regeneration; the positions of players, NPCs, and vehicles are currently used to determine where nav-mesh is required.\n\nTo enable the designers to request realistic NPC reinforcements on planets via spaceship (as mentioned in February\u2019s report), the team began developing functionality to allow NPC pilots to spawn and adjust the dynamic landing and take-off splines. They also improved the spline creation process for smoother landings and takeoffs, and adjusted the tactical point system queries to work on planets and find the points where NPCs will move to as they disembark. Simple behaviors were implemented to showcase this new feature too.\n\nThe development of technology allowing NPCs to correctly push and operate movable entities, like trolleys, continued. The team also added further improvements for locomotion and grip-posing on trolleys with different layouts and began implementing parking spots for movable objects.\n\nSeveral fixes and improvements were implemented into the Subsumption editor tool, including a full graph map of outlier behaviors, a visual grid and snap functionality, the ability to quick-insert nodes at the mouse cursor position, and an easier way to drop connections from a node.\n\nAI Tech continued to refactor the NPC movement request system to allow for more consistent synchronization of states between server and client and to unify the way NPC movements are processed to reduce inconsistencies.\n\nThey also created more automated feature tests to improve stability and fixed bugs for Alpha 3.17.\n\nAI Vehicle Features\nThe Vehicle Features team was working alongside AI on behaviors that will benefit both the PU and Squadron 42. The aim is to improve flight behaviors to be more dynamic and closer to how Human players behave in combat. They also focused on a ship tactic for fighters taking on capital ships.\n\nAnimation\nAnimation spent the month focusing on facial animations for numerous shipbound characters. They also worked on the Shubin Interstellar mining tool and finalized the first version of vendors.\n\nArt (Characters)\nCharacter Art focused on the frontier outfits for Pyro alongside various Nine Tails assets for an event later in the year. Subscriber items and a salvage-themed backpack progressed too.\n\nThe team also welcomed new character artists in Montreal, with onboarding and training completed throughout March.\n\nArt (Ships)\nIn the UK, Ship Art progressed with a number of vehicles, including the Hull A, which is currently being closed out for its release in Alpha 3.17.\n\nThe Scorpius\u2019 cockpit was finalized, including lighting and LODs, while the Banu Merchantman progressed through the exterior R&D phase.\n\nThe first of three unannounced vehicles is now close to being final-art complete. The second is progressing through the greybox stage, while the third had its initial kick-off and is now in the early stages of whiteboxing.\nIn the US, the team moved the Drake Vulture down the pipeline, which involved creating further art to support mobile repair as part of repair and salvage gameplay. They also added additional functionality to the pilot\u2019s overhead dashboard to support salvage modes.\n\nSignificant progress was made on various parts of the Drake Corsair too: The co-pilot dashboard was designed and built with an overhang for better visibility, while the co-pilot\u2019s seat is nearly complete and now features a mechanism that moves it down into its final position. The ship\u2019s foyer was finalized, work on the turret interiors began, and development kicked off on the crew quarters and engineering room. The team also progressed with the exterior greybox, with work moving from the now-completed nose back towards the tail.\n\nCommunity\nThe Community team started March debriefing the last XenoThreat Dynamic Event, sharing an\u202finfographic\u202fof how much work players put into defending the Stanton system. They then kicked off the in-lore St. Patrick's Day equivalent,\u202fStella Fortuna, and its\u202fToast the Stars contest.\n\nIn preparation for Alpha 3.17, they published two Patch Watch comm-links, featuring details of lesser-known upcoming features, including the weapons refactor\u202fand Quantum. Community also published a step-by-step guide on\u202fship-to-ship refueling.\n\nAlongside supporting various engagements, work continued on a revamp to the Community Hub, improvements to the Guide System, and other unannounced events.\n\nEngine\nIn March, the Physics team added a new soft-body deformation approach for character cloth. They also implemented island-wide, broad phase collision detection to reduce the number of external parts of entities to check against. The steering of vehicles' rear wheels at high speeds was reduced too.\n\n\nFor physical damage, initial changes were submitted for the tracking of breakable clusters. Furthermore, an action was added to move a spaceship entity to a specific state in a set amount of time. Lastly, a prototype using batch workers to step physics to improve thread wakeups and concurrency was implemented.\n\n\nOn the renderer, the transition to Gen12 continued. For example, the handling of decals in RTT passes was refactored, and various bugs casued by the enabling of brush rendering via Gen12 were fixed. Planet terrain rendering was optimized and support for the sunlight render node was added. Various APIs were improved to make them more consistent, efficient, and less verbose to use. The team also started refining the const correctness of APIs when dealing with returned weak pointers. The shadow mask stage was also refactored to use transient constant buffers and remove reflected constants and binding constants via an explicit layout and buffer instead.\n\n\nPlanet terrain height maps and planet terrain shadows are now fully ported. Tessellation code for rendering planet terrain patches into height maps was improved for a more consistent triangle density. Meanwhile, a bug in the processing of scattering queries for clouds was revealed to be an application issue and fixed (it was previously worked around).\n\n\nOn the core engine side, more code was cleaned up using Include-What-You-Use. Additionally, more time was spent on integrating EASTL. Various optimizations were made, including updates to animated lights. More system updates (to the main camera and flagging of vis areas affected by the sun) were moved into parallel jobs to reduce the runtime cost of the main thread. Lastly, global locks were replaced with per-instance locks for fuzzy entity access.\n\nSupport was also given to Alpha 3.17.\n\nFeatures (Arena Commander)\nThe Vehicle Technical team completed their transition to the Arena Commander Feature team. As part of the move, they reviewed the backlog of Arena Commander bugs to determine their immediate priorities.\n\nRadar and scanning is also nearing completion. Door and control panel implementation tool improvements are also underway, paving the ways for easier and more reliable interactions in vehicles and space stations.\n\nFeatures (Characters & Weapons)\nIn March, the team improved various features based on feedback from testing Alpha 3.17 in the PTU, including making the inventory more robust. They also worked on issues with the initial spawning flow that caused players to spawn without a body.\n\nCorpse-spawning logic was also improved to ensure quitting out early doesn't break the flow and to make the flow less likely to timeout or fail to spawn the corpse entity itself.\n\nThe Features team also revisited grenade throwing, as it was reported to be highly unreliable. Grenades should now be significantly less likely to explode in the hands or at the feet of the player throwing them. They should now no longer \u2018rubber band\u2019 back into the hand after being thrown and always visibly explode on the local client too.\n\nA large number of bug fixes were done. For example, ensuring that certain hairstyles don\u2019t clip through helmets, and dropping a carried helmet will no longer cause the player to suffocate. A fault causing some vendor interaction menus and weapon customization UIs to appear offset was rectified too.\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nThe PU team worked through user feedback and bug fixes for the upcoming release of refueling. Progress was also made on the HUD UI for salvage, which is currently going through the iteration process.\n\nFor engineering gameplay, an example scene was created featuring a village with a battery, power supply unit, and lamp post. The goal was to give an easy introduction to other teams to help them begin utilizing a systemic approach to resources.\n\nLife support progressed well, with the life-support generator now able to remove the atmosphere from a room and convert CO2 into O2.\n\nFeatures (Mission)\nMission Features continued to provide game-code support and bug fixes for the new selling UI screens. They also fixed various issues with law and hostility alongside general bugs for the upcoming Alpha 3.17 release.\n\nFeatures (Vehicles)\nLast month, the Vehicle Features team worked on refueling, including integrating the docking systems and rebalancing vehicle fuel efficiency and scooping. They also rebalanced and retuned distortion so that it\u2019s more about negatively affecting a ship rather than outright disabling it.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re still actively working on this feature, which is planned for release in Alpha 3.17. However, we\u2019re hoping you can give feedback on this and help us improve the balance!\u201d Vehicle Features Team\n\nThey also progressed with a lot of upcoming ship releases, particularly the MISC Hull A and RSI Scorpius, which both use new animation and ship-state tech. On the Hull A, this new tech is used on the extending cargo arms and how they integrate with the cargo system. For the Scorpius, it allows the turret to move along its rail.\n\nAI flight behavior was further developed alongside the AI team, which will benefit both the PU and Squadron 42. When complete, AI behavior will be more dynamic and closer to how Human players would behave in combat.\n\nFinally, the team began a deep investigation into net sync issues currently being experienced in the PU. They made some great improvements that are currently being tested in the Alpha 3.17 builds at the moment.\n\nGraphics & VFX Programming\nLast month, the Graphics team focused on fixing bugs for Alpha 3.17 and GameDev stability. For example, adding fixes for water volumes not rendering, solving issues with exporting light links, and cleaning up RTT.\n\nThere were also updates to various shaders, with submits for the per-material auto C-buffer layout and minor improvements for Booleans as shader parameters.\n\nFor the ongoing Gen12 transition, the team fixed various bugs from integration into the Alpha 3.17 stream, such as shadow flickering, LOD ratio issues caused by the porting of skinned meshes, and multiple crash fixes. The team continued with the Gen12 scaleform porting, making modifications to the execution order and interface to match the current behavior of RTTM. Work also began on moving scattering query analytical shadows to Gen12.\n\nFor Vulkan, minor changes were made to descriptor indexing for internal bugs, while fixes were made to a crash relating to headless client metric gathering and warning updates for RenderDoc.\n\nLighting\nThroughout March, the Lighting team focused on an upcoming event, with a split between supporting new mission locations and sanity checking existing spaces. A full lighting pass was done on a key exterior location too.\n\nLocations (EU)\nLast month, the Locations teams worked across a variety of different areas, all of which are in various stages of completion, from early pre-production to nearing completion.\n\nWork continued towards \u2018final\u2019 on the colonialism outposts, with more variants and modules being completed. In conjunction with the new \u2018Rastar\u2019 tool gaining a wider feature set, the team began dedicated playtesting in the lead up to a wider distribution across the systems they\u2019ll first be seen in.\n\n\u201cVery early pre-production began on some interesting space-based locations, which won\u2019t be seen for a while but are already getting Design and Art\u2019s creative juices flowing.\u201d Locations Team\n\nThe next iteration of the underground facility progressed through whitebox, with layouts being tested to ensure good gameplay and flow. An update to caves is also in whitebox, with a focus on improving the readability and traverse-ability alongside a visual facelift.\n\nWhitebox work also continued for the rundown space station variants, which are planned for Pyro\u2019s initial release. The wider team supported hardening and bug fixing for Alpha 3.17 too.\n\nLocations (Montreal)\nIn Montreal, the Sandbox team iterated on the Reclaimer-based derelict settlement. On the art side, they tweaked the silhouette of the crash site and continued progressing toward the final phase. They also continued onboarding the missions system and now have three fully functional missions in this settlement. They\u2019ll be able to iterate further when planetary navmesh becomes available to wider development.\n\nThe derelict 600i and Crusader Mercury derelicts mentioned in last month\u2019s report are progressing smoothly. Last month, the team completed the initial versions of the crashed ships and currently looking into the pipeline to make them salvageable.\n\nPart of the team began creating space-based missions inside a Reclaimer, with the basic flow and mission logic implemented and working properly. This is part of the team\u2019s onboarding to the mission system, with the objective to start by reusing existing modules. Once they\u2019re more comfortable with the systems, they\u2019ll create variations of the existing missions.\n\n\u201cWe noticed that the Grim HEX hospital could get quite busy, especially during the Jump Town event. To fix this issue, we significantly expanded its size. There used to be only 3 medical rooms available; with this update, we\u2019ll have over 60. This way, all players will be able to respawn and get back into the action as quickly as possible.\u201d Sandbox Team\n\nFinally, the team officially started the Lorville cityscape update. The concepting phase is done and the layout was blocked out. When complete, the scale of Lorville will be dramatically increased and allow more space for building interiors.\n\nNarrative\nThroughout March, Narrative continued to support Design implement an upcoming event scenario, providing mission text and written content to further sell the story.\n\nThe team went through the editorial process on one of the new mission NPCs captured during last month\u2019s mo-cap session and submitted the data for processing. Once the assets make their way through the Animation and Audio teams, Narrative will test the mission with final dialogue. Once complete, they\u2019ll record alternative versions of the script to add variety.\n\nLooking forward, Narrative began building out some of the shops and franchises that players will visit in the future. Working from a list devised by Design, the initial goal was to outline the various services and items currently provided by stores and build a list to ensure coverage and variety moving forward. Once the types and numbers were decided, the team began brainstorming names and brief descriptions to help sell the flavor of the stores and intended shopping experience.\n\nNarrative continued to work alongside AI on a system designed to breathe a new level of life into the universe.\n\nSeveral members of the team answered community questions on an episode of Star Citizen Live. On the RSI website, the team posted a Portfolio of the armor manufacturer Tehachapi, published a new episode of Showdown that debated the hotly contested issue of AI development, and shared a new Aremis Post article about a Tevarin\u2019s attempts to find a home for their family. The month was capped off with another update to the Galactapedia.\n\nProps\nProps spent March finalizing the requested assets for an upcoming event. They also worked on several unannounced items for the community that are coming along well.\n\nSignificant work was also done for Pyro, specifically on the vendor shop signs, trash, and some special extras.\n\nQA\nQA\u2019s primary publishing focus was delivering Alpha 3.17 to the Evocati. Live QA shadowed this process, running their own feature and LTP testing. Live QA also took on more publishing tasks as needed and focused on future QATRs for upcoming in-game events.\n\nDevelopment-wise, the QA team handed off the process between Dev QA and Live QA, gated Alpha 3.17 before Evocati, and verified fixes and stability issues. They then began publishing to Evocati and continued to support publishing. Testing also continued on must-fix issues and in-game spaces for an upcoming event.\n\nNew testers were also onboarded and trained, while new processes between publishing and development were created.\n\nTech Animation\nThe Technical Animation team spent the month iterating on their rework of the internal DNA system. This update will allow them to expand the gene pool used to create believable heads in-game and ultimately offer more variety to players.\n\n\u201cIt has been a lengthy initiative but it is finally coming to a close with a heavy round of testing and bug fixing to make it ready for integration into the game.\u201d Technical Animation Team\n\nAlongside this, they revisited several head assets requiring updates and, in some cases, a complete overhaul. The ongoing head-scanning initiative is currently supplying the team with new archetypes that are being extracted and turned into full, game-ready facial rigs.\n\nTech Animation also maintained the existing animation pipeline alongside spearheading initiatives to supersede older technology to expedite in-house workflows.\n\nTools (Montreal)\nFollowing on from last month\u2019s report, the Tools team completed the integration of Mighty Bridge into the editor and the inclusion of Houdini to Mighty Bridge. This makes Houdini-based tools accessible to everyone inside the company both on the PU and Squadron 42.\n\nOn the code side, the team are adding Houdini-related functionality to Mighty Bridge, including the ability to utilize terrain geometry.\n\nOn the technical art side, two major areas of development progressed. The first is the Procedural Location tool, which will speed up the production of certain locations. The team are currently designing the tool\u2019s template system to allow the designers and artists to procedurally generate various locations, such as derelict outposts and settlements, caves, and underground facilities.\n\nThe second area is biome integration, which involves a collection of tools to help the Art teams better integrate locations into a planet\u2019s specific biome. The first case study uses the derelict Reclaimer settlement. Tools are taking the Art team\u2019s handcrafted proof-of-concept and automating some of the processes to make creating more easier. For example, one tool automatically places vines and dirt around the crashed spaceship, which is usually a time-consuming task.\n\nTurbulent (Services)\nIn March, Turbulent\u2019s Online Services team delivered the reputation service, which passed QATR with zero reported bugs so far. They also completed the majority of work for the login-flow refactor project, including the rental service, putting together the main login loop, entitlement service, and login service.\n\nThe Live Tools team rolled out improvements to the local dev environment system. They\u2019re now using the new Hex modular UI on the PTU and are starting to leverage the templating system to quickly add new tools in the Network Operation Center.\n\nThe team began drafting new modules to enable the developers, Player Support, and QA to monitor and troubleshoot login issues users might encounter.\n\nTurbulent (Web Platform)\nThe Web team in Montreal began adding new web features for upcoming events, ensuring all components are reusable and of the highest possible quality.\n\nThe Turbulent Architecture and E-Commerce team added several tools, including a new flow to make redeeming promotion codes easier.\n\nTwo CI pipeline flows were further developed for increased performance and reduced wait time on builds.\n\nThe Turbulent and internal Community teams progressed with the rework of the Community Hub. The Home and Discover pages are ready for launch, while progress was made on the post-creation and follow tools.\n\nUI\nThroughout March, UI continued with two long-term projects that will benefit both the PU and SQ42: the visor refactor and the new radar and maps. The visor refactor involves updating the visor and lens so that they work in Building Blocks, which will make it perform better and be easier to work with. Last month\u2019s work focused on weapons, the actor status display, and law-related elements.\n\nFor radar and maps, the team focused on the basics of the full-screen version of the radar and added the ability to zoom in on contacts to see their 3D models.\n\nOn the tech side, support was given and bugs were fixed for radar and maps alongside tasks for Alpha 3.17. The team also updated the mouse cursor to run in-hardware, which makes it more responsive and allows it to change between different elements, such as sliders and 3D controls.\n\nVFX\nMarch saw the team complete the VFX production pass for the MISC Hull A alongside pre-production passes for the RSI Scorpius and an as-yet-unannounced vehicle.\n\nProgress was also made on salvage effects, with the team adding more refinement to the visuals, including hull scraping and repair effects. They also worked on the refueling effects, which were completed to a functional standard for the feature\u2019s initial release (they will be improved upon at a later date).\n\nFinally, UI provided bug-fixing and clean-up support for Alpha 3.17."},"links_count":0,"comment_count":0,"created_at":"2022-04-07T02:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"4 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-04-28 16:30:15","valid_relations":["images","links","translations"],"prev_id":18616,"next_id":18618}}