{"data":{"id":18657,"title":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report: April 2022","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/18657-Squadron-42-Monthly-Report-April-2022","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/18657","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/18657","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":1,"translations":{"en_EN":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report\nApril 2022\nThis is a cross-post of the report that was recently sent out via the monthly Squadron 42 newsletter. We\u2019re publishing this a second time as a Comm-Link to make it easier for the community to reference back to.\n\nTO: SQUADRON 42 RECRUITS\n\nSUBJ: DEVELOPMENT UPDATE 05:04:2022\n\nREF: CIG UK, CIG DE, CIG LA, CIG TX\n\nFAO Squadron 42 Recruits.\n\nWelcome to April\u2019s Squadron 42 development report. Enclosed you will find details on the latest progress made across the campaign, including updates to Vanduul combat, sleeping arrangements, and the Starmap.\n\nThank you for your continued support of Squadron 42.\n\nSincerely,\n\nCIG COMMUNICATIONS\n\nAI (Content)\nSpecifically for Squadron 42 (Sq42), AI Content revamped the \u2018sleep and bed relaxation\u2019 activity started last year, which enables NPCs to realistically pass time in their bunks or sleeping quarters. Now, an NPC will find its bed and enter it before closing the privacy shutters and sleeping until they\u2019re scheduled to do another activity.\n\n\n\u201cWe knew early on that, to hit the fidelity we expect for Sq42, we would need to do some R&D on bedsheet deformation. This work is currently underway and, if successful, will allow the AI to deform their sheets when entering, exiting, or sleeping inside them. This is a challenging assignment and expands the complexity of the feature. For example, what happens to the sheets if the AI needs to exit the bed in an emergency?\u201d AI Content\n\n\nThe initial implementation of bed relaxation includes reading, writing, and watching content on the mobiGlas, which can happen in bed or on the side of it. NPCs can also watch TV if their bunk includes one.\n\n\nWork on the arcade machine feature was finalized last month, which included polishing the machine\u2019s male and female animations. The team also utilized the new \u2018geometry slaving\u2019 feature from AI Tech: instead of playing a joystick animation, the joystick is attached to the NPC\u2019s hand and moves when it does.\n\nAI (Features)\nAI Features started the month working on tech and animations for player takedowns, with the aim to present the Vanduul as furious and deadly killers. For example, if a Vanduul knocks a player down that doesn\u2019t recover quickly enough, they\u2019ll be killed via a dramatic execution-style animation. Relevant animations were first blocked out and then later recorded in a motion-capture session.\n\n\nProgress was also made on a section of \u2018cat-and-mouse\u2019 gameplay with a marauding Vanduul. In this section, the Vanduul patrols around a room with low visibility while the player tries to avoid them, making as little noise as possible. If the Vanduul hears them, it will go into \u2018investigation mode\u2019 and check the area the sound came from.\n\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s really exciting to see all of the elements of the gameplay (AI, level design, art, and sound) coming together to match the vision.\u201d AI Features\n\n\nThe team also made improvements to the mastergraph, which is the ultimate AI behavior controller. This state machine takes various events as inputs (seeing an enemy, hearing a grenade, etc.), controls the transitions between states, and then plays the associated behaviors. Support was added to override certain states in the mastergraph with specific behaviors, allowing the team to share the same general structure between several characters while maintaining unique behaviors. Previously, this required multiple separate but very similar mastergraphs.\n\n\nOn the animation side, lots of female retargeting work was completed. The team also looked into getting a fully featured pistol animation set using hand and arm overlays on top of the existing stocked-weapon set. The initial test of the pistol overlay animation looked promising and will save time, effort, and memory. However, full-body animations can still be utilized for specific cases to maintain quality.\n\nAI (Tech)\nThroughout April, AI Tech adjusted the AI behaviors and code to allow ships to correctly quantum travel out of planetary atmospheres. Previously, ships would think they were inside an obstacle and not correctly account for which direction would be best to radially leave the planet.\n\nFor the navigation system, the team added the ability to notify listeners when navigation meshes are spawned\/created within the environment. Due to a large number of entities, they\u2019re aiming to reduce the number of allocations for notification events and possibly introduce a better way to filter which entities events are relevant to.\n\n\nThey continued tasks that will allow NPCs to interact correctly with movable entities, like trolleys. The recent aim was to integrate the operator and the trolleys themselves into the collision avoidance system. This will allow NPCs to push trolleys, avoid other characters while pushing, and avoid trolleys left throughout a level.\n\n\nThey also made it easier to drag a link from one node to another, improved the automatic folder selection when creating new files, and modified quick insert to select a suggestion based on the string type if not specified.\n\n\nThe team then began work on a major improvement to the way the multigraph view validates node connection. With the new feature, nodes belong to the graph they have been created in and linked to until a new connection is established. This allows the devs to maintain orphan nodes without losing data even in the new multigraph mode.\n\nAnimation\nAnimation worked on AI pre-vis and supported Design as they implemented animations across various chapters. They also looked into how to best use overlays to convert stocked-weapon combat into pistol combat. This will cut down on the number of assets needed and make it more efficient to transfer assets to the female AI.\n\n\nDevelopment of zero-g traversal continued, with improvements made to its look and feel. AI animations for social areas were worked on too, with the aim to give more life to the various campaign locales.\n\n\nOn the facial side, improvements were made to several cast-character animations. The Motion Capture team continued to support the Narrative and Gameplay teams, with an anticipated Vanduul combat shoot scheduled soon.\n\nEngine\nIn April, the Physics team worked on splitting the batched grid cleanup into two parts (cleanup and defragmentation) to allow for finer control of time slicing. Furthermore, unnecessary computations were removed from the physical world time step, and the time stepping code of living entities was improved. Auto conversion of legacy constraints to constraint attachments was implemented too.\n\n\nThe Gen12 renderer transition continued, with planet terrain patch rendering being enabled. Render proxies received various improvements and shadow generation was enabled. Support for \u2018viewport scaling to render pass\u2019 was added, which is convenient for atlas and dynamic resolution rendering. Various debug UIs were implemented to assist development. For example, a UI to easily control\/trigger cube map generation in-game for testing purposes. Lastly for the renderer, material fallbacks for the \u2018depth pre-pass stage\u2019 were disabled.\n\n\nGen12 ports of the planet terrain height map and shadow rendering systems were finalized and merged upstream. One of the finishing touches was to rework cascade culling for planet terrain height map rendering so it can run during the submission of draw packets from batch workers (following the Gen12 design philosophy). Gen12 ports of the atmosphere and cloud rendering will commence shortly.\n\n\nOn the core engine, a potential deadlock in the exception handler was fixed. The clean-up of code using \u2018include-what-you-use\u2019 continued. Additionally, a new OS time interface was provided. GPU frame time is now included in analytic events to provide better data on how long actual frame times are on the GPU (ignoring VSync). Furthermore, to simplify deployment, Linux game server instances now also use separate user folders.\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nThe Sq42 Feature team continued work on the master-at-arms, last month getting the character\u2019s behavior working in sync with the kiosk. This includes retrieving the selected weapon from behind the counter or weapon rack, placing it on the counter, and putting it back again once the player has finished with it.\n\n\nWork was also done on an in-game application form linked to the character customizer, which allows players to generate an initial version of their character based on the options selected on the form. Support was also given to the Cinematics and Design teams.\n\nGameplay Story\nDuring April, Gameplay Story updated several scenes in chapter one with new mo-cap. They also maintained several existing scenes, applying the correct systemic poses to the beginning and end, which enable the characters to transition in and out of scenes correctly.\n\n\nChapter five received another significant update and now includes the animations for four NPCs boarding a tram, taking up correct positions, and grabbing hold of handrails. They also finished two more random-to-NPC scenes, leaving one remaining to close out the set.\n\nGraphics & VFX Programming\nFor Gen12, the team set the proper viewport size to render passes in the \u2018G-buffer\u2019 and \u2018depth-pre-pass\u2019 stages to support the RTT pipeline. Work also continued on the clean-up of resource arrays and analytic shadow scattering queries. VFX auto tests continued too, with the flowgraph nodes being updated for more consistent results.\n\nLevel Design\nThe FPS team focused on final gameplay and implementation passes for various key chapters. Work also continued on pushing a number of mechanics and other chapters to alpha so they can begin testing and balancing gameplay towards the final experience.\n\n\nThe Space\/Dogfight team, alongside the other design teams, continued their ongoing effort of pushing the early chapters towards vertical-slice quality. There are several special-focus elements bespoke to Sq42 that received design attention too.\n\n\nAs well as working collaboratively with the other design teams, the Social Design team continued to implement all in-game scenes.\n\nNarrative\nNarrative began the month revising scripts based on playthroughs with Design and reviews with the directors. These updates incorporate the latest decisions based on level flow that explain new\/important game mechanics or provide additional content to fill in gaps. Placeholder lines will be captured soon to allow the teams to experience them in situ during playthroughs rather than just reading them in a script.\n\n\nExplorations into some of the text-based systems continued as well. The team met with the designers to discuss the high-level intent behind the system, its text needs, and the development timeline.\n\n\nAs mentioned in last month\u2019s report, the team provided additional content for the AI team\u2019s NPC profession development. The current plan is to shoot the final versions in an upcoming mo-cap session.\n\n\nNarrative also continued to provide general game text, including mission objectives and holo-briefing icons.\n\nQA\nQA continued to support Cinematics by reproducing issues found during development and chasing bugs. They also focused on bug validation and reporting and recording scenes for review.\n\n\nQA also worked on several narrative scenes involving moving AI, which involved confirming fixes and ensuring the general flow is consistent. Checklist testing began too and now includes regular testing on Vanduul, FPS, and ship AI sections.\n\nTech Animation\nTech Animation continued creating new face rigs from their internally created scan data. They also invested substantial time into the tools chain and process to ensure upcoming heads are quicker and cleaner to produce.\n\n\nFurthermore, they supported the Feature and Animation teams by improving the animation systems to accommodate their increased requirements. For example, enabling the system to support up to 50 layers of authored and inverse kinematic animation on a single character.\n\n\nThey also supported the other development teams with new initiatives to solidify workflows to save both time and errors.\n\nUI\nWork progressed on the new Starmap and radar UI. The devs implemented basic controls, enabling them to look around a solar system and view the planets, orbits, and vehicles within it. They also began adding an info panel that players can use to see details about selected objects.\n\n\n\u201cAlthough rough around the edges, the groundwork is there for us to add functionality and start improving the visuals.\u201d UI Team\n\n\nThe artists began work on UI screens for various levels. This involved creating concepts for the UI in two important areas and working with Game Design team on new interactive screens.\n\n\nThe visor and lens conversion, which involves converting the existing player HUD elements to Building Blocks, is well underway. Many widgets, including weapon information and mission objectives, were ported to the new system. They also continued to update features in support of Persistent Streaming.\n\n\nThe UI Tech team continued developing additional Building Blocks features, one of which will replace the canvas slicing technology used to develop 3D UIs. The new \u2018cards' system received major usability and performance improvements and is currently being tested in the vehicle HUD for the hull-scraping feature.\n\n\nThe team also worked on a new AR marker system and improved various widgets to help the UI designers work more efficiently.\n\nVFX\nAlongside supporting the Art and Design teams, April saw VFX complete color experimentation on a suite of energy-based effects that will be seen throughout the campaign. Work was also completed on several unique shield effects, which the team are very pleased with. They also completed prototyping to demonstrate how particles can be used to add extra visual flourish to holographic displays.\n\n\nThe VFX Tech Art team completed a required Houdini update. This involved ensuring the existing tools used by the artists and designers still work correctly in Houdini 19. They also continued experimenting with better ways to fracture geometry to create more realistic looking damage.\n\nWE'LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH...\n\/\/ END TRANSMISSION","de_DE":"Geschwader 42 Monatsbericht\nApril 2022\nDies ist ein Querverweis auf den Bericht, der k\u00fcrzlich \u00fcber den monatlichen Squadron 42 Newsletter verschickt wurde. Wir ver\u00f6ffentlichen ihn ein zweites Mal als Comm-Link, damit die Community leichter darauf zur\u00fcckgreifen kann.\n\nTO: REKRUTEN DES GESCHWADERS 42\n\nSUBJ: ENTWICKLUNG UPDATE 05:04:2022\n\nREF: CIG UK, CIG DE, CIG LA, CIG TX\n\nFAO-Geschwader 42 Rekruten.\n\nWillkommen zum Entwicklungsbericht f\u00fcr das Geschwader 42 im April. Anbei findest du Details zu den neuesten Fortschritten in der Kampagne, einschlie\u00dflich Updates zum Vanduul-Kampf, zu den Schlafm\u00f6glichkeiten und zur Sternenkarte.\n\nVielen Dank f\u00fcr eure anhaltende Unterst\u00fctzung von Squadron 42.\n\nMit freundlichen Gr\u00fc\u00dfen,\n\nCIG COMMUNICATIONS\n\nKI (Inhalt)\nSpeziell f\u00fcr Squadron 42 (Sq42) hat AI Content die im letzten Jahr eingef\u00fchrte Aktivit\u00e4t \"Schlafen und Bettentspannung\" \u00fcberarbeitet, die es NSCs erm\u00f6glicht, die Zeit in ihren Kojen oder Schlafr\u00e4umen realistisch zu verbringen. Jetzt findet ein NSC sein Bett und betritt es, bevor er die Jalousien schlie\u00dft und schl\u00e4ft, bis er f\u00fcr eine andere Aktivit\u00e4t eingeteilt wird.\n\n\n\"Wir wussten schon fr\u00fch, dass wir die Verformung von Bettlaken erforschen m\u00fcssen, um die f\u00fcr Sq42 erwartete Realit\u00e4tsn\u00e4he zu erreichen. Wenn wir diese Arbeit erfolgreich abschlie\u00dfen, kann die KI ihr Bettlaken verformen, wenn sie es betritt, verl\u00e4sst oder darin schl\u00e4ft. Das ist eine anspruchsvolle Aufgabe und erweitert die Komplexit\u00e4t der Funktion. Was passiert zum Beispiel mit den Laken, wenn die KI das Bett in einem Notfall verlassen muss?\" KI Inhalt\n\n\nDie anf\u00e4ngliche Implementierung der Bettentspannung beinhaltet das Lesen, Schreiben und Anschauen von Inhalten auf dem mobiGlas, was im Bett oder an der Seite geschehen kann. NSCs k\u00f6nnen auch fernsehen, wenn ihre Koje einen Fernseher hat.\n\n\nDie Arbeit am Arcade-Automaten wurde im letzten Monat abgeschlossen, wobei die Animationen der m\u00e4nnlichen und weiblichen Automaten aufpoliert wurden. Das Team nutzte auch die neue Funktion \"Geometry Slaving\" von AI Tech: Anstatt eine Joystick-Animation abzuspielen, wird der Joystick an der Hand des NSCs befestigt und bewegt sich, wenn er sich bewegt.\n\nKI (Features)\nAI Features hat den Monat damit begonnen, an der Technik und den Animationen f\u00fcr Spieler-Takedowns zu arbeiten, um die Vanduul als w\u00fctende und t\u00f6dliche Killer darzustellen. Wenn ein Vanduul zum Beispiel einen Spieler niederschl\u00e4gt, der sich nicht schnell genug erholt, wird er mit einer dramatischen Animation im Stil einer Hinrichtung get\u00f6tet. Die entsprechenden Animationen wurden zun\u00e4chst geblockt und sp\u00e4ter in einer Motion-Capture-Session aufgezeichnet.\n\n\nAuch bei einem Katz-und-Maus-Spiel mit einem marodierenden Vanduul wurden Fortschritte erzielt. In diesem Abschnitt patrouilliert der Vanduul in einem schlecht einsehbaren Raum, w\u00e4hrend der Spieler versucht, ihm auszuweichen und so wenig L\u00e4rm wie m\u00f6glich zu machen. Wenn der Vanduul sie h\u00f6rt, schaltet er in den \"Erkundungsmodus\" und untersucht den Bereich, aus dem das Ger\u00e4usch kam.\n\n\n\"Es ist wirklich aufregend zu sehen, wie alle Elemente des Gameplays (KI, Leveldesign, Kunst und Sound) zusammenkommen, um der Vision zu entsprechen. KI-Funktionen\n\n\nDas Team hat auch den Mastergraph verbessert, der das Verhalten der KI steuert. Dieser Zustandsautomat nimmt verschiedene Ereignisse als Eingaben entgegen (z. B. wenn er einen Feind sieht oder eine Granate h\u00f6rt), steuert die \u00dcberg\u00e4nge zwischen den Zust\u00e4nden und spielt dann die entsprechenden Verhaltensweisen ab. Bestimmte Zust\u00e4nde im Mastergraphen k\u00f6nnen nun mit bestimmten Verhaltensweisen \u00fcberschrieben werden, so dass das Team dieselbe allgemeine Struktur f\u00fcr mehrere Charaktere nutzen und gleichzeitig einzigartige Verhaltensweisen beibehalten kann. Zuvor waren daf\u00fcr mehrere separate, aber sehr \u00e4hnliche Mastergraphen erforderlich.\n\n\nAuf der Animationsseite wurde eine Menge Arbeit am Retargeting der Frauen erledigt. Das Team hat au\u00dferdem ein Pistolen-Animationsset mit Hand- und Arm-Overlays \u00fcber das bestehende Waffen-Set hinaus entwickelt. Der erste Test der Pistolen-Overlay-Animation sah vielversprechend aus und wird Zeit, M\u00fche und Speicherplatz sparen. In bestimmten F\u00e4llen k\u00f6nnen jedoch weiterhin Ganzk\u00f6rperanimationen verwendet werden, um die Qualit\u00e4t zu erhalten.\n\nKI (Tech)\nIm Laufe des Aprils hat die KI-Abteilung das Verhalten und den Code der KI angepasst, damit Schiffe korrekt aus der Planetenatmosph\u00e4re herausquanten k\u00f6nnen. Zuvor dachten die Schiffe, sie bef\u00e4nden sich innerhalb eines Hindernisses und ber\u00fccksichtigten nicht, in welche Richtung sie den Planeten am besten radial verlassen sollten.\n\nF\u00fcr das Navigationssystem f\u00fcgte das Team die F\u00e4higkeit hinzu, Zuh\u00f6rer zu benachrichtigen, wenn Navigationsnetze in der Umgebung gespawnt\/erzeugt werden. Aufgrund der gro\u00dfen Anzahl von Entit\u00e4ten wollen sie die Anzahl der Zuweisungen f\u00fcr Benachrichtigungsereignisse reduzieren und m\u00f6glicherweise eine bessere M\u00f6glichkeit einf\u00fchren, um zu filtern, f\u00fcr welche Entit\u00e4ten die Ereignisse relevant sind.\n\n\nSie setzten Aufgaben fort, die es NSCs erm\u00f6glichen, korrekt mit beweglichen Objekten, wie z. B. Trolleys, zu interagieren. Das letzte Ziel war es, den Betreiber und die Trolleys selbst in das Kollisionsvermeidungssystem zu integrieren. Dadurch k\u00f6nnen NSCs Trolleys schieben, anderen Charakteren beim Schieben ausweichen und Trolleys vermeiden, die im Level zur\u00fcckgelassen werden.\n\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurde es einfacher, einen Link von einem Knotenpunkt zu einem anderen zu ziehen, die automatische Ordnerauswahl bei der Erstellung neuer Dateien wurde verbessert und das Schnelleinf\u00fcgen wurde so ge\u00e4ndert, dass es einen Vorschlag anhand des String-Typs ausw\u00e4hlt, wenn dieser nicht angegeben wurde.\n\n\nDann begann das Team mit der Arbeit an einer wichtigen Verbesserung der Art und Weise, wie die Multigraphenansicht die Verbindung zwischen den Knoten \u00fcberpr\u00fcft. Mit der neuen Funktion geh\u00f6ren die Knoten zu dem Graphen, in dem sie erstellt und mit dem sie verkn\u00fcpft wurden, bis eine neue Verbindung hergestellt wird. So k\u00f6nnen die Entwickler auch im neuen Multigraphenmodus verwaiste Knoten pflegen, ohne dass Daten verloren gehen.\n\nAnimation\nAnimation arbeitete an der KI-Vorschau und unterst\u00fctzte Design bei der Implementierung von Animationen in verschiedenen Kapiteln. Sie untersuchten auch, wie Overlays am besten eingesetzt werden k\u00f6nnen, um den Kampf mit einer Stockwaffe in einen Pistolenkampf umzuwandeln. Dadurch wird weniger Material ben\u00f6tigt und die \u00dcbertragung von Material auf die weibliche KI wird effizienter.\n\n\nDie Entwicklung der Schwerelosigkeit wurde fortgesetzt und das Aussehen und die Bedienung verbessert. Auch an den KI-Animationen f\u00fcr die sozialen Bereiche wurde gearbeitet, um die verschiedenen Schaupl\u00e4tze der Kampagne lebendiger zu gestalten.\n\n\nIm Bereich der Gesichter wurden verschiedene Animationen der Darsteller\/innen verbessert. Das Motion-Capture-Team unterst\u00fctzte weiterhin die Teams f\u00fcr die Erz\u00e4hlung und das Gameplay und wird demn\u00e4chst den Vanduul-Kampf drehen.\n\nEngine\nIm April arbeitete das Physik-Team daran, die Bereinigung des Batched Grid in zwei Teile aufzuteilen (Bereinigung und Defragmentierung), um eine feinere Steuerung des Time Slicing zu erm\u00f6glichen. Au\u00dferdem wurden unn\u00f6tige Berechnungen aus dem Zeitschritt der physischen Welt entfernt und der Zeitschrittcode der lebenden Entit\u00e4ten wurde verbessert. Au\u00dferdem wurde die automatische Konvertierung von Legacy-Constraints in Constraint-Attachments implementiert.\n\n\nDie Umstellung auf den Gen12-Renderer wurde fortgesetzt und das Rendering von Terrain-Patches f\u00fcr Planeten wurde aktiviert. Render-Proxys wurden verbessert und die Schattenerzeugung wurde aktiviert. Die Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr die Skalierung des Ansichtsfensters auf den Renderpass wurde hinzugef\u00fcgt, was f\u00fcr das Rendering von Atlanten und dynamischen Aufl\u00f6sungen praktisch ist. Verschiedene Debug UIs wurden implementiert, um die Entwicklung zu unterst\u00fctzen. Zum Beispiel eine Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che, mit der die Erzeugung von W\u00fcrfelkarten im Spiel zu Testzwecken einfach gesteuert\/ausgel\u00f6st werden kann. Schlie\u00dflich wurden f\u00fcr den Renderer die Material-Fallbacks f\u00fcr die \"Tiefe-Pre-Pass-Stufe\" deaktiviert.\n\n\nDie Gen12-Portierungen der Planet Terrain Height Map und des Shadow Rendering Systems wurden fertiggestellt und in den Upstream integriert. Einer der letzten Schliffe war die \u00dcberarbeitung des Cascade Culling f\u00fcr das Rendering der Planet Terrain Height Map, damit es w\u00e4hrend der \u00dcbermittlung von Draw Packets von Batch Workern ausgef\u00fchrt werden kann (gem\u00e4\u00df der Gen12-Designphilosophie). Die Gen12-Portierung der Atmosph\u00e4re und des Wolkenrenderings wird in K\u00fcrze beginnen.\n\n\nIn der Core-Engine wurde ein m\u00f6glicher Deadlock im Exception-Handler behoben. Die Bereinigung des Codes mit \"include-what-you-use\" wurde fortgesetzt. Au\u00dferdem wurde eine neue Schnittstelle f\u00fcr die OS-Zeit bereitgestellt. Die GPU-Framezeit wird nun in die Analyseereignisse einbezogen, um bessere Daten dar\u00fcber zu erhalten, wie lang die tats\u00e4chlichen Framezeiten auf der GPU sind (ohne VSync). Um die Bereitstellung zu vereinfachen, verwenden Linux-Spieleserverinstanzen jetzt auch separate Benutzerordner.\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nDas Sq42-Feature-Team hat die Arbeit am Waffenmeister fortgesetzt und im letzten Monat daf\u00fcr gesorgt, dass das Verhalten des Charakters mit dem Kiosk synchronisiert ist. Dazu geh\u00f6rt, dass er die gew\u00e4hlte Waffe von der Theke oder dem Waffenregal holt, sie auf die Theke legt und wieder zur\u00fccklegt, wenn der Spieler mit ihr fertig ist.\n\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurde an einem Bewerbungsformular im Spiel gearbeitet, das mit dem Charakteranpassungsprogramm verkn\u00fcpft ist und es den Spielern erm\u00f6glicht, eine erste Version ihres Charakters auf der Grundlage der im Formular ausgew\u00e4hlten Optionen zu erstellen. Auch die Cinematics- und Design-Teams wurden unterst\u00fctzt.\n\nGameplay Story\nIm April aktualisierte Gameplay Story mehrere Szenen in Kapitel eins mit neuem Mo-Cap. Au\u00dferdem wurden mehrere bestehende Szenen \u00fcberarbeitet, indem die richtigen systemischen Posen am Anfang und am Ende eingef\u00fcgt wurden, damit die Charaktere korrekt in die Szenen hinein- und wieder herauswechseln k\u00f6nnen.\n\n\nKapitel f\u00fcnf erhielt ein weiteres gro\u00dfes Update und enth\u00e4lt nun die Animationen f\u00fcr vier NSCs, die in eine Stra\u00dfenbahn einsteigen, die richtigen Positionen einnehmen und sich an den Handl\u00e4ufen festhalten. Au\u00dferdem wurden zwei weitere Szenen mit zuf\u00e4lligen NSCs fertiggestellt, so dass nur noch eine \u00fcbrig bleibt, um das Set abzuschlie\u00dfen.\n\nGrafik & VFX-Programmierung\nF\u00fcr Gen12 stellte das Team die richtige Ansichtsfenstergr\u00f6\u00dfe f\u00fcr die Rendering-P\u00e4sse in den Phasen \"G-Buffer\" und \"Tiefen-Pre-Pass\" ein, um die RTT-Pipeline zu unterst\u00fctzen. Au\u00dferdem wurde weiter an der Bereinigung von Ressourcen-Arrays und analytischen Schattenstreuungsabfragen gearbeitet. Die VFX-Autotests wurden ebenfalls fortgesetzt, wobei die Flowgraph-Knoten aktualisiert wurden, um konsistentere Ergebnisse zu erzielen.\n\nLevel-Design\nDas FPS-Team konzentrierte sich auf die endg\u00fcltigen Gameplay- und Implementierungsdurchl\u00e4ufe f\u00fcr verschiedene Schl\u00fcsselkapitel. Au\u00dferdem wurde daran gearbeitet, einige Mechaniken und andere Kapitel in die Alpha-Phase zu \u00fcberf\u00fchren, um das Gameplay zu testen und f\u00fcr das endg\u00fcltige Spielerlebnis zu optimieren.\n\n\nDas Space\/Dogfight-Team hat zusammen mit den anderen Design-Teams weiter daran gearbeitet, die fr\u00fchen Kapitel in Richtung Vertical-Slice-Qualit\u00e4t zu bringen. Es gibt einige besondere Elemente, die speziell f\u00fcr Sq42 entwickelt wurden und auf die ebenfalls ein besonderes Augenmerk gelegt wurde.\n\n\nDas Social Design Team arbeitete nicht nur mit den anderen Designteams zusammen, sondern implementierte auch weiterhin alle Szenen im Spiel.\n\nNarrative\nDas Narrative-Team begann den Monat mit der \u00dcberarbeitung der Skripte, die auf den Playthroughs mit dem Design-Team und den Besprechungen mit den Regisseuren basierten. In diese Aktualisierungen flie\u00dfen die neuesten Entscheidungen ein, die auf dem Levelfluss basieren und neue\/wichtige Spielmechaniken erkl\u00e4ren oder zus\u00e4tzliche Inhalte liefern, um L\u00fccken zu f\u00fcllen. In K\u00fcrze werden Platzhalterzeilen aufgenommen, damit die Teams sie w\u00e4hrend des Playthroughs vor Ort erleben k\u00f6nnen, anstatt sie nur in einem Skript zu lesen.\n\n\nAuch einige der textbasierten Systeme wurden weiter erforscht. Das Team hat sich mit den Designern getroffen, um die Absichten hinter dem System, den Textbedarf und den Zeitplan f\u00fcr die Entwicklung zu besprechen.\n\n\nWie im Bericht vom letzten Monat erw\u00e4hnt, hat das Team zus\u00e4tzliche Inhalte f\u00fcr die Entwicklung der NSC-Berufe durch das KI-Team bereitgestellt. Derzeit ist geplant, die endg\u00fcltigen Versionen in einer der n\u00e4chsten Mo-Cap-Sessions zu drehen.\n\n\nDas Narrative-Team hat auch weiterhin allgemeine Texte f\u00fcr das Spiel erstellt, darunter Missionsziele und Holo-Briefing-Symbole.\n\nQA\nDie QA unterst\u00fctzte die Cinematics weiterhin, indem sie Probleme, die w\u00e4hrend der Entwicklung gefunden wurden, reproduzierte und nach Bugs suchte. Au\u00dferdem konzentrierten sie sich auf die Fehlersuche und -meldung und nahmen Szenen zur \u00dcberpr\u00fcfung auf.\n\n\nAu\u00dferdem arbeitete die QA an mehreren erz\u00e4hlerischen Szenen, in denen sich die KI bewegte, und best\u00e4tigte Korrekturen und stellte sicher, dass der allgemeine Ablauf konsistent ist. Auch Checklistentests wurden durchgef\u00fchrt und umfassen nun regelm\u00e4\u00dfige Tests der Abschnitte Vanduul, FPS und SchiffskI.\n\nTechnische Animation\nTech Animation erstellte weiterhin neue Gesichts-Rigs aus ihren intern erstellten Scandaten. Au\u00dferdem wurde viel Zeit in die Werkzeugkette und den Prozess investiert, um sicherzustellen, dass die kommenden K\u00f6pfe schneller und sauberer produziert werden k\u00f6nnen.\n\n\nDar\u00fcber hinaus unterst\u00fctzten sie die Teams f\u00fcr Feature und Animation, indem sie die Animationssysteme verbesserten, um den gestiegenen Anforderungen gerecht zu werden. So wurde das System beispielsweise in die Lage versetzt, bis zu 50 Ebenen von autorisierten und inversen kinematischen Animationen f\u00fcr eine einzige Figur zu unterst\u00fctzen.\n\n\nSie unterst\u00fctzten auch die anderen Entwicklungsteams mit neuen Initiativen zur Festigung der Arbeitsabl\u00e4ufe, um sowohl Zeit als auch Fehler zu sparen.\n\nUI\nDie Arbeit an der neuen Starmap- und Radar-UI ging voran. Die Entwickler\/innen implementierten grundlegende Steuerelemente, die es ihnen erm\u00f6glichen, sich in einem Sonnensystem umzusehen und die Planeten, Umlaufbahnen und Fahrzeuge darin zu betrachten. Au\u00dferdem f\u00fcgten sie eine Infotafel hinzu, mit der die Spieler\/innen Details zu ausgew\u00e4hlten Objekten sehen k\u00f6nnen.\n\n\n\"Auch wenn es noch nicht ganz ausgereift ist, haben wir die Grundlage geschaffen, um weitere Funktionen hinzuzuf\u00fcgen und die Grafik zu verbessern. UI-Team\n\n\nDie K\u00fcnstler\/innen begannen mit der Arbeit an den UI-Bildschirmen f\u00fcr verschiedene Level. Dabei wurden Konzepte f\u00fcr die Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che in zwei wichtigen Bereichen erstellt und mit dem Game Design Team an neuen interaktiven Bildschirmen gearbeitet.\n\n\nDie Konvertierung von Visier und Linse, bei der die bestehenden Spieler-HUD-Elemente in Building Blocks umgewandelt werden, ist in vollem Gange. Viele Widgets, darunter Waffeninformationen und Missionsziele, wurden auf das neue System portiert. Au\u00dferdem wurden die Funktionen zur Unterst\u00fctzung von Persistent Streaming weiter aktualisiert.\n\n\nDas UI-Tech-Team entwickelte weitere Building Blocks-Funktionen, von denen eine die Canvas-Slicing-Technologie ersetzen wird, die zur Entwicklung von 3D-UIs verwendet wird. Das neue Kartensystem wurde in puncto Benutzerfreundlichkeit und Leistung stark verbessert und wird derzeit im Fahrzeug-HUD f\u00fcr die Funktion \"Rumpfschaben\" getestet.\n\n\nDas Team hat au\u00dferdem an einem neuen AR-Marker-System gearbeitet und verschiedene Widgets verbessert, um den UI-Designern die Arbeit zu erleichtern.\n\nVFX\nNeben der Unterst\u00fctzung der Kunst- und Designteams hat das VFX-Team im April die Farbexperimente f\u00fcr eine Reihe von energiebasierten Effekten abgeschlossen, die in der Kampagne zu sehen sein werden. Au\u00dferdem wurde die Arbeit an mehreren einzigartigen Schildeffekten abgeschlossen, mit denen das Team sehr zufrieden ist. Au\u00dferdem wurde ein Prototyp fertiggestellt, um zu zeigen, wie Partikel verwendet werden k\u00f6nnen, um holografischen Displays zus\u00e4tzlichen visuellen Glanz zu verleihen.\n\n\nDas VFX Tech Art Team hat ein erforderliches Houdini-Update durchgef\u00fchrt. Dabei wurde sichergestellt, dass die von den K\u00fcnstlern und Designern verwendeten Werkzeuge auch in Houdini 19 korrekt funktionieren. Au\u00dferdem experimentierten sie weiter mit besseren M\u00f6glichkeiten zur Frakturierung von Geometrie, um realistischer aussehende Sch\u00e4den zu erzeugen.\n\nWIR SEHEN UNS N\u00c4CHSTEN MONAT WIEDER...\n\/\/ ENDE DER \u00dcBERTRAGUNG","zh_CN":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report\nApril 2022\nThis is a cross-post of the report that was recently sent out via the monthly Squadron 42 newsletter. We\u2019re publishing this a second time as a Comm-Link to make it easier for the community to reference back to.\n\nTO: SQUADRON 42 RECRUITS\n\nSUBJ: DEVELOPMENT UPDATE 05:04:2022\n\nREF: CIG UK, CIG DE, CIG LA, CIG TX\n\nFAO Squadron 42 Recruits.\n\nWelcome to April\u2019s Squadron 42 development report. Enclosed you will find details on the latest progress made across the campaign, including updates to Vanduul combat, sleeping arrangements, and the Starmap.\n\nThank you for your continued support of Squadron 42.\n\nSincerely,\n\nCIG COMMUNICATIONS\n\nAI (Content)\nSpecifically for Squadron 42 (Sq42), AI Content revamped the \u2018sleep and bed relaxation\u2019 activity started last year, which enables NPCs to realistically pass time in their bunks or sleeping quarters. Now, an NPC will find its bed and enter it before closing the privacy shutters and sleeping until they\u2019re scheduled to do another activity.\n\n\n\u201cWe knew early on that, to hit the fidelity we expect for Sq42, we would need to do some R&D on bedsheet deformation. This work is currently underway and, if successful, will allow the AI to deform their sheets when entering, exiting, or sleeping inside them. This is a challenging assignment and expands the complexity of the feature. For example, what happens to the sheets if the AI needs to exit the bed in an emergency?\u201d AI Content\n\n\nThe initial implementation of bed relaxation includes reading, writing, and watching content on the mobiGlas, which can happen in bed or on the side of it. NPCs can also watch TV if their bunk includes one.\n\n\nWork on the arcade machine feature was finalized last month, which included polishing the machine\u2019s male and female animations. The team also utilized the new \u2018geometry slaving\u2019 feature from AI Tech: instead of playing a joystick animation, the joystick is attached to the NPC\u2019s hand and moves when it does.\n\nAI (Features)\nAI Features started the month working on tech and animations for player takedowns, with the aim to present the Vanduul as furious and deadly killers. For example, if a Vanduul knocks a player down that doesn\u2019t recover quickly enough, they\u2019ll be killed via a dramatic execution-style animation. Relevant animations were first blocked out and then later recorded in a motion-capture session.\n\n\nProgress was also made on a section of \u2018cat-and-mouse\u2019 gameplay with a marauding Vanduul. In this section, the Vanduul patrols around a room with low visibility while the player tries to avoid them, making as little noise as possible. If the Vanduul hears them, it will go into \u2018investigation mode\u2019 and check the area the sound came from.\n\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s really exciting to see all of the elements of the gameplay (AI, level design, art, and sound) coming together to match the vision.\u201d AI Features\n\n\nThe team also made improvements to the mastergraph, which is the ultimate AI behavior controller. This state machine takes various events as inputs (seeing an enemy, hearing a grenade, etc.), controls the transitions between states, and then plays the associated behaviors. Support was added to override certain states in the mastergraph with specific behaviors, allowing the team to share the same general structure between several characters while maintaining unique behaviors. Previously, this required multiple separate but very similar mastergraphs.\n\n\nOn the animation side, lots of female retargeting work was completed. The team also looked into getting a fully featured pistol animation set using hand and arm overlays on top of the existing stocked-weapon set. The initial test of the pistol overlay animation looked promising and will save time, effort, and memory. However, full-body animations can still be utilized for specific cases to maintain quality.\n\nAI (Tech)\nThroughout April, AI Tech adjusted the AI behaviors and code to allow ships to correctly quantum travel out of planetary atmospheres. Previously, ships would think they were inside an obstacle and not correctly account for which direction would be best to radially leave the planet.\n\nFor the navigation system, the team added the ability to notify listeners when navigation meshes are spawned\/created within the environment. Due to a large number of entities, they\u2019re aiming to reduce the number of allocations for notification events and possibly introduce a better way to filter which entities events are relevant to.\n\n\nThey continued tasks that will allow NPCs to interact correctly with movable entities, like trolleys. The recent aim was to integrate the operator and the trolleys themselves into the collision avoidance system. This will allow NPCs to push trolleys, avoid other characters while pushing, and avoid trolleys left throughout a level.\n\n\nThey also made it easier to drag a link from one node to another, improved the automatic folder selection when creating new files, and modified quick insert to select a suggestion based on the string type if not specified.\n\n\nThe team then began work on a major improvement to the way the multigraph view validates node connection. With the new feature, nodes belong to the graph they have been created in and linked to until a new connection is established. This allows the devs to maintain orphan nodes without losing data even in the new multigraph mode.\n\nAnimation\nAnimation worked on AI pre-vis and supported Design as they implemented animations across various chapters. They also looked into how to best use overlays to convert stocked-weapon combat into pistol combat. This will cut down on the number of assets needed and make it more efficient to transfer assets to the female AI.\n\n\nDevelopment of zero-g traversal continued, with improvements made to its look and feel. AI animations for social areas were worked on too, with the aim to give more life to the various campaign locales.\n\n\nOn the facial side, improvements were made to several cast-character animations. The Motion Capture team continued to support the Narrative and Gameplay teams, with an anticipated Vanduul combat shoot scheduled soon.\n\nEngine\nIn April, the Physics team worked on splitting the batched grid cleanup into two parts (cleanup and defragmentation) to allow for finer control of time slicing. Furthermore, unnecessary computations were removed from the physical world time step, and the time stepping code of living entities was improved. Auto conversion of legacy constraints to constraint attachments was implemented too.\n\n\nThe Gen12 renderer transition continued, with planet terrain patch rendering being enabled. Render proxies received various improvements and shadow generation was enabled. Support for \u2018viewport scaling to render pass\u2019 was added, which is convenient for atlas and dynamic resolution rendering. Various debug UIs were implemented to assist development. For example, a UI to easily control\/trigger cube map generation in-game for testing purposes. Lastly for the renderer, material fallbacks for the \u2018depth pre-pass stage\u2019 were disabled.\n\n\nGen12 ports of the planet terrain height map and shadow rendering systems were finalized and merged upstream. One of the finishing touches was to rework cascade culling for planet terrain height map rendering so it can run during the submission of draw packets from batch workers (following the Gen12 design philosophy). Gen12 ports of the atmosphere and cloud rendering will commence shortly.\n\n\nOn the core engine, a potential deadlock in the exception handler was fixed. The clean-up of code using \u2018include-what-you-use\u2019 continued. Additionally, a new OS time interface was provided. GPU frame time is now included in analytic events to provide better data on how long actual frame times are on the GPU (ignoring VSync). Furthermore, to simplify deployment, Linux game server instances now also use separate user folders.\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nThe Sq42 Feature team continued work on the master-at-arms, last month getting the character\u2019s behavior working in sync with the kiosk. This includes retrieving the selected weapon from behind the counter or weapon rack, placing it on the counter, and putting it back again once the player has finished with it.\n\n\nWork was also done on an in-game application form linked to the character customizer, which allows players to generate an initial version of their character based on the options selected on the form. Support was also given to the Cinematics and Design teams.\n\nGameplay Story\nDuring April, Gameplay Story updated several scenes in chapter one with new mo-cap. They also maintained several existing scenes, applying the correct systemic poses to the beginning and end, which enable the characters to transition in and out of scenes correctly.\n\n\nChapter five received another significant update and now includes the animations for four NPCs boarding a tram, taking up correct positions, and grabbing hold of handrails. They also finished two more random-to-NPC scenes, leaving one remaining to close out the set.\n\nGraphics & VFX Programming\nFor Gen12, the team set the proper viewport size to render passes in the \u2018G-buffer\u2019 and \u2018depth-pre-pass\u2019 stages to support the RTT pipeline. Work also continued on the clean-up of resource arrays and analytic shadow scattering queries. VFX auto tests continued too, with the flowgraph nodes being updated for more consistent results.\n\nLevel Design\nThe FPS team focused on final gameplay and implementation passes for various key chapters. Work also continued on pushing a number of mechanics and other chapters to alpha so they can begin testing and balancing gameplay towards the final experience.\n\n\nThe Space\/Dogfight team, alongside the other design teams, continued their ongoing effort of pushing the early chapters towards vertical-slice quality. There are several special-focus elements bespoke to Sq42 that received design attention too.\n\n\nAs well as working collaboratively with the other design teams, the Social Design team continued to implement all in-game scenes.\n\nNarrative\nNarrative began the month revising scripts based on playthroughs with Design and reviews with the directors. These updates incorporate the latest decisions based on level flow that explain new\/important game mechanics or provide additional content to fill in gaps. Placeholder lines will be captured soon to allow the teams to experience them in situ during playthroughs rather than just reading them in a script.\n\n\nExplorations into some of the text-based systems continued as well. The team met with the designers to discuss the high-level intent behind the system, its text needs, and the development timeline.\n\n\nAs mentioned in last month\u2019s report, the team provided additional content for the AI team\u2019s NPC profession development. The current plan is to shoot the final versions in an upcoming mo-cap session.\n\n\nNarrative also continued to provide general game text, including mission objectives and holo-briefing icons.\n\nQA\nQA continued to support Cinematics by reproducing issues found during development and chasing bugs. They also focused on bug validation and reporting and recording scenes for review.\n\n\nQA also worked on several narrative scenes involving moving AI, which involved confirming fixes and ensuring the general flow is consistent. Checklist testing began too and now includes regular testing on Vanduul, FPS, and ship AI sections.\n\nTech Animation\nTech Animation continued creating new face rigs from their internally created scan data. They also invested substantial time into the tools chain and process to ensure upcoming heads are quicker and cleaner to produce.\n\n\nFurthermore, they supported the Feature and Animation teams by improving the animation systems to accommodate their increased requirements. For example, enabling the system to support up to 50 layers of authored and inverse kinematic animation on a single character.\n\n\nThey also supported the other development teams with new initiatives to solidify workflows to save both time and errors.\n\nUI\nWork progressed on the new Starmap and radar UI. The devs implemented basic controls, enabling them to look around a solar system and view the planets, orbits, and vehicles within it. They also began adding an info panel that players can use to see details about selected objects.\n\n\n\u201cAlthough rough around the edges, the groundwork is there for us to add functionality and start improving the visuals.\u201d UI Team\n\n\nThe artists began work on UI screens for various levels. This involved creating concepts for the UI in two important areas and working with Game Design team on new interactive screens.\n\n\nThe visor and lens conversion, which involves converting the existing player HUD elements to Building Blocks, is well underway. Many widgets, including weapon information and mission objectives, were ported to the new system. They also continued to update features in support of Persistent Streaming.\n\n\nThe UI Tech team continued developing additional Building Blocks features, one of which will replace the canvas slicing technology used to develop 3D UIs. The new \u2018cards' system received major usability and performance improvements and is currently being tested in the vehicle HUD for the hull-scraping feature.\n\n\nThe team also worked on a new AR marker system and improved various widgets to help the UI designers work more efficiently.\n\nVFX\nAlongside supporting the Art and Design teams, April saw VFX complete color experimentation on a suite of energy-based effects that will be seen throughout the campaign. Work was also completed on several unique shield effects, which the team are very pleased with. They also completed prototyping to demonstrate how particles can be used to add extra visual flourish to holographic displays.\n\n\nThe VFX Tech Art team completed a required Houdini update. This involved ensuring the existing tools used by the artists and designers still work correctly in Houdini 19. They also continued experimenting with better ways to fracture geometry to create more realistic looking damage.\n\nWE'LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH...\n\/\/ END TRANSMISSION"},"links_count":0,"comment_count":0,"created_at":"2022-05-11T18:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"3 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-07 19:28:15","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":18656,"next_id":18658}}