{"data":{"id":18926,"title":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report: September 2022","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/18926-Squadron-42-Monthly-Report-September-2022","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/18926","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/18926","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\nSeptember 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 10:05:2022\n\nREF: CIG UK, CIG DE, CIG LA, CIG TX,\n\nFAO Squadron 42 Recruits.\n\nWelcome to September\u2019s Squadron 42 development report. Enclosed you will find details on the latest progress made across the campaign, including Vanduul executions, wildlines, and the StarMap.\n\nThank you for your continued support of Squadron 42.\n\nSincerely,\n\nCIG COMMUNICATIONS\n\nAI (Content)\nThroughout September, AI Content team continued work on the vendor and patron behaviors that will allow AI characters to serve, carry, and consume food and drink. This complex set of behaviors is progressing well and will add impressive fidelity to several areas of the game. They also got the new medical behavior working in the Idris.\n\nAlongside behaviors, progress was made on two important new usables. The first is used for opening crates, inspecting the contents, and lifting items in and out. The second is for a tactile chair that allows AI characters to get in and out by rotating it with their hands.\n\nThey also presented the first version of a simulated bed sheet that allows NPCs to sleep under a blanket.\n\n\u201cEveryone seems really pleased with the results so we hope to build on this foundation - many thanks to the Tech Animation team for all their support with this!\u201d AI Content\n\nProgress was made on the quartermaster too, which involved new mo-cap, updating poses, polishing animations, and prototyping dynamic conversations.\n\nAI (Features)\nLast month, the AI Feature team continued to develop the \u2018traits\u2019 that allow the specialization of NPC behaviors in specific levels and scenarios. This included implementing the Sentry trait, which forces characters to use defensive tactics and to never leave cover unless compromised. This will be particularly useful for NPCs equipped with sniper rifles and rocket launchers. The Reckless trait is the opposite, forcing a character to only adopt aggressive tactics and never use cover options. This will be utilized by close-combat \u201cberserker\u201d enemy types. There are also Aggressive and Cautious traits that adopt varying weights of cover use.\n\nThey also implemented usables that allow context-specific search animations to be played around certain level features. For example, vents, over railings, and around crates. This adds life to NPC investigation and gives them more opportunity to use the environment to search along with increasing the tension for hunted players.\n\nAI Features also implemented several new features for combat with the Vanduul, including gameplay for when the player is in close combat and knocked down. Players will now have a limited window to move out of the way before a synchronized execution animation is played.\n\n\u201cThis really sells the Vanduul as a serious threat, where split-second decision-making is important to win the fight against this powerful and aggressive foe. If the player successfully dodges the Vanduul attack, it gives a short breathing period during which the player can mount a counter-offensive.\u201d AI Features\n\nPerception work continued too, with the team supporting the stealth gameplay loop by allowing the player to wear specific clothing to disguise themselves in different environments. The designers can configure which clothing works for each faction and location so that a successful disguise combines both player actions and the configuration of the NPCs in the environment. The perception meter for detecting the player as a foe is then influenced by this parameter, giving the player more time to sneak into areas, especially when at distance from the enemies.\n\nTo support the scaling of perception ranges and times, new wildlines were integrated to signal this new gameplay. For example, a suspicious enemy will challenge the player if their disguise or behavior isn\u2019t convincing.\n\nOn the animation side, AI features progressed with Human female combat animations. They also continued blocking out specific Vanduul animations, including the execution animations mentioned above.\n\nAI (Tech)\nLast month, AI Tech extended the functionality of navigation links, which involved finishing their work on ladder extenders. Now, NPCs are able to use and traverse ladders in a similar way to players.\n\nThey also extended navigation links for doors to allow NPCs to use the entire width of doors (useful for wider doors or gaps in general) and enabled collision avoidance while traversing.\n\nThey extended the way NPCs interact with closed doors too. The aim was to have the AI correctly understand which door panels should be interacted with during traversal. To achieve this, the routing functionality inside the usable system was improved to use entity links.\n\nFor locomotion, they worked on reducing foot sliding and leg-phase blending. This involved reducing foot sliding during stop animations by matching the leg phase, adding support for selecting the best animation option based on the leg phase, and extending the system to implement the use of sharp turns for walking.\n\nOn the internal Subsumption editor, the team addressed usability feedback from the designers, and bug fixing continued. They also began extending the tool to manage the editing of mastergraphs, which has never been possible in the external tool.\n\nWork was also done to extend two different areas of AI perception functionality: The first not only allows NPCs inside ship cockpits to target on-foot enemies not visible to radar, but also allows NPCs on the ground to visually track large objects, such as vehicles, and engage in ground-to-flight combat.\n\nThe second is audio perception. Previously, NPCs could hear any sound if they were at the right distance from it. Now, the hearing component and audio map use the volume of the sound at its source and then calculate the strength of the audio received by the listener. This is used inside the perception component to influence the perception meter based on how strongly the sound is perceived. The new extension allows the designers to create multiple curves to describe the influence of the different audio semantics. For example, explosions have a different influence than footsteps. Each audio stimulus also has a different maximum value it can push the perception meter to.\n\nFinally for AI Tech, the idle system was extended to allow the designers to set up different weights in the idle sets available to different usables. This allows them to better customize which idle set should be prevalent during the selection based on the environment they\u2019re creating.\n\nAI (Vehicles)\nVehicle AI and Vehicle Features worked together on AI targeting things other than vehicles, such as turrets, components, and stations. This, combined with special behaviors for strafing runs, allows the AI to perform attack runs on stations.\n\nThey also worked on system AI for chapter one, which involves a large number of AI attacking capital ships in coordinated waves. This required various improvements and fixes, with the team improving the system that allows NPCs to pick splines to fly along during attack runs.\n\nAnimation\nGameplay-wise, Animation worked on ladder locomotion for both players and AI, including dodging. They continued to work on EVA and zero-g, improving the feel and functionality. Gadgets were further developed too, including the deployable shield and Galson weapons.\n\nFor AI, progress was made on Vanduul-related gameplay, with the current focus on stealth gameplay sections and enemy executions of the player. Interactions with non-sliding chairs, crates (rummaging), vendors, vending machines, datapads, and other \u2018life\u2019 behavior sets progressed too. Development of the female spec-ops continued, with female combatants close to implementation.\n\nFor facial animation, the team continued to work on scene-specific animations with named-cast characters. Mo-cap and on-set facial services were also provided to the Narrative team as they continued to flesh out the combat and story needs of the campaign.\n\nEngine\nIn September, the Physics team refactored the ray world intersection (RWI) verification. Requests are now verified when queued. The RWI API now also supports the named parameter idiom to prevent further mishaps in its use. An option was also added to RWI that allows sphere tracing against distance fields. Moreover, changes were done in the level export code to enable the reliable attachment of roped to other entities on the client.\n\nOn the renderer, more progress was made on the Gen12 transition. Cube map back drops, light beams, geom caches, silhouette rendering, water volumes, water reflections, and water caustics were ported. Various editor tools now run with Gen12 as well, such as the character editor and Mannequin.\n\nLast month\u2019s support for transient graphics passes saw further adoption uptake, with lots more passes now using it. Furthermore, support for transient compute and copy\/clear passes was added and work to support transient scene render passes is currently underway. Additionally, memory tracking for graphics passes was added. Gen12 now also supports texture anisotropy overrides as well as a global MIP bias. Material resource binding was refactored, and alpha blending support was added to the hologram shader. Lastly, various optimizations were done to avoid redundant clears on render targets and updates on pass resources.\n\nThe Gen12 port of volumetric cloud rendering was completed.\n\nOn the core engine, the team added support for sys calls in CigProfile and frame time is now included in peak detection cigTrace events. More work is being done to enable p4k files to be memory mappable, which will allow for faster engine startup. As an optimization, the team was able to remove entity-based network wakeups.\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nThe SQ42 Feature team continued with tasks for the armory, enabling weapons to be delivered to different locations. It now also has its own set of first-select animations when the player interacts with a weapon for the first time.\n\nFor the crane feature, the devs used inverse kinematics to link the player\u2019s hands and joysticks so that they animate together. They also added additional functionality for the designers, such as snapping and locking.\n\nFurther progress was made on the new mobiGlas, with the team finishing the personal messages app and implementing the first part of the mission manager app to show mission briefings.\n\nGameplay Story\nLast month, Gameplay Story held a mo-cap shoot that captured a variety of data for several late-game scenes. Once processed, this data will allow the scenes to function well in-game.\n\nA new scene was also created by reusing existing wildlines, which will allow the player to speak to a medic and be healed by them if required.\n\nFinally for Gameplay Story, exploration was done on the mess hall scenes to make them function with AI animations so that all characters enter and leave smoothly.\n\nGraphics & VFX Programming\nIn September, the Graphics team completed work on edge-highlight rendering code in support of the FPS scanning of occluded objects. This involved creating a new render-to-texture layer used exclusively for augmented reality rendering, which will be used for all AR\/in-world UI rendering going forward. The shader used for AR rendering was also upgraded to support tesselation\/smoothing, tri-planar texture mapping, and dynamic multiscale texturing.\n\nAt the request of the UI team, the Graphics team investigated the possibility of using D3D\/Vulkan's anti-aliased line rendering for rendering wireframes on UI meshes. However, they decided to go with a shader-based approach using tessellation hardware instead due to performance issues in the drivers.\n\nThe team also began looking into improving and unifying all resource streaming systems, with the goal of simplifying the code while allowing more intelligent use of the available memory so that they can adapt to the different scenarios across the game. Work on the ultra-high resolution screenshot output was completed for the Marketing team too.\n\nLevel Design\nLast month, the Flight team progressed towards getting a large part of the game fully playable with functioning systems and mechanics, with a focus on a seamless experience. Following on from previous months\u2019 reports, September saw them expand this work beyond the first third of the game.\n\nThe Social team focused on several chapters, including the ongoing scene work on the Idris and Stanton interstitials. This involved implementation, addressing feedback, and handshaking NPCs from scenes into behaviors. They also started shift assignments for the Idris\u2019 80-person crew, including the deck crew, bridge crew, engineers, and off-duty personnel.\n\nThey also kicked off tasks for some cross-discipline chapters involving FPS, flight, and social. Level Design made good progress on the social related content, with the majority of their assigned scenes being ready for implementation\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s always essential to see the scene playing out in situ so we can review and assess what additional work could be required.\u201d Level Design Team\n\nNarrative\nSeptember saw the Narrative team prepping for a performance capture session. The buildup to this shoot included working closely with the Design team to determine a streamlined version of the FPS wildline set. This will allow the various enemy combatants to have enough lines so they can be reactive but without adding so many as to cause undue stress to the amount of content that would need to be captured. This shoot also included the return of several established characters for additional pickups based on changes to their location and level flow.\n\n\u201cThere were some additional fun bits that were captured but, unfortunately, they have to be kept under wraps!\u201d Narrative Team\n\nNarrative also continued working with AI Content on the dynamic-conversation system for background characters and began figuring out how to best incorporate it into the game. As with the wildlines, part of the discussion is figuring out a way to keep the line-set to a manageable level while providing interesting conversations to make the characters in the locations feel alive.\n\nFinally, they continued the ongoing syncs with the Flight and FPS Design teams to review the latest level developments, creating or adjusting scripts to fill in areas that feel too empty or require additional content to explain the gameplay.\n\nTech Animation\nSeptember saw tech Animation progress with the face-scanning initiative mentioned in last month\u2019s report, which aims to add more heads to the game\u2019s gene pool. The initial scan session saw an extra 20 female heads scanned, which are currently being processed by the Art teams. Tech Animation will then rig and implement the assets into the engine.\n\nAlongside this, the team explored and refined their methods for implementing geometry caches into the engine and Maya\u2019s deformation technology.\n\n\u201cWe have some exciting developments with some of our elements in-game that will take them to the next level of visual fidelity.\u201d Tech Animation\n\nTech Animation also assisted in the creation and implementation of new enemy types that are being worked on by other feature teams.\n\nUI\nThe UI team undertook a significant code push on the StarMap and radar to get many of the separate elements pulled together. As part of this, they added new tech to allow them to create and interact with holo-volumes, which will help to get the new version of the radar onto ships. They also fixed any unexpected glitches along the way and improved the visuals.\n\nThe Art team continued to concept various parts of the Squadron 42-specific UI. This involved finalizing the look and content of the new MFDs, designing gameplay screens for levels, and completing vehicle style guides.\n\nVFX\nAlongside onboarding several new starters, the VFX team continued to support the Art, Design, and Cinematic teams with environmental effects and destruction sequences.\n\nFinally, work began on a slight overhaul of the particle libraries to make them easier to maintain as the team spreads across the many varied locations.\n\nWE'LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH...\n\/\/ END TRANSMISSION","de_DE":"Geschwader 42 Monatsbericht\nSeptember 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 10:05:2022\n\nREF: CIG UK, CIG DE, CIG LA, CIG TX,\n\nFAO-Geschwader 42 Rekruten.\n\nWillkommen zum Entwicklungsbericht f\u00fcr Squadron 42 im September. Anbei findest du Details zu den neuesten Fortschritten in der Kampagne, einschlie\u00dflich der Hinrichtungen der Vanduul, der Wildlinien und der 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)\nIm September hat das KI-Inhaltsteam die Arbeit an den Verhaltensweisen von H\u00e4ndlern und G\u00e4sten fortgesetzt, die es den KI-Charakteren erm\u00f6glichen werden, Speisen und Getr\u00e4nke zu servieren, zu tragen und zu konsumieren. Diese komplexen Verhaltensweisen machen gute Fortschritte und werden das Spiel in einigen Bereichen noch lebensechter machen. Au\u00dferdem haben sie das neue medizinische Verhalten in Idris zum Laufen gebracht.\n\nNeben den Verhaltensweisen wurden auch Fortschritte bei zwei wichtigen neuen Funktionen gemacht. Das erste dient dazu, Kisten zu \u00f6ffnen, ihren Inhalt zu untersuchen und Gegenst\u00e4nde hinein- und herauszuheben. Das zweite ist ein taktiler Stuhl, in den die KI-Charaktere ein- und aussteigen k\u00f6nnen, indem sie ihn mit ihren H\u00e4nden drehen.\n\nAu\u00dferdem haben sie die erste Version eines simulierten Bettlakens vorgestellt, mit dem NSCs unter einer Decke schlafen k\u00f6nnen.\n\n\"Alle scheinen mit den Ergebnissen sehr zufrieden zu sein und wir hoffen, dass wir auf diesem Fundament aufbauen k\u00f6nnen - vielen Dank an das Tech Animation Team f\u00fcr die Unterst\u00fctzung!\" KI-Inhalt\n\nAuch beim Quartiermeister wurden Fortschritte gemacht. Dazu geh\u00f6rten ein neues Mo-Cap, die Aktualisierung der Posen, das Polieren der Animationen und das Prototyping von dynamischen Gespr\u00e4chen.\n\nKI (Features)\nIm letzten Monat hat das KI-Feature-Team die Entwicklung der \"Eigenschaften\" fortgesetzt, mit denen sich das Verhalten der NSCs in bestimmten Levels und Szenarien spezialisieren l\u00e4sst. Dazu geh\u00f6rte die Implementierung der Eigenschaft \"Wache\", die die Charaktere dazu zwingt, eine defensive Taktik anzuwenden und die Deckung nur zu verlassen, wenn sie gef\u00e4hrdet ist. Das ist besonders n\u00fctzlich f\u00fcr NSCs, die mit Scharfsch\u00fctzengewehren und Raketenwerfern ausger\u00fcstet sind. Die Eigenschaft R\u00fccksichtslos ist das Gegenteil: Sie zwingt einen Charakter dazu, nur aggressive Taktiken anzuwenden und niemals Deckungsm\u00f6glichkeiten zu nutzen. Diese Eigenschaft wird von \"Berserker\"-Feindtypen im Nahkampf genutzt. Es gibt auch die Eigenschaften Aggressiv und Vorsichtig, bei denen die Nutzung von Deckung unterschiedlich stark ausgepr\u00e4gt ist.\n\nEs wurden auch Usables implementiert, die es erm\u00f6glichen, kontextspezifische Suchanimationen rund um bestimmte Levelmerkmale zu spielen. Zum Beispiel an L\u00fcftungssch\u00e4chten, \u00fcber Gel\u00e4ndern und um Kisten herum. Das bringt Leben in die Erkundung der NSC und gibt ihnen mehr M\u00f6glichkeiten, die Umgebung f\u00fcr die Suche zu nutzen und erh\u00f6ht die Spannung f\u00fcr gejagte Spieler\/innen.\n\nDie KI-Features haben auch einige neue Funktionen f\u00fcr den Kampf mit den Vanduul implementiert, darunter das Gameplay f\u00fcr den Fall, dass der Spieler im Nahkampf zu Boden geht. Die Spieler\/innen haben jetzt ein begrenztes Zeitfenster, um sich aus dem Weg zu bewegen, bevor eine synchronisierte Hinrichtungsanimation abgespielt wird.\n\n\"Das macht den Vanduul zu einer ernsthaften Bedrohung, bei der es auf blitzschnelle Entscheidungen ankommt, um den Kampf gegen diesen m\u00e4chtigen und aggressiven Feind zu gewinnen. Wenn der Spieler dem Vanduul-Angriff erfolgreich ausweicht, gibt es eine kurze Verschnaufpause, in der der Spieler einen Gegenangriff starten kann.\" KI-Funktionen\n\nAuch an der Wahrnehmung wurde gearbeitet. Das Team unterst\u00fctzt den Stealth-Gameplay-Loop, indem es dem Spieler erlaubt, bestimmte Kleidung zu tragen, um sich in verschiedenen Umgebungen zu tarnen. Die Designer k\u00f6nnen konfigurieren, welche Kleidung f\u00fcr jede Fraktion und jeden Ort funktioniert, so dass eine erfolgreiche Tarnung sowohl die Aktionen des Spielers als auch die Konfiguration der NSCs in der Umgebung kombiniert. Die Wahrnehmungsanzeige f\u00fcr die Erkennung des Spielers als Feind wird dann von diesem Parameter beeinflusst, so dass der Spieler mehr Zeit hat, sich in Gebiete zu schleichen, vor allem, wenn er sich von den Feinden entfernt.\n\nUm die Skalierung der Wahrnehmungsbereiche und -zeiten zu unterst\u00fctzen, wurden neue Wildlinien integriert, die dieses neue Gameplay signalisieren. Zum Beispiel wird ein verd\u00e4chtiger Feind den Spieler herausfordern, wenn seine Verkleidung oder sein Verhalten nicht \u00fcberzeugend ist.\n\nAuf der Animationsseite wurden die KI-Funktionen mit menschlichen weiblichen Kampfanimationen weiterentwickelt. Au\u00dferdem wurden weiterhin bestimmte Vanduul-Animationen ausgeblendet, darunter die oben erw\u00e4hnten Hinrichtungsanimationen.\n\nKI (Tech)\nIm letzten Monat hat die KI-Abteilung die Funktionalit\u00e4t der Navigationslinks erweitert und damit die Arbeit an den Leiterverl\u00e4ngerungen abgeschlossen. Jetzt k\u00f6nnen NSCs Leitern auf \u00e4hnliche Weise wie Spieler benutzen und \u00fcberqueren.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurden die Navigationslinks f\u00fcr T\u00fcren erweitert, so dass NSCs die gesamte Breite der T\u00fcren nutzen k\u00f6nnen (n\u00fctzlich f\u00fcr breitere T\u00fcren oder L\u00fccken im Allgemeinen) und die Kollisionsvermeidung beim Durchqueren aktiviert.\n\nAuch die Art und Weise, wie NSCs mit geschlossenen T\u00fcren interagieren, wurde erweitert. Ziel war es, dass die KI korrekt versteht, mit welchen T\u00fcrelementen beim Durchqueren interagiert werden sollte. Um dies zu erreichen, wurde die Routing-Funktionalit\u00e4t innerhalb des nutzbaren Systems verbessert, um Entity-Links zu verwenden.\n\nBei der Fortbewegung wurde daran gearbeitet, das Rutschen der F\u00fc\u00dfe und die \u00dcberblendung der Beinphasen zu reduzieren. Dazu wurde das Rutschen der F\u00fc\u00dfe bei Stopp-Animationen reduziert, indem die Beinphase angepasst wurde, die Auswahl der besten Animationsoption anhand der Beinphase unterst\u00fctzt und das System erweitert, um scharfe Kurven beim Gehen zu implementieren.\n\nBeim internen Subsumption-Editor ging das Team auf das Usability-Feedback der Designer ein und setzte die Fehlerbehebung fort. Au\u00dferdem wurde damit begonnen, das Tool zu erweitern, um die Bearbeitung von Mastergrafiken zu erm\u00f6glichen, was mit dem externen Tool bisher nicht m\u00f6glich war.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurde daran gearbeitet, zwei verschiedene Bereiche der KI-Wahrnehmungsfunktionen zu erweitern: Der erste Bereich erm\u00f6glicht es NSCs in Schiffscockpits, Feinde zu Fu\u00df anzuvisieren, die f\u00fcr das Radar nicht sichtbar sind, und erm\u00f6glicht es NSCs am Boden, gro\u00dfe Objekte wie Fahrzeuge visuell zu verfolgen und Boden-Luft-K\u00e4mpfe zu f\u00fchren.\n\nDer zweite Punkt ist die Audiowahrnehmung. Bisher konnten NSCs jedes Ger\u00e4usch h\u00f6ren, wenn sie sich in der richtigen Entfernung dazu befanden. Jetzt verwenden die H\u00f6rkomponente und die Audiokarte die Lautst\u00e4rke des Ger\u00e4uschs an der Quelle und berechnen dann die St\u00e4rke des Tons, den der H\u00f6rer empf\u00e4ngt. Dies wird in der Wahrnehmungskomponente verwendet, um die Wahrnehmungsanzeige zu beeinflussen, je nachdem, wie stark der Schall wahrgenommen wird. Die neue Erweiterung erm\u00f6glicht es den Designern, mehrere Kurven zu erstellen, um den Einfluss der verschiedenen Audiosemantiken zu beschreiben. So haben zum Beispiel Explosionen einen anderen Einfluss als Fu\u00dfschritte. Jeder Audio-Stimulus hat auch einen anderen Maximalwert, auf den er die Wahrnehmungsanzeige dr\u00fccken kann.\n\nSchlie\u00dflich wurde f\u00fcr AI Tech das Leerlaufsystem erweitert, um den Designern die M\u00f6glichkeit zu geben, unterschiedliche Gewichtungen in den Leerlaufs\u00e4tzen f\u00fcr die verschiedenen Nutzgegenst\u00e4nde festzulegen. So k\u00f6nnen sie besser festlegen, welches Idle-Set bei der Auswahl der Umgebung vorherrschen soll, die sie gestalten.\n\nKI (Fahrzeuge)\nFahrzeug-KI und Fahrzeug-Features haben gemeinsam an der KI gearbeitet, die auf andere Dinge als Fahrzeuge zielt, z. B. auf Gesch\u00fctzt\u00fcrme, Komponenten und Stationen. In Kombination mit speziellen Verhaltensweisen f\u00fcr Streifz\u00fcge kann die KI nun auch Angriffsfahrten auf Stationen durchf\u00fchren.\n\nSie arbeiteten auch an der System-KI f\u00fcr das erste Kapitel, in dem eine gro\u00dfe Anzahl von KI-Kampfschiffen in koordinierten Wellen angreift. Hierf\u00fcr waren verschiedene Verbesserungen und Korrekturen erforderlich. Das Team verbesserte das System, mit dem NSCs Splines ausw\u00e4hlen k\u00f6nnen, auf denen sie w\u00e4hrend der Angriffsl\u00e4ufe fliegen.\n\nAnimation\nIn Bezug auf das Gameplay arbeitete das Animationsteam an der Fortbewegung von Spielern und KI, einschlie\u00dflich des Ausweichens. Sie arbeiteten weiter an EVA und Zero-G und verbesserten das Spielgef\u00fchl und die Funktionalit\u00e4t. Auch die Gadgets wurden weiterentwickelt, darunter der ausfahrbare Schild und die Galson-Waffen.\n\nBei der KI wurden Fortschritte beim Vanduul-bezogenen Gameplay gemacht, wobei der Schwerpunkt derzeit auf Stealth-Gameplay-Abschnitten und feindlichen Hinrichtungen des Spielers liegt. Auch die Interaktionen mit nicht verschiebbaren St\u00fchlen, Kisten (St\u00f6bern), Verk\u00e4ufern, Automaten, Datapads und anderen \"Lebens\"-Verhaltensweisen machten Fortschritte. Die Entwicklung der weiblichen Spec-Ops wurde fortgesetzt, wobei die weiblichen K\u00e4mpferinnen kurz vor der Umsetzung stehen.\n\nBei der Gesichtsanimation arbeitete das Team weiter an szenenspezifischen Animationen mit namentlich genannten Charakteren. Auch das Narrative Team wurde bei der Ausarbeitung der Kampf- und Storyanforderungen der Kampagne mit Mo-Cap- und On-Set-Gesichtsanimationen unterst\u00fctzt.\n\nEngine\nIm September \u00fcberarbeitete das Physikteam die Verifizierung der Strahlenwelt\u00fcberschneidung (RWI). Anfragen werden jetzt in der Warteschlange \u00fcberpr\u00fcft. Die RWI-API unterst\u00fctzt jetzt auch das Idiom der benannten Parameter, um weitere Missgeschicke bei der Verwendung zu vermeiden. Au\u00dferdem wurde dem RWI eine Option hinzugef\u00fcgt, die die Verfolgung von Kugeln anhand von Abstandsfeldern erm\u00f6glicht. Au\u00dferdem wurden \u00c4nderungen am Code f\u00fcr den Ebenen-Export vorgenommen, um das zuverl\u00e4ssige Anh\u00e4ngen von Seilen an andere Entit\u00e4ten auf dem Client zu erm\u00f6glichen.\n\nBeim Renderer wurden weitere Fortschritte bei der Gen12-Umstellung gemacht. Cube-Map-Backdrops, Lichtstrahlen, Geom-Caches, Silhouetten-Rendering, Wasservolumen, Wasserreflexionen und Wasser-Caustics wurden portiert. Verschiedene Editor-Tools wie der Charakter-Editor und Mannequin laufen jetzt auch mit Gen12.\n\nDie im letzten Monat eingef\u00fchrte Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr transiente Grafikp\u00e4sse wurde weiter ausgebaut, so dass jetzt viel mehr P\u00e4sse damit arbeiten. Au\u00dferdem wurde die Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr transiente Berechnungs- und Kopier\/L\u00f6sch-P\u00e4sse hinzugef\u00fcgt und an der Unterst\u00fctzung transienter Szenen-Render-P\u00e4sse wird derzeit gearbeitet. Au\u00dferdem wurde die Speicherverfolgung f\u00fcr Grafikpasses hinzugef\u00fcgt. Gen12 unterst\u00fctzt jetzt auch Texturanisotropie-Overrides und einen globalen MIP-Bias. Die Bindung von Materialressourcen wurde \u00fcberarbeitet, und der Hologramm-Shader unterst\u00fctzt nun auch Alpha-Blending. Schlie\u00dflich wurden verschiedene Optimierungen vorgenommen, um \u00fcberfl\u00fcssige L\u00f6schungen von Renderzielen und Aktualisierungen von Pass-Ressourcen zu vermeiden.\n\nDie Gen12-Portierung des volumetrischen Wolkenrenderings wurde abgeschlossen.\n\nIn der Core-Engine f\u00fcgte das Team Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr Systemaufrufe in CigProfile hinzu und die Frame-Zeit wird nun in die CigTrace-Ereignisse zur Spitzenerkennung einbezogen. Es wird weiter daran gearbeitet, dass p4k-Dateien in den Speicher gemappt werden k\u00f6nnen, was einen schnelleren Start der Engine erm\u00f6glicht. Als eine Optimierung konnte das Team entit\u00e4tsbasierte Netzwerk-Wakeups entfernen.\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nDas SQ42-Feature-Team arbeitete weiter an der Waffenkammer, damit Waffen an verschiedene Orte geliefert werden k\u00f6nnen. Au\u00dferdem gibt es jetzt eigene Animationen f\u00fcr die erste Auswahl, wenn der Spieler zum ersten Mal mit einer Waffe interagiert.\n\nF\u00fcr das Kran-Feature haben die Entwickler die H\u00e4nde und Joysticks des Spielers mit Hilfe der inversen Kinematik so miteinander verbunden, dass sie sich gemeinsam bewegen. Au\u00dferdem f\u00fcgten sie zus\u00e4tzliche Funktionen f\u00fcr die Designer hinzu, wie das Einrasten und Feststellen.\n\nDas Team stellte die App f\u00fcr pers\u00f6nliche Nachrichten fertig und implementierte den ersten Teil der Missionsmanager-App zur Anzeige von Missionsbesprechungen.\n\nGameplay Story\nIm letzten Monat hat Gameplay Story ein Mo-Cap-Shooting durchgef\u00fchrt, bei dem eine Vielzahl von Daten f\u00fcr verschiedene Szenen im sp\u00e4teren Spielverlauf aufgenommen wurden. Sobald diese Daten verarbeitet sind, k\u00f6nnen die Szenen im Spiel gut funktionieren.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurde durch die Wiederverwendung bestehender Wildlinien eine neue Szene erstellt, die es dem Spieler erm\u00f6glicht, mit einem Sanit\u00e4ter zu sprechen und sich bei Bedarf von ihm heilen zu lassen.\n\nF\u00fcr die Gameplay-Story schlie\u00dflich wurden die Szenen in der Kantine untersucht, damit sie mit KI-Animationen funktionieren und alle Charaktere sie reibungslos betreten und verlassen k\u00f6nnen.\n\nGrafik & VFX-Programmierung\nIm September schloss das Grafikteam die Arbeit am Rendering-Code f\u00fcr die Kantenbeleuchtung ab, um das FPS-Scannen von verdeckten Objekten zu unterst\u00fctzen. Dazu wurde ein neuer Render-to-Texture-Layer erstellt, der ausschlie\u00dflich f\u00fcr das Augmented-Reality-Rendering verwendet wird und k\u00fcnftig f\u00fcr das gesamte AR\/In-World-UI-Rendering eingesetzt wird. Der f\u00fcr das AR-Rendering verwendete Shader wurde ebenfalls aktualisiert, um Tesselation\/Gl\u00e4ttung, triplanares Texture Mapping und dynamisches Multiskalentexturing zu unterst\u00fctzen.\n\nAuf Wunsch des UI-Teams untersuchte das Grafikteam die M\u00f6glichkeit, das Anti-Aliasing-Line-Rendering von D3D\/Vulkan f\u00fcr das Rendern von Wireframes auf UI-Meshes zu nutzen. Aufgrund von Leistungsproblemen in den Treibern entschied man sich jedoch f\u00fcr einen Shader-basierten Ansatz mit Tessellation-Hardware.\n\nDas Team begann auch damit, alle Ressourcen-Streaming-Systeme zu verbessern und zu vereinheitlichen, um den Code zu vereinfachen und gleichzeitig eine intelligentere Nutzung des verf\u00fcgbaren Speichers zu erm\u00f6glichen, damit sie sich an die verschiedenen Szenarien im Spiel anpassen k\u00f6nnen. Auch die Arbeit an der ultrahochaufl\u00f6senden Screenshot-Ausgabe wurde f\u00fcr das Marketing-Team abgeschlossen.\n\nLeveldesign\nIm letzten Monat machte das Flight-Team Fortschritte, um einen gro\u00dfen Teil des Spiels mit funktionierenden Systemen und Mechaniken vollst\u00e4ndig spielbar zu machen, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf einem nahtlosen Erlebnis lag. Nach den Berichten der Vormonate wurde diese Arbeit im September \u00fcber das erste Drittel des Spiels hinaus ausgeweitet.\n\nDas Sozialteam konzentrierte sich auf mehrere Kapitel, darunter die laufende Arbeit an den Zwischensequenzen von Idris und Stanton. Dazu geh\u00f6rten die Implementierung, die Bearbeitung von Feedback und das \u00dcbertragen von NSCs aus Szenen in Verhaltensweisen. Au\u00dferdem begannen sie mit der Zuteilung der Schichten f\u00fcr die 80-k\u00f6pfige Besatzung der Idris, einschlie\u00dflich der Deckcrew, der Br\u00fcckencrew, der Ingenieure und des dienstfreien Personals.\n\nAu\u00dferdem begannen sie mit den Aufgaben f\u00fcr einige disziplin\u00fcbergreifende Kapitel, die FPS, Flug und Soziales betreffen. Das Level Design hat gute Fortschritte bei den sozialen Inhalten gemacht und die meisten der zugewiesenen Szenen sind bereit f\u00fcr die Umsetzung.\n\n\"Es ist immer wichtig, die Szene vor Ort zu sehen, damit wir pr\u00fcfen und beurteilen k\u00f6nnen, welche zus\u00e4tzlichen Arbeiten erforderlich sein k\u00f6nnten. Level Design Team\n\nNarrative\nIm September bereitete sich das Narrative Team auf eine Performance Capture Session vor. Im Vorfeld dieses Drehs arbeiteten wir eng mit dem Designteam zusammen, um eine optimierte Version des FPS-Wildline-Sets festzulegen. Dadurch haben die verschiedenen feindlichen K\u00e4mpfer genug Lines, um reaktionsf\u00e4hig zu sein, aber nicht so viele, dass sie die Menge der zu erfassenden Inhalte \u00fcberm\u00e4\u00dfig belasten. Bei diesem Dreh kehrten auch mehrere etablierte Charaktere zur\u00fcck, die aufgrund von \u00c4nderungen an ihrem Standort und im Levelverlauf zus\u00e4tzlich abgeholt werden k\u00f6nnen.\n\n\"Es gab noch ein paar weitere lustige Szenen, die wir aufgenommen haben, aber die m\u00fcssen wir leider unter Verschluss halten!\" Narrative Team\n\nNarrative arbeitete auch weiter mit AI Content an dem dynamischen Konversationssystem f\u00fcr Hintergrundcharaktere und \u00fcberlegte, wie es am besten in das Spiel integriert werden kann. Wie bei den Wildlines geht es auch hier darum, einen Weg zu finden, die Anzahl der Zeilen \u00fcberschaubar zu halten und gleichzeitig interessante Gespr\u00e4che zu f\u00fchren, damit sich die Charaktere an den Orten lebendig f\u00fchlen.\n\nSchlie\u00dflich setzten sie die laufenden Synchronisationen mit den Flight- und FPS-Designteams fort, um die neuesten Levelentwicklungen zu \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen und Skripte zu erstellen oder anzupassen, um Bereiche zu f\u00fcllen, die sich zu leer anf\u00fchlen oder zus\u00e4tzliche Inhalte ben\u00f6tigen, um das Gameplay zu erkl\u00e4ren.\n\nTechnische Animation\nIm September hat Tech Animation die im letzten Bericht erw\u00e4hnte Initiative zum Scannen von Gesichtern vorangetrieben, mit der der Genpool des Spiels um weitere K\u00f6pfe erweitert werden soll. Bei der ersten Scan-Session wurden 20 zus\u00e4tzliche weibliche K\u00f6pfe gescannt, die derzeit von den Art-Teams bearbeitet werden. Tech Animation wird die K\u00f6pfe dann riggen und in die Engine einbauen.\n\nParallel dazu hat das Team die Methoden zur Implementierung von Geometrie-Caches in die Engine und die Deformationstechnologie von Maya erforscht und verfeinert.\n\n\"Wir haben einige aufregende Entwicklungen mit einigen unserer Elemente im Spiel, die sie auf die n\u00e4chste Stufe der visuellen Wiedergabetreue bringen werden. Technische Animation\n\nTech Animation war auch an der Entwicklung und Implementierung neuer Gegnertypen beteiligt, die von anderen Teams bearbeitet werden.\n\nUI\nDas UI-Team hat den Code f\u00fcr die Sternenkarte und das Radar erheblich erweitert, um viele der einzelnen Elemente zusammenzuf\u00fchren. In diesem Zusammenhang wurde eine neue Technologie hinzugef\u00fcgt, die es erm\u00f6glicht, Holo-Volumen zu erstellen und mit ihnen zu interagieren, um die neue Version des Radars auf die Schiffe zu bringen. Au\u00dferdem wurden unerwartete Pannen behoben und die Grafik verbessert.\n\nDas Art-Team arbeitete weiter an der Konzeption verschiedener Teile der Squadron 42-spezifischen Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che. Dazu geh\u00f6rten die Fertigstellung des Aussehens und des Inhalts der neuen MFDs, die Gestaltung von Gameplay-Bildschirmen f\u00fcr die Levels und die Fertigstellung von Fahrzeug-Styleguides.\n\nVFX\nDas VFX-Team hat nicht nur mehrere neue Mitarbeiter eingestellt, sondern auch das Art-, Design- und Cinematic-Team mit Umgebungseffekten und Zerst\u00f6rungssequenzen unterst\u00fctzt.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurde mit einer leichten \u00dcberarbeitung der Partikelbibliotheken begonnen, um sie einfacher zu pflegen, wenn sich das Team auf die vielen verschiedenen Standorte verteilt.\n\nWIR SEHEN UNS N\u00c4CHSTEN MONAT WIEDER...\n\/\/ ENDE DER \u00dcBERTRAGUNG","zh_CN":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report\nSeptember 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 10:05:2022\n\nREF: CIG UK, CIG DE, CIG LA, CIG TX,\n\nFAO Squadron 42 Recruits.\n\nWelcome to September\u2019s Squadron 42 development report. Enclosed you will find details on the latest progress made across the campaign, including Vanduul executions, wildlines, and the StarMap.\n\nThank you for your continued support of Squadron 42.\n\nSincerely,\n\nCIG COMMUNICATIONS\n\nAI (Content)\nThroughout September, AI Content team continued work on the vendor and patron behaviors that will allow AI characters to serve, carry, and consume food and drink. This complex set of behaviors is progressing well and will add impressive fidelity to several areas of the game. They also got the new medical behavior working in the Idris.\n\nAlongside behaviors, progress was made on two important new usables. The first is used for opening crates, inspecting the contents, and lifting items in and out. The second is for a tactile chair that allows AI characters to get in and out by rotating it with their hands.\n\nThey also presented the first version of a simulated bed sheet that allows NPCs to sleep under a blanket.\n\n\u201cEveryone seems really pleased with the results so we hope to build on this foundation - many thanks to the Tech Animation team for all their support with this!\u201d AI Content\n\nProgress was made on the quartermaster too, which involved new mo-cap, updating poses, polishing animations, and prototyping dynamic conversations.\n\nAI (Features)\nLast month, the AI Feature team continued to develop the \u2018traits\u2019 that allow the specialization of NPC behaviors in specific levels and scenarios. This included implementing the Sentry trait, which forces characters to use defensive tactics and to never leave cover unless compromised. This will be particularly useful for NPCs equipped with sniper rifles and rocket launchers. The Reckless trait is the opposite, forcing a character to only adopt aggressive tactics and never use cover options. This will be utilized by close-combat \u201cberserker\u201d enemy types. There are also Aggressive and Cautious traits that adopt varying weights of cover use.\n\nThey also implemented usables that allow context-specific search animations to be played around certain level features. For example, vents, over railings, and around crates. This adds life to NPC investigation and gives them more opportunity to use the environment to search along with increasing the tension for hunted players.\n\nAI Features also implemented several new features for combat with the Vanduul, including gameplay for when the player is in close combat and knocked down. Players will now have a limited window to move out of the way before a synchronized execution animation is played.\n\n\u201cThis really sells the Vanduul as a serious threat, where split-second decision-making is important to win the fight against this powerful and aggressive foe. If the player successfully dodges the Vanduul attack, it gives a short breathing period during which the player can mount a counter-offensive.\u201d AI Features\n\nPerception work continued too, with the team supporting the stealth gameplay loop by allowing the player to wear specific clothing to disguise themselves in different environments. The designers can configure which clothing works for each faction and location so that a successful disguise combines both player actions and the configuration of the NPCs in the environment. The perception meter for detecting the player as a foe is then influenced by this parameter, giving the player more time to sneak into areas, especially when at distance from the enemies.\n\nTo support the scaling of perception ranges and times, new wildlines were integrated to signal this new gameplay. For example, a suspicious enemy will challenge the player if their disguise or behavior isn\u2019t convincing.\n\nOn the animation side, AI features progressed with Human female combat animations. They also continued blocking out specific Vanduul animations, including the execution animations mentioned above.\n\nAI (Tech)\nLast month, AI Tech extended the functionality of navigation links, which involved finishing their work on ladder extenders. Now, NPCs are able to use and traverse ladders in a similar way to players.\n\nThey also extended navigation links for doors to allow NPCs to use the entire width of doors (useful for wider doors or gaps in general) and enabled collision avoidance while traversing.\n\nThey extended the way NPCs interact with closed doors too. The aim was to have the AI correctly understand which door panels should be interacted with during traversal. To achieve this, the routing functionality inside the usable system was improved to use entity links.\n\nFor locomotion, they worked on reducing foot sliding and leg-phase blending. This involved reducing foot sliding during stop animations by matching the leg phase, adding support for selecting the best animation option based on the leg phase, and extending the system to implement the use of sharp turns for walking.\n\nOn the internal Subsumption editor, the team addressed usability feedback from the designers, and bug fixing continued. They also began extending the tool to manage the editing of mastergraphs, which has never been possible in the external tool.\n\nWork was also done to extend two different areas of AI perception functionality: The first not only allows NPCs inside ship cockpits to target on-foot enemies not visible to radar, but also allows NPCs on the ground to visually track large objects, such as vehicles, and engage in ground-to-flight combat.\n\nThe second is audio perception. Previously, NPCs could hear any sound if they were at the right distance from it. Now, the hearing component and audio map use the volume of the sound at its source and then calculate the strength of the audio received by the listener. This is used inside the perception component to influence the perception meter based on how strongly the sound is perceived. The new extension allows the designers to create multiple curves to describe the influence of the different audio semantics. For example, explosions have a different influence than footsteps. Each audio stimulus also has a different maximum value it can push the perception meter to.\n\nFinally for AI Tech, the idle system was extended to allow the designers to set up different weights in the idle sets available to different usables. This allows them to better customize which idle set should be prevalent during the selection based on the environment they\u2019re creating.\n\nAI (Vehicles)\nVehicle AI and Vehicle Features worked together on AI targeting things other than vehicles, such as turrets, components, and stations. This, combined with special behaviors for strafing runs, allows the AI to perform attack runs on stations.\n\nThey also worked on system AI for chapter one, which involves a large number of AI attacking capital ships in coordinated waves. This required various improvements and fixes, with the team improving the system that allows NPCs to pick splines to fly along during attack runs.\n\nAnimation\nGameplay-wise, Animation worked on ladder locomotion for both players and AI, including dodging. They continued to work on EVA and zero-g, improving the feel and functionality. Gadgets were further developed too, including the deployable shield and Galson weapons.\n\nFor AI, progress was made on Vanduul-related gameplay, with the current focus on stealth gameplay sections and enemy executions of the player. Interactions with non-sliding chairs, crates (rummaging), vendors, vending machines, datapads, and other \u2018life\u2019 behavior sets progressed too. Development of the female spec-ops continued, with female combatants close to implementation.\n\nFor facial animation, the team continued to work on scene-specific animations with named-cast characters. Mo-cap and on-set facial services were also provided to the Narrative team as they continued to flesh out the combat and story needs of the campaign.\n\nEngine\nIn September, the Physics team refactored the ray world intersection (RWI) verification. Requests are now verified when queued. The RWI API now also supports the named parameter idiom to prevent further mishaps in its use. An option was also added to RWI that allows sphere tracing against distance fields. Moreover, changes were done in the level export code to enable the reliable attachment of roped to other entities on the client.\n\nOn the renderer, more progress was made on the Gen12 transition. Cube map back drops, light beams, geom caches, silhouette rendering, water volumes, water reflections, and water caustics were ported. Various editor tools now run with Gen12 as well, such as the character editor and Mannequin.\n\nLast month\u2019s support for transient graphics passes saw further adoption uptake, with lots more passes now using it. Furthermore, support for transient compute and copy\/clear passes was added and work to support transient scene render passes is currently underway. Additionally, memory tracking for graphics passes was added. Gen12 now also supports texture anisotropy overrides as well as a global MIP bias. Material resource binding was refactored, and alpha blending support was added to the hologram shader. Lastly, various optimizations were done to avoid redundant clears on render targets and updates on pass resources.\n\nThe Gen12 port of volumetric cloud rendering was completed.\n\nOn the core engine, the team added support for sys calls in CigProfile and frame time is now included in peak detection cigTrace events. More work is being done to enable p4k files to be memory mappable, which will allow for faster engine startup. As an optimization, the team was able to remove entity-based network wakeups.\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nThe SQ42 Feature team continued with tasks for the armory, enabling weapons to be delivered to different locations. It now also has its own set of first-select animations when the player interacts with a weapon for the first time.\n\nFor the crane feature, the devs used inverse kinematics to link the player\u2019s hands and joysticks so that they animate together. They also added additional functionality for the designers, such as snapping and locking.\n\nFurther progress was made on the new mobiGlas, with the team finishing the personal messages app and implementing the first part of the mission manager app to show mission briefings.\n\nGameplay Story\nLast month, Gameplay Story held a mo-cap shoot that captured a variety of data for several late-game scenes. Once processed, this data will allow the scenes to function well in-game.\n\nA new scene was also created by reusing existing wildlines, which will allow the player to speak to a medic and be healed by them if required.\n\nFinally for Gameplay Story, exploration was done on the mess hall scenes to make them function with AI animations so that all characters enter and leave smoothly.\n\nGraphics & VFX Programming\nIn September, the Graphics team completed work on edge-highlight rendering code in support of the FPS scanning of occluded objects. This involved creating a new render-to-texture layer used exclusively for augmented reality rendering, which will be used for all AR\/in-world UI rendering going forward. The shader used for AR rendering was also upgraded to support tesselation\/smoothing, tri-planar texture mapping, and dynamic multiscale texturing.\n\nAt the request of the UI team, the Graphics team investigated the possibility of using D3D\/Vulkan's anti-aliased line rendering for rendering wireframes on UI meshes. However, they decided to go with a shader-based approach using tessellation hardware instead due to performance issues in the drivers.\n\nThe team also began looking into improving and unifying all resource streaming systems, with the goal of simplifying the code while allowing more intelligent use of the available memory so that they can adapt to the different scenarios across the game. Work on the ultra-high resolution screenshot output was completed for the Marketing team too.\n\nLevel Design\nLast month, the Flight team progressed towards getting a large part of the game fully playable with functioning systems and mechanics, with a focus on a seamless experience. Following on from previous months\u2019 reports, September saw them expand this work beyond the first third of the game.\n\nThe Social team focused on several chapters, including the ongoing scene work on the Idris and Stanton interstitials. This involved implementation, addressing feedback, and handshaking NPCs from scenes into behaviors. They also started shift assignments for the Idris\u2019 80-person crew, including the deck crew, bridge crew, engineers, and off-duty personnel.\n\nThey also kicked off tasks for some cross-discipline chapters involving FPS, flight, and social. Level Design made good progress on the social related content, with the majority of their assigned scenes being ready for implementation\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s always essential to see the scene playing out in situ so we can review and assess what additional work could be required.\u201d Level Design Team\n\nNarrative\nSeptember saw the Narrative team prepping for a performance capture session. The buildup to this shoot included working closely with the Design team to determine a streamlined version of the FPS wildline set. This will allow the various enemy combatants to have enough lines so they can be reactive but without adding so many as to cause undue stress to the amount of content that would need to be captured. This shoot also included the return of several established characters for additional pickups based on changes to their location and level flow.\n\n\u201cThere were some additional fun bits that were captured but, unfortunately, they have to be kept under wraps!\u201d Narrative Team\n\nNarrative also continued working with AI Content on the dynamic-conversation system for background characters and began figuring out how to best incorporate it into the game. As with the wildlines, part of the discussion is figuring out a way to keep the line-set to a manageable level while providing interesting conversations to make the characters in the locations feel alive.\n\nFinally, they continued the ongoing syncs with the Flight and FPS Design teams to review the latest level developments, creating or adjusting scripts to fill in areas that feel too empty or require additional content to explain the gameplay.\n\nTech Animation\nSeptember saw tech Animation progress with the face-scanning initiative mentioned in last month\u2019s report, which aims to add more heads to the game\u2019s gene pool. The initial scan session saw an extra 20 female heads scanned, which are currently being processed by the Art teams. Tech Animation will then rig and implement the assets into the engine.\n\nAlongside this, the team explored and refined their methods for implementing geometry caches into the engine and Maya\u2019s deformation technology.\n\n\u201cWe have some exciting developments with some of our elements in-game that will take them to the next level of visual fidelity.\u201d Tech Animation\n\nTech Animation also assisted in the creation and implementation of new enemy types that are being worked on by other feature teams.\n\nUI\nThe UI team undertook a significant code push on the StarMap and radar to get many of the separate elements pulled together. As part of this, they added new tech to allow them to create and interact with holo-volumes, which will help to get the new version of the radar onto ships. They also fixed any unexpected glitches along the way and improved the visuals.\n\nThe Art team continued to concept various parts of the Squadron 42-specific UI. This involved finalizing the look and content of the new MFDs, designing gameplay screens for levels, and completing vehicle style guides.\n\nVFX\nAlongside onboarding several new starters, the VFX team continued to support the Art, Design, and Cinematic teams with environmental effects and destruction sequences.\n\nFinally, work began on a slight overhaul of the particle libraries to make them easier to maintain as the team spreads across the many varied locations.\n\nWE'LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH...\n\/\/ END TRANSMISSION"},"links_count":0,"comment_count":0,"created_at":"2022-10-12T18:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"3 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-04-26 11:34:46","valid_relations":["images","links","translations"],"prev_id":18925,"next_id":18930}}