{"data":{"id":18970,"title":"Star Citizen Monthly Report: October 2022","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/SCW\/18970-API","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/18970","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/18970","channel":"Undefined","category":"Undefined","series":"None","images":[{"id":26651,"name":"STARCITIZEN_WHITE.png","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/y1f0boj8fak5rr\/source\/STARCITIZEN_WHITE.png","alt":"","size":73278,"mime_type":"image\/png","last_modified":"2021-02-03T06:54:29+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/26651","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/26651\/similar"}],"images_count":13,"translations":{"en_EN":"PU Monthly Report\nOctober 2022\nWelcome to October\u2019s PU Monthly Report. With many of the teams having completed their work for the upcoming IAE event and Alpha 3.18 release, progress was made on tasks for early next year and beyond. Read on for the latest developments on AI behaviors, ongoing engine improvements, Arena Commander, and more.\n\nAI (Content)\nThroughout October, the AI Content team progressed with the vendor and patron behaviors, realizing the full flow of NPCs ordering, carrying, and consuming food and drink. This gives them a sense of life and purpose, as they\u2019re always busy doing something.\n\nProgress continued on the utility behavior, with AI characters opening crates, taking items out, and putting items in. This was a surprisingly complex task but the various elements are now working well together.\n\nOther tasks involved polishing the quartermaster behavior, making animation pose updates, setting up wildlines, overhauling documentation, and prototyping food eating.\n\nAI (Features)\nLast month, the AI animators continued to refine Vanduul execution animations to ensure they\u2019re perceived as strong and impactful from the first-person perspective, are better suited to be played \u201con the spot\u201d if the attack occurs in a cramped space, are more believable to be deflectable by the player, and allow players to escape or attack once deflected.\n\nOn the perception system side, the AI team implemented functionality to allow them to rate and respond to \u2018disruptions,\u2019 which are unexpected scenarios that can be resolved. For example, the lights of a room turning off or an engine being disabled. Players can use this mechanic to try to disrupt NPC behaviors when they haven\u2019t been detected, giving them the opportunity to better infiltrate the level by avoiding patrols and sentries.\n\nPlayers can also use \u2018distractions\u2019 \u00ad(actions that trigger audio stimuli, such as throwing an object) to cause NPCs to leave their positions to investigate.\n\n\u201cWe had to ensure that these events are propagated out to all of the agents within the appropriate area, that they are handled by the perception system, rated against the current threat level, and that the correct behaviors are implemented to resolve the disruptions. The resolution may involve agents going to investigate the source of the disruption, or alternatively, if too many disruptions have occurred, to increase their alertness level. This means that they may take out their weapons, say specific alertness-level wildlines, or respond quicker to subsequent events. We also had to take into consideration that the immediate source of the disruption may not be what the NPC wants to investigate. For example, the agent may perceive that a light goes out, but they would want to investigate the light switch that controls the light, and ultimately, if they don\u2019t encounter the player, turn the light back on again.\u201d AI Features Team\n\nOctober also saw AI implement rocket launcher and railgun handling. For rocket launchers, NPCs have to consider if the shot will cause explosive splash damage to friendly agents. This check can be disabled using the friendly-fire trait to enable more reckless enemies. For the railgun, they changed how the behavior works in cover. Now, NPCs will start charging the weapon while in cover before emerging to fire. For both of these weapons, the team disabled the standard check to see if the weapon can hit the target, so enemies will continue to fire at the target even when in cover. This allows the player to see that these weapons are being fired nearby and respond accordingly rather than being immediately hit upon leaving cover. As part of this work, they also reviewed the existing shouldered weapon animations.\n\nContinuing with weapon usage, AI Features implemented how NPCs pick up weapons and ammunition during combat. Enemies are under the same ammunition constraints as the player, requiring them to conserve it and use other weapons when they run out. NPCs will evaluate the best course of action in this situation, including switching to their secondary weapon, picking up ammunition, or finding a new weapon altogether. When looking for ammunition, they could take it from boxes, out of loose weapons, or from stowed weapons on dead or incapacitated characters. When looking for weapons, they could get them from racks, find them around the area, or take them from other characters. To implement this, weapons were set up as usables, which allows the AI to search for the best usable that can provide ammo or a weapon. The team had to modify the usable system slightly, including adding support for usables that supply themselves (loose weapons or ammo) and ensuring that usable alignment positions are correctly aligned with gravity when the weapon or ammo falls.\n\nFor non-combat AI, the team worked on functionality to support NPCs moving cargo from one location to another, including picking up crates, stacking them on a trolley, moving the trolley to a destination (such as a cargo hold), and then taking them off the trolley and re-stacking them. An existing prototype was also adapted with new tech to provide behaviors that can be used in varying locations to bring them to life.\n\nThey also refined their tools to generate better quality cover. This included making cover generation more robust to edge cases and supporting recognition of cover over a certain distance from identified \u2018cover edges.\u2019 This allows cover to be generated in a greater range of areas.\n\nFinally, AI Features took the first steps towards implementing \u2018buddy AI\u2019 that will support gameplay where the player is accompanied by one or more characters. To begin with, they made a rapid prototype featuring some of the functionality that might be required to generate conversations about what the final form of this would be and how it will fit into gameplay.\n\nAI (Tech)\nLast month, the AI Tech team made several usability improvements to the Apollo Subsumption tool. This included updating the multigraph with feature folders and functions to allow organization from the outline view. For example, the designers are now able to delete and move graphs to different folders directly from the outline view panel. They can also drag a node connection into an empty section of the graph to open the drop-down menu that allows them to create a new task.\n\nMinor usability improvements were made too, including allowing all the entries in the outline view to collapse and the addition of a new filter field in the variable tree view.\n\nThey also extended the graph view with a new custom view style. This is currently used to allow Apollo to open, visualize, and edit the Mastegraph files that were previously managed by hand.\n\nFor perception, the team worked on supporting audio noise level and audio masking: Audio noise level ensures that audio stimuli that don\u2019t surpass the basic background noise won\u2019t be heard by listeners. New tools were implemented to allow the designers to configure the audio noise level in an area and the type of sounds that should be considered \u201cnormal\u201d in that area.\n\nAudio masking makes sure that particular audio stimuli are not perceived as anomalous. For example, explosions in a field where fireworks are tested. This allows the player to use the environment as audio cover when performing actions. For example, firing weapons near a shooting range as to not alert NPCs.\n\nThe team implemented light extensions to action areas. These enable the designers to link light groups to an area and automatically calculate whether the state of the environment should be light or dark. This impacts the time NPCs require to perceive a target, making it easier to stay hidden in darker areas.\n\nAI Tech also extended the system that allows the visibility of large objects, such as vehicles.\n\n\u201cLarge vehicles can be seen at further distances but we need to avoid approaches that cost too much on the CPU, such as doing raycasts for very long distances. To prevent this, we can now describe the visibility of a large object depending on the degree of visual angle - basically at which distance it has a specific size from the observer\u2019s perspective.\u201d AI Tech Team\n\nThis also allows the team to defer the discovery phase of which objects are within range of large objects. This utilizes one query, which then allows each individual to correctly verify the occlusion of the object.\n\nThe parameters of the visual field-of-view were also extended to be overridable based on the AI state. For example, allowing pilots to see at a greater distance and visually target on-foot characters.\n\nThe team continued extending navigation links to support two main functionalities: Firstly, they enabled usable routing to function with entity links to allow door panels (that are linked to a door) to be correctly used by NPCs. This will allow them to understand which panel they should use to trigger the right interaction.\n\nSecondly, they exposed a way to define the costs of nav-links based on specific conditions, such as increasing the cost for vaulting when a character isn\u2019t alerted or walking. Those costs allow the system to describe how preferable actions are from the NPC\u2019s perspective. For example, a character wouldn\u2019t vault, which is a physically demanding action, if not needed.\n\nWork began to properly allow NPCs to drive ground vehicles. The team are currently verifying the setup of a selection of vehicles to use as reference. They also set up the code to switch to the right nav-mesh when driving a vehicle and select the right path-follower.\n\nFinally for AI Tech, the team worked on the locomotion refactor, which involved integrating current work into different streams to begin stabilizing bugs. They also experimented with foot locking during MoveNet and are currently verifying how to use this functionality on various aspects of locomotion, such as during sharp turns. They also implemented a first frame adjustment for the seamless transition code to improve the entering of usables. This will also play a specific animation at a specific location with a specific pose.\n\nAnimation\nLast month, the Animation team began discussing bringing creatures into the PU.\n\n\u201cOur team had just signed off on the rig for the first creature, meaning we can finally start animating our first interactable creature! Animation Team\n\nThe facial team progressed with AI worker animations, including the bartender. They also worked on various performances for IAE and the gameplay for delivering a person from one location to another.\n\nArt (Characters)\nLast month, the Character Art team delivered armor variants for Security Post Kareah. Production started on frontier workwear outfits and undersuits following work by the Character Concept Art team too.\n\nArt (Ships)\nThe Ship team progressed with the Argo SRV, moving the exterior through to the final art stage.\n\nCommunity\nEarly in October, the Community team supported Day of the Vara, the \u2018verse\u2019s take on Halloween. Citizens hunted down in-game masks, picked up Ghoulish Green paints for Drake ships, and entered pumpkin carving and trick-or-treat video contests.\n\nThe team then worked on Digital CitizenCon 2022. Alongside the developer panels, they unveiled the new Community Hub and supported the Ship team with their Pick-A-Ship Challenge. Each individual panel and the full show are available to rewatch now.\n\nFollowing the show, ATMO esports hosted Babbage Bash, a community-led event where players took on developers in an STV race across microTech.\n\nFollowing its reveal during CitizenCon, the team released the Crusader Spirit Q&A, with devs answering the community\u2019s questions on the new concept ship.\n\nThe Community team also continued their Bar Citizen World Tour, with visits to Chicago, New Jersey, Paris and Madrid.\n\n\u201cAs always, the team wants you to know that your hospitality and warm welcomes are greatly appreciated. We love getting to make new friends and celebrate Star Citizen with all of you. We\u2019ll be visiting even more Bar Citizen events in the coming months, so stay tuned!\u201d Community Team\n\nEngine\nIn October, the Physics team worked on various improvements, including brush physicalization, which was put into queues of 32 entries each and forced to be processed in parallel. Spawn batch finalization was reworked to wait for all brush archetypes and their material clones to be fully physicalized before finalizing the spawned entities, and the root spawn batch can now be queried from outside of the entity system. A physics event was added for cluster breakage along with an entity event that detaches the corresponding compounded entity. Additionally, various optimizations were made to improve low-level data access and reduce contention. Also, the physics environment is no longer woken during the bulk destruction of brushes unless they have a collider. Lastly, severe stalls during entity deletion as well as the network aspects of breakability were fixed.\n\nOn the renderer, more progress was made on the Gen12 transition. A lot of work was done on particles. Among other things, the light atlas stage was rewritten to make use of the material permutation cache, and a lot of code in the GPU particle system was refactored and cleaned up. The particle submission code and its PSO management were rewritten as well. Furthermore, light lists are now managed per scene pass, which will eventually help simplify the tiled shading stage. Additionally, opaque sun shadows for gas clouds, image ghosting, various game post-effects (water droplets, flash bang, ocular migraine, blood vision), the projectile manager, RTT support functionality, and render target debug viz were ported to Gen12. Support for transient scene render passes was completed, and collision checks for resource sets were added. Offline cube maps now use their own pipeline to allow for different feature sets. Lastly, lots of optimizations and cleanups were made all around.\n\nRegarding atmosphere and volumetric clouds, improvements were made to the Gen12 code by adopting the transient passes made available in September. Furthermore, a preview mode was implemented to help lighting artists setting up planet atmospheres.\n\nOn the core engine, the team made additional improvements to entity lifetime management. This involved adding code to group objects for lifetime management and how entity deletion is handled on stream out. All legacy entity lifetime code was removed. The entity allocator was changed to be page based. In-engine file mapping support was completed (i.e., faster p4k file access). Initial steps were done to run all game code through Include-What-You-Use to remove unnecessary header dependencies, which should ultimately lead to faster incremental compile times. Lastly, in case of failed memory allocations, it's now possible to identify relevant code owners and list them in bug reports automatically to speed up bug processing.\n\nThe remainder of the time was spent supporting Alpha 3.18 and the live PU.\n\nFeatures (Arena Commander)\nThe Engineering team began the month with quality-of-life and bug fixes. They then added additional post-game score awards and fixed the bleed-out damage type.\n\nThe team finished its integration of Alpha 3.18\u2019s deliverables into game-dev, with some minor items pending that will be addressed later. They fixed an issue with the test-runner in cases where the actor died and added Jericho Station and four race maps to the backend, which Design also submitted levels and records for. Support continued for radar and scanning for SQ42, while part of the team supported an issue with vehicles not exploding upon death.\n\nA new concept was made for the Duel Mode pre-game, as the team shifts Arena Commander\u2019s focus to being the primary competitive ranked mode. The new pre-game allows players to select from multiple ships outside of their selected one from the frontend, as well as see what their opponent has picked. This will act as the game\u2019s initial draft system. Following community feedback, additional ways to improve Duel Mode itself were discussed and tasked.\n\n\u201cWe are very pleased that the team\u2019s direction already matches public opinions; every topic and issue brought up had already been discussed and scheduled by ACFT.\u201d Arena Commander Feature Team\n\nFeature additions and bug fixing continued for the new Arena Commander 1.5 frontend, including adding video backgrounds per game mode. The team also explored how to improve the first deliverable of the new frontend, including changes to the layout and how to make the scene feel more like a simulation.\n\nDesign finished their initial pass on five new racetracks: Snake Pit, Icebreaker, Ratari Station, Dunlow Derby, and Lorville Gateways. A new dogfighting map, Jericho Station, was successfully playtested and is planned for an upcoming patch.\n\nFeatures (Characters & Weapons)\nLast month, the Features team improved various existing features, including the ability to vault or mantle over a ledge, which can now be triggered mid-jump or fall. This adds further options for the level designers when constructing on-foot traversal puzzles.\n\nPlayers can now also look up and down while moving on a ladder to help them see where they\u2019re going. If they stop, they can look around 360 degrees too. This is done by creating an idle animation with 360 poses. The game then picks the frame from the asset that matches the player\u2019s yaw relative to the ladder. This then becomes the base idle on top of which the team can build other actions. For example, being able to jump away from the ladder in the facing direction.\n\nThe ability to move all items from one inventory to another is now in the final internal test sweep.\n\n\u201cA number of the features the team have been working on were on show during CitizenCon and we really appreciate all the positive feedback received.\u201d Features Team\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nIn the US, work continued on the initial implementation of the cargo refactor and new commodity kiosk UI for Alpha 3.18. This will affect buying, selling, and moving around single-SCU resource cargo containers with the tractor beam after purchase and outside green zones. Gameplay Features also continued to support the buying and selling of FPS refillable RMC containers and the containers created by the Vulture and Reclaimer.\n\nUpdates were made to the prison, including the kiosk, which received new gameplay items. Alongside this, the setup and inventories were adjusted across all shops for new commodities that come with the cargo refactor. They also updated the shops to support IAE merchandise. The shop setup for Pyro began and is ongoing. UI screens for the commodity kiosk, mission manager, and bounty hunting progressed too.\n\nPlanning and documentation began for freight elevators and subsequent cargo refactor updates, which will begin in Q4 2022. Documentation and investigation began into multi- and large-container cargo delivery missions that could coincide with the delivery of T1 cargo.\n\nThe Manchester and Frankfurt-based teams progressed with hull scraping, adding the finishing touches and quality-of-life improvements for its balance pass. Additional time was also put into the \u2018fresh derelict\u2019 harvestables that can spawn in space to make them look more worn and authentic.\n\nThey also worked with the Montreal team to add some not-clearly-identifiable pieces to debris fields, and helped the US team with the cargo refactor.\n\nThe team\u2019s work on gravity and life support is approaching final, with the remainder of the work on the resource-management system that will bring it all together.\n\nFeatures (Mission)\nMission Features added final polish to various missions, including a new ending to the prison escape that will add further excitement and challenge.\n\nThey then worked with Art to further expand the Jumptown drug lab.\n\n\u201cIt has doubled in size and includes a second entrance, second drug dispenser, and multiple windows and skylights to see inside. To improve gunplay on the interior, we made it circular and removed most of the doors for longer sight lines.\u201d Mission Feature Team\n\nTrespass areas were also updated so that lawful trespass and entering hostile areas are now different. The name of the org in control of the area is also shown upon entering and, once access to the area is revoked (e.g. at the end of a mission), players are shown a countdown to when they will be trespassing should they remain.\n\nFinally, bugs relating to CrimeStat and ship collisions were identified and fixed.\n\nFeatures (Vehicles)\nLast month, Vehicle Features supported the docking and transit features. Both continue to be long-term requirements for the team as each release poses new issues, particularly with transit, which will likely remain until the launch of the new transit system.\n\nMulti-function-displays (MFD) progressed well, with the weapons, emissions, and ship models submitted and working in-game. The self-status screen also made it into the SQ42 UI stream, and tasks were started for the comms and weapon self-status MFDs.\n\nWork also began on the new version of quantum travel, which currently involves refactoring the current feature in preparation for rework.\n\nThe team\u2019s AI support increased throughout October. This mostly focused on the ship vs player boss fights in SQ42, with the Cutlass now flying with its new behavior on a spline attacking the player. They also supported the flight team with both AI and non-AI requests.\n\nSupport for the Q4 ship releases began too, with tuning currently in progress. Alongside this, the new ground-vehicle tech was further developed and will be enabled in a coming sprint. Before this, issues with the Drake Mule driving like a tank will be resolved.\n\nMaster Modes progressed well in testing. The team confirmed the speeds for SCM, boost, and quantum travel and are now testing racing ships and looking into how to balance disabling ships as they change between SCM and QT.\n\n\u201cWe also used this opportunity to rebalance a lot of weapons, redoing the differences in behaviors we had reset for the Alpha 3.14 rework.\u201d Vehicle Features Team\n\nRecourse network support continued with the power conversation and initial work on integrating heat components. The team are currently setting out their design support for the feature as a lot of components will need converting once the technical work is complete. Alongside this, the aiming refactor is now almost complete, with the remaining work focusing on implementing the new UI.\n\nA big step was made on control surfaces. Now, ships gliding without thrusters has been reduced over the previous surface model. Finally, the new restricted areas system passed its go\/no-go and is now enabled.\n\nGraphics & VFX Programming & Planet Tech\nIn October, the team continued to focus on damage maps, fixing missing initial damage on debris, incorrect damage map sizes, and inconsistencies between ship sizes. Time was also spent investigating networking and persistence for debris.\n\nFurther progress was made on porting gas clouds and CPU particles to Gen12. The Gen12 GPU marker refactor was also completed, and some issues were fixed relating to the hair and hologram shaders.\n\nFor the ongoing data-pipeline refactor, the team continued work on SKIN files, allowing compacted, non-split files to be compiled or loaded. They also implemented process groups in support of multiple input formats.\n\nDevelopment of screen space shadows began, which involved adjusting raytracing to account for thin objects. Work was also done on anti-aliased lines for aux geometry (editor debug) and UI (for use on the StarMap). They also added new features for the UIMesh shader (multi-scale texturing, bi\/tri-planar projection, smoothing) alongside enabling wetness effects to work with blood, sweat, and tears.\n\nThe team closed out RaStar v1 and fixed the remaining bugs and crashes raised by the content teams. There were also various fixes submitted for rivers, and R&D began on water sim and water rendering improvements.\n\nLighting\nLighting continued their work on Pyro, Lorville, IAE, Orison\u2019s racetrack, Security Post Kareah, and derelict space settlements.\n\nLorville received a lighting clean-up to improve certain areas, while the level as a whole was tidied up to bring it back to its originally intended state.\n\nThey also closed out various previous locations to ensure that everything is up to scratch.\n\nLocations (EU)\nThe EU Locations team continued to work on Pyro\u2019s Rest Stop, making great progress on the internals of the station. They then moved focus toward the station\u2019s external arms.\n\nWork was also closed out on Security Post Kareah, and progress was made on the IAE event halls and cargo. They continued their ongoing task of \u201cadding life to landing zones\u201d too.\n\nNarrative\nAs the rush towards IAE and Alpha 3.18 continued, the Narrative team provided additional support to fix bugs and issues that arose through testing. For IAE, they helped deliver new content that was recorded in recent motion-capture sessions.\n\n\u201cThis was particularly exciting, as we were able to utilize one of our dedicated narrative designers to build the AI behavior to hand over to Design to implement.\u201d Narrative Team\n\nNarrative also started working with Mission Features on the existing air-traffic-control behavior. This will help fix problems with the existing behavior while also supporting the newest upgrades to the system, which will then be standardized for any additional air-traffic-control characters and scripts in the future.\n\nThey also continued to meet with the Mission teams to develop the \u2018investigate\u2019 missions featured in Narrative CitizenCon video. After last month\u2019s push, the writers were tasked with coming up with a sample mystery for players to investigate to stress test the foundational system and see how scalable this mission could be.\n\nIn addition, they provided text for upcoming missions and opened discussions on a handful of other mission types that will be coming in the next few patches. The team worked closely with the Design and UI teams on some of the upcoming mobiGlas apps that will support new gameplay currently in development.\n\nThroughout October, new content was added to the website, including a Spectrum Spectator that explored the history of CitizenCon, a Portfolio spotlighting Stegman\u2019s, and the return of Old Jegger in an installment of Far from Home. Finally, another installment of Galactapedia articles made their way out of the archives and onto the site.\n\n\u201cThis month\u2019s anniversary on CitizenCon marks ten years\u2019 worth of content that has made its way into the Spectrum Dispatch section of the website. From the earliest days of the Time Capsules to Cal Mason, Kid Crimson, and News Updates, these weekly updates have been a great opportunity to dive deep into the Star Citizen universe, so we want to say thank you for all the enthusiasm and support over the years.\u201d\n\nOnline Services (Montreal)\nThe Online Services team spent October completing several remaining features, including the new character repair\/reset process and how in-game transactions are handled.\n\nThey also improved the new login-flow process to allow for faster entry into the game when a player has a pre-entitled account, as well as the new retry service that will resubmit a message back to the service application for a reattempt.\n\nLastly, the team made a quality-of-life update that sorts the in-game friends list alphabetically. This is planned to be included in Alpha 3.18.\n\nLive Tools (Montreal)\nThroughout October, the Live Tools team focused on features relating to Persistent Entity Streaming, specifically the implementation of the login-flow module in the Network Operation Center. This module gathers different features, including the ability to manage entitlements and rentals. It also provides more detailed and precise information to users about the login details of players, enabling the detection and analysis of issues.\n\nTurbulent (Web Platform)\nThe Turbulent team began the month supporting CitizenCon 2952, including the main-event, Greycat STV, and Crusader Spirit pages. The team continued to make improvements to the CMS tool, Alexandria, which supports bespoke webpages. The latest improvements were around the \u2018explore\u2019 video module, enabling it to add points of interest to video content. A grid module was also created to give another way to display information.\n\nMultiple teams from Turbulent contributed to the IAE promotions coming in November. For example, a new web skin was developed to emulate the expo hall and improvements were made to the promotional ship wall.\n\nTurbulent\u2019s Design team focused on generating brand alignment across the website, losing some of the legacy UI elements and bringing in a new look.\n\nOne of Turbulent\u2019s biggest launches in October was the release of the updated Community Hub.\n\n\u201cThe Community Hub will emerge slowly as the most relevant place to see contests, events, and what other community members are livestreaming or creating. As more features come online, it will begin to emerge as a social-media platform where you can follow your favorite creators and never miss out on an in-game or live event.\u201d Turbulent Web Platform Team\n\nFinally, the team continued to rework the roles and access controls for improved security.\n\nUI\nThe UI team continued developing the new StarMap, particularly the underlying tech to allow them to easily display it in different locations. For example, in ships, the mobiGlas, and potentially screens in levels. They also updated the controls and improved the look of planets.\n\nAlongside working on the interaction prompts seen at CitizenCon, UI continued to adapt and bugfix the loadout system to ensure it works with Persistent Streaming.\n\nVFX\nOctober saw the VFX team complete their work on the salvage and repair feature.\n\nTwo vehicles continued through the VFX production phase, receiving effects for thrusters, damage, atmospheric entry, quantum travel, and shields.\n\nThe team also implemented a \u2018task pool,\u2019 which allows the artists to tackle various miscellaneous tasks that have accumulated in the backlog.\n\n\u201cThis typically consists of minor bugs and quality-of-life improvements, so it has been great to be able to focus on these things while continuing to support major content and features.\u201d VFX Team","de_DE":"PU-Monatsbericht\nOktober 2022\nWillkommen zum PU-Monatsbericht f\u00fcr Oktober. W\u00e4hrend viele Teams ihre Arbeit f\u00fcr das bevorstehende IAE-Event und die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung der Alpha 3.18 abgeschlossen haben, wurden Fortschritte bei den Aufgaben f\u00fcr Anfang n\u00e4chsten Jahres und dar\u00fcber hinaus erzielt. Lies weiter, um mehr \u00fcber die neuesten Entwicklungen im KI-Verhalten, die laufenden Verbesserungen der Engine, den Arena Commander und vieles mehr zu erfahren.\n\nKI (Inhalt)\nIm Oktober hat das KI-Inhaltsteam die Verhaltensweisen von H\u00e4ndlern und G\u00e4sten weiterentwickelt, so dass die NSCs Essen und Getr\u00e4nke bestellen, tragen und konsumieren k\u00f6nnen. Das gibt ihnen ein Gef\u00fchl von Leben und Sinn, da sie immer etwas zu tun haben.\n\nDie KI-Charaktere \u00f6ffnen Kisten, nehmen Gegenst\u00e4nde heraus und legen sie hinein. Das war eine \u00fcberraschend komplexe Aufgabe, aber die verschiedenen Elemente arbeiten jetzt gut zusammen.\n\nWeitere Aufgaben waren die Verbesserung des Verhaltens des Quartiermeisters, die Aktualisierung der Animationen, die Einrichtung von Wildlinien, die \u00dcberarbeitung der Dokumentation und der Prototyp des Essens.\n\nKI (Features)\nIm letzten Monat haben die KI-Animatoren weiter an der Verfeinerung der Vanduul-Exekutionsanimationen gearbeitet, um sicherzustellen, dass sie aus der Ego-Perspektive als stark und wirkungsvoll wahrgenommen werden, dass sie besser geeignet sind, um \"auf der Stelle\" gespielt zu werden, wenn der Angriff auf engem Raum stattfindet, dass sie glaubw\u00fcrdiger sind, um vom Spieler abgelenkt werden zu k\u00f6nnen, und dass die Spieler fliehen oder angreifen k\u00f6nnen, wenn sie einmal abgelenkt wurden.\n\nAuf der Seite des Wahrnehmungssystems hat das KI-Team Funktionen implementiert, mit denen sie \"St\u00f6rungen\", also unerwartete Szenarien, die gel\u00f6st werden k\u00f6nnen, bewerten und darauf reagieren k\u00f6nnen. Das sind unerwartete Szenarien, die gel\u00f6st werden k\u00f6nnen, z. B. wenn das Licht in einem Raum ausgeht oder ein Motor ausgeschaltet wird. Die Spieler\/innen k\u00f6nnen diese Mechanik nutzen, um das Verhalten der NSCs zu st\u00f6ren, wenn sie nicht entdeckt wurden, und haben so die M\u00f6glichkeit, das Level besser zu infiltrieren, indem sie Patrouillen und Wachen umgehen.\n\nDie Spieler\/innen k\u00f6nnen auch \"Ablenkungen\" (Aktionen, die akustische Reize ausl\u00f6sen, wie z. B. das Werfen eines Gegenstands) nutzen, um NSCs dazu zu bringen, ihre Positionen zu verlassen, um zu ermitteln.\n\n\"Wir mussten sicherstellen, dass diese Ereignisse an alle Agenten im entsprechenden Gebiet weitergeleitet werden, dass sie vom Wahrnehmungssystem verarbeitet und anhand der aktuellen Bedrohungsstufe bewertet werden und dass die richtigen Verhaltensweisen zur Behebung der St\u00f6rungen umgesetzt werden. Die L\u00f6sung kann darin bestehen, dass die Agenten die Quelle der St\u00f6rung untersuchen oder alternativ, wenn zu viele St\u00f6rungen aufgetreten sind, ihre Wachsamkeit erh\u00f6hen. Das bedeutet, dass sie ihre Waffen z\u00fccken, bestimmte Alarmstufen aussprechen oder schneller auf nachfolgende Ereignisse reagieren k\u00f6nnen. Wir mussten auch ber\u00fccksichtigen, dass die unmittelbare Quelle der St\u00f6rung vielleicht nicht das ist, was der NSC untersuchen will. Der Agent kann zum Beispiel wahrnehmen, dass ein Licht ausgeht, aber er w\u00fcrde den Lichtschalter untersuchen wollen, der das Licht steuert, und schlie\u00dflich, wenn er den Spieler nicht antrifft, das Licht wieder einschalten.\" AI Features Team\n\nIm Oktober hat die KI auch die Handhabung von Raketenwerfern und Railguns implementiert. Bei Raketenwerfern m\u00fcssen die NSCs pr\u00fcfen, ob der Schuss explosiven Spritzschaden bei befreundeten Agenten verursacht. Diese Pr\u00fcfung kann mit der Eigenschaft \"Friendly-Fire\" deaktiviert werden, um r\u00fccksichtslosere Feinde zu erm\u00f6glichen. Bei der Railgun wurde das Verhalten in der Deckung ge\u00e4ndert. Jetzt laden NSCs die Waffe auf, wenn sie in Deckung sind, bevor sie zum Feuern auftauchen. Bei beiden Waffen hat das Team die Standard\u00fcberpr\u00fcfung, ob die Waffe das Ziel treffen kann, deaktiviert, so dass die Feinde auch aus der Deckung heraus weiter auf das Ziel schie\u00dfen. So kann der Spieler sehen, dass diese Waffen in der N\u00e4he abgefeuert werden und entsprechend reagieren, anstatt sofort getroffen zu werden, wenn er die Deckung verl\u00e4sst. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurden auch die bestehenden Animationen f\u00fcr geschulterte Waffen \u00fcberarbeitet.\n\nIn Bezug auf die Waffennutzung haben die KI-Funktionen implementiert, wie NSCs w\u00e4hrend des Kampfes Waffen und Munition aufsammeln. Feinde unterliegen denselben Munitionsbeschr\u00e4nkungen wie der Spieler, so dass sie ihre Munition aufsparen und andere Waffen benutzen m\u00fcssen, wenn sie zur Neige gehen. Die NSCs \u00fcberlegen, was in dieser Situation am besten zu tun ist, z. B. zu ihrer Zweitwaffe zu wechseln, Munition aufzusammeln oder eine neue Waffe zu finden. Wenn sie nach Munition suchen, k\u00f6nnen sie diese aus Kisten, aus losen Waffen oder aus verstauten Waffen von toten oder kampfunf\u00e4higen Charakteren nehmen. Wenn sie nach Waffen suchen, k\u00f6nnen sie diese aus Regalen holen, in der Gegend finden oder von anderen Charakteren nehmen. Um dies umzusetzen, wurden Waffen als benutzbare Gegenst\u00e4nde eingerichtet, die es der KI erm\u00f6glichen, nach dem besten benutzbaren Gegenstand zu suchen, der Munition oder eine Waffe liefern kann. Das Team musste das Brauchbarkeits-System ein wenig anpassen, indem es Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr Brauchbarkeiten hinzuf\u00fcgte, die sich selbst versorgen (lose Waffen oder Munition) und sicherstellte, dass die Ausrichtungspositionen der Brauchbarkeiten korrekt an der Schwerkraft ausgerichtet sind, wenn die Waffe oder Munition f\u00e4llt.\n\nF\u00fcr die Nicht-Kampf-KI arbeitete das Team an einer Funktion, die NSCs dabei unterst\u00fctzt, Fracht von einem Ort zu einem anderen zu transportieren, z. B. indem sie Kisten aufheben, sie auf einen Wagen stapeln, den Wagen zu einem Zielort (z. B. einem Frachtraum) fahren und sie dann vom Wagen nehmen und neu stapeln. Ein bestehender Prototyp wurde au\u00dferdem mit neuer Technik angepasst, um Verhaltensweisen zu erm\u00f6glichen, die an verschiedenen Orten eingesetzt werden k\u00f6nnen, um sie zum Leben zu erwecken.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurden die Werkzeuge verfeinert, um die Qualit\u00e4t der Deckung zu verbessern. Dazu geh\u00f6rte, dass die Deckungsgenerierung robuster gegen\u00fcber Randf\u00e4llen wurde und die Erkennung von Deckung \u00fcber eine bestimmte Entfernung von identifizierten \"Deckungskanten\" hinaus unterst\u00fctzt. Dadurch k\u00f6nnen Deckungen in einer gr\u00f6\u00dferen Anzahl von Gebieten erzeugt werden.\n\nSchlie\u00dflich haben die KI-Funktionen die ersten Schritte zur Implementierung einer \"Buddy-KI\" unternommen, die das Gameplay unterst\u00fctzt, bei dem der Spieler von einem oder mehreren Charakteren begleitet wird. Zun\u00e4chst wurde ein schneller Prototyp mit einigen der Funktionen erstellt, die erforderlich sein k\u00f6nnten, um Gespr\u00e4che dar\u00fcber zu f\u00fchren, wie die endg\u00fcltige Form dieser Funktion aussehen und wie sie sich in das Spielgeschehen einf\u00fcgen wird.\n\nKI (Tech)\nIm letzten Monat hat das KI-Tech-Team mehrere Verbesserungen an der Benutzerfreundlichkeit des Apollo Subsumption Tools vorgenommen. Dazu geh\u00f6rte die Aktualisierung des Multigraphen mit Feature-Ordnern und Funktionen, die eine Organisation von der Gliederungsansicht aus erm\u00f6glichen. So k\u00f6nnen die Designer\/innen jetzt zum Beispiel Graphen direkt aus der Gliederungsansicht l\u00f6schen und in andere Ordner verschieben. Au\u00dferdem k\u00f6nnen sie eine Knotenverbindung in einen leeren Abschnitt des Diagramms ziehen, um das Dropdown-Men\u00fc zu \u00f6ffnen, mit dem sie eine neue Aufgabe erstellen k\u00f6nnen.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurden kleinere Verbesserungen an der Benutzerfreundlichkeit vorgenommen, wie z. B. das Zusammenklappen aller Eintr\u00e4ge in der Gliederungsansicht und das Hinzuf\u00fcgen eines neuen Filterfelds in der Variablenbaumansicht.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurde die Diagrammansicht um einen neuen benutzerdefinierten Ansichtsstil erweitert. Dieser wird derzeit verwendet, um Apollo das \u00d6ffnen, Visualisieren und Bearbeiten von Mastegraph-Dateien zu erm\u00f6glichen, die zuvor von Hand verwaltet wurden.\n\nIm Bereich der Wahrnehmung arbeitete das Team an der Unterst\u00fctzung des Audio-Rauschpegels und der Audio-Maskierung: Der Audio-Rauschpegel sorgt daf\u00fcr, dass Audio-Stimuli, die das Grundrauschen nicht \u00fcbersteigen, von den Zuh\u00f6rern nicht geh\u00f6rt werden. Es wurden neue Werkzeuge implementiert, mit denen die Designer\/innen den Ger\u00e4uschpegel in einem Bereich und die Art der Ger\u00e4usche, die in diesem Bereich als \"normal\" gelten sollen, konfigurieren k\u00f6nnen.\n\nDie Audiomaskierung sorgt daf\u00fcr, dass bestimmte Audiostimuli nicht als anomal wahrgenommen werden. Zum Beispiel Explosionen auf einem Feld, auf dem Feuerwerk getestet wird. So kann der Spieler die Umgebung als akustische Tarnung nutzen, wenn er Aktionen durchf\u00fchrt. Zum Beispiel das Abfeuern von Waffen in der N\u00e4he eines Schie\u00dfstandes, um NSCs nicht zu alarmieren.\n\nDas Team implementierte Lichterweiterungen f\u00fcr Aktionsbereiche. Diese erm\u00f6glichen es den Designern, Lichtgruppen mit einem Gebiet zu verkn\u00fcpfen und automatisch zu berechnen, ob der Zustand der Umgebung hell oder dunkel sein sollte. Das wirkt sich auf die Zeit aus, die NSCs brauchen, um ein Ziel wahrzunehmen, und macht es einfacher, sich in dunkleren Bereichen zu verstecken.\n\nAI Tech hat auch das System erweitert, das die Sichtbarkeit von gro\u00dfen Objekten, wie z. B. Fahrzeugen, erm\u00f6glicht.\n\n\"Gro\u00dfe Fahrzeuge k\u00f6nnen auf weitere Entfernungen gesehen werden, aber wir m\u00fcssen Ans\u00e4tze vermeiden, die die CPU zu sehr belasten, wie z. B. die Durchf\u00fchrung von Raycasts f\u00fcr sehr gro\u00dfe Entfernungen. Um das zu verhindern, k\u00f6nnen wir jetzt die Sichtbarkeit eines gro\u00dfen Objekts in Abh\u00e4ngigkeit vom Grad des Sichtwinkels beschreiben - also in welcher Entfernung es aus der Perspektive des Beobachters eine bestimmte Gr\u00f6\u00dfe hat.\" AI Tech Team\n\nDadurch kann das Team auch die Entdeckungsphase verschieben, in der festgestellt wird, welche Objekte sich in Reichweite von gro\u00dfen Objekten befinden. So wird eine einzige Abfrage verwendet, die es jedem Einzelnen erm\u00f6glicht, die Verdeckung des Objekts korrekt zu \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen.\n\nDie Parameter des visuellen Sichtfeldes wurden au\u00dferdem so erweitert, dass sie je nach Zustand der KI \u00fcberschrieben werden k\u00f6nnen. So k\u00f6nnen Piloten z. B. aus gr\u00f6\u00dferer Entfernung sehen und zu Fu\u00df gehende Personen visuell anvisieren.\n\nDas Team baute die Navigationslinks weiter aus, um zwei Hauptfunktionen zu unterst\u00fctzen: Erstens erm\u00f6glichten sie es, dass nutzbares Routing mit Entity-Links funktioniert, damit T\u00fcrpaneele (die mit einer T\u00fcr verbunden sind) von NSCs korrekt genutzt werden k\u00f6nnen. So k\u00f6nnen sie erkennen, welches Panel sie benutzen m\u00fcssen, um die richtige Interaktion auszul\u00f6sen.\n\nZweitens wurde eine M\u00f6glichkeit geschaffen, die Kosten f\u00fcr Navigationslinks in Abh\u00e4ngigkeit von bestimmten Bedingungen festzulegen, z. B. die Erh\u00f6hung der Kosten f\u00fcr das Springen, wenn ein Charakter nicht alarmiert ist oder l\u00e4uft. Anhand dieser Kosten kann das System beschreiben, welche Aktionen aus Sicht des NSCs vorzuziehen sind. Eine Figur w\u00fcrde zum Beispiel nicht springen, was eine k\u00f6rperlich anstrengende Aktion ist, wenn sie nicht gebraucht wird.\n\nEs wurde damit begonnen, NSCs das Fahren von Bodenfahrzeugen zu erm\u00f6glichen. Das Team pr\u00fcft derzeit die Einstellungen einer Auswahl von Fahrzeugen, die als Referenz dienen sollen. Au\u00dferdem haben sie den Code eingerichtet, um beim Fahren eines Fahrzeugs zum richtigen Nav-Mesh zu wechseln und den richtigen Pfadfolger auszuw\u00e4hlen.\n\nSchlie\u00dflich arbeitete das Team f\u00fcr AI Tech an der \u00dcberarbeitung der Fortbewegung, bei der die aktuelle Arbeit in verschiedene Streams integriert wurde, um Bugs zu stabilisieren. Au\u00dferdem experimentierten sie mit der Fu\u00dfsperre bei MoveNet und pr\u00fcfen derzeit, wie diese Funktion bei verschiedenen Aspekten der Fortbewegung, z. B. bei scharfen Kurven, eingesetzt werden kann. Au\u00dferdem haben sie eine Anpassung des ersten Frames f\u00fcr den Code des nahtlosen \u00dcbergangs implementiert, um das Eintreten von Usables zu verbessern. Damit wird auch eine bestimmte Animation an einer bestimmten Stelle mit einer bestimmten Pose abgespielt.\n\nAnimation\nLetzten Monat hat das Animationsteam damit begonnen, Kreaturen in das PU zu bringen.\n\n\"Unser Team hatte gerade das Rig f\u00fcr die erste Kreatur abgesegnet, was bedeutet, dass wir endlich damit beginnen k\u00f6nnen, unsere erste interaktive Kreatur zu animieren! Animationsteam\n\nDas Animationsteam machte Fortschritte bei den Animationen der KI-Mitarbeiter, einschlie\u00dflich des Barkeepers. Au\u00dferdem arbeiteten sie an verschiedenen Darbietungen f\u00fcr die KI und am Gameplay f\u00fcr die Bef\u00f6rderung einer Person von einem Ort zum anderen.\n\nKunst (Charaktere)\nIm letzten Monat lieferte das Character Art Team R\u00fcstungsvarianten f\u00fcr den Sicherheitsposten Kareah. Nach der Arbeit des Character-Concept-Art-Teams begann auch die Produktion der Arbeitsanz\u00fcge und Unteranz\u00fcge f\u00fcr die Grenzg\u00e4nger.\n\nKunst (Schiffe)\nDas Schiffsteam machte Fortschritte bei der Argo SRV und brachte das \u00c4u\u00dfere in die endg\u00fcltige Entwurfsphase.\n\nCommunity\nAnfang Oktober unterst\u00fctzte das Community-Team den \"Day of the Vara\", die Halloween-Aktion des Verses. Die B\u00fcrgerinnen und B\u00fcrger gingen auf die Jagd nach Masken im Spiel, kauften schaurig-gr\u00fcne Farben f\u00fcr die Drake-Schiffe und nahmen an K\u00fcrbisschnitz- und S\u00fc\u00dfes-oder-Saures-Videowettbewerben teil.\n\nAnschlie\u00dfend arbeitete das Team an der Digital CitizenCon 2022. Neben den Entwickler-Panels enth\u00fcllten sie den neuen Community Hub und unterst\u00fctzten das Schiffsteam bei der Pick-A-Ship Challenge. Die einzelnen Panels und die gesamte Show kannst du dir jetzt noch einmal ansehen.\n\nIm Anschluss an die Show veranstaltete ATMO esports den Babbage Bash, ein von der Community gef\u00fchrtes Event, bei dem Spieler\/innen gegen Entwickler\/innen in einem STV-Rennen durch MicroTech antraten.\n\nNach der Enth\u00fcllung auf der CitizenCon ver\u00f6ffentlichte das Team das Crusader Spirit Q&A, in dem die Entwickler die Fragen der Community zu dem neuen Konzeptschiff beantworteten.\n\nDas Community-Team setzte au\u00dferdem seine Bar Citizen World Tour mit Besuchen in Chicago, New Jersey, Paris und Madrid fort.\n\n\"Wie immer m\u00f6chte das Team euch wissen lassen, dass wir eure Gastfreundschaft und Herzlichkeit sehr zu sch\u00e4tzen wissen. Wir lieben es, neue Freunde zu finden und Star Citizen mit euch allen zu feiern. In den kommenden Monaten werden wir noch mehr Bar Citizen Events besuchen, also bleibt dran!\" Community Team\n\nEngine\nIm Oktober hat das Physik-Team an verschiedenen Verbesserungen gearbeitet, unter anderem an der Pinselphysikalisierung, die in Warteschlangen mit jeweils 32 Eintr\u00e4gen eingereiht und gezwungen wurde, parallel verarbeitet zu werden. Die Fertigstellung des Spawn-Batches wurde \u00fcberarbeitet, um zu warten, bis alle Pinselarchetypen und ihre Materialklone vollst\u00e4ndig physisiert sind, bevor die gespawnten Entit\u00e4ten fertiggestellt werden. Es wurde ein Physik-Ereignis f\u00fcr den Bruch von Clustern hinzugef\u00fcgt, zusammen mit einem Entity-Ereignis, das das entsprechende zusammengesetzte Entity abl\u00f6st. Au\u00dferdem wurden verschiedene Optimierungen vorgenommen, um den Low-Level-Datenzugriff zu verbessern und Konflikte zu reduzieren. Au\u00dferdem wird die Physikumgebung bei der Massenzerst\u00f6rung von Pinseln nicht mehr aufgeweckt, es sei denn, sie haben einen Collider. Und schlie\u00dflich wurden schwerwiegende Stalls beim L\u00f6schen von Entit\u00e4ten sowie die Netzwerkaspekte der Breakability behoben.\n\nBeim Renderer wurden weitere Fortschritte bei der Umstellung auf Gen12 gemacht. Es wurde viel an den Partikeln gearbeitet. Unter anderem wurde die Lichtatlas-Stufe umgeschrieben, um den Material-Permutations-Cache zu nutzen, und ein gro\u00dfer Teil des Codes im GPU-Partikel-System wurde \u00fcberarbeitet und aufger\u00e4umt. Der Code f\u00fcr die Partikeleinreichung und die PSO-Verwaltung wurden ebenfalls neu geschrieben. Au\u00dferdem werden die Lichtlisten jetzt pro Szenendurchlauf verwaltet, was die Kachelschattierungsphase vereinfachen wird. Dar\u00fcber hinaus wurden undurchsichtige Sonnenschatten f\u00fcr Gaswolken, Bildgeister, verschiedene Post-Effekte (Wassertropfen, Blitzknall, Augenmigr\u00e4ne, Blutvision), der Projektilmanager, die RTT-Unterst\u00fctzungsfunktion und die Renderziel-Debug-Vis auf Gen12 portiert. Die Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr transiente Rendering-Durchg\u00e4nge wurde vervollst\u00e4ndigt und Kollisionspr\u00fcfungen f\u00fcr Ressourcensets wurden hinzugef\u00fcgt. Offline-W\u00fcrfelkarten verwenden jetzt ihre eigene Pipeline, um verschiedene Feature-Sets zu erm\u00f6glichen. Und schlie\u00dflich wurden viele Optimierungen und Bereinigungen vorgenommen.\n\nBei der Atmosph\u00e4re und den volumetrischen Wolken wurden Verbesserungen am Gen12-Code vorgenommen, indem die im September zur Verf\u00fcgung gestellten transienten P\u00e4sse \u00fcbernommen wurden. Au\u00dferdem wurde ein Vorschaumodus implementiert, der Beleuchter\/innen beim Einrichten von Planetenatmosph\u00e4ren unterst\u00fctzt.\n\nIn der Kern-Engine hat das Team zus\u00e4tzliche Verbesserungen am Lebenszeitmanagement von Objekten vorgenommen. Dazu geh\u00f6rte das Hinzuf\u00fcgen von Code zur Gruppierung von Objekten f\u00fcr das Lebenszeitmanagement und die Art und Weise, wie das L\u00f6schen von Entit\u00e4ten beim Stream-Out gehandhabt wird. Der gesamte alte Code f\u00fcr die Lebensdauer von Entit\u00e4ten wurde entfernt. Der Entity Allocator wurde auf Seitenbasis umgestellt. Die Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr das In-Engine-Dateimapping wurde vervollst\u00e4ndigt (d.h. schnellerer Zugriff auf p4k-Dateien). Erste Schritte wurden unternommen, um den gesamten Spielcode durch Include-What-You-Use laufen zu lassen, um unn\u00f6tige Header-Abh\u00e4ngigkeiten zu entfernen, was letztendlich zu schnelleren Kompilierzeiten f\u00fchren sollte. Schlie\u00dflich ist es jetzt m\u00f6glich, bei fehlgeschlagenen Speicherzuweisungen die entsprechenden Codebesitzer zu identifizieren und sie automatisch in Fehlerberichten aufzuf\u00fchren, um die Fehlerbearbeitung zu beschleunigen.\n\nDer Rest der Zeit wurde f\u00fcr die Unterst\u00fctzung von Alpha 3.18 und die Live-PU verwendet.\n\nFeatures (Arena Commander)\nDas Technikteam begann den Monat mit Qualit\u00e4tsverbesserungen und Fehlerbehebungen. Dann f\u00fcgten sie zus\u00e4tzliche Auszeichnungen nach dem Spiel hinzu und reparierten die Schadensart \"Ausbluten\".\n\nDas Team schloss die Integration der Alpha 3.18 in die Spielentwicklung ab, wobei noch einige kleinere Dinge ausstanden, die sp\u00e4ter angegangen werden. Sie haben ein Problem mit dem Testl\u00e4ufer behoben, das auftrat, wenn der Akteur starb, und haben Jericho Station und vier Rennkarten zum Backend hinzugef\u00fcgt, f\u00fcr die Design auch Level und Rekorde eingereicht hat. Die Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr Radar und Scanning f\u00fcr SQ42 wurde fortgesetzt, w\u00e4hrend ein Teil des Teams sich um ein Problem k\u00fcmmerte, bei dem Fahrzeuge nach dem Tod nicht explodierten.\n\nDas Team hat ein neues Konzept f\u00fcr das Pre-Game des Duell-Modus entwickelt, um Arena Commander zum wichtigsten kompetitiven Ranglistenmodus zu machen. Das neue Pre-Game erm\u00f6glicht es den Spielern, im Frontend aus mehreren Schiffen zu w\u00e4hlen und zu sehen, was ihr Gegner gew\u00e4hlt hat. Dies wird das erste Draft-System des Spiels sein. Aufgrund des Feedbacks der Community wurden weitere M\u00f6glichkeiten zur Verbesserung des Duellmodus diskutiert und in Auftrag gegeben.\n\n\"Wir sind sehr froh, dass die Richtung des Teams bereits mit der \u00f6ffentlichen Meinung \u00fcbereinstimmt; jedes Thema und jede Frage, die aufgeworfen wurde, wurde bereits von ACFT diskutiert und geplant.\" Arena Commander Feature Team\n\nF\u00fcr das neue Arena Commander 1.5 Frontend wurden weitere Funktionen hinzugef\u00fcgt und Fehler behoben, darunter auch das Hinzuf\u00fcgen von Videohintergr\u00fcnden pro Spielmodus. Das Team untersuchte auch, wie die erste Version des neuen Frontends verbessert werden kann, z. B. durch \u00c4nderungen am Layout und durch die Verbesserung des Simulationsgef\u00fchls.\n\nDas Designteam hat den ersten Durchgang f\u00fcr f\u00fcnf neue Rennstrecken abgeschlossen: Snake Pit, Icebreaker, Ratari Station, Dunlow Derby und Lorville Gateways. Eine neue Dogfighting-Karte, Jericho Station, wurde erfolgreich getestet und ist f\u00fcr einen kommenden Patch geplant.\n\nFeatures (Charaktere & Waffen)\nIm letzten Monat hat das Feature-Team verschiedene bestehende Features verbessert, darunter die M\u00f6glichkeit, \u00fcber eine Kante zu springen oder zu manteln, die jetzt auch mitten im Sprung oder Fall ausgel\u00f6st werden kann. Dadurch haben die Leveldesigner\/innen mehr M\u00f6glichkeiten, R\u00e4tsel zum \u00dcberqueren zu Fu\u00df zu entwerfen.\n\nDie Spieler\/innen k\u00f6nnen jetzt auch nach oben und unten schauen, w\u00e4hrend sie sich auf einer Leiter bewegen, um zu sehen, wohin sie gehen. Wenn sie stehen bleiben, k\u00f6nnen sie sich auch um 360 Grad umsehen. Dazu wird eine Leerlaufanimation mit 360 Posen erstellt. Das Spiel w\u00e4hlt dann das Bild aus dem Asset aus, das dem Gieren des Spielers relativ zur Leiter entspricht. Dies ist dann die Basisanimation, auf der das Team andere Aktionen aufbauen kann. Zum Beispiel kann der Spieler von der Leiter weg in die Richtung springen, in die er schaut.\n\nDie M\u00f6glichkeit, alle Gegenst\u00e4nde von einem Inventar in ein anderes zu verschieben, befindet sich jetzt im letzten internen Testdurchlauf.\n\n\"Einige der Funktionen, an denen das Team gearbeitet hat, wurden auf der CitizenCon vorgestellt und wir freuen uns sehr \u00fcber das positive Feedback, das wir erhalten haben.\" Features Team\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nIn den USA wurde die Arbeit an der anf\u00e4nglichen Implementierung der \u00dcberarbeitung der Fracht und der neuen Waren-Kiosk-Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che f\u00fcr Alpha 3.18 fortgesetzt. Dies wird sich auf den Kauf, den Verkauf und das Bewegen von Frachtcontainern mit Einzel-SCU-Ressourcen mit dem Traktorstrahl nach dem Kauf und au\u00dferhalb der gr\u00fcnen Zonen auswirken. Die Gameplay-Features unterst\u00fctzen auch weiterhin den Kauf und Verkauf von wiederauff\u00fcllbaren RMC-Containern und den Containern, die von Vulture und Reclaimer erstellt werden.\n\nDas Gef\u00e4ngnis wurde aktualisiert, einschlie\u00dflich des Kiosks, der neue Gameplay-Gegenst\u00e4nde erhielt. Au\u00dferdem wurden die Einrichtung und die Vorr\u00e4te in allen L\u00e4den an die neuen Waren angepasst, die mit der \u00dcberarbeitung der Fracht einhergehen. Au\u00dferdem wurden die L\u00e4den aktualisiert, um IAE-Waren zu unterst\u00fctzen. Die Einrichtung des Ladens f\u00fcr Pyro hat begonnen und wird fortgesetzt. Auch die Benutzeroberfl\u00e4chen f\u00fcr den Warenkiosk, den Missionsmanager und die Kopfgeldjagd wurden weiterentwickelt.\n\nDie Planung und Dokumentation f\u00fcr die Lastenaufz\u00fcge und die anschlie\u00dfende \u00dcberarbeitung der Fracht, die im vierten Quartal 2022 beginnen wird, wurde begonnen. Die Dokumentation und Untersuchung von Missionen zur Lieferung von Fracht in mehreren und gro\u00dfen Containern, die mit der Lieferung von T1-Fracht zusammenfallen k\u00f6nnten, wurde begonnen.\n\nDie Teams in Manchester und Frankfurt arbeiteten weiter an der Verschrottung des Schiffsrumpfes und f\u00fcgten den letzten Schliff und Verbesserungen der Lebensqualit\u00e4t f\u00fcr den Balance Pass hinzu. Zus\u00e4tzliche Zeit wurde auch in die \"frischen Wrackteile\" investiert, die im Weltraum spawnen k\u00f6nnen, um sie noch abgenutzter und authentischer aussehen zu lassen.\n\nSie arbeiteten auch mit dem Team in Montreal zusammen, um einige nicht eindeutig identifizierbare Teile zu den Tr\u00fcmmerfeldern hinzuzuf\u00fcgen, und halfen dem US-Team bei der \u00dcberarbeitung der Fracht.\n\nDie Arbeit des Teams an der Schwerkraft und den Lebenserhaltungssystemen n\u00e4hert sich dem Ende und der Rest der Arbeit am Ressourcenmanagementsystem, das alles zusammenf\u00fchren wird.\n\nFeatures (Mission)\nDie Missionsfeatures haben verschiedenen Missionen den letzten Schliff gegeben, einschlie\u00dflich eines neuen Endes f\u00fcr die Gef\u00e4ngnisflucht, das f\u00fcr noch mehr Spannung und Herausforderung sorgt.\n\nDann arbeiteten sie mit Art zusammen, um das Drogenlabor in Jumptown weiter auszubauen.\n\n\"Es ist jetzt doppelt so gro\u00df und hat einen zweiten Eingang, einen zweiten Drogenspender und mehrere Fenster und Oberlichter, durch die man ins Innere sehen kann. Um das Spiel mit den Waffen im Inneren zu verbessern, haben wir es kreisf\u00f6rmig gestaltet und die meisten T\u00fcren entfernt, um eine bessere Sicht zu haben.\" Mission Feature Team\n\nUnerlaubtes Betreten von Gebieten wurde ebenfalls \u00fcberarbeitet, so dass es jetzt einen Unterschied zwischen legalem Betreten und dem Betreten feindlicher Gebiete gibt. Der Name der Organisation, die das Gebiet kontrolliert, wird beim Betreten angezeigt. Sobald der Zugang zu dem Gebiet widerrufen wird (z. B. am Ende einer Mission), wird den Spielern ein Countdown angezeigt, bis zu dem Zeitpunkt, an dem sie unbefugt das Gebiet betreten werden, falls sie dort bleiben.\n\nSchlie\u00dflich wurden Bugs im Zusammenhang mit CrimeStat und Schiffskollisionen identifiziert und behoben.\n\nFeatures (Fahrzeuge)\nLetzten Monat wurden in den Fahrzeug-Features die Andock- und Transit-Features unterst\u00fctzt. Beide sind weiterhin langfristige Anforderungen f\u00fcr das Team, da jede Ver\u00f6ffentlichung neue Probleme aufwirft, insbesondere beim Transit, der wahrscheinlich bis zur Einf\u00fchrung des neuen Transitsystems bestehen bleiben wird.\n\nBei den Multifunktionsdisplays (MFD) gab es gute Fortschritte: Die Waffen, Emissionen und Schiffsmodelle wurden eingereicht und funktionieren im Spiel. Die Selbststatus-Anzeige hat es auch in den SQ42 UI-Stream geschafft und es wurde mit der Arbeit an den MFDs f\u00fcr die Kommunikation und den Selbststatus der Waffen begonnen.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurde mit der Arbeit an der neuen Version der Quantenreise begonnen, bei der das aktuelle Feature in Vorbereitung auf die \u00dcberarbeitung \u00fcberarbeitet wird.\n\nDie KI-Unterst\u00fctzung des Teams wurde im Oktober verst\u00e4rkt. Dabei ging es vor allem um die Schiff-gegen-Spieler-Bossk\u00e4mpfe in SQ42. Die Cutlass fliegt jetzt mit ihrem neuen Verhalten auf einem Spline und greift den Spieler an. Au\u00dferdem unterst\u00fctzte das Team das Flugteam sowohl bei KI- als auch bei Nicht-KI-Anfragen.\n\nAuch die Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr die Schiffsversionen des vierten Quartals hat begonnen. Au\u00dferdem wurde die neue Technologie f\u00fcr Bodenfahrzeuge weiterentwickelt und wird in einem der n\u00e4chsten Sprints aktiviert. Zuvor werden die Probleme mit dem Drake Mule, der wie ein Panzer f\u00e4hrt, behoben.\n\nDie Hauptmodi machten bei den Tests gute Fortschritte. Das Team best\u00e4tigte die Geschwindigkeiten f\u00fcr SCM, Boost und Quantum Travel und testet nun Rennschiffe und pr\u00fcft, wie das Ausschalten von Schiffen beim Wechsel zwischen SCM und QT ausbalanciert werden kann.\n\n\"Wir haben auch die Gelegenheit genutzt, um viele Waffen neu zu balancieren und die Unterschiede im Verhalten, die wir f\u00fcr die \u00dcberarbeitung in Alpha 3.14 zur\u00fcckgesetzt hatten, wiederherzustellen.\" Fahrzeug-Features-Team\n\nDie Unterst\u00fctzung des Netzwerks wurde mit der Konversation \u00fcber die Macht und den ersten Arbeiten zur Integration von W\u00e4rmekomponenten fortgesetzt. Das Team legt derzeit die Designunterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr das Feature fest, da eine Menge Komponenten umgewandelt werden m\u00fcssen, sobald die technische Arbeit abgeschlossen ist. Au\u00dferdem ist die \u00dcberarbeitung des Zielsystems fast abgeschlossen, und die verbleibende Arbeit konzentriert sich auf die Implementierung der neuen Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che.\n\nEin gro\u00dfer Schritt wurde bei den Steuerfl\u00e4chen gemacht. Das Gleiten von Schiffen ohne Triebwerke wurde gegen\u00fcber dem vorherigen Oberfl\u00e4chenmodell reduziert. Schlie\u00dflich hat das neue System f\u00fcr Sperrgebiete sein Go\/No-Go bestanden und ist nun aktiviert.\n\nGrafik & VFX Programmierung & Planet Tech\nIm Oktober konzentrierte sich das Team weiterhin auf die Schadenskarten und behob fehlenden Anfangsschaden an Tr\u00fcmmern, falsche Gr\u00f6\u00dfen der Schadenskarten und Unstimmigkeiten zwischen Schiffsgr\u00f6\u00dfen. Au\u00dferdem haben wir uns mit der Vernetzung und der Persistenz von Tr\u00fcmmern besch\u00e4ftigt.\n\nWeitere Fortschritte wurden bei der Portierung von Gaswolken und CPU-Partikeln auf Gen12 gemacht. Die \u00dcberarbeitung der GPU-Marker in Gen12 wurde ebenfalls abgeschlossen und einige Probleme im Zusammenhang mit den Haar- und Hologramm-Shadern wurden behoben.\n\nF\u00fcr das laufende Refactoring der Datenpipeline setzte das Team die Arbeit an SKIN-Dateien fort, die es erm\u00f6glichen, kompakte, nicht geteilte Dateien zu kompilieren oder zu laden. Au\u00dferdem wurden Prozessgruppen eingef\u00fchrt, die mehrere Eingabeformate unterst\u00fctzen.\n\nEs wurde mit der Entwicklung von Bildschirmschatten begonnen und das Raytracing angepasst, um d\u00fcnne Objekte zu ber\u00fccksichtigen. Au\u00dferdem wurde an Anti-Aliasing-Linien f\u00fcr die Aux-Geometrie (Editor-Debug) und die Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che (f\u00fcr die Verwendung in der StarMap) gearbeitet. Au\u00dferdem wurden neue Funktionen f\u00fcr den UIMesh-Shader hinzugef\u00fcgt (Multi-Scale-Texturierung, bi-\/tri-planare Projektion, Gl\u00e4ttung) und N\u00e4sseeffekte mit Blut, Schwei\u00df und Tr\u00e4nen erm\u00f6glicht.\n\nDas Team hat RaStar v1 abgeschlossen und die verbleibenden Bugs und Abst\u00fcrze behoben, die von den Content-Teams gemeldet wurden. Au\u00dferdem wurden verschiedene Fehlerbehebungen f\u00fcr Fl\u00fcsse eingereicht, und es wurde mit der Entwicklung von Verbesserungen der Wassersimulation und des Wasserrenderings begonnen.\n\nBeleuchtung\nDas Beleuchtungsteam setzte seine Arbeit an Pyro, Lorville, IAE, Orisons Rennstrecke, dem Sicherheitsposten Kareah und den verlassenen Weltraumsiedlungen fort.\n\nLorville erhielt eine Beleuchtungsbereinigung, um bestimmte Bereiche zu verbessern, w\u00e4hrend der gesamte Level aufger\u00e4umt wurde, um ihn in seinen urspr\u00fcnglich geplanten Zustand zu bringen.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurden verschiedene fr\u00fchere Orte geschlossen, um sicherzustellen, dass alles auf dem neuesten Stand ist.\n\nSchaupl\u00e4tze (EU)\nDas Team der EU-Locations arbeitete weiter an Pyro's Rest Stop und machte gro\u00dfe Fortschritte bei den Innenr\u00e4umen des Bahnhofs. Anschlie\u00dfend konzentrierten sie sich auf die Au\u00dfenarme des Bahnhofs.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurden die Arbeiten am Sicherheitsposten Kareah abgeschlossen und Fortschritte bei den Veranstaltungshallen und der Fracht der IAE erzielt. Sie setzten auch ihre Aufgabe fort, den Landezonen Leben einzuhauchen.\n\nNarrative\nW\u00e4hrend der Ansturm auf IAE und Alpha 3.18 anhielt, leistete das Narrative-Team zus\u00e4tzliche Unterst\u00fctzung bei der Behebung von Fehlern und Problemen, die beim Testen auftraten. F\u00fcr IAE halfen sie, neue Inhalte zu liefern, die in den letzten Motion-Capture-Sitzungen aufgenommen wurden.\n\n\"Das war besonders aufregend, weil wir einen unserer engagierten Narrative Designer einsetzen konnten, um das KI-Verhalten zu entwickeln, das wir dann an das Designteam weitergeben konnten. Narrative Team\n\nNarrative hat au\u00dferdem begonnen, gemeinsam mit Mission Features an dem Verhalten der Flugsicherung zu arbeiten. Dies wird dazu beitragen, Probleme mit dem bestehenden Verhalten zu beheben und gleichzeitig die neuesten Upgrades des Systems zu unterst\u00fctzen, die dann in Zukunft f\u00fcr alle weiteren Charaktere und Skripte der Flugverkehrskontrolle standardisiert werden.\n\nAu\u00dferdem trafen sie sich weiterhin mit den Missionsteams, um die \"Erkundungsmissionen\" zu entwickeln, die im Narrative CitizenCon Video vorgestellt wurden. Nach dem Vorsto\u00df im letzten Monat hatten die Autoren die Aufgabe, ein Beispielr\u00e4tsel zu entwickeln, das die Spieler untersuchen sollten, um das Grundsystem zu testen und zu sehen, wie skalierbar diese Mission sein k\u00f6nnte.\n\nAu\u00dferdem lieferten sie Texte f\u00fcr kommende Missionen und er\u00f6ffneten Diskussionen \u00fcber eine Handvoll anderer Missionstypen, die in den n\u00e4chsten Patches kommen werden. Das Team arbeitete eng mit den Design- und UI-Teams an einigen der kommenden mobiGlas-Apps zusammen, die das neue Gameplay unterst\u00fctzen werden, das sich derzeit in der Entwicklung befindet.\n\nIm Laufe des Oktobers wurden neue Inhalte auf der Website ver\u00f6ffentlicht, darunter ein Spectrum Spectator, der die Geschichte der CitizenCon beleuchtet, ein Portfolio, das Stegman's in den Mittelpunkt stellt, und die R\u00fcckkehr von Old Jegger in einer Folge von Far from Home. Schlie\u00dflich wurde eine weitere Reihe von Galactapedia-Artikeln aus den Archiven auf die Website gestellt.\n\n\"Diesen Monat feiern wir das Jubil\u00e4um von CitizenCon und feiern zehn Jahre Inhalt, der seinen Weg in den Spectrum Dispatch-Bereich der Website gefunden hat. Von den Anf\u00e4ngen der Zeitkapseln \u00fcber Cal Mason und Kid Crimson bis hin zu den News-Updates waren diese w\u00f6chentlichen Updates eine gro\u00dfartige Gelegenheit, tief in das Star Citizen-Universum einzutauchen, und wir m\u00f6chten uns f\u00fcr all die Begeisterung und Unterst\u00fctzung \u00fcber die Jahre hinweg bedanken.\n\nOnline-Dienste (Montreal)\nDas Team der Online-Dienste hat im Oktober einige verbleibende Features fertiggestellt, darunter die neue Charakterreparatur und -r\u00fccksetzung sowie die Abwicklung von In-Game-Transaktionen.\n\nAu\u00dferdem verbesserten sie den neuen Login-Prozess, um einen schnelleren Einstieg ins Spiel zu erm\u00f6glichen, wenn ein Spieler ein bereits berechtigtes Konto hat, sowie den neuen Wiederholungsdienst, der eine Nachricht f\u00fcr einen erneuten Versuch an die Service-Anwendung zur\u00fccksendet.\n\nUnd schlie\u00dflich hat das Team ein Qualit\u00e4ts-Update vorgenommen, das die Freundesliste im Spiel alphabetisch sortiert. Es ist geplant, dies in die Alpha 3.18 aufzunehmen.\n\nLive Tools (Montreal)\nIm Oktober konzentrierte sich das Live Tools-Team auf Funktionen f\u00fcr das Persistent Entity Streaming, insbesondere auf die Implementierung des Login-Flow-Moduls im Network Operation Center. In diesem Modul sind verschiedene Funktionen zusammengefasst, darunter die Verwaltung von Berechtigungen und Vermietungen. Au\u00dferdem liefert es den Nutzern detailliertere und pr\u00e4zisere Informationen \u00fcber die Anmeldedaten der Spieler und erm\u00f6glicht so die Erkennung und Analyse von Problemen.\n\nTurbulent (Web-Plattform)\nDas Turbulent-Team begann den Monat mit der Unterst\u00fctzung der CitizenCon 2952, einschlie\u00dflich der Seiten f\u00fcr die Hauptveranstaltung, Greycat STV und Crusader Spirit. Das Team arbeitete weiter an der Verbesserung des CMS-Tools Alexandria, das ma\u00dfgeschneiderte Webseiten unterst\u00fctzt. Die letzten Verbesserungen betrafen das \"explore\"-Modul, das es erm\u00f6glicht, Videoinhalte mit Points of Interest zu versehen. Au\u00dferdem wurde ein Rastermodul entwickelt, das eine weitere M\u00f6glichkeit zur Darstellung von Informationen bietet.\n\nMehrere Teams von Turbulent haben zu den IAE-Aktionen im November beigetragen. So wurde zum Beispiel ein neuer Web-Skin entwickelt, um die Messehalle nachzubilden, und es wurden Verbesserungen an der Werbeschiffswand vorgenommen.\n\nDas Design-Team von Turbulent konzentrierte sich darauf, die Marke auf der gesamten Website anzugleichen, indem es einige der alten UI-Elemente entfernte und einen neuen Look einf\u00fchrte.\n\nEine der gr\u00f6\u00dften Neuerungen von Turbulent im Oktober war die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung des aktualisierten Community Hub.\n\n\"Der Community Hub wird sich nach und nach zum wichtigsten Ort entwickeln, an dem man Wettbewerbe, Events und die Livestreams und Kreationen anderer Community-Mitglieder sehen kann. Je mehr Funktionen online gehen, desto mehr wird er sich zu einer Social-Media-Plattform entwickeln, auf der du deinen Lieblingssch\u00f6pfern folgen kannst und kein In-Game oder Live-Event verpasst.\" Turbulent Web Platform Team\n\nSchlie\u00dflich \u00fcberarbeitete das Team noch die Rollen und Zugangskontrollen, um die Sicherheit zu verbessern.\n\nUI\nDas UI-Team entwickelte die neue StarMap weiter, vor allem die zugrundeliegende Technologie, um sie an verschiedenen Orten anzeigen zu k\u00f6nnen. Zum Beispiel in Schiffen, im MobiGlas und m\u00f6glicherweise auch auf Bildschirmen in den Levels. Au\u00dferdem wurden die Bedienelemente aktualisiert und das Aussehen der Planeten verbessert.\n\nNeben der Arbeit an den Interaktionsaufforderungen, die auf der CitizenCon zu sehen waren, hat die Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che das Ladesystem weiter angepasst und Fehler behoben, um sicherzustellen, dass es mit Persistent Streaming funktioniert.\n\nVFX\nIm Oktober schloss das VFX-Team seine Arbeit an der Bergungs- und Reparaturfunktion ab.\n\nZwei Fahrzeuge durchliefen die VFX-Produktionsphase und erhielten Effekte f\u00fcr Triebwerke, Sch\u00e4den, Atmosph\u00e4reneintritt, Quantenreisen und Schilde.\n\nDas Team hat au\u00dferdem einen \"Aufgabenpool\" eingerichtet, der es den K\u00fcnstlern erm\u00f6glicht, verschiedene Aufgaben zu erledigen, die sich in der Warteschlange angesammelt haben.\n\n\"Das sind in der Regel kleinere Bugs und Qualit\u00e4tsverbesserungen. Es ist toll, dass wir uns auf diese Dinge konzentrieren k\u00f6nnen, w\u00e4hrend wir weiterhin wichtige Inhalte und Funktionen unterst\u00fctzen.\" VFX-Team","zh_CN":"PU Monthly Report\nOctober 2022\nWelcome to October\u2019s PU Monthly Report. With many of the teams having completed their work for the upcoming IAE event and Alpha 3.18 release, progress was made on tasks for early next year and beyond. Read on for the latest developments on AI behaviors, ongoing engine improvements, Arena Commander, and more.\n\nAI (Content)\nThroughout October, the AI Content team progressed with the vendor and patron behaviors, realizing the full flow of NPCs ordering, carrying, and consuming food and drink. This gives them a sense of life and purpose, as they\u2019re always busy doing something.\n\nProgress continued on the utility behavior, with AI characters opening crates, taking items out, and putting items in. This was a surprisingly complex task but the various elements are now working well together.\n\nOther tasks involved polishing the quartermaster behavior, making animation pose updates, setting up wildlines, overhauling documentation, and prototyping food eating.\n\nAI (Features)\nLast month, the AI animators continued to refine Vanduul execution animations to ensure they\u2019re perceived as strong and impactful from the first-person perspective, are better suited to be played \u201con the spot\u201d if the attack occurs in a cramped space, are more believable to be deflectable by the player, and allow players to escape or attack once deflected.\n\nOn the perception system side, the AI team implemented functionality to allow them to rate and respond to \u2018disruptions,\u2019 which are unexpected scenarios that can be resolved. For example, the lights of a room turning off or an engine being disabled. Players can use this mechanic to try to disrupt NPC behaviors when they haven\u2019t been detected, giving them the opportunity to better infiltrate the level by avoiding patrols and sentries.\n\nPlayers can also use \u2018distractions\u2019 \u00ad(actions that trigger audio stimuli, such as throwing an object) to cause NPCs to leave their positions to investigate.\n\n\u201cWe had to ensure that these events are propagated out to all of the agents within the appropriate area, that they are handled by the perception system, rated against the current threat level, and that the correct behaviors are implemented to resolve the disruptions. The resolution may involve agents going to investigate the source of the disruption, or alternatively, if too many disruptions have occurred, to increase their alertness level. This means that they may take out their weapons, say specific alertness-level wildlines, or respond quicker to subsequent events. We also had to take into consideration that the immediate source of the disruption may not be what the NPC wants to investigate. For example, the agent may perceive that a light goes out, but they would want to investigate the light switch that controls the light, and ultimately, if they don\u2019t encounter the player, turn the light back on again.\u201d AI Features Team\n\nOctober also saw AI implement rocket launcher and railgun handling. For rocket launchers, NPCs have to consider if the shot will cause explosive splash damage to friendly agents. This check can be disabled using the friendly-fire trait to enable more reckless enemies. For the railgun, they changed how the behavior works in cover. Now, NPCs will start charging the weapon while in cover before emerging to fire. For both of these weapons, the team disabled the standard check to see if the weapon can hit the target, so enemies will continue to fire at the target even when in cover. This allows the player to see that these weapons are being fired nearby and respond accordingly rather than being immediately hit upon leaving cover. As part of this work, they also reviewed the existing shouldered weapon animations.\n\nContinuing with weapon usage, AI Features implemented how NPCs pick up weapons and ammunition during combat. Enemies are under the same ammunition constraints as the player, requiring them to conserve it and use other weapons when they run out. NPCs will evaluate the best course of action in this situation, including switching to their secondary weapon, picking up ammunition, or finding a new weapon altogether. When looking for ammunition, they could take it from boxes, out of loose weapons, or from stowed weapons on dead or incapacitated characters. When looking for weapons, they could get them from racks, find them around the area, or take them from other characters. To implement this, weapons were set up as usables, which allows the AI to search for the best usable that can provide ammo or a weapon. The team had to modify the usable system slightly, including adding support for usables that supply themselves (loose weapons or ammo) and ensuring that usable alignment positions are correctly aligned with gravity when the weapon or ammo falls.\n\nFor non-combat AI, the team worked on functionality to support NPCs moving cargo from one location to another, including picking up crates, stacking them on a trolley, moving the trolley to a destination (such as a cargo hold), and then taking them off the trolley and re-stacking them. An existing prototype was also adapted with new tech to provide behaviors that can be used in varying locations to bring them to life.\n\nThey also refined their tools to generate better quality cover. This included making cover generation more robust to edge cases and supporting recognition of cover over a certain distance from identified \u2018cover edges.\u2019 This allows cover to be generated in a greater range of areas.\n\nFinally, AI Features took the first steps towards implementing \u2018buddy AI\u2019 that will support gameplay where the player is accompanied by one or more characters. To begin with, they made a rapid prototype featuring some of the functionality that might be required to generate conversations about what the final form of this would be and how it will fit into gameplay.\n\nAI (Tech)\nLast month, the AI Tech team made several usability improvements to the Apollo Subsumption tool. This included updating the multigraph with feature folders and functions to allow organization from the outline view. For example, the designers are now able to delete and move graphs to different folders directly from the outline view panel. They can also drag a node connection into an empty section of the graph to open the drop-down menu that allows them to create a new task.\n\nMinor usability improvements were made too, including allowing all the entries in the outline view to collapse and the addition of a new filter field in the variable tree view.\n\nThey also extended the graph view with a new custom view style. This is currently used to allow Apollo to open, visualize, and edit the Mastegraph files that were previously managed by hand.\n\nFor perception, the team worked on supporting audio noise level and audio masking: Audio noise level ensures that audio stimuli that don\u2019t surpass the basic background noise won\u2019t be heard by listeners. New tools were implemented to allow the designers to configure the audio noise level in an area and the type of sounds that should be considered \u201cnormal\u201d in that area.\n\nAudio masking makes sure that particular audio stimuli are not perceived as anomalous. For example, explosions in a field where fireworks are tested. This allows the player to use the environment as audio cover when performing actions. For example, firing weapons near a shooting range as to not alert NPCs.\n\nThe team implemented light extensions to action areas. These enable the designers to link light groups to an area and automatically calculate whether the state of the environment should be light or dark. This impacts the time NPCs require to perceive a target, making it easier to stay hidden in darker areas.\n\nAI Tech also extended the system that allows the visibility of large objects, such as vehicles.\n\n\u201cLarge vehicles can be seen at further distances but we need to avoid approaches that cost too much on the CPU, such as doing raycasts for very long distances. To prevent this, we can now describe the visibility of a large object depending on the degree of visual angle - basically at which distance it has a specific size from the observer\u2019s perspective.\u201d AI Tech Team\n\nThis also allows the team to defer the discovery phase of which objects are within range of large objects. This utilizes one query, which then allows each individual to correctly verify the occlusion of the object.\n\nThe parameters of the visual field-of-view were also extended to be overridable based on the AI state. For example, allowing pilots to see at a greater distance and visually target on-foot characters.\n\nThe team continued extending navigation links to support two main functionalities: Firstly, they enabled usable routing to function with entity links to allow door panels (that are linked to a door) to be correctly used by NPCs. This will allow them to understand which panel they should use to trigger the right interaction.\n\nSecondly, they exposed a way to define the costs of nav-links based on specific conditions, such as increasing the cost for vaulting when a character isn\u2019t alerted or walking. Those costs allow the system to describe how preferable actions are from the NPC\u2019s perspective. For example, a character wouldn\u2019t vault, which is a physically demanding action, if not needed.\n\nWork began to properly allow NPCs to drive ground vehicles. The team are currently verifying the setup of a selection of vehicles to use as reference. They also set up the code to switch to the right nav-mesh when driving a vehicle and select the right path-follower.\n\nFinally for AI Tech, the team worked on the locomotion refactor, which involved integrating current work into different streams to begin stabilizing bugs. They also experimented with foot locking during MoveNet and are currently verifying how to use this functionality on various aspects of locomotion, such as during sharp turns. They also implemented a first frame adjustment for the seamless transition code to improve the entering of usables. This will also play a specific animation at a specific location with a specific pose.\n\nAnimation\nLast month, the Animation team began discussing bringing creatures into the PU.\n\n\u201cOur team had just signed off on the rig for the first creature, meaning we can finally start animating our first interactable creature! Animation Team\n\nThe facial team progressed with AI worker animations, including the bartender. They also worked on various performances for IAE and the gameplay for delivering a person from one location to another.\n\nArt (Characters)\nLast month, the Character Art team delivered armor variants for Security Post Kareah. Production started on frontier workwear outfits and undersuits following work by the Character Concept Art team too.\n\nArt (Ships)\nThe Ship team progressed with the Argo SRV, moving the exterior through to the final art stage.\n\nCommunity\nEarly in October, the Community team supported Day of the Vara, the \u2018verse\u2019s take on Halloween. Citizens hunted down in-game masks, picked up Ghoulish Green paints for Drake ships, and entered pumpkin carving and trick-or-treat video contests.\n\nThe team then worked on Digital CitizenCon 2022. Alongside the developer panels, they unveiled the new Community Hub and supported the Ship team with their Pick-A-Ship Challenge. Each individual panel and the full show are available to rewatch now.\n\nFollowing the show, ATMO esports hosted Babbage Bash, a community-led event where players took on developers in an STV race across microTech.\n\nFollowing its reveal during CitizenCon, the team released the Crusader Spirit Q&A, with devs answering the community\u2019s questions on the new concept ship.\n\nThe Community team also continued their Bar Citizen World Tour, with visits to Chicago, New Jersey, Paris and Madrid.\n\n\u201cAs always, the team wants you to know that your hospitality and warm welcomes are greatly appreciated. We love getting to make new friends and celebrate Star Citizen with all of you. We\u2019ll be visiting even more Bar Citizen events in the coming months, so stay tuned!\u201d Community Team\n\nEngine\nIn October, the Physics team worked on various improvements, including brush physicalization, which was put into queues of 32 entries each and forced to be processed in parallel. Spawn batch finalization was reworked to wait for all brush archetypes and their material clones to be fully physicalized before finalizing the spawned entities, and the root spawn batch can now be queried from outside of the entity system. A physics event was added for cluster breakage along with an entity event that detaches the corresponding compounded entity. Additionally, various optimizations were made to improve low-level data access and reduce contention. Also, the physics environment is no longer woken during the bulk destruction of brushes unless they have a collider. Lastly, severe stalls during entity deletion as well as the network aspects of breakability were fixed.\n\nOn the renderer, more progress was made on the Gen12 transition. A lot of work was done on particles. Among other things, the light atlas stage was rewritten to make use of the material permutation cache, and a lot of code in the GPU particle system was refactored and cleaned up. The particle submission code and its PSO management were rewritten as well. Furthermore, light lists are now managed per scene pass, which will eventually help simplify the tiled shading stage. Additionally, opaque sun shadows for gas clouds, image ghosting, various game post-effects (water droplets, flash bang, ocular migraine, blood vision), the projectile manager, RTT support functionality, and render target debug viz were ported to Gen12. Support for transient scene render passes was completed, and collision checks for resource sets were added. Offline cube maps now use their own pipeline to allow for different feature sets. Lastly, lots of optimizations and cleanups were made all around.\n\nRegarding atmosphere and volumetric clouds, improvements were made to the Gen12 code by adopting the transient passes made available in September. Furthermore, a preview mode was implemented to help lighting artists setting up planet atmospheres.\n\nOn the core engine, the team made additional improvements to entity lifetime management. This involved adding code to group objects for lifetime management and how entity deletion is handled on stream out. All legacy entity lifetime code was removed. The entity allocator was changed to be page based. In-engine file mapping support was completed (i.e., faster p4k file access). Initial steps were done to run all game code through Include-What-You-Use to remove unnecessary header dependencies, which should ultimately lead to faster incremental compile times. Lastly, in case of failed memory allocations, it's now possible to identify relevant code owners and list them in bug reports automatically to speed up bug processing.\n\nThe remainder of the time was spent supporting Alpha 3.18 and the live PU.\n\nFeatures (Arena Commander)\nThe Engineering team began the month with quality-of-life and bug fixes. They then added additional post-game score awards and fixed the bleed-out damage type.\n\nThe team finished its integration of Alpha 3.18\u2019s deliverables into game-dev, with some minor items pending that will be addressed later. They fixed an issue with the test-runner in cases where the actor died and added Jericho Station and four race maps to the backend, which Design also submitted levels and records for. Support continued for radar and scanning for SQ42, while part of the team supported an issue with vehicles not exploding upon death.\n\nA new concept was made for the Duel Mode pre-game, as the team shifts Arena Commander\u2019s focus to being the primary competitive ranked mode. The new pre-game allows players to select from multiple ships outside of their selected one from the frontend, as well as see what their opponent has picked. This will act as the game\u2019s initial draft system. Following community feedback, additional ways to improve Duel Mode itself were discussed and tasked.\n\n\u201cWe are very pleased that the team\u2019s direction already matches public opinions; every topic and issue brought up had already been discussed and scheduled by ACFT.\u201d Arena Commander Feature Team\n\nFeature additions and bug fixing continued for the new Arena Commander 1.5 frontend, including adding video backgrounds per game mode. The team also explored how to improve the first deliverable of the new frontend, including changes to the layout and how to make the scene feel more like a simulation.\n\nDesign finished their initial pass on five new racetracks: Snake Pit, Icebreaker, Ratari Station, Dunlow Derby, and Lorville Gateways. A new dogfighting map, Jericho Station, was successfully playtested and is planned for an upcoming patch.\n\nFeatures (Characters & Weapons)\nLast month, the Features team improved various existing features, including the ability to vault or mantle over a ledge, which can now be triggered mid-jump or fall. This adds further options for the level designers when constructing on-foot traversal puzzles.\n\nPlayers can now also look up and down while moving on a ladder to help them see where they\u2019re going. If they stop, they can look around 360 degrees too. This is done by creating an idle animation with 360 poses. The game then picks the frame from the asset that matches the player\u2019s yaw relative to the ladder. This then becomes the base idle on top of which the team can build other actions. For example, being able to jump away from the ladder in the facing direction.\n\nThe ability to move all items from one inventory to another is now in the final internal test sweep.\n\n\u201cA number of the features the team have been working on were on show during CitizenCon and we really appreciate all the positive feedback received.\u201d Features Team\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nIn the US, work continued on the initial implementation of the cargo refactor and new commodity kiosk UI for Alpha 3.18. This will affect buying, selling, and moving around single-SCU resource cargo containers with the tractor beam after purchase and outside green zones. Gameplay Features also continued to support the buying and selling of FPS refillable RMC containers and the containers created by the Vulture and Reclaimer.\n\nUpdates were made to the prison, including the kiosk, which received new gameplay items. Alongside this, the setup and inventories were adjusted across all shops for new commodities that come with the cargo refactor. They also updated the shops to support IAE merchandise. The shop setup for Pyro began and is ongoing. UI screens for the commodity kiosk, mission manager, and bounty hunting progressed too.\n\nPlanning and documentation began for freight elevators and subsequent cargo refactor updates, which will begin in Q4 2022. Documentation and investigation began into multi- and large-container cargo delivery missions that could coincide with the delivery of T1 cargo.\n\nThe Manchester and Frankfurt-based teams progressed with hull scraping, adding the finishing touches and quality-of-life improvements for its balance pass. Additional time was also put into the \u2018fresh derelict\u2019 harvestables that can spawn in space to make them look more worn and authentic.\n\nThey also worked with the Montreal team to add some not-clearly-identifiable pieces to debris fields, and helped the US team with the cargo refactor.\n\nThe team\u2019s work on gravity and life support is approaching final, with the remainder of the work on the resource-management system that will bring it all together.\n\nFeatures (Mission)\nMission Features added final polish to various missions, including a new ending to the prison escape that will add further excitement and challenge.\n\nThey then worked with Art to further expand the Jumptown drug lab.\n\n\u201cIt has doubled in size and includes a second entrance, second drug dispenser, and multiple windows and skylights to see inside. To improve gunplay on the interior, we made it circular and removed most of the doors for longer sight lines.\u201d Mission Feature Team\n\nTrespass areas were also updated so that lawful trespass and entering hostile areas are now different. The name of the org in control of the area is also shown upon entering and, once access to the area is revoked (e.g. at the end of a mission), players are shown a countdown to when they will be trespassing should they remain.\n\nFinally, bugs relating to CrimeStat and ship collisions were identified and fixed.\n\nFeatures (Vehicles)\nLast month, Vehicle Features supported the docking and transit features. Both continue to be long-term requirements for the team as each release poses new issues, particularly with transit, which will likely remain until the launch of the new transit system.\n\nMulti-function-displays (MFD) progressed well, with the weapons, emissions, and ship models submitted and working in-game. The self-status screen also made it into the SQ42 UI stream, and tasks were started for the comms and weapon self-status MFDs.\n\nWork also began on the new version of quantum travel, which currently involves refactoring the current feature in preparation for rework.\n\nThe team\u2019s AI support increased throughout October. This mostly focused on the ship vs player boss fights in SQ42, with the Cutlass now flying with its new behavior on a spline attacking the player. They also supported the flight team with both AI and non-AI requests.\n\nSupport for the Q4 ship releases began too, with tuning currently in progress. Alongside this, the new ground-vehicle tech was further developed and will be enabled in a coming sprint. Before this, issues with the Drake Mule driving like a tank will be resolved.\n\nMaster Modes progressed well in testing. The team confirmed the speeds for SCM, boost, and quantum travel and are now testing racing ships and looking into how to balance disabling ships as they change between SCM and QT.\n\n\u201cWe also used this opportunity to rebalance a lot of weapons, redoing the differences in behaviors we had reset for the Alpha 3.14 rework.\u201d Vehicle Features Team\n\nRecourse network support continued with the power conversation and initial work on integrating heat components. The team are currently setting out their design support for the feature as a lot of components will need converting once the technical work is complete. Alongside this, the aiming refactor is now almost complete, with the remaining work focusing on implementing the new UI.\n\nA big step was made on control surfaces. Now, ships gliding without thrusters has been reduced over the previous surface model. Finally, the new restricted areas system passed its go\/no-go and is now enabled.\n\nGraphics & VFX Programming & Planet Tech\nIn October, the team continued to focus on damage maps, fixing missing initial damage on debris, incorrect damage map sizes, and inconsistencies between ship sizes. Time was also spent investigating networking and persistence for debris.\n\nFurther progress was made on porting gas clouds and CPU particles to Gen12. The Gen12 GPU marker refactor was also completed, and some issues were fixed relating to the hair and hologram shaders.\n\nFor the ongoing data-pipeline refactor, the team continued work on SKIN files, allowing compacted, non-split files to be compiled or loaded. They also implemented process groups in support of multiple input formats.\n\nDevelopment of screen space shadows began, which involved adjusting raytracing to account for thin objects. Work was also done on anti-aliased lines for aux geometry (editor debug) and UI (for use on the StarMap). They also added new features for the UIMesh shader (multi-scale texturing, bi\/tri-planar projection, smoothing) alongside enabling wetness effects to work with blood, sweat, and tears.\n\nThe team closed out RaStar v1 and fixed the remaining bugs and crashes raised by the content teams. There were also various fixes submitted for rivers, and R&D began on water sim and water rendering improvements.\n\nLighting\nLighting continued their work on Pyro, Lorville, IAE, Orison\u2019s racetrack, Security Post Kareah, and derelict space settlements.\n\nLorville received a lighting clean-up to improve certain areas, while the level as a whole was tidied up to bring it back to its originally intended state.\n\nThey also closed out various previous locations to ensure that everything is up to scratch.\n\nLocations (EU)\nThe EU Locations team continued to work on Pyro\u2019s Rest Stop, making great progress on the internals of the station. They then moved focus toward the station\u2019s external arms.\n\nWork was also closed out on Security Post Kareah, and progress was made on the IAE event halls and cargo. They continued their ongoing task of \u201cadding life to landing zones\u201d too.\n\nNarrative\nAs the rush towards IAE and Alpha 3.18 continued, the Narrative team provided additional support to fix bugs and issues that arose through testing. For IAE, they helped deliver new content that was recorded in recent motion-capture sessions.\n\n\u201cThis was particularly exciting, as we were able to utilize one of our dedicated narrative designers to build the AI behavior to hand over to Design to implement.\u201d Narrative Team\n\nNarrative also started working with Mission Features on the existing air-traffic-control behavior. This will help fix problems with the existing behavior while also supporting the newest upgrades to the system, which will then be standardized for any additional air-traffic-control characters and scripts in the future.\n\nThey also continued to meet with the Mission teams to develop the \u2018investigate\u2019 missions featured in Narrative CitizenCon video. After last month\u2019s push, the writers were tasked with coming up with a sample mystery for players to investigate to stress test the foundational system and see how scalable this mission could be.\n\nIn addition, they provided text for upcoming missions and opened discussions on a handful of other mission types that will be coming in the next few patches. The team worked closely with the Design and UI teams on some of the upcoming mobiGlas apps that will support new gameplay currently in development.\n\nThroughout October, new content was added to the website, including a Spectrum Spectator that explored the history of CitizenCon, a Portfolio spotlighting Stegman\u2019s, and the return of Old Jegger in an installment of Far from Home. Finally, another installment of Galactapedia articles made their way out of the archives and onto the site.\n\n\u201cThis month\u2019s anniversary on CitizenCon marks ten years\u2019 worth of content that has made its way into the Spectrum Dispatch section of the website. From the earliest days of the Time Capsules to Cal Mason, Kid Crimson, and News Updates, these weekly updates have been a great opportunity to dive deep into the Star Citizen universe, so we want to say thank you for all the enthusiasm and support over the years.\u201d\n\nOnline Services (Montreal)\nThe Online Services team spent October completing several remaining features, including the new character repair\/reset process and how in-game transactions are handled.\n\nThey also improved the new login-flow process to allow for faster entry into the game when a player has a pre-entitled account, as well as the new retry service that will resubmit a message back to the service application for a reattempt.\n\nLastly, the team made a quality-of-life update that sorts the in-game friends list alphabetically. This is planned to be included in Alpha 3.18.\n\nLive Tools (Montreal)\nThroughout October, the Live Tools team focused on features relating to Persistent Entity Streaming, specifically the implementation of the login-flow module in the Network Operation Center. This module gathers different features, including the ability to manage entitlements and rentals. It also provides more detailed and precise information to users about the login details of players, enabling the detection and analysis of issues.\n\nTurbulent (Web Platform)\nThe Turbulent team began the month supporting CitizenCon 2952, including the main-event, Greycat STV, and Crusader Spirit pages. The team continued to make improvements to the CMS tool, Alexandria, which supports bespoke webpages. The latest improvements were around the \u2018explore\u2019 video module, enabling it to add points of interest to video content. A grid module was also created to give another way to display information.\n\nMultiple teams from Turbulent contributed to the IAE promotions coming in November. For example, a new web skin was developed to emulate the expo hall and improvements were made to the promotional ship wall.\n\nTurbulent\u2019s Design team focused on generating brand alignment across the website, losing some of the legacy UI elements and bringing in a new look.\n\nOne of Turbulent\u2019s biggest launches in October was the release of the updated Community Hub.\n\n\u201cThe Community Hub will emerge slowly as the most relevant place to see contests, events, and what other community members are livestreaming or creating. As more features come online, it will begin to emerge as a social-media platform where you can follow your favorite creators and never miss out on an in-game or live event.\u201d Turbulent Web Platform Team\n\nFinally, the team continued to rework the roles and access controls for improved security.\n\nUI\nThe UI team continued developing the new StarMap, particularly the underlying tech to allow them to easily display it in different locations. For example, in ships, the mobiGlas, and potentially screens in levels. They also updated the controls and improved the look of planets.\n\nAlongside working on the interaction prompts seen at CitizenCon, UI continued to adapt and bugfix the loadout system to ensure it works with Persistent Streaming.\n\nVFX\nOctober saw the VFX team complete their work on the salvage and repair feature.\n\nTwo vehicles continued through the VFX production phase, receiving effects for thrusters, damage, atmospheric entry, quantum travel, and shields.\n\nThe team also implemented a \u2018task pool,\u2019 which allows the artists to tackle various miscellaneous tasks that have accumulated in the backlog.\n\n\u201cThis typically consists of minor bugs and quality-of-life improvements, so it has been great to be able to focus on these things while continuing to support major content and features.\u201d VFX Team"},"links_count":0,"comment_count":0,"created_at":"2022-11-02T22:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"3 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-07 19:18:21","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":18968,"next_id":18974}}