{"data":{"id":19323,"title":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report: May 2023","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/19323-Squadron-42-Monthly-Report-May-2023","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/19323","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/19323","channel":"Feedback","category":"Undefined","series":"None","images":[{"id":26651,"name":"STARCITIZEN_WHITE.png","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/y1f0boj8fak5rr\/source\/STARCITIZEN_WHITE.png","alt":"","size":73278,"mime_type":"image\/png","last_modified":"2021-02-03T06:54:29+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/26651","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/26651\/similar"}],"images_count":4,"translations":{"en_EN":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report\nMay 2023\nThis is a cross-post of the report that was recently sent out via the monthly Squadron 42 newsletter. We\u2019re publishing this a second time as a Comm-Link to make it easier for the community to reference back to.\n\nTO: SQUADRON 42 RECRUITS\n\nSUBJ: DEVELOPMENT UPDATE 06:07:2023\n\nREF: CIG UK, CIG DE, CIG LA, CIG TX,\n\nFAO Squadron 42 Recruits.\n\nWelcome to May\u2019s Squadron 42 development report. Enclosed you will find details on the latest progress made across the campaign, including capital ship behaviors, buddy AI, and FPS weapon AI.\n\nThank you for your continued support of Squadron 42.\n\nSincerely,\n\nCIG COMMUNICATIONS\n\nAI (Content)\nThroughout May, AI Content progressed with their remaining medical-behavior tasks. Following this, the full medical flow can now be demonstrated in the behavior test map. Additional animation variations for interacting with cupboards, beds, trays, and sinks (both with and without data pads) were created too. Once signed off, the behavior will be implemented in the Stanton and Krugeri\u2019s infirmaries.\n\nThe AI Content team continued work on the \u2018fight club\u2019 caged arena, last month implementing the entry bouncer and rush animations for crowd spectators. For the latter, the crowd\u2019s intensity varies pre, mid, and post-fight. As part of this, speed-quality fight animations were developed, with data coming from a recent motion-capture shoot.\n\nThe team also worked on speed-processed locomotion animations for NPCs experiencing severe pain. Part of this involved implementing animations for characters standing and locomoting while exhibiting sickness. They then processed and implemented polished drinking animations into the \u2018Sit050\u2019 usable area and created speed-drunk locomotion animations for inebriated NPC movements. Drunk locomotion animations were also created for NPCs holding cups.\n\nFinally, AI Content implemented mobiGlas and datapad overlay locomotion animations to allow characters to seamlessly interact with digital interfaces\n\nAI (Features)\nAI Features continued to work on the buddy AI. Now, buddies \u2018cheat\u2019 when finding supplies, looting ammunition that doesn\u2019t match their current weapon. They will also fully restock when they do so, replenishing their grenades and MedPen.\n\nThey also finished the first pass of a boss fight that challenges players to counter or block before they can attack, while progress was made on the targeting and melee attacks for a key enemy behavior.\n\nAI Features implemented the core components of systemic and boss-fight sniper functionality, enabling the designers to finish it off and provide feedback.\n\nOn the animation side, the team wrapped up the performance capture for various features and implemented the full animation set for a collection of characters with a unique combat style.\n\nAI (Tech)\nLast month, AI Tech progressed with their final major Squadron 42 features and addressed feedback on older initiatives. They continued to improve the collision-avoidance system to give better results when ground vehicles pass each other or NPCs. They also added support for driving along a predefined route, similar to how NPCs can move along a path. For this case, the designers can specify certain properties for the route, like the maximum permitted speed, which direction it should be driven, and if it should loop.\n\nWork then began on a dynamic pathfinding regeneration feature to improve how NPCs find and follow alternative routes. For example, if a hazard (tree falling, vehicle stopping, fire hazard, etc.) impacts a navigation mesh triangle, the navigation volume will notify all related paths and check if new requests are submitted. The first stage of this was implementing an anchor structure to keep track of a location's navigation meshes and triangles, which is notified when a triangle is changed. These navigation anchors are then used to understand when parts of a triangle are modified and to check if new pathfinding is needed.\n\nMay also saw AI Tech begin investigating and implementing a solution for NPCs entering and exiting ships from EVA using the external doors of an airlock system. For this, they set up ship and seat access as a usable to allow NPCs to find their closest entry position, fly to it, and trigger the right interaction. They also had to account for a ship\u2019s rotational velocity and allow NPCs to adjust their orientation as they approach.\n\nOn the AI tools side, improvements continued for both the usable coordinator and Apollo Subsumption. For the usable coordinator, optimizations were made to the code and logic flow. They updated the visuals and changed to a new usable data view too. For Apollo, the team implemented \u2018find references\u2019 functionality with support for Subsumption functions.\n\nAI Tech also completed various support tasks, including creating flowgraph nodes for all Subsumption assignments to help the designers create scripted AI behaviors. More variable types for use as assignment inputs were added alongside support for the usable and tactical point systems.\n\nAI (Vehicle Features)\nThe Vehicle team progressed with their ongoing rework of combat AI. Last month, they hooked up various events for the AI to react to across the game. This is the final step before integrating the new combat AI into all encounters across SQ42.\n\n\u201cAfter that, it\u2019s playtesting over and over again in situ in the levels of the game so we can judge and adjust difficulty, pacing, and so on to fine tune the experience.\u201d AI Team\n\nThe team also improved the logic for how AI ships join splines to make it smoother and more natural looking.\n\nGround avoidance during atmospheric flight was also worked on. The aim is to have AI try their best to not collide with the ground when in combat while behaving as naturally as possible.\n\nAnimation\nIn May, the Animation team worked on various skill-level-based takedowns, movement in zero-g, and swimming.\n\nFor AI, the team continued creating assets for background actions to give life to various locations; this will continue as levels are playtested. A second enemy class animation style was developed alongside a knife fight and a melee enemy class. The team also continued to create assets for the various behavior lines and wildlines for both combat and non-combat AI.\n\nThe Mo-cap team spent the majority of the month shooting performances and delivering data for gameplay and cinematics.\n\nEngine\nThe Core Engine team progressed with their work on StarBuild, adding the remaining Linux support. StarBuild is now on feature parity with the old code build system and will be rolled out to other departments soon.\n\nFor the renderer, the team started removing legacy Gen-12 code. There is a lot to remove, but this will result in leaner and easier-to-maintain renderer code when complete.\n\nThe Core Engine team also progressed with the generic shape system, adding editor support to save generic as well as remaining shapes. Multiple segments will be added before it\u2019s handed to the designers to use.\n\nFor MemReplay 2.0, the team are currently adding more features, including file open dialog, faster loading, and async symbol resolving to get it ready for wider use. They\u2019re also adding optimizations and continuing to stabilize their feature stream to integrate it back into the main development stream.\n\nLast month, the Physics team focused on improving and bug-fixing the new method for tracking unique geometry parts. They then improved cloth simulation for better simulation results, updated the rope and pulley systems, and added cantilever simulation support.\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nLast month, the Gameplay Features team updated the character customizer. This included adding a new \u2018sculpting mode\u2019 that allows players to select and drag an anchor point on the face to change the size and shape of a particular facial zone, such as the nose, ear, and chin.\n\nFurther detailing work was done on the firing range, mostly around joining and leaving. Feedback was also actioned on the UI to integrate it better into the environment.\n\nA new collectible was created that players will be able to find, pick up, and stow during gameplay. These items will then populate the player\u2019s quarters as part of the collectibles system.\n\nThe frontend also received a new difficulty option. This exposes various modifiers to the AI, health, and weapon attributes to allow the Design team to balance the game depending on the player\u2019s desired experience.\n\nA new feature to allow the designers to create and save damage maps was created too, which enables them to apply pre-damaged areas to ships.\n\nFollowing on from the recent Starmap work, the team is now developing the area map. This will render a holographic view of a player\u2019s current environment, either from within the Starmap or as part of the visor, with markers for players, characters, mission objectives, and more.\n\nFeatures (Vehicle)\nLast month, work continued on the \u2018control surface\u2019 flight model. The team implemented special handling for ships in gas-filled zero-g locations, such as gas clouds. While ships still favor thrusters in this situation, they will experience drag and lift that slightly impacts how they feel.\n\nVehicle Features also iterated on UI and VFX for communicating the Quantum system\u2019s state. They also began utilizing in-world VFX for this purpose, which allowed them to pair back the UI. The feedback on this has been positive so far.\n\nA new feature for spawning waves of AI ships inside carriers was kicked off (similar to an FPS spawn closet). Now, AI will spawn on landing pads within carriers, take off, and join the fight. This feature can be used to support large battles by naturally spawning ships.\n\nThe Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS) received updates last month. For example, the team worked on a bespoke relative throttle that allows players to assign a target velocity when the throttle is untouched. Various quality-of-life improvements were made to support this, including a trap for setting target speed to zero, a non-linear rate of change for improved precision at lower speeds, and an improved UI for displaying the throttle.\n\nWork on the Vehicle UI continued, with the team creating a physical hangar terminal for modifying a ship\u2019s loadout before missions. This enables players to view an inventory of available weapons and items, compare them against each other, and equip them to the ship in the hangar.\n\nMulti-function displays (MFDs) also received various updates, including a UI pass to make them larger, simpler, and easier to read. The new MFD system also allows players to cast some screens to their visors, with the team changing the layout and aspect ratio of the screens when this occurs. This makes better use of screen space and allows certain elements to be more prominent. Furthermore, after the work last month, MFDs were enabled for wider use in the company.\n\nGameplay Story\nLast month, the Gameplay Story team worked on various scenes involving the Stanton's quartermaster. These updates were requested by Design, with the goal of getting the scenes to integrate properly with the AI behavior.\n\nNew motion-capture data was used to update some significant scenes in the med bay, ensuring characters interact correctly with the latest swiveling-chair setup.\n\n\u201cIt was great to see these scenes updated to use exactly the same setup as the AI, which should make the scenes very robust and future-proof.\u201d Gameplay Story Team\n\nIn May, Gameplay Story began setting up 8 new scenes, bringing their total to 290. They also polished, pose pasted, and updated props in several scenes to ensure they were fully up to date.\n\nThe team also continued to set up operator seats, working to establish proper metrics and solid foundations for these complicated assets. Automated testing of the entities achieved a 100% pass rate, so they can move on to reviewing, improving, and approving the required animations.\n\nGraphics & VFX Programming\nThe Graphics Feature team spent the month working on performance improvements and new features, including screen space shadows, improvements to quantum jump tunnels, and render-to-texture zone culling. A GPU memory allocator and an upgraded ResourceCache compiler were among the new performance-boosting upgrades, while the evolving Temporal Super Resolution (an automated upscaling system that can now up-sample opaque objects) officially passed its first milestone.\n\nGlobal Illumination is well underway. So far, the first iterations of a hash-map-based radiance cache, ray-generation code, and a ray-tracing prototype were completed.\n\nImprovements to Gen12\u2019s validation error debugger were made to improve the accuracy of bug detection for faster issue assessment. In preparation for deferred Rendergraph execution, Vulkan\u2019s frame synchronization was improved. Issues with gaps in pipeline-resource sets at bind time were resolved with a remapping update that uses continuous resource-set layouts.\n\nThe Planet Tech team started finalizing quantum obstacle generation with generic shapes in asteroid fields. A collision issue detector and wear, dirt, and paint modifiers were also added to the RaStar tool.\n\nOngoing improvements to the BiomeBuilder will reduce constant spawn\/despawning, which in turn will relieve the Physics team of large destruction queues. Water can now be simulated in-engine and features the new disturbance component improvements.\n\nVFX finished the new effect setup for quantum travel and are now looking into lightning. Lightning emitters are being refactored to decouple from targeting, and the team is investigating how to use current prototypes to spawn lightning from gas clouds. A crash that occurred when particle emitters attempted to resize using a buffer of 0 was also fixed.\n\nLevel Design\nLast month, Level Design focused on their two main locations, the Stanton and Krugeri capital ships. Alongside general scene maintenance and bug fixing, they looked into scene \u2018handshakes\u2019 that transition NPCs into their required behaviors. This involves ensuring characters are prepped to transition, are pose matched, have holstered held items, and more.\n\nThey also updated the Stanton\u2019s quartermaster scenes to reflect the revised AI vendor flow without negatively affecting performance.\n\nThe team then continued to work on the AI schedules for the Stanton, which has an 80-person crew playing out various behaviors around the ship.\n\n\u201cWith this roll out, we have to keep tabs on NPCs gate-crashing scene content. For example, if the player is in a somber scene with a colleague discussing the horrors of war, we don\u2019t want an NPC barging in with a \u201cHello Lieutenant\u201d and jumping onto a console.\u201d Level Design Team\n\nNarrative\nIn May, Narrative held a performance-capture shoot focusing on additional combat and social wildlines. The goal was to capture a wide variety of voices to populate the universe while also maximizing the effectiveness of the content so that it remains within a reasonable scope.\n\nNarrative also synced with Design on their recent gameplay progress to review adjustments and ensure that dialogue continues to function as intended. In some instances, the team made suggestions on how the revised gameplay scenarios could better align with the emotional tone of the moment. For example, if a puzzle scenario occurs during a particularly stressful sequence of the game, Narrative and Design will discuss ways to maintain the emotional underpinning during the puzzle.\n\nMeanwhile, progress continued on the text items needed across the entirety of the game, including collectibles, Galactapedia entries, and mobiGlas UI elements.\n\nR&D\nIn May, the R&D team continued improving the temporal render mode for atmospheric and volumetric clouds.\n\nAdditionally, planetary-terrain height-map generation was optimized to eliminate frame-rate hitches. Aside from using a more suitable partitioning scheme for the tessellation of terrain patches, the changes also include terrain quad viewport culling before further tessellation by the GPU. The resulting height maps are later used to render large terrain shadows and to spawn GPU particles on the ground.\n\nUI\nThe UI Art and Design teams completed their work on modular fluff screens, getting them set up in different UI styles for various locations. They\u2019re now ready to be handed over to the Art and FPS teams so they can be added to levels.\n\nThey also implemented new FPS weapon screens for the different brands within the game, and worked alongside the FPS and Vehicle teams on augmented-reality (AR) markers, which are floating UI elements that show players where their objectives and targets are. Last month, the art was signed off and the files were prepared for use in-game.\n\nWork on the final visor UI also continued with the AI Feature team; this will include weapons and ammunition information, notifications, and mission objectives. They also applied improved shaders courtesy of the Graphics team to make the UI appear more holographic.\n\nThe UI Tech team continued to improve their tools, including making performance improvements and adding additional ways to debug the more complex screens. They also further developed the new interior and mini maps, which will bring a significant improvement to in-game navigation.\n\nVFX\nLast month, VFX revisited gas-cloud tunnels, working closely with Design and Art to create new hazards that can occur inside the tunnel networks.\n\nProgress was also made on weapon effects, while support for the Art and Design teams continued across a variety of locations.\n\nWE'LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH...\n\/\/ END TRANSMISSION","de_DE":"Geschwader 42 Monatsbericht\nMai 2023\nDies ist ein Querverweis auf den Bericht, der k\u00fcrzlich \u00fcber den monatlichen Squadron 42 Newsletter verschickt wurde. Wir ver\u00f6ffentlichen ihn ein zweites Mal als Comm-Link, damit die Community leichter darauf zur\u00fcckgreifen kann.\n\nTO: REKRUTEN DES GESCHWADERS 42\n\nSUBJ: ENTWICKLUNG UPDATE 06:07:2023\n\nREF: CIG UK, CIG DE, CIG LA, CIG TX,\n\nFAO-Geschwader 42 Rekruten.\n\nWillkommen zum Entwicklungsbericht f\u00fcr Squadron 42 im Mai. Anbei findest du Details zu den neuesten Fortschritten in der Kampagne, einschlie\u00dflich des Verhaltens von Gro\u00dfkampfschiffen, der KI von Kameraden und der KI von FPS-Waffen.\n\nWir danken euch f\u00fcr eure anhaltende Unterst\u00fctzung von Squadron 42.\n\nMit freundlichen Gr\u00fc\u00dfen,\n\nCIG COMMUNICATIONS\n\nAI (Inhalt)\nIm Laufe des Monats Mai hat die KI Content die verbleibenden Aufgaben zum medizinischen Verhalten bearbeitet. Jetzt kann der gesamte medizinische Ablauf auf der Verhaltenstestkarte gezeigt werden. Au\u00dferdem wurden zus\u00e4tzliche Animationsvarianten f\u00fcr die Interaktion mit Schr\u00e4nken, Betten, Tabletts und Waschbecken (mit und ohne Datenpads) erstellt. Sobald das Verhalten abgesegnet ist, wird es in den Krankenstationen von Stanton und Krugeri implementiert.\n\nDas KI-Inhaltsteam hat die Arbeit an der K\u00e4figarena \"Fight Club\" fortgesetzt und im letzten Monat die T\u00fcrsteher- und Rush-Animationen f\u00fcr die Zuschauer implementiert. Bei letzterem variiert die Intensit\u00e4t der Zuschauer vor, w\u00e4hrend und nach dem Kampf. Au\u00dferdem wurden Kampfanimationen in Geschwindigkeitsqualit\u00e4t entwickelt, wobei die Daten aus einem k\u00fcrzlich durchgef\u00fchrten Motion-Capture-Dreh stammen.\n\nDas Team arbeitete auch an geschwindigkeitsabh\u00e4ngigen Bewegungsanimationen f\u00fcr NSCs, die starke Schmerzen haben. Dazu geh\u00f6rte die Implementierung von Animationen f\u00fcr Charaktere, die stehen und sich fortbewegen, w\u00e4hrend sie krank sind. Dann bearbeiteten und implementierten sie ausgefeilte Trinkanimationen in den nutzbaren Bereich \"Sit050\" und erstellten Speed-Drunk-Locomotion-Animationen f\u00fcr betrunkene NSC-Bewegungen. Auch f\u00fcr NSCs, die Tassen halten, wurden betrunkene Bewegungsanimationen erstellt.\n\nSchlie\u00dflich implementierte AI Content Bewegungsanimationen f\u00fcr MobiGlas und Datapad-Overlay, damit die Charaktere nahtlos mit digitalen Schnittstellen interagieren k\u00f6nnen.\n\nKI (Features)\nAI Features hat weiter an der KI der Kumpel gearbeitet. Jetzt \"schummeln\" die Kumpel, wenn sie Vorr\u00e4te finden und Munition pl\u00fcndern, die nicht zu ihrer aktuellen Waffe passt. Wenn sie das tun, f\u00fcllen sie ihre Granaten und ihren MedPen wieder auf.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurde der erste Durchlauf eines Bosskampfes fertiggestellt, bei dem die Spieler\/innen kontern oder blocken m\u00fcssen, bevor sie angreifen k\u00f6nnen, und es wurden Fortschritte beim Zielen und bei den Nahkampfangriffen f\u00fcr ein wichtiges Feindverhalten erzielt.\n\nAI Features implementierte die Kernkomponenten der System- und Bosskampf-Scharfsch\u00fctzenfunktionalit\u00e4t und erm\u00f6glichte es den Designern, diese fertigzustellen und Feedback zu geben.\n\nAuf der Animationsseite schloss das Team die Leistungserfassung f\u00fcr verschiedene Funktionen ab und implementierte das komplette Animationsset f\u00fcr eine Sammlung von Charakteren mit einem einzigartigen Kampfstil.\n\nKI (Tech)\nIm letzten Monat hat die KI-Abteilung die letzten gro\u00dfen Features f\u00fcr Squadron 42 fertiggestellt und sich mit dem Feedback zu \u00e4lteren Initiativen auseinandergesetzt. Sie verbesserten das System zur Kollisionsvermeidung weiter, um bessere Ergebnisse zu erzielen, wenn Bodenfahrzeuge einander oder NSCs \u00fcberholen. Sie f\u00fcgten auch Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr das Fahren entlang einer vordefinierten Route hinzu, \u00e4hnlich wie NPCs sich entlang eines Pfades bewegen k\u00f6nnen. In diesem Fall k\u00f6nnen die Designer\/innen bestimmte Eigenschaften f\u00fcr die Route festlegen, z. B. die zul\u00e4ssige H\u00f6chstgeschwindigkeit, die Richtung, in die sie gefahren werden soll, und ob sie eine Schleife fahren soll.\n\nAnschlie\u00dfend wurde an einer dynamischen Pfadfindungs-Regenerationsfunktion gearbeitet, mit der die NSCs alternative Routen finden und verfolgen k\u00f6nnen. Wenn z. B. eine Gefahr (ein umst\u00fcrzender Baum, ein anhaltendes Fahrzeug, eine Feuergefahr usw.) ein Navigationsmaschendreieck beeintr\u00e4chtigt, benachrichtigt das Navigationsvolumen alle damit verbundenen Wege und pr\u00fcft, ob neue Anfragen gestellt werden. In einem ersten Schritt wurde eine Ankerstruktur implementiert, um die Navigationsmaschen und -dreiecke eines Standorts zu verfolgen. Sie wird benachrichtigt, wenn ein Dreieck ge\u00e4ndert wird. Diese Navigationsanker werden dann verwendet, um zu verstehen, wenn Teile eines Dreiecks ver\u00e4ndert werden und um zu pr\u00fcfen, ob eine neue Pfadfindung erforderlich ist.\n\nIm Mai hat die KI-Abteilung au\u00dferdem damit begonnen, eine L\u00f6sung f\u00fcr NSCs zu untersuchen und zu implementieren, die \u00fcber die Au\u00dfent\u00fcren eines Luftschleusensystems in ein Schiff ein- und aussteigen. Dazu wurde der Zugang zu Schiff und Sitzplatz so eingerichtet, dass die NSCs die n\u00e4chstgelegene Einstiegsposition finden, dorthin fliegen und die richtige Interaktion ausl\u00f6sen k\u00f6nnen. Sie mussten auch die Rotationsgeschwindigkeit des Schiffes ber\u00fccksichtigen und den NSCs erlauben, ihre Orientierung anzupassen, w\u00e4hrend sie sich n\u00e4hern.\n\nAuf der Seite der KI-Tools wurden die Verbesserungen sowohl f\u00fcr den nutzbaren Koordinator als auch f\u00fcr die Apollo Subsumption fortgesetzt. F\u00fcr den nutzbaren Koordinator wurden Optimierungen am Code und am logischen Ablauf vorgenommen. Au\u00dferdem wurden die Grafiken aktualisiert und eine neue Ansicht f\u00fcr die nutzbaren Daten eingef\u00fchrt. F\u00fcr Apollo implementierte das Team die Funktion \"Referenzen finden\" mit Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr Subsumption-Funktionen.\n\nAI Tech erledigte auch verschiedene unterst\u00fctzende Aufgaben, darunter die Erstellung von Flowgraph-Knoten f\u00fcr alle Subsumption-Zuweisungen, um den Designern bei der Erstellung von geskripteten KI-Verhaltensweisen zu helfen. Weitere Variablentypen zur Verwendung als Zuweisungsinputs wurden hinzugef\u00fcgt, ebenso wie die Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr das System der nutzbaren und taktischen Punkte.\n\nKI (Fahrzeugfunktionen)\nDas Fahrzeugteam hat die laufende \u00dcberarbeitung der Kampf-KI fortgesetzt. Letzten Monat haben sie verschiedene Ereignisse eingebaut, auf die die KI im Spiel reagieren kann. Dies ist der letzte Schritt, bevor die neue Kampf-KI in alle Begegnungen in SQ42 integriert wird.\n\n\"Danach geht es darum, das Spiel immer wieder vor Ort in den Levels zu testen, damit wir den Schwierigkeitsgrad, das Tempo und so weiter beurteilen und anpassen k\u00f6nnen, um das Spielerlebnis zu optimieren.\" KI-Team\n\nDas Team hat auch die Logik verbessert, mit der die KI-Schiffe Splines verbinden, um sie glatter und nat\u00fcrlicher aussehen zu lassen.\n\nAuch an der Bodenvermeidung w\u00e4hrend des atmosph\u00e4rischen Fluges wurde gearbeitet. Ziel ist es, dass die KI ihr Bestes gibt, um im Kampf nicht mit dem Boden zu kollidieren und sich dabei so nat\u00fcrlich wie m\u00f6glich zu verhalten.\n\nAnimation\nIm Mai arbeitete das Animationsteam an verschiedenen Takedowns auf Skill-Level, an der Bewegung in der Schwerelosigkeit und am Schwimmen.\n\nF\u00fcr die KI erstellte das Team weiterhin Assets f\u00fcr Hintergrundaktionen, um verschiedene Orte zum Leben zu erwecken; diese Arbeit wird fortgesetzt, w\u00e4hrend die Levels getestet werden. Neben einem Messerkampf und einer Klasse von Nahkampfgegnern wurde ein zweiter Animationsstil f\u00fcr die Gegnerklasse entwickelt. Das Team erstellte auch weiterhin Assets f\u00fcr die verschiedenen Verhaltenslinien und Wildnislinien f\u00fcr die Kampf- und Nicht-Kampf-KI.\n\nDas Mo-Cap-Team verbrachte den Gro\u00dfteil des Monats damit, Performances zu drehen und Daten f\u00fcr Gameplay und Cinematics zu liefern.\n\nEngine\nDas Core-Engine-Team hat seine Arbeit an StarBuild fortgesetzt und die restliche Linux-Unterst\u00fctzung hinzugef\u00fcgt. StarBuild ist jetzt auf dem gleichen Stand wie das alte Code-Build-System und wird bald auch in anderen Abteilungen eingef\u00fchrt werden.\n\nF\u00fcr den Renderer hat das Team damit begonnen, den alten Gen-12-Code zu entfernen. Es gibt noch viel zu entfernen, aber das wird zu einem schlankeren und leichter zu wartenden Renderer-Code f\u00fchren, wenn er fertig ist.\n\nDas Core-Engine-Team hat auch das System f\u00fcr generische Formen weiterentwickelt und einen Editor hinzugef\u00fcgt, mit dem sowohl generische als auch andere Formen gespeichert werden k\u00f6nnen. Es werden noch mehrere Segmente hinzugef\u00fcgt, bevor es den Designern zur Verf\u00fcgung gestellt wird.\n\nF\u00fcr MemReplay 2.0 f\u00fcgt das Team derzeit weitere Funktionen hinzu, wie z. B. einen Datei-\u00d6ffnungsdialog, schnelleres Laden und asynchrones Aufl\u00f6sen von Symbolen, um es f\u00fcr einen breiteren Einsatz bereit zu machen. Au\u00dferdem f\u00fcgen sie Optimierungen hinzu und arbeiten weiter an der Stabilisierung ihrer Funktionen, um sie wieder in die Hauptentwicklung zu integrieren.\n\nIm letzten Monat konzentrierte sich das Physik-Team auf die Verbesserung und Fehlerbehebung der neuen Methode zur Verfolgung einzigartiger Geometrieteile. Au\u00dferdem wurde die Stoffsimulation verbessert, um bessere Simulationsergebnisse zu erzielen, das Seil- und Flaschenzugsystem aktualisiert und Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr die Simulation von Auslegern hinzugef\u00fcgt.\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nLetzten Monat hat das Gameplay-Features-Team den Character Customizer aktualisiert. Unter anderem wurde ein neuer \"Bildhauermodus\" hinzugef\u00fcgt, mit dem die Spieler\/innen einen Ankerpunkt im Gesicht ausw\u00e4hlen und ziehen k\u00f6nnen, um die Gr\u00f6\u00dfe und Form eines bestimmten Gesichtsbereichs wie Nase, Ohren und Kinn zu ver\u00e4ndern.\n\nWeitere Detailarbeit wurde am Schie\u00dfstand geleistet, vor allem beim Zusammenschlie\u00dfen und Verlassen. Auch an der Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che wurde gearbeitet, um sie besser in die Umgebung zu integrieren.\n\nEs wurde ein neues Sammelobjekt erstellt, das die Spieler\/innen w\u00e4hrend des Spiels finden, aufheben und verstauen k\u00f6nnen. Diese Gegenst\u00e4nde werden dann als Teil des Sammelsystems in den Quartieren der Spieler\/innen auftauchen.\n\nDas Frontend hat au\u00dferdem eine neue Schwierigkeitsoption erhalten. Sie erm\u00f6glicht es dem Designteam, die KI, die Gesundheit und die Waffenattribute zu ver\u00e4ndern, um das Spiel an die W\u00fcnsche der Spieler\/innen anzupassen.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurde eine neue Funktion erstellt, die es den Designern erm\u00f6glicht, Schadenskarten zu erstellen und zu speichern, mit denen sie bereits besch\u00e4digte Bereiche auf Schiffe anwenden k\u00f6nnen.\n\nNach der j\u00fcngsten Arbeit an der Starmap entwickelt das Team nun die Gebietskarte. Diese wird eine holografische Ansicht der aktuellen Umgebung des Spielers darstellen, entweder auf der Starmap oder als Teil des Visors, mit Markierungen f\u00fcr Spieler, Charaktere, Missionsziele und mehr.\n\nFeatures (Fahrzeug)\nIm letzten Monat wurde die Arbeit am Flugmodell \"Steuerfl\u00e4che\" fortgesetzt. Das Team hat ein spezielles Handling f\u00fcr Schiffe in gasgef\u00fcllten Schwerelosigkeitspunkten, wie zum Beispiel Gaswolken, eingef\u00fchrt. W\u00e4hrend Schiffe in dieser Situation immer noch Schubd\u00fcsen bevorzugen, erfahren sie einen Luftwiderstand und Auftrieb, der sich leicht auf ihr Fluggef\u00fchl auswirkt.\n\nVehicle Features hat auch an der Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che und den VFX gearbeitet, um den Status des Quantum-Systems zu vermitteln. Zu diesem Zweck werden nun auch In-World-VFX eingesetzt, was es erm\u00f6glicht, die Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che zu koppeln. Das Feedback darauf ist bisher positiv.\n\nEine neue Funktion zum Spawnen von Wellen von KI-Schiffen in Flugzeugtr\u00e4gern wurde eingef\u00fchrt (\u00e4hnlich wie ein FPS-Spawn-Schrank). Jetzt spawnen die KI-Schiffe auf Landepl\u00e4tzen in Flugzeugtr\u00e4gern, heben ab und nehmen am Kampf teil. Diese Funktion kann genutzt werden, um gro\u00dfe Schlachten durch nat\u00fcrliches Spawnen von Schiffen zu unterst\u00fctzen.\n\nDas Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS) hat im letzten Monat Updates erhalten. So hat das Team zum Beispiel an einer ma\u00dfgeschneiderten relativen Drossel gearbeitet, die es den Spieler\/innen erm\u00f6glicht, eine Zielgeschwindigkeit festzulegen, wenn der Gashebel nicht ber\u00fchrt wird. Um dies zu unterst\u00fctzen, wurden verschiedene Qualit\u00e4tsverbesserungen vorgenommen, darunter eine Falle, mit der die Zielgeschwindigkeit auf Null gesetzt werden kann, eine nicht-lineare \u00c4nderungsrate f\u00fcr mehr Pr\u00e4zision bei niedrigeren Geschwindigkeiten und eine verbesserte Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che f\u00fcr die Anzeige des Gaspedals.\n\nDie Arbeit an der Fahrzeug-Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che wurde fortgesetzt, indem das Team ein physisches Hangar-Terminal entwickelt hat, mit dem die Ladung eines Schiffes vor einer Mission ge\u00e4ndert werden kann. Damit k\u00f6nnen die Spieler\/innen ein Inventar der verf\u00fcgbaren Waffen und Gegenst\u00e4nde einsehen, sie miteinander vergleichen und das Schiff im Hangar damit ausr\u00fcsten.\n\nAuch die Multifunktionsdisplays (MFDs) erhielten verschiedene Aktualisierungen, darunter ein UI-Pass, der sie gr\u00f6\u00dfer, einfacher und leichter lesbar macht. Das neue MFD-System erm\u00f6glicht es den Spieler\/innen auch, einige Bildschirme auf ihr Visier zu werfen, wobei das Team das Layout und das Seitenverh\u00e4ltnis der Bildschirme \u00e4ndert, wenn dies geschieht. Dadurch wird der Platz auf dem Bildschirm besser genutzt und bestimmte Elemente k\u00f6nnen besser hervorgehoben werden. Au\u00dferdem wurden die MFDs nach den Arbeiten im letzten Monat f\u00fcr einen breiteren Einsatz in der Firma freigegeben.\n\nGameplay Story\nIm letzten Monat hat das Gameplay-Story-Team an verschiedenen Szenen mit dem Quartiermeister von Stanton gearbeitet. Diese Aktualisierungen wurden von der Abteilung Design angefordert, damit die Szenen richtig mit dem Verhalten der KI zusammenpassen.\n\nNeue Motion-Capture-Daten wurden verwendet, um einige wichtige Szenen in der Krankenstation zu aktualisieren und sicherzustellen, dass die Charaktere richtig mit dem neuen Drehstuhl interagieren.\n\n\"Es war toll zu sehen, dass diese Szenen so aktualisiert wurden, dass sie genau das gleiche Setup wie die KI verwenden, was die Szenen sehr robust und zukunftssicher macht. Gameplay Story Team\n\nIm Mai begann Gameplay Story mit der Erstellung von 8 neuen Szenen, womit sich die Gesamtzahl der Szenen auf 290 erh\u00f6hte. Au\u00dferdem wurden mehrere Szenen poliert, mit Posen versehen und Requisiten aktualisiert, um sicherzustellen, dass sie auf dem neuesten Stand sind.\n\nDas Team setzte auch die Einrichtung der Operator-Sitze fort und arbeitete daran, die richtigen Metriken und eine solide Grundlage f\u00fcr diese komplizierten Assets zu schaffen. Die automatisierten Tests der Figuren wurden zu 100 % bestanden, sodass sie nun die erforderlichen Animationen \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen, verbessern und genehmigen k\u00f6nnen.\n\nGrafik & VFX-Programmierung\nDas Team f\u00fcr die Grafikfunktionen hat den Monat damit verbracht, die Leistung zu verbessern und neue Funktionen einzuf\u00fchren, z. B. Bildschirmschatten, Verbesserungen an den Quantensprungtunneln und das Render-to-Texture Zone Culling. Ein GPU Memory Allocator und ein verbesserter ResourceCache Compiler geh\u00f6rten zu den neuen leistungssteigernden Upgrades, w\u00e4hrend die sich entwickelnde Temporal Super Resolution (ein automatisches Upscaling-System, das jetzt undurchsichtige Objekte hochskalieren kann) offiziell ihren ersten Meilenstein erreichte.\n\nGlobal Illumination ist in vollem Gange. Bisher wurden die ersten Iterationen eines hash-map-basierten Strahlungscaches, eines Strahlenerzeugungscodes und eines Raytracing-Prototyps abgeschlossen.\n\nDer Validierungsfehler-Debugger von Gen12 wurde verbessert, um die Genauigkeit der Fehlererkennung zu erh\u00f6hen und eine schnellere Fehlerbewertung zu erm\u00f6glichen. In Vorbereitung auf die verz\u00f6gerte Rendergraph-Ausf\u00fchrung wurde die Frame-Synchronisierung von Vulkan verbessert. Probleme mit L\u00fccken in Pipeline-Ressourcensets zur Bindungszeit wurden mit einem Remapping-Update behoben, das kontinuierliche Ressourcenset-Layouts verwendet.\n\nDas Planet Tech-Team begann mit der Fertigstellung der Quanten-Hindernisgenerierung mit generischen Formen in Asteroidenfeldern. Das RaStar-Tool wurde um einen Kollisionsdetektor und Modifikatoren f\u00fcr Abnutzung, Schmutz und Farbe erg\u00e4nzt.\n\nLaufende Verbesserungen am BiomeBuilder werden das st\u00e4ndige Spawnen\/Despawning reduzieren, was wiederum das Physikteam von gro\u00dfen Zerst\u00f6rungswarteschlangen entlastet. Wasser kann jetzt in-engine simuliert werden und verf\u00fcgt \u00fcber die neuen Verbesserungen der St\u00f6rungskomponente.\n\nDas VFX-Team hat das neue Effekt-Setup f\u00fcr Quantenreisen fertiggestellt und besch\u00e4ftigt sich jetzt mit Blitzen. Die Blitzemitter werden \u00fcberarbeitet, um sie vom Targeting zu entkoppeln, und das Team untersucht, wie man mit den aktuellen Prototypen Blitze aus Gaswolken spawnen kann. Au\u00dferdem wurde ein Absturz behoben, der auftrat, wenn Partikelemitter versuchten, die Gr\u00f6\u00dfe mit einem Puffer von 0 zu \u00e4ndern.\n\nLevel Design\nIm letzten Monat konzentrierte sich das Leveldesign auf die beiden Hauptschaupl\u00e4tze, die Hauptstadtschiffe Stanton und Krugeri. Neben der allgemeinen Wartung der Szenen und der Behebung von Fehlern haben sie sich auch mit den \"Handshakes\" besch\u00e4ftigt, mit denen die NSCs in ihr gew\u00fcnschtes Verhalten \u00fcbergehen. Dabei wird sichergestellt, dass die Charaktere f\u00fcr den \u00dcbergang vorbereitet sind, die Pose stimmt, die Gegenst\u00e4nde im Holster sind und vieles mehr.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurden die Szenen des Quartiermeisters von Stanton aktualisiert, um den \u00fcberarbeiteten KI-Verk\u00e4uferfluss widerzuspiegeln, ohne die Leistung zu beeintr\u00e4chtigen.\n\nAnschlie\u00dfend arbeitete das Team weiter an den KI-Zeitpl\u00e4nen f\u00fcr die Stanton, deren 80-k\u00f6pfige Besatzung verschiedene Verhaltensweisen auf dem Schiff ausf\u00fchrt.\n\n\"Bei diesem Rollout m\u00fcssen wir darauf achten, dass die NSCs nicht in die Szenen eindringen. Wenn der Spieler zum Beispiel in einer d\u00fcsteren Szene mit einem Kollegen \u00fcber die Schrecken des Krieges spricht, wollen wir nicht, dass ein NSC mit einem \"Hallo Leutnant\" hereinplatzt und auf eine Konsole springt.\" Level Design Team\n\nNarrative\nIm Mai veranstaltete Narrative ein Performance-Capture-Shooting, das sich auf zus\u00e4tzliche Kampf- und Sozialszenen konzentrierte. Das Ziel war es, eine gro\u00dfe Vielfalt an Stimmen einzufangen, um das Universum zu bev\u00f6lkern und gleichzeitig die Effektivit\u00e4t der Inhalte zu maximieren, damit sie in einem vern\u00fcnftigen Rahmen bleiben.\n\nDas Narrative-Team tauschte sich auch mit dem Design-Team \u00fcber die j\u00fcngsten Fortschritte im Gameplay aus, um Anpassungen zu \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen und sicherzustellen, dass die Dialoge weiterhin wie vorgesehen funktionieren. In einigen F\u00e4llen machte das Team Vorschl\u00e4ge, wie die \u00fcberarbeiteten Gameplay-Szenarien besser auf den emotionalen Ton des Moments abgestimmt werden k\u00f6nnen. Wenn zum Beispiel ein R\u00e4tselszenario in einer besonders stressigen Sequenz des Spiels vorkommt, besprechen Narrative und Design, wie der emotionale Unterbau w\u00e4hrend des R\u00e4tsels erhalten werden kann.\n\nIn der Zwischenzeit wurden die Arbeiten an den Textelementen fortgesetzt, die f\u00fcr das gesamte Spiel ben\u00f6tigt werden, einschlie\u00dflich der Sammlerst\u00fccke, Galactapedia-Eintr\u00e4ge und mobiGlas-UI-Elemente.\n\nF&E\nIm Mai hat das F&E-Team den zeitlichen Rendermodus f\u00fcr atmosph\u00e4rische und volumetrische Wolken weiter verbessert.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurde die Erzeugung von H\u00f6henkarten f\u00fcr das Planetengel\u00e4nde optimiert, um Probleme mit der Bildrate zu beseitigen. Neben der Verwendung eines geeigneteren Partitionierungsschemas f\u00fcr die Tesselierung von Gel\u00e4ndefeldern umfassen die \u00c4nderungen auch das Culling von Gel\u00e4nde-Quad-Viewports vor der weiteren Tesselierung durch die GPU. Die daraus resultierenden H\u00f6henkarten werden sp\u00e4ter zum Rendern gro\u00dfer Gel\u00e4ndeschatten und zum Spawnen von GPU-Partikeln auf dem Boden verwendet.\n\nUI\nDie UI Art- und Design-Teams haben ihre Arbeit an den modularen Fluff-Screens abgeschlossen und sie in verschiedenen UI-Stilen f\u00fcr verschiedene Orte eingerichtet. Sie k\u00f6nnen nun an die Art- und FPS-Teams weitergegeben werden, damit sie in die Levels eingebaut werden k\u00f6nnen.\n\nAu\u00dferdem haben sie neue FPS-Waffenbildschirme f\u00fcr die verschiedenen Marken im Spiel implementiert und gemeinsam mit den FPS- und Fahrzeugteams an Augmented-Reality-Markern (AR) gearbeitet, also an schwebenden UI-Elementen, die den Spielern zeigen, wo sich ihre Ziele befinden. Letzten Monat wurden die Grafiken abgesegnet und die Dateien f\u00fcr die Verwendung im Spiel vorbereitet.\n\nDas KI-Team hat auch die Arbeit an der endg\u00fcltigen Visor-Oberfl\u00e4che fortgesetzt, die Informationen zu Waffen und Munition, Benachrichtigungen und Missionszielen enthalten wird. Das Grafikteam hat au\u00dferdem die Shader verbessert, um die Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che holografischer erscheinen zu lassen.\n\nDas UI-Tech-Team hat seine Tools weiter verbessert, u. a. durch Leistungsverbesserungen und zus\u00e4tzliche M\u00f6glichkeiten zur Fehlersuche in den komplexeren Bildschirmen. Au\u00dferdem haben sie die neuen Innenraum- und Minikarten weiterentwickelt, die die Navigation im Spiel deutlich verbessern werden.\n\nVFX\nIm letzten Monat hat das VFX-Team die Gaswolken-Tunnel \u00fcberarbeitet und eng mit Design und Art zusammengearbeitet, um neue Gefahren zu schaffen, die in den Tunnelnetzen auftreten k\u00f6nnen.\n\nAuch bei den Waffeneffekten wurden Fortschritte gemacht, w\u00e4hrend die Unterst\u00fctzung der Art- und Design-Teams an einer Vielzahl von Orten fortgesetzt wurde.\n\nWIR SEHEN UNS N\u00c4CHSTEN MONAT...\n\/\/ ENDE DER \u00dcBERTRAGUNG","zh_CN":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report\nMay 2023\nThis is a cross-post of the report that was recently sent out via the monthly Squadron 42 newsletter. We\u2019re publishing this a second time as a Comm-Link to make it easier for the community to reference back to.\n\nTO: SQUADRON 42 RECRUITS\n\nSUBJ: DEVELOPMENT UPDATE 06:07:2023\n\nREF: CIG UK, CIG DE, CIG LA, CIG TX,\n\nFAO Squadron 42 Recruits.\n\nWelcome to May\u2019s Squadron 42 development report. Enclosed you will find details on the latest progress made across the campaign, including capital ship behaviors, buddy AI, and FPS weapon AI.\n\nThank you for your continued support of Squadron 42.\n\nSincerely,\n\nCIG COMMUNICATIONS\n\nAI (Content)\nThroughout May, AI Content progressed with their remaining medical-behavior tasks. Following this, the full medical flow can now be demonstrated in the behavior test map. Additional animation variations for interacting with cupboards, beds, trays, and sinks (both with and without data pads) were created too. Once signed off, the behavior will be implemented in the Stanton and Krugeri\u2019s infirmaries.\n\nThe AI Content team continued work on the \u2018fight club\u2019 caged arena, last month implementing the entry bouncer and rush animations for crowd spectators. For the latter, the crowd\u2019s intensity varies pre, mid, and post-fight. As part of this, speed-quality fight animations were developed, with data coming from a recent motion-capture shoot.\n\nThe team also worked on speed-processed locomotion animations for NPCs experiencing severe pain. Part of this involved implementing animations for characters standing and locomoting while exhibiting sickness. They then processed and implemented polished drinking animations into the \u2018Sit050\u2019 usable area and created speed-drunk locomotion animations for inebriated NPC movements. Drunk locomotion animations were also created for NPCs holding cups.\n\nFinally, AI Content implemented mobiGlas and datapad overlay locomotion animations to allow characters to seamlessly interact with digital interfaces\n\nAI (Features)\nAI Features continued to work on the buddy AI. Now, buddies \u2018cheat\u2019 when finding supplies, looting ammunition that doesn\u2019t match their current weapon. They will also fully restock when they do so, replenishing their grenades and MedPen.\n\nThey also finished the first pass of a boss fight that challenges players to counter or block before they can attack, while progress was made on the targeting and melee attacks for a key enemy behavior.\n\nAI Features implemented the core components of systemic and boss-fight sniper functionality, enabling the designers to finish it off and provide feedback.\n\nOn the animation side, the team wrapped up the performance capture for various features and implemented the full animation set for a collection of characters with a unique combat style.\n\nAI (Tech)\nLast month, AI Tech progressed with their final major Squadron 42 features and addressed feedback on older initiatives. They continued to improve the collision-avoidance system to give better results when ground vehicles pass each other or NPCs. They also added support for driving along a predefined route, similar to how NPCs can move along a path. For this case, the designers can specify certain properties for the route, like the maximum permitted speed, which direction it should be driven, and if it should loop.\n\nWork then began on a dynamic pathfinding regeneration feature to improve how NPCs find and follow alternative routes. For example, if a hazard (tree falling, vehicle stopping, fire hazard, etc.) impacts a navigation mesh triangle, the navigation volume will notify all related paths and check if new requests are submitted. The first stage of this was implementing an anchor structure to keep track of a location's navigation meshes and triangles, which is notified when a triangle is changed. These navigation anchors are then used to understand when parts of a triangle are modified and to check if new pathfinding is needed.\n\nMay also saw AI Tech begin investigating and implementing a solution for NPCs entering and exiting ships from EVA using the external doors of an airlock system. For this, they set up ship and seat access as a usable to allow NPCs to find their closest entry position, fly to it, and trigger the right interaction. They also had to account for a ship\u2019s rotational velocity and allow NPCs to adjust their orientation as they approach.\n\nOn the AI tools side, improvements continued for both the usable coordinator and Apollo Subsumption. For the usable coordinator, optimizations were made to the code and logic flow. They updated the visuals and changed to a new usable data view too. For Apollo, the team implemented \u2018find references\u2019 functionality with support for Subsumption functions.\n\nAI Tech also completed various support tasks, including creating flowgraph nodes for all Subsumption assignments to help the designers create scripted AI behaviors. More variable types for use as assignment inputs were added alongside support for the usable and tactical point systems.\n\nAI (Vehicle Features)\nThe Vehicle team progressed with their ongoing rework of combat AI. Last month, they hooked up various events for the AI to react to across the game. This is the final step before integrating the new combat AI into all encounters across SQ42.\n\n\u201cAfter that, it\u2019s playtesting over and over again in situ in the levels of the game so we can judge and adjust difficulty, pacing, and so on to fine tune the experience.\u201d AI Team\n\nThe team also improved the logic for how AI ships join splines to make it smoother and more natural looking.\n\nGround avoidance during atmospheric flight was also worked on. The aim is to have AI try their best to not collide with the ground when in combat while behaving as naturally as possible.\n\nAnimation\nIn May, the Animation team worked on various skill-level-based takedowns, movement in zero-g, and swimming.\n\nFor AI, the team continued creating assets for background actions to give life to various locations; this will continue as levels are playtested. A second enemy class animation style was developed alongside a knife fight and a melee enemy class. The team also continued to create assets for the various behavior lines and wildlines for both combat and non-combat AI.\n\nThe Mo-cap team spent the majority of the month shooting performances and delivering data for gameplay and cinematics.\n\nEngine\nThe Core Engine team progressed with their work on StarBuild, adding the remaining Linux support. StarBuild is now on feature parity with the old code build system and will be rolled out to other departments soon.\n\nFor the renderer, the team started removing legacy Gen-12 code. There is a lot to remove, but this will result in leaner and easier-to-maintain renderer code when complete.\n\nThe Core Engine team also progressed with the generic shape system, adding editor support to save generic as well as remaining shapes. Multiple segments will be added before it\u2019s handed to the designers to use.\n\nFor MemReplay 2.0, the team are currently adding more features, including file open dialog, faster loading, and async symbol resolving to get it ready for wider use. They\u2019re also adding optimizations and continuing to stabilize their feature stream to integrate it back into the main development stream.\n\nLast month, the Physics team focused on improving and bug-fixing the new method for tracking unique geometry parts. They then improved cloth simulation for better simulation results, updated the rope and pulley systems, and added cantilever simulation support.\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nLast month, the Gameplay Features team updated the character customizer. This included adding a new \u2018sculpting mode\u2019 that allows players to select and drag an anchor point on the face to change the size and shape of a particular facial zone, such as the nose, ear, and chin.\n\nFurther detailing work was done on the firing range, mostly around joining and leaving. Feedback was also actioned on the UI to integrate it better into the environment.\n\nA new collectible was created that players will be able to find, pick up, and stow during gameplay. These items will then populate the player\u2019s quarters as part of the collectibles system.\n\nThe frontend also received a new difficulty option. This exposes various modifiers to the AI, health, and weapon attributes to allow the Design team to balance the game depending on the player\u2019s desired experience.\n\nA new feature to allow the designers to create and save damage maps was created too, which enables them to apply pre-damaged areas to ships.\n\nFollowing on from the recent Starmap work, the team is now developing the area map. This will render a holographic view of a player\u2019s current environment, either from within the Starmap or as part of the visor, with markers for players, characters, mission objectives, and more.\n\nFeatures (Vehicle)\nLast month, work continued on the \u2018control surface\u2019 flight model. The team implemented special handling for ships in gas-filled zero-g locations, such as gas clouds. While ships still favor thrusters in this situation, they will experience drag and lift that slightly impacts how they feel.\n\nVehicle Features also iterated on UI and VFX for communicating the Quantum system\u2019s state. They also began utilizing in-world VFX for this purpose, which allowed them to pair back the UI. The feedback on this has been positive so far.\n\nA new feature for spawning waves of AI ships inside carriers was kicked off (similar to an FPS spawn closet). Now, AI will spawn on landing pads within carriers, take off, and join the fight. This feature can be used to support large battles by naturally spawning ships.\n\nThe Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS) received updates last month. For example, the team worked on a bespoke relative throttle that allows players to assign a target velocity when the throttle is untouched. Various quality-of-life improvements were made to support this, including a trap for setting target speed to zero, a non-linear rate of change for improved precision at lower speeds, and an improved UI for displaying the throttle.\n\nWork on the Vehicle UI continued, with the team creating a physical hangar terminal for modifying a ship\u2019s loadout before missions. This enables players to view an inventory of available weapons and items, compare them against each other, and equip them to the ship in the hangar.\n\nMulti-function displays (MFDs) also received various updates, including a UI pass to make them larger, simpler, and easier to read. The new MFD system also allows players to cast some screens to their visors, with the team changing the layout and aspect ratio of the screens when this occurs. This makes better use of screen space and allows certain elements to be more prominent. Furthermore, after the work last month, MFDs were enabled for wider use in the company.\n\nGameplay Story\nLast month, the Gameplay Story team worked on various scenes involving the Stanton's quartermaster. These updates were requested by Design, with the goal of getting the scenes to integrate properly with the AI behavior.\n\nNew motion-capture data was used to update some significant scenes in the med bay, ensuring characters interact correctly with the latest swiveling-chair setup.\n\n\u201cIt was great to see these scenes updated to use exactly the same setup as the AI, which should make the scenes very robust and future-proof.\u201d Gameplay Story Team\n\nIn May, Gameplay Story began setting up 8 new scenes, bringing their total to 290. They also polished, pose pasted, and updated props in several scenes to ensure they were fully up to date.\n\nThe team also continued to set up operator seats, working to establish proper metrics and solid foundations for these complicated assets. Automated testing of the entities achieved a 100% pass rate, so they can move on to reviewing, improving, and approving the required animations.\n\nGraphics & VFX Programming\nThe Graphics Feature team spent the month working on performance improvements and new features, including screen space shadows, improvements to quantum jump tunnels, and render-to-texture zone culling. A GPU memory allocator and an upgraded ResourceCache compiler were among the new performance-boosting upgrades, while the evolving Temporal Super Resolution (an automated upscaling system that can now up-sample opaque objects) officially passed its first milestone.\n\nGlobal Illumination is well underway. So far, the first iterations of a hash-map-based radiance cache, ray-generation code, and a ray-tracing prototype were completed.\n\nImprovements to Gen12\u2019s validation error debugger were made to improve the accuracy of bug detection for faster issue assessment. In preparation for deferred Rendergraph execution, Vulkan\u2019s frame synchronization was improved. Issues with gaps in pipeline-resource sets at bind time were resolved with a remapping update that uses continuous resource-set layouts.\n\nThe Planet Tech team started finalizing quantum obstacle generation with generic shapes in asteroid fields. A collision issue detector and wear, dirt, and paint modifiers were also added to the RaStar tool.\n\nOngoing improvements to the BiomeBuilder will reduce constant spawn\/despawning, which in turn will relieve the Physics team of large destruction queues. Water can now be simulated in-engine and features the new disturbance component improvements.\n\nVFX finished the new effect setup for quantum travel and are now looking into lightning. Lightning emitters are being refactored to decouple from targeting, and the team is investigating how to use current prototypes to spawn lightning from gas clouds. A crash that occurred when particle emitters attempted to resize using a buffer of 0 was also fixed.\n\nLevel Design\nLast month, Level Design focused on their two main locations, the Stanton and Krugeri capital ships. Alongside general scene maintenance and bug fixing, they looked into scene \u2018handshakes\u2019 that transition NPCs into their required behaviors. This involves ensuring characters are prepped to transition, are pose matched, have holstered held items, and more.\n\nThey also updated the Stanton\u2019s quartermaster scenes to reflect the revised AI vendor flow without negatively affecting performance.\n\nThe team then continued to work on the AI schedules for the Stanton, which has an 80-person crew playing out various behaviors around the ship.\n\n\u201cWith this roll out, we have to keep tabs on NPCs gate-crashing scene content. For example, if the player is in a somber scene with a colleague discussing the horrors of war, we don\u2019t want an NPC barging in with a \u201cHello Lieutenant\u201d and jumping onto a console.\u201d Level Design Team\n\nNarrative\nIn May, Narrative held a performance-capture shoot focusing on additional combat and social wildlines. The goal was to capture a wide variety of voices to populate the universe while also maximizing the effectiveness of the content so that it remains within a reasonable scope.\n\nNarrative also synced with Design on their recent gameplay progress to review adjustments and ensure that dialogue continues to function as intended. In some instances, the team made suggestions on how the revised gameplay scenarios could better align with the emotional tone of the moment. For example, if a puzzle scenario occurs during a particularly stressful sequence of the game, Narrative and Design will discuss ways to maintain the emotional underpinning during the puzzle.\n\nMeanwhile, progress continued on the text items needed across the entirety of the game, including collectibles, Galactapedia entries, and mobiGlas UI elements.\n\nR&D\nIn May, the R&D team continued improving the temporal render mode for atmospheric and volumetric clouds.\n\nAdditionally, planetary-terrain height-map generation was optimized to eliminate frame-rate hitches. Aside from using a more suitable partitioning scheme for the tessellation of terrain patches, the changes also include terrain quad viewport culling before further tessellation by the GPU. The resulting height maps are later used to render large terrain shadows and to spawn GPU particles on the ground.\n\nUI\nThe UI Art and Design teams completed their work on modular fluff screens, getting them set up in different UI styles for various locations. They\u2019re now ready to be handed over to the Art and FPS teams so they can be added to levels.\n\nThey also implemented new FPS weapon screens for the different brands within the game, and worked alongside the FPS and Vehicle teams on augmented-reality (AR) markers, which are floating UI elements that show players where their objectives and targets are. Last month, the art was signed off and the files were prepared for use in-game.\n\nWork on the final visor UI also continued with the AI Feature team; this will include weapons and ammunition information, notifications, and mission objectives. They also applied improved shaders courtesy of the Graphics team to make the UI appear more holographic.\n\nThe UI Tech team continued to improve their tools, including making performance improvements and adding additional ways to debug the more complex screens. They also further developed the new interior and mini maps, which will bring a significant improvement to in-game navigation.\n\nVFX\nLast month, VFX revisited gas-cloud tunnels, working closely with Design and Art to create new hazards that can occur inside the tunnel networks.\n\nProgress was also made on weapon effects, while support for the Art and Design teams continued across a variety of locations.\n\nWE'LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH...\n\/\/ END TRANSMISSION"},"links_count":0,"comment_count":0,"created_at":"2023-06-14T20:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"2 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-04-29 00:04:00","valid_relations":["images","links","translations"],"prev_id":19322,"next_id":19324}}