{"data":{"id":19584,"title":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report: October 2023","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/SCW\/19584-API","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/19584","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/19584","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":4,"translations":{"en_EN":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report\nOctober 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 11:01:2023\n\nREF: CIG UK, CIG DE, CIG LA, CIG TX\n\nFAO Squadron 42 Recruits.\n\nWelcome to October\u2019s Squadron 42 development report. Enclosed you will find details on the latest progress made across the campaign, including updates to ship repair animations, a key combat sequence, and medical scenes.\n\nThank you for your continued support of Squadron 42.\n\nSincerely,\n\nCIG COMMUNICATIONS\n\nAI (Content)\nIn October, AI Content\u2019s focus was on reviewing the functionalities showcased in the \u2018I Held the Line\u2019 video shown at CitizenCon, specifically the Stanton\u2019s hangar, med-bay, and new gym area.\n\nFor the hangar, the team concentrated on the visual quality of the deck and utility crew animations. This involved fine-tuning their interactions as they go about their tasks, such as repairing and inspecting the Gladius. Moreover, AI Content incorporated responsive behaviors for NPCs on the hangar sidelines. These characters now dynamically react to the player's actions in the cockpit, significantly amplifying the immersive quality of the in-game environment.\n\nIn the med-bay, focus was on ensuring that animations transitioned smoothly and seamlessly. A new sat-up, sleeping patient was also added to the med-bed; the doctor periodically scans the patient to check their vital signs, which is part of the medical behavior system.\n\nWhile not directly related to \u2018I Held the Line,\u2019 part of the team worked on a new gym area, setting up usable items like treadmills and dumbbells. NPCs will use the treadmills for running exercise and lift dumbbells for weight training. After these exercises, they will return to a seat to recover before continuing their activities.\n\nAI (Features)\nLast month, AI Features focused on gameplay functionality for a key combat encounter. The enemy now learns when the player exploits an attack pattern, damage rates were increased, and weapon cooldown was decreased to ramp up the challenge over the course of the fight. The collision-avoidance system was also implemented to allow the enemy to navigate around obstacles that the player can use in the fight.\n\nThe team then made balance changes to fight tactic TPS queries so that the different tactics (pusher, strafer, and defender) feel more distinctive.\n\nThey also continued to review cover usage, which generated numerous fixes for how NPCs find and move to cover, step out to fire, and exit, particularly when in defend areas.\n\nAI Features are currently developing an all-encompassing test level for combat that will allow them to test all of their features together. There, they can add various parameters and select different enemies with varying combinations of traits. This new level will be used to test combat consistency across the PU and SQ42 and will provide a solid place to test improvements and bug fixes to AI combat and its related functionality. For example, ammo usage, mounted weapons, attack and defend areas, medics, accuracy, and stealth gameplay.\n\nAnimation\nThe team continued streamlining combat animations, working on the skill-level-one takedowns as well as interactable animations in the environment. They\u2019re also working on the first-select animations for weapons and their malfunctions, continuing to capture animations where needed to complement scenes and locations, and working through the various facial animations for story performances and ambient dialogue.\n\nAudio\nThroughout October, Audio implemented and polished sounds for \u2018I Held the Line\u2019.\n\n\u201cUsing our newly created multi-band compressor, we improved the weapon sound effects across all guns in Squadron. We also designed some more cinematic assets and provided Foley to key animations throughout the trailer.\u201d Audio Team\n\nTech Sound Design spent time ensuring the tech-demonstration videos had the proper sounds and the desired synchronization and timings occurred. Vast improvements were also made to the team\u2019s vehicle systems.\n\nAudio Code generated new tech that will bring SQ42\u2019s sounds to life and fixed any bugs that came to light.\n\nThe Dialogue team supported content polish for CitizenCon by fixing bugs and implementing the latest dialogue recordings. They also plugged in the breathing system to provide a more immersive experience.\n\nDevelopment of the Walla system continued too, which will help to create a lively experience as players explore the world. October\u2019s work included a series of internal test recordings.\n\nEngine\nThe majority of the Engine team\u2019s work last month involved preparing for CitizenCon.\n\n\u201cAll teams were hands on deck to deliver features and support other teams on work related to what we showed at CitizenCon. This is always an interesting time, as it is very stressful but also rewarding when everything comes together due to the focused effort.\u201d Engine Team\n\nThe Core Engine team primarily worked on bug fixes for the live release, including some long-standing memory leaks on the live server.\n\nThe Physics team focused on delivering improvements to the Maelstrom destruction system and cloth and hair tech.\n\nLastly, the Entity System Tech team supported the Online team to deliver the Server Meshing demo while continuing to work on editor entity streaming.\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nLast month, Gameplay Features polished the new character customizer, working on skin texture and tone, freckles, blemishes, eyes, makeup, and much more.\n\nOn the new Starmap, the team worked to get the markers and labels working correctly on planets. This involved enabling the magnetic cursor to snap to icons, implementing the search box, and a variety of smaller improvements.\n\nWork also began on a new SQ42-specific frontend, making it feel like an extension of the game world. It will feature a changing environment reflecting how far through the campaign players are and be populated with collected items.\n\nThey also added a sim-pod UI screen to allow players to select which simulation they want to play, seamlessly transition into it, and view \u2018how did you do\u2019 screens upon completion.\n\nGameplay Story\nMuch of Gameplay Story\u2019s October involved focusing on reviewing new content seen during the \u2018I Held the Line\u2019 video. As part of this, they expanded their scenes with the hangar deck crew, adjusting idles and welding animations for the character on top of the Gladius and updating the ladder-climb animation to fix some clipping. They also added more idles to the deck-crew character in the cockpit and added the new mobiGlas effect to the refueling character.\n\nIn the med-bay, various bugs were fixed relating to handheld props, while additional interactions were added to the medical consoles.\n\nAlongside this, Gameplay Story used some new mo-cap to extend their first scene in chapter one, created a long idle for an early group scene, and added some player-injured lines to the med-bay scenes.\n\nGraphics & VFX Programming\nFor the Graphics, Planet Tech, and VFX Programming teams, the majority of October was spent touching up the many features demonstrated at CitizenCon, including the water simulation, global illumination, Maelstrom, fire, and rifle scopes.\n\nThe Vulkan sub-team continued tackling the remaining performance and stability issues.\n\nSocial Narrative team\nIn October, the Social Narrative team supported the preparation for \u2018I Held the Line\u2019, including the landing and take-off scenarios in the Idris' hangar.\n\n\u201cLanding is something we\u2019ve been focusing on recently, including tactile deck-crew interactions with both your ship and your fellow wingman, Old Man.\u201d Social Narrative Team\n\nWork was done on the NPCs repairing the landed Gladius (featuring new welding animations), inspecting the cockpit, and refueling. These animations were layered on top of the systemic AI to move the hangar experience closer to the team\u2019s overall expectations.\n\nAway from \u2018I Held the Line\u2019, the team continued to focus on the Idris interstitials and Fortune's Cross location. For example, they revised a number of medical-room scenes. Previously, medical staff involved in a narrative scene wouldn\u2019t reference the fact that the player could be injured. So, Gameplay Story provided Level Design with new content that addressed this issue, which involves the medical crew pausing at multiple points to tell players to head to the healing station if injured.\n\nNarrative\nThe Narrative team spent time finalizing content captured last month to get initial animations and audio passes into the game so they could experience the moments in situ. They\u2019ll continue to sync with the Design teams to review the levels as this content is implemented.\n\nMeanwhile, Narrative continued their work completing the text requirements for the game. As mentioned in previous reports, this includes all the message exchanges that the player will receive (for both gameplay and social messaging), reviewing mission objectives, adding Galactapedia entries, and looking at other environmental content to help sell the story and feel of the various locations.\n\n\u201cOn a personal note, it was tremendously exciting to meet all of you who came out to CitizenCon and hear your reactions to the update video.\u201d Narrative Team\n\nR&D\nIn October, time was dedicated to cloud-shaping improvements, which will allow the team to author more varied cloud content. For example, it is now easier to break up cloud fronts. The improvements also provide more flexibility in blending shape noise at height. As a result, the consistency of short vs. long-distance reads was improved and tiling from orbit is less noticeable. More improvements are planned, particularly with regards to improving details at cloud fringes.\n\nThe first iteration of ground fog was also made available to the content teams, which follows terrain up to a specified height per location and fully integrates into the atmosphere. As a result, it receives volumetric shadows from both clouds and terrain along with dampening direct and indirect light scattered through the atmosphere into the view ray.\n\nMoreover, support was added to cast volumetric shadows from clouds into the atmosphere. This includes various optimizations to sample and evaluate volumetric cloud shadows. As a byproduct, volumetric cloud shadows now also update lazily to further reduce cost when the camera or sun isn't moving significantly. Cloud shadow quality at low sun angles was also improved by compressing the available space in the shadow map to allow for more details around the camera. Additionally, a few long-standing issues with cloud rendering have been fixed. For example, the ghost lines on clouds that were occasionally visible when looking at them and towards the virtual planet horizon were fixed, and the setup of LOD constants for cloud-shaping-related texture lookups was updated to avoid excessive blurring when rendering clouds at half resolution.\n\nLastly, work on ground fog resulted in various optimizations as well as a fix for subsample-sized holes in planet terrain height maps. These height maps are used for various purposes, such as building planet terrain shadows or spawning GPU particles on the ground. The latter was especially subject to those holes as they could cause infrequently erratic spawning of particles.\n\nLooking forward, work on the new temporal cloud render mode will commence in November.\n\nVFX\nLast month, the VFX team continued working on several cutscenes alongside the Cinematics team. They also continued polishing effects for various locations, some of which were revealed at CitizenCon.\n\nSeveral improvements were made to existing weapon and gadget effects, while dynamic fire effects were polished for Squadron 42 and a future Star Citizen patch release.\n\nWE'LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH...\n\/\/ END TRANSMISSION","de_DE":"Geschwader 42 Monatsbericht\nOktober 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 11:01:2023\n\nREF: CIG UK, CIG DE, CIG LA, CIG TX\n\nFAO-Geschwader 42 Rekruten.\n\nWillkommen zum Entwicklungsbericht f\u00fcr Squadron 42 im Oktober. Anbei findest du Details zu den neuesten Fortschritten in der Kampagne, darunter Updates f\u00fcr die Schiffsreparaturanimationen, eine wichtige Kampfsequenz und medizinische Szenen.\n\nWir danken euch f\u00fcr eure anhaltende Unterst\u00fctzung von Squadron 42.\n\nMit freundlichen Gr\u00fc\u00dfen,\n\nCIG COMMUNICATIONS\n\nKI (Inhalt)\nIm Oktober konzentrierte sich AI Content auf die \u00dcberpr\u00fcfung der Funktionen, die in dem auf der CitizenCon gezeigten Video \"I Held the Line\" vorgestellt wurden, insbesondere den Hangar, die Krankenstation und den neuen Fitnessbereich von Stanton.\n\nF\u00fcr den Hangar konzentrierte sich das Team auf die visuelle Qualit\u00e4t der Animationen des Decks und der Versorgungscrew. Dazu geh\u00f6rte auch die Feinabstimmung ihrer Interaktionen bei der Ausf\u00fchrung ihrer Aufgaben, z. B. bei der Reparatur und Inspektion der Gladius. Au\u00dferdem hat AI Content das Verhalten der NSCs am Hangarrand verbessert. Diese Charaktere reagieren jetzt dynamisch auf die Aktionen des Spielers im Cockpit, was die Atmosph\u00e4re im Spiel deutlich verbessert.\n\nIn der Krankenstation wurde darauf geachtet, dass die Animationen flie\u00dfend und nahtlos ineinander \u00fcbergehen. Au\u00dferdem wurde das Krankenbett um einen neuen schlafenden Patienten im Sitzen erweitert; der Arzt scannt den Patienten regelm\u00e4\u00dfig, um seine Lebenszeichen zu \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen, was Teil des medizinischen Verhaltenssystems ist.\n\nAuch wenn es nicht direkt mit \"I Held the Line\" zu tun hat, hat ein Teil des Teams an einem neuen Fitnessbereich gearbeitet und benutzbare Gegenst\u00e4nde wie Laufb\u00e4nder und Hanteln aufgestellt. Die NSCs werden die Laufb\u00e4nder zum Laufen und die Hanteln zum Krafttraining benutzen. Nach diesen \u00dcbungen kehren sie zu einem Sitzplatz zur\u00fcck, um sich zu erholen, bevor sie ihre Aktivit\u00e4ten fortsetzen.\n\nKI (Features)\nIm letzten Monat haben wir uns bei den KI-Features auf die Funktionalit\u00e4t einer wichtigen Kampfbegegnung konzentriert. Der Feind lernt jetzt, wenn der Spieler ein Angriffsmuster ausnutzt, die Schadensraten wurden erh\u00f6ht und die Abklingzeit der Waffen wurde verringert, um die Herausforderung im Verlauf des Kampfes zu erh\u00f6hen. Das Kollisionsvermeidungssystem wurde ebenfalls implementiert, damit der Feind um Hindernisse herumfahren kann, die der Spieler im Kampf nutzen kann.\n\nDann nahm das Team \u00c4nderungen an der Balance der Kampftaktik-TPS-Abfragen vor, damit sich die verschiedenen Taktiken (Pusher, Strafer und Defender) ausgepr\u00e4gter anf\u00fchlen.\n\nDas Team \u00fcberpr\u00fcfte auch die Nutzung von Deckungen und nahm zahlreiche Korrekturen daran vor, wie NSCs Deckung finden und sich dorthin bewegen, wie sie aus der Deckung treten, um zu schie\u00dfen, und wie sie sich zur\u00fcckziehen, insbesondere in verteidigten Gebieten.\n\nDie KI-Funktionen entwickeln derzeit eine umfassende Testebene f\u00fcr den Kampf, die es ihnen erm\u00f6glicht, alle ihre Funktionen gemeinsam zu testen. Dort k\u00f6nnen sie verschiedene Parameter hinzuf\u00fcgen und verschiedene Gegner mit unterschiedlichen Kombinationen von Eigenschaften ausw\u00e4hlen. Diese neue Ebene wird genutzt, um die Konsistenz der K\u00e4mpfe in PU und SQ42 zu testen und bietet eine solide Grundlage, um Verbesserungen und Fehlerbehebungen f\u00fcr den KI-Kampf und die damit verbundenen Funktionen zu testen. Zum Beispiel die Verwendung von Munition, montierten Waffen, Angriffs- und Verteidigungsbereichen, Sanit\u00e4tern, Genauigkeit und Stealth-Gameplay.\n\nAnimation\nDas Team hat die Kampfanimationen weiter optimiert und an den Takedowns der Fertigkeitsstufe 1 sowie an den interaktiven Animationen in der Umgebung gearbeitet. Au\u00dferdem arbeiten sie an den Erstwahl-Animationen f\u00fcr Waffen und deren Fehlfunktionen, fangen weiterhin Animationen ein, um Szenen und Orte zu erg\u00e4nzen, und arbeiten an den verschiedenen Gesichtsanimationen f\u00fcr Story-Darbietungen und Umgebungsdialoge.\n\nAudio\nDen ganzen Oktober \u00fcber hat Audio die Sounds f\u00fcr \"I Held the Line\" implementiert und poliert.\n\n\"Mit unserem neu entwickelten Multiband-Kompressor haben wir die Waffensoundeffekte f\u00fcr alle Gesch\u00fctze in der Staffel verbessert. Au\u00dferdem haben wir weitere filmische Elemente entworfen und die wichtigsten Animationen im Trailer mit Foley unterlegt.\" Audio-Team\n\nTech Sound Design hat sich darum gek\u00fcmmert, dass die technischen Demonstrationsvideos den richtigen Sound haben und die gew\u00fcnschte Synchronisation und das richtige Timing erreicht wird. Auch an den Fahrzeugsystemen des Teams wurden umfangreiche Verbesserungen vorgenommen.\n\nAudio Code entwickelte neue Technik, um die Sounds von SQ42 zum Leben zu erwecken, und beseitigte alle Fehler, die auftauchten.\n\nDas Dialog-Team hat die Inhalte f\u00fcr CitizenCon aufpoliert, indem es Fehler behoben und die neuesten Dialogaufnahmen implementiert hat. Au\u00dferdem haben sie das Atmungssystem eingebaut, um das Spielerlebnis noch intensiver zu gestalten.\n\nAuch die Entwicklung des Walla-Systems wurde fortgesetzt, das f\u00fcr ein lebendiges Erlebnis sorgen wird, wenn die Spieler die Welt erkunden. Im Oktober wurde eine Reihe von internen Testaufnahmen gemacht.\n\nEngine\nDer gr\u00f6\u00dfte Teil der Arbeit des Engine-Teams im letzten Monat bestand in der Vorbereitung auf die CitizenCon.\n\n\"Alle Teams hatten alle H\u00e4nde voll zu tun, um Features zu liefern und andere Teams bei der Arbeit an dem zu unterst\u00fctzen, was wir auf der CitizenCon gezeigt haben. Das ist immer eine interessante Zeit, denn sie ist sehr stressig, aber auch sehr lohnend, wenn durch die konzentrierte Arbeit alles zusammenkommt.\" Engine-Team\n\nDas Core-Engine-Team arbeitete vor allem an der Behebung von Fehlern f\u00fcr die Live-Ver\u00f6ffentlichung, einschlie\u00dflich einiger langj\u00e4hriger Speicherlecks auf dem Live-Server.\n\nDas Physikteam konzentrierte sich auf die Verbesserung des Zerst\u00f6rungssystems des Mahlstroms und der Kleidungs- und Haartechnologie.\n\nSchlie\u00dflich unterst\u00fctzte das Entity System Tech-Team das Online-Team bei der Bereitstellung der Server-Meshing-Demo und arbeitete weiter am Streaming von Entit\u00e4ten im Editor.\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nIm letzten Monat hat das Team f\u00fcr Gameplay-Features an der neuen Charakteranpassung gefeilt und an Hauttextur und -ton, Sommersprossen, Makeln, Augen, Make-up und vielem mehr gearbeitet.\n\nBei der neuen Sternenkarte hat das Team daran gearbeitet, dass die Markierungen und Beschriftungen auf den Planeten richtig funktionieren. Dazu geh\u00f6rte, dass der magnetische Cursor an den Symbolen einrastet, das Suchfeld implementiert wurde und eine Reihe kleinerer Verbesserungen vorgenommen wurden.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurde mit der Arbeit an einem neuen SQ42-spezifischen Frontend begonnen, das sich wie eine Erweiterung der Spielwelt anf\u00fchlt. Die Umgebung wird sich ver\u00e4ndern, je nachdem, wie weit die Spieler in der Kampagne fortgeschritten sind, und sie wird mit gesammelten Gegenst\u00e4nden bef\u00fcllt werden.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurde ein Sim-Pod-UI-Bildschirm hinzugef\u00fcgt, der es den Spielern erm\u00f6glicht, die gew\u00fcnschte Simulation auszuw\u00e4hlen, nahtlos in sie einzusteigen und nach Abschluss des Spiels einen \"Wie hast du dich geschlagen?\"-Bildschirm anzuzeigen.\n\nGameplay Story\nIm Oktober konzentrierte sich Gameplay Story vor allem auf die \u00dcberpr\u00fcfung der neuen Inhalte aus dem Video \"I Held the Line\". Dabei wurden die Szenen mit der Hangardeck-Crew erweitert, die Leerlauf- und Schwei\u00dfanimationen f\u00fcr die Figur auf dem Gladius angepasst und die Animation zum Erklimmen der Leiter aktualisiert, um einige Clipping-Effekte zu beheben. Au\u00dferdem haben sie den Leerlauf der Deckbesatzung im Cockpit erweitert und den neuen MobiGlas-Effekt f\u00fcr den Charakter beim Betanken hinzugef\u00fcgt.\n\nIn der Krankenstation wurden verschiedene Bugs im Zusammenhang mit den Handrequisiten behoben und zus\u00e4tzliche Interaktionen zu den medizinischen Konsolen hinzugef\u00fcgt.\n\nAu\u00dferdem hat Gameplay Story die erste Szene im ersten Kapitel mit neuem Mo-Cap erweitert, einen langen Leerlauf f\u00fcr eine fr\u00fche Gruppenszene erstellt und die Szenen in der Krankenstation um einige vom Spieler verletzte Zeilen erg\u00e4nzt.\n\nGrafik & VFX-Programmierung\nDie Teams f\u00fcr Grafik, Planet Tech und VFX-Programmierung haben den Gro\u00dfteil des Oktobers damit verbracht, die vielen auf der CitizenCon vorgestellten Features zu verbessern, darunter die Wassersimulation, die globale Beleuchtung, den Mahlstrom, das Feuer und die Zielfernrohre.\n\nDas Vulkan-Subteam k\u00fcmmerte sich weiterhin um die verbleibenden Leistungs- und Stabilit\u00e4tsprobleme.\n\nSocial Narrative Team\nIm Oktober unterst\u00fctzte das Social Narrative Team die Vorbereitungen f\u00fcr \"I Held the Line\", einschlie\u00dflich der Lande- und Startszenarien im Hangar von Idris.\n\n\"Die Landung ist etwas, auf das wir uns in letzter Zeit konzentriert haben, einschlie\u00dflich der taktilen Interaktion der Deckcrew mit deinem Schiff und deinem Fl\u00fcgelmann Old Man.\" Social Narrative Team\n\nWir haben an den NSCs gearbeitet, die die gelandete Gladius reparieren (mit neuen Schwei\u00dfanimationen), das Cockpit inspizieren und auftanken. Diese Animationen wurden \u00fcber die systemische KI gelegt, um das Erlebnis im Hangar den allgemeinen Erwartungen des Teams anzupassen.\n\nAbseits von \"I Held the Line\" konzentrierte sich das Team weiterhin auf die Idris-Interstitials und den Standort Fortune's Cross. Sie \u00fcberarbeiteten zum Beispiel einige Szenen im Krankenzimmer. Zuvor hatte das medizinische Personal in einer erz\u00e4hlerischen Szene nicht erw\u00e4hnt, dass der Spieler verletzt sein k\u00f6nnte. Deshalb hat Gameplay Story dem Level Design neue Inhalte zur Verf\u00fcgung gestellt, die dieses Problem beheben: Das medizinische Personal h\u00e4lt an mehreren Stellen inne, um den Spielern zu sagen, dass sie sich bei Verletzungen zur Heilstation begeben sollen.\n\nNarrative\nDas Narrative Team verbrachte einige Zeit damit, die im letzten Monat aufgenommenen Inhalte zu finalisieren, um die ersten Animationen und Audiodurchl\u00e4ufe ins Spiel zu bringen, damit sie die Momente vor Ort erleben k\u00f6nnen. Sie werden sich weiterhin mit den Design-Teams abstimmen, um die Levels zu \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen, w\u00e4hrend diese Inhalte implementiert werden.\n\nIn der Zwischenzeit hat Narrative weiter daran gearbeitet, die Textanforderungen f\u00fcr das Spiel zu erf\u00fcllen. Wie bereits in fr\u00fcheren Berichten erw\u00e4hnt, geh\u00f6ren dazu alle Nachrichten, die der Spieler erh\u00e4lt (sowohl im Spiel als auch in den sozialen Netzwerken), die \u00dcberpr\u00fcfung von Missionszielen, das Hinzuf\u00fcgen von Galactapedia-Eintr\u00e4gen und die Untersuchung anderer Umgebungsinhalte, um die Geschichte und die Atmosph\u00e4re der verschiedenen Orte zu vermitteln.\n\n\"Es war unglaublich aufregend, euch alle zu treffen, die zur CitizenCon gekommen sind, und eure Reaktionen auf das Update-Video zu h\u00f6ren\". Narrative Team\n\nF&E\nIm Oktober wurde viel Zeit auf die Verbesserung der Wolkengestaltung verwendet, die es dem Team erm\u00f6glicht, vielf\u00e4ltigere Wolkeninhalte zu erstellen. Zum Beispiel ist es jetzt einfacher, Wolkenfronten aufzubrechen. Die Verbesserungen bieten auch mehr Flexibilit\u00e4t beim \u00dcberblenden von Formrauschen in der H\u00f6he. Dadurch wurde die Konsistenz von Kurz- und Langstreckendaten verbessert und das Kacheln aus der Umlaufbahn ist weniger auff\u00e4llig. Weitere Verbesserungen sind geplant, insbesondere im Hinblick auf die Verbesserung der Details an Wolkenfronten.\n\nDie erste Iteration des Bodennebels wurde den Content-Teams ebenfalls zur Verf\u00fcgung gestellt. Er folgt dem Terrain bis zu einer bestimmten H\u00f6he pro Ort und ist vollst\u00e4ndig in die Atmosph\u00e4re integriert. Dadurch erh\u00e4lt er volumetrische Schatten sowohl von Wolken als auch vom Gel\u00e4nde und d\u00e4mpft direktes und indirektes Licht, das durch die Atmosph\u00e4re in den Sichtstrahl gestreut wird.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurde die M\u00f6glichkeit geschaffen, volumetrische Schatten von Wolken in die Atmosph\u00e4re zu werfen. Dazu geh\u00f6ren verschiedene Optimierungen, um volumetrische Wolkenschatten zu erfassen und auszuwerten. Als Nebenprodukt werden volumetrische Wolkenschatten jetzt auch tr\u00e4ge aktualisiert, um die Kosten weiter zu senken, wenn sich die Kamera oder die Sonne nicht wesentlich bewegt. Die Qualit\u00e4t der Wolkenschatten bei niedrigen Sonnenwinkeln wurde ebenfalls verbessert, indem der verf\u00fcgbare Platz in der Schattenkarte komprimiert wurde, um mehr Details rund um die Kamera zu erm\u00f6glichen. Au\u00dferdem wurden einige seit langem bestehende Probleme mit dem Rendering von Wolken behoben. So wurden z. B. die Geisterlinien auf den Wolken behoben, die gelegentlich sichtbar waren, wenn man auf sie und den virtuellen Planetenhorizont blickte, und die Einstellung der LOD-Konstanten f\u00fcr wolkenformbezogene Texturen wurde aktualisiert, um \u00fcberm\u00e4\u00dfige Unsch\u00e4rfe zu vermeiden, wenn Wolken mit halber Aufl\u00f6sung gerendert werden.\n\nDie Arbeit am Bodennebel schlie\u00dflich f\u00fchrte zu verschiedenen Optimierungen und zur Behebung von L\u00f6chern in den H\u00f6henkarten des Planeten. Diese H\u00f6henkarten werden f\u00fcr verschiedene Zwecke verwendet, z. B. um Schatten auf dem Planetengel\u00e4nde zu erzeugen oder GPU-Partikel auf dem Boden zu spawnen. Letzteres war besonders anf\u00e4llig f\u00fcr diese L\u00f6cher, da sie zu unregelm\u00e4\u00dfigem Spawnen von Partikeln f\u00fchren konnten.\n\nDie Arbeit am neuen Rendermodus f\u00fcr temporale Wolken wird im November beginnen.\n\nVFX\nIm letzten Monat hat das VFX-Team zusammen mit dem Cinematics-Team an mehreren Zwischensequenzen gearbeitet. Au\u00dferdem wurde an den Effekten f\u00fcr verschiedene Orte gefeilt, von denen einige auf der CitizenCon enth\u00fcllt wurden.\n\nMehrere Verbesserungen wurden an bestehenden Waffen- und Gadget-Effekten vorgenommen, w\u00e4hrend dynamische Feuereffekte f\u00fcr Squadron 42 und einen zuk\u00fcnftigen Star Citizen Patch aufpoliert wurden.\n\nWIR SEHEN UNS N\u00c4CHSTEN MONAT...\n\/\/ ENDE DER \u00dcBERTRAGUNG","zh_CN":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report\nOctober 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 11:01:2023\n\nREF: CIG UK, CIG DE, CIG LA, CIG TX\n\nFAO Squadron 42 Recruits.\n\nWelcome to October\u2019s Squadron 42 development report. Enclosed you will find details on the latest progress made across the campaign, including updates to ship repair animations, a key combat sequence, and medical scenes.\n\nThank you for your continued support of Squadron 42.\n\nSincerely,\n\nCIG COMMUNICATIONS\n\nAI (Content)\nIn October, AI Content\u2019s focus was on reviewing the functionalities showcased in the \u2018I Held the Line\u2019 video shown at CitizenCon, specifically the Stanton\u2019s hangar, med-bay, and new gym area.\n\nFor the hangar, the team concentrated on the visual quality of the deck and utility crew animations. This involved fine-tuning their interactions as they go about their tasks, such as repairing and inspecting the Gladius. Moreover, AI Content incorporated responsive behaviors for NPCs on the hangar sidelines. These characters now dynamically react to the player's actions in the cockpit, significantly amplifying the immersive quality of the in-game environment.\n\nIn the med-bay, focus was on ensuring that animations transitioned smoothly and seamlessly. A new sat-up, sleeping patient was also added to the med-bed; the doctor periodically scans the patient to check their vital signs, which is part of the medical behavior system.\n\nWhile not directly related to \u2018I Held the Line,\u2019 part of the team worked on a new gym area, setting up usable items like treadmills and dumbbells. NPCs will use the treadmills for running exercise and lift dumbbells for weight training. After these exercises, they will return to a seat to recover before continuing their activities.\n\nAI (Features)\nLast month, AI Features focused on gameplay functionality for a key combat encounter. The enemy now learns when the player exploits an attack pattern, damage rates were increased, and weapon cooldown was decreased to ramp up the challenge over the course of the fight. The collision-avoidance system was also implemented to allow the enemy to navigate around obstacles that the player can use in the fight.\n\nThe team then made balance changes to fight tactic TPS queries so that the different tactics (pusher, strafer, and defender) feel more distinctive.\n\nThey also continued to review cover usage, which generated numerous fixes for how NPCs find and move to cover, step out to fire, and exit, particularly when in defend areas.\n\nAI Features are currently developing an all-encompassing test level for combat that will allow them to test all of their features together. There, they can add various parameters and select different enemies with varying combinations of traits. This new level will be used to test combat consistency across the PU and SQ42 and will provide a solid place to test improvements and bug fixes to AI combat and its related functionality. For example, ammo usage, mounted weapons, attack and defend areas, medics, accuracy, and stealth gameplay.\n\nAnimation\nThe team continued streamlining combat animations, working on the skill-level-one takedowns as well as interactable animations in the environment. They\u2019re also working on the first-select animations for weapons and their malfunctions, continuing to capture animations where needed to complement scenes and locations, and working through the various facial animations for story performances and ambient dialogue.\n\nAudio\nThroughout October, Audio implemented and polished sounds for \u2018I Held the Line\u2019.\n\n\u201cUsing our newly created multi-band compressor, we improved the weapon sound effects across all guns in Squadron. We also designed some more cinematic assets and provided Foley to key animations throughout the trailer.\u201d Audio Team\n\nTech Sound Design spent time ensuring the tech-demonstration videos had the proper sounds and the desired synchronization and timings occurred. Vast improvements were also made to the team\u2019s vehicle systems.\n\nAudio Code generated new tech that will bring SQ42\u2019s sounds to life and fixed any bugs that came to light.\n\nThe Dialogue team supported content polish for CitizenCon by fixing bugs and implementing the latest dialogue recordings. They also plugged in the breathing system to provide a more immersive experience.\n\nDevelopment of the Walla system continued too, which will help to create a lively experience as players explore the world. October\u2019s work included a series of internal test recordings.\n\nEngine\nThe majority of the Engine team\u2019s work last month involved preparing for CitizenCon.\n\n\u201cAll teams were hands on deck to deliver features and support other teams on work related to what we showed at CitizenCon. This is always an interesting time, as it is very stressful but also rewarding when everything comes together due to the focused effort.\u201d Engine Team\n\nThe Core Engine team primarily worked on bug fixes for the live release, including some long-standing memory leaks on the live server.\n\nThe Physics team focused on delivering improvements to the Maelstrom destruction system and cloth and hair tech.\n\nLastly, the Entity System Tech team supported the Online team to deliver the Server Meshing demo while continuing to work on editor entity streaming.\n\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nLast month, Gameplay Features polished the new character customizer, working on skin texture and tone, freckles, blemishes, eyes, makeup, and much more.\n\nOn the new Starmap, the team worked to get the markers and labels working correctly on planets. This involved enabling the magnetic cursor to snap to icons, implementing the search box, and a variety of smaller improvements.\n\nWork also began on a new SQ42-specific frontend, making it feel like an extension of the game world. It will feature a changing environment reflecting how far through the campaign players are and be populated with collected items.\n\nThey also added a sim-pod UI screen to allow players to select which simulation they want to play, seamlessly transition into it, and view \u2018how did you do\u2019 screens upon completion.\n\nGameplay Story\nMuch of Gameplay Story\u2019s October involved focusing on reviewing new content seen during the \u2018I Held the Line\u2019 video. As part of this, they expanded their scenes with the hangar deck crew, adjusting idles and welding animations for the character on top of the Gladius and updating the ladder-climb animation to fix some clipping. They also added more idles to the deck-crew character in the cockpit and added the new mobiGlas effect to the refueling character.\n\nIn the med-bay, various bugs were fixed relating to handheld props, while additional interactions were added to the medical consoles.\n\nAlongside this, Gameplay Story used some new mo-cap to extend their first scene in chapter one, created a long idle for an early group scene, and added some player-injured lines to the med-bay scenes.\n\nGraphics & VFX Programming\nFor the Graphics, Planet Tech, and VFX Programming teams, the majority of October was spent touching up the many features demonstrated at CitizenCon, including the water simulation, global illumination, Maelstrom, fire, and rifle scopes.\n\nThe Vulkan sub-team continued tackling the remaining performance and stability issues.\n\nSocial Narrative team\nIn October, the Social Narrative team supported the preparation for \u2018I Held the Line\u2019, including the landing and take-off scenarios in the Idris' hangar.\n\n\u201cLanding is something we\u2019ve been focusing on recently, including tactile deck-crew interactions with both your ship and your fellow wingman, Old Man.\u201d Social Narrative Team\n\nWork was done on the NPCs repairing the landed Gladius (featuring new welding animations), inspecting the cockpit, and refueling. These animations were layered on top of the systemic AI to move the hangar experience closer to the team\u2019s overall expectations.\n\nAway from \u2018I Held the Line\u2019, the team continued to focus on the Idris interstitials and Fortune's Cross location. For example, they revised a number of medical-room scenes. Previously, medical staff involved in a narrative scene wouldn\u2019t reference the fact that the player could be injured. So, Gameplay Story provided Level Design with new content that addressed this issue, which involves the medical crew pausing at multiple points to tell players to head to the healing station if injured.\n\nNarrative\nThe Narrative team spent time finalizing content captured last month to get initial animations and audio passes into the game so they could experience the moments in situ. They\u2019ll continue to sync with the Design teams to review the levels as this content is implemented.\n\nMeanwhile, Narrative continued their work completing the text requirements for the game. As mentioned in previous reports, this includes all the message exchanges that the player will receive (for both gameplay and social messaging), reviewing mission objectives, adding Galactapedia entries, and looking at other environmental content to help sell the story and feel of the various locations.\n\n\u201cOn a personal note, it was tremendously exciting to meet all of you who came out to CitizenCon and hear your reactions to the update video.\u201d Narrative Team\n\nR&D\nIn October, time was dedicated to cloud-shaping improvements, which will allow the team to author more varied cloud content. For example, it is now easier to break up cloud fronts. The improvements also provide more flexibility in blending shape noise at height. As a result, the consistency of short vs. long-distance reads was improved and tiling from orbit is less noticeable. More improvements are planned, particularly with regards to improving details at cloud fringes.\n\nThe first iteration of ground fog was also made available to the content teams, which follows terrain up to a specified height per location and fully integrates into the atmosphere. As a result, it receives volumetric shadows from both clouds and terrain along with dampening direct and indirect light scattered through the atmosphere into the view ray.\n\nMoreover, support was added to cast volumetric shadows from clouds into the atmosphere. This includes various optimizations to sample and evaluate volumetric cloud shadows. As a byproduct, volumetric cloud shadows now also update lazily to further reduce cost when the camera or sun isn't moving significantly. Cloud shadow quality at low sun angles was also improved by compressing the available space in the shadow map to allow for more details around the camera. Additionally, a few long-standing issues with cloud rendering have been fixed. For example, the ghost lines on clouds that were occasionally visible when looking at them and towards the virtual planet horizon were fixed, and the setup of LOD constants for cloud-shaping-related texture lookups was updated to avoid excessive blurring when rendering clouds at half resolution.\n\nLastly, work on ground fog resulted in various optimizations as well as a fix for subsample-sized holes in planet terrain height maps. These height maps are used for various purposes, such as building planet terrain shadows or spawning GPU particles on the ground. The latter was especially subject to those holes as they could cause infrequently erratic spawning of particles.\n\nLooking forward, work on the new temporal cloud render mode will commence in November.\n\nVFX\nLast month, the VFX team continued working on several cutscenes alongside the Cinematics team. They also continued polishing effects for various locations, some of which were revealed at CitizenCon.\n\nSeveral improvements were made to existing weapon and gadget effects, while dynamic fire effects were polished for Squadron 42 and a future Star Citizen patch release.\n\nWE'LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH...\n\/\/ END TRANSMISSION"},"links_count":0,"comment_count":0,"created_at":"2023-11-09T08:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"2 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-04-30 03:20:06","valid_relations":["images","links","translations"],"prev_id":19579,"next_id":19585}}