{"data":{"id":19911,"title":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report: March 2024","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/SCW\/19911-API","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/19911","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/19911","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\nMarch 2024\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 04:10:2024\n\nREF: CIG UK, CIG DE, CIG LA, CIG TX\n\nFAO Squadron 42 Recruits.\n\nWelcome to March\u2019s Squadron 42 development report. Enclosed you will find details on the latest progress made across the campaign, including planetary tech, ship behaviors, and fluff terminals.\n\nThank you for your continued support of Squadron 42.\n\nSincerely,\n\nCIG COMMUNICATIONS\n\nAI (Content)\nIn March, AI Content made improvements to interactivity aboard the Javelin Gauntlet by introducing dynamic conversations, greetings, and \u201cI\u2019m busy\u201d dialogue for NPCs. This was in response to playtesting, as it became evident that players sought closer interactions with NPCs, prompting the integration of reactive responses.\n\nAlso a result of feedback from playtesting, the length of the trolley was reduced to a four-box configuration. This decreases the time spent stacking and unstacking and increases time traveling, which was preferred. Elevator travel with the trolley was also polished to eliminate clipping issues upon exiting elevators. Additionally, an extra front stack spot was incorporated for enhanced trolley functionality, as NPCs looked \u201crobotic\u201d without it.\n\nThe bed mattress was rigged for deformation, enabling realistic movement when NPCs sit or sleep on it, adding an additional layer of detail to the environment.\n\nThe final touches were also applied to bed-bunk animations, enhancing the realism of NPC actions such as sitting, reading, watching TV, and sleeping for a more immersive experience.\n\nNPC interactions with wall-based buttons, such as those for calling elevators, can now accommodate 45-degree approaches. Furthermore, AI can carry boxes and press buttons simultaneously, eliminating the need to drop items to interact with doors or elevator controls.\n\nRefinements to scripted walking behaviors within the ship\u2019s corridors are ongoing to ensure NPCs move convincingly while avoiding critical scenes.\n\nAI (Features)\nMarch saw the AI Feature team continuing to iterate and polish features for specific level scenarios. They also worked through some technical debt, refactoring the AI weapon system to remove bugs, simplify the code, and make the development of new functionality and features easier.\n\nAI (Tech)\nAI Tech fixed bugs and made small improvements to NPCs using elevators and using trolleys to move boxes.\n\nThey also progressed with the major task of improving and polishing NPCs driving ground vehicles, which involved adding a new pathfollower for driving movement requests. They also implemented an improved controller system for vehicles by utilizing two PID controllers to control steering and requested velocity. Now, NPCs will stick closer to the designated path without overshooting during turns. The next step is iterating on the collision-avoidance system to work as intended when NPCs need to avoid other ground vehicles or characters.\n\nAnimation\nLast month, the team worked on animations and design work for multiple story scenes and background elements, including life aboard the core ship and on various space stations. Progress was also made on EVA, combat animations for various enemy classes, and assets and design for utility functionality.\n\nThe team are currently improving AI leisure on the core ships and working toward a final result for the first two dressing animations.\n\nGameplay Story\nGameplay Story made substantial progress on chapter one. This involved revising the \u2018golden path\u2019 through the level, which led to several scenes being adjusted.\n\n\u201cEveryone seems happy with the new layout and the level appears to flow much better now.\u201d Gameplay Story Team\n\nNew mo-cap was shot to overhaul several chapter-one scenes and is currently being implemented.\n\n\u201cThis work looks really promising and we can't wait to see the positive impact this will have on the chapter.\u201d\n\nAlongside this, text now appears on a character's mobiGlas screen as they dictate a message.\n\nFor chapter four, a huge update was completed on a complex two-person scene. This now uses standard datapads throughout, which can be holstered and unholstered from the characters\u2019 legs before and after the scene. This looks better, brings the scene more in line with the rest of the game world, and makes the setup a lot cleaner\n\nFinally, the team received further audio and facial data for chapter five, which was incorporated into the relevant scenes.\n\nGraphics & VFX Programming\nThroughout March, much of the department\u2019s focus was on bug-fixing the various features initially developed for SQ42 currently being implemented into the Persistent Universe for Alpha 3.23.\n\nPerformance-scaling options were added to the water simulation to ensure it can scale to all hardware, while various improvements were made to water-boundary shading and visor wetness to achieve a seamless effect as players enter water. Support for distance-field collisions was also completed for more accurate collisions from vehicles.\n\nThe Vulkan team worked through several performance issues as they moved closer to matching D3D performance.\n\n\u201cThis precedes the enabling of multi-threading for the next release to hopefully smash D3D performance levels on the CPU (GPU performance should remain similar). However, some performance issues currently remain. So, depending on the location\/context, players may see worse performance, hence the BETA label on Vulkan. But the aim is for us to get widespread testing in Alpha 3.23 so that we can enable Vulkan by default in the following release.\u201d Graphics, VFX & Programming Team\n\nAlongside this, the team are currently reworking shaders to reduce the total number of PSOs (shaders) that need compiling when the game starts.\n\nWork on Global Illumination continued too, with a focus on performance as the team move toward an internal rollout of the first version for testing by the art teams.\n\nThe Planet Tech team started work on Planet Tech v5, with initial focus on the groundwork required to set up spatial partitioning. They\u2019re currently deciding how this will work with Server Meshing and server-crash recovery. The devs also introduced the concept of \u2018default planets\u2019 for the internal editor so that it\u2019s trivial for anyone to create and use a planet for testing.\n\nOn the VFX-programming side, in addition to water improvements, the team continued with networking support for the fire simulation. They\u2019re also making changes to the augmented-reality render layer to enable support for holographic weapons (e.g. muzzle flashes, projectiles, enemies, and impacts).\n\nNarrative\nLast month, Narrative continued close-out work, adding additional narrative touches throughout the campaign. This included providing text for numerous \u201cfluff\u201d terminals and screens as well as non-interactable set-dressing items that provide opportunities for worldbuilding. For example, a TV screen that displays news headlines of the day.\n\nText passes were completed for several mission-specific discoverable items that needed fleshing out. An example of this work is crafting the specific text inside a data file that players can uncover during a mission.\n\nThe team also made a pass over objective text and map labels to ensure they're as clear as possible. Additionally, a small recording session was held in March to pick up a few lines of voiceover and ambient chatter that were needed to help bring the world to life.\n\nThis was all alongside continuing to review levels with a mind toward polishing and improving the storytelling and narrative pacing of gameplay moments.\n\nTech Design\nMarch saw Tech Design provide interactables support across multiple entities and chapters. They also began an initiative to optimize the implementation of the AI usable coordinator.\n\nFor flight, the AI was reworked to make enemies more difficult and responsive, and the combat test level was updated to help assess the changes. A small change was also made to ensure that a specific character flies slowly when they lead quantum travel.\n\nVarious bugs were also fixed for flight, including issues with quantum travel target selection, AI not using gimbals, and the Drake Cutlass being invulnerable when shot from behind.\n\nGeneral support, coordination, and bug fixing was also provided across the project.\n\nUI\nMarch saw the UI team working on player-facing UIs used at specific locations to support key plot points.\n\nThe team are currently optimizing the game\u2019s opening level to improve the player\u2019s first experience with better storytelling and increased framerate.\n\nFinally, the devs worked on UI seen in cinematic sequences, designed brand visuals, and created screens that the actors can react to at key points.\n\nVFX\nLast month, the VFX team continued their ongoing support for other teams. This involved a focus on optimization, particularly for some of the more intensive scenarios in the game.\n\nWE'LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH...\n\/\/ END TRANSMISSION","de_DE":"Geschwader 42 Monatsbericht\nM\u00e4rz 2024\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 04:10:2024\n\nREF: CIG UK, CIG DE, CIG LA, CIG TX\n\nFAO-Geschwader 42 Rekruten.\n\nWillkommen zum Entwicklungsbericht f\u00fcr das Geschwader 42 im M\u00e4rz. Anbei findest du Details zu den neuesten Fortschritten in der Kampagne, einschlie\u00dflich Planetentechnologie, Schiffsverhalten und Fluff-Terminals.\n\nVielen Dank f\u00fcr eure anhaltende Unterst\u00fctzung von Squadron 42.\n\nMit freundlichen Gr\u00fc\u00dfen,\n\nCIG COMMUNICATIONS\n\nKI (Inhalt)\nIm M\u00e4rz hat die Inhalts-KI die Interaktivit\u00e4t an Bord des Javelin Gauntlet verbessert, indem sie dynamische Gespr\u00e4che, Begr\u00fc\u00dfungen und \"Ich bin besch\u00e4ftigt\"-Dialoge f\u00fcr NSCs eingef\u00fchrt hat. Dies war eine Reaktion auf die Spieltests, bei denen deutlich wurde, dass die Spieler\/innen eine engere Interaktion mit den NSCs w\u00fcnschten, was die Integration reaktiver Antworten zur Folge hatte.\n\nEbenfalls aufgrund des Feedbacks aus dem Spieltest wurde die L\u00e4nge des Wagens auf eine Konfiguration mit vier Kisten reduziert. Das verringert die Zeit, die mit dem Stapeln und Entstapeln verbracht wird, und erh\u00f6ht die Fahrzeit, was bevorzugt wurde. Die Aufzugsfahrt mit dem Trolley wurde ebenfalls optimiert, um Probleme beim Verlassen des Aufzugs zu vermeiden. Au\u00dferdem wurde ein zus\u00e4tzlicher vorderer Stapelplatz eingebaut, um die Funktionalit\u00e4t des Wagens zu verbessern, da die NSCs ohne diesen Platz \"roboterhaft\" aussahen.\n\nDie Matratze des Bettes wurde verformt, um realistische Bewegungen zu erm\u00f6glichen, wenn NSCs darauf sitzen oder schlafen, was die Umgebung noch detaillierter macht.\n\nDen letzten Schliff erhielten auch die Bett-Animationen, die den Realismus von NSC-Aktionen wie Sitzen, Lesen, Fernsehen und Schlafen f\u00fcr ein noch intensiveres Erlebnis verbessern.\n\nNSC-Interaktionen mit Wandtasten, wie z. B. das Rufen von Aufz\u00fcgen, k\u00f6nnen jetzt in einem Winkel von 45 Grad ausgef\u00fchrt werden. Au\u00dferdem kann die KI Kisten tragen und gleichzeitig Kn\u00f6pfe dr\u00fccken, sodass keine Gegenst\u00e4nde mehr fallen gelassen werden m\u00fcssen, um mit T\u00fcren oder Aufz\u00fcgen zu interagieren.\n\nDas geskriptete Laufverhalten in den Korridoren des Schiffes wird weiter verfeinert, um sicherzustellen, dass sich die NSCs \u00fcberzeugend bewegen und kritische Szenen vermeiden.\n\nKI (Features)\nIm M\u00e4rz hat das Team f\u00fcr die KI-Features weiter an der Verbesserung und dem Feinschliff von Features f\u00fcr bestimmte Levelszenarien gearbeitet. Au\u00dferdem wurde das KI-Waffensystem \u00fcberarbeitet, um Bugs zu beseitigen, den Code zu vereinfachen und die Entwicklung neuer Funktionen und Features zu erleichtern.\n\nKI (Tech)\nDie KI-Techniker haben Fehler behoben und kleine Verbesserungen an NSCs vorgenommen, die Aufz\u00fcge benutzen und Kisten mit Karren transportieren.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurde die gro\u00dfe Aufgabe, NSCs, die Bodenfahrzeuge fahren, zu verbessern und aufzupolieren, vorangetrieben, indem ein neuer Pathfollower f\u00fcr Bewegungsanfragen hinzugef\u00fcgt wurde. Au\u00dferdem haben sie ein verbessertes Steuerungssystem f\u00fcr Fahrzeuge implementiert, das zwei PID-Regler zur Steuerung der Lenkung und der gew\u00fcnschten Geschwindigkeit verwendet. Jetzt halten sich die NSCs genauer an den vorgegebenen Pfad, ohne beim Abbiegen zu \u00fcberschie\u00dfen. Im n\u00e4chsten Schritt wird das System zur Kollisionsvermeidung \u00fcberarbeitet, damit es wie vorgesehen funktioniert, wenn NSCs anderen Bodenfahrzeugen oder Charakteren ausweichen m\u00fcssen.\n\nAnimation\nIm letzten Monat hat das Team an Animationen und Design f\u00fcr verschiedene Storyszenen und Hintergrundelemente gearbeitet, darunter das Leben an Bord des Hauptschiffs und auf verschiedenen Raumstationen. Au\u00dferdem wurden Fortschritte bei den EVAs, den Kampfanimationen f\u00fcr verschiedene Feindklassen sowie den Assets und dem Design f\u00fcr die Hilfsfunktionen gemacht.\n\nZurzeit verbessert das Team die KI-Freizeit auf den Kernschiffen und arbeitet an einem Endergebnis f\u00fcr die ersten beiden Ankleideanimationen.\n\nGameplay Story\nDas Team Gameplay Story hat gro\u00dfe Fortschritte im ersten Kapitel gemacht. Dazu geh\u00f6rte die \u00dcberarbeitung des \"goldenen Pfades\" durch das Level, was dazu f\u00fchrte, dass mehrere Szenen angepasst wurden.\n\n\"Alle scheinen mit dem neuen Layout zufrieden zu sein und der Level scheint jetzt viel besser zu flie\u00dfen.\" Gameplay Story Team\n\nF\u00fcr die \u00dcberarbeitung mehrerer Szenen des ersten Kapitels wurde neues Mo-Cap gedreht, das derzeit implementiert wird.\n\n\"Diese Arbeit sieht wirklich vielversprechend aus und wir k\u00f6nnen es kaum erwarten zu sehen, welche positiven Auswirkungen das auf das Kapitel haben wird.\n\nAu\u00dferdem erscheint jetzt Text auf dem MobiGlas-Bildschirm eines Charakters, wenn er eine Nachricht diktiert.\n\nF\u00fcr das vierte Kapitel wurde ein umfangreiches Update einer komplexen Zwei-Personen-Szene fertiggestellt. In dieser Szene werden nun durchg\u00e4ngig Standard-Datapads verwendet, die vor und nach der Szene an den Beinen der Charaktere ein- und ausgeklinkt werden k\u00f6nnen. Das sieht besser aus, bringt die Szene mehr in Einklang mit dem Rest der Spielwelt und macht den Aufbau viel sauberer\n\nSchlie\u00dflich erhielt das Team weitere Audio- und Gesichtsdaten f\u00fcr Kapitel f\u00fcnf, die in die entsprechenden Szenen eingebaut wurden.\n\nGrafik & VFX-Programmierung\nIm M\u00e4rz konzentrierte sich die Abteilung vor allem auf die Behebung von Fehlern in den verschiedenen Funktionen, die urspr\u00fcnglich f\u00fcr SQ42 entwickelt wurden und derzeit in das Persistent Universe f\u00fcr Alpha 3.23 implementiert werden.\n\nEs wurden Optionen zur Leistungsskalierung der Wassersimulation hinzugef\u00fcgt, um sicherzustellen, dass sie f\u00fcr jede Hardware geeignet ist, w\u00e4hrend verschiedene Verbesserungen an der Schattierung der Wassergrenzen und der N\u00e4sse des Visiers vorgenommen wurden, um einen nahtlosen Effekt zu erzielen, wenn die Spieler\/innen das Wasser betreten. Au\u00dferdem wurde die Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr Abstandsfeldkollisionen vervollst\u00e4ndigt, um genauere Kollisionen mit Fahrzeugen zu erm\u00f6glichen.\n\nDas Vulkan-Team arbeitete an mehreren Leistungsproblemen, um der D3D-Leistung n\u00e4her zu kommen.\n\n\"Dies geschieht im Vorfeld der Aktivierung von Multi-Threading f\u00fcr die n\u00e4chste Version, um hoffentlich die D3D-Leistung auf der CPU zu \u00fcbertreffen (die GPU-Leistung sollte \u00e4hnlich bleiben). Allerdings gibt es derzeit noch einige Leistungsprobleme. Je nach Standort\/Kontext kann es also sein, dass die Spieler\/innen eine schlechtere Leistung sehen, daher die BETA-Kennzeichnung von Vulkan. Unser Ziel ist es jedoch, in der Alpha 3.23 umfassende Tests durchzuf\u00fchren, damit wir Vulkan in der n\u00e4chsten Version standardm\u00e4\u00dfig aktivieren k\u00f6nnen.\" Team Grafik, VFX & Programmierung\n\nAu\u00dferdem \u00fcberarbeitet das Team derzeit die Shader, um die Gesamtzahl der PSOs (Shader) zu reduzieren, die beim Start des Spiels kompiliert werden m\u00fcssen.\n\nAuch die Arbeit an der globalen Beleuchtung wurde fortgesetzt, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf der Leistung liegt, da das Team sich auf einen internen Rollout der ersten Version zum Testen durch die Grafikteams vorbereitet.\n\nDas Planet Tech Team hat mit der Arbeit an Planet Tech v5 begonnen und konzentriert sich zun\u00e4chst auf die Grundlagen f\u00fcr die Einrichtung der r\u00e4umlichen Partitionierung. Derzeit wird entschieden, wie dies mit Server Meshing und der Wiederherstellung von Server-Crashs funktionieren soll. Die Entwickler haben au\u00dferdem das Konzept der \"Standardplaneten\" f\u00fcr den internen Editor eingef\u00fchrt, damit es f\u00fcr jeden trivial ist, einen Planeten zu erstellen und zu testen.\n\nAuf der Seite der VFX-Programmierung hat das Team neben den Verbesserungen am Wasser auch die Netzwerkunterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr die Feuersimulation fortgesetzt. Au\u00dferdem werden \u00c4nderungen am Augmented-Reality-Rendering-Layer vorgenommen, um die Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr holografische Waffen (z. B. M\u00fcndungsfeuer, Projektile, Gegner und Einschl\u00e4ge) zu erm\u00f6glichen.\n\nNarrative\nIm letzten Monat hat der Bereich Narrative die Abschlussarbeiten fortgesetzt und der Kampagne weitere erz\u00e4hlerische Akzente verliehen. Dazu geh\u00f6rte die Beschriftung zahlreicher \"Fluff\"-Terminals und Bildschirme sowie nicht interaktiver Ausstattungsgegenst\u00e4nde, die M\u00f6glichkeiten zum Aufbau der Welt bieten. Zum Beispiel ein Fernsehbildschirm, der die Schlagzeilen des Tages anzeigt.\n\nEs wurden Textpassagen f\u00fcr mehrere missionsspezifische auffindbare Gegenst\u00e4nde erstellt, die mit mehr Inhalt gef\u00fcllt werden mussten. Ein Beispiel f\u00fcr diese Arbeit ist die Erstellung des spezifischen Textes in einer Datei, die die Spieler\/innen w\u00e4hrend einer Mission entdecken k\u00f6nnen.\n\nDas Team hat auch Zieltexte und Kartenbeschriftungen \u00fcberarbeitet, um sicherzustellen, dass sie so klar wie m\u00f6glich sind. Au\u00dferdem wurde im M\u00e4rz eine kleine Aufnahmesession abgehalten, um ein paar Zeilen Voiceover und Umgebungsger\u00e4usche aufzunehmen, die die Welt zum Leben erwecken sollten.\n\nGleichzeitig wurden die Levels weiter \u00fcberarbeitet, um die Geschichte und das Erz\u00e4hltempo der Spielmomente zu optimieren und zu verbessern.\n\nTech Design\nIm M\u00e4rz k\u00fcmmerte sich Tech Design um die Unterst\u00fctzung von interaktiven Elementen in mehreren Einheiten und Kapiteln. Au\u00dferdem begannen sie mit einer Initiative zur Optimierung der Implementierung des KI-Koordinators.\n\nF\u00fcr den Flug wurde die KI \u00fcberarbeitet, um Feinde schwieriger und reaktionsschneller zu machen, und die Kampftestebene wurde aktualisiert, um die \u00c4nderungen zu bewerten. Eine kleine \u00c4nderung wurde auch vorgenommen, um sicherzustellen, dass ein bestimmter Charakter langsam fliegt, wenn er eine Quantenreise anf\u00fchrt.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurden verschiedene Fehler im Flug behoben, z. B. Probleme bei der Auswahl von Quantenreisezielen, KI, die keine Gimbals verwendet, und das Drake Cutlass, das unverwundbar ist, wenn es von hinten abgeschossen wird.\n\nDas Projekt wurde auch allgemein unterst\u00fctzt, koordiniert und Fehler behoben.\n\nUI\nIm M\u00e4rz arbeitete das UI-Team an spielerseitigen UIs, die an bestimmten Orten eingesetzt werden, um wichtige Handlungspunkte zu unterst\u00fctzen.\n\nDas Team optimiert derzeit den Er\u00f6ffnungslevel des Spiels, um die erste Erfahrung des Spielers durch eine bessere Erz\u00e4hlung und eine h\u00f6here Framerate zu verbessern.\n\nSchlie\u00dflich arbeiteten die Entwickler an der Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che in den Filmsequenzen, entwarfen Markenvisualisierungen und erstellten Bildschirme, auf die die Schauspieler an wichtigen Stellen reagieren k\u00f6nnen.\n\nVFX\nIm letzten Monat setzte das VFX-Team seine kontinuierliche Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr andere Teams fort. Dabei lag der Schwerpunkt auf der Optimierung, insbesondere f\u00fcr einige der intensiveren Szenarien im Spiel.\n\nWIR SEHEN UNS N\u00c4CHSTEN MONAT...\n\/\/ ENDE DER \u00dcBERTRAGUNG","zh_CN":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report\nMarch 2024\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 04:10:2024\n\nREF: CIG UK, CIG DE, CIG LA, CIG TX\n\nFAO Squadron 42 Recruits.\n\nWelcome to March\u2019s Squadron 42 development report. Enclosed you will find details on the latest progress made across the campaign, including planetary tech, ship behaviors, and fluff terminals.\n\nThank you for your continued support of Squadron 42.\n\nSincerely,\n\nCIG COMMUNICATIONS\n\nAI (Content)\nIn March, AI Content made improvements to interactivity aboard the Javelin Gauntlet by introducing dynamic conversations, greetings, and \u201cI\u2019m busy\u201d dialogue for NPCs. This was in response to playtesting, as it became evident that players sought closer interactions with NPCs, prompting the integration of reactive responses.\n\nAlso a result of feedback from playtesting, the length of the trolley was reduced to a four-box configuration. This decreases the time spent stacking and unstacking and increases time traveling, which was preferred. Elevator travel with the trolley was also polished to eliminate clipping issues upon exiting elevators. Additionally, an extra front stack spot was incorporated for enhanced trolley functionality, as NPCs looked \u201crobotic\u201d without it.\n\nThe bed mattress was rigged for deformation, enabling realistic movement when NPCs sit or sleep on it, adding an additional layer of detail to the environment.\n\nThe final touches were also applied to bed-bunk animations, enhancing the realism of NPC actions such as sitting, reading, watching TV, and sleeping for a more immersive experience.\n\nNPC interactions with wall-based buttons, such as those for calling elevators, can now accommodate 45-degree approaches. Furthermore, AI can carry boxes and press buttons simultaneously, eliminating the need to drop items to interact with doors or elevator controls.\n\nRefinements to scripted walking behaviors within the ship\u2019s corridors are ongoing to ensure NPCs move convincingly while avoiding critical scenes.\n\nAI (Features)\nMarch saw the AI Feature team continuing to iterate and polish features for specific level scenarios. They also worked through some technical debt, refactoring the AI weapon system to remove bugs, simplify the code, and make the development of new functionality and features easier.\n\nAI (Tech)\nAI Tech fixed bugs and made small improvements to NPCs using elevators and using trolleys to move boxes.\n\nThey also progressed with the major task of improving and polishing NPCs driving ground vehicles, which involved adding a new pathfollower for driving movement requests. They also implemented an improved controller system for vehicles by utilizing two PID controllers to control steering and requested velocity. Now, NPCs will stick closer to the designated path without overshooting during turns. The next step is iterating on the collision-avoidance system to work as intended when NPCs need to avoid other ground vehicles or characters.\n\nAnimation\nLast month, the team worked on animations and design work for multiple story scenes and background elements, including life aboard the core ship and on various space stations. Progress was also made on EVA, combat animations for various enemy classes, and assets and design for utility functionality.\n\nThe team are currently improving AI leisure on the core ships and working toward a final result for the first two dressing animations.\n\nGameplay Story\nGameplay Story made substantial progress on chapter one. This involved revising the \u2018golden path\u2019 through the level, which led to several scenes being adjusted.\n\n\u201cEveryone seems happy with the new layout and the level appears to flow much better now.\u201d Gameplay Story Team\n\nNew mo-cap was shot to overhaul several chapter-one scenes and is currently being implemented.\n\n\u201cThis work looks really promising and we can't wait to see the positive impact this will have on the chapter.\u201d\n\nAlongside this, text now appears on a character's mobiGlas screen as they dictate a message.\n\nFor chapter four, a huge update was completed on a complex two-person scene. This now uses standard datapads throughout, which can be holstered and unholstered from the characters\u2019 legs before and after the scene. This looks better, brings the scene more in line with the rest of the game world, and makes the setup a lot cleaner\n\nFinally, the team received further audio and facial data for chapter five, which was incorporated into the relevant scenes.\n\nGraphics & VFX Programming\nThroughout March, much of the department\u2019s focus was on bug-fixing the various features initially developed for SQ42 currently being implemented into the Persistent Universe for Alpha 3.23.\n\nPerformance-scaling options were added to the water simulation to ensure it can scale to all hardware, while various improvements were made to water-boundary shading and visor wetness to achieve a seamless effect as players enter water. Support for distance-field collisions was also completed for more accurate collisions from vehicles.\n\nThe Vulkan team worked through several performance issues as they moved closer to matching D3D performance.\n\n\u201cThis precedes the enabling of multi-threading for the next release to hopefully smash D3D performance levels on the CPU (GPU performance should remain similar). However, some performance issues currently remain. So, depending on the location\/context, players may see worse performance, hence the BETA label on Vulkan. But the aim is for us to get widespread testing in Alpha 3.23 so that we can enable Vulkan by default in the following release.\u201d Graphics, VFX & Programming Team\n\nAlongside this, the team are currently reworking shaders to reduce the total number of PSOs (shaders) that need compiling when the game starts.\n\nWork on Global Illumination continued too, with a focus on performance as the team move toward an internal rollout of the first version for testing by the art teams.\n\nThe Planet Tech team started work on Planet Tech v5, with initial focus on the groundwork required to set up spatial partitioning. They\u2019re currently deciding how this will work with Server Meshing and server-crash recovery. The devs also introduced the concept of \u2018default planets\u2019 for the internal editor so that it\u2019s trivial for anyone to create and use a planet for testing.\n\nOn the VFX-programming side, in addition to water improvements, the team continued with networking support for the fire simulation. They\u2019re also making changes to the augmented-reality render layer to enable support for holographic weapons (e.g. muzzle flashes, projectiles, enemies, and impacts).\n\nNarrative\nLast month, Narrative continued close-out work, adding additional narrative touches throughout the campaign. This included providing text for numerous \u201cfluff\u201d terminals and screens as well as non-interactable set-dressing items that provide opportunities for worldbuilding. For example, a TV screen that displays news headlines of the day.\n\nText passes were completed for several mission-specific discoverable items that needed fleshing out. An example of this work is crafting the specific text inside a data file that players can uncover during a mission.\n\nThe team also made a pass over objective text and map labels to ensure they're as clear as possible. Additionally, a small recording session was held in March to pick up a few lines of voiceover and ambient chatter that were needed to help bring the world to life.\n\nThis was all alongside continuing to review levels with a mind toward polishing and improving the storytelling and narrative pacing of gameplay moments.\n\nTech Design\nMarch saw Tech Design provide interactables support across multiple entities and chapters. They also began an initiative to optimize the implementation of the AI usable coordinator.\n\nFor flight, the AI was reworked to make enemies more difficult and responsive, and the combat test level was updated to help assess the changes. A small change was also made to ensure that a specific character flies slowly when they lead quantum travel.\n\nVarious bugs were also fixed for flight, including issues with quantum travel target selection, AI not using gimbals, and the Drake Cutlass being invulnerable when shot from behind.\n\nGeneral support, coordination, and bug fixing was also provided across the project.\n\nUI\nMarch saw the UI team working on player-facing UIs used at specific locations to support key plot points.\n\nThe team are currently optimizing the game\u2019s opening level to improve the player\u2019s first experience with better storytelling and increased framerate.\n\nFinally, the devs worked on UI seen in cinematic sequences, designed brand visuals, and created screens that the actors can react to at key points.\n\nVFX\nLast month, the VFX team continued their ongoing support for other teams. This involved a focus on optimization, particularly for some of the more intensive scenarios in the game.\n\nWE'LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH...\n\/\/ END TRANSMISSION"},"links_count":0,"comment_count":0,"created_at":"2024-04-17T19:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"2 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-07 20:37:02","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":19908,"next_id":19912}}