{"data":{"id":20012,"title":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report: May 2024","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/SCW\/20012-API","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/20012","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/20012","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\nMay 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 06:05:2024\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 enemy cover use, zero-g movement, and cinematic effects.\n\nThank you for your continued support of Squadron 42.\n\nSincerely,\n\nCIG COMMUNICATIONS\n\nAI (Content)\nAI Content developed a new background manager to handle all non-scene scripted sequences. This update has streamlined the main mission manager, stabilizing it for core flow operations and significantly reducing bugs.\n\nFor the opening level, they completed the R&D for new \u2018Look At\u2019 technology. This enhancement significantly improves visuals when NPCs look at the player, featuring profiles that allow them to glance weakly or stare strongly based on the situation, adding a layer of realism and depth to character interactions.\n\nThey also made adjustments to the pathing of scripted walkers in the Stanton to avoid critical scenes and improve visual consistency. In addition, they suppressed greeting dialogue for NPCs shortly after workouts, as the previous content didn't sound appropriately out of breath, ensuring a more realistic experience.\n\nThe chowline was improved by decreasing idle times between interactions, making the AI feel more responsive and realistic. To further enhance dynamic conversations, facial animations were added for additional voice packs.\n\nJanitor cleaning spots were also adjusted to avoid high-traffic areas, which helped reduce bugs. Furthermore, cleaning-spot regeneration now occurs only when players are not nearby, enhancing both performance and realism.\n\nAI (Features)\nLast month, AI Features worked towards consistent behaviors across different combat scenarios, ensuring that AI characters react in believable ways, no matter what situation they\u2019re in. The team began by improving and unifying perception reactions, improving cover use in different scenarios, and making a holistic evaluation of all combat elements to ensure they work as intended.\n\nThis is particularly important with the recent improvements to the hostility system. For example, if an AI comes across two others fighting and they are friendly with both, doing nothing is not a valid response. For the first-pass implementation, the AI will run and cower when this situation arises, though this isn\u2019t ideal and will be improved upon.\n\nAI (Tech)\nAI Tech improved the functionality of NPCs pushing trolleys and using elevators alongside updates to behaviors for elevator use. Smoother animations when NPCs move away from trolleys and improved functionality for NPCs parking trolleys were implemented too.\n\nAI Tech also began work to allow NPCs to understand when cover is being destroyed or when parts of a usable are being destroyed. This will prevent NPCs from attempting to find or use unsuitable cover.\n\nFor Ship AI, the team continued making improvements and fixing bugs related to following splines and back-strafing.\n\nAnimation\nMay saw Gameplay Animation further develop various player-interaction moments, such as interacting with levers, vehicles, clothing, etc. They also worked to improve the feel of zero-g movement and created additional first-select animations, which are used when the player gets a new weapon.\n\nCombat AI polishing continued, with a focus on refining the motion-capture flow. The team also discussed how entity movement implies enemy logic and how it can be improved.\n\nThe Social team continued to work through multiple chapters, focusing on placement and the creation of \u2018life\u2019 animations to give the feeling of a living, breathing ship.\n\nThe Motion Capture team supported both gameplay and story elements and completed a shoot for a new enemy class. They also discussed how to leverage the Mo-cap team\u2019s experience in solving and retargeting to improve burndown in other places.\n\nVanduul facial animations progressed too, as well as animations for various tier-two story characters and the player character.\n\nGameplay Story\nThroughout May, Gameplay Story continued polishing characters in chapter 1 following feedback, including fist bumping, looking at the player, fiddling with turret buttons, and walking off with their helmets.\n\nA tour in chapter 4 also saw improvements. For example, player choice was added to the beginning along with new idle and abandon animations. A key \u2018meet\u2019 scene was overhauled with updated mo-cap to make it more robust, while idles and exit animations were improved for another scene.\n\nNew audio was added to scenes in chapters 4a and 5, a scene in chapter 4d was updated to account for a new console position, and a console animation was repaired in chapter 14.\n\nSeveral new scenes were created too, including a hiding survivor, a conversation in the mess hall, a moving forklift truck, a medic healing the player, and a deck crew inspecting a Gladius.\n\nLevel Design\nSocial Design continued to work on their \u2018focus\u2019 chapters. Alongside addressing review feedback and fixing bugs, part of this involved implementing fail states, objective markers, emails, ship chat, checkpoints, Galactapedia entries, and more.\n\nThis was also an opportunity to clean up loose ends with various scenes. For example, new mo-cap was used to improve several scenes where the narrative content played out well but didn\u2019t close out as cleanly.\n\nNarrative\nMay saw the Narrative team continuing to drill down on their remaining tasks for Squadron 42. On the production side, they continued reviewing tasks to make sure they represent a comprehensive list but also to see if there are any that could be tackled without waiting on other teams.\n\nThey continued to sit in on playthroughs of levels with other teams as well as on their own to provide feedback on the narrative experience. Narrative also continued writing Galactapedia entries and worked with Core Gameplay to define where they will appear in levels.\n\nNarrative also worked with several outsourced freelancers to develop collectibles that will be scattered throughout the levels for players to find.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s been exciting to see the work come in and we\u2019re looking forward to seeing the players react to them.\u201d Narrative Team\n\nFollowing up on last month\u2019s report, a new testbed was developed in collaboration with the Gameplay and Audio teams to test the dogfighting combat experience and make sure the wildlines for the various pilots trigger correctly. When complete, this will provide an in-situ environment to ensure the technical setup is working but also that the personalities of the various gangs come through in the way they talk as well as fight.\n\nR&D\nFor volumetric cloud rendering, stochastic Catmull-Rom texture filtering was implemented for the new half-res render mode upsampler. The number of ray marching steps now also scales with scene depth to improve performance in scenes with near-distance occluders (buildings, cockpit, terrain, etc.).\n\nMoreover, progress continued on the temporal render mode. All confidence metrics and transmittance filtering received further tweaks and improvements. A first draft of the code was submitted for internal use.\n\nTech Design\nFor flight, Tech Design integrated the new AI flight behavior from the PU to SQ42 and began improving various combat encounters.\n\nThey also fixed bugs and made improvements to interactables across multiple chapters. For example, in chapter 1, terminal screen interactions were polished, new UI art was implemented, and the interaction flow was streamlined.\n\nVFX\nThe VFX team continued to support the Art, Design, and Cinematic teams in May. Several cinematic scenes are reaching \u2018edit lock,\u2019 which means the camera positions are mostly finalized, enabling the VFX artists to dial in their effects to match each shot.\n\nWE'LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH...\n\/\/ END TRANSMISSION","de_DE":"Geschwader 42 Monatsbericht\nMai 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 06:05:2024\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 Mai. Anbei findest du Details zu den neuesten Fortschritten in der Kampagne, einschlie\u00dflich der Nutzung von feindlicher Deckung, Zero-G-Bewegungen und filmischen Effekten.\n\nVielen Dank f\u00fcr eure anhaltende Unterst\u00fctzung von Squadron 42.\n\nMit freundlichen Gr\u00fc\u00dfen,\n\nCIG COMMUNICATIONS\n\nAI (Inhalt)\nAI Content hat einen neuen Hintergrundmanager entwickelt, der alle nicht geskripteten Sequenzen verwaltet. Mit diesem Update wurde der Hauptmissionsmanager gestrafft, f\u00fcr die Kernabl\u00e4ufe stabilisiert und Bugs deutlich reduziert.\n\nF\u00fcr die Er\u00f6ffnungsebene wurde die Forschung und Entwicklung f\u00fcr die neue \"Look At\"-Technologie abgeschlossen. Mit dieser Verbesserung wird die Darstellung der NSCs, die den Spieler ansehen, deutlich verbessert. Sie verf\u00fcgen \u00fcber Profile, die es ihnen erm\u00f6glichen, den Spieler je nach Situation schwach oder stark anzustarren, was den Interaktionen der Charaktere eine zus\u00e4tzliche Ebene an Realismus und Tiefe verleiht.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurde das Pathing der gescripteten Walker in Stanton angepasst, um kritische Szenen zu vermeiden und die visuelle Konsistenz zu verbessern. Au\u00dferdem haben sie den Begr\u00fc\u00dfungsdialog f\u00fcr NSCs kurz nach dem Training unterdr\u00fcckt, da der vorherige Inhalt nicht angemessen au\u00dfer Atem klang, was f\u00fcr ein realistischeres Erlebnis sorgt.\n\nDie Chowline wurde verbessert, indem die Leerlaufzeiten zwischen den Interaktionen verk\u00fcrzt wurden, wodurch sich die KI reaktionsschneller und realistischer anf\u00fchlt. Um dynamische Unterhaltungen weiter zu verbessern, wurden Gesichtsanimationen f\u00fcr zus\u00e4tzliche Voice Packs hinzugef\u00fcgt.\n\nDie Reinigungspunkte der Hausmeister wurden au\u00dferdem so angepasst, dass sie stark frequentierte Bereiche meiden, was zur Reduzierung von Fehlern beitr\u00e4gt. Au\u00dferdem werden die Putzstellen jetzt nur noch regeneriert, wenn keine Spieler\/innen in der N\u00e4he sind, was sowohl die Leistung als auch den Realismus verbessert.\n\nKI (Features)\nIm letzten Monat haben die KI-Funktionen an einem einheitlichen Verhalten in verschiedenen Kampfszenarien gearbeitet, um sicherzustellen, dass die KI-Charaktere unabh\u00e4ngig von der Situation glaubw\u00fcrdig reagieren. Das Team begann damit, die Wahrnehmungsreaktionen zu verbessern und zu vereinheitlichen, die Nutzung von Deckung in verschiedenen Szenarien zu verbessern und eine ganzheitliche Bewertung aller Kampfelemente vorzunehmen, um sicherzustellen, dass sie wie vorgesehen funktionieren.\n\nDas ist besonders wichtig bei den j\u00fcngsten Verbesserungen des Feindschaftssystems. Wenn eine KI zum Beispiel auf zwei k\u00e4mpfende Gegner trifft und mit beiden befreundet ist, ist Nichtstun keine g\u00fcltige Reaktion. Im ersten Durchgang wird die KI in dieser Situation weglaufen und sich ducken, aber das ist nicht ideal und wird noch verbessert werden.\n\nKI (Tech)\nDie KI-Technologie hat die Funktionalit\u00e4t von NSCs verbessert, die Wagen schieben und Aufz\u00fcge benutzen, sowie das Verhalten bei der Benutzung von Aufz\u00fcgen aktualisiert. Au\u00dferdem wurden fl\u00fcssigere Animationen implementiert, wenn sich NSCs von Trolleys wegbewegen, und die Funktionalit\u00e4t von NSCs, die Trolleys parken, wurde verbessert.\n\nDie KI-Techniker haben au\u00dferdem damit begonnen, NSCs zu erm\u00f6glichen, zu erkennen, wenn Deckung zerst\u00f6rt wird oder wenn Teile einer nutzbaren Fl\u00e4che zerst\u00f6rt werden. Dadurch wird verhindert, dass NSCs versuchen, eine ungeeignete Deckung zu finden oder zu nutzen.\n\nBei der SchiffskI hat das Team weitere Verbesserungen vorgenommen und Fehler im Zusammenhang mit dem Folgen von Splines und dem Backstrafing behoben.\n\nAnimation\nIm Mai hat die Gameplay-Animation verschiedene Spielerinteraktionen weiterentwickelt, z. B. die Interaktion mit Hebeln, Fahrzeugen, Kleidung usw. Au\u00dferdem wurde das Gef\u00fchl der Schwerelosigkeit verbessert und es wurden zus\u00e4tzliche Animationen f\u00fcr die erste Auswahl erstellt, die verwendet wird, wenn der Spieler eine neue Waffe erh\u00e4lt.\n\nAn der Kampf-KI wurde weiter gefeilt, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf der Verfeinerung des Motion-Capture-Flows lag. Das Team diskutierte auch dar\u00fcber, wie die Bewegung von Entit\u00e4ten die Logik der Gegner beeinflusst und wie sie verbessert werden kann.\n\nDas Sozialteam arbeitete sich weiter durch mehrere Kapitel und konzentrierte sich dabei auf die Platzierung und die Erstellung von \"Lebens\"-Animationen, um das Gef\u00fchl eines lebendigen, atmenden Schiffs zu vermitteln.\n\nDas Motion Capture-Team unterst\u00fctzte sowohl Gameplay- als auch Story-Elemente und schloss einen Dreh f\u00fcr eine neue Feindklasse ab. Au\u00dferdem wurde besprochen, wie die Erfahrung des Motion-Capture-Teams bei der Aufl\u00f6sung und dem Retargeting genutzt werden kann, um den Burndown an anderen Stellen zu verbessern.\n\nAuch die Gesichtsanimationen von Vanduul machten Fortschritte, ebenso wie die Animationen f\u00fcr verschiedene Story-Charaktere der zweiten Ebene und den Spielercharakter.\n\nGameplay Story\nDen ganzen Mai \u00fcber wurden die Charaktere in Kapitel 1 der Gameplay Story nach dem Feedback weiter poliert, z. B. Faustst\u00f6\u00dfe, das Anschauen des Spielers, das Herumfummeln an den Gesch\u00fctzturmkn\u00f6pfen und das Weggehen mit dem Helm.\n\nBei einem Rundgang in Kapitel 4 wurden ebenfalls Verbesserungen vorgenommen. So wurde zum Beispiel die Wahl des Spielers am Anfang zusammen mit neuen Leerlauf- und Ausstiegsanimationen hinzugef\u00fcgt. Eine Schl\u00fcsselszene des \"Treffens\" wurde mit aktualisiertem Mo-Cap \u00fcberarbeitet, um sie robuster zu machen, w\u00e4hrend Leerlauf- und Ausstiegsanimationen f\u00fcr eine andere Szene verbessert wurden.\n\nDie Szenen in Kapitel 4a und 5 wurden mit neuem Ton versehen, eine Szene in Kapitel 4d wurde aktualisiert, um eine neue Konsolenposition zu ber\u00fccksichtigen, und eine Konsolenanimation in Kapitel 14 wurde repariert.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurden mehrere neue Szenen erstellt, darunter ein sich versteckender \u00dcberlebender, ein Gespr\u00e4ch in der Kantine, ein sich bewegender Gabelstapler, ein Sanit\u00e4ter, der den Spieler heilt, und eine Decksmannschaft, die einen Gladius inspiziert.\n\nLevel Design\nSocial Design arbeitete weiter an den \"Fokus\"-Kapiteln. Neben dem Feedback aus den Reviews und der Behebung von Fehlern ging es dabei auch um die Implementierung von Fail-States, Zielmarkierungen, E-Mails, Schiffs-Chat, Checkpoints, Galactapedia-Eintr\u00e4gen und mehr.\n\nDas war auch eine Gelegenheit, verschiedene Szenen zu \u00fcberarbeiten. So wurden zum Beispiel neue Mo-Caps eingesetzt, um einige Szenen zu verbessern, in denen der erz\u00e4hlerische Inhalt zwar gut war, aber nicht so sauber zu Ende ging.\n\nNarrative\nIm Mai arbeitete das Narrative Team weiter an seinen verbleibenden Aufgaben f\u00fcr Squadron 42. Auf der Produktionsseite wurden die Aufgaben weiter \u00fcberpr\u00fcft, um sicherzustellen, dass sie eine umfassende Liste darstellen, aber auch um zu sehen, ob es welche gibt, die angegangen werden k\u00f6nnen, ohne auf andere Teams zu warten.\n\nSie haben weiterhin an den Durchl\u00e4ufen der Levels mit anderen Teams und auch alleine teilgenommen, um Feedback zur Erz\u00e4hlung zu geben. Die Narrative haben auch weiterhin Galactapedia-Eintr\u00e4ge geschrieben und mit Core Gameplay zusammengearbeitet, um festzulegen, wo sie in den Levels erscheinen werden.\n\nNarrative arbeitete auch mit mehreren externen Freelancern zusammen, um Sammlerst\u00fccke zu entwickeln, die die Spieler\/innen in den Levels finden k\u00f6nnen.\n\n\"Es ist aufregend zu sehen, wie die Arbeit voranschreitet, und wir freuen uns darauf, zu sehen, wie die Spieler darauf reagieren\". Narrative Team\n\nAnkn\u00fcpfend an den Bericht vom letzten Monat wurde in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Gameplay- und dem Audio-Team ein neues Testbed entwickelt, um das Dogfighting-Kampferlebnis zu testen und sicherzustellen, dass die Wildlines f\u00fcr die verschiedenen Piloten richtig ausgel\u00f6st werden. Nach der Fertigstellung wird dies eine Umgebung sein, in der sichergestellt wird, dass die technische Einrichtung funktioniert, aber auch, dass die Pers\u00f6nlichkeiten der verschiedenen Banden in der Art, wie sie reden und k\u00e4mpfen, zum Ausdruck kommen.\n\nF&E\nF\u00fcr das volumetrische Wolkenrendering wurde die stochastische Catmull-Rom-Texturfilterung f\u00fcr den neuen Upsampler im Half-Res-Rendering-Modus implementiert. Die Anzahl der Raymarshing-Schritte skaliert jetzt auch mit der Szenentiefe, um die Leistung in Szenen mit nahen Okkludatoren (Geb\u00e4ude, Cockpit, Gel\u00e4nde usw.) zu verbessern.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurden weitere Fortschritte beim temporalen Rendermodus erzielt. Alle Konfidenzmetriken und die Transmissionsfilterung wurden weiter verfeinert und verbessert. Ein erster Entwurf des Codes wurde zur internen Verwendung eingereicht.\n\nTech Design\nIm Bereich Flug integrierte Tech Design das neue KI-Flugverhalten aus der PU in SQ42 und begann mit der Verbesserung verschiedener Kampfbegegnungen.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurden Fehler behoben und Verbesserungen an interaktiven Elementen in mehreren Kapiteln vorgenommen. In Kapitel 1 wurden zum Beispiel die Interaktionen auf dem Terminalbildschirm aufpoliert, neue UI-Grafiken implementiert und der Interaktionsfluss gestrafft.\n\nVFX\nDas VFX-Team unterst\u00fctzte auch im Mai die Teams aus den Bereichen Kunst, Design und Cinematic. Mehrere Filmszenen haben den \"Edit Lock\" erreicht, d. h. die Kamerapositionen sind gr\u00f6\u00dftenteils fertiggestellt, so dass die VFX-K\u00fcnstler ihre Effekte auf die jeweilige Einstellung abstimmen k\u00f6nnen.\n\nWIR SEHEN UNS N\u00c4CHSTEN MONAT WIEDER...\n\/\/ ENDE DER \u00dcBERTRAGUNG","zh_CN":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report\nMay 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 06:05:2024\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 enemy cover use, zero-g movement, and cinematic effects.\n\nThank you for your continued support of Squadron 42.\n\nSincerely,\n\nCIG COMMUNICATIONS\n\nAI (Content)\nAI Content developed a new background manager to handle all non-scene scripted sequences. This update has streamlined the main mission manager, stabilizing it for core flow operations and significantly reducing bugs.\n\nFor the opening level, they completed the R&D for new \u2018Look At\u2019 technology. This enhancement significantly improves visuals when NPCs look at the player, featuring profiles that allow them to glance weakly or stare strongly based on the situation, adding a layer of realism and depth to character interactions.\n\nThey also made adjustments to the pathing of scripted walkers in the Stanton to avoid critical scenes and improve visual consistency. In addition, they suppressed greeting dialogue for NPCs shortly after workouts, as the previous content didn't sound appropriately out of breath, ensuring a more realistic experience.\n\nThe chowline was improved by decreasing idle times between interactions, making the AI feel more responsive and realistic. To further enhance dynamic conversations, facial animations were added for additional voice packs.\n\nJanitor cleaning spots were also adjusted to avoid high-traffic areas, which helped reduce bugs. Furthermore, cleaning-spot regeneration now occurs only when players are not nearby, enhancing both performance and realism.\n\nAI (Features)\nLast month, AI Features worked towards consistent behaviors across different combat scenarios, ensuring that AI characters react in believable ways, no matter what situation they\u2019re in. The team began by improving and unifying perception reactions, improving cover use in different scenarios, and making a holistic evaluation of all combat elements to ensure they work as intended.\n\nThis is particularly important with the recent improvements to the hostility system. For example, if an AI comes across two others fighting and they are friendly with both, doing nothing is not a valid response. For the first-pass implementation, the AI will run and cower when this situation arises, though this isn\u2019t ideal and will be improved upon.\n\nAI (Tech)\nAI Tech improved the functionality of NPCs pushing trolleys and using elevators alongside updates to behaviors for elevator use. Smoother animations when NPCs move away from trolleys and improved functionality for NPCs parking trolleys were implemented too.\n\nAI Tech also began work to allow NPCs to understand when cover is being destroyed or when parts of a usable are being destroyed. This will prevent NPCs from attempting to find or use unsuitable cover.\n\nFor Ship AI, the team continued making improvements and fixing bugs related to following splines and back-strafing.\n\nAnimation\nMay saw Gameplay Animation further develop various player-interaction moments, such as interacting with levers, vehicles, clothing, etc. They also worked to improve the feel of zero-g movement and created additional first-select animations, which are used when the player gets a new weapon.\n\nCombat AI polishing continued, with a focus on refining the motion-capture flow. The team also discussed how entity movement implies enemy logic and how it can be improved.\n\nThe Social team continued to work through multiple chapters, focusing on placement and the creation of \u2018life\u2019 animations to give the feeling of a living, breathing ship.\n\nThe Motion Capture team supported both gameplay and story elements and completed a shoot for a new enemy class. They also discussed how to leverage the Mo-cap team\u2019s experience in solving and retargeting to improve burndown in other places.\n\nVanduul facial animations progressed too, as well as animations for various tier-two story characters and the player character.\n\nGameplay Story\nThroughout May, Gameplay Story continued polishing characters in chapter 1 following feedback, including fist bumping, looking at the player, fiddling with turret buttons, and walking off with their helmets.\n\nA tour in chapter 4 also saw improvements. For example, player choice was added to the beginning along with new idle and abandon animations. A key \u2018meet\u2019 scene was overhauled with updated mo-cap to make it more robust, while idles and exit animations were improved for another scene.\n\nNew audio was added to scenes in chapters 4a and 5, a scene in chapter 4d was updated to account for a new console position, and a console animation was repaired in chapter 14.\n\nSeveral new scenes were created too, including a hiding survivor, a conversation in the mess hall, a moving forklift truck, a medic healing the player, and a deck crew inspecting a Gladius.\n\nLevel Design\nSocial Design continued to work on their \u2018focus\u2019 chapters. Alongside addressing review feedback and fixing bugs, part of this involved implementing fail states, objective markers, emails, ship chat, checkpoints, Galactapedia entries, and more.\n\nThis was also an opportunity to clean up loose ends with various scenes. For example, new mo-cap was used to improve several scenes where the narrative content played out well but didn\u2019t close out as cleanly.\n\nNarrative\nMay saw the Narrative team continuing to drill down on their remaining tasks for Squadron 42. On the production side, they continued reviewing tasks to make sure they represent a comprehensive list but also to see if there are any that could be tackled without waiting on other teams.\n\nThey continued to sit in on playthroughs of levels with other teams as well as on their own to provide feedback on the narrative experience. Narrative also continued writing Galactapedia entries and worked with Core Gameplay to define where they will appear in levels.\n\nNarrative also worked with several outsourced freelancers to develop collectibles that will be scattered throughout the levels for players to find.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s been exciting to see the work come in and we\u2019re looking forward to seeing the players react to them.\u201d Narrative Team\n\nFollowing up on last month\u2019s report, a new testbed was developed in collaboration with the Gameplay and Audio teams to test the dogfighting combat experience and make sure the wildlines for the various pilots trigger correctly. When complete, this will provide an in-situ environment to ensure the technical setup is working but also that the personalities of the various gangs come through in the way they talk as well as fight.\n\nR&D\nFor volumetric cloud rendering, stochastic Catmull-Rom texture filtering was implemented for the new half-res render mode upsampler. The number of ray marching steps now also scales with scene depth to improve performance in scenes with near-distance occluders (buildings, cockpit, terrain, etc.).\n\nMoreover, progress continued on the temporal render mode. All confidence metrics and transmittance filtering received further tweaks and improvements. A first draft of the code was submitted for internal use.\n\nTech Design\nFor flight, Tech Design integrated the new AI flight behavior from the PU to SQ42 and began improving various combat encounters.\n\nThey also fixed bugs and made improvements to interactables across multiple chapters. For example, in chapter 1, terminal screen interactions were polished, new UI art was implemented, and the interaction flow was streamlined.\n\nVFX\nThe VFX team continued to support the Art, Design, and Cinematic teams in May. Several cinematic scenes are reaching \u2018edit lock,\u2019 which means the camera positions are mostly finalized, enabling the VFX artists to dial in their effects to match each shot.\n\nWE'LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH...\n\/\/ END TRANSMISSION"},"links_count":0,"comment_count":0,"created_at":"2024-06-12T17:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"1 year ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-07 23:09:52","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":20009,"next_id":20013}}