January 2949 Subscriber Flair

January 2949 Subscriber Flair

Subscribers

Everyone knows that RSI’s Venture Explorer Suit is top-notch light armor, perfectly suited for plunging headlong into the unknown. This exclusive undersuit has been specially designed for the Rust Society, sporting a red and tan color scheme that naturally hides dirt, wear, and tear. Look good while working hard.

Imperator Subscribers

Imperator-level subscribers get this RSI Beacon flight suit in addition to the Venture edition. Celebrate the blue-collar legacy of the Rust Society with two stylish, functional options.

If you’re an active subscriber, these items will be added to your account on January 14th.

If you aren’t a subscriber yet but want to sport this Flight Suit, make sure you subscribe no later than January 13th.

More information about subscriptions can be found here

Source: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/16932-January-2949-Subscriber-Flair

Galactic Guide: Kabal System

This Galactic Guide originally appeared in Jump Point 4.12.

After nearly six years of work as a stellar surveyor for the Imperial Cartography Center, Usuni Colo had never taken as much as a sick day. By 2941, his supervisor hadn’t suggested that Colo take a vacation, she mandated it. Faced with three weeks of nothing to do, Colo knew there was only one place he wanted to go. Fascinated by the Outsiders, he traveled to Mya in the Leir system to see firsthand how isolationism had affected the planet and its people.

Unfortunately for Colo, his attempts to talk his way past the traveler zone to get the ‘real experience’ got him expelled from the planet. Still faced with a couple weeks of enforced downtime, Colo took his time returning home to the Elysium system. And as a member of an ICC Stellar Surveyor team, he was in the habit of scanning for jump points even when off-duty.

So on 2941.03.11 when his scanners hit an anomaly that looked like a new jump point leaving the Leir system, Usuni Colo was professional rather than surprised. What would ultimately surprise him would be what lay on the other side. He’d learn that he hadn’t discovered this system at all. Only rediscovered it.

Exploration Excitement

Colo took a number of initial scans of what became known as the Kabal system, which Colo named in honor of the famous 27th century musical group. The scans found a F-type main sequence star, three planets, and an asteroid cluster. Upon returning to UEE space, he immediately reported the discovery and logged a special request that his ICC unit be assigned to scan and explore the system he discovered. The UEE granted Colo’s petition, and he returned to the system with the rest of his team shortly thereafter.

Their initial assessment of the system was overwhelmingly positive. Kabal II and Kabal III were located within the habitable zone, and Kabal III’s oxygen-based atmosphere meant it had the potential to be a turnkey planet. Excitement swelled among government officials, since finding a naturally habitable world would provide incredible benefits and resources without the expense of terraforming. Colo and the rest of his team were immediately deployed to take more detailed scans of Kabal III.

The ICC’s standard protocol is to keep the initial assessment of systems confidential until further evaluations have been made and details verified. Yet, somehow Kabal’s assessment leaked. News about the existence of a planet that might be immediately habitable caused a media sensation.

Critics of Imperator Costigan were suspicious; they claimed the leak was a calculated move on the part of his administration. Only weeks prior, the Historical Truth Act of 2941 declassified a trove of documents, many of which were from the Messer era and revealed many of the propaganda techniques Messer’s government used to manipulate the public. Although this was hardly a new revelation and obviously none of the released documents directly related to Costigan’s administration, columnists and critics drew tenuous comparisons between the tactics previously used and actions of the current administration, which had been mired in a series of embarrassing gaffes. The leak of Kabal’s initial assessment was seen by some as a way to get the populace to focus on the UEE’s future instead of the past.

Once the confidential report leaked, the ICC decided to embrace the buzz being generated. Usuni Colo was even scheduled to tell his incredible discovery story to Beck Russum for an Empire Report exclusive. The event was hyped across the spectrum for days, then abruptly canceled. When no official explanation was given for the interview getting canned, rumors started to swirl. After the official assessment of the Kabal system was delayed, also for unspecified reasons, the Senate Subcommittee of the Interior decided to get involved.

The Known Unknown

In October of 2941, Rebecca Alves, chair of the ICC, was summoned before the Senate Subcommittee of the Interior to discuss her stewardship of the agency. Senators focused their inquiries on Kabal III and wondered why the system‘s official report was late. Alves dodged most questions, claiming she couldn’t discuss specifics until the official report was released. When pressed, Alves became more evasive. This drew ire from Senators, who openly wondered who was really running the ICC if its director couldn’t provide a timeline.

Alves’ appearance before the Senate subcommittee was considered a disaster. It re-energized the debate over Kabal and reinforced the claim that the Imperator was really controlling the release of information. Faced with mounting public pressure the ICC finally published their official assessment of the Kabal system in early November of 2941. Suddenly, it became obvious why there was so much secrecy surrounding the system.

The report revealed that ancient, abandoned Tevarin cities, believed to predate the First Tevarin War, were discovered on Kabal III. So, even though the planet was Human-habitable, no settlements would be established for the foreseeable future. Following the release of this report, the UEE government classified the entire system off limits to the public to maintain the integrity of this important archaeological site. It has remained restricted ever since.

Kabal I

This small, lumpy protoplanet sits so close to the system’s sun that it only takes 34 standard days to complete its orbit.

Kabal II

The ICC’s initial report on Kabal II drew comparison to Mars. It’s a terrestrial desert planet situated smack dab in the middle of the habitable zone, making it an ideal terraforming candidate. Yet, the Tevarin never mastered terraforming technology, so it remained uninhabited while the system was under their control.

Kabal III

Kabal III was the system’s clear gem when it was (re)discovered. Yet the hope of the UEE establishing settlements on the planet was quickly squashed after abandoned Tevarin cities were uncovered, turning the planet into an archaeological site.

Beneath a thick layer of native plant life that had reclaimed the cities, this Tevarin world was stuck in time. Buildings and houses were filled with various common goods. Ships sat quietly on landing pads. The sacred codices of Rijora still hung in the temples. All this evidence suggested that the population either left quickly or planned to come back. Either way, Kabal III opened a window into a culture that had tried to erase itself in the Purge after the Second Tevarin War.

The UEE military invited Esperia, the noted ship replica manufacturer, to visit the planet to catalogue and appraise the ships that were found. After comparing them with the few remaining historical records, Esperia estimated that the planet was abandoned prior to the First Tevarin War. Despite providing a treasure trove of historical information on the Tevarin, these cities raised more questions than answers. One in particular remained elusive: why did the Tevarin leave?

Many still wonder how an entire system could have been forgotten by the Tevarin. Most believe a confluence of calamitous events over two centuries — the First & Second Tevarin Wars followed by the Purge — erased the system’s existence from the Tevarin cultural consciousness. Others insist its existence was a closely guarded secret among Tevarin radicals. Acutely aware of how little they know, UEE researchers have taken a cautious approach with the system. Despite repeated requests from the Tevarin Cultural Preservation Society and the Tevarin advocacy group Nerriva Alle, the UEE has maintained a tightly restricted access to the planet.

TRAVEL WARNING

Since Kabal can only be accessed through the unclaimed Leir system, some have tried to camp out and stalk government convoys to discover the exact coordinates of the jump point. UEE ships have been known to engage suspicious ships in the Leir system that are deemed a threat to the confidentiality of the jump point’s location. So, if a government sends you a warning comm, obey their orders or suffer the consequences.

HEARD IN THE WIND

“If you elect me as your Senator, I will work to help bring my people out of the shadows by rebuilding the beauty of Tevarin culture. This includes designating the lost cities on Kabal III as historical sites, and establishing cultural centers on the planet that will educate future generations of both Human and Tevarin alike.”

– Senator Suj Kossi, campaign speech, Jalan, Elysium, 2946

“The Kabal system is an interesting case. How could an entire system be forgotten about in only a few centuries? Could collective cultural amnesia really run this deep, or is there something else going on here? To be honest, I don’t know what answer scares me more.”

– Professor Vincent Fontana, excerpt from a speech to the Tevarin Cultural Preservation Society, 2943

Source: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch/16926-Galactic-Guide-Kabal-System

Squadron 42 Monthly Report: December 2018

Squadron 42 Monthly Report: December 2018

This is a cross-post of the report that was recently sent out via the monthly Squadron 42 newsletter. We’re publishing this a second time as a Comm-Link to make it easier for the community to reference back to, and plan on following this process for future Squadron 42 Monthly Reports.

Attention Recruits,

What you are about to read is the latest information on the continuing development of Squadron 42.

Read on for pertinent details from our planet-wide operations on Squadron 42-related work over the last month, as well as intel on an exciting new dispatch. The information contained in this communication is extremely sensitive and it is of paramount importance that it does not fall into the wrong hands. Purge all records after reading.

Over and out,

UEE Naval High Command

The Road to Glory

Today sees the unveiling of our Squadron 42 roadmap, a useful piece of intel that tracks the progress of development in detail. Much like the Persistent Universe roadmap, this is linked to our JIRA tracking system, and thus lets you see at a glance the work remaining on the game as we thunder on toward the finish line. Of course, also like its Star Citizen counterpart, the Squadron 42 roadmap is not necessarily exhaustive and may be changed or updated as development continues. Make sure you read the caveats, and enjoy this insight into the process.

This monthly project update will work as something of a companion piece, shedding more light on specific work done by each development team, while the roadmap will provide dynamic real-time tracking of progress weekly.

Without further adiue, let’s see what the devs fighting the good fight on the frontlines have been up to…

AI

This month, Ship AI’s focus was on optimizing the Tactical Point System. They now have multiple queries bundled together in a batch from different threads, which allows more control over the cost of the overall system. They submitted several optimizations for the character movement system, which can now update all the components in a multithreaded batch approach and will utilize the maximum the CPU resources during the game update. A pass for thread safety of several subsystems was performed, including the attention target component and communication system. This is required to eventually move the Subsumption component update to the multithreaded batch update step.

In FPS Combat, the ‘Defend Area’ assignment was introduced; correctly achieving this behavior requires monitoring the mastergraph transitions to evaluate if the recipients of the Subsumption event can actually process it. In the Defend Area example, they might be executing any regular behavior when receiving the assignment. If the behavior can handle the request in a specific way, great. If not, then the mastergraph takes care of selecting one that can. Alongside this, they’re adding new behaviors to improve combat and patrol to respect this assignment.

New behaviors and functionality to support stealth gameplay were implemented, with new audio and visual stimuli being added to allow players to draw the attention of guards, prepare traps, and open up otherwise blocked paths.

Work also continued on the bartender for Lorville. To achieve several functionalities of his behavior, they implemented the first pass of UseChannel routing and are continuing to expand the usable functionalities.

The Usable Builder Tool received a new feature too: it’s now able to correctly preview different characters using different usables so that designers, animators, and programmers can easily test and verify the content as it’s delivered.

Animation

On the Story front, the Animation kicked-off production passes on a handful of Squadron 42 scenes. They’re also working to finalize the Armorer character for SQ42 – itself a large and intricate task.

Audio

Audio worked closely with the SQ42 composer Geoff Zanelli to establish themes for the game’s different races and important characters. This, combined with the second round of music implementation, allowed the team to better support pacing and overall development.

The Dialogue Team worked to ensure animation and design had all the assets required to successfully implement their conversations, comms, and cinematics.

Character Art

The Character Art Team polished the Vanduul armor and concepted the Navy Gunner’s outfit.

Cinematics

After completing the CitizenCon SQ42 teaser trailer, Cinematics took time to verify that each scene was functioning correctly from start to finish. This mainly involved the Shubin Station art pocket, but also other things like the battleground around Vega II. Once complete, they worked on a pivotal scene for the game featuring a key character not revealed yet. This involved using a new method of character hair and skin creation (tweaked for more realism), and small modification to costumes.

The Cinematic Animation Team carried on with regular scene work. Having completed first passes for much of the game’s narrative, they transitioned to scenes where a full implementation pass with a state machine is required. They also supported the engineers working on key workflow tools.

Along with navspline improvements, new functionality was added to allow the team to edit multiple cinematic sequences at once. Previously, TrackView only supported a master and child sequence and didn’t allow editing of the master if the child was edited, or vice versa. Some SQ42 scenes feature characters on capital ship bridges reacting to things they see through windows, which requires the team to split sequences between interior and exterior. The new multi-sequence workflow allows multiple sequences to be open and active at once and syncs the timelines for both the master and child.

Engine Tools

The Engine Team resumed work on GPU skinning. They added vertex velocity support (motion blur), completed several optimizations to skip zero weights (improved throughput), prepared background data, and made the first pass on memory layout and LOD support.

They also made the execution of ray collision checks and the defragmentation of grids run concurrently. This achieved a 30-50% speedup for physics planet terrain computation, reduced the number of cell queries on planets, and improved proxy mesh generation of terrain ground volumes.

Terrain rendering improvements were added (glow forward pass) as well as fixes for water volume and ocean rendering. The existing hair shader was improved, and a new depth of field algorithm was created to improve quality, performance, and fix halos around silhouettes.

Part of the team worked on additional culling refinements in the zone system to submit fewer objects to the renderer, as well as various low-level optimizations to reduce load on the render thread.

Engineering

Engineering actualized a system to allow variable limits on how far players can move their heads when looking around. The default amount is overridden by the outfit and helmet, so wearing heavy armor will restrict how far they can look.

Pickup and Carry was finished off, including the solving of an issue when interacting with items in EVA.

Developments on the female character continues. Because of her different sized skeleton, the team implemented animation-driven inverse kinematics to allow her to reach a ship’s controls without the need for new animation sets.

Progress has been made on the usables builder tool, which allows the content creators to drop in a character and play all the related usable animations, move locators around, and generally test a setup without having to go into the game.

As part of comms, a ‘Tannoy’ system can now pump audio to multiple parts of an environment. For example, an announcement to a single ship’s hangar or a more global ship-wide announcement.

The ship AI Team helped out with the new Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS), tweaking ship behavior to better utilize these new flight controls for a better dogfighting experience.

Environment Art

Art began using their new hard surface shader and new blending features for wear and tear. This enables a more realistic appearance of localized damage without a jarring transition between worn and pristine areas. They’re paying particular attention to make sure wear looks natural and unforced. One of the high-level goals for SQ42 is for every asset and its features to sit in a scene naturally, feel unforced, and for the lighting to have a slightly softer, more realistic feel (except for some areas where the intensity is cranked up to 11).

Lighting focused on the Javelin found in an early campaign level, taking into account the emphasis on making one key light do more of the work. This new approach looks great and is less demanding on the engine too. Tweaks to a control room seen close to the end of the campaign progressed, with the aim being to set the correct tone for the narrative and gameplay moments that spread from it.

Props seen throughout the campaign (including monitors, screens, wiring looms, hatch covers, ropes, destructible lights, and pressurized items) all received attention, this time to determine how they break or deform when damaged. Several key events take place where these assets need to react correctly to gravity, decompression, damage, pulse, etc.

The vast Shubin mining station gained more detail to the supporting structures around it. Development of the facility’s Bridge (as first seen in the CitizenCon 2948 trailer) continued, which comes in at around three times the size of a Bengal’s.

Gameplay Story

The Gameplay Story Team made swift progress throughout November and continuously added more scenes to their Q4 list. They are currently working on 38 scenes for the quarter and are expecting to add several more by the end of the year.

Graphics

The Graphics Team worked on several shader effects, including the resurrection of the caustics water effect, which is needed in several locations throughout SQ42. The new hard surface shader was rolled out to the entire team and should improve performance, allow new surface shading features, and enable more dynamic wear & dirt effects.

Performance was also a focus, with most attention on the low-level texture and mesh streaming systems to help squeeze as much content in with as little performance impact as possible.

Level Design

The Level Design Team converted the older sables inside the Idris to a more efficient and flexible system, which also incorporates crew behaviors for things like ‘off-duty’ and ‘mess hall’. Level work is an ongoing collaboration with the Art Team and is constantly reviewed at senior level.

“It’s all going well and now that we have almost all the scenes in the levels you really get a great feel for the story flow and pacing.”

Cockpit scenes are coming to life thanks to ‘Render to Texture’ technology, while the new IFCS system is fully implemented into SQ42 and making a huge difference to dogfighting. Regular feedback and suggested improvements mean spline technology and flight controls are constantly refined.

Narrative

The Narrative Team continued plugging away at [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] as well as [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] and that was a lot of fun.

Props

The Props Team continued work on the assets required for NPS interactions and activities by creating additional sub items used by the engineering crew and the storage cases to house them. The larger maintenance machinery assets are now ready for the animation and cinematic departments to use in their work, too.

System Design

The System Design Team integrated the New Flight Model into enemy ship AI, ensuring that they are still engaging to fight against and don’t become unbalanced. They noticed that the new IFCS currently causes too much unwanted ‘jousting’ behavior, so are currently looking into ways to modify it.

Dialogue wildlines for the ship/FPS/social AI were reworked to unify them within the same overall structure. Collaboration with the audio & writing teams ensured the system works properly for all systemic dialogue in the game. The team is also working to develop tools to automate the setup of dialogue lines.

Stealth gameplay elements continue to be developed, which require the AI perception to be upgraded to cater for peripheral vision, as well as various audio events and stimuli from environmental sources, such as throwing a pebble to distract enemies.

Tech Animation

The Technical Animation department progressed with the initial batch transfer of male animations to the female skeleton. This included updating low-level assets for animation database referencing to ensure she can run around and fire weapons. It has been successful and handed off to animation for further review and polish.

Some much-needed toolsets for authoring skinning data on the many different costumes were finished. Used in conjunction with the existing toolsets, these will make skin authoring a more efficient process.

An interesting dilemma was presented recently, whereby the team needed to show some sort of fluid dynamics, which usually require intensive calculations The Technical Animation department came into its own and used the existing physics solution to create a dynamic yet economic fake for the various glasses & cups in the bar scenes.

Multiple animations for cinematics and gameplay were added, as were several new tools to the animation pipeline along with bug fixes and additions to existing tools. Time was also spent fixing several smaller bugs like animation compilation errors, missing integrations, weapon entities, and DBA setups.

Tech Art

The Tech Art Team analyzed the full requirements of the character ‘DNA gene pool’. In order for the next-gen facial customizer to work most effectively, a limited pool of heads with specific and unique shapes is required. Relevant factors are gender, ethnic origin, age, physical constitution, and distinct facial features such as hooked vs. pointy nose, thin vs. full lips, and so forth. Several scenarios with varying pool sizes were created to determine the mid-to-long-term plans for populating the pool. The planned release of the new customizer will initially use as many heads as possible from the selection scanned, providing they fulfill requirements.

The team also worked on the asset authoring tools and pipeline for the new cloth/softbody solver, which was first showcased at CitizenCon. Optimal simulation mesh topology and vertex density are key to making it work efficiently and fast enough while yielding high-fidelity visual results. Another important factor is creating the best possible binding between the high and low res simulation mesh – this can only be fully automated for simpler cloth asset types and requires artistic ‘guidance’ and fine-grained control in more complex cases. The team went to great lengths to ensure the authoring tools provide this capability in a convenient, easy-to-use way.

UI

Last month, the SQ42 team specced-out improvements to how AR mission objectives are displayed to the player. For both the PU and SQ42, they’re aiming to create a common unified methodology for how important information is imparted regarding type, position, whether it’s obstructed, etc. They’re also looking at the long-term requirements of missions and building a system to help to surface important information when it’s contextually needed.

Another major feature worked on is the area map. Pre-visualizations of how the map could be were built procedurally using existing underlying systems, such as the room system. This informs not only the overall layout but also how it becomes more defined as the player traverses the environment for the first time.

Vehicle Features

The team spent the month on Vehicle Scanning improvements. The groundwork necessary to allow ships to aim at the engines on target ships has been completed, and the feature itself is nearly ready to be rolled out. Scanning nav points for destination info have been completed and are also ready for implementation.

VFX

VFX continued to iterate on lightning effects by putting the new texture noise functionality through its paces, which will allow them to create much finer detail up close at a fraction of the previous cost. They also developed a tool to allow artists to create VDBs (including gas clouds) more quickly and with more control over the finer details.

Thruster improvements were made to more closely match the VFX. They gained new effects and functionality including damage, overheat, and misfire options.

R&D for a Xi’an missile launcher kicked off too.

Weapons

The Weapon Art Team carried on with the Multi-Tool rework and made progress with the Kastak Arms Ravager-212 and the level two and three upgrades for the Hurston Dynamics Laser Repeaters. They also made minor adjustments to the iron sights on a handful of weapons to improve the sight picture and to make them more user-friendly when no optics are attached.

Covert Intel

Conclusion

WE’LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH…

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   Source: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/16919-Squadron-42-Monthly-Report-December-2018

Star Citizen Alpha 3.4 Available!

Star Citizen Alpha 3.4 Available!

Alpha 3.4

Today, we open Alpha 3.4 to all backer!

Alpha 3.4 launches several massive technical upgrades to the game including:

  • The Lorville Central Business District, including the Hurston Dynamics Showroom and Transfers Commodity Exchange
  • Six new ships including the Freelancer variants and the Anvil Hawk
  • New armor, helmets, and a new personal weapon
  • Two ship weapons have been reworked and their offerings expanded
  • New visual updates to quantum markers and turrets
  • Expanded the mission system into Hurston and surrounding moons
  • And more!

And of course, you can read the comprehensive Alpha 3.4 Patch Notes here.

3.4 Flyable Ships

With this major milestone of Alpha 3.4, we’re introducing newly flyable ships, as well as updating some older favorites.

The list of new & updated ships includes:

  • Anvil Hawk
  • RSI Constellation Phoenix Emerald
  • MISC Freelancer Variants
  • Origin 600i Touring Module
  • MISC Reliant Kore Improvements

Please enjoy the trailers below and find even more information on our 3.4 Flyable Ships page here.

Bug Reporting

Remember, while there’s a lot to explore in Alpha 3.4, the game is still just a portion of the Star Citizen experience! You can help the team improve future releases by reporting bugs and other issues using the Star Citizen Issue Council. The amazing feedback from Star Citizen backers is what has allowed us to iterate on the PTU so quickly, and we’re eager for feedback about the Live release as well. You can access the Issue Council here.

Finally, we would be remiss if we did not thank our incredible community of PTU testers for helping make this patch the best it can be! Your dedication is exemplary of the UEE’s finest defenders!

Source: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/16915-Star-Citizen-Alpha-34-Available

Holiday Promotion 2018

Happy Holidays!

Wishing you the best!

Give the gift that keeps on giving – a Star Citizen starter package!
Plus, enter our two holiday contests for the opportunity to win festive prizes.

Check out all the details below.

HOLIDAY SCREENSHOT CONTEST

How are you celebrating the holidays in the ‘verse?

We want to see how you’re ringing in the holidays in Star Citizen, and what better way to show us than with a new screenshot contest?

To make things even merrier, a special holiday helmet and an extra-festive delivery mission are making their way to the ‘verse for a limited time.
Check your inventory and contract manager for access to these jolly treats and show us how you holiday.

Prizes:

  • 1st Place: MISC Freelancer MAX standalone ship – LTI
  • 2nd Place: Drake Cutlass Black standalone ship – LTI
  • 3rd Place: Aegis Avenger Titan standalone ship – LTI

Ready to get started? Find all the details about the rules and where to submit your entries on our announcement post on Spectrum here.

HOLIDAY GREETINGS CARD CONTEST

Hit us with your best shot

Keeping the festivities going, we want to see who can design the best Star Citizen-themed holiday greeting card. Fire up an image editing program or grab some paper and show us your old-timey art skills. Get creative! The important thing is that the card contains an element of the Star Citizen universe.

Prizes:

  • 1st Place: MISC Freelancer DUR game package – LTI
  • 2nd Place: Origin 315P game package – LTI
  • 3rd Place: Consolidated Outlands Mustang Beta game package – LTI

Ready to get started? Find all the details about the rules and where to submit your entries on our announcement post on Spectrum here.

TREAT YOURSELF

It’s that time of Year

Some say it’s better to give than to receive, but why not have it both ways?

We’re offering these game packages at a special seasonal rate. Grab one and blast into 2949 in style.

The Season for Giving

Gifts for your friends and family, all around the ‘verse.

Give your loved ones the gift of spaceflight with these ships, available to purchase and send as gifts to those special galactic explorers in your life.

You can even write a special message to accompany the gift.

Source: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/16904-Holiday-Promotion-2018