Tag: transmission

Letter from the Chairman

Letter from the Chairman

Dear Citizens,

Two Hundred Million Dollars.

Wow.

The amount is the highest total for any project in the history of crowdfunding and is beyond anything I could have imagined in my wildest dreams.

While the number is impressive, that is not what sets Star Citizen and Squadron 42 apart.

The true celebration is one of how a community came together to enable a shared dream to come to life. How gamers from all over the world came together to finance one of the biggest and most ambitious projects ever embarked on. There is no publisher. No big conglomerate. This is all grassroots, funded by gamers for gamers.

To highlight just how global the support is, the person that took us past this milestone, Algared, hails from New South Wales in Australia and has been a backer since 2014. We have backers from 171 countries, from some of the smallest like San Marino or the Maldives to the largest like India and China. We cover the globe, pole to pole from Antarctica to Svalbard and Jan Mayen. Considering there are only 193 countries in the world, that’s an amazing number and shows how universal the appeal of Star Citizen is.

And it’s more than just the funding, it’s been six years of ground breaking open development, where all of you have been actively involved in what we are building.

You have watched us grow from a handful of people to a global staff of over 500, across 5 studios, 4 time zones and 3 countries. Some of the best talent in the industry is working on Star Citizen and Squadron 42, most of who are gamers that are inspired by your passion to push the boundaries of what is possible.

We give you multiple updates every week and have been since the inception of the project. This year we rolled out a live roadmap for Star Citizen’s development that is linked to our internal task and scheduling system and shows the planned features and content for the next four upcoming releases of Star Citizen Alpha. This December, we will also add the roadmap for Squadron 42’s completion.

Speaking on behalf of the team, we are always amazed and humbled by the talent, imagination, creativity and passion that we see from the community. The beautiful screen shots and videos, the streamers that push the boundaries of what the game can do even in Alpha, the detailed proposals and feedback on how to make things better and the patient bug hunting so many of you do.

To reduce Star Citizen to just be about the amount raised is to do a disservice to all this. No other game shares as much information on a weekly basis, and no other game I know of is as focused on listening to and working with its community to make the best game possible. When I look around and see other games, even ones from major publishers, copying our playbook, I know we have had a positive influence on the gaming industry.

How Star Citizen is made, in public, warts and all, is part of what makes it special. It should be a no-brainer to cheer on a grassroots funded game that is literally shooting for the stars. No one is attempting to do what we are doing, in the manner we are doing it, nor being as open about as we are. Different and new can be scary, but it can also be exhilarating and rewarding. These uncharted frontiers of game development and funding, mirror the draw of the game itself; the lure of distant planets to explore, realized to an unprecedented detail and scale.

This is why I believe Star Citizen has resonated with so many; we’re breaking both real and virtual barriers and boldly going where no gamer and game has gone before. And we couldn’t be doing it without all of you, our partners in this journey and the best community in gaming!

This milestone is coming at a very exciting time for the project having just released Star Citizen Alpha 3.3 with Object Container Streaming (OCS) and Client Bind Culling, which makes a huge difference in client performance and memory usage. Face over IP (FOIP) is in the community’s hands and is proving to be a game changer. No other game has the ability to drive your avatar’s face and look via a webcam, as well as to place your voice diegetically inside the game. The possibilities for social interactions inside the world of Star Citizen now mirror what you can do in the real world. Lastly, with ship purchasing live in 3.3, we have a full game loop with basic progression, where you have a reason to haul cargo, take missions or mine.

This week marks the start of our 2948 Anniversary Event, which celebrates the end of the original crowdfunding campaign back in November 2012. This year we are particularly excited by our Free Fly event where we are opening the opportunity to try out the 80 flyable ships and vehicles in game.

Star Citizen Alpha 3.3.5, which brings a lot more content, including the planet of Hurston, it’s moons and the major landing zone Lorville, is currently in PTU and should be Live in the next few days.

We are getting closer all the time to having a living, breathing persistent universe and as we close out this year, I look at the technology we must complete to achieve the vision and realize we are nearer to the end than the start.

This knowledge, aided by the continued support and excitement we feel from all of you propels us forward with enthusiasm and a thirst for seeing the universe of Star Citizen become a home for gamers everywhere.

Thank you, each and every one of you, for believing in the vision, supporting its development with unwavering commitment and making gaming history.

See you in the ‘Verse!

— Chris Roberts

Source: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/16865-Letter-From-The-Chairman

November 2948 Subscriber Flair

November 2948 Subscriber Flair

Subscribers

In the classic RSI Venture Explorer Suit, one can march into the unknown with fortitude and panache. But to achieve this, one is going to need their legs. That’s where the bottom half of the suit comes in. Made from the same hardened alloy as the rest of the suit, these stylish red breeches will make sure you are comfortable and well-covered below the belt.

Imperator Subscribers

Imperator-level subscriber will also have the option of these slick purple leggings, along with the red version. At the end of the day, it’s never a bad idea to bring a spare change of pants along, especially when plunging headlong into the potentially terrifying realm of the unexplored.

If you’re an active subscriber, these items will be added to your account on November 19th.

If you aren’t a subscriber yet but want to sport these Arms, make sure you subscribe no later than November 18th.

More information about subscriptions can be found here

Source: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/16845-November-2948-Subscriber-Flair

Calling All Devs

Every week, designers, engineers and other developers from our five offices around the world answer backer questions submitted on SPECTRUM and voted on by YOU.

You can submit your questions for consideration in future episodes of Calling All Devs here.

And for info on becoming a subscriber, go to: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/subscriptions

Source: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/16834-Calling-All-Devs

Squadron 42 Monthly Report: September 2018

Squadron 42 Monthly Report: September 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.

As the development of Squadron 42 thunders on, the brain trust at UEE Naval High Command has retooled their dispatches.

We aim to bring you the most significant and comprehensive project updates available. However, particularly sensitive details will remain under wraps to avoid unnecessary leaks to the civilian community.

Read on for a look into the work done on Squadron 42 during September and keep a weather eye open on this channel for future briefings.

CitizenCon 2948 saw the first look at the latest Squadron 42 trailer. If you missed it, or want to check it out again, you’ll find the full 4K version on the official Star Citizen YouTube channel.

Cinematics

The Cinematics Team split their time this month between creating content and advancing tech and tools. They had several meetings about where to fit PCAP to reworked props and where to change geometry to fit the specific shot performances; in particular, where to place the Idris and Bengal’s captain’s chairs.

They modified and completed several Trackview master sequences featuring newly-edited PCAP, including camera and lighting. The completed sequences essentially show a conversation or first-person cinematic and all of its branches in a linear fashion. The animators then use these to iterate on pose-matching, while the level designers use them as the blueprint for how the scene will play out once it’s scripted via AI logic.

On the tech side, they worked with tool engineers to improve the navspline for puppeteering ships. The spline now features better ghost vehicle rendering too, allowing its control points to be manipulated as editor objects. General work on the usability of the spline is continuing with numerous improvements. The team also revamped the ability to trigger weapon and turret fire on ships.

A collaboration with the tech teams featured example scenes that contain performances by real-life actors. As the actors were directing their performance to a specific point, the goal is now to guide the player towards that spot via UI. The first tests look promising.

Engineering

The Actor Team made a lot of small improvements to how first-person gameplay feels, such as speeding up weapon swapping, tweaking ADS aiming when moving, and adjusting weapon sway. They also revisited and fixed issues with the jump mechanic before undertaking a more detailed pass using the new time-warping tech to clean up the assets. Progress continues with the Usable Editor Tool, which enables the team to create and amend new usables directly in the editor and simplify the current process.

The new Walk and Talk prototype is making progress, with two characters now walking together while having a believable and dynamic conversation. The EU Gameplay Team has been supporting the cinematics group, fixing issues they’ve been having when creating cutscenes.

Facial animation

The team worked along-side Tech Animation to test the Vanduul facial rig. They also ran the first set of reviews for the new Facial Animation Quality Benchmark, with the goal of establishing a gold-standard for facial performance in a triple-A game.

Gameplay Story

September was a particularly exciting month as the Story Team implemented more scenes than ever before. The aim for Q3 began with around 10, but they managed to get 23 working in-game to a high standard. They also gave more thought to the lighting and positioning of scenes within levels, which has led to considerable improvements to their visual appearance.

Graphics

The Graphics Team worked on several new features as part of ongoing space-crafting improvements. This included adding shadows onto and from gas clouds (with a 75% memory saving), the addition of turbulence and interference when near dense regions of cloud, and a new GPU spline based lightning system. On top of this, they also improved reflections from water and added tessellation to the organic shader, which is mainly used for rocks and terrain.

Level Design

The team is operating at full capacity, with a heavy focus on scene implementation and usables. Making all the locations of the game feel realistic and believable (particularly the way the AI interact and move around on their various schedules) is always a top priority.

All chapters of the game have a single design owner and several support designers who can work on them simultaneously. The numerous feature teams all have S42 technical priorities on their backlogs and have a steady stream of technology and workflow improvements coming in on a weekly basis.

Props

The Props Team shifted priorities slightly this month to focus on getting their templates updated to work with the new usable systems, with the aim to make it easier to scale functionality out across the game.

Work has progressed on junk and scrap piles, with the whitebox assets getting a material pass. The original simpods have been brought up to scratch, staying true to the original concept but being reworked using the custom normal workflow. They were also converted to work with the most current shaders. Finally, the team has been going through the cinematic scenes and have started work on the props with performance capture associated with them.

Ship Art

The Ship Art Team paused for a couple weeks on Persistent Universe work to take care of some pilot-fitting issues on a prominent S42 campaign ship. They raised the pilot position up and refined the interior geo a bit more. Now that it’s done, they’re back in full swing on the 300i grey-box for the PU.

Tech Animation

The Motion Capture Team has been reconfiguring their whole rig to trigger capture on every platform over TCP/IP: reference, facial & body. This made it much easier to match and manage the resulting datasets and has improved workflow across the board.

They put it to the test on a recent shoot in Manchester and worked to implement much of the resulting animation. They have also been refining the pipelines in which they process the data sets from motion capture and bring them together as a whole in their animation DCC of choice, Maya.

Female animation received baseline processing, with retargeting of the core reference databases and basic animation done to make the refinement pass as easy as possible.

They also worked on multiple fixes for the usable system and supported the Combat AI Team with new weapon setups for left-handed combat.

Lastly, the team has been developing the facial rigging pipeline and skinning toolsets, with the Vanduul as the central focus of development.

UI

While UI predominantly provided support for new features in the PU, they also supported various environmental needs for Squadron 42, such as ambient displays in the background of scenes and locations.

VFX

This month, the team focused heavily on a variety of feature improvements, including significantly upgraded lightning effects. This doesn’t just refer to how it looks, but how it can be dynamically controlled and how it interacts with the player. This was all done in close collaboration with the Art and Design teams.

They also worked on various cinematics, as well as several in-game cutscenes. Some have been challenging to work on as they flesh out unique environments and situations that haven’t been seen before in a video game.

Weapons

The Weapon Art Team finished production on the Kastak Arms Sawtooth knife.

Covert Intel

Conclusion

WE’LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH…

Source: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/16792-Squadron-42-Monthly-Report-September-2018

Jump Point Now Available!

Jump Point Now Available!

Attention development subscribers: the October 2018 issue of Jump Point is now available in your subscription area. You’ll learn about the development of the Drake Kraken, go in-depth with the team building Huston and Lorville, learn about Constellation Phoenix in a new Whitley’s Guide excerpt and more!

Interested in becoming a development subscriber? You can learn more here.

Source: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/16824-Jump-Point-Now-Available