- 9 ore fa
Cloud Imperium Games ha pubblicato un nuovo video di Star Citizen. Nel filmato, presentato da Chris Roberts in persona, vengono mostrati i negozi disponibili nel gioco, nuove animazioni, il nuovo design della navicella Drake Cutlass e gli avamposti planetari che popoleranno i pianeti creati proceduralmente.
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00:15Hello and welcome to Around the Verse, our weekly look at the development of Star Citizen. I'm Chris Roberts and
00:20I'm Eric Cameron Davis. Chris, it's great to have you back on Around the Verse. How was your trip to
00:25the UK and Frankfurt offices?
00:27Very productive. As I mentioned in last week's newsletter, we held an overall project review in Frankfurt. I was joined
00:33there by CIG team members from across the globe, from all our four studios actually. We reviewed and planned sprints
00:40as well as worked to improve the overall cockpit experience when you're flying around in Star Citizen. So you'll see
00:46that down the road, not quite yet, but it'll be cool.
00:48That sounds great. And one of the best parts of Star Citizen is flying around the universe, which brings us
00:53to today's episode. We'll be sharing some of the technical considerations that have gone into the upcoming planetary outposts that
01:00will populate future PU environments.
01:02Yes, but first, let's check in with the Austin and Turbulence Studios for their updates.
01:09Hey guys, Jake Ross here, producer here in Austin. I wanted to take a quick second to thank Clifford, a
01:13.k.a. Miku, Symperium, and Doc Tari for their generous and delicious gifts to the Austin studio.
01:19We always appreciate the show of love and support from our community, and these tasty treats help keep us fueled
01:23and encouraged. So thanks guys.
01:25Now let's take a look at what our full-bellied team here in Austin has been up to this past
01:29month.
01:30This last month, the Austin design team has been focused on getting 262 out the door, among other things.
01:34262 work has consisted mainly of adding new subscriber flare items and fixing some minor bugs as well.
01:40We're also updating additional shop-related elements as we continue to build upon the shopping system.
01:44While I can't go into major detail right now, I can say revisions of the Stanton system map are in
01:49progress.
01:50Also, landing zone AI and usables are undergoing additional development.
01:54For this month, we have a peek at our latest subscriber flare and details on how we're expanding the shopping
01:58tech to utilize some new tools that relate to the Item 2.0 system.
02:02First, let's take a look at the new subscriber flare that will be rolled out in the coming months.
02:06One of the new items is called the Vivid Display, which can display game locations holographically.
02:11Players can use the Vivid Display to find out more about locations, including their intended visuals.
02:16Other flare items include a series of ship schematics, which will showcase the level of detail that goes into our
02:20ship design.
02:22These light board displays can be hung from any poster-style port in your hangar.
02:25We hope you'll enjoy these upcoming additions to subscriber flare and look forward to additional flare in the coming months.
02:32Now we'd like to share how we're revamping the shopping system for our next release.
02:36As the Item 2.0 system advances, the item port structure changes so it can fall in line with our
02:40end goal.
02:40These fluctuations have forced us to readdress the setup for things like shop mannequins and item bundles.
02:47While the end result will be pretty obvious to the players, the differences for the designers will change drastically for
02:53the better.
02:54Our goal is to create a base mannequin object that the shopping system can apply loadouts to.
02:59The items on a given mannequin would be purchasable by themselves or as a bundle for a discounted price.
03:04In the past, every outfit was only purchasable as an entire set of items.
03:10On top of that, a bespoke mannequin setup had to be generated for each unique outfit display.
03:15Fortunately, our advancing tech will soon allow our loadout editor to quickly create various item combinations within a given shop.
03:21That loadout, comprised of items in the shop, will then be assigned to the shop's inventory as a bundle.
03:26The shopping system will then spawn these bundles directly onto an empty shop mannequin with no additional effort by the
03:31designers.
03:32A process that took hours before will soon only take minutes, allowing us to quickly generate different item combinations that
03:39can be displayed on the mannequins.
03:41What seems like a minor change actually unlocks a multitude of options for the design team to create realistic shops.
03:47Hopefully you'll be able to see the fruits of this labor really soon in our upcoming releases.
03:52The PU animation team just finished a small mocap shoot using our in-house OptiTrack system.
03:57This was a pickup shoot to help us fill in all the gaps from the performance capture shoots done previously
04:01at Imaginarium Studios.
04:03We captured transition animations for both male and female characters.
04:07Examples of a transition animation include sitting down at tables with trays, going through a chow line to get food,
04:13eating, drinking, rummaging, or sitting in cockpits and turrets.
04:16The transition animations are shot in such a way that they can work with our metrics and are universal enough
04:21to be used all over the game with many different usables in our environments.
04:24If you're not familiar with the term usable, as a reminder, a usable is an object that a player or
04:29NPC can interact with like a chair, wall, table, or other set piece.
04:33Usables also include props like cups and plates and bottles and anything else that can physically be picked up by
04:37a person.
04:38We are currently implementing these transition animations into our usable system.
04:42Obviously, animation can only get these game assets so far.
04:45Our biggest challenge right now is making all the usable function in-game properly.
04:49It is up to code, tech, and designers to make them work together, which is why Austin Animation is working
04:53closely with our Frankfurt and UK studios on this.
04:56Metrics are being created for door control panels, bathrooms, toilet facilities, and chow lines in the Idris mess hall.
05:01We're putting tech in place that will allow an NPC to navigate a usable set piece and perform a variety
05:06of actions like grabbing a usable prop, setting other usable props onto it, and walking away with the prop, going
05:11to and interacting with another usable set piece.
05:15Then getting up and navigating to a third usable set piece to dispose of the usable prop with all the
05:19usable props on it.
05:21Once we get this one test case fully functional, we'll be able to apply what we have developed throughout the
05:25game.
05:27The ship animation team has finished the major animation tasks for the Drake Cutlass Black. Characters can now enter and
05:32exit the pilot and co-pilot seats properly.
05:34For the co-pilot, we're utilizing a brand new cockpit template that we're calling the stick template.
05:39This template positions the player in a pose like that of a helicopter pilot.
05:43This was required to fit the new geometry of the Cutlass cockpit.
05:46We're also planning to support the cockpit experience improvement pass, but we'll have more info on that next time.
05:51On the DevOps side, we added additional logging to better track issues that are wonderful community experiences from time to
05:57time.
05:57The logging we added allows us to dump the status of the user's download session at the moment they experience
06:02the issue.
06:03We then worked directly with the community relations team here in Austin to debug the issue or issues the user
06:08is experiencing.
06:10A great example of this is the latest version of the Patcher, Patcher 249.
06:13As some of the Windows 10 users may have already noticed, this version of the Patcher brought back music that
06:17had previously been missing.
06:18The exact cause of the issue was that Windows 10 sound settings were set to 192kHz.
06:23This was causing the Patcher to crash if you had the music turned on.
06:26You can now enjoy all of Pedro Camacho's music once again.
06:29The QA department here in Austin has been heavily focused on 262 testing.
06:33With the addition of multiplayer MegaMap and serialized variables, we were required to perform multiple cross-studio playtests between Austin
06:39and UK.
06:40We did this to check for any new and unexpected behaviors due to major system changes, such as increased desynchronization,
06:47lag between clients, massive performance changes, good or bad, and crashes.
06:52Lots and lots of crashes.
06:53The new Drake Buccaneer came online sooner than expected, so the ship team performed frequent testing to ensure the ship
06:59was operating as expected when it makes its way into backers' hands.
07:03In our development stream testing, Squadron 42 testing continues, as well as a range of tests with the ground vehicles
07:09on planetary surfaces in a multiplayer environment.
07:12We've also been testing various developmental tools such as the Procedural Planet Editor, or PlanEd, and the Subsumption Editor.
07:19Finally, we expanded the QA team in Austin by another four testers, bringing the Austin QA team to a total
07:24of 24 members.
07:25We're excited about this expansion and excited to have new people on board.
07:29Thanks for watching, guys, and for all your support. We'll see you in the verse.
07:35Oh, hello! Fancy seeing you here!
07:37This is Benoit from Turbulent, and this is our Turbulent update for this month.
07:41Last week, we were hosted by our friend Jared Huckabee and the community team for a subscriber town hall.
07:46Now, this was our first ever town hall. We were super excited to get it set up and a bit
07:50nervous to participate.
07:51But you guys sent us awesome questions, and we're hoping that we're going to be able to do some more
07:55town hall questions
07:56so that we can address the questions and different things you want to know about Spectrum and the platform we're
08:03building.
08:04This month, we launched Spectrum version 0.3.2, which includes major performance updates to how we render messages and
08:11threads in the client.
08:12So, hopefully, this will allow you guys to switch faster between lobbies and channels, and should take way less CPU
08:19and render time than it used to do in the 0.3.1 version.
08:23So, I'm sure, hoping that you guys can see the difference already.
08:280.3.2 also brings two new features. You can now reorder your communities at the top left of the
08:33sidebar.
08:33All you have to do is you grab your community and drag it, drop it to the location you want
08:38to keep it, and we'll persist that across all your browser tabs and sessions.
08:42And so, you can keep your favorite org at the top if that's what you want to do.
08:46Second feature is we worked on the channel thread list.
08:49Now, when you see the subjects, we added thumbnail images to threads that contain media information and videos.
08:56And so, this way, it's way more entertaining to view the channel list, because you'll see the previews, media previews
09:02there.
09:03So, then you'll have more incentive to click on those subjects and view the media content embedded in it.
09:10Otherwise, we've also worked on mobile optimization and keyboard fixes.
09:14Unfortunately, we're not quite done yet, and we're not happy with the fixes, so we had to roll them back
09:17from 0.3.2.
09:18We're hoping it's going to be ready for 0.3.3. This should fix bugs on mobile Android that people
09:25have been encountering when basically typing into the chat on mobile Android.
09:30So, we're hoping to fix that soon.
09:33The future holds good stuff for 0.3.3, which should come with a new feature again for forums called
09:39nested threads.
09:40And so, nested threads will allow you to create a new thread and change the discussion type from a classic
09:46chronological timeline thread into a nested discussion.
09:51Now, this gives us two benefits. First, we can now sort by upvotes, the replies, at the first level and
09:58get a nested reply tree behind it.
10:01But the second thing is that we give you guys more control into the type of discussion that you want
10:05to start.
10:05So, the OP creator will have the option of choosing whether it's a nested thread or not.
10:11And so, as we add all these features into the next releases of Spectrum, we're getting ready to be able
10:16to shut down and archive the old forums.
10:18One of the first, we cannot do that until we've expanded our categories list to bring all those discussions from
10:23the old forums in.
10:24We're not talking about an import, but at this point we're talking about recreating the subcategories that you guys enjoyed
10:31on the old forum inside the new system.
10:34So, we're talking about shipyards, ship owner threads and stuff like this.
10:38So, as soon as we're able to do that, we'll be able to announce a date at which the old
10:42forums will go into archive mode.
10:43But we'll give you guys plenty of notice before we do that.
10:47This month, we also worked on the new Delta Patcher, as you guys have called it.
10:51And so, we are responsible for building the actual application that hosts the patching libraries.
10:56And so, we've done a bunch of progress this month in getting this new application set up.
11:00It's using a whole new application stack you guys might be familiar with.
11:04It's called Electron, Electron Shell.
11:07We're also using React and Redux like we do for Spectrum within this new application.
11:11And so, we've worked on our native bindings to get the patching libraries that the Frankfurt guys are working on.
11:15And so, we're currently able to patch the game data with this new launcher.
11:21It's also used internally.
11:22So, we're really excited about this project.
11:24It's going to bring a lot more dynamism in how we release patches.
11:26And so, we're really excited to get this moving and integrate it into this new app.
11:31And hopefully, we'll be able to release that to you guys in the next coming months.
11:36Another major project we started this month is a redesign of some of the elements of the RSI site.
11:43This is a massive overhaul of the website and how it caters to new users and older users.
11:49And so, as we start this design process, we'll be starting to give you guys some updates on what we're
11:54doing on that front and how that shapes up.
11:56But we're only getting started right now.
11:58One important project that we're also working on that has seen a lot of progress this month is the ship
12:04stats updates.
12:05And so, we know that the ship stats don't currently reflect what's exactly in game.
12:11Now, I want to mention again that the ship stats are supposed to reflect the intent design of a ship
12:16and not necessarily the exact stats that are currently in game.
12:20But at the same time, currently, there are things that are missing.
12:22And so, we're working on to put that up to date.
12:24We got all the information to do so.
12:26And so, now we're working on changing how the backend manages this and redesigning some of the tech view and
12:32tech specifications view
12:33and hollow viewer changes to be able to display that.
12:36And so, we're hoping that we'll be able to go through all of the current loadouts in the next coming
12:41weeks
12:42to be able to show you guys an update there.
12:44That's it for Tribune. Thank you guys for watching.
12:48Thanks, guys. The ship animation team did a fantastic job on the redesigned Cutlass Black.
12:52And with the Buccaneer flight ready, we're proud to announce that the entire Drake lineup is all in-engine, which
12:57is a pretty big achievement.
12:59Yeah. And they're also all on sale. Now you can get the Buccaneer, Dragonfly, Herald, Caterpillar, and Cutlass until April
13:0510th.
13:06Yeah. So, the sale includes all three models of the Cutlass, including the updated Cutlass Black.
13:11People often question the business ethics of Drake Interplanetary.
13:14So, we decided to dig in a little deeper into what Drake's been up to. Take a look.
13:2470 years ago, Drake Interplanetary built the Cutlass in a gamble to win a military bid.
13:31But the military didn't bite. Drake Interplanetary wasn't deterred, however.
13:35The company retrofitted the Cutlass for civilian use.
13:39When we first rolled out a flyable model of the Cutlass to the public, it kind of drifted from our
13:45own expectations and from our own intent.
13:49It lost some of the aggressive characteristics that we had sold it on when we first unveiled it.
13:56And that was one of the biggest things we wanted to recapture in the rework.
14:00We wanted to make it feel like, look and feel, like the ship we had originally promised to people.
14:10But to really pull that off, we did have to make some changes and split off a few pieces of
14:18functionality.
14:18But then what that left us with was a lot more room to really build on the raiding support potential
14:29of the Drake Cutlass.
14:31Where now this can be that backbone of a small militia unit, of a small just defense group.
14:38The first iteration of the Cutlass wasn't very ergonomical for the pilot or the co-pilot.
14:48We had many complaints from the customers saying it's hard to get in and out and people stepping on other
14:57people's toes.
14:58So we went with a better design on this one.
15:02We have the pilot and co-pilot being able to enter and exit from either side of the sea stations
15:10with neither the pilot nor co-pilot getting in the way of each other on enter or exit.
15:16For much faster mounting, dismounting.
15:22The living quarters have also been retrofitted to be a little bit more spacious.
15:29The armaments have been upgraded.
15:32We have more space for armoured equipment, as well as bunk racks, the main living quarters, as well as access
15:42to the gun's main weapon system.
15:45located in the living quarters instead of the rear.
15:50It's going to be a very potent threat to come across for mid-sized ships and up because it's going
16:01to carry a lot of missile firepower.
16:03We've added more guns to the ship.
16:06Just its general armour and durability can now really sell through both in its appearance and its performance.
16:13We didn't skimp out on what it can do.
16:16We made sure you can haul your cargo, you can haul your friends, you can blow up a ship if
16:22it's trying to take you down.
16:24Some people decide to use our ship to take other people down, I guess.
16:28The Travel Safety Advisory System estimates that 15,000 people die annually in outlaw raids,
16:35and the Cutlass Black accounts for two-thirds of all ships used by known piracy groups.
16:41People have often questioned Drake Interplanetary's role in these raids.
16:45Is the company intentionally marketing their inexpensive but deadly Cutlass Black to criminals?
16:51We decided to find out.
16:54Posing as an applicant for their sales department, one of our reporters traveled to the Magnus system
16:59and sat down with Drake Interplanetary's long-standing CEO, Jan Dredge.
17:04She didn't know she was being recorded.
17:07Your resume is quite impressive. As you probably assumed, this last interview is really more of a formality.
17:13Can I ask a question?
17:14Ask away. Unless they're salary-related, that goes through HR.
17:18Of course, of course. I am curious about the Cutlass Black.
17:21Have you considered including mandatory background checks for buyers, you know, to avoid selling to criminals?
17:27Listen, what happens after a Cutlass leaves the showroom isn't my problem.
17:31When there's a murder, do you blame the killer or the person who manufactured the gun?
17:36After this audio was released, family members of piracy victims expressed their outrage by calling for a ban on the
17:42Drake Cutlass.
17:43Today, Drake Interplanetary responded with a press statement.
17:48We apologize for the comments made by Jan Dredge.
17:52After many years of devoted service, Ms. Dredge has decided to retire as CEO of Drake Interplanetary
17:58and spend more time with her family.
18:01While she will continue to remain on the board, Ms. Dredge will no longer be involved in daily business operations.
18:07Her son, John Dredge, will fulfill her duties as acting CEO until a replacement can be found.
18:14Drake Interplanetary is committed to the safety of all citizens and civilians.
18:20Our Cutlass Blue and Cutlass Red models are specifically designed for use by police and first responders.
18:26They continue to save countless lives across the universe.
18:31The Terra Gazette has confirmed that Jan Dredge's so-called retirement goes into effect today.
18:38However, Drake Interplanetary refuses to comment on whether they will continue to sell the Cutlass Black to known piracy groups.
18:49It's really great when ships can be as varied as our characters.
18:52Yep, absolutely.
18:53And people maybe know the Cutlass as an outlaw ship, but that's just one way it can be used.
18:58Yeah, totally, absolutely, just one way.
19:00I mean, you know, the Cutlass can do many other things from search and rescue to militia, cargo transport.
19:06It's really up to how the owner chooses to fly it.
19:09Yeah, nothing wrong with that at all.
19:11No, not at all.
19:11Of course, the only thing better than a great ship is really having great places to fly it to.
19:16Yeah, that's right.
19:17And as Star Citizen grows and the procedural planets continue to develop,
19:20we've started looking at ways to populate the amazing vistas with various points of interest you can travel to.
19:25So one of the cases is the planetary outpost that we've been giving you some sneak peeks at.
19:30And we're going to dive a little deeper into that now, so take a look.
19:34Hello, my name's Ian Leyland. I'm the Environment Art Director at Foundry 42.
19:39Today, it'd be really interesting to talk a little bit about surface outposts.
19:43So I think people have seen a few of these before.
19:46We've shown some little videos here and there, and when the communities come around the studio,
19:51they've had a little sneak peek.
19:53But this is the first real opportunity to really show what it's about,
19:57and more importantly, the team involved in making it.
20:00So my name's Eddie Hilditch. I am the Senior Environment Art Lead.
20:04My name is Alex Remotti, and I'm a Senior Technical Artist working on the procedural aspect of our system.
20:14Hi, my name's Nick Etheridge, and I'm a Lead Artist for the PE team for Environments.
20:19So the initial idea came from design. Design needed a place to bring the player to the smallest possible location.
20:26So we have cities, space stations, but one thing we never really had is the smallest location.
20:33So that was the initial idea from design of what a surface outpost would be.
20:37So we went away, and we started looking at concepts for what they might look like in our universe.
20:43So we knew we wanted to integrate them quite well with the environment.
20:47So we wanted a design that felt durable, robust, and felt like it could survive a few harsh winters.
20:54So from there, we started some mood shots just to see and explore what might work right.
20:59And then once we had some nice ideas, we got it validated, make sure it worked for Chris and the
21:04design director,
21:05and then we started taking it into production.
21:08So from there, you know, one of the things we knew we wanted to do, like these were going to
21:12be modular.
21:13We didn't want just one hero location.
21:16So the visual style and elements needed to support a modular format.
21:23So during the ideoration process and concepting, we needed to make sure we had elements that we could, you know,
21:32break up the visual language, break up that fatigue,
21:35and enable design to create some interesting layouts, which still felt quite interesting to look at.
21:42So we build all our environments modularly.
21:44We have to build them in that way to incorporate the sort of vast number of environments we need across
21:50our universe.
21:51So once the concept has been signed off from Ian, we will start breaking that concept down into its constituent
21:59parts
22:00in order to figure out how many pieces we need to begin the process of making the brand new building
22:06set,
22:06which is going to be our high-tech surface outposts.
22:09We took the concept and we made the outpost concept using the template set,
22:16which is a set we use to whitebox all of our levels because it's a basic set.
22:22It's to metrics. It's got a simple material on it.
22:25And it's good for artists and designers and engineers just to block out areas and test with.
22:31So we took that, we modified it slightly and started creating the outpost layout that we had from concept.
22:40Then we added the, we whiteboxed add-on pieces like the roof pieces, antennas, pipes,
22:46to get that extra silhouette read from a distance, mid and far distances.
22:51The biggest challenge is probably making sure that it's all modular and fits together
22:55because the whole point of it being modular is it gives the artist the flexibility of many different layouts,
23:01of swapping pieces round and adding a bit of variation and detail.
23:07So from its foundation it had to be very modular, work together to metrics and have approval from design too.
23:17So the key things at the greybox stage are making sure that the assets are in line with the art
23:22style,
23:23that the material breakups correct, the forms are correct and it's still modular from what we were doing with whitebox.
23:30The design of play tested it and it works for their gameplay requirements.
23:34And that any major performance issues are looked at as well.
23:38Often the greybox is modelled to a higher level of detail than the final, the actual final asset.
23:46And this is because the, all the ideas and forms and details get shaped out of this phase.
23:52And these will sometimes get baked later on down to a texture.
23:56So often the greybox is actually a lot more expensive than the final form.
24:02So when the assets go into final production, at this point we'll flesh out the material library.
24:09So the material library will consist of simple tileable materials with wear and dirt, such as simple metals, plastics,
24:18to more complex panels, to very detailed greeble sheets, trim sheets and graphical decals and illumination sheets for lighting.
24:29We need to make sure the materials work together, that they're all conforming to the correct PBR workflow.
24:36And at that point then we go into the final production and apply those materials and flesh out the final
24:42assets.
24:43Once we started to test our outposts on the actual surfaces of the planet, we soon realised that a perfectly
24:49flat base was just not going to work.
24:52It was going to limit where we were able to place them.
24:55Planets don't tend to be perfectly even, you know.
24:58Everywhere we placed them we'd end up with a corner clipping through the ground or a corner floating above the
25:03ground.
25:03So we had to go back to the drawing board and kind of incorporate a system of legs and feet,
25:09which ultimately allowed us to place them in much more varied places on the surface of a planet.
25:16Then we obviously had to get the player from the surface of the planet up to the door of the
25:20outposts.
25:21We thought a ramp would kind of look really cool, visually, so we started implementing those.
25:28But after talking with design, we realised our ramp metrics from them was 15 degrees, which is actually very shallow
25:35for a ramp.
25:36And we ended up with outposts that kind of looked like a Miami Beach house or something,
25:41because even if the outpost was only three metres off the ground, we had to have an 11 metre long
25:46ramp to sort of cope with it.
25:48And they kind of look ridiculous.
25:50So we went back to the drawing board.
25:52We thought switchback ramps, maybe, or some kind of complicated elevator system with ladders.
26:00But ultimately, simplest solutions are often the best.
26:04And we ended up with stairs, very high tech, but stairs actually turned out to just serve the purpose that
26:11we needed them to.
26:12Once all the final assets were made, we basically grouped them together into prefabs, which are like smart groups,
26:18and brought them in. So there's walls, there's rooms, there's doorways and airlocks and the stair piece.
26:27So it's very easy now to make a whole different layouts of the outpost instead of having to bring each
26:35individual asset,
26:36and each light and each vis area, they're all prefabbed up. So you drop a room in, then you drop
26:42some walls in and it's done.
26:44And it allows for more time working on the actual assets than world building.
26:52We have the ability to recreate the concept pretty much one to one, which is great.
26:56But what we also have on top of that, thanks to the modularity of it, is the ability to create
27:02a vast number of variety of layouts.
27:06And we can basically make as many kinds of layouts within the same sort of theme and style as we
27:13want.
27:14And as we develop the building set more and it matures and we add extra pieces,
27:19that variety and the number of potential layouts we can create basically exponentially increases.
27:25What comes down the line later is how to add more variety, like we can't have just white outposts.
27:32Every time you see an outpost, it's not going to be the same outpost.
27:35It's going to change layouts, it's going to change materials, it's going to change what add-ons get added to
27:42it.
27:42That all comes later. What we have here is a proof of concept and a final asset in its simplest
27:50form,
27:50but with the ability to expand massively on it as we sort of move along with its development.
27:56So after the environment team has been in production for a certain period of time,
28:00that's when I'll start looking back into it with it again.
28:03We can visually see how the ideas progressed and we're getting some good ideas,
28:07but this is where I start introducing visual targets for the guys to work to.
28:12And from the process of going from the initial idea to it going through into production,
28:20you know, obviously the team has made additional design choices and visual choices to improve the design.
28:26But then this is a good time to just take another look at it and seeing how it's working.
28:31So initially when I was looking at it this time, I saw the real importance of how we're going to
28:36integrate these things.
28:38So it's not only good to have beautiful architecture, you need that believability of understanding,
28:45actually this thing has been here for many years and how does that feel?
28:50So what I did, I did some visual targets for the team, looking at things like materials, lighting, particles,
28:57just to kind of describe that M-frame.
29:00So working with what they'd already produced and the visual targets,
29:03that was perfect for the team to kind of take it onto the final art stage of production.
29:08When I received these visual targets, the first thing I tried to understand is how those elements have been built.
29:18How are the modules being divided?
29:23And then try to build a less granular version of those model pieces.
29:31For example, a room or a wall to cap a side of a room is what we call prefabs.
29:41So they are kind of Lego pieces.
29:45When we have defined these kind of rules within our small R&D team,
29:52we start building connection points and tag points to help us stitch together those pieces.
30:01We define design rules and layout paths to make sure that the generation of this layout is controlled,
30:13is based on a clear aspect, a visual aspect and on a clear design, on a clear cap of size.
30:23And when we have all these rules, we start trying out and iterate on the process of giving feedback to
30:33artists for having different variations,
30:36or having a new rule set to stitch the things together in a different way.
30:43Once the goal is reached, what we want to do with these elements, with these outposts,
30:51is to create as more variations as we can and then create a lot of perceived variation for the players.
31:03So that when we scatter them on a planet, the player can play and can see a lot of different
31:13locations,
31:14a lot of different sizes, a lot of different vistas.
31:17At that moment comes a second aspect of the procedural variation, which is placing them on a planet.
31:27Also in this case, what we have is our principal artist and our art direction working on giving a visual
31:38target
31:38of how they want the outposts to look when they are placed on planetary surfaces.
31:45So we have a lot of things like lightning, the planetary materials, the weather system, the aging of the outposts,
31:55coming in as variables to set some defaults on the outposts.
31:59We have the surface itself that could be very even or uneven, and we need to make sure that the
32:06outpost is correctly placed.
32:09This has been one of the biggest challenges we're still tackling, which is how we can find a correct place
32:16on the planetary surface to guest our outposts.
32:21So sometimes we have a fit system adapting, which is one of the first solution, but we also have a
32:28better shading system to integrate the fit on it.
32:31Or we have a terrain system trying to adapt and trying to give more and more clear and more even
32:40place for the player also to be able to enter into the outposts.
32:47So we face problems with the access to these outposts, and we have tried to find visual and technical solutions
32:57for these.
32:59The planet editor is one of the tools we're using for placing them, is trying to find the correct average
33:09distance of this kind of outposts, finding a correct spot on the planet.
33:15And then giving to the designers a way to modify these settlements, because together with the outposts, we will get
33:25some visual addons, which are just very nice elements that will give variation to these groups, to these outposts.
33:34And also some design elements, for example, a loot crate could be a design element that needs to go together
33:40with the outposts to give the gameplay.
33:44These elements get also variated by the planet editor by accessing some defaults or some design changes through time and
33:56through missions, which is what we were mentioning before.
34:01Like changing in runtime the values of the wear and dirt system that could give, if the planet is sandy,
34:10could give a varying amount of sand on the surface of the outposts.
34:16We're looking into more aspects for interior and exteriors to be different.
34:22So the interior could have rust and dust and the exteriors could have the planet affecting it with the mud
34:30or the sand, as we said.
34:33We're looking into other variations as well, interior dressing with props.
34:39There will be probably a sneak peek on it.
34:41It's actually all the things you see from my side that are still in R&D.
34:46They're clearly in a white box phase because the visual target we're trying to reach is very, very high.
34:53I'm confident that what we have reached is very good, but it's actually considered a grey box on this title,
34:59which is incredible.
35:00So hopefully you guys have enjoyed the piece. It gives you a good idea of where we're up to right
35:04now with the surface outposts.
35:06And giving a little introduction to some of the team members that's going into making them.
35:12You know, sometimes the simplest solution is the best solution, like the stairs and the outposts.
35:18Yep, but like we saw, it takes a little trial and error to find the easy solution.
35:24A little. A little trial and error.
35:26Well, that's it for this week's ATV. But before we go, I want to thank all of our backers.
35:31You are the reason Star Citizen's development is possible.
35:34Yes, and a big thank you to all our subscribers. Your contributions help us produce all this great content.
35:39And to show our gratitude, we're giving a Big Benny's vending machine to all active subscribers.
35:44If you've been wanting to join our subscriber program, sign up before April 17th to get this great piece of
35:50flair.
35:51There's a link in the description with more info.
35:53And in addition to the Big Benny's vending machine, subscribers will also receive another piece of flair next week as
36:00part of their rewards.
36:02Also, next week we'll be announcing the revamp to our referral program.
36:07Yep, alright, lots of stuff going on.
36:08And tomorrow, check out Star Citizen's happy hour at noon Pacific.
36:12Community manager Jared Huckabee will be interviewing members of the LA ShipTech team on everything that goes into making spaceships
36:17for the BDSSE.
36:19And I think that's about it. So thank you so much for watching, and we'll see you around the verse.
36:52Thank you so much for watching. So if you want to keep it with the latest and greatest
36:55and Star Citizen and Squadron 42's development, please follow us on our social media channels. See you soon.
37:01Yeah, ma'am.
37:02Yeah.
37:03Yeah.
37:05Yeah.
37:08Yeah!
37:10Yeah!
37:11Yeah!ioso.
37:11Grazie a tutti
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