So at yesterday's BritizenCon event Brian Chambers made mention of some of the information that had been shown to the German PC Games magazine when they were in the office, specifically touching on the procedural planet generation. One of the other devs was telling us how he had a 'Woah!' moment when he was wandering around on a planet, looked up and saw an orbiting moon, and decided to jump in his spaceship and fly up to it and wander around on that whilst looking up at the planet. All in all it sounds like big steps forward have been achieved, and I'm sure that we will be hearing much more about this at Gamecon.
Some kind folks at Reddit have translated the German article and the link to that discussion is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/4u91db/comprehensive_summary_of_the_info_from_the/
This covers not only what they saw regarding procedural planet generation but also some of the things that we will most likely see in 2.6 & 2.7.
I don't normally gush, but this stuff is why we're all so enthused about SC, and it's happening :)
A translation of the article taken from the reddit link above:
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Full translation into english here or down in the comments. The translation work is done by The_Don.
2.6 will launch Star Marine as separate module just like Arena Commander, this was also played by staff of PC Games and they are saying it's much more polished on the FPS side and feels a lot better than current rudimentary FPS in the PTU. - Interesting side-note: they talked about map->s.
2.7 will bring procedural planets and you will be able to travel the whole stanton system and all planets and moons can be directly approached down to the surface. Edit:
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The following is the main text block of the article, translated by forum user Don Corleone. He deserves all the credit, so if you find this useful you know who to thank.
Star Citizen
No other crowd funding project is such a center of attention for euphoric fans and generous backers, as well as critical sceptics and doubters among gamers, press and media. With Star Citizen and Squadron 42 the now to 320 employees grown studios want to realize the science-fiction-dream of Chris Roberts under the banner of Cloud Imperium Games (CIG). Behind this stands a community of at the moment 1.4 Mio. supporting backers and their proud sum of 117 Mio. US-Dollars backing money. How the money is invested into the game, we looked upon for a day at the youngest studio of CIG with the name Foundry 42 in Frankfurt on the Main. Lead by development director Brian Chambers (Ryse: Son of Rome), accompanied by Chris Roberts (Wing Commander) and his brother Erin (Privateer), we learned news about the procedural planets technology, were allowed to play the most actual build and looked the designers of weapons, AI, levels and cutscenes over the shoulder. Parts of all this are planned to be playable for backers in new alpha versions until the end of the year.
Starting, Flying, Landing – Everything without loading times.
Our first station is the presentation with hands-on about the most recent version of the procedural technique in the game. Procedural means that predefined algorithms generate all celestial bodys in the game in real time. This process is repeatable any number of times and spares hardware ressources. In our demo we directly start in space. We sit in the cockpit of our fighter, ahead of us lies the moon sized planet Delamar in the Nyx-System. As predefined landing target the mining station Levski is selectable in the HUD. Then it is directly and seamlessly approachable. Out of space, into the orbit, atmosphere entry, landing approach – how this looks and feels, you can see on double page 16/17- The basic technology behind this was already shown at the end of 2015, but the graphical sophistication of the planets surface has been improved drastically. On the planet we leave the cockpit and move around in a realistical seaming 3D-enviroment. Topography and terrain look awesome and while overlooking the ocean we note the correct simulated curvature of the horizon. The technological base frame allows it to simulate all planned star system in the game, thus planets and moons draw their tracks around suns. This for example leads to the fact, that while circling a celestial body, one will be able to see the day and night sides. "Applied to the gameplay the procedural technology is a big step forward for us", elucidates Chris Roberts to us during the presentation and explains further: "Now we can design missions in a way, that you can accept a job on a space station, which seamlessly leads you to the planets surface and back". The Singleplayer offspring Squadron 42 will also distinctively profit from this, promises Chris Roberts. Additionally the exploration aspect of the game can now be made more exciting. Somebody on the surface of a planet who looks up to a moon in the sky, can board his ship and actually go there. Other than with Genre-Colleague Elite:Dangerous all planets and moons in Star Citizen are supposed to have landing opportunities. For reasons of fairness it should be mentioned, that in the Roberts-Universe we talk about 100 Systems, while Frontier Developments outright simulates the whole milky way.
Automatic-Algorithms with Handiworkbonus
The on 10. August 2016 releasing spacegame No Man's Sky also relies on procedural technology, but with completley atomaticaly generated planets and without storybased gameplay. Star Citizen will be different, because it is concepted as a real Online-RPG. There is already a detailed lore to the game, filled with factions and planet descriptions. So to prove this is realizable in the game accordingly and will be visible to the player, the developers show us in their editor tool how they breathe life into the algorithmic generated planetary surfaces, so they don't seem repetitive or even boring in the end. The designers always have control over the generated content. In this way it is possible to rework and adjust terrain-topography in the editor by hand. Predefined templates – so called ecosystems – contain for example trees, buildings, plants as well as animals, which can be painted on the terrain in the editor with one "brushstroke". Next transitions are modelled and faded over in Cry Engine, so the surface looks as if shaped from the same mould. So you then can while extensively exploring, discover hidden temples, wrecks, stations, mines and other game relevant things.
The next Steps
After we played for a while to make a picture for ourselves about the technological background (of the game) at Foundry 42, we naturally wanted to know, when it will be playable live. Chris Roberts told us what the next steps to update the alpha builds for backers will look like.
First there will be an update to version 2.5 soon. This contains a new space station for the existing mini universe (see box on page 14). "The station is more targeted at players, that lets say want to move beyond the law", explains Roberts. The allusion refers to the pirate base named Grim Hex, which was shown recently by Cloud Imperium Games in their Online-Video-Show "Around the Verse" shortly. Grim Hex is the opposite to the already existing station Port Olisar in the playable Stanton System. "With that we want to enable the gameplay between two factions, to see, what the players will make of it", so Roberts. After that follows 2.6, in which the developers want to introduce the First-Person-Shooter-Module Star Marine.
Star Marine will be played outside of the persistant universe, like the already existing module Arena Commander, in which one can test his piloting skills. It is specially designed for multiplayer shooter sessions, with separate levels. "We have invested very much time into the FPS-mechanics, which will be very noticeable if compared to the actual rudimentary systems in 2.4", says Roberts. The developer show us a corresponding gameplay segment, which leaves an excellent impression: Animation, controls and weapon feeling were thoroughly overhauled, so that for a shooter player it really feels good. The result: Seamless movements and clean gunplay – keep it up!
With version 2.7 CIG wants to implement procedural planet technology into the live universe. In the first step it will for the first time become possible to travel the complete Stanton System. At the moment version 2.4 contains only parts of it, in which one can't land on planets or space ports. This will change fundamentally. "Version 2.7 is the next big step for us, which will contain much more playable content for our backers", remarks Roberts.
Planets and Moons in the Stanton System will be directly approachable and the players can land on them, like on the afore mentioned Outlaw-Base Grim Hex. With following patches more landing zones will find their way into the Stanton System, like for example Hurston and Microtech, two important corporation locations in the Star Citizen Universe. The proclaimed target of CIG is, to make Stanton playable in its full extent before the end of 2016, with all stations and landing zones, which Roberts estimates to 40 locations. It shall also be possible, to play considerably more missions... end...
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Some kind folks at Reddit have translated the German article and the link to that discussion is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/4u91db/comprehensive_summary_of_the_info_from_the/
This covers not only what they saw regarding procedural planet generation but also some of the things that we will most likely see in 2.6 & 2.7.
I don't normally gush, but this stuff is why we're all so enthused about SC, and it's happening :)
A translation of the article taken from the reddit link above:
---
Full translation into english here or down in the comments. The translation work is done by The_Don.
2.6 will launch Star Marine as separate module just like Arena Commander, this was also played by staff of PC Games and they are saying it's much more polished on the FPS side and feels a lot better than current rudimentary FPS in the PTU. - Interesting side-note: they talked about map->s.
2.7 will bring procedural planets and you will be able to travel the whole stanton system and all planets and moons can be directly approached down to the surface. Edit:
- They say the new lighting system as part of the procedural planets build looks much more natural.
- They say that approaching the planet looks and technically feels better than with Elite Dangerous.
- You can land anywhere manually, automatic landing gets you to fixed positions i.e. landing zones.
- Microtech and Hurston come in follow-up patches after 2.7
- They aim to have Stanton fully playable i.e. with all stations and landing zones (according to CR about 40 locations) by end of 2016
- There will be more jobs and missions as well.
- Trading will be in by then
- Chris describing that missions accepted up in space stations could lead you eventually down to planet surfaces, not clear if this is going to be in with 2.7 but seemingly something SQ42 will benefit from.
- Planets and moons are revolving around suns, with naturally simulated day and night cycles. When flying over the ocean they were noticing that the horizon had a correctly simulated curve. Trees and Animals seemingly are planned (edit: doesn't seem to be in with 2.7, sorry) - they have them seemingly setup in pre-made templates they call eco-systems - these can be brushed over the planet surface, some magic blends the transitions to make it look naturally and consistent.
- Planetary surface and topograhy details are controlled by a dynamical LOD system.
- Some pop-up was visible during the planetary approach but they described it as impressive regardless.
- They were also impressed with the cloud system, which wasn't just a simple texture layer but seemingly is described what I assume would be volumetric, i.e. they have deepth and height and impact visibility, leading to mountain crests piercing through clouds and valleys being covered.
- They are writing that there isn't any artificially restricted view range, visibility is rather a result from the volumetric calculation of the athmosphere.
- Parallax-Occlusion maps with dynamic tessellation is used for the surface details.
- GTX 980 was used with 100 fps on the planetary surface, so performance seems to be pretty good already, sorry, that was just editor performance - in-game performance was 45fps :)
- Some stuff about the subsumption-AI saying NPCs might have hobbies and a virtual mind, allowing them to remember the player or be influenced in his opinions by the player. To avoid performance issues, they seemingly control the update cycles for NPC AI based on player proximitiy i.e. update cycles go to 1hz instead of 60hz if no one is around.
- There was also a part about server architecture, how they intend to improve upon it in order to sustain more concurrent players in the same server zone. target is to reduce the numbers of instances.
- They intend to mesh servers together in order to form a huge cluster, the necessary optimisations are already being coded into star citizen, accordingly they also should yield some marginal performance improvements on the client side.
- Head bob will apparently also be customizable, think severe (realistic), semi realistc and non.
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Page 2:
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The following is the main text block of the article, translated by forum user Don Corleone. He deserves all the credit, so if you find this useful you know who to thank.
Star Citizen
No other crowd funding project is such a center of attention for euphoric fans and generous backers, as well as critical sceptics and doubters among gamers, press and media. With Star Citizen and Squadron 42 the now to 320 employees grown studios want to realize the science-fiction-dream of Chris Roberts under the banner of Cloud Imperium Games (CIG). Behind this stands a community of at the moment 1.4 Mio. supporting backers and their proud sum of 117 Mio. US-Dollars backing money. How the money is invested into the game, we looked upon for a day at the youngest studio of CIG with the name Foundry 42 in Frankfurt on the Main. Lead by development director Brian Chambers (Ryse: Son of Rome), accompanied by Chris Roberts (Wing Commander) and his brother Erin (Privateer), we learned news about the procedural planets technology, were allowed to play the most actual build and looked the designers of weapons, AI, levels and cutscenes over the shoulder. Parts of all this are planned to be playable for backers in new alpha versions until the end of the year.
Starting, Flying, Landing – Everything without loading times.
Our first station is the presentation with hands-on about the most recent version of the procedural technique in the game. Procedural means that predefined algorithms generate all celestial bodys in the game in real time. This process is repeatable any number of times and spares hardware ressources. In our demo we directly start in space. We sit in the cockpit of our fighter, ahead of us lies the moon sized planet Delamar in the Nyx-System. As predefined landing target the mining station Levski is selectable in the HUD. Then it is directly and seamlessly approachable. Out of space, into the orbit, atmosphere entry, landing approach – how this looks and feels, you can see on double page 16/17- The basic technology behind this was already shown at the end of 2015, but the graphical sophistication of the planets surface has been improved drastically. On the planet we leave the cockpit and move around in a realistical seaming 3D-enviroment. Topography and terrain look awesome and while overlooking the ocean we note the correct simulated curvature of the horizon. The technological base frame allows it to simulate all planned star system in the game, thus planets and moons draw their tracks around suns. This for example leads to the fact, that while circling a celestial body, one will be able to see the day and night sides. "Applied to the gameplay the procedural technology is a big step forward for us", elucidates Chris Roberts to us during the presentation and explains further: "Now we can design missions in a way, that you can accept a job on a space station, which seamlessly leads you to the planets surface and back". The Singleplayer offspring Squadron 42 will also distinctively profit from this, promises Chris Roberts. Additionally the exploration aspect of the game can now be made more exciting. Somebody on the surface of a planet who looks up to a moon in the sky, can board his ship and actually go there. Other than with Genre-Colleague Elite:Dangerous all planets and moons in Star Citizen are supposed to have landing opportunities. For reasons of fairness it should be mentioned, that in the Roberts-Universe we talk about 100 Systems, while Frontier Developments outright simulates the whole milky way.
Automatic-Algorithms with Handiworkbonus
The on 10. August 2016 releasing spacegame No Man's Sky also relies on procedural technology, but with completley atomaticaly generated planets and without storybased gameplay. Star Citizen will be different, because it is concepted as a real Online-RPG. There is already a detailed lore to the game, filled with factions and planet descriptions. So to prove this is realizable in the game accordingly and will be visible to the player, the developers show us in their editor tool how they breathe life into the algorithmic generated planetary surfaces, so they don't seem repetitive or even boring in the end. The designers always have control over the generated content. In this way it is possible to rework and adjust terrain-topography in the editor by hand. Predefined templates – so called ecosystems – contain for example trees, buildings, plants as well as animals, which can be painted on the terrain in the editor with one "brushstroke". Next transitions are modelled and faded over in Cry Engine, so the surface looks as if shaped from the same mould. So you then can while extensively exploring, discover hidden temples, wrecks, stations, mines and other game relevant things.
The next Steps
After we played for a while to make a picture for ourselves about the technological background (of the game) at Foundry 42, we naturally wanted to know, when it will be playable live. Chris Roberts told us what the next steps to update the alpha builds for backers will look like.
First there will be an update to version 2.5 soon. This contains a new space station for the existing mini universe (see box on page 14). "The station is more targeted at players, that lets say want to move beyond the law", explains Roberts. The allusion refers to the pirate base named Grim Hex, which was shown recently by Cloud Imperium Games in their Online-Video-Show "Around the Verse" shortly. Grim Hex is the opposite to the already existing station Port Olisar in the playable Stanton System. "With that we want to enable the gameplay between two factions, to see, what the players will make of it", so Roberts. After that follows 2.6, in which the developers want to introduce the First-Person-Shooter-Module Star Marine.
Star Marine will be played outside of the persistant universe, like the already existing module Arena Commander, in which one can test his piloting skills. It is specially designed for multiplayer shooter sessions, with separate levels. "We have invested very much time into the FPS-mechanics, which will be very noticeable if compared to the actual rudimentary systems in 2.4", says Roberts. The developer show us a corresponding gameplay segment, which leaves an excellent impression: Animation, controls and weapon feeling were thoroughly overhauled, so that for a shooter player it really feels good. The result: Seamless movements and clean gunplay – keep it up!
With version 2.7 CIG wants to implement procedural planet technology into the live universe. In the first step it will for the first time become possible to travel the complete Stanton System. At the moment version 2.4 contains only parts of it, in which one can't land on planets or space ports. This will change fundamentally. "Version 2.7 is the next big step for us, which will contain much more playable content for our backers", remarks Roberts.
Planets and Moons in the Stanton System will be directly approachable and the players can land on them, like on the afore mentioned Outlaw-Base Grim Hex. With following patches more landing zones will find their way into the Stanton System, like for example Hurston and Microtech, two important corporation locations in the Star Citizen Universe. The proclaimed target of CIG is, to make Stanton playable in its full extent before the end of 2016, with all stations and landing zones, which Roberts estimates to 40 locations. It shall also be possible, to play considerably more missions... end...
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