3.0 Production Schedule Report 3.0 Production Schedule Report

Our schedule for the next Star Citizen Alpha releases, up to date. Our schedule for the next Star Citizen Alpha releases, up to date.

Last update : Oct 20th, 2017 Last update : Oct 27th, 2017

This week, we generated more than fifteen internal builds which allowed QA to confirm fixes and identify new critical bugs. Three of these builds were released to the Evocati for intensive testing. One persistent bug was a memory leak issue where the game (either on the client or server side) soaked up more and more system RAM until it crashed. The team has been squashing this bug whenever they find it, but with performance issues like this, there is rarely a single solution. As more mechanics and code are implemented, any one of them can cause the issue to return. The programmers have been working with the engineering team to develop new additions to the Debug system which will help identifying these issues sooner. There was also a consistent Serialized Variable crash that occurred when there were data mismatches in the game code between the client and server which caused a disconnection. The debugging work the engineering team is doing for the memory leak should also help resolve this issue as well. This week, the team generated another fifteen builds for the developers and QA to review, while three more made their way to the Evocati testers. One of the major victories this week was the first implementation of our new WAF build system, which will cut down the required time to generate a build from four hours to just one. When perfected, this will allow us to have more development and testing time between each build.

The team continued to focus on perfecting the Shopping experience this week, finally fixing a bug that prevented players from equipping items that they bought. Our daily review sessions focused on the physical stores in locations like Port Olisar, Grim HEX, and Levski, so we’re in the process of prioritizing those bugs in our overall fix-list. The rest of the team continued to tackle the ongoing bugs tied to commodity shopping that we discussed last week. One of the setbacks we encountered this week was a pair of Disconnection errors that would kick players from the servers. These bugs were discovered thanks to improvements made to increase server stability. As players could play for longer, they were now able to trigger these Disconnection errors. Finally, our Network team checked in a fix that will increase performance in the overall game experience.

We are continuing to improve the production schedule report to accommodate your feedback and next week we will have a revised format that highlights the remaining features that need completing before we go to a wider PTU and then live.

The team’s been focusing on the comprehensive Shopping experience and resolving any issues related to shopping, kiosks or the economy. They’ve fixed a series of issues that ranged from spawning the player inside their bed (literally) to one bug that took out all of the items from all of the shops. The team’s been focusing on the comprehensive Shopping experience and resolving any issues related to shopping, kiosks or the economy. They’ve fixed a series of issues that ranged from spawning the player inside their bed (literally) to one bug that took out all of the items from all of the shops.

Click the video below to watch this week’s “Burndown,” which digs into detail on the bugs we battled and fixes we implemented. Click the video below to watch this week’s “Burndown,” which digs into detail on the bugs we battled and fixes we implemented.

ISSUES FIXED IN THE LAST WEEK ISSUES FIXED IN THE LAST WEEK

What you see below is a numerical representation of issues the team is focusing on to close-out (Burndown) to get to an Evocati release candidate, so you can see the progress of work we’re doing on a week-by-week basis. What you see below is a numerical representation of issues the team is focusing on to close-out (Burndown) to get to an Evocati release candidate, so you can see the progress of work we’re doing on a week-by-week basis.

Issues Fixed Over the Last Week: Issues Fixed Over the Last Week:

Please note that this list represents an overview of fixes made this week and not a complete list. Please note that this list represents an overview of fixes made this week and not a complete list.

Crashes Crashes

Fixed a crash in CZone::UnregisterVisAreaAsExitPortal Fixed a crash in CAttachableComponent::NotifyPortChanges

Fixed a crash in CTaskManager::~CTaskManager Fixed a crash in CSCItemSeatAccess::OnSeatStateChange

Fixed a crash in OcclusionCuller::SubmitReprojectZBufferJobs Fixed a crash in CNetMsgQueue::NetMsgQueueImpl::InitializeQueue

Fixed a crash in CSCItemDoorController::OnAttachedToSystem Fixed a crash in CTiledShading::InsertTexture

Fixed a crash in CRenderProxy::CalcLocalBounds Fixed a crash in CSCBodyHealthComponent::LoadDatacoreRecord

Fixed a crash in CEntityAudioControllerManager::Update Fixed a crash in CContextView::NetDumpObjectView

Fixed a crash in CAudioRayOcclusionComponent::OnComponentUpdate Fixed a crash in CSCActorSuitManager::OnReloadSwapMagazines

Fixed a crash in CSkeletonPose::UpdateGravity Fixed a crash in CSCActorResultStateHostComponent::LegacyPlayerMovementRemoteSimulation

Fixed a crash in C3DEngine::RenderRTTCubemapBackdrop Fixed a crash in CRE_RParticle::Housekeeping

Fixed a crash in CTravelEnvelope::TakeSnapshot Fixed a crash in CEntity::CreateComponentImpl

Fixed a crash in CSCActorResultAdditiveStatePlace::PlayPlaceAnimation Fixed a crash in CActionSeatState::TraverseToNextState

Fixed a crash in AsteroidField::CAsteroidFieldPhysics::SPhysicsCell::SyncPhysics Fixed a crash in GFxValue::GFxValue

Fixed a crash in CSCItemQuantumDrive::OnDetachedFromSystem Fixed a crash in ~SContextViewObject::SContextViewObject 2 unreleas…

Fixed a crash when destroying a Caterpillar Fixed a main thread deadlock in CItemPipeStub::Calculate

Fixed a main thread deadlock in CEndpointMessageSender::WriteMessage

Fixed a server crash caused by ships colliding.

Game Code Game Code

Fixed an issue where ASOP terminals would have an empty ship list after quitting and reconnecting. Fixed an issue where players could not select inner thought options.

Fixed an issue where the character’s jump would either not cause them to leave the ground or be forced into a walk. Fixed an issue where Hiver / Gravlev ships were uncontrollable.

Fixed an issue where the game would hang when decoupling / coupling in a ship. Fixed an issue where interaction mode broke after accessing an ASOP terminal and bringing up mobiGlas.

Fixed a memory leak when the character chokes in third person camera. Fixed an issue where certain ships ejected the pilot after selecting “Flight Ready.”

Fixed an issue where player-spawned ships were not being cleaned up correctly, causing increased memory usage. Fixed various performance issues throughout Stanton.

Fixed various instances of unnecessary log spam. Fixed an issue where the characer suffocated when moving from one game to another.

Fixed an issue where some of the larger ships spawned floating above the landing pads.

UI UI

Fixed an issue where clicking the insurance buttons quickly on the ASOP terminal would stop the button from working. Fixed a number of issues where major outposts on moons lacked UI markers.

Fixed an issue where the Personal Manager app was missing assets. Fixed an issue where debug text rather than localized text appeared on objective markers and objectives containing extended text.

Fixed an issue where players were unable to close the mobiGlas after accepting a bounty mission. Fixed an issue where the player became stuck in the Personal Manager App loadout menu.

Fixed an issue with ships missing their targeting pips. Fixed an issue where the player became stuck in the “Inventory” tab of the Personal Manager app.

Fixed an issue where ships could not lock missiles onto other ships. Fixed an issue where the player HUD lacked a radar.

Fixed an issue where scrolling did not cycle through the interaction prompts.

Fixed an issue where Yela outpost markers were visible when inside GrimHex.

Stanton Stanton

Fixed an issue where players could spawn into the Stanton system at the map origin with no loadout. Fixed an issue where players would exit Quantum Travel and be inside of a planet or moon.

Fixed an issue where players could not spawn ships via the ASOP terminals. Fixed an issue where players could not buy commodities from a kiosk.

Fixed an issue where players could not interact with the airlocks, trapping them at their spawn location. Fixed an issue where mission related cargo lost all functionality.

Fixed an issue where the Ol’38 bar was entirely missing from Grim HEX. Fixed various texture and LOD issues caused by the internal build system update.

Fixed an issue where players could purchase commodities at one location and sell them at another without having to spawn the ship carrying the commodities. Fixed an issue where various commodities would not generate cargo boxes in a ship’s hold after purchase.

Fixed an issue where a number of outpost markers were missing.

Fixed an issue where armour was missing from shops, but the interactions were still present.

Fixed an issue where enemy AI were unresponsive and invincible.

Fixed an issue where spawning certain ships would cause them to appear in space rather than the landing pad.

Network Network

Fixed an issue that caused no items to be present in either the commodity kiosks or the physical shops. Fixed some instances of Error 20007 / 30007 disconnects.

Fixed an issue where shops and commodity kiosks lacked any items.

Fixed a 10001 disconnect error for when services failed to fine player GEID.

Vehicles Vehicles

Fixed an issue where the cockput of the Reliant was missing collision. Fixed an issue where placeholder textures appeared inside the Vagnuard.

Fixed a global issue where certain sections of ships would not take damage. Fixed an issue where placeholer textures appeared on the cockpit screens of Freelancer derelicts.

Fixed an issue where certain ships would have their screens offset when Render to Texture was enabled. Fixed an issue where the Starfarer’s MFDs were missing.

Fixed various VisArea issues in ships. Fixed an issue where the Starfarer’s automatic doors failed to open.

Fixed an issue where the doors between the cockpit and the cargo hold in the Cutlass would not open. Fixed an issue where the Cutlass pilot’s MFDs were not functioning.

Fixed an issue where the Cutlass ramp was missing collision. Fixed an issue where exiting the Rover’s passenger seat caused the character to fall through its collision.

Fixed an issue where the Cutlass could be killed very easily. Fixed an issue where the Caterpillar would not pitch or yaw.

Misc Misc

Fixed an issue with Quantum Travel audio not playing. Fixed an issue with Quantum Travel audio not playing.

Fixed an issue where ship weapons had no audio.

THE PROCESS THE PROCESS

We have been listening to your feedback as a community and over the coming weeks will be working towards improving the way we communicate our development updates to you. We will make clearer the changes and improvements and blockers that we have experienced throughout the week in a high-level foreword, while still maintaining the thorough tracking for the more detail-oriented members of our community. That way, those who are looking for a simple update can easily find it. This will be a work in progress for the next few weeks, so please continue the feedback as we hone in a format that is easily workable between our developers and yourselves. We have been listening to your feedback as a community and over the coming weeks will be working towards improving the way we communicate our development updates to you. We will make clearer the changes and improvements and blockers that we have experienced throughout the week in a high-level foreword, while still maintaining the thorough tracking for the more detail-oriented members of our community. That way, those who are looking for a simple update can easily find it. This will be a work in progress for the next few weeks, so please continue the feedback as we hone in a format that is easily workable between our developers and yourselves.

CAVEATS CAVEATS

But also, we would like to establish some ground rules before proceeding: But also, we would like to establish some ground rules before proceeding:

I.Quality will always be our number one goal. We set out on this journey by looking at the gaming landscape and asking: can we do better? We continue to ask that question about everything we do. As a result, we will ALWAYS extend timelines or re-do features and content if we do not feel they are up to our standards. The freedom to fight for a new level of quality in game development is what crowd funding has allowed us, and we will continue to fight to make sure Star Citizen is the best possible game it can be. I.Quality will always be our number one goal. We set out on this journey by looking at the gaming landscape and asking: can we do better? We continue to ask that question about everything we do. As a result, we will ALWAYS extend timelines or re-do features and content if we do not feel they are up to our standards. The freedom to fight for a new level of quality in game development is what crowd funding has allowed us, and we will continue to fight to make sure Star Citizen is the best possible game it can be.

II.The estimates we provide are just that: estimates. They are based on our knowledge and experience, but there are many aspects of game development that are impossible to predict because they literally cover uncharted territory. You will see the same estimates we use in our internal planning, but it is important to understand that in many cases (especially with groundbreaking engineering tasks) these estimates are often subject to change due to unforeseen complexity in implementing features. II.The estimates we provide are just that: estimates. They are based on our knowledge and experience, but there are many aspects of game development that are impossible to predict because they literally cover uncharted territory. You will see the same estimates we use in our internal planning, but it is important to understand that in many cases (especially with groundbreaking engineering tasks) these estimates are often subject to change due to unforeseen complexity in implementing features.

III.The time expected for bug fixing and polishing is also very hard to estimate, increasingly so in online and multiplayer situations. The complexity and the difficulty in testing at a large scale make it harder to reproduce and isolate bugs in order to fix them. We base our estimates, again, on our experience, but we also know that it’s possible for a single bug to cause a delay of days or weeks when a hundred others might be fixed instantly. III.The time expected for bug fixing and polishing is also very hard to estimate, increasingly so in online and multiplayer situations. The complexity and the difficulty in testing at a large scale make it harder to reproduce and isolate bugs in order to fix them. We base our estimates, again, on our experience, but we also know that it’s possible for a single bug to cause a delay of days or weeks when a hundred others might be fixed instantly.

IV.Internal schedules, the ones you will now be privy to, tend to have aggressive dates to help the team focus and scope their tasks, especially in the case of tech development. Every team, even a team blessed with the kind of support and freedom you have allowed us, needs target dates in order to focus and deliver their work. IV.Internal schedules, the ones you will now be privy to, tend to have aggressive dates to help the team focus and scope their tasks, especially in the case of tech development. Every team, even a team blessed with the kind of support and freedom you have allowed us, needs target dates in order to focus and deliver their work.

V.This schedule doesn’t cover everything being worked on across Cloud Imperium Games, but is meant to highlight our aims for the remainder of the year on the Persistent Universe. V.This schedule doesn’t cover everything being worked on across Cloud Imperium Games, but is meant to highlight our aims for the remainder of the year on the Persistent Universe.

VI.This schedule doesn’t include every audio, vfx, tech art, etc. task. Those are detailed in our departmental sub-schedules. VI.This schedule doesn’t include every audio, vfx, tech art, etc. task. Those are detailed in our departmental sub-schedules.

VII.Although technology is shared between the two games, this does not reflect the Squadron 42 schedule. That will be released at a future date. VII.Although technology is shared between the two games, this does not reflect the Squadron 42 schedule. That will be released at a future date.

VIII.These aim dates are determined based on our current staff. Additional hiring will potentially allow us to bring in some dates below. VIII.These aim dates are determined based on our current staff. Additional hiring will potentially allow us to bring in some dates below.

DESIGN DESIGN

COMPLETED COMPLETED

Fixed the R38 Bar missing from Levski. Fixing green zones in the PU.

Fixing the ReplaceMe balls found in airlocks and landing bay corridors of Grim HEX. Fixed the armistice zone for surface outposts.

Creating new mission broker entries for missions Increased speed of debris rotation.

Creating a first pass of the PU_Recovery_StolenGoods_Planet mission Implementing feedback for Combat Assistance.

Setting up Cargo-Specific waves for AI to be used in missions Tuning reputation logic for mission tiers.

Cleaning up and implementing Mission Brief animations for Eckhart Adding in logic to correctly handle bodies that have left the wreck sites in the ‘Mission Persons’ mission

Adding “Spawn Location” to the AI Spawner Set up reputation rewards for missions.

Variant Pricing Bucket for Clothing and Armor Set up missions to guide players to the mission givers.

Implemented first iteration of Item Pricing in game Fixing offset usables.

Got all the weapon skins set up with Turbulent records and inventories Fixed Logspam with “Unable to find CommunicationConfig”.

Bug fixing for 3.0.0 – clothing not appearing in shops, interaction issues, etc.

Fixed all landing gear audio issues

Re-exported caterpillar voxel grid

Updated Hornet with the new geo, re-exported object containers for lighting

Added health and wear components to power plants, coolers, shield generators, quantum drives, weapons. Noted which MFDs aren’t displaying the info related to these components (health, wear) incorrectly.

Added all interactable components to all ship cargo grids

Fixed all seat interactions in ships – Gladiator, Hornet series, Cutlass Black, M50, and Scout

Fixed a few UI issues with the Aurora

Finished up ship seat entrance highlighting- Mustang series, Caterpillar, Scythe/Glaive, and Nox

Fixed the absolute value to power throttle and shield regeneration rate in the MFDs

Got seat entrance highlighting working on ships – Buccaneer, Herald, Merlin, Reliant, and 300 series

Finished design for Seat Armor restrictions in ships

Bug fixing for 3.0.0 – Ursa Rover door, updating missile racks so that weapons can’t be placed in them

Got seat entrance highlighting working on ships – Aurora series, Constellation Andromeda, and Ursa Rover

IN PROGRESS IN PROGRESS

Continuing setup of the repair mission Continuing setup of the Repair mission.

Setting up basic steal mission Replacing existing Ammo / Grenade Containers in PU / SM.

Implementing mission relevant dialogue to missions Implementing mission relevant dialogue to missions.

Working on ship weapon pricing Enabling airlock doors to open automatically when approached.

Setting up the Shopkeepers in all the shops in game – working through issues with Subsumption Iterating on the Conversation system for characters.

Testing Obj Container lighting exports – running into issues though where the lighting states aren’t working Working on HUD “Tidy Up” (e.g. – with no kit, helmet etc).

Prepping the Mustang implementation file for the rework.

ART ART

COMPLETED COMPLETED

Polishing 3.0.0 Weapons Polishing weapons and skins for 3.0.0.

Polishing weapon skins for 3.0.0 Updated Engine trails and contrails on all Aurora variants.

Updated Engine trails and contrails on all variants of the Aurora.

Tweaks to Aurora QT effects. Tweaks to Aurora QT effects.

Finished polish pass on Area18 seating, railings and Customs terminals Finished polish pass on Area18 seating, railings and Customs terminals.

Completed Blood decals / giblets Completed Blood decals / giblets

IN PROGRESS IN PROGRESS

Continued tweaking Lighting, RTT, Open Physics Proxy Pass on all ships. Continued tweaking Lighting, RTT, Open Physics Proxy Pass on all ships.

Continued wokring on the polish pass for Area18 props.

Continued converting props into new Usable system. Continued converting props into new Usable system.

CODE CODE

COMPLETED COMPLETED

Continued to tackle persistent spawning issue, and has been doing multiple 3.0 bugs. Continued focusing on Player Interaction issues. All the remaining JIRAs will be prioritized in a kick-off after CitizenCon.

Completed code work on hologram support. Waiting for review to see if additional work will be needed. Made changes to the AB behaviour.

Leo has been focused on the Star Map. Continued polish on StarMap

Providing code support to UI. Nearly implemented all parallelisation optimizations.

Finalized parallelised queue updates, which will hopefully go in on Monday. Worked on the oxygen station mechanic. Now on optimisations and bugs.

DataCore refactor, plus bugs.

Focused on the Evocati Shopping/Cargo push with many bug fixes

Several fixes and improvements to light groups were checked in.

Developed several breaching features.

Object Container and Trackview bug fixes.

Implemented improvements to QT VFX.

Bug fixes with QT short/long conversion.

IN PROGRESS IN PROGRESS

Continued working on Serialised Variables optimisations, and has been looking at Code 7 disconnect bugs. Continuing to address bugs and IFCS issues.

The team has also been looking at potential optimizations and started performance R&D. Support the UI team for their features.

Continued working on Vid Comms. Implementing distortion and UI integration are in progress.

Continued working on interactions.

Enabling airlock doors to open automatically when approached

Iterating on the Conversation system for characters

Working on HUD “Tidy Up” (e.g. – with no kit, helmet etc)

QATR is in now for headless clients (this system allows a developer to populate a server with AI Clients to test population-triggered bugs). First limit will be 24 headless, the next will be 100, if the first is successful.

Pawel has been doing some work on persistent spawning, has been bug fixing, and will move back to his proxy issues.

GRAPHICS GRAPHICS

IN PROGRESS IN PROGRESS

Continuing to implement and bugfix on Render-To-Texture (RTT) system. Work continued on glass shader.

Lending support on fixing shadow issues. Continued iteration on new RTT features and bugs.

Catching up with fixing particle bugs. Continued fixing shadow issues.

Worked on changing the exposure when looking at mobiGlas to help separate it from bright backgrounds. Continued bug support for 3.0 issues.

Fixing VFX issues and starting to make progress on new VFX issues.

UI

IN PROGRESS

Work continued on glass shader.

Continued iteration on new RTT features and bugs.

Continued fixing shadow issues.

Continued bug support for 3.0 issues.

Fixing VFX issues and starting to make progress on new VFX issues.

BEYOND 3.0.0 - OVERVIEW BEYOND 3.0.0 - OVERVIEW