Foundry 42 UK



Art

In case you hadn’t heard, CitizenCon happened this month. This awesome event kept us busy, as we produced all the great artwork and designs for the RSI Polaris. We also started on a new MISC ship and Banu archetypes, wrapped up the first round of the Esperia Prowler, finished a Kastak Arms sniper rifle and pistol, and the usual smattering of ship items and props.

The Environment team had a wide range of tasks waiting for them. We worked to bring a captivating mood to two Star Marine maps. We also collaborated with our DE studio to ensure both art and engineering have what they need to make our planets look even better and allow us to more easily integrate assets. As work continues on the microTech, Crusader and Hurston landing zones, it is important our planets work well with the different settings these each have.

The DE studio designers also supported our artists on brand new ideas such as surface outposts, modular space stations and satellites. These are the bread and butter of what players will be visiting, so we hope to show more of this soon! Finally, we are hard at work on S42. All of our levels are in final art and we are gearing up to unveil what we have been doing with the Vertical Slice, which will be the first true look into what we are doing across S42.

Let’s not have the Environment team hog all the spotlight. The ship team was busy with the Drake Herald and Vanguard Hoplite for 2.6, both of which are flight ready and testing with QA. The team was also busy with capital ships and are in the final phase of closing out the Idris, Javelin and Bengal. In addition, we have started development on the Vanduul Hunter! As the Driller wraps up, we can take a lot of what that team has done and apply it to the next Vanduul set of ships so these get done faster.

Graphics

The graphics team focused on several new features this month, including rotating asteroids, physically accurate spot light falloff (important for headlights and torches), and a complex shader-glow effect for alien spaceships. We’ve also started on a major rework and unification of the shadow systems. It will vastly increase the number of simultaneous shadow casting lights we can support, while providing higher resolution shadows and improved performance.

Props

The last month was hectic but rewarding. CitizenCon also provided the added bonus of highlighting areas of the pipeline to be improved and refined. A large amount of work also went into Squadron 42, the “low tech” set continues to grow, and we converted some older assets over to the new material system, which looks great and is much more efficient.

The dressing asset library (think handheld sized props) continued to grow. Destructible props are being worked on now, so soon you’ll be able to shoot exploding barrels, blow out lights and windows, and create mayhem!

Audio

Besides setting up the music-logic system and cinematic cues for CitizenCon’s Homestead demo, the audio team also did work on ambience, scavenger voices, the epic sandstorm, and more. Work on Star Marine included setting up the music-logic system, ambience and SFX support, grenade bounce work, and bug fixes.

The team also refined various ships, like the Dragonfly and Caterpillar, and refactored the Xi’An Scout engines. Improvements were made to quantum drive, ship weapons, and player death. The music system was reworked to support multiple concurrent music suites so there will be seamless music throughout the game. The cinematic flow node was made more robust, and the audio dynamic range changed to a dropdown box with three choices. Amongst many other things, we also improved workflow and collision interpretation with the goal of different clothing, armor, and weapons making specific sounds when bumping or scraping various surfaces.

Quality Assurance

QA focused on Star Marine and really put the control game mode through its paces to weed out some nasty crashes. We tested the new music logic system, which really adds drama to the experience. With new ships coming in, like the Vanguard Hoplite and Drake Herald, we made sure they match the exacting standards required of spaceflight ready machinery!

In addition, sweeping balance changes for the flight model, shields and ship weapons kept us extremely busy. 2.6 adds a huge amount to Star Citizen and we’ve enjoyed our part in bringing it to you!

VFX

This month VFX did clean-up and optimization of Arena Commander in preparation for Alpha 2.6. The team also worked on the Herald and Vanguard Hoplite, which will be making their flight-ready premieres in that patch. We made effects improvements on both ships and also updates (including shader fixes) to FPS weapons. We also worked on general ambient VFX for Star Marine levels as well as bug fixes and particle library/texture cleanup.

For the Homestead demo we supplied ship contrails (fully driven by code/data), general ambient effects (sand, debris, weather), weapon improvements (including blood impacts), and upgrades to Dragonfly explosions and Ursa Rover effects. In addition, atmospheric entry VFX are now fully driven by code/data. Last, but not least, we also continued R&D for planetary VFX automated placement.

Programming

For 2.6.0 we completed a large overhaul of the camera system and unified code between the different modes such as the chase, orbit, passenger and spectator cameras. This allows us to have more dramatic and cinematic cameras, and provides more control over DoF, FoV, operator shake, point of interest and zoom.

2.6.0 also contains big changes for the lobby UI. Now you can change your loadout without having to go into the hangar. We’re also investigating a new “mega map”, which would allow you to go between Arena Commander game modes and environments without having to load in/exit out of the maps.

Animation

We did a lot of work in Star Marine, implementing looting animations for weapon pick-ups, working on grenade functionality and visuals, and bringing legacy weapon reloads up to our current quality standards. Must say, they’re looking quite nice in first person.

Beside general bug fixes, we also captured assets for stealth kills from various angles and combat ready AI responding to noises. There was also work done on AI combat animation sets. Most of it was focused on enter/exit cover, blind fire, and under fire.

Design

In October, the UK design team have been split between 2.6 and Squadron 42.

The ‘Live Team’ added mission content for Crusader (including many secrets). We put in new asteroid tech that vastly improved the ring around ‘Yela’, tweaked station security, and bolstered the belt with improved wreck sites. There were widespread Arena Commander upgrades as well, including persistent missile inventory between deaths, pickups and Pirate Swarm rebalance and improvements.

Squadron 42 designers worked on various elements of the Vertical Slice. This section of gameplay was deliberately picked as it contains almost all aspects of gameplay required overall, but also lacks major spoilers. The intense focus on this section is paying dividends in terms of fixing issues that can sometimes persist late into the development cycle.

UI

At the start of October, the team focused on HUD & UI needs for the planetary demo showcased at CitizenCon. Since then, the entire team has been working towards the UI needs for 2.6. This involved a significant overhaul to Star Citizen’s front-end menu system. It affects the game lobbies for Arena Commander and Star Marine, new in-game leaderboards, and provides a much needed visual update to the main menu and pause screens. We hope this overhaul will present a much improved end-user experience, especially for new players.

Aside from the new front-end overhaul, we also worked with the Character team on creating new first person helmets & HUDs that will have their own individual look and feel. We want the game-mode specific UI to function properly and be visually consistent with the rest of the game UI. Finally, we supported the environment team with ambient screen assets & animations, which gives some life & movement to our environments.