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3.0 Production Schedule Report Our schedule for the next Star Citizen Alpha releases, up to date. Last update : Oct 13th, 2017 This week our dedicated Evocati testers from the Community tackled Alpha 3.0 and allowed us to see performance and network issues we weren’t able to with our internal test group. This feedback gave us good insight on areas we can optimize to ensure that when 3.0 goes Live, it is a smooth, fun experience. As of Thursday, we were at 23 must fix issues to polish our shopping and cargo features, as well as working together with Evocati to process and fix bugs so we can get the build ready for the PTU and then go Live. 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. (Please note: This is an overview of fixes made this week and not a complete list.) Crashes Fixed a crash in CTX::ContextGroup::GetDomain Fixed a crash in CZone::UpdateObjectsBBox_ZonePartition Fixed a crash in CMannequinInterface::UnloadAll Fixed a crash in CPostAA::TemporalSuperSampling Fixed a crash in CSCLocalPlayerAudioComponent::UpdateInteriority Fixed a deadlock in zservicepersistencecache – cig::PersistenceCache::CCacheMsgHandler::OnMsgStorePurchaseRequest Fixed a crash in CSCInventory::NotifyChildrenRemoved Fixed a crash in CSCActorResultStateLadder::Update Fixed a crash in COrderedMeshBV::Build Fixed a crash in CSCInventory::OnObjectRemoved Fixed a crash in CSCItem::GetHostCharacter Fixed a crash in CZoneSystem::GetZone Fixed a crash in CLockingMarker::UpdateAttachments Fixed a crash in CD3D9Renderer::ConfigShadowTexgen Fixed a crash in CSCActorResultAdditiveStatePlace::PlayPlaceAnimation Fixed a crash in CShaderMan::ShutDown Fixed a crash in CRendElement::Release Fixed a crash in CExplosionGameEffect::QueueMaterialEffect Fixed a main thread lock in CEntityComponentHazard Fixed a crash in CSCRTTCameraComponent::Update Fixed a crash in CSCActorAnimationComponent::RemoveEyeDestabilization Fixed a crash after leaving a Squadron Battle match and attempting to join a Battle Royale match UI Fixed an issue where the video Render to Texture disappears after switching apps inside mobiGlas. Fixed an issue where certain Escort missions spawned a QT beacon that was difficult to see in the Starmap. Fixed an issue where attempting to sell cargo you don’t possess displayed an incorrect screen on the kiosk. Fixed an issue where the holograph rendering on the mobiGlas was not visible when inside stations. Stanton Fixed an issue where various derelict-based mission modules wouldn’t stop running if their short/long timers failed to end. Fixed an issue where leaving a mission item on a planet and flying away would despawn the item preventing the player from completing the mission. Fixed an issue where objective markers wouldn’t be removed when set on a different object. Fixed an issue where the elevator from Customs to Hangar 02 did not work in Levski. Fixed an issue where the planetary rotation created contrail effects on fog volumes during the night cycle. Fixed an issue where journal entries were not added after interacting with the terminal in certain missions. Fixed an issue where a part of the airlock was floating outside one of the outposts on Daymar. Fixed various objects appearing with placeholder textures in the outpost environments. Fixed an issue where the console screens in Covalex were completely detached from the terminals. Arena Commander Fixed an issue where AI ships would not fire at the player. Network / Backend Fixed 10001 disconnection caused by services failing to find player GEID. Fixed 10001 disconnection caused by entitlement processing tickets sometimes not making it to game server. Vehicles Fixed an issue where the Prospector was missing its Quantum Travel HUD. Fixed an issue where characters could be killed when entering the side door of the Freelancer from EVA. Fixed an issue where the character would be forced out of the ship when exiting the pilot seat. Game Code Fixed an issue where power plants would still transfer power when at zero health. Fixed a memory leak in Stanton that would be present even in an empty server. Fixed an issue with poor client performance when using the comm system. Fixed an issue where “scattergun” type weapons would have the correct spread on the first shot, but no spread on subsequent shots. Fixed an issue where performance would momentarily drop after spawning a ship from the Levski ASOP terminal. Fixed an issue where transitioning between physics would cause the character to tilt to one side. MISC Fixed various localization errors. Fixed an issue where characters could have their upper body animations break when carrying crates. User Experience Polish Pass (On-going): Improvement of Our Overall Framerate We have decided to spend time increasing performance on the client and server side. Player Count & General Stability Currently, performance and stability drop sharply once the active players in a server reach 12-15 players. Space Landscaping We are working on some extra Graphics code for the GPU particle system to support the creation of new VFX to implement space dust at points around Stanton. This will continue to be iterated on to create some more elaborate assets. Basic Ship Security With the gameplay we’re adding in to 3.0.0, we’re conscious that there may be some other players that would love to kill you and take your ship. To help prevent this, we wanted to implement some basic security that will allow you to lock the ship, so only you have the ability to pass freely through its doors. Part of this work includes adding destruction for external ship doors to allow for the other half: basic breaching / boarding. Rotating and Orbiting Planets We are very keen to make the Stanton map feel more organic as a real environment and having the planets rotate and orbit will really help with this. This will also introduce a proper day/night cycle when you’re on a planet surface which in turn opens up further gameplay possibilities. Player Interaction System – User Experience Improvements We want to give players the ability to more intuitively interact with items and objects within the game, but also find ways to indicate to the player what type of interaction they would be performing (pick up, start conversation, push button, etc). Race Tracks on Planets To give our planetary environments extra points of interest, and also an excuse to drive ground-based vehicles around at high speed, we thought the best way to do this was to build some rudimentary race tracks on the planets that would have been previously used by the research teams as a way to blow off steam and have fun. THE PROCESS Below you will find the latest roadmap for the development of the Star Citizen Persistent Universe. While the bulk of this schedule outlines our tasks and estimates that you can expect to find in the upcoming 3.0.0 patch (as well as some of the tasks that we’ve already completed), we are also including projections for the remainder of the year so you can have some visibility into the upcoming Persistent Universe features and content. These are the very same schedules we update daily and circulate internally on our intra-studio hand-offs with a few exceptions: the individual developer names assigned to the tasks will be omitted (for obvious reasons), we’ll remove the JIRA details, and we’ll modify the technical wording to make it readable for a wider audience. What you are seeing here is the result of our scheduling and planning process. We have a high level feature and content set that we want to achieve for Star Citizen. The first step is to break these features into higher level tasks with which we populate Microsoft Project, JIRA and Shotgun (the three tools we use for project scheduling and tasking). Then, as we approach a task, Production works with the relevant developer(s) to make sure the task is broken up with enough detail to allow completion. Sometimes this means adjusting the initial task estimate, as things tend to come into a clearer focus when coming up on a task, but it almost always means breaking down the big task into a bunch of smaller tasks that have their own individual sub tasks that possibly are distributed to multiple developers. Both tasks and sub-tasks get created in JIRA, linked under an Epic (which is a high level task or feature) and are then pulled into Microsoft Project to manage with granular detail providing us global visibility through Gantt charts and visual timelines. No developer works on a task unless it has been created in JIRA, prioritized and assigned by a lead or a member of the Production Team. Then as the developers work on the tasks, Production will adjust the schedule and JIRA tickets to reflect the work being done. In the schedule below, you will first find a master schedule that covers the broad departments/disciplines that are being developed. Each department will then have its own dedicated sub-schedule, briefly explaining the various features that are being developed and their current status. CAVEATS 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. 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. 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. 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. VIII.These aim dates are determined based on our current staff. Additional hiring will potentially allow us to bring in some dates below. 3.0.0 OVERVIEW PLANETARY UPDATE YELA Yela is the most frigid of the Crusader moons. Those bold (or careless) enough to step outside without a spacesuit will be killed instantly by its freezing temperatures. If the cold doesn’t kill you, then any of the treacherous crevasses that crisscross the planet might. Cyrovolcanos have been known to erupt unexpectedly from such crevasses, so be wary when flying at low altitudes. Despite all its danger, there is much beauty to be found on Yela, like the underwater caves hidden beneath the moon’s crust. CELLIN Burning with volcanic activity, Cellin is the counter to her icy sister. Although the volcanoes have been dormant for hundreds of years, the surface is dotted with thermal geysers that erupt without notice. The largest of such geysers can destroy heavy vehicles. Highly corrosive clouds of gas are regularly released from the moon’s surface, creating low visibility and damaging anything caught outside. DAYMAR Daymar’s surface is like a harmonic blend of Yela and Cellin. It’s mountainous surface is reminiscent of Cellin’s volcanoes, while its craters share a warm likeness to Yela’s frozen crevasses. Known for its dense atmosphere, thick fog and a loose dirt surface makes travel difficult. Lightning storms can help illuminate the fog, just don’t get struck by their flash. PERSISTENT UNIVERSE CONTENT IMPROVED LIGHTING FOR FOG TECH We have implemented a new fog system in the game to improve the overall feel in various environments such as ships and shops. In doing this, we need to convert the old fog volumes to this new system and do another sweep through existing lighting to ensure the new fog works with the lights correctly. This work is still being estimated due to cross-discipline dependencies. We have started the task of relighting all the environments and ships to incorporate this new feature. However, due to the volume of work, it is likely to be an ongoing process and extend beyond 3.0.0, so we will relight everything we can up to the live release and then address whatever remains in a future patch. MISSION GIVERS We’re introducing Miles Eckhart (first seen in the Gamescom video) and Ruto to provide missions to players. ETA is October 30th ALREADY COMPLETE IN THE 3.0.0 BRANCH: Modular Room System for procedural generation of planetary outposts Official Outpost Spawning System ready for mission designers Integrated Outpost distribution to PlanetEd Single outpost Object Preset Cluster of Outposts Crash site mission Interface to hand place modules and save to Layer Interface to teleport the camera to the closest outpost Area boxes created by artists (all room sizes are now usable in the outpost procedural system) Entrance Room system working (stairs and ramps are now available as initial rooms) Rooftop Prop system working for Solar panel Wall prop system working for additional prop variations Material Wear/Dirt on props using Layer Blend done and actually working Developed Outpost “feet” system Set random rotation and offset caps on planet editor Start documenting 3 possible map layouts looping system (using 2 or 4 meters metrics * system; using connection additional corridor pieces; using spline skinned corridors) Support Aircon/solar panel system on outposts Added color tinting to Outposts Added color tinting interface to Planet Ed Created material distinction for interior / exteriors Group elements offset in Planet Object Preset to be able to offset landing pads Moons Surface Outposts Additional Surface Outposts Surface Outposts Lighting Basic Derelict Ships Inhabited Derelict Ship Sites Debris Fields Delamar / Levski New Assets: Heavy Marine Armor Explorer Suit Armor Cloth and Clothing simulation on various assets old and new Updated helmet interiors and exterior for updated art, FOV tech and standardization Armor converted to work within modular customization structure Finalized delivery of ALL facial assets from 3Lateral. Ships: New Skinning and Rigging tools for landing gear on ships. Constellation Cargo Bay/Elevator extensions Light Group entity optimization GAMEPLAY COCKPIT EXPERIENCE The Cockpit Experience sprint team focused on improving the overall player experience in the cockpit by refining the cockpit geometry, character placement, g-force/hit reactions, VFX, Audio, UI, as well as code support for things like camera shaking and hooking into ship health systems to display proper damage. This is an ongoing task and we will continue to polish features until the release of 3.0.0. Any additional work will continue into future releases. ALREADY COMPLETE IN THE 3.0.0 BRANCH: Crusader Converted to Object Container Setup With the transition to Object Containers, the Crusader map was completely re-designed. Each Point of Interest is now an object container laid out via the Solar System Editor. This is in preparation for Object Container streaming and seamless transitions from different POI’s and between Star Systems. Mission Flowgraphs are converted over to use Subsumption and the new Mission System. Mega Map for Persistent Universe Mega Map tech (also used in Crusader for seamless loading between different gamemodes) is now possible in the new PU map, which is setup in the Solar System Editor. This allows the utilization of Mega Map technology. Revamp of Power Plants / Shield Generators / Coolers and the Heat & Power System for improved gameplay and conversion to Item 2.0 Player Manned Turrets Pick Up & Carry Item 2.0 Ship Conversion Item 2.0 Operator Seats Radar System Light Control System Fuel / Refuel Power Supply / Pipes Quantum Drive Insurance Stamina Doors & Airlocks Cargo Commodities Kiosk Support Atmospheric Entry Support Persistent Damage, Ammo, and Missiles Repair Inventory System Support Rover and Dragonfly in Ships IFCS Performance Improvements Hint System CORE TECH ALREADY COMPLETE IN THE 3.0.0 BRANCH: New Radar Databank Subsumption Base Functionality This is the initial release of the foundation technology that drives all of the AI, mission, dynamic content, and conversation logic. The mission content previously created with FlowGraph has been replaced and the implementation time to achieve a desired effect has been cut dramatically. Various Performance improvements Planetary Physics Grid to support orbiting and rotating planets Multi-Function Display implementation for Item 2.0 Components on ships IFCS improvements to support AI & Takeoff System Unified Visor for seamless Ship 2.0 / FPS transition HUD/Visor integration for new Radar Databank Object Distribution Terrain / Object blending for soft natural transition of objects intersecting with the ground Video codec updated to Bink2, providing higher fidelity at lower bitrate Vehicles no longer use Lua This is a huge step forward on the code side. Skeleton Extension support for Item Port Offset overrides per item Numerous types of physics simulation for all Item 2.0 attachments including hair, weapons, grenades and more. Destructible component for items, props and environment assets Nested Physics Grids support for vehicle transportation inside large ships, i.e. DragonFly & Rover Physics simulation gravity vector now respects planetary gravity Modular loadouts rule sets and support for up to five loadouts Animation driven facial audio implemented Updated Spacebox Editor Python integration. Zone culling on all character assets and layers, system complete and mesh markup complete supplemented with tools to easily support new assets. Solar System Editor A tool that will layout entire solar system with their astral objects (sun, planets moons) as well as space stations, etc. New Light Controller for runtime light switches New network message queue (current in QATR) to reduce network bandwidth and network thread time. Light Entity Render node merging. Dynamic Physics Grid to support sparse space areas vs. dense areas like space stations. Highly optimized vertex and position format for all geometry Texture memory usage reduced across the project Unified material libraries for use across all departments Comparing and finding all duplicated normal maps and albedo maps in the LayerBlend texture library Clean up LayerBlend Material Libraries, Resolution Adjustments, Renames to Lower Case Follow-ups on list of unused textures and materials Massively improved LOD computation and average face sizes for ships Shared hair assets (instead of bespoke asset per head) for character creation Automated facial asset LODs, skinning algorithm per LOD updated. Reworked mesh setup of facial assets for optimal performance and reduced drawcalls. Unified helmet and character mesh into singular render proxy for better performance and visuals. Various portal and culling improvements. Improved Animation Data Base collection and build process for optimized animation data streaming also added external tools to manage this. Deprecated thousands of legacy and test assets including animations, geometry, libraries and more for reduced build size. Automatic Asset Error collection and tracking. Reworked itemport layout for characters and character items Updated all assets using HumanSkin to highly optimized HumanSkinv2 shader. This saves upwards of a 100 megs of texture memory per face. Vastly improved memory allocator which allowed massive reduction in runtime allocation count Several significant optimizations to entity update code Planetary Tech Solar System Tool Entity Update Component Scheduler Entity Owner Manager UI CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION Players will now be able to customize their characters’ heads, hair, eye color, and skin color. This feature has been impacted due to the team helping support other bugfixing needs. ETA is TBD VEHICLE CUSTOMIZER APP This app will allow players to customize their ship via the ship customization screen, so edits can be done without locating the exact port on the ship. The UI apps and mobiGlas had their current functionality and progress reviewed. The feedback generated from this review is being estimated out by the UI team, in addition to bugfixing support. ETA is TBD SHIP SELECTOR APP & INSURANCE CLAIM This app would exist alongside the Ship Selection Terminals in the Persistent Universe, allowing players more freedom to spawn ships at designated locations. The UI apps and mobiGlas had their current functionality and progress reviewed. The feedback generated from this review is being estimated out by the UI team, in addition to bugfixing support. ETA is TBD ALREADY COMPLETE IN THE 3.0.0 BRANCH: Kiosk UI Item 2.0 Multi Function Displays Field of View Slider Personal Manager App Mission Manager App Cargo Manifest App Heavy Armour for Star Marine Inventory System Mission Board App StarMap App UI Owner Component mobiGlas Overhaul Comms System UI AI MISSION SYSTEM The overall system that will be used to create mission flows when we start building missions like Patrol, Assassination, Smuggling, etc. We have moved into the bugfixing stage of this feature. ALREADY COMPLETE IN THE 3.0.0 BRANCH: AI Turrets GRAPHICS ALREADY COMPLETE IN THE 3.0.0 BRANCH: RenderTarget refactor This saves over 50% of the video memory previously used for dynamic textures. Physically-based area lights Shadow map caching system This allows for many more shadow casting lights at once and avoids the need for baking shadows. Revamped decal rendering system which renders fully deferred, instanced decals with aggressive overdraw optimizations Render to Texture Environment Probe Atmospheric Entry Volumetric Fog GPU Particle Foundation Engine Trails & Contrails Asteroid Physics Exposure Improvements BACKEND ALREADY COMPLETE IN THE 3.0.0 BRANCH: Diffusion Subset for 3.0.0 Solar System Shop Service Solar System Mission Service V1 “Mission Broker” NETWORK ALREADY COMPLETE IN THE 3.0.0 BRANCH: New Message Queue Physics Serialization Persistent Data Refactor SHIPS & WEAPONS ALREADY COMPLETE IN THE 3.0.0 BRANCH: Drake Dragonfly Drake Cutlass Black RSI Constellation Aquila RSI Ursa Rover MISC Prospector RSI Aurora Behring P8-SC Apocalypse Arms Scourge Rail Gun Klaus and Werner Gallant Rifle Arrowhead Sniper Rifle KSAR Devastator-12 Shotgun Klaus and Werner Arclight Pistol Gemini L86 Pistol Behring P4-AR. BEYOND 3.0.0 - OVERVIEW Click Here to Download. 3.1.0 Goals PERSISTENT UNIVERSE CONTENT New Additions: Modular Space Station – Truckstop Arc Corp / Area 18 FPS / SPACE GAMEPLAY New Additions: Female Player Locomotion AI Locomotion Shouldered Weapons Throwable Weapons Armed (FPS Weapon Equipped) Fists Knife Take down (Front, Sides, Rear) Knockdown and Knockbacks CORE DEV TECH AND SYSTEMS New Additions: Fuel (Item 2.0) Criminality System Room System v2 (Physical Depressurization) Item 2.0 Elevators v2 Item 2.0 Airlocks v2 Diffusion Refactor Item Degradation/Failure/Luck Service Beacon v1 Parties and Orgs(Group Entity Component) Game persistence Spectrum Integration in game Repair and Restock System Elevators v2 Bind / Unbinding Object Container Streaming Core Engine Support SHIPS: MISC Razor RSI Aurora (Update) ANVIL Terrapin MISC Hull C DRAKE Cutlass Red DRAKE Cutlass Blue AEGIS Vanguard Harbinger (Variant) 3.2.0 Goals PERSISTENT UNIVERSE CONTENT New Additions: Crusader Hurston MicroTech (Stretch Goal) FPS / SPACE GAMEPLAY New Additions: New Ammo Types Gadgets (drones / shields) Bumps Cooperative Avoidance Downed Drowning Item Inspection Looting IK / Permissions CORE DEV TECH AND SYSTEMS New Additions: NPC Generation (Archetype) Interaction System – Useables Radar System (Item 2.0) Cargo v2 Service Beacon v2 StarMap v2 Gas Giant Tech Ship to Ship Refuel System Breaching Security / Access Control Object Container Streaming SHIPS: RSI Constellation Phoenix RSI Constellation Taurus MISC Freelancer MAX AEGIS Vanguard Sentinel (Variant) MISC Freelancer DUR