Watch Around the Verse , and check the Relay.sc homepage for the transcript!

Watch Around the Verse , and check the Relay.sc homepage for the transcript!

Happy Hour: January 20th, 2017 Summary Written Friday 20th of January 2017 at 11:53am by CanadianSyrup It's time for Happy Hour! No, it's too early to drink, but watch some Star Citizen gameplay with Sean Tracy! As per usual, anything said during the show is subject to change by CIG and may not always be accurate at the time of posting. Also any mistakes you see that I may have missed, please let me know so I can correct them. Enjoy the show!



TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read)

GreyHeadedGamer was today's guest streamer on the show along with Tech Director, Sean "Scumbag" Tracy.

With 2.6 they were able to have zero asset errors which is a first, before in previous builds they've had up to 16,000 and not able to get them all fixed.

Anti-Aliasing and the many forms of it will be supported, but they're leaving that to when they're doing polish down the line.

The Delta patching system where you're not downloading gigabytes of data now has an internal build being tested. It's still in the early stages of testing and tweaking, but once it's ready, they'll deploy it internally as it affects them as much as it affects us, and once they're happy with it they'll deliver it out to us. No ETA on it at this time.

People have been asking what the MegaMap is. It's not a large map, but rather a very small map that then streams in everything around the player. This allows the transition from singleplayer to multiplayer, level to level without loading screen, and a whole lot more.

The topic of Planet side racing came up and there's nothing official, but Sean talked about wanting players to make their own tracks and maybe giving them beacons or pylons to place to form their own tracks.

Summary

The show is live! Starting things off is Jared and Tyler with this weeks special streamer guest, GrayHeadedGamer!

GreyHeadedGamer is a Twitch streamer, but also creates shows based on behind the scenes of various aspects of SC. He isn't a full time streamer however as he still holds a full time job.

Sean Tracy will be joining the stream shortly, but first they'll be playing some Pirate Swarm.

Disco spawned into Pirate Swarm and died before he even spawned. I think the game is trying to tell him something, plus the death screen on who killed him is stuck on his screen.

Tyler ran head on into a ship and somehow lived... He didn't even bat an eye.

Sean Tracy is here now! He's just getting himself set up.

Seans talking about the Tech Artists who are getting the Female avatar online. They've got some of the female AI running around, but they don't need nearly as many animations as the player does.

[What's the most challenging thing with CryEngine?]

Well it's Lumberyard, or StarEngine, but being able to make the game the way they want it has been the most challenging. The Engine has changed so much that a lot of the stuff he knew about CryEngine isn't as relevant because so much has been ripped out and redone.

Sean joked about how tanks would be easy for 3.0 as the mechanics are in there, and they have talked about adding tracked vehicles, but no that won't happen for 3.0.

[Performance changes with 2.6?]

Every little bit counts says Sean, you have to claw to find those frames. One achievement they've achieved is having no asset errors upon build, they've zeroed them out which is exciting. In the earlier builds they had 16,000 errors and being able to completely get the errors solved is important.

They're making content faster than they can test it so they've had to release things in a rough shape due to how they're making the game.





[Anti aliasing?]

The problem with AA is there are so many different kinds out there and it can be a big performance hit. By default they don't crank it up much. AA is more of a polish at the end of the day and comes towards the end of development, but they plan to support many different types of AA.

[New Patcher status?]

They have an internal build online to begin testing how it functions. Sean stresses that before we see it, they have to be happy with it on their internal systems because they'll be using it too as they're sending 50-60GB builds across studios and it's just as important for them to get the patch size down as it is to players.

Why is Sean Tracy called Scumbag Tracy on Reddit? It's because a DevOps member accidentally posted something he shouldn't have and it's a joke about that. Cough Keegan

Sean is talking about bridging a gap between ships and infantry and having a sort of power armour that could wield small size ship weapons, it's something they don't have at this point that they're talking about. They are building the portable railgun that we've seen, but it would be cool to see more.

For 2.6.1 they've made Pirate Swarm more difficult as well as tweaks to the Gforce and having the head tilt and more a little more in reaction to the Gforces.

[What is the MegaMap?]

There's nothing mega about it, it's a tiny map, but what makes it awesome is it does every other map. With Lumberyard it has a concept of levels,stages. There's a preload section that happens, say a 4x4 map and etc. That's gone as now they have a tiny map and they stream in everything around you. This allows you to go between single player and multiplayer as well as maps. So there's no level you load, but rather streaming in everything around you.

[Cargo weight in 3.0?]

That's more design question, but the basics depend on how much it weighs. It does exist right now where even where you place weapons on a ship affect the characteristics as well as your ammo, the more ballistic ammo you spend, the lighter you get, but the difference is so marginal it's hardly noticeable. It depends on how far the designers want to go with that in regards to cargo.

[What tech is required to make the hangar doors open like in a previous demo?]

MegaMap, but the biggest question is how do they make it work with 1000's of players? They're talking about how to do just that.

Next week is PAX South and Jared and Tyler will be there. There will be no official CIG presence at the event. Any CIG employees will be there on their own time as spectators.

[Plans for planetside racing?]

Nothing official, but Sean wants the players create their own tracks. Sean would like to give players some tools like beacons or pylons and you'd have to go past those of course, but there's nothing right now.

[Item 2.0 and how it makes it in 3.0]

Sean: Item 2.0 changes how before, there were items with entities that were tied to a specific thing. Item 2.0 makes it so everything is an item essentially, an itemized component system that allows you to configure things how you want. This weapon on that holster, this shirt with these pants, this grenade on this belt, etc.

GreyHeadedGamer was given the chance to ask one question and he asked what colour was Seans' shirt....

[What's your favourite planet in the game?]

It's one he can't talk about, but he loves snow environments.

[What are you looking forward to doing the most in Star Citizen?]

Sean: Finishing the game.

CanadianSyrup Director of Transcripts A polite Canadian who takes pride in making other peoples day brighter. He enjoys waffles with Maplesyrup, making delicious puns and striving for perfection in screaming at the T.V. during hockey games.

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