Star Citizen Megathread v. procedurally-generated deadlines
1,645 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Raidyr;52302712]Whats the size of the alpha to nowadays?[/QUOTE]
To download? Around 60gb last I heard.
[editline]2nd June 2017[/editline]
[QUOTE=Why485;52302666]Unity would have been unsustainable for the absurd scope they have. If they went with Unreal, they would have been with Unreal Engine 3, as Star Citizen was before the release of UE4. Moving to UE4 would have required a from the ground re-write as well, so that wouldn't have been a graceful choice. Then of course they could have written their own engine from scratch. CryEngine wasn't exactly a [I]great[/I] choice, but there weren't really any great choices available.
For the stupid crazy absurd "if you ask, it's on the feature list" scope of Star Citizen, no matter what engine they would have gone with it would have required massive and fundamental rewrites. There are simply no off the shelf and mature engines that support the lunacy of Star Citizen.
At this point their version of CryEngine is practically its own engine, and considering how long the project has gone on, and how far the scope has been pushed, it's arguable that with hindsight a scratch built engine may have been the best way to go from a technological perspective. However, I don't think they would have raked in money hand over fist with sales of JPGs because they would be flyable so much later and having the playable mess that is the hangar, Arena Commander, and Port Olisar, has been a huge boon keeping the money coming in. Without that money, they wouldn't be able to hire the engine talent they have now, so it becomes a chicken or the egg problem and you come back to the idea that perhaps the best way they could lift themselves by their own bootstraps was to do exactly what they did.[/QUOTE]
Didn't they end up upgrading from one version of CryEngine to another when they went from non-PBR to PBR in the early days? And I feel like there were a lot of major drawbacks from going CryEngine as well, CIG have said themselves that they had a hard time finding people with CryEngine knowledge up until the whole drama with Crytek not paying employees and stuff, and CIG snatched up a lot of the engine developers who were leaving. Now, I'm no programmer, but what difference does choosing CryEngine over Unity have to do in terms of scale? Neither of them are built to handle anything Star Citizen is hoping to achieve, and they had to rewrite those parts of CryEngine anyway to be able to start handling solar system scales.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/LjYaC5T.png[/img]
I'm assuming you play the PTU or something because the game is actually a 32gb download
[editline]2nd June 2017[/editline]
I don't think people appreciate how much work goes into an engine of this scale. cryengine is (and was when they started) mature - it represents years of iteration and thousands of man hours of work. even if CIG's modifications touch every element of the engine it still provides a solid framework and a tonne of features to build from. just because they changed the rendering code doesn't mean they just threw out the entirety of crytek's code and started from scratch
Question. Can any subscribers tell me what june's ship is?
Away from computer for the weekend so can't check in game
[QUOTE=ulvemann43;52303129]Question. Can any subscribers tell me what june's ship is?
Away from computer for the weekend so can't check in game[/QUOTE]
It's the Caterpillar.
[video=youtube;Y27Zb_BYKG4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y27Zb_BYKG4[/video]
[video=youtube;0wuhXu9gUXM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wuhXu9gUXM[/video]
Also, uhhh, [URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch/15941-Empire-Report-HuXa-Protests"]in this week's lorepost, [B]shit went down[/B][/URL]. I'm not going to spoil it by summarizing anything.
Here we go again :v:
Daaaamn can't wait to get home then
Is it just me, or does it seem like progress since a little after CitCon has been going at a crazy breakneck pace?
[QUOTE=KaptonJack;52303260]Is it just me, or does it seem like progress since a little after CitCon has been going at a crazy breakneck pace?[/QUOTE]
It seems they're spending a lot of time designing efficient tools to accelerate development, which is a good strategy IMO.
I'm sort of late but for others who haven't seen the more recent ATVs, the FOV slider/sexy hud scaling is slated for 3.0!
[img]https://thumbs.gfycat.com/BarrenFabulousBichonfrise-size_restricted.gif[/img]
[QUOTE=krail9;52304232]I'm sort of late but for others who haven't seen the more recent ATVs, the FOV slider/sexy hud scaling is slated for 3.0!
[img]https://thumbs.gfycat.com/BarrenFabulousBichonfrise-size_restricted.gif[/img][/QUOTE]
Thats one VR hurdle cleared, the item2.0 interactive cockpit thing is also 3.0, next would be framerate. might even be ready by sq42 launch, if that ever happens.
[URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch/15949-Congress-Now-HuXa-Vote"]This week's lore post is that, despite the recent attempt on Imperator Costigan's life, the Human-Xi'An trade agreement is continuing through legislative proceedings.[/URL]
Monthly report and schedule update due tomorrow.
[video=youtube;zIjBPqmOG-0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIjBPqmOG-0[/video]
F42 update this week, it's gotta be good.
[video=youtube;8ueQQ6z8uzo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ueQQ6z8uzo[/video]
[video=youtube;1juFf-TpPiM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1juFf-TpPiM[/video]
[video=youtube;u5ZhMbBUBBk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5ZhMbBUBBk[/video]
I just realized that I never posted last week's Happy Hour :v: so here's both last week's AtV and the Happy Hour for Part 1 of the Item 2.0 discussion.
[video=youtube;qkCuBdPpj18]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkCuBdPpj18[/video]
[video=youtube;6LtQc4TtmyQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LtQc4TtmyQ[/video]
Monthly report is up: [url]https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/15951-Monthly-Studio-Report-May-2017[/url]
3.0 has been pushed back too. Diffusion subset has been delayed for the 5th week in a row apparently. Bit concerning.
The delays in this revision of the schedule aren't much to be concerned over. It's pretty much ordinary in game development.
When these schedules are put out, everything is only an estimate at how long it'll take the task to be completed. You don't [I]actually[/I] know how long it'll take you until you're finished, and their production staff is just doing their damndest to have as best as possible predictions/estimates on how long it'll take devs to finish their assigned tasks. Sometimes those estimates are accurate or close to accurate, but often enough unexpected snags arise or the task turns out to require work from another department.
[URL="https://www.diffchecker.com/oV4Ji8rF"]Here is a diff of the schedules between this week and last.[/URL] It helps put the delays in focus.
If the Diffusion tasks are holding the build back from Evocati PTU a month from now, then maybe start to worry, but I feel that they're showing steady progress towards the build and they'll work through these problems.
What's the currently release window for 3.0?
I feel like I heard July 26th, but I may be delusional.
[QUOTE=revan740;52354423]What's the currently release window for 3.0?
I feel like I heard July 26th, but I may be delusional.[/QUOTE]
I'm not up to date on this, but that's probably a few delays late.
[QUOTE=revan740;52354423]What's the currently release window for 3.0?
I feel like I heard July 26th, but I may be delusional.[/QUOTE]
The day before the end of the world, so July 27th
[url=https://robertsspaceindustries.com/schedule-report]Schedule is here[/url]. 21st of June to the 5th of July is the projected Evocati date. 6th of July to the 20th of July are projected PTU dates. 21st to the 27th are the current 3.0 release dates.
Very high chance they will be pushed back as they have been previously. But that's what we've got this week.
Keep in mind that they may still deploy the build to Evocati even if not everything is 100% finished. The Evocati are a small enough bunch that can be trusted to not do something if it crashes the server (e.g. they were told not to spawn the Cat when the build was first deployed because it wasn't finished), so as long as something fundamental isn't missing they may still hit the window. It's a pretty generous window, though, starting anywhere between one and three weeks from now.
We'll see what the schedule does on Friday. I'm hoping that CIG doesn't push 3.0's release date out that much further, because it'd kind of fuck with them if 3.0 isn't ready in time for Gamescom. Although if they got it onto public PTU and got a hotfix or two in for the worst stability problems, that'd at least be showable on the floor and on-stage, and it'd underline CIG's message that they're actively working on this shit instead of spinning off pretty custom demos that are rigged to work only for the demo.
If 3.0's not even in public PTU by Gamescom, however, this is a dual-edged sword. On the upside, this gives them a huge amount of fodder for the keynote demo, showing us close-up what we'll be getting to play in a short time. But on the other hand, 3.0 wheeen??!! and more importantly their Gamescom presentation needs to have some sort of demo [I]other than 3.0[/I], because that's basically what they've been showing us since [I]last[/I] Gamescom. They can't go up on stage and have Miles Eckhart send us on another mission so he can backstab us again. :v:
[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;52359253]Keep in mind that they may still deploy the build to Evocati even if not everything is 100% finished. The Evocati are a small enough bunch that can be trusted to not do something if it crashes the server (e.g. they were told not to spawn the Cat when the build was first deployed because it wasn't finished), so as long as something fundamental isn't missing they may still hit the window. It's a pretty generous window, though, starting anywhere between one and three weeks from now.
We'll see what the schedule does on Friday. I'm hoping that CIG doesn't push 3.0's release date out that much further, because it'd kind of fuck with them if 3.0 isn't ready in time for Gamescom. Although if they got it onto public PTU and got a hotfix or two in for the worst stability problems, that'd at least be showable on the floor and on-stage, and it'd underline CIG's message that they're actively working on this shit instead of spinning off pretty custom demos that are rigged to work only for the demo.
If 3.0's not even in public PTU by Gamescom, however, this is a dual-edged sword. On the upside, this gives them a huge amount of fodder for the keynote demo, showing us close-up what we'll be getting to play in a short time. But on the other hand, 3.0 wheeen??!! and more importantly their Gamescom presentation needs to have some sort of demo [I]other than 3.0[/I], because that's basically what they've been showing us since [I]last[/I] Gamescom. They can't go up on stage and have Miles Eckhart send us on another mission so he can backstab us again. :v:[/QUOTE]
I'm really hoping we'll get some S42 trailers this time around. From a quick skim over the schedule, the last feature is scheduled to be finished on the 6th of July, (the very end of Evocati) giving them 2 weeks of bugfixing and PTU before hitting that release date. If it comes down to it I think they'd drop 3.0 to the public earlier and start relying on 3.0.1 patches before they pushed it back any further than Gamescom.
There's still a decent amount of cushion between now and Gamescom, but those Evocati/public PTU windows will start to squish shorter and shorter in order to accomodate further delays and still make a pre-GC release.
If they don't have a trailer for SQ42 at Gamescom, I'm gonna start getting really nervous about treating the "2017" on the SQ42 micropage on RSI with any faith at all. I'd prefer to see a live demo, but a decent trailer would satisfy me until Citizencon.
If 3.0 goes live around Gamescom, I think they've still got a chance of getting SQ42 out by the end of the year. Odin system (the primary system for SQ42) is being worked on internally, and they've been leaving in very occasional hints that indicate how it's coming along. SQ42 doesn't require any of the major career-gameplay features listed for post-3.0, so conceivably they can branch SQ42 off at 3.0.X for final feature freeze and hopefully the content is close to finished so there's adequate polish and bugfixing before release.
It all comes down to how complete the content is.
Haven't played this in a while.
Someone care to give tl;dr whats available?
Last time I played you could walk around in some social hub place and thats about it.
Since then, the two huge things that are now available are Star Marine and the initial implementation of the PU testbench: Crusader.
The Crusader map is a 1mil x 1mil x 200k kilometer box of space around the gas giant Crusader. Players start by spawning on Port Olisar, and you can summon a ship, walk out to the landing pad, and take off to explore the missions and random encounters they've got out there for now. If you become a criminal, you instead spawn at GrimHEX, a mining station that was abandoned and taken over by outlaws.
Crusader also has a big problem: It pushes CryEngine's netcode past its limits and as a result the networking bottlenecks everything. No matter how powerful your machine is, you'll drop to 20fps or less depending on how full the instance is. But CIG is well aware of this and 3.0, due soon, is supposed to come with major network overhauls that in theory should go a long way to solving the problem.
StarNetwork 1.0 is on the horizon, but it may or may not come with 3.0. We haven't seen CIG discuss that word since last year.
Lots of significant but less-huge changes have occurred as well. Boosting now works differently, and the Caterpillar is now flyable.
[editline]15th June 2017[/editline]
[video=youtube;L4m2nwn5wT8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4m2nwn5wT8[/video]
[video=youtube;usf7oYdglcY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usf7oYdglcY[/video]
[video=youtube;isF--W0U_wY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isF--W0U_wY[/video]
[URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch/15962-New-United-Assassination-Investigation"]This week's lore post is about the investigation into the assassination attempt on Imperator Costigan, and the assassin's background.[/URL] This is a pretty unfortunate storyline to be caught in the middle of with the recent shooting in DC.
So, CIG decided that backers don't have enough things to be annoyed about.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/Jbe6MTk.png[/IMG]
[t]https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/e8117lvo86yxir/source/NoxWhatYouThink.jpg[/t]
[QUOTE]source/NoxWhatYouThink.jpg[/QUOTE]
You have to be [B]a Concierge-tier Warbond Eclipse owner[/B] to see the unfiltered image ahead of everyone else. Of course, because backers leak like a sieve, it's a close-up of the Nox as peeked at in AtV:
[t]https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/xpmh1arptftu1r/source/Nox_Nose_closeup_dark.png[/t]
[video=youtube;STwVI6_xWqc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STwVI6_xWqc[/video]
[video=youtube;gvHfIPonL48]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvHfIPonL48[/video]
[video=youtube;x6qEzJtXKSA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6qEzJtXKSA[/video]
[video=youtube;C94OJILTroA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C94OJILTroA[/video]
[t]https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/950wdrtfs4s3wr/source/Nox_Hanger_1.jpg[/t]
[URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/15973-Aopoa-Nox-Warbond-Presale"]The Nox Warbond presale is on.[/URL] Available in black and concept-sale-limited-edition brushed silver for $35 (Warbond discount, the sale states it's expected to cost $45 when flight-ready with 3.0). Full concept sale with materials tomorrow.
[t]https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/3y2kl543u5n4qr/source/Nox-Left.jpg[/t] [t]https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/z676k3irx41iur/source/NoxKue-Left.jpg[/t]
[URL="https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch/15977-Untold-Tales-The-Unanswered-Cry"]This week's lorepost is about spooky things happening.[/URL]
Been a while since I dropped money on the game so I guess I might pick up a Nox. I've wanted to grab at least something with LTI on it, and with 3.0 coming along with planetary landings, having a space bike for 3.0 sounds like it might be pretty help (and I'm sure that's what CIG thought too)
Whats everyone's thoughts on Silver vs. Black? I wasn't sold on the black hype images but the silver looks damn nice.
[QUOTE=Lord Hayden;52392603]Been a while since I dropped money on the game so I guess I might pick up a Nox. I've wanted to grab at least something with LTI on it, and with 3.0 coming along with planetary landings, having a space bike for 3.0 sounds like it might be pretty help (and I'm sure that's what CIG thought too)
Whats everyone's thoughts on Silver vs. Black? I wasn't sold on the black hype images but the silver looks damn nice.[/QUOTE]
When in doubt, get both :v:
Alternatively, go for silver as it sounds like more your thing.
Personally, black seems better for stealth, while silver is more flashy. It then depends on what purpose you're going to use your nox for, racing or combat?
[QUOTE=mu ha ha;52392695]When in doubt, get both :v:
Alternatively, go for silver as it sounds like more your thing.
Personally, black seems better for stealth, while silver is more flashy. It then depends on what purpose you're going to use your nox for, racing or combat?[/QUOTE]
More of a 'get around quick' kind of thing. I kinda just wanted an alternative to a Dragonfly, and a sleek as Nox I think is the better option.
I got Silver, may as well have a novelty item at some point, as I'll be able to buy the Nox Black from in-game markets when ship-purchases are in-game anyway.
[url]https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08703814/filing-history[/url]
Erin Roberts is getting paid £240,000 per year :disgust:
(Full accounts, page 19 of the PDF)
Considering he's only a studio head, I can't even begin to comprehend how much Chris is paying himself
[QUOTE=Hezzy;52393153][url]https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08703814/filing-history[/url]
Erin Roberts is getting paid £240,000 per year :disgust:
(Full accounts, page 19 of the PDF)
Considering he's only a studio head, I can't even begin to comprehend how much Chris is paying himself[/QUOTE]
And I just paid money for art :(
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Star Citizen Megathread v. procedurally-generated deadlines
