Official Star Citizen Thread

DarthRiven said:
How often are there big patches, by the way?
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Wyzak said:
SC doesn't have small patches. I can't remember one that has been sub 10GB.
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Beginning of the year CIG suggested that they would aim to release a decent patch to the live alpha server every month or so. They were doing alright until 2.4 which took over 2 months of work and testing before it was released a week or two ago.

I reckon we'll see a decent content patch (2.5) by early August. CIG are hyping up their attendance at GamesCom (18-21 August?) where they'll have a full booth on the main floor for the duration of the convention for the first time. They're building a mock set of a bridge of one of the capital ships, and will use the command station monitors on the bridge to allow attendees to play the game. They're also taking a handful of the more prolific SC Twitch streamers with them to help demo the game, and will livestream from the booth on all 5 days. With all that attention on them, I'm sure they'll want to show off as much as possible there, so expect 2.5 to be fairly feature and new content rich. There are vague rumours of a possible free-fly week to coincide with GamesCom as well.

Over GamesCom week folks are also expecting/hoping for some more news, announcements, promos, cinematics, (anything really!!) about Squadron 42: Episode 1, which is still showing just "2016" on the website. Personally, I think a delay to mid-2017 is inevitable, but I'd love to be surprised.

Patch 2.6 will probably also be a smaller content update. I'd guess around end September/early October, at least before the annual CitizenCon events in early October. They'll probably run a free-fly promotion again around this time as well. They've used previous CitizenCon events to announce major updates, show off new stuff, and then try to get those things into a year-end patch.

That'll be the next really serious patch - 2.7, which should hopefully include the netcode rebuild to correct the low fps issues in the PU. Also slated to be in place by 2.7, or included in 2.7 are some major changes to the item port system, a new 'pirate base' landing zone, and possibly the first implementation of planetary procedural generation. I'd hope this patch will be out by early November to coincide with the annual SC Anniversary, but if not then, at least before year-end.

MetalSoup said:
Every time I'm done downloading the previous one, apparently.
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QFT!
 
On the subject of Squadron 42, in the most recent Around The Verse community show, they included a Ship Shape segment focussing on the Bengal carrier. It's a 1000m long capital ship that will be used in SQ42 missions. It's looking (imho!) amazing.

Here's 2 versions of the insert. The first is just the cinematics of the Bengal pulled from the clip, the second is the full insert with explanation and insight from the Vehicle Art Director included.



For scale reference, the Retaliator bomber that is seen lifting into place from the lower deck is the same size as a Boeing 747.
 
I'm really starting to worry about their ability if they aren't able to reduce their patch sizes. There is NO WAY that they've patched 24GB of actual data in this patch, or 10GB in the subsequent one. They are replacing whole data sets instead of just patching them on the fly, which speaks of a lazy and inefficient attitude that does not bode well for the final product.
 
Wyzak said:
I'm really starting to worry about their ability if they aren't able to reduce their patch sizes. There is NO WAY that they've patched 24GB of actual data in this patch, or 10GB in the subsequent one. They are replacing whole data sets instead of just patching them on the fly, which speaks of a lazy and inefficient attitude that does not bode well for the final product.
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Not sure that's an entirely fair characterisation...

The patch size problem is a known issue and is being addressed as a priority as it affects their internal build transmission process as well. It's certainly not being ignored. The source of the problem from what I understand is with CryEngine:
The problem is the way Cryengine handles files. Right now, assets are stored in blocks (called PAK files) of a couple of GB in size. These PAKs are digitally signed so that if anything inside the file changes (i.e. someone hacking assets to cheat), then the engine will know.
Because of this, CIG cant just tweak one asset file within a PAK or the digital signature check will fail. Because of this the patcher is forced to re-download an entire PAK file when one small part of it changes.

CIG needs to pretty much re-write the Cryengine file handling system from the ground up while still keeping it so the files cant be tampered with without the game noticing the change.

TL;DR: The patcher does what it's supposed to do. You only download the files that have changed. The problem is though that because of the way Cryengine stores/secures/accesses files in PAKs, you actually have that many changed PAK files when you patch. (from reddit)
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From the February CIG Studios Monthly Report:
We are working on an important project with the rest of the Operations teams and key Development team members in our Frankfurt studio to fix these huge patches once and for all. This project could take some time to roll out due to the depth of work involved but the project is too exciting not to mention.

Patch sizes have to do with the way the data is prepared for each version we publish. We know that patch differential between builds includes between 5-10% change for most builds. However, because the changed files are mixed with the unchanged files then compressed to larger pak files for delivery, even one small change in data can cause an entire pak file look different to the patcher due to the output of the compression scheme, which the patcher sees as an entirely new large file.

In order to correct this, we need to change a number of things including how the game engine reads data. We also need to change the build system and the entire delivery pipeline in order to do this right. Once done, we’re expecting to see major improvement in the size of patches between versions but we’re hoping for even more. Changes to the build system supporting this new approach should also allow us to do more incremental data builds rather than the much longer full builds. This would greatly reduce the time between developer fixes and testing, particularly for a game the size of Star Citizen.
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And then from the latest (June) Monthly Report:
June brought us some exciting new developments in our patch reduction size project. When we started this massive overhaul we knew the project was going to be big incorporating several teams working together. We also knew that we’d uncover numerous hidden land mines along with hopefully a few little gems. This month we continued work on some of our internal delivery tools. As planned we will be rolling out the new patching mechanisms to QA and the developers to work out the kinks prior to working the new system in to our new public launcher.
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Based on that last line, could be resolved fairly soon.
 
That was a good read into the patches and resolving it.
Thanks man, was too lazy to scan through everything in the monthlyn reports. Also... dat Bengal :O
 
GregRedd said:
Mine was just over 11GB to go from 2.4.0 to 2.4.1 - some minor improvements in performance, but nothing brilliant. Still getting stuck on the Launcher and need to run from the StarCitizen.exe directly.


Definitely not your card or drivers. It's directly related to ongoing netcode issues they're having. It's alright if you're alone in the PTU or if you play anything solo (wander around your hangar, play solo free flight or solo vanduul swarm to test this.) But, in the PTU or multiplayer Arena Commander, as more players and NPCs join your instance frame rates drop to 20fps or even worse.

From the SC reddit:
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Ah, Thanks
 
Digging this new fan-made trailer from Mr_Hasgaha. Used all original in-game captures from his own play in the last 3 or 4 alpha versions, and edited to music from Pedro Comacho, the Star Citizen soundtrack composer.

 
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Big info and image dump from the just released August issue of German magazine PCGames earlier today. Cover story on visit they had to the Foundry 42 studio (CIGs Frankfurt studio at which a bunch of the original Crytek engineers now work). Presumably this article was placed to help drive interest for the CIG Star Citizen stand at the upcoming GamesCom convention.

Summary of the key info in the article:
  • 2.6 will launch Star Marine as separate module just like Arena Commander, this was also played by staff of PC Games and they are saying it's much more polished on the FPS side and feels a lot better than current rudimentary FPS in the PTU. - Interesting side-note: they talked about map->s.
  • 2.7 will bring procedural planets and you will be able to travel the whole stanton system and all planets and moons can be directly approached down to the surface.
  • They say the new lighting system as part of the procedural planets build looks much more natural.
  • They say that approaching the planet looks and technically feels better than with Elite Dangerous.
  • You can land anywhere manually, automatic landing gets you to fixed positions i.e. landing zones.
  • Microtech and Hurston come in follow-up patches after 2.7
  • They aim to have Stanton fully playable i.e. with all stations and landing zones (according to CR about 40 locations) by end of 2016
  • There will be more jobs and missions as well.
  • Trading will be in by then.
  • Chris describing that missions accepted up in space stations could lead you eventually down to planet surfaces, not clear if this is going to be in with 2.7 but seemingly something SQ42 will benefit from.
  • Planets and moons are revolving around suns, with naturally simulated day and night cycles.
  • When flying over the ocean they were noticing that the horizon had a correctly simulated curve.
  • Trees and Animals seemingly are planned (edit: doesn't seem to be in with 2.7, sorry) - they have them seemingly setup in pre-made templates they call eco-systems - these can be brushed over the planet surface, some magic blends the transitions to make it look naturally and consistent.
  • Planetary surface and topograhy details are controlled by a dynamical LOD system.
  • Some pop-up was visible during the planetary approach but they described it as impressive regardless.
  • They were also impressed with the cloud system, which wasn't just a simple texture layer but seemingly is described what I assume would be volumetric, i.e. they have deepth and height and impact visibility, leading to mountain crests piercing through clouds and valleys being covered.
  • They are writing that there isn't any artificially restricted view range, visibility is rather a result from the volumetric calculation of the athmosphere.
  • Parallax-Occlusion maps with dynamic tessellation is used for the surface details.
  • GTX 980 was used with 100 fps on the planetary surface, so performance seems to be pretty good already, sorry, that was just editor performance - in-game performance was 45fps.
  • Some stuff about the subsumption-AI saying NPCs might have hobbies and a virtual mind, allowing them to remember the player or be influenced in his opinions by the player. To avoid performance issues, they seemingly control the update cycles for NPC AI based on player proximitiy i.e. update cycles go to 1hz instead of 60hz if no one is around.
  • They also wrote that they were positively surprised that all employees at Foundry 42 Frankfurt, of which they had a chance to talk with, seemed to be truthfuly grateful to be able to work on the project due to the challenge it represents. They specifically point out, that the enthusiasm didn't feel faked.
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Links to the full size images and others in a imgur album.
 
Does pirate NPCs spawn according to your ship? I was watching videos of Aurora LNs destroying pirates like nothing but my Freelancer takes a beating. Is it that my skills suck? :p
 
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CyberDemon said:
Does pirate NPCs spawn according to your ship? I watching videos of Aurora LNs destroying pirates like nothing but my Freelancer takes a beating. Is it that my skills suck? :p
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Pirates do not spawn based on ship types, as far as I can tell. And yes, the Aurora LN is more than capable of mowing down those lawless scum. Keep practising, you'll get the hang of it.
 
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