The Star Citizen Thread v5

[CMDR_Orlando]

Sure, of course it's some PG terrain generation worked over a bit with some handcrafted assets plopped in. Basically what almost everybody does presented as some newfangled breakthrough.

What stood out is how meh the PG looked compared to the 2015 reveal. No advancement in the quality of it or variations, still that clumsy prototype quality.

It'll be fun bantering about the reasons why none of this makes it into the game over the next six months... and why not a peep was said about imminently due Squadron 42. Trouble for Cecil B. DeCrobbers' movie?

It will come in the end of the year just like the 2.0 PU update, shown @ Gamescom 2015 delivered December 2015.
They have CitizenCon in LA this year to showcase Squadron 42 nothing better than Hollywood right

Who said it couldn't be done?

The trailers and whatnot for SC 2.7 looked pretty nice. I wonder how much content (how many mission etc.) they will be able to make with that level of detail.

CMDR CTCParadox

It was said to be one of Cryengine core problems somewhere but don't trust me, better google it!

 

[Tippis]

"This isn't being built real time from a base algorithm. Instead they use procedural techniques to develop a planet. They can then customize the result and that gets saved into some chunk of data, probably as as a mathematical function describing the planet

So while that data isn't necessarily stored in the same way as an asset would be, the end result is that the world is already built, so you can mix and match assets with procedural data. The NMS approach is to build everything in your view as you see it."

In other words, it's no different than CCP did in EVE Online, and that's assuming the writers even understood the process correctly (which is doubtful since they follow up with that “probably as as a mathematical function” bit). But again, there's nothing about that result that gives away the process — it may be perlin noise or ripped of USGS data or actual procgen, but all we have to go on is their word and their word isn't very good since they've said so many nonsensical things in the past.

 

[CTCParadox]

It was said to be one of Cryengine core problems somewhere but don't trust me, better google it!

Was just curious if there was a source for it or if it was just one of those things floating around (or that DS said).
Never mind I'll ask someone less passive aggressive!

CMDR CTCParadox

 

[bliss]

Who said it couldn't be done?

The trailers and whatnot for SC 2.7 looked pretty nice. I wonder how much content (how many mission etc.) they will be able to make with that level of detail.

CMDR CTCParadox

That is a very good question.

 

[frostypaw]

"This isn't being built real time from a base algorithm. Instead they use procedural techniques to develop a planet. They can then customize the result and that gets saved into some chunk of data, probably as as a mathematical function describing the planet

So while that data isn't necessarily stored in the same way as an asset would be, the end result is that the world is already built, so you can mix and match assets with procedural data. The NMS approach is to build everything in your view as you see it."

http://i.imgur.com/jrOEvnE.gif

They explained that in the presentation, they hand-craft stuff and place it on PG planets, how I don't know, but you can walk, drive, glide, fly everywhere in that planet surface.

Another german article, lot's of pictures: http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/star-citizen/bilder/screenshots/star_citizen,48820,95753.html

Spoiler

http://10images.cgames.de/images/idgwpgsgp/bdb/2767325/bigimage.jpghttp://8images.cgames.de/images/idgwpgsgp/bdb/2767327/bigimage.jpghttp://4images.cgames.de/images/idgwpgsgp/bdb/2767323/bigimage.jpghttp://4images.cgames.de/images/idgwpgsgp/bdb/2767321/bigimage.jpg

Seems like time to wonder just how large the whole game will be - where are we at now with 0 planets with loads of individually hand crafted assets? Eeek.

 

[CMDR_Orlando]

Was just curious if there was a source for it or if it was just one of those things floating around (or that DS said).
Never mind I'll ask someone less passive aggressive!

CMDR CTCParadox

Was I PA? I was being honest when I said you should look into google because I don't have the knowledge to explain why, just that I've seen several people commenting on that before when people kept asking for picture of commandos on their ship HUD's and in the UI.

Edit*This is what "cryengine picture in picture" got me in google: https://www.cryengine.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=325&t=90321

Seems to confirm it!

 

[CTCParadox]

Was I PA? I was being honest when I said you should look into google because I don't have the knowledge to explain why, just that I've seen several people commenting on that before when people kept asking for picture of commandos on their ship HUD's and in the UI.

Apologies then, "but don't trust me, better google it!" just came across to me as you being snarky to an honest question.

So base CryEngine doesn't appear to support it, but it's just code, throw enough time and programmers at a problem and eventually you can fix almost anything.

CMDR CTCParadox

 

[knowles2]

If they clean up the gunplay (which imo looks pretty bad), it has every potential for SQ42 to be an amazing single-player experience.

As an MMO...idk.

These types of missions (fully voice acted questgivers and scripted sequences) are great, but they take an impossible amount of work and data to implement in an MMO, meaning a lot of repetition or an impossible amount of development time.

This is why I think Frontier have kept their mission system to date fairly simple because they want to avoid themepark MMO that pretty much every other MMO has turn into because teams struggle to keep producing content.

Procedural generation of characters, tied into the background simulation solve this but it whether it can consistently produce high quality missions mission with the depth players want, I happen to think it can.

I think it going to be interesting to see how Frontier speech synthesis tech evolves, because adding voices to NPCs would be a great achievement.

 

[AlPilg]

What you have there is not a viewport Orlando but probably a pre-rendered animated texture. I don't know enough about CryEngine to say it can't be done but that's what it looks like anyway.

The original poster was referring to parts of the presentation where there were viewports visible in the corners of the screen I think.

 

[knowles2]

Why don't you post all their scripted star marine demos from that period that were weeks away from release? Is it because it's already in the game or because they make CR out to be the overpromising blowhard he's been since the kickstarter.

It's telling that he's gone from congratulating other space games to sneering at them. "a lot of talk about No Man's Sky" indeed. Not so friendly now that you're in third place. Instead of congratulating them like Braben did, tear em down and claim you can do it better despite not shipping a game since the 90s.

I suspect they will shortly be in fourth place behingd once infinity Battlescape comes out. I wouldn't be surprise if they fall behind Limit Theory.

 

[Maruun]

Picture in Picture tech, supposedly Cryengine could not do this. Guess they implemented it into their build.

http://i.imgur.com/lqmkCak.jpg

Am i the only one that has a itching feeling that this is a video in a video type of thing...nothing ingame...rather edited in? Everything else is slightly blurred...the big CONTROL is washed out and clearly a ingame assets...while the video is staring at me clear and rather crisp...it looks strange.

 

[Tippis]

Seems like time to wonder just how large the whole game will be - where are we at now with 0 planets with loads of individually hand crafted assets? Eeek.

Based on that quote — if we're actually going to believe the “not built in real time” / “the world is already built” claims — what they're doing is to produce the most spectacularly inefficient planet maps ever. Something on the order of 400 gigapixels would be required to construct even a small stellar body, something the size of the moon, with a 10m² terrain precision. To get any useful height precision, that means 800GB per uncompressed planet heightmap…

…so I am fairly convinced that they're not doing what that quote explicitly says they're doing, because that would be utterly insane. If they're doing it at all, they do it the same way everyone else does (which would make the part about them not constructing the world on the fly a lie).

 

[Asp Explorer]

Seems like time to wonder just how large the whole game will be - where are we at now with 0 planets with loads of individually hand crafted assets? Eeek.

It's going to be all the jigabytes.

 

[Zyll Goliat]

Here is my 2 cents.....I think that demo-presentation looked cool and all animations are nice,sound and voices could be better but then again they are good enuf for this stage...I still hate that horrible flight mechanics and that lame twitchy game-play....CR said this will be on our computers by the end of the year,well if he deliver 3.0 that looks like that demo and 4 planets system with some misions,trade and solid multiplayer experience in 4 month period then CIG can expect more cashing in and some overall positive vibe....If CR LIED again and we do not see this by the end of this year....hmmm....then he should be heavily criticized by the backers and much more from the press as this is not his first time to deliver good looking demos and videos but then failing to deliver an actual game-play for the rest of us......

 

[Ozram]

Based on that quote — if we're actually going to believe the “not built in real time” / “the world is already built” claims — what they're doing is to produce the most spectacularly inefficient planet maps ever. Something on the order of 400 gigapixels would be required to construct even a small stellar body, something the size of the moon, with a 10m² terrain precision. To get any useful height precision, that means 800GB per uncompressed planet heightmap…

…so I am fairly convinced that they're not doing what that quote explicitly says they're doing, because that would be utterly insane. If they're doing it at all, they do it the same way everyone else does (which would make the part about them not constructing the world on the fly a lie).

Are you suggesting CIG would lie about something?

 

[Tippis]

Are you suggesting CIG would lie about something?

Never!*

* “Never” in this case being defined as “maybe”

 

[Artemus]

So I did a little test. I counted how long they were in warp to the planet (18 seconds). Using my ship I found out that from one side of the map to the other is a little over 34-35 seconds in warp. I think we are still stuck in the same tiny map folks.

 

[Asp Explorer]

I think we are still stuck in the same tiny map folks.

It's not a tiny little map. It is a densified, refactored and mission-rich environment specifically tailored to meet the needs of a high-fidelity multiplayer game that delivers an alternative-reality existence at unprecedented levels of procedurally-generated realism that all other games cannot deliver

 

[Artemus]

It's not a tiny little map. It is a densified, refactored and mission-rich environment specifically tailored to meet the needs of a high-fidelity multiplayer game that delivers an alternative-reality existence at unprecedented levels of procedurally-generated realism that all other games cannot deliver

 

[cpbtrading]

I haven't played SC for a while, I'll wait now until that 3.0 release at the end of the year.
I watched the presentation and I have to say, provided it runs well for players. I think CIG are way ahead of the curve compared to FD. That presentation was a great showcase. However, we have had showcases before that turned out pretty unplayable for quite a while, so lets hope CIG have learned from that.

The seamless nature, albeit in a smaller universe, is the best I've seen in a space game. To be able to do all of that, in that detail, is pretty mind blowing. But I'll need to be able to play like that for many hours (smoothly), to be able to say it works as we've seen it.
Star Citizen are pushing the boundaries. It may not be the scale of other games, but coming at it game-play wise, the scale is vastly bigger than we see in any of its competitors. Looks great. Its just a case of, will it run like that for the normal player. I certainly hope so.
Good job CIG.