Star Citizen General BS

[dsmart]

If VR isn't designed and implemented as a core feature from day 1, then it's permanently relegated to one of two states:

1)  Complete impossibility
2)  Hacked-on pseudo-vr where the headset does nothing more than mimic mouselook with a pseudo-3D environment

Every action in the Star Citizen "game" that takes away control from your first-person viewpoint will break the illusion and induce motion sickness.  Guess how often they do this for the sake of "immersion"?

I don't even know why VR is even a talking point at this stage.  They have no game, no plans for a game, no design, no ideas, no gameplay loop, no documentation, no functioning engine, no flight physics, and no path forward.  All they have is motion capture and a devastatingly autistic CEO.

Yes, that's precisely it. But backers hear about Lumberyard, and think it's going to automagically fix everything.

[Lir]

I'm still wondering here how deep the dude has been drawn to the cult.
However, he's confirming indeed CIG has never worked on VR integration ever and worse, the poor dude doesn't even seem to know if they intend of doing so.

In the end he's just another one saying sky is green. I just find interesting here that both backers and some of the CIG devs ( seems) are drawn to the cult.

[dsmart]

I'm still wondering here how deep the dude has been drawn to the cult.
However, he's confirming indeed CIG has never worked on VR integration ever and worse, the poor dude doesn't even seem to know if they intend of doing so.

In the end he's just another one saying sky is green. I just find interesting here that both backers and some of the CIG devs ( seems) are drawn to the cult.

Ben can't keep his mouth shut. That's his problem. Whether what he says is truthful or not, he usual ends up on controversy. This is not the first time. The most recent was the flap ove the Lumberyard engine switch (which didn't happen).

[BigM]

If I was a backer I would be screaming for the game not VR. After this long I can't see how they even have any backers left.  No one can be that stupid to think Roberts can release a game, it's in his genes, someone else has to finish it.

I do feel a little bad for Perry, he seems to be one of those guys that can't hold back and has to blurt stuff out.  :smug:

[dsmart]

So this week's ATV is out...

It's boring as hell. I think CIG are determined to wear down their backer base to the point that they stop caring. Seriously.

Meanwhile, over there

This week on ATV Programming is hard and shit sucks deal with it. Here is some art that looks like some other art you have already seen. Here is a dude shooting another dude man that shit is great. Speaking of shooting people starmarine is broken we know stop bitching. We are going to release a patch that may or may not fix things in like 3 weeks chill your tits. 3.0 is still on its way soon* Please ignore the comment last year saying it would be done before the end of the year. Network code is hard and no one wants that job so there's like 2 people working on it. They are accepting cookies and hand jobs for encouragement. Please sate them we can't replace them and they could demand literally anything of us and we would have to give in to their wishes.
See you in the verse or more likely in star marine since the PU runs like ass.

They showed about 30 secs of their planetary terrain stuff.

OK, you know what? These are planetary shots from a $12m+ indie game. And those are old shots, seeing as we haven't even switched to UE4 yet.

[dsmart]

In the latest newsletter, regional server instances are coming in the 2.6.1 patch (due out Feb 17th)

Star Citizen Newsletter - Regional Servers Inbound
February 3rd, 2017

Greetings Citizen.

Across all our studios, work on the upcoming Alpha 2.6.1 patch is progressing nicely. There’s still some UI work to complete and stability issues to iron out, but, as you can see in our updated production schedule report, we’re almost ready to get this latest patch into the players’ hands. In fact, we're happy to announce an addition to this patch. Thanks to the great work by the Live Ops, Backend and UI teams, we're moving up the release of the Regional Servers to 2.6.1, so players will be able to choose which server (North America, Europe, or Australia) they join to ensure the best connection possible. Once these are running, we’ll be able to run more tests to assess whether more locations will be needed.

This week I split my time between Foundry 42 offices in the UK and Germany. I’ll be spending another week in the trenches with the devs at Foundry 42 to oversee our advancement on a number of fronts.

Thanks to everyone who showed their support for Star Citizen last weekend at both PAX South and the community-organized Bar Citizen event in San Antonio, TX. It’s just another example of how dedicated and inspiring our fanbase can be. In fact, we’ve been looking for more ways to to bring the community front and center. That’s why this week we premiered a new show called Citizens of the Stars that focuses on the important part you play in Star Citizen. Give it a watch to see some of the incredible things the community is doing.

-- Chris Roberts

Basically, using the AWS support in LumberYard, they can do this now. They couldn't do it before with Google Compute Engine because they'd have to write an ass-ton of code to do it. Amazon has done it for them via their AWS->CryEngine->Lumberyard implementation. Which is one of the things I wrote about in my recent Irreconcilable Differences blog in which I discuss the Lumberyard switch.

Forget about fragmentation of their already dwindling player base; the AWS cloud instances won't cost them anything if nobody is connecting to them. In fact, all it will cost them is whatever the AWS bandwidth costs to update them. And since each patch is like 40GB, well then.

What's going to be absolutely hilarious is if they don't enable (in the UI) the ability to select an AWS instance to connect to. which means that if you are in Australia and can't find players, there won't be any way to switch to US based instances which would obviously be more populated. Much rage will be heard.

This is really just another check mark in their pledge promise sheet. Only about a few hundred more to go.

Oh, and lest we forget, some of the backers are rejoicing "regional servers", while forgetting the fact that promises that Chris Roberts made about "1000 player instances" are never - ever - going to happen. And it certainly isn't going to happen with regional AWS instances. Have fun with your sub-par 16 player instances (not to be confused with the higher 24 client allowed in the shopping hub).

And if they are in fact implementing LumberYard GameLift, my reaction ----> 

[Stan]

[dsmart]

The 2.6.1 patch is out in the PTU. Basically bug fixes and all the stuff they cut out of 2.6 in order to ship it in Dec.

[dsmart]

Ooops, someone let the cat out of the proverbial bag.

This will most likely be a setup issue with the trigger volumes and logic that the art & design teams use to control color grading across the level (e.g. if you manage to escape a space station but don't pass through specific trigger volumes then the color grade might not be updated). If there is a known set of steps to reliably reproduce the issue I'd recommend raising it in the issue council.
This setup however is intended to be replaced with a more reliable and systemic system to control color grading where every room is tagged with the desired color grade / mood (either by art or procedurally by code). This system will be updated every frame and doesn't rely on hand placed trigger volumes so will never get into an incorrect state, even if you somehow teleport from one location to another. This will likely have a dependency on the 'room system' being developed in LA so it's something we intend to address later in the year, and is a required feature for both 3.0 and Squadron 42.
Cheers,
Ali Brown - Director of Graphics Engineering

3.0 "by end of the year"

Totally called it.

Note also that Ali B (employee to contractor) is Ben Parry's boss. He now has a forum account (he's been around since 2014) and has made a total of 2 posts. Makes you think.

But yeah, back on Nov 2nd 2016 when I said 3.0 was pure fiction and that croberts basically LIED at CitizenCon 2016 when he revealed this 2.6 - 4.0 roadmap. Note that even the dev schedule currently has NO mention of 3.0.

3.0 status: sources say all are still laughing at this one. It simple does NOT exist as was communicated to backers. It was basically a wishlist of items they wanted to see in a point release; and which Roberts when on the record (again) as saying was coming by “year end, and not on Dec 19th like last year“.

[dsmart]

Ho Lee Cow!! Just as I predicted, Ali B did go back in and made a correction to his post. 

[SpaceTroll]

Ho Lee Cow!! Just as I predicted, Ali B did go back in and made a correction to his post. 

Ey Derek. There is a nice spanish thread here

https://noticiasstarcitizen.wordpress.com

[dsmart]

Holy Crap! Have you guys seen the Jan 2017 monthly report?

Highlights:

- Oxygen modeling
- New "language" for backend development

They're nuts. That aside from the fact that it's all bullshit.

In LoD, right now, there is an oxygen meter that's monitored if you go under water. When you run out while under, you die. If you come up, it refills. Just like what happens if your jetpack runs out of energy; you fall to the ground.

And I have modeled oxygen in all my previous BC/UC games for the same reason, and it uses the same method. It works, and there is no need to reinvent the wheel or chase bullshit fidelity.

There is no reason for any oxygen modeling (which can use the same modeling they do for eva btw) like they're suggesting; let alone a new 'language' for any backend work. Of course, notice how they didn't even say what that is; other than give it a fancy name.

I think all of this is a ploy to justify the bullshit development and costs. And these devs are just pulling a paycheck now, without asking any questions.

Just as I took one look at a Summer 2015 monthly update like this, then concluded that the project was fucked, which prompted my first blog; this update is just another nail in that opinion coffin.

And we're still here, a full 18 months later, 350+ people, $142m+ and neither of the two promised games is anywhere near completion.

Anyone reading this latest update and thinking, "yeah these clowns are making a game", and didn't ask for a refund, deserves to lose their money.

Just as I said back in July 2015, there is no way this game - as pitched - gets made.

[Stan]

People read these reports and believe them.

I remember reading some of the Star Marine delay excuse weekly reports in 2015 just before Chris pulled it.

Once you have been lied to, to that extent by the person responsible,  your trust has been betrayed to such an extent that you should'nt believe anything from that source again.

[Hater115]

In LoD, right now, there is an oxygen meter that's monitored if you go under water. When you run out while under, you die. If you come up, it refills. Just like what happens if your jetpack runs out of energy; you fall to the ground.

Why would you model O2 underwater if the player is already theoretically wearing some sort of high-pressure space suit that supports O2 support? I believe these things are kind of a waste of time to develop too but they have gone on record saying that they want to simulate the need of having O2 systems and power systems (making them a limited resource and all that), so it would make sense for them to make these systems different from yours. They are developing their systems the best way it would fit for them, not the best way it would fit for you.

[Scruffpuff]

In LoD, right now, there is an oxygen meter that's monitored if you go under water. When you run out while under, you die. If you come up, it refills. Just like what happens if your jetpack runs out of energy; you fall to the ground.

Why would you model O2 underwater if the player is already theoretically wearing some sort of high-pressure space suit that supports O2 support? I believe these things are kind of a waste of time to develop too but they have gone on record saying that they want to simulate the need of having O2 systems and power systems (making them a limited resource and all that), so it would make sense for them to make these systems different from yours. They are developing their systems the best way it would fit for them, not the best way it would fit for you.

You're missing some context.  The "oxygen" system CIG is claiming to have supposedly monitors O2 levels in the blood, respiration rates, simulate the entire biological effect on oxygen on living systems... it's all too ridiculous to go into here.  The end result is going to be an oxygen meter, and as Derek is pointing out, it can just go down when there's no air, back up when you change the tank, and so on.  There's no need to claim you're programming biology itself into the game if a meter does the same job, but this being CIG, that's exactly what they're doing.

Of course if it makes it into the game it'll be just a meter because that's what is sane.  But they'll say there are real calculations that go down to the mitochondria level of the man wearing the space suit, and backers will believe it.