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3.0 Production Schedule Report

Our schedule for the next Star Citizen Alpha releases, up to date.

Welcome,

Below you will find the latest roadmap for the development of the Star Citizen Persistent Universe. While the bulk of this schedule outlines our tasks and estimates that you can expect to find in the upcoming 3.0.0 patch (as well as some of the tasks that we’ve already completed) , we are also including projections for the remainder of the year so you can have some visibility into the upcoming Persistent Universe features and content. These are the very same schedules we update daily and circulate internally on our intra-studio hand-offs with a few exceptions: the individual developer names assigned to the tasks will be omitted (for obvious reasons), we’ll remove the JIRA details, and we’ll modify the technical wording to make it readable for a wider audience. Also note, this schedule does not represent everything CIG is working on, but more the functionality and content we feel comfortable committing to at this time. Outside of the work on Squadron 42, we have a few research projects that, once validated, we would move into production and add to this schedule. Otherwise, when something changes, slips or is completed, you will know.

What you are seeing here is the result of our scheduling and planning process. We have a high level feature and content set that we want to achieve for Star Citizen and Squadron 42. The first step is to break these features into higher level tasks with which we populate Microsoft Project, JIRA and Shotgun (the three tools we use for project scheduling and tasking). Then, as we approach a task, Production works with the relevant developer(s) to make sure the task is broken up with enough detail to allow completion. Sometimes this means adjusting the initial task estimate, as things tend to come into a clearer focus when coming up on a task, but it almost always means breaking down the big task into a bunch of smaller tasks that have their own individual sub tasks that possibly are distributed to multiple developers.

Both tasks and sub-tasks get created in JIRA, linked under an Epic (which is a high level task or feature) and are then pulled into Microsoft Project to manage with granular detail providing us global visibility through Gantt charts and visual timelines. No developer works on a task unless it has been created in JIRA, prioritized and assigned by a lead or a member of the Production Team.

Then as the developers work on the tasks, Production will adjust the schedule and JIRA tickets to reflect the work being done.

In the schedule below, you will first find a master schedule that covers the broad departments/disciplines that are being developed. Each department will then have its own dedicated sub-schedule, briefly explaining the various features that are being developed and their current status.

CAVEATS

But also, we would like to establish some ground rules before proceeding:

I.Quality will always be our number one goal. We set out on this journey by looking at the gaming landscape and asking: can we do better? We continue to ask that question about everything we do. As a result, we will ALWAYS extend timelines or re-do features and content if we do not feel they are up to our standards. The freedom to fight for a new level of quality in game development is what crowd funding has allowed us, and we will continue to fight to make sure Star Citizen is the best possible game it can be.

II.The estimates we provide are just that: estimates. They are based on our knowledge and experience, but there are many aspects of game development that are impossible to predict because they literally cover uncharted territory. You will see the same estimates we use in our internal planning, but it is important to understand that in many cases (especially with groundbreaking engineering tasks) these estimates are often subject to change due to unforeseen complexity in implementing features.

III.The time expected for bug fixing and polishing is also very hard to estimate, increasingly so in online and multiplayer situations. The complexity and the difficulty in testing at a large scale make it harder to reproduce and isolate bugs in order to fix them. We base our estimates, again, on our experience, but we also know that it’s possible for a single bug to cause a delay of days or weeks when a hundred others might be fixed instantly.

IV.Internal schedules, the ones you will now be privy to, tend to have aggressive dates to help the team focus and scope their tasks, especially in the case of tech development. Every team, even a team blessed with the kind of support and freedom you have allowed us, needs target dates in order to focus and deliver their work.

V.This schedule doesn’t cover everything being worked on across Cloud Imperium Games, but is meant to highlight our aims for the remainder of the year on the Persistent Universe.

VI.This schedule doesn’t include every audio, vfx, tech art, etc. task. Those are detailed in our departmental sub-schedules.

VIIAlthough technology is shared between the two games, this does not reflect the Squadron 42 schedule. That will be released at a future date.

VIII.These aim dates are determined based on our current staff. Additional hiring will potentially allow us to bring in some dates below.

WELCOME TO THE PROCESS

The community has always been integral to Star Citizen, so we will be updating this page weekly to keep you informed about our development. We hope that this page will not only help explain our latest status, but also provide some explanations in the event that updates are delayed.

Last update : June 2nd, 2017

Last update : June 9th, 2017

3.0.0 OVERVIEW

The following lists and charts show our progress towards releasing 3.0.0, with all remaining major tasks listed. 3.0.0 marks the next major step forward in realizing the vision of the Star Citizen Persistent Universe. As you’ll see from the sections below, there’s a lot of new content and underlying tech being worked on for this release which will enhance the experience of our players.

Tasks are either feature complete, or have an ETA for completion. It’s important to remember that some tasks may require further QA, bug-fixing and iteration. Tasks that delay beyond our target dates might cause the release of 3.0.0 to be delayed, or might be excluded from 3.0.0 if appropriate to maintain the release date target. 3.0.0 work is separated into Subsections: Persistent Universe Content, FPS / Space Gameplay, Engineering, UI, AI, Graphics, Backend, Network, and Ships & Weapons.

The 3.0.0 Procedural Planet update marks a major advance in the Star Citizen Persistent Universe. As you’ll see below, the new content and underlying tech in this release which will greatly enhance player experience.

The 3.0.0 Procedural Planet update marks a major advance in the Star Citizen Persistent Universe. As you will see from the various subsections below, there have been quite a few alterations to feature dates to clarify some of the TBD’s left over from the previous week’s update. Discipline leads took a step back this week to fully evaluate the remaining work required to close out 3.0 development to identify further work and blocking issues. Also, after this review, we came to realize that some additional features might be helpful to add to 3.0 to further improve the overall experience, such as a first version of our Hint system. As a result of this, we have adjusted our Live date in order to preserve sufficient testing time with the Evocati and on the PTU, which is invaluable to us in order to properly stress our systems and provide a better experience.

PLANETARY UPDATE

YELA

Yela is the most frigid of the Crusader moons. Those bold (or careless) enough to step outside without a spacesuit will be killed instantly by its freezing temperatures. If the cold doesn’t kill you, than any of the treacherous crevasses that crisscross the planet might. Cyrovolcanos have been known to erupt unexpectedly from such crevasses, so be wary when flying at low altitudes. Despite all its danger, there is much beauty to be found on Yela, like the underwater caves hidden beneath the moon’s crust.

CELLIN

Burning with volcanic activity, Cellin is the counter to her icy sister. Although the volcanoes have been dormant for hundreds of years, the surface is dotted with thermal geysers that erupt without notice. The largest of such geysers can destroy heavy vehicles. Highly corrosive clouds of gas are regularly released from the moon’s surface, creating low visibility and damaging anything caught outside.

DAYMAR

Daymar’s surface is like a harmonic blend of Yela and Cellin. It’s mountainous surface is reminiscent of Cellin’s volcanoes, while its craters share a warm likeness to Yela’s frozen crevessases. Known for its dense atmosphere, thick fog and a loose dirt surface makes travel difficult. Lightning storms can help illuminate the fog, just don’t get struck by their flash.

REMAINING AIMS FOR 3.0.0 RELEASE

Click here to view Schedule

PERSISTENT UNIVERSE CONTENT

Click here to view Schedule

MOONS

We are adding 3 new moons to the Crusader system; Yela, Cellin, and Daymar.

Feature Complete

SURFACE OUTPOSTS

The new moons will also have outposts on their surface to explore.

Feature Complete

SURFACE OUTPOSTS LIGHTING

We have broken out the lighting tasks for the surface outposts into it’s own feature

ETA is June 26th

MISSION GIVERS

We’re introducing Miles Eckhart (first seen in the Gamescom video) and Ruto to provide missions to players.

Date adjusted to continue to account for additional newly identified requirements

Since this mechanic is setup with new technology that is still being developed, this delay is to ensure that our high quality bar is maintained and that our designers are able to properly implement the mission givers.

ETA is 9th June (was June 2nd)

ETA is 30th June (was 9th June)

DERELICT SHIPS

Derelict ships will be added to the system for extra points of interest and exploration.

Art for the derelict ships is now complete, however audio will require more time to complete their work

To improve the immersive experience for players in 3.0.0, some additional art tasks were highlighted during a review to accommodate greater utilization of the derelicts’ mission flow

ETA is 9th June (was 26th May)

ETA is 16th June (was 9th June)

DEBRIS FIELDS

Feature Complete

DELAMAR / LEVSKI (STRETCH GOAL)

We are adding the planet Delamar and the landing zone, Levski

Following meetings on what we could aim to achieve for 3.0.0, we have moved our date out to accommodate this goal.

ETA is 30th June (was 1st June)

ALREADY COMPLETE IN THE 3.0.0 BRANCH:

Modular Room System for procedural generation of planetary outposts

Official Outpost Spawning System ready for mission designers

Integrated Outpost distribution to PlanetEd

Single outpost Object Preset

Cluster of Outposts

Crash site mission

Interface to hand place modules and save to Layer

Interface to teleport the camera to the closest outpost

Area boxes created by artists (all room sizes are now usable in the outpost procedural system)

Entrance Room system working (stairs and ramps are now available as initial rooms)

Rooftop Prop system working for Solar panel

Wall prop system working for additional prop variations

Material Wear/Dirt on props using Layer Blend done and actually working

Developed Outpost “feet” system

Set random rotation and offset caps on planet editor

Start documenting 3 possible map layouts looping system (using 2 or 4 meters metrics * system; using connection additional corridor pieces; using spline skinned corridors)

Support Aircon/solar panel system on outposts

Added color tinting to Outposts

Added color tinting interface to Planet Ed

Created material distinction for interior / exteriors

Group elements offset in Planet Object Preset to be able to offset landing pads

New Assets:

Heavy Marine Armor

Explorer Suit Armor

Cloth and Clothing simulation on various assets old and new

Updated helmet interiors and exterior for updated art, FOV tech and standardization

Armor converted to work within modular customization structure

Finalized delivery of ALL facial assets from 3lateral.

Ships:

New Skinning and Rigging tools for landing gear on ships.

Constellation Cargo Bay/Elevator extensions

Light Group entity optimization

GAMEPLAY

Click here to view Schedule

PLAYER MANNED TURRETS

ETA is 8th June

Feature Complete

PICK UP & CARRY

As we’re introducing cargo with 3.0.0, players will be able to manually interact with their cargo to load and unload it properly on their ships.

We have decided to make further improvements to this system that will have better gameplay implications, such as interacting with cargo that is in a ZeroG environment.

ETA is 12th June

ETA is 26th June (was 12th June)

ITEM 2.0 SHIP CONVERSION – PART 1

We are beginning the process of converting our available ships over to the item 2.0 system. This will allow for greater player control of the ship and also allow for expanded gameplay.

Feature Complete

ITEM 2.0 SHIP CONVERSION – PART 2

With Part 1 of this feature (the Engineering side) drawing to a close, and appearing to come in as estimated. We have been properly able to schedule out the Tech Design side of this.

ETA is 23rd June

ITEM 2.0

Operator Seats.

Operator seats replace existing vehicle seats as the new controllers of Item 2.0 based ships.

Feature Complete

Radar System

Feature Complete

Light Control System.

Feature Complete

Fuel / Refuel.

Feature Complete

Power Supply / Pipes.

Feature Complete

Quantum Drive.

Feature Complete

INSURANCE

This will be an alpha version of the insurance system where if your current ship becomes damaged beyond repair, you will be able to request a replacement ship (with basic loadout) from the insurance provider.

Network engineering and persistence work has progressed allowing us to move forward on this feature

Changes to netcode and persistence resulted in delays to this work

ETA is 9th June (was 2nd June)

ETA is 23rd June (was 9th June)

STAMINA

All 3.0.0 tasks complete. This feature will be developed further for future releases.

DOORS & AIRLOCKS

We are starting to update the doors and airlocks within the game to be more intelligent. This would mean that the door would ‘know’ if a room beyond them is depressurized and would stay shut for safety.

Delays on the tech side of this task have impacted the in-game implementation and caused the end date of this feature to move out.

ETA is 22nd June (was 31st May)

CARGO

Commodities bought using the kiosk will be transportable in the cargo holds of vehicles, to be sold in another location.

Work on this is delayed due to a needed task from the Network Engineering team.

ETA is 16th June (was 2nd June)

ETA is 19th June (was 16th June)

COMMODITIES

Implementing items to represent units of tradeable cargo.

Implementing items to represent units of commodity cargo.

Work on this is delayed due to waiting on a needed task from the Network Engineering team

Integrating commodities with the shop services for buying and selling from ship cargo has added additional tasks

ETA is 9th June (was 2nd June)

ETA is 23rd June (was 9th June)

KIOSK SUPPORT

Support UI on kiosks for buying and selling of cargo.

ETA is 9th June (was 2nd June)

Delayed to offer the player additional functionality within Kiosks for 3.0.0

ETA is 23rd June (was 9th June)

ATMOSPHERIC ENTRY SUPPORT

Feature Complete

PERSISTENT DAMAGE, AMMO AND MISSILES

Persistence ensures that your vehicle state is saved between sessions.

Work on this is delayed due to waiting on a needed task from the Network Engineering team.

ETA is 7th June (was 2nd June)

REPAIR

Feature Complete

REPAIR

Critical fault needs to be fixed in the repair system

ETA is 16th June (was Feature Complete)

INVENTORY SYSTEM SUPPORT

The inventory will offer a way to manage the cargo and commodities that are being carried by the ships a player owns.

Work on this is delayed due to a needed task from the Network Engineering team.

ETA is 16th June (was 2nd June)

ROVER AND DRAGONFLY IN SHIPS

Players will be able to transport the Ursa Rover and the Dragonfly inside ships that are big enough to hold them

Work on this is delayed due to needing ship physics to be altered to allow for vehicles to be placed inside

ETA is 16th June (was 2nd June)

IFCS PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS – NEW ADDITION

Changing the IFCS system to work in batch updates for performance improvements

Feature Complete

HINT SYSTEM

We have decided to include a first iteration of in-game hints to help new players acclimate to the various complex gameplay mechanics in Star Citizen. This is a feature we have worked on in the background and until this week, were unsure if it would be ready in time for 3.0.0. As work on this has progressed better than expected, we have made the decision to include this feature for 3.0.0

ETA is 30th June

ALREADY COMPLETE IN THE 3.0.0 BRANCH:

Crusader Converted to Object Container Setup

With the transition to Object Containers, the Crusader map was completely re-designed. Each Point of Interest is now an object container laid out via the Solar System Editor. This is in preparation for Object Container streaming and seamless transitions from different POI’s and between Star Systems. Mission Flowgraphs are converted over to use Subsumption and the new Mission System.

Mega Map for Persistent Universe

Mega Map tech (also used in Crusader for seamless loading between different gamemodes) is now possible in the new PU map, which is setup in the Solar System Editor. This allows the utilization of Mega Map technology.

Revamp of Power Plants / Shield Generators / Coolers and the Heat & Power System for improved gameplay and conversion to Item 2.0

CORE TECH

Click here to view Schedule

PLANETARY TECH

Feature Complete

SOLAR SYSTEM TOOL

Feature Complete

ENTITY UPDATE COMPONENT SCHEDULER

Will allow lower priority entities (i.e. those further away from players) to be updated less frequently, which should improve the overall framerate and allow us to add more content to the universe.

ETA is 31st May

Intended work on this feature will extend past 3.0.0. This feature will extend past 3.0.0 as the work is ongoing, and continual improvements will be made in the run up to 3.0.0 release.

ETA is 30th June (was 31st May)

ENTITY OWNER MANAGER

The Entity Owner Manager will track entities that are moved around the universe, making sure we spawn and unspawn them at the correct time

Feature on hold temporarily due to network system persistence dependencies.

ETA is 12th June (was 31st May)

ALREADY COMPLETE IN THE 3.0.0 BRANCH:

New Radar Databank

Subsumption Base Functionality

This is the initial release of the foundation technology that drives all of the AI, mission, dynamic content, and conversation logic. The mission content previously created with FlowGraph has been replaced and the implementation time to achieve a desired effect has been cut dramatically.

Various Performance improvements

Planetary Physics Grid to support orbiting and rotating planets

Multi-Function Display implementation for Item 2.0 Components on ships

IFCS improvements to support AI & Takeoff System

Unified Visor for seamless Ship 2.0 / FPS transition

HUD/Visor integration for new Radar Databank

Object Distribution

Terrain / Object blending for soft natural transition of objects intersecting with the ground

Video codec updated to Bink2, providing higher fidelity at lower bitrate

Vehicles no longer use Lua

This is a huge step forward on the code side.

Skeleton Extension support for Item Port Offset overrides per item

Numerous types of physics simulation for all Item 2.0 attachments including hair, weapons, grenades and more.

Destructible component for items, props and environment assets

Nested Physics Grids support for vehicle transportation inside large ships, i.e. DragonFly & Rover

Physics simulation gravity vector now respects planetary gravity

Modular loadouts rule sets and support for up to five loadouts

Animation driven facial audio implemented

Updated Sandbox Editor Python integration.

Zone culling on all character assets and layers, system complete and mesh markup complete supplemented with tools to easily support new assets.

Solar System Editor

A tool that will layout entire solar system with their astral objects (sun, planets moons) as well as space stations, etc.

New Light Controller for runtime light switches

New network message queue (current in QATR) to reduce network bandwidth and network thread time.

Light Entity Render node merging.

Dynamic Physics Grid to support sparse space areas vs. dense areas like space stations.

Highly optimized vertex and position format for all geometry

Texture memory usage reduced across the project

Unified material libraries for use across all departments

Comparing and finding all duplicated normal maps and albedo maps in the LayerBlend texture library

Clean up LayerBlend Material Libraries, Resolution Adjustments, Renames to Lower Case

Follow-ups on list of unused textures and materials

Massively improved LOD computation and average face sizes for ships

Shared hair assets (instead of bespoke asset per head) for character creation

Automated facial asset LODs, skinning algorithm per LOD updated.

Reworked mesh setup of facial assets for optimal performance and reduced drawcalls.

Unified helmet and character mesh into singular render proxy for better performance and visuals.

Various portal and culling improvements.

Improved Animation Data Base collection and build process for optimized animation data streaming also added external tools to manage this.

Deprecated thousands of legacy and test assets including animations, geometry, libraries and more for reduced build size.

Automatic Asset Error collection and tracking.

Reworked itemport layout for characters and character items

Updated all assets using HumanSkin to highly optimized HumanSkinv2 shader. This saves upwards of a 100 megs of texture memory per face.

Vastly improved memory allocator which allowed massive reduction in runtime allocation count

Several significant optimizations to entity update code

Click here to view Schedule

As you will see, the UI schedule has undergone some significant changes to accommodate some new features designed to enhance the player experience. The following schedule and dates will be used as the new baseline for the UI schedule, the previous completion dates have been included to indicate the change.

KIOSK UI

Kiosk shopping will allow players to buy and sell commodities.

Some Kiosk tasks are taking longer than expected, and there have also been some blocking issues that were prioritized.

Delayed to offer the player additional functionality within Kiosks for 3.0.0

ETA is 7th June (was 30th May)

ETA is 23rd June (was 7th June)

ITEM 2.0 MULTI FUNCTION DISPLAYS

MFDs are being converted to work in the new item 2.0 system to give pilots even more control of their ships.

ETA is 5th June (was 26th May)

Delayed after a recent review where additional work has been brought forward to 3.0.0 to ensure players have more control over their ships

ETA is 27th June (was 5th June)

FIELD OF VIEW SLIDER

Feature Complete

CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION

*Players will now be able to customize their characters’ heads, hair, eye color, and skin color.

ETA is 22nd June (was 31st May)

Character customization has been delayed due to the additional work that Engineering needed to address for StarMap.

ETA is 4th July (was 22nd June)

PERSONAL MANAGER APP

This App will allow players to review their inventory and customize various aspects of their suit and weapons.

ETA is 8th June (was 23rd May)

Starting work for the Personal Manager App was delayed because of additional engineering work for the StarMap.

ETA is 21st June (was 8th June)

MISSION MANAGER APP

This is a redesign of the Mission App that is currently available within mobiGlas and is the next step to allow players more control over their mission tracking.

Revised date based on updated completion date of the Kiosk UI. This work will be started after the Kiosk UI is complete.

Mission Manager has been delayed in order to provide additional control to players for 3.0.0.

ETA is TBD (was 2nd June)

ETA is 21st June (was 2nd June)

CARGO MANIFEST APP

After buying items at a Kiosk, players will be able to head to their ship and check their cargo manifest This incorporates the work that was previously accounted for in the “Cargo UI” task

ETA is 6th June (was 1st June)

Cargo has been delayed in order to create some portable filtering selections that can be used across kiosks, cargo and inventory.

ETA is 19th June (was 6th June)

VEHICLE CUSTOMIZER APP

This app will allow players to customize their ship via the ship customization screen, so edits can be done without locating the exact port on the ship.

ETA is 28th June

Delayed due to the additional work needed for the StarMap.

ETA is 6th July (was 28th June)

SHIP SELECTOR APP & INSURANCE CLAIM

This app would exist alongside the Ship Selection Terminals in the Persistent Universe, allowing players more freedom to spawn ships at designated locations.

We are incorporating the Insurance Claim process, so we have one app that will serve two functions.

ETA is 15th June

Ship selector and insurance has been re-prioritized within the schedule to accurately reflect the intended goals of the UI team

ETA is 3rd July (was 15th June)

HEAVY ARMOR FOR STAR MARINE

Heavy armor will be enabled for selection within the Star Marine loadout customization menu.

ETA is 9th June

Feature Complete

INVENTORY SYSTEM

Very closely linked to the cargo manifest App. This will be the place to look for you personal inventory.

ETA is 6th June (was 2nd June)

Inventory has been delayed in order to create some portable filtering selections that can be used across kiosks, cargo and inventory.

ETA is 19th June (was 6th June)

MISSION BOARD APP

The mission board allows players to see the service beacons that have been set up around the universe by other players calling for assistance.

ETA is TBD (was 1st June)

Mission Board has been delayed in order to support some additional features.

ETA is 21st June (was 1st June)

STARMAP APP

The StarMap will be introduced to allow players to view the PU at large and select planets to QT to.

The StarMap is now functional and in game. However, we have decided to make some further changes to the feature to make the App look more visually pleasing and also be a more intuitive experience for the player. This work is still being fully scoped out, but we will aim to have a new ETA next week

After a recent review, additional art and engineering tasks have been called out to ensure the StarMap is as polished as it can be for 3.0.0.

ETA is TBD (was 24th May)

ETA is 26th June (was 24th May)

UI OWNER COMPONENT

Feature Complete

MOBIGLAS OVERHAUL

The UI team doing an overhaul of the mobiGlas system so that it better reads what the gamecode is doing. This change will make the mobiGlas system easier to maintain for the UI team and has become a necessity as 3.0.0 work has progressed further.

The UI team doing an overhaul of the mobiGla

ETA is TBD (was 2nd June)

Click here to view Schedule

MISSION SYSTEM

The overall system that will be used to create mission flows when we start building missions like Patrol, Assassination, Smuggling, etc.

ETA is 31st May

AI TURRETS

We are adding the ability for AI to operate turrets in Crusader, so we are working to make sure that they track and fire upon the correct targets.

The AI team encountered problems with the ship archetypes that required further support from the LA Engineering team. These issues are now solved, allowing the AI team to continue.

ETA is 9th June (was 31st May)

GRAPHICS

Click here to view Schedule

RENDER TO TEXTURE

This will have many uses going forwards, but our focus for now is to improve UI rendering and to introduce live rendering of video communications. We’re aiming to improve rendering performance by rendering as much of the UI ahead of a frame. For video communications, this will mean that we don’t have to pre-render the comms and store those files on the hard drive, as is the case with most games, allowing us to maintain fidelity and save hard drive space.

ETA is 15th June (was 24th May)

ENVIRONMENT PROBE

This allows for bounced lighting and reflections to be updated dynamically and will result in better lighting visuals.

This has been quite an in-depth task for the Graphics team whose work revealed a variety of unknown issues causing a delay.

ETA is 9th June (was 2nd June)

ATMOSPHERIC ENTRY

Feature Complete

VOLUMETRIC FOG

The completion date has moved back due to unexpected issues with implementing the Volumetric fog away from Lumberyard to work correctly with our systems.

Completion of required tasks are taking a bit more time than expected.

ETA is 9th June (was 30th May)

GPU PARTICLES

Feature Complete

ENGINE TRAILS & CONTRAILS

Build issues and developer illness have had quite an impact on the delivery date for this work.

ETA is 23rd June (was 26th May)

ALREADY COMPLETE IN THE 3.0.0 BRANCH:

RenderTarget refactor

This saves over 50% of the video memor

Original Text

3.0 Production Schedule Report
Our schedule for the next Star Citizen Alpha releases, up to date.
Welcome,

Then as the developers work on the tasks, Production will adjust the schedule and JIRA tickets to reflect the work being done.

CAVEATS

But also, we would like to establish some ground rules before proceeding:

V.This schedule doesn’t cover everything being worked on across Cloud Imperium Games, but is meant to highlight our aims for the remainder of the year on the Persistent Universe.

VI.This schedule doesn’t include every audio, vfx, tech art, etc. task. Those are detailed in our departmental sub-schedules.

VIIAlthough technology is shared between the two games, this does not reflect the Squadron 42 schedule. That will be released at a future date.

VIII.These aim dates are determined based on our current staff. Additional hiring will potentially allow us to bring in some dates below.

WELCOME TO THE PROCESS

Last update : June 2nd, 2017

3.0.0 OVERVIEW

PLANETARY UPDATE
YELA

CELLIN

DAYMAR

REMAINING AIMS FOR 3.0.0 RELEASE
Click here to view Schedule
PERSISTENT UNIVERSE CONTENT
Click here to view Schedule
MOONS
We are adding 3 new moons to the Crusader system; Yela, Cellin, and Daymar.
Feature Complete
SURFACE OUTPOSTS
The new moons will also have outposts on their surface to explore.
Feature Complete
SURFACE OUTPOSTS LIGHTING
We have broken out the lighting tasks for the surface outposts into it’s own feature
ETA is June 26th
MISSION GIVERS
We’re introducing Miles Eckhart (first seen in the Gamescom video) and Ruto to provide missions to players.
Date adjusted to continue to account for additional newly identified requirements
ETA is 9th June (was June 2nd)
DERELICT SHIPS
Derelict ships will be added to the system for extra points of interest and exploration.
Art for the derelict ships is now complete, however audio will require more time to complete their work
ETA is 9th June (was 26th May)
DEBRIS FIELDS
Feature Complete
DELAMAR / LEVSKI (STRETCH GOAL)
We are adding the planet Delamar and the landing zone, Levski
Following meetings on what we could aim to achieve for 3.0.0, we have moved our date out to accommodate this goal.
ETA is 30th June (was 1st June)
ALREADY COMPLETE IN THE 3.0.0 BRANCH:
Modular Room System for procedural generation of planetary outposts
Official Outpost Spawning System ready for mission designers
Integrated Outpost distribution to PlanetEd
Single outpost Object Preset
Cluster of Outposts
Crash site mission
Interface to hand place modules and save to Layer
Interface to teleport the camera to the closest outpost
Area boxes created by artists (all room sizes are now usable in the outpost procedural system)
Entrance Room system working (stairs and ramps are now available as initial rooms)
Rooftop Prop system working for Solar panel
Wall prop system working for additional prop variations
Material Wear/Dirt on props using Layer Blend done and actually working
Developed Outpost “feet” system
Set random rotation and offset caps on planet editor
Start documenting 3 possible map layouts looping system (using 2 or 4 meters metrics * system; using connection additional corridor pieces; using spline skinned corridors)
Support Aircon/solar panel system on outposts
Added color tinting to Outposts
Added color tinting interface to Planet Ed
Created material distinction for interior / exteriors
Group elements offset in Planet Object Preset to be able to offset landing pads
New Assets:
Heavy Marine Armor
Explorer Suit Armor
Cloth and Clothing simulation on various assets old and new
Updated helmet interiors and exterior for updated art, FOV tech and standardization
Armor converted to work within modular customization structure
Finalized delivery of ALL facial assets from 3lateral.
Ships:
New Skinning and Rigging tools for landing gear on ships.
Constellation Cargo Bay/Elevator extensions
Light Group entity optimization
GAMEPLAY
Click here to view Schedule
PLAYER MANNED TURRETS
ETA is 8th June
PICK UP & CARRY
As we’re introducing cargo with 3.0.0, players will be able to manually interact with their cargo to load and unload it properly on their ships.
We have decided to make further improvements to this system that will have better gameplay implications, such as interacting with cargo that is in a ZeroG environment.
ETA is 12th June
ITEM 2.0 SHIP CONVERSION – PART 1
We are beginning the process of converting our available ships over to the item 2.0 system. This will allow for greater player control of the ship and also allow for expanded gameplay.
Feature Complete
ITEM 2.0 SHIP CONVERSION – PART 2
With Part 1 of this feature (the Engineering side) drawing to a close, and appearing to come in as estimated. We have been properly able to schedule out the Tech Design side of this.
ETA is 23rd June
ITEM 2.0
Operator Seats.
Operator seats replace existing vehicle seats as the new controllers of Item 2.0 based ships.
Feature Complete
Radar System
Feature Complete
Light Control System.
Feature Complete
Fuel / Refuel.
Feature Complete
Power Supply / Pipes.
Feature Complete
Quantum Drive.
Feature Complete
INSURANCE
This will be an alpha version of the insurance system where if your current ship becomes damaged beyond repair, you will be able to request a replacement ship (with basic loadout) from the insurance provider.
Network engineering and persistence work has progressed allowing us to move forward on this feature
ETA is 9th June (was 2nd June)
STAMINA
All 3.0.0 tasks complete. This feature will be developed further for future releases.
DOORS & AIRLOCKS
We are starting to update the doors and airlocks within the game to be more intelligent. This would mean that the door would ‘know’ if a room beyond them is depressurized and would stay shut for safety.
Delays on the tech side of this task have impacted the in-game implementation and caused the end date of this feature to move out.
ETA is 22nd June (was 31st May)
CARGO
Commodities bought using the kiosk will be transportable in the cargo holds of vehicles, to be sold in another location.
Work on this is delayed due to a needed task from the Network Engineering team.
ETA is 16th June (was 2nd June)
COMMODITIES
Implementing items to represent units of tradeable cargo.
Work on this is delayed due to waiting on a needed task from the Network Engineering team
ETA is 9th June (was 2nd June)
KIOSK SUPPORT
Support UI on kiosks for buying and selling of cargo.
ETA is 9th June (was 2nd June)
ATMOSPHERIC ENTRY SUPPORT
Feature Complete
PERSISTENT DAMAGE, AMMO AND MISSILES
Persistence ensures that your vehicle state is saved between sessions.
Work on this is delayed due to waiting on a needed task from the Network Engineering team.
ETA is 7th June (was 2nd June)
REPAIR
Feature Complete
INVENTORY SYSTEM SUPPORT
The inventory will offer a way to manage the cargo and commodities that are being carried by the ships a player owns.
Work on this is delayed due to a needed task from the Network Engineering team.
ETA is 16th June (was 2nd June)
ROVER AND DRAGONFLY IN SHIPS
Players will be able to transport the Ursa Rover and the Dragonfly inside ships that are big enough to hold them
Work on this is delayed due to needing ship physics to be altered to allow for vehicles to be placed inside
ETA is 16th June (was 2nd June)
IFCS PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS – NEW ADDITION
Changing the IFCS system to work in batch updates for performance improvements
Feature Complete
ALREADY COMPLETE IN THE 3.0.0 BRANCH:
Crusader Converted to Object Container Setup
With the transition to Object Containers, the Crusader map was completely re-designed. Each Point of Interest is now an object container laid out via the Solar System Editor. This is in preparation for Object Container streaming and seamless transitions from different POI’s and between Star Systems. Mission Flowgraphs are converted over to use Subsumption and the new Mission System.
Mega Map for Persistent Universe
Mega Map tech (also used in Crusader for seamless loading between different gamemodes) is now possible in the new PU map, which is setup in the Solar System Editor. This allows the utilization of Mega Map technology.
Revamp of Power Plants / Shield Generators / Coolers and the Heat & Power System for improved gameplay and conversion to Item 2.0
CORE TECH
Click here to view Schedule
PLANETARY TECH
Feature Complete
SOLAR SYSTEM TOOL
Feature Complete
ENTITY UPDATE COMPONENT SCHEDULER
Will allow lower priority entities (i.e. those further away from players) to be updated less frequently, which should improve the overall framerate and allow us to add more content to the universe.
ETA is 31st May
ENTITY OWNER MANAGER
The Entity Owner Manager will track entities that are moved around the universe, making sure we spawn and unspawn them at the correct time
Feature on hold temporarily due to network system persistence dependencies.
ETA is 12th June (was 31st May)
ALREADY COMPLETE IN THE 3.0.0 BRANCH:
New Radar Databank
Subsumption Base Functionality
This is the initial release of the foundation technology that drives all of the AI, mission, dynamic content, and conversation logic. The mission content previously created with FlowGraph has been replaced and the implementation time to achieve a desired effect has been cut dramatically.
Various Performance improvements
Planetary Physics Grid to support orbiting and rotating planets
Multi-Function Display implementation for Item 2.0 Components on ships
IFCS improvements to support AI & Takeoff System
Unified Visor for seamless Ship 2.0 / FPS transition
HUD/Visor integration for new Radar Databank
Object Distribution
Terrain / Object blending for soft natural transition of objects intersecting with the ground
Video codec updated to Bink2, providing higher fidelity at lower bitrate
Vehicles no longer use Lua
This is a huge step forward on the code side.
Skeleton Extension support for Item Port Offset overrides per item
Numerous types of physics simulation for all Item 2.0 attachments including hair, weapons, grenades and more.
Destructible component for items, props and environment assets
Nested Physics Grids support for vehicle transportation inside large ships, i.e. DragonFly & Rover
Physics simulation gravity vector now respects planetary gravity
Modular loadouts rule sets and support for up to five loadouts
Animation driven facial audio implemented
Updated Sandbox Editor Python integration.
Zone culling on all character assets and layers, system complete and mesh markup complete supplemented with tools to easily support new assets.
Solar System Editor
A tool that will layout entire solar system with their astral objects (sun, planets moons) as well as space stations, etc.
New Light Controller for runtime light switches
New network message queue (current in QATR) to reduce network bandwidth and network thread time.
Light Entity Render node merging.
Dynamic Physics Grid to support sparse space areas vs. dense areas like space stations.
Highly optimized vertex and position format for all geometry
Texture memory usage reduced across the project
Unified material libraries for use across all departments
Comparing and finding all duplicated normal maps and albedo maps in the LayerBlend texture library
Clean up LayerBlend Material Libraries, Resolution Adjustments, Renames to Lower Case
Follow-ups on list of unused textures and materials
Massively improved LOD computation and average face sizes for ships
Shared hair assets (instead of bespoke asset per head) for character creation
Automated facial asset LODs, skinning algorithm per LOD updated.
Reworked mesh setup of facial assets for optimal performance and reduced drawcalls.
Unified helmet and character mesh into singular render proxy for better performance and visuals.
Various portal and culling improvements.
Improved Animation Data Base collection and build process for optimized animation data streaming also added external tools to manage this.
Deprecated thousands of legacy and test assets including animations, geometry, libraries and more for reduced build size.
Automatic Asset Error collection and tracking.
Reworked itemport layout for characters and character items
Updated all assets using HumanSkin to highly optimized HumanSkinv2 shader. This saves upwards of a 100 megs of texture memory per face.
Vastly improved memory allocator which allowed massive reduction in runtime allocation count
Several significant optimizations to entity update code
UI
Click here to view Schedule
As you will see, the UI schedule has undergone some significant changes to accommodate some new features designed to enhance the player experience. The following schedule and dates will be used as the new baseline for the UI schedule, the previous completion dates have been included to indicate the change.

KIOSK UI
Kiosk shopping will allow players to buy and sell commodities.
Some Kiosk tasks are taking longer than expected, and there have also been some blocking issues that were prioritized.
ETA is 7th June (was 30th May)
ITEM 2.0 MULTI FUNCTION DISPLAYS
MFDs are being converted to work in the new item 2.0 system to give pilots even more control of their ships.
ETA is 5th June (was 26th May)
FIELD OF VIEW SLIDER
Feature Complete
CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION
*Players will now be able to customize their characters’ heads, hair, eye color, and skin color.
ETA is 22nd June (was 31st May)

PERSONAL MANAGER APP
This App will allow players to review their inventory and customize various aspects of their suit and weapons.
ETA is 8th June (was 23rd May)
MISSION MANAGER APP
This is a redesign of the Mission App that is currently available within mobiGlas and is the next step to allow players more control over their mission tracking.
Revised date based on updated completion date of the Kiosk UI. This work will be started after the Kiosk UI is complete.
ETA is TBD (was 2nd June)
CARGO MANIFEST APP
After buying items at a Kiosk, players will be able to head to their ship and check their cargo manifest This incorporates the work that was previously accounted for in the “Cargo UI” task
ETA is 6th June (was 1st June)
VEHICLE CUSTOMIZER APP
This app will allow players to customize their ship via the ship customization screen, so edits can be done without locating the exact port on the ship.
ETA is 28th June
SHIP SELECTOR APP & INSURANCE CLAIM
This app would exist alongside the Ship Selection Terminals in the Persistent Universe, allowing players more freedom to spawn ships at designated locations.
We are incorporating the Insurance Claim process, so we have one app that will serve two functions.
ETA is 15th June
HEAVY ARMOR FOR STAR MARINE
Heavy armor will be enabled for selection within the Star Marine loadout customization menu.
ETA is 9th June
INVENTORY SYSTEM
Very closely linked to the cargo manifest App. This will be the place to look for you personal inventory.
ETA is 6th June (was 2nd June)
MISSION BOARD APP
The mission board allows players to see the service beacons that have been set up around the universe by other players calling for assistance.
ETA is TBD (was 1st June)
STARMAP APP
The StarMap will be introduced to allow players to view the PU at large and select planets to QT to.
The StarMap is now functional and in game. However, we have decided to make some further changes to the feature to make the App look more visually pleasing and also be a more intuitive experience for the player. This work is still being fully scoped out, but we will aim to have a new ETA next week
ETA is TBD (was 24th May)
UI OWNER COMPONENT
Feature Complete
MOBIGLAS OVERHAUL
The UI team doing an overhaul of the mobiGlas system so that it better reads what the gamecode is doing. This change will make the mobiGlas system easier to maintain for the UI team and has become a necessity as 3.0.0 work has progressed further.
ETA is TBD (was 2nd June)
AI
Click here to view Schedule
MISSION SYSTEM
The overall system that will be used to create mission flows when we start building missions like Patrol, Assassination, Smuggling, etc.
ETA is 31st May
AI TURRETS
We are adding the ability for AI to operate turrets in Crusader, so we are working to make sure that they track and fire upon the correct targets.
The AI team encountered problems with the ship archetypes that required further support from the LA Engineering team. These issues are now solved, allowing the AI team to continue.
ETA is 9th June (was 31st May)
GRAPHICS
Click here to view Schedule
RENDER TO TEXTURE
This will have many uses going forwards, but our focus for now is to improve UI rendering and to introduce live rendering of video communications. We’re aiming to improve rendering performance by rendering as much of the UI ahead of a frame. For video communications, this will mean that we don’t have to pre-render the comms and store those files on the hard drive, as is the case with most games, allowing us to maintain fidelity and save hard drive space.
ETA is 15th June (was 24th May)
ENVIRONMENT PROBE
This allows for bounced lighting and reflections to be updated dynamically and will result in better lighting visuals.
This has been quite an in-depth task for the Graphics team whose work revealed a variety of unknown issues causing a delay.
ETA is 9th June (was 2nd June)
ATMOSPHERIC ENTRY
Feature Complete
VOLUMETRIC FOG
The completion date has moved back due to unexpected issues with implementing the Volumetric fog away from Lumberyard to work correctly with our systems.
Completion of required tasks are taking a bit more time than expected.
ETA is 9th June (was 30th May)
GPU PARTICLES
Feature Complete
ENGINE TRAILS & CONTRAILS
Build issues and developer illness have had quite an impact on the delivery date for this work.
ETA is 23rd June (was 26th May)
ALREADY COMPLETE IN THE 3.0.0 BRANCH:
RenderTarget refactor
This saves over 50% of the video memory previously used for dynamic textures.
Physically-based area lights
Shadow map caching system
This allows for many more shadow casting lights at once and avoids the need for baking shadows.
Revamped decal rendering system which renders fully deferred, instanced decals with aggressive overdraw optimizations
BACKEND
Click here to view Schedule
DIFFUSION SUBSET FOR 3.0.0
Diffusion is our second-generation cloud-oriented back-end service architecture. It dramatically simplifies the effort required to implement, maintain, and interact with services, while simultaneously providing major enhancements in the areas of scalability and redundancy.
ETA is 16th June
SOLAR SYSTEM SHOP SERVICE
Feature Complete
SOLAR SYSTEM MISSION SERVICE V1 “MISSION BROKER”
The Solar System Mission Service dictates what missions are being offered at various locations and at what price. It is also responsible for specifying when and where dynamic content should be instantiated and how it should be customized. That way, the reality that the player sees matches what is in that area, based upon hints provided by the back end simulation/rule set. This service will split into two for 3.1, with the latter functionality becoming the responsibility of a dedicated Dynamic Content Service.
We are making making further improvements to the Mission Broker and how it ties in to the Mission System to further aid the player experience and make the missions flow better for the player. These new additions are still being fully scoped out and we aim to have a new ETA next week
ETA is TBD (was 25th May)
NETWORK
Click here to view Schedule
NEW MESSAGE QUEUE
Now that all our messages are strictly ordered we’ve been able to streamline the processing, allowing us to send and receive messages with less overhead. The new message queue also has extra features to handle packet loss and jitter, which helps reduce average bandwidth and latency.
The Network team have been working through bugs that have arisen with this work that has caused the completion date to slip out.
ETA is 9th June (was 31st May)
PHYSICS SERIALIZATION
This will fix a few long standing threading issues between the network and physics code which will improve separation of physics and netcode for better maintainability.
Delayed due to Network needing to fix bugs that were blocking other departments from continuing their feature work.
ETA is 9th June (was 2nd June)
PERSISTENT DATA REFACTOR
The expanding capabilities of persistent data to support gameplay features in 3.0.0 has required the Network team to work on this refactor
ETA is 19th June
SHIPS & WEAPONS
Click here to view Schedule
DRAKE DRAGONFLY
Feature Complete. Some code bugs remain
DRAKE CUTLASS BLACK
Rework of the legacy ship
Delayed due to Art requiring more time, and also some of our internal software being updated causing some down time. This has had an impact for the disciplines further down the pipeline.
ETA is 16th June (was 26th May)
RSI CONSTELLATION AQUILA
Feature Complete. Some code bugs remain
RSI URSA ROVER
Ground exploration vehichle.
Delayed due to waiting on code support.
ETA is 9th June (was 2nd June)
MISC PROSPECTOR
Feature Complete. Some code bugs remain.
BEHRING P8-SC
Feature Complete
APOCALYPSE ARMS SCOURGE RAIL GUN
A shoulder mounted railgun capable of providing high levels of damage at a long range.
Completion on UI tech has slightly pushed the completion date for this weapon.
ETA is 9th June (was 8th June)
KLAUS AND WERNER GALLANT RIFLE
Feature Complete
ARROWHEAD SNIPER RIFLE
Rework of the legacy weapon.
Complex VFX for the Railgun has pushed the completion of this back
ETA is 9th June (was 8th June)
KSAR DEVASTATOR-12 SHOTGUN
Rework of the legacy weapon.
Complex VFX for the Railgun has pushed the completion of this back
ETA is 9th June (was 8th June)
BEYOND 3.0.0 - OVERVIEW

Click Here to Download.

3.1.0 Goals

PERSISTENT UNIVERSE CONTENT
New Additions:

Modular Space Station – Truckstop
Arc Corp / Area 18
FPS / SPACE GAMEPLAY
New Additions:

Female Player Locomotion
AI Locomotion
Shouldered Weapons
Throwable Weapons
Armed (FPS Weapon Equipped)
Fists
Knife
Take down (Front, Sides, Rear)
Knockdown and Knockbacks
CORE DEV TECH AND SYSTEMS
New Additions:

Fuel (Item 2.0)
Criminality System
Room System v2 (Physical Depressurization)
Item 2.0 Elevators v2
Item 2.0 Airlocks v2
Diffusion Refactor
Item Degradation/Failure/Luck
Service Beacon v1
Parties and Orgs(Group Entity Component)
Game persistence
Spectrum Integration in game
Repair and Restock System
Elevators v2
Bind / Unbinding
Object Container Streaming Core Engine Support
SHIPS:
MISC Razor
RSI Aurora (Update)
ANVIL Terrapin
MISC Hull C
DRAKE Cutlass Red
DRAKE Cutlass Blue
AEGIS Vanguard Harbinger (Variant)
3.2.0 Goals

PERSISTENT UNIVERSE CONTENT
New Additions:

Crusader
Hurston
MicroTech (Stretch Goal)
FPS / SPACE GAMEPLAY
New Additions:

New Ammo Types
Gadgets (drones / shields)
Bumps
Coperative Avoidance
Downed
Drowning
Item Inspection
Looting IK / Permissions
CORE DEV TECH AND SYSTEMS
New Additions:

NPC Generation (Archetype)
Interaction System – Useables
Radar System (Item 2.0)
Cargo v2
Service Beacon v2
StarMap v2
Gas Giant Tech
Ship to Ship Refuel System
Breaching
Security / Access Control
Object Container Streaming
SHIPS:
RSI Constellation Pheonix
RSI Constellation Taurus
MISC Freelancer MAX
AEGIS Vanguard Sentinel (Variant)
MISC Freelancer DUR
STAR CITIZEN
GETTING STARTED
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Changed Text

3.0 Production Schedule Report
Our schedule for the next Star Citizen Alpha releases, up to date.
Welcome,

Then as the developers work on the tasks, Production will adjust the schedule and JIRA tickets to reflect the work being done.

CAVEATS

But also, we would like to establish some ground rules before proceeding:

V.This schedule doesn’t cover everything being worked on across Cloud Imperium Games, but is meant to highlight our aims for the remainder of the year on the Persistent Universe.

VI.This schedule doesn’t include every audio, vfx, tech art, etc. task. Those are detailed in our departmental sub-schedules.

VIIAlthough technology is shared between the two games, this does not reflect the Squadron 42 schedule. That will be released at a future date.

VIII.These aim dates are determined based on our current staff. Additional hiring will potentially allow us to bring in some dates below.

WELCOME TO THE PROCESS

Last update : June 9th, 2017

3.0.0 OVERVIEW

PLANETARY UPDATE
YELA

CELLIN

DAYMAR

REMAINING AIMS FOR 3.0.0 RELEASE

PERSISTENT UNIVERSE CONTENT

MOONS
We are adding 3 new moons to the Crusader system; Yela, Cellin, and Daymar.
Feature Complete
SURFACE OUTPOSTS
The new moons will also have outposts on their surface to explore.
Feature Complete
SURFACE OUTPOSTS LIGHTING
We have broken out the lighting tasks for the surface outposts into it’s own feature
ETA is June 26th
MISSION GIVERS
We’re introducing Miles Eckhart (first seen in the Gamescom video) and Ruto to provide missions to players.
Since this mechanic is setup with new technology that is still being developed, this delay is to ensure that our high quality bar is maintained and that our designers are able to properly implement the mission givers.
ETA is 30th June (was 9th June)
DERELICT SHIPS
Derelict ships will be added to the system for extra points of interest and exploration.
To improve the immersive experience for players in 3.0.0, some additional art tasks were highlighted during a review to accommodate greater utilization of the derelicts’ mission flow
ETA is 16th June (was 9th June)
DEBRIS FIELDS
Feature Complete
DELAMAR / LEVSKI (STRETCH GOAL)
We are adding the planet Delamar and the landing zone, Levski
Following meetings on what we could aim to achieve for 3.0.0, we have moved our date out to accommodate this goal.
ETA is 30th June (was 1st June)
ALREADY COMPLETE IN THE 3.0.0 BRANCH:
Modular Room System for procedural generation of planetary outposts
Official Outpost Spawning System ready for mission designers
Integrated Outpost distribution to PlanetEd
Single outpost Object Preset
Cluster of Outposts
Crash site mission
Interface to hand place modules and save to Layer
Interface to teleport the camera to the closest outpost
Area boxes created by artists (all room sizes are now usable in the outpost procedural system)
Entrance Room system working (stairs and ramps are now available as initial rooms)
Rooftop Prop system working for Solar panel
Wall prop system working for additional prop variations
Material Wear/Dirt on props using Layer Blend done and actually working
Developed Outpost “feet” system
Set random rotation and offset caps on planet editor
Start documenting 3 possible map layouts looping system (using 2 or 4 meters metrics * system; using connection additional corridor pieces; using spline skinned corridors)
Support Aircon/solar panel system on outposts
Added color tinting to Outposts
Added color tinting interface to Planet Ed
Created material distinction for interior / exteriors
Group elements offset in Planet Object Preset to be able to offset landing pads
New Assets:
Heavy Marine Armor
Explorer Suit Armor
Cloth and Clothing simulation on various assets old and new
Updated helmet interiors and exterior for updated art, FOV tech and standardization
Armor converted to work within modular customization structure
Finalized delivery of ALL facial assets from 3lateral.
Ships:
New Skinning and Rigging tools for landing gear on ships.
Constellation Cargo Bay/Elevator extensions
Light Group entity optimization
GAMEPLAY

PLAYER MANNED TURRETS
Feature Complete
PICK UP & CARRY
As we’re introducing cargo with 3.0.0, players will be able to manually interact with their cargo to load and unload it properly on their ships.
We have decided to make further improvements to this system that will have better gameplay implications, such as interacting with cargo that is in a ZeroG environment.
ETA is 26th June (was 12th June)
ITEM 2.0 SHIP CONVERSION – PART 1
We are beginning the process of converting our available ships over to the item 2.0 system. This will allow for greater player control of the ship and also allow for expanded gameplay.
Feature Complete
ITEM 2.0 SHIP CONVERSION – PART 2
With Part 1 of this feature (the Engineering side) drawing to a close, and appearing to come in as estimated. We have been properly able to schedule out the Tech Design side of this.
ETA is 23rd June
ITEM 2.0
Operator Seats.
Operator seats replace existing vehicle seats as the new controllers of Item 2.0 based ships.
Feature Complete
Radar System
Feature Complete
Light Control System.
Feature Complete
Fuel / Refuel.
Feature Complete
Power Supply / Pipes.
Feature Complete
Quantum Drive.
Feature Complete
INSURANCE
This will be an alpha version of the insurance system where if your current ship becomes damaged beyond repair, you will be able to request a replacement ship (with basic loadout) from the insurance provider.
Changes to netcode and persistence resulted in delays to this work
ETA is 23rd June (was 9th June)
STAMINA
All 3.0.0 tasks complete. This feature will be developed further for future releases.
DOORS & AIRLOCKS
We are starting to update the doors and airlocks within the game to be more intelligent. This would mean that the door would ‘know’ if a room beyond them is depressurized and would stay shut for safety.
Delays on the tech side of this task have impacted the in-game implementation and caused the end date of this feature to move out.
ETA is 22nd June (was 31st May)
CARGO
Commodities bought using the kiosk will be transportable in the cargo holds of vehicles, to be sold in another location.
Work on this is delayed due to a needed task from the Network Engineering team.
ETA is 19th June (was 16th June)
COMMODITIES
Implementing items to represent units of commodity cargo.
Integrating commodities with the shop services for buying and selling from ship cargo has added additional tasks
ETA is 23rd June (was 9th June)
KIOSK SUPPORT
Support UI on kiosks for buying and selling of cargo.
Delayed to offer the player additional functionality within Kiosks for 3.0.0
ETA is 23rd June (was 9th June)
ATMOSPHERIC ENTRY SUPPORT
Feature Complete
PERSISTENT DAMAGE, AMMO AND MISSILES
Persistence ensures that your vehicle state is saved between sessions.
Work on this is delayed due to waiting on a needed task from the Network Engineering team.
Feature Complete
REPAIR
Critical fault needs to be fixed in the repair system
ETA is 16th June (was Feature Complete)
INVENTORY SYSTEM SUPPORT
The inventory will offer a way to manage the cargo and commodities that are being carried by the ships a player owns.
Work on this is delayed due to a needed task from the Network Engineering team.
ETA is 16th June (was 2nd June)
ROVER AND DRAGONFLY IN SHIPS
Players will be able to transport the Ursa Rover and the Dragonfly inside ships that are big enough to hold them
Work on this is delayed due to needing ship physics to be altered to allow for vehicles to be placed inside
ETA is 16th June (was 2nd June)
IFCS PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS – NEW ADDITION
Changing the IFCS system to work in batch updates for performance improvements
Feature Complete
HINT SYSTEM
We have decided to include a first iteration of in-game hints to help new players acclimate to the various complex gameplay mechanics in Star Citizen. This is a feature we have worked on in the background and until this week, were unsure if it would be ready in time for 3.0.0. As work on this has progressed better than expected, we have made the decision to include this feature for 3.0.0
ETA is 30th June
ALREADY COMPLETE IN THE 3.0.0 BRANCH:
Crusader Converted to Object Container Setup
With the transition to Object Containers, the Crusader map was completely re-designed. Each Point of Interest is now an object container laid out via the Solar System Editor. This is in preparation for Object Container streaming and seamless transitions from different POI’s and between Star Systems. Mission Flowgraphs are converted over to use Subsumption and the new Mission System.
Mega Map for Persistent Universe
Mega Map tech (also used in Crusader for seamless loading between different gamemodes) is now possible in the new PU map, which is setup in the Solar System Editor. This allows the utilization of Mega Map technology.
Revamp of Power Plants / Shield Generators / Coolers and the Heat & Power System for improved gameplay and conversion to Item 2.0
CORE TECH

PLANETARY TECH
Feature Complete
SOLAR SYSTEM TOOL
Feature Complete
ENTITY UPDATE COMPONENT SCHEDULER
Will allow lower priority entities (i.e. those further away from players) to be updated less frequently, which should improve the overall framerate and allow us to add more content to the universe.
Intended work on this feature will extend past 3.0.0. This feature will extend past 3.0.0 as the work is ongoing, and continual improvements will be made in the run up to 3.0.0 release.
ETA is 30th June (was 31st May)
ENTITY OWNER MANAGER
The Entity Owner Manager will track entities that are moved around the universe, making sure we spawn and unspawn them at the correct time
Feature on hold temporarily due to network system persistence dependencies.
ETA is 12th June (was 31st May)
ALREADY COMPLETE IN THE 3.0.0 BRANCH:
New Radar Databank
Subsumption Base Functionality
This is the initial release of the foundation technology that drives all of the AI, mission, dynamic content, and conversation logic. The mission content previously created with FlowGraph has been replaced and the implementation time to achieve a desired effect has been cut dramatically.
Various Performance improvements
Planetary Physics Grid to support orbiting and rotating planets
Multi-Function Display implementation for Item 2.0 Components on ships
IFCS improvements to support AI & Takeoff System
Unified Visor for seamless Ship 2.0 / FPS transition
HUD/Visor integration for new Radar Databank
Object Distribution
Terrain / Object blending for soft natural transition of objects intersecting with the ground
Video codec updated to Bink2, providing higher fidelity at lower bitrate
Vehicles no longer use Lua
This is a huge step forward on the code side.
Skeleton Extension support for Item Port Offset overrides per item
Numerous types of physics simulation for all Item 2.0 attachments including hair, weapons, grenades and more.
Destructible component for items, props and environment assets
Nested Physics Grids support for vehicle transportation inside large ships, i.e. DragonFly & Rover
Physics simulation gravity vector now respects planetary gravity
Modular loadouts rule sets and support for up to five loadouts
Animation driven facial audio implemented
Updated Sandbox Editor Python integration.
Zone culling on all character assets and layers, system complete and mesh markup complete supplemented with tools to easily support new assets.
Solar System Editor
A tool that will layout entire solar system with their astral objects (sun, planets moons) as well as space stations, etc.
New Light Controller for runtime light switches
New network message queue (current in QATR) to reduce network bandwidth and network thread time.
Light Entity Render node merging.
Dynamic Physics Grid to support sparse space areas vs. dense areas like space stations.
Highly optimized vertex and position format for all geometry
Texture memory usage reduced across the project
Unified material libraries for use across all departments
Comparing and finding all duplicated normal maps and albedo maps in the LayerBlend texture library
Clean up LayerBlend Material Libraries, Resolution Adjustments, Renames to Lower Case
Follow-ups on list of unused textures and materials
Massively improved LOD computation and average face sizes for ships
Shared hair assets (instead of bespoke asset per head) for character creation
Automated facial asset LODs, skinning algorithm per LOD updated.
Reworked mesh setup of facial assets for optimal performance and reduced drawcalls.
Unified helmet and character mesh into singular render proxy for better performance and visuals.
Various portal and culling improvements.
Improved Animation Data Base collection and build process for optimized animation data streaming also added external tools to manage this.
Deprecated thousands of legacy and test assets including animations, geometry, libraries and more for reduced build size.
Automatic Asset Error collection and tracking.
Reworked itemport layout for characters and character items
Updated all assets using HumanSkin to highly optimized HumanSkinv2 shader. This saves upwards of a 100 megs of texture memory per face.
Vastly improved memory allocator which allowed massive reduction in runtime allocation count
Several significant optimizations to entity update code
UI

KIOSK UI
Kiosk shopping will allow players to buy and sell commodities.
Delayed to offer the player additional functionality within Kiosks for 3.0.0
ETA is 23rd June (was 7th June)
ITEM 2.0 MULTI FUNCTION DISPLAYS
MFDs are being converted to work in the new item 2.0 system to give pilots even more control of their ships.
Delayed after a recent review where additional work has been brought forward to 3.0.0 to ensure players have more control over their ships
ETA is 27th June (was 5th June)
FIELD OF VIEW SLIDER
Feature Complete
CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION
*Players will now be able to customize their characters’ heads, hair, eye color, and skin color.
Character customization has been delayed due to the additional work that Engineering needed to address for StarMap.
ETA is 4th July (was 22nd June)

PERSONAL MANAGER APP
This App will allow players to review their inventory and customize various aspects of their suit and weapons.
Starting work for the Personal Manager App was delayed because of additional engineering work for the StarMap.
ETA is 21st June (was 8th June)
MISSION MANAGER APP
This is a redesign of the Mission App that is currently available within mobiGlas and is the next step to allow players more control over their mission tracking.
Mission Manager has been delayed in order to provide additional control to players for 3.0.0.
ETA is 21st June (was 2nd June)
CARGO MANIFEST APP
After buying items at a Kiosk, players will be able to head to their ship and check their cargo manifest This incorporates the work that was previously accounted for in the “Cargo UI” task
Cargo has been delayed in order to create some portable filtering selections that can be used across kiosks, cargo and inventory.
ETA is 19th June (was 6th June)
VEHICLE CUSTOMIZER APP
This app will allow players to customize their ship via the ship customization screen, so edits can be done without locating the exact port on the ship.
Delayed due to the additional work needed for the StarMap.
ETA is 6th July (was 28th June)
SHIP SELECTOR APP & INSURANCE CLAIM
This app would exist alongside the Ship Selection Terminals in the Persistent Universe, allowing players more freedom to spawn ships at designated locations.
We are incorporating the Insurance Claim process, so we have one app that will serve two functions.
Ship selector and insurance has been re-prioritized within the schedule to accurately reflect the intended goals of the UI team
ETA is 3rd July (was 15th June)
HEAVY ARMOR FOR STAR MARINE
Heavy armor will be enabled for selection within the Star Marine loadout customization menu.
Feature Complete
INVENTORY SYSTEM
Very closely linked to the cargo manifest App. This will be the place to look for you personal inventory.
Inventory has been delayed in order to create some portable filtering selections that can be used across kiosks, cargo and inventory.
ETA is 19th June (was 6th June)
MISSION BOARD APP
The mission board allows players to see the service beacons that have been set up around the universe by other players calling for assistance.
Mission Board has been delayed in order to support some additional features.
ETA is 21st June (was 1st June)
STARMAP APP
The StarMap will be introduced to allow players to view the PU at large and select planets to QT to.
After a recent review, additional art and engineering tasks have been called out to ensure the StarMap is as polished as it can be for 3.0.0.
ETA is 26th June (was 24th May)
UI OWNER COMPONENT
Feature Complete
MOBIGLAS OVERHAUL
The UI team doing an overhaul of the mobiGlas system so that it better reads what the gamecode is doing. This change will make the mobiGlas system easier to maintain for the UI team and has become a necessity as 3.0.0 work has progressed further.
mobiGlas overhaul has been re-prioritized within the schedule in order to accurately reflect the intended planned work following a recent review.
ETA is 12th June (was 2nd June)
COMMS SYSTEM UI
We are adding the initial implementation of the Comms System in to 3.0.0 which will allow players to hail in order to request landing while at the various space stations in the PU.
ETA is 30th June
AI

MISSION SYSTEM
The overall system that will be used to create mission flows when we start building missions like Patrol, Assassination, Smuggling, etc.
Bugfixing issues in the mission system have caused this date to move out
ETA is 30th June (was 12th June)
AI TURRETS
We are adding the ability for AI to operate turrets in Crusader, so we are working to make sure that they track and fire upon the correct targets.
The issues that the AI team were having with the ship archetypes have now been fixed. Unfortunately, more issues have arisen that are stopping further progress being made. These new issues have been divided between AI Engineering and the LA Engineering team.
ETA is 23rd June (was 9th June)
GRAPHICS

RENDER TO TEXTURE
This will have many uses going forwards, but our focus for now is to improve UI rendering and to introduce live rendering of video communications. We’re aiming to improve rendering performance by rendering as much of the UI ahead of a frame. For video communications, this will mean that we don’t have to pre-render the comms and store those files on the hard drive, as is the case with most games, allowing us to maintain fidelity and save hard drive space.
This has moved out due to additional needs to the feature in order to achieve our 3.0.0 goals.
ETA is 29th June (was 15th June)
ENVIRONMENT PROBE
This allows for bounced lighting and reflections to be updated dynamically and will result in better lighting visuals.
This has been quite an in-depth task for the Graphics team whose work revealed a variety of unknown issues causing a delay.
Feature Complete
ATMOSPHERIC ENTRY
Feature Complete
VOLUMETRIC FOG
The completion date has moved back due to unexpected issues with implementing the Volumetric fog away from Lumberyard to work correctly with our systems.
Completion of required tasks are taking a bit more time than expected.
ETA is 9th June (was 30th May)
GPU PARTICLES
Feature Complete
ENGINE TRAILS & CONTRAILS
Build issues and developer illness have had quite an impact on the delivery date for this work.
ETA is 23rd June (was 26th May)
ASTEROID PHYSICS
We are making the switch to move the asteroid system to the new “Physics on Demand” system to allow the server and clients to dynamically create and simulate any portion of the asteroid field rather than just the area near the player.
ETA is 19th June
EXPOSURE IMPROVEMENTS
We are adding support for peripheral vision to be taken into account, not just what is onscreen. This will avoid situations when looking into a space when there is something very bright (such as a planet surface so space station) just off screen.
ETA is 26th June
ALREADY COMPLETE IN THE 3.0.0 BRANCH:
RenderTarget refactor
This saves over 50% of the video memory previously used for dynamic textures.
Physically-based area lights
Shadow map caching system
This allows for many more shadow casting lights at once and avoids the need for baking shadows.
Revamped decal rendering system which renders fully deferred, instanced decals with aggressive overdraw optimizations
BACKEND

DIFFUSION SUBSET FOR 3.0.0
Diffusion is our second-generation cloud-oriented back-end service architecture. It dramatically simplifies the effort required to implement, maintain, and interact with services, while simultaneously providing major enhancements in the areas of scalability and redundancy.
ETA is 16th June
SOLAR SYSTEM SHOP SERVICE
During a recent review, some additional work was highlighted that could be achieved for 3.0.0
ETA is 16th June (was Feature Complete)
SOLAR SYSTEM MISSION SERVICE V1 “MISSION BROKER”
The Solar System Mission Service dictates what missions are being offered at various locations and at what price. It is also responsible for specifying when and where dynamic content should be instantiated and how it should be customized. That way, the reality that the player sees matches what is in that area, based upon hints provided by the back end simulation/rule set. This service will split into two for 3.1, with the latter functionality becoming the responsibility of a dedicated Dynamic Content Service.
We are making making further improvements to the Mission Broker and how it ties in to the Mission System to further aid the player experience and make the missions flow better for the player. These new additions are still being fully scoped out and we aim to have a new ETA next week
ETA is 28th June (was 25th May)
NETWORK

NEW MESSAGE QUEUE
Now that all our messages are strictly ordered we’ve been able to streamline the processing, allowing us to send and receive messages with less overhead. The new message queue also has extra features to handle packet loss and jitter, which helps reduce average bandwidth and latency.
There were also some bugs we felt critical enough to sort out before this feature could enter the build, so this feature was delayed until the additional work is done to ensure the absolute smoothest integration into the game.
ETA is 14th June (was 9th June)
PHYSICS SERIALIZATION
This will fix a few long standing threading issues between the network and physics code which will improve separation of physics and netcode for better maintainability.
This feature has been delayed due to the complexity of integration with our current system
ETA is 20th June (was 9th June)
PERSISTENT DATA REFACTOR
The expanding capabilities of persistent data to support gameplay features in 3.0.0 has required the Network team to work on this refactor
ETA is 19th June
SHIPS & WEAPONS

DRAKE DRAGONFLY
Feature Complete. Some code bugs remain
DRAKE CUTLASS BLACK
Rework of the legacy ship
Delayed due to Art requiring more time, and also some of our internal software being updated causing some down time. This has had an impact for the disciplines further down the pipeline.
ETA is 16th June (was 26th May)
RSI CONSTELLATION AQUILA
Feature Complete. Some code bugs remain
RSI URSA ROVER
Ground exploration vehichle.
Additional tech art and code time required due to support smooth interaction with the Constellation Aquila
ETA is 16th June (was 9th June)
MISC PROSPECTOR
Feature Complete. Some code bugs remain.
BEHRING P8-SC
Feature Complete
APOCALYPSE ARMS SCOURGE RAIL GUN
A shoulder mounted railgun capable of providing high levels of damage at a long range.
Completion on UI tech has slightly pushed the completion date for this weapon.
ETA is 9th June (was 8th June)
KLAUS AND WERNER GALLANT RIFLE
Feature Complete
ARROWHEAD SNIPER RIFLE
Rework of the legacy weapon.
Complex VFX for the Railgun has pushed the completion of this back
The review for this weapons has brought up some additional issues to solve
ETA is 16th June (was 9th June)
KSAR DEVASTATOR-12 SHOTGUN
Rework of the legacy weapon.
Complex VFX for the Railgun has pushed the completion of this back
ETA is 9th June (was 8th June)
BEYOND 3.0.0 - OVERVIEW

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3.1.0 Goals

PERSISTENT UNIVERSE CONTENT
New Additions:

Modular Space Station – Truckstop
Arc Corp / Area 18
FPS / SPACE GAMEPLAY
New Additions:

PERSISTENT UNIVERSE CONTENT
New Additions:

Crusader
Hurston
MicroTech (Stretch Goal)
FPS / SPACE GAMEPLAY
New Additions:

New Ammo Types
Gadgets (drones / shields)
Bumps
Coperative Avoidance
Downed
Drowning
Item Inspection
Looting IK / Permissions
CORE DEV TECH AND SYSTEMS
New Additions: