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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. This week the Rover, the reworked Cutlass Black, Devastator Shotgun and Arrowhead Sniper rifle have all moved to feature complete status.

The 3.0.0 Procedural Planet update marks a major advance in the Star Citizen Persistent Universe. We have reached ‘feature complete’ on several essential 3.0 systems, including the Mission Manager app, AI turrets and the diffusion subset (which came in earlier than expected). Several other items have been pushed out, largely due to dependencies that occur when so many features come together. As a result of the changes to these items, which are necessary to begin wider testing, we have moved the start of the Evocati window to July 7 (please note that much like a space launch, the testing windows indicate the timeframe in which we expect testing to begin and not the start and stop dates of the testing itself).

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.

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)

BASIC DERELICT SHIPS

Feature Complete

INHABITED DERELICT SHIP SITES

The Ship Art team is aiming to create another set of Derelict ships to be used in the Persistent Universe. These exploration rewards will appear to have been used as shelter by somebody rather than just being empty. Unfortunately, we’re still working on AI functioning on the planet surface, so they will looked lived in, but uninhabited. For now…

ETA is 30th 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

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

Single seat ships reached feature complete today (23rd June), but Multi-Crew ships will take us into next Friday.

ETA is 30th June (was 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

Integration with the shopping service has taken longer than expected on the game code side.

ETA is 23rd June (was 9th June)

ETA is 26th June (was 23rd 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.

During the implementation of the new doors and airlocks, we found new bugs that have held up the completion to full conversion. Many locations now have newly updated doors, but the airlocks require a little more time to finish properly.

ETA is 22nd June (was 31st May)

ETA is 30th June (was 22nd June)

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.

Additional time needed for final integration with the shopping and inventory service.

ETA is 19th June (was 16th June)

ETA is 26th June (was 19th 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)

Feature Complete

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

Integrating the game code with the backend service created some bugs which have caused a slight delay in the completion time of this feature.

ETA is 23rd June (was 9th June)

ETA is 26th June (was 23rd 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

Code Complete Bugfixing to follow as needed.

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.

Date will remain connected to the progress of the UI team’s work on the inventory.

ETA is 16th June (was 2nd June)

ETA is 3rd July (was 19th 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

The conversion to the Item 2.0 ships and how they work has introduced unforeseen issues with their physics. This will require a combination of Tech Design and Physics code to address the situation.

ETA is 27th June (was 16th 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.

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.

Additional time still needed for final integration with comms system and persistence spawning.

ETA is 12th June (was 31st May)

ETA is 28th June (was 23rd June)

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.

Feature Complete

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

Impacted due to bugs on 2D radar which blocked progress on this feature.

ETA is 27th June (was 5th June)

ETA is 29th June (was 27th 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.

Delayed due to unforeseen shortage in resources.

ETA is 4th July (was 22nd June)

ETA is 17th July (was 21st 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.

Feature Complete. Bug fixing in progress

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.

Delayed due to additional scripting tasks for displaying 3D items which can’t be started until priority bugs are resolved.

ETA is 19th June (was 6th June)

ETA is 3rd July (was 19th 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.

Delayed due to unforeseen shortage in resources.

ETA is 6th July (was 28th June)

ETA is 13th July (was 6th July)

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

Slight delay due to shifting resources to address other tasks.

ETA is 3rd July (was 15th June)

ETA is 5th July (was 3rd July)

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.

Delayed due to team focusing on Starmap polish.

ETA is 19th June (was 6th June)

ETA is 3rd July (was 19th 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.

Feature Complete

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.

To achieve Feature Complete, we’ve prioritized this task and pulled other team members to provide support

ETA is 26th June (was 24th May)

ETA is 29th June (was 26th June)

UI OWNER COMPONENT

Feature Complete

MOBIGLAS OVERHAUL

Feature Complete

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

Delayed due to knock-on effect of Character Customization and 3D item display work.

ETA is 10th July (was 30th 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.

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.

Feature Complete

ETA is 23rd June (was 9th June)

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.

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

GPU PARTICLE FOUNDATION

Feature Complete

ENGINE TRAILS & CONTRAILS

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

Further items of polish have been requested, as well as needing some engineering support to fix bugs with the trails sometimes not appearing from the correct locations on the ships. This has pushed the completion date out slightly

ETA is 23rd June (was 26th May)

ETA is 27th June (was 26rd June)

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.

There has been a slight delay in the start date for this feature, which has consequently pushed out the end date. The delay was due to the Graphics team integrating a new piece of debugging software that will help the team investigating GPU crashes, something that has been greatly needed.

As this work has progressed, we identified some dependencies for the AI and Physics systems, so the date for this feature is moving out slightly to ensure these dependencies are properly accounted for in the development of this feature.

ETA is 23rd June (was 19th June)

Impacted slightly by knock-on delays from bugfixing other issues.

ETA is 28th June (was 23rd June)

EXPOSURE IMPROVEMENTS

We are adding support for peripheral vision to be taken into account when calculating exposure, rather than just what is onscreen. This will avoid situations like looking into a space when there is something very bright (such as a planet surface or space station) just off-screen.

The task has been delayed as a result of the Asteroid Physics being delayed.

As other work progressed, we gained insight into this task which made the completion much more straight forward, allowing the improvements to be made earlier than anticipated.

ETA is 30th June (was 26th June)

Feature Complete.

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.

Feature Complete

SOLAR SYSTEM SHOP SERVICE

During a recent review, some additional work was highlighted that could be achieved for 3.0.0

Feature Complete

ETA is 23rd June (was 16th June)

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

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

Feature Complete

There have been a number of issues supporting the old aspect system and bugs related to the integration of this functionality. QA is currently performing tests to find any further issues.

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

The Network team have been delayed on this feature due to a few blocker bugs affecting landing and walking around on planets. However, the work done on those bugs provided some very useful information that has served to inform the remaining work needed on this feature.

ETA is 20th June (was 9th June)

ETA is 30th June (was 20th 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

Code Complete for 3.0.0

ETA is 19th June

SHIPS & WEAPONS

Click here to view Schedule

DRAKE DRAGONFLY

Feature Complete. Some code bugs remain

DRAKE CUTLASS BLACK

Feature Complete

RSI CONSTELLATION AQUILA

Feature Complete. Some code bu

Feature Complete. Some code bugs remain

RSI URSA ROVER

Feature Complete

MISC PROSPECTOR

Feature Complete. Some code bugs remain.

BEHRING P8-SC

Feature Complete

APOCALYPSE ARMS SCOURGE RAIL GUN

Original Text

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.
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)
BASIC DERELICT SHIPS
Feature Complete
INHABITED DERELICT SHIP SITES
The Ship Art team is aiming to create another set of Derelict ships to be used in the Persistent Universe. These exploration rewards will appear to have been used as shelter by somebody rather than just being empty. Unfortunately, we’re still working on AI functioning on the planet surface, so they will looked lived in, but uninhabited. For now…
ETA is 30th 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
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
Code Complete Bugfixing to follow as needed.
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
The conversion to the Item 2.0 ships and how they work has introduced unforeseen issues with their physics. This will require a combination of Tech Design and Physics code to address the situation.
ETA is 27th June (was 16th 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.
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
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.
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
Feature Complete
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
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.
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
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.
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.
There has been a slight delay in the start date for this feature, which has consequently pushed out the end date. The delay was due to the Graphics team integrating a new piece of debugging software that will help the team investigating GPU crashes, something that has been greatly needed.
ETA is 23rd June (was 19th June)
EXPOSURE IMPROVEMENTS
We are adding support for peripheral vision to be taken into account when calculating exposure, rather than just what is onscreen. This will avoid situations like looking into a space when there is something very bright (such as a planet surface or space station) just off-screen.
The task has been delayed as a result of the Asteroid Physics being delayed.
ETA is 30th June (was 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
Click here to view Schedule
DIFFUSION SUBSET FOR 3.0.0
Feature Complete
SOLAR SYSTEM SHOP SERVICE
During a recent review, some additional work was highlighted that could be achieved for 3.0.0
ETA is 23rd June (was 16th June)
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
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
There have been a number of issues supporting the old aspect system and bugs related to the integration of this functionality. QA is currently performing tests to find any further issues.
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
Click here to view Schedule
DRAKE DRAGONFLY
Feature Complete. Some code bugs remain
DRAKE CUTLASS BLACK
Feature Complete
RSI CONSTELLATION AQUILA
Feature Complete. Some code bugs remain
RSI URSA ROVER
Feature Complete
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.
Feature Complete Some minor polish remains.
KSAR DEVASTATOR-12 SHOTGUN
Rework of the legacy weapon.
Feature Complete Some minor polish remains.

Changed Text

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.
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)
BASIC DERELICT SHIPS
Feature Complete
INHABITED DERELICT SHIP SITES
The Ship Art team is aiming to create another set of Derelict ships to be used in the Persistent Universe. These exploration rewards will appear to have been used as shelter by somebody rather than just being empty. Unfortunately, we’re still working on AI functioning on the planet surface, so they will looked lived in, but uninhabited. For now…
ETA is 30th 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
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.
Single seat ships reached feature complete today (23rd June), but Multi-Crew ships will take us into next Friday.
ETA is 30th June (was 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.
Integration with the shopping service has taken longer than expected on the game code side.
ETA is 26th June (was 23rd 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.
During the implementation of the new doors and airlocks, we found new bugs that have held up the completion to full conversion. Many locations now have newly updated doors, but the airlocks require a little more time to finish properly.
ETA is 30th June (was 22nd June)
CARGO
Commodities bought using the kiosk will be transportable in the cargo holds of vehicles, to be sold in another location.
Additional time needed for final integration with the shopping and inventory service.
ETA is 26th June (was 19th 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
Feature Complete
KIOSK SUPPORT
Support UI on kiosks for buying and selling of cargo.
Integrating the game code with the backend service created some bugs which have caused a slight delay in the completion time of this feature.
ETA is 26th June (was 23rd 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
Code Complete Bugfixing to follow as needed.
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.
Date will remain connected to the progress of the UI team’s work on the inventory.
ETA is 3rd July (was 19th 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
The conversion to the Item 2.0 ships and how they work has introduced unforeseen issues with their physics. This will require a combination of Tech Design and Physics code to address the situation.
ETA is 27th June (was 16th 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.
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
Additional time still needed for final integration with comms system and persistence spawning.
ETA is 28th June (was 23rd June)
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
Feature Complete
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.
Impacted due to bugs on 2D radar which blocked progress on this feature.
ETA is 29th June (was 27th 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.
Delayed due to unforeseen shortage in resources.
ETA is 17th July (was 21st 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
Feature Complete. Bug fixing in progress
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
Delayed due to additional scripting tasks for displaying 3D items which can’t be started until priority bugs are resolved.
ETA is 3rd July (was 19th 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 unforeseen shortage in resources.
ETA is 13th July (was 6th July)
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.
Slight delay due to shifting resources to address other tasks.
ETA is 5th July (was 3rd July)
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.
Delayed due to team focusing on Starmap polish.
ETA is 3rd July (was 19th 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.
Feature Complete
STARMAP APP
The StarMap will be introduced to allow players to view the PU at large and select planets to QT to.
To achieve Feature Complete, we’ve prioritized this task and pulled other team members to provide support
ETA is 29th June (was 26th June)
UI OWNER COMPONENT
Feature Complete
MOBIGLAS OVERHAUL
Feature Complete
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.
Delayed due to knock-on effect of Character Customization and 3D item display work.
ETA is 10th July (was 30th June)
AI
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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.
Feature Complete
GRAPHICS
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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 PARTICLE FOUNDATION
Feature Complete
ENGINE TRAILS & CONTRAILS
Further items of polish have been requested, as well as needing some engineering support to fix bugs with the trails sometimes not appearing from the correct locations on the ships. This has pushed the completion date out slightly
ETA is 27th June (was 26rd June)
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.
As this work has progressed, we identified some dependencies for the AI and Physics systems, so the date for this feature is moving out slightly to ensure these dependencies are properly accounted for in the development of this feature.
Impacted slightly by knock-on delays from bugfixing other issues.
ETA is 28th June (was 23rd June)
EXPOSURE IMPROVEMENTS
We are adding support for peripheral vision to be taken into account when calculating exposure, rather than just what is onscreen. This will avoid situations like looking into a space when there is something very bright (such as a planet surface or space station) just off-screen.
As other work progressed, we gained insight into this task which made the completion much more straight forward, allowing the improvements to be made earlier than anticipated.
Feature Complete.
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
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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.
Feature Complete
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 28th June (was 25th May)
NETWORK
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NEW MESSAGE QUEUE
Feature Complete
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.
The Network team have been delayed on this feature due to a few blocker bugs affecting landing and walking around on planets. However, the work done on those bugs provided some very useful information that has served to inform the remaining work needed on this feature.
ETA is 30th June (was 20th June)
PERSISTENT DATA REFACTOR
Code Complete for 3.0.0
SHIPS & WEAPONS
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DRAKE DRAGONFLY
Feature Complete. Some code bugs remain
DRAKE CUTLASS BLACK
Feature Complete
RSI CONSTELLATION AQUILA
Feature Complete. Some code bugs remain
RSI URSA ROVER
Feature Complete
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.
Feature Complete Some minor polish remains.
KSAR DEVASTATOR-12 SHOTGUN
Rework of the legacy weapon.
Feature Complete Some minor polish remains.