The Star Citizen CitizenCon 2953 panel unveiled impressive updates to the StarEngine game engine, including enhancements to visuals, fire simulation, water rendering, audio, and server infrastructure. These updates, such as improved lighting, dynamic fire mechanics, realistic water simulation, and persistent entity streaming, will provide players with a more immersive and seamless gaming experience in the near future.
The Star Citizen CitizenCon 2953 panel showcased the future of the StarEngine, highlighting incredible updates and improvements to the game’s engine. They demonstrated new features such as animals, Pyro (a new location), and impressive visual effects. These updates are expected to be available to players soon, with some features possibly being released as early as the 3.22 patch by the end of the year. Major improvements include enhanced lighting with 3D integrated light shafts that interact with clouds, resulting in realistic-looking skies and lighting scenes. Ground texture and tiling have also been improved for a more seamless appearance.
The panel also discussed the implementation of dynamic fire in the StarEngine, creating dangerous hazards caused by weapons and misfires. Players will have the ability to limit the damage by extinguishing fires through various methods such as removing heat or oxygen. The fire simulation is detailed and calculates variables like fuel and oxygen levels, allowing for realistic propagation and reignition.
Water in the StarEngine has undergone major improvements with new shaders and physically based techniques, resulting in accurate water lighting and movement. The water simulation includes features such as foam and can interact with ships, bullets, and player movements, providing a scalable and immersive experience.
The presentation also touched on the advancements in audio, including multibrand compression to enhance the impact and feel of weapons. Realistic space combat audio was demoed for a more immersive experience, with different sound effects based on whether the player is in an atmosphere or a vacuum.
Lastly, the panel discussed the future of the game, including the concept of persistent entity streaming and server meshing. The goal is to seamlessly transition between different server-controlled zones and ensure consistency across clients. The focus is on creating a powerful replication layer that maintains up-to-date information about entities and items, even in the event of server crashes.
Overall, the panel showcased the remarkable progress made in the StarEngine, including improvements in visuals, fire simulation, water rendering, audio, and server infrastructure, providing a glimpse of what players can expect in the near future.