“The first Citizencon panel on the StarEngine was absolutely insane! Tons of new information about Server Meshing, Upscaling, Raytracing, Gen12/ Vulkan, Maelstrom Damage System and loads more.”
The video begins with the speaker expressing their excitement about the StarEngine panel, which they believe had more information about the game in one session than they had received in the past five years. They highlight various new features introduced in the seamless demo, such as a fauna reveal, space cows, a new Quantum travel animation, space whales jumping, the Pyro jump gate, and the interior of Ruin station in Pyro.
The panel then moves on to discuss updates to cloud technology, with the announcement that grainy clouds will be fixed in the upcoming 3.22 patch. They also showcase improvements in dynamic fire effects and the stunning upgrade to the water system, including enhanced wave simulation and the interaction of surfaces with walking, gunfire, and ships.
The renderer section of the panel reveals updates on HDR and introduces upscaling features like D LSS and FSR, along with CIG’s own implementation. While frame generation improvements are mentioned, they are expected to be released at a later stage. Furthermore, the presentation unveils the Gen2 renderer, upcoming Vulcan support, and the progress made in the development of Gen 12 renderer.
The speaker expresses their hope to see more on racing, and they are not disappointed as the panel dives into R Racing content, showcasing the Global illumination system. The software GI is introduced as a middle ground until hardware ray tracing becomes more widely available. Cloth and hair simulation, as well as the impressive destruction effects in their maom damage system, are also featured.
Finally, the panel reveals a demonstration of the persistence and replication layer, including the ability to reconnect to servers after crashes without losing connection and a basic server meshing demo. Chris Roberts’s emotional response to the server meshing demo suggests that progress is being made, with a potential timeline of two years before it becomes fully accessible. The speaker concludes by expressing their astonishment at the panel and their belief that it will be hard to top in terms of the amount of information provided and the progress made on various aspects of the game.