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Star Citizen Pre-Alpha: 'Arena Commander' Dogfighting

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Raticus79

Seek victory, not fairness
I mixed things up and tried a few rounds of solo Vanduul Swarm on the PTU. It turns out the ESP steer-to-target assist option is really effective for fixed weapons with the Steam controller (gyro enabled). It makes it way easier to stay on the lead pip through turns. ESP works by making small helpful adjustments to your steering as long as you're already pretty close with your inputs, preventing slight overshoot for example. Edit: here's their description of it: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14258-Arena-Commander-092-Released

Here's a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4Yc2ljyQyE
I forgot to map my countermeasures and got taken out by the missiles onces the alphas showed up, ha. Really quick kill against Bloodhound at 15:45.

I'd really be cleaning up here if I could load some proper fixed weapons and working missiles. I just borrowed an m3a from my Merlin for the nose slot since no one's playing public games to get REC.

Since the Steam controller still can't be combined with the pedals yet, I'm still using that setup where my right analog trigger is my forward thrust. It turns out I did manage to get used to it after all. Still would rather use the pedals, but this is pretty good.
 
ESP works by making small helpful adjustments to your steering as long as you're already pretty close with your inputs, preventing slight overshoot for example.

To clarify ESP doesn't actively steer. What it does it changes your acceleration curve the closer the target is to the center of pips. It deadens your inputs to try to prevent oversteering when in combat. Personally I hate it sticks.
 

Raticus79

Seek victory, not fairness
To clarify ESP doesn't actively steer. What it does it changes your acceleration curve the closer the target is to the center of pips. It deadens your inputs to try to prevent oversteering when in combat. Personally I hate it sticks.

Yeah, that's a good way to put it, although according to their page it could amplify your input slightly too, and it's not supposed to affect anything when you're steering away from the pip. Added a link to their description above.
 

KKRT00

Member
Where is the Monthly Report? I want to read about Frankfurt office advancements in tech :p

so i expect huge graphics debates will go down in gaf next year between Uncharted 4 and Star Citizen

Uncharted 4 wont be even the best looking multiplatform game next year.
It will be Battlefield, Mass Effect Andromeda or Paragon.

I'm pretty sure it will be Mass Effect Andromeda due to outstanding art that Mass Effect has.
 
Where is the Monthly Report? I want to read about Frankfurt office advancements in tech :p



Uncharted 4 wont be even the best looking multiplatform game next year.
It will be Battlefield, Mass Effect Andromeda or Paragon.

I'm pretty sure it will be Mass Effect Andromeda due to outstanding art that Mass Effect has.

i know...its just i seen a a great deal of people say the UC 4 character models look better than the SC mark hamill model and some say UC 4 has superior graphics to SC

but i assume SC is the more technical game overall?
 
i know...its just i seen a a great deal of people say the UC 4 character models look better than the SC mark hamill model and some say UC 4 has superior graphics to SC

but i assume SC is the more technical game overall?

people that are saying that don't have the system to run this game at 4K and they're comparing UC 4 characters to a video of Mark Hamill.. lots of improvements can occur before the release.
 

Ivan

Member
I surprisingly got 2 hour play time in the PTU today. Spent some time camping the FPS point with another citizen. Got some awesome footage :D and screens. [/dawns mask] But sadly, I could not enjoy my time in the game admiring its graphics or gameplay systems. PC games lack artisanry and attention to detail and are only brute forced. :( Only if it was made with 1.84 TF GPU: then it would be really spectacular!

Only if they didn't brute force the attention to detail where you can even see the character shadow's micro recoil and the 1:1 animation set :(
http://webm.host/bbdf4/vid.webm

Why do the shadows have an umbra and a penumbra? Why does the motion blur show no visible banding artifacts? Probably because they brute forced it :(
starcitizen_2015_12_052s81.png


UGH. Just look at all that brute forced texture detail filling up 8 GB of VRAM. I bet it only looks that high-res because they spent no time thinking about how it should look and how they can wisely allocate it. 2160p downsampled images just look too crisp. Real life doesn't look like that.
starcitizen_2015_12_0vks1u.png


This was very unpleasant to read, just to let you know.

I thought we had enough of that attitude long time ago.
 
I surprisingly got 2 hour play time in the PTU today. Spent some time camping the FPS point with another citizen. Got some awesome footage :D and screens. [/dawns mask] But sadly, I could not enjoy my time in the game admiring its graphics or gameplay systems. PC games lack artisanry and attention to detail and are only brute forced. :( Only if it was made with 1.84 TF GPU: then it would be really spectacular!

Only if they didn't brute force the attention to detail where you can even see the character shadow's micro recoil and the 1:1 animation set :(
http://webm.host/bbdf4/vid.webm

Why do the shadows have an umbra and a penumbra? Why does the motion blur show no visible banding artifacts? Probably because they brute forced it :(
starcitizen_2015_12_052s81.png


UGH. Just look at all that brute forced texture detail filling up 8 GB of VRAM. I bet it only looks that high-res because they spent no time thinking about how it should look and how they can wisely allocate it. 2160p downsampled images just look too crisp. Real life doesn't look like that.
starcitizen_2015_12_0vks1u.png
The way you describe it, it sounds like a lot of brute forcing tho. Nevermind the precognitive abilities of the linked poster knowing feels would be caught.
 

KKRT00

Member
i know...its just i seen a a great deal of people say the UC 4 character models look better than the SC mark hamill model and some say UC 4 has superior graphics to SC

but i assume SC is the more technical game overall?

Actually Mark Hamill's model and shading looks much better than one in U4. Face animation in Mark Hamill performance looks more detailed to me than Drake + Nadine expressions from trailer based on gamersyde video.

What they compare is mostly what backers have access too or Arena Commander 2.0 trailers.
 

Vlodril

Member
Or this, yes.



Still working on it. Alas the package files Cryengine uses don't facilitate this.

its something they should make a priority. downloading 20+ gigs every few days is not really feasible. i know its alpha and all but still.

On the other hand last time i tried to get in with a friend we got freezes after walking around for a bit. So its not like the game doesnt have several important issues.
 

Vlodril

Member
The Ops team is working on it. It isn't like it is just an inconvenience for us.

I didn't say they weren't working on it. I am just saying its one of the most serious issues right now. It's not only people with data caps but people with mediocre lines as well (i have no caps and a 50mbps down so it takes 1hour+ but my friend for exmaple has 12 and it takes him about 5-6).
 

tuxfool

Banned
I didn't say they weren't working on it. I am just saying its one of the most serious issues right now. It's not only people with data caps but people with mediocre lines as well (i have no caps and a 50mbps down so it takes 1hour+ but my friend for exmaple has 12 and it takes him about 5-6).

Sure, I get that, but it isn't like they can just assign random people to work on it.
 
looking more into the whole Chris Roberts vs. Derek Smart thing


it seems like Derek has alot of ambition for his games, he just doesn't know how to put it all together

while Chris is more aware of the restraints of the medium, the games....knowing to work with the technology at the time, Wing Commander, Privateer etc. and probably is just much more talented than Derek at designing games

Chris realizes now that a game with the ambition of Star Citizen can work right now with the technology unlike Derek who tried it with Battlecruiser 3000 AD back in 96 and failed spectacularly ...all of Derek's games seem to be critical failures, although the ambition is noted

this is based on me researching this guy all last night, so if their are finer details I'm missing to be filled in
 
I check in on this a couple times a year, and every time I never fail to feel incredibly dumb about something.

How the hell do you get out of your ship once you've landed? I fly somewhere, request permission to land, let the autopilot touch down, it says I've landed... now what? F doesn't seem to do anything. I guess I can just eject but I'm curious how you're meant to do it.
 
I check in on this a couple times a year, and every time I never fail to feel incredibly dumb about something.

How the hell do you get out of your ship once you've landed? I fly somewhere, request permission to land, let the autopilot touch down, it says I've landed... now what? F doesn't seem to do anything. I guess I can just eject but I'm curious how you're meant to do it.

CTRL + F
 
This was very unpleasant to read, just to let you know.

I thought we had enough of that attitude long time ago.

My apologies. I had a coniption yesterday after I read the post upon coming back from my gameplay session and then subesquently posted something silly.
The way you describe it, it sounds like a lot of brute forcing tho. Nevermind the precognitive abilities of the linked poster knowing feels would be caught.

Far from. And yes, bait and all that.
 

CMDBob

Member
Man, having a lot of fun with Star Citizen 2.0... when it's not crashing, as it seems to crash every five minutes!
lolptu

Also, I went into the hangar and mounted my extra M3A laser cannon to the nose, and it seems it's actually transferred into the universe side of things. Weird, but awesome as the stock 300i suuuuuuuuucks weaponswise.
 

Zalusithix

Member
All the Wing Commander games are available for purchase to make your own call on that. Likewise there are plenty of reviews out there for them. There really isn't much point to discussing the finer points of his past games here, as this thread is for Star Citizen.
 

Zabojnik

Member
but what can i expect from Star Citizen single player, Squadron 42....

how good are Chris Roberts single player games, how good are the stories

Based on past experiences with CR's games, what you can expect is a solid military story with some memorable characters and a whole lot of action. I wouldn't expect copious amounts of subtlety, but it's honestly hard to say at this point, given that they want the game to be more than what past Wing Commanders have been, i.e. a set of in-cockpit-only space battles, held together with numerous pre-rendered sequences and a central hub location. S42's got the trilogy thing going for it, so they'll definitely have time and space to explore whatever themes they've decided to tackle. I trust Chris Roberts and Dave Haddock to come up with a good enough story, but with CR games it's really more about the whole package ... immersion, epic battles, blockbuster feels, that sort of thing.

Don't expect The Last of Us in space, and be surprised if it turns out to be.
 
i went back thinking about the Uncharted 4 and Star Citizen graphics debate....

rather you think one is better than the other, they are similar fidelity level

so does this mean that star citizen could theoretically work on a ps4, it would be nice to see a ps4 version sometime in the future
 
i went back thinking about the Uncharted 4 and Star Citizen graphics debate....

rather you think one is better than the other, they are similar fidelity level

so does this mean that star citizen could theoretically work on a ps4, it would be nice to see a ps4 version sometime in the future

Well regardless of opinions regarding aesthetics, the technical developers behind the game (SC) have aimed their asset production and technology at extremely high-end GPUs and CPUs. (slide 8)

Like most games targetting much higher hardware, a down-port could either not work at all (due to RAM requirements or baseline CPU performance). or be a decidedly more limited experience (think of the quality gulf between watch dogs wiiu and watch dogs elsewhere...).
 

tuxfool

Banned
I've been thinking about getting into this game. Is it worth it despite being an alpha?

We think so. Honestly, what I'd say to you is to sign up on their site for the free flight (open until the 14th of December). This gets you a taste of arena commander. You can see if things like the flight model agree with you. Also check out videos on YT to see if things like the mini PU (that will soon open to all users) interest you.

After doing all that, if you're still interested, ask yourself if you can deal with jank, balance adjustments and downloading a lot of data as they update features.
 

epmode

Member
The way you describe it, it sounds like a lot of brute forcing tho.

Could someone explain why a PC game putting detail in through polygon counts as opposed to other graphics techniques is somehow a lesser achievement than a traditionally-produced game? High polycounts are one of the big advantages of modern video cards over consoles, so why not run with it?

The "brute forcing" comment sounds a lot like "sterile" and "too angular" to me.
 
I've been thinking about getting into this game. Is it worth it despite being an alpha?

I would wait until 2.0 goes live to everybody as it's only limited access to early backers. Hopefully that happens this week but I wouldn't bet on it. When it does though, I'd definitely recommend it as the upcoming updates in the next couple months to some of the modules should definitely add some longevity to your playtime.
 

Zabojnik

Member
What Dictator said, basically.

I'm not even gonna attempt to seriously compare UC4's and SC's graphics on a general level, because it seems a bit pointless, if maybe somewhat entertaining, to do so. For various reasons. The state of the assets on display (basically finished for UC4, WIP for Star Citizen), different type of environments, different use of said environments, different everything. Show me a "real world" open-ish environment in SC that looks as good as the one on display in that UC4 vehicle chase demo. You can't, because there isn't one to compare it with (yet). On the flip side, show me an extended look at an interior in UC4 that looks as sensational as SC's Mile High Club.

https://youtu.be/kZ9VYBNCx7c?t=465

Again, I don't think we've seen enough of UC4 to be able to make the comparison.

Having said that, UC4's character models and the animation that goes with it look pretty darn amazing. As expected from Naughty Gods, really. I'd say that the scene with Nate and his brother feels noticeably more 'real' and 'natural' than Bishop's senate speech, which we know is far from being the final cut. The Old Man snippet feels - to me - at least on par with what I've seen of UC4 in terms of defying the uncanny valley, and superior from a sheer technical standpoint, but again, it's impossible to tell for sure in any objective and meaningful way. It's one tiny scene in a completey different setting, light conditions, etc. The fact that all these things need to be factored in is telling how goddamn amazing videogame graphics are getting, which I feel really is the only important point of this whole debate.

I think S42 will ultimately "win" by a comfortable margin, due to all the high-end graphical candy CIG will be able to put in there, stuff you simply can't afford to be doing on consoles, no matter what kind of technical wizards your developers are. Referring to the ability of making something look better graphically because of the platform's "brute force" and implying that it is something you should, as a fan of said platform, almost be feeling ashamed of (!?), is the most GAF thing I've heard all day.
 
What Dictator said, basically.

I'm not even gonna attempt to seriously compare UC4's and SC's graphics on a general level, because it seems a bit pointless, if maybe somewhat entertaining, to do so. For various reasons. The state of the assets on display (basically finished for UC4, WIP for Star Citizen), different type of environments, different use of said environments, different everything. Show me a "real world" open-ish environment in SC that looks as good as the one on display in that UC4 vehicle chase demo. You can't, because there isn't one to compare it with (yet). On the flip side, show me an extended look at an interior in UC4 that looks as sensational as SC's Mile High Club.

https://youtu.be/kZ9VYBNCx7c?t=465

Again, I don't think we've seen enough of UC4 to be able to make the comparison.

Having said that, UC4's character models and the animation that goes with it look pretty darn amazing. As expected from Naughty Gods, really. I'd say that the scene with Nate and his brother feels noticeably more 'real' and 'natural' than Bishop's senate speech, which we know is far from being the final cut. The Old Man snippet feels - to me - at least on par with what I've seen of UC4 in terms of defying the uncanny valley, and superior from a sheer technical standpoint, but again, it's impossible to tell for sure in any objective and meaningful way. It's one tiny scene in a completey different setting, light conditions, etc. The fact that all these things need to be factored in is telling how goddamn amazing videogame graphics are getting, which I feel really is the only important point of this whole debate.

I think S42 will ultimately "win" by a comfortable margin, due to all the high-end graphical candy CIG will be able to put in there, stuff you simply can't afford to be doing on consoles, no matter what kind of technical wizards your developers are. Referring to the ability of making something look better graphically because of the platform's "brute force" and implying that it is something you should, as a fan of said platform, almost be feeling ashamed of (!?), is the most GAF thing I've heard all day.
that video....wow amazing
 

Danthrax

Batteries the CRISIS!
Finally got a build of the PTU downloaded for the first time in a week. Tried several times to start up the game (beyond the main menu). Got a "server full" error, got a "kicked" error and got a "timed out" error once each, and crashed to desktop twice. On a Sunday morning of all times — you'd think it would be a quiet time for the servers.

I wonder if the problem is that my hardware (i5-760, 8GB RAM and Radeon 7870) is incapable of handling this game despite technically meeting the minimum requirements. I feel like the two times the game crashed instead of kicking me back to the main menu with an error were times that it would have loaded up the game successfully (with no server problems).
 

KKRT00

Member
Show me a "real world" open-ish environment in SC that looks as good as the one on display in that UC4 vehicle chase demo. You can't, because there isn't one to compare it with (yet).

I think this is mostly art think though. Predermined path looks great, same goes for all cinematic closeups, because they are really polish to the bottom.
What Naughty Dogs and many 1st party Sony studio excel is amazing blend art and tech and very high level of polish of essential scenes.
Thats why for example some levels in U3 looks great and other quite terrible.
http://images.gamersyde.com/image_uncharted_3_drake_s_deception-17367-2182_0005.jpg
http://www.mobygames.com/images/sho...eption-playstation-3-screenshot-firefight.jpg
 
Cool info via reddit from Luke_CIG regarding the future of Crusader and some info about its scale and technology:
Remember that this map is a test map and not the final Crusader map. It does not have correct scales, only ones we are testing for a variety of puproses.

Can we make an object the size of Jupiter that holds up - bearing in made that Crusader does not even have our planet shader on - I think we did really well. Just wait for the planet shader.

What is a fun size for a playable moon with an asteroid belt with Cruise/SCM mode?

What (without our asteroid tech - coming soon tm) how many asteroids can we achieve (not counting all the other asteroid fields in the map)? What is a fun density.

What distances are good for travelling at 0.2c?

So, Crusader is 1/1 scale

Yela - how big can we make it with the number of asteroids at the density we wanted. That is - until our asteroid tech comes online

Daymar - size of our moon

Kellin - she is to 190km (Thanks to /u/aSneaky1)

So crusader I beleiver has a diameter of 55.000 km. Interesting to see also that the planet shader and asteroid voxel tech is not in as of yet, I definitely look forward to seeing that.
 

Zabojnik

Member
I wonder what's the thing they'll be showing during the livestream that got Ben so excited. Please be S42 stuff. Vanduul capital ship. Something.
 

tuxfool

Banned
I wonder what's the thing they'll be showing during the livestream that got Ben so excited. Please be S42 stuff. Vanduul capital ship. Something.

You can already go see a Vanduul capital ship. I suspect it isn't, they have heavily avoided spoilers of just about any kind on sq42.

The only large scale asset that they have publicly shown is Shubin.
 
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