There is this older DF article about some of the SC tech
Speaking of accurate star fields, we can thank the engineers working on Space War back in, um, 1962 for perhaps the first representation of an accurate star map in a computer game.
That article spends multiple paragraphs discussing them using 64bit values for coordinates as if that’s a new technology they have developed vs something CPUs have supported for 20 years. It also features the upcoming “technology” of CIG not wiping accounts between updates.
Star Citizen loads on the fly in the same way as any open world game because it’s just an FPS server hosting a single instance of a large but single map. It’s like riding your horse around RDR as the engine loads stuff in and out.
Flying from space to ground is like driving a boat to the docks. It’s all just one map.
These kinds of articles mix together the basic things that they have done with things that they have been claiming for many years are almost done that never arrive.
If they deliver the technology for a capital ship on one server to fire a round that goes through a giant hole in a damaged ship on another server passing through to hit a ship on a third server then I agree that’s awesome. But they have been talking about it for a decade and here we are with single server instances of a single solar system.
They haven’t even delivered a single playable capital ship after a decade. The closest thing has been spawning an AI or GM controlled one that people have been able to clip into and confirm that it’s incomplete.
It’s 2023 and I have to sit through a loading screen to get to an NPC vendor?
I don’t have anything kind to say about Star Citizen and I’ve never even played it, but I’m guessing it’s not merely an iteration of the same game people have been playing for over a decade. To Star Citizen’s credit, they’re ripping off their customers in completely new and innovative ways.
Are there any other games that use 64bit coordinates and that container streaming stuff?
I don’t think anyone doubts that a lot of the tech in Star Citizen–both what they have implemented, and more so what they say they will implement–is impressive. Technology on its own though is not as significant as stuff that uses that technology to do something useful. It’s the gap between the “cool ability” and “cool result” that is the issue usually with SC.
UE was meant to add 64 bit coordinates several years ago and then decided to delay it as they didn’t deem it particularly useful at the time.
They finally added it around a year ago, I found this post interesting on why 64 bit coordinates hadn’t been used before despite being feasible.
Using 64 bit coordinates if you don’t need them would be dumb.
Similarly, you probably don’t need a full on spatial map data structure (and certainly not a 3D one) to manage asset loading in most applications. But that doesn’t mean it’s innovative. Dynamic asset streaming is super common now, which is why Tom is throwing so much shade about loading screens :)
Exactly, there’s a ton of different variations of asset loading. CIG loves to make up names for common things and then claim it is innovation. That’s why they made up Object Container Streaming and then when that didn’t solve any of the things they said it would they needed to make up Server Side Object Container Streaming and of course they “invented” Persistent Entity Streaming which is a the idea of having a database to store the state of the game world so you can log out and log back in and be in the same spot with your stuff. They honestly sell that as revolutionary. Saving game state…
The ability to use 64 bit native coordinates has been available for ~20 years from a hardware perspective. But as several people have noted people haven’t used them not because they haven’t thought of it, but because there were better solutions. It’s not a “technology” to type “double xCoordinate” vs “float xCoordinate” in your code editor.
I think it’s hilarious that the support that Star Citizen is “bleeding edge” could possibly be supported by throwing shade on Starfield. I don’t think anyone thinks Starfield’s engine is doing anything particularly impressive and yet it actually has more than one solar system so it doesn’t seem like a comparable game at all.
Check out this awesome Q&A from two years ago about all the cool things they were going to deliver last year:
That’s what is always impressive to me. They are always going to deliver things that would be impressive next year and then instead they deliver basically nothing.
Elite certainly uses 64-bit co-ordinates, within each star system.
Citizen Con just started and you can watch it here:
Buy if you simply want to watch their opening video about Star Engine, it’s such an awesome trip through Stanton… and beyond.
Whatever you think of the game, it makes you dream about what space games could be.
Edit: replaced with the official video rather than the choppy stream capture.
Also Pedro Camacho’s soundtrack is awesome.
The first panel is about the engine that supports all this. I recommend catching it on VOD. It features cool aspects of the engine, like the voxel based fire technology, the new water simulation, the coming FSR/DLSS and ray tracing support…
Edit: also a live running Dev demo of their first server meshing implementation which is pretty neat and fun.
They also just announced a preview channel:
I really hope they manage to ship it before I die because I deeply, deeply want to play it
Where have you been for a year?!
Yes, it does. That dream has been the product for a while now.
Anyway, what they showed of SQ42 looked cool. I’m still way beyond “I’ll believe it when it’s in my hands” territory with everything from these guys, but my hope for a while has simply been that maybe I’ll at least get SQ42 before I die even if the PU ends up being a bit of an endless money pit.
Ummm, 6:10 into that video I’m driving a boat. . .on water. WTF?
26.5 minutes? C’mon I’m not watching that.
They could’ve spent the time and resources they used to make that video, instead to, I don’t know, FINISH THE FUCKING GAME.
I’ll see myself out.
Oh look, a gravity gun and environmental physics puzzles! That’s innovative! For a space shooter, at least… :D
The game’s development is on par with a magic show, what with the constant misdirection. Fully expect Squadron 42 to incorporate space magic at some point.
It already possesses the magic of emptying gullible peoples pockets with no regrets!
It’s cool what they’ve shown, but how much have they shown already that never really materialized until now.
Visually, it does look pretty good. I’m not convinced about the rest (gameplay, etc), but the visuals are definitely impressive. Great art design in a lot of those environments, too.