First Look at Vulkan in 3.23 Wave 1 EPTU Star Citizen

VULCAN IS HERE in Star Citizen Alpha 3.23 Wave 1 EPTU. Here is your first look and my first reaction.
Test Build
Intel I9 12900K 64gb DDR4 RTX3080
0:00 Introduction
0:35 Background
0:48 How to Switch between DX11 and Vulkan
1:31 Area 18 Vulkan and DX11 Comparison
4:38 Going to Spaceport Vulkan(No Narration)
5:18 Departing A18 Vulkan (No Narration)
6:48 Atmospharic Flight Vulkan (No Narration)
7:48 Quantum to Space Vulkan (No Narration)
8:18 Arriving and Landing at Spaceport, Vulkan (No Narration)
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[@Sryd770]

Woulda preferred a visible fps counter when comparing the Vulkan and DX11 renderer clips. But thanks for the news

[@CitizenScott]

What you can't read QR? Psh...

[@RaysGuide]

Yeah so would I, but hindsight is 20/20

[@Sryd770]

@@RaysGuide I’m just grateful you dropped this news sooner than most. Love u Ray

[@El-Gordo]

Sounds great. That minimap in the top corner has me excited for 3.23. It might help me to stop getting lost trying to find the subways at lorvile.

[@FrazzleCat]

Thank you for showing the game using Vulkan. I genuinely appreciate it. o7

[@ybendek]

OMG...the other feature I didn't know they implement in 3.23 and you showed in the settings is DLSS, finally!!! that should introduce a great improvement too

[@RaysGuide]

Yes, that was in too, but honestly I did not see much change there either. The default is CIG's own method.

[@Supreme_Lobster]

@@RaysGuide the point is precisely that you dont see much difference, but the FPS should be greatly increased!

[@Bowpurity]

Well it's good to see the differences. Thanks for running through the subways as a fps test

[@darkfae2002]

I read Vulkan and thought they added the Vlucan repair ship to the game...

[@OneTwoMark]

Thankfully it wasn't, would rather the game run better over yet another few hundred dollar ship.

[@rodneytillmon9616]

Nice to see these updates finally being implemented. Thanks for sharing.

[@tethan]

Thanks for the video, I'm soooo looking forward to this. I rock a 60fps on planet and around 110 in space, but I'd love to push near 144hz everywhere lol. Really been waiting for this.

[@Reapz.-]

That's a wet dream for another few years, haha.

[@The_0G_Chad]

Maybe they should’ve limited subways speed instead of ships for master mode.

[@everettumphrey]

Thanks for the video, as I sit and watch and check out the settings for Vulcan. I recall how many glitches happened because of the game throughout the years, some are funny and some make me SMH. lol, all good as we are getting closer. Weird another in-game glitch. You arrived at Bajini Point and I still hear the tram.

[@madgiecool]

Thanks - Nice to see Vulkan and the other stuff.

[@DaringDan]

Great stuff, Danny. Thank you.

[@Glathgrundel]

Been waiting for Vulkan for a long time ... but then again, I've been waiting for a LOT of things for a long time. 🖖

[@51ghardy]

This is great news! Vulkan in the house! My first thought was that you were speaking to the Vulcan ship. But this is better . The game has always had glitches, especially in my Reclaimer, and who Can forget the Carrack elevators, but the subway can be worse than the one in New York. But alpha, beta, who cares. We are getting there!

[@Tomzo711]

Can't wait to try this on the subway!

[@ThoughtfulWander]

Great video! Thanks for sharing! 👍👍

[@canniballistic555]

Did you run through the area first for caching before doing your dx11 test?

[@aquaeyed82]

If you have an intel CPU, can you check if micro freezes still there with ecores? Thanks

[@krisghoststar]

I have an AMD set up and I did see an improvement to frame rate and less glitches once the shaders had loaded in, although 3.23 still had issues with the trains at Area 18. I'm looking forward to the days when we can look back and remember these moments.

[@dennisgoedbloed1287]

Biggest improvement on the subway, for sure. Thx for sharing, Ray.

[@JoelBondoux]

It's great to see the beginnings of Vulcan in the game. I find it incredible they're ramming so much content into this patch!

[@CiphecDec]

what is the map in the upper left hand corner is that new in the PTU?

[@RaysGuide]

That will be new in 3.23

[@mdsf01]

Looking forward to the improved frame rates. Thanks for sharing.

[@Rayven.of.furryswarm]

i agree the first time i got onto eptu i spawned at NB, got on the subway and oooh man was it a trip i not only landed at the commons instead of the spaceport but i saw all the innerds of the planet itself for a few minutes xD classic star citizen

[@tickledtrout8197]

Will defiantly be giving this a test on the subway as well.

[@ThatsALotOfCheese]

The subways always terrify everyone I introduce to the game. It's funny but I also really hope those get tended to sometime soon D;

[@SolaAesir]

I've been looking forward to Vulkan for a long time since my computers are for productivity first and gaming second, so I always prioritize multicore performance over single core. Now if only we could get a build where elevators and/or subways don't randomly kill you or eject you into space...

[@Mike5Brown]

Glad to see that work on Vulcan is progressing well. The subways are always bug ridden and glitchey for me, I've gotten stranded too many times

[@captainvlad]

Dang that's nice

[@jhbk5]

I have always had a love kill relationship with the subways. Sometimes they are great, other times I phase through them at .9c, on the rare occasion they do a kickflip into the station.

[@davideriksen2434]

ive been waiting for this ever since i seen the multi gpu demo

[@erickruller4266]

Those subways and other rail transportation can sure be treacherous. Nice video Ray.

[@CosmicTurtle13]

3.23 is sure looking exciting. I cant wait to see it live in the PU, not only because Im one step closer to the Overdrive armor and upgrade but also to really see how things will run.

[@Brodir369Ad]

First thing I noticed is that mini map 🤯 gonna carry on the video now

[@Rofus_EU]

I wasn't expecting Vulkan yet but nice to see it progressing! Hopefully it will help out some people with frame rates, I know I suffer those drops myself in cities, especially in the subways and other transportation

[@Ramo_O.G]

My org mate glitched down in Microtech train, so not subways only, unfortunately trains as well

[@rttakezo2000]

Not sure why every spawn point requires subways.

[@nathangerardy2669]

Current build of 3.23 is glitchy, well that seems normal. We're still what a month or two away from this hitting live?

[@CitizenScott]

🖖

[@setaindustries]

I'm one of those insane people who run Star Citizen on Linux and let me tell you this is HUGE. Running DirectX games on linux requires a translation layer and not having to do it is bound to improve framerates a lot!

[@RaysGuide]

I'e love to hear your results.

[@WookieeRage]

Time to finally install my new CPU and GPU. I am interested to know if this will make the build more GPU dependent though. The image does look more sharp in Vulkan which I suppose is secondary to the desire to make the game run smoother. I thought the shops and ships were good to see, not so much the subway, but I'm sure we'll all be seeing it soon enough.

[@vulcan4d]

Vulkan news has been fairly quiet in gaming lately. Hopefully Star Citizen will bring more attention to Vulkan.

[@andyandreson3989]

The trams have been quite glitchy. Though I will say this new PTU build is a bit better than last patch glitching and stuttering.

[@eltreum1]

Some say they see lower fps, some crash on startup after setting it and have to revert. Good to see they are progressing. One thing I noticed in most people's testing of Vulkan is they have upscaling enabled. Does not using upscaling change anything? Can't wait to try out the new build after work.

[@RaysGuide]

The test wsa done with DLSS Enabled, Auto Quality. My monitor is 1440, the video was uploaded at 1080p

[@REiiGN15]

Biggest thing is that people try. It helps out CIG

[@eltreum1]

@@REiiGN15 For sure. I have seen all the upscaling types used on other tests popup today but none disabled and may show different results in FPS and frame time. Also makes for a good comparison of how much each tech helps or hinders FPS.

[@REiiGN15]

@@eltreum1 Crusader shaders didn't load for me at all, found out the underlying ball of a planet is just orange. Every other texture/shader loaded fine.

[@davideriksen2434]

this is gonna be a huge improvement

[@sig_kill]

FYI, if you're using HDR, it's not available in Vulcan quite yet.

[@Max_Flashheart]

The subways has been rough at Microtech for me. Vulkan is cool to see ingame

[@profdecoy]

What would SC be without glitches in the game? At any rate, it's good to see Vulkan finally in the game, especially showing at a minimum comparable performance to DX11 at this early stage, as then it means that when they've really gotten it figured out, it should be a lot better.

[@-flob-]

Subways are always so clean :D

[@lillrichardd]

Great to see features like this getting to see the light of day, the concurrent development of so many items can make it feel like none of them will ever finish. Having something like this that isn't constantly headlining appear means to me that CIG isn't just chasing clout.

[@inkwell3019]

Really interesting to the game, the subway, the Vulkan

[@Rompelsteelskin]

The vulkan is treated as a separate project compared to star citizen. the status BETA is used to track its progress within that project. So there is nothing wrong in using Beta for vulkan implementation.

[@JeffBea]

It's a long wait for Vulcan

[@jacobjeurissen1823]

The subway scared me when I tested vulkan in game today. It took me inside the planet surface then that also disappeared for a moment before the doors opened

[@SamLowry_DZ-015]

"Fascinating is a word I use for the unexpected, in this case I would think interesting would suffice.” Spock I think this is great news! Looking forward to my cpu doing more work to get the most out of the game.

[@PiersLehmann]

what specs is this running under 4090 or ?

[@LexPyPlays]

I found it funny that the positive differences are acredited to Vulkan but the negative ones are not, they are a game problem. And yet, it makes absolutely sense... looking forward to trying this myself...

[@seotenin]

There has always been gameplay glitches, especially in the subways, just part of the development process Great video

[@anomalistik]

The subways are hilarious in New Babbage with these servers. Excited to see where further development on Vulkan goes though. :)

[@Power5]

The subway and so much of the game is glitchy in every build, including the fabled 3.23. They have shown that static meshing is working, wish they would throw a few servers together in a mesh for each landing zone and main planetary space station. Would be great to see it in action even in static form for now.

[@Tekjive]

Graphics/build. Love A18, will always btw the best starting home world

[@scintilion]

I didn't see much difference enabling Vulkan (RTX3090). I found that the upscaling in 4k was equally terrible with and without Vulkan. Vulkan with upscaling off seemed to work fine. Stuttering seems to occur occasionally depending on area and server health.

[@nmd68]

Well they did say not to expect much of an improvement yet. They're just testing for potential driver related issues while vulkan is enabled on different hardware

[@RaysGuide]

Right I was mostly worried that stability would be different or that there would be major appearance differences. since I onkly have a 1440 monitor upscaling really isn't that much for me.

[@aaronpaul5990]

It is intresting that something so seemignly simple as the subways is among the most sensentive to changes.

[@Nianfur]

I'm curious as to if older CPU's will get a benefit. Wonder if the old FX CPU's will run.

[@jch1386]

If this is more single-threaded performance, would this mean X3D chips would work even better for now? I know it, generally, smooths out gameplay, cutting down glitchiness and jerking in most games. I don't want to be hassled enough to test out comparisons because I'd have to dismantle my rig to swap CPUs, but I am tempted to try my own subway runs and compare FPS.

[@davewills6121]

Ive a RTX2080 i use for Star Citizen, yet, if Vulkan proves worthy, it might give me a reason to use either the : 3090/4090, we will see.

[@michaelsanders2065]

I like that Vulkan is being finally implemented. The game is glitchy.....really glitchy in the EPTU right now so I'll likely be waiting to try it out until a more stable build

[@Merciful_Angel]

I'm not sure it's just the 3.23 build which is glitchy. Even the live build seems to stutter (or turn into a slideshow) right now. Haven't seen the subways though, so I'm not sure if they are better in Live.

[@JS-wt8vf]

Looks like there is less fog and haze on Vulkan. Especially in the subways. The large holographic planet is also substantially different between the two.

[@RaysGuide]

That was the one thing that stood out to me as well.

[@Yuritau]

I'm very excited for Vulkan and what it will mean for playing the game on Linux.

[@ToastyMcGrath]

Honestly, I used to be excited about Vulkan because it was going to help my old PC run the game better. But it took so long that I literally bought a new computer before it was implemented.

[@Wind_Lord]

The Subway on Microtech flew upside down for a while in 3.23 the other day.

[@Pompelipom33]

Frame with Vulcan ... around 40, but how much is it with DirectX? You did not mention how much better it was. Was it 5 more frames per second with Vulcan or 10 more?

[@RaysGuide]

I usually get 30 or sub-30 before now on my rig.

[@MultiFishslayer]

ok Danny I dont have graphics Renderer as an option. HDR enabled or not is not is all I have. Is this because i use an Nvida 2080 super? oh oh I'm dumb i was in live!!

[@Zelawyn]

Wish they will get vulkan in a good place for 3.23 so we can get some use out of it.

[@besomewheredosomething]

2.23? You should update! We are at 3.23 and have a whole Solar System to explore 🤣

[@marinosbitter]

Now I can mabey ride the subways without frame stuttering and lag

[@TheBaldrickk]

I'm just hoping that they also improved the CPU load too, as I'm not being GPU limited even on the current renderer. Whether it's out in space, or in a simple environment, like a subway tunnel, I get max 40fps. And that's the most I get no matter the graphics settings (whether 4k or 720p, high or low graphics). My GPU max load is actually only about 60%...

[@Temprasphere]

There is no transit in the world that is not glitchy haha Keep up the great work

[@gabrielebeimler133]

i think i would have prefered a split screen, but then again those are just really obnoxiously hard to do if you don't have a dedicated cinematic free camera option since it's a little irritating when things don't line up just right. would have still liked it better, personally.

[@RaysGuide]

And not only that but you have to follow the EXACT same path both times to really make it work.

[@mattp1337]

I hear the subway code is being reworked, so hopefully that whole system is improved soon.

[@Limestoneredneck]

Hope they fix the glitchy subways before release

[@NERDPotion]

Hmm maybe it can help. I normally run between 65-100 fps in area 18 atm

[@frogger2011ify]

I know...and his looks not great, and he normally plays at worse? Rough.

[@RaysGuide]

You must have a quite good rig for that or low settings.

[@NERDPotion]

@@RaysGuide It may be good :P its a 4080 + an i9 13900k

[@3dVisualist]

The subways show glitches in 3.22 too!

[@bobL761]

They've always been glitching for me since 3.18.

[@restwellcloud-ix8ee]

Hey Ray, if you change the gamma to 40, brightness to 55 and contrast to 65, you will make the game look much prettier :) you can play around with those setting more or less of my suggestion to your liking

[@RaysGuide]

i'll give it a try but my default is to use the defaults since that is what folks will, by default, be seeing themselves.

[@tripperdan]

the glitchiness and jerking in these builds have been brutal, especially on the trams and trains. I made the switch to Vulkan but I haven't logged back in yet to check out the difference.

[@Zasanil]

the subways are usually very glitchy, but on a good server they work fine.

[@Wulthrin]

metro stability is a pretty good indicator of server health honestly. when it gets real bad the shuttles at orison just quit

[@fatherrussell5303]

Rat’s Guide best guide!

[@esmer_tyr3862]

The trams/trains

[@leventgnel2001]

Vulcan isnt about visual difference but rather about performance

[@ciddk]

'm using a Intel ARC GPU running SC, ARC don't natively support DX11 and have to emulate it but Vulkan is supportet can't wait to try it out, might even post my ride in the subways.

[@RaysGuide]

I too will be interested in ARC performance

[@hornblower677]

I once saw the subway start tipping on one side into the ground 1 guy was afk onboard, very funny situation.

[@velocitymg]

Also seen the train come up like a shark through the floor, swallow a guy and then disappear again, It was one of the funniest things in SC I have ever seen.

[@rausmusic4396]

I have never had a good experience using vulkan in any game. so ill wait until its near finalized. im more excited for that DLSS though.

[@marcjensen9080]

There are no subways in Area 18 though. 🤔 The trams, or should we call them sky trams, are above ground.

[@ccmzadv4879]

The point of Vulcan is optimization, not necessarily better graphics. Better performance would be the result.

[@thePrisoner1000]

Subways haven't been glitchy for me in a long time, at least to the point of being an inconvenience.

[@playtym2893]

so vulkan will help lower end computers run the game more smoothly or render with better FPS?

[@RaysGuide]

I may do a similar test on my gaming laptop just ot see.

[@EasyIsHere]

Big fan, not here to spew hate. To sum up 4080 super 5900xt 64g cl16 3800hz NVME sabrent rocket plus I felt no difference in frames, sure stability is worse on the new build but it retrospect the fact that Vulcan+new build of the game at its worse keeps up with prior builds is a good look. The tech is promising but don’t expect immediate results 🙏🏻 trust the process

[@Kyle-sr6jm]

3.23, subways, and Vulkan. ....but no Vulcan. Glitches aside, this is nice progress.

[@KelrCrow]

I hope the game glitches aren't as bad when the patch releases.

[@solomoncristatus1182]

It is hard to perceive any visual differences... which is good! Eventually the game will stutter a bit less hopefully... looking forward to smoother server framerates to help that!

[@RaysGuide]

Yes this is sort of a case of no news being the good news.