Star Citizen Live: Q&A Tech Talk

[@tyller77189]

Questions/Time Stamps 3:53 We recently released 3.24, how'd that go? 11:00 Sever meshing, what are we testing for now? Why is the gap been so long between tech preview tests for this? Is this really working as well as you hoped? 16:38 Half of the servers are running on NMQ and the other half running on RMQ. Is there a noticeable performance difference? 18:49 Do we have a timetable for when we just switch all of them over to RMQ? 20:43 Desync, what the ****? 28:45 Physics, how do we get the server frame rate up? 33:14 Is there anything else we can do? 41:18 Is there anything you can tell us about item pledge recovery? 44:45 How has it been for you going from CTO of turbulent to CTO of all of CIG?

[@vulcan4d]

Hero

[@danny1988221]

Thanx man 👍

[@jackboi0349]

Thank you so much for the timestamps!

[@thePrisoner1000]

Thank you.

[@Hot4Shrek]

25:00 I think all this mess that gets left behind by players should be salvageable with the multitool. Gives us rats a reason to clean up after ourselves and others.

[@garygrieves6752]

Benoit seems like such a genuine approachable humble person. For someone at that level in an organisation that’s a win. Good show.

[@BobWobbles]

And, just like that, my faith is largely restored and once again I feel as though we are in good hands . Great episode guys, thanks muchly.

[@TheChronicToast]

So much this. Can't agree more. :)

[@kaden_dark]

I like Jared. But I love Benoit. He just says whats going on and what needs to improve. I loved the one SCL where he called out CIG because people couldn't claim their bought with real money gear. That was before he became a part of CIG. Even now he still is the same. Definitely my favorite person at CIG.

[@hockeywarrior]

Backers love this level of transparency. We've been along for the ride for 12 years -- don't be afraid to be frank and honest. This is why all of us signed on for OPEN DEVELOPMENT. You look tired Benoit, and everything you explained in this episode shows why: just know you're doing amazing work under alot of pressure and you have a VERY TOUGH BOSS. Remember that they need you, use that leverage to keep yourself sane. We need you to see this project through and thus you need to do everything you can to avoid burnout. As someone who has been in charge, I know the feeling. Just know we support you and know you brilliant people will be able to pull off the ambitious (aka seemingly impossible) goals of this project.

[@atrum_eversor5022]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Purchased weapons and armor should be blueprints. You should have a 3-d printer type item in your hangar (or wherever) that can print this stuff out again, it should take a little time (like an insurance claim) and cost a little money if you are at a city location (you are using city electricity and auto-purchasing the refined commodities to construct the item from the city commodity pool). If the 3-d printer is located at some obscure location or on a large ship, then you have to provide the power to it (from the ship power/building resource network) and have the required refined commodities onboard the ship or at your base/remote location. This ties in crafting, provides a "gold sink", and an accurate in-lore explanation for getting those items back. It also provides another mechanism for player created contracts (I make a contract for delivery of steel, beryl, whatever to be delivered to my remote base so I can keep my industrial 3-d printer cranking out guns...or maybe later components, or ships/vehicles). It also provides a reason to mine/refine raw materials other than to sell for credits.

[@DarkSpaceStudios]

This is a good idea.

[@SatanicDemiGod]

JARED! this was one of the best SCLs on awhile. This is the kind of information a lot of us are wanting from SCL. I would love a version of this monthly/quarterly

[@MrBenjaminRhoades]

Great SCL this week, many thanks to Benoit and Jared. The extra technical details were very valuable, so I appreciate you making this episode a longer one :)

[@TheChronicToast]

Can we have a recurring quarterly show like this with Ben and Jared?!? This was the best SCL in easily two years. Even more than that ... the information was presented OPEN and HONEST about what IS and what NEEDS UPDATES. This is the sort of candid updates we need to help give context and understanding. Faith restored! Thank you!

[@PeteTheFatDog]

Up until today my Hangar was broken. Didn't spawn a ship. it kicked my enthusiasm right in the crotch. As of right now it works again, so I wanted to give a quick heartfelt thankyou to whichever hero over there fixed it. You da real MVP.

[@danny1988221]

What hangar size and what location?

[@drunit8122]

@@danny1988221 I have the same "Retrieving" bug,(LG hanger on NB) crossing fingers the hot fix that just dropped fixes it!

[@AlphaCitizen]

Both of my Freight Elevators were broken, and it was a massive letdown. But then, like you said, a real MVP fixed one of my bugged Freight Elevators in my hangar. I'm back in business! I truly appreciate whoever fixed that bug 🙏 o7

[@osky3301]

@@danny1988221 orison, medium hangar broken. idk last patch

[@M_I_A_]

Thank you for the positive energy

[@The_Opinion_of_Matt]

So what you are saying at 25:00 is that me accepting and abandoning 8-10+ initial cargo missions out of sheer frustration on Sept 1st helped find one of the problems. Glad I could help in a small way.

[@armigerone3300]

This was a really useful discussion - and eye opening in many respects. Thank you very much.

[@SR-xx6ux]

This was one of the best SCL shows. Great work/thank you!

[@Tentacl]

This was a much better video than usual. I believe a large part of our community of consumers are adults who can understand the challenges in development BUT we can also be really frustrated when the marketing conflicts with the vision we are sold, specially because some really important documents are now really old and possibly outdated. The fact that we still don't understand how death and respawn will be treated in the final product, I.E., causes more attrition because of how the Ursa Medevac video was created, and also the fact that some dream of huge org x org space battle but we just don't KNOW how many players will server meshing allow per shard, because some people spent a thousands of dollars in ships that require over 10 people to operate, hardcore space sim people hate master modes, etc, etc. I'm not sure how many of us players would agree with that, but I'd prefer to see some early top level design documents reviewed and reflect the 2024 view of the finished game than some small weekly improvement. Remember, back in the day not even the MMO world was used and specially after a larger purchase (my last was the Ironclad Assault) I feel quite a bit of dissonance because I don't KNOW if I'll like the final product.

[@crispy9175]

How hard would it be to turn trashcans into "de-spawn" bins? Then we could pick up trash to remove entities from the server. You could even create a "janitor" mission and pay people to do it while they are trying to kill time waiting on other things.

[@mint88rx8]

Absolutely, I was pissed the first time I realized stuff in the cans doesn’t despawn

[@PbPomper]

What a great episode! People need to realize CIG is doing tech stuff that is a magnitude beyond what anyone else is doing. Immense scope, with high fidelity visuals and physics (server side).

[@DG360]

^ this

[@MostlyHarmlessEntertainment]

Huff that copium. StarEngine is old, almost obsolete, and the new generation of programmers are handicapped by it.

[@Ruffi0]

@@MostlyHarmlessEntertainmentLMFAO Needed a laugh

[@mikec2759]

Awesome guys. Thank you both and all the teams at CGI for all you do . Keep up the great work. I can’t imagine the magnitude of the challenges you face creating this game.

[@techbug8604]

I wouldn't call it great... With the amount of bugs and issues every single patch, coming back issues and new... Its not great at all. Great game, awful experience....

[@joshnjaime]

This version of ISCL was pretty good. Good luck to the server meshing team!🎉

[@MichaelSBuck]

I greatly appreciate the sharing, clarifications, and reassurances you provide with your shows

[@Randaddy25]

I absolutely love and enjoy this game so much! Thanks to everyone who made it possible! We appreciate all the work that's gone into this game!

[@j.d.4697]

Really interesting and informative to hear what's going on from someone who HAS to know.

[@keevajazz6286]

i hope your sleep improves soon Jared, sleep problems suck.

[@Xzor]

Jared looking good. 💪

[@Justinl12086]

Right? Reminds me I need to get a haircut too

[@vulcan4d]

The UK diet lol

[@joellouisfire]

My first thought too!

[@tboneforreal]

He said on Twitch a few weeks ago that he was diagnosed with diabetes. So good that he's taking care of himself.

[@joellouisfire]

@@tboneforreal Aw that breaks my heart. One of my best friends just got diagnosed too and is having a rough time. Glad Jared is focusing on his health, I hope he's doing okay. I know it can be a really difficult adjustment especially at our age.

[@Silcs]

Great Q&A much appreciated team CIG. Keep up the great work!

[@DJMegumi]

Tech video talks about servers increasing to 800 players and all going into an 890 jump. I think they should increase to 890 so we can get 890 in a jump \o/

[@mattsully5332]

Super interesting talk. Thank you!

[@Daggre]

The year that Benoit has been CTO has been the best year of SC development by far in my opinion. It's obvious that there's a difference compared to all previous years of the project, and it's painful when people compare a build like 3.24 to a build like 3.18. Yes there have been bugs but the pace of patches and the rate of fixes has just been excellent to see. Very excited to see what comes next, especially with server meshing and Vulkan as it gets multithreading support. Keep up the excellent work Benoit!

[@wannahit9357]

Are you kidding, how can you say that with a straight face... Look at CGI funding.. They are spyroling down the toilet thanks to 3.23 and also MM

[@skewty]

Strong disagree. He just admitted to an inexcusable bug in 3.24. Being in charge of a bunch of web devs doesn't make one suitable as CTO of such a complex architecture.. Kinda like managing a bunch of oil change shops doesn't make you suitable to be in charge of Ford's new vehicle design.

[@Daggre]

You’re entitled to and I understand your opinion, but I personally prefer the method of quick releases even with the bugs, that we’ve seen since 3.21. The snail’s pace of the previous 5 years was dooming the game and I think this rapid-fire method is the only way we’ll ever get to 1.0 with everything that still needs to be done. There is just too much that will only be discovered at scale, SM being the obvious example.

[@skewty]

@@Daggre I agree. But our concerns are not mutually exclusive.

[@sketto1283]

Thanks! Some good info to hear!!! Thanks for all the hard work teams!!

[@joaoamorim1611]

Very good episode guys. Benoit really seems a good and aproachable person and his takes on the questions and explanations went far beyond what I was expecting. I really liked it because besides just feeling the honesty of his answers, it makes us see beyond what is in front of our eyes. Great insight Great job Jared, to bring us a excellent person to talk about the tech.

[@GrunfWorks]

By far the best communicated SCL ever. Thx 🙏

[@Striker256]

Thank you for continuing to release these videos CIG. The explanation for why the starter cargo missions were not completable in PU was especially eye opening.

[@catphonics]

this was super helpful understanding how things are going. thanks for the detailed responses!

[@mdsf01]

An EXCELLENT SCL. Thank you Benoit and Jared for the honest and ineresting information covered. Kudos!

[@davidebenatti7000]

I think this has been by far one of the most interesting SCL since many months. I'd have looked the episode even if was 3 hours long, and basing on the commitment of the guys (and the so many tech info and explanations given during this episode) i'm more and more confident on the path of this project and where is going.

[@bluexgreen1]

Thank you! So many issues discussed among the playerbase on Spectrum and Reddit were addressed in this. I am very happy with this video!

[@llillian4055]

Keep going :) Candid Q&A is what I backed this project for, so so many years ago.

[@TheGreatBizarro]

The scale of this whole endeavor is daunting, there is so much going on behind the scene that we as players don't even realize are being utilized to create a universe with the number of people interacting.

[@StapleHorse]

I've only been in the game about 6 months, but I have to say this is probably the most enjoyable SCL I've seen in that time. Really enjoyed the insights into the issues that we've had since 3.24 launched into the PU, and it was great to learn a bit more about what the current challenges are and how they're going to be solved. Thanks Jared and Benoit for your time, and see you in the tech preview :)

[@hebus4]

This was one of the best Star Citizen live I’ve seen in a long time. This is the kind of information I want to know. Create an item called ‘Smack the Bug’ where you explain what the problem was ;)

[@Lestat070707]

Love this episode, Ben made so much sense it's enlightening. Finished the video with a greater appreciation of the project as a result. Legend. Hi Jarred!

[@erikssavrasevics1635]

Love this tech talk! Black Magic multidimensional hangers on top of each other... fascinating.

[@John_Krone]

Benoit.... Rocking it with the Commodore shirt! 👍

[@linkmasterms]

You and all of the cig Team are great! It is fantastic that your working at such big Vision! I ❤ this! I am backer for many years and Play SC as my only game at my PC. It is great and i hope to Play 4.0 soon. Bugs, problems are natural Part of this kind of great vision. Thanks for your work.🎉🎉🎉

[@aimlis]

Its always great to hear from Benoit - great show

[@mattslivar5174]

The only thing i need to know is about 600i rework and Banu merchantman dont shove them under the rug and forget like it you agree

[@hollywood8327]

Very solid video. These candid updates on the tech side of things need to happen more often. We're funding the development, so we need to hear these things so we're reassured that our money is being managed well.

[@jeremiahbond2810]

Well, despite all the bs you guys are sludging through i REALLY do appreciate the enthusiasm and encouragement you have for your own work. Thats the meat and potatoes of all arguments.

[@ixxeon]

Awesome, more of this please

[@Bathord906]

This Q&A is a special one! We urgently need more information of this kind ! Not necessarily only as a tech talk, but in general, as it significantly improves the general understanding about the development of Star Citizen. It's really nice to hear what the developers are struggling with in detail and what the current problems are. I think you should think about your own little format that deals with exactly these things. That would improve a lot of things, such as general communication, general understanding and, above all, the view of various errors in the Alpha. I have enjoyed this video here for a long time, thanks for the clarification.

[@NasserQabazard]

In Benoit, we trust. Very happy with the direction they are going now. I'm so surprised that the collection of metric data hasn't been at the core of CIG for the last decade. How are you going to build the most complicated massive online game without hyper focusing on gathering data on every interaction that will obviously destroy performance if it's not kept under control? Feels like they had been running blind until about 4 years ago, just having faith that if they keep building, it will all work out. 😅 I'm so happy to hear the things we are talking about these days. It's like when they started physicalizing everything in the universe, so servers were filling up with empty useables with no janitor to clean things up, or just a system to despawn them when nobody is around.

[@Bubblegum_Ronin]

In the far future, scientists will realize that the Star Citizen devs have already built a rudimentary model of reality.

[@Bluewolf1118]

That was a particularly good episode. Thanks Jared and Benoit!

[@brianwaffle]

Any idea on the headset Benoit is wearing? I am in the market for a new set and I like the size of the ear cups. Thank you for any info.

[@gamingschool5480]

i think such a game would not be posible without live development. there are so many issues they are not able to see in their DEV Build. So its realy nice! love it

[@Isopunainen]

I can hardly wait until the game is finished. Every patch and the features that come with it are inhaled as if my life depended on it. Of course I get impatient and whiny at times, but this post-Space Cows tech talk was just the right video to make me more patient again. I sold my F7A out of frustration. I have now bought one back.

[@szymonlaskowski166]

Well done CIG, very significant chapter!

[@1aatlas]

great episode lads.

[@DrakeStardragon]

Since they started creating SC the most important thing was always going to be how well they can disperse the functionality to handle a star system (or sub-sections of the spread out) and maintain efficient message queuing in the server-mesh. It's not a make-or-break deal, but it will determine to what degree the SC dream can be fully realized

[@essentialasa]

This has been my favorite SCL so far. It answered so many of my questions about what's going on at a technical level and helped alleviate a lot of my concerns. Thank you! I hope we're able to hear more from people in these kinds of positions going forward. I'm new to SC, so I don't know if this is already a thing or not, but maybe we could start or end the year with a special extended length live that's just a round table of department heads talking about issues and future plans. I think it'd be pretty awesome.

[@SharpEdgeSoda]

I really appreciate the self-awareness. Lately these have been a lot of: "Man we really built this game wrong for the first 8 years, we gotta fix it" and I really appreciate this self-awareness and reflection on foundational mistakes. It's better then denial. You guys started with a lot of "tech artists" and not a lot of "game designers" and it creates an environment of misplaced priorities.

[@kaden_dark]

Benoit was always like this. He is exactly the man that CIG needs. He still calls them out now that he is a part of CIG.

[@neofromthewarnerbrothersic145]

What is a "tech artist?" I always find it interesting how people just construct a narrative and convince themselves it's real. I haven't heard them say anything to the effect of "man we really built this wrong for the first 8 years." Where are you getting that? The game isn't taking a long time because they built it wrong or had misplaced priorities. It's just the reality of trying to build a game so aggressively ambitious. You can't create a whole "blueprint" for SC and then just schedule it out step by step, like normal games can for the most part. It involves more trial and error. This is why Jared always says "this is game development, not game construction." When I saw the kickstarter back in the day, I didn't get the feeling that speed was a priority. I felt like their priority was to push the boundaries of what a "game" can be. They were crazy to throw out release dates in the beginning, but I'm glad they've stayed committed to the vision instead of just rushing to release something. As far as I'm concerned their priorities are right where they always have been, which is right where they should be.

[@LaughterIsDeadly]

They're in denial about master modes now. GG

[@Prudii_Ramikad]

Thanks for the hard work guys! Excited for the new ships and pyro.

[@TheRealmsofPsanaurius]

I appreciate all the work you all do, but I don't envy your job!

[@schtoobs]

This interaction delay is the biggest problem in the PU in my experience. It takes the shine off of everything the player experiences and all the hard work and effort put in by the devs. Glad to see them acknowledging it here.

[@Ultrajamz]

Really need law, bounty, scanning, party systems all to mature for meshing’s added player density to feel good

[@minecraftprovie]

Yeah. One thing after the other. 2025 server meshing. And then maybe 2027 bounty hunting 2.0

[@mazrim1369]

I have been very impressed with the rapid release of hotfixes, especially the weekend ones

[@Sarsour_]

Amazing team and work, keep it up!

[@aevacado]

This was nice, we needed this.

[@cmdr_thrudd]

This was a great episode, always like to hear stuff on the engineering side of things. o7

[@MrBam-gq2su]

ATLS needs lights and thrusters

[@Tainted-Soul]

This is the sort of information I like to know, this gives us the knowledge to what is happening and why things are not working etc. thanks

[@glynjowsey6904]

Best tech talk ever, learned heaps, well done

[@CitizenInGame]

Thank you Benoit! Thank you, thank you😊💯

[@iranouspolaris2035]

Ok Turbulant your on a good road, make your teams bigger and Marketing Smaller❤❤❤

[@Venhili]

🎉🎉🎉 This is the episode I've been waiting for, thank you CIG!

[@themach22]

Now THIS is content! 🔥

[@yashik]

finally something positive, Love TMNT Donatello you have on your table... + this was one of the best Q&A in a looong time, finally some normal talk saying why this isn't working or why this didn't happend how abandoning mission generated extra stuff this was interesting... not those constant excuses about alpha so thanks for being genuine and explaining things as it is... and not showing some pre-rendered sequences that has nothing to do with real game, and i will be happier

[@linkmasterms]

Great work from you with 3.24. The start was hard, but cig team works hard for many hotfixes and SC is becomes better! You are grest, great hoping for 4.0 soon. Greetings from germany.🎉🎉🎉

[@APHypnosis]

Really appreciated the explanation about current issues.

[@seanLeprechaun]

I'm curious why they don't offload more work to my PC. I'm sure there's a good reason but I wish it was explained. For example, using landing services. Why is there ANY interaction with the server for that? Feels like it's a timer, a deduction from my account (which is a small blip of data), and update my ship's health, quantum, and hydrogen.

[@wiev35]

I worked super hard to purchase my first ship, got it, and before I could even use it I lost it when my game updated to 3.24 :(

[@techbug8604]

Welcome to the Bug Citizen

[@sennemaa59769]

Thanky CIG this was good show 👍🏼

[@Malakie]

@Bault LOVE the shirt!! Commodore 64/Amiga for the wins!

[@Guvnor100]

The Atari ST and the Spectrum were much better lol

[@LarsBahner]

Finally real tech speak

[@Gates54]

Lots of good stuff in this one, glad to hear it what has been taking so long.

[@MR_E-00]

Good interview. Much appreciated. o7

[@Fault401]

Jared Never Misses 💯

[@specter929]

I love the Commadore T Shirt :) the good old days :)

[@cmoneyg7721]

ISC is amazing! Thanks J man!

[@KenMaerran]

25:36 That's a fantastic example of a testing scenario you should be adding to your internal testing protocols to test for future releases. Every POI you go to you find player ships abandoned there (the more popular the spot the more of them you find). It should be almost a forgone conclusion that you're going to get constant abandoned missions from disconnected players or players who just get caught up in something else and never show up. Maybe you could set things up so cargo doesn't get queued up anywhere unless the user is online, no? I just feel like there are lessons that could have already been learned just from playing the live version of the game for even a few hours every release...I mean, I'm glad things are getting fixed (or at least the devs are finding out about problems that need fixing). I just feel like we're at a point where there could be a lot more proactive bulletproofing versus reactive hot fixing, you know?

[@TheToonzie]

Loved the show

[@starcinema2846]

If the servers already struggle with the physics now what happens if Maelstrom gets in?

[@BGIANAKy]

They will slow down ships even more. To compensate.

[@sytun3375]

Optimisation

[@BGIANAKy]

@@starcinema2846 who knows. Might even go turn based.

[@clonkex]

I actually doubt it will affect things much. Rigidbodies go to sleep after a short time of not moving. The handful of extra rigidbodies that simulate during destruction will be negligible in cost, and they'll go to sleep shortly after that so they don't have to keep simulating.

[@GamerExtremeBrasil]

Hey guys, thank you for your hard work , but can we fix the problem of 32 scu containers that don't fit in the freight elevators at points of sale ? I still have two 32 scu containers stuck in Woodroof LOL !

[@techbug8604]

Can they add a way to add big containers into carack as big containers dont fit through small doors. And also get rid of containers that are stuck in the lift and dont disappear 🫥....

[@pablofiasco2]

whats with the Construx case? ive got one myself around here somewhere.....is this a hint about "Building Tools" or Base building?

[@LobusFoE]

Cool stuff. Please fix broken reputation and party markers.

[@hypertion]

nice, we got a ISCL!

[@mythicalxeon]

regarding "cancelation of missions" how many missions are intentioanly abandoned (pressing the button) verses abandoned as the result of someone crashing/disconecting, and when they reconnect not receiving the mission again?

[@AlbertoMartinez765]

Great show and very Timely

[@124thDragoon]

I feel like expecting a Star Citizen Live about the game's tech to only last 30 minutes was a bit unwise. In the future, go ahead and just set aside 1-2 hours for this sort of thing. Also I'm *really* looking forward to the inevitable next rework of the Freelancer!

[@beaglebbcbox]

isc and scl i am shocked to find this out, love to see and hear that information about that a microscope is now used to investigate the issues and not to be the one tool. Talking to use this patch as a step let me be amazed in the project. hope it get s fixed that the system need to maintain itself with cleaning up my hangar

[@UberNoxious]

it seems features regularly break at scale. what is CIG going to do to better replicate scale in development to minimize these problems going forward?

[@skewty]

How did they not catch that inventory issue not cleaning up properly.. The only way to miss something that large is to not have sufficient tests or not have tests. Either way it was a rookie mistake, It is hard to take a CTO seriously who so casually talks about such intrinsic issues within an organization. It must be the culture..