Star Citizen test footage shows space ships in formation, cockpit view
Two years from “anything that would be called final”.
Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts has released new test footage of space simulation Star Citizen, showing off space ships flying in formation, the cockpit view and a brief dogfight.
The video, below, is of preliminary AI work done before and after the game was announced, Roberts wrote on his website RobertsSpaceIndustries.
“This video isn't as polished as I would normally put out so please be nice as we're 24 months away from anything that would be called final, and even 12 months away from just a multiplayer alpha dogfighting build,” Roberts said.
“The laser effects, explosions are all placeholders and there will be significant work done here, as well as some very cool shield effects I have cooking up in the background. My goal with the visual effects is to use a lot the techniques and looks used in film work, which are now possible with DX11 and modern day PCs.”
Star Citizen is a PC exclusive space simulation Roberts has crowd funded. At the time of publication the project had raised $3.38 million from just shy of 50,000 backers.
“The point of the video isn't to show the VFX or damage systems, which still have a ways to go but to demo some of the early AI work that's been happening in the background,” Roberts continued.
“The Squadron 42 / Star Citizen pilot AI will be the most sophisticated AI that I've attempted on any of my games. My goal is to take the ideas that I pioneered with Wing Commander and later games; distinct personalities, dynamic learning, signature moves to next level with the power of modern CPUs.
“We're a long way off from the final article, but as you can see from the video AI can already fly in formation, respond to commands and engage in combat. All the dogfighting you see in this video is AI driven!”
The footage was captured with FRAPS via a debug camera on a PC with an AMD Phenom 1090T processor, 8GB and an NVIDIA GTX470.