Usually when people talk about the weather, it’s for lack of a better conversation topic. When Star Citizen talks about the weather, it’s a highly technical explanation of a variety of systems all working in concert. The weekly video digest from CIG takes fans on a close look at how weather systems are applied in update 3.8 and onward as well as a look at the new Ares starfighter.
As with many things Star Citizen, weather effects aren’t simply a static visual trick. There’s surface data for a variety of textures and whether they can be affected by things like wind, there are wind speed models that can be adjusted, and there’s even visual effects that can literally make things hard to see such as snowflakes melting on a helmet visor to the point of reduced visibility. Of course, none of this matters if it end up melting GPUs, so there are a couple of tricks that try to help optimize visuals without making things look worse for those with low-end machines. Well, low-end for Star Citizen, anyway. Surface types and wind will arrive in 3.8, while dynamic planetary weather will come later down the line.
As for the Ares starfighter, it’s effectively a big ship with an even bigger gun on it, and when I say “big gun,” I mean it’s a size 7, which falls just over the middle in terms of weapon sizes. This big gun comes in two flavors: a giant energy weapon, or a huge honkin’ gatling gun.
Speaking of ships, Star Citizen has offered up a Q&A for the Kraken Privateer “space mall,” which should answer some of your questions about how its shops work, how the conversion works, and a few other matters.
