If nothing else, Star Citizen is a game that loves the finer details that give players a sense of space and simulation, but some of the even more minute details perhaps go unnoticed as part of casting that verneer of a physical world. The latest video from Digital Foundry examines some of those finer details up close and outlines how CIG create those little touches without trying to sacrifice performance.
The video is the second part of a digest that ultimately focused on update 3.8, though the information provided can certainly be of interest to Star Citizen fans now. It touches on particle effects and how they’re affected by weather, goes into the tech on how shading and lighting is rendered for particles, elaborates on how the devs have created armor layers including a wear and tear layer, and takes a look at the procedural damage system that renders ship damage without having to create models for broken and unbroken parts of a ship. It also once more touts its Server-side Object Container Streaming (SOCS) tech and how it helps to improve performance, with illustrations on how it works and side-by-side performance comparisons.
A great deal of the information in the video is not really new information, but it does provide a finer look at some of the details that make Star Citizen operate and perhaps better explains SOCS to those who otherwise see only a merchandise item.
