TL/DR:
Q: How's the work coming along for Vulcan HDR support?
A: The Star Citizen team hasn't been able to take a full new version of the engine in a while, because this would bring potential instability.
However, the Squadron 42 team has been working with a newer version, so hopefully most of the kinks are ironed out by the time they reach Star Citizen.
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VULKAN HDR UPDATE 4.0.X? Inquiry About Vulkan HDR Update Timeline
Dear CIG Development Team,
First, I want to thank you for the incredible work you’ve done on Star Citizen. The release of version 4.0.0 is a major milestone, and it’s exciting to see the game continue to evolve and push boundaries.
I wanted to ask about the long-awaited Vulkan HDR implementation. These features have been highly anticipated by the community, and I’m curious if their release is planned now that 4.0.0 has been launched.
Updated Vulkan integration and HDR support would be great, especially for those of us with high-performance setups who are eager to experience Star Citizen in its full visual potential with better 1% lows. If there are any updates on the timeline or the current development status for these features, I would greatly appreciate hearing about them.
Thank you for your continued dedication to this ambitious project. I look forward to hearing back from you!
Kind regards,
Raddy
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Hi,
The focus for Star Citizen recently on the code side has been on stability and quality of life (QoL) improvements to existing features, especially after the rollout of server meshing and the huge impact it's had on the game. As a result the Star Citizen team haven't been able to take a full new version of the engine in a while, because this would bring potentialy instability and slow down the QoL improvments for players, and also likely prevent regular/timely releases, all of of which are critical for continued engagement. But the Squadron 42 team have been road testing Vulkan (which is enabled by default for them) along with HDR, and multi-threaded rendering, so hopefully most of the kinks are ironed out by the time they reach Star Citizen, though I won't be able to predict when exactly that will be.
We are also considering changes internally that would allow the Star Citizen team to more easily take piecemeal updates to the engine into the live release to reduce the risk of instability for lower risk features/systems, as we're of course eager to get all new shiny things into your hands as soon as possible without comprimising the player experience.
Thanks,
Ali Brown
Senior Director of Graphics & Procedural Tech