Star Engine

Star Engine 是开发Star Citizen曾使用过的游戏引擎，现已改为使用Amazon Lumberyard引擎Gamers Nexus - Interview with Chris Roberts, summary。 它是Crytek所开发的CryEngine 3引擎的大幅修改版，从最初在Crowdfunding campaign公布的引擎内实机演示开始使用。最后一次使用本引擎的相关更新是在3.8补丁Gamers Nexus - Interview with Sean Tracy, summary。
在2016年12月23号，随着Star Citizen Alpha 2.6.0的公布，CIG同时宣布游戏的开发迁移至了Amazon Lumberyard游戏引擎。该引擎同样是基于CryEngine 3.8的修改版Erin Roberts: "Lumberyard is completely based on Cryengine", wccftech, Star Citizen Switches Engines: Move Along Folks, Nothing to See Here, Dec 24, 2016，但加入了对Amazon Web Service(AWS)的支持，以及云端计算的特性，以用于“支持开发发次世代级别的在线游戏”Star Citizen Newsletter - Alpha 2.6 with Star Marine!, December 23rd, 2016. 目前并不确定CIG将Star Engine的功能整合进了哪个版本的Lumberyard引擎，也不确定CIG在未来将如何迭代这套开发工具。（截止到2016年11月，当前Lumberyard引擎的版本为 Beta 1.6)。
CIG工作室目前正负责引擎的开发，同时有一部分Crytek的前员工也参与来监管此项目。
== 特色功能 ==
以下为自CryEngine3.8后，CIG开发的引擎功能。
=== 主要特性 ===
*Large World (64位世界空间坐标)
*Object Container Streaming
*Mega Map
*Zone System 
*Local Physics Grids
*Room System
*Camera Relative Rendering 
*Procedurally Generated Planets 
*PBR (基于物理的渲染)
*作为物理实体的太阳（双星系统或者在轨道上爆炸的飞船有可能照亮行星表面） 
*Subsumption AI Monthly Report Sept 2014
*Unified First- & Third-Person animations
*Unique Global Entity ID Monthly Report Nov 2014
*Generic Instance Manager Monthly Report April 2015
*宇宙模拟器 
*数据持久性 (玩家信息服务器、状态服务器、大厅服务器及持久性玩家) 
*Item Port System Monthly Report May 2015
*StarNetwork
*GOST (Game Object 状态) (reworked to newer systemMonthly Report Oct 2014)
*"Grabby Hands" - 现已被整合进货运系统及掠夺系统,Subscriber's Town Hall with Austin Developers 用于抓取和移动对象（例如货物），最初计划在（后来被推迟的）Astro Arena或SATABall第一人称射击游戏模式中发布。
*Multi-LayerBlend - 角色着色器的特性 Monthly Report June 2015
*iPredictor (角色运动) system 
*Diffusion (基于云技术的后端服务框架)
=== 渲染 ===
*Object space shader damage (allows 4 different types of damage to be permanently inflicted on ships, including cutting holes, and blended seamlessly into the base shading)
*Real time environment-probe capture and compression (avoids needing to bake probes in space and on planets)
*Image based lens flares (use entire source image to simulate 4 different physically based lens distortions per colour channel on up to 20 individual elements)
*Physically based bloom (wide exponential kernel based purely on light intensity)
*Human eye exposure simulation (capture histogram of light intensity from both screen and surroundings, isolate range of light we intend to focus on, simulate both pupil and photo-pigment reactions for quick and slow reactions)
*Major improvements to planar lights (far more physical basis now which results in major quality improvements)
*Intelligent mesh-merging system (repeatedly searches for best bang-for-buck mesh merge opportunity in a scene until we hit a memory limit)
*Upgraded volumetric fog (e.g. support for planar lights, light-boxes, env-probe priority sorting)
*Major upgrade to shadow pool system (all lights share one giant pool for better dynamic resolution scaling, shadows can be cached between frames for better performance)
*Render target pooling (shares memory between internal textures used in the renderer to vastly reduce VRAM usage)
*Render to texture pipeline (ability to render secondary viewports with full or limited feature set to then be used as textures in the primary scene, e.g. video comms or holograms)
*Tiled lighting upgrades (use rasterization light culling for greater efficiency, particle support)
*Density based LOD algorithm (LODs change based on polygon density to ensure consistent appearance, less artist intervention, and promote more optimal art assets with fewer sub-pixel polygons)
*GGX normal map filtering (gloss adjusted in mip-chain to best fit of our GGX lighting model to give the same results as super sampled normals)
*Camera relative rendering (allows 64bit world without incurring any rendering performance hit by maintaining 32bit precision for rendering)
*GPU Particle System (built from the ground up for efficiency, distinct from Lumberyards and CryEngine's GPU particle systems)
*Various improvements to transparency sorting (generalized system, allow depth of field and motion blur to not effect nearby in-focus objects, order independent transparency for specific shaders such as hair)
*Artist friendly profiler (captures statistics per art-team, and per area of the level allowing accurate breakdowns and quick diagnosing of performance issues)
*Physically based atmospheric scattering
*Hierarchical object management (efficient searches and culling, local coordinate frames for things like ships inside ships on planets which are rotating etc)
==== 在Star Citizen Alpha 3.0.0中使用到的特性 CitizenCon 2017 Graphics Engineering Panel "Beyond the Cutting Edge" ====
*P4K System - improved data handling system
*Planetary Rotation
*Temporal Supersampling (TSAA) - previously rendered frames are used to improve the anti-aliasing results on the new frame
*Improved Screen Space Directional Occlusion (SSDO)
*New Filmic Tone Mapping Curve (ACES)
*PBR Glass - Glass (e.g. cockpits) can be rendered with phyiscs-based distortions, cracks, reflections and chromatic effects
=== 更新计划 (截止至2017年10月)===
短期计划
*Terrain Occlusion & Shadowing
*Gameplay Driven Material Shaders
*"Space Fog" (Gas Clouds in e.g. asteroid fields)
*Improved Hair
*New Shield Effect
*Depth of Field Improvements
*Colour Processing Improvements
*New Motion Blur Implementation
*Support for Complex Shading Models
中/长期计划
*Object Container Streaming support on the low level/system side
*Improved Planet Effects (shadows, clouds, etc.)
*Improved Space Effects (stars, sun, rings, etc.)
*Dynamic Global Illumination
*Batching of physics-thread
*Batching of render-thread
*Vulcan backend support
== 工具及第三方软件 ==
*Kythera - AI middleware Kythera by Moon Collider
*Vulkan API - 3D graphics and compute API 
*Wwise - Sound Engine 
*FMOD - (deprecated) Sound Engine 
*DataForge - Data management, Ship & Weapons balancing 
*StoryForge - Dialogue and Conversations system, built upon DataForge 
*VERS 3D (formerly known as PlanetEd) - Editor for creating planets PlanetEd reference
*System Layout Tool - Star system layout and design 
*Room Management System - (deprecated) System for players to manage their hangars; now changed and integrated in Item Port System 
== 相关视频 ==
* Gamers Nexus - Video Interview with Chris Roberts on Engine Architecture & Zoning Optimization (2015)
* Gamers Nexus - Video Interview with Chris Roberts on Instancing & Player Counts (2015)
* Gamers Nexus - Video Interview with Chris Roberts on Procedural Generation (2014)
* Gamers Nexus - Video Interview with Chris Roberts on Character Tech, Weather System, & Engine Architecture (2016)
* Gamers Nexus - Video Interview with Sean Tracy on CPU thread management, Jobs System, Character Technology, Lighting, sun/planet movement, Authoring Tools & AI (2016)
* Gamers Nexus - Video Interview with Sean Tracy on Parallax Occlusion Mapping for Biomes edge-blending; Spring Tension and Inverse Kinematics for the Rover & Ships (2016)
* Gamers Nexus - Video Interview with Chris Roberts on Procedural Planets V2 (2016)
* Gamers Nexus - Video Interview with Sean Tracy on 64-bit Engine Tech & Procedural Edge Blending (2016)
* Gamers Nexus - CitizenCon 2016 PlanetEd tool
* Chris Roberts on DX12 & Vulkan support
* Squadron 42 Trailer (2012)
== 另行参见 ==
* 
== 引用 ==
Category:Development
en:Star_Engine