In this latest episode of Around The Verse we managed to see a lot of new tech advancements being prepped for alpha 3.3.0. We see more of the near completed player habitats and learn more about the implementation of the motion warp points to upgrade the in-game vaulting.

You can check out the ATV episode below.

The video covers the modular and lighting team progress working on the player habitats. The lobby and the personal player habitats are moving into their final design phase, with the light pass on the verge of being complete. The physical based rendering and moody light designs give the habitats a lot more atmosphere than you may have been expecting.

I actually really love the cramped, compartment-style design of the habitats. It reminds me of something cheap, perfunctory and utilitarian; exactly the sort of thing you would expect from a big company trying to save on space while giving patrons just enough room not to lose their minds from claustrophobia.

There’s definitely a lot of character and depth and creative love added to the habitats, and I’m most certainly looking forward to seeing them used in Let’s Play videos and livestreams.

Player delivery lockers are moving into their final development testing phase as well. These can be utilized as quest-related points of interest where players can interact with the storage lockers to submit quest-related objects into the locker in order to speed up how some quests can be completed. You won’t be able to just submit objects to any locker, though. Specific lockers will be required for interaction for specific missions. This won’t be complete until alpha 3.3.

This week’s episode also gave a brief look at the Lyria and Wala moon concepts, which are still very early on in the design phase but will be released at a later time.

In the more immediate future we saw how the team is coming along with the motion warp points being utilized for character vaulting in Star Citizen. Using Maya, the designers have managed to come up with motion warp points for the character animation, allowing the gameplay and animation team to adjust the warp points so that characters can procedurally iterate their movements based on the size of the object and its height. This creates a smooth animation transition both in first-person and third-person when vaulting. I imagine there are going to be some gamers out there who setup parkour obstacle courses for the scramble races, just to give the motion warp points a run for their money.

Anyway, you can keep track of development for Star Citizen by checking out the game’s developmental roadmap over on the Roberts Space Industries website.