Star Citizen discusses the difficulty of creating visual effects

It would appear that VFX Director Mikey Snowdon, the guest of Star Citizen’s latest weekly dev Q&A video, has an extremely tough and exhausting job, as he took a moment to talk about the challenges of creating visual effects and lighting effects in the game, all of which sounds like it makes him very tired. Poor fella.

As an example, the start of the video had Snowdon answering a request to change EMP effects, which he elaborated as a process that will require the VFX team to start from the beginning: Essentially the devs need to look at new concepts, R&D new methods, model a new EMP look, code it to EMP gameplay mechanics, add light, add sound, test it, bug test it, polish it, and then public test it, after which it would go live.

Other points in the video note that visual effects like tractor beam visuals, Size 10 bomb shockwaves, and waterfalls are possible but have no release date. Snowdon also discusses the team’s work on a gas cloud slider to help players improve performance, the potential for extra visual effects such as a new shader for wet materials, and how making things like lightning or heat shimmer are costly. It’s just over an hour of one man coming to grips with the fact that he’s working on what sounds like an extremely challenging game engine, and it can be seen below.

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