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What can you tell us about water — waterfalls, rivers, oceans? What work has been done in Planet Tech V4 to support the addition of water to our planets, and what's still outstanding?

TL;DRWater beyond the existing ocean and frozen ocean, such as lakes, rivers and waterfalls, is complex and has no answers yet, but the team says it isn't ruled out and needs dedicated time.

Michel KooperLead Environment Artist

So water remains a difficult thing. We have an ocean that is on Stanton 1. But as players know, you cannot go underneath the water surface, you cannot really interact with it that much. We have a frozen ocean, which you can actually walk over and all that stuff. So it's an ongoing process. One of the things that we cannot really do yet, but we are really looking forward to exploring and doing more work towards on the R&D side, is all the water-related stuff, because one thing that I've always wanted to do personally is have little small lakes or areas that are not necessarily connected to the ocean. I think that would be really cool. Same with running rivers and, when you get elevation changes, waterfalls that happen as well. But it's quite complex to tackle. So we don't have the answers yet for that.

Jared HuckabyHost, Community

Now, when you say it's complex to tackle, that's not the same as saying it's not going to happen. That's not the same as saying we're not going to do it or pursue it. It's just that when you start any endeavor, you start with the things that are accomplishable now. That's what we do. It's what V0, V1, V2... You start with the easier wins. You start with the immediate wins, and then you build from there.

Michel KooperLead Environment Artist

Exactly. I think considering that we had to rethink how we do terrain because it's on a sphere, it's on a planet, there's a lot of groundwork that needed to be done before you can get all the other elements in there as well. But I don't think it's impossible. It just needs dedicated time to spend on it. Considering the changes we've been able to do in the last year and all the effort that went into that and the people that we have working on this, I think we will get to that point at some point.

Star Citizen Live›Planetary Art·
Published on this date.13 Dec 2019