Genesis is an entirely new system to fill in the plants with all living aspects, from buildings to plants, rocks, caves, and anything that makes a planet look alive.
Previously, the developers used to set things to wide regions without being able to add to the density. The factors for making diverse locations were limited, and as a result, everywhere on a flat looks similar at the moment.
This, however, will change with the arrival of Genesis to Star Citizen. Genesis increases the amount of factors to consider when placing flora, fauna, and buildings in locations. The planet’s surface will become much more dense, and players will witness new biomes, new weather styles, and more signs of life.
The trees are placed based on the amount of nutrition they can get from the planet’s geology specifications. So dried-out planets may not have trees at all, but ones with humid weather may have plenty of them. But it’s not just humidity, the other specifications of mentioned earlier determine how many trees and what type of trees should spawn on the surface.
So, generally speaking, Genesis is a system that enriches the world with fauna and flora completely automatically by considering a larger set of factors. For example, you will see a difference in flora between the part of a planet that is always sunny and a part that is mostly shadowed.
The Genesis will also introduce seasonal changes in flora, letting players feel the difference between Summer and Autumn.
Thanks to Genesis, players will witness significant changes in the environment even by flying over a span of a planet for only tens of kilometers. So, the elevated parts of a mountain will not seem different from its foot.
The new tech will not overload the players’ CPU. The system is designed to mostly rely on the GPU but still in an optimized manner. The system also makes the transition from space to the planet’s surface seem smoother, as you will no longer witness flora popping up on the surface once you are close enough to the rendering threshold.
Genesis will also introduce new biomes like Swamps. this biome comes with distinct trees, plants, and bodies of water. With the arrival of swamps, players will finally be able to step inside the water without getting drowned but don’t expect a swimming feature yet.
Jungle is the next new biome in Star Citizen, depicting lush forests with so many flora grown in small density. The trees are tightly packed to each other and you will spot plants grown over other plants. Landing in a jungle will be much harder for giant ships.
Hopefully, there is still more, as CIG Genesis also delivers Redwoods. This biome is mostly filled with sky-high trees overshadowing the planet’s surface. The plants on the surface are not as dense as jungles, as you can witness the soil beneath your foot, but even the plants are bigger in size compared to other biomes.
Genesis is not limited to just Flora. The system will also populate the planet’s surface with buildings and points of interest. With the new tech, CIG expects that players could find a new unique point of interest every 100km on a planet’s surface. This could be a bunker, a distribution center, a crash site, an outpost, or any of the new building types.
The engine will now consider the location specifications before placing them. So, if a farm is supposed to be placed somewhere on the planet, the system will consider the number of plants or water in the proximity, and if it meets the threshold, a farm will spawn there.
A clustering system has been added to Genesis that creates related buildings next to each other. So, if there is a Distribution Center somewhere, there will be some operating centers around, and maybe some mining outposts if the biome allows it.
So, it’s no longer like the player finds a single build in a location and nothing else nearby. The clustering system enriches the environment around the buildings with related buildings to deliver a better exploration experience.
The clusters themselves are located inside sectors. Each cluster can hold up to 25 locations and each sector can hold up to 5 or 6 clusters. This creates a massive amount of points of interest on a planet’s surface that could go up to over 3,000 just on half of a planet.
Altering cloud shapes and making them change the weather is another interesting part of the Gensis. A sunny day can turn into rainfall in a few hours as the rainy clouds take over the sky and block the sun beams from reaching the surface. The rainy weather is probably the best thing to happen visually with the Genesis system, and it is incredibly realistic.
If there is lightning along with rain, it could deal significant damage if it strikes ships or even the building with electronic devices.
These weather effects, however, will be regional. So, if it’s rainy or snowy on top of a mountain, you will see different weather once you travel 10s of kilometers away from the location.
Aside from what the Genesis delivers, the developers also work on other parts to make things that the new tech delivers feel alive. So, the lighting system will be revamped with new Global Illumination systems to make the interior and exterior locations look more realistic.
Moreover, the developers are also working on a deeper audio system that takes into account multiple sound sources, along with their travel space based on the weather conditions, to bring a joyful, realistic audio experience.
As always, there is no ETA on when we can see the first implementation of Genesis tech in the game, but some demos were shown during the event.
Genesis was the first panel at CitizenCon 2024. We will be covering all panels with extended and detailed explanations here at Gamers-Off Limits. So make sure to check out our home page for more news on Star Citizen, Squadron 42, and CitizenCon 2954.
