Stunning Star Citizen in-engine 4K resolution gameplay released
Your PC is not prepared.
Star Citizen, the PC space combat and trading game that holds the world record for the most amount raised by a crowd-funded project, looks set to melt graphics cards when it's eventually released.
Creator Chris Roberts has said pushing graphics hardware was always part of the plan, but now, with the recent release of a new gameplay video, we see first hand what he meant.
The video, below, shows off a small scale combat situation between two ships weaving in and out of an asteroid field. It's a make-believe commercial for the fictitious Anvil Aerospace Hornet that is, according to Roberts, "100 per cent in-engine" - and displayed in an eye-watering 4K resolution.
"We're pushing the limits with Star Citizen, and this commercial is our best example yet," Roberts said.
"It's rendered 100 per cent in-engine in real-time at 4K resolution. We scale everything for the super high resolutions that will be the basis of tomorrow's gaming experience; our assets are designed with high polycounts instead of having details baked into their textures. That's a big part of why Nvidia and AMD have been demoing Star Citizen at 4K!
"The next generation of CPUs and GPUs will make this kind of experience possible in gameplay, and we are building Star Citizen to be ready. With the Hornet commercial, we wanted to give our backers an early look."
(Confused by 4K? Check out Digital Foundry's analysis for pixel perfect clarity.)
Meanwhile, Roberts announced Star Citizen had raised an incredible $24 million (the video above fuelled a number of new pledges).
As a result, the Public Transportation System stretch goal has been met. This lets players travel via transport from system to system in Star Citizen and even ship items.
"A public transportation system may not seem as sexy as a new bomber or a cruiser, but it speaks directly to the goal of making Star Citizen an immersive, world-building experience," Roberts said. "Instead of having a simple 'fast travel' option like an MMORPG, Star Citizen will feature a living, breathing system to support that gameplay requirement... a system that will be impacted by the economy and player actions in all sorts of exciting ways!"
He continued: "Thank you for your continued support. I hope you take as much pride as I do in the fact that you aren't only bringing back PC games and taking a shot across the bow at big publishers, you're taking Star Citizen to new frontiers. The team at Cloud Imperium can't wait to show you what's next!"