It’s not an exaggeration to say that Server Meshing is the technology that will make or break Star Citizen. Today, Cloud Imperium Games released a video all about it.
The developers have been working on the implementation of server meshing for a long time, and have recently started to gradually open testing of the feature to part of the user base.
If you’re not unfamiliar with server meshing, the first step is intended to split the game’s population between different servers depending on their location, allowing for higher player counts and better server performance.
The ultimate goal is to dynamically assign servers to each location depending on demand, which will be required for Star Citizen to reach its full potential.
Today’s video has a few notable developers explaining the process of implementation, which has certainly been long and arduous, with stumbles, snags, and issues that had to be worked through.
We hear how things improved with the implementation of the Replication Message Queue (RMQ) technology, and how the developers are now working on optimizing further performance bottlenecks located at the connection between clients and servers.
Interestingly, the video is quite transparent, showing players’ reactions to both the milestones, like the recent testing of the jump point between Pyro and Stanton, and the issues as well, including lag and server issues.
You can check the video out below.
If you’re unfamiliar with Star Citizen, it’s a crowdfunded project directed by Chris Roberts, whom you may know for the old and glorious Wing Commander series. It’s a multiplayer sandbox space simulator exclusive for PC.
The game has recently passed $737 million in crowdfunding ($737,796,423 at the moment of this writing) and counts 5,395,408 registered users. Of course, many of them aren’t paying customers, as they register accounts to enjoy Free Fly Events like one that’s coming at IAE
A few weeks ago, we also got to see plenty of features and tech coming to the game, on top of the overall vision for version 1.0, which will be the full release of the game, albeit it doesn’t yet have a date.
The game will also have a single-player campaign titled Squadron 42, starring an exceptional cast of famous actors including Mark Hamill, Henry Cavill, Gary Oldman, Liam Cunningham, Gillian Anderson, and more. Recently we saw plenty of gameplay and learned that it’ll release in 2026.
Since the project has been in development for over a decade, you can also see how Squadron 42 evolved since its first reveals.
Full disclosure: the author of this article has backed Star Citizen’s crowdfunding campaign.
