Some interesting notes:

Art (Ships)

• RSI Polaris began its whitebox pass
• An as-yet-unannounced ship continued its LOD0 pass
• Crusader A1 Spirit progressed through final art
• Tumbril Storm approached the end of production
• Origin X1 entered the greybox stage

Engine

• The Core Engine team progressed with the development of StarBuild, the new in-house code-build system that will replace WAF
• Core Engine also worked alongside the Physics and Vehicle teams in support of the MISC Hull C, ensuring it works correctly and fixing bugs with the ship’s unique systems

Features (Characters & Weapons)

• July saw the Feature team experimenting with skill progression, which involves players performing specific in-game actions to make them better at similar activities. For example, building up strength will allow players to carry heavier objects with fewer penalties, while performing takedowns will open access to quicker and quieter action sets.
• For player traversal, the team began implementing a sliding mechanic. If a player tries to crouch while sprinting, they will perform a short slide before entering the crouched stance

Features (Gameplay)

• Gameplay Features continued their work on the new vehicle tractor beam
• improvements to mining for Alpha 3.20 based on community feedback, including updates to stability and predictability when mining.

Features (Mission)

• current underground facilities were replaced with RaStar to fix a variety of issues and make iterating on them easier.
• RaStar was covered in ISC and is a preliminary requirement for Outposts and other points of interest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSsWaTw4n8s
• Finally, code work began for reputation. Progression within reputation scopes will give players discounts on various purchases, including items, refueling, and repair.

Graphics, VFX Programming & Planet Tech

• The Feature team is working to bring the new unified water shader to the game, adding details such as puddles that splash on impact and fixing collision-detection issues on large water volumes.

Locations (Montreal)

• Montreal’s Locations team progressed with additional derelict settlements, which passed greybox before moving into the final phase
• Progress was made on underground facilities

Narrative

• the team supported the MISC Hull C by implementing the latest version of the air-traffic-control (ATC) behavior, which will allow players to request a landing spot to load and offload their cargo. This also led to resurrecting work on the overarching ATC behavior, with some potentially exciting updates that will be discussed in the near future.

Research & Development

• further updates were made to atmosphere and volumetric cloud rendering
• Based on recent research publications, cloud shadow maps can now be stochastically filtered, which considerably improves performance and render quality. The new temporal render mode will use the stochastic texture filter by default.

UI

• UI worked alongside Graphics to develop a new internal map system to help players navigate the game’s complex cities, planets, and capital ships.

Summary taken from the Star Citizen Reddit Discord:

AI (Tech) ➣ Finalized work that allows NPCs to transition between EVA and environments with gravity ➣ NPCs can enter/exit ships through airlocks/hatches by vaulting over ledges ➣ Working on 2d boids such as rodents, that will move across terrain in a navmesh

Animation ➣ Focused on improving visual results for reloads and takedowns ➣ For 3.20, worked on basic idles for weapons and knives

Art (Characters/Ships) ➣ RSI Polaris began whitebox pass, interior whitebox completed ➣ unannounced ship on final art ➣ Crusader A1 Spirit progressed through final art ➣ Crusader C1 Spirit in greybox ➣ New 2 ship variants (unannounced) in greybox ➣ Tumbril Storm in end of production ➣ All-new vehicle (unannounced) in dev, whiteboxing all variants select one for greybox ➣ Aopoa San'tok.yāi in progress ➣ Origin X1 in greybox

Engine ➣ StarBuild progression (in-house code-build to replace WAF) ➣ Bugfixes ➣ MemReplay 2.0 added VirtualMemoryAreas concept ➣ 'MapAndWrite' discard calls progress ➣ Hull C implementation & bugfixes ➣ Physics code bugfixes ➣ RaStar and Resource Network progress ➣ Assisted Server Meshing team in improvements and fixes ➣ Bugfixes for 'aync editor loading`

Features (Characters & Weapons) ➣ Experimenting with skill progression; building strength to carry heavier objects, perform takedowns for better/quieter versions. ➣ Began implementing a sliding mechanic for sprint crouching.

Features (Mission) ➣ Ship Trespass feature is in QA testing ➣ Retrieve Consignment missions in final review ➣ Blockade runner global event in progress ➣ Cargo mission planning is completed, relying on rep system ➣ Steal and recover cargo missions were prototyped ➣ Code work began for reputation system ➣ Gives players discounts on purchases such as items, refueling & repairs. ➣ Rep-based hostility for NPC orgs to attack/protect players

Graphics, VFX Programming & Planet Tech ➣ New Global Illumination features ➣ Basic implementation of Temporal Super Resolution ➣ AMD memory allocation API integrated into Vulkan backend ➣ UI refinements and unifications ➣ New unified water shader ➣ New hash-map system for water buffer regions ➣ WorldBuilder system improvements ➣ Damage map fixes ➣ Bugfixes

In-game Branding ➣ Building assets for upcoming event ➣ Navigational signage for New Babbage ➣ Underground facility work ➣ Pyro touch-ups

Interactables ➣ Polish work on Pyro consumables, shop and props ➣ Created content for Sub flair

Lighting ➣ Pyro polish & cleanup ➣ New Orison platform tasks

Locations (EU) ➣ Work on Pyro's rundown stations ➣ Improved signage around New Babbage ➣ New content with Mission Feature team ➣ Pyro Outposts progressed ➣ Improvements to Pyro planets

Locations (Montreal) ➣ Derelict settlements passed greybox ➣ Underground facilities progressed

Narrative ➣ Mission system, providers and content work for Pyro ➣ Hull C ATC impementation ➣ 2 new narrative designers added to the team ➣ Released Loremakers and Galactapedia articles

Online Services (Montreal) ➣ InventoryID refined & bugfixed ➣ Refactor several backend services to gRPC ➣ EAC sactions and enforcement research

Research & Development ➣ Atmos / Cloud rendering improved ➣ New temporal tender mode

UI ➣ Data-heist screen improved ➣ Screen style varients ➣ Building Blocks performance pass ➣ Color picker, pagination, & stepped lines added to BB

VFX ➣ Pyro location interior/exterior work ➣ Finished pass on Size 5 bomb and 3 upcoming vehicles