At CitizenCon 2954, Cloud Imperium presented a new demo for the single-player campaign of Star Citizen, Squadron 42. In addition, the devs revealed that the game will be released in 2026. To celebrate this announcement, they also shared a new trailer which you can find below.
Squadron 42 is the single-player story-driven game set in the same universe as Star Citizen. The game will run on StarEngine, and it’s got a bunch of famous actors in it. You’ll see people like Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman, Henry Cavill, Gillian Anderson, and John Rhys-Davis. And there are more actors like Liam Cunningham, Mark Strong, Craig Fairbrass, and Ben Mendelsohn in the game too.
Now as you will see, Squadron 42 still looks great. StarEngine promises to offer a lot of modern-day techniques. For instance, it will feature physically-based atmospheres with multiple light scattering. The devs are using a 64-bit engine that lets you smoothly go from space to the ground without any loading screens. This means you won’t have those annoying loading screens like in Starfield. Cloud Imperium even said that you can explore all the planets without any loading screens or limits.
Cloud Imperium has also claimed that it will be using RTGI (ray-traced global illumination). From what we know, the devs will use RTGI in both Squadron 42 and Star Citizen. And yes, the game will most likely support DLSS, FSR and XeSS.
Back in October 2023, CI shared a really impressive tech demo for StarEngine. I don’t know whether we’ll get another one at this year’s CitizenCon. So, if you haven’t watched it, I strongly suggest doing so. That demo still looks great.
In this one-hour video, we get to see a lot of in-engine cutscenes. And the good news is that these are real-time in-engine cutscenes. However, for some weird reason, there is a lot of tearing. At 16:23, you can also see a bug that changes the face of an NPC. Now that made me laugh. Oh, and the game crashed during CI’s presentation.
Anyway, let’s hope that CI will hit the 2026 deadline. A lot of players have been looking forward to Squadron 42. So, let’s hope that it will be worth the wait.
Enjoy!
UPDATE:
Cloud Imperium has released a direct-feed video for the demo. And, things are looking pretty rough. There are a lot of framerate drops and major stuttering issues (that you will easily notice). Not only that but there are numerous bugs. For instance, there are a lot of flickering lights and shadows. Now I know the game targets a 2026 release date, but things are rough.
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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While I have no interest (and time) for Star Citizen, I'm nevertheless looking forward to Squadron 42.
At the very least, it's another high-profile game making use of Vulkan, which is always a good case for pushing that graphics API further.
And in case you missed it, even Microsoft agrees that the Khronos group developing Vulkan does good work, stating that they will adopt SPIR-V (which is the shader format of Vulkan) for DX12, too.
Here's the official statement straight from the giant's mouth:
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/76672770623a1e56650a267d21f9b94477b6dfc7483e9b0ebf99938a063812bb.png
i wonder if the next doom will use directx or vulkan.
I'm pretty sure it's going to be Vulkan-only on PC, since I've heard that even the real-time internal editor of idTech is built upon Vulkan.
The upcoming Indiana Jones game will be on Vulkan as well, which is being sponsored by NVIDIA to add-in path-tracing.
Of course, NVIDIA is fully aware that AMD's own Vulkan driver is just not good enough (besides their hardware shortcomings), so that will be an easy win for NV's marketing department.
Similar story to RTX Remix, which makes use of DXVK, thus giving them an easy edge over AMD.
In fact, that's why Valve decided to both sponsor & develop the open-source AMD Vulkan driver for Linux called RADV.
Is this guy at 0:41 wearing a shirt in real time ? I don't remember seeing this in a video game until now, quite complicated to do i guess, most of the time VG characters change/wear their cloths off-screen
Nice catch, interesting! Though it's for an in-game cinematic, it could be precalculated and animated too, not necessarily being realtime clothing physics simulation. But it looks great and it is really uncommon.
I´m sure the devs will release 1.0 when they´ve reached 1 Billion in donations. I can feel it.
And other cope people who spent money on that scam tell themselves
"it wont crash this time"
it crashed.
LMAO.
Video looked cool but I've seen other videos that you're traveling through space for a very long time. For so long that I eat, watch a movie about space travel, and it's still traveling through space and I have to go bed.
to devs of this game : NEVER make another game again rytards
to fans of this game : you are a bunch of low IQ rytards who need to be removed from the gene pool
Would play it over the Spiderman 2 game you shill for. Interesting that you shill for that game while attacking all people with brown skin on this site. It's almost like you have an ulterior motive rabbi.
I’ve never shilled for any game, you’re just mad that I downvoted your comment (very common brown behavior).
I thought they were ready for release? What happened?
Scam Citizen?
Same here, I got the impression they went to final cycle last year…
2026 and an on stage crash with terrible screen tearing… looks like Rob wants a few more yachts.
Bro never trust a gemini, they'll sweet talk themselves into any deal or their way out of any kind of trouble.
Wait, do you actually think that astrology is real? LOL.
no i think ppl cant help themselves, just like u did right now. Its an easy trick to lure idiots in.
Oh yeah, that was TOTALLY bait. COMPLETELY believable intentions. 😉
This is you right now:
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ff57af201bb7ff4301b3e6adf7252e14f6a019eeebfc26ad3df855976c9e28c9.jpg
aaand this is where i leave you troll, idgaf about your comment or memes. bye felicia
They said they were feature complete.
that is not the same thing as ready for release (bug testing/patching/polishing)
Just finished both videos, fabulous presentation. i was very entertained by this. it's not easy for a team to be working on two projects simultaneously. they probably should have just focused on one project at a time and then finished it. but anyways it is making good progress and it is shaping up very well.
Edit ———-
"And the good news is that these are real-time in-engine cutscenes."
That's amazing. the lighting looks amazing, same with the animations and creatures. very good atmosphere.
its always been scam citizen.
A 14+ year marketing campaign with a crashing moviegame at the end of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H-0x4xk2Xk The official video
It should be ready for Alpha next year and then Beta 5 to 10 years later and final release is definitely right on schedule for……never.
Gave up hope years ago. Now every news release is just a reminder of how f*cked up a project can get in the hands of a dreamer like Chris Roberts.
How many decades before it gets released?
70
Doesnt look robust at all. Janky easy to break and a unstable game.
CoD Infinite Warfare look a like.
If they have most of their content and programming in, 1&1/2 years is quite a good amount of time for finishing, and doing optimization and bug fixing… Maybe THIS half of Scam Citizen ends up well enough. Maybe.
LOOKS AMAZING< best graphics and bombastic gameplay, now i have to stay alive until 2026 to play it
I kickstarted SC & S42 on the original KS. Squadron 42 looks to just be a failed movie director wanting to show off his actor friends/connections, DONT CARE, gameplay, feel, pacing, art, gameplay loop…Not "i know that face", "its that Guys" over and over… Lets say S42 becomes a Hit… Roberts will bounce out of gaming in a sec, to make a MOVIE version. thus showing he allegiance.
Roberts already tried and and failed. The dude thinks he's a director but he's not. The one movie he made is trash tier junk. Going back into gaming is just his last ditch atempt at making a movie whilst pretending it's a game. There was more cutscenes than gameplay in that demo.
Most people don't fecking care about your story and politics in the game. That's why there are movie and games and they are different forms of entertainment.
Also even if this game ever came out. Nobody can ever tell me that isn't a 6 or 7/10 game even in the most polished state. Generic shooter in a dirivative universe. Does nothing new. And everything it does someone has done better somewhere else. After 12 year and almost a bullion it's damn sad to see an average game to be produce at best…
2026 https://media1.giphy.com/media/sXHO6m9A6mC3eIlfET/giphy-downsized-small.mp4
This scam will get more elaborated now with all these AI stuff.
it's acutally quite funny seeing all the whiny cry babies in these comments. If you don't like it, dont play it. This game has been "out" for years, you just can't see it because of your narrow-minded views.
15:40 Shapeshifter LMAO
If they upload these hour-long cutscenes to Youtube why would anyone buy the "game" in """2026"""?
GTX 700 series called, it wants it's game back.
When they near completion, they will announce delays cause the are switching to a new game engine.