allegorithmic
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NCsoft licenses texture software used in Xbox Live Arcade games
Allegorithmic, the creator of a procedural texture production tool called ProFX, announced that NCsoft has licensed its product. ProFX produces highly compressed textures that are "tiny, typically a few kilobytes" in size. Those textures are expanded and generated on the fly from that data by the system's processor as needed. That means file sizes are very small, but visual quality is maintained. The tech is therefore popular with companies developing games for the Xbox Live Arcade, the Xbox 360's digital download marketplace for bite-sized, casual gaming experiences.NCsoft plans to use the technology in the future development of MMOs for PCs and the PlayStation 3 console. That choice might imply a comparatively small scope for those projects. ProFX is perfectly suited for games downloadable through the PlayStation Network store (Sony's answer to the Xbox Live Arcade), so this is another clue that NCsoft's PS3 games might be PSN releases instead of AAA Blu-ray titles.It's by no means definitive though; NCsoft might have just been looking for a way to bring down patch sizes. So move along now!
New technology may compress texture file sizes down 70% [update 1]
At the London GDC (Game Developer's Conference), Allegorithmic gave a speech about some new bits of technology they have been working on that can supposedly decrease the size of texture files by 70%. These programs, dubbed ProFX and MaP Zone 2, may become an industry standard if their lofty claims hold true, while not diminishing graphical quality of current texture files. The company showed a few demos and pretty much wow-ed the audience. An XBox Live Arcade game named Roboblitz used their technology and, in a 50MB game, the texture files were a whopping 280KB. Oh, the game runs on the Unreal Engine 3. That's impressive.Think about this in relation to the idea of getting rid of the disc format. Many of you complained that you'd be able to get 3 games on the 60GB PS3. Now, however, you could get quite a few more, if this program catches on. Not only that, but the smaller games for download will become even smaller and download times will be cut into pieces. This technology may be just what e-distribution has been waiting for. What do you guys think? Would this make online content/games/demos a lot more appealing for our consoles?[update: changed the subject line to better reflect the material presented!]
