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World of Warcraft's graphics engine to be upgraded incrementally
In the wake of a series of comments by Blizzard reps hinting at an eventual overhaul of World of Warcraft's graphics engine, Worldofwar.net contacted Lead Producer J. Allen Brack for clarification. Brack responded by describing specific changes to the engine that will be in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, and then by making a pretty major revelation about the nature of the overhaul.According to Brack, Blizzard will be making the changes bit-by-bit rather than all at once. "We're taking an iterative, organic approach to graphics upgrades," he said, "going feature by feature as opposed to thinking in terms of an overall new graphics engine."As for the WotLK changes: those will include a new shadow engine, some new shaders for "even better looking terrain, as well as cool ice effects," and an increased view distance to make those expansive Northrend wastelands look, well ... expansive. He also noted that new water effects will be coming in "a future content update or expansion."[Via WoW Insider] One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!
Reconfigurable Performance Display to show off engine stats in select GM cars
We'll be honest -- we still kind of prefer the days when hacking Wiimotes and other household gadgets was the preferred method for extracting more enjoyment from one's vehicle, but we suppose there's no stopping progress. Starting in 2009 (a few years too late for the Fast & Furious crowd), General Motors will begin to offer up a $295 Reconfigurable Performance Display option in the Cobalt and HHR SS. Said display will enable easily distracted drivers to quickly see how many Gs they're pulling, enable / disable Traction Control, Stability Control and Competition Mode, and get a visual on boost, cam phaser angle, spark advance, engine torque, etc. Oh, and it totally adds 10-horsepower when installed alongside a spare NoS sticker.[Via Autoblog]
GC 2008: Crysis cost $22 million, next Crytek engine due 2012
Speaking at the outset of this year's Leipzig Games Convention, Crytek boss Cevat Yerli revealed that the developer's graphical tour de force, Crysis, cost an estimated $22 million to create. Yerli has previously lamented the effect piracy has had on the title, but reiterated that it's still recouped the development costs, saying, "If it wasn't profitable I wouldn't be able to stand here."Best known for their stunning visuals, Crytek's game engines are also guilty of bringing even the mightiest of gaming PCs to their knees. While the upcoming, heavily-optimized Crysis: Warhead promises a significant performance increase even on mid-range systems, Crytek is already cooking up its next GPU melter, which Yerli says should be ready by 2012. That's when he anticipates GPU tech making the next major leap in its evolution; until then, he expects fellow developers to focus more on what they already have to work with, by means of stylized graphics and hardware accelerated physics.Source – Crysis cost 22 million to make, IGNSource – Crytek: New engine in 2012, IGN
38 Studios to use NaturalMotion's Morpheme engine
38 Studios, the star-studded development studio working on a mysterious MMO codenamed Copernicus, has announced that it will use an animation engine called Morpheme. Morpheme has also been used in EVE Online and Heavenly Sword. Its creator is a company called NaturalMotion, which also created the related and acclaimed Euphoria engine used in Grand Theft Auto IV and the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.Jon Laff, 38 Studios' chief technology officer, was quoted in the press release saying, "Morpheme allows us to create very high-quality character animations quickly, cutting down on a lot of intensive animation design and implementation time." Uh, good! Wouldn't want you to pick middleware that slows you down instead!So for those who are keeping track: Copernicus now uses BigWorld, Unreal Engine 3, and Morpheme. It's got the trifecta!
Carnival Games causing a Havok
One of the most well-known development tools in the world has been secured by 2K Games for some upoming titles. The Havok physics engine is used in squillions of high-profile games like Halo 3, Oblivion, BioShock and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Naturally, 2K wanted to acquire the license for none other than Carnival Games: Mini-Golf.Before crying shovelware, the original Carnival Games sold over a million copies, so 2K is doing the right thing by wanting to get the best software for improving the series. A few other titles are also in line to use Havok, but no word on specific names as yet.
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!
Hydraulic transmission gives engines, wallets a break
Another day, another potential find to avoid the imminent fuel crisis. On the docket today is Ernie Brookins' hybrid drive system, which "captures, compresses, and stores wasted drive-train energy produced when a vehicle's engine is running." Ernie here has concocted a hydraulic transmission that can reportedly power vehicles without the engine running all of the time, and he expects the solution to save motorists around 50-percent in fuel costs. Better still, the contraption could theoretically work on nearly any vehicle -- from school buses to grain trucks to high-octane Power Wheel Jeeps. As these things seem to always go, the project has hit a roadblock without a source of funding, so if any VCs out there are looking for a somewhat solid place to shove $250,000, give this man a ring. [Warning: read link requires subscription][Thanks, Rachel]
Physics engine grounds Earthrise players
Being grounded in this case is a positive thing. Honest. Moll, the Community Manager for the sci-fi MMO Earthrise, typically fields a 'Question of the Week' over at the game's forums. This time, Moll answered a few related questions in one go, writing about the physics engine in Earthrise. Moll stressed that Masthead Studios wanted to balance client requirements with server load, while trying to build a realistic experience for Earthrise's players:"The physics engine will run simultaneously on the client and on the server. The server will ensure that the physics results from the client are feasible and prevent cheating. We are using a 3rd party physics core, which can take advantage of hardware and GPU acceleration and also have some internally-coded subsystems." Sound will be tightly integrated with all physics effects in the game, adding another layer of realism. Best of all is the revelation about Earthrise's physics engine: it will feature ragdoll style effects.
WoW graphics engine to be overhauled someday
World of Warcraft producer J. Allen Brack and designers Jeff Kaplan and Tom Chilton were interviewed by Eurogamer today. Most of the interview dealt with Wrath of the Lich King content like the Death Knight, 10-person raids, and world PvP objectives. The most interesting bits of the interview were on the last page, though; the Blizzard reps talked about WoW's future.According to Kaplan, a major graphics engine overhaul is "probably" part of that future. While he himself is not convinced it's necessary (he cited players' lukewarm reception of similar moves by the developers of Ultima Online and EverQuest), he said: "That's actually something we talk about every expansion ... and I'm positive we'll talk about it next expansion."In the meantime, WotLK will allow "people with high-end machines some additional graphical effects." WoW Insider joked that future graphics engine updates might be dedicated entirely to producing even larger, more detailed shoulder pad armor. We wouldn't be surprised![Via WoW Insider]
Europa Universalis dev offers up game engine for free
There's only one thing better than getting something for nothing. However, since it's unlikely that someone is going to deliver us a life-size Toblerone, we'll settle for Paradox Interactive's news that the Swedish game company is releasing its game engine into the wild as a free download over GamersGate.Codenamed "Europa," the engine was the same used to develop games in Paradox's Hearts of Iron series and Europa Universalis II (pictured). According to Paradox, the company plans to set "a few minimum criteria" for the engine's use, and games created using the technology will be made available for sale over the GamersGate download service -- meaning that for those indie devs looking for a 'cheap as free' solution to make their hard-core PC strategy game dreams a reality, this could be it.
The Game Boy of the Industrial Revolution
Many a history buff know full well the contributions the lowly steam engine has made to not only the development of our native country, the U.S.A., but also that of the world. And now, finally, one of the driving forces behind the Industrial Revolution is now being used for something far more important: powering Game Boys. Actually, we're not sure why someone would make a steam-powered Game Boy, but hey, our hat is off to them because we could never do such a thing ourselves. We have a hard enough time figuring out which way the AA batteries go in.[Via Go Nintendo]
38 Studios using BigWorld to make its big world
What do you get when you get when you combine a major league baseball player (Curt Schilling), a famed fantasy author (R.A. Salvatore), and a great comic book guru (Todd McFarlane)? You get 38 Studios, and 38 Studios is working on a new MMO codenamed "Copernicus."Now the studio has licensed the BigWorld engine for Copernicus. Since the game is at a very early stage of development, we know very little about it at this point, except that its prestigious managers are optimistic about its future. Reps from both 38 Studios and BigWorld made nondescript statements saying things like, "BigWorld provides the most proven, robust, and technically solid game engine available," and "we are thrilled to be working with such a professional and talented group of game developers." Good for them!Brett Close described the rationale behind the choice in greater detail in an interview with Ten Ton Hammer. Excellent server-side tech and tools that will help the team get the game to market as fast as possible were the given reasons.
The Ultimate Showdown: CryENGINE2 vs. Reality
Crytek recently whipped up a tech demonstration for their haughty, hardware punishing software, CryENGINE2, to show off at GDC. Mimicking an unforgettable ad for the Sony Bravia, the demo turned quite a few heads -- but how did the visuals of the ball-droppin' doppelganger compare to the original advertisement? Never one to miss an opportunity for a video comparison, Gametrailers whipped up the above video. What do you think -- are video games nearing photorealism? Or were your discerning, pixel-counting eyes not fooled?
Sierra making "mass-market" online game with BigWorld suite
It seems like every time we hear about a new title, the first thing we hear is an announcement about what engine or dev tools its developers will use. This time, Sierra has licensed the BigWorld Suite, parts of which are also used in Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment's Stargate Worlds and John Romero's forthcoming MMO project.The announcement was made by BigWorld Technologies, not Sierra, and it didn't reveal much about the nature of the game, except that it it will be (according to Gamasutra) "targeting a mass-market audience." King's Quest Online? Probably not, but if only! If you want to know more about BigWorld, Ten Ton Hammer did a great interview with one of the guys behind it earlier this year. Oh, and just so you know; Sierra is/was owned by Vivendi Games, and so is (like Blizzard) now part of the epic corporate monstrosity known as Activision Blizzard. All your studio are belong to us.
Joystiq impressions: InstantAction (PC)
Do gamers need yet another platform? GarageGames hopes so. The company's latest project, the InstantAction "platform" -- that word was specifically used -- sits inside a web browser, creating a new environment for gaming. And unlike Flash's 2D limit, InstantAction will support a variety of developer-driven technologies and engines, scaling up to first-person-shooters that even utilize video hardware acceleration. (GarageGames had its hand in the Tribes games after all.)Like other browser plugins, InstantAction has cross-platform intentions. It's first launching for PCs in early 2008, Mac support will be coming as soon as possible, and a Linux version is under consideration. Gamers will be able to download several titles at launch with pricing to be determined. (Free content may be an option, while paid titles could follow subscription models, multi-game package sales, or single purchases.)We recently explored an in-development version of InstantAction to wrap our heads around the platform-in-a-browser concept. The execution impressed us, but we're still unsure if InstantAction attempts to solve a problem nobody has. Will 3D and developer-driven environments be enough to displace Flash, as GarageGames hopes?%Gallery-9494%
Creative offered help to Blizzard with sound engine
As you may have heard on this very website, Blizzard didn't just include voice chat in patch 2.2 (and how's that coming, by the way? anyone use it yet?). They put a whole new sound engine into the game. For some people, that's great news-- a reader sent us a note last night that he was surprised to hear his rear 5.1 speakers kick on in Karazhan. But for others, not so good. While there are a few little glitches and bugs floating around, it seems there's a big problem with Creative sound cards (definitely one of the most popular sound card brands out there). And Creative has posted on their message boards that officially, they're not very happy that Blizzard didn't consult them when upgrading their sound engine.Apparently Blizzard's new engine, called FMOD, by default uses a generic mixer with just a few simple effects. Creative has worked with FMOD to develop a way to run sound through their hardware and enable 3D mixing and other effects (they did this for the PC version of Bioshock, which also uses FMOD), but Blizzard apparently doesn't want any part of it.So it seems Blizzard treats other hardware vendors the same way they treat their own players-- Creative says they got no advance notice that changes were being made, and apparently requests on why the changes were made have gone unanswered. Of course, Blizzard doesn't have to answer to Creative at all (and maybe they just don't think it's necessary-- I have a Creative Audigy 2 ZS, and my WoW sounds all right, if just a little different). But when we're talking about the biggest online PC game in the world and the biggest sound card manufacturer in the world, it would behoove them both to get along, and make the game sound better for everyone.Thanks, Jack!
Oblivion's Gamebryo engine ported to Wii
Don't be fooled: this is not a sign that Bethesda is bringing its Elder Scroll series to Nintendo consoles. However, Emergent Technologies' Gamebryo engine -- which runs both Oblivion and the upcoming Fallout 3 -- now supports the Wii.Gamebryo is also optimized for PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360. We haven't seen any screenshots of the engine in use with Nintendo's hardware and no projects have been announced; the Gamebryo engine has also been used to make Freedom Force, Civilization IV and Dark Age of Camelot. Will we start seeing a significant visual improvement in Wii games? That's entirely up to the game makers, to be honest.[Via Gamasutra; thanks, vidGuy]
Emergent porting Gamebryo Engine to Wii
The Gamebryo development engine, used for games including The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Civilization IV, and many Xbox Live Arcade games, is being ported to the Wii.The engine, which is specifically designed to facilitate multiplatform development, should make it easier for developers to create Wii games using the same development tools as Xbox 360, PS3, and PC games. The new version 2.3 includes in its Wii support "a Wii-specific viewer, extensive libraries and APIs to simplify pipeline integration."We don't pretend to know the first thing about technical game development, and we're certainly not going to applaud porting by any means, but we think that anything that makes it simpler or more cost-effective for developers to create Wii games is a positive development. Does this mean a Wii Oblivion is on the way? Not without a hard drive, it doesn't.
WoW Moviewatch: Wandering Dreamscape
This is one truly impressive piece of machinima. I don't watch a lot of WoW movies, but it's the coolest use of the WoW engine I've seen since Return. The video's author, Snoman, does some pretty amazing things with WoW's terrain and models, sometimes changing the game world so much that I look at a scene and think "What game is that? And where can I get it?" Here's Snoman's description:Wandering Dreamscape showcases 17 model changes. These have been edited together into three separate songs; each with it's own theme and story. I have tried to make it as enjoyable as possible, using some amazing trance tracks and filtering nearly every shot as to make it as surrealistically realistically beautiful as possible."Surrealistically realistically beautiful," eh? As confusing as that is, I'd say it's accomplished pretty well in this video. Head over to Warcraft Movies if you want to download it, which the author entreats you to do.[thanks, BaronSoosdon]Previously on MoviewatchUltimate Escapism 1, 2, and 3, also by Snoman
Jet engine-powered go-kart roars onto eBay
Here's one that's sure to make Toad weep, even if he's toting a golden mushroom or two. In a bid to make every Mario Kart (or speed demon) freak's dream come true, a bloke in Inverness has concocted a jet engine-equipped go-kart that actually sports a functioning afterburner. Similar to a number of other jet-powered vehicles we've seen, this one is fitted with a military spec JFS-100 jet engine and a push button afterburner that emits "extra thrust, noise, and spectacular fire / smoke effects." Moreover, you'll find an EGT gauge, MOMO steering wheel, and digital RPM meter crammed inside the wee vehicle, and if you just so happen to reside in the UK, you can get the bidding starting for a mere £5,000 ($9,864). More drool-worthy snapshots after the break.[Via El Reg]
