BETA | GAME ENGINES // LUMINOUS STUDIO
SO WHAT IS NEXT-GEN?
Graphically, it’s apparently a GeForce GTX 690 coupled with 8GB of RAM. Official specs for the ‘Xbox 720’ or
‘PS4’ aren’t set yet – and the target specs shared with some developers are a closely guarded, and a regularly changing secret. But most in the know say that the
What Luminous can achieve is striking, but can it live up to expectation?
outright, but Luminous’ efforts to make the fantastical feel consistently real probably has a bigger pay-off in the long-term.
FINAL THOUGHTS Provided there is a long-term future for these kind of games, that is. In the face of a fractured market, with many in the industry predicting the death of consoles and triple-A losing its luster because of that, cynics might say that Square Enix is setting itself up for disappointment. Luminous Studio won’t be sold to third-parties either, so it could be an expensive disappointment at that. But Hashimoto is resolute, and Square Enix
says that high-end triple-A isn’t going extinct any time soon. “We can confidently say that the quality of
the graphics at least will be graphically improved, the AI and animation will be dramatically better too, whatever the next formats are,” he says. “We wanted to deliver a message to the games industry and gamers: Square Enix is ready for these high quality games, using Luminous as our game engine. “More realistic and more lifelike characters will appear in games,” he adds, in a matter of fact manner. “[Agni’s Philosophy] is a Final Fantasy, there will be a Final Fantasy that looks like this,” he adds for emphasis. “We wanted to make sure that expectations
were rising. This is a glimpse of a game coming up pretty soon, it’s not that far from now. Technologically we are now ready for any platform. And we want to inspire other game creators to make something like we have too.”
24 | JULY 2012
Certainly, Hashimoto is seeing that happen in-house. Key elements of the environment in the Agni demo were actually designed by Tomber Raider developer Crystal Dynamics. It’s the perfect metaphor for Square Enix; a character born in Japan, finding its way in Western surroundings. “We all share, and are very friendly,” says Hashimoto when talking about sister studios IO Interactive (Hitman) and Eidos Montreal
We wanted to deliver a message to
the games industry and gamers: Square Enix is ready for these high quality games.
Yoshihisa Hashimoto, Square
(Deus Ex), and when Develop broaches the topic of how the Japanese fear of sharing technology and secrets seems to be evaporating as the country’s console market comes under increasing pressure. Ultimately, what Square Enix is building in
Luminous isn’t just an impressive and powerful game engine, but a bridge. Between its talent. Between its studios. Between its ambitions and reality. Between console generations. And perhaps even across the uncanny valley, which has eluded developers for years. In an age of Unreal and Unity, Luminous
strives to be realistic and divisive. Maybe that is the secret to the next generation.
next-gen games shown at E3 were mostly likely running on GeForce’s latest PC graphics card. Certainly, all developers at the show alluded to their demo hardware essentially being rigs they built themselves. Square Enix was no different. “This is something that you can buy
in a regular store,” says Square Enix CTO Yoshihisa Hashimoto. “It’s hard for me to disclose the real brand name. All I can say is that it is about the same as the one the other companies are using to create their demos.” Hashimoto says that new consoles
are overdue. “We definitely expect something new and very powerful. It’s been quite a while since PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 were introduced – so it’s time for something new. We are ready for that, but we have no idea what is going to be available and when.” While much of the Square Enix Agni’s
Philosophy demo showcases graphics, the real power of next-gen will actually be under-the-bonnet boosts from CPU power, he adds. “We can confidently say that the
quality of the graphics at least will be improved, but the AI and animation will be dramatically better too. “The most significant and valuable
change will actually not be the graphics, but AI and animation in those characters. “I think that’s the most valuable change the next-gen will bring.” He adds: “More realistic and more
lifelike characters will appear in the game. People will expect it. Even the most aesthetic, very beautiful characters cannot get away with walking interacting with objects poorly. Games that do will be a laughing stock.”
DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84