TOOLS // PHYREENGINE | BUILD
at what everyone was wanting from the engine, we had a real opportunity. The main thing there was the shift from it being a graphics engine to being a games engine. We had to incorporate more tools and components and change the focus a little bit, and that was the point we saw the engine’s appeal broaden. But it wasn’t honestly a deliberate attempt to appeal to more indies back then; we were just trying to appeal to the developers we already had on board. It so happened that there was a bit of an overlap. Those kinds of studios were our core market anyway, and we’d been changing the engine to suit them. Studios like Thatgamecompany were the kinds of teams using PhyreEngine.
How is PhyreEngine distinct from other parallel middleware offerings? Doig: That’s a tricky one, because we’re not really a traditional middleware with parallels out there. If we were trying to make PhyreEngine a commercial product, we would have probably done things differently, but we don’t have to be that. The fact that we are part of an SDK and part of a bigger platform actually shapes what we are. Our focus, however, is offering a solid,
technical platform. We’re not providing a complete solution and we’re not trying to. Traditional middleware tends to be, if not complete, something with a large depth of features. What we try to do is provide something with breadth; a good solid foundation for whatever game you want to do. With PhyreEngine we also expect developers
that flexibility to use it on other platforms before they will really feel comfortable using it. That was really important to us right from the start. The other thing we set in place that early on
was a real focus on support. We knew that would be very key for something like an engine.
Forster: And I think over the ten years we’ve achieved a lot there. The feedback we’ve had there has always been good, and we’ve always tried to be as helpful as possible with everything we do with Phyre. And that remains really important to us today.
That must be especially pressing with new technology coming out every year. Doig: Yes, that’s right. This kind of work is never a static thing, and even our oldest users are still doing new things with PhyreEngine, meaning we’re always busy adding things.
On the subject of industry change, have you had to alter PhyreEngine in response to the rise of the small studio? Doig: It’s interesting. We really saw that make an impact at the change from Phyre 2 to Phyre 3. Before then it was always a fairly familiar product, and somebody who knew the first version would easily understand Phyre 2. Phyre 3 was quite a big change, and that was a deliberate response to the arrival of Vita. Up until that point we’d only really considered PS3, and we’d done a PC version with cross-platform, but we’d not until that point considered a platform that doesn’t have
DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET
multi-core architecture, such as the CPU of the PS3, and lots of SPU optimisations. That meant going to something that was a mobile gaming platform, while also considering that a new home console was on its way that was going to be truly very powerful, we needed to design an engine that was a great deal more scalable, so that prompted a lot of changes.
This kind of work is never a static thing,
and even now our oldest users are still doing new things with PhyreEngine.
Jason Doig, SCEE
Forster: Certainly, we had a great grounding in PS3, but that left us with a difficult challenge for PhyreEngine 3.
Doig: But we knew that if we were going to have to re-architect some of the core stuff, we should also take the time to respond to some of the bigger developer requests we had had over the years. When developers asked for something smaller, that was relatively easy to do, but when they wanted a major change it was very hard to do without breaking things for other developers. But with Phyre 3, in going back to the drawing board and looking
to be doing a certain amount of building their own tech on top of that, rather than getting straight in there and making it. That also plays into the kind of game developer we attract, with Thatgamecompany using us as a framework to build on. An engine off-the-shelf may be more complete in a way, but by the same turn it can be more restrictive.
Forster: In fact, John Edwards [Thatgamecompany] spoke at GDC a year or two ago, and compared our engine with other middleware platforms. He told us PhyreEngine got him on the platform, while other tools told him how to make his game.
Doig: So in that way we’re really a skeleton. But where we have strength and depth is the technical features on our platform. So, for example, if you want to use a particular feature of PS3 or Vita, we’ll have a really good solid implementation of, well, the likes of graphics rendering. Our strength is supporting our platforms.
So how involved in the development of the PS4 has the PhyreEngine team been? Doig: We’ve very much been involved. Obviously the main focus is on the development community, and their games. But certainly with Sony hardware, and Vita especially, we were involved in the very early days. With Vita we were on board in very confidential meetings, as a two-way thing really, so we can feedback on what we need, and for us to get information to feed back into the design on our engine, as we can’t wait until the platform comes out. And it’s similar with PS4, and with PS3 really.
develop.scee.net
NOVEMBER 2013 | 45
Created using the PhyreEngine, these tech demos offer a glimpse at its capabilities, which range from displaying dozens of models on screen (top left), to handling varying hues of real-time lighting (below left)
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