After reaching the first project where I have used a game
engine, which was UDK, (http://www.unrealengine.com/en/features/)
it got me thinking about other types of engine that are available to me in
industry. As games are becoming more advanced so are the engines behind them.
A game that stands out in my collection is ‘Rage.’ Rage uses id software’s id Tech 5 engine which is currently still in development and only supports Rage and the up and coming doom 4. The initial engine had 20 GB of texture data which is a more advanced texture approach called virtual texturing (VT). VT supports textures with resolutions up to 128,000x128,000 pixels. This allows automatic streaming of textures as they are needed meaning that the developer doesn't need to worry about texture constraints and limits. Other advantages of this are that it simplifies the creation of content meaning that adaptations for other platforms aren't necessary.
Unfortunately, at the minute id Tech 5 is only being used
for first person shooter games, yet id software have stated that they are not
ruling out the transition to other genres yet. Although it will be available as open source,
it isn't as of yet and the software wasn't
going to be available for external licensing until id announced in 2010
the first external developer to work with id tech5 would be machine games.
Another impressive engine that I used recently when playing
the latest installment of the Hitman franchise, absolution, was the Glacier 2
engine. This engine can display up to 1200 characters at any given time whilst
still working a 30 fps (frames per second). This was a requirement of the
developers IO interactive because they wanted to created dense crowds that you
could interact with. Here’s a screen shot of the game achieving this.
The Anvil engine that has been used for the Assassin’s Creed
and Prince of Persia franchise was also able to densely populate itself with
smart AI, supposedly with up to 2000 characters. In the latest Assassins Creed
(3), AnvilNext has been used which is an updated version of Anvil. This
supports a highly detailed weather cycle system. This version all supports a
dynamic game world that will change itself on its own accord in the course of
time. This means, that for example, settlements that were previously in a
certain area, may have moved or completely disappeared relating to the events of
the game.
The Frost Bite engine, which debuted in 2008, has been used
on numerous battlefield titles, including battlefield 3 and others like medal
of honour and need for speed: the run. Version
1.0 featured a HDR audio which adjusted different type of sound volume according
to importance for example as the gun fired the background music would lower and
the gun shot would get louder. This was an advantage because even though there
were other sounds going on you could distinctly identify the ones that affected
you as the player. Destruction 1.0 was also a feature allowing entire walls to
be destroyed in game. The destruction
feature improved in version 1.5 and 2 allowing entire buildings to be
destructible.
The CryEngine3 that’s the power behind the Crysis franchise
for PS3 and Xbox 360 and also other games like home front and D.R.I.V.E. is in my opinion, through experience playing
the games, the most visually pleasing engine. Others feel strongly that it’s
the best engine that you can use
The features that the
Cryengine 3 has would be exhausting to list, therefore I have included a couple
of links to visually stunning videos to show you what the engine is capable of,
from visual effects to developer controls.
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