Game Watch has a detailed report on Luminous Studio, a new engine being developed inside Square Enix Japan. The name for the engine, CTO Yoshihisa Hashimoto explains, is inspired by Final Fantasy. The team got the idea for the name because crystals, a symbol of the Final Fantasy series, shine and they thought of the kanji for luminance.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Tomb Raider are made with Crystal Dynamics CDC Engine. Hitman: Absolution will use IO Interactive’s Glacier 2 engine. After the Eidos Integration, Square Enix visited other studios and exchanged technology to create Luminous Studio, which the company plans to use for games designed in Japan.
Luminous Studio is a multi-platform engine designed for HD game development, it can work with any hardware that supports programmable shaders. That means its compatible with PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. Since Wii and Nintendo 3DS do not have programmable shaders, Luminous Studio isn’t compatible with those devices, but Hashimoto says they are actively investigating how to support both platforms. Luminous Studio is also Direct X 11 compatible.
Can you tell which underground parking structure is real and what one was made with Luminous Studio?
The top image is a render and the bottom image is a photograph. You can see a movie of Luminous Studio in action here.
Square Enix is aiming to have advanced artificial intelligence built into Luminous Studio. Past artificial intelligence loops are reactive, Yoichiro Miyake lead AI research says, and he wants to make Luminous Studio have scalable AI that recognizes game scenes. For example, they can tie the level editor in the with the AI tool so the game has an idea about the layout and can hunt hiding players in one type of game. If this process works, the AI tool can be used for multiple game genres. Miyake is aiming to have the AI tool cooperate with other parts of the engine instead of being stand alone.
Right now, Luminous Studio isn’t attached to any upcoming title. Square Enix plan to show a full tech demo either next year or in 2012.
