In-house tech to be used in upcoming sci-fi RPG Cyberpunk 2077
The Witcher developer CD Projekt has unveiled the third iteration of its development platform REDengine.
The latest version of the studio’s in-house engine has been designed to enable the developer to create “vast open-worlds”, and includes tools to help it develop non-linear gameplay based on player choices and consequences.
REDengine 3 is set to be used in CD Projekt’s upcoming sci-fi RPG Cyberpunk 2077, and the studio has described the tech as a “next-gen ready solution”, with new face and body animation systems offering more realistic expressions and character interaction.
The tech also uses 64-bit dynamic range rendering, a new renderer for deferred or forward+ rendering pipelines that features cinematic post-processing effects, including bokeh depth-of-field and colour grading.
“If we look at RPGs nowadays we find two approaches, one which emphasises the story but limits the game world and one that builds a vast open-world but hampers and simplifies the story,” said CD Projekt studio head Adam Badowsi.
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“With the REDengine 3 we combine the positive aspects of both approaches for the first time, creating an open environment with a complex, multi-thread story. Together with believable characters, a captivating tale and a world where players can roam freely without loading times, we will be able to move gaming to a new level with a realistic feel and full player immersion.”
A new version of the REDkit editor has also been unveiled, and includes tools made specifically for RPG game creation. The tool is designed to help developers build more complex titles with branching quests set in an open world.
Release modding tools so the community can build upon it, like Skyrim (but with texture and animation editing built into the mod tools) and you'll have legions of artists scrambling over themselves to make content for this.
Sound just like all the other engines released or designed over the last few years. Many years ago engine programming was the art of those who truly new the low level optimizations for the hardware available but as time has gone on almost anyone is now able to write an engine and we're all using the same techniques and optimizations. There's no innovation (bust mostly because we're limited by the GPUs and processing power). I think perhaps John Carmack's next engine might be a game changer but again he'll be relying on the latest and greatest features of whatever GPUs and CPUs are available at the time, then everyone else will catch up (again).
