Square Enix: Goodbye White Engine, Hello Luminous - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 02 September 2010 / 7,255 Views
If you remember back in March, there was a recruitment page about a new next-generation engine. This brought up speculation at first of a Final Fantasy VII remake since they used Cloud Strife's eyes as a key visual, but of course it's nothing like that.
At the CEDEC event, Square Enix's Yoshihisa Hashimoto revealed a new engine called "Luminous." The engine will incorporate technology from previous Eidos games such as Deus Ex and Kane and Lynch. The goal of Luminous is to be "a game engine that can truly take on the world head on."
The engine will be efficient for high quality develpment and its features were listed in these bullet points: "Visual Editing," "Live Editing," "Concurrent Editing," "Automatic Build and Automatic Test," "Online Friendly," "Asset Management Functionality," "Advanced Rendering," "Task Management," "Simple," "Cross Platform," "General Purpose," "Modularity" and "Scalability." Hashimoto closed off by saying we should expect to see how Luminous works in games in 2 years at the latest.
The news of this engine comes as both good and bad. The good news is that this new engine should improve their games even further for next generation. However, it seems like they're ditching the White Engine which was used for Final Fantasy XIII and is being used for Final Fantasy XIV and Final Fantasy Versus XIII too fast and seems like a waste. But, if they can create better console games with this engine, it could be for the better.
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If we read past all the marketing of the engine, it sounds like they've just incorporating some of the tech that Eidos had developed and incorporating it with elements of their own tech into a new engine. I wouldn't be suprised if much of the White Engine is still present in Luminous.
@ Cueil
lol that engine must be really bad for them to just ditch 4 years worth of development like that!!
lol @ everyone
2000
Final Fantasy movie a box office flop: DDDDDDDDOOOOOM
Enix joins Square: DOOOMMM
FF11 is a MMO with monthly fee: DOOOOOOM
FF12 is not the same: DOOOOOOOM
FF13 delayed 64646465 times: DOOOOOOOOOOOM
FF13 linearity: DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
2010
still waiting for that day
lol... they make an engine for two games, only one of which has come out yet, and now they work on a new one and dump the old?
Only SE can be that inefficent...
Well SquareEnix's main goal at this point seems to be selling more games in the west. So basically there getting software that does FPS/TPS in a role-playing environment.
There going from a top down approach to a FPS/TPS model.
TBH darth is right i've been slamming Kitase way too much, hes actully not that bad, hes had some great accomplishments and i think if the gen lasts long, (which SE thought it would) Crystal Tools will have been very worth it.
the thing i and some other fans are upset about is the departure of Yasumi Matsuno, who tried to make a more realistic, darker, mature tone, and in FF13 Production team 1 went back to the melodrama and 1 liners of FF10, 10-2, and FF7 compilation. i dont mind that FF13 turned out the way it did, its just not fair that FF12 turned out that way as well.
I support thelifatree, not A203D!
Well we all know what 2 years in square time is.... 2^2 .... it's for next gen.
Fail Square Enix, Fail.
@A203D i've already read thread. And I don't agree with most of your points but that is not relevant. Because they haven't been going in 1 direction as 9,11,12,14 are all different than 13.
Also, he said it was a mistake because of the development time. Not because of the game it produced. It was found out that it was somewhat inefficient way to make the game or series of games FFXIII, FFvXIII, FFXIV.
Thus it would be more inefficient to make a new engine than build on crystal tools or an already existing engine.
And it's not like people don't make mistakes. Hell Sakaguchi's FInal Fantasy Movie was a much much bigger mistake than this though I loved it. (And thus he got unfairly canned)
"I think that instead of developing something completely new, we would try our hand at improving upon existing technology. Tools and engines improve through a process of trial and error and countless revisions, and that�s what really makes them more efficient."
http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2010/03/10/crystal-tools-may-have-been-a-mistake.aspx
Kitase recently stated that Crystal Tools was a mistake. i assume it was him as head of Production Development Division 1 who made the decision to spend 5 years to develop the game engine in tandem with FF13.
@thelifatree. i made a thread that imo covers why Kitase has made poor design choices in FF13, which his direction as the head of SE Product and Development Division 1 is responsible for: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=115014&page=1&str=552172649#
that shitty engine wont be missed
edit I keep adding things so I delete and repost
@ChihiriMuyo. Except, that while they've been being "idiots" they've been making a nice profit the past... well few years at the very least. And record profits for them last year.
@A203D... what exactly are you implying about game designer for kitase. He co-directed Final Fantasy 6(which he also wrote). He was one of chrono trigger''s 3 directors. Directed Final Fantasy's 7,8. And was just the executive producer of 13, 10, 10-2 though those games were created by his production team Product Development Division 1.
My assumption would be you meant Toriyama As he was the Director or co-director for X, X-2, XIII.
And once again. Making the assumption that Luminous is a replacement and not an alternative to Crystal tools. Is just that an assumption.
I demand tech demo...
@A203D
Stop your Kitase hate rampage already
How is he even related to the issue of designing a game engine?
ChichirMuyo, yeah true they wasted a lot of time with Crystal Tools, but they seemed to have got it right with this game engine, because its like a pre emptive against what happened with Crystal Tools, i wouldnt call them idoits, but i would say that Kitase is not a good game designer.
For a multi-billion dollar company, these guys are quite the jokers. At this rate, there won't be a Square-Enix in ten years because they'll have blown every last cent their company ever made by repeatedly being idiots. It's like they enjoy going bankrupt.
the white engine is sexy, FF XIII is one of the best looking games this gen
Notice how they say it will be 2 years at the latest when we see this engine. Does that mean next gen consoles holiday season 2012? I think possibly.
Luminous will be used most likely for different games that crystal tools iss .jaderyu said it is a different toolset. And this article... stated before I accidently deleted my comment. This article posted on VGC can't even get its facts straight as it's not called the white engine anymore.
Square sucks now.
well anything is better than white engine/crystal tools, seems like it only caused delays to them.
:rollseyes:
Graphical design choices are not the same as engine feature set. Comparing the graphical difference of Kane and Lynch is more akin to comparing Rembrant and Picaso. Where as comparing White/Crystal and Luminosity is comparing brushes, paint and canvas.
Regardless of what brushes, canvas and paints you end up using it's the creator that will create the masterpiece. What can you except from a VG site in regards to knowing developer back end tools. When gamers are more focused on only the end result.
Luminous will feature completely realistic graphics and games that take place in a small room.
Yes, FF13's linearity still bugs me.
Kane and Lynch 2 looks like trash and they wanna replace Crystal Tools with it? Upper management at Square-Enix seriously needs to go or their tech leads whichever is okaying this crap.
Better looking multiplat games then FF13 on PS3 would be surprising.
