New Square Enix engine next-gen ready
Luminous Studio targets DirectX 11.
Square Enix has lifted the lid on its new Luminous Studio engine, which it intends to use to power its next generation of games.
Technology Writer Zenji Nishikawa was allowed a sneak peek at the engine, and reported his findings on Japanese website Impress Watch (translated by Andriasang).
Luminous Studio is said to be similar to Epic's Unreal Engine, which is used in countless games, including Gears of War 3 and Batman: Arkham City.
The engine is a Square Enix Japan project, but the developers travelled to western Square Enix-owned studios, such as Hitman maker IO Interactive and Deus Ex: Human Revolution's Eidos Montreal to check out other technologies.
Source code is being shared with IO's Glacier 2 Engine and Crystal Dynamics' CDC Engine.
Luminous Studio is compatible with PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360. The developers are working with Wii and Nintendo 3DS to try to make it compatible with those platforms, too.
It's also being made DirectX 11 ready in anticipation of the transition to the next generation of consoles. Crysis 2 developer Crytek UK told Eurogamer last month that video game graphics achieved using the DirectX 11 standard provide a solid indication of the visual power of the next Xbox and PlayStation.
The Luminous Studio team believes high quality lighting, shading and modelling will be standard stuff in the coming generations, and having unnatural animation will stand out. Another focus is artificial intelligence.
At present, there is no plan to license Luminous Engine for external use, but it will also be used by external studios who work on Square Enix projects. Square Enix expects to show the technology demo in late 2012 or 2013.