New technology?
Can you tell us more about the dynamic environment within the game? Are you using a specific engine, such as Ageia or Euphoria?
MF- In terms of middleware. Havok – work closely for physics, but we developed our own animation & interaction system with physical objects. We needed a very strong dynamic environment to sustain the fugitive experience we wanted to create. The fugitive’s art is improvisation, and using his environment as an inventory is key to translate this art. We decided to create our own system to have maximum flexibility with our game intention, also as we are in a systemic environment (simulation), we needed to be able to have every component closely linked to the environment.
Did this technology bring specific challenges to the team? Which ones?
MF- To develop a dynamic environment that results in a new innovative game play, we needed to develop and merge many concepts. Physic : the majority of objects are interactive and are part of the physic simulation. It’s a huge challenge in term of processing power using one of three core of the Xbox 360 processor only for these computations.
For AI, we had to create a real dynamic navigation mesh for NPCs, so they can react to changes in the environment - triggered by the player or by other NPCs. For example, if you’re moving an object, AI needs to detect the size of it and behave appropriately, either to avoid it or to walk over it.
As in previous SC games, all the lighting is dynamic. This time around however, we needed to develop a real time ambient occlusion module in order to maintain a high level of consistency and realism considering unpredictable changes in the dynamic environment.
As previously mentioned, a new animation module needed to be developed in order to appropriately attach our character movements to any moving object in the dynamic environment. In other words, we needed to develop a system to link IK technology and the information about every “picky up” point on objects to make the animations believable in such environment. We call this module the Handle System.
Click for larger imageHow far do you think you're going to take advantage of the Xbox 360 hardware?
MF- Being the second game of the franchise operating on the Xbox 360, our technical experience and knowledge improves everyday and this makes a difference in the results. Also, since Conviction is exclusive to X360, there is no need to think about specifications of other consoles and to develop common solutions. This freedom allows more flexibility and it surely shows more of what the Xbox 360 can really perform.
Do you have first information about the PC version?
MF- No, except there is a PC version.
What about the multiplayer? Did you keep the spy VS merc game play?
MF- All Multiplayer concepts and functionalities will be revealed later, with detailed information on game modes.
