[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource GamesPress.]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cambridge, UK – March 18, 2013 –
Geomerics, the leading lighting technology company in the video
game industry, today announced that it has launched a major upgrade
to Enlighten, its award-winning game lighting middleware. The new
version focuses heavily on simplifying the workflow of artists
working on games across an even broader range of platforms. The new
release will be on display in Geomerics’ business suite
(BS123) as well as in the ARM booth (booth #1124) on the show floor
at this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC).
“With this release, we really focused on simplifying the
creation of high-quality lighting for artists working on games
across any type of platform,” said Geomerics’ head of
development, Dr. Graham Hazel.
With the recent PlayStation®4 announcements from Sony, and
the wealth of new platforms discussed at CES, Geomerics has now
extended runtime support to an ever increasing list of platforms
– everything from latest Windows PC, Mac and Linux machines,
to the PlayStation®4, to current generation consoles such as
the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U and PS Vita, to mobile platforms running
iOS and Android. They achieved this by keeping the runtime
lightweight and optimising it for performance on every
platform.
In addition to extended platform support, Geomerics has focused
on making Enlighten as easy as possible for artists to use.
“Enlighten is being actively used by some of the largest
development teams in existence. This is giving us a huge amount of
feedback on where bottlenecks may occur in workflow,” added
Dr Hazel.
“The results of this feedback are that we are able to find
increasingly sophisticated ways to automate processes. For example,
in the past, artists had to set various parameters to control
Enlighten’s performance. Many of these settings are now
computed automatically. We basically adopted a design philosophy
that allows Enlighten to do the sensible thing in nearly all cases,
and only requires artist input for a handful of scenarios where the
right approach may be ambiguous.”
A further new feature is a new integration into the latest
Unreal Engine technology. This integration has a re-designed and
streamlined workflow that takes full advantage of the latest
automation features in Enlighten. The integration is also able to
take advantage of the latest editing and rendering features inside
the Unreal Engine.
In addition to these major enhancements, the new release
includes:
- - Support for all game scenarios, from static
baked lighting through to fully dynamic, with a range of unique
hybrid lighting models. These are all authored in a consistent,
simplified framework.
- - A full plug-in for Maya offering Enlighten
computed radiosity in real-time in the Maya viewport. This enables
artists to preview their assets before committing them to the
engine, knowing that their preview accurately reproduces how the
asset will appear in game.
- - Support for glossy ‘specular’
effects. Glossy reflections give a surface a shiny appearance and
are an important part of global illumination. Dynamic
indirect glossy reflections had been viewed as computationally hard
to achieve. Geomerics’ new solution is so fast it can
achieve real-time dynamic specular effects on a mobile device.
Enlighten at GDC 2013
At GDC, Geomerics will be showcasing the new release as well as
future product enhancements. Mobile will play a key part of
Geomerics’ presence at GDC 2013. In their business suite
(BS123 in the North Hall) they will be showcasing Enlighten running
on a range of mobile devices. Meanwhile, in the ARM booth in the
main show floor, Geomerics will be showing Enlighten on the latest
Mali-powered mobile architecture.
“I’m delighted with the range of technologies we are
bringing to GDC this year. With both a mature product and exciting
new research, we are really looking forward to a great show,”
said founder Dr. Chris Doran.
For more information on Geomerics and Enlighten, visit:
www.geomerics.com.
About Geomerics
Geomerics delivers cutting-edge graphics technology to customers
in the games and entertainment industries. Geomerics' Enlighten
technology is behind the lighting in best-selling titles including
Battlefield 3, Medal of Honor: Warfighter, Need for Speed: The Run,
Eve Online and Quantum Conundrum. Enlighten has been licensed by
many of the top developers in the industry, including EA DICE, EA
Bioware, Take 2, CCP and Square Enix.
Geomerics has developed a reputation for the excellence of both
its technology and its global support. Geomerics has offices in
Cambridge (UK), Vancouver and Seoul and works in partnership with
many of the leading companies in the games industry. Our global
customer base includes the USA, Canada, Western and Eastern Europe,
Japan and Korea.
About Enlighten
Enlighten's award-winning technology brings global illumination
to real-time gaming. For the first time, all aspects of lighting
can be updated in real time, in game, on today's consoles. Instant
feedback opens up new worlds of creative possibilities for gamers
and artists alike.
Enlighten offers enormous flexibility and we work in partnership
with developers to ensure that the lighting in their game is tuned
to the director’s creative vision.
The cross-platform, scaleable Enlighten runtime is available for
PlayStation®4, Xbox 360™, PlayStation®3, PC Games for
Windows, PlayStation Vita®, Wii U™, Mac OS, Linux,
Android and iOS.
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