Holy moving foliage! More companies try SpeedTree

Posted Jan 30, 2007 at 12:39PM by QJ Staff Listed in: Wii, PS3, PSP, MMORPG, Xbox 360, PC Gaming Tags: Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, Cryptic Studios, LucasArts, Namco Bandai, SpeedTree
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Oblivion trees... - Image 1


"So what does this news item mean? We get prettier trees?" Yes, that and more realistic plants, wind effects, and marine models.

What's happening? Basically, SpeedTreeRT, the winner of the 2005 Front Line Award for middleware, is a development tool used to make very realistic plants and trees swaying in the wind. It allows developers to very quickly edit animated trees and plants in real-time. The company behind SpeedTree is Interactive Data Visualization Inc. (IDV), and it has released three press releases dated January 30, 2007, to announce that more companies have licensed the technology of SpeedTree for their games.

Is this news important? Well, if you're a gamer, it depends on how much you value realistic scenery; if you're a developer, it depends on how much you want to streamline the development process; if you're a consumer, it depends on how much you think technological changes affect the quality of the end product.

More details. In case you want to know, the recent press releases from IDV say the following companies have now licensed SpeedTree: Cryptic Studios (known for City of Heroes), Cheyenne Mountain Studios (they will use SpeedTree for Stargate Worlds MMORPG), Artplant AS, Namco Bandai, Epiphany Games, and LucasArts.

They join Sony Computer Entertainment, Microsoft, Ubisoft, Volition / THQ, NCSoft, Bethesda Softworks (for Elder Scrolls Oblivion), Flying Lab, Insomniac Games, Mythic Entertainment, and a whole slew of other studios in taking advantage of SpeedTree technology. You've seen SpeedTree trees before in Call of Duty 3, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and Resistance: Fall of Man.

A clarification. There was some confusion before that the SpeedTree tech is just for PC games. This should clarify any such confusion. SpeedTree is being used for games for many platforms and is a licensed middleware partner for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. We expect to see more SpeedTree trees in future games for our handhelds and next-gen consoles.

 
 
 

Comments [refresh]

by dorkdork777 - 2007-01-30 07:34
» What...

What does this mean? Does this just get us more realistic trees in our games?

by Slasherx - 2007-01-30 07:36
» great!

aswome job

by Vevier - 2007-01-30 07:39
» cool

next gen handhelds? what about our psps?

by Not logged in - 2007-01-30 07:41
» ...

yes, and possibly it will take less CPU time, which means you won't have to "overclock" the PSP

by Itaintrite - 2007-01-30 07:54
» Xbox360/PS3 and PC...

So... why are WE, PSP owners, reading this?

by Vevier - 2007-01-30 08:18
» yeah

good point

by Barts_706 - 2007-01-30 09:44
» Exactly?

_PSP_ Updates?... Hello?

by RK - 2007-01-30 10:26
» V

OoOOoo puuurdy

by assesoffire - 2007-01-30 10:34
» um...

Yeah, it's on the PS3 and Wii QJ blogs as well, and 360 and DS too I guess.

by TPot - 2007-01-30 12:24
» Shadows

From the picture I am guessing it doesn't do realistic shadows for the trees. Pity - otherwise they look good.

by PotFarmer - 2007-01-30 12:37
» shadows

lol trees dont have shadows what are you smoking

by .... - 2007-01-30 14:45
» ...

PERFECT





Imagine the next (already in development ) Zelda using this new tree technology.



Swaying grass to cut, moving, swaying trees.

by a - 2007-01-30 15:15
» lol

what? trees DO have shadows. go outside and check urself....

by dude wit the skillz - 2007-01-30 15:40
» ^^

i dont get it

by The Shadowless one - 2007-01-30 20:03
» now you see me....

rofl...maybe he meant Air...or microspopic stuff, altough they probably leave little itty bitty tiny shadows.

by Twenty-Se7en - 2007-01-31 04:00
» Middleware is where it's going...

Companies are eating up game engines like Unreal 3 Engine. They have been for years. It's much more cost effective to already start with a game engine ready for use. Secondly, developers are always looking for a way to get things together faster. SpeedTree has been working quite a while on this product... I've seen quite a bit on it - and dammit, I think it's a good product.



Now, if only someone would release an incredible physics engine to run on the cell processor in the ps3, we could have game development times cut down, cost effective, and concentrate on gameplay

by Broken_Hero - 2007-01-31 04:13
» What..??..You didnt hear...

Havok 4.5 Physics Engine is fully Optimized to work with the PS3 SPUs....Its Old News Now



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