Along with the Maya LT release Autodesk also teased a bit about their upcoming game engine Stingray. You may recall sometime back that Autodesk acquired a company called Bitsquid that were working on a light weight, cross platform C++ game engine. However since that announcement we have heard absolutely nothing. Considering their importance to the content creation market place, you’d think Autodesk entering the game engine market ( well, other than Scaleform that is… ) would be a big deal.
Well now, after almost a year of silence, some details have emerged with more coming this week at GDC. The Bitsquid engine is now Stingray. Granted, details are still pretty sparse. Here’s what we’ve got so far:
On Wednesday, March 4, from 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. in Moscone Convention Center, West Hall, Room 3003, Autodesk is hosting an exclusive tech preview of its Stingray Game Engine. Built using the core technology behind the Bitsquid engine acquired last summer, Stingray is currently in development and comprises intuitive, powerful tools that make it easier for professional and novice developers to bring graphically advanced games to market on a wide range of platforms.
“Bitsquid has been a part of the Autodesk family since the acquisition last summer, and both teams have been hard at work to update, improve and add features to the engine,” said Martin Wahlund, CEO, Fatshark. “We are excited to announce that we are actually using the new Stingray engine to build our upcoming ‘Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide’ game.”
The technical preview at GDC will highlight several core areas of focus that make it easier for game makers of every level create the next generation of blockbusters. Autodesk will give a live demonstration of several key advances it has made in Stingray such as:
– Simultaneous Platform Deployment: A live link between Stingray and multiple target devices allows game designers to evaluate their games simultaneously on multiple platforms;
– Integrated Workflow: A more efficient pipeline to export 3D content;
– Modern Data-Driven Architecture and Powerful Rendering Capabilities: A data-driven core architecture makes it easier for a user to change the look of a game without having to rewrite and re-compile the engine.
As I said earlier, Autodesk entering the game engine market could certainly be a big deal. Of course there are far too many unknowns ( like for starters… pricing ) to get too excited yet. There is a teaser video available, but it tells you absolutely nothing:
If you are interested in beta testing, you can sign up here.
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