PS4 gets huge support from middleware firms
- Posted March 7th, 2013 at 11:51 EDT by Mike Harradence
- 5 Comments
Sony’s PlayStation 4 will be supported by a variety of middleware firms, bringing the likes of xaitControl, Morpheme 4 and SpeedTree to the next-generation games console.
Companies including Naturalmotion, Geomerics and xaitment have all signed up to PS4, reports Develop.
First up, Morpheme 4 by Natrualmotion is an animation tool that affords developers advanced prediction modelling capabilities to help construct complicated integrations between animation and AI systems.
Next is lightning tech Enlighten, which has been used already in blockbuster titles including Battlefield 3. Geomerics has said that PS4’s extra memory muscle and computer resource will allow for improved and more realistic lightning effects in next-gen projects.
Xaitcontrol from xaitment offers AI tech to aid in game logic and character behavioural modelling, and is now part of the PS4 package. Furthermore, graphics giant Nvidia has also confirmed that its PhysX and Apex software kits will be compatible with Sony’s new telly box. These tools aid developers with collision detection, simulation of rigid bodies, clothing, fluids and particle systems.
Finally, SpeedTree has also signed up for PS4, which helps designers in creating real-time trees and plants with ‘seamless’ LOD transitions. In addition, it’s also a dab hand in lighting, physics, and wind effects.
PS4 was announced at the PlayStation Meeting in New York City two weeks ago, where Sony confirmed a holiday 2013 release window for the new platform. Killzone: Shadow Fall will be among the launch titles.
Stay tuned.
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Gameoholic007 |
Demented007- 3:26pm EST - March 7th, 2013
- 2
This is more than what I was expecting for next gen, but thats a good thing. Its really good to see all the support that the PS4 is getting already, and im inticipating to see what else is in store for it.
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Bones311
- 11:57pm EST - March 7th, 2013
- 4
i dont really understand... so the playstation has to be licensed or programmed to be able to use these things? because it always seemed to me that the different game companies used different brands of technology for different parts of the game, if not their own engines etc. Wouldn't it be the game designing companies responsibility to license the use of such technology... not to tie that into the console itself? or are we just being told that the technology will be compatible with the ps4 (which is built off pretty standard PC components and architecture). thats like saying the new version of flash will work with windows 8. cool! its what everyone expected anyway!
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PS3-The Ultimate Machine
- 6:39pm EST - March 8th, 2013
- 5
That's great news! Especially the PhysX and Apex support from nvidia, it's usually only on the higher-end nvidia cards, and the ps4 uses an AMD APU solution, if rumors are anything to go by, the liverpool architecture (I know that the revealed specs match up, but I don't remember Sony explicitly stating that it is Liverpool) so I'm sure Sony would have had to do something special to make that happen.
@4
It's not that simple, companies that make the middleware do all the low-level tweaking and optimizations for any particular platform to make sure their engines can be used by developers. A prime example of this would be how a lot of the commercial consumer-oriented Windows programs don't have versions for Mac OSX or for any Linux distro, and it's the same thing with the ps4. It's obligatory stuff, but it's still impressive to see such middleware support from the get-go. It means that many more developers - especially the ones that don't have resources to make an engine - can start making ps4 games, which in turn means more awesome sauce for us gamers.
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