Word on the street is that Sony is working on a 1st party game engine for 1st/2nd party game studios to use, for their PS3 games. The codename for this engine is "ICE" Engine.
Although this article doesn't confirm there's an actual "engine" in development, this IS a confirmation that there is an ICE TEAM headed by the Lead Programmer of Naughty Dog, David Simpson and guided with the help of Mark Cerny of CERNY GAMES.
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David Simpson is the Project Manager of the ICE team, a Sony Computer Entertainment first party technology group based at Naughty Dog, specializing in graphics systems and tools for the PlayStation 3. For the last ten years David has been at Sony writing performance oriented graphics systems for the PlayStation family of consoles.
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Mark Cerny has been working in game design and technology for 25 years. He designed and programmed 1984's Marble Madness for Atari coin-op, and at Sega he oversaw the creation of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. While president of Universal Studios' game division, he worked in a variety of production and design roles on the Crash Bandicootand Spyro the Dragon series on the original Playstation.
In 1998, Mark established Cerny Games as a consultancy, and has since participated in the creation of the Jak and Daxter and Ratchet and Clank series on Playstation 2 and the Playstation 3 launch title Resistance:Fall Of Man. He has also been instrumental in the creation and guidance of the ICE team, a technology group based at Naughty Dog that specializes in graphics systems and tools for the PlayStation 3. In 2004 the IGDA honored Mark with its Lifetime Achievement Award, calling him a "master collaborator" and a "jack of all trades."
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Session Description
During the runup to launch, Sony Worldwide Studios learned a great deal about creating high performance graphics applications on the Playstation 3. Much attention has already been devoted to shader programming, so this talk focuses instead on the other half of the equation; topics discussed will include the origin and usage of the libgcm API, algorithms for optimal use of the RSX vertex cache, and use of the CELL in tandem with the RSX including necessary synchronization techniques. This material has never been presented before in an open forum.
Idea Takeaway
The audience members will learn a number of techniques used in SCE 1st party games, with a focus on using the CELL in tandem with the RSX.
Intended Audience
This session is intended for graphics programmers who already know how to make surfaces bumpy and shiny, and are interested in learning other useful techniques for the PlayStation 3.
