150°

I Saw Square Enix’s Jaw-Dropping Luminous Studio Engine Running. It’s for Real

Evan writes: "The videos above show the demo in full and then peel back the layers to show the level of detail and control that Luminous will afford developers. Square Enix has been known for eye-popping visuals in their Final Fantasy titles and this new tech makes it seem that like that legacy will keep going strong into future generations."

GamingPerson4351d ago (Edited 4351d ago )

I can't wait!

BISHOP-BRASIL4351d ago

First presentation that actually get me thinking it's time for next gen. Epic, Crytek and DICE (last year) new engines looked good, better than most current engines on ultra-high settings, but not such a leap...

But this video... That's some crazy realistic lighting. Also they actually introduced polygons to what we currently see as particle effects 90% of the time. And all that hair/beard moving and I didn't saw one single hair gone through each other, I don't know if that bit is real time or just part of the animation, but it's impressive.

I had seen Luminous Engine last year in that garage walk video, but it was just a dozen seconds, it was hard to tell it was computer generated, looked just like actual video of a real garage, but well, it was just a garage with nothing happening there. Good to see the photorealism hold there with characters and all kinds of objects.

I believe everyone had already seen it back them, but here's two links (article and video), it's just some seconds walking down a garage ramp...
http://www.siliconera.com/2...
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

I remember that when the engine was first showed there were a discussion if it were current or next gen as SE hinted it could be used on FF Versus XII. I guess now we can assume it's not current gen at all... Let's just see where FF Versus XIII sits with that, if it comes this gen with a more limited engine or if they let it for next gen with Luminous.

Let's just hope Luminous lives to the hype better than Crystal Tools/White Engine did... FF XIII don't look that hot considering the 2005 tech demo.

PiccoloGR4351d ago

Holy cow... now this is really impressive. Blows Unreal Engine 4 out of the water!!!!!

NYC_Gamer4351d ago

That engine is very impressive and i'm more surprised it's from SE a Japanese publisher

PLASTICA-MAN4351d ago (Edited 4351d ago )

I am surprised how japanese developers totally missed this gen, now they are coming back in force in next-gen, good to know that :)

Kojima talked about why japanese developers couldn't cope with US develepers this gen, and that was because japanese didn't dive deeper in this generation tech with all the new development technics. It seems that now they fully understand it and understand next-gen tech too.

Lucretia4351d ago

japanese have always had the best graphics. look at their fighters and action games.

im very impressed with the west this gen tho. massive step that caused the over shadowing of the japanese this gen.

i mean it is easy to make good graphics when everyone is the same buzzcut space marine dude but certain games and studios definatly outshine the others.

that being said, games like Final fantasy, MGS, Soulcal 5, dead or alive 5, etc all are still absolutely gorgeous.

Arksine4351d ago

Really since the SNES days Square has been at the forefront of console graphics. All FF releases since VI have had impressive graphics for their time.

belac094351d ago

square enix has always been the one to beat with graphics.

Christopher4351d ago

Okay, I'm very impressed with this. I still am extremely skeptical of this being the end result of next gen consoles. A lot of the elements of game are missing from this as it's an entirely scripted scenario. I think this will be next-gen cut scenes, in engine, at the least, but I do not believe we will get to that high level of quality during gameplay with 30-60 FPS.

I'm ready to be proven wrong.

john24351d ago

The problem here is that we don't know the PC specifications. Square Enix could be using quad-SLI (two GTX690 in SLI) for all we know. If that's the case then no, next-gen consoles won't be able to handle something like that. PCs on the other hand will.

PLASTICA-MAN4351d ago

in the other video of Gametrailers, they said they are using an extremely high-end PC not available on the market.

Aging4351d ago (Edited 4351d ago )

It's been confirmed that both the Unreal Engine 4 tech demo and the Agni's Philosophy tech demo are both running on hardware that is in stores now. In the Gametrailers interview, they said the gpu and memory is similar to what other companies are using for tech demos, so I'm assuming they are referring to Epic Studios.

Eyesoftheraven4351d ago

According to this PDF from Square, they are using an AMD 6990 to run the demo.

www.square-enix.com/jp/info/l ibrary/pdf/Real-Time Bidirectional Path Tracing via Rasterization (preprint).pdf

In the actual demonstration video, she says they're using "off the shelf" hardware available at any electronics store" sugesting more mainstream high end like 680's and 7970's or even like mentioned, the 6990.

Wintersun6164351d ago

TBH, I agree. But I hope to be proven wrong and surprised positively with next gen graphics.

camel_toad4351d ago

Thats the same set of feelings I have about it. Its great looking and its real-time but its not real time on an actual console, and right now we as the gamers at least dont even know if next gen systems will even be able to run something like that. That to me just means right now its just another pretty square cg cinematic, like they have always been known for.

Im hoping they already know something we dont or even have their hands on the next gen consoles and already know its possible.

adamant7154351d ago

Well hopefully Sony and MS get the memo. THIS is what developers want.

Show all comments (34)
370°

Square Enix Declares $140m Loss Amid Game Pipeline Shakeup

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth publisher Square Enix has declared a $140m loss based on a shakeup of its internal development pipeline.

Read Full Story >>
techraptor.net
Furesis7d ago

What are they doing over there? Sounds like they canceled something big. I read a rumor a while back about ff9 remake . Here "Final Fantasy IX has gone through a very challenging development, the game is still in progress but may undergo changes drastic enough that we won't hear about it for a couple of years."
This could be one of the reasons if the rumor is true. That was Silknight i don't know how credible he is but it's something and it would make sense.

-Foxtrot7d ago

I hope IX is still on the cards

Just a straight up remake which they expand a little bit nothing over ambitious

If IX dosent happen then VI and VIII will never be thought of.

Kakashi Hatake6d ago

6 and 8 were way more p popular games despite today's cult following of 9.

blackbeld6d ago

I want my FF8 remake! Can't believe they cancelled it.

TiredGamer7d ago

What are they doing? Sales are falling and the costs are out of control. Big releases need to be absolute sales home runs now, and Final Fantasy sales have stagnated.

Now we know why Square didn’t fall over themselves to remake the original FF7 all these years ago. It certainly wasn’t a license to print money, at least not with what the expectations were. Each of these full on remakes drains an enormous amount of company resources for a razor thin profit margin.

TwoPicklesGood7d ago

Breaking the game up into multiple parts was a mistake IMO.

blackblades7d ago

The loses came from cancelling games nothing else.

Tapani6d ago

They lost the magic in the remakes. And the story is incomplete. The original FF7 is still way better. The Remake / Rebirth are just fan service. Like an Anime/Manga with "optional" filler content. FF7 had pretty much zero filler, it was paced extremely well, and still today flows much better than the grindy story and spongey enemy battles in the remakes.

babadivad6d ago

If they released it at once on all platforms, they would have made all of their money back. Could have been on to an FF8 or 9 remake. Ready to cash in again on nostalgia like Capcom. This is their fault for trying to milk the title.

Once I head they were breaking it up into parts, I lost all interest.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 6d ago
neutralgamer19926d ago

I hope people understand usually when a loss is declared it means a game which had been in development got cancelled. For example Sony Santa Monica before GOW-PS4 had cancelled a project which Sony had spent 7 figures on

As far as square is concerned they release a bad game once a year. Forspoken anyone?

For those making comments on remake not selling well, I hope y’all realize that Sony is the only reason this remake is happening. If Sony didn’t fund it the remake wouldn’t be happening. Just like Konami didn’t want to remake SH2 because development costs of 100 plus million

shadowT7d ago

Do not miss Final Fantasy 16. Great game!

raWfodog7d ago

I'm waiting for them to release the complete edition bundle, but it's definitely on my list.

PhillyDonJawn7d ago

Wth is going on with the gaming industry?

mandf7d ago

Corporate investors taking everything

TiredGamer7d ago

Not rocket science. Compare sales numbers, development cycles, and budgets to the previous gens. We are all collectively burning up the industry from the inside out. Expectations are ludicrously high now for every release and sales are dropping for even the most prestigious of series.

We used to be satisfied paying $50-60 for a game that took 1/100th the budget and staff to make. Now gamers feel cheated if they have to pay the same for a game that took 100x the budget. We may be reaching the end of the line for this model of gaming.

wiz71916d ago

@tiredgamer I think your point is one that ppl don’t understand and you hit it on the nose .. some gamers don’t want to take accountability but it’s some of the gamers fault the industry is where it’s at .. we as gamers set the standards for the industry not the shareholders , ppl forget that the shareholders and the industry want and need OUR Money. Both the Xbox and PlayStation are seeing a drop in hardware , the industry is very stagnant right now.

Tacoboto7d ago

Speaking to Square:

Turns out their mismanagement wasn't related to the western studios they dumped to Embracer, but their own fault.

With regards to Xbox - a good way to kill your brand is to pull support on high quality titles and only dump B and C-tier titles to it

With regards to PC - Epic Games Story exclusivity for any duration and piss-poor optimization will hurt you.

With regards to FF Pixel Remasters - y'all messed up by barely releasing them on physical, like wtf that was free money!

And lastly, you don't help a franchise by releasing a mainline title that undermines every title that came before it. FFXVI was a DMC-like with bottom-of-the-barrel side quests and I can't imagine that helping Rebirth at all considering its marketing is directly tied to how big that game is.

Tacoboto6d ago

Sony is getting their best titles and with the most polish, so what about it? Nintendo gets their top properties too, for titles that can run on Switch hardware.

It's the other fanbases that get the second- and third-class treatment from Square. If that's due to agreements with Sony, that's not a Sony issue but a Square one for accepting those terms. Sony is doing its best to look out for Sony.

wesnytsfs6d ago

sales and stupid practices like exclusives.

TiredGamer7d ago

The industry implosion is continuing. Sky high budgets, prolonged development windows, stagnant sales numbers, and falling currency values (inflation) are wreaking havoc on the legacy industry. AAA games will slowly become the rarity.

CS77d ago

Sad. Rebirth was one of my favorite games in a long time. Should have sold more.

CrimsonWing697d ago

Oh I’m with you. What’s worse is they can say, “Well we tried to make this amazing game and spend all this money on, but not enough people showed an interest. So no more of these since we can’t take a hit like that.”

The industry is going to take a dramatic shift. Mark my words on this.

rpvenom7d ago (Edited 7d ago )

I think there is quite a large portion of individuals like myself who held out on buying it on PS5 because I can get it on PC eventually. To be able to mod the game and also have custom graphical settings to my liking

gold_drake6d ago

same

but im not sure if it matters at all. im sure they made sony pay a hefty sum for the 3parter to come on ps5 exclusively. so watever they made in sales, might have come bk in profits for square, but i dont know
and we dont know what "underperformed" even means for square.

Show all comments (43)
130°

Square & Bandai Namco Being Honest About Quality Is A Step In The Right Direction

Saad from eXputer: "After suffering from massive financial hits, Square Enix & Bandai Namco appear to be turning over a new leaf but I'm still unconvinced."

Nerdmaster7d ago (Edited 7d ago )

I was talking about games with some Japanese guys here in Japan, and it seems like around here Bandai Namco has a fame of making low-quality games, with the occasional gem.

About Square Enix, I believe they lack the capacity to improve. They should learn with Capcom (although even Capcom still makes some bad mistakes), but I don't think they ever will. They keep chasing whatever is new at the time (blockchain, AI...) to say "we innovate", without considering the public perception and if these things actually improve the games or not. Them releasing too many small games with no advertising also shows a lack of trust in its own products. Even with their biggest games, like turning FF into an action game with XVI and the very divisive plot changes regarding whispers and timelines in VII Remake, shows them trying to attract a new generation of gamers without understanding what made the series so big in the first place.

shinoff21837d ago

I want a true ff7 remake. With thatcsaid I'm way happier with 7 remake then I was with ff16. I'd still prefer turn based but square keep chasing these Lil kids

Snookies127d ago

Man, it is perfectly fine to prefer turn based. Turn based is amazing. But there's zero reason to call anyone who likes action games "lil kids". Liking one gameplay system over another does not make you more mature in any way.

VersusDMC7d ago

People love the new FF's overall...the problem is the abundance of 7's they release that lose money or make very little like diofield, star ocean divine force, Valkyrie asylum, harvestella, foam stars, etc. Advertising wouldn't have saved those games. Apparently Forespoken had a big Advertising budget but we saw how that went.

shinoff21837d ago (Edited 7d ago )

Star ocean divine force actually sold well from what I've read not ff type numbers but well enough. Was a dope game to.

FinalFantasyFanatic7d ago

Bandai Namco is going to Bandai Namco, I do believe that Square Enix can't change without changing the entire management, they've had these issues for more than a decade and haven't learnt, I have very little faith they can course correct. I'll still buy their better remasters/remakes like Star Ocean 2 though (not FF7R).

Asterphoenix7d ago

Namco is just milking the same Sword Art Online with lack of budget as well as anime IPs that don't go to decent developers like Jujutsu Kaisen and My Hero Academia. Namco deserves their losses and no future Dot Hack or Xenosaga remaster :(.

Square allocated lot of their budget on Forspoken was a mistake. Square always had management issues. Star Ocean 2 was a great remake and I found their recent entries of FF(16 and Rebirth) better than 13 and 15.
I think they were better than 360/PS3 generation where Square went really downhill.

CrimsonWing697d ago

I don’t know why NOW they decide on this, but I guess later is better than never.

80°

I’m Glad Atlus & SE Changed Dates To Avoid Competing With Shadow Of The Erdtree

Saad from eXputer: "I'm glad I don't have to choose between Square Enix, Atlus, and FromSoftware due to bad release windows and Shadow of the Erdtree."

H913d ago

More intelligent than guerilla games

raWfodog12d ago (Edited 12d ago )

Atlus is releasing their game one week before Erdtree, SE is releasing theirs one week after.

HZD released four days before Zelda, HFW released one week before Elden Ring.

It seems to me like they are still releasing their games too close to Erdtree.

VincentVanBro11d ago (Edited 11d ago )

What a word vomit, rambling, turd of an article that simply states the obvious. Classic exputer.