ArenaNet� Licenses Umbra for Guild Wars

[:1]Quote:




BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Umbra Software Ltd., developers of highly-acclaimed Umbra occlusion culling technology, announced today that ArenaNet, Inc. licensed Umbra�s visibility optimization technology to be used in ArenaNet�s award winning Guild Wars� franchise.

�Rather than spend resources developing a new occlusion system to meet the demands of our next game we decided to license technology from the experts,� said Jim Scott, ArenaNet�s lead graphics programmer. �This allowed us to get up and running with sophisticated culling quickly.�

Umbra is a highly robust, GPU based, visibility optimization solution that allows game developers to create highly dynamic game worlds without preprocessing. With Umbra game developers can increase their polygon budgets significantly and create highly complex game worlds which were previously impossible.

�ArenaNet has proven their talent and leadership in building a lasting franchise with over 5 million copies of Guild Wars sold around the globe,� said Farhad Taherazer, VP of marketing for Umbra Software. �With Umbra�s occlusion culling technology, we will give ArenaNet�s talented developers and designers the toolset they will need to create more innovative and large complex 3D worlds with less development time and effort.�




http://www.umbrasoftware.com/index.php?company&news=29|||That's interesting.

Nice find.|||Sounds good|||Quote:








Nice find.




Guru thread :)|||accelerated occlusion culling middleware = makes the game run faster by removing the objects that would be hidden from view.



WONDERFUL!|||There is a ninja on umbra's website. How awesome is that.|||This is a great move by A-net.|||Quote:








accelerated occlusion culling middleware = makes the game run faster by removing the objects that would be hidden from view.



WONDERFUL!




Thanks for explaining what this means to the rest of us.

Serrously, had no idea what was going on there|||Quote:








Thanks for explaining what this means to the rest of us.

Serrously, had no idea what was going on there




yeah since they didn't explain it, it bugged me, so I hunted.

It's actually something like their distance graphics toned down... run closer and you get better graphics... far away looks a bit muddled.|||Xycury is right.

It allows 3D objects to be very detailed when close-up. But it draws objects that are further away, with less detail. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures uses it if you want an example.