With the arrival of next generation consoles like Xbox One and PlayStation 4, a more powerful and realistic approach to the upcoming titles of the future will no doubt be offered. While we all wait to see as to what kind of an impact the prospects of the Cloud technology will have on the consoles, a few details have been revealed as to what kinds of in-game world we can expect to see with the help of the Cloud.
Umbra lead support engineer Sampo Lappalainen, who was recently interviewed by Gamingbolt, was asked about the kind of profits that the world creation software could bring if used with Cloud computing on the PS4 and Xbox One.
Lappalainen stated, “Potential in cloud computation with Umbra is huge. When enabling the cloud on the console itself you can harness a massive background computation power that is ideal, for instance, in updating the visibility data dynamically.”
“This will make a very dynamic and massive game worlds a reality. We are working on a solution that makes using the cloud with Umbra easy, but more about that later when we have something to show!”
Additionally, the site also managed to catch up with Thomas Puha, director of developer relations at Umbra, known for creating large and expansive worlds, and is currently in charge of upcoming titles such as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Quantum Break and Destiny.
Puha, on the possibility for Umbra on next generation consoles like the Xbox One and PS4, stated: “The CPU’s of the new consoles are not that insanely powerful, but there’s a huge amount of memory to play around with and of course, a powerful GPU allowing for Compute stuff which we’ll see years down the line. Just in general the horsepower of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 is significant.”
“Large static objects are the best occluders: buildings, mountains and such, but dynamic elements such as characters and cars are not. However, next-generation game worlds will be far more dynamic than before. Lots more characters and the ability for players to do things like build content on their own, so you need a system that is not so static, but more dynamic,” he added. “We do have a system in place that allows you use, say a massive spaceship or a large boss character as an occluder, which is pretty cool.”
The Xbox One, alongside the PlayStation 4 from Sony is currently set to arrive later this year.
