If you're hungry for some eye candy, Ubisoft's recent reveal at the 2014 Game Developer's Conference may address your needs. Straight from the show comes an extended look at the development tools and engine for the upcoming Ubisoft title, The Division. Named Snowdrop, the engine powering Ubisoft's next-gen tactical post-apocalyptic shooter looks utterly astounding (permitted we're not being set up for another Watch Dogs scenario).
Snowdrop has been developed as a next generation engine for Swedish developer Massive Entertainment's The Division and presumably for other future projects. In the video, we're given shots not just of the game, but also a forest scene that includes an incredible amount of detail. From the cracks in the bark, to blades of grass and little stones on the earth, it all looks so great.
The footage we're shown of The Division is also not something to sneeze at, but not all of it's new. The level of detail on the streets of New York City will probably lead you to drool a bit as the lighting, particle effects, and textures all come together to make a deeply atmospheric game.
Technical Artist Magnus Ander describes the engine editor as an easy to use system comprised of “building blocks” where a designer can connect nodes and test changes in the editor on the fly. Overall, that's the main message in the Snowdrop engine demonstration: that it has made development quicker and easier for Swedish developer Massive Entertainment.
With this huge focus on wowing gamers, which they have done at least with me today, I really hope we don't see a repeat of the Watch Dogs downgrade controversy. While that's still up in the air, at least with the PC version of the game, it's no wonder people get so upset when a game advertised to look like a new frontier for console graphics doesn't deliver. If developers and publishers are going to put so much stock in graphics, then surely they can expect the backlash when their games don't ship as advertised, right?
But let's not be all doom and gloom. Snowdrop looks like a powerful and impressive game engine. I can only hope that it will make The Division a game to remember - in the best possible way.
