Wed, Jun 06, 2012 | 05:23 BST

Square Enix’s new Luminous Engine demo is amazing

Next-generation hardware won’t know what hit it. Check out this gorgeous footage of Square Enix’s Luminous Engine, all real-time.

Square Enix demonstrated the new technology at an after-hours E3 2012 event. GameInformer reports that chief technology officer Yoshihisa Hashimoto wowed the audience by showing the Agni’s Philosophy tech demo below, then tweaking some of the components such as hair colour, and running it again, to prove it was not pre-rendered.

Go ahead and turn that up to 1080p before you start it; give your eyeballs a treat.

According to Siliconera, the demo is Final Fantasy themed, but not part of, indicative of, or planned as a specific game.

Luminous is planned as a next-gen tech to close the gap between real-time gameplay graphics and pre-rendered cinematics, which is impressive enough, but Square Enix also expects it to be scalable, capable of running on low-powered mobile devices as well as high-end consoles and PCs.

We’ve heard some pretty amazeballs things about Luminous in the past; it can allegedly automatically adjust character animations to cope with changes to equipment weight or musculature parameters, and to cross uneven terrain.

12 comments

dtyk
06/06/12, 5:21 am

Wow. Very Impressed.

Now put it in-game and I’ll be more impressed.

Dragon246
06/06/12, 5:38 am

Hope versus XIII uses it.

osric90
06/06/12, 6:18 am

Hope they use it in something other than Final Fantasy games.

Yoshi
06/06/12, 9:14 am

I find this extremely offensive. No girl sounds like that unless they’re in a Japanese porno.

Anders
06/06/12, 10:17 am

Is it too soon to be excited for E3 2013?

desadoc
06/06/12, 11:27 am

Tri-ace also demoed a new engine too some time ago. Similar in some key ideas, like physically based rendering and global illumination.

I wonder how much these engines can or needs to be tweaked so it achieves whatever visual the artists desired.

TheBlackHole
06/06/12, 12:10 pm

I’d have been impressed if I could see what the hell was going on. The director needs to stop watching Michael Bay movies and get rid of the shakey-cam habit.

The shots where the camera wasn’t having a fit were quite nice.

absolutezero
06/06/12, 12:24 pm

Even in Final Fantasy. With a dragon and a mutant hyena.

Muslim Terrorists with AKs. sigh.

Deacon
06/06/12, 12:37 pm

Stunning! Let’s hope they focus on the mechanics and storyline as much as they are graphics!

#10

xino
06/06/12, 4:55 pm

man Square Enix are on a roll lately!

but i thought they had financials problems last year!?

MY GOD!
How can that be real time!?
is this for next gen consoles? or just another future engine for current gen consoles?

#11

freedoms_stain
06/06/12, 5:11 pm

Remember when Square used to be good at pretty graphics, good gameplay and interesting stories? Good times.

#12

Dimaco
07/06/12, 10:30 am

@11 yup, that’s why they should really give us that FFVII remake (can you imagine it thru THAT engine?!) and take a break from all the meh recent FFs…