With Avatar, we are making the most progress in history, says Ubisoft »Vortex

Avatar fans could finally relax during this year’s E3 – the game announced by Ubisoft developers really existed four years ago, and the great trailer was also a source of promise that Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora could arrive next year. After less than two weeks, people from the Massive Entertainment studio re-enter with a short video in which they underline the possibilities of the Snowdrop engine and confidently declare that they are making the greatest progress in the field of technology in history. They explain what is behind the detailed world of Pandora and describe some of the important changes they have had to make to the Snowdrop engine since The Division was released.

“Compared to our previous production, Avatar is completely different. We had to make a lot of big improvements and changes to our engine, “confirms art director Sebastian Lindoff. The changes that make Avatar different from The Division, for example, are that there are no giant cities on Pandora. On the contrary, the planet is full of vegetation, for which the developers not only had to prepare a lot of different models and then move them in accordance with the player and local fauna, but also add a lot of shaders and effects that will make the planet look realistic enough. This is greatly aided by the so-called microdata system, which technical graphic artist Kunal Luthra talks about: “We can get thousands of graphic assets into one image, which is the key to what the game looks like.”

To make the overall impression the best, developers also include ray tracing effects in their graphics and create realistic lighting in real time, even through individual tree leaves and often in combination with fog. lounging all around.

The developers also had to think about the overall design of the world, because in addition to moving on the ground, air movement will very often be used, moreover at very high speeds. Therefore, according to programmer Oleksandr Koshl, the developers had to include an unprecedented amount of detail in the scenes and guarantee that the player would not see deaf places. To make the overall impression the best, developers also include ray tracing effects in their graphics and create realistic lighting in real time, even through individual tree leaves and often in combination with fog. lounging all around. Clouds and skies in general have also been improved within the Snowdrop engine, which is also evident in the short spaces in the “kitchen” of developers.

But progress is not just about graphics, developers are also talking about artificial intelligence or NPC behavior, which will draw from many possible patterns and respond not only to players, but also the time of day or the current situation on Pandora. The developers used it in an interview as an example IGN the movement of large animals, which at rest walk very calmly around, but at the moment when they are in danger, they do not look at anything and run straight through the dense jungle and strike a visible strip in it. According to Massive representatives, the entire experience will be in the palm of their hand, when they resemble a first person perspective and thus engage in a slight friction with players who also call for a third person camera. But so far there is no indication that developers should make any concessions in this regard.

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