Square Enix Details Photo-Realistic Next-Gen Engine

[AutomaticDriver]

At a Japanese press conference this weekend, Square Enix showed off its new engine for next-generation games, called Luminous.

The engine is designed with DirectX 11 support, and, according to a report by Game Watch (via EDGE), is capable of cloth and fluid simulation, realtime reflections, and new methods of detailing 3D models.

Square Enix technical officer Yoshihisa Hashimoto said that despite these features, Luminous will reduce the cost of game development by up to thirty percent, and will also allow development cycles to be shortened.

A demo showcasing various locations showed off exactly what the engine is capable of, recreating objects and areas and rendering them in real time. In an earlier interview with EDGE, Square Enix technology officer Julien Merceron described the technology, saying, "If I take a picture and after this I create the same objects in a game with the right materials, I can achieve a rendering that is very close to the picture because I'm using the physical parameters of the real world."

Several photos compare an environment created in Luminous and rendered in real time to an actual photo of the same spot:

http://games.ign.com/articles/119/1199800p1.html

Luminous will scale from small-scale casual games to complex console titles. Square Enix is keeping the development framework internal and hasn't announced that it will be available to studios outside of the company.

Thanks to Develop for the photos.

Source: IGN

EDIT: To view the pictures. Go to the link in the quote.

EDIT 2: So? What do you guys think?