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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Final Fantasy (GDC)

krik on 22 February 2008

A few things from the FF sessions at GDC:

 

White Engine is now called  "Crystal Tools" (TM). It is a set of tools for artists (and sound engineers too) plus a runtime component. The runtime component is cross-platform: PS3, PC, X360 and...

 

Wii, yes, Wii is also being worked on as a target paltform for the Crystal Tools.

 

Currently 3 projects at SE using Crystal Tools: FFXIII, FFvXIII and an unannounced MMORPG.

The Crystal Engine reached version 1.0 in September last year. Been stable since them, they adding more features as requested by dev teams.

Possibility to license Crystal Tools to other companies in the future, not right now since the documentation is sub-par

Stay tuned, more internal projects will be using the Crystal Tools. Official announcements soon.

Problems with different target platforms: they optimized each target for maximum performance on the hardware. Using SPUs, multiple cores (360/PC), memory layouts, etc.

The goal of SE is to use Crystal Tools for ALL new SE projects. So I assume DS/PSP targets will also be implemented (they already adding Wii)

 He showed screen shots of the tools : character editor, cut scene editor, etc. Also played the same trailer as yesterday during "The art of FINAL FANTASY" session.

 He did not say what platforms will the new MMORPG be released but confirmed that FFXIII and FFvXIII are PS3 only. Since 2 out of the 3 games are PS3 only I can only I assume the MMORPG is going to be PC/PS3/360. They have to be testing the toolset/runtime on the 360/PC since it's at version 1.0.

  



PSN ID: krik

Optimistic predictions for 2008 (Feb 5 2008): Wii = 20M, PS3 = 14M, X360 = 9.5M

 

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konnichiwa on 22 February 2008

^^'' I preferred the name White Engine...






totalwar23 on 22 February 2008

Looks like SE is starting to take a multiplatform approach...maybe.



Dogs Rule on 22 February 2008
konnichiwa said:
^^'' I preferred the name White Engine...

Yeah, crystal tools sounds like a sex toy. 



akuma587 on 22 February 2008
konnichiwa said:
^^'' I preferred the name White Engine...

 Me too.  It least it looks like the engine is coming along nicely.  It should decrease their in-house development costs if they can get the engine up and running for use with everything since they can pool so many resources.



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makingmusic476 on 22 February 2008
krik said:

He showed screen shots of the tools : character editor, cut scene editor, etc. Also played the same trailer as yesterday during "The art of FINAL FANTASY" session.


 So the cutscenes will be real-time?



krik on 22 February 2008
totalwar23 said:
Looks like SE is starting to take a multiplatform approach...maybe.

 The Crystal Tools are more than multiplatform. They are supposed to be the underlying technology for all future SE projects. In the past they've been building new tool chains for each new project and since 2006 they have been focusing on unifying all teams on a core technology platform.

 



PSN ID: krik

Optimistic predictions for 2008 (Feb 5 2008): Wii = 20M, PS3 = 14M, X360 = 9.5M

 

krik on 22 February 2008
Soriku said:
Wow! CT for Wii (and DS and PSP). I hope future SE games look good.

 Please note he did not say anything about the DS or PSP. He did confirm they working on the Wii runtime target and he also said that Crystal Tools are supposed to be used by all future SE projects... I'm just adding 2+2 based on the whole presentation. 

 BTW: I like the name Crystal Tools, the slide where he introduced the name was cool, "Crystal Tools (tm)" in a FF setting with a nice crystal on the left (before the work "Crystal"), very Final Fantasy-like.



PSN ID: krik

Optimistic predictions for 2008 (Feb 5 2008): Wii = 20M, PS3 = 14M, X360 = 9.5M

 

ChronotriggerJM on 22 February 2008

I think it's "tools" that's throwing everyone off :P I wouldn't have minded the "Crystal Engine" xD And "White tools" .... well, I think we've all seen that at some point in time via browing porn >_>



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krik on 22 February 2008
makingmusic476 said:
krik said:

He showed screen shots of the tools : character editor, cut scene editor, etc. Also played the same trailer as yesterday during "The art of FINAL FANTASY" session.


 So the cutscenes will be real-time?


 I don't think so. The cut scene editor uses in-game assets. They can play with the assets, animations, cameras, effects, etc, but I think at the end the goal is to render the cut scenes. Anyway I can't tell if they will be pre rendered or not since they did not specify (I think they will pre-render them to make them look better).

 Also, during yesterday's session the art director said for FFXIII they have a different team just working on cut scenes...



PSN ID: krik

Optimistic predictions for 2008 (Feb 5 2008): Wii = 20M, PS3 = 14M, X360 = 9.5M