RafaelOrix said:
Procrastinato said:
RafaelOrix said:
Hey people, take a look at this link:
http://playstationlifestyle.net/2009/03/23/sony-computer-entertainment-announces-the-release-of-phyreengine™-240/
They talk about PhyreEngine and other things that I don't understand at all. But there we can see some other games I've never heard of (most likely all PSN games):
Ivent Games - Developing the third-person action game Strength of the Sword.
Lexis Numérique - Brooklyn Stories (working title).
VectorCell - The 7th Seal (working title).
Never heard anything about these games. Is there any info out there? Are they new games?
Sorry if AP. ;) |
I believe PhyreEngine is the Sony PS3 equivalent of
Microsoft's XNA framework for the 360. I think some fairly well known games were actually written using it, including DiRT, which curiously, is cross-platform (and was better on the PS3, as I recall). I think PhyreEngine may actually support DirectX, in addition to NVidia's low-level shader language (cg
), and OpenGL, which the PS3 would be the primary target for.
Its also meant as a high-performance game engine, and is written in C++, unlike XNA, which uses C#, I think, and thus wouldn't be ideal for high-end retail games, which would require excess performance.
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Hmm thanks! So this is mostly used by small devs? But that's off-topic.
About the GDC, how long it last and it's open to the public?
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GDC is not a public event. It lasts a week (this week, actually), for the most part.
PhyreEngine is only available to developers who are licensed to develop on the PS3 by SCE. Thus I think you must be making a PS3 game to use PhyreEngine (but not an exclusive, as evidenced by DiRT), and I'm sure being licensed probably costs a fair amount -- although it may not be too much. Just enough to dissuade the not-so-serious from trying to develop, and using Sony resources in their half-hearted effort.
There are a lot of people begging Sony to make PhyreEngine freeware, but SCE has not done such a thing, at this point. I don't imagine they ever will, since it could be used to make PC or X360 games -- and Sony would be wasting a lot of money and effort building a good game engine if you weren't required to release on a Sony console with the end result.
XNA only works on the PC/360, and thus effectively has a similar restriction. You can't use it if you're wanting to develop on the PS3, but anyone can use it for a small fee. PE is different, in that you can develop cross-platform with it.. PC/360/PS3... heck you could probably develop a Wii game with it. ...but you have to pay Sony a fee for it. I dunno if the fee is large enough that small devs would feel intimidated. Some PSN games, like Savage Moon, were made with it, so that supports the theory that at least some small, independant devs can afford it.
In any case, this is sorta on-topic. PE is a good example of Sony's effort to make the PS3 easy to develop on, both in terms of overall budgeting, and they even provide a route for devs making cross-platform games to do so with a Sony-licensed engine.
As projects like PhyreEngine flourish, more and more games will come to the PS3, as a side effect of Sony providing good development tools and even an entire game engine -- especially since the engine is even flexible enough to support the competition's platform (although I bet it costs extra to release on platforms other than the PS3).
