Game development takes a new leap with the new PSP. Untold Legends © SCEA.

2005 is already shaping up to be a breakthrough year for games and for game developers. With the introduction of the Sony PSP this spring, the industry has taken the plunge and aimed squarely for the mass market. Sony premiered the PSP much like it would a Hollywood blockbuster: lavish premiere parties, television, print and online advertising and, believe it or not, some excellent games too. Developers have long craved this kind of attention and now it’s here. Are we up to the scrutiny? One way or another we’ll likely know by this fall. That’s when the next generation of home console game systems will begin hitting store shelves, with Xbox 2 the first to launch. The expectations for these next gen systems are high, not only for gamers, but for developers as well. Case in point: the discussions heard during the 2005 Game Developers Conference. The show this year was abuzz with talk of the next gen systems, centering particularly on the daunting production realities implied. I spoke with several industry leaders at the conference. The mood was generally mixed. Some folks seem to think we’re at the dawn of a new golden age for game development while others fear production costs will hurt us more than the new technology will help.

At the moment game developers have the luxury of years of experience working with a fairly robust set of tools for both console and PC development. There are numerous middleware solutions, taking much pain out of engine development, although none are guaranteed perfect solutions. On the art side, there are some excellent tools, both mature and new. The recent introduction of normal mapping techniques, HDRI lighting, and some creative implementations have pushed the visual content in games to something reasonably competitive with Hollywood. The software required to generate next gen content is likely to be the same software the industry is using today, with a few new additions. Standard low poly modeling and hand animation now compete for development dollars with MoCap and normal map generation. Eventually, the industry will find its rhythm but at the moment things seem to be very much up in the air.

The fairly new modo, currently receiving rave reviews, is worth consideration for its ease of use and flexibility. © 2005 Luxology Llc.

While there haven’t been any major breakthroughs in polygonal modeling for some time, there is a new tool that is on every next gen game artists’ must have list. Zbrush stands out for its normal map generation. There are other methods of generating detailed normal maps but none as slick, straightforward and, frankly, as fun as Zbrush. This app is excellent but is not an all in one solution. In order to use Zbrush effectively, most developers need to pair it with a strong modeler, usually 3ds max or Maya. An alternative to these veteran apps is the fairly new modo, currently receiving nearly unanimous rave reviews. Luxology, the developer of modo, is interested in luring game developers, a group that is traditionally slow to accept new tools due to their ever decreasing production cycles. modo is worth consideration for its ease of use and flexibility. Zbrush is certainly a sexier app, creating ultra detailed high res meshes, but modo also handles high res meshes and even excels in low poly modeling chores. Dion Burgoyne, one of many modo developers demonstrating the app at GDC, touts ease of revision as one of modo’s greatest strengths. He also believes UV mapping is more flexible in modo than in some of the other more popular game art apps. Export scripts are written in PERL for modo and therefore much more straightforward and accessible than Maxscript or MEL. Burgoyne agrees that apps such as Zbrush reside comfortably alongside a strong low poly modeler such as modo. While he appreciates Zbrush for its normal mapping specialty, he suggests the models are not as practical as modo’s.

Autodesk and Alias seem to be waiting to evolve their flagship apps, 3ds max and Maya, for the moment at least. My hunch is that these big players want to see what truly comes of the next gen consoles before committing too many new tools to their apps. It’s a safe bet that in less than two years we’ll see 3ds max and Maya bundled with their own high res modeling tools. This strategy may hurt them, as Zbrush and other strong modelers, such as modo, take more and more of the market share.