Next Generation Gaming Engines "HYDROENGINE"

Sorry for recycling old post, this was one of my first post and my first attempt at blogging. Hydrophobia has been on my radar since summer of 2007. It was finally teased at this year E3 2008.

I wrote about the Hydroengine back in 5/7/07 and briefly touch on Hydrophobia on Video Gamer's Heaven my first blog. Hey, I am looking out for the Virtual environment please people recycle especially old post(Hey Nintendo is King Recycling).

Will the Next generation of gaming is upon us. With the cost of building a new game climbing into the 10+ million dollar range we will start to see some pretty interesting game engine to take advantage of the raw horse power the Sony PS3 and Microsoft 360 has to offer especially the Sony PS3.

Wikipedia defines a game engine as the core software component of a computer or video game or other interactive application with real-time graphics. It provides the underlying technologies, simplifies development, and often enables the game to run on multiple platforms such as game consoles and desktop operating systems such as Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows. The core functionality typically provided by a game engine includes a rendering engine (“renderer”) for 2D or 3D graphics, a physics engine or collision detection (and collision response), sound, scripting, animation, artificial intelligence, networking, streaming, memory management, threading, and a scene graph. The process of game development is frequently economized by in large part reusing the same game engine to create multiple different games. (Source:wikipedia.org)

Another name for game engines are "Middleware" because these systems are flexible and reusable which in terms help reduce the cost, complexities, and time-to-market. They are a few Game Engines out there that are pretty well known. Such as: Havok for physics, FMOD for sound, SpeedTree for rendering. A few full features 3D game engines are: RealmForge, Ogre, Power Render, Crystal Space, Genesis3D, and JMonkey Engine.

Today we will take a look at: HydroEngine



Blade's HydroEngine technology is the result of years of intensive development work. The HydroEngine will allow developer's to model the flowing water and other liquids, which will behave exactly as you would expect in real life(sounds pretty sick...Bioshock eat your heart out). Water can flow down corridors and stairs, and is entirely dynamic, which means you never get the same behavior twice.

HydroEngine can interact with any solid body physics engines such as Havok, so that objects and debris can be carried with the flow, and interact with dynamic environments and characters in countless ways.

HydroEngine is the centerpiece of Blade's new survival adventure title Hydrophobia, which uses the revolutionary Hydroengine to deliver a game experience that can potentially unseat the epic BioShock as the number one underwater survival experience.





(Pre E3 5/07/07)


(Pre E3 5/07/07)


(Pre E3 5/07/07)


(Pre E3 5/07/07)

In the mid 21st Century, Thomas Malthus's 18th Century prophecy will finally be realized.

The Great Population Flood has brought the world to its knees. Cities and towns have become swamped as mass poverty spreads, and the rights of the individual are lost in a sea of desperation.

You are Kate Wilson, a Security Engineer onboard the Queen of the World - a stateless supership where the powerful and the wealthy live in exile from the chaos of the outside world, but united in their quest to save it.

For ten years this "City at Sea" has stood as a beacon for progress, prospering as the rest of world slowly drowns.

On the eve of the Queens massive anniversary celebrations, with a breakthrough announcement looming, the great vessel comes under attack.

Trapped behind enemy lines, Kate must fight her own demons as she becomes the last hope against an army of Neo-Malthusian terrorists, whose philosophy is simple: "Save the world, kill yourself".(Source:bladeinteractive.com)


Does this mean that a new WAVE RACE is only just around the corner(LOL.....the only realtime physics the Nintendo Wii can do is when you shake the Wiimotes). I can see some very interesting ways that a creative developer can use a water engine. Can we imagine a Virtual world where you can skip a pebble across a pond or better yet Bioshock II built using the Sony PS3 CELL and Bladesinteractive new water baby...

Hydrophobia pics E3 2008