As part of Game Developers Conference 2022, Ubisoft announced new game development technology, which the Assassin’s Creed giant says will allow the company’s teams to create “unlimited” worlds. Ubisoft Scalar is the new native cloud technology, and is already in use by Ubisoft teams in Stockholm, Sweden and other offices around the world.
Ubisoft Scalar is not a game streaming service, but a new set of tools that developers can use to take advantage of cloud computing.
“Ubisoft Scalar unleashes the power and resilience of cloud computing for Ubisoft’s game engines — the software used to create games — reducing dependence on gamers’ hardware and providing new possibilities for game development and the player experience,” said Ubisoft.
Studio head Patrick Bach said that Ubisoft Stockholm is leading the development of a new IP address using Scalar, but the company is not ready to disclose details about it, during a media session attended by GameSpot. Whatever this new game may be, it will show “the full potential of Scalar to deliver an experience on a scale never seen before.” Ubisoft teams in Malmö (Ubisoft Massive), Helsinki (Ubisoft Redlynx), Bucharest and Kiev are also working on new Scalar projects to be announced later.
With Scalar, Ubisoft is trying to create a “development framework that focuses on designing the perfect game experience and design, rather than working around traditional production constraints.”
Scalar is a platform-independent tool that Ubisoft uses to try to create and play the “games of tomorrow”. These are just conversations at this time, as Ubisoft hasn’t shown any screenshots or specifically talked about what Scalar-powered games will look like.
For developers, Scalar promises “unprecedented scalability, flexibility, and creative freedom.” It’s no surprise that Ubisoft announced this at the GDC because the annual event is often a recruitment event, in addition to serving as a forum for developers to meet and discuss their work.
Traditional game engines have intertwined features and functions, so when you update one element, another may be affected. This, in turn, can create bottlenecks and other problems for developers. With the advent of Scalar to overlay any engines that Ubisoft may use, developers can work independently on individual elements of the game engine without affecting others. Ubisoft says this will help with redundancy, overall speed and ease of development, and anything created with Scalar can be shared “relatively” easily with other workers, Ubisoft said.
“Ubisoft Scalar, built on a microservices architecture, independently places each component and system of traditional game engines in the cloud (artificial intelligence, sound, physics…), transitioning from closed single processor systems to a distributed model with unlimited capabilities,” he said. Ubisoft. “Games using this technology can thus harness nearly infinite computing power to push the boundaries in every aspect and power anything from vast virtual worlds to extremely deep simulations and previously unattainable environments.”
Ubisoft said Scalar has an “on demand” philosophy. It is able to start and stop certain services “dynamically”, depending on the needs of players and developers, so that only the necessary computing power is used at any time. “This improvement extends to computing-intensive tasks that are cached and distributed globally, eliminating the need to recalculate what has already been computed,” Ubisoft said.
Additionally, Scalar is able to give developers the ability to add or update features in a live game, without interrupting ongoing game sessions. The catch here is that no additional patches, downloads, or downtimes will be required for players in this setup. This is likely to be a huge problem given the volume of game updates these days, but again, Ubisoft is just an idea at this point. We haven’t seen that in practice yet; Still, it’s an exciting prospect though.
“This is an important moment in our careers as game developers. We feel the same inspiration and freedom when we started using our PCs as teenagers – that feeling that you can do anything by fully harnessing the power of the cloud, for the first time in the world,” said Christian Holmqvist of Ubisoft Stockholm. the games”.
For gamers, Scalar can allow developers to create games with “unlimited” worlds. With Scalar, “millions” of players can gather in a “single, shared virtual environment” in what Ubisoft says could be “new types of games and large-scale social experiences.”
“And with cloud-accelerated systems, game worlds are also reaching a new level of persistence where players’ actions can have an immediate and lasting impact on their environment, opening the doors to new, emerging forms of gameplay,” Ubisoft said.
Scalar was created by Ubisoft’s new Production Technology division, which has more than 500 people working to create “best tools and technologies” to help developers make better games.
Ubisoft Scalar, core technology, grew out of the newly created Production Technology Division, a cross-functional group of more than 500 tech experts whose mission is to develop the best tools and technologies that help Ubisoft game creators realize their visions.
“Ubisoft builds on 35 years of continuous investment in research and development and proprietary technologies, with technological independence being the main distinguishing factor,” said Guillemette Picard, Vice President, Production Technology. “Ubisoft Scalar aligns with this spirit, enhancing both our creativity and our unique co-development model with new and transparent ways to collaborate on a global scale. This represents a step forward and an exciting milestone for the gaming community.”
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