BigWorld Pty Ltd has released the latest version of their MMOG software platform, BigWorld Technology Suite V1.6, providing Massively Multiplayer Online Game studios with a base on which to build the next generation of online games.
The BigWorld Technology Suite is an integrated set of tools, software and systems that provides all of the underlying technology and content development tools required to produce an MMOG. BigWorld has licensed their technology for use in 43 different upcoming games, including
Shen Mue Online,
Citizen Zero, and a number of other unannounced titles.
The new version of BigWorld Technology Suite features a new DirectX9 3D engine, improved direct export from 3D Studio Max and new support for direct export from Alias Maya. V1.6 also improves BigWorld's content creation pipeline, with an entirely data-driven art pipeline using the FX shader file format and XML definitions that allow the 3D engine and tools to support arbitrary vertex formats and shader importation.
The server software has also been enhanced in 1.6, with further optimised load balancing algorithms and increased efficiencies. The multi-tiered load balancing architecture allows BigWorld Server to support multiple shards, multiple worlds and even multiple games on a single cluster, providing a high level of robustness and resource utilisation.
BigWorld Technology Suite 1.6 provides operators and studios with a lower total cost of ownership, through several innovations. The BigWorld Server architecture allows operators to run several games on a single server cluster, dramatically reducing the cost of running the game, while the enhanced Content Creation Pipeline reduces the cost of building and filling out the complex worlds required in next-generation games.
