Square Enix ’s Luminous Studio engine - test sample

Square Enix’s Luminous Studio is a multi-platform engine designed for HD game development, that can work with any hardware that supports programmable shaders. That means it’s compatible with PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. Since Wii and Nintendo 3DS do not have programmable shaders, Luminous Studio isn’t compatible with those devices, but Yoshihisa Hashimoto says they are actively investigating how to support both platforms. Luminous Studio is also Direct X 11 compatible. Square Enix is aiming to have advanced artificial intelligence built into Luminous Studio. Past artificial intelligence loops are reactive, Yoichiro Miyake lead AI research says, and he wants to make Luminous Studio have scalable AI that recognizes game scenes. For example, they can tie the level editor in the with the AI tool so the game has an idea about the layout and can hunt hiding players in one type of game. If this process works, the AI tool can be used for multiple game genres. Miyake is aiming to have the AI tool cooperate with other parts of the engine instead of being stand alone. Right now, Luminous Studio isn’t attached to any upcoming title. Square Enix plan to show a full tech demo either next year or in 2012. For now, Square Enix has provided a short test sample. We’ll see more from their new engine when they demo it properly in 2012. NOTE: For some odd reason, both the quality and the frame rate have been halved when I uploaded it to YouTube. You can check out the higher-quality 60 fps version here: