A look inside the Hedgehog Engine
Ryan Bloom, Editor | September 13, 2008
Images surface of a power-point presentation given by SonicTeam at CEDEC
Details are scarce, but images have surfaced from a CEDEC presentation given by Sega and SonicTeam on their upcoming “Hedgehog Engine” and how this technology is applied to Sonic Unleashed, the first game to use the Hedgehog Engine.
The CESA Developers Conference ( CEDEC for short) is, as I understand it, the Japanese equivalent to the North American Game Developers Conference (GDC for short). The event centers around developers who get up on stage and talk game technology - and this year, that lineup included a presentation given by Sega and SonicTeam.
Though the images are mostly in Japanese, a number of them seem easy to decipher - particularly, Sega seems to be proud of their new lighting technology, which does not just calculate baked-in shadows but includes colored lightmaps for light filtering through transparent objects and reflecting off the world. To you and me, this means much more natural, colorful lighting. This is further demonstrated by an image showing how their lighting engine applies to Sonic; light reflected off of nearby flowers tints Sonic a subtle pink.
Other elements of the presentation discuss the tools of the Hedgehog Engine, suggesting Sega is opening the technology to third-party licensing, much like Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3. These tools include Artificial Intelligence Libraries called Wisdom, an animation/model editor called Mirage, a cinematics editor called Inspire, and more. Most interesting to Sonic fans is are two images of Inspire featuring a close-up look at a stylized human character and Chip.
Since details are so short at the time being, we have provided the images from this presentation below just in case the original source takes them down.
Filed Under Business & Industry, Japan, Sega, Sonic Scene, Sonic Unleashed, The Next Sonic
Hmmm. Interesting..
Ever since Sega announced their new engine alongside Sonic Unleashed, I knew they were going to be licensing it.
Where’s Chip?
Chip is in images 30 and 31.
Yeah Thats all nice but I the game seems to run at 5fps. Is it worth it?
Thank you Ryan!
5fps? There are actually framerate counters visible in a number of these screenshots, as the game is running in debug mode. Most read 30fps (or above!), save for two screenshots where he has the editor window open.
The TRAILERS run at a choppy framerate - but keep in mind this game has a little over two months left in development. Smoothing choppy framerates is usually the last thing most developers do.
This images make the need for this game stronger! Such creation and detail! SEGA have taken the hedgehog engine and have a right to be proud! Congratulations SEGA! Also thanks a bunch for these pics!