Ubisoft release SnowDrop Engine Dev Video

Development on game engine Snowdrop started about five years ago before The Division was in development and before the specifications were known for either the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox One. Initially it was an engine built on PC for PC and next-gen development by Massive Entertainment. We decided to not develop for current gen, Ubisoft has many good current gen engines. We started very early on to predict what the next generation consoles would be and we were lucky on the specs. We were fairly close to what they became. We're super happy they're so close to each other.

AAA game development projects are growing in scope exponentially, so we wanted to be smart and not rely on brute force," he said. "We needed an engine that would support how we work in the studio, promote creativity, and allow the freedom to experiment and prototype. The core of the game engine is powered by a "node-based system" which simplifies the process of connecting different systems like rendering, AI, mission scripting and the user interface.

Snowdrop is a dynamic, interconnected and flexible system where developers can create their assets quickly and interact with them in ways that have never been done before, The game and the editor are unified, and everything in the engine runs in real time, which means that the ongoing project is always playable. This is extremely useful and allows for the implementation of new ideas and creations instantly; providing the ability to check the consistency of the game world at any time.

The engine also supports procedurally generated environments. For instance, in the video below, the forest scene was created with a single tree, rock and fern that was then automatically replicated and placed by the engine. Everything you run in one platform can just be checked in any other platform. The build can be spit out too all three platforms.

The forest shots, turrets and giant flies that you saw in the trailer are not part of The Division. This video is a technical demonstration, to display Snowdrop's full capacities as a new generation engine. Snowdrop is capable of creating a large range of varied universes, procedurally, and in an unprecedented level of detail. Also Wii U is not a console we are developing Snowdrop on. It would have been possible if we wanted to, but we would have been ruling out things we didn't want to take out.


Also here is a gameplay trailer from GDC 2013 for their upcoming title The Division.

Technical director for The Divisions Snowdrop Engine Anders Holmquist has been talking about the Snowdrop Engine and how its helping make the development process easier.

Snowdrop's big selling point isn't "power", but efficiency. It's possible for artists and designers to fiddle with aspects of the simulation without asking programmers to build things from scratch, thanks to a process called "asset communication", whereby "all our different systems - levels, props, particles, UI, scripts, etc. - interact with and modify each other".

By having this power, we can create a unique and dynamic world filled with gameplay without having programmers write new code for every feature. This is important because the sheer fidelity players now expect of modern blockbusters requires a boatload of additional resources. Games nowadays are so ambitious and lifelike,
the amount of work and content that needs to go into them is, frankly, insane.

Instead of just throwing more people at a problem, you need to look at ways to help everyone that works on the game get more done, be more empowered, and be more creative without increasing their workload. This is very hard, but by having great tools and procedural systems with fast and easy workflows, it becomes much more realistic to create these incredible games.

At work, we have these days every now and again where you get to work on whatever you want. Some people take a course in something, some people make prototypes, some people make something fun in one of our games. A long time ago, when the engine was very new - long before we had a script system or anything of the sort - we had one of these days. I was on my way to grab something to drink, when I see a lot of people standing around four guys with Xbox controllers each playing something. I walk up and see they're playing some kind of four-player split-screen game where each player has a tank and is trying to kill the other players.

It turned out that one of the technical artists had made this game with four-player split-screen, scoring, tanks that moved and shoot 'correctly' - it looked really nice. And he had done it in a day, basically without any code support. That's when I knew we were onto something really good with the engine.

Whole article can be read here...

New Division details - how Snowdrop lets Ubisoft overcome "insane" workloads​

Game Talk Special breakdown on the 'Snowdrop GDC Trailer'


The Division Changes “From Player To Player

The Division, the upcoming highly anticipated “next-gen” title, is set in a sort of an alternate version of New York, and it seems the game is truly embracing the meaning of constant change and dynamism. Because it seems like New York and thus, the way you play the game, will change from player to player and game to game. So, if, say, you join your friend’s game of The Division, you might find that his version is a lot different from yours, even if you’re at similar points in the story.

“The way our world works for you as a player is it’s your own specific ‘phase’, or copy, of New York,” game director Ryan Barnard said. “It can change from player to player or group to group. So if you join my copy of the game you inherit my world, my universe.

“Say it’s early morning and it’s clear. You’re in an area with enemies – I don’t want to go into calling them NPCs but enemies – and you have to be really careful as you’re moving through the streets if you don’t want to alert them to your presence because they can detect you and hear you much further away.

“But during a snowstorm, for example, a big weather system has come up and you can move through the area [freely] and get much closer [undetected]. It changes the tactics and the movement speed you have, and you have to learn how to deal with the environment.”

SOURCE - GAMINGBOLT​