GDC 08: White Engine renamed to Crystal Tools

Taku Murata's session at the GDC had some very interesting information: The White Engine, which is being used in Square Enix's next generation PlayStation 3 title Final Fantasy XIII, has been renamed and is now called Crystal Tools.
The interesting part was when Taku Murata said some of the engine's features will work on the Wii, although, "it's a secret". Is Square Enix planning to released more titles on the Wii?

[pwnsause]

more and more I believe that Kingdom hearts 3 will be a wii exclusive.

[decapitator]

This announcement was totally unexpected...whoa. Well am not going to jump to conclusions but wow, what a shocker this is.

[ruibing]

I still hope not. It's suppose to a gorgeous next gen game.

[decapitator]

Agree. But with this piece of information, KH3 exclusivity is in doubt right now for me that is. After reading around more about the crystal tools, SE are also saying, they do not intend to make single console exclusive going forward.

Also, FXIII, FXvIII and FF:C for wii are the only games using the Crystal Tools right now.

[INehalemEXI]

They are also making an MMO using Crystal Tools right now.

[Lifendz]

Here's the thing: Games cost so much to make these days that Devs want to ensure their game reaches the most amount of people possible. PS3 isn't exactly doing bad in Japan, but it's not doing as well as the Wii. So Square wants in on the Wii market and I can't really blame them. Granted the game they make won't be as epic, grandiose, or whatever word you want to use as their PS3 game (in terms of pure tech) but it will be Square and it'll sell.

Again, I'm not mad at them. Heck, I'm getting FFXIII and FFXIII versus so I'm happy.

[xhi4]

but as time goes on, i get the feeling its going to be coming out on the wii.

i reckon itd sell more on the wii as well.....but that would be so sad!

[ChickeyCantor]

think again!

if it sells more on the Wii, Square-X will receive money, meaning they will have more money for bigger projects.

it did good on the PS2, and we all know it would be a beautiful game on the PS3......but as long the gameplay is fun there is no reason to look down @ it.

[xhi4]

I'd love to see KH3 in 1080p with the White Engine and photo realistic graphics..........that would melt my eyes!

But if its wii graphics.....then how disappointing is it aye. I mean the gameplay would be awesome, but the entire visual experience, not so much ya know

[ChickeyCantor]

i bet you wouldnt complain if you look @ the gfx of 1 and 2...so why would it damage your eyes now?

you did say gameplay would be good.....so i honestly dont really see problem :P

[rofldings]

Because 1 and 2 came out last-gen. I don't want to play anymore PS2 quality games. I want HD.

Btw, "White Engine" sounded way cooler than "Crystal Tools"

[ChickeyCantor]

HD or not, a game is a game.
get over it.

[jackdoe]

It would be sad, but that is life I guess. Hopefully KH3 comes out for the PS3 though. I really want to see Next-Gen (or Current Gen if you'd like to call it) Donald and Goofy renders.

[Homicide]

One thing that I'm worried about KH3 being on the Wii is the controls. Considering that Kingdom Hearts is mostly a button mashing game, I'm afraid they might replace that with mindless arm waving. I hope it goes to the PS3, if not, well Square better not screw up with the controls.

[ruibing]

But I don't want a Wii at all. Playing it once in awhile at a friend's house is enough for me. If its an exclusive, please let it be a timed exclusive.

[Qbanboi]

Same here bro. I love the game. But i hate the Wii, (it's how i am) i won't buy that little console for a KH3.

Also, come on. We all know that only 1st party games sale on the Wii. Yeah, others 3rd party sell good as well, but no as they should.

And a 1080p full HD, can't be comprare against the resolution of the Wii. Please don't make it a Wii, exclusive. Make it, multiplataform if you want. But no Wii exclusive.

[forum_crawler]

I don't care if they release a version of it for my cell phone, so long as they release a version of it for the wii. I would love to play this game!

[Mr_Kuwabara]

For some reason, I too think that KH3 might grace the Wii and PS3 or be exclusive for the Wii altogether.

[decapitator]

Whats more scary is that, Disney is one of the strongest supporters of the Wii and they own the KH3 Ip.

[Cartesian3D]

how MANY times I must say.. the Whole Kingdom Hearts team ...

I repeat .. the WHOLE kingdom hearts team are BUSY .. working on FFVersusXIII for PS3... so I dont care about KH3 ..

because if there will be a KH3 for Wii it will be developed by another team.. which means not SAME quality imo .. or atleast not same Structure that WE love :)

so dont worry .. VERSUS will be our NEXT_GEN action RPG

BTW: does Wii really needs a Special NEXT gen engine ? I thought it has a same HW as lastgen Nintendo consoles ( GameCube ) .. they must just add some motion controls feature in their old engines :P

[ChickeyCantor]

its stronger, ergo, more power...

[Cartesian3D]

Im pro in hardware structure..

64MB of GDDR3 video ram ergo not so much more RAM compare to GC .. and 3MB for textures ..

low frequency core(CPU around 730 ,GPU near 250MHZ) and RAM .. ergo low power..

so Next-gen engine with complex animations ,high poly models,lighting tricks for render in shaders.. blah blah blah wont be thoroughly work for Wii .. so Last-gen engines would be enough :P

sorry I though u want to insult my english writing skills with word "ERGO" .. anyway u are right I havent any

[ChickeyCantor]

" does Wii really needs a Special NEXT gen engine ? I thought it has a same HW as lastgen Nintendo consoles"

PC hardware is also the same but upgraded( in short periods of time), therefore, Wii has more power to offer. its not as " strong " as the other consoles but it offers more power then the GCN.

"so Next-gen engine with complex animations "
you make a big mistake here...if the engine is complex, it doesn't mean you have to make the Animation Complex,make models out of allot of poly's, use all the shaders so on and on.

Square themselves did say there are functions in the crystal tool that could be executed on the Wii hardware so, so who says they wont slim down the engine?

and ERGO is just another word for THEREFORE.

you " haven't any" what, whatyou talking about =/ ?

[Fishy Fingers]

Handbags at dawn?

[mullet]

Why Crystal Tools? That's so gay. Crystal Engine sounds cooler but White Engine sounds best.

[eagle21]

Final Fantasy XIII FTW...

[killer_trap]

i thought the white engine was optimized to take full advantage of the ps3's spu and structure so how come it's now compatible with the wii???

there is a major downgrade between the two systems. if they said it's compatible with the 360 then i would understand but the wii !!!!

maybe the engine itself isn't as good as square says it is. i really do hope they shut me up when we see the first true in game footage in video form anytime soon.

[jackdoe]

Base engine is multiplatform(Squeenix announced this ages ago), but Squeenix added so much to the code to completely optimize the version of White/Crystal Engine for the PS3(the version that is being used for FFXIII and FFXIII Versus). Don't worry about whether or not it will take advantage of the SPUs. It will. And lots of game engines that run on PS360 run on the Wii as well. Gamebryo for example, powers Oblivion, can run on the Wii. The key thing is SCALING.

[forum_crawler]

When you realize that the same engine can behave differently on different platforms. What this means is that the engine is smart enough to know what to optimize for its target platform, much like some compilers give you the option to optimize your code for 32/64 bit processors, etc.

Don't be surprised if the engine has optimizations for PS3, 360/PC, and wii, just be glad that this means that games can be developed for all platforms if there is a market for them.

[Bnet343]

White Engine sounded cooler but ok.

[OmegaKulu]

I guess they are just trying to unified their game dev for all those platforms, keep the cost and dev time down, since they ARE releasing games to all of them.

[AIZEN SOZUKE]

the same engine that square enix is using for ps3s ff13 and versus, drown yourself now.

[alster23]

im starting to consider ffv13 to be my new KH minus the disney stuff

[jackdoe]

It is KH without Disney. Similar art design, same development team, same character designer. There won't be a new numbered KH game until they are done with Versus (Though Birth by Sleep and and the DS game are great bridges to the eventual KH 3).

[INehalemEXI]

Ive wanted to get into KH but the disney tie in has always kept me from actually getting a KH's game.

I just don't like the mix.KH seems to have been a critical step for the evolution of the combat systems in some FF games Though. Like CC and Versus. FFXII combat sytstem is like FFXII I hear.

[alster23]

maybe wii should get more of sora's story and the ps3 gets the knight's story

[jackdoe]

The Knight's story will be told in Birth by Sleep (KHPSP).

[alster23]

so the knights may only be in birth by sleep?

[Daurelus17]

IM more excited about Verse then i am bout another KH game

[rCrysis]

this doesn't change much. KH3 may come to Wii. Theres a possibility of a Wii exclusive. But thats already been rumored.

KH3 on Wii would totally kill the whole game. IMO. The controls would be different, the HD quality everyone would want is now unattainable. Basically playing on PS2 with new controls.

One thing that bugs me is that if the KH2 cut scenes would actually render on the Wii. The special video at the end of KH2:FM. Would those graphics render on a Wii? Really stumps me.

rCrysis

[forum_crawler]

The GC itself was more powerful than the PS2, so why would it surprise you to see the wii rendering cut scenes from the PS2?

Anyway, I do hope the game does come to the wii, with decent controls. Nintendo is perfectly capable of delivering action games with great controls, so if they put the time and effort, the game will be successful.

[PROGnosis]

wasn't Square Enix going to abandon White Engine/Crystal Tools after FFXIII and use Unreal Engine?

EDIT: Nevermind, my mistake they were using both, o well

[Salvadore]

That doesn't sound like an engine to me, that sounds more like a cheap developer tool.

[chrstphr567]

I don't think kingdom Hearts 3 is coming to Wii. I heard it's going to be an alternative version to 3 where Sora meets the Mushroom Kingdom. But If KH3 does come to wii then FFIII and maybe even FF7 will move over soon enough.