| Q&A |
 Coded
Edge / Elflight Engine,
Richard Lowe, Technical Director Code Frontiers Ltd
June 2008 |
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“
The terrain is fully streamable over the Internet
and each world may be up to 32Km in size. The engine
has an interpolating 'atmosphere controller' which provides
time of day, fog, sun, moon, clouds and sky.
Standard features such as specular maps, normal maps
and ambient occlusion maps are supported and there is
also provision for fragment and vertex shaders.”
<Elflight
Engine in action |
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| Q1 |
lease
give a brief description of the Elflight Engine |
| A1 |
The
Elflight Engine is a streaming game engine that we have developed
from the ground up for use over the web. It enables 3D games
and applications with hardware-accelerated OpenGL graphics to
be launched from or within a web browser. It is particularly
useful for the development of MMOs and virtual worlds. |
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| Q2 |
Is
Java a promising platform for game development? |
| A2 |
We
believe so, yes. With the rapid growth of computing power on
the desktop in the past decade the overhead of the Java Virtual
Machine has been negligible for some time. Java is well supported
on the Mac, PC and Linux and this enables us to bring our technology
to a wide audience. |
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| Q3 |
Is
it possible to publish an Elflight Engine game inside the browser
as an Applet? |
| A3 |
Yes.
It is possible for a game to either be embedded within a web
page, or to fill the entire browser window. In the latter of
the two modes, on the fly resizing of the browser window is
fully supported. We also support Webstart which enables a game
to be launched in a separate window or full-screen. All of the
major web browsers are supported including Safari, Firefox and
Internet Explorer. |
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| Q4 |
There
are a lot of game engines. What makes the Elflight Engine different? |
| A4 |
Our
aim from the start was to be able to be able to run persistent
online 3D worlds (as well as simpler games and applications)
that would support real-time editing by developers and artists
and launch from the web with minimum startup time, regardless
of size. Data would be streamed over the Internet as these worlds
were explored. We also wanted hardware-accelerated 3D graphics.
Since there was nothing available to meet our needs, we designed
and built the Elflight Engine to meet these goals. |
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| Q5 |
When
it comes to 3D engines, one key feature is the workflow. How
may an artist import their assets? |
| A5 |
Our
tools enable an artist to select a model file from their computer
and then place it in the world. The entire process, including
rotating, translating, scaling or otherwise manipulating the
model are all observable in real-time by anybody else that is
logged in, which is useful for collaborative team-based development.
We support a number of model formats including OBJ, Milkshape3D
and Collada. |
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| Q6 |
Does
the Elflight Engine import Collada files from 3D Studio Max,
Softimage XSI or Maya? |
| A6 |
All
three. Our focus has initially been on Maya since we use that
internally, but we are now testing Collada models exported from
3D Studio Max and Softimage XSI. Writing a reliable Collada
importer is a particularly challenging task since the Collada
specification is both extensive and flexible which leads to
different ways of representing the same data. However, we have
developed our importer to address these challenges and we are
pleased with the pipeline. |
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| Q7 |
What
are the main features of the Elflight Engine in the field of
3D. Terrain, environment, shaders? |
| A7 |
 The
terrain is comprised of a base layer and one or more alpha-blended
detail layers. We support animated specular-lit translucent
water which produces good results across a broad range of machines.
The terrain is fully streamable over the Internet and each world
may be up to 32Km in size. The engine has an interpolating 'atmosphere
controller' which provides time of day, fog, sun, moon, clouds
and sky.
Standard features such as specular maps, normal maps and ambient
occlusion maps are supported and there is also provision for
fragment and vertex shaders. Due to the primary objective of
the Elflight Engine, it would be fair to say that 3D effects
have not been our main priority. However, as developers we find
this area very exciting and are looking forward to adding new
features. |
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| Q8 |
How
is the Elflight Engine licensed? |
| A8 |
Although
mature, the Elflight Engine is still in development and we have
yet to finalise the commercial model. We are considering traditional
licensing as well as a model that is built upon some of the
unique aspects of the engine. |
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| Q9 |
Actually,
the Elflight Engine is in beta, when will it be available? |
| A9 |
As
many developers will concur, determining completion dates for
large projects such as these is notoriously difficult. Fortunately,
since we are privately owned, we are in a position to continue
to work on the technology until it is complete. To put matters
into perspective, the engine has been in development for just
over 2 years (although it's origins go back about 3 years) and
our current view is that most of the large modules are now complete.
To an extent, the release date will depend upon the testing
as well as development of the Elflight MMO. In the meantime,
we welcome anyone with an interest in the engine to join as
beta-testers and simply login to Elflight during the testing.
We post the development updates on our website and there is
also a forum for those that wish to engage us with questions. |
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