Technology.

TidalEngine is the technology behind Project Utopia.

TidalEngine logo

Client

Graphics

The client utilizes an advanced graphics engine on par with some existing commercial solutions. It features shader technology, an intuitive material framework, Direct3D9 and OpenGL support, a sophisticated animation system, post filters such as HDR, bloom and motion blur, DOF, support for normal and parallax mapping, shadows and much more.

Environment

Environmental features include:

  • Terrain with splatting, slope auto-splatting, normal/parallax mapping, light map, colour map, specular/emissive lighting, shadows, fog, paging (seamless or not, streaming).
  • Flora (grass, trees and bushes) with billboard LOD.
  • Water plane shader (refraction/reflection, sky and sun reflection, deep sea fog), and a 3D ocean (water depth, foam, sunlight effects, caustics, underwater effects including reflections and god rays, projected/simple/radial grids, decals support).
  • Dynamic sky with day and night.
  • Poweful atmosphere system. Create different moods. Simulate unique environments for alien planets.
  • Dynamic weather with rain, lightning and wind. Rain changes with intensity, speed and direction according to the wind. Thunder sounds calculated according to observer position. Clouds change cover and density. Ocean waves change based on weather conditions.

Resource System

The resource system removes the need for patching in-game resources, and considerably reduces the size of the client download. Resources are seamlessly downloaded from a HTTP server into a cache and loaded in-game with multithreading technology. Objects are constantly being prepared and loaded in the background as the player moves around the world.

Web Browser

Powered by Google Chrome's port of WebKit, the in-game browser is capable of rendering HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Flash. It can be rendered to any texture, allowing for dynamic in-game advertising. It also allows for social interaction with services such as Twitter.

Cross-Platform

The client is capable of running on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Server

Technology

The server technology currently supports sharding in which players are shared amongst idential worlds supporting up to 2000 connections.

A system for supporting a single persistent world capable of handling many thousands of simultaneous players is in early development. The load balancing system will distribute players across multiple servers and dynamically reassign itself according to player density and location.

Object System

Our component-based object system allows for custom functionality per-object. Changes made to objects on the client or server will automatically update and synchronise across all connected systems.

Tools

Collaborative World Building

Administrators can explore and configure the world in real-time, as players. Editors will immediately see any changes made, while controls are available to manage when changes are propagated to all clients. A user permissions system dictates the capabilities of administrators - allowing you to designate roles to protect aspects of the game. This enables collaborative world building, with quality assurance and security. Imagine players starting out in an empty world, and as they play, immediately seeing the results of development.

Scripting

The gameplay system is exposed to scripting. With the Lua language, administrators (or even players) can manipulate the game without touching any core code. With the event-based client-server scripting, unique gameplay elements can be created.

Art Pipeline

Assets can be loaded in-game without the need to touch any code. Exporters are available for almost every popular tool - 3DS Max, Maya, Blender, XSI etc. Objects can be assembled with the powerful component-based XML format.

Editor Hooks

Editing functionality can hook into any GUI interface - whether you need an in-game or native OS GUI.