One of the biggest surprises at E3 was finally seeing Ubisoft's Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, the game based on the film of the same name. We got a look at the world, built on the latest Snowdrop engine by the developer. Now, a new video has released which delves further into the game and looks at why it will be a next-gen exclusive.
Pushing the Snowdrop engine harder than ever before, the game's technical director Sebastian Lindoff says the team has created a Pandora that allows you "to explore the deep dense jungles on the ground, to the grand vistas high up in the skies". With the adventure taking you up in the air, a greater emphasis has been placed on ensuring it looks as realistic as possible, with cloud density being a big focus.
The ground has also had some love too, with the team exploring the capabilities of ray tracing to make "Pandora more vibrant and realistic". NPCs are also said to be able to perform different activities in the world with various animations that will make the world "feel really alive". It's also said that NPCs will understand the state of the world, such as "weather, player progression, and time of day."
Speaking to IGN, the game's creative director Magnus Jansén, and technical director of programming Nikolay Stefanov, explained how the world of Pandora will operate more organically due to next-gen hardware. Moving away from being forced to move slowly to load assets in certain areas, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will feature a more organic world, as points of interest on the map are closer together than previous Ubisoft titles.
"It's not just the old 'I'm taking this slow walk as I enter into the place because we have to stream everything in', it's little subtle things that people don't think about, which is how close together are all the places in the world.
If you look at, with the old hard drives, they had to be spaced out very far [apart], because you had to stream out the old and stream in the new, so it just created a formulaic world. So, there's a ton of stuff like that."
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is sounding mighty impressive, and also very much like we won't hear anything in the future about an Xbox One version. We're still a while off the game yet with it expected to launch in 2022, but it's sounding like one of the first big true next-gen experiences, and we can't wait to tackle the adventure.
Are you excited for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora? Let us know in the comments below.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 11
If the gameplay matches the quality of the images shown (and the images truly represent the world of Pandora in which we play) then this game could well be one of the finest of its kind. My interest is well and truly piqued...
@The_New_Butler Yeah just how games like Demon’s Souls was supposed to be possible on next-gen only and now coming to PS4. It takes a lot of time to build true next-gen engines as opposed to the obvious marketing BS. It will be interesting to see now how this game runs on most PCs out there.
Can't wait!!!! I love Avatar and the whole world behind it and this game is going to be amazing. Especially since it's in development from one of the best studios on the planet!!! Day One Deluxe Collectors edition for me!
@uptownsoul They didn't as far as I am aware. The closest was when they touched the sword and got teleported virtually instantly (it used to be a loading screen on PS3) a dev said that was only possible due to the new gen SSD vs HD.
@uptownsoul Not certain off the top of my head, but it may have been the Digital Foundry one. (it's an hour + long)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O--CnN056E
But it may have been one of the many other Bluepoint developer interviews.
I'm always pretty sceptical for "only possible on next gen" statements but I remember thinking at the time, yes that one is true... unlike so many others where they are really just giving the crowd what they want to hear.
(EDIT for clarity, true that the virtually instant loading is only possible on next gen, NOT the game is only possible on next-gen)
"Only possible on next gen" to me usually means, "we only had the time/budget/creativity to make this work on next gen" OR at a stretch "we didn't want to compromise our vision" but that is also an easy catch all excuse.
Case in point: The Switch runs Witcher 3 just fine with sensible compromises. Xbox One struggled to run Ori Will of the Wisps at launch, but a lot of work made it run at 60fps on Switch virtually identically. i.e. The truth is most games scale if there is a will/budget to refactor code and come up with sensible compromises and solutions.
@uptownsoul You can refer to their developer interviews where it has been indicated as such.
@themightyant You are absolutely right. It’s time we choose the words from the marketing very carefully.
@uptownsoul you take it too far with the stick man 2fps stuff. But on a more reasonable level that is precisely my point. Witcher 3 runs perfectly fine on the Switch and is the Witcher 3 as you know it, not some super lacking (stick man 2fps) facsimile.
People keep clamouring for “next gen only” experiences and “don’t hold us back with last gen”
I’m saying that on 95+% of cases this is not as big as deal as people make out and games aren’t held back as they are developed from the start to be scalable and even if they are not, like Witcher 3 on Switch, amazing things are possible with time, budget and effort.
Yes it’s true there a few fundamental decisions devs can make to a games design that are perhaps only possible on newer hardware and not so scaleable but from what we’ve seen of this this (avatar) and demons souls and 95+% of other games that say “next gen only” this just isn’t the case.
@uptownsoul I did actually very recently (after falling for Forza H4 I went back and played 1-3 this year, great games!).
But I think it’s a bad example that ‘proves’ very little and actually backs up my point.
Forza H2 on XBox 360 allowed no going off road, whole sections were gated off that were actually available on the XB one version.
Yes FH3 was more open in scope that FH2. Yes they were on more powerful hardware but they also were able to iterate on the engine and design with each entry.
FH4 was also a huge step up over FH3 yet it was on the same generation… what does that prove? That they iterate and improve the engine and all the systems with each game.
The same could be said of more sequels.
Look at Final fantasy 7 and 8. 8 runs almost twice the number of polygons per character than 7 and does other things that just ‘weren’t possible’ with their first version of that engine. Yet they were on exactly the same hardware. This is how it is with game dev (and coding in general), iteration, refactoring, optimisation and rethinking ideas to be more efficient.
@uptownsoul FH3 was released 3 years after the Xbox one came out and AFTER the 360 had been discontinued worldwide earlier that year. It made no sense to bring it out for last gen at that stage. We’re currently 8 months into a new gen, very different place. Note that Forza Horizon 5 is coming to Xbox one too…
Regardless I’m sure the developers COULD have scaled FH3 back similarly to FH2 and cut off some offroad areas but it would have taken a lot of work, which at that stage of the generations made no sense. We’re not in that position yet.
50 million XB ones vs around 5 million series X|S. It currently makes little financial sense to make a next gen only game
@uptownsoul not sure how you got that idea from my last post, what specifically made you think that?
You asked why Forza 3 wasn’t on the 360 and I said because it released after the 360 was discontinued and 3 years after the XBO came out. Seems pretty clear cut why it wasn’t.
To be clear I DO understand why fans want next gen only games, I do too! But there’s many reasons why I think this takes time.
It makes little financial sense so early in a generation now AAA games cost so much and take so long to make.
AAA Games TRULY made from the ground up for next gen won’t appear for a few years. Dev kits only went out a few years ago and development (from the ground up) takes longer than that, it is likely all these games started out based around last tech, including low end PC.
Even some of the next gen tools like UE5 don’t even fully release till 2022. When do you think we’ll start to see those games?
YES I’m excited to see what can be achieved, but I’m in no rush and understand it doesn’t happen so soon.
I’ve been playing games for a long time and seen this cycle repeat again and again over the generations. Tech demos, GDC or tech talks whip fans up into a frenzy of excited opportunity of what could be, only for those things to take many years to come to fruition. This is normal.
For all these reasons and more It makes sense for most games releasing now and in the near future to be cross generational.
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