GamingBolt had a chance to speak to marketing manager Ellie Stone about the future of Enlighten and how the company is meeting the demands of the industry, evolving as hardware changes and further expanding on the realistic lighting possibilities in video games.

"High fidelity, real-time global illumination is made easy in games with large worlds – not just on PC but on console as well."

What has been your goal with Enlighten going forward especially as games demand more and more realistic lighting solutions?

Enlighten has always aimed to do more with less – to enable artists to provide ever more advanced lighting effects within a smaller performance budget. Our other product goal is to help as many types of games as possible benefit from efficient dynamic global illumination effects, including mobile and VR applications. Our recent work on the Enlighten large world feature set is an example of this. Previously, delivering efficient support for time of day or weather effects with Enlighten was challenging. Now high fidelity, real-time global illumination is made easy in games with large worlds – not just on PC but on console as well.

Can you detail the various advancements made to Enlighten and how they’ll benefit game development in the coming years?

The large world feature set is our most important development of the past year. The new level of detail mechanisms for probes, terrain and light maps solve distant geometry at lower resolutions than nearby geometry. With these we have found that the cost of computing dynamic global illumination for open world scenes has more than halved; this performance saving means that developers can produce even larger worlds with high-quality dynamic lighting effects; they can add greater real-time lighting into the same size of worlds with the same performance cost; or they can simply deliver the same quality real-time global illumination in the same size world and allocate the saved CPU time to other effects.

In 3.05, the release that has just recently gone out, we announced a number of advancements to Enlighten’s mobile support. Especially in Asia, where mobile game budgets can be huge, we see great interest for advanced lighting effects in mobile games. The crux of mobile development is the ability to provide a good user experience on mass market devices – not just the latest premium smartphone! To this end, we have adapted Enlighten to offer a more customizable performance-quality balance, such as with the light map relighting model.

With more and more games going open world, how does Enlighten tackle dynamic global illumination, especially in the console space given the hardware available?

Producing a demo concurrently with technology development provides a much deeper insight into feature requirements. Seastack Bay, produced in collaboration with Ninja Theory, the developers of Hellblade, was central to the production of a well-rounded large world feature set. On top of providing extensive testing of the LOD mechanisms outlined above, Seastack Bay urged the programming team to consider other elements that commonly occur in large worlds, for example trees, grass or rocks. As a result, we introduced new technology into our probe systems, for example per-pixel probe interpolation that delivers higher quality lighting for large objects.

In terms of being able to address large worlds in the console space, the level of detail efficiencies combined with the fact that Enlighten runs independently of the render thread means that the solution is also able to tackle dynamic global illumination in the console space effectively.

How is Enlighten handling the transitions between day and night or indoors versus outdoors?

When compared to volume-based techniques, or even DFGI, Enlighten offers a clear advantage in terms of quality, memory efficiency and scalability – in particular being able to handle both indoor and outdoor environments equally well. This means artists can use a single lighting solution across all different environments safe in the knowledge that the output will be consistent.

"The virtual reality space is one that we are looking at with great interest. Humans have a subconscious understanding of the way in which light works thanks to a lifetime of exposure to the physical world."

Could you tell us more about landscape lighting and the new features Enlighten introduces for the same?

One of the most interesting new elements of Enlighten is the way in which it can provide better lighting for trees. Trees can be lit by probes and contribute global illumination into the scene. Thanks to our new per-pixel probe interpolation technology, they receive higher quality graduation of lighting across the breadth and height of the asset. What is more, lighting trees with probes is much easier for artists to manage than lighting them with light maps because they don’t need to handle any complicated UVs.

How has the addition of LOD support for large terrain lighting been beneficial, both for the look of the terrain and hardware performance?

Besides the ability to add time of day or weather effects to a game with high-quality global illumination updates, Enlighten makes certain geographical features possible for the first time. If you think of most large open world scenes, they are mainly flat; this is because lighting highly vertical areas in an artefact-free manner is hard – even if the lighting results are baked. Enlighten is a multiple-bounce global illumination solution. It enables highly occluded areas, such as a gorge or a cavern, to be lit to high quality with just a directional sun and skylight. Amazing new levels will soon be in games with exciting gameplay – gamers will be battling foes in 3D space rather than just along a 2D plane.

Can you tell us about the application of light probes in Enlighten and how they factor into the equation?

Light probes are playing an increasingly important part of the Enlighten solution. They are used to light dynamic objects, such as the character; they can also be used to light static objects and contribute radiosity back into the environment. This second element is extremely interesting, especially with regards to the artist workflow. When lighting with probes there is no need to author UVs – an element that can be time intensive for fiddly objects.  With our latest probe technology objects can be lit to a higher quality than ever before. There is no reason now why artists won’t chose to light large, complex objects with probes and save themselves development time.

What applications has Enlighten seen in the virtual reality space and how will the improvements showcased at GDC 2016 make for better looking and more believable worlds?

The virtual reality space is one that we are looking at with great interest. Humans have a subconscious understanding of the way in which light works thanks to a lifetime of exposure to the physical world. When computer graphics look right, the lighting is rarely identified as the contributing factor despite the fact that it is this which contributes most to a scene’s harmony and atmosphere. However when it looks wrong, the human brain instantly senses the inconsistency, even if it is not able to name it.

We are working with a number of game studios developing high end virtual reality content to bring physically consistent lighting effects to their games. We are also managing interest from markets outside of gaming – architectural visualization in particular – where virtual reality platforms and the benefits of interactive content are driving many studios to real-time technologies.

"Integrating Enlighten with the cloud remains an R&D project, but one that is definitely still alive and in active development."

We saw the Seastack Bay demo created alongside Ninja Theory and it looks impressive but it also feels like such visuals aren’t as far away in real-world application. When do you foresee such lighting solutions being commonplace in video games?

Very soon. The Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst team has spoken recently on their use of Enlighten in their city, Glass. For this city the team developed a smooth time of day cycle that looks stunning – and they did this on a global illumination budget of 3ms. It’s exemplary of what Enlighten is capable of.

What are your thoughts on Unity incorporating Enlighten? How will that affect the landscape for Unity developers in the coming years, especially with Enlighten promising a single real-time solution for all scenes?

The integration of Enlighten into Unity is bringing real-time global illumination to the many thousands of Unity5 developers, enabling them to innovate with dynamic lighting as a creative feature. Particularly as mobile device performance increases – ARM, our parent company, has just announced a brand new Mali GPU with1.5 times the performance of those in 2016 devices – gamers will start to see new lighting effects in many of their favorite applications thanks to the Unity/Enlighten relationship.

You have also announced support for non-gaming applications. What can you tell us about them?

VizRT, the leading provider of story production tools and virtual sets for the digital media industry, recently announced their relationship with Enlighten. Using custom rendering engines, broadcasting studios would traditionally bake the indirect lighting in their virtual sets; yet in a live production set speed is key, and the inability to change lights or their position in real-time poses as a severe hindrance to the production process. This is where Enlighten comes in.

In the architectural visualization space it is also worth mentioning Yugen, a company looking to revolutionize the sales process for new build properties by providing investors with a realistic experience of their new home. With a visualization application made with Enlighten their clients can choose any lighting condition to see the property in – dawn, noon, dusk, night, lights on, lights off, whatever!

Two years ago you told us that you are working on integrating the cloud with Geomerics. Since then Microsoft had showcased its potential with Crackdown 3. Has there been any progression on this front or do you think streaming data, graphical assets, physics etc is simply not possible on the current console i.e. Xbox One and this is simply some sort of a pipe dream?

Integrating Enlighten with the cloud remains an R&D project, but one that is definitely still alive and in active development. The area of focus is moving the Enlighten precompute – the process of gathering information on the surface-to-surface visibility of static objects – to the cloud. This will greatly improve the artist workflow.  Longer term, as mentioned earlier, our goal is to make Enlighten applicable to more genres of games – user generated or procedurally generated games are one of these targets. The cloud is one route to getting there, but we are also considering others.

"We have also been working closely with Square Enix on the Final Fantasy VII Remake project which promises to re-vitalize this hugely popular franchise for a whole new generation of gamers."

In our last interview, you were fairly confident about the amount of memory in PS4 and Xbox One but PC games are already surpassing 8-12GB as recommended requirements. How do you think you are going coping as we get deeper into the console cycle?

While games are tending to be larger, Enlighten is configurable. There are a variety of tips we can offer developers if they are exceeding the memory budget that they have allocated to Enlighten, for example reducing the output pixel size. Our support team is able to work closely with partners to make sure that they cope.

With DirectX12 already available, when do you think consumers will see games that utilize the full potential of the API on PC and Xbox One?

Whether we’re talking about DX12, Metal or Vulkan, giving developers closer access to the hardware through these new APIs is going to drive adoption quickly. This year will see the first games come to market and I believe we will see rapid standardization around these APIs.

I wanted to talk something which is out of the scope of this interview but I would like your opinion on this anyway. What are your thoughts on the so called resolution and frame rate wars between PS4 and Xbox One? Do you think that AAA developers gives priority to resolution and fps over gameplay and in a broader picture, do they even care about this debate?

My personal opinion on the matter is simple: without a high enough frame rate, no matter what the gameplay, the game will not work. Once this basic performance element is under control the developer can incrementally add more advanced gameplay effects. The good thing about Enlighten is that because it works independent of the main rendering thread, studios can add lighting-based gameplay without worrying about it impacting frame rate.

I know you can’t talk about some of the games you are working on but what is next on the pipeline for Geomerics?

You’re right, we can’t usually talk about most games that are in the works, however two that we can talk about – and that I am particularly excited about – are Mirrors Edge: Catalyst and Final Fantasy VII Remake. EA DICE have achieved incredibly impressive lighting effects in their latest game and it is an honour to see Enlighten being used in such a creative manner by such talented artists.  We have also been working closely with Square Enix on the Final Fantasy VII Remake project which promises to re-vitalize this hugely popular franchise for a whole new generation of gamers.

It was lovely chatting with you. Is there anything else you want to tell us before we let you go?

If you haven’t seen it already, check out the use of Enlighten in Overwatch. The game is truly stunning in the way it uses global illumination to support its non-photorealistic style. The majority of demonstrations which the Geomerics team produces have a very lifelike appearance; this on the other hand is exemplary in showing how the solution can be tuned to support any desired artistic direction.

In the wake of its gameplay reveal for the Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Square Enix has been experiencing a barrage of questions about the combat, characters and most especially, the visuals. It was revealed that instead of any proprietary tech, the remake is being developed on Unreal Engine 4.

In a public statement, producer Yoshinori Kitase said, “We realize how special Final Fantasy VII is to fans, and we place our trust in Unreal Engine 4 technology and tools to help deliver this long-awaited remake, crafted for modern platforms.”

Epic Games Japan’ Taka Kawasaki further added that, “We’re humbled that Square Enix has chosen Unreal Engine 4 to recreate one of the world’s most beloved video games of all time. It is a joy to work with the talented developers behind the franchise, and this marks an unforgettable moment in Unreal Engine history.”

Interestingly, it seems that Geomerics lighting solution Enlighten will be used as the “indirect lighting solution of choice” and the team itself “will continue to work closely with Square Enix throughout development to ensure the final lighting quality exceeds expectations.”

The Final Fantasy 7 Remake will releasing first on PS4 as a “multi-part series”, though it hasn’t been specified how big each part will be.

Geomerics has a come a long way in the last few years. They are now officially backed by the UK government to set new benchmarks in the movie industry. They are also working closely with EA on games like Star Wars Battlefront and Mirrors Edge. It’s safe to assume that Geomerics are aware of where the next generation of lighting and graphics technology are heading.

Rashid Sayed: Apparently, a lot has happened since we last interviewed you, the new consoles are out now and there is a general expectation that your middleware has improved. What have you guys been working on in the last one year?

Chris Doran: Probably the biggest change for the company since we last spoke was our acquisition by ARM, the company at the heart of the many of the world’s most advanced digital products. We had been putting a lot of effort into our mobile version of Enlighten, and this brought us to ARM’s attention. At the same time we were also looking at the new consoles and making sure our customers could get launch titles out. As is typical with a console transition, the first round of work involves porting existing code to the new platforms and optimizing. But we are now deep into working out what the new opportunities are, and what we can now do on the new hardware that was impossible on the last generation of hardware.

"In addition to the Unity integration, we are starting to license to indies who want to use Enlighten. This tends to be developers with a strong vision for the lighting in their game."

Rashid Sayed: You guys have announced Enlighten integration with Unity 5. What kind of modifications did you do the engine so as to support Unity and what kind of advantages this will bring to indie and AA games development?

Chris Doran: Unity approached us to see if we were interested in becoming the default lighting technology inside Unity 5, which we thought was a great opportunity. Unity took care of most of the integration work themselves, with support on our side. But there were a number of modifications we needed to make to Enlighten to make this feasible. You can see this in the work we were carrying out in the 18months prior to the announcement. Unity needed better support for mobile, which fitted our goals, and they needed Enlighten to have the ability to bake out static lightmaps as well, so that we could support older hardware. We added this functionality to Enlighten in 2012.

The advantages it will bring to developers using Unity are numerous. The workflow is far simpler and more efficient, enabling artists to push to higher quality, and for the first time Unity will support fully dynamic lighting, which offers huge possibilities for creative use of lighting.

Rashid Sayed: Speaking of indies, what is Geomerics doing in the field of indie games development?

Chris Doran: In addition to the Unity integration, we are starting to license to indies who want to use Enlighten. This tends to be developers with a strong vision for the lighting in their game. We have constructed different license models for these guys as they don’t have the budget of the larger studios, and that is working well, though there is more still to come in this area. For now, though, if a particular independent developer is interested in using Enlighten, we recommend they contact us directly so that we can figure out how to best support them.

Rashid Sayed: You are now officially backed by the UK Government to drastically revolutionize effects in the movie industry. Can you please explain to us what this is about?

Chris Doran: The UK has traditionally been strong in both game and film production. The agency that sets the strategic direction for UK industry is called the Technology Strategy Board, and one of the main mechanisms they have for driving research is funding through open competitions. They identified cross-platform technologies for games, film and broadcast media as a key area for the UK and ran a large competition in this area. The consortium that Geomerics is leading was one of the recipients of an award, and it will enable us to drive real-time tools into the film industry.

"We have also been researching the interaction between Enlighten and physically-based shading, and the results look great. We’ll see a lot more in this direction on PS4 and XboxOne."

Rashid Sayed: You guys have previously worked on cross generation games like Battlefield 4 and Dragon Age Inquisition. Now with games like Star Wars Battlefront and Mirrors Edge, you will be working exclusively on the new consoles. How will Enlighten use the full potential of PS4 and Xbox One in these new games?

Chris Doran: The big difference with the new consoles is where the power is located. Pretty much across the board the new consoles are a factor of 10 better than the previous generation, but in terms of compute power the GPUs massively out-strip the CPUs in the new hardware. This is great for us, as it enables Enlighten to interact much more tightly with the rest of the graphics pipeline. This removes any latency, and can drive higher levels of dynamism. We have also been researching the interaction between Enlighten and physically-based shading, and the results look great. We’ll see a lot more in this direction on PS4 and XboxOne.

Rashid Sayed: You must be aware that Microsoft has released 10% GPU Reserve for developers who don’t need Kinect in their games. I have two questions regarding this: a. Does the 10% GPU Reserve really matter that much for games development? b. Could Enlighten use that reserve to have better lighting effects?

Chris Doran: Developers will always want more GPU power if it is made available, and I think there was general agreement that this was a sensible move from Microsoft. For Enlighten, we don’t really see ourselves as needing a reserved block of GPU for our runtime. We are trying to be a bit smarter than that. The new GPUs have interesting abilities to run some processes in the background, so we are looking at ways to make Enlighten run ‘in the gaps’ so that it minimizes the amount of GPU resource it consumes.

Rashid Sayed: We interviewed several developers in the past, asking their experience working on the Xbox One. Some of them have been pretty straightforward stating that Microsoft cheaped out on the RAM whereas others are criticizing the eSRAM for its resolution issues. As someone who works very close to hardware, what can you tell our readers about these two issues?

Chris Doran: I’d be wary of rushing to snap judgments about the new hardware. You cannot really say anything until the first games are out and consumers have got their hands on both devices. From what we are seeing both PS4 and Xbox One are well thought out pieces of kit, and consumers are having a hard time choosing between them. Both have similar features, but both also have their unique points, which is great for choice. The important thing is that they have re-invigorated the console space. I remember having discussions with investors who were convinced that the console market was dead. It’s great seeing them proved so dramatically wrong!

"Cloud is obviously going to be a key component of gaming in PS4 and Xbox One. Both Sony and Microsoft have made it clear that the user experience is much better if your device is always connected. Things like background downloading of game updates are a big improvement on the user experience."

Rashid Sayed: Performance wise, how much memory does Enlighten consume on the new consoles?

Chris Doran: The precise amount depends on how much the developer wants to give us. On the previous generation consoles, we often had to make do with around 10Mb, which was a real struggle. On the new consoles developers are usually happy to give us 10 times this amount, which is easily plenty and allows us to explore new possibilities in game lighting.

Rashid Sayed: What are your thoughts on cloud? Microsoft showcased their technology and state that several effects can be improved on Xbox One games. Do you think this will be a viable solution in the future and will Enlighten use it anyway?

Chris Doran: Cloud is obviously going to be a key component of gaming in PS4 and Xbox One. Both Sony and Microsoft have made it clear that the user experience is much better if your device is always connected. Things like background downloading of game updates are a big improvement on the user experience.

We will also see games where the game world becomes so large that it can only be stored in the cloud, with parts of the world streamed down. There is also plenty that Enlighten can use the cloud for, particularly for user-generated content. Aspects of a game developers lighting pipeline can be easily moved into the cloud, opening up the possibility of exposing the pipeline to the player through their console. This is not straightforward, but is being actively researched.

Rashid Sayed: Last year you stated to us that 8GB of RAM will be sufficient to create realistic lighting. But now that we are settling down in to the new generation of consoles and with graphics technology setting new benchmarks, do you still think 8GB is going to be sufficient?

Chris Doran: Yes, it feels like the right amount. As mentioned above, the new consoles are nicely balanced between CPU / GPU / Memory. They have struck a sensible balance and given developers hardware that it will take a few years to really stretch.

Rashid Sayed: Can you tell is what is next on Enlighten’s roadmap?

Chris Doran: There are two major items on our roadmap. The first is pushing into the film pipeline. This means getting Enlighten to the point where you could feasibly render film-quality output without losing the real-time aspect of our workflow. This is a massive deal for the film industry since it would dramatically speed up how films are created; but it will also have real benefits for games as well.

The second is broadening out our offering in terms of the art pipeline. Our work over the last few years has given us a much better understanding of what a modern art pipeline should look like, how assets should be created and stored, the material models that work, the interaction with physically-based shading techniques and so on. Weare focusing much of our efforts in this direction.

A couple of months ago, Microsoft  released 10% GPU Reserve for developers who don’t need Kinect in their games. This has greatly benefited upcoming AAA games like Sunset Overdrive and Witcher 3. In our conversation with Chris Doran, founder of Geomerics, we asked whether the 10% GPU reserve is sufficient enough to matter in games development.

“Developers will always want more GPU power if it is made available, and I think there was general agreement that this was a sensible move from Microsoft,” he said.

And how they are going to use it for their middleware i.e. Enlighten, Chris said that, “For Enlighten, we don’t really see ourselves as needing a reserved block of GPU for our runtime. We are trying to be a bit smarter than that. The new GPUs have interesting abilities to run some processes in the background, so we are looking at ways to make Enlighten run ‘in the gaps’ so that it minimizes the amount of GPU resource it consumes.”

Enlighten is currently being used in several upcoming games like Star Wars Battlefront 3 and Mirror’s Edge. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Popular middleware provider Geomerics have worked on AAA cross generation games like like Battlefield 4 and Dragon Age Inquisition. But in the coming months they will be working exclusively on new generation hardware with games like Star Wars Battlefront and Mirrors Edge. This will have a big impact on how Geomerics works going forward.

Speaking to Chris Doran who is the founder of Geomerics, GamingBolt asked how they plan to use utilize the full potential of the new consoles and modern gaming PCs, given that they are freed from the shackles of old hardware. “The big difference with the new consoles is where the power is located. Pretty much across the board the new consoles are a factor of 10 better than the previous generation, but in terms of compute power the GPUs massively out-strip the CPUs in the new hardware,” Chris Doran said to GamingBolt.

“This is great for us, as it enables Enlighten to interact much more tightly with the rest of the graphics pipeline. This removes any latency, and can drive higher levels of dynamism. We have also been researching the interaction between Enlighten and physically-based shading, and the results look great. We’ll see a lot more in this direction on PS4 and XboxOne,” he said.

Last year Doran had stated to GamingBolt that 8GB of RAM will be sufficient to create realistic lighting. But now that we are settling down in to the new generation of consoles and with graphics technology setting new benchmarks, does he still think 8GB is going to be sufficient?

“Yes, it feels like the right amount. As mentioned above, the new consoles are nicely balanced between CPU / GPU / Memory. They have struck a sensible balance and given developers hardware that it will take a few years to really stretch.”

We will have more coverage for Enlighten and Geomerics in the coming days. Stay tuned.

Unless you are living under the rock, the Xbox One’s eSRAM has been subject to much debate and controversy regarding it’s inability to render 1080p resolution. Several developers in the past have been critical about their experience working on the Xbox One with one notable developer straightforward stating that Microsoft cheaped out on the RAM. GamingBolt got in touch with Chris Doran who is the founder of Geomerics, a middleware company working closely on the PS4 and Xbox One. When we raised the question about eSRAM, Chris stated that it’s too early to pass a judgment about the new consoles.

“I’d be wary of rushing to snap judgments about the new hardware. You cannot really say anything until the first games are out and consumers have got their hands on both devices,” he said to GamingBolt.

“From what we are seeing both PS4 and Xbox One are well thought out pieces of kit, and consumers are having a hard time choosing between them. Both have similar features, but both also have their unique points, which is great for choice. The important thing is that they have re-invigorated the console space. I remember having discussions with investors who were convinced that the console market was dead. It’s great seeing them proved so dramatically wrong!”

Geomerics’s lighting middleware, Enlighten is being used in several upcoming games like Dragon Age Inquisition, Star Wars Battlefront and Mirrors Edge.

Thoughts? Let us know in the comments section below.

Chip manufacturer ARM announced that it has acquired Geomerics, the creator of Enlighten which is used for lighting in various media. It is also he first fully real-time global illumination technology and can be seen in games such as Battlefield 4 and Need for Speed: Rivals. While this allows ARM to expand on their visual and graphics computing facilities, it allows means Geomerics will be able to accelerate development on mobile platforms.

Pete Hutton, EVP and GM Media Processing Division of ARM stated that, “The innovative technologies being developed by Geomerics are already revolutionizing the console gaming experience and are set to rapidly accelerate the transition to photo realistic graphics in mobile. Empowering Geomerics? portfolio with ARM?s graphics capabilities and market reach will be transformative for the user experiences in future mobile and entertainment devices.”

Dr. Chris Doran, COO of Geomerics added that, “With lighting technologies developed by Geomerics, graphics artists can achieve truly realistic global illumination and other advanced lighting features in real time across multiple platforms today. This combination of ARM and Geomerics accelerates the realization of our vision to bring next generation console graphics to mobile devices. Being part of ARM will allow us to accelerate our advanced developments for console and mobile platforms while also providing us with unmatched insights into the platforms and devices of tomorrow.”

What are your thoughts on the acquisition? Let us know in the comments.

Enlighten Games July 2013 from Geomerics on Vimeo.

The trailer showcases the power of Global Illumination, which allows for a more realistic lighting experience as light bounces off several objects before reaching the observer. Of course, the full power of Enlighten is yet to be realized as the next generation of consoles like the PS4 and Xbox One draw nearer.

To learn more about Enlighten and just what the technology will be capable of – as well as thoughts on the current and upcoming innovations happening in video game lighting – check out our interview with Geomerics COO Chris Doran.

Enlighten is being used in several upcoming next generation games like Battlefield 4, Dragon Age Inquisition, The Bureau – XCOM Declassified and Mirror’s Edge.  We asked Chris several questions ranging from the amount of RAM in next generation consoles to whether hundreds of light sources are possible in real time.

Check out the entire interview below.

 Chris Doran, founder and COO of Geomerics.

Ravi Sinha: What can you tell us about the current version of Enlighten which can be seen in upcoming games like Battlefield 4, and even games yet to be showcased like Dragon Age Inquisition? How does it improve on the previous version?

Chris Doran: Enlighten in continuously evolving to suit customer requirements and take advantage of new hardware. One of the most obvious in Battlefield 4 is the introduction of new technology for handling indirect light bouncing off ‘shiny’ surfaces.

It is quite subtle, but adds an extra layer of realism. DICE have also ramped up the degree of dynamism in Battlefield 4, particularly on next-generation hardware. There are more dynamic lights, and huge levels of destruction. Essentially everything is bigger, bolder and brighter on the new hardware, as you would hope to see with a console transition.

Click HD to see the video in its full glory.

Ravi Sinha: Speaking on light sources, the recent Unreal Engine 4 “Infiltrator” demo showcased hundreds of light sources, all presumably in real time. Is this theoretically possible during actual gameplay, when so many other factors come into play?

Chris Doran: You may have seen that we recently announced our integration into UE4 and we have a good understanding of the lighting model used in the “Infiltrator” demo. For “Infiltrator”, they used a mixture of baked and real-time lights, which is a good strategy in many cases.

However, using a modern deferred renderer, hundreds of dynamic light sources in UE4 (or Frostbite 3) are feasible, provided there are only a handful in each tile. As is often the case in game development, many of the optimisations are in the hand of the artists, who have to lay out the geometry in lights in sensible arrangements so that the renderer can cope.

Ravi Sinha: When it comes to console technology, be it next generation or current generation, what are the most important factors for creating realistic lighting? How do consoles like the PS4 and Xbox One facilitate those needs in their own ways?

Chris Doran: The simple answer is compute resource and memory. The more we have of both of these the better. Fortunately, both of the new consoles have given developers a huge increase in memory, and gone with high-end GPUs where most of the graphics compute resource sits. The consoles also have unified memory architectures, so the CPU cores and the GPU can share memory resources.

"I’m sure as the cycle evolves, developers will look at ways to squeeze more out of the PS4, but we have a long way to go with exploiting the opportunities presented by the massive jump in resource over PS3 and 360."

This is where many of the really interesting techniques are developed. But it should also be said that the tools are equally important for computing good lighting. You cannot get good lighting just by throwing algorithms at a game – you need good tools, like those offered by Enlighten, so that an artist can interact with the world they are creating and instantly see the results on the target platform. The algorithms and hardware take over once the artist has had the chance to achieve their vision.

Ravi Sinha: Let’s get the simple stuff out of the way: the Xbox One’s 8 GB DDR3 RAM, of which 5 GB is allocated for games, versus the PlayStation 4’s 8 GB GDDR5 RAM, of which 7 GB is for games. Which one presents a better solution for crafting realistic lighting?

Chris Doran: Both of these are more than sufficient. To understand why, you have to remember than on the current generation we had around 512MB of memory to play with. This meant that developers would routinely ask us to fit our global illumination calculations into 10-20MB. On the next-generation consoles, developers are happy to give us 10 times more space to play with – in some cases even more! And with 8 CPU cores and powerful GPUs, there is plenty of compute resource for us to make use of.

It is this massive increase from current generation to next generation that really excites us – that factor of 10 increase is going to be far more significant than the additional memory on the PS4. I’m sure as the cycle evolves, developers will look at ways to squeeze more out of the PS4, but we have a long way to go with exploiting the opportunities presented by the massive jump in resource over PS3 and 360.

The next generation of Battlefield will be using Enlighten.

Ravi Sinha: With every new generation of consoles, we’ve seen developers really begin to take advantage of the tech several years after their release. How long do you think it will take before developers can fully utilize the power of PS4 and Xbox One for creating realistic lighting using Enlighten?

Chris Doran: I think this cycle is a bit different, for two reasons. The first is that it has been a long time coming, and some developers have been gearing up for it for over two years. Both Sony and Microsoft went out of their way to get the key tools and middleware guys on board early as well, so that everything was ready for launch. The second reason is that both Sony and Microsoft have gone for a PC-like architecture that is well understood by developers.

A lot of the additional power is in the GPU, and most developers know how to get good results out of these devices. So I actually think a number of the launch titles will already be utilizing much of the power of the PS4 and Xbox One to deliver great graphics and lighting using Enlighten. In previous transitions it has not been unusual for the launch titles to only be marginally better than the tail end of the previous generation. In terms of graphics that will not be the case this time round. What will take longer is evolving the gameplay, the AI, and making use of the new possibilities with cloud computing and second screen gaming that the new platforms provide.

"We would like to achieve something similar (CGI graphics) in games, but we don’t have the freedom to inject an artist’s input as you move round your world. This makes better compositing more challenging in games, but I am confident we will see some major improvements on the new hardware."

Ravi Sinha: Will the PS4 and Xbox One ever be able to compete with PCs in regards to creating realistic lighting? Is there still a gulf between the capabilities of next gen consoles to do so, or is the gap between them and PCs even smaller than with the previous generation?

Chris Doran: I don’t see a big gap between PC capabilities and the capabilities of the PS4 and Xbox One. On some measures you could argue that the GPUs in the new consoles are not as powerful as the most expensive desktop GPUs, but that was also the case at the last transition. It is something of a myth that consoles at launch are usually ahead of the top-end PCs. What the consoles always are at launch is the best power per dollar ratio, but if you want more power you have always had the option of going for a really expensive PC.

What you should remember with the PS4 and Xbox One is that both have been highly tuned specifically for games. Microsoft and Sony both spent years working with developers on these specs, and it is not a coincidence that they have both chosen similar hardware designs. There are also a bunch of other technologies unique to the consoles that make them perfect for games (hardware units for specific tasks, driver extensions, etc). As with previous generations, it will be a few years before PC games start to out-strip the graphical quality seen on consoles. For the next few years PS4 and Xbox One will set the standard.

Gamers have been waiting for Avatar level graphics in video games but there are several hurdles and challenges.

Ravi Sinha: It’s been mentioned that the next generation will bring post-production processes on par with films, as multiple stacked layers and local dynamic control will be available for each pass to enhance visuals. Can you explain this process to us in greater detail?

Chris Doran: For us, this is an area of active research and it is a bit too early to start going into great detail. But the overall picture is quite simple. About 5 years ago we sat down with the lead lighting artist at Pixar and asked him to critique some screenshots from games. His first comment was that the global illumination needed improving. His second comment was that the images would be improved in film by better compositing of the frame. We’ve spent the last 5 years sorting out his first problem, and are starting to think about the second, as are a number of studios.

In a film CGI setting, many aspects of the final image would be computed separately: the direct lighting; the indirect lighting; an AO pass; volumetric effects; motion blur … Each of these would be a separate layer, and an artist would composite these together using advanced tools to achieve the final image. We would like to achieve something similar in games, but we don’t have the freedom to inject an artist’s input as you move round your world. This makes better compositing more challenging in games, but I am confident we will see some major improvements on the new hardware.

Ravi Sinha: What specific advantages does the AMD-based CPUs and GPUs of the PS4 and Xbox One present for Enlighten over the previous generation of consoles?

Chris Doran: More memory and more compute power, both on the CPU and GPU!

"Consoles will continue to service the ¼ billion core gamers out there, and mobile will continue to grow the market further "

Ravi Sinha: Siggraph is coming up. Do you plan to show any lighting for next-gen consoles there? If not, can you give us a glimpse of what your future plans hold?

Chris Doran: Actually, for this SIGGRAPH we are focusing on showing our mobile technology. We have been collaborating with ARM on new graphics techniques for mobile devices, and are presenting a lecture on this in the SIGGRAPH mobile session. We are also demonstrating this work on the show floor in the ARM booth.

In terms of the future of Enlighten, E3 was pretty telling. We have high-profile titles coming out with a number of publishers in the next 12-18 months, including Battlefield 4; Dragon Age Inquisition; The Bureau – XCOM Declassified; Star Wars Battlefront and Mirrors Edge 2. Personally I think it’s great that everyone is energised again about the next generation of consoles, and we have moved on from the tedious debate of whether mobile platforms will replace consoles.

Consoles will continue to service the ¼ billion core gamers out there, and mobile will continue to grow the market further and hopefully take high-quality games (and Enlighten) to a new generation of gamers.

A big thank you to Eric Schumacher from Neology Concepts for setting this interview up.

It has long been debated whether video games will be able to do render CGI in-game graphics. Now with the advent of next generation consoles, will the PS4 and Xbox One bring post-production processes on par with films, as multiple stacked layers and local dynamic control will be available for each pass to enhance visuals?

“For us, this is an area of active research and it is a bit too early to start going into great detail,” says Chris Doran, founder and COO of Geomerics, the company behind Enlighten.

He then recalls his meeting with Pixar’s lead artist to take his suggestion on how they can improve lighting in video games.

“But the overall picture is quite simple. About 5 years ago we sat down with the lead lighting artist at Pixar and asked him to critique some screenshots from games. His first comment was that the global illumination needed improving. His second comment was that the images would be improved in film by better compositing of the frame. We’ve spent the last 5 years sorting out his first problem, and are starting to think about the second, as are a number of studios.”

He then talks about how CGI is implemented in movies and how developers have the freedom to inject artist’s input at will. At the moment compositing is a difficult task in video games, but he remains hopeful that they will be able do this on next generation consoles.

“In a film CGI setting, many aspects of the final image would be computed separately: the direct lighting; the indirect lighting; an AO pass; volumetric effects; motion blur … Each of these would be a separate layer, and an artist would composite these together using advanced tools to achieve the final image. We would like to achieve something similar in games, but we don’t have the freedom to inject an artist’s input as you move round your world. This makes better compositing more challenging in games, but I am confident we will see some major improvements on the new hardware,” he added.

It remains to be seen whether we will see CGI level graphics or even something closer on next generation consoles. But one thing is for sure, there is a lot hype and hoopla for PS4/Xbox One in the developer and gaming community alike.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Source: GamingBolt Interview.