The Division’s Snowdrop Engine “Capable of Creating Large Range of Varied Universes”

Massive Entertainment's Rodrigo Cortes talks about doing things "better, not bigger".

Tom Clancy’s The Division may still be relatively mysterious with concerns to its premise and massively multiplayer mechanics, but developer Massive Entertainment is currently busy talking about the benefits of the Snowdrop Engine, which powers the game.

In a new blog post, Massive’s brand art director Rodrigo Cortes stated that, “The forest shots, turrets and giant flies that you saw in the trailer are not part of The Division. This video is a technical demonstration, to display Snowdrop’s full capacities as a new generation engine. Snowdrop is capable of creating a large range of varied universes, procedurally, and in an unprecedented level of detail.

Snowdrop’s node-based system apparently covers all aspects of the project and can run everything in real-time, thus allowing for immediate testing.

“Snowdrop was created in-house, at Massive, in response to a specific requirement: to do things better, not bigger. Triple-A game development projects are growing in scope exponentially, so we wanted to be smart and not rely on brute force. We needed an engine that would support how we work in the studio, promote creativity, and allow the freedom to experiment and prototype.

“Snowdrop is a dynamic, interconnected and flexible system where developers can create their assets quickly and interact with them in ways that have never been done before.”

Tom Clancy’s The Division is currently slated to release in Q4 2014 for PC, Xbox One and PS4.

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