14 DAY TRIAL // The Luminous Engine, Square Enix's next-generation technology that was revealed at E3 2012, is extremely scalable, according to one of its developers, and will be able to run on all sorts of platforms, from the PC to next and current generation consoles, and even on mobile devices like the iPad.
Square Enix impressed E3 2012 attendants with a technology demo for its upcoming Luminous Engine, showing off a project called Agni's Philosophy filled with all sorts of stunning visual effects.
Since then, quite a few people have begun wondering just how feasible it would be to use such a technology.
According to Square Enix's Chief Technical Officer and Agni's Philosophy demo producer, Yoshihisa Hashimoto, the engine has been designed with scalability in mind.
"In the case of the Luminous Studio, we're probably not going to be bound to any particular platform," he told RPGSite, confirming a few devices like the "PC already, probably PlayStation 3, Mobile, iPad tablets also browser and cloud as well. Not just next-gen - we can scale."
Hashimoto emphasized that the demo showcased the visual aspect of the Luminous engine, but noted that it was still powerful enough to include all sorts of other mechanics, from AI to animation or sound.
"This time, a lot of power was expended on graphics because we wanted to show something really visually impressive. To be clear, it hasn't been optimized yet. So we should be able to optimize AI, graphics, the animation, audio all those things to slot together," he said. "Of course we, the team, created this engine but definitely we are going to raise the bar for AI, animation, audio and physics everything.
While Agni's Philosophy was running on a powerful PC, Hashimoto has revealed that the components can already be purchased from stores, so it won't be long before high-quality Luminous-powered titles appear.
"What we were using today for this demonstration it's of course high specification, but all the parts are also things readily available in the PC market right now. It's very realistic that in the near future people can play a game with visuals of this quality."
As of yet, Square Enix hasn't admitted on working on any Luminous-powered game.