Game Watch has a detailed report on Luminous Studio, a new engine being developed inside Square Enix Japan. The name for the engine, CTO Yoshihisa Hashimoto explains, is inspired by Final Fantasy. The team got the idea for the name because crystals, a symbol of the Final Fantasy series, shine and they thought of the kanji for luminance.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Tomb Raider are made with Crystal Dynamics CDC Engine. Hitman: Absolution will use IO Interactive’s Glacier 2 engine. After the Eidos Integration, Square Enix visited other studios and exchanged technology to create Luminous Studio, which the company plans to use for games designed in Japan.
Luminous Studio is a multi-platform engine designed for HD game development, it can work with any hardware that supports programmable shaders. That means its compatible with PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. Since Wii and Nintendo 3DS do not have programmable shaders, Luminous Studio isn’t compatible with those devices, but Hashimoto says they are actively investigating how to support both platforms. Luminous Studio is also Direct X 11 compatible.
