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Alan Wake developer Remedy Entertainment has licensed Umbra Software’s rendering optimisation toolset to give a speed boost to the long-running project.
The Espoo, Finland-based developer has chosen Umbra for two key reasons. Firstly, the GPU-accelerated rendering optimization middleware can speed up content creation – an asset particularly useful for a game that began development in 2005.
Secondly, the middleware can dramatically increase frame rates. The toolset itself has been designed for production on Xbox 360, PC and PS3. As things stand, Alan Wake will be released on PC and Xbox 360, but not Sony’s home console.
“Umbra gave a significant boost in rendering performance on the Xbox360, and at the same time made our content creation faster,” said Remedy Entertainment’s Development Director Markus Mäki.
“With Umbra’s culling technology, Remedy’s team can add more details to Alan Wake’s world and concentrate on the cool visuals while minimizing tedious work such as adding portals.”
The Alan Wake developer – which was once responsible for the first two Max Payne games – joins a growing list of studios employing the Umbra tech, including BioWare, CCP and Turbine.
“It’s been a pleasure working with Remedy on Alan Wake," said Marko Nurro, Umbra Software CEO. “Remedy is one of the most innovative and technically competent studios in the world.”
“Their games just rock, simple as that.”
Remedy recently announced a partnership with motion-capture group Imagination Studios, ending a long spell of silence from the Finnish developer. Shortly after, the lead writer for Alan Wake had responded to concerns that the game was taking too long to develop, declaring that the Remedy team “is not a factory”.
