Ubisoft has revealed some tantalizing new info on their next-gen shooter The Division
Ubisoft’s ambitious new open-world next-gen multiplayer shooter The Division made an impressive showing during last weekend’s VGX Awards when a new trailer showed off the game’s impressive and unique “Snowdrop Engine.” Now Ubisoft has revealed a few exciting new details of just how revolutionary the Snowdrop Engine will be.
When it comes to creating The Division’s open-world playground, set within a post-apocalyptic New York City, Ubisoft says it wants to create a world that is both large in scale but also painstakingly realistic: “We are trying to recreate the most detailed New York City ever shown in a video game: meaning both the huge scale of the city, as well as the most intricate details. Snowdrop has different tools that make it possible.”
This attention to realism also transfers over to the game’s destructible environments which Ubisoft promises aren’t scripted or “pre-baked” as is the case with a lot of other shooters:
“The destruction system was extremely important to us since our game is strongly focused on tactical, cover-based combat. We developed a very visceral and accurate destruction experience using procedural techniques. The destruction effect is not pre-baked in the game: it reacts differently depending on the physical forces at play.
These surfaces are split and destroyed in real time. For example, glass shatters and wood splinters like it would in the real world. This means that the effect is completely different whether it is plaster, concrete or brick.”
A small part of The Division’s non-scripted destruction could be seen in the VGX trailer as various objects, such as a billboard and an abandoned police car, were riddled with bullets. Both objects accurately reacted to the gunfire with the billboard showing a trail of bullet holes in the exact places where the bullets penetrated it and the police car having its windows and side-mirrors shattered and its tired popped.
You can see Snowdrop in action for yourself in the below trailer and stay tuned for more info on Ubisoft’s The Division in the near future.
