Ubisoft unveils Scalar: cloud-based technology for creating extremely large-scale virtual...

[Cal Jeffrey]

What just happened? Ahead of the Game Developers Conference, Ubisoft has announced Scalar, a new cloud-based technology for game development and gameplay. Scalar increases the flexibility and power for Ubisoft's game engines, reducing dependency on end-user hardware. It also provides developers with new opportunities for developing games and improving the player experience.

Ubisoft Scalar aims to establish a unique, platform-agnostic game development framework that allows seamless world-building within the ongoing game environment. Imagine having content delivered without downloading and installing of DLC. Instead, content suddenly appears since development and the player experience are happening simultaneously in the cloud.

Ubisoft Scalar is built on a microservice architecture. Each component and system of traditional game engines are modularly in the cloud (AI, audio, physics, etc) across multiple machines. This aspect vastly improves scalability.

"Games using this technology can, therefore, leverage a virtually infinite amount of computing power to push the envelope on all aspects and run anything from vast virtual worlds to extremely deep simulations and environments that were previously unachievable," said Ubisoft in an invite-only presentation.

Additionally, Scalar uses an on-demand philosophy. It can dynamically start and stop services based on players' and developers' activities at any given time. In this way, intensive compute tasks are cached and distributed globally, removing the need to recompute calculations.

"This is a major moment in our careers as game developers," said Christian Holmqvist, technical director at Ubisoft Stockholm. "We feel that same inspiration and freedom as when we first started using our home computers as teenagers--that feeling that you can do anything by fully tapping into the power of cloud, for the first time in gaming."

Scalar also allows for a persistent game world where changes affected by one can be experienced by all players. For example, if someone builds a skyscraper, thousands or even millions of other players can visit it without quitting and joining a different instance of the world.

Ubisoft is gradually rolling out Scalar to all Ubisoft studios with future cloud-capable projects in development. Ubisoft Stockholm is already using it for an upcoming, unannounced IP. The developer was tight-lipped with the details but said it is leveraging Scalar's full potential to deliver an experience at a scale never seen before. Ubisoft promised more information on the project at a later date.

"Ubisoft builds on 35 years of continued investment in R&D and proprietary technologies, because technological independence is a critical differentiator," said Ubisoft's VP of Production Technology Guillemette Picard. "Ubisoft Scalar is in line with that spirit, enhancing both our creativity and our unique co-development model with new, seamless ways to collaborate at a global scale. It marks a step forward and an exciting milestone for the gaming community".

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https://www.techspot.com/news/93826-ubisoft-unveiled-scalar-cloud-based-technology-creating-extremely.html

 

[Dimitriid]

Normally if there´s lag it´s server wide so I wonder what this experience might be like: If there's a seamless transition of areas handled by different servers would I suddenly experience jarring visual corruption and rubber banding? If I am able to fly on one of this games would I be able to see a specific point in the horizon with just blocky objects or a hole in spacetime?

It would kinda work well if integrated on a futuristic setting that makes it clear this is supposed to be a VR world but for immersion of medieval stuff and such, yeah it's not gonna bode well.

 

[SirDigby]

Sounds good for MMOs and the like, but this sounds like its promising a lot and probably too good to be true. Time well tell I suppose!

 

[psycros]

This sounds like a combo of predictive content downloading (which several games have been using for a few years now) and dynamic multi-server shards.

 

[Eldritch]

It could be great if they used it for really complex things like extensive pedestrian/character AI who don't despawn and keeps track of your actions but who is going to pay compute cost of that? In a single player game, that would mean constant decrease in profits as time passes by unless they tie it to some sort of subscription service. That however, will not be tolerated by most people as no one wants to pay subscription fees for a single player game.
On a sidenote, this will be ultimate DRM which will have no workaround sort of hosting computation clouds.

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

It could be great if they used it for really complex things like extensive pedestrian/character AI who don't despawn and keeps track of your actions but who is going to pay compute cost of that? In a single player game, that would mean constant decrease in profits as time passes by unless they tie it to some sort of subscription service.

It seems pretty clear that Ubi intends for it to be used for MMOs (and perhaps academic simulations).

"Games using this technology can, therefore, leverage a virtually infinite amount of computing power to push the envelope on all aspects and run anything from vast virtual worlds to extremely deep simulations and environments that were previously unachievable," said Ubisoft in an invite-only presentation.

They also several times referred to active users being in the millions (including developers working on content). That seems eagerly optimistic to me unless they were meaning users on every game on the platform, but that's not what it sounded like. I just find it hard for any one game hosting "millions" of players concurrently for any extended period of time.

The impression I got about Scalar is Ubisoft is aiming to deliver four main things:

1. unlimited scalability.
2. games that can handle (up to) millions of players at once without putting them in different instances of the world.
3. a framework where developers can actively and seamlessly develop and deliver content while players are playing the game.
4. create massive worlds that players and developers can shape in real-time and that everyone will experience together.

That's what I took away from the presentation anyway.