ArenaNet Licenses Umbra for Guild Wars

Excellent! We finallly got this year's new information about GW2! Now on to waiting for '09's information.

Hehe, I definitely agree on that note! (woot! 2009 info here we come!)

Overall this looks pretty promising. Has this system been used in any other notable games so we might know what to expect?

That's a good idea, lets just cull half the screen all of the time. The other half can be filled by a screen saver or something. 100% improvement in performance right there.

Lol, Apparently Umbra software are from the future, since they say guild wars 2 is one of today's best games already. If anyone would like to see a demonstration of how it works, here's the link to a few pictures showing it http://www.umbrasoftware.com/index.php?products&umbra

Point of comment: If ArenaNet is just NOT obtaining the GPU processing middleware, can we derive a minimum release date?

Maybe they got the middleware because they were behind scheduel...

They don't have a schedule (as in a forced release date), and it's not a middleware that actually builds the game at all (ie: SpeedTree which actually makes content (trees)), it's a middleware that hides content from being displayed...it's something you'd use AFTER the content is actually made generally. Or that there's actually content to be culled.

Well, since it's GPU based occlusion culling we need at least a GeForce3, but that's not really news, is it? To me this move only indicates that Anet maybe finally wants to fire up their engine on a realistic rig and see what happens. It could also mean they were not happy with their own results in trying to program such a technology. in any case, it will still be a while until we get to actually see the results.


Please give credit to "Bigger Red" for being the first one to find this news and writing about it in another threat on this forum.

The only thing of importance worth noting from this information.

My first thought was "OMG, Orcs with giant two-handed swords in GW2?! Bring 'em on!". But I guess a this works fine also.

I guess you're not a Linux user then?

What he said. I am in a similar position, and if there is a really compelling reason why I should "upgrade" to Vista, I'd genuinely like to hear what it is.

It seems like Vista just has more bells and whistles that ultimately, are no use to me and more likely will just get in my way. My current XP system is reliable, and "if it aint broke, don't fix it".

Whenever I change to a new OS, it's at the same time as major hardware upgrades. And since I don't expect that anytime soon*, I'll most likely skip Vista and DX10 altogether.

If GW2 required DX10 then I might reconsider... but they aren't going to do that, are they?

*well, except I will replace my system-only C: drive with a small-capacity Intel X25-E SSD or similar... as soon as the prices drop to a reasonable level.

this is interesting. i have a feeling that guild wars 2 will not play anything like how guild wars 1 plays and will look, and play like a completely different game. also this information tells me that they don't even have the engine for guild wars 2 done. so its no where close to being complete so i would expect 2-3 years before the game is out....

it also makes me think that we might be seeing guild wars 2 on ps3 and xbox360

I really hope you're wrong, Jones. But something tells me that you're probably right. I just hope you're way off about the 2-3 years, not that I want them to rush, it's just that 2-3 years is a scary thought when we've already waited so long without so much as a screen shot or teaser cinematic.

In any case, this is good news to me, it shows that they really are set on making a game that isn't horridly taxing on mid range systems. As long as it doesn't make the game look fugly, I'll take performance over graphics any day, and if it's one thing Anet is really good at, it's making their games look great without dragging your PC along like an old muffler.

I also think it's highly unlikely that GW2 will actually require DX10. Considering the bad rap that Vista has gotten since launch that would just be a bad idea. Even if Vista is loads better after SP1, it would still be a risk considering a bad rep will follow something forever.

99% of the people here doesnt even know what this new technology is, so stfu with your doomsday theories

This is very good information, also thanks to DarkNecrid for all the positive notes in this thread ^_^ (not often we get positive stuff in threads on here these days <_< )

I wonder how far along they are in development, even with this its hard to tell since as someone mentioned earlier, this could be for use after the content is made.

in any case, this can be used now to let people know that GW 2 is alive since alot of people were asking for proof that it was alive >_>

Im hoping for them to use destructable terrain, like digital molecular matter (DMM) in Guild Wars 2

Ok, I've had a Vista rig for nearly 2 years now (remember, Vista was released January last year) and the only upgrades this year was a new graphics card and a 1tb hard drive...

But Vista it self can be bought for £60 OEM, you can buy a Dual Core CPU for £25, motherboard for £25, 2gb RAM for £25 and a 500gb hard drive for £40 and a Radeon 3870 for £75 and have a crysis running machine on high settings... thats £250... not much really?

@Lonesamurai - well that's about $500 us (not looking up exchange rates) and I can tell you that I don't often have a spare $500 sitting around.

Getting a new PC is a "twice a decade" event for me, so I am very happy when ArenaNet keeps the system requirements at the low end. This news is telling me that my new-this-year PC will run GW2 without a problem.

Keep in mind guild wars does this not, just very inefficiently using in house software. Anet have simply decided to save time creating it from scratch themselves.

Like OMG dudes! they have a NINJA in their banner!!!!
Now I KNOW GW2 will rock! srsly