Ex-Blizzard guys license Offset engine

Author: Wil Harris
Published: 15th February 2006
Stumble
Ex-Blizzard guys license Offset engine

The Offset engine: now being used by Red 5.

Forget Azeroth, forget Tyria: there's a new land that could leapfrog them both to become the most populated online world. It doesn't have a name yet, but it has a developer - Red 5 Studios.

What the hell is Red 5? Apart from Luke Skywalker's callsign, it's a bunch of guys that architected World of Warcraft, then left Blizzard to work on this. One of the guys was Team Lead on the game, another was Art Director. When they set up shop to work on something else, people like us start getting interested.

And now, there's something to look at too: Red 5 has licensed the Offset graphics engine for use in their new MMO. Offset, if you don't know, is a new engine that has been creating something of a buzz in the game development scene. It utilises all the great features that your £500 graphics card supports: high dynamic range lighting, cinematic post processing, advanced particle effects, sub-surface scattering and much, much more. You can take a look at a page discussing the technology over at Offset. It looks rather spangly, to say the least.

Whilst many dismissed Offset as another startup with a cool video and not much else, the backing of Red 5 lends a credibility to the whole enterprise that was previously lacking.

There's no plans as to exactly what the game developer is planning yet, aside from the fact it will be an MMO. Watch this space for new developements - in the mean time, drop us your thoughts on the Offset engine, Red 5 and World of Warcraft over in this forum thread.


Add recipient


Ex-Blizzard guys license Offset engine

A team of ex-World of Warcraft developers has set up a new studio to develop a next-generation MMO. They've now licensed one of the hottest graphics engines on the scene.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2006/02/15/blizzard_offset_engine/1


Dragonage