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The Number One Educational Resource for the Game Industry

Session Name: Solving Visibility and Streaming in the The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with Umbra 3 (Presented by Umbra Software)
Speaker(s): Jasin Bushnaief, Przemyslaw Czatrowski
Company Name(s): Umbra Software, CD Projekt RED
Track / Format: Programming

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Overview: This talk will detail how the Umbra 3 Visibility System is being used and accomodated in the REDengine 3 that powers The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Umbra's automated occlusion culling system makes sure only the objects seen by the camera are rendered. Middleware has been an important design consideration in building the state of the art REDengine 3. Engineers from Umbra Software and CD Projekt RED offer views from both sides as to how an engine and middleware should work together and their experiences in developing systems in collaboration. We will discuss and show the REDengine's various visibility-related features. Umbra's visibility system automatically generates occluders and removes the need for manual markup. The size of the world in The Witcher 3 makes using manually placed occluders impossible. Umbra was required to develop new streaming and an LOD system for its visibility software to meet the game's needs which we will discuss in our talk. The talk will contain information and examples of how Umbra was integrated into the engine's world editor and runtime, how it fits into the workflow and the performance budget, the challenges presented in creating a huge streaming open world game and an honest look in what went right and could be done better in the future.

GDC 2014

Jasin Bushnaief

Umbra Software

Przemyslaw Czatrowski

CD Projekt RED

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Programming

Programming