Project

With its two-year timeline, PLAY ALL is divided into five main sub-projects that cover all of the software parts in the production chain.

Sub-project 1: Secure data manager

New generation production lines need to support large quantities of organized assets. This sub-project consists of a versioning system, a relational database, and project management and internal communication tools. The security component will include a login/password system to identify users of the various PLAY ALL tools. The versioning system will be able to use either Subversion or Perforce and offer compatibility with their native tools.

Sub-project 2: Unified multi-core game engine

The unified multi-core engine includes all the game features common to the various types of games targeted by the PLAY ALL project, as well as all of its platforms. It represents a single abstraction layer so that PLAY ALL users no longer have to worry about the target platform: the unified engine handles communication with the platform manager. PLAY ALL provides a free solution for each type of technology (ODE, OpenAL, OpenTNL, etc). In addition, PLAY ALL offers optional interfaces for commercially-available middleware (PhysX, Havok, FMod, Raknet, Quazal, etc).

Sub-project 3: Production tools

Above all, game development involves using numerous tools for creating and configuring the game universe. This sub-project includes a complete stand-alone editor that is open to users via a system of plug-ins. Developed plug-ins will cover all common needs: entity editor, material editor, animation bank editor and animation finite state machine editor, three-dimensional sound editing, real-time cinematic editor, and more.
The toolchain supports all current 3-D standards (COLLADA, MotionBuilder, etc).

Sub-project 4 : Hardware platform manager

PLAY ALL targets numerous platforms. Its open architecture will make it possible to integrate future platforms easily. Today, PLAY ALL supports three main hardware families:
• Current generation: PC, Xbox360, PS3
• Fixed pipeline generation: PS2, PSP, Wii
• Low-CPU consoles: DS

PLAY ALL teams are developing technologies for the current generation. “Fixed pipeline” technologies will be integrated using existing blocks provided by our partners.