PhyreEngine is a multi-platform game engine developed by Sony Interactive in 2003. This engine is written in C++. It targets the platforms of PlayStation, Windows, Android and iOS. The most stable version of this engine is released in January 2012. PhyreEngine is licensed under Proprietary.

Sony interactive is a big name in the world of video games. The company has made its mark in consoles production since it launched its first console Original PlayStation in 1994. The development of PhyreEngine initiated in 2003 as a graphics engine, for the development of games for PlayStation 3. Collin McRae: Dirt was the first game to use an early and modified unreleased version of PhyreEngine. The elements of the PhyreEngine were developed and shared with Codemaster’s own early Neon Engine. Prior to its launch, PhyreEngine (and EGO Engine at the time) was also used in the development of RaceDriver: Grid for PlayStation 3.

The first public demonstration occurred in 2006. It was launched in 2008 in GDC (Game Developers Conference). During GDC 2009, new features like Deferred Rendering were introduced into PhyreEngine. In March 2009, PhyreEngine v2.40 was released. This version came out with foliage rendering system which provided tools for ultra-realistic trees and plants rendering. During GDC 2010, a PSP version of the PhyreEngine was announced by Sony. PhyreEngine v3.0 was released in 2011 with a new feature to optimize assets of each platform. This version also added initial support for PS4 and full support for PS Vita. Later in 2013, additional support for PS4 was released.

PhyreEngine is a package which includes full source code and Microsoft Windows tools under its license. The engine uses parallel processing mechanism optimized for SPU (Synergic Processor Unit) of PS3. But it also works properly for other multi-core architectures. For Windows, only OpenGl and Direct3D support is included in PhyreEngine. It also has support for Havok Complete XS, NVIDIA PhysX and Bullet for physics.

PhyreEngine has been adopted by several game studios. It has been used in over 200 published titles. PhyreEngine was a finalist in the European Develop Industry Excellence Awards in 2008 in “Technical Innovation Category” and in 2009 in the “Game Engine Category”.

Game Engine Features

  • Graphics Pipelining
  • High Performance
  • 120Hz of Frame rates
  • Integration with Middleware
  • Live In-Game Editing
  • Art Rendering
  • Post Processing

Game Developed in PhyreEngine

Unravel
Unravel
Trails of Cold Steel IV
Trails of Cold Steel IV
Technomancer
Technomancer
Dragon Quest
Dragon Quest

Useful Resources

Official Website: http://develop.scee.net/research-technology/phyreengine/

Wikipedia Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhyreEngine