HeroEngine
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HeroEngine is a 3D game engine and server technology platform originally developed by Simutronics Corporation specifically for building MMO-style games. At first developed for the company's own game ''
Hero's Journey In narratology and comparative mythology, the hero's journey, or the monomyth, is the common template of stories that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed or transformed. Earlie ...
'', the engine won multiple awards at tradeshows, and has since been licensed by other companies such as BioWare Austin (which is using it for '' Star Wars: The Old Republic'') and Stray Bullet Games (for an as yet unnamed project). On 12 June 2010, Idea Fabrik announced that it had purchased "the HeroEngine and HeroCloud game development technologies" as well as hired "the staff of Simutronics that was associated with the development and support of HeroEngine/HeroCloud".


Features

The engine has
online creation User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is any form of content, such as images, videos, text, testimonials, and audio, that has been posted by users on online platforms such as social media, discussion f ...
. For example, one developer can be creating a house and the entities inside, while another works on the landscaping and terrain around it. Each sees the other's work in real time. The simulation and rendering processes of the engine are currently run on a single-thread. However, it is planned for there to be a
multi-threaded In computer science, a thread of execution is the smallest sequence of programmed instructions that can be managed independently by a scheduler, which is typically a part of the operating system. The implementation of threads and processes dif ...
release, but the publish date has not yet been determined. Development times vary between games. ''Faxion Online'' took 18 months to complete, and ''Star Wars: The Old Republic'' took over five years.


Integration with other technologies

HeroBlade contains integrated features such as custom scripting and collaborative project management, which allow developers to make notes directly onto the in-game levels for others to see. These notes can be attached to tasks to signal other developers that something specific needs to be worked on. HeroEngine also works with technology from third-party vendors, such as FMOD,
PhysX PhysX is an open-source realtime physics engine middleware SDK developed by Nvidia as a part of Nvidia GameWorks software suite. Initially, video games supporting PhysX were meant to be accelerated by PhysX PPU (expansion cards designed by ...
,
SpeedTree SpeedTree is a group of vegetation programming and modeling software products developed and sold by Interactive Data Visualization, Inc. (IDV) that generates virtual foliage for animations, architecture and in real time for video games and dema ...
,
Wwise Wwise (Wave Works Interactive Sound Engine) is Audiokinetic's software for interactive media and video games, available for free to non-commercial users and under license for commercial video game developers. It features an audio authoring tool and ...
,
Scaleform Scaleform Corporation is a developer providing middleware for use in the video game industry. As a result of Autodesk's acquisition of the company in March 2011, Scaleform has become part of the Autodesk Gameware line of middleware. Products ...
, and
Vivox Vivox Inc provides managed communication services in the form of integrated voice chat, Instant Messaging (IM) to online games, virtual worlds and other online communities. It is headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts, United States. Hist ...
, as well as having plugins for 3D Studio Max and
Maya Maya may refer to: Civilizations * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (Ethiopia), a populat ...
.


HeroCloud

HeroCloud is a version of HeroEngine that is available for $99 per year, under the license that they receive 30% the money sales of any game made with it. It includes everything that a license to the HeroEngine has, except for access to the source code.


Awards

* Finalist for "Best Engine" from ''
Game Developer magazine ''Game Developer'' was a magazine for video game creators, originally started in March 1994 by Miller Freeman, Inc as quarterly, later bimonthly, and finally monthly. In each issue, industry leaders and experts shared technical solutions, reviewed ...
'' in 2006.


Funding Issues

The company chairman of Idea Fabrik announced on 6 November 2015 that they were having funding issues related to an unnamed 3rd party, which could cause downtime on their HeroEngine and HeroCloud services. He stated that they were attempting to resolve and were "currently in negotiations to secure
heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...
funding for the present and the future."


Games developed using HeroEngine


Released

* '' Faxion Online'' (2011) (shut down after three months) -
UTV Ignition Entertainment Ignition Entertainment Limited, doing business as UTV Ignition Games, was a video game publisher of Indian media conglomerate UTV Software Communications. After The Walt Disney Company acquired UTV Software Communications as a wholly owned subs ...
* '' Star Wars: The Old Republic'' (2011) -
BioWare BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated Doctor of Medicine, medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, alongside Trent Oster, Brent Oster, and Marcel Zes ...
* ''
The Elder Scrolls Online ''The Elder Scrolls Online'', abbreviated ''ESO'', is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by ZeniMax Online Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It was released for Microsoft Windows, Windows and OS X in Ap ...
'' (used for development)


Unreleased

*
Hero's Journey
' - company's game the engine was developed for. However production has stopped on the game. *
The Repopulation
' - MMORPG previously developed by Above and Beyond Technologies in Steam Early Access. The Repopulation has since been acquired by Idea Fabrik Studios on 13 January and returned to Steam Early Access in February 2017. *
Visions of Zosimos
' *
Farmer3d
' * ''World of Kingdoms''


References

:* :* :* :* :* :* :*


External links


HeroEngine Website
{{Video game engines , state=autocollapse Video game engines