SAGE (Strategy Action Game Engine) is a game engine used primarily for

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a subgenre of strategy video games that do not progress incrementally in turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in turn-based strategy (TBS) games, players take turns to p ...

games developed by

Westwood Studios Westwood Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was founded by Brett Sperry and Louis Castle in 1985 as Brelous Software, but got changed after 2 months into Westwood Associates and was renamed to Westw ...

and

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...

. Earlier implementations of the engine were known as W3D (Westwood 3D) while later versions were branded SAGE 2.0.

History

The first version of the engine, originally named W3D, was a major modification of the SurRender 3D engine developed by Hybrid Graphics Ltd. Westwood first used W3D for their

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the p ...

'' Command & Conquer: Renegade'' and their

massively multiplayer online role-playing game A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

Earth & Beyond ''Earth & Beyond'' was a science fiction massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Westwood Studios and published by Electronic Arts (EA). The game was released in in the United States. EA shut down ''Earth & Beyond'' ...

''. After Westwood was dissolved by their parent company, Electronic Arts, the engine was renamed SAGE (Strategy Action Game Engine) and updated for the release of '' Command & Conquer: Generals''. The rendering portion remained nearly identical to the W3D engine, but most other elements had been redesigned from the ground up. The updated SAGE engine allowed for

dynamic lighting Computer graphics lighting is the collection of techniques used to simulate light in computer graphics scenes. While lighting techniques offer flexibility in the level of detail and functionality available, they also operate at different levels of ...

that would cast realistic shadows and reflections on most objects, as well as higher quality visual effects and a stop-motion camera feature. The SAGE engine would continue to be used by

EA Los Angeles Danger Close Games (formerly DreamWorks Interactive LLC and EA Los Angeles) was an American video game developer based in Los Angeles. The company was founded in March 1995 as joint venture between DreamWorks SKG and Microsoft (later moved to Mi ...

on additional titles in the Command & Conquer series and on the real-time strategy series '' The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth''. Following the release of the ''

Command & Conquer 3 ''Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars'' is a 2007 science fiction real-time strategy video game developed and published by Electronic Arts for Windows, Mac OS X and Xbox 360 platforms, and released internationally in March 2007. The game is a dir ...

'' expansion ''Kane's Wrath'', the engine underwent a large overhaul of its major systems. This new version of the engine was called SAGE 2.0 and was first used on '' Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3''. Major upgrades included support for the PlayStation 3, an upgrade of the renderer to RNA (

RenderWare RenderWare is a video game engine developed by British game developer Criterion Software. Overview Released in 1993, RenderWare is a 3D computer graphics, 3D Application programming interface, API and graphics rendering Game engine#Game middlewa ...

New Architecture), complete replacement of the math library with RenderWare Math, integration of RenderWare Physics, dynamic environmental music, and numerous minor internal improvements. A common misconception was that the new engine itself was called RNA when in fact RNA only referred to the renderer. The last title to use the SAGE 2.0 engine was '' Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight''.

Games

W3D engine

*''

'' *'' Emperor: Battle for Dune'' *'' Command & Conquer: Renegade'' *'' Command & Conquer: Tiberian Incursion'' (canceled) *'' Command & Conquer: Renegade 2'' (canceled) *'' Command & Conquer: Continuum'' (canceled)

SAGE engine

*'' Command & Conquer: Generals'' **'' Command & Conquer: Generals – Zero Hour'' *'' The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth'' *'' The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II'' **'' The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II: The Rise of the Witch-king'' *'' Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars'' **'' Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath''

SAGE 2.0 engine

*'' Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3'' **'' Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Uprising'' *'' Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight''

References

{{Video game engines 2001 software SAGE (game engine) games Video game engines Westwood Studios