Helldivers II Was Built on an Archaic Engine That You Can't Access Anymore

[AshHunter216]

I've always found it fascinating how different game engines work.

If I'm not mistaken, a lot of FromSoftware's games run on a modified version of the PhyreEngine, which is a game engine Sony made back during the ps3 days.

 

[KnittedKnight]

.

 

[Nimrota]

Think of all the rumours about in-house engines causing drama in EA, Xbox, with large support networks and dedicated engineers. Turns out it's either a skill issue or poor management.

 

[Alabtrosmyster]

I wrote about this in the connections thread but the multiplayer scaling problem is most likely tied to this engine being so old. I can't recall a game in recent memory that a hard cap on number of players online.

Few games reach the 450k simultaneous players at the same time.

I know nothing of this engine, but I know that chasing the latest trends in tech is rarely a good idea as well, if you know you can do your thing with the tools you already have you should do it. The game does not look dated beyond its lack of support for raytracing I guess.

I also don't know how the 3D engine has to do with the network/database in this case, for all we know this is custom code throughout.

The CEO seems proud of it so I guess the engine is not that bad for them?

This is called wisdom instead of being a trend chaser. Just look at those UE5 projects, their game has none of the problems many of them have.

 

[ethomaz]

There are also counter-examples:

Fallout, Starfield, Halo

I did not play the others…

But Halo issue is not the gunplay imo.
At least gunplay in Halo4, Halo 5 and Infinite is fine.

You can see in all 3 games the core gunplay left by Bungie.

 

[Kokoloko]

The CEO seems proud of it so I guess the engine is not that bad for them?

How much support does one need to use UE?

Seems like its fine apart from online issues.
I wonder why more studios dont use Decima

 

[Gamernyc78]

The CEO seems proud of it so I guess the engine is not that bad for them?

I like the engine and looks like it's stable generally. Alot is going on under the hood.

 

[ApolloHelios]

You guys don't know enough about backend if you think game engine is responsible for server side problems smh...

 

[Darth Vader]

You guys don't know enough about backend if you think game engine is responsible for server side problems smh...

It can be? The engine has to be able to talk with their database. I think it's much worse to assume the game has capacity issues due to Microsoft Azure.

 

[ApolloHelios]

It can be? The engine has to be able to talk with their database. I think it's much worse to assume the game has capacity issues due to Microsoft Azure.

The way they have built their database inside Azure servers is the problem, backend facing scaling issues isn't about game engine.

 

[Gods&Monsters]

The way they have built their database inside Azure servers is the problem, backend facing scaling issues isn't about game engine.

Is it that complicated to fix? The Azure stuff must be the last thing they did. Why is it taking so long

 

[anonpuffs]

Is it that complicated to fix? The Azure stuff must be the last thing they did. Why is it taking so long

It takes a lot of testing to migrate live databases, even if you were instantly able to code a solution.... worst case scenario peoples' progress is lost or you brick peoples' saves which means lots of angry customers.

 

[Bo_Hazem]

How much support does one need to use UE?

Seems like its fine apart from online issues.
I wonder why more studios dont use Decima

8 years maybe means before Decima became more accessible to other studios under Sony's umbrella and 2nd party.

 

[Wing84]

Yeah, I'm sure their next game's engine will either be built in-house or use one of the PlayStation Studios' engine.

 

[Polyh3dron]

Yeah I a really like that they used this engine. Besides online issues and what affect it's had on it if any I think this engine was best.

I haven't noticed a single shader compilation or traversal stutter on PC, and Tim Epic's bullshit does that all the time

 

[Gamernyc78]

I haven't noticed a single shader compilation or traversal stutter on PC, and Tim Epic's bullshit does that all the time

Exactly.

 

[Vertigo]

Far more impressed by Helldivers than whatever green vomit that matrix demo was.

 

[Nhomnhom]

Think of all the rumours about in-house engines causing drama in EA, Xbox, with large support networks and dedicated engineers. Turns out it's either a skill issue or poor management.

Sony most bugged game and troubled launch in the last decade was Days Gone, one of the few AAA of their developed using Unreal Engine.

Maintaining your own engine is likely very hard but maybe having the personnel capable of properly maintaining an engine will ensure the technical excellence of their games.

Look at Square Enix and FFVII Remake and Rebirth, both top tier when it comes to production value but with miserable failures on the tech front on thing that from the outside should be easy (like properly loading your textures, properly implementing an upscalling solutions, etc).

 

[Alabtrosmyster]

It can be? The engine has to be able to talk with their database. I think it's much worse to assume the game has capacity issues due to Microsoft Azure.

This is non-sense, where I work we have a web app distributed on Azure, I assure you that Azure is no guarantee of performance.

The "talking to a database" part, like the network code part is normally bespoke as soon as there is a high enough level of complexity.

 

[Alabtrosmyster]

Is it that complicated to fix? The Azure stuff must be the last thing they did. Why is it taking so long

This is not the kind of stuff that requires you to go in Windows settings and make sure you have your latest patches on the server (hopefully, because we are doomed if this is the case).