VRAGE Developer Tech Talk: Volumetric Water with Petr Minarik
Keen Software House
VRAGE 3.0
VRAGE™ is an in-house game engine developed by Keen Software House. VRAGE stands for “volumetric rage” and/or “voxel rage”.
VRAGE’s core feature is volumetricity within the environment. Volumetric objects are structures composed from block-like modules interlocked in a grid.
Volumetric objects behave like real physical objects with mass, inertia and velocity. Individual modules have real volume and storage capacity and can be assembled, disassembled, deformed and destroyed.
Key features:
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Real Physics Destructible, deformable and persistent environment. Havok Physics and Havok Destruction
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Volumetric Objects Modular block-like structures interlocked in a grid; Multiple block sizes
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Rendering Engine Deferred shading Dynamic and deformable geometry, Real-time dynamic global illumination, Procedurally generated grass, Physically based rendering, HDR lighting with soft-shadows, GPU Particle effects with particle editor and Post-processing effects
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Voxel Terrain Free-form volumetric surface; multi-material, mineable and fully destructible. Multiple levels of LOD transition and procedurally generated in real-time!
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Multiplayer Support for dedicated servers, streaming technology to replicate parts of the world on client and position synchronization with physics prediction
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Character animation System with inverse kinematics and ragdoll
We are currently in the Research and development phase, exploring new features of the VRAGE engine! Our goal is to support extremely large and fully dynamic and destructible environments, including planets, large spaceships, and any other creations built by the players.
- DX12
- Data-oriented design
- Multi-core CPU support
- GPU driven pipeline
- Improved voxel system
- Multiplatform
We are actively researching improvements to the VRAGE engine. Here are some of the major research areas we are pursuing:
We are actively researching improvements to the VRAGE engine. Here are some of the major research areas we are pursuing:
Real Physics
- Realistic Water Physics
- Latest Havok
- Stable chains of constraints (i.e. rotors & pistons)
- Planets, moons, asteroids
- Volumetric objects and voxel terrain
- Static and dynamic objects
- Destructible, deformable and persistent environment
- Super-large worlds
Volumetric Objects
- Modular block-like structures interlocked in a grid
- Unified block size
Voxel Terrain
- Free-form volumetric surface
- Multi-material, mineable and fully destructible
- Multiple levels of LOD transition
- High resolution terrain
- Procedurally generated in real-time
Rendering Engine
- GPU driven pipeline
- Raytracing
- Deferred rendering
- Dynamic and deformable geometry
- Real-time dynamic global illumination
- Physically based rendering
- Material system supporting Tessellation, parallax occlusion mapping and more
- HDR lighting with soft-shadows
- Directional, point, spot, tube and area light sources
- Volumetric clouds and fog
- GPU Particle effects
- Post-processing effects; ToneMapping, Eye adaptation, Bloom, HBAO, TAA (anti-aliasing)
- First-person and third-person camera
- Foliage system for dense forests and grass
Animation and AI system
- Animation controller with mixers and sub-states
- IK for head, hands and feet, extensible for custom usage
- Active Ragdoll driven by animation system
- Server – Client synchronization
- Animation data streaming keeping fixed memory footprint
- Level of detail allowing any number of animated characters
- AI based on Kythera solution
- All degrees of freedom for NPC movement
- Goal oriented AI
Multiplayer
- Inherent Client-server architecture
- Support for both dedicated servers and in-game server
- Streaming technology to replicate parts of the world on client
- Position synchronization with physics prediction
UI
- XAML based UI system
- Vector based UI rendering, using Slug middleware
- Resolution independent, pixel precise
Audio
- Based on FMod middleware
- Spatial, geometry based sound modeling
- Music controlled by situation context
Tools
- Performance Profiler – real-time statistics: rendering, physics, game-play, networking
- Content pipeline App – command line application used to import assets into Content
- VRAGE HUB; Project and VRAGE Editor manager based on Avalonia UI library
- VRAGE Editor
Havok
100%C#
100%C++
10%Direct X
100%Visual Studio
100%
Backend
Devops
IDE
Presentation
Keen Software House was founded in 2010 by Marek Rosa. Marek started as a programmer working independently on the Miner Wars games and the VRAGE engine. After some time Marek was joined by a few volunteers and a real studio was created.
We are an independent game development studio based in Prague, Czech Republic. Our main project is the sandbox video game 𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐬 and 𝐢𝐧𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐕𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐄. The game 𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐬 has sold almost 5 million copies worldwide. VRAGE’s core feature is volumetricity within the environment. At this moment we are currently in the research and development phase, exploring new features of the VRAGE3 engine! Our goal is to support extremely large and fully dynamic and destructible environments, including planets, large spaceships, and any other creations built by the players.
We want to create games that are based on real science, real facts, real physics and real emotions. No magic & fantasy allowed. If we step into the sci-fi area - as we did with Space Engineers and Miner Wars 2081 - we approach it from the hard-sci-fi angle. Every technology and every idea must be explainable using modern-era knowledge with very little extrapolation required.
KSWH is a studio with around 100 talented people working all across the world. As a company with a full remote policy we have more than 20 nationalities among themselves.
What they are looking for
We believe that one of the strongest forces in the universe is the “need to create” and so we are looking mostly for those, who share this need with us.
We’re mostly looking for people with experience in the game industry - Programmers, Artists, Game designers and testers.
Our company culture is defined by goals, rather than standards. We believe that there is always room for improvement and innovation. Adapting our goals and striving for improvement, rather than complacency and merely meeting some standard is at the core of our values.
Strive to establish a positive company culture and ensure our teams understand why our company culture plays a huge role in our success. We want to earn the loyalty of our community and continue to grow that community. Our community can help serve as a guide to our future direction. Every team member can take action to strengthen us, as a company, and ensure we deliver only our best. Provide people with good working conditions. This includes our intern policy, equal opportunity, advanced education and personal development, flexibility, participation in external activities, and more.
Good to know
We are a group of very curious people who share hobbies and interests, not just in the area of AI, science, and video games, but in a broad range of pursuits like mountain climbing, drones, or Roman architecture.
Other things that might interests you:
- Company breakfasts and snacks.
- On-site gym and private garden.
- Office which looks like home.
- Team-buildings and parties.
- Private Chef Ceejay making us delicious lunch everyday.
- Private Psychologist and life coach Misa, ready to help you handle any challenges you may have.
Our motto:
- We’re getting it done.
- Work hard & work smart.
- Reality is the best game-designer.
- We design games that we want to play.
- Create a masterpiece.