U.S Army to Use Beast Lighting Solution for America's Army 3
Beast lighting solution to Provide Advanced Global Illumination and Dynamic Relighting of Characters to America’s Army Brand.
Gothenburg, Sweden, February 11, 2009 - The U.S. Army has signed a contract with Illuminate Labs for the company to provide the world-leading Beast lighting solution for both the public and government versions of America’s Army 3.
America’s Army 3 (www.americasarmy.com) is the only free action game that delivers an authentic and entertaining Army experience by reflecting the training, technology, actions and career advancement of a Soldier within a unique exciting game experience. AA3, which will be rated T for Teen by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), will be released in 2009. As with previous versions of America’s Army, AA3 will be constantly updated to include new features and missions and to highlight new technologies being incorporated in today’s Army. The America's Army brand is known for pushing the limits on technical innovation, which includes using state-of-the-art technology from middleware partners in the gaming industry.
"We were drawn to Illuminate Labs' Beast product because of the need for realistic lighting and shadowing for the America's Army Game and Government use platform and the believable effects that we were able to produce with Beast," says Michael Bode, executive producer of the America’s Army game.
Bode continued, "With America's Army 3, we were challenged to produce highly realistic environments. We needed to incorporate the natural look of shadows created from bounced light in different weather and times-of-day, properly colored environments through materials reflecting manmade light in urban environments, and dynamically shadowed and illuminated character avatars with the same lighting effects for stealth and camouflage purposes."
"With Beast, everything is transformed into a cohesive lighting scene that is fully integrated into the Unreal Engine 3. The excellent support from Illuminate Labs was a great additional benefit. Ultimately, Beast has allowed us to create highly realistic battlefield environments for both the game and for Government simulations where light and shadow play as important a tactical factor as the visuals for every element in the world," said Bode.
"Beast, our game engine-independent content pipeline product, has been a tremendous success in the market and there are now +20 titles in production on Unreal Engine 3." says Magnus Wennerholm, CEO, Illuminate Labs. "We share the America’s Army team's commitment to ever better lighting and we look forward to working together to set new standards".
About Illuminate Labs AB
Headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, Illuminate Labs develops and markets rendering and baking technology especially tailored to satisfy the needs of next-generation game developers based on the proprietary LiquidLight® technology. Turtle, its product for Maya by Autodesk, is the only product on the market that combines advanced rendering technology with sophisticated baking functionality in one integrated toolset. Beast, its platform-independent pipeline product, allows users to add global illumination and extremely powerful baking functionality to their internal tools. Illuminate Labs’ clients include A2M, BioWare, Crystal Dynamics, Dragonfly, DICE, Electronic Arts, Guerrilla, Insomniac, Midway, Polyphony Digital, Sony Computer Entertainment and Valve Software. For additional information about Illuminate Labs, visit www.illuminatelabs.com.
About America’s Army
The Army creates and distributes America’s Army so that young Americans can virtually explore Soldiering in the U.S. Army like Soldiers experience it – as individuals and as members of teams. Through the Game’s virtual experiences, young Americans can explore the Army from basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, and medic training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas to operations in defense of freedom. Along the way, they can join elite Army units and experience the strength of Army teamwork, values and technology within an engaging environment. The game has become an online phenomenon, consistently ranking among the most popular PC action games played online. The games are rated T for Teen and can be downloaded free from various partners listed on the www.americasarmy.com site. They are also distributed at local Army Recruiting stations, ROTC Detachments and Army events.
In the America's Army game, players are bound by Rules of Engagement (ROE) and grow in experience as they navigate challenges in team-based, multiplayer, force on force operations. In the game, as in the Army, accomplishing missions requires teamwork and adherence to the Army’s core values. Through its emphasis on team play, the game demonstrates these values of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage and makes them integral to success in America's Army.
The Army launched America’s Army in July of 2002, and has released major updates to the game every few months. These releases feature new technologies, missions, Army units and occupations. In keeping with the dynamic nature of Soldiering, the America's Army game will continue to expand and will allow players to explore the Army of today, tomorrow and the future. An entirely new version of the game, America’s Army 3, will be released in 2009.
Media contacts:
Helena Hansson
Illuminate Labs AB
+46 (0)31 704 94 33
helena.hansson@illuminatelabs.com
Lori Mezoff
PR Director for America’s Army
+1 301 879 9030