We are planning a public release of the CPAL3D engine. Get in touch with us and we will let you know as soon as possible.
Added lots of postprocess shaders: depth of field, soft shadows, ambient occlusion, glow etc.
Added Steamworks and 3D vision support.
Added Lipsync system.
CPAL3D technology web page has been established.
You can find the most frequently asked questions from our users at this page.
General questions
- Is it possible to create a complete game in CPAL3D?
- Which other libraries are needed to release my game?
- Do I have to pay for added libraries?
- Do I have to pay rake-off from sales when I use CPAL3D?
- What shall I do if I find a bug?
- What support is available?
- How often and how is the engine updated?
- What games have been developed on CPAL3D technology?
- Do I get some a commission if I refer you a client?
- Who are Centauri Production?
Technical questions
- What modules does the engine contain and which ones are necessary to add to create game XY?
- Which graphic cards are supported?
- What version of shaders does the engine support?
- What kind of problems will the client have to solve?
- Which way are these actions implemented?
- What about engine performance?
- Are there any limits to scene dimensions?
- What is an engine? IDE? Publisher? Editor?
- Does CPAL3D engine use more CPU cores?
- Does CPAL3D engine support OpenGL?
- Does CPAL3D engine support networking?
- Does CPAL3D engine include proprietary physics engine?
- What platforms are supported?
General questions
Is it possible to create a complete game in CPAL3D?
Yes, you can relatively simply create a truly wide spectrum of games with CPAL3D.
Which other libraries are needed to release my game?
CPAL3D does not need any additional libraries except DirectX and nVidia PhysX.
Do I have to pay for added libraries?
All functions included in features are implemented directly in the engine and therefore it is not necessary to license other middleware.
Do I have to pay rake-off from sales when I use CPAL3D?
No, if you use a usual license with a given budget. Contact us for further details.
What shall I do if I find a bug?
Although we try to provide our engine without bugs, sometimes a technical problem can appear. In that case the best way is to report the bug by an email and we then enter it into our internal bug report system.
What support is available?
Apart from a developer forum, an email and IM support is available.
How often and how is the engine updated?
Bug fixes and small features are implemented as patches to the current version as fast as possible, the fix is usually included in the following service release. Service releases are issued monthly.
What games have been developed on CPAL3D technology?
Recently, Memento Mori adventure, zombie action Pound of Ground or RPG Numen have been created using CPAL3D. A complete list of released games can be seen in References section.
Do I get some a commission if I refer you a client?
There is an option to get percentual provision after contract is closed, provided that the middleman is not an employee of the potential client. More details are available after NDA signing.
Who are Centauri Production?
The company was established in 2003 by experienced developers that had previously developed world known titles as Mafia or Operation Flashpoint. We are interested in developing both our own games as well as our own technologies which are used for all our titles.
Technical questions
What modules does the engine contain and which ones are necessary to add to create game XY?
The engine contains renderer, sound system, animation system, character controller with pathfinding, physics and helper subsystems for triggers, controllers, text database, moving objects, savegame etc. This is a feature set that should be sufficient for creating any type of game. We recommend to see the feature list for details.
Which graphic cards are supported?
The engine is designed for DirectX 9.0 standard with HLSL shaders and thus for all compatible graphic cards. Moreover the engine allows rendering on fixed pipeline. Therefore, integrated cards without shaders Intel 865G chipset, nVidia GeForce256 or ATI Radeon 7000 Series will also work.
What version of shaders does the engine support?
Currently the engine is released with package which contains per pixel shaders and fullscreen effects using shader model 2.0. Of course, the user can create custom shaders - the engine itself is not limited to particular shader model.
What kind of problems will the client have to solve?
The main task is to link all subsystem together. The example could be shooting from the gun. The player presses the button, the script gets a button-down event and runs an animation of shooting, an emitor and a sound. Next the ray is cast into the scene and the script runs a particular action according to the object hit (enemy's health is lowered, AI state is updated, force impulse is applied into dynamic object etc.).
Which way are these actions implemented?
The engine is powered by simple microthreading script which allows to affect all engine's subsystems and all objects in the scene.
What about engine performance?
The rendering can handle hundreds of thousands polygons per frame using per pixel lighting, volumetric shadows and multi-pass rendering (ambient and lights). The total count of objects in case of using level of detail is practically unlimited.
Are there any limits to scene dimensions?
Scene dimensions limit depends on float number precision. All subsystems are designed with regard to float number efficient usage. For example, we have an outdoor scene of size 5x3km in our game Pound of Ground. There is car racing, fighting with enemies and physical simulation without affecting precision of calculations.
What is an engine? IDE? Publisher? Editor?
Everything starts with the editor, a flexible tool which is used for assets management and creation of game levels. IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is then used both for development of game systems and simple scripts for cut scenes. In the engine game goes live. The Publisher is used by developers and game publishers to create game builds, texts translations and CD/DVD authoring. See Workflow section for details.
Does CPAL3D engine use more CPU cores?
Only partially. We are working on full support.
Does CPAL3D engine support OpenGL?
Most of the graphics cards for PC platform have excellent support for DirectX, so the OpenGL is not necessary. We support the most convenient interface for any given platform.
Does CPAL3D engine support networking?
Currently the engine core doesn't support network play. Xxx However a simple plugin systen enables the implementation of customized support.
Does CPAL3D engine include proprietary physics engine?
CPAL3D engine is using nVidia PhysX.
What platforms are supported?
The main development platform is PC. Ports for other platforms are being considered.
