Products
Examples
Interview
Simultaneous Release On Three Platforms
The Role of Middleware in The SOULCALIBUR II Project.
Platform
Products Installed
CRI ADX / CRI Sofdec / CRI Clipper
Without middleware, simultaneous release on three consoles would have been impossible.
Facilitator: First, tell us why you started using CRI's middleware.
Yotoriyama: We had already set a very high bar by attempting the simultaneous release on three consoles in a short time-frame. We had to determine where to concentrate our development efforts, and we decided to concentrate on aspects that could not be covered by middleware.
In other words, in order to make the development process efficient, we should design the parts here at Namco that would work differently on each of the three consoles, and we should use middleware for parts that were not different for each of the consoles, or at least that had only insignificant differences.
Oshimi: So, from the earliest stages of the project, you had planned on doing some degree of outsourcing?
Yotoriyama: Yes. Well, in order to develop with speed and efficiency in a limited time-frame, we felt it was necessary to make those choices.
Facilitator: Did you decide upon using both ADX and Sofdec at about the same time?
Obama: Well, the first thing we discussed was what to do about movie playback, and so we decided on Sofdec first. We researched what was available for use on all three machines, and we figured it would be best to use something that supported the same format for all platforms, and only Sofdec fit that profile.
As for ADX, just around the time we were doing SOULCALIBUR for the Dreamcast, I heard of a technology that allowed files to be accessed while music was being played. Before then, we had never used anything that could be considered middleware.
Oshimi: I remember that! Only the Dreamcast specifications had been released, but despite this, you didn't ask us any questions, and before we knew it, you had a finished product! You guys must be superhuman - that was just incredible!
Obama: The production of SOULCALIBUR for the Dreamcast was also on a very tight schedule - although admittedly it was not nearly as tough as the triple-console release this time around. Asking questions and waiting for answers seemed like a loss of time we couldn't afford, so we did our best to research what we could on our own. But now, after making full use of ADX, we found that our questions were answered so quickly that I wish we had asked questions before [when developing SOULCALIBUR for the Dreamcast].
Facilitator: With SOULCALIBUR II, were you active about establishing cooperative relationships with other outside companies in addition to using our middleware?
Yotoriyama: Yes. For example, take a movie - normally we would produce it totally in-house - but instead this time we co-produced it with other companies, then used Sofdec to play it back. We tried a lot of new things in the interest of increased efficiency.
Facilitator: Before using ADX and Sofdec on this project, did you compare them with any other technologies?
Obama: Well in fact, as I mentioned before, there were technologies I was interested in since the time of the Dreamcast, and our lead-programmer was a staunch supporter.
I did a lot of research, and I personally wanted to try using your middleware more than any other software.
Yotoriyama: There were other possible choices for a movie decoder, though, right?
Obama: Yes, there were. The only thing was, all the others were dependent upon a certain platform. So we chose Sofdec, because of the great advantage of being able to use it on all platforms.
Yotoriyama:We were looking for something that would absorb as many of the intra-platform differences as possible, and in that respect, Sofdec was the only choice.
