RenderWare: The Engine that Powered an Era | Retrohistories

[@ebrahimkakhi8836]

Whenever something dies in the gaming industry, EA is somehow always behind it 😂

[@Azuris190]

Thats so true haha Had no Idea this was also on EAs Deathlist

[@mediocreman6323]

Yup. The very moment I heard EA had bought RenderWare, I already knew the reason for its downfall.

[@DOOT_II]

@@mediocreman6323 EA kills everything it touches

[@mediocreman6323]

@@DOOT_II I'm just thinking … they don't have a Russian branch, do they? 😈 “Soldiers, we have this new U.S. software, upload it to your weapon systems immediately for deadly accuracy!” “Yes, kapitán” “Wonderful, now fire … how did it work? … Soldiers? Soldiers! Why don't you answer me?!”

[@DOOT_II]

@@mediocreman6323 lol

[@LowSpecGamer]

Thinking of the recent blunders at EA over Frostbite it is interesting to think about how long EA has been trying to find its unified Engine all of its studios can use... and how many times they have failed!

[@mglsj]

Hi u here.

[@Fallen_Ninja]

I believe the issue with frostbite is the lack of learning time for the developers. No the engine itself. However most people lack the understanding of what “game engines” really are.

[@blakegriplingph]

@@Fallen_Ninja It's been said that the toolchain for Frostbite was a pain to set up according to one developer. DICE may have streamlined it now but its convoluted nature may have frustrated people in the studios especially given EA's insistence on using it across all new games.

[@Solomonwo]

No

[@JuanRVillanuevaXX]

Saludos LowSpecGamer :D

[@colderplasma]

Ex-Frostbite engineer here, yes RW lost to UE3, but their engineers were also absorbed by Frostbite which became the dominant in-house engine. A lot of animosity about the decision to effectively kill RW still exists from ex-RW engineers to this day. A lot of tech was also absorbed by Frostbite too, so RW lives on to some degree, a lot of its code is still within Frostbite.

[@darkzeroprojects4245]

Ngl, would of been nice to have that code out for people to look into imo. You guys did a great work for the time and I think it helped a generation... Also had given games using it a Style in games graphics Imo.

[@gabenewelltheprotector3548]

Really was impressed by the FrostBite engine growing up; especially in Batllefield 4. Would you say that RenderWare could've possibly looked as good as current frostbite if they would've carried on?

[@limpa756]

Non open source software is evil and the develops that enable it are also evil, so you will never see that code

[@moonknightish]

Isn't it weird how renderware was so versatile while Frostbite isn't? Bioware had really big problems creating RPGs with the Frostbite engine.

[@darkzeroprojects4245]

@@limpa756 Dude chill. It's not like that, sheesh. (I Might be misreading, but you're coming off aggressive there.) I agree not getting to see that code is disappointing, and overall frustrating when could be handy for say preserving history of it and the games made for it by using the code to make them playable outside Emulation or so on.... However calling someone Evil for not wanting to share their Code is kind of absurd. It's not something I think everyone is entitled to do nor should be demanded, but volunteered. And this is coming from a guy who wish the Source code of Unreal Engine 2.5 was leaked or something cuz of my personal studying of 2000s 3d engines.

[@Aboveup]

The second EA entered the story, it became too clear to see how it would end up. They really do have a tendency to push companies to a breaking point, and then actually break and discard them once they've stopped being immediately profitable. It makes sense from a cold business perspective, but it doesn't make it any less sad to see how many times it's transpired. Had no idea it even went so far as an entire game engine though.

[@retrohistories]

Yeah, it's the normal EA acquisition story to a degree. But it's hard to understand why they let it happen here, even if motivated purely by profit. RenderWare was still bringing in the cash, plus they could use it for free on their own games. Moving to Unreal just cost them money and didn't consolidate their power in any way. Maybe they thought that ending RenderWare would hurt their competitors more than themselves, I don't know. Or maybe they genuinely did just miss their shot, not as part of a master plan but just by taking too long. It's a puzzler.

[@theguardian8317]

EA is not the sort of business that mainly buys technology and brands to use them. They are the sort of business that buy companies so that others cannot use or purchase their technologies or brands. It's part of the company's DNA, vision, principles or whatever they call it. Similar how Microsoft will never ever create a product designed by them but they will always base their products on products by other businesses in an attempt to steal the market. Those aren't coincidences. Companies do have "specific" ways of operating. I don't know how they operate now and I don't really care much about EA or triple a games anymore for that matter (since now they are mostly kind of disguised casino games for kids) but during the 90s and 2000 when EA purchased a business and then released a couple of crappy games those games were only made because they were part of the acquisition contract, not because they were expecting to make profit with them. In fact the worse things went the better for EA because that gave them the excuse to layoff those that didn't quit by themselves during those periods

[@Grogeous_Maximus]

EA is the antonym of sustainable business.

[@davidlau-kee9075]

@@retrohistories One day I'll write up the full story. But let me say now, there was no malevolence on EA's side - more a combination of 3rd party fears/reluctance, natural internal resistance, deeply conflicting requirements and stretched-beyond-breaking-point resources. In retrospect, all foreseeable and I regret not succeeding in navigating through the challenges.

[@aaadj2744]

@@theguardian8317 Microsoft decided to bought Skype and killed MSN was one of the example that shows a stupid decision and a laziest move that Microsoft ever made instead of improving the product they ever created.. MSN was a great software and they should never mind about Skype..

[@izzyhopeunlisted]

Renderware was originally made by CANON. Like the Canon that makes dslr's and cameras Canon, THAT! Canon. Now that's super surprising to me.

[@eduardoalvarez2497]

Then you will be blow away that windows and macOS where copied from Xerox

[@Solomonwo]

No

[@yuukitheclopsy]

Just like the first computer GUI that used a mouse was made (of all companies!) by Xerox, long before Windows or Mac were a thing.

[@niewazneniewazne1890]

The cannon which makes printers and scanners*

[@darkzeroprojects4245]

Wonder why they decided to drop it or idk ,ever shared its code to preserve histry

[@agnel47]

Rendereware was unofficially called the PS2 devkit. I played countless rendereware games as a kid.

[@MarquisDeSang]

PS2 used the Emotion Engine as it's CPU/GPU, now they use the WOKE engine as their core.

[@RealHomeRecording]

@@MarquisDeSang LOL

[@laorakaora1764]

@@MarquisDeSang u mean censorship engine?

[@MarquisDeSang]

@@laorakaora1764 Yeah, The Chinada engine simulator.

[@laorakaora1764]

@@MarquisDeSang isnt thats how consoles always been? Ehen eas thr last time there was a eroge on consoles?

[@ImAltair1]

Sort of unrelated little fun fact: Sean Murray, the No Man's Sky lead director, was the Technical Lead of Black, and Technical Director of Burnout 3.

[@joecool9986]

I didn't know that. Thanks.

[@butterfinger4393]

And black

[@prla5400]

No fucking way

[@TheBaxes]

Now I want to beg him to add Takedowns into No Man's Sky

[@IconDevco]

Oh bro you watch IH too?

[@mediocreman6323]

3:43 - “And in mid 2004, *Electronic Arts* bought the company …” _The very moment_ I heard this, I already knew it would end badly. The rest [of the video] was just confirmation.

[@Mindbleach]

One name, and you're straight from 'Ohhh yeeeah, what ever happened-' to miserable comprehension. "Somebody bought that thing you love and destroyed it." A thousand examples and EA is half of them.

[@Mindbleach]

​@quad849 EA bought Criterion from Canon. Not that 'blame the seller' is any excuse for EA's actions.

[@ikagura]

So this is why the 6th gen console era had a unique look

[@jon4715]

The engine had such a good feel.

[@ishansingh9633]

renderware and unreal engine 2/2.5 for sure defined the 6th gen era

[@darkzeroprojects4245]

@@ishansingh9633 They're kinda my inspiration for my first several games I want to develop. And if learned far enough to make a custom engine or two. Why would I want to? Cuz I find it interesting and would like to have something I worked on made for the specific games with what features I want in it.

[@thegirlwiththemouseyhair6486]

@@darkzeroprojects4245 What sort of games?

[@darkzeroprojects4245]

@@thegirlwiththemouseyhair6486 First ones I been wanting are -A hybrid Fps and Third Person melee game inspired from Star Wars Jedi Knight Academy's Melee combat ,Oni's third person Hand to hand and Various other games like Fps's primarly Quake 1 to others like Metroid Prime prime -A few 3d Platformers One being a mix of Aventure Island,shantae,etc. to a 3d megaman inspired one that is a mix of Classic crash and classic megaman of sorts both games being somewhat taking influence from wayforward making cute sexy girls n such XD -A Arena Fighter or two with some mechanics to make them potent for comp,but still focused for SP content fun since I hate modern Fighting games content outside online can be lackluster. Been playing and studying games like Power Stone,Erghiez,etc. -2 Action game inspired from the first Devil May Cry and Dmc3, the 2000s Ninja Gaiden Xbox game, Mk Shaolin Monks and another more akin to GodHand. Few others over time but these are ones I primarly had in mind.

[@Pesthuf]

Kudos to the developers who *immediately* saw through EA's lies.

[@isaakfaulk8067]

The original creators of CoD were guys that left EA because they knew how bad the company was.

[@verifeli]

​@@isaakfaulk8067And then Activision...

[@irbisae4964]

​@@isaakfaulk8067and now zampella is back with ea doing battlefield 7 xd

[@isaakfaulk8067]

@@irbisae4964 They been screwing up battlefield. I know most of those original dudes are probably retired now or different work field.

[@irbisae4964]

@@isaakfaulk8067 since bf1, 87 percent devs left. So it's only a couple of guys left from golden era true. But my comment wasn't about that it was about zampella coming back to ea after 20 years or so.

[@dingus_maximus]

I love how everyone collectively knows exactly where the story is going at 3:43.

[@MasonFowlkesKenneth]

A lot of mod teams are still using Renderware. We're even trying to remap all of GTA VC to make a Back to the Future mod, with new textures, models, animations.. pretty much a whole new game! Renderware may be gone from major studio development, but indie teams and mods are still running ye' old' engine to this day.

[@HydraSpectre1138]

The very last RenderWare games are all remasters. Burnout Paradise Remastered, Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition (on a weird hybrid with Unreal Engine 4) and Persona 4 Golden. We could also add Persona 3 FES here if Atlus remastered that instead of Portable. I am not sure if Persona 3 Portable was RenderWare, though, at least for the 3D dungeon-crawling segments.

[@Ozzianman]

@@HydraSpectre1138 RenderWare is only responsible for the rendering, but they probably found a way to run the original game logic within UE4.

[@Raylightsen]

Wao, which games are being made with it? Im interested.

[@HydraSpectre1138]

@@Raylightsen So far, the latest RenderWare release would be GTA: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition, but the upcoming Xbox/PS4/Switch release of Persona 4 Golden will still be RenderWare.

[@inertboi]

Yeah, so many good modding tools and scripts. I've been creating 3D models in 3D Studio Max and rigging them into Vice City and San Andreas for more than 10 years now and I still do. It's a window for my creativity, and it's still a hobby of mine. In the past few days, I recreated the first level of Pencil Whipped (2000) in GTA SA, recreated my house in 1:1 scale for SA, made a minecraft village also for SA and so on... So much fun.

[@blakegriplingph]

_Grand Theft Auto_ arguably popularised RenderWare at least in terms of modding, as most of the tools for manipulating RenderWare models were made with GTA in mind, and much of the research done on it was done by the GTA community.

[@konnimusic]

and after renderware was acquired by ea, rockstar developed their own "rage“ engine to stay independent (which they still use in gta v)

[@SQOUREE]

@@konnimusic Red dead redemption 2 still uses rage

[@SQOUREE]

@@konnimusic Red dead redemption 2 still uses rage

[@tyrannosaurusflex3698]

@SQOUREE Since GTA IV they have used and will continue to use RAGE for all of their games.

[@SQOUREE]

@@tyrannosaurusflex3698 i know

[@RockYeahh]

This was brlliant. It is tragic that EA wiped out Renderware. It was all too familar hearing that EA wanted to make Renderware the default engine for all of it's studios. They said the same about the Frostbite engine years later but have since given up on that too. These ideas are always brought up by executives that don't understand the need to train studios to use them. They'd need to expand massively to support so many studios with one game engine team and EA has never been capable of something like that.

[@SalivatingSteve]

Pretty sure EA is still getting money from Sega licensing the CRI ADX audio and video formats, which they use in ALL of their games.

[@kufusonic]

@@SalivatingSteve Isn't CriWare a japanese based middleware solution?

[@craigsmith6039]

@@kufusonic yes. also CRI Middleware is now owned by Sumitomo. Also EA doesn't use any of CRI Middleware's products (most likely they'll use Bink Video and wwise for their games)

[@CorporalPig22]

I feel like RenderWare suffered a fate worse than EA's meddling. A lot of the Data Design Interactive shovelware on the Wii used RenderWare, like all their platformers that are literally just reskins of each other.

[@trashcompactorYT]

They definitely did not give up on making Frostbite their in-house studio lmao, EA literally only has one franchise that doesn't run on Frostbite, and that's Jedi Fallen Order. Even the new Skate game runs on Frostbite.

[@ocass66]

I only ever knew Criterion for Burnout and the 2010 and 2012 Need for Speed games, so hearing about their early history was fascinating. I'm glad you waited till about the midway point before revealing the company's identity, it made for a somewhat mindblowing reveal. Good video.

[@nvrndingsmmr]

Same same same

[@TKsh1]

Looks like EA, even as when they were more respected as game devs and producers, had a lot of mistrust from others. At the time, we as consumers would laugh at this silly idea, but it turned to be true nowadays.

[@matheusmotta9]

Caramba, você tá em todo lugar

[@youuuuuuuuuuutube]

EA bought Criterion & Renderware in 2004, by then they had already bought and terminated many studios, including Bullfrog (bought in 1998, terminated in 2001), Westwood Studios (1998 => 2003), etc. Developers knew.

[@anon_y_mousse]

@@youuuuuuuuuuutube Both sorely missed.

[@quinnmarchese6313]

Im pretty sure EA was already near the top of "worst company" lists by 04 or 05, i remember EA was kinda always hated

[@tyrcipher8811]

@@quinnmarchese6313 Maybe by the people who followed the industry very closely... But for the general public going into the 360/PS3 generation. They were still very much a loved publisher. The distaste for EA for a lot of people didn't come until the end of that generation when they released games like Dead Space 3, killed off Skate, and had the terrible launch of BF4

[@SentientHoodii]

video game documentaries voiced over by guys who sound bored and enthused at the same time are a niche I can't get enough of.

[@RadikAlice]

I hope you've yet to watch Leon Massey then. Save for detailing the fall of skateboarding games, I'd say he's more of a general video game essayist, but he's still an ace at it. And the energy is there

[@syntaxerorr]

That Jurassic Park scene has a real file manager called File System Navigator.

[@tux_the_astronaut]

Ye was it for irix OS prob not default file manager but maybe one included?

[@TechArtAid]

Amazing video, thank you. I've worked in game dev industry since 2010 and wasn't even aware of the story. So that's why did RenderWare disappear. Similar sentiments hold true even today, with major AAA studios avoiding dependence on Epic's (otherwise wonderful) Unreal Engine 4.

[@ali32bit42]

yes youre right. i am willing to pay 5000 $ of licencing fees for cry engine . just to avoid epic games

[@divinecomedian2]

Most stuff in UE look so generic and bland. I don't mind them foregoing it.

[@X2011racer]

And now Unity is about to become Malware thanks to the company's recent merger. Seriously, Nintendo has it easy that they have their own In-House game engine, but some feel that it is outdated, or more complicated than it looks.

[@matthewwatt2295]

@@divinecomedian2 Idk, I don't blame Epic for other studios simply using the defaults instead of customising

[@akilreid9476]

This is such an interesting thing to learn about because I always loved the “look” certain PS2 games had but I could never pinpoint why they all had that similar graphics style. I NEVER thought about tying it to RenderWare but it makes so much sense now! This era in gaming is so timeless.

[@JomasterTheSecond]

Shoutouts to Bloody Roar 4, the game that accidentally left an entire copy of the Renderware SDK on the disc so people could just straight up use it for their own nefarious purposes.

[@kuraiwolf4047]

Still got an old 2003/2004 copy of renderware. Kept it backed up from an old workstation I used to have. Along with a shit load of various console and handheld SDKs.

[@lasarousi]

This is absolutely heart breaking. If criterion wasn't pillaged by ea, they could have become what epic Games is today, minus the bullying and capital abuse they do for exclusives.

[@Pchelekk]

They were ahead of time back then. For ex. in Burnout paradise, one of their biggest and most popular game they planed to add planes (with special gamemodes, etc.). Adding planes to a car game in 2009. They also wanted to make different versions of "Big surf Island" the dlc for Burnout Paradise. They wanted to create a portal that would teleport players to the same island but to different times(era of industrialization, and so on). They even planed to release a moon dlc where in that dlc You would drive and race on the moon. Criterion was hated for making Need for speed most wanted 2012 by its players for a lack of story in the game. But in reality they made a story in a alpha version of the game and they wanted to make it a really big one but EA gave them too little time to do it. So they noticed that they won't be able to do it so they MADE a brand new game without story and they rushed it.(Nowaday's Nfs most wanted 2012). Thats why it lacks tuning, story, better driving physics and many more. In 2014 they wanted to release a brand new game in first person mode with different kind of vehicles (cars, planes, boats, parachute jumps and many more) it even got a trailer and EA canceled it. EA as EA always destroys fun and creativity

[@AnonymousMachine]

"If criterion wasn't pillaged by ea, they could have become what epic Games is today," that makes no sense

[@lasarousi]

@@AnonymousMachine they had an engine, just like epic had, what made them big is exactly that, but this is the opposite of that same starting point. The other side of the coin

[@litjellyfish]

They had real internal problems and was behind epic in every way at the time they was bought.

[@KaiSoDaM]

​@@AnonymousMachineepic games own unreal engine. Who is the main engine since PS3/360 and more and more studios switch to unreal in ps5/xbs

[@davidlau-kee9075]

Hi Chris, I have a few factual quibbles, but directionally I think you've done a great job here. Thanks for memorializing. DLK

[@retrohistories]

David, thank you for the kind comment... and for Criterion too, of course! I tried to find sources for everything, but inevitably errors can creep in. If there's anything you want me to set the record straight on, I'm happy to put corrections and clarifications at the top of the description and on social media.

[@thejhonnie]

David been real quiet

[@FishGigic]

factual quibbles

[@bengineer_the]

We did deploy Renderware 4.5 across EA's titles for a few years. Fifa, Mirrors Edge, Madden, to name a few. And to be honest Unreal engine wasn't on the horizon at the time. Ea was more interested in the Crysis engine around the time after acquisition. (was one of the 6 graphic devs on RW team) Very accurate though, it felt like we were in the centre of the world, with everybody running scared as soon as EA took over. Will always be the high point of my career. 😊

[@piotrmazek540]

Mirror's Edge ran on UE3 (unless you're talking about pre-production or something) :)

[@pir_hana]

if it's true that you're on the team, then you literally were apart of the people that carved billions of childhoods and I cannot thank you enough for it, NFSU2, GTA, Burnout and all those other games are still so big to me, and we don't even get genres like the cathartic aggressive racing game series like Burnout (I absolutely love it btw)

[@jfwfreo]

I believe a lot of Renderware tech is still to be found across EA's titles to this day. Things like the EA in-house audio library started out life as a Renderware thing I believe.

[@amac203]

@@pir_hana "A part" is two words. "Apart" has the opposite meaning.

[@Brawltendo]

@@jfwfreo EA’s in-house audio library was originally SND which was used from the 90s through the early 2000s, but after the Criterion acquisition, it ended up being phased out for RWAudioCore which evolved into EAAudioCore. Other bits of RW tech in use now include RWPhysics which is part of Frostbite’s new physics engine, RWMath, and some filesystem related stuff.

[@DanZeeManz]

RenderWare also evolved to an engine named Chameleon in 2010, which was essentially an updated version of RenderWare from what we were told and was used in both the 2010 and 2012 NFS titles.

[@---pp7tq]

Great piece of information. I always wondered about Chameleon's origin. It confirms my suspicions.

[@X2011racer]

I guess Chameleon didn't have a chance to shine since it was thrown out quickly in favor of Frostbite.

[@Brawltendo]

@@X2011racer there wasn’t really any reason for Criterion to waste resources maintaining an entire engine when they had access to one that was already proven to work for NFS in 2011. It does suck that Chameleon didn’t get more time to shine, but it’s just the way development works. For what it’s worth, pieces of RenderWare still live on through Frostbite and other EA tech today.

[@IPlayKindred]

chameleon is a very very capable engine, atleast graphics wise, mw2012 is a decade old and looks almost photorealistic

[@myfaceisthefrontofshop]

@@Brawltendo except that it didn't and still doesn't work, frostbite has practically ruined NFS

[@theguardian8317]

Oh the memories. For me the era of the GC, PS2 and 360 was the best time for console games ever. I didn't know so many of those great games used the same engine

[@2beJT]

Mine was the OG XBOX era. ALL of the modern benefits of online gaming with Live began then. We even could talk to random gamers and enjoy it. Now I'd never try to talk to randos in a game but back then it was all new and so fun!

[@poika22]

@@2beJT All the "online benefits" and about 10 times more had been available on PC for a decade at that point. The only thing the Xbox introduced was paying for standard online features.

[@2beJT]

@@poika22 I played on PC for years before xbox live.. but having voice chat supported natively and doing everything as a standard feature was game changing. I also played on Xband during it's time. I was having a great time playing Tribes and Rainbow 6 before Xbox Live took all of those online connectivity features and made them incredibly easy to use. Now that you have me thinking about it in more detail.. The NFL 2k5 leagues were better than anything PC had ever done to that point. It had websites we could contribute to that tracked stats. What a fun time to play console games..

[@Casketkrusher_]

PS1 and PS2 for me. PS2 had the most fantastic games ever made. If I could i would go back in time in a heartbeat.

[@poika22]

​@@2beJT The control over something like private Teamspeak or Ventirlo server can never be matched by a (paid) built-in service with terrible sound quality, console UI, literally zero settings and controls, low bitrate, proprietary microphone connectors etc. etc. That you just gotta hope works the way you want it to, because you sure can't do anything about it. Sucks to be you if the 15-second setup period something like connecting to TS3 is so difficult to you that getting to pay for a vastly inferior system is seen to you as "modern benefits of online gaming".

[@killazspain]

Great video!

[@lustechsource5197]

Very informative. I remember reading about Renderware in magazines and websites. Didn't really notice it's disappearance because Unreal Engine did a great job making people forget, but your video is a good insight into what exactly happened. Great job and thanks!

[@ArabianFreedom]

Excellent video.

[@geckoo9190]

-ea is buying our game engine, but they promised to license it to their competitors -Change it, change the engine now. -Haaa, we can't they just bought us -Gentlemen, it was a pleasure to program with you.

[@hemangchauhan2864]

Once again, an excellent video! Those segment from magazines were great, highlighted their history. I know British computer history is very understated in game dev history. Did you know, Sean Murray of Hello Games fame, was one of the engineers on RenderWare as well. 3:15 TrickStyle! This game was what my friend flaunted when he got a new PC.

[@retrohistories]

I knew Sean Murray was ex-Criterion but had no idea he worked on RenderWare!

[@hemangchauhan2864]

@@retrohistories I watched a tech talk by Sean long long back. When No Man's Sky wasn't "redeemed" yet. Sorry, I can't find it.

[@artemisDev]

​@@hemangchauhan2864 this must be the video kzbin.info/www/bejne/eWq1qnifet-An7c he was actually engine lead during burnouts and black

[@islandofmelanat]

I'd never come across your videos until now, and I am absolutely floored by the quality. This level of script writing, oration, and editing is seldom seen on KZbin. I can't wait to dive into your previous work, great stuff!

[@LeonardoDaSidci]

This was a very insightful video Chris! Some of the best games I ever played were made by an engine I had no knowledge about, and it's history (and ultimately, demise) has just faded into oblivion. Thanks for bringing some light onto a somewhat forgotten subject and keep up the great work!

[@yuroichi6418]

During this whole video ive had only one specific lyric line playing in my head: *_"we are the lazy generation, no more standing out in liiiiine"_*

[@BobbyBroccoli]

I totally remember this haha, had no idea how widespread it was. Great video!

[@AndyHerbert254]

Ironically, RenderWare was the engine for SimCity 2013, like 5 years after it got cut, and interestingly the graphics in that game are impressive (though probably rewritten shaders for d3d9) Another reason why RenderWare might've been shut down was because I think Frostbite's first iteration was coming around at the time for BF Bad Company, which EA played into more with DICE's engine, and ultimately it paid off in the 2010s as a competitor to Unreal, even today.

[@paulallen579]

Who else is reading this after former EA exec John Riccitiello started killing the Unity engine?

[@34disorder84]

this video deserves way more views, especially being the only video about an engine that has shaped so many peoples childhoods, and the editing is amazing too. godspeed my man. it is really interesting to think how things would be if renderware was still a thing.

[@noiselessfox7618]

AWESOME retrospective. i was just researching renderware today and your video was the cherry on the pie. very interesting subject!

[@retrohistories]

Thank you!

[@GotYourWallet]

I had no idea so many games from that generation where powered by the same engine.

[@HamguyBacon]

same i thought they made it themselves, but it makes sense, they all have that same look.

[@jambrosvevo6464]

didnt expect persona 3 and 4 to be running on the same engine as the 3d era gta games, huh

[@ElekiSerket]

Recently I found out that Metal Slug 3D for the PS2 uses this engine, though not sure which version. I was surprised once I figured out how to extract the data from the game and got a bunch of .dff models and .txd texture packages, just like in GTA. That engine was truly _everywhere_ at the time.

[@FamilyTeamGaming]

Interesting to see another human being on Earth that remembers Metal Slug 3D existed.

[@ElekiSerket]

@@FamilyTeamGaming I'm a big fan of the series and surprisingly I like MS3D despite it's flaws and broken gameplay. You can tell they were rushed to release the game but a lot of love for the originals went into recreating even small details in animation and little gimmicks like reloading if you shoot the pistol a lot. So naturally I went and ripped textures and models. Still no luck with opening the models though, but I have them.

[@looeee]

Modern Vintage Gamer sent me here. I'm instantly a fan. What a great channel!

[@Atomglow]

It's amazing how much this engine helped the ps2, even GTA San Andreas ran on Renderware.

[@southernflatland]

If Canon was involved in such a 3D rendering software today, they'd make it halt and throw an error if your printer ran out of ink...

[@lukeisbored8607]

I think RenderWare evolved into Chameleon Engine, which powered Burnout Paradise, NFS Hot Pursuit 2010 and NFS Most wanted 2012.

[@gavinrolls1054]

nah, separate engine. the best example for what rw evolved into after ea's acquisition is Skate. Skate 2 Skate 3 and Skate it.

[@SupercharizardEx]

Leave it to EA to ruin one of the first game engines and an entire era of retro gaming. I really wish that I could say I am surprised by this, but when looking at the kind of trashy company that they've become today it really isn't too shocking to see how this event took place. Honestly, it's a real shame.

[@dahahaka]

Did they really ruin it though or was it Unreal's success? I'm sure EA had a contribution but not sure it's solely their fault.

[@Ehal256]

One of the first game engines? Huh?

[@patrickholt8782]

They’re also the guys who stole a football engine from Bethesda.

[@Cheezus]

as much as it looks like it, it's more so that Unreal was outpacing it.

[@NoName_NoTitle]

It was not one of the first game engines... Nobody has ever claimed that. Where tf did you get that from?

[@bpcgos]

I thought renderware came from japan... A lot of japanese devs use this engine back in ps2 era and pretty much determined the PS2/graphic style we all have known and love... Criterion is awesome

[@aaadj2744]

Yeah, Criterion is awesome. BLACK is still my favourite game by them

[@LordVarkson]

Yeah it's certainly weird to think of Japanese devs using a western engine.

[@n_core]

Well, you can connect it with Canon, a Japanese company. Because Criterion was under Canon Europe before they were acquired by EA. So RenderWare technically sort of had been owned by a Japanese company.

[@meman176]

6:50 BRO THAT IS THE COOLEST GAME I EVER SEEN.

[@oouziii4679]

Omggg that music from airblade, in the outro sent me into a different dimension of nostalgia

[@ohtrueyeahnah]

RenderWare was made by...... CANON!? What a twist!

[@Robert_D_Mercer]

Makes sense since they were focused on digital graphics at the time. They knew their code and decided to add vertex points to it...

[@katomiccomics202]

Renderware is like the UE5/Unity of the early 2000s, everyone was using it

[@ugandanknuckles3900]

How many games we played without ever knowing of this specific medium. Always keeping it in mind but never having a name for it.. I love stuff like this, really puts context into my childhood.

[@peterpanther8627]

Renderware- the engine that powered the PS2 childhood of mollions.

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

I really enjoyed this - whilst I remember the scope of Renderware's use, some of those titles which did was certainly a surprise! Certainly a flexible bit of kit, even if not the most friendly to use it'd seem. Plus, Scorched Planet was an amazing showcase in that mid-90's PC era prior to 3D Accelerator cards emerging. Some of the tricks it did in software was seriously neat, and it honestly wasn't a bad game either.

[@mRahman92]

That's pretty crazy to that CANON of all companies could have become a major force in gaming.

[@danzingcat5949]

The engine signature is beautiful, its all over the PS2 games, would be great to re-implement

[@SirMcMuffintosh]

Really interesting! Sad to know that EA's kept their habit of killing studios for so long too.

[@DM0407]

I'm still salty they killed Westwood Studios. One of their first murders.

[@GamingLiveHDChannelPH]

And Still Continues even today but Stealthily something us Unaware

[@Drewsky840]

Another reason to hate EA

[@rapurimanka]

I just watched a video about a guy exploring dead online games. I learned about Active Worlds, which shocked me because it allowed users to create and upload 3D worlds to the internet back in 1995, and it's still functioning today. This was a major wow moment for me. And today, I discovered that Active Worlds is using RenderWare engine, which I only knew as the foundation for GTA games. I am grateful for all the information I gained from this video, as it was interesting to learn more about the history of major companies.

[@D3lor34n]

What a great little documentary, i even learned a thing or two i didn't know before. Well produced, awesome little channel. After watching your update from two years ago, i hope you're doing alright and find your mojo to produce more videos some time in the future. Cheers

[@maxbreaker]

Funny, so it wasn't the first time EA killed a popular game engine

[@krux02]

I feel like Unity is challengeing Renderware in falling far and fast.

[@ADreamingTraveler]

And they were both ruined by former EA CEO's. You can't make this stuff up.

[@amstrad00]

Interesting to see Activeworlds get a mention here. That brings to mind Shamus Young who worked in a lot of different capacities on that project before moving on to a moderately successful career as a blogger/columnist/etc writing about various games industry involved topics. Unfortunately he passed in June of 2022.

[@jimrustler]

I remember the RenderWare logo in many PS2 games, thanks for this video!

[@RaidenKaiser]

Unity engine may be next in line to end up like this I guess given how we all just discovered ea's former ceo is involved.

[@Brawltendo]

Unity has been going down the shitter for a while and it’s all due to awful direction and development practices rather than their CEO. They deprecate features like crazy and then don’t replace them with anything, but when they do, it’s always a shittier, worse-performing, and more limited version of what already existed before. They also don’t have any projects of their own (besides little set piece tech demos that don’t really need anyone to _actually_ work with the engine) to actually see how people are using their engine unlike other studios that make game engines. Epic has Fortnite as the UE4/UE5 testbed, Crytek has Crysis (among others over the years), and any studios using in-house engines have their own games that use said engines. Hell, even The Cherno and his small team did this with their engine (Hazel) to see what features they lacked or had to change. How the hell is Unity supposed to know what’s “production-ready” if they’re not using it in production themselves?

[@IPlayKindred]

Godot Numero uno

[@GoodGirlPeruru]

This is really fascinating, looking at the situation with Unity now. The CEO of Unity was COO of EA and only left the same year as the buyout announcement of Criterion, and only conveniently returned a year after the next gen consoles came out, and likely, many games featuring Unreal. In other words; after everyone forgot. He only left again to join Unity, in 2013… only to about ten years later, sell all his shares before a similarly inevitably destructive and stupid announcement; a flat fee to developers based on the amount of installs. What a shocking coincidence. I wonder what kind of shares he owned in EA and Criterion before/during/after the buyout and when he sold them? 👀

[@cheesemanzombie9151]

Always great to learn about stories like these

[@NickTaylor-Phantom-Works2]

Really nice upload mate. If you got more like this, I'm subbed!

[@Trevor6714]

I always wondered if gate devs all shared like a “base” game and then modified it to suit their needs. This totally confirms that!

[@alexalcalaortiz368]

something you missed is that a lot of renderware was reused in the chamaleon engine which was used for hot pursuit and most wanted 2012

[@rohanalias9053]

That engine was surprisingly good ... Hp2010 and me 2012 are some of the least buggy games I've played

[@IPlayKindred]

@@rohanalias9053 And the best looking

[@slimysomething]

Why did this just get recommended to me? Good video.

[@nvrndingsmmr]

The reveal at 3:48 of who the team was made me gasp out loud. Amazing!!! This video is great, thank you for all the info!

[@IceCattus]

For a company that has Art in their name EA sure does love ruining it.

[@timtrzepacz3452]

I was kindof expecting a bit more depth to the part of the video describing how Renderware fell, other than "EA bought it, and then suddenly stopped supporting it." I saw a brief flash on the screen that one of the main guys had died, but it wasn't mentioned in the video. It would have been nice to hear from some folks at EA or former employees about what actually happened.

[@bes03c]

I can't believe this channel doesn't even have 9k subs yet.

[@DarkD33p]

Thanks to your video I found a game that I had a demo of when I was a kid. Scorched Planet.

[@MovieEggman]

Renderware was the Unreal Engine of the early to mid 2000s

[@unusable4evar636]

Unity is next in line to be forgotten just like Renderware.

[@xSpicySaltx]

its also worth to note, for those of you who played the mafia series, mafia 2 was in development for the renderware engine for 2003 / 2004. illusion softwares wanted to get a sequel out quick as possible for ps2. , but as you know, EA Brought renderware, & thus halted the development process, this required the team to crunch twice as harder to make new assets, characters at the same time of making the new engine. -- this continued until 2007, they finally got a playable build, but 2k ended up buying them out next year in 2008, & this forced them to spend 2 years, finishing the product in hopes of a 2009 fall release, but didnt happen, had to delay it until august 2010. with numerous cut content & plot holes in the story.

[@awesomeguy2009]

Iirc the latest use of Renderware was 2018's burnout paradise remastered on modern consoles

[@milly-sy4bc]

Engines like this or Source make for better gameplay, with a year or two of development time. Now they focus on "realism" and the gameplay is stiff, like Unreal Engine 4/5. And it takes 5 years for a AAA game, usually forgotten after a year.

[@xThuby]

Gameplay feel has nothing to do with the engine

[@milly-sy4bc]

@@xThuby Every single engine has a different feel.

[@xThuby]

@@milly-sy4bc What are you basing this on? Have you ever even made a game before?

[@milly-sy4bc]

@@xThuby don't need to make games to know the feel...

[@Brawltendo]

@@milly-sy4bc uh the GTA 3D era remasters straight up use the original games’ code (“original” as in whatever GSG did to it for the mobile ports) and use Unreal as their renderer. They even have the same bugs lol. So no, game engines don’t really have a “different feel” other than the obvious graphical aspect. If someone wanted to replicate HL2 movement in something like Cryengine or Unity, it’s completely possible. Also have you _seen_ the RenderWare SDK? It’s barebones. There is no gameplay, that’s up to the game devs to create like every single other engine in existence.

[@ZoidbergForPresident]

"Left behind"? No, it was destroyed by million dollar companies and "property". Interesting video though!

[@user-rm4bn4gf5y]

Thanks, this is the video I really want. I'm interested in the game's history and engine, and thanks to you, I finally found the redline racer game I used to play in elementary school after 15 years. I really remember this game. The racer's flying appearance and screaming system were so funny back then that I remembered it, and I finally found this game! Thanks for the great video!

[@DomEReapeR]

Oh wow, I was sitting here wondering why my brain was being tickled by the music, had just about enough time to go ''this sounds like Sub Culture'' right before I opened the description to see where it was from. What a kick back to my childhood!

[@user-pb4dv1be5t]

As always, EA being a red flag in the gamming industry

[@Sparrow353]

And back in 2020 we all thought acquisition of ZeniMax by Microsoft is a huge thing. Now let's imagine if Epic with the Unreal engine goes into the dumpster somehow...

[@---pp7tq]

Exactly. Though not so many studios use idTech. But it became great.

[@curcumin417]

RIP Dr. Rabin Ezra- genius Renderware graphics programmer and engineer

[@darraghd493]

How does this only have 24k-25k views?!?! It NEEDS more!

[@IconDevco]

A lot of people forget that people actually worked on the engine, and eventually just took that technology elsewhere making better engines. The revolving door of talent never stops

[@razvanmazilu6284]

Another one in the long list of software developer acquisitions that EA made over the years only to basically bury sooner or later.

[@RemoWilliams1227]

God I have just had a goldmine of channels in my recommendations lately. Algorithm is killing it for me honestly.

[@mossasaur]

I really like the style of this video, especially the intro. Great work!

[@eyeflaps]

They should really revive this engine and make this engine open source or cheap to use. It would be a phenomenal engine for indie devs and developers targeting lower spec platforms like switch, mobile, etc. Alot of the reason we don't see massive quality games on switch for example is because most of the mainstream engines are difficult to adapt to it and optimize (like unity, unreal, etc). Renderware being an engine from the PS2 era would be great. Most of the games powered by unreal and unity on switch are buggy because of optimization and compatibility problems.

[@marioe.4400]

There's something that makes this engine stand out from its current contemporaries: It's not as easily recognizable. For me, at least, it usually doesn't take longer than a minute to spot an annoying element which reveals the essence of an Unreal or Unity game (within 3D, of course, making Cuphead an exception). Even more recent engines, Capcom's 'Reach for the Moon', with its awful Screen-Space Reflection implementation, makes me wonder why wound't they simplify instead of trying to add a faulty solution. Disaster Report 4, for example, was originally planned for PS3 and would've used an in-house engine. As it made the transition to PS4, it was rebuilt with UE4 - undoubtedly cheaper - losing its charm and part of the original vision/intention in the process... But back then, not using a proprietary engine and opting for RenderWare instead, wasn't as detrimental to the creative liberty as it is today - - I'm sure Playdead's 'Inside' would've benefited from a more pronounced texture work, but the minimalistic approach was perhaps driven by the limitations of the engine, going beyond the fact of (it) being an Indie project, with a respective smaller team of artists. With RenderWare one could go about a multitude of genres and just as varied types of styles, from colorful and vibrant, to the monochrome fads that still pervade today (Need For Speed: Most Wanted and Deus Ex: Human Revolution are part of the same Piss Universe, y'know). World-building comes from ambience; sound design and different NPCs; not through filters. Am I rambling at this point? Abso-lutely. Am I even that old? No, but the kids gotta learn.

[@matthewwatt2295]

I would assume it's less recognisable simply because renderware never tried to do as much as what unity and unreal attempt to do. I'm only a hobby game dev, but from what I've read, renderware was more focused on providing an easy API to interface with the hardware, rather than providing complex built-in features like Unity and Unreal do. With both of those, you can build a full game through asset stores and the editor without touching a line of code because they CAN do so much for you. I suppose when you were forced to do everything yourself, games would look and feel more diverse because everyone solves a problem in a different way.

[@Abel-Alvarez]

@@matthewwatt2295 damn i never thought about it that way. Now i feel like developing a video game using that engine. Sounds cool. 🤠

[@FlamespeedyAMV]

I would give anything to get this era of gaming back again

[@JamesScholes]

Learned something new today... Thanks.

[@FinalLuigi]

2:35 "And with the engine also available for PC, Xbox, GameCube, and PSP, it made multiplatform development much easier, too." Publishers during 6th gen: "P-who? X-what? LameCube? Never heard of them."

[@ianbowden2524]

Imagine an alternate reality where the next generation was running off rendereware instead of unreal...