Square Enix licenses Umbra rendering optimization middleware

Newsbrief: Final Fantasy developer and publisher Square Enix has inked an agreement to use Umbra Software's rendering performance middleware in its future game projects. The company's Umbra 3.1 suite is designed to cut down on CPU and GPU processing time by optimizing parts of a game like rendering, content streaming, artificial intelligence, and game logic. It's also used for framerate optimization. Umbra says its middleware can speed up game development through its automatic portal generation during pre-process, which makes it so that artists do not have to manually place portals in their game worlds. Umbra 3.1 is available for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, handheld, and iOS platforms.