Funcom, Stray Bullet License Allegorithmic's Substance Air For 'Large-Scale' MMOs

MMO developers Funcom and Stray Bullet games are among the first licensees of Allegorithmic's Substance Air texturing middleware, dedicated to 3D applications. Both developers are currently developing "large-scale MMOs with high-end graphics," and Allegorithmic says Substance Air will allow them to implement dynamic texturing and user-generated content. "As digital distribution is becoming more important than ever, the move towards procedural textures was a natural step for Funcom," says Funcom CTO Rui Casais. Allegorithmic says it designed Substance Air to improve visual quality while maintaining manageable client download sizes. In the case of both Funcom and Stray Bullet, Substance Air was integrated into the development pipeline with support from Allegorithmic for in-house engines. "Texture sizes for our game are being reduced orders of magnitude," says Mark Nausha, CEO of Stray Bullet Games.