Snowdrop (game engine)
Proprietary game engine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Snowdrop (also known as Ubisoft Snowdrop) is a proprietary game engine created by Massive Entertainment and Ubisoft for use on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Stadia, and Luna. It was revealed at E3 2013 with Tom Clancy's The Division, the first game using the engine.[1][2][3][4] Snowdrop is one of the primary game engines used by Ubisoft along with Disrupt, Dunia, and Ubisoft Anvil.[5]
History
The engine is coded mainly in C++.[6] Rodrigo Cortes, former brand art director at Massive Entertainment, said that development on the Snowdrop engine started in 2009.[7] Initially it was an engine built for PC and next-gen development to "do things better not bigger".[8][9] The core of the game engine is powered by a "node-based system" and the engine is a dynamic, interconnected and flexible system where developers can create their assets quickly and interact with them in ways that have never been done before.[10][11] Massive created a lighting and destruction system inspired by film production techniques.[12][13][14] Features of Snowdrop include advanced physically based rendering (PBR), procedural destruction, and a dynamic global illumination system.[15][16][17]
According to the developers, the engine was designed with three pillars: Empowerment, which allows animators, artists and designers to get their work done quicker, Real Time, which allows developers to implement and iterate quickly and Fun, a concept that applies not only to the final product, but to using the engine during development.[18][19] An improved version of the engine was used for Tom Clancy's The Division 2.[20]
In February 2016, Massive confirmed that the engine can be used for other Ubisoft games.[21] According to Martin Hultberg, head of IP at Ubisoft Massive, Snowdrop became available to all Ubisoft studios and not just those working on the Tom Clancy's IP.[22][23] These games include South Park: The Fractured but Whole,[24] Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle,[25] and Starlink: Battle for Atlas.[26]
In May 2021, Ubisoft announced Tom Clancy's The Division Heartland which was developed on Snowdrop.[27] However, three years later on 15 May 2024 Ubisoft announced that it had cancelled the game.[28][29][30][31] In June 2021, Ubisoft confirmed that the engine will be upgraded for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.[32][33] According to senior technical artist Kunal Luthra, thousands of assets can be propagated inside of each frame to create more highly detailed environments.[34][35] The engine would also support real-time ray tracing, unified volumetric rendering, as well as improved AI behavior for NPCs.[36][37]
Snowdrop was used for Star Wars Outlaws,[38][39] which features RTX Direct Illumination and DLSS Ray Reconstruction.[40][41] Massive developed its own digital "camera lens" in Snowdrop, which was used to give the game a more cinematic presentation as an option.[42][43]
The remake of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell will also use Snowdrop.[44][45][46] The game will be a ground-up remake and development is headed by Ubisoft Toronto which had previously worked on Far Cry 6.[47][48][49][50] Ubisoft announced they will continue to upscale and develop the engine.[51]