Deus Ex: Invisible War Interview, Part Three

RPGVault has dished up part three of a new Deus Ex: Invisible War interview, talking with several members of the development team, including Designer Kent Hudson, Lead Designer Ricardo Bare, Studio Director Warren Spector, Programmer Matt Baer, and Artist Jared Carr. A snippet:

Q: What kinds of considerations factored into your decision to use the Unreal engine? And what is the extent of the additions and enhancements you’ve implemented?

A: One of the biggest factors that determined which engine we chose for Invisible War was our existing familiarity with the tool set. We were given the opportunity to do some heavy modifications to the engine, so we were more worried about getting our content builders a meaningful set of tools as quickly as possible.

We ended up rewriting a lot of the systems. This included the rendering, sound, physics, and object system. Our new renderer allowed us to do dynamic lighting. Our new sound engine allowed us to do real sound propagation. Our Havok physics integration made for a richer physical simulation. And our object system allowed our designers to construct game objects without getting a programmer involved. In addition to that, we added some new systems like a designer scripting tool that enabled them to have more control over the game. Obviously, we made some dramatic changes to what we originally started with.