Introduction

For quite a number of you reading this, Gamebryo will be a familiar name or term. Members of the gaming crowd will notice that it’s the engine used to build a fair chunk of the two latest Elder Scrolls games: Morrowind and Oblivion. Thing is, for the average chap on the street it’ll probably conjur up a faintly disturbing image. We’ll leave the foetal visions to you guys, if that’s OK.

However despite Gamebryo becoming more memorable in the minds of gamers and 3D enthusiasts alike, the company responsible for Gamebryo remains an obscure, behind-the-scenes phenomenon, quietly plugging away at the technology and working with its implementers.

Beyond3D has always strived to uncover all the gritty information about 3D graphics, be that hardware or software, and put it out there for all to see for the pleasure of our readers. That’s the reason why we decided to take a closer look at Emergent and Gamebryo, especially after its recent use in Oblivion, arguably one of THE games of 2006.

This is the first in a two-part series on Emergent and their technology, the second part coming soon and focussing directly on Gamebryo and it’s technical elements, as well as getting a good look at how the middleware is used to build games. But first we check out Emergent as a company and Gamebryo as its flagship product, by interviewing Mike Steele, Emergent's VP and Technology Evangelist. 

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