Bridge Commander Engine Details

Today it was announced that Totally Games will license the NetImmerse 3.0 engine from Numerical Design Ltd. for use in its upcoming Star Trek space simulator, Bridge Commander. Totally Games is famous for its Star Wars space simulators, as the company created fan favorites such as X-Wing and TIE Fighter.

The founder of Totally Games, Larry Holland, said on the Totally Games web site that the company considered several options for the engine for Bridge Commander and future games, including updating the X-Wing Alliance engine, licensing an engine from a proven game developer, such as the Unreal or Quake III engine, or building its own engine from the ground up. In the end, Totally Games decided to license Numerical Design's engine.

Larry Holland went on to say, "When beginning Bridge Commander, we had the choice of designing our own 3D renderer from the ground up, updating our older technology, or buying software off the shelf. In the end, we chose NDL's NetImmerse for several reasons - including its cross-platform capabilities, advanced technology, and open architecture that we easily could build on."

The NetImmerse 3.0 engine has apparently also been licensed for future games beyond Bridge Commander, including PlayStation 2 titles. The engine supposedly has support for curved surfaces, character skinning, a continuous level of detail, and multiple resolution terrain, among other features.

Bridge Commander has been in development for only a few months now, and is slated for a mid to late 2001 release.