The PhyreEngine logo
PhyreEngine is a free to use game engine from Sony Computer Entertainment compatible with PC, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. PhyreEngine had been adopted by several game studios and has been used in over 90 published titles.
PhyreEngine is distributed as an installable package that includes both full source code and Microsoft Windows tools, provided under its own flexible use license that allows any PlayStation 3 game developer, publisher or tools and middleware company to create software based partly or fully on PhyreEngine on any platform. The engine uses sophisticated parallel processing techniques that are optimized for the Synergistic Processor Unit (SPU) of the Cell Broadband Engine of PS3, but can be easily ported to other multi-core architectures.
PhyreEngine supports OpenGL and Direct3D, in addition to the low level PS3 LibGCM library. It provides fully functional “game templates” as source code, including support for Havok Complete XS, NVIDIA PhysX and Bullet for physics.
History[]
Colin McRae: DiRT was the very first game to use an early & modified unreleased version of PhyreEngine, with elements developed & shared with Codemasters' own early Neon Engine.
Prior to it's official launch, PhyreEngine was also used in RaceDriver: GRID, most likely for the Playstation 3 build of the game (and EGO Engine at the time).
PhyreEngine was officially launched during GDC 2008 with new features (including Deferred rendering) being showcased during GDC 2009.
Version 2.40, released in March 2009, included a new “foliage rendering” system that provides tools and technology to render ultra-realistic trees and plants to be easily integrated into games.
A PSP version of the engine was announced by Sony at GDC 2010.
Version 3.0, released in 2011, has a new and powerful asset pipeline, combining enhanced versions of the already robust exporters, with a powerful processing tool to generate optimized assets for each platform. Also new is the rewritten level editor, which permits a far more data-driven approach to authoring games using PhyreEngine. Combined with a more accessible API and far more game-oriented functionality including support for entities, scripting, and integrated physics and navigation components, PhyreEngine 3.0 empowers developers to produce high quality titles with less time and lower costs. In addition, version 3.0 of the PhyreEngine adds support for the PlayStation Vita.
PhyreEngine was a finalist in the European Develop Industry Excellence Awards in 2008 (in the "Technical Innovation" category) and 2009 (in the "Game Engine" category).