Manjuu Co., Ltd. has revealed new technical details about Azur Promilia, its upcoming open-world RPG with high-fidelity anime aesthetics. The title, developed in Unity, focuses on a water and vegetation rendering system optimized to cover large expanses without sacrificing performance. The studio combines standard tools like Maya and Photoshop with its own hybrid 3D animation solutions, marking a competitive difference in the industry.
Technical Pipeline: Maya, Photoshop and the Challenge of Real-Time Water 🌊
For asset creation, Manjuu uses Maya for character and environment modeling, while Photoshop handles textures and concept design. The real technical challenge lies in rendering water in an anime open world. The studio has developed custom shaders in Unity that simulate dynamic reflections and transparency without resorting to expensive techniques like ray tracing. Regarding vegetation, they employ aggressive LODs (levels of detail) and a distance-based culling system that reduces GPU load, allowing grasslands and forests to be drawn smoothly even on mid-range hardware.
Hybrid Animation: Manjuu's Technical Advantage 🎮
Manjuu has developed its own hybrid 3D animation tools that combine traditional keyframes with processed motion capture. This system allows smoother transitions between actions like running, climbing, or riding, maintaining the expressiveness of the anime style without sacrificing physical realism. By integrating directly with the Unity engine, these tools reduce iteration time in polishing animations. For developers, this commitment to a closed yet flexible pipeline is a case study on how to optimize an open-world RPG without relying on external middleware.
What specific performance optimization techniques has Manjuu implemented in Unity to handle the simultaneous rendering of large water masses and dense vegetation in Azur Promilia without sacrificing the visual quality of the anime style?
(PS: optimizing for mobile is like trying to fit an elephant into a Mini Cooper)