General

Q. What is the Nitrous® engine?

A. Nitrous® is a next-generation game engine designed to handle enormous amounts of visual and gameplay complexity, from 10,000+ simpler units to 1,000 highly complex units and environments.

Q. Why did you set out to make a 3D engine?

A. Because we wanted an engine that would allow us to break new ground and support epic battles and scenes on a wide variety of platforms. No engine on the market today can simulate and depict the scope of action that Nitrous is designed from the ground up to do. We want to create something that opens new doors to game developers, particularly in the strategy and RTS genres.

Q. What platforms does Nitrous® support?

A. Nitrous is currently in production on 64-bit Windows platforms supporting DirectX 11 and AMD’s Mantle. PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam OS support is planned.

Q. What games are using Nitrous?

A. Stardock’s upcoming Star Control and Ara: History Untold by Oxide Games are currently using Nitrous.

Licensing

Q. Are you licensing Nitrous® to external developers?

A. Yes, we are currently accepting developers on a case by case basis.

Q. What licensing terms are available?

A. Licensing terms are currently decided on a case by case basis to allow maximum flexibility for developers.

Q. Who do I contact to discuss licensing Nitrous?

A. Send an email to info@oxidegames.com and an Oxide representative will get back to you shortly.

Q. What support options are available for licensees?

A. Support needs can vary greatly from developer to developer and are currently based on each individual licensing deal.

Q. Do licensees get access to the source code?

A. Yes, that is an option available within the licensing terms.

Developing with Nitrous®

Q. What toolchains work with Nitrous?

A. Nitrous is designed to be toolchain-agnostic. The engine reads industry-standard formats, which can be produced by any number of different tools. The goal is to give developers the ability to work with whatever toolchains they decide are best for each project.

Q. What editors/tools does Nitrous come with?

A. Along with the ability to accept industry standard formats, we also provide access to all of our internal tools: our shader and material compilers, our world and height field generators, and our FX data files. Since all the data input is standardized, if you wish to build upon our tools or create your own you can. Nitrous also supports hot-loading UI, textures, and shaders. In addition, there are several built-in debug features from hash collision tracking to graphics command validation, to memory overwrite detection and allocation tracking. As game developers ourselves, we need this info too!

Q. Can I make a multiplayer game with Nitrous?

A. Yes, Nitrous supports Steam out of the box. Since Nitrous is very configurable, the options for multiplayer are wide open. Due to how gameplay code interfaces with the engine it is extremely easy to replicate state data across machines.

Q. Can I make a massively multiplayer game with Nitrous?

A. Yes. Nitrous is designed to handle very heavy workloads like you would see in a massively multiplayer game. From high unit counts in gathering places to lush and full environments, we would love to help bring your world to life.

Q. Can I import shaders, materials, etc. from my art pipeline?

A. Yes. Nitrous Shading Language is a superset of HLSL and as such any existing shader can be translated. Our material system allows for multiple highly complex materials per mesh, giving artists full control of the look and feel. Our physically based rendering model is based on film industry standards to provide a high quality rendering which is free from traditional game render artifacts such as temporal and shader aliasing.

Q. I have other questions about licensing Nitrous. Who should I contact?

A. We actively monitor the info@oxidegames.com inbox and reply promptly to all serious inquiries.