Ubisoft Unveils Scalar, Tech to Give Games 'Virtually Unlimited' Computing Power

Scalar plans to take individual components from game engines and provide them as microservices through the cloud.

Ubisoft Scalar.

(Photo: Ubisoft)

Ubisoft, the company behind the Assassin's Creed and Far Cry franchises, unveiled a new cloud-based technology called Scalar, ahead of Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2022.

The technology, it says, will give games access to "virtually unlimited" amounts of computing power allowing them to run "anything from virtual worlds of unprecedented scale and depth to vastly detailed simulations that wouldn’t be possible otherwise."

Scalar plans to take individual components and systems from traditional game engines and provide them as microservices through the cloud – letting games access a "potentially unlimited" number of processors, breaking free from hardware limitations.

The service will be exclusively utilised for Ubisoft games. There are no plans to offer it to third party developers at the moment.

We spoke with Per-Olof Romell, Ubisoft Scalar Product Director, and Patrick Bach, Managing Director Ubisoft Stockholm to unpack Scalar.

How Is It Different From Online Games, Streaming?

Romell said that Scalar's scope is far wider than traditional online games and its mission is to provide a "richer set of options and opportunities" for games to be different.

"If you have a world, you can have massive amount of events. You can have simulations you haven’t experienced before in terms of AI. Scalar is providing the framework for you to easily use cloud compute and create these enormous events or very detailed simulations and systems," he said.

"The moment you experience something that’s part of Scalar, you’ll notice. It’ll be a different level of quality."

Per-Olof Romell, Ubisoft Scalar Product Director

"We’re also looking at increasing the level of persistence that you’ll have with Scalar. If you have a game world running in the cloud, that game world will always be on," Bach added.

In the pre-GDC chat, Romell had also explained the difference between Scalar, and cloud streaming services like Xbox Cloud Gaming.

"Cloud streaming is a distribution model; it improves people’s access to games, but it doesn’t change, in essence, what games are, or the quality of them. The game is still being run on a single-processing machine placed remotely and then streamed via the cloud to your screen.

"Cloud computing – what Ubisoft Scalar enables – means the processing power for a game isn’t tied to a single machine, but a decentralized computation system," he added.

Not a Traditional Cloud Server

Since Scalar will involve microservices, it won't be like a traditional cloud server, said Romell. Depending on what is happening in the game world and the players' actions, services will be utilised only when they’re needed.

"The infrastructure is very reactive. That makes sense for us, since in that way we’re not wasting any server space on things we don’t need. From an environmental standpoint, we have ensured that we only have what we need for creating experiences, and don’t waste any capacity," he said.

He added that Scalar will be resilient against bugs and crashes. Since the microservices are independent of each other, a glitch in one wouldn't affect the world or other microservices.

The system will also allow for quick fixes without interrupting play.

"The cloud model ensures that the developer POV and player POVs are not different. So, as a developer, I can be sure what a player is going to be seeing, which reduces the margin of error further. If you have a bug in a system, we can update and fix as people are playing," said Romell.

'Engine Agnostic'

When asked what engines Scalar will be compatible with, Romell said that the service, in essence, is "engine agnostic." Games could be built solely on scalar, or on other engines, with certain systems outsourced to Scalar.

In its core, Scalar is built on established standards, which makes it easy for people who are used to other engines to come onboard Scalar.

"From a game developer perspective, for those who are not used to this environment, scalar hides the complexity of using cloud compute. So, developers can use familiar tools from engines they are familiar with."

Per-Olof Romell, Ubisoft Scalar Product Director

"In the backend, they just get more power, so they don't have to worry about that," he added.

Bach clarified that Ubisoft India isn't involved with the project at the moment, "The only IP we talk about today is the one we’re developing in Stockholm." He also refused to give a timeline for when the first games which utilise Scalar will be unveiled.