The Game Engine of the Metaverse Series: From Entertainment to the New Land of the Metaverse

As a game creation tool and the underlying controller of game operation, the game engine focuses on building virtual images and virtual fields in the virtual world, helping the fusion of virtual and real to create a stronger sense of immersion and interaction. We believe that large-scale open world games are a preliminary and relatively concrete form of virtual world. The technology and ecology of game engines are becoming more and more mature, and it is expected to be upgraded to become a production tool for digital content in the metaverse era, helping the transformation of the "New World". This article will start from the development history, business model and multi-scenario application of the game engine to explore its core value and future direction for the construction of the metaverse digital world.

Summary

A game engine is a modular, reusable game creation tool that drives the virtual world. The game engine uses modularity to improve game development efficiency, lower development thresholds, and realize technology accumulation with reusable features. After more than 30 years of development, the game engine has entered a mature stage driven by the diversification trend of game users and game development subjects, deduced multiple business models, and realized cross-industry scene applications. We believe that the game engine is expected to become one of the core production tools and technical foundations of metaverse digital content.

Cohesion: Adapt to different development fields with multiple business models, and promote the creation of a city of digital content. We believe that game engines can be divided into commercial engines and self-developed engines according to the purpose of development, and can be divided into high-end and low-end game engines according to different audiences. According to the purpose of development, the commercial engine emphasizes generalization, and may better support the expansion of cross-industry applications in the future; the self-developed engine uses a vertical approach to enhance the multi-dimensional innovation of game digital content. Divided by the audience, the high-end engine cuts into O/PGC commercial 3A masterpieces, while the low-end engine provides ordinary users with convenient creation tools and supports digital content output. It is the first in the game industry to improve the freedom of UGC and further realize cross-industry landing. Under the diversified business model, the game engine is continuously supporting the joint creation of high-quality digital content ecology and promoting the construction of the metaverse digital world.

Looking to the future: From games to cross-industry scenarios, the application value of game engines is gradually increasing. In the game industry, the engine accelerates the industrialization of research and development, and the industry improves efficiency to better meet user needs; in the cross-industry scenario, based on the game field and extending to cross-industry scenarios, the game engine is expected to release long-term value and drive the construction and development of the metaverse digital world . In the game field, the value of the game engine comes from optimizing the user's game experience and improving the efficiency of game development. In cross-industry scenarios, game engines play a role in three-level application scenarios from digital twins, digital companions to digital natives: game engines use simulation and simulation technology to promote the implementation of digital twins from "shape" to "reason"; Efficiency and quality, to provide solutions for the real world, to achieve digital companionship; and finally from virtual content creation to the creation of native elements in the digital world, to expand the volume of metaverse content and realize digital native.

risk

Technological development is less than expected, the process of commercialization is less than expected, the situation of cross-field expansion is less than expected, the risk of brain drain, and the risk of industry policy supervision.

Why study game engines?

The game engine may be upgraded to a production tool for digital content in the metaverse era. As a game creation tool and the underlying controller of game operation, the game engine focuses on building virtual images and virtual fields in the virtual world, helping the fusion of virtual and real to create a stronger sense of immersion and interaction. At the beginning of the metaverse topic, traditional massively multiplayer online games were regarded as products that were relatively close to the world form of the metaverse, with virtual identity systems and economic systems in the game world view. We believe that although the game product is not equivalent to the metaverse, it has some core concepts and elements of the metaverse, and the technology and ecology of the game engine are becoming mature, and may be upgraded to become a production tool and technology for digital content in the metaverse era One of the foundations is to build a new scene in the virtual world and help the transformation of the "New World".

The development of global game engines has entered a mature stage. After more than 30 years of development, the game engine has entered a mature stage of development driven by the diversification trend of game users and game developers. The game engine is multi-dimensional and iterative and has applications. The development path of the engine tends to be clear after differentiation:

Commercial engines and self-developed engines are separated, and the game engine structure is completed. The business engine is perfected for versatility, ease of use and multi-terminal adaptability, based on the game field to expand cross-industry multi-scenario applications, and promote industrial digitalization. The self-developed engine is guided by the efficiency goal of realizing the necessary functions, and will be vertically subdivided in the game field, iterating advanced technologies in specific fields, and building a technical moat for game manufacturers.

The game engine explores UGC, and the virtual content creation method evolves. The sinking of the game engine promotes games to become a new medium of expression and social interaction. At present, the UGC game engine is mainly based on the game platform model, providing users with a game community from development to distribution. The UGC of games has become the evolution direction of virtual content creation, and the UGC game engine makes game creation break away from established games, promotes the further evolution of game engines into digital content production tools, and realizes the expansion and improvement of the content capacity of the digital world of Metaverse.

Based on the game field and extending to cross-industry scenarios, the game engine is expected to release long-term value and drive the construction and development of the Metaverse digital world. In the game field, the value of the game engine comes from optimizing the user's game experience and improving the efficiency of game development. In cross-industry scenarios, game engines play a role in the three-level application scenarios of digital twins, digital companions, and digital natives: 1) Digital twins: game engines use simulation and simulation technology to promote the implementation of digital twins from "shape" to "reason". ; 2) Digital companion: virtual and real integration improves efficiency and quality, and provides solutions for the real world; 3) Digital native: From virtual content creation to creation of native elements in the digital world, expand the volume of metaverse content.

Chart: The game engine promotes the implementation of three-level scenarios from digital twins, digital companions to digital natives

Source: JD Research Institute, CICC Research Department

What is a game engine?

Game Engines: Modular, Reusable Game Creation Tools

A game engine is a game creation tool that drives the virtual world. Game engines play a role in both game development and execution. The game can be roughly divided into code and resources. Scene materials, character images, and item models are resources, which run according to certain rules under the drive of code. From the perspective of game developers, a game engine is a game creation tool. The general parts of the above codes are written and then modularized for game developers to call to avoid duplicating the underlying code. From the perspective of game users, the game engine drives the operation of the virtual world, and the continuous iteration of engine technology makes the game world more realistic and the game experience more immersive.

Chart: A game engine is a game creation tool that drives the virtual world

Source: Official websites of each company, CICC Research Department

The game engine is modular and reusable, which improves the efficiency of game development, lowers the development threshold, and enables the accumulation of engine technology.

Diagram: The game engine includes modules such as rendering, physics and motion

Source: Unreal Engine official website, Unity official website, AMD official website, Microsoft official website, CICC Research Department

Chart: Netease Games' self-developed NeoX engine realizes technology accumulation in multiplexing

Source: NetEase Games official website, CICC Research Department

Development history: Drive engine development with games to achieve functional iteration and technological evolution

The game engine originated from the first 3D first-person shooter game "Wolfenstein 3D" launched by id Software in 1992. The Unreal Engine developed by Epic Games in 1998 made the game engine the ceiling in terms of picture effects and operating performance. Being further elevated, Unity, established in 2004, gradually stands out with its cross-platform, ease of use, and better screen performance capabilities.

Looking back on the development history of the game engine, we believe that the game engine, driven by game products, realizes toolization to improve production efficiency. Driven by the dual drive of game users’ requirements for experience upgrades and continuous iteration of the game development ecosystem, it has experienced an initial stage ( After the 1990s) and the growth period (2000s), it entered the mature period (2010s to the present).

Chart: Game engine development history: From growth to maturity, engine technology and business model continue to change and innovate

Source: Company official website, company announcement, data.ai, CICC Research Department

The initial period (1990s): The engine took shape initially, id took the lead, and Epic came from behind

In terms of the competitive landscape, id Software monopolizes the market with its first-mover advantage, and Epic Games catches up from behind. In terms of technological evolution, the game engine has begun to take shape in two dimensions of 3D and generalization. In terms of business model, Doom Engine licensed the third-party manufacturer Raven Software "Shadow Caster" (Shadow Caster) for use. It was the first time to realize the commercial authorization of the game engine, which proved the feasibility of the tool realization of the engine.

Growth period (21st century 2000s): multi-point flowering, products promote engine function innovation

In terms of the competitive landscape, this period showed a multi-point blooming situation. Game manufacturers such as Valve and Remedy Entertainment in overseas markets have adapted id Software’s engine (semi-self-developed) or independently developed a new engine based on new product needs. Although engine R&D by leading manufacturers in the domestic market is slightly behind overseas, established game manufacturers such as NetEase, Perfect World, and Xishanju have launched NeoX, Angelica and other self-developed engines for the development of end game products. At this stage, domestic users prefer MMORPG games. The immersion of such games comes from cultivation and social elements, which promotes game developers to iterate on engine technology for character modeling and multiplayer online, and forms an accumulation of engine technology in MMORPG categories. .

In terms of technological evolution, the game engine undergoes scattered evolution on multiple functional modules.

Chart: hardware and graphics API technology iteration, overseas self-developed engine to optimize visual effects

Source: Official websites of each company, CICC Research Department

In terms of business model, Unreal Engine launched the "free open source + royalty sharing" model to further innovate the original business licensing model in the industry. At this stage, with the launch of Unreal Engine II, Epic Games also launched the "royalty sharing" model, and gradually expanded the scope of application from game projects to non-game fields to maximize the utility of tools.

Maturity period (2010s to now): engine upgrades to meet diverse needs, commercial and self-developed in parallel

In terms of the competitive landscape, the overall landscape has matured during this period, forming two main lines of commercial engines and self-developed engines. Specifically:

Commercial engines form a duopoly. Commercial engines are led by Unreal Engine and Unity. Statistics from TestBird show that nearly 90% of games in the domestic mobile game market in 2020 are developed using third-party commercial engines, and data from Steam DB (as of 2021) shows that games developed using Unity or Unreal Engine in Steam account for more than 50%.

Chart: Commercial engines account for a high proportion and form a duopoly of Unity and Unreal Engine

Sources: Unity official website, TestBird, SteamDB, NPD, CICC Research Department

The self-developed engine continues to innovate with the launch of new game products in the 2000s, opening up different vertical tracks. For example, Perfect World launched Angelica III (used by the 3D martial arts MMORPG "Swordsman") and ERA self-developed engine, etc.; Netease self-developed engine NeoX has been launched in 2005 due to the needs of leisure and competitive game development. Iterative application of a series of products such as "Fantasy Westward Journey", "A Chinese Westward Journey", mobile games "Town of Magic" and "Onmyoji", gradually optimize the engine performance.

Chart: Engine usage of domestic and global best-selling games

Source: Sensor Tower, data.ai, Master Cicada, Research Department of CICC

In terms of technological evolution, the engine has gradually achieved full-end coverage and improved fidelity. Since 2012, the mobile game market has expanded rapidly. Mobile game categories are abundant and cross-terminal games have become a new trend. Small and medium-sized game developers or individual developers have emerged. The platform gradually matures, and gradually realizes multi-terminal adaptation, cross-terminal full-terminal coverage, and at the same time promotes the improvement of real-time rendering, light and shadow effect presentation and other capabilities through iteration.

The game engine expands and adapts the platform to reach cross-terminal users. Game terminals are mainly divided into mobile terminals, PC terminals and console terminals (including current-generation consoles and next-generation consoles), among which mobile games attract the largest user groups with their immediacy and low threshold, and PC and console terminals have higher hardware performance , to bring users a rich gaming experience.

Chart: Cross-terminal becomes the trend of games, and game engines adapt to multiple terminals

Source: Official websites of each company, CICC Research Department

Multi-generation engines improve game fidelity. At this stage, the commercial engine continues to improve the quality of image presentation through continuous iteration of products. Among them, Unreal Engine has released the fifth generation of tools, achieving relative breakthroughs in polygon geometry systems, full dynamic global illumination solutions, etc.; Unity has formed an iterative rhythm of 4 versions per year, and continues to upgrade the application range and application quality of tools. .

In terms of business model, the tool itself and the engine ecosystem realize the innovation of monetization model. On the one hand, Unity has launched a multi-level subscription system, adding a new business model in addition to the Unreal sharing system and Unity’s early buyout system, lowering the threshold for use, and opening up diversified monetization logic; Promote the realization of creators within the ecosystem, encourage more creators to use third-party commercial engines, and achieve a better positive cycle.

Cohesion: Commercial and self-developed in parallel, high-end and low-end to build a city of digital content

We believe that game engines can be divided into commercial engines and self-developed engines according to the purpose of development, and can be divided into high-end and low-end game engines according to different audiences.

Development purpose: The purpose of the development and iteration of the commercial engine is to expand the user population and obtain commercial income; the self-developed engine is oriented to support self-developed games.

Audience: High-end game engines are aimed at professional game developers and users with a certain programming foundation, while low-line game engines are aimed at non-professional developers, mainly game users.

Chart: Game engines can be divided into commercial engines and self-developed engines, or high-end engines and bottom-line engines

Source: Company official website, company announcements, CICC Research Department

Commercial engine and self-developed engine: the former is generalized and the latter is verticalized, jointly creating a high-quality content ecosystem

Commercial engines emphasize versatility, ease of use and adaptability. We believe that typical commercial engines tend to mature in terms of versatility, ease of use, and adaptability after many iterations. In terms of versatility, they mostly support 2D/3D game development. In terms of ease of use, commercial engines are open for free or for a fee. All or part of the source code lowers the threshold of use by improving the novice guide and providing multiple development languages, and adapts to various platforms such as mobile, PC, host, and AR/VR.

Chart: Commercial engines are characterized by generality, adaptability and ease of use

Source: Official websites of each company, CICC Research Department

According to the business model, commercial engines can be divided into service type, product type and project type. Some commercial engines do not charge users for the time being. We believe that after the development of commercial engines matures, different business models will be distinguished according to the technical characteristics and development stages of the engines. In addition, the current free game engines mainly include Cocos, Godot, etc., which are mostly used for the development of small game categories, and the service targets are mostly individual game developers or independent game studios.

Service-oriented: The mature commercial engine whose technology focuses on versatility and adaptability is evolving into a service-oriented one. The typical representative is Unity, which expands engine paying users by providing services and products for multiple types of users and for the entire game cycle. The charging model is mostly a subscription system.

Product type: The mature engine with profound technology accumulation adopts a product-type profit model. Commercial engines represented by Unreal Engine and CryEngine are relatively leading in terms of game screen and game control technology. In addition to serving self-developed games, the engine’s income mainly comes from the revenue share of third-party games.

Project-based: Engines that are still in the early stages of development mostly adopt project-based business models. The project-based commercial engine provides services and accumulates experience in the form of project-based cooperation. The service scenarios are mostly non-game fields such as film and television, smart cities, etc. Typical representatives are GritGene.

Chart: Comparison of Main Profit Models of Commercial Engines

Source: Official websites of each company, CICC Research Department

Chart: Unity provides products and services for multiple types of users and for the full cycle of games

Source: Unity prospectus, Unity official website, CICC Research Department

The self-developed engine is small and refined, building a technical moat for game manufacturers. The self-developed engine is oriented to serve self-developed game projects, and efficiency is the first priority when designing engine functions. We believe that self-developed engines have the following characteristics compared to commercial engines: Relative technical advantages. The self-developed engine can carry out technical development according to specific needs according to its own development needs, while the commercial engine often lags behind the application of cutting-edge technology in consideration of stability. Therefore, the self-developed engine may be ahead of the commercial engine in the field of expertise, and it is an important position for engine technology iteration.

Adjust efficiently. Since most of the code is self-owned, using the self-developed engine for development can be quickly adjusted according to needs. If you use a commercial engine, you need to submit a request to the engine developer and wait for the developer to modify it, or it will affect the efficiency of game development.

Sponsored Business Content

Build a technology moat. When using a self-developed engine for game development, the modification and iteration of the game engine can be accumulated and reused, becoming a technical barrier for game manufacturers. If a commercial engine is used to develop games, as the commercial engine iterates new versions, game developers will face the cost of engine learning and personalized modification again.

Chart: Three characteristics of the self-developed engine

Source: CICC Research Department

Chart: Comparison of commercial and self-developed game engines

Source: Official websites of each company, CICC Research Department

We believe that as commercial engines tend to be more general-purpose and self-developed engines tend to be vertically subdivided, the development directions of commercial and self-developed engines will diverge.

The business engine expands cross-industry applications. Under the background of industrial digital transformation, industries such as film and television, automobiles, medical care, and construction show 3D digital needs. We believe that commercial engines will expand cross-industry applications based on the game field, mainly because: commercial engines lower the threshold for industrial digitalization. The commercial engine tends to be mature in terms of versatility, ease of use and adaptability, complete novice tutorials, and rich tool plug-ins, which will lower the technical threshold for digitalization in other industries. The revenue source of cross-industry application expansion engine. At present, the commercial engine has entered the stage of stock competition in the game industry, and the expansion of industry applications outside the game will bring incremental income to the engine. According to the Unity prospectus, it is estimated that the game industry will achieve revenue of approximately US$16 billion in 2025. At the same time, data in 2019 shows that Unity customers accounted for 93% of the top 100 game studios in the world by revenue; The market size of cross-industry applications has reached 17 billion US dollars, and cross-industry applications are expected to become a long-term growth driver for Unity.

Chart: Unity expands cross-industry applications with versatility

Source: Unity prospectus, Unity official website, CICC Research Department

The self-developed engine is vertically subdivided in the game field, which is conducive to refined gameplay innovation. We believe that the self-developed engine will be repeatedly reused and continuously iterated in the field of expertise, and will form a vertically segmented market structure. For example, the Source engine is mainly optimized for first-person shooting games. It is difficult for the self-developed engine to copy the commercial authorization path of Unity and Unreal Engine, mainly due to: 1) High cost of transformation: the self-developed engine needs to be improved in terms of versatility and ease of use before it can be marketed, which involves relatively high transformation Cost; 2) Contrary to the underlying architecture of commercial engines: At the beginning of the development of self-developed engines, the needs of the internal team to develop specific games were oriented, which was contrary to the development logic of commercial engines with generalization and complete functions. In the domestic market, leading manufacturers continue to develop self-developed engines. In addition to being used for MMORPG games, they expand the versatility of other categories, such as shooting, MOBA and card categories. We believe that in the future, leading game manufacturers will continue to develop self-developed engines. Compared with general-purpose commercial engines, manufacturers can use self-developed engines to vertically segment applications to achieve more refined gameplay innovations.

High-line engine and low-line engine: the former supports 3A masterpieces, while the latter supports the creation of civilians and enriches the volume of digital content

The low-line game engine is currently based on the game platform model, providing users with a game community from development to distribution. We have talked about many commercial engines and manufacturers' self-developed engines before, most of which belong to the category of high-end engines. The high-line game engine is aimed at professional game developers and users with a certain programming foundation, while the low-line game engine is aimed at non-professional developers, mainly game users. Although general-purpose engines represented by Unity and Unreal Engine have lowered the threshold for game development by enriching engine plug-ins and improving novice guidance, they still require developers to have a programming foundation, which is the category of high-end engines. At the same time, game manufacturers explore how to lower the threshold of development tools and release the creativity and productivity of ordinary users, that is, low-line game engines. We believe that the current game platform-based low-end engine is based on the game ecology, providing ordinary users with low-threshold game creation tools, game distribution and profit channels.

The low-line engine lowers the threshold for game creation and expands to C-end users; it is upgraded to a digital content production tool to expand the volume of virtual world content.

The game engine covers potential developers downward, promoting games as a new medium of expression and social interaction. There are four typical modes for game UGC creation. 1) Map editor mode: users use the game's official map editor for secondary creation of gameplay. 2) MOD (Modification, game module) mode: MOD is a modification or enhancement program of the game, and the user uses it to modify or expand the characters, items and even the plot of the game. 3) Sandbox creation game mode: a type of sandbox game represented by "Minecraft", the core gameplay is the user's free creation of game scenes and gameplay. 4) Low-line game engine mode: The UGC modes of the first three games all revolve around the original game for secondary creation. As the game development tools further cover potential developers, the creation method of UGC content extends to users to independently create games . We believe that under the low-line game engine model for civilian creation, UGC game creation is separated from established games, and promotes games to truly become a new medium for user expression and social interaction.

Chart: Four modes of game UGC creation

Source: Steam, Minecraft, Roblox , CICC Research

We believe that the UGC of games will become the evolution direction of virtual content creation, and low-line game engines will make game creation break away from established games, and promote the upgrading of game engines from game creation tools to digital content production tools.

Looking to the future: Looking at the application value of game engines from games to cross-industry scenarios

Game industry: R&D industrialization is accelerated, and industry efficiency is improved to better meet user needs

We believe that the value of game engines in the game industry can be divided into two dimensions: user and development.

User value 1: Realistic rendering and interactive technology enhance game immersion and freedom. The development of 3A games tends to be interactive movie narrative, open world and RPG. Among them, realistic movie sense and open world require game scenes and role models to be rich and realistic. The interactive game experience comes from mobilizing more senses of users. Interactive gameplay. We believe that the continuous iteration of the game engine makes the above-mentioned immersive and interactive game experience possible. Rich content is the visual source of game immersion: 1) Virtual scene: The game engine simulates a detailed and realistic scene by constructing world scenes under different terrains, rendering different lighting and material rendering, and simulating physical movement and destruction. game scene. 2) Virtual image: The game engine simulates and renders the hair and skin of the virtual character in detail. Unreal Engine can quickly render 100,000 realistic hair, and the hair moves according to the principles of physics.

Diverse gameplay is the inner experience of game immersion: the game engine iterates the recognition and feedback modules on both sides of the game output and input, providing users with more diverse interaction methods.

Chart: Game engine enhances game immersion from two aspects of content and gameplay

Source: Unreal Engine official website, Steam, Nintendo official website, CICC Research Department

Multi-element interaction is the basic requirement of game freedom. Use the game engine to create a relatively self-consistent virtual world, create a truly open world, and achieve better crowd and traffic interaction through framework applications such as Mass AI to enhance the sense of interaction and freedom. In addition, the programmatic generation module in the engine is used to enrich the volume of game content, improve the production efficiency and richness of game content, and extend the game life cycle. We believe that the game engine has become an important basic tool to promote the level of game industrialization, which determines the completion and sustainability of the open world to a certain extent.

User value 2: Lightweight technology reduces the size of the game package and lowers the entry threshold for the virtual world. The high-quality and enriched game content leads to too large game installation package, and the requirements for game equipment are getting higher and higher, which has become one of the game thresholds. We believe that, on the one hand, the lightweight technology of the game engine meets the needs of game users for light games, and expands the instant game scene (Instant game) represented by WeChat applets and Douyin applets; on the other hand, it reduces the number of virtual products. The threshold is the prerequisite for the game engine to promote cross-industry users and scenarios.

Chart: Unity reduces the size of the game's first package with a streaming resource loading scheme

Source: Unity official website, CICC Research Department

Development value: Cloudification and collaboration can improve game development efficiency. At present, game developers are faced with a dilemma between game quality requirements and market efficiency requirements. High-quality games bring doubled project resources and a huge development team, causing game developers to face production cycle and cost constraints. We believe that game engines can improve game development efficiency and reduce game development costs by providing cloud-based and team collaboration services for game development.

Chart: Unity cloud construction enables game development teams to collaborate and distribute in the cloud

Source: Unity official website, CICC Research Department

Cross-industry: three-level application scenarios from digital twins, digital companions to digital natives

Digital Twins: Simulation and Simulation Technology Helps Digital Twins Land

The implementation of digital twins is accelerating, and the game engine plays its value from the three levels of modeling, behavior and interaction. Digital twin (Digital twin) is the digitization of the real world, mapping the real world from "shape" (shape) to "reason" (rules). As of 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission have issued a series of policies around digital twins to help accelerate the implementation of digital twins. We believe that the game engine uses simulation and simulation technology to digitize the external form and internal rules of the real world, and it is applied in three levels of digital twin modeling, behavior and interaction.

Chart: Game engine applied to digital twin from modeling, behavior to interaction

Source: Unity official website, CICC Research Department

Taking the digital twin of identity elements and images as an example, let’s illustrate the application of game engines in digital modeling. Digital human technology creates avatars in the virtual world, which is the identity basis of the Metaverse. Avatar is a virtual image of a real user, which enables the user to have uniqueness and a sense of substitution in the virtual scene, and is expected to become the user's identity and digital fingerprint in the Metaverse. The virtual avatar originated from the game's "face pinching" system, which allows users to easily create a unique game image. We believe that the digital human technology of the game engine is different from the previous game "face pinching" system, and will promote the creation of virtual world avatars and build the identity foundation of the Metaverse from two aspects of production and appearance.

Digital human production: The "next-generation face pinching tool" driven by the game engine meets the needs of UGC users for convenience and uniqueness.

Digital Human Appearance: The game engine realizes a highly realistic digital human from static to dynamic.

Chart: Digital human technology creates virtual world avatars for users with convenient production, high customization and realistic appearance

Source: Unity official website, Unreal Engine official website, CICC Research Department

Digital Companion: Fusion of virtual and real to improve efficiency and quality, and provide solutions for the real world

As we said in the opening report of the Metaverse "Metaverse: Space Dimension Enhancement, Time Extension, Social Reconstruction", for B-end applications, the second stage of Metaverse's transformation of the enabling industry is "Metaverse Integration", that is, "Digital Companion". On the one hand, the engine will help to gradually improve the degree of integration of virtual and real content in some content, and realize the feeling of "depending on each other" between virtual and real. On the other hand, simulation mapping is promoted to enable real-world problem solving. From the perspective of development logic, the engine will first help various industries to better map real-world problems to the virtual digital world for experiments by establishing a digital twin model, realize the optimization of various models in the real world, and solve real-world problems in the virtual world. problem, and then transmit the trial plan back to the real world for implementation.

In terms of content extension and integration, the engine promotes the integration of virtual and real on the technical side, improving the production efficiency and quality of pictures. Real-time rendering technology is used in virtual production. Virtual production is a method of film and television production. It refers to the production in which the virtual scene is presented and changed in real time driven by the engine during shooting, and is integrated with real actors and real scenes without post-synthesis. The technology has been applied to the creation and presentation of many types of virtual scenes. In virtual production, the game engine provides the director and production staff with an instant preview of the final fusion effect through real-time rendering technology. We believe that compared with traditional green screen shooting methods, the application of game engines in virtual production will improve the efficiency and quality of virtual-real fusion, and will enrich the scene content of the virtual world.

Chart: The 2021 CCTV Spring Festival Gala uses Unreal Engine to create a stage effect that integrates virtual and real

Source: Unreal Engine official website, CICC Research Department

Chart: The 2020 TV series "Western World" uses Unreal Engine to make virtual backgrounds

Source: Unreal Engine official website, CICC Research Department

In terms of solution supply, the engine promotes simulation and builds a test platform to provide optimization solutions for real-world operating efficiency. The simulated physical laws are used to build a simulation test platform to optimize the operating efficiency in the real world. Taking autopilot as an example, using real road tests to optimize autopilot algorithms is time-consuming and costly, restricted by relevant regulations, and it is difficult to reproduce extreme weather and complex driving scenarios. The autonomous driving simulation platform developed based on the game engine has been widely used. We believe that the physics and action modules of the game engine can simulate and simulate the physical laws of the real world. By conducting simulation tests in the virtual environment, the test cost can be effectively reduced and potential safety hazards can be avoided, and finally the operating efficiency of the physical model in the real world can be improved. , will play a role in application scenarios such as autonomous driving, industrial production lines, intelligent operation and maintenance, and simulation training.

Chart: The game engine simulates and simulates the laws of physics, and is applied to multiple scenarios such as autonomous driving, industry, operation and maintenance, and simulation training

Source: Unity official website, Unreal Engine official website, CICC Research Department

Digital Native: From virtual content creation to the creation of native elements in the digital world, expanding the volume of metaverse content

The game engine improves the efficiency of virtual content creation and enriches the supply of virtual content. The creation of virtual content involves many links, takes a long time to render, and the communication and cooperation are not smooth, which has become the bottleneck of virtual content supply. We believe that game engines represented by Unity and Unreal Engie use rendering technology, multi-terminal adaptation and cloud-based technology to improve the virtual content creation process, make multi-terminal and cloud-based collaboration possible for all creative parties, improve creative efficiency and Enrich the content supply of the virtual world.

Non-linear editing enables multithreading of virtual content creation. The enhanced fidelity and timeliness of the rendering effect of the game engine, the ease of use of the editor and the improvement of plug-ins jointly drive nonlinear editing tools into the animation production industry and improve the efficiency of animation production. Traditional animation production tools such as Maya adopt a serial process, and a stuck link in a single link will affect the progress of the entire process; Unreal Engine provides non-linear editing tools, and creators in different links can edit the entire sequence at the same time. The game engine renders and synthesizes images in real time, without pre-rendering the images, effectively reducing the animation production time. In 2016, the Japanese animation company Marza used Unity to create an animated short film "The Gift", which shortened the production time by about 25%.

Chart: The game engine provides non-linear editing tools to improve the efficiency of animation production

Source: Unite2016 Developer Conference, Unreal Engine official website, CICC Research Department

Multi-terminal adaptation enables collaborative creation of virtual content. The multi-terminal adaptation and cloudification of the game engine are used in the design industry, so that participants at all stages of the project cycle can view the project progress at any time, and display the adjustment effect in real time, thereby improving the efficiency of communication and feedback, and realizing collaborative content creation.

Graphic: Unity Reflect enables all parties involved in the design to view BIM data in real time

Source: Unity official website, CICC Research Department

Assist in the construction and improvement of multiple important elements of various industries in the metaverse digital world, and build a new infrastructure for the digital world. When modern business owners continue to extend their business and gradually conduct business operations in the metaverse digital world in addition to the real main business, larger-scale online virtualization elements require engine technology support for better simulation and creation. For example, consumer goods manufacturers need to model the details of their products for product sales in the Metaverse, marketing companies assist advertisers in the construction of marketing scenarios required for advertising in the Metaverse, and real estate companies need to build digital residential communities in the Metaverse. architectural landscape production, etc. We believe that as the cross-industry application of the game engine gradually matures, it is expected to assist various industries in building and improving their transfer and extension from the real world to the metaverse digital world.

Challenges: technology iteration, application implementation and talent training

We believe that there are certain differences between the development path of the domestic engine track and overseas, and it is still in the growth stage. Related technology iterations, application implementation, and talent training are all core challenges for the development of this industry.

Technological innovation and iteration: In terms of commercial engines, domestic engines such as Cocos cut into the light game market, attracting users with open source, free and lightweight. However, the expansion of the audience of the engine still requires continuous innovation and iteration in technology. Compared with overseas Unity and Unreal Engine, the domestic commercial engine track has a larger space for technology upgrade. Head game manufacturers are making efforts to develop their own engines, but the productization of engines is limited, resulting in insufficient motivation for engine research and development by mid-tier manufacturers. We believe that the development of game engines depends on the progress of technical tools. If key technologies such as modeling and rendering, motion capture, and artificial intelligence cannot be further iteratively upgraded, production costs will be at a high level, quality and functions will be limited, and usage scenarios will be limited. etc., will affect the development of game engine technology.

Implementation of full-scenario applications: In the previous article, we presented the implementation of game engines in the game industry and cross-industry and the application scenarios that may be born in the future. We believe that it will take time for full-scenario applications to be implemented: First, there is still room for improvement in technological maturity; second, cross-industry applications of game engines need to be better integrated and integrated with the characteristics of various industries to more accurately extend to different industries. Third, the access threshold for engine use must be better adjusted so that ordinary creators and producers across industries can achieve relatively high-level effects through simple operations, so that they can have a wider range of usage of.

Talent training and incentives: Engine technology is highly dependent on high-quality talents. From the perspective of training system, overseas engine manufacturer Unity has launched two major sections: Unity University and Unity Chinese Class, while domestic engine manufacturer Cocos is trying to launch engine courses in universities such as Xiamen University. From the perspective of incentive mechanism, the engine technology is affected by the development language and so on. It has certain particularity and talent-specificity. If the manufacturer’s incentives for talents are insufficient or the preference of relevant talents for the engine declines, there will be a risk of brain drain in the industry, or the industry will be affected. adverse impact on the future development of engine technology.

risk warning

Technology has not developed as expected. The development of game engines depends on the progress of technical tools. If key technologies such as modeling and rendering, motion capture, and artificial intelligence cannot be further iteratively upgraded, resulting in high production costs, limited quality and functions, and limited use scenarios, etc., it will Influence the development of game engine technology.

The commercialization process is not as expected. If the engine cannot form a natural virtuous cycle under a certain business model to ensure the normal return of cash flow, it may make it difficult for engine manufacturers (especially commercial engine manufacturers) to continue to develop the market. Cross-field expansion is less than expected. Industry applications other than games are still in the early stages of development. For game engines, experience is relatively limited and uncertainty is strong. If further expansion into new industries is not possible, or the technical solutions provided for new industries cannot gain market acceptance, the long-term development of the engine may be adversely affected.

Brain drain risk. Engine technology is highly dependent on high-quality talents. If manufacturers have insufficient incentives for talents or the preference of relevant talents for engines declines, there will be a risk of brain drain in the industry, which may have an adverse impact on the future development of engine technology. Industry policy regulatory risk. On the one hand, the current laws and regulations on engine application scenarios and specifications have yet to be improved. If the relevant policies are implemented, it may have a certain impact on the development of the game engine sector; on the other hand, there are also policies in the game industry and related cross-field industries. It may affect the development of the game engine sector.