Papergames fully adopts Silicon Studio Global Illumination technology “Enlighten” for game development

Papergames Inc. is a game development company that produces and operates the popular “Nikki” series, the most influential female oriented game franchise in China. From the series, the games "Miracle Nikki" and "Shining Nikki", each which have exceeded 100 million downloads worldwide.

For a long time achieving high-end graphics on mobile devices was not technically possible. Recent generation devices and software, such as Enlighten, are making it possible to display the colorful PC game quality visuals combined with dynamic global lighting. Papergames hoped to achieve with some of their newer yet to be revealed projects. Through this collaboration Enlighten seeks to prove it is the leading dynamic GI (global illumination) solution for their game creations.

The hardware of the latest generation of mobile devices is becoming increasingly advanced, however the limitations of mobile device processing chips, continue to make implementing high-end PC quality graphic effects, such as global illumination, difficult. Most global illumination solutions tend to rely on the processing power of a computer’s GPU (graphic processing unit) to render lighting. Enlighten however is able to run its processes through a computer’s CPU (central processing unit) and not impact undue stress on GPU computing power. This is key for mobile game and application developers who are seeking to showcase stunning results on smartphones and tablets with limited GPU power.

Official comment from Papergames

“The latest games we are developing require GI features, such as time of day. And because of the nature of our targets, we require lots of performance tunings and adjustment. After evaluating, we recognized that Enlighten exerts the lowest GPU cost of any solution. In addition, Enlighten has been utilized in many games and we consider it to be a well-recognized solution.”

"Enlighten" is a real-time global illumination middleware that can achieve high-quality, exquisite harmonious lighting effects in graphically rendered scenes, processed in a short amount of time. Since Silicon Studio acquired the rights for Enlighten in 2017, we have been dedicated to the research and development of global Illumination and to advancement of the technology far beyond its current limits into the next generation and beyond.

The partnership between Silicon Studio and Papergames, also aims to extend far into the future, as new titles from Papergames will also fully incorporate our global illumination technology. Additionally, Silicon Studio will be working with Papergames to provide technical support for their new titles, as well as contributing toward the improvement of Papergames’ development productivity and overall quality.

About Enlighten

"Enlighten" is a high quality real-time global illumination technology used for the game, cinematic, entertainment, architectural, and a number of other industries. The technology can efficiently calculate a large amount of mathematical processes to generate and maintain beautiful high-quality images through the usage of light maps, spherical harmonic probes, and reflection captures.
https://www.siliconstudio.co.jp/middleware/enlighten/en/

Enlighten for Unreal 4 is available for the following platforms:

Nintendo Switch™, PlayStation®4, PlayStation®5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Stadia™, Microsoft Windows

Enlighten SDK is available for the following platforms:

Nintendo Switch™, PlayStation®4, PlayStation®5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Stadia™, Microsoft Windows, Android™, iOS
*Enlighten also supports VR development

About Silicon Studio Corporation

Silicon Studio, a Japan-based game engine and middleware company, develops and provides advanced technologies such as "YEBIS” post effects, "Enlighten" real-time global illumination, and "Mizuchi" real-time rendering to major game and entertainment production studios worldwide. These technologies have helped to bring high quality graphics to a large number of successful AAA titles.
https://www.siliconstudio.co.jp/en/