Highlights

  • Project Rene is the next phase of The Sims, moving from Frostbite to Unreal Engine for more flexibility and success.
  • Frostbite caused issues for RPGs and character-centric games, prompting the move to Unreal Engine for Project Rene.
  • The shift from SmartSim to Unreal Engine indicates a major change and more options for Project Rene.

Project Rene is the next phase of The Sims, one of the most successful life simulation game series ever released. While there is some trepidation about Project Rene thanks to promises of live services, and while its launch, which will be alongside The Sims 4, is a long way off, there are a few signs that Project Rene will be successful. One such sign came when Project Rene's PC pre-release build was leaked a few days ago. One of the details included in the leak is that Project Rene will be moving from EA's in-house engine, Frostbite, to Unreal Engine.

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What is Frostbite and Why Would Project Rene Have Used It?

The Problem With Frostbite

Frostbite is a bit notorious as a game engine. As EA's in-house game engine, the developer insists all the studios it owns use Frostbite to develop their games. This has messed up the development of games in the past, as studios have had to scrap entire systems and tools on previous engines they used and develop new ones from scratch in Frostbite. Additionally, Frostbite was also developed for EA's own games, such as sports games and specifically also first-person shooters. Implementing Frostbite for other genres of games, such as RPGs, or anything dialogue-heavy or character-centric, became a problem.

Why Was Frostbite Problematic?

This was because Frostbite was designed with the needs of FPS in mind, rather than human expression and physics. While Frostbite is excellent for the games it was built for, it struggles outside the scope of its design. This problem was especially noticeable in the use of Frostbite for BioWare's Dragon Age: Inquisition, which had a notorious crunch partially thanks to the issues that arose with Frostbite, and Mass Effect: Andromeda, which struggled with animation, particularly facial expressions.

EA's Allowance for Project Rene

Frostbite just couldn't meet the needs of entire genres of games, and EA's insistence on making it work was possibly hurting the studios it owned. So, the move to Unreal Engine for Project Rene is an unexpected but welcome development that is a very positive indicator of Project Rene's success.

What Unreal Engine Means For Project Rene

Why Unreal Engine?

It's unknown at this time if Project Rene will use Unreal Engine 4 or if the studio will implement Unreal Engine 5. The change from Frostbite to Unreal Engine won't change the art style of Project Rene but, as Unreal Engine isn't exclusive to EA, it's far more flexible as a developer tool than Frostbite and should be able to deal with any of Project Rene's needs.

The Story Behind Unreal Engine

That Unreal Engine is being used for Project Rene is incredibly exciting and is set to be one of the most positive aspects of the game since its announcement in 2022. Unreal Engine has been used by developers since 1998, and it was developed by Epic Games for the FPS game Unreal. Since then, the Unreal Engine has gone through several updates over the decades, with the latest version of the Unreal Engine being Unreal Engine 5, released in 2022.

Leaving Behind The Sims 4's Engine

The move to Unreal Engine is also significant as it's a move away from The Sims 4, which uses SmartSim. Like Frostbite, SmartSim is an in-house engine that was built to create specific types of games. Changing from SmartSim to Unreal Engine indicates a major change between The Sims 4 and Project Rene, with Unreal Engine giving Project Rene many more options than either Frostbite or SmartSim could offer.