Klocwork Case Studies Ubisoft's Game Development Enhanced by Helix Core

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	Ubisoft's Game Development Enhanced by Helix Core Klocwork

Ubisoft's Game Development Enhanced by Helix Core

Klocwork

Technology Category	Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms
Applicable Industries	Equipment & Machinery Retail
Applicable Functions	Product Research & Development
Use Cases	Retail Store Automation
Services	System Integration
Challenge	Ubisoft, a leading producer, publisher, and distributor of interactive entertainment products worldwide, faced a significant challenge in managing its game development process. The company operates with each game development run as a separate entity, with teams ranging from 15 to over 150 developers. Each team is responsible for its tools and engine and has its own Helix Core server. The company's aim was to share tools and game engines across a range of game platforms, minimizing platform-specific changes needed in the final versions of production data. However, one of the main challenges was improving the sharing of tools between the development teams and enhancing productivity with new tools and processes. Read More
About Customer	Ubisoft is a global leader in the production, publishing, and distribution of interactive entertainment products. With over 1,000 titles, its games are distributed in more than 50 countries. The company's 15 in-house production studios are located in 11 countries. Ubisoft's Montreal studio employs 1,600 staff members, and the company plans to grow that number to more than 3,000 people by 2013. This will make the Montreal studio one of the world's largest creative powerhouses and the driving force behind the conception and development of console and PC video games. Brands include Prince of Persia®, Assassin's Creed™, Rayman®, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell®, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six®. Read More
Customer Name	Ubisoft Read More
Solution	Ubisoft has been using Helix Core as its main source control tool for over six years. More than 1,200 developers in the Montreal studio use Helix Core to store source code and digital assets, including graphics and animation files, modeling, textures, and sound and video footage. Artists and modelers use the Helix Visual Client and its associated graphical tools to track even the smallest of changes submitted each day. The Helix Core Plug-in for Graphical Tools allows them to interact easily with Helix Core from within Photoshop and 3ds Max. Ubisoft also uses Helix Core changelists to group code changes in logical units before they are submitted, enabling programmers to easily select what they want to work on and switch between separate tasks more readily. The Helix Core branching mechanism is ideal for sharing the same code across different target game platforms. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing

Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms

Applicable Industries

Equipment & Machinery

Retail

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development

Use Cases

Retail Store Automation

Services

System Integration

Challenge

Ubisoft, a leading producer, publisher, and distributor of interactive entertainment products worldwide, faced a significant challenge in managing its game development process. The company operates with each game development run as a separate entity, with teams ranging from 15 to over 150 developers. Each team is responsible for its tools and engine and has its own Helix Core server. The company's aim was to share tools and game engines across a range of game platforms, minimizing platform-specific changes needed in the final versions of production data. However, one of the main challenges was improving the sharing of tools between the development teams and enhancing productivity with new tools and processes.

About Customer

Ubisoft is a global leader in the production, publishing, and distribution of interactive entertainment products. With over 1,000 titles, its games are distributed in more than 50 countries. The company's 15 in-house production studios are located in 11 countries. Ubisoft's Montreal studio employs 1,600 staff members, and the company plans to grow that number to more than 3,000 people by 2013. This will make the Montreal studio one of the world's largest creative powerhouses and the driving force behind the conception and development of console and PC video games. Brands include Prince of Persia®, Assassin's Creed™, Rayman®, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell®, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six®.

Customer Name

Ubisoft

Solution

Ubisoft has been using Helix Core as its main source control tool for over six years. More than 1,200 developers in the Montreal studio use Helix Core to store source code and digital assets, including graphics and animation files, modeling, textures, and sound and video footage. Artists and modelers use the Helix Visual Client and its associated graphical tools to track even the smallest of changes submitted each day. The Helix Core Plug-in for Graphical Tools allows them to interact easily with Helix Core from within Photoshop and 3ds Max. Ubisoft also uses Helix Core changelists to group code changes in logical units before they are submitted, enabling programmers to easily select what they want to work on and switch between separate tasks more readily. The Helix Core branching mechanism is ideal for sharing the same code across different target game platforms.

Impact #1	The use of Helix Core has significantly improved Ubisoft's game development process. The easy and flexible APIs in Perl, C#, and C++ have enabled Ubisoft to integrate source-control functionality in most of their in-house tools, simplifying the workflow of artists and modelers. The Helix Core branching mechanism has made it easier to share the same code across different target game platforms. The Helix Reporting System feature has simplified the creation of reports on digital assets and code using SQL queries. The Perforce Proxy has sped up development by giving developers a cache of files they use most often and enabling more users to work against the central Perforce server. As Ubisoft grows, more developers will migrate to Helix Core, making it a central and critical tool to store everybody's work.

Impact #1

The use of Helix Core has significantly improved Ubisoft's game development process. The easy and flexible APIs in Perl, C#, and C++ have enabled Ubisoft to integrate source-control functionality in most of their in-house tools, simplifying the workflow of artists and modelers. The Helix Core branching mechanism has made it easier to share the same code across different target game platforms. The Helix Reporting System feature has simplified the creation of reports on digital assets and code using SQL queries. The Perforce Proxy has sped up development by giving developers a cache of files they use most often and enabling more users to work against the central Perforce server. As Ubisoft grows, more developers will migrate to Helix Core, making it a central and critical tool to store everybody's work.

Benefit #1	More than 1,200 developers use Helix Core to store source code and digital assets.
Benefit #2	Helix Core manages 5TB of data, comprising 24,070,195 files.
Benefit #3	Helix Core has handled 166,642,479 revisions, amounting to 337GB of metadata.

Benefit #1

More than 1,200 developers use Helix Core to store source code and digital assets.

Benefit #2

Helix Core manages 5TB of data, comprising 24,070,195 files.

Benefit #3

Helix Core has handled 166,642,479 revisions, amounting to 337GB of metadata.

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Overview

Ubisoft's Game Development Enhanced by Helix Core

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit