Ancel wants UbiArt middleware to be free

Speaking to Develop, Michel Ancel said the UbiArt Framework used in his visually striking current project, Rayman Origins, will eventually be made available to the development community for free - but that the industry's reticence to share technology is holding it back. "UbiArt has been built to be shared," he said. "If the guys who invented the paintbrush only kept it for themselves then fine art would be ephemeral. I want [UbiArt] to be open source, I want it to go out and be shared and evolve. If you look at the best artists at Disney, they create incredible books and artwork and share their processes...that whole medium has evolved on the basis of sharing ideas. But in games we lock it all in a black box and keep it to ourselves. We need to be more open. I don’t believe that keeping the technology to yourself is interesting."

Source: Develop