Strategy Action Game Engine

	This article is written from a real world point of view.

Strategy Action Game Engine
Developer	EA Pacific EA Los Angeles
Platforms	Microsoft Windows Macintosh Xbox 360 PlayStation 3

The Strategy Action Game Engine, abbreviated SAGE, is a game engine used for the development of 3D video games by Electronic Arts Pacific and Electronic Arts Los Angeles. Its first iteration uses the rendering technology of Westwood's W3D engine.

SAGE

“

Our guys wanted a C&C [...] with a graphics engine that competes with Blizzard and Ensemble. - EA's Chief Creative Officer at the time Bing Gordon

”

Mark Skaggs led the team working on Generals at EA Pacific that would create the SAGE engine. Work on the 3D engine began in January 2001 as they hit limits with the engine they were using for the development of Yuri's Revenge. They considered the Quake engine, Unreal Engine and LithTech, but decided in March 2001 that they would use Westwood 3D's rendering technology from Renegade as the basis for their new engine and built further upon that basis to add all other elements.

The new engine would allow for "more cinematic possibilities during missions, giving the designers the freedom they needed to tell rich in-game stories with dramatic Hollywood moments". It allowed for dynamic lighting that would cast realistic shadows and reflections onto most objects as well as higher quality visual effects. One of the issues the developers battled with during the development of the engine was how to allow the player to place buildings on unleveled 3D terrain without it looking like the building was sitting on a rubber mat, which was solved within a few weeks of work.

Games using SAGE

• Command & Conquer: Incursion (canceled)
• Command & Conquer: Generals
  • Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour
• The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth
• The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II: The Rise of the Witch-king
• Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
  • Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath

SAGE 2.0

After the release of Kane's Wrath, the SAGE engine got a major overhaul. This included support for the PlayStation 3, dynamic environmental music, a switch of the renderer to RenderWare New Architecture (RNA), replacement of the math library with RenderWare Math and integration of a proper physics system using RenderWare Physics.

Games using SAGE 2.0

• Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Uprising
• Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight

References

Mapping & modding tools

Map editors EdWin/C&C-RAED FinalSun FinalAlert Worldbuilder (Generals Tiberium Wars Red Alert 3 Tiberian Twilight) Remastered Collection map editor Data file managers FinalBIG OS BIG Editor TibEd XCC Utilities Graphics tools 3DS2VXL OS HVA Builder OS SHP Builder OS Voxel Section Editor Software development kits Renegade Mod Tools Official mod SDKs (Battle for Middle-earth II Tiberium Wars Red Alert 3) WrathEd Extension DLLs Ares GenTool HyperPatch RockPatch Tiberian Technologies Game engines Westwood 3D Strategy Action Game Engine Other Rules.ini Art.ini LaunchBase RAD Video Tools VQA