Crystal Tools

Crystal Tools is a proprietary engine built for Square Enix's seventh-generation games, supporting both the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows platforms.

Crystal Tools, as stated by Tetsuya Nomura, was created in the switch from the PlayStation 2 to the PlayStation 3 during the development of Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII (the first titles being developed using the engine, now including Final Fantasy XIV) with Nomura commenting that in the PlayStation 3 switch, "the hurdles are greater than they were in the move from the PS1 to the PS2".

One of the main aspects of the engine is that it allows highly detailed CGI to be rendered in real-time. Nomura has commented that the engine will be able "to recreate battle scenes reminiscent of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children." It also handles advanced audio processing, cinematic cutscene transition, physics effects calculations and special effects rendering. The engine reportedly uses four of the six synergistic processing elements that are available to games running on the Cell processor, to achieve near-pre-rendered CGI quality in realtime.

It was originally named White Engine, but was renamed Crystal Tools after the crystal elements used in its first game, Final Fantasy XIII.