Epic Games have shown off their Unreal Engine 4 demo for the first time in public space.
We had seen glimpses of it before in screenshot form which was all they were prepared to give out, but nothing really sets you up.
Some people (mostly developers) behind closed doors got to see this a couple of weeks back, but we can finally show you the trailer in its entirety:
What did you think? Without explaining all the technical jiggery, it may be hard to fully explain what actually happens in that demo that makes it look so realistic.
Notice how the light realistically bounces off objects, bleeding their colours to nearby ones? How shadows naturally cascade around?
Even to the new particle effects system, which allows those mass of fire particles to swift about in the air. How about if I said each one of those particles of fire emitted light, which each played a role in lighting the scene/adding shadows?
This engine does all that and more. We at E:Info Games cannot wait to see games take this new engine and run with it, as this was only a tech demo made by the guys at Epic to show off the capabilities.
Unlike the engine we saw by Square Enix the other day, this one will be licensed to developers who want it, and will power next gen visuals.
Just like the Unreal 3 Engine I’m sure you’ve seen logos of at the start in your favourite games, Unreal Engine 4 will be the same affair.
It will scale down to run on older hardware, and even for the likes of smart phones.
The most world-class game engine to date, Unreal Engine 4 gives you the power to do more than ever before. Unreal Engine 4’s architecture offers fully dynamic lighting features, cutting down on development time and ensuring less iteration on creative ideas.
Artists and designers can bring their creative visions to life directly in game without programmer assistance via the new Unreal Kismet. This offers programmers the freedom to focus on core gameplay features and sophisticated systems. With significant new visual features, Unreal Engine 4 enables you to achieve high-end visuals, while remaining both scalable and accessible to make games for low-spec PCs.
Again, we have no idea what ran this engine demo in real-time graphics wise, and how much it would cost to build a PC rig to run it at this speed and quality.
Would the next Microsoft/Sony offering be able to run it with as much realism? We better hope so if we are to get a 10 year life cycle or more.
Tim Sweeney, the founder of Epic Games has insisted on Sony/Microsoft to make sure the new Unreal Engine 4 Engine can run as good as it can.
“There is a huge responsibility on the shoulders of our engine team and our studio to drag this industry into the next generation,” Bleszinski said. “It is up to Epic, and [CEO] Tim Sweeney in particular, to motivate Sony and Microsoft not to phone in what these next consoles are going to be. It needs to be a quantum leap. They need to damn near render Avatar in real time, because I want it and gamers want it–even if they don’t know they want it.”
The Nintendo Wii U isn’t out of the picture either. The engine can be made to run on practically anything, and I’m sure the Wii U will be more powerful than people think.
Though we are forgetting that the Unreal Engine has never been all about graphics. It makes the games themselves easier to envision, which makes them cheaper to make. In this economic climate we live in, developers need that reassurance that games can look as good as they can, and be easier to program for, without breaking the bank.
The last thing we need are for games to increase in price next gen to pay for the overheads because they are increasingly becoming harder to make.
Unreal Engine 4 will make sure that doesn’t happen, and expect it to be utilized in a lot of games in the future.
If we can, we will post the walk-through explaining the engine in more detail when it officially comes to surface.
For more information for now visit:
www.unrealengine.com
www.facebook.com/unrealengine
www.twitter.com/unrealengine
For now though, comments are welcome.
