Epic and Adobe announce Unreal Engine 3 support for Flash 11

While everyone else was watching Apple talk about games on the iPhone, Adobe and Epic had a different cat to let out of its bag: Unreal Engine 3 support for the web-based Flash Player 11. During Adobe's annual ADOBE MAX conference, Adobe and Epic demonstrated a version of Unreal Tournament 3 running in Adobe's ubiquitous web plugin.

This could mark a major transition in social gaming, particularly on Facebook and Google Plus – social game developers already leverage Flash heavily on both platforms. Infinity Blade visuals on Facebook? It could happen.

Full press release after the break.%Gallery-135737%

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Epic Games Announces Unreal Engine 3 Support for Adobe Flash Player
Unreal Engine technology brings world-class 3D gaming to the Web
October 4, 2011 (Los Angeles) – Epic Games Chief Executive Officer, Founder and Technical Director Tim Sweeney today presented the company's award-winning Unreal Engine 3 (UE3) technology running fully inside an Adobe® Flash®-based environment during a keynote at Adobe MAX 2011, Adobe's annual conference for developers, designers and business leaders. The live technical demonstration of "Unreal Tournament 3," Epic's blockbuster first-person shooter for Xbox 360®, PlayStation®3 and PC, was visually enhanced for an unprecedented real-time experience inside Adobe Flash Player 11, which was released yesterday.
UE3 is constantly evolving, with new breakthroughs, technologies and optimizations for multiple platforms. Flash Player 11, with its hardware accelerated, programmable graphics pipeline, is now capable of running triple-A gaming content authored for high-end platforms using the industry's latest tools and technologies.
Flash Player is a key technology for gaming on social networks and the Web, and with UE3 will usher in the leap from simplistic 2D game experiences to world-class 3D gaming on the Web. With its new hardware-accelerated Stage 3D APIs, Flash Player 11 allows 1,000 times faster 2D and 3D graphics rendering performance over Flash Player 10. Developers can now animate millions of objects with smooth 60 frames per second rendering and deliver console-quality games on Mac OS, Windows and connected televisions.
"With UE3 and Flash, games built for high-end consoles can now run on the Web or as Facebook apps, reaching an enormous user base," said Sweeney. "This totally changes the playing field for game developers who want to widely deploy and monetize their games."
"We're excited that Epic Games is tapping into the latest capabilities in Adobe Flash Player 11 to power its Unreal Engine 3," said Emmy Huang, group product manager, Adobe Gaming Solutions. "As the console of the web, Flash is delivering immersive gaming experiences across screens and we're thrilled to have Epic Games using Flash Player to deliver its blockbuster, premier 3D games on the Web."
UE3 licensees will be able to access these new features that bring triple-A gaming to the Web. For more information about developing games for the Flash Platform with UE3, visit www.unrealengine.com.