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Firefox update adds support for Unreal Engine
Today's release of Firefox 22.0 introduces official support for 3D gaming via Epic's Unreal Engine, among other significant additions. Mozilla outlines the update at its official blog, noting that a "supercharged subset of JavaScript" (asm.js) powers high-performance applications like 3D games. Mozilla previously demonstrated asm.js's power with an HTML5 version of the Unreal Engine tech demo "Epic Citadel." Firefox 22.0 also adds support for video and voice calls, and enables file sharing without requiring third-party plugins. BananaBread, a free multiplayer FPS that demonstrates WebGL, Emscripten, asm.js, and WebRTC, can be played in a Firefox browser window here.
Unreal Engine 3-powered Epic Citadel now playable in browsers
Epic Games has released an HTML5 version of its Unreal Engine tech demo Epic Citadel. Currently, the project is optimized for Firefox Nightly version 23 or above, so make sure your browser is up to spec before you check it out. Collaborating with an engineering team at Mozilla, Epic developed a web-capable port of Unreal Engine 3 in just four days. A combination of the JavaScript subset asm.js and Emscripten drove the port's creation, and the result should be playable in any standards-based browser that implements HTML5, WebGL and JavaScript. While Epic Citadel currently crashes in Chrome, Google's developers are looking into a fix. Internet Explorer does not support current versions of WebGL. Epic Citadel launched as a free download for iOS devices back in 2010, paving the way for Chair's release of the hit Unreal-powered action game Infinity Blade later that year.
Epic Citadel runs faster, maps bumpier in Clovertrail+ demo
Epic Games hasn't abandoned Epic Citadel for Android phones, today demonstrating the engine running on Intel's new dual-core Atom Processor Z2580 chip, part of a series codenamed Clovertrail+.In the above demo video, Epic Citadel tops out at 61 frames per second. The demo shows off Epic Citadel's ability to handle realistic reflections, bump mapping and all manner of aerial camera zooms on a mobile device. Intel showed off the Clovertrail+ chips running Epic Citadel at the Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona.
'Epic Citadel' tech demo now on Android
Android users still can't partake in the acclaimed slashing hijinks of Epic Games' mobile showpiece Infinity Blade or its sequel, but they can walk around its medieval setting and watch things, like, render and stuff, now that Epic Citadel is available for free on Google Play and the Amazon Appstore.Originally released on iOS way back in the stone ages (read: September 2010), Epic Citadel serves as both Unreal Engine 3 tech demo and phone hardware benchmarking tool, allowing Android users to not only see how pretty UE3's rivers are, but also how well their devices handle rendering them. Our Galaxy Nexus, for instance, ranked in at the "High Performance" level, churning out an average of 43.9 FPS at 1196 x 720. During testing, framerates peaked just below 60 FPS and momentarily bottomed out around 18 FPS.As with the iOS release, there isn't a tremendous amount to actually do in Epic Citadel, aside from looking at fluttery banners and lens flares, and its on-screen twinstick controls are only recommended for those who enjoy being 100 percent out of control of their movement. Still, it's very pretty. %Gallery-177522%
Unreal Engine 3 now on Windows 8 and Windows RT
If you still have the capacity to be surprised by learning that Unreal Engine 3 now runs on a new thing, prepare to be surprised. Unreal Engine 3 now runs on both Windows 8 and Windows RT, Epic has announced. It's not exactly shocking that Epic's workhorse engine is on Windows 8, though the news is certainly good for anyone looking at the upcoming line of Windows RT tablets.Epic showcased the engine running on just such a tablet, the Asus Vivo Tab RT, which you can see in the video above. The demo in question is "Epic Citadel," which was first used to showcase UE3 on the iPhone back in 2010. Epic VP Mark Rein noted that this is the full Unreal Engine 3, using the "full DirectX 9 pipeline, with shaders and materials," and not a "modified mobile version"
Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 now working on Linux through Google Chrome, more or less
A Holy Grail of Linux gaming has been an Unreal Engine 3 port. Getting one for the OS would unlock a world of games that has been the province of, well, just about any other mainstream platform. Thanks to Google preserving Flash on Linux through Chrome, that dream is alive in at least a rudimentary form. Experimenters at the Phoronix forums have found that Chrome 21 has support for the Stage 3D hardware acceleration needed to drive Epic Games' Flash conversion of UE3. Tell Chrome to enable support as well as ignore a graphics chip blacklist, and suddenly you're running Epic Citadel from your Linux install. When we say "running," however, we're taking a slight amount of poetic license. Performance isn't that hot, and certain configurations might not show the medieval architecture in all its glory. We've confirmed with Epic that it works, but it's still firm on the stance that there's no plans for official UE3 support on Linux "at this time." It's still promising enough that maybe, just maybe, gamers can embrace an open-source platform without having to give up the games they love.
Gameloft working on four Unreal Engine games
We have some wicked awesome news on the iOS gaming front today -- Gameloft, the developer of popular 3D mobile games such as N.O.V.A and Asphalt, has announced a partnership with Epic Games that will allow Gameloft to use Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 in four new titles, two of which are expected by the end of 2011. Unreal Engine on Apple devices first became a talking point when Epic Games debuted its tech demo of the engine, titled Epic Citadel, at Apple's iPod event last September. The game displayed graphics that far surpassed anything previously seen on iOS, raising eyebrows around the world. Epic later went on to release the full version of the game, which is now known as IGN's iPhone Game of the Year for 2010 -- Infinity Blade. I, for one, am very excited about this announcement. Between this partnership and its entry into the Mac App Store, Gameloft has been showing some serious ambition. Let's hope we see some great games on the Unreal Engine 3 later this year.
Infinity Blade for iOS: A beautiful garden with very high walls
Note: Infinity Blade is now available on the US App Store. Opinions on Epic Games' Infinity Blade will likely be divided among two camps: those who played through Epic Citadel, and those who didn't. If you skipped out on Epic Citadel, then Epic Games' newest roleplaying game will likely blow you away. Infinity Blade has, hands down, the best graphics I've ever seen on an iPhone. However, if you played around with Epic Citadel a few months back, that demo may have given you expectations for what Infinity Blade would turn out to be, ... and depending on your expectations, Infinity Blade may be infinitely disappointing. Before diving into the game's features, here's some broader info about it. For a cost of US$5.99, Infinity Blade will run on the 3rd and 4th generation iPod touch, the iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4 and the iPad. Earlier iOS devices like the iPhone 3G, if they're even capable of running the game at all, will likely have such low frame rates that playing the game would be torture. There's no separate "HD" version for the iPad, which is an admirable move by Epic Games; the company could have easily charged a 150-200 percent markup for an iPad version like other studios, but Infinity Blade is a universal app. It also comes with Game Center integration, with 48 possible achievements and leaderboards for stats like total number of enemies killed, player level and total gold earned. According to Epic Games, a future update will even bring some multiplayer action into the game. If all of that sounds good to you so far, you're probably halfway to buying Infinity Blade already. I'm certainly not going to discourage you from doing so, but before you click that "Buy App" button in iTunes, it's probably a good idea for you to click "Read More" and find out what you're in for. Especially if you played through Epic Citadel, Infinity Blade may not be exactly what you expect.
Infinity Blade hits App Store December 9 for $5.99
Chair and Epic Games' extremely impressive Infinity Blade title has gotten a final release date and price: you'll be able to hack and slash your way around the medieval RPG on December 9 for a purchase price of $5.99. The app will be universal and will run on iPhone 3GS and above, up to and including the iPad and the latest iPhone and iPod touch. Players will be able to level up and gear up their characters as they fight through the world towards the game's big boss, a character called "the God-King." According to Chair's release, multiplayer won't be enabled right away, but free updates will be coming to the app soon after release, one of which will allow players to "battle online via Game Center." Sounds exciting. Epic Citadel, the Unreal Engine 3 demo, is of course, available for free on the App Store right now, but Infinity Blade will be a full-featured RPG game using the same technology. We can't wait! [via Joystiq]
Epic Games, Id Software show off jaw-dropping new iPhone games
We've already seen Epic Games and Id Software show off their respective game engines for iOS devices, but they're only now finally giving folks a look at the first actual games that will use them. The first of those to roll out will apparently be Id's Mutant Bash TV, which looks as impressive as the Rage demo promised (although that's aided in part by being on rails), and will cost just $0.99 for the standard version or $1.99 for the Retina Display-enhanced version. Seemingly even more impressive than it, however, is Epic Games' Infinity Blade, the game counterpart to the Unreal Engine 3-based "Epic Citadel" demo that was released back in September. While it may look like yet another God of War clone, it sounds like Epic has something quite a bit different in mind -- the game's creative director (of Shadow Complex fame, incidentally) recently described it as a mix of Karateka, Dragon's Lair and Punch-Out. Head on past the break to check out the trailer, and hit up the link below for Touch Arcade's preview of Mutant Bash TV (no video for it just yet, unfortunately).
Details on Epic's Project Sword, now called Infinity Blade
During last September's press event, representatives from Epic Games demonstrated "Project Sword," an impresive title running the Unreal Engine inside iOS. Today, that game has been re-named Infinity Blade and new screenshots have been released. Slide to Play notes that Infinity Blade will be the first iOS game to use the Unreal Engine 3. They expect it to hit both the iPad and iPhone "this holiday season." As for gameplay, expect the typical fantasy/medieval RPG stuff, like raging monsters, experience points, items galore and so on. In the new screenshots we see our hero battling a ridiculously oversized baddie. Let's hope that's a boss. Right now there's no word on pricing or a solid release date. If you just can't wait, check out the demo called Epic Citadel (free). It doesn't do much other than let you explore the town from a first-person perspective, but boy is it gorgeous, especially on a retina display. We'll let you know when Infinity Blade finally comes out.
GDC Online 2010: Mark Rein on iOS and Epic Citadel
If you are an iPhone gamer and haven't tried Epic Citadel yet, you're doing yourself a disservice. Epic Games wowed the crowd at the recent Apple event with the free demo, showing an astoundingly beautiful virtual town running in full 3D graphics on the iPhone and the iPad. Epic's Mark Rein is here at GDC Online 2010 this week to talk to developers about Unreal Engine 3 on iOS and other platforms (he can't keep from showing off the game running on Android, even when you tell him that you work for an Apple blog and don't write about Android anyway), and I cornered him to chat about Epic Citadel and Project Sword, the game it's serving as a demo for. My first question was what drew Epic to a platform like the iPhone in the first place -- the developer is known for titles like Unreal Tournament and Gears of War, which are big flashy titles that sell Microsoft's platforms, not Apple's. Rein told me that it was "the power of the hardware. It was capable of doing what we wanted it to do in mobile. That's always been our driving philosophy, is when we have platforms that are powerful enough to run our technology, and there's a good business case for supporting them, that we would."
Unreal Engine now able to make iOS apps
With Apple's recent decision to ease off on its third-party app creation tools restrictions, gamers are in for some very cool and interesting developments. At the Korea Games Conference, Epic Games announced that the Unreal Development Kit (UDK) will have the ability to generate iOS games and other applications. The UDK is freely available and has the ability to churn out incredible looking environments, such as the Epic Citadel tech demo you might have downloaded or at least gazed upon in wonder. If the gameplay of the final, released version of the Citadel demo is as smooth and playable as what was shown at the most recent Apple press event, there's no doubt we'll see even more amazing things come from what developers can churn out with the UDK. Think someone will port Unreal Tournament?
Unreal dev kit adding iOS support, Epic Citadel downloaded 1 million times
Well, that didn't take long. Less than a week after Apple announced that it would "relax" some of its iOS restrictions, allowing the use of third-party app creation tools, among other things, comes the following announcement from Epic Games, straight out of the Korea Games Conference: "We announced UDK will be able to generate iOS applications!" To translate for you quickly: Independent iPhone developers will soon be able to use the freely available Unreal Development Kit – which Epic also announced has 350,000 installations to its name – to create graphically lush mobile apps. If you're looking for an example of that graphical potential, check out the Epic Citadel tech demo, first revealed at this month's Apple press conference. With over one million downloads (another figure shared today!), we wouldn't be surprised if you already have. But you probably haven't seen Dungeon Defenders, a title whose developer has taken the jump from UDK novice to Unreal Engine 3 licensee, and all the commercial benefits that entails. You can see a video of the game running on both the iPhone and Android platforms after the break, but it's also in development for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. We're pretty excited to see the strength of Unreal Engine married to the diversity and quantity of the new breed of mobile gaming marketplaces, iOS and Android included. %Gallery-101015%
Epic Citadel shows the bright promise of iOS gaming's future
Epic Games, creator of the Unreal 3 game engine, has been working on getting Unreal Engine 3 running in iOS for a while now. They showed off some of their efforts with a demo of "Project Sword" at Apple's iPod event, and Mike Capps of Epic Games talked about the direction he saw gaming on iOS devices taking in the future. The fact that the Unreal 3 engine now runs seamlessly on iOS devices is a huge deal. This is the same game engine that's responsible for many high-quality titles on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, so having it run games on a device that fits in the palm of your hand is pretty mind-blowing. You can get a taste of Epic Games' Unreal 3 in iOS efforts with Epic Citadel, available on the App Store -- but because of the demanding graphical requirements, it's only compatible with the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad, and 3rd and 4th generation iPod touches. If you don't have one of those devices, the demo likely won't run at all. A demo is really all Epic Citadel is; it's not a game as such, since there's really nothing for you to do except wander around and gape at the environment. And gape you will, because this is console-quality graphics on a 3.5 inch screen. While wandering through the castle grounds, I exclaimed several times, "I can't believe this is running on a freaking cell phone." The graphics in Epic Citadel easily surpass anything I've seen on the iPhone before, and they put the Nintendo DS to shame. Even the Wii doesn't put out graphics with this level of detail. To my eyes, only the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC games are competitive with the graphical richness I'm seeing in Epic Citadel on the iPhone. Don't just take my word for it, though. Either download the demo yourself ,or if you can't run it on your device, check out our coverage in the video above. The game engine is truly amazing on the iPhone 4, especially with the Retina Display. And if this is the future of gaming in iOS, ... Nintendo and Sony had better step up their game.
Epic's Mike Capps talks about Epic Citadel and the future of iOS gaming
Gamasutra cornered Epic Games' Mike Capps (he of the very impressive Epic Citadel demo yesterday at the Apple special event), and Capps confirms that what you see running on your iPhone is the real deal -- Unreal Engine 3, with all of the bells and whistles that it has on the major HD consoles. The actual game that Project Sword will become is being designed by Chair (which is the same group that did the popular Shadow Complex game for Xbox 360), and we'll see the full project soon. Capps also confirms that UE 3 needs at least an iPhone 3GS to run, but he says that in terms of hardware, Apple's devices are right where they need to be. High-resolution textures are an issue (you can't install a 15gb game on an 16gb portable device), but the memory and speed are actually there, says Capps. "You've got 16 gigs of flash memory," he says, "which is way better, faster memory than what most people have generally on a home PC. So that stuff works really well." The biggest issue holding handheld gaming back is larger environments, but game developers are getting better and better at designing worlds that render quickly and well to all kinds of platforms. And Capps looks into the future, and sees even more possibilities for Apple and their product lines. "It doesn't take a whole lot of leaps of faith to say, 'Right now, I can display from my iPad to my Apple TV on a big screen TV.' How far away are we from 'that's my game console, and it's displaying wirelessly to my television set?' It's not far away." That's kind of a trippy thought -- that Apple had to finally move away from the Mac to earn a larger foothold in gaming. It's very heartening, as a gamer and an Apple fan, to hear Capps as excited as he is about the possibilities for iOS and the App Store. [via Joystiq[
Epic talks Project Sword, Unreal Engine on iPhone, and Apple TV as a game console
Following yesterday's dramatic announcement of Project Sword for iOS -- and the dramatic release of the free Epic Citadel tech demo -- Gamasutra spoke to Epic's Mike Capps about the games and the platform. Capps said that putting Unreal Engine 3 content on iPhone wasn't as hard as it seemed, thanks to the device's storage space that can come in handy for textures. "You've got 16 gigs of flash memory, which is way better, faster memory than what most people have generally on a home PC," he said. "So that stuff works really well. It's the big environments that get really complicated on the rendering tools for iPhone. But yeah, we've got some tricks for it." Capps has his eyes on the future of the platform, both for Epic's own games and licensees. "We've got a few of our licensees using [the iOS tools for UE3] now, who've been testing it with us. So we'll roll it out to existing licensees and then start opening up. I think [Epic VP] Mark Rein has a big plan for how they're going to roll it out and make sure everybody's using it." Capps also thinks there's potential to turn the new Apple TV into a game console of sorts. "... I can't wait to throw our engineers at it and see if we can get the latency we need to be able to play a game interactively over that wireless link to the Apple TV," he said. "I sure hope so."%Gallery-101015%
Epic's spectacular Unreal Engine 3 tech demo free at iTunes App Store
Did you oooh and ahh at the fantastic gaming graphics that accompanied today's Apple keynote? You won't have to wait for next week's iOS 4.1 to get a taste of those textures for yourself. Though the full-on gladiator dueling of Epic's "Project Sword" may be a while off, you can get your hot little hands on "Epic Citadel" right now, a 82.2 megabyte download that explores a beautiful medieval castle town. Oh, and did we mention it's free? Even id Software's mindblowing 60FPS Rage demo must be quaking in its boots right about now.
