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The Big Picture: 3D Paris apartment shows what Unreal Engine 4 can do
See that room above? It looks real, but it's not -- and by that we mean it's just a 3D environment made in Unreal Engine 4. Sure, we already have a pretty good idea what the new engine can do, such as bringing realistic skin (among other things) to games. But this "Unreal Paris" project by CG designer Dereau Benoît proves that it can be used to create objects and environments that look more like photographs of the real thing rather than CG. Benoît has created a snazzy Parisian apartment with receiving rooms, dining area, kitchen, bedroom, hallways and even a full bathroom.
The new Unreal Engine will bring eerily realistic skin to your games
It hasn't been hard to produce realistic-looking skin in computer-generated movies, but it's much harder to do that in the context of a game running live on your console or PC. That trip to the uncanny valley is going to be much easier in the near future, though, thanks to the impending arrival of Unreal Engine 4.5. The gaming framework adds subsurface light scattering effects that give digital skin a more natural look. Instead of the harsh visuals you normally get (see the pale, excessively-shadowed face at left), you'll see softer, decidedly fleshier surfaces (middle and right). The scattering should also help out with leaves, candle wax and other materials that are rarely drawn well in your favorite action games.
Yes, Unreal Engine 4 is coming to Samsung Gear VR too
The latest game development toolkit from Epic Games supports Oculus Rift and Sony's Project Morpheus, but what about virtual or augmented reality on mobile devices? That's coming, too -- and apparently pretty soon. Road to VR has noticed that on Epic's publicly-accessible "Unreal Engine 4 Roadmap" task-board two new bits were added to the VR to-do list: Samsung Gear VR and Google Project Tango support. They're labeled as September and October projects, and as Road to VR notes, the VR project category has been empty since Oculus' and Sony's features have been completed. If anything, this yet another example of just how versatile Unreal Engine 4 is when it comes to what the engine's games can run on. Maybe Amazon's Fire phone is up next? After all, there's precedent (sort of).
Would-be game makers can sell each other new levels, art in Unreal Engine 4
Let's say you've been fiddling with Unreal Engine 4 for months and want the world to see the lovingly detailed recreation of your first college apartment -- right down to the hemp wall tapestries and the weird stains on the living room rug. Well, with the newly launched Unreal Engine Marketplace you can do just that. In addition to anything that's been released through other channels before, your custom wares will sit alongside sample scenes and games (like Tappy Chicken), as well as bits of C++ code, art and audio. And if you're looking to turn a profit, or, at least recover the toolset's monthly subscription fee, you can even put a price-tag on your digital wares.
Headshot: Watch new Unreal Tournament devs play first deathmatch
In three weeks time, what can you accomplish? When we last heard from the Unreal Tournament team at Epic Games, they'd only announced that the project was a thing. Well, now there's video of them playing a round of deathmatch in an early build, as spotted by Joystiq. It isn't much to look at, what with the lack of complex textures and level geometry, but, it's a totally playable game and there are definitely people running around and shooting at each other with frickin' lasers. What's more, you can join in on the work-in-progress mayhem for yourself if you're paying the $19 per month for a subscription to Unreal Engine 4. You can leave feedback in the official forums with a free account, too. Like Tappy Chicken before it, this fast progress by a small team shows just how flexible and easy the new development tools are to use. Who knows, maybe we could see a beta version sooner than expected -- better dust off those Flak Cannon skills just in case.
Epic's Unreal Engine 4 'Flappy Bird' homage 'Tappy Chicken' now available for free (update: video!)
Epic Games can crow all it wants about how easy its next-gen development toolset is to use, but until we actually see results, those words are pretty hollow. That changes today with the release of Tappy Chicken, the first Unreal Engine 4 game released for Android, HTML5 browsers and iOS. Yeah, it's a far cry from the fiery demon we've come to associate with anything UE4-related (and it looks more than a little bit like another flying fowl), but the key here is that Epic says it's the work of exactly one person using a sort of simplified scripting system called Blueprints. What's more, the developer isn't even a coder -- he's an artist by the name of Shane Caudle. Caudle designed the game-play loop for the procedurally-generated game in an evening and spent around a week on the menus and squashing bugs. Epic says that it could even be ported to consoles pretty easily. The reason for the free game? To show how easy it is to mod and add-on with UE4 even by someone who doesn't know a lick of typical programming languages like C++. If you want to give it a go for yourself, all it takes to start is $19.
Remember Unreal Tournament? Epic's making a new one and it's free
Epic Games is known for a lot of things, the Gears of War game franchise and development tool Unreal Engine prime among them. But old-school game fans might know Epic Games for another classic franchise: Unreal Tournament. The long-dormant series is making its return starting today! Sort of. Epic announced this afternoon that the next Unreal Tournament game begins development starting today with "a small team of UT veterans" focused on development for Windows, Mac and Linux. The entire development is open source, which Epic characterizes as, "a collaboration between Epic, UT fans and UE4 developers." As that line infers, the game's being created using Unreal Engine 4. Best of all? When the game's ready to play, it will be free. As Epic puts it: "Not free to play, just free."
BioShock gets an HD remake, sort of
When it launched almost seven years ago, BioShock was quite the looker thanks to its stylized aesthetic and the custom version of Unreal Engine 2 under its hood. The game has held up pretty well in terms of visuals (all that water!), but it's certainly starting to show its age. Don't get us wrong, we love the original. It's just that we wouldn't turn down a new version of the game running with all the bells and whistles that Epic's next-gen development tools offer, either. Well, as Kotaku has spotted, an enterprising indie dev has kindly done something along those lines.
Xbox One and PlayStation 4 support added to Unreal Engine 4 in latest update
Moving a game from one platform to another -- from iOS to PC, from Xbox One to PlayStation 4 -- isn't as easy as it seems. Just change a few button prompts and you're all set, right? Not so much. There's a lot to consider: how do you control the game (mouse/keyboard/gamepad/touch/etc.)? does it sync up with online leaderboards? does it have the proper logos/attribution? Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 aims to circumvent as much of that as possible, and today it's enabling two more platforms: Xbox One and PlayStation 4. In terms of Xbox One peripheral support, that includes Kinect, and in terms of PlayStation 4 peripheral support, that includes the Project Morpheus virtual reality headset.
Unreal Engine 4 crammed into Amazon's Fire TV - it's possible
Let's say you've paid your $19 want to see what kind of crazy shit Unreal Engine 4 is capable of. Let's also say you have a shiny new Amazon Fire TV sitting in the living room. With some patience and a little coding, you can totally run Epic's new software toolset on Bezos' $99 set-top box. Over on Gamasutra, a dev has listed step-by-step instructions for getting the engine up and running and, from the looks of it, it didn't take him a lot of extra work. This is likely due to Fire TV's Android-based architecture and the fact that Unreal 4 was basically designed to run on every platform under the sun. As the dev tells it, you can even plug in an Xbox 360 or PS4 controller to explore the demo area. Regardless of if we ever see Unreal-powered games on the streaming box or not, this proves that its gaming capabilities aren't as limited as one might think.
Unreal Engine 4 to support Windows Phone and Windows RT, but not anytime soon
Unreal Engine 4's new $19 subscription option might be real tempting for developers on a budget, unless, of course, they're hoping to make games for Windows Phone and Windows RT. Although Epic Games' next-gen engine doesn't work with the aforementioned flavors of Microsoft's OS, that might be changing, albeit slowly. Tim Sweeney, the studio's co-founder and CEO, divulged on the company's forums that the firm's already doing legwork to support the platforms. "We have been doing some work in this direction (implementing various levels of WinRT API support) and we want to have Windows Phone support eventually, but we're a very long way from having a ship-quality implementation," Sweeney said. Still, the head honcho adds that their focus will remain on Android and iOS development before branching out to Microsoft's other flavors of Windows. Impatient devs can stick with Unreal Engine 3, but those aching for the latest tools will have to sit tight a while longer.
Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 now available by subscription for $19, headed to OS X and more
Unreal Engine 3 set the standard for games last generation, powering breakout franchises like Gears of War and Mass Effect. We don't know if Unreal Engine 4 will have the same impact, but today's move by Epic Games to massively democratize this game engine is certainly a step in the right direction. Today, Unreal Engine 4 is going subscription: For $19/month you get, "access to everything, including the Unreal Editor in ready-to-run form, and the engine's complete C++ source code hosted on GitHub for collaborative development." That's according to Epic Games head Tim Sweeney, who spoke at a GDC event this morning. Any game published commercially must also pay 5 percent of gross profit to Epic (which could get lucrative very quickly for Epic). It's a move aimed directly at the evolving world of contemporary game development, where indie hit-makers like Jonathan Blow take the stage at Sony's PlayStation 4 unveiling in place of triple-A studios. We were shown a simple Flappy Bird clone for iOS, for instance, as an example of the flexibility of UE4 (the demon lord seen above is an example of the other end of the engine). Beyond the subscription service and full access to the source code (which is a big move unto itself), Unreal Engine 4 is getting OS X support. There's also evidence in the source code that Epic's working on Oculus Rift, Linux, Steam Machines and HTML5 support. But we already kinda knew all that, right? So we asked Tim Sweeney for a deeper dive into today's news and what it means for Epic Games as both a game engine maker and a game studio. Head below for the full video!
Kinect and Unreal Engine 4 power Alzheimer's and dementia care project (video)
Sure, virtual reality and browser-based games are impressive, but Unreal Engine 4's latest use is a bit more noble: improving the lives of Alzheimer's and dementia patients. The Forest Project uses the game engine, smart TVs and Microsoft's Kinect 2 tech in an attempt to create a temporary reprieve for those suffering from the cognitive diseases via an interactive, virtual woodland. There's also a virtual dementia simulation that aims to help caregivers understand first-hand how their patients see the world, possibly improving care as a result. Should the dev team reach its crowdfunding goal, the arboreal environment could be just the beginning, with beach or Christmas-themed environments hinted as possible expansions. Opaque Multimedia and Alzheimer's Australia Vic need a fraction of what many modern game budgets command to bring The Forest Project to multiple platforms in early 2015 -- $82,000 (AU$90,000). Other details are scarce, but seeing that the team is in San Francisco for this week's Game Developer's Conference, we may hear more as the show progresses.
Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 adds Firefox support, isn't just for creating pretty demons
Yes, Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 can be used to create large, dramatic demon gods, but that doesn't mean it's only used to create large, dramatic demon gods. It's also used to create sneaky thief demos! Oh, and as Mozilla demonstrates this morning with video of Unreal Engine 4 running from within Firefox, the engine can be used for much smaller-scale applications as well (such as the basic 2D platforming game seen in the video below the break). All this is to demonstrate that developers can use web clients (Firefox at least) to create games that are "almost indistinguishable from ones [you] might have had to wait to download and install" -- the demo is running without plugins at "near-native" speeds. Apparently Unreal Engine 3 support simply wasn't enough? We'll be sure to ask when Mozilla shows off UE4 in Firefox next week at the Game Developers Conference.
NVIDIA K1 chip adds Unreal Engine 4 support (update: video!)
The Unreal Engine's latest iteration, Unreal Engine 4, is adding support for NVIDIA's latest Tegra chip, the K1. Epic Games' ubiquitous engine powered much of last-generation games with Unreal Engine 3, and Epic's promising even more with the next generation. NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang announced as much tonight during the company's CES 2014 press conference, and he made sure to note the much shorter gap between Unreal Engine running on next-gen consoles/PC and mobile devices. With Unreal Engine 3, Infinity Blade was the first mobile game running on Epic's game tech -- demonstrated on-stage during an Apple keynote for a new iPad. Unreal Engine 4, however, scales both up and down right out of the gate, apparently. "We can take absolutely anything that runs on PC or high-end consoles and run it on Tegra...I didn't think that we'd be at this level on mobile for another three to four years," Epic Games head Tim Sweeney said of the news. Color us unsurprised -- we expect to see Unreal Engine 4 running on anything that plays games in the coming years. Update: NVIDIA just posted its video of the K1 chip running an Unreal Engine 4 demo, check it out after the break.
Unreal Engine 4 now supports Oculus Rift, introduces 'Integrated Partners Program'
Unreal Engine 4 now supports the Oculus Rift VR headset, Epic Games announced this morning. The move comes as part of an "Integrated Partners Program," which also adds support from a variety of other middleware companies (Autodesk, IDV, and NVIDIA to name just a few). Licensees have access to the entire list of middleware software, and can implement functionality in their UE4-powered projects starting today. Epic Games VP Mark Rein told us at GDC 2013 that Unreal Engine 4 support for Oculus Rift was in the works, but we didn't think it'd arrive this soon!
Visualized: Unreal Engine 4 'Infiltrator' demo gives an impressive peek at next-gen gaming
Just in case you missed it last night buried in our interview with Epic Games VP Mark Rein, the company showed off a new real-time demo at GDC 2013 this week, titled "Infiltrator." The nearly four-minute clip, showcases a sci-fi shootout created with its Unreal Engine 4, and remarkably powered by a single GeForce GTX 680. Now that we've piqued your curiosity a bit, check out this gorgeous display of futuristic espionage after the break, plus a bonus clip of the "Elemental" UE4 demo running on a PlayStation 4 dev kit in real-time.
In conversation with Epic Games' Mark Rein: Unreal Engine 4 support for Oculus Rift (and everything else), and thoughts on next-gen
Epic Games isn't just offering up its ubiquitous current-gen game creation tool Unreal Engine 3 to Oculus Rift developers, but also its next-gen tool, Unreal Engine 4. Epic Games VP Mark Rein told Engadget as much during an interview at this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, repeatedly stating he's "super bullish" on the Rift, all the while rocking an Oculus pin on his exhibitor lanyard. "Oh, for sure," he said when we asked about UE4 support for the Rift. "We're working on that now." The Rift dev kit was demoed at CES 2013 running Unreal Engine 3's "Epic Citadel" demo, and Epic's offered support to the Oculus folks since early on, making the UE4 news not a huge surprise, but welcome nonetheless. The next-gen game engine was being shown off at GDC 2013 with a flashy new demo (seen below the break), as well as a version of its "Elemental" demo running on a PlayStation 4 dev kit (shrouded behind a curtain, of course). Rein was visibly excited about that as well, unable to contain random vocal outbursts during the presentation. "It's a war out there, and we sell bullets and bandaids," he jokingly told us in an interview the following day. The quote comes from coworker and Epic VP of business development Jay Wilbur, and it's fitting -- Epic only makes a handful of games, and the company's real money comes from game engine licensees. In so many words, the more platforms that Unreal Engine variants can go, the better for Epic (as well as for engine licensees, of course). "It's a good place to be -- we try to support everything we can. We have to place some timed bets on things that we feel are gonna be the most important to licensees, and also to us where we're taking games. But because the engine is portable -- it's written in C++ -- a licensee can take and do whatever they want," he said.
HP introduces Unreal Engine 4-ready 'turnkey solution' workstations, collaborating with ALT Systems
Hewlett-Packard may not be well-known by consumers for creating the machines that power the industries that power the world we live in, but the company's workstation business does just that. From film to oil drilling to medicine, HP's workstations have their hands in a lot of pies -- and today, that expands more directly to yet another major industry: video games. With its Z1, Z820 and Z620 workstations, HP is collaborating with Epic Games, Autodesk, and ALT Systems to create what they're calling a "turnkey solution" to game development workstation woes. The three aforementioned units can be customized to arrive with a variety of variables, including Unreal Engine 4, Autodesk, and NVIDIA GTX-line GPUs. In so many words, ALT Systems will take the disparate pieces of hardware and software from HP, NVIDIA, Autodesk and Epic Games to provide an all-in-one buying solution for game dev studios. As ALT Systems president Jon Guess laughingly explained, it provides clients "one neck to wring" should things go wrong, rather than dev studios having to suss out hardware issues on their own. The first fruits of the partnership arrive this year in game developer-centric versions of the aforementioned three workstation models. For a full rundown of the various workstation configurations that'll arrive this year, ALT Systems has a site set up just for you.
Epic senior technical artist Alan Willard talks Unreal Engine 4 for next-gen consoles
There's no PS4 or Xbox 720 behind the curtain, Alan Willard assures a dark room full of eager video game journalists. Nope, it's just a current high-end piece of PC hardware. In spite of the company's position as a creator of one of the industry's leading game engines, Epic doesn't get a peek at Sony and Microsoft's next generation consoles before the companies are ready for their grand unveiling. "We won't know final hardware specs until everyone else does," the company's senior technical artist tells me after the presentation, adding with a laugh, "If they do, I don't know anything about it." The company spent this year's E3 cycling media in and out of its small meeting room on the second floor of the convention center, dimming the lights and showing off just what Unreal Engine 4 has to offer -- or at least a pretty good idea of what it will offer when it's finally ready for prime time. It's clear from the excitement on the Epic employees' faces that all involved are relieved to finally show the demo off for gatherings of eager writers. No surprise there, of course. After all, the engine has been in development in some form or other for eight or nine years -- several lifetimes in the roman candle-like world of video game development.
