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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.
Denon teases new SC2900 DJ controller and media player, hopes to get heads spinning (video)
As the world of digital DJing offers those who spin increasingly individual configurations, there's still a dedicated crowd who like to keep it strictly "ones and twos." Denon hears this, and is hoping to snag some of those faithful with its latest SC2900 DJ media player. From the tease video (after the break) it looks like it's pitting itself against Pioneer's CDJ900 and CDJ2000 models. There's a 7-inch platter (Denon's first without a motor,) jazzed up with LEDs for cue and marker points. This can be used to get hands on with CDs (audio and MP3,) USB drives, music direct from the companion "Engine" software (i.e. hosted on a Mac or PC,) and shared media from other compatible networked players. Other goodies include four hot cues, native support for Traktor (and other) DJ software over MIDI, a "slip mode" made popular by the CDJ900 for keeping tracks in the mix even when scratching, and library browsing via iPad (though we're not sure if it's anything more than that). Pricing and availability should get played out soon, in the meantime you might want to start boning up on those old DMC routines.
SteelSeries announces Sensei Major League Gaming edition, keeps palms eager until August
For most of us, the humble mouse is but a tool for effective computer navigation, for gamers though, it's a matter of life and (virtual) death. SteelSeries knows this, and hopes its new Sensei Major League Gaming edition mouse will keep a few more of its faithful out of the MASH. It looks like much of the credentials of the original Sensei have been kept intact, the same 10.8-megapixel sensor, the 150 inches per second movement detection, 32-bit ARM processor, LCD display and so on. What's new then? For the main part, the CPI, which can now go from one to 8,200, or all the way to 16,400 if you use the double CPI feature. You'll have to wait until August to get your hand on it, with pre-orders (but no price as yet) set to open at the MLG Championship next week.
DICE to require 64-bit OS for some 2013 games, that Windows ME box in the den isn't cutting it
We're entering a world of mainstream 64-bit computing -- whether we like it or not. Just weeks after Adobe started requiring 64-bit Macs for CS6, DICE's Rendering Architect Johan Andersson has warned that some of his company's 2013 games using the Frostbite engine will need the extra bits as a matter of course. In other words, it won't matter if you have a quad Core i7 gaming PC of death should the software be inadequate; if you're still running a 32-bit copy of Windows 7 come the new year, you won't be playing. The developer points to memory as the main culprit, as going 64-bit guarantees full access to 4GB or more of RAM as well as better virtual addressing. Andersson sees it as a prime opportunity to upgrade to Windows 8, although 64-bit Vista and 7 (and presumably OS X, if and when Mac versions exist) will be dandy. Just be prepared to upgrade that Windows XP PC a lot sooner than Microsoft's 2014 support cutoff if you're planning to run the next Battlefield or Mirror's Edge.
Daily iPad App: Fibble is Crytek's entry onto iOS
If you had told me, just a couple of years ago, that Epic and Crytek would both have iOS apps in the store, I'm not sure I would have believed you. The Unreal Engine is one of the most popular graphical engines for major high resolution games, but Crytek is also very popular for its graphical work on Crysis and a few other titles. Epic has had a couple of hits in the App Store already with the Infinity Blade series, and here comes Crytek, working not on a big-time shooter for iOS, but a much cuter physics platformer-style game called Fibble. Fibble looks great, especially on the newer iOS devices. Crytek has brought its full engine expertise to bear, and so textures look terrific, everything's bright and clear, and the game runs very well. The gameplay is sort of a weird mix of platforming and golf. You move Fibble around by flicking him like a slingshot, and then you can use a series of other controls (like jumping or speeding up) to navigate a course, trying to get to a certain point in as few "flicks" as possible. It's simple, but there's a fair amount of things to do in 30 different levels. Unfortunately, Crytek's entry into iOS isn't quite as groundbreaking as Infinity Blade. The company aimed a little too close to Angry Birds rather than trying to blaze their own trail as an AAA iOS developer like Epic did. It would have been nice to see Crytek really break out and try something a little more innovative (or with a little more content -- 30 levels isn't small, but compared to some other games like this, it's not huge either). As it is, it's a fair first entry onto iOS, and has some excellent graphical sparkle, but you would be fine with waiting to see if it drops off of the current US$4.99 price for the HD version.
GE partners with Livermore Labs to explore efficient aircraft fuel injectors (video)
What would you do with six months of dedicated access to 261.3 teraflops of computational power? As you ponder that question, consider the case of GE Global Research, which has just announced its participation with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in an effort to design more powerful and efficient aircraft engines by way of computer simulation. Specifically, GE will partner with researchers from Arizona State University and Cornell University to study the unsteady spray phenomena that's thought to be ideal for fuel injectors. Through Large Eddy Simulation, GE hopes to discover an ideal spray pattern and fuel injector design, and reduce its number of lengthy, real-world optimization trials. While the research is initially aimed at aircraft engines, the knowledge gained from these experiments may work its way into GE's other products, such as locomotive engines and land-based gas turbines. For a glimpse into GE's current research, be sure to hop the break.
Amazon's Bezos finds Apollo 11 rocket engines in ocean, contemplates shipping options
Ya' know, there's nothing like a little rocket engine hunting to save oneself from the doldrums of generating billions of dollars in revenue in the private sector. At least that appears to be the case for Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who spearheaded an ocean expedition to find the F-1 engines used in the Apollo 11 mission. Forget newer stuff like the GENIE, Vega and Slytherin's SuperDraco -- the classic F-1 is still the rocket engine that ignites Bezos' proverbial liquid fuel. Having found his prize resting 14,000 feet below the surface via deep sea sonar, Bezos' team is now trying to recover at least one of the engines. Bezos says NASA still retains ownership of the F-1s but he's hoping the agency will allow one of them to be displayed at the Museum of Flight in Amazon's home turf of Seattle if both are successfully retrieved. No word on whether the rocket engines will be delivered via Super Saver Shipping.
Boeing's SUGAR Freeze is a cool way to power a plane
No, not the sensation you get when you have gulped your ice cream too fast. SUGAR Freeze is the a new propulsion concept developed by Boeing that aims to revolutionize air travel. Standing for Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research, the NASA-commissioned project (codenamed "N+4") looks at immature technologies in the hope of kickstarting research for the future. It's reportedly 60 percent more efficient than the equivalent Boeing 737-800, thanks to a very experimental propulsion system. Cryogenically stored liquified natural gas (hence "Freeze") is burned in a pair of unducted fan engines while also powering a solid-oxide fuel cell as an aft-thruster. With LNG projected to remain abundant, more environmentally friendly and cheap well into the century, it makes an ideal substitute to current aviation fuel, which is none of those things. Currently it's far too unsafe a design to contemplate building, and there are concerns about the natural gas production process, but hopes remain that the kinks will be ironed out well before the 2045 deadline.
Unity 3.5 available now, with new effects and performance updates
There are quite a few ways to make and build iPhone and iPad apps and games, but one of the most popular tools to create iOS games is the Unity engine, and that system has released version 3.5. The new version offers a number of improvements and upgrades, with lots of new particle and lighting and rendering effects to make games look better than ever, as well as improvements in the standard AI and pathfinding code for enemies, and lots of improvements to performance and memory. The new kit also now supports a preliminary version of export to Flash, and there's also an option to create a "native" client, which can be played in Google's Chrome browser without the use of the Unity web add-on. There are some iOS-specific updates, including support for cameras, microphone, compass, and gyroscope, as well as support for Apple's iAd program. There's Game Center support as well, though for leaderboards and achievements only -- matchmaking and voice will still require Apple's official SDK. It all sounds good, and it means the tools for developers to use to make games for iOS and other platforms are getting better and better, which of course will eventually lead to better games for players. Unity's SDK can be downloaded for free from the company's website, and of course there are pro subscription programs for bigger developers. Show full PR text Unity Technologies Releases Unity 3.5 SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - Feb 14, 2012) - Unity Technologies, provider of the Unity multi-platform engine and development tools, is proud to announce that Unity 3.5 is now available for download. This latest update is one of the biggest additions to Unity since its inception and includes major new features and a multitude of improvements, tweaks, and optimizations. Unity 3.5 is a free update for all developers using version 3.0 or higher of the Unity development platform. "This is one of the most spectacular additions we've ever made to Unity," said David Helgason, CEO, Unity Technologies. "Recognizing that Unity was being pushed harder and harder, we launched our initiative to upgrade Unity with high-end capabilities that larger studios are accustomed to and smaller studios usually don't have access to. We want to make Unity the best choice for everyone and Unity 3.5 is a massive demonstration of our commitment to that goal." The Unity development platform, one of the most popular in the world with more than 800,000 registered developers globally, combines a powerful engine with an intuitive set of development tools in one complete package. "We are incredibly proud of this release and I think it's our strongest yet," said Nicholas Francis, Chief Creative Officer, Unity Technologies. "A year ago, we took a deep dive and began working on developing features for more complex projects and larger teams. It took hard work to do this while preserving the intuitive and usable design that makes Unity so popular, but we are sure that developers using Unity will be as happy with the improvements as we are." Throughout its history, Unity Technologies has continued to rapidly enhance Unity and the 3.5 update provides a long list of additions and improvements: Effects New in Unity 3.5, the highly optimized Shuriken particle system provides artists and programmers with complete control over particle-based visual effects. Shuriken is a curve and gradient-based modular editor, with hierarchies and sequencing capabilities that allow for many particle systems to stay synchronized. Pathfinding and Obstacle Avoidance Improvements to AI provide accurate pathfinding along complex pathways and natural movement through crowds. Game developers can bake navigation data in the editor and let Unity's high-performance path-finding and crowd simulation take over at runtime. Lighting and Rendering Developers can create jaw-dropping visuals with linear space (gamma correct) lighting and HDR rendering, and render them faster than before with Unity 3.5's brand new multi-threaded renderer. Also new to Unity 3.5, light probes add life and realism to lightmapped scenes without the high cost of typical dynamic lights. The addition of light probes to Unity's lighting system allows for baked lighting on characters and other dynamic objects. New Platforms Unity 3.5 supports Native Client as a new deployment platform. Native Client allows for near native speeds within the Chrome browser, without the need for installing the Unity Web Player. Unity 3.5 also ships with the preview release of the Flash deployment add-on, which has already been used by 50,000 developers. Performance Improvements Unity 3.5 includes a completely re-written integration of Umbra's occlusion culling system. The result is incredibly fast and works with terrains and dynamic obstacles such as doors. When combined with Unity's new built-in level-of-detail support, it gives large-scale games the performance boost that they need. Better Collaboration Tools The Asset Server license, Unity's add-on for teams and collaboration, has been enhanced with new features that add greater performance and flexibility. The addition of Unity's cache server dramatically speeds up collaboration on projects of all sizes, and a new developer API for third-party version control solutions, such as Subversion and Perforce, allows larger teams to work more efficiently. To reflect these changes, the product has been renamed the "Team License," and made available as an add-on for all Unity users. Additional Improvements The update includes other improvements such as a new GPU profiler, a fully pluggable Social API to implement social gaming, and low-level audio buffer access to create music games, and directional lightmaps support to name but a few. For a complete list of additions and improvements, please visit http://unity3d.com/unity/whats-new. Pricing and Availability This is a free update for all Unity 3 users. Pricing otherwise remains the same. The entry-level product, Unity, is free for commercial use. The premier product, Unity Pro, remains $1500 per developer seat. For a complete list of products and pricing, please visit http://unity3d.com/shop. To download the free and feature-packed Unity for creating games and other interactive applications, visit http://unity3d.com/download. About Unity Technologies Unity Technologies is the creator of Unity, an intuitive and flexible development platform used to make wildly creative and intelligently interactive 3D and 2D content. The "author once, deploy everywhere" capability ensures developers can publish to all of the most popular platforms. Unity Technologies boasts a thriving community of 800,000 registered developers including large publishers, indie studios, students and hobbyists. Unity Technologies aggressively re-invests in its award-winning 3D development tools and democratization initiatives, such as the Asset Store digital content marketplace and Union game distribution service, in order to remain at the forefront of innovation. Unity Technologies is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in Canada, Denmark, Lithuania, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Japan and Korea. For more information, visit: http://unity3d.com. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/unity3d Twitter: http://twitter.com/unity3d Unity and all other product names are trademarks of Unity Technologies or its subsidiaries or affiliates. All other product names and trademarks belong to their respective holders.
Anarchy Online's new game director details early 2012 plans
We haven't heard a whole lot from Funcom's old-school sci-fi MMO Anarchy Online since mid-December when the game's producer bowed out. Today, however, the new game director, Fia "Lindelu" Tjernberg, stopped by the game's official forums to give players a bit of an update on what they can expect from the first months of the new year. For starters, Tjernberg gives players a progress report on the game's upcoming shiny new graphics engine. She goes on to explain that "[Funcom's] artists have been preparing a couple of playfields to a standard that is very close to what we're aiming for," and adds that the first video of the new engine should hit sometime in February. Another large priority for the team for early 2012 is the new player experience, but perhaps most importantly of all is the "balancing act," as Tjernberg puts it, which (predictably) aims to bring the game's professions into balance "a little bit at a time." For the full details on Anarchy Online's plans for the next couple of months, just click on through the link below.
The Secret World's Øystein Eftevaag gets technical
When it comes to gameplay, we've heard about The Secret World inside and out. We know all about the Dragons, the Illuminati, and the Templars and the ongoing war against the encroaching darkness. But what about what's under the hood? The folks over at The Hydra Initiative decided to have a chat with Funcom's lead programmer, Øystein Eftevaag, about the Dreamworld Engine, which is shared between Age of Conan and TSW. Eftevaag notes that the TSW team benefits from sharing the engine with Age of Conan, saying, "The main benefit of this to The Secret World, is that the features being collaborated on (like, say, memory usage improvements, loading time improvements and the upcoming single-server technology) get the full development and testing resources of two whole projects focused on them." So if you want to know all about The Secret World's engine and what makes the game tick, just click on over to The Hydra Initiative and have a look. If you're in search of more gameplay details, however, you're just going to have to sit back and wait. With the game's April launch fast approaching, we're sure Funcom has something planned.
The Secret World's engine takes center stage
Unified engines for MMOs have long been a rarity, simply due to the time needed to develop a game and the number of different companies developing separate products. The Secret World manages to buck this trend, using the same core Dreamworld Engine as Funcom's Age of Conan. A recent interview with lead programmer Øystein Eftevaag discusses the way that the engine interacts with the newer game, how the unified engine helps both games, and what special features the game is using in a technical sense. Eftevaag explains that the Dreamworld Engine benefits chiefly from cross-pollination; improvements made in terms of optimization for Age of Conan can be imported to the engine on The Secret World with minimal extra legwork. The engine also uses a series of dynamic equations to determine what player characters should be able to see, subsequently leaving obscured areas blank to save on processor cycles. It's an interesting look under the hood at the technical side of Funcom's upcoming conspiracy and horror title, even if this particular dream world is tilted toward a nightmare.
Researchers build world's smallest steam engine that could
Wanna create your very own microscopic steam engine? Just take a colloid particle, put it in water, and add a laser. That's a CliffsNotes version of what a group of German researchers recently did to create the world's smallest steam engine. To pull it off, engineers from the University of Stuttgart and Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems tweaked the traditional approach introduced by Robert Stirling nearly 200 years ago. In Stirling's model, gas within a cylindrical tube is alternately heated and cooled, allowing it to expand and push an attached piston. Professor Clemens Bechinger and his team, however, decided to downsize this system by replacing the piston with a laser beam, and the cylinder's working gas with a single colloid bead that floats in water and measures just three thousandths of a millimeter in size. The laser's optical field limits the bead's range of motion, which can be easily observed with a microscope, since the plastic particle is about 10,000 times larger than an atom. Because the beam varies in intensity, it effectively acts upon the particle in the same way that heat compresses and expands gas molecules in Stirling's model. The bead, in turn, does work on the optical field, with its effects balanced by an outside heat source. The system's architects admit that their engine tends to "sputter" at times, but insist that its mere development shows that "there are no thermodynamic obstacles" to production. Read more about the invention and its potential implications in the full press release, after the break.
EVE Online shows off new Crucible engine trails
Veteran EVE Online players will remember the joy of engine trails, a simple graphical effect that really added a feeling of speed to fast ships like interceptors or microwarpdrive cruisers. While the much-lauded Apocrypha expansion brought us countless new features, developers were forced to remove engine trails due to performance issues. We recently learned that engine trails will be making a comeback with the Crucible expansion, and in a new devblog today CCP Mankiller released details of the tricky work involved in getting the much-loved feature back into the game. Mankiller explains that the old engine trail effect actually needed to have its vertex buffer updated every frame, making it a massive performance hog. The new trails use a much less costly approach that generates the geometry inside a vertex shader using splines. For those who fancy themselves mathematicians, CCP Mankiller provides the gruesome details of the equations that had to be constructed and solved to program the new shader. The new technique has additional advantages, like no longer skipping around when you're lagging and the possibility of new effects like heat shimmer, light absorption and refraction. The new engine trails go live with the Crucible expansion on November 29th.
BMW's Active Sound Design is like putting your head under the hood of the new M5
We know EVs of the future will lose their ability to silently kill, but how about replicating engine noise for the enjoyment of bonafide petrolheads? Eagle-eyed readers will note that's a promised feature of the upcoming (but ever-delayed) Fisker Karma, but here beating it to market is BMW's upcoming M5 -- sort of. München's implementation coined "Active Sound Design," won't blast engine machinations on the outside, but instead internally overlays the harmonic soundtrack of the twin turbo V8 over internal speakers as you drive. That audial racket is based on throttle position, engine revs and speed, and gets even louder when the car is set in Sport or Sport+ modes. No word on if you'll be able to customize with other soundtracks (a la Karma), but there's nothing a little enthusiast hackery can't fix...
Toyota demos Prius' proximity notification system, touts 'futuristic' purr (video)
Silence may be a virtue under most circumstances, but not when you're driving around a leafy, residential neighborhood in your Toyota Prius. That's why the manufacturer came out with its very own vehicle proximity notification system last year -- a "futuristic," underhood noisemaker designed to alert pedestrians and the visually impaired to the plug-in's presence. Now, Toyota has offered more details on its safety system, in a freshly released demo video starring the 2012 Prius V. The car's artificial engine noise, as the company explains, only kicks in at speeds below 15 miles per hour, allowing it to broadcast its audible heads-up across parking lots or other low-speed zones. The sound itself, meanwhile, emanates from external speakers and consists of a blend of high and low frequencies that won't be by muffled by background noise or physical obstacles. The vehicle's pitch shift technology also enables the tone to rise in pitch as the car speeds up and to fall as it slows down, giving others an idea of how fast it's approaching. Accelerate past the break to see the full video for yourself, while John Kerry nods in silent approval.
SteelSeries Sensei gaming mouse goes up for pre-order, obeys your macro come October
Competitive gaming scored itself a new peripheral vying for the top spot back in August, when SteelSeries unveiled its ambidextrous Sensei mouse. If you'll recall, the Sensei tracks up to 150-inches per second with its 10.8 megapixel sensor, and uses a 32-bit ARM processor to calculate it all without bogging down your rig. Making things sweeter, a trio of illuminated sections can be set to differing hues befitting your mood, and an LCD planted on the Sensei's underside will let you change some settings without a computer. If you've been dying to get your FPS-loving mitts on this $90 input device, it's now officially up for pre-order from the company's website and due to hit doorsteps during the first week of October. As usual, the full PR is located just past the break.
Fisker inks BMW deal, Nina EVs gain Ultimate Driving Machine DNA
Fisker Nina -- sounds more like a Bolshoi ballerina to us, but these codenamed, future EVs are now on course for a German heart and soul infusion. BMW has recently inked a deal that will see its four-cylinder turbocharged engine and additional components included in 2012 production models of the American auto maker's mid-sized sedans. The line of electric cars are currently slated for an early 2013 debut, but we'd sprinkle a cup of salt on that date considering the Karma's long road to launch. Skip on past the break for the company's official eco-meets-luxury handshake announcement.
Undead Labs brings Class3 to (un)life with CryENGINE 3
Following last week's dev diary featuring Undead Labs' art director Doug Williams and his talk on the "heart of horror," the most recent dev diary from the studio shifts in a more technical direction. In particular, executive producer Jeff Strain focuses on the game's engine. Even more particularly, he announces that the tentatively named Class3 will be running on the powerful CryENGINE 3. Of course, the devs over at Undead Labs are quite familiar with the traditions of the internet and anticipate shouts of "pics or it didn't happen" with a lovely screenshot from an early version of the game. But wait, there's more! Call now and you'll receive not just a single screenshot, but an entire video! Just click past the break and check out an early version of Undead Labs' Class3 in action, then skip on over to the dev blog to read the full entry.
PogoPlug Video and Buffalo CloudStor now shipping, streaming your stuff all over the place
Yes, you've seen these guys before, and now the latest PogoPlug offspring are ready to ship. Both PogoPlug Video and its storage-sporting cousin, the Buffalo CloudStor, put their own unique twist on the firm's remote access service. As you might recall, PogoPlug Video, which is now available exclusively from Best Buy for $200, allows you to hook up your external hard drives and share streaming video, music, and images to devices anywhere with internet access. Buffalo's CloudStor, on the other hand, provides the same cloud-based access, with a little something extra. It's the first PogoPlug branded gadget to sport integrated storage, and comes in three iterations, ringing in at $150 for 1TB, $210 for 2TB, and $250 for the 2TB Pro version. Now you can share all your favorite kitten clips, without ever uploading them to YouTube. Isn't that precious?
