Posts Tagged ‘unreal engine 3’
Unreal 3 Development Kit launches
Epic Games has launched a free edition of their massively popular Unreal Engine 3, called Unreal Development Kit. The kit includes access to the Unreal Engine 3, the Unreal Editor, which comes with a whole suite of development tools, and the ability to distribute games on their own, for free, with no additional software required.
Obviously, it’s only intended for games that are free, similarly to mods, since the “real” Unreal Engine 3 costs upwards of $900,000 for a commercial license.
You can find the Unreal Development Kit at www.udk.com, and where you can already download games build with the new kit.
Global Agenda closed beta underway
Looks like the sci-fi third-person-shooter MMO Global Agenda has finally reached its closed beta stage, having sent invites out for everyone whose registrations were accepted.
If you haven’t already registered and are interested, just head over to the official website and put in a few computer specs and contact information, and voila, you’re done. Mind you, the system requirements for the game are pretty hefty.
No release date is planned for the game, but the developers are hoping to launch it before the end of the year.
via BluesNews
Unreal Tournament now on hiatus
Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney announced that they will not be developing a new Unreal Tournament game for a very long time, making Unreal Tournament 3 the last memory we’ll have of the series for several years.
“Unreal Tournament is certainly a major long-term priority but we’re planning not to release a major retail game in the series for several years,” Sweeney said. “So we have that effort somewhat on hold while we work on a few other initiatives.”
Sweeney also mentioned that Epic will continue to support the creation of third party mods in the long run, saying that Epic will “open up the engine to more people to use freely and use cool stuff.”
Read (BigDownload)
Natal demo games based on Unreal Engine 3
If you followed this year’s E3 you may remember the live demonstration of Microsoft’s Project Natal where two different game demos entitled Paint Party and Richocet, were showcased. If you’ve seen said demos you were sure to have noticed that they featured some rather impressive physics.
Those impressive physics could be attributed to none other than Unreal Engine 3. This realization was made known during an OXM interview with Epic’s Mark Rein.
Sure, it proves that Unreal Engine 3’s capabilites are still prevalent years after it was released but the real gem here is that current game engines could in fact support the new motion control technology. This inevitably means that game developers will be able to create immersive Project Natal games without much difficulty.
Videos of the Paint Party and Richochet demonstration from E3 ‘09 included after the break.
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Red Orchestra: Heroes of Stalingrad unveiled
The sequel to Tripwire Interactive’s Red Orchestra, Red Orchestra: Heroes of Stalingrad, has been unveiled, albeit a bit unexpectedly, according to the developer.
The game was meant to be unveiled in an article in PC Gamer magazine, however, the publisher unveiled the details earlier than the developer expected, leading to some confusion (and a lot of PR work).
The only piece of information released is that the new game will be build using the Unreal Engine 3, which is always a safe bet when it comes to game development.
Unreal Engine 3 getting MMO features
Epic’s Unreal Engine 3, the de-facto standard for the current generation of pretty titles (like Gears of War, Unreal Tournament 3, Mirror’s Edge etc.), is getting an addition of MMO features.
The new version of the engine will be getting a full MMO dev suite, including scalable statistics, data management backend and a content browser. More details about the new features will be detailed at GDC, where another heavyweight engine will be showcased, CryTek’s CryEngine 3, which also features MMO functionalities.
Unreal Engine 3 Not to Blame for Midway’s Problems
While it may be cool and hip to put all the blame on Epic’s Unreal Engine, the company’s middleware tool is not the one which can be implicated in Midway’s rapid decline, with Ben Fritz of Variety clarifying his original story, stressing that the engine itself is not at fault.
“To be direct: my sources are not saying Unreal Engine, and Epic Games, are the cause of its problems,” Fritz wrote. “Rather it’s the decision by Midway to use UE3 for all its games, and subsequent problems adapting the code, which caused game delays and then cash flow problems.”
This move was taken by the publisher as a cost-cutting measure. Midway had wanted its studios to share resources more efficiently, but instead individual projects demanded adapting the engine to their specific needs.
This caused a problem for Midway as the projects got delayed due to complexity in coding. So, Midway pushed out games in a desperate bid for revenue, but that plan didn’t go so well either.
Dyack on Epic Fight
With the release of Too Human this week, Silicon Knights president and founder Denis Dyack commented on the studio’s legal battle with Epic Games, the creator of the Unreal Engine which the studio used to power their latest project.
“The trial is proceeding,” Dyack said. “We feel really good about our claims, and we’re hopeful that justice will be done. We all feel really strongly that they have defrauded us, and a major portion of the industry.”
The dispute is centered around the studio’s claim that Epic did not deliver promised features in Unreal Engine 3 in order to focus on its own UE3 project – Gears of War.
“The Too Human you see today only really started development when [Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes] was completed,” noted Dyack. “So it’s been a four-year development cycle and it would have been out even quicker, but we had to re-write the engine because of all the Epic stuff.”
GDC: Features Of Next Unreal Engine 3 Version Revealed
During Microsoft’s GDC press conference, Epic took the time to show off some features of a new version of their Unreal Engine 3. For those of you who don’t know the engine used in Gears of War as well as pretty much ever FPS running on Xbox 360. Undoubtedly, the new Gears of War game, set to release in November, will take full advantage of these features. To summarize, the update will basically add realistic interaction to environment and character models. A full list of known features after the jump.