Unreal Engine 4
polycounter lvl 19
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/05/ff_unreal4/?pid=2564&fb_source=message&viewall=true
This is what I've been working on for a while now.
This is what I've been working on for a while now.
Replies
Jordan, can you talk at all about features now or is that still taboo?
This is one of the coolest things mentioned at the end of the article:
"
Willard reveals that both the cinematic scene and the following tech demo haven’t been running off a game file but in real time from within UE4′s game editor. It’s like finding out that the actors on TV are actually tiny people living inside your set. It also helps him show that changes can be made to the game’s design and code, recompiled and executed nearly instantly—a technical feat that has been simply unheard-of in game development. And just like that, the silence in the room becomes reverent. The videogame industry has changed.
"
Also... geez, not impressed with Wired's writer. Writes like an uninformed teenager. Surely they should have several specialists working for the magazine, like phone guys, game tech guys, gadget guys... I understand they would have to dumb it down for the audience, but I don't think this is what this is. He doesn't seem to be familiar with game development at all.
Hot-swapping out DLLs at run time isn't a new thing - there are games on the market that already do this. EVE Online does this (along with real-time script editing and parsing) in the MMO space with zero downtime.
I see DoF sorting bug is still there:
If the lighting is what they claim and the power of the new tools and work efficiency what they describe, then my interest has doubly piqued! wicked excited now!
The next gen for me should be about functionality and new possibilities that the 'software/engine' can provide. Not just cranking up numbers because you have more power...
I'm more interested in voxel/fluid simulation, hair rendering etc...
Same here lol...UE4 is gonna be awesome though. I can't wait :poly121:
I also hope with Kismet 2, actual issues or feedback is given to the user and that it's much easier to read in terms of what is clickable and not, or what paramters can be exposed.
Can't say much for the article, I mean it's going through the motions; "Cliff B. is grand, we love consoles, we have awesome engine, NASA and Military guys use it, we think this and that should happen, yadda yadda yadda".
The shift will be from moving particle simulations off the CPU onto the GPU where it belongs (finally!). I'd expect this to be a significant feature of the 'next gen'.
the amount of particles being drawn! wow! or it could be a new tech for materials.
I could be wrong but doesn't Halo 3 or Halo Reach have GPU particles? I believe is very much possible on 360 but a lot harder if not impossible on PS3, hence why you don't see it used in multiplatform games today.
I couldn't say, but I wouldn't have thought so - or at least not in the sense that we should be seeing. Good examples of GPU driven particle systems are stuff like the APEX particles that Nvidia have been showing off for a while now.
Not to put UE4 down at all because I am looking forward to it with a fair amount of excitement but making changes on the fly has been in Unity for ages unless I am misunderstanding what you are saying
Making changes to the actual executable code and/or game script?
:P
ok, I'm sure everyone is aware that certain features of Unreal 4 have been done at one time or another in other engines - so just combine all those engines into one and we've got Unreal 4. Unreal wasn't the first to do normal maps either.
I hope Unreal 4 gets the UDK treatment and is not just a licensee only setup. I also hope we get synced tangents - if Epic does it than hopefully everyone else will to and I can finally start messing with normal maps.
Gears of War's editor was barely useable when that hit PC. UT3's editor was largely stable, but there were still some crash bugs in certain modules that were all too easy to trigger.
I wouldn't say that. Considering they're becoming bigger and bigger seller of engine licenses, they're probably honing their software engineering process so that customers wouldn't have to use unstable software. At least I hope so
Just kidding, I wanted to break ambershee's chain of refuting every positive post about Unreal 4.
I remember about 5 or 6 years ago getting the Gears editor and just how rough that was.
This seems approporiate for all the particles in this article
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That said, I'm relly looking forwards to seeing some new tools. A matinee replacement and new particle authoring tools would be awesome.
Hope theres some nice animation tech/features ironed out
Now I have to go back to a throwback engine that even UE2 would probably laugh at, sigh.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/170524/Epics_Unreal_Engine_4_looks_to_drag_this_industry_into_the_next_generation.php
Again, this is all good stuff, and I really hope all this is true and not PR hot air, but to be a debbie downer, all this stuff can only be VOUCHED for if they're tested by mutiple studios within a time span of few years, across mutiple dev teams.
Not everyone is going to have triple A, senior tech and concept artists who have been using UE based engines for the past 10 years, and are planning to make their 'first' game as a discount rate to test the market.
Let's further drive up the budgets of our games and have more studios shut down due to weak sales.
But hey, you know, graphics.
now that i was getting "good" with unreal 3...
what do you guys think, any chances of udk based on unreal 4?
Well a big reason for budgets being driven up on a lot of titles isn't just the "we need moar polygons" but I know from personal experience a lot of "decision" makers can't do just that. Make a decision. Take this scenario. 2 artists, 2 designers and possibly a lighting artist working on a huge level for 2-3 months. Getting it to alpha like quality and then the creative director changes the story just a bit because that is what he does and boom that level is gone and all that work was for nothing.
Higher ups and guys in management and making decisions need to learn to make decisions and stick to them. The larger ones. Now in games things change. Things change a lot but not having a clear vision from the start and having this oh we'll wing it as we go is just stupid and irresponsible.
Does making a game like Gears/Uncharted/Halo/COD cost a lot more then Angry Birds? Fuck yeah it does. But as someone that has moved 7 times since the spring of 2007 I can honestly say I would still rather work on any of those big titles then a casual game any day of the week. Even with the risks.
Like here, I see a shadow, hidden behind one of the planet things, but none on the ground. Because of this it just looks dated to me in most of these shots, to be honest- except for the Mountains. Those look pretty darn good.
http://www.world-machine.com/
What I read > What I saw.
I love you guys at Epic, you always do top notch stuff, but the information presented in the article far outweighs the images shown for sheer impressiveness. A number of those shots - like the one Joopson posted above - feel unfinished and not even on par with what we've seen in current games.
This is all a comment based on viewing the screenshots alone. As I stated, technology sounds fantastic and I'm really hoping to see visuals that represent them better but right now these screenshots don't scream 'next-generation'.
The aspect of this article that got me the most excited is the claim on shortening iteration times. That, to me, separates a tool set from being 'good' to 'great. I use UDK right now because the time spent compiling and testing is very minimal. If that time is shortened more so, and across multiple disciplines, then fantastic. Hopefully, though, that isn't offset in a negative way by the time spent needed to make the fantastic art/visuals in the first place.
I need more real life info to be really impressed.
Those are nice but are they being rendered in real time in an engine with that kind of visual fidelity and sexiness?
The way the article was written over inflated what was shown. They made it seem as if Epic, and Epic alone is pioneering the next gen front and that Sony and Microsoft dont have teams and studios themselves working on bringing about next gen. It honestly read more as a glowing advertisement from an overzealous fan trying to sell you on Unreal4 than an honest assessment of what was actually show.
I hope the demo they show off at E3 is close to what this author is hyping it up too be, because if it is simply the demo of the screen shots shown I don't think it will have any kind of impact next to games being shown that look far superior. Particles look sweet though.
All i see is what i would call shots from the "Don't use for marketing" bin.
I'd like to see how accurate of water simulation can be achieved now.
Got ya and yeah I'll reserve judgement as well to see it in motion and in my hands.
I have no doubts it will be much more impressive seeing it in motion and interacting with it.
This I am sure is just a sneak of things to come.
Autocon, yeah I am sure you guys at Naughty Dog are pushing for Sony and the next console stuff as well. I am pretty sure all of us Devs know that, but yeah the article does leave much to be desired.
So with that said... Anthony when can I come over to Naughty Dog and have a look around?
I really thought that image with that planet holding device thing was somekind of comparison shot from older engine.
Maybe they're just trolling us and holding the best footage for E3..