Unreal 4 Engine - Game Informer details

[solidsnakejej]

Will be shown on GTTV next Thursday not sure if it'll be shown before then.
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/ep...0-gt-tv/730833

Details from Game Informer Article

•Epic talked with hardware manufacturers like Intel,AMD,Nvidia and qualcomm to workout a tech road map.
•the demo GI saw was running on a single Nvidia GeForce GTX 680
•New image based Lens Flare tech,occurs dynamically.
•UE4 capable of producing one million particles at once with no hit to game peformance.
•planning to release UE4 dev kit soon
•Epic wants "to empower game designers,to take charge of as much of the game production process as possible"
•"Next gen will be about alot of things besides just next-gen graphics performance"
•UE4 being designed for a decade that starts with the advent of next gen consoles

•entire creation process streamlined,Designers can edit and recompile source code without leaving the editor,take control of the game anytime they want.

•"new interface empowers designers to tweak basic programming without having to call over a programmer,Tech artists will be able to create complex assets and programmers can expose certain values for designers as needed to give them access to simple tweaks"

[Segitz]

I never understood the "sense" of lense flare... it was cool in the 90s, when PCs were fucking slow compared to now... but it's "wrong". I mean, at least in fps (where it's most prominent). The "player", or the eyes of the player, don't have lense flare. Cameras do. Hence it's called lense flare. Even I, as a guy with glasses don't have it.

Not that it puts me off, or distracts me... it just "feels" wrong to me.

And particles is good, though the promise of "no hit on perfomance" is just a simple lie.

[solidsnakejej]

And particles is good, though the promise of "no hit on perfomance" is just a simple lie.

Yea, I'm wondering if there was a qualifier for that in the magazine.

[Crazybone126]

What game is that in the GIF? Is that Overlord? I really like that series.

[solidsnakejej]

What game is that in the GIF? Is that Overlord? I really like that series.

I think it's their UE4 Demo, I don't think it's a particular game.

[Crazybone126]

Well, it needs to be Overlord then haha.

[venomv]

I never understood the "sense" of lense flare... it was cool in the 90s, when PCs were fucking slow compared to now... but it's "wrong". I mean, at least in fps (where it's most prominent). The "player", or the eyes of the player, don't have lense flare. Cameras do. Hence it's called lense flare. Even I, as a guy with glasses don't have it.

Not that it puts me off, or distracts me... it just "feels" wrong to me.

And particles is good, though the promise of "no hit on perfomance" is just a simple lie.

Those have always been my thoughts on it, too. I find it very annoying. It actually makes more sense in third person games (the over the shoulder variety) because they look as if someone could be behind the character with a camera.

[GTAce]

I never understood the "sense" of lense flare... it was cool in the 90s, when PCs were fucking slow compared to now... but it's "wrong". I mean, at least in fps (where it's most prominent). The "player", or the eyes of the player, don't have lense flare. Cameras do. Hence it's called lense flare. Even I, as a guy with glasses don't have it.

Not that it puts me off, or distracts me... it just "feels" wrong to me.

And particles is good, though the promise of "no hit on perfomance" is just a simple lie.

I love it when it's done like in GT5 or BF3, but I hate it when it looks like from a camera with "bubbles" too.

[solidsnakejej]

Videos coming up:
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/ex...-engine/731875
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/ex...-engine/731871

[Segitz]

Not bad... from a tech standpoint.

[masteratt]

Not bad... from a tech standpoint.

Duh, what other standpoint were you looking at it from? It's a tech demo


Not bad a bit harsh, I really liked it. Lot of dynamic calculations as I was crying for so even though I am not really big on tech of games (my least cared about part of a game), I sill found the demo to be very pleasing.

Actually I should say 'graphics' least cared about, of course I care about the tech. Just this demo seems mostly graphics based.

[Segitz]

Well... game designer maybe? I mean "rendering tech"... not the other crap :P

[Luis]

For some reason, I'm not impressed. I realise it's a big step forward in real time graphics, but I want to know how gameplay benefits from that graphical tech.

[Newboi]

To be honest, after seeing there Samaritan demo and what the LucasArts team has been able to do with Star war, it's harder for me to be impressed by the UE4 tech demo because it's not a clear step above what was shown in UE3.9 or the Luminous Engine tech demo (the particles are definitely a clear step up though).

Edit: Nevermind, after watching the dev walkthrough, I'm wholey impressed about what this engine is capable of lol.

[Segitz]

Well... the biggest things in there are a) the GI renderer (full deferred, no less), meaning real time light bounce and b) the particle renderer. Both of which haven't really be seen yet... both are available in some form or another already (Cryengine 3 already has a GI renderer like this)...

Some things, like online recompilation is awesome for programmers, though. I've not used it really yet, but Java can do it "natively" to a degree. Usually this would mean (although I am still quite a noob concerning "high end programming techniques") reloading your binaries for every change...

[Newboi]

I wonder how much time and money this engine would save? I'm not sure how much time in industry level game development is dedicated to content/asset creation versus programming and design iteration? I'm also not sure how much or even if this engine helps simplify and speed up the content/asset creation process side.

I do see lots of gameplay and immersion possibilities with an engine that dynamically generates such beautiful effects in realtime (the physics detail is greatly enhanced as well). I mostly relate the possibilities with this, many of the blockbuster and standout games of this generation like Uncharted, Heavy Rain, Demon's Souls, Gears, etc. were completely possible (at least mechanics wise) on the previous generation hardware; but I think the level of fidelity allotted to these games allowed them to present their mechanics to us within an immersive package that generated an experience that would have been massively lessened due to the hardware constraints of the previous generation.

I also think that each generation and the hardware jump that come along with them allows for unique scenarios that just wouldn't be possible without the hardware power given at that time.