GDC: Unreal Engine 3 presentation

Gamersyde has uploaded this video showing the new functionalities added to the Unreal Engine 3.

[C_SoL]

Why does this video take so long to load up? Their video player sucks.

[Fishy Fingers]

Instant for me : )

[C_SoL]

Great vid. That swarm didn't look that great though. But I gotta say, those r the best water effects I've seen & the destuctible effects were real good too.

[Violater]

Maybe one day I will have enough money to own both systems.
As for the engine upgrade I am impressed but will be even more impressed if non Epic studios will reap the same results.

[tgh machines]

For those who are thinking that the game in the video is gears 2, its not.

[socomnick]

yea its not gears 2 but it features the technologies that will be inside of gears 2. Those destructible environments were nice.

[Lord Anubis]

they added some of the tech that Killzone 2 is using.

[phony force slayer]

:)

[Nicosia]

Man it looks freaking awsome! i love the soft body pysics!

[jwatt]

I like the part with all the locust, I can't imagine fighting all of them though.

[Nicosia]

I agee, but would be cool. Just resaw the vid. the part where he shoots at the water and the barrel is thrown... the whole athmosphere looks freaking AWSOME!

[i Shank u]

heck yea. those blobs, especially the mercury-looking blob are amazing. they sure upped this engine alot

[InMyOpinion]

This video just made all other console shoothers look dated. The soft body physics and the part where they showed off the destructible environment were breathtaking.

[nicholascage24]

the 100 enemies that you saw were assigned some Batch AI and didnt look realistic . Those 100 enemies were basically white patch of swarm if you say.If you want 1000 enemies on screen then look at this

http://www.gametrailers.com...

also look at the SDK demo of Getaway from SONY last year

It had 750 enemies on screen.

which part of the DEMO looks as good as Crisis /KZ2?

I am not being fanboyish but just tell me

[SUP3R]

Honestly, the only truly amazing feature was the water physics, it looked great.

[sniddles]

you're funny,

you even say "not being fanboyish". lol..
If you don't like it, you don't have a 360, so it shouldn't even matter then right??

[InMyOpinion]

Haven't seen those types of physics in Killzone 2(soft body, water, lighting, destructible environments). Gears of war has already proven itself as a great game, so most of us know that Gears 2 will be something else. Can't say that about the overhyped Heavenly Sword or the first, also overhyped but better, Killzone. I'm pretty sure Gears of war 2 will be THE shooter of 2008.

[GIJeff]

remember, this will be dumbed down a little for your precious xbox. The PC version will look the best, the next epic ps3 title second, and gow2 third. We should all be happier though, because the most used engine is advancing, weather or not you have the best hardware to use it. :)

PS: umm....the water looked so/so. The ripples were too under-dramatic for the size of the objects interacting. But i guess its better than nothing... I would say uncharted's water looks nicer, so does crysis. But Unreal isn't about water, so it shouldn't matter too much. It will look nice for small puddles. The destructible environments looked pretty, but killzone is doing things like that with much better lighting. I would say the best part of unreal3 engine is the fact that the performance on non specialized PCs is very good with everything it does, as opposed to crysis that looks great, but runs like crap. This new engine version looks to improve graphics by a little, on an already proven engine.

[Jo0j]

1000? that's it?

http://www.gametrailers.com...

Please, in the future, the next time you feel like whipping out your e-penis. Do it in the open zone.

[InMyOpinion]

I'm talking console shooters, not console games in general or PC games. The demo you saw was running on a 360 so I don't see why it has to be dumbed down. Uncharted has some cool water effects and is a great game. I have to say I was a bit disappointed though. My friend bought a PS3 a couple of days ago and also got Uncharted. Again the water looks stunning, especially on the first stage. What isn't that great is the anti-aliasing. There are lots of jaggies in the textures, and the motion blur when you move the camera isn't that appealing. The controls could need some work as well. Aiming the gun felt kinda floaty and not as good as in many other third person shoot/cover games (GoW, RB6, Graw etc). Still a good game, only not as good as I would expect after reading the PS3 fanboys endless praises. If it was a 360 game I would give it 8/10.

[InMyOpinion]

Already been done on the 360 about a year before Heavenly Sword was even thought of. Ever played N3:Ninety Nine Nights?

[Vip3r]

Got to admit that looks cool. Does UT3 have all those feature too?

[C_SoL]

I don't think so....

[tgh machines]

Nope

[X_GAMER_X]

I think Gears will be pretty big this year..just like the first one.
anyone who bought the first one will buy the second i guess..
5 mill is secure and more to come..MS are really good at marketing there own games

[green]

the water effects looked real

[zonetrooper5]

Wow just wow, Gears of War 2 is just gonna rock from them improvements to the engine alone. I love destroying stuff. ^_^

[TheMART]

Holy freakin' hell that's impressive

[sonarus]

i have been banned to the open zone:(. Most impressed by the damage system. Personally i thought the water effects could have been better but if gears 2 can guarantee destructible environments like that I AM SOLD BIG TIME. Great job by epic

[Anything but Cute]

is on PS3. I think they made this engine especially for PS3.

[Mainman]

No, they made this engine especially for all platforms (except the Wii, I guess).

[Variable]

what you saw was running on a Xbox 360 (he says that in de video)

though a PS3 shouldn't have a hard time to run it too, since Epic optimized UE3 for PS3 to run UT3

[Anything but Cute]

nice advancements to the Unreal Engine. I think you can tell from that, that Gears of War 2 is gonna be good.

Soft body enemies can add to the gore and realism factor. And I hope they have a lot of water levels in Gears of War 2, because it looks great.

[Anything but Cute]

Just being mature and giving credit to Gears of War 2.

[Bnet343]

Yes, but you opened up with a stupid ass comment. Seriously take that stuff to the OPEN ZONE.

[socomnick]

you should change your name to anything but smart.

[LosT---SouL]

i love the unnecessary criticism from this site

ftw.

[predator]

looking very good, imagine bein able to use the torque in multiplayer to blow a hole into the floor so the enemy falls into it trying to kill you, possibilties is endless

[mintaro]

is this gonna be implemented in the new gears? cuz if it is.......wow

[sniddles]

since they used gears to display it, and it's already in the code, it'd be a real pisser if they were just teasing us.

I think it's safe to say this was a quick glimpse of the new gears.

[xg-ei8ht]

Looking Nice, for whatever platform.

Water i liked, agree about ppl onscreen, but if they can improve on amount of ppl at same time etc, its not a bad thing is it?

Either way, i liked it.

[solidt12]

Impressive

[OOG FunK]

just leaves me wondering what gears 2 is gonna be like....o the possibilities

[Ri0tSquad]

Was pretty impressive!

[Storm23]

All they did was run straight forward and many got stuck running into the car or whatever it was at the bottom of the screen. There was not any intelligence put there at all. The number was nice but all they were told to do was run forward.

[Dareaver1]

it was just a demonstration of crowd technology, that's it. He didn't say that they were implementing any AI into the demonstration. Stop looking for something to complain about. It was just a demonstration of new tech that's in the Unreal Engine. They weren't demonstrating a fully functional game.

[HarryEtTubMan]

looks great... my most anticipate 360 game

[GETPWNED]

YOU GETTING A 360???? WHAT NOW, I'M GETTING PS3 FOR GOD OF WAR? WAIT, I AM. LOL.

[power of Green]

Looks like Devs are starting to finally understand development with Multi core/thread tech.

[kevoncox]

No if only they learn how to tell a stroy...
Jesus....The setting and enviroment is awesome. Just tell the story and stop making me run around not knowing what the hell is going on. Can i have a flash back please?

Xbox 360 AAAs for 08-
GOWe
NG2
Fable 2

[CaliGamer]

The tech they showed was cool, from a gaming perspective. Nice simulation of different materials and substances.

[MasterChief2829]

Guys, remember that isn't Gears 2, that's Gears 1 in Multiplayer using the updated engine to do all those effects, you can tell that's Gridlock. The new stuff looks great though, the water is really good and finally some good destructible environments!

[TheIneffableBob]

The water looked pretty horrible. Other than that, the rest of the features shown look pretty good. I'm still not a fan of the engine, though.

[TwissT]

The soft body physics are very well done. That gooey square and the mercury looking thing acted so very realistic.

[SIX]

With so many new engines coming out Epic needs to improve the Unreal engine and it looks like they have done so. I don't think they can improve graphics any more and it looks to me like this demo wasn't about graphics but it was more physics and light. Nice job Epic. The future of gaming is looking very bright.

[ps360s]

yeah the new Unreal Engine will be a great addition to next generation games indeed. Got to feel good to be a gamer owning both systems :D

This year is my most anticipated year for games on both system...next week it starts with Lost Oddysee (UK) and after that it be Crisis Core and so on so on...more game for pc/ps3/xbox360 the more better I love it

ermm great games year indeed for me much better then last years!

[Alcaponeyou]

the stone just flew in the water so he has psychic abilities noww????

8D
awesome technology, very impressive.
I didn't like the mass locus(mmmm) they moved like their had down syndrome.

[hotshot127]

i have to say that the water effects looked better then uncharted. uncharted's water effects looked just as good until the part where he was shooting at the water which is when it outdid uncharted's

very nice though. to be honest, gears 2 reminds me of killzone 2 in third person.

both have destructible enviorments.
both have a cover system
both are futuristic
both have excellent graphics.

i have to say that this coupled with ninja gaiden 2 might just buy me a 360...................if the hardware is fixed of course

[Project-X]

Better quality
http://media.xbox360.ign.co...

[EZCheez]

That was my favorite part of the video. I wish all FPS and TPS had destructible environments that looked that good.

The water looked really good too. I'd like to see what it would look like if you shot something in the water and it exploded with those effects.

[ps360s]

yea try out waromonger :D

[Scions Wrath]

If they really fit that many enemies on screen all at once INGAME i swear i will chainsaw my own head off!!!

And to think Unreal Engine 3 is being optimised to take advantage of PS3 tech.

[Alcaponeyou]

ai was half retarded, i would be impressed if the crowded ones started climbing over the environment and what not instead of bumping back and forth til there was an opening.

[mistertwoturbo]

everything is looking pretty good. However I think Star Wars the force Unleashed has better physics as far as destructible environments.

Needless to say it's a good thing Epic is updating they're unreal engine 3 especially for gears 2, seeing as how the way the engine is starting to look outdated.

Looks like the 360 is finally building up a good list of AAA games to compete with the PS3's list.

So they say 2007 was a great year for gaming? Pfft.. 2008 is looking much better already.

[GETPWNED]

LOL. Sony fanboys just got brutally assraped. "GEARS 1 ALREADY USES 100% OF 360 POWERS ZOMG!111!1!"

lol. owned. stupid fanboys. UT3 who? Exactly. Enjoy it while you can =]

[hotshot127]

brutally ass raped. sorry but that would be the 360 fanboys my friend.....all the things that have been happening with the ps3 and thier so called predictions.

obviously gears 2 shoul improve. now how about we wait until we actually see footage of gears 2 instead of a tech demo for the unreal engine(sure some things will be used in gears however)

[iceice123]

Sony fanboys were saying Gears was the most the 360 could handle and Gears 2 would look just like the first. They were even saying it wouldn't be able to handle UT3 as good as the PS3....obviously this just proved them wrong.

[Pain]

CG TECH DEMO.

untill i See ingame its not happing.

[Rice]

more than impressive...

[ngg12345]

so awesome.

[gamesblow]

Of note...

The hordes of onscreen enemies all looked rather tame... They all had the same animations and I noticed a handful who got hung up on objects.

Other than that...

Water looks amazing
destructible environments are just killer
the lighting effects were top notch

All in all... this is a tech demo and, as we've all seen, Tech Demo's are a little more liberal when showcasing off grandiose effects. I've no doubt Gears of War 2 will be special.. but it still isn't selling me on the overall picture of buying faulty hardware to play it.

[phony force slayer]

its a tech demo.its just telling us the engine can actually run these on screen

[Tsukasah]

The part with the meat cube and mercury drop reminded me of Portal for some reason. The floor maybe? The Meat Companion Cube methnkz? This engine has most definitely earned my respect, and I take back everything I said about it. That is... if the texture loading is gone. If Gears 2 looks as good as this video, has all the features in this, and plays as good as it looks, I think it may just be enough reason to get a 360. Anyways, too bad UT3 couldn't have these updates. I'd love to see destructible environments! Maybe a mod could do that....

[fopums]

everything looked good, I dug the meat brick myself lol, but the liquid metal ball I felt was the most impressive. the water was ok, its not revolutionary people, I belive the physics guys working on Tekken 6 said they were going to push limits with water tech but even from the vids I say it just looks alright.

But still, I used to think th UT3 engine was dated, but its certainly a contender again with these nice additions.

[socomnick]

yea because the tekken team has been known to make amazing physics.

[Fishy Fingers]

I take it thats PC? I dont mean the additions, i know they'll be on the 360 but i just mean the actual tech demo.

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

Thats on a 360 son (Yup Yup), check GDC coverage.

[chaosatom333]

if only other companies can use unreal engine like epic can. i think unreal engine has a lot of things going for it still.

[pwnmaster3000]

the water animation is good but uncharted looks alot better,but other then that look sick

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

Hey, what hardware was that running on again? it's slipped my mind XD LOL I want to shoot a box of meat. The water effects are amazing.

[TruthBTold]

Man, every year it just keeps getting better and better, more realistic, more jaw dropping, arent you all happy to be gaming now with all that we're getting. I cant wait to see what they can do with it.

[iceice123]

Water ball (or what ever it would be called?), and the destructible environment the most.

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

And that "Droids" was running on a 360. Now get your ass in the back seat while we drive to Gamer street, watch a movie or somthing. Looks like Epic has helped the 360 1up the PS3, again. I feel that "so called" PS3 08 slipping far far behind.

I wonder if they will use this updated tech in the 360 version of UT3? that would mean that the 360 version would be far superior, in every way.

[pwnmaster3000]

ahh no does it support keyboard and mouse. wow u call that superior in every way

[iceice123]

I've bought the console version, why would I want to use a keyboard/mouse? If you're buying games for your PS3 and using a keyboard/mouse just upgrade your PC instead FFS. 360 version will be superior, get over it.

[pwnmaster3000]

ok says the xbot i know dat the superior one will be pc and they are not using the updated ue3 for ut3 its to late and give me 3 reason why its better and dont give me that it will sell better bull shiit

[Martini]

So far every Unreal powered game runs and looks better on the 360 which btw Epic is very familiar with. What makes you think it will be different this time around ??

[ForTheFallen]

I know I will.
PS3 could do this game hands down. It has nothing to do with hardware and you know it. Your some stupid fanboy claiming victory of a dying console.

Fun.

Anyway, the game looks fantastic...makes me anticpate it for PC.

[gameraxis]

I agree with nikcage24 (post 3.1) i was thinking the same thing. Some of the battles in Heavenly Sword have twice as many characters each doing their own fightstyle and reacting to the player at that. Not to take away from gears i love the game, but in terms of seeing something new (with that epic video) i think its been done before. Theres actually alot of impressive aspects of HS but the game didn't seem to get that well recieved.(no research involved just my take on things)

Go PS3, Go X360, united Gamers Stand!! ( in a perfect world)

And for those of u who are already saying OHHHHH he put PS3 before X360...

Go X360, Go PS3

[candystop]

How I wish some of you would quit bringng up that crappy game Heavenly Sword which offers nothing amazing to this generation! Heck Kameo had tons of creatures on the sceen at once but who cares! This is about gears 2 and Heavenly sword doesn't deserve any kind of credit since it was pretty much a flop anyway!!

[kewlkat007]

this game might have the Saved Video feature from Halo 3?

What a surprise that would be.

I think this is a trend that should now be standard in competition games..

remember I said it here FIRST.

[iceice123]

Hell even Ninja Gaiden 2 is having it, I didn't expect that at all. Would be great if it were a standard for such big games from now on.

[m9105826]

This renews my faith in UE3. I can't wait to get my hands on these upgrades. The water looks great, realtime reflection like in Uncharted would be nice, but they're still using env- and spec-maps. Also, he didn't mention it, but they've done HUGE work on their parallax occlusion mapping algorithm.

[Martini]

Glad to know the 360 is the preferred platform for Unreal Engine development as demonstrated in this demo :)

Now watch Epic stretch their muscle and blow everything out of the water when gears 2 is released - they did it before and they shall do it again :)

I think that gears might be on the way to become the "Halo" of this generation.

[robbo918]

"Glad to know the 360 is the preferred platform for Unreal Engine development as demonstrated in this demo :)"

Show me proof of that statement or were you just trying to be funny. The developers are very interested in PS3, its been in several articles. Its on the X360 because its a prelude to Gears of War 2 which MS bought as an exclusive. I think that Epic and MS have been a great team but they have made statements about working with Sony also and what they think the PS3 can do, and no I am not saying Epic is leaving MS for Sony, I am saying that Epic is realizing that making games for more than just one console might have advantages for them. Of course MS might just buy them out like the rumor said too lol.

I do fully agree with you that Gears will likely be the new Halo, and in my opinion Gears is better but that's just my opinion.

[Martini]

Gears 2 on 360 will raise the bar again. There's going to be a lot of ps fanboys green with envy comes november :)

[thepriest]

Your talking sense. I can't wait. Agreed & Bubble

[pwnmaster3000]

because epic was hella praising the ps3 and gears aint gonna do shiit ps fanboy is not a bit nervious for dis game cmon we got so many heavy hitter 360 cant dent the ps3

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

What?

[phony force slayer]

r u ?

[pwnmaster3000]

no i just like ps3 better because it has better game and better hardware, free online and doesnt die like my 360
ps3 is just better. ill admit 360 has more jrpg then ps3, but they never sell

[DJ]

But the locust horde did not look promising. They were all running the same animation, and only had basic AI (if that) applied to them. Useful for ambient crowds, but not up close battle. Looks like devs using Unreal Engine 3 will get a nice boost in performance though.

I want to see direct feed footage of the ambient occlusion at work.

[Daz]

Do you think there just showing the tech off?

The getway TECH video they only walked and was all the same animation. but it was impressive anyway.

Im gald they can have more locust now, then about 5 or 6.

[Uchiha Madara]

I think ps3 has some advantages for 3d photorealistic engine. as we can see in Uncharted and Killzone 2, oh maybe u wanna se GT 5 screenshot? it has the best lightning system even quad core with high end GPU cannot do the smae proccess.

So i suggest Epic to give more time developing in Cell and RSX,i think the result must be spectacular

[sniddles]

ok, yeah, we all know,

it would have been better, even if everything was the exact same, if it was shown on a PS3 right?

UE3 optimized for PS3 doesn't mean they make things better for PS3, it means they optimize the engine to get it to run as well. How quickly everyone forgets all the trouble EVERYONE had, including EPIC, getting UE3 to just run on PS3.

This was impressive. Gears of War 2 will be impressive. Gears 1 is probably my favorite game so far. I really can't wait.. This was a 360 in the demonstration, and it looks very promising.

Why do you have to bring up games on another platform in completely different genres?? It brings nothing constructive to the conversation. Just give props where props are due...

[ohhthegore]

Looks like I'll have to borrow my friends 360 to play this game

[AliC]

Was an interesting watch, it was however spoiled by the whole kissing of Microsoft's backside at the end that irritated me.

UTIII Engine runs just as good on PS3 as it does on the Xbox 360, there was no reason to drop such a comment as it only leads to fanboyism.

[Daxx]

Lol, the meat cube. :P

[Cynical-Gamerzus]

Hmm looking at the Uncharted and Heavenly Sword engine ,I start to think hmm this Unreal Engine is pretty dated stuff..Better suited on a PC..

[Solotov]

meat cube rulz!!!

[Dacapn]

Yeah nothing really impressed me that much in the vid. 100 enemies on screen at once is nice, but heavenly sword has already done 1000 enemies on screen at once :/

Water is nice. Bioshock and Uncharted have better water.

Even tho Gears, UT3, and Gears 2 are each spaced a year apart, all the games pretty much look the same (with minor improvemtents to the engine in each). They shoulda scrapped the name Gears of War and just called it Unreal Adventure to end the confustion. Either way I expect the PC version to snuff the 360 version again. This graphical achievement was awesome 2 years ago and maybe even last year, but in 08 there are a lotta games coming out that'll trump it.

[Salvadore]

I have to say, this is very impressive and I do hope all developers utilizing the engine take advantage of all the features showcased.

[madestar]

360 is a waste of my time and money

[sniddles]

imagine the possibilities if i didn't stay up until 3 a.m. playin teh haloz, and ME, etc. etc...

I'd probably have my doctorate by now... heh
Long live 360, the most fun i've had on a game console. I'm glad MS gave us something to be excited about with all the positive Sony news lately.

It's gonna be even more interesting than last year i bet.... Good competition means we all win..

[Equinoxe_7]

epic come to daddy (playstation 3) cool new engine you have, would like to see another game with your new engine, not af 3 fps

[kalle]

Hahahaha lol lol lol hahahaha.

"3.1 - are u dreaming or something
the 100 enemies that you saw were assigned some Batch AI and didnt look realistic . Those 100 enemies were basically white patch of swarm if you say.If you want 1000 enemies on screen then look at this
http://www.gametrailers.com...
also look at the SDK demo of Getaway from SONY last year
It had 750 enemies on screen.
which part of the DEMO looks as good as Crisis /KZ2?
I am not being fanboyish but just tell me"

Not even near 1000 enemies at the same time, your eyes must be very bad.
All the demo looks far better than KZ2 and crysis.
Not a fanboy? hahaha you talk sh!t about a 360 game and compare it with PS3 games, ofcourse your a fanboy.

[Raptors]

I dunno about you guys but i feel pretty damn good owning both the 360 and a ps3. 2008 is going to be fantastic for gaming.

[RAM MAGNUMS]

We all love tech demos, the only demo that surprised me was the force unleashed video. I am sacrificing gears of war 2 in high hopes that one day it will be on a ps3. I used to be a former xbot and gears was great until I got red ringed and traded everything for a ps3. A few things about gears piised me of though and that was host advantage and non-stop glitching. It got so bad I would hear everyone saying things like" Once I finish this glitch I can get some kills" and " I cant get my glitch to work, Now im gonna get killed" pathetic! gears of war is unplayable online unless you play straight up with the same guys forever. So I hope people dont have multiple xboxes and decide to get a ps3 so microsoft wont have customer support and sony can get these games. Because of the games xbox has customer support but when things go wrong wheres the customer service? PS3 gamers demand more from sony! Buy ps 3 games and show some love! Most importantly buy a headset! MAGNUM-RAM HAS SPOKEN...

[IQUITN4G]

The unreal engine has always been impressive so long as you never threw too much at it - turns to crap.This new improved engine however looks far more like what i expected from next gen.

I think as a story both Halo and Gears have a more convincing setting.Sure Gears is a bit corny and maybe for bias reasons you refuse to see anything good in the Halo franchise, but like it or not they're both more believable if viewed as purely story alone.Resistance has a story that for the sake of it seems altogether forced and although Killzone is beautifully gritty, it's story is not something i can really imagine.

I'm mostly a Halo fan but i can far more imagine Gears happening in some real form.I like to believe that too of Halo as i adore it's universe but although it's real to me, it's just nonsense.Resistance is however just crap as a story regarding how believable it is and Killzone has me not caring much for it even though i did very much enjoy the rather rough PS2 version.

I know which out of all of these i'd prefer made into a film

[jinn]

its showtime