Epic Games Teasing the ‘Next-Generation’ of Graphics for GDC

It’s long been argued that while Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3 is a versatile videogame platform, many developers are finding it difficult to further draw an improved graphical standard from the platform. Indeed, it appears at present that only Epic Games themselves are able to continually improve upon that which has already been achieved, with the forthcoming Gears of War 3 looking to be a significant step ahead of Gears of War 2, despite both being developed with Unreal Engine 3. However, that may be about to change, as some of the most well known personalities from Epic Games have begun touting the ‘next generation’ of graphics.

[sjaakiejj]

If this is referring to the new generation of hardware, then: About fucking time.

Will be looking forward to this presentation though.

Edit:
“To reiterate - our GDC booth will show Epic's proposal of what the next generation will be.” Offered Bleszinski on his personal Twitter account, continuing: “Graphics aren't good enough yet, dammit.”

Great stuff :D

[xTruthx]

"I just don't understand why I can't go into the comments of ANY articles on n4g without seeing at least several idiots talking about how great they think ps3 is"

I just think your in denial lol

-Free Movies
-Free TV Shows
-Free Anime
-Free Mangas
-Free Live Streams
-Free Online
-Most exclusives(With dedicated servers)
-New IP's
-Games keep improving graphically
-Home; where you meet other gamers who are playing the games you like
-Helps Cancer research with PS Home

If that isn't what a real gamer wants, I don't know what is.

[hassi94]

Just proved his point.

Come on guys, you should realise that PS3 is God's gift to the world, Jesus was nothing in comparison.

[vishant101]

if you check exclusives list the wii has the most if your talking bout highest rated exclusives that goes to the xbox i dont know where you people get your facts from

[dragonelite]

Probably something they think next gen console can do but using pc maybe we get to see Gears 3 brute forced on pc 1080p with some AA and some nice amount of AF.

Believe it or not Image quality was probably better begin this gen then now because of the last gen mentally and they had resources over for AA and AF now its all about the shader effects.

[D3athc3ll]

Alot of console games got AA and AF! yes not 8x or 16x but 2x - 4x! And 720p is HD, so with 2x AA a game can still look amazing!

What u gonna tell me Avatar movie on dvd looks shit in terms of special Effects, just cause it aint 1080p???

Grow EYES

[KRATOS-PS3]

Well, if it's not the Unreal Engine 4 then it is just another updated UE3. That doesn't mean it can't look very good as well. If Cliffy wants to see the next-Gen of graphics he should pre-order Killzone 3.

[Thrillhouse]

If Cliffy wants to see the next-Gen of graphics he should pre-order Crysis 2 on PC*

[D3athc3ll]

Crysis 2 looks amazing yes, even the beta version! But you cant say Killzone 3 is not amazing looking! Cause it is!!! There's only a few pc games looking better than Killzone 3, and its called Crysis only!

FFS people need better eyes these days!

You pc fanboys cant take it that a 76 year old hardware machine outdo your latest pc machine, which cost u about $70 000

Funny how such old hardware r still capable of delivering pure eyecandy!!!!

[dragonelite]

WTF killzone 3 is far from next gen.
720p no MSAA only post filter stuff.
But its still a good looking game for consoles.
Hell i hop crysis 2 very high on pc is like a nice view of what next gen can bring.

[a_bro]

"no MSAA only post filter stuff."

It doesnt need it. it has something else(MLAA), which is why its very sharp and clean to look at and what most devs should look at for the future. In my opinion, its great for consoles. not for PC though.

[dragonelite]

What mlaa has a lot of shortcomings its a nice simple solution because deferred render engines wont make good use of MSAA. Because of the old hardware not supporting a more flexible programmable renderpipeline. With a bit off luck nvidea SPRAA can produce better result because it uses some of the sub pixel data if im not mistaken.

[BlackKnight]

@dragonelite

MSAA is only an issue with deferred rendering in DX9 (PS3/Xbox360). DX10/11 have no issue and MLAA and Nvidia's possible SRAA are some what pointless, though I still think the more AA options the better.

[D3athc3ll]

@draonelite!

Plz i dont want next gen to look like Crysis 2, oh plz! Its not that big a jump from current ps3 games! I mean the consoles can handle medium settings fine, so id hope next-gen delivers more!

But then again, the next ps or xbox will crush Crysis 2 like they did with Half-Life 2 and the rest!

Half-Life 2 still my best game of all time though!!!

[hassi94]

You know a game is next gen when it doesn't use current-gen graphical effects such as real anti-aliasing.

Not slagging off the game, it's an amazing looking game. But by no means is it 'next gen'.

[Trevonn]

please be unreal engine 4 cause im sick of games using that turd that should not be named (unreal engine 3)

[TROLOLOLOL]

looks at Mass Effect2, bioshock and Gears... nope i see no turds here :)

[AKS]

Mirror's Edge is another game that used the Unreal Engine, and it looked especially gorgeous on PC. The UE3 can look unique if the developer decides to use creativity and good art direction.

[TROLOLOLOL]

for a second there i thought it was run on frostbite. ohwell. it did look so clean and beautifull

[Trevonn]

graphics wise yes and if it does look good its a heavily modified version anyways compared to more recent engines ue3 is a turd

[sjaakiejj]

Mass Effect 2 didn't look all that impressive to me (Good, but not as good as my PC can handle), Bioshock ran on a heavily modified version of the Unreal Engine, and Gears of War 1 & 2, like Killzone, offer a very limited colour palette.

Unreal Engine 4 should be able to show something that looks significantly better than Killzone 3, and even Crysis 2 and Rage

... But we'll find out next week.

[AKS]

@sjaakiejj

Those are some pretty lofty expectations. I wouldn't count on them showing up Crytek or id.

[sjaakiejj]

@AKS:

If this is a next-generation engine, you better expect it to look better than Crysis 2. If it didn't, it wouldn't be much of a next-generation engine.

[dragonelite]

Bad devs make bad looking game.
A engine is not what makes the artstyle of a game.

[Bloodyghost]

PLEASE BE AN INDICATION WE ARE CLOSE TO A NEW GENERATION!

Announce a new console at E3 then you deserve my money.

[Shaman]

Agreed.After playing Crysis 2 for a short period of time on not even highest settings but 1080p I would be very happy if new consoles were to be announced in say 2012 E3.

[Bloodyghost]

Exactly plus the software is there. I was imagining yesterday what it would look like and I got very hyped.

Also i do not know why people are disagreeing. I mean its a win-win.

If you love your PS3 then stay with it but others will certainly pay more for a PS4.

[NiKK_419]

yea but i don't think they will be announced this year (maybe a wii 2) but like shaman said they will probably be announced next year e3 (at least one of them will be)

[Raendom]

If the handheld does basically this-gen tech, cannot wait to see what full on next-gen hardware will do.

[plb]

They can't match it. Plus its low Res screen. Also anyone thinking epic games are announcing new consoles is just crazy...that is for Ms/Sony to do.

[Bloodyghost]

Agree, but wait till the NGP later in its lifespan and I could see a game that looks like Uncharted 2.

Also I think PC gaming is out running consoles so Epic rather upgrade UE3, which it did, for this generation and work on UE4 on the mean time.

Its not going to announce new consoles but it shows Epic are pretty much done with a new engine, which opens doors to what others are doing.

[jony_dols]

Since when did a 720p OLED 5-inch screen become low res?

720p films on my Samsung Galaxy S AMOLED's screen looks sharper than 1080p blu-rays on my home TV.

And have you not seen the pre-alpha NGP demos?
The unfinished graphics of NGP launch demos such as Uncharted far outstrip the 360's equivilant polished launch titles (remember King Kong, COD2, The Outfit ect? They wern't exactly pretty).

So yes, I'm pretty sure it's fair to say that it comes close to matching the current gen. When you take into account it isn't even finished yet

[NiKK_419]

yea and galaxy s' screen is lower res than the ngp, too. it's not 720p but, it will look even better because it has a high dpi, plus it's a nice oled, it's gonna look amazing

[plb]

Same thing was said right before ue3 was announced lol. I remember the trailers and such for it and everyone was omg than actual footage was shown and just meh.

[OGharryjoysticks]

Reading the above comments about people hoping for a new generation of consoles being released, you can tell they don't own a PS3. And if I only owned a 360 or a Wii or both I would be saying I hope it's for a new generation of hardware as well because it must get lonely watching PS3 exclusives be the only games pushing the graphical bar. But since I own a PS3 and Killzone 3 is due out in days I can feast my eyes on that plus the other first/second party games due later so it keeps looking sunny over here =)

[king dong]

strange comment..

coz i have a pswii60, and i would be laying down my money for a new console day one!

kz3 is hopefully in the post, and yes it does look beautiful, but that is the pinnacle of this gen imo.

why is it that n4g dwellers assume that everyone who has a ps3 should be content for another 4-5 years??

i dont get the people that post on here.

[OGharryjoysticks]

Killzone 3 won't be the pinnacle of PS3 graphics. It won't even be the best first/second party graphics on PS3 this year. And that's my point...

[Objective]

@ king dong

Yeah I wish people here would stop exaggerating too. I own both consoles (even had a Wii for a while) and no, the difference in graphical abilities is not wide. Some PS3 exclusives show that the developers put in a lot of effort into graphics, but for the most part, multiplatforms (and there are many beautiful looking ones out there) prove that the difference between consoles is marginal.

KZ3 is slightly better than KZ2. Gears 3 will be slightly better than Gears 2. Realistically, we won't be seeing a significant leap in graphics for consoles anymore, so it is about time to welcome next gen.

[TABSF]

I would like to see a new generation of consoles.

The PC was decimating the PS3 and 360 in 2007 and with many multiplats looking better than the best 1st party exclusives.

Hell by the time Kal-El (Q3 2011) and Wayne (Q1 2012) come out Tablets and Superphones will have better visuals than PS3 and 360.

[jimbone79]

You can tell from the comments the people who only have a PS3 from the stupid shit the write like Ogarry up there. I have all the current gen consoles as well, and I would get a new console if it dropped today. I think you are the blind one, the difference in graphic the PS3 and 360 put out are not nearly as big as the people on this site try to convince themselves they are. You would know that if you had both.

[ULTIMATE_REVENGE]

Nothing on this gen of consoles wows me any more. Everything either looks the same, or one game will look slightly better than the other, KZ2 looked great in 09 but the fact that KZ3 only looks slightly better than KZ2 shows to me that either GG engine sucks or the PS3 can't do any more.

I personally blame the devs because iF2 looks so much better than iF1, yet according to what I've played KZ3 looks slightly better than KZ2. KZ3's sharper textures are barely noticeable and the fire and particle effects are almost exactly the same, the animations are sub-par and voice acting's terrible.

I'll be glad if they announced new consoles this E3.

[DigitalAnalog]

But the single-player demo I've played looks exactly like the pre-alpha footage they revealed last E3. Animations and Graphics are completely different from what I've seen at the IGN and other video reviews.

-End of Line

[ULTIMATE_REVENGE]

I've also seen the final build and i've seen the ending as well, the animations are exactly the beta version and the final version.

I don't hate the PS3 since it is the console I own, but I'm seriously more interested in Crysis 2 than KZ3 for many reasons.

[RevXM]

New gen of consoles... IM ready!
Lets hear it Sony and Microsoft.

UE4 should be interesting.
Now I feel the urge to go play the original Unreal again.
Epic should try make something like it with their new engine(If that's what they will show us).

[Bull5hifT]

They sorta need to stop worrying about technology for a bit and try to squeeze every ounce possible out of whats currently available, i see the rage engine on the itouch or that EPIC ciradel and it looks like almost 360 graffix, so technically the ps3 n 360 should be way more amazing than that... Thing i sorta love about sony is there HardWare is always weird for tech people to rate its possibilities, so forcing developers to start from scratch pushes things to new boundries where they might have been overlooked in normal drag n drop programs done on PC and just handed down to 360

[Bull5hifT]

I personally was amazed when i first saw gta on ps2, then i saw driver3 and then Scarface... And i was like wow....then look at God of War on ps2 and how the Hd versions hold up next to this gen's games.... Even though i bought my ps3 at launch i still feel its too early to jump on something new , eapecially when only a handfull of developers have hit these system limits... Uncharted3, Killzone3, Infamous3, Crysis 2, Gears of War 3, Halo reach( i think).

[TABSF]

Latest Unreal Engine
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

CryEngine 3
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Crytek was doing what Epic are doing in 2007 and we are yet to see Epic to release a game with this build.

CryEngine 2 > Unreal Engine
2007 4 years before 2011

[Inside_out]

.
I hope this means that M$ will FINALLY agree to move onto a new console. It seems Sony lost so much money on the ps3 that they want to keep selling it for another 5 years to try to get some of the losses off the books....M$ doesn't have that problem as they have made money on 360 since year 2...RROD aside that is. Sony only started to make money on the slim model and not much at that...$15-17...O_o...big mistake if M$ doesn't come out first. If they are first, Gears and Halo on launch day with unimaginable graphics...Lol

Epic had already said that Gears 2 was suppose to be the last Gears game this gen...UNTIL M$ backed up the brinks truck to Epic studio for part 3...ahhhh yes, Gears Of war, the game that started it all. I haven't seen a game that can still do what this " launch title " did back in 2006...

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Did you see how the locust horde are decimated by the shot gun blast...lol...blood, cuts and fleshy bits flying everywhere including dripping on the screen...WoW. Did you see tha weapon with a chainsaw attached to it, how it chainsaws enemies in half. The fantastic soundtrack and weapons noises. Even reloading a gun in Gears is a mini game...pay attention at the top of the right hand side of the screen for the double click right bumper increased damage goodness. Notice how Marcus dives into cover, smoke and dust coming off him and the walls. None of this would matter if the enemies just sit around waiting to get killed...luckily, they don't like getting rushed and are happy to do battle. Speaking of enemies, some of the best, most detailed looking enemies ever. Gears 2 only improved on everything and now Gears 3 is once again about to drop a chainsaw melee on the competition...no surprise....

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Single-player, 4 player co-op, Horde mode, and dedicated server multi-player, NEW enemies, NEW weapons, NEW melee, NEW horde mode...NEW EVERYTHING...that's how you push the envelope...all in real time and all on a little DvD.

So what game out there can compete with this??? I spent HOURS playing through the Multi-player/Single player of the Killzone 3 demo's...lol...where is it exactly that KZ is the future??? Is it the 720p/30fps??? Maybe it's the fancy schmancy atmospheric effects ( smoke, explosives..etc ) rendered at an impressive 640x360 rez...O_o...Maybe it's the 32 Gb's of cut scenes??? Impressive, but you don't play cut scenes. I guess since it's the future, all cut scenes with stutter with strange audio drops and animations will be the norm.

I like KZ but please stop saying it's some type of technological marvel...lol...it's a step above average, but far behind the leaders in that genre.

Crysis 2, Battlefield 3, Gears 3, and Rage are all pushing the envelope.

Unreal 3...

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

@tab..I agree that Crysis 2 has increased the expectations for a console game. It does look very impressive in places. Crytek have been thumping their chests recently about Kingdoms...wait and see I guess. Dice and their modified console engine will also raise the bar. Still waiting to see how Rage will look like on consoles...so far the only guys running 60 fps on consoles.

As for PC comparisons...they are useless. There are NO 2 pc's the same making it a non factor. ANYBODY can use the latest hardware and claim they are better because nobody else has the same hardware...O_o

[Roozium]

Killzone 3 isn't the "next generation" of graphics! Crysis was the next generation back in 2007 and it's still the prime example what a PC game should look like. Consoles = outdated.

[D3athc3ll]

and playstation 2 still delivered Shadow of the Col. and it still looks fine today!

PC couldnt deliver something better than Crysis for about 4 years now!

PC outdated, since Crysis still the best graphics on pc

Console delivering better looking games each and every year!

GG I WIN

[wissam]

Maybe it will come close to uncharted engine now.lol.

[Kalipekona]

lol indeed. The only thing Uncharted had going for it over Gears of War was the real-time lighting engine that Gears or War lacked. Gears always did have the better texture resolution, though (Uncharted has nice textures too, but not quite as high resolution on average). Now that Gears 3 has a fully dynamic real-time lighting engine (as well as other improvements to the engine) the last piece of the puzzle has fallen into place and Gears 3 will easily be one of the best looking games on consoles.

[bozebo]

The next version will likely be the same but with tessellation.

To be honest, unreal is capable of some incredible graphics (so is the older version of unreal) but the problem then becomes the frame rate it can sustain and the input lag it causes. Actually, unreal is a rather inefficient engine overall because of the general purpose features - if developers have the time and skills to make a proprietary engine they can potentially have far better frame rates than unreal, though their engine would have to be largely re-engineered for different projects.

The biggest factor in graphics quality right now is the texture and model density/quality and the correct balance of quality in the areas which the player will notice it. Also, consoles need the power to do some proper AA while rendering all the other visuals. The next generation of consoles will most likely support graphics card tessellation and have enough graphics processing power to handle 16x AA at the same time as larger poly counts, more complex shaders and superior texturing (like what a £600 PC can do now...). But the bottleneck in graphics will often be artists, programmers and environment developers.

Another little word on tessellation though, dont take metro as the example of what it can do. Tessellation can take the same normal maps and other texture layers used by bumpmapping and turn them into actual polygons - it can also do what metro does and subdivide models on the fly (most useful for saving bandwidth/disk space in my opinion). Imagine a brick wall which would normally be a texture with some nice bumpmapping - then imagine it with all the detail as actual polygons, including the tiny pitting in the surface of each brick, not only the bricks themselves. Heaven benchmark shows how this works but it is quite badly laid out, a proper game development studio would make far better use of tessellation. Valve will probably announce their next engine at some point when the hardware has caught up with the possibilities and move the whole industry forwards another notch.

[REDHULKSMASH]

"you want better graphics" get with naughty dog and get off DVD rom.

[Raider69]

Wow you have just one bubble !I wonder why!

[Pootangpie]

then stop using exclusives that you know damn well is not going to showup on 360/PC/Wii due to it being exclusive see I can do it too not hard

[Raider69]

Im sick of consoles high input lag and 30fps games!Bring the next gen!

[LMS]

uncharted 2 and killzone 2 did look pretty good 2 or 3 years ago, now, unimpressed, the only place that impresses me anymore is pc, constant 60 frames, crisp perfect edges with no jaggies, swift exact load times, and games like metro2033, that make killzone 3 look like it was made for ps2

please end this horribly long gen of games, it is on it's last leg, wobbeling and pathetic, bulletstorm on ps3 has so many jaggies, i almost could not believe it when i played the demo, fucking dispicable how messy it looked

HEY EPIC

make sure you make NATIVE anti aliasing in your next engine!!

and get this next gen going dammit

[ATiElite]

What is Cliffy B. gonna be playing Battlefield 3 PC?

I hope he isn't talking about the Unreal Engine cause that tech is LAME!! Give it up and start from scratch.

Some developers now a days are so full of themselves and it's annoying. They talk about Next Gen but then show something that's Last Gen. Sorry but I'm a PC Gamer and unless your talking about Ray Tracing then your NOT talking Next Gen!!

Next console Generation every dam game needs to look like Crysis PC or better if not then it's total FAIL.

[Masterchef2007]

Probably the unveiling of the Unreal Engine 4.

[Xfanboy]

Dice frostbite 2.0 will be the highlight on PC!!

[KilL7roCitY]

Next gen graphics is PC GAMINg !

don't you think cliff ?

[Kakkoii]

id Tech 5 Engine and Cryengine 3 already beat them to it. I'd be surprised to see them show off any significant new features that these 2 engines don't already have. CryEngine 3's dynamic global illumination is a pretty big breakthrough.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[AlienLion]

You ask these game companies and every single thing they release has next gen graphics. It's either that or it will be using 100% of PS3/360 power. In this case of course, it's a futuristic engine that is going to use approximately 237.3% of current console's power. 237.2%. Because they can be that precise, you know.

[DFresh]

It's about damn time that the Unreal Engine got an upgrade.
The best multiplatform game engines I believe right now are the Unreal Engine 3, Frost Bite, id Tech 5, and Cry Engine 3 engines.
My overall favorite right now is the id Tech 5 engine.
(It's just god damn amazing especially running on PC. Consoles it also looks pretty good.)