A look at Epic's latest Unreal Engine 3 additions
by David Hinkle 
{ Jun 11th 2009 at 8:15PM } 
The first thing demonstrated was the new content browser, which allows developers to catalog and easily find assets. Utilizing a tag system (hey, just like Joystiq!), developers can quickly pull up assets and even get a fully animated preview of that particular item.
We then moved on to the new Lightmass technology, which allows Epic to fill in dynamic light with ease. No longer do developers have to go in and build an individual light source from scratch, as Lightmass helps to streamline the implementation of light sources. We're no designers, but we're pretty sure this is a good thing.
Finally, we come to what was easily our favorite part of the presentation: MCP. MCP (Master Control Program) allows Epic to analyze multiplayer data from gameplay and provides results on where the most action is. It's impressive to see where players die the most on a map in Gears of War 2, for example, and they even showed us where people were getting revived the most. It's not only cool from a player standpoint, but as a developer, this is juicy info, for sure.
We asked Epic if the new tools in Unreal Engine 3 were available to developers, and they confirmed that some developers did have these additions already. We asked about Rocksteady Studios, who is using Unreal Engine 3 in Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Epic said that these new additions came too late in that company's development cycle for use. But, developers have these tools now, so hopefully they'll be putting them to good use.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Christian @ Jun 11th 2009 8:19PM
Hopefully they can hold us over for awhile. We're going to have this current gen of systems for sometime now. So Unreal 4 is probably a ways away. At least for us Console only gamers.
Any improvement is a good one.
xtremeholymuffin @ Jun 11th 2009 8:22PM
That's what game development looks like? >_>
Whiskey Jak @ Jun 11th 2009 8:31PM
Why are you so surprised? Although having pre-made game assets like that is not what you would call "common", game development is mainly : programming (engine, AI, etc) + art (drawing, texturing, modeling, animating, lighting, camera, etc) + designing (inventing systems, building levels, placing objects and enemies) and people trying to manage these 100+ people.
Of course, having a 3rd party engine like that can streamline a lot of things, if you are willing to design a game inside its existing limits.
WiredKnight @ Jun 11th 2009 8:46PM
What do you mean by "pre-made?" When developers purchase the engine they don't get any of those assets, just the tools.
Mr Clickerson @ Jun 12th 2009 5:35AM
That's what the Unreal Engine editor looks like- ie: the one you get with your copy of Gears of War or Unreal Tournament 3 for the PC. Those pre-made items are for the consumer so they can have access to commonly used models and props for their custom mods, maps, and whatever.
As far as development goes, yeah, to a point. For example, Epic will use that kind of stuff for their own games, but they initially had to make all that stuff to begin with (that and they have a lot more than what comes with Unreal Editor). When companies license a copy of UE3, they don't get that stuff- they have to make their own models and what not, but they have the UE3 platform to build them in. To an extent they also use something like that, but far more complex.
B3astofthe3ast @ Jun 11th 2009 8:25PM
I guess the 360 isn't maxed out?
vectorelement @ Jun 12th 2009 12:39AM
That made me lol.
+1!
mercy @ Jun 11th 2009 8:34PM
This time without all the lawsuits plz.
WiredKnight @ Jun 11th 2009 8:47PM
What's going on, Joystiq, I saw this video a few months ago.
Still wish they'd release an updated UT3 Editor :(
CzAr @ Jun 11th 2009 9:22PM
I was thinking the same thing. Video is really old.
AltoDarkNight @ Jun 11th 2009 10:10PM
Yes it is old (I think I saw it about 8 weeks ago), but as someone who develops with the unreal 3 engine these upgrades are absolutly amazing. It was almost as exciting as seeing some of the new games at E3.
The tools that come with unreal 3 are among, if not the best, in the business. With the new aditions, they are very polished, very usable and flexible. UnrealScript could use a nice integrated IDE.
My favorite upgrade is having the emmisive channels of materials (complex textures) produce the appropriate light without the need to manually place spot lights every time you use the material.
@Whiskey Jak
I'm not sure you are right about 'pre-made' assets if I understand you correctly. The video above shows the assets from gears as a demonstration. All assets have to be imported into the editor to be placed in levels, which makes them 'pre-made'.
Unless you mean modding with UT3 editor, where you can use UT3's assets, in which case it is normal to 'borrow' assets when doing so.
sea @ Jun 11th 2009 10:21PM
Depends on the engine/editor. Game development can look quite different depending on what you're doing - some may work almost exclusively with pencil, paper and Photoshop, while others are going to be using a text editor to write code, and others might be working with audio software and even going hands-on to do field research. It's a very complex and involved process that requires a shitload of work, but there's also a huge variety of stuff to do.
Game development isn't just coding, and you don't actually need much technical knowledge to get into it depending on what you want to do. If you want to be a designer specifically, your best bet is to have strong reading, writing and communications skills, plus a great familiarity with games, an understanding for how they work (at both micro and macro levels), and the ability to iterate and build towards a goal. Office software, Adobe Illustrator, etc. are all vital to being a designer, and very little programming/scripting/art skill may be needed. Go to some games you like and write a fake design document for them, map out individual levels and plot player progression through them - leave no detail untouched, as everything from lighting colour, audio, dialogue, item positioning, etc. is important.
The Unreal Editor is part of the Unreal Engine, and frankly in its current form is pretty much a bitch to use (I've only really managed to make some very simple maps with it). The best editor I've ever had a chance to use is Sandbox 2 for CryEngine 2, and it's quite powerful while still being fairly user-friendly - but there is definitely a learning curve, and it still takes a long time to do anything worthwhile. It actually comes with the Crysis demo if you want to try it out.
If you're interested in game development, you'll probably want to figure out what you want to do. A portfolio is a must, and the bigger and more impressive it is, the better. Create a multiplayer map, make a mod for an existing game, do your own custom models and textures, program your own game engines, do some script editing, whatever. If you enjoy it, and can produce good results, then there's no reason why you shouldn't look into it as a potential career path - and don't be afraid if you can't get professional-quality results, because even though there are some amazing mods out there, most of them are the work of small teams of people and take years to make.
Finally, read web sites like GameDev.net and Gamasutra for high-quality articles on all aspects of game design. Even personal blogs, like Shamus Young's, are a valuable source of information. It's all good stuff.
sea @ Jun 11th 2009 10:24PM
Whoops, missed my thread. That was meant to be in reply to xtremeholymuffin's comment. Sorry.
Tatsuyame @ Jun 12th 2009 12:40AM
Although the editors in the past have been buggy, I always liked the 'full world' approach, where you subtract space. Always made more sense to me. Is it still like that in the most recent UnrealEd? (I've only used the versions bundled with UT99&UT2k4 )
sea @ Jun 12th 2009 11:16AM
Yep, they still have that there in Unreal Editor 3. I like to use a combination of approaches, although obviously it only works for the basic level geometry. Prefabs/entities/etc. make things much easier these days. I honestly can't imagine how anyone made anything decent back in the original Half-Life days, seeing as how even modern games like Fallout 3 are still being made with some of the must cumbersome tools imaginable (seriously, try out the G.E.C.K., it's pain incarnate).
james @ Jun 11th 2009 10:27PM
The lighting was pretty impressive.
I'm curious how powerful a computer it takes to develop with this/any engine.
MediocrePanda @ Jun 11th 2009 10:34PM
Not as powerful as you might think. Their in-house studio uses ZBrush to detail the high-res assets, which can run decently on integrated video (as long as the the workstation has plenty of ram). Other steps require shader model 3.0 or better, but basically if the computer can run the game it can develop assets for it.
james @ Jun 11th 2009 10:42PM
really? bitchin.
thanks
sea @ Jun 12th 2009 11:23AM
Depends on how the lighting system works, really. Most likely their engine is using a lot of pre-baked (i.e. calculated during level compiling and applied as texture data) lighting despite the global illumination implementation, which would achieve similar results but be far easier computation-wise during run-time. Since global illumination takes light bounces and reflections into account, my general understanding is that all of that will be pre-calculated, with dynamic sources (explosions, gunfire, car headlights, etc.) using a different model, though I could be mistaken.
CtrlBurn @ Jun 11th 2009 11:34PM
The MCP is cool, but the article downplays the lighting too much. Lighting seems like such a simple and obvious thing until you try lighting complex scenes in a 3D environment. While the lighting features aren't as innovative as the MCP, they're pretty freakin' significant.
Tatsuyame @ Jun 12th 2009 12:37AM
Agreed. The GI additions are significant (I wonder if they took some stuff from from "Beast," the lighting system developed for Unreal Engine 3 for Mirror's Edge?), as are the emissive textures, and texture/transparency based lighting.
vectorelement @ Jun 12th 2009 12:50AM
I'm really impressed by the inclusion of Global Illumination. Typically, it'd take minutes upon MINUTES to render even a decent scene with moderate GI settings in Cinema 4D on my C2D MacBook Pro, but I do understand that current gen consoles are essentially dedicated graphics machines.
The first time I played Gears 2, I really had to stop and take a closer look at the environment I was in; can't wait to see what's next for UE3.
mister_d @ Jun 12th 2009 1:00AM
Glad to see they used the correct plural of penumbra, penumbrae.
Mike Riollano @ Jun 17th 2009 2:25AM
Thats good stuff for them, but MCP? Yeah I knew those as heatmaps from halo 3. from almost two years ago. Not saying bungie's the best but touting old tech as a new totally awesome feature is just a bit ridiculous. Great to have it in there but please don't blow it up more than it needs to be.
c45j @ Jun 12th 2009 2:47AM
unreal engine does so many great things, yet it cant do true widescreen.
AltoDarkNight @ Jun 12th 2009 9:40AM
Yes it can, in theory it can do any screen resolution with any aspect ratio, hardware willing.
Mr Lee @ Jun 12th 2009 5:38AM
So it looks like they just integrated this http://www.geomerics.com/products.htm into their engine, which developers can license directly and add to their existing game engine anyway.
Alex @ Jun 22nd 2009 1:31PM
I know that it'll take some time, but I kind of hope that games don't like like the images pictured for quite a while. While they are good, they still have something that seems 'off' about them.