Epic's Unreal Engine makes grass look epic for real, come see

by Jessica Conditt on Jul 1st 2011 9:30PM

Epic Games is showing off its gardening skills with a new in-game landscape screenshot, and the plants in it look so real it's like, unreal, guys. Because the name of the engine is also ... forget it.

Epic's Unreal Engine 3 produced the picture, which was tweeted by PR manager Dana Cowley. Cowley said the screen is real-time in-game footage, but it looks more like a highly-detailed Bob Ross paint-along. The blades of grass are just so happy. If Unreal 3 can make foliage look this fabulous when it's in motion too, we think players will all be just as pleased as Mr. Ross' little trees.

Via: VG247
Source: @danacowley

Tags: Dana-Cowley, epic, epic-games, microsoft, pc, playstation, ps3, ue3, unreal-engine-3, xbox

Reader Comments (61)

I can't even imagne what video games will be like in 10 years. They have come so far.

@Peril

Who would even be making them, I wonder. I can see a future where Google and Apple's have joined forces and given the world iDroid (an actual robot that you ride in and play games on, kinda like R.O.B. but 15 feet tall) to battle a Sony/Microsoft merger and the ultimate gaming machine: a three-story monstrosity known only as PlayBox 3600. All but forgotten, Nintendo - once again the scrappy underdog - teams up with Frito-Lay in a move that makes sense to no one. A year later marks the debut of the Nintendo Whiff and it's dubiously named launch title Smell Mii. Smell-o-Vision has arrived, gentleman.

@A Sandwich Heh, made me laugh.

@A Sandwich
There is so much genius here.

@Peril
90s to 00s was an incredible development way beyond expectations...
2000-2011 has been more about graphics and popular franchises rather than innovation...
who know, progress could go either ways

@Aron

I'll agree that the PS2, GameCube, Xbox generation was my least favorite to date, but it laid a lot of groundwork for this generation, which I think is the best so far. Alternate methods of control and unique gameplay mechanics have really exploded and game genres have expanded to include almost every possible combination. Online play, additional content to make games last longer, delivery systems for great bite-sized games like Braid and World of Goo, and the ability to play games (legitimately) from 15-25 years ago are just some of the best things about this gen. We've also seen incredibly satisfying new IPs like Mass Effect, LA Noire, LBP, Demon's Souls, and Valkyria Chronicles and franchises that have been given amazing new life like Red Dead and Donkey Kong Country. No innovation? The more I think about it I just have to ask, are you insane? What about near 1:1 motion controls, break apart controllers, dual analogs on a handheld, the Minority Report-esque functions of Kinect, crisp high-definition visuals and 3D without f*cking glasses?! This has been THE generation of innovation. This gen is the one to beat, and I'm excited as hell to see what happens in the next 5 years.

@Peril Dat grass

@A Sandwich

Took the words right out of my mouth (and made them better). Though... I have to disagree about last generation. I think there was just as much (if not more) innovation than this one. It paved the way for open world games, hack n slash, and first person shooters really started to hit their stride on consoles. Yeah, obviously they existed before with Wolfenstein and Doom, but I mean "modern" FPS.

@A Sandwich

"Nintendo - once again the scrappy underdog - teams up with Frito-Lay in a move that makes sense to no one."

Too funny!

@Aron Just need to find developers who can combine those two eras. Fantastic story lines with mind-blowing graphics.

Call me weird, but I've always dreamed of fully rendered blades of grass in video games.

@Crimsic

Flower had the most satisfying game grass ever.

@Crimsic

I think we all have, man.

@Crimsic

I can imagine eventually you would be able to pick a blade of grass and blow on it to make music. Some day...

@Crimsic Same here lol.

@Sprue Rubbles
Play Flower.
Please.

Watch grass grow, IN HD!

@Andrew12h

Don't forget the 3DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

@Andrew12h OMG THIS IS WHAT I LIVED MY LIFE OUT FOR. TO SEE A BLaDE OF GRASS LOOK SO REAL IN A VIDEO GAME. Huh, I coulda sworn I lived life to have fun and live it to the fullest... Oh well, GRASS IN HD AND 3D!!!!!

Finally... I can enjoy looking at a field of grass without getting an allergic reaction...

ST

@Andrew12h That's lionheads new game.

Not gonna lie..if you look at the full size version on twitter it looks like it got sharpened to hell and back with a 3rd party program. (Photoshop for instance)

Don't doctor up your screen shots to make them look better. Be legit for once.

Not to mention it looks like it was painted on a canvas

@Slomoshun are you saying a game that looks like it was painted on a canvas is a bad thing?

@ORTHROK

As he said, click the source link and the image will look less impressive. It actually doesn't look all that great when the image isn't down sized and super sharp like it's displayed here on joystiq. Would really just have to see some real time footage to make a judgement on this one, heck I could use the Source engine and make a better looking screenshot if that's all I was aiming for.

I think it looks far from "real" even in the thumbnail. So there's individual blades of grass. That doesn't mean anything if everything still looks rendered and just... off.

@aea0a095

http://twitpic.com/5i48mj/full

still looks great to me.

The screenshot looks great, imo. Sure it doesn't look 'real' but there's a nice kind of hyper-real style to it.

Yes, it's a bit less impressive that they render 'every blade of grass' when the blades of 'grass' are so gigantic they're basically ferns. But, if they weren't so gigantic? You wouldn't be able to tell they'd rendered every blade, because it'd just be a green textured blur... kind of like real grass looks...

So anyway, I think it's nice. It might be more impressive if they showed more trees (hopefully with each tree looking unique, and so if you go close you can see the individual leaves, etc). I've actually never really been bothered by grass looking crap in video games, but identikit trees are a little weak.

Can ... can you imagine Link cutting that grass? For the love of God, how does it render pots!?

@A Sandwich eff those, i want my HD rocks

@Vuvuzelas

So many rupees.

Incedentally, I would not even attempt to cut all the grass in this field. Link would be dizzy as hell from all those spin attacks.

@A Sandwich

You could say....

... Link would have a field day...

@bigwhiteyeti The correct way to go would be the dash attack.

Link would end up with Chun-li thighs tho. ._.

People left and right are busting nuts over rendered grass.

"God, what would it be like to cut that grass? Maybe even have tea parties? omg...TIRE SWINGS!"

And as noted before....IN 3DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I hate these engine demo reels and screenshots. Mostly because I drool at the possibilities that engines like this will bring about, only to realize that this is the mainstream gaming industry we're talking about. They'll take the Unreal Engine and instead of making games like on the screenshot, they'll make generic modern-setting multiplayer manshoots with it.

Then I'm sad and close the window.

I dont think it looks good, I mean, i've seen better, Skyrim grass looks as good if not better, and graphics in general, go to uncharted

@DarrenMacNally

Yeah, this looks good but there are plenty of things out there that already surpass this, like crysis 1 and 2 for example.

Can't wait to see how much detail our shaved-head space marine/guy-with-superpowers heroes will have!

CryEngine and Frostbyte 2 look much better than UNREAL

Still pictures mean nothing when it comes to real-time rendering: if the rendered scene looks this good but only runs at 1 frame per second on current hardware, then who gives a shit. Why would Joystiq even bother posting this--they know better, too.

Never before have I wanted to eat grass so badly. I yearn to graze.

And it all gets stomped on by Marcus Fenix's size 20 boot.

Hey look, it's CryEngine2 in 2007. And knowing the UE3 it's not even destructible like a lot of stuff was with CE2.

Peopl like to rip on Unreal don't they?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgS67BwPfFY

Makes cryengine look like a POS.

I'm going to find Bob Ross on dvd now.
"Maybe that one's a happy tree and it lives right out there"

@AkumaFTW I wondered how lost the Bob Ross reference would be on this crowd. At least ONE person gets it! Genius stuff.

There's hope for MW4!

I remember the first screen shot I ever saw of Unreal1. I honestly thought that was the best ever. Oh the good old days.

Manly tears were shed.

Knowing Unreal this grass took about four hours to pop in. It's nice when it gets here though.

This is what Fable 5 will look like... still not as good as crysis with mods...

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Epic's Unreal Engine makes grass look epic for real, come see

Reader Comments (61)

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 9:31PM Peril said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 9:58PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 10:09PM Gooblechev said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 10:10PM SpaceGhostFlyer said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 10:32PM Aron said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 11:08PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 11:26PM beanninja said

Posted: Jul 2nd 2011 12:49AM TraceurRyuk Part III said

Posted: Jul 2nd 2011 12:54AM Sprue Rubbles said

Posted: Jul 2nd 2011 3:58PM TheAngryIntern said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 9:38PM Crimsic said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 10:09PM iHavePants said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 10:10PM Esposch said

Posted: Jul 2nd 2011 12:55AM Sprue Rubbles said

Posted: Jul 2nd 2011 2:30AM INTRO said

Posted: Jul 2nd 2011 3:25PM eNriqeu said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 9:40PM Andrew12h said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 9:49PM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 10:32PM Jetleo1 said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 11:50PM Steel Toad said

Posted: Jul 2nd 2011 11:15PM MystcLazrDragon said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 9:43PM Slomoshun said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 9:50PM ORTHROK said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 11:18PM aea0a095 said

Posted: Jul 2nd 2011 8:22AM bm111 said

Posted: Jul 2nd 2011 12:41PM maveric101 said

Posted: Jul 3rd 2011 12:49PM xxxsam said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 9:45PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 9:58PM Vuvuzelas said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 10:10PM bigwhiteyeti said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 10:24PM ClarkyAC said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 10:29PM MtlAngelus said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 9:54PM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 9:56PM PointlessPuppies said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 9:58PM DarrenMacNally said

Posted: Jul 2nd 2011 3:25PM Draugdraugr said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 10:12PM Aanx said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 10:17PM Tradio said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 10:19PM AwRy108 said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 10:28PM Miranda Lawson said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 10:31PM The Cole Train said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 10:59PM DustbinK said

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