Unreal Engine 3
Encyclopedia
Unreal Engine 3 is a computer game engine
developed by Epic Games
. It is the third generation of Unreal Engine
, designed for DirectX
9/10/11 personal computer
s (PC), the Xbox 360
, the PlayStation 3
, the PlayStation Vita, the Wii U, Android and OpenGL
-based operating system
s (OS) such as iOS and Mac OS X
. Its renderer supports many advanced techniques including high dynamic range rendering
(HDRR), per-pixel lighting
, and dynamic shadows, and builds upon the tools available in prior versions of the engine.
Epic has used this version of the engine for their in-house games Unreal Tournament 3, Gears of War
, Bulletstorm
, and an improved version for Gears of War 2
and Gears of War 3
. Due to aggressive licensing, this current iteration has garnered a great deal of support from several big licensees, including 2K Games
, 3D Realms
, Activision
, Atari
, Capcom
, Disney, Electronic Arts
, Koei, Konami
, Microsoft
for Kinect, Midway Games
, Sega
, Sony
, Square Enix
, THQ
, Ubisoft
, and more.
announced at Game Developers Conference
(GDC) 2009 some improvements made to the Unreal Engine 3. These included:
In addition to the game industry, UE3 has also seen adoption by many non-gaming projects including construction simulation and design, driving simulation, virtual reality shopping malls, and film storyboards.
In December 2009, Epic demoed UE3 running on Apple's 3rd generation iPod Touch
. They said that this will also support iPhone
3GS, and also an unknown mobile platform which has been revealed to be the webOS at CES 2010. It has been revealed so far to be something on Nvidia's Tegra platform, and also Palm's webOS running PowerVR's SGX chip.
In March 2010, Steamworks was integrated into the software, and is offered to licensees.
In June 2010, Epic Games revealed Epic Citadel
, a tech demo
to showcase Unreal Engine 3 on iOS devices (iPhone
, iPod touch
, and iPad
devices).
In June 2010 during the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010
, Mark Rein
(vice president of Epic Games
) showcased a tech demo of Gears of War 2
in stereoscopic 3D running on an Xbox 360 thanks to the TriOviz for Games Technology. "This technology’s great because it works on normal HD TVs, as well as the very high end 3DTVs,” Rein commented to Computer and Video Games
. "We're not planning to re-release this in 3D - unless Microsoft want us to - but I'm sure it's technology may be keen to put in the games developed by our partners."
In October 2010, TriOviz for Games Technology has been officially integrated in Unreal Engine 3, allowing to easily convert in stereoscopic 3D, numerous past and upcoming games developed on Xbox 360 and PS3 with this engine.
As of March 2011, the Unreal 3 Engine supports DirectX 11. Epic Games
showcased it with a real-time demonstration video, entitled "Samaritan". Additions include tessellation and displacement mapping
, advanced hair rendering with MSAA, deferred rendering
with MSAA, screen space subsurface scattering
, image-based lighting, billboard reflections, glossy reflections, reflection shadows, point light reflections, and bokeh
depth of field
.
In October 2011, Epic Games announced that a version of the engine will be compatible with Adobe Flash Player
.
Virtual Programming played a major role in helping Epic Games bring Mac OS X support to Unreal Engine 3.
Jace Hall
pushed the boundaries of traditional filmmaking by using a computer game engine, UE3, to meet the challenge of animating Alex Pardee
's surreal work, Chadam
.
The popular children's TV show LazyTown
used UE3 during filming to generate virtual sets for real-time integration with footage of actors and puppets performing in front of green screen
s.
In December 2009, Epic demoed UE3 running on Apple's 3rd generation iPod Touch
. They said that this will also support iPhone
3GS, and also an unknown mobile platform set to be unveiled at CES 2010, which was later revealed to be Nvidia
's Tegra 2 platform for use with Android devices. On December 16, 2010, Epic released for free the Unreal Engine 3 with other gaming development tools as the "Unreal Development Kit" on Apple's mobile devices.
The Unreal 3 engine also powers the animation software "Muvizu
3D", which is currently in beta stage.
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
developed by Epic Games
Epic Games
Epic Games, Inc., also known as Epic and formerly Epic MegaGames, is an American video game development company based in Cary, North Carolina. Its most recent success has been the Gears of War series of games, although it is also known for its Unreal Engine technology. It is the parent company of...
. It is the third generation of Unreal Engine
Unreal Engine
The Unreal Engine is a game engine developed by Epic Games, first illustrated in the 1998 first-person shooter game Unreal. Although primarily developed for first-person shooters, it has been successfully used in a variety of other genres, including stealth, MMORPGs and RPGs...
, designed for DirectX
DirectX
Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with Direct, such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay,...
9/10/11 personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
s (PC), the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, the PlayStation Vita, the Wii U, Android and OpenGL
OpenGL
OpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...
-based operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
s (OS) such as iOS and Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
. Its renderer supports many advanced techniques including high dynamic range rendering
High dynamic range rendering
In 3D computer graphics, high dynamic range rendering , also known as high dynamic range lighting, is the rendering of computer graphics scenes by using lighting calculations done in a larger dynamic range. This allows preservation of details that may be lost due to limiting contrast ratios...
(HDRR), per-pixel lighting
Per-pixel lighting
In computer graphics, per-pixel lighting is commonly used to refer to a set of methods for computing illumination at each rendered pixel of an image...
, and dynamic shadows, and builds upon the tools available in prior versions of the engine.
Epic has used this version of the engine for their in-house games Unreal Tournament 3, Gears of War
Gears of War
Gears of War is a military science fiction third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios...
, Bulletstorm
Bulletstorm
Bulletstorm is a first-person shooter video game developed by People Can Fly and Epic Games, and is published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows...
, and an improved version for Gears of War 2
Gears of War 2
Gears of War 2 is a third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games with lead design by Cliff Bleszinski, and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360. It is the second installment of the Gears of War series. The game was officially released in North America, Europe and...
and Gears of War 3
Gears of War 3
Gears of War 3 is a third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Studios exclusively for the Xbox 360. Originally due for release in April 2011, the game was delayed and eventually released on September 20, 2011....
. Due to aggressive licensing, this current iteration has garnered a great deal of support from several big licensees, including 2K Games
2K Games
2K is a global developer, marketer, distributor and publisher of interactive entertainment software games. 2K Games is a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, which also owns Rockstar Games notable for the Grand Theft Auto series...
, 3D Realms
3D Realms
3D Realms is a current video game publisher and former video game developer based in Garland, Texas, United States, established in 1987...
, Activision
Activision
Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...
, Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
, Capcom
Capcom
is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
, Disney, Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
, Koei, Konami
Konami
is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
for Kinect, Midway Games
Midway Games
Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the...
, Sega
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
, Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
, Square Enix
Square Enix
is a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series...
, THQ
THQ
THQ Inc. is an American developer and publisher of video games. Founded in 1989 in the United States, the company develops products for video game consoles, handheld game systems, as well as for personal computers and wireless devices...
, Ubisoft
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....
, and more.
Updates
Epic GamesEpic Games
Epic Games, Inc., also known as Epic and formerly Epic MegaGames, is an American video game development company based in Cary, North Carolina. Its most recent success has been the Gears of War series of games, although it is also known for its Unreal Engine technology. It is the parent company of...
announced at Game Developers Conference
Game Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference is the largest annual gathering of professional video game developers, focusing on learning, inspiration, and networking...
(GDC) 2009 some improvements made to the Unreal Engine 3. These included:
- Unreal Lightmass - global illuminationGlobal illuminationGlobal illumination is a general name for a group of algorithms used in 3D computer graphics that are meant to add more realistic lighting to 3D scenes...
solver. Provides high-quality static lighting with next-generation effects, such as soft shadows with accurate penumbrae, diffuseDiffuse reflectionDiffuse reflection is the reflection of light from a surface such that an incident ray is reflected at many angles rather than at just one angle as in the case of specular reflection...
, specularSpecular reflectionSpecular reflection is the mirror-like reflection of light from a surface, in which light from a single incoming direction is reflected into a single outgoing direction...
inter-reflection and color bleedingColor bleeding (computer graphics)In computer graphics and 3D rendering, color bleeding is the phenomenon in which objects or surfaces are colored by reflection of colored light from nearby surfaces.... - The ability to add fracture effects to static meshStatic MeshStatic meshes are polygon meshes which constitute a major part of map architecture in Unreal Engine and many other engines like Source. The word "static" refers only to the fact that static meshes can't be vertex animated, as they can be moved, scaled, or reskinned in realtime.Static Meshes can...
es to simulate destructible environments - Soft body dynamicsSoft body dynamicsSoft body dynamics is a field of computer graphics that focuses on visually realistic physical simulations of the motion and properties of deformable objects . The applications are mostly in video games and film. Unlike in simulation of rigid bodies, the shape of soft bodies can change, meaning...
(physics) - Large crowd simulationCrowd simulationCrowd simulation is the process of simulating the movement of a large number of objects or characters, now often appearing in 3D computer graphics for film...
In addition to the game industry, UE3 has also seen adoption by many non-gaming projects including construction simulation and design, driving simulation, virtual reality shopping malls, and film storyboards.
In December 2009, Epic demoed UE3 running on Apple's 3rd generation iPod Touch
IPod Touch
The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...
. They said that this will also support iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
3GS, and also an unknown mobile platform which has been revealed to be the webOS at CES 2010. It has been revealed so far to be something on Nvidia's Tegra platform, and also Palm's webOS running PowerVR's SGX chip.
In March 2010, Steamworks was integrated into the software, and is offered to licensees.
In June 2010, Epic Games revealed Epic Citadel
Epic Citadel
Epic Citadel is a tech demo developed by Epic Games for the iOS to show off the Unreal Engine 3 running on iOS devices. The application allows players to explore a medieval landscape devoid of life or other objects with which to interact...
, a tech demo
Tech demo
A tech demo is a prototype, rough example or an otherwise incomplete version of a product, put together with the primary purpose of showcasing the idea, performance, method or the features of the product...
to showcase Unreal Engine 3 on iOS devices (iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
, iPod touch
IPod touch
The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...
, and iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
devices).
In June 2010 during the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010
Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010, commonly known as E3 2010, was the 16th Electronic Entertainment Expo held. The event took place on June 14–17 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. E3 is an annual trade show for the computer and video games industry presented by the Entertainment Software...
, Mark Rein
Mark Rein
Mark Rein may refer to:*Mark Rein , Menshevik journalist*Mark Rein Software executive-See also:*Mark Rein·Hagen Game designer...
(vice president of Epic Games
Epic Games
Epic Games, Inc., also known as Epic and formerly Epic MegaGames, is an American video game development company based in Cary, North Carolina. Its most recent success has been the Gears of War series of games, although it is also known for its Unreal Engine technology. It is the parent company of...
) showcased a tech demo of Gears of War 2
Gears of War 2
Gears of War 2 is a third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games with lead design by Cliff Bleszinski, and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360. It is the second installment of the Gears of War series. The game was officially released in North America, Europe and...
in stereoscopic 3D running on an Xbox 360 thanks to the TriOviz for Games Technology. "This technology’s great because it works on normal HD TVs, as well as the very high end 3DTVs,” Rein commented to Computer and Video Games
Computer and video games
A video game is an electronic game that involves human interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The word video in video game traditionally referred to a raster display device, but following popularization of the term "video game", it now implies any type of...
. "We're not planning to re-release this in 3D - unless Microsoft want us to - but I'm sure it's technology may be keen to put in the games developed by our partners."
In October 2010, TriOviz for Games Technology has been officially integrated in Unreal Engine 3, allowing to easily convert in stereoscopic 3D, numerous past and upcoming games developed on Xbox 360 and PS3 with this engine.
As of March 2011, the Unreal 3 Engine supports DirectX 11. Epic Games
Epic Games
Epic Games, Inc., also known as Epic and formerly Epic MegaGames, is an American video game development company based in Cary, North Carolina. Its most recent success has been the Gears of War series of games, although it is also known for its Unreal Engine technology. It is the parent company of...
showcased it with a real-time demonstration video, entitled "Samaritan". Additions include tessellation and displacement mapping
Displacement mapping
Displacement mapping is an alternative computer graphics technique in contrast to bump mapping, normal mapping, and parallax mapping, using a texture- or height map to cause an effect where the actual geometric position of points over the textured surface are displaced, often along the local...
, advanced hair rendering with MSAA, deferred rendering
Deferred shading
In computer graphics, deferred shading is a three dimensional shading technique in which the result of a shading algorithm is calculated by dividing it into smaller parts that are written to intermediate buffer storage to be combined later, instead of immediately writing the shader result to the...
with MSAA, screen space subsurface scattering
Subsurface scattering
Subsurface scattering is a mechanism of light transport in which light penetrates the surface of a translucent object, is scattered by interacting with the material, and exits the surface at a different point...
, image-based lighting, billboard reflections, glossy reflections, reflection shadows, point light reflections, and bokeh
Bokeh
In photography, bokeh is the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image, or "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light."...
depth of field
Depth of field
In optics, particularly as it relates to film and photography, depth of field is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image...
.
In October 2011, Epic Games announced that a version of the engine will be compatible with Adobe Flash Player
Adobe Flash Player
The Adobe Flash Player is software for viewing multimedia, Rich Internet Applications and streaming video and audio, on a computer web browser or on supported mobile devices. Flash Player runs SWF files that can be created by the Adobe Flash authoring tool, by Adobe Flex or by a number of other...
.
Unreal Development Kit
While the Unreal Engine 3 has been quite open for modders to work with, the ability to publish and sell games made using UE3 was restricted to licensees of the engine. However, on November 2009, Epic released a free version of their engine, called the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), that is available to the general public. According to the current EULA, game makers can sell their games by paying Epic the cost of $99 USD, and 25% of all income above $50,000 USD received. The December 2010 UDK release added support for creating iOS games. As of the September 2011 release, iOS, Mac OS X and Windows platforms all support UDK-created games.Virtual Programming played a major role in helping Epic Games bring Mac OS X support to Unreal Engine 3.
Non-gaming use
In addition to the game industry, UE3 has also seen adoption by many non-gaming projects including construction simulation and design, driving simulation, virtual reality shopping malls and film storyboards.Jace Hall
Jace Hall
Jason "Jace" Hall is an American film, television and video game producer, best known for being founder and Chief Executive Officer of Monolith Productions Inc and President of...
pushed the boundaries of traditional filmmaking by using a computer game engine, UE3, to meet the challenge of animating Alex Pardee
Alex Pardee
Alex Pardee is a freelance artist, apparel designer, and a writer born in Antioch, California, USA who is best known for illustrating The Used's album artwork...
's surreal work, Chadam
Chadam
Chadam is an animated web series by artist Alex Pardee based on characters he created for a number of The Used's album artwork and distributed by The WB and Eye Suck Ink. Chadam is produced by Jace Hall of HDFILMS Inc. The short series premiered June 15th on TheWB.com. The WB and it's children's...
.
The popular children's TV show LazyTown
LazyTown
LazyTown is a children's television program that was produced in Iceland with a cast and crew from Iceland, the United Kingdom and the United States. It was created by Magnús Scheving, a gymnastics champion and CEO of LazyTown Entertainment, who also stars in the show...
used UE3 during filming to generate virtual sets for real-time integration with footage of actors and puppets performing in front of green screen
Green Screen
The Green Screen international wildlife film festival is held annually in Eckernförde, Germany. The festival shows full-length and short nature documentaries about animals in their natural habitat. It is the only festival of its kind in Germany...
s.
In December 2009, Epic demoed UE3 running on Apple's 3rd generation iPod Touch
IPod Touch
The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...
. They said that this will also support iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
3GS, and also an unknown mobile platform set to be unveiled at CES 2010, which was later revealed to be Nvidia
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
's Tegra 2 platform for use with Android devices. On December 16, 2010, Epic released for free the Unreal Engine 3 with other gaming development tools as the "Unreal Development Kit" on Apple's mobile devices.
The Unreal 3 engine also powers the animation software "Muvizu
Muvizu
Muvizu is software, free for non-commercial use, that enables users to make 3D animations without the need for expensive equipment or specialist training. Users may collaborate via the Muvizu website on their productions. The Muvizu 3D application is written by Digimania, formerly part of DA...
3D", which is currently in beta stage.
See also
- List of Unreal Engine games
- First-person shooter engineFirst-person shooter engineA first-person shooter engine is a video game engine specialized for simulating 3D environments for use in a first-person shooter video game. First-person refers to the view where the players see the world from the eyes of their characters...
- List of game engines
- Unreal EngineUnreal EngineThe Unreal Engine is a game engine developed by Epic Games, first illustrated in the 1998 first-person shooter game Unreal. Although primarily developed for first-person shooters, it has been successfully used in a variety of other genres, including stealth, MMORPGs and RPGs...