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Unreal Engine 3 new tech demo: Samaritan

Arcipello

Member
Update 2:

direct feed trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSXyztq_0uM

Original:

some very pretty shots here, but im starting to think DICE might have stole their thunder :)

i REALLY wish Mass Effect 3 could get some of this graphical loving!

http://uk.kotaku.com/5774861/epic-says-this-is-what-next+gen-should-look-like/gallery/

Update:

VG247 said:
“This is our proposal for what the next generation of gaming is going to be,” Rein said as the demo began.

We were immediately introduced rain-spattered neon sign proclaiming “powered by Unreal technology.” The scene: a gritty, dilapidated cityscape. It’s night time, and the streets are slick with rain. All manner of signs and electrical lights are reflected in the gloomy mix of rain and atmosphere that’s pooled on the ground. Par for the course with modern games, though, right? Here’s the thing, though: all of it honestly, actually – no hyperbole – looks like CG.

“The whole idea behind this is to tell the hardware manufacturers that this is what you should be doing down the road,” Rein explained while the demo rolled.

Next up, we were introduced to a trench coat-clad, cigarette smoking man who was attempting to break a chain with a welding tool. Shades of Deus Ex? You don’t know the half of it. While the man did his presumably dirty deed, we were given a close up on his face, which was coated in tiny rivulets of rain. The man himself was expressive, his face subtly shifting and cringing as he focused on his work. Meanwhile, light from the welder reflected on his face, dancing about as the flame sparked and sizzled.

After the chain’s brittle links gave way, the man smoothly lit his cigarette with his welder. Then he heard something. Quickly scaling a nearby roof, he glimpsed multiple armor-clad soldiers kicking an elderly woman curled up in the fetal position on the ground. And that’s when things got interesting. The man turned his skin into some form of hyper detailed rock – craggy and detailed down to each individual pebble – and leaped right into the fray. He proceeded to brutally punch two of the soldiers, shattering one’s face mask and revealing a grimace that looked just about ready to collapse in on itself underneath. With those two dispatched, he shot the third straight through the head, leaving him slumped against a nearby billboard.

Next up, another celebratory cigarette, because why not? This guy’s so cool, cigarettes are afraid of getting lung cancer from him. But as he prepared to take another puff, a giant, house-sized “Samaritan” robot sneaked up behind him. He turned to meet it, noting its colossal size, and then did what any logical man would: turned to stone and started punching. End of demo.

Some things to note: this was only a tech demo – not a new game. Not that we’d mind if Epic made a Deus Ex-like action game, but we digress. Also crucial: Rein noted that the demo was running on three Nvidia GTX 580s. For the non-technophiles among you, that’s off-the-shelf, readily available (albeit ultra high-end) hardware. You may very well own a similar configuration right now. Also, while the screens below are definitely indicative of what the demo looked like, they don’t do the fluidity of movement, animation, and physics justice at all. Again, this looked like a highly choreographed CG movie, but in reality, many of those things were being calculated by robust physics engines. The Epic staffers running the demo then proved that to us, replaying the demo and detaching the camera, zooming in and out, and showing us how things looked with physics turned on and off.

At the end of the day, though, this isn’t Unreal 4. It’s still definitely Unreal 3, Rein was quick to clarify. He added, however, that if this were to be given a number, it’d be Unreal 3.975. He also noted that this is a bigger leap than the one between Unreal 2 and Unreal 3 – and it shows. On top of that, it’s versatile as all get-out.

“Another thing that’s awesome is that the engine now scales all the way from an iPhone 3GS up to next-generation hardware. That means you could theoretically make a game that’d run on every single one of these devices. Mobile phones to tablets to set top boxes,” said Rein.

The coolest part of all? All this technology is in Unreal licensees hands today. When Epic updates, so does everyone else. The whole gaming industry’s been sort of reluctant about a next generation of consoles, but Epic – and the rest of the tech business – have other plans.

“If the next game consoles can’t do this, well, Apple increased their iPad by nine times today,” Rein said.

Them be fightin’ words, gaming industry. It appears, however, that Epic will be providing your most powerful weapon.
Source: http://www.vg247.com/2011/03/03/epi...he-next-generation-of-gaming-is-going-to-be”/

Update 3:

Develop said:
GDC11: Epic astounds with new tech demo
by Will Freeman

GDC11: Epic astounds with new tech demo

Unreal Engine 3 video strives to set the standard for future hardware platforms

Epic Games has used its private GDC press conference to demo a stunning Unreal Technology demo that Mark Rein described as 'a love letter to hardware manufacturers'.

The 'Samaritan' video, with debuted just moments ago to a select group of gathered press, demonstrated what is achievable using cutting-edge hardware, the features of the current iteration of UE3, and some of the DirectX 11 UE3 features due in March 2011.

Focusing on cinematic intense visual effects as opposed to the procedural flexibility demonstrated in Epic's previous tech videos, the highly impressive Samaritan movie showcased Unreal Engine 3's artist driven features, including image-based reflection and improved bloom, along with Direct X 11 features such as sub surface scattering and dynamic tessalation and displacement.

"The whole idea behind this is to tell hardware developers and tell game developers this is what you should prepare for down the road," said Epic vice president Mark Rein.

"There needs to be mass market devices that can do this before too long."

While the demo was made by only three artists, one rigger, and a number of mocap artists, it did run on three graphics cards. However, Rein stated: "We suspect that with a little bit of optimisation this could even run on a single Ti500 card" [Nirolak's Note: I'm assuming they meant a single GTX 580 since the Ti500 is from 2005.]

Later Rein joked: "Tim Sweeney said that if we did version numbers for Unreal Engine this would be version 3.971."
Source: http://www.develop-online.net/news/37203/GDC11-Epic-unveils-new-tech-demo
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Larger: (See Post 153 for embeds)



Smaller, significantly more compressed embeds:

unrealtechnologyscreencju4.jpg


billboardreflections_lyjst.jpg


highqualityshadows_logbmbt.jpg


msaa_02_logo_textz8gt.jpg


msaa_01_logo_texta8av.jpg


dynamicreflectionshadoc8lw.jpg


bokehdof_01_logo_textojz3.jpg


bokehdof_02_logo_textoj4p.jpg


shadowedpointlightrefl3k5f.jpg


subsurfacescattering_02m7m.jpg


subsurfacescattering_ld8q3.jpg


dx11_dynamictessellatimjz3.jpg
 

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?

JWong

Banned
As long as it gets rid of the overly shiny armor and everything.

Which doesn't look like the case.
 

Easy_D

never left the stone age
Am I the only one who's thinking "I'm Commander Shepard and these are my favourite cigarettes on the Citadel!" ?
 

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
Bokeh stuff looks cool, otherwise my untrained eye can't see any differences in a lot of those.
 

xtop

Member
looks pretty great to me, but i'm sure that's a noobish response and everyone will agree how terrible it is
 
Hmm, Frostbite2 looks better.

However, if they're actually making a Bladerunner type game with this, I'm definitely down.
 

adelante

Member
Shot look impressive but until we see these features applied to an actual game, it's hard to compare it to another engine like Frostbite2
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Zzoram said:
So how next gen does UE3 have to get to be called UE4?
UE4 is built around the concept of software rendering with hundreds of processor cores, and they don't expect the next generation to actually have that, so their plan seems to be to upgrade Unreal Engine 3 instead.
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
This is middleware, mind you. It's quite an important step forward for modern technologies to be incorporated, standard, into Unreal Engine. It's fine to compare it to Frostbite 2.0 and so forth, but understand its relevance too.
 

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
enzo_gt said:
Bokeh stuff looks cool, otherwise my untrained eye can't see any differences in a lot of those.
Exactly. Finally DoF done right.
 

iavi

Member
GOD!

Forget the engine! Can I get a huge story-driven game in that exact setting with that dude as the protagonist please!

Back to the engine, it looks amazing. Totally time for the next generation of consoles! As much as I appreciate the ability to play current UE3 games on my modest rig, I don't want this current trend of 'consolization' holding the master race back from achieving these kind of results.
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
Now that's proper next-gen. 580 can run this? Fantastic.

WHO SAID THAT IT WILL BE PROHIBITEDLY EXPENSIVE TO DEVELOP??? COME HERE!!!
 

Songbird

Prodigal Son
Miri said:
GOD!

Forget the engine! Can I get a huge story-driven game in that exact setting with that dude as the protagonist please!
Only if he can transform into robo-man as a part of gameplay!
 

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
subversus said:
Now that's proper next-gen. 580 can run this? Fantastic.

WHO SAID THAT IT WILL BE PROHIBITEDLY EXPENSIVE TO DEVELOP??? COME HERE!!!
On cinematics. I doubt that will be achievable in real time.
 
Kyoufu said:
I almost kame at the thought of a next-gen Blade Runner game :(
I would trust so few developers with the IP that I'm not sure I want the game to be made.

And for some reason these screenshots reminded me of the first Dark Sector trailer shown. Do you guys remember that? The first "next-gen" (back in the day) game announced. Back then it was supposed to be a combination of Splinter Cell and Metroid.

Honestly, I wish developers would try to focus on different stuff for next generation than just making it look prettier. I'm not saying games are photorealistic or anything right now, but come on, focus on having interesting AI, refining your writing and storytelling, creating interesting characters, coming up with better ways to interact with the world than just blow stuff up, etc.
[edit] I understand that stuff is impossible to show in screenshots (and not in any way related to the middleware engine) though.
 

Dennis

Banned
The billboard reflection looks fantastic. Bokeh is nice too. High quality shadows also.

Otherwise I can't see much else to be excited about.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Amir0x said:
we've already seen Battlefield 3

Frostbite 2 is still being held back by the fact that it needs to be portable to consoles. Think on that for a minute.
 

Chinner

Banned
Kyoufu said:
I almost kame at the thought of a next-gen Blade Runner game :(
you're right. next generation blade runner would be amazing. i hope somebody (except for bioware) develops it.
 

legacyzero

Banned
Would like to see how this looks in motion.

UE3 as it is now is just fine IMO. Bulletstorm looks fantastic

However. BF3 still holds the best looking combined tech in my eyes.
 

Jangaroo

Always the tag bridesmaid, never the tag bride.
FunkyPajamas said:
I would trust so few developers with the IP that I'm not sure I want the game to be made.

And for some reason these screenshots reminded me of the first Dark Sector trailer shown. Do you guys remember that? The first "next-gen" (back in the day) game announced. Back then it was supposed to be a combination of Splinter Cell and Metroid.

Honestly, I wish developers would try to focus on different stuff for next generation than just making it look prettier. I'm not saying games are photorealistic or anything right now, but come on, focus on having interesting AI, refining your writing and storytelling, creating interesting characters, coming up with better ways to interact with the world than just blow stuff up, etc.
Please don't bring up Space Ninja. It hurts so bad.
 

McHuj

Member
Looks great. Can't wait for next gen. It's long over due.

Wouldn't surprise me if this was stuff from an upcoming game for a next gen console. They showed the original UE3 demos with characters from Gears of War a year before the xbox360 was announced and almost two years before Gears itself was announced.
 

Zzoram

Member
Wait, are these console screenshots?

Also, that last metal skin shot seems like it would make for a good Garrus face in Mass Effect 4.
 

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
This is a shot from the original demo of UE3.

unreal-engine-3-project-untitled-20050418001052671.jpg


5 years later and games came close, but still don't have anywhere near that detail during gameplay. Maybe if Epic ported a Gears 2 or 3 to the PC, they could really show what UE3 is capable of.
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
godhandiscen said:
This is a shot from the original demo of UE3.



5 years later and games came close, but still don't have anywhere near that detail during gameplay. Maybe if Epic ported a Gears 2 or 3 to the PC, they could really show what UE3 is capable of.


Haha, hype is killed. Seriuosly.
 
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