UnrealEngine3 GDC Impressions

[Zoost]

[DaJuice]

Cool, sounds juicy.

[Fredrik]

we saw some pictures on the way that we thought were either some very detailed artwork or real 3D models of the characters and environments in Epic’s next game. Nope. According to what Epic folks told us, we were looking at actual in game screenshots

Why do we have to hear this description of the graphics every time a new engine is demonstrated?

[Linguica]

Newsflash: in two years graphics will be prettier! Stop the presses!

[Zoorado]

It doesn't look too impressive to me, except for the new bumpmapping technique pioneered on next-gen video processors. The 'soft shadows' Epic claimed to have implemented aren't really soft, and the fire effects leave a lot to be desired. 4 to 16 times the graphical quality of DOOM 3? They gotta be joking.

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20040329/unreal08.jpg
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20040329/unreal09.jpg
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20040329/unreal10.jpg
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20040329/unreal11.jpg
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20040329/unreal08.jpg
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20040329/unreal.htm

[Fredrik]

Damn, that's ugly.

[Arioch]

Those fireballs are um ... unimpressive.

[EsH]

Thanks for the links, Zoorado. It looks like they've bumped the poly count up from the Doom3 engine, at least. It's strange, as there are (practical) demos of global soft-shadow systems out there, and they present much more impressive shadowing effecs, at the expense of lower model poly counts.

[DaJuice]

April Fools anyone? Cuz those can't possibly be the real thing.

[Zoorado]

DaJuice said:

April Fools anyone? Cuz those can't possibly be the real thing.

Definitely not an April Fools' joke.

EsH said:

Thanks for the links, Zoorado. It looks like they've bumped the poly count up from the Doom3 engine, at least. It's strange, as there are (practical) demos of global soft-shadow systems out there, and they present much more impressive shadowing effecs, at the expense of lower model poly counts.

Can you point to me the real-time demos of soft-shadowing engines engines that you've mentioned?

[Wobbo]

ROTFLOL

Obviously Gamespy has been PAID like serious.

Photorealistic my ass

[--Kintaro--]

Wait to see how it "moves" first :-). Plus some textures seem to be missing on the pics u gave Zoorado..(hopefully..)

[DaJuice]

If those are for real then it's clear that no real artists went anywhere close to that demo. A blind monkey with one arm could make something prettier.

[Mr.Magnetichead]

My friends at Epic have indeed verified that those shots are NOT Unreal 3.0 Tech shots.

[NiGHTMARE]

Indeed. Clearly those people who believe these shots are genuinely from the Unreal engine 3.0 have never seen any screenshots from the Unreal engined Thief 3. Not only does that game look better than the screenshots linked to in this thread, but AFAIK it uses modified Unreal 2.0 tech.

[Mr.Magnetichead]

Indeed. Theif 3 is old tech too.

On par with Deus Ex 2 pre trasnfer to non Unreal tech.

[Wobbo]

Oh shoot, looks like i might be wrong again, if i am, apologies

[EsH]

Zoorado said:

Can you point to me the real-time demos of soft-shadowing engines engines that you've mentioned?

Sorry it's so late-- just noticed it didn't go through the first time.

http://www.ce.chalmers.se/staff/tomasm/soft/

[AndrewB]

Dear god that's pathetic.

Soft shadows are definitely a must for games that claim to be photo-realistic (even though they're never close anyway). I don't think that any self-respecting next-generation engine can be without it.

Or, as DSM might say... "What's so unrealistic about hard shadows? What do you mean soft shadows? Since when do shadows become soft?"

[Lord FlatHead]

Either those screenshots are not Unreal 3, or all the people who've seen it for real have their heads up their asses. Neither would surprise me.

[toxicfluff]

Somehow, making a gorgeous techdemo doesn't sound so impressive to me, some of the Nvidia graphics demos I've seen could easily fit the visual descriptions.

I found in another article on the demo a mention of applying a high detail normal map to a low poly model like it was some revolutionary, unheard of idea.

Sounds like an easy ride to good press for Epic to me. I never usually trust the writers of these kinds of articles anyway.



Esh: Thanks for the link, was interesting stuff.

[dsm]

I would be very surprised if these screenies are from the new Unreal engine - it seems perfectly likely to me that the next gen Unreal engine is gonna be way superior to Doom 3's engine. I mean, the first Unreal engine was superior to the Quake 2 engine, and this engine is still in development while the Doom 3 engine is done (only the game ain't done yet).

[Intel17]

http://www.forumplanet.com/planetdoom/topic.asp?fid=3082&tid=1347719

These are REAL Unreal Engine 3 screenies, plus you can download the video!

[EsH]

Thanks a ton for the link, Intel17. Well. Carmack was right about one thing-- content creation is going to be a huge bottle-neck for engines like this.

[DaJuice]

I've seen the real video now, and wow, I was more impressed than I thought I would be, even though I had read all the hype in the EE forum and a bunch of other sites. It is clear that game technology is quickly converging towards traditional computer graphics.
The amount of work they put into those environments is really nice. The shader work is really impressive, just like HL2, and the brick wall had that lovely specular quality. The monsters also looked better than what we've seen in Doom3 so far (to be expected) but the methods are the same (normal mapping etc).

The whole content creation thing is so true. Now you have to create high-res models as well as low-poly ones (the high-res ones require a lot more work). You need a specular map on top of the color map. You need people who can write fancy shaders. You will probably need to include a lot more detail than what was acceptable/possible a couple of years ago. Id are gonna need a bigger team for their next game me thinks.

[Lord FlatHead]

DaJuice said:

Id are gonna need a bigger team for their next game me thinks.

I'm praying id's next project will be a relatively small game with a development time of less than two years.

[DaJuice]

Why a small game? Because it will take less time to make? I think Carmack mentioned that he plans for the next game to take only 2 years but idunno how that's gonna happen.

[Fredrik]

It'll be a large game. They'll call it "Slige 2".

[Intel17]

Epic games usually have the best looking engines, but they arent as fast as carmacks

[Mordeth]

Bold statement: we won't see truly innovative, original games with great gameplay until Carmack stops making game engines.

When Carmack finally quits coding for games and turns his talents to something actually usefull, the game engine "arms race" will tether out. With more time between different engine releases, game companies can devote time to explore an existing engine and focus on actual content as their selling point.