The Unreal engine is great. When the game was first released, it blew me away with it's fantastic colour range and special effects. But that was a couple of years ago, and we've made a lot of progress since then. Other game engines have taken up the challenge, and at the moment two in particular are set to give Unreal a run for it's money:
1) The engine used for Blade by Rebel Act Studios.
2) The engine used for Halo by Bungie Software.
Blade offers real-time deformations of some surfaces, creating realistic water that actually reflects the surrounding environment. It casts real-time shadows from moveable light sources, and this adds great atmosphere.
Halo has a pretty impressive physics engine with in-game IK, leading to very realistic character animation - take a look at the guys in the jeep - as it bumps up and down, their body parts each move as they would in real life. Halo is also set to offer a massive and seamless 'outdoor' environment which will put Unreal to shame /~unreal/ubb/html/frown.gif
What I want to know is where the Unreal engine is going next, and is it going to integrate these features? How large can the outdoor environments become before they have to radically redesign the engine? Will there be real-time deformations and IK?
Personally, I think the potential is there, and more. I think the only real barrier to making serious advancements in the game engines is the hardware on which it runs. So I've tried to look at where the technology is taking us by doing a five year comparison...
1995 - typical configuration...
What did we have...a Pentium 60Mhz?
1Gb hard disk?
16Mb RAM
No 3D accelerator card
Windows 95 (from mid year)
Doom had just been released.
Now...
AMD's 1Ghz processor is shipping this month!
40Gb hard disk
128-256Mb RAM
3D Accelerator (1 model has 2 processors + 64Mb RAM - or there's the GeForce 32Mb DDR)
Windows 'millenium' (for gamers...)???
Rune, Blade and Halo will be released this year.
2005 - my very conservative estimate /~unreal/ubb/html/smile.gif
10Ghz processor with 10Ghz bus speed
1 Terabyte of RAM (entry level system /~unreal/ubb/html/smile.gif )
10 Terabyte hard disk (or equivalent)
3D real-time rendering sub-system with 10Gb very fast ram, full T&L, massive textures in one pass, full radiosity support etc...
Windows 2000 (SP 15)
And the game? What will it have?
Full radiosity lighting.
Full support for real curves.
Full support for deformations.
Total advanced IK system.
Radically advanced AI - you WILL run from your enemies...
Full support for direct retinal display system (which is currently being perfected)
Imagine all of those great animated cut-scenes 50x better as your in-game experience.
The name of the game?
Why, Unreal 3 of course /~unreal/ubb/html/wink.gif
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'The enemy can't press a button if you disable his hand...Medic!' (Starship Troopers)
1) The engine used for Blade by Rebel Act Studios.
2) The engine used for Halo by Bungie Software.
Blade offers real-time deformations of some surfaces, creating realistic water that actually reflects the surrounding environment. It casts real-time shadows from moveable light sources, and this adds great atmosphere.
Halo has a pretty impressive physics engine with in-game IK, leading to very realistic character animation - take a look at the guys in the jeep - as it bumps up and down, their body parts each move as they would in real life. Halo is also set to offer a massive and seamless 'outdoor' environment which will put Unreal to shame /~unreal/ubb/html/frown.gif
What I want to know is where the Unreal engine is going next, and is it going to integrate these features? How large can the outdoor environments become before they have to radically redesign the engine? Will there be real-time deformations and IK?
Personally, I think the potential is there, and more. I think the only real barrier to making serious advancements in the game engines is the hardware on which it runs. So I've tried to look at where the technology is taking us by doing a five year comparison...
1995 - typical configuration...
What did we have...a Pentium 60Mhz?
1Gb hard disk?
16Mb RAM
No 3D accelerator card
Windows 95 (from mid year)
Doom had just been released.
Now...
AMD's 1Ghz processor is shipping this month!
40Gb hard disk
128-256Mb RAM
3D Accelerator (1 model has 2 processors + 64Mb RAM - or there's the GeForce 32Mb DDR)
Windows 'millenium' (for gamers...)???
Rune, Blade and Halo will be released this year.
2005 - my very conservative estimate /~unreal/ubb/html/smile.gif
10Ghz processor with 10Ghz bus speed
1 Terabyte of RAM (entry level system /~unreal/ubb/html/smile.gif )
10 Terabyte hard disk (or equivalent)
3D real-time rendering sub-system with 10Gb very fast ram, full T&L, massive textures in one pass, full radiosity support etc...
Windows 2000 (SP 15)
And the game? What will it have?
Full radiosity lighting.
Full support for real curves.
Full support for deformations.
Total advanced IK system.
Radically advanced AI - you WILL run from your enemies...
Full support for direct retinal display system (which is currently being perfected)
Imagine all of those great animated cut-scenes 50x better as your in-game experience.
The name of the game?
Why, Unreal 3 of course /~unreal/ubb/html/wink.gif
------------------
'The enemy can't press a button if you disable his hand...Medic!' (Starship Troopers)
. In deathmatch look for me as [SkW]Deathwish of UK clan SkaarjWarriors. Email me hellscrag@lineone.net.