http://g4tv.com/trailers/videos/37413/Unreal-Engine-3-New-Features-GDC-2009-Trailer.html
Nice video about some new features like Unreal Lightmass, Unreal MCP and the new Unreal Content Browser.
New Global Illumination System
High-quality static lighting with next-generation effects, such as: soft shadows with accurate penumbrae, diffuse and specular interreflection and color bleeding. The result is higher quality lighting, while retaining full compatibility with UE3's existing lighting and shadowing features.
Unreal Swarm
Unreal Swarm enables lighting to be generated up to 10 times faster. Something that could take 20 minutes to rebuild a level with lighting in another engine now takes two minutes using UE3, according to Sweeney. As an example, the Rising Sun level from Unreal Tournament 3 was shown with the global illumination system running and the differences were like night and day.
New Content Browser
A new content browser and search engine, powered by a back-end database, enables designers to find game assets near-instantly among large amounts of source content. With thumbnail previews, support for content tagging, and asset collection management.
During the demo, a search for a "pillar" pulled up all pillars in the data base, which could then be dragged and dropped into a personal collection. Any content within a collection can be shared with other members of the team.
New AI
A new artificial intelligence system that now supports the automatic creation and use of navigation meshes. Sweeney said this gives AI-controlled characters increased spatial awareness of the world around them and enabling them to make smarter movement decisions.
"Navigation meshes further optimize the performance and memory usage of AI relative to traditional node-based navigation systems, thanks to a more efficient representation and less reliance on collision-detection for movement," said Sweeney.
Master Control Program (MCP)
MCP, or Master Control Program, which is an innovative online service architecture supporting announcements, settings management, online population tracking, and data collection for hardware, profile, and game stats. Unreal MCP includes a set of tools for visualizing gameplay, including such features as heat maps displaying regions of player activity within a level. This allows developers to collect game-flow statistics.
Nice video about some new features like Unreal Lightmass, Unreal MCP and the new Unreal Content Browser.
New Global Illumination System
High-quality static lighting with next-generation effects, such as: soft shadows with accurate penumbrae, diffuse and specular interreflection and color bleeding. The result is higher quality lighting, while retaining full compatibility with UE3's existing lighting and shadowing features.
Unreal Swarm
Unreal Swarm enables lighting to be generated up to 10 times faster. Something that could take 20 minutes to rebuild a level with lighting in another engine now takes two minutes using UE3, according to Sweeney. As an example, the Rising Sun level from Unreal Tournament 3 was shown with the global illumination system running and the differences were like night and day.
New Content Browser
A new content browser and search engine, powered by a back-end database, enables designers to find game assets near-instantly among large amounts of source content. With thumbnail previews, support for content tagging, and asset collection management.
During the demo, a search for a "pillar" pulled up all pillars in the data base, which could then be dragged and dropped into a personal collection. Any content within a collection can be shared with other members of the team.
New AI
A new artificial intelligence system that now supports the automatic creation and use of navigation meshes. Sweeney said this gives AI-controlled characters increased spatial awareness of the world around them and enabling them to make smarter movement decisions.
"Navigation meshes further optimize the performance and memory usage of AI relative to traditional node-based navigation systems, thanks to a more efficient representation and less reliance on collision-detection for movement," said Sweeney.
Master Control Program (MCP)
MCP, or Master Control Program, which is an innovative online service architecture supporting announcements, settings management, online population tracking, and data collection for hardware, profile, and game stats. Unreal MCP includes a set of tools for visualizing gameplay, including such features as heat maps displaying regions of player activity within a level. This allows developers to collect game-flow statistics.
http://news.bigdownload.com/2009/03/25/gdc-2009-epic-games-shows-off-new-unreal-engine-3-features/
