Unreal engine 3 updates

At GDC some improvements to Unreal 3 engine were demonstrated. At Gametrailers site you can see the HD video of these. The list includes:

• ambient occlusion - adds more realistic display of the individual objects in the level by generating more realistic shadows
• advanced character lighting - this really helps to see the actors. Check the video to see the difference!
• high density crowds - now you can blast away hundreds of enemies
• dynamic fluid surfaces -now water looks very real
• matinee improvements - now with real time preview in editor
• soft body physics - now famous demo with "meat cube" showing incorporation of Ageia's technology for soft body physics and liquids.
• destructible environment - an extension of PhysX engine. Just check the video to see new level of realism that can be achieved.

Here are some examples in relatively low quality (screen capture from the video)

Horde

Fluid surfaces

Soft body

Destructible environment

My favourite feature is destructible environment. If used wisely in a level it can influence gameplay in a really good way. Let say we have a level with multi level buildings but with destructible components (roofs, walls and floors). The battle starts and as the time progress top level(s) or building(s) crumbles and changes the way you play - there is no more cover or it is greatly reduced.

DM-Lego map for Unreal Tournament 3

This looks like a fun map to play. It is simple and destructible! To see what I mean heave a look at the video.

If you like it get it from here.

If you would like to know more about UE3 updates check this inverview with Tim Sweeney on Team Xbox site - 4 pages long.

Ender's Game will become a game

Not too long ago Chair Entertainment announced on their News & Press page that they have bought interactive rights for Ender's Game. The plan is to bring this novel to all next generation consoles and PC.

If you are not familiar with Ender's Game I would recommend you go to the bookstore and look for a copy. The novel was published in 1985 by Tor Books. Of course, I won't re-tell the story! I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did. As reassurance of my recommendation this book won Nebula award and Hugo award next year as well!

Personally, one of most memorable parts of the book are the 'Battle Room' war games descriptions. Quite often I would find myself imagining the battle in zero-gravity and how I would tackle the situation instead of reading the book. Now I will have a chance to do that!

From technology point of view, game will use Unreal 3 (U3) engine. The U3 engine is one of the leading game engines on the market right now. The best examples of capabilities of it check out games like Unreal Tournament III, Gears of War, Bioshock and lots of other titles. As core technology U3 engine is supporting Ageia's PhysX hardware acceleration. If you read my previous post there are some really exciting news on that front.

Lets' wait and see if all factors will fall in place (nVidia making cheap PhysX cards in mass production, Chair Entertainment doing a good job and U3 engine handling game content) and hope we don't have to wait too long.

Ageia + nVidia = Awesome!

Well, well, well.

Today nVidia has announced that they will aquire Ageia Technologies Inc.

This in not a surprize, really. Ageia has really exciting technology but didn't manage to gain a considerable market share. Of course stroke a deal with Sony for Playstation 3, but appart from that not many PC stores are selling them successfuly. I think I don't have to say anything about nVidia. It is very likely that you have their product in your PC.

What is really exciting is that now we could expect to have one of two options:

• nVidia starts mass production of Physx cards with little or no modifications. This would hopefully bring the price down so we mere mortals can afford one
• new breed of cards will emerge - graphics + Physyx. This would take more time to develop but would have better penetraction to the market, e.g. high end graphics cards have physyx chip bundled

Let's wait and see what will happen. Anyway I think we (gamers) will benefit from this aquisition.

Don't waste time nVidia, bring on the goodies!