Make Something Unreal Phase 4 finalists

Finalists for "Best use of Physics" for Phase 4 are announced on Unreal Tournament forum. The finalists are:

• The Ball http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-ball
• Crucible http://www.runestorm.com
• PlanetStorm http://www.moddb.com/mods/angels-fall-first-planetstorm
• Steam Racers http://www.moddb.com/mods/steam-racers
• Project Swing http://www.moddb.com/mods/projectswing
• XS Vehicles http://www.fileplanet.com/204529/200...---XS-Vehicles
• DM-RB-Derelict http://www.fileplanet.com/204340/200...DM-RB-Derelict
• DM-RB-Mayhem http://www.fileplanet.com/204334/200...--DM-RB-Mayhem
• DM-RB-Wasteland-SE http://www.fileplanet.com/204332/200...B-Wasteland-SE
• DM-RB-ZeroG http://www.fileplanet.com/204342/200...--DM-RB-Zero-G
• Robo Coop http://www.fileplanet.com/204330/200...Robo-CO-OP-Mod
• CarBall 3 http://www.carball.net/
• Takeshi Gladiators http://www.fileplanet.com/204749/200...9;s-Gladiators
• VCTF-RumplesRaceway_Twisted http://www.fileplanet.com/204531/200...aceway_Twisted

Even these are not finalists following got Honorable Mentions:

• XS Prototypes
• MillagunUT2D
• UnWheel 2
• Snarf Vehicles
• DM-NewHorizon
• VCTF-Electro
• UT2D Killing Time
• Cubes of Serenity
• TRE - Last Life
• DM-RB-Labyrinth 

Here are few examples of finalist's work.

There are many other contestants and it is worthwhile to have a look at other entries. If you have some spare time head to Make something Unreal site and start downloading.

UDK released!

After a long wait Epic Games has finally released UDK – Unreal Development Kit. If you haven’t heard of it before, UDK is complete development environment for Unreal 3 engine. Of course there are some restrictions – it is free for non commercial use only. There were lots of examples for use of UDK in past like VRND – Notre Dame visualization demo and others.

Epic has excellent reputation when it comes to supporting user community. We all know about Make something Unreal contest with $1,000,000 prize pool and EDK equivalent for older versions (Unreal Engine Runtime, etc)

UDK content

Like with UT UDK comes with famous UnrealEd. In its own UnrealEd is very powerful editor and it may take a while to master it. If you do invest time and learn it rewards are great. Just look for custom maps for UT3, check out Community Bonus Packs for maps made by users.  If you are very new to UnrealEd check out videos at 3D Buzz.

Apart from editor you also get all components of Unreal 3 engine:

• Unreal Matinee – for creating cinematic
• UnrealScript – build prototypes and add gameplay elements
• PhysX support and PhAT physics editor
• Lightmass – lighting and shadowing engine
• Terrain editor
• LAN and direct IP support
• Ogg Vorbis audio support
• AI with crowd behaviour
• Swarm – distributed computing support for increased performance
• Destructible environments
• SpeedTree editor
• FaceFX facial animation

This list is not complete but gives you an idea what to expect. The UDK is used by Epic and other game developers to create games like Unreal Tournament 3, Gears of War, BioShock, Borderlands and many more. For complete list of feature go here.

 

Support content

Just looking at the list of features makes you realize that making something useful is not an easy task. Even with all videos available it is not that simple. Epic is very much aware of that and they have provided some content to help you to get things rolling.

There are 7 maps you can butcher, I mean open, explore and customize. The list includes famous DM-Deck, DM-Sanctuary, VCTF-Necropolis and VCTF-Sandstorm.

There is also a simple ExampleMap if you find others too complex to start with (I would recommend you to start with this Example Map). There is lot of other content provided like vehicles, characters, weapons, textures, etc.

 

Separate UDK downloads

If all of the sample content is not enough there are 3 showcase applications you can download:

• Whizzle – 2D platform game developed in UDK by Psyonix
• The Ball – entry for Make Something Unreal content
• UT3 demo

On-line documentation is available but I haven’t checked it out yet. If it is anything like in the past there will be plenty resources for you.

Starcraft II Battle report IV

A few days ago Blizzard has released a new video - Battle report number four. This time it was a battle between Protoss and Terran.

This is another interesting video showing lots of possibilities of Starcraft II and several nice strategic moves. Video is similar length to other battle reports - 19 minutes.

Due to other engagements I don't have time to write up comments until the mid November. Then I will post more about this report. Until then go and get it from Startcraft II page.

GT 5 high resolution screenshots Ferrai Enzo and Lamborghini Gallarado

Just after my yesterday's post some high resolution scrennshots of Ferrari Enzo and Lamborghini Gallarado LP 560 have emerged. Here is just a selected few of them to showcase the beauty and level of details Polyphony Digital is building into the game.

Gran Turismo 5 updates

There are quite a few news about upcoming Gran Turismo 5. Most of these are from recent Tokyo Game Show. To put them in reversel chronological order (order of importance at the same time):

• Release date is set to March 2010 (for Japan)
• All cars will feature damage (maybe not like rally cars shown earlier but scratches for sure)
• New cars included are Ferrari 485 Italia, Lamborghini Gallarado LP560, Mercedes SLS AMG
• Animated pit crew

It is unfortunate that we have to wait for another 6 months for the release but it will be worth it. After all there are 1,000 vehicles, 80 tracks and endless hours to be spent playing it...

CryEngine 3 demo impressions

Earlier this month a new video of CryEngine was shown at the SIGGRAPH 2009 conference.
CryEngine is well known to all gamers, well most of gamers. If you haven’t played Crysis you are one of very few…

In video below there are few things I would like to point out.

Even with use of DirectX 9.0c Crytek is managing to create impressive lighting environments with great performance. First part of the video, Sponza atrium, is built from 1.4M triangles and it looks great but I don’t like the camera movement – too fast and too sharp.




Second part, 53” from start is Manhattan apartment is much more interesting. This scene has little bit less details, only 1.1M triangles and it runs at 113 FPS. Author of this demo playes a lot with position of sunlight to illustrate light capabilities of new engine. The engine does it very nicely with diffuse coloured lights bouncing off objects like blue couch/chair or green and red carpets. Real time lighting is really good even if it may not be 100% accurate. I am not saying that it is not but programs like Lightscape create very, very realistic images. Here is a sample.

 

Development of the GPU and technologies like CUDA and FireStream enabled us to have scenes like one below in real time. Mind you, this is a screen capture from a video.



Last part of the video is about handling of object and materials. It starts at 2’26”. It is easy to see how light volumes are affected by objects like carpet. Light is reflecting from it and gives the light reddish colour.

Seeing this functionality really makes me keen to try is out for myself. Even if I could have the engine and the editor only. But if I can get all that plus the good game for about NZ$120 then why not?!

New voice for Kerrigan in Starcraft II?

From news on Kotaku Glynnis Talken Campbell will not give voice to Kerrigan. From the same source Karen Strassman will be new Kerrigan.

You can her audio clip here but it is at the very end of the clip 1’48”. I guess we will know for sure once game is released next year.