[MJP]

There are tons of ways to handle real-time GI, especially if you're targeting "next-gen" hardware specs. The question is how well it stands up to pre-baked GI in terms of quality (usually the answer is "not so well"), and how much runtime performance cost it has.

[Silent_Buddha]

Originally Posted by ultragpu

Sounds like UE4 is a whole generation leap over Samaritan if Rein is to be believed.

Well, considering the bump in version number, I'd say it's a given. UE -> UE2 -> UE3 were all quite large generational leaps.

If it weren't for the fact that Tim Sweeney is the brains behind this, I likely wouldn't give Mark Rein's (a very good marketeer) words much credit. But Tim Sweeney is a pretty savvy engine designer who always seems to be fairly in touch with the direction hardware is going. A bit of a different approach to Carmack who tends to try to funnel hardware into his vision of future 3D rendering.

As well, having Dx11 presumably as a baseline should make for some potentially fantastic results. In other words designing around Dx11 from the start rather than designing around Dx9 and trying to then add or port it to Dx11.

Regards,
SB

[homerdog]

Originally Posted by MJP

There are tons of ways to handle real-time GI, especially if you're targeting "next-gen" hardware specs. The question is how well it stands up to pre-baked GI in terms of quality (usually the answer is "not so well"), and how much runtime performance cost it has.

Well if you want GI with highly destructible environments, baked is not an option.
If the environment is mostly static and you can make a lot of assumptions about the nature of ambient light in a given area, hybrid approaches like Far Cry 3's make more sense.

[MfA]

Originally Posted by Silent_Buddha

As well, having Dx11 presumably as a baseline should make for some potentially fantastic results. In other words designing around Dx11 from the start rather than designing around Dx9 and trying to then add or port it to Dx11.

They have never really tried the latter, they added as little as they could get away with as poorly as they could get away with ... no bigger force against DX11 adoption than Epic IMO.