Unreal 3 engine & Nv40 at GDC2004

[Farid]

http://www.homelanfed.com/index.php?id=21917

When we entered the Epic Games meeting room at GDC on Wednesday, we saw some pictures on the way that we thought were either some very detailed artwork or real 3D models of the characters and environments in Epic’s next game. Nope. According to what Epic folks told us, we were looking at actual in game screenshots from UnrealEngine3, the next generation game graphics engine from the Cary, NC based developer.

For a while, we didn’t believe it. We though those shots of monsters and environments were so realistic, in textures and in lighting, that they couldn’t be in game graphics. But when we got to see the UnrealEngine3 tech demo for ourselves (photos and videos of both the tech demo and the wall pictures were banned) we became believers from the start, when we saw a iron gothic building in a slightly ruined state. The scene, which like all the rest of the demo was running on NVIDIA’s currently unannounced next-gen graphics card, looked and felt as close to photo-realistic as anything we have ever seen in games. The textures and the level design gave the scene a weight that is truly hard to describe.

Another scene in the demo showed off the lighting and shadow effects with a flying lantern going through a stone castle setting. The textures looked like they had simply taken pictures of a real place, rather than creating it in a computer program. Another demo showed off the game’s shaders and materials which look as impressive as a similar demo shown by Valve Software at last year’s E3. The physics demo was next which showed a lot of interactivity with everything that wasn’t tied down able to be moved and manipulated realistically.

The character model demo was next on the UnrealEngine3 demo, which included a dragon-like creature, a small imp like being, a big humanoid like reptile and a massive monster with a big gun on his back. All of them were looking like they were pre-rendered but they were in game and moving. The highest polygon count on the creatures was 6,000. That’s a lot but the models looked like they were many, many times that amount.

The final demo was of an outdoor setting which showed a peaceful green grass plain with slightly futuristic looking windmills surrounding us. Again, the scene looked close to photo-realistic and the horizon seemed to stretch out beyond what we could see. We also saw some editing tools, including a new level editor that adds a few Crytek like easy-to-make features to the level editor.

So what was the date for when a game with these impressive graphics will hit store shelves. Well, it’s going to be a while as Epic has no plans to release a game with UnrealEngine3 until at least early 2006 (although engine licensees might try to do so earlier than that). The demo was impressive and in 2006 the graphics to run them will be available to everyone. Until then, all we have are our memories of what we saw, and that's going to keep us occupied for some time to come.

Photorealistic?

For a while, we didn’t believe it

I'm really looking forward for some leaks of this presentation.

 

[Luminescent]

Photorealistic for being realtime, of course.

 

[991060]

Too bad they didn't take any shot, we'd rather judge how realistic the demo is by ourselves.

 

[nutball]

Hmmm. By 2006 NV4x will be old hat won't it? We'll be running NV5x/R5xx's, and speculating about the imminent launch of NV6x/R6xx. :?

Like, NVIDIA is so l4m3r with their 64x4 pipeline architecture, it's like so 2005

 

[Waltar]

Photo realism at 6k polys?

 

[Skinner]

Do you remember the stories of photorealistic rendering which would be possible with a NV10

 

[GameCat]

6000 tris per character? That isn't even high by todays standard. There are PS2 games that use twice that for characters for christ sake.

 

[Farid]

Photo realism at 6k polys?

I don't believe it too...

But it's seems that the Unreal 3 engine is going down the "same polycount but more passes" just like J.carmack

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11000

comming from this http://www.intel.com/personal/do_more/gaming/stories/game_engines.htm

 

[Rookie]

Hi,It's not only run on NV40,R420 is also involved the UT war,I just wondering would UT2006 still to be a TWIMTB game or not

Quote from Gamespot:

"Epic ran the demonstration on a system with a 2Ghz CPU from AMD using next-generation hardware from Nvidia (a system in another room ran the demonstration using next-generation ATI hardware). "

Check more tech details on Unreal Engine 3.0 from Gamespy:

http://archive.gamespy.com/gdc2004/unrealengine3/

 

[John Reynolds]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/03/24/news_6092217.html

The interior of the cathedral was stunning, since its brick walls looked as though each brick had been individually modeled. Up close, not only did the wall look like it had a protruding, textured surface covered with blemishes and scratches, but each brick looked like it cast its own shadow. However, this was just a technical illusion, because the engine uses an advanced form of bump-mapping called "virtual displacement mapping" to make the bricks look three-dimensional. When the texture was removed, it turned out that the wall was almost a completely flat surface.

 

[Waltar]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/03/24/news_6092217.html

The interior of the cathedral was stunning, since its brick walls looked as though each brick had been individually modeled. Up close, not only did the wall look like it had a protruding, textured surface covered with blemishes and scratches, but each brick looked like it cast its own shadow. However, this was just a technical illusion, because the engine uses an advanced form of bump-mapping called "virtual displacement mapping" to make the bricks look three-dimensional. When the texture was removed, it turned out that the wall was almost a completely flat surface.

Hmm did someone talk to Humus?


Apparently Sweety (thats my nickname for him.) Is doing what Carmack is doing: Retardedly high poly models downsampled then passed half a dozen times. 6 million poly's to 6000. Must look jaw dropping. The Doom 3 models are 250k polys to 3800 if I recall correctly.

Either way: This engine is going to be sex on wheels.

 

[Bjorn]

Hmm did someone talk to Humus?

He didn't come up with this though. He "just" made a demo with this technology. (I assume that they're the same)

Either way: This engine is going to be sex on wheels.

I certainly hope so. Mostly because the Unreal Engine is popular among RPG developers and i'm a huge RPG fan myself.

 

[Tim Murray]

Maybe Bethesda would use it for Oblivion....

Oops, now I have to go change my pants.

 

[Bjorn]

Maybe Bethesda would use it for Oblivion....

Oops, now I have to go change my pants.

Or Star Wars: Knights of the old republic 2, don't know if it'll use the new engine though.

 

[bloodbob]

It could be 600 triangles then tessalation.

 

[John Reynolds]

I certainly hope so. Mostly because the Unreal Engine is popular among RPG developers and i'm a huge RPG fan myself.

Slightly OT, but speaking of upcoming RPGs using advanced engines, Troika's Vampire: Bloodlines is using Valve's Source engine. I just got the latest issue of CGW in the mail yesterday and it has a 3-page preview of the game and it looks incredible. And Arx Fatalis 2 will also use Source.

 

[Dave Baumann]

I'm wondering if Source is going to get a lot more popular through MS's XNA initiative...

AS for the bump mapping - yes, I was kinda wowwed by the level of detail shown in various parts of the HL2 demonstrations. This is going to become a lot more prevelant in the coming months.

 

[Bjorn]

... Troika's Vampire: Bloodlines is using Valve's Source engine... And Arx Fatalis 2 will also use Source.

But none of those games are made by Bioware

 

[John Reynolds]

But none of those games are made by Bioware

KotOR 2 isn't being developed by Bioware either.

 

[Bjorn]

But none of those games are made by Bioware

KotOR 2 isn't being developed by Bioware either.

Ok, "a company that is run by former Black Isle guys that made awesome games like Planescape torment, Baldurs Gate 1-2.... that got the contract from Bioware" then (if i'm not mistaken)