BioShock

[mckmas8808]

Yeah the game does use UE 3.0

 

[mckmas8808]

Okay so now I'm really really getting the feeling that this game is going to be on the PS3 also.

However, no single Xbox 360 game at the show got us worked up quite like BioShock, which was tucked away behind closed doors at publisher 2K Games' booth. Its stunning art direction, remarkably creepy and compelling premise, and intriguingly open-ended design served as a powerful demonstration of what the 360 seems capable of. And, poignantly enough, developer Irrational Games opted to show off BioShock on the 360 in particular, even though it's also headed to the PC and PlayStation 3.

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6151435/p-26.html

Damnit why did this game have to be shown behind closed doors?

 

[Acert93]

Yeah the game does use UE 3.0

UE2.5. Wikipedia actually has a pretty accurate/up to date listing of what games are using what version:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UE3

 

[kyleb]

Heh, then they can use AA.

 

[AlNom]

unless they ripped the engine to pieces and put in their own updates.

 

[mckmas8808]

UE2.5. Wikipedia actually has a pretty accurate/up to date listing of what games are using what version:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UE3

No that site is behind. The devs are now going with UE 3.0. I wish I could find a link.

 

[Tap In]

Also WON Gamespot's Best of Show


http://www.gamespot.com/features/6151435/p-28.html

But all the cleverness we can muster up from the depths of our being still isn't enough to adequately express just how original and tantalizing BioShock came across to us at E3 2006. It left us deep in thought, wondering why such a visually impressive, profoundly interesting game would be tucked away beneath the surface of all the agitated excitement on the show floor. BioShock stunned us only behind closed doors at publisher 2K Games' booth, as developers from Irrational Games demonstrated some of the game's finer points in a working demo. There's little to show for it besides some pretty-looking still images (that are, in fact, suggestive of how the game looks in full motion) and our own tall tales about how well the game seems to be coming together. So take our word for it when we say that, of all the 1,000-plus games we saw at E3 2006, BioShock stood out the most vividly in our collective memory.

However, no single Xbox 360 game at the show got us worked up quite like BioShock, which was tucked away behind closed doors at publisher 2K Games' booth. Its stunning art direction, remarkably creepy and compelling premise, and intriguingly open-ended design served as a powerful demonstration of what the 360 seems capable of. And, poignantly enough, developer Irrational Games opted to show off BioShock on the 360 in particular, even though it's also headed to the PC and PlayStation 3.

 

[Wunderchu]

No that site is behind. The devs are now going with UE 3.0. I wish I could find a link.

ya you're right, they've switched to UE3 now;

http://360.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=7461&pg=3&comments=&preview=

 

[blakjedi]

If MS were smart they'd get exclusivity... forever... and use this as a graphical showcase for 360... If people were THAT impressed choosing this over gears and heavenly sword it would make more sense to get this exclusive over say... Alan Wake.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

If MS were smart they'd get exclusivity... forever... and use this as a graphical showcase for 360... If people were THAT impressed choosing this over gears and heavenly sword it would make more sense to get this exclusive over say... Alan Wake.

Getting this exclusive would be a big deal for MS, maybe they are attempting to do it, however it's easy to understand that people were more excited about this than Alan Wake, because they were shown 20 minute video of Bioshock, whereas Alan Wake only was shown in a form of short trailer, but I have big faith for Alan Wake becoming a Triple A title for MS.

 

[mckmas8808]

If MS were smart they'd get exclusivity... forever... and use this as a graphical showcase for 360... If people were THAT impressed choosing this over gears and heavenly sword it would make more sense to get this exclusive over say... Alan Wake.

But Gamespot has already said that the game will come to the PS3.

developer Irrational Games opted to show off BioShock on the 360 in particular, even though it's also headed to the PC and PlayStation 3.

More than likely the devs stated so there at E3 while showing the demo.

 

[blakjedi]

But Gamespot has already said that the game will come to the PS3.

Not sure what that has to do with anything. Gamespot just reports news. The decision is 2K Games' and MS'.

 

[Acert93]

ya you're right, they've switched to UE3 now;

http://360.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=7461&pg=3&comments=&preview=

That actually sounds like heavy Marketing-speak to me.

AMN: Speaking of the graphics engine, it's running on Unreal 2.5 right?

Ken: No, we've moved to Unreal 3, we've done a lot of modifications on top of it, all the water effects we've added, and we've added a lot of features like water....again we don't build features just to have them, we build them to have an emotional resonance. The AI relationship with the characters is an emotional thing and with the gameplay, the water, we want to make you feel like the ocean is about to drown you, it's drowning Rapture and as you'll see in the demo, water is just coming into this place so we've hired a water programmer and water artist, just for this game, and they're kicking ass and you've never seen water like this.

AMN: When did the change happen, the switch to UE3 happen?

Ken: A few months ago, I mean, technically, I think you misunderstand me on how this works, basically, we translated systems over and ported more systems over, but Unreal 3 has a lot of elements that 2.5 has, there's a lot of marketing there, but we had a lot of benefits to that and we're not using all of it, we're using our own things, but we have a lot of benefits too.

Last I heard they were using a modification of the Vengance engine (which was in turn a modification of UE2.5). They may have moved on to the UE3 tools, but he backsteps pretty quickly and notes they are not using all of it (=UE3) and then he emphasizes their own modifications and shifts the focus not once, but twice.

Sounds to me that they may have transitioned some tools over to UE3 and for marketing purposes they do NOT want the "UE2.5" tag because 3 > 2.5. 2.5 is "old" and less impressive, etc. Bad marketing. This is why you rarely hear that SCA is using a modified version of UE2.5. Part of my skepticism is graphically it doesn't appear to be leveraging many of the core graphical features of UE3. Of course no one has to use all the UE3 graphical goodies to use the tools. But that could be the contrast between developers interest in tools and with consumers wondering what graphical engine it is using.

 

[mckmas8808]

Not sure what that has to do with anything. Gamespot just reports news. The decision is 2K Games' and MS'.

I'm not sure but is MS putting any investments into this game?

 

[AlNom]

Part of my skepticism is graphically it doesn't appear to be leveraging many of the core graphical features of UE3. Of course no one has to use all the UE3 graphical goodies to use the tools. But that could be the contrast between developers interest in tools and with consumers wondering what graphical engine it is using.

It means performance will be good across the board, and they can concentrate on making that art look good I suppose (as opposed to just turning features off without much in the way of graphical replacements ala Halo PC or FarCry).

 

[Platon]

Well, I guess it doesn't matter which UE they use, as they seem to be doing a lot of work on the engine them selfs, enhancing/adding features that they feel are important, which IMHO is the way to go. Maybe since the strongest point of the UE3.0 is the tools maybe they are using those while the tech stuffis a bit of whatever...

 

[macabre]

I go to the irrational website from time to time, and today I saw something. It seems Bioshock is not the only game they are working on, sounds big - any guesses ?

We’re hiring!

Off the back of winning game of the show at E3, we’re looking for lots of talented people to join us in Australia. We’re working on the sequel to one of the best loved PC franchises of all time. I think gamers are going to go nuts when they find out. So, why not come and talk to us about being part of it?

 

[Lysander]

Someone pop a question to bioshock dev on its forums

Hey Holiday, could you possible clear up the confusion if the game is using unreal engine 2 ("2.5") or Unreal Engine 3? I'm sure many here would appreciate that! VERY nice to see you here!

Long Answer: When you make games, It's WAY easier to control/fix bugs/add features when you code in-house. Our programmers wrote alot of really new code to squeeze the pretty-stuff out of the 360. In fact, new rendering features are coming online so fast that we artists have to struggle to leverage it all. We basically have every "bullet-point" feature that every other next-gen engine has plus some custom crap just for Bioshock. It looks hot, and, we have all the good-looking stuff already up-and-running on the platform...It's a real relief.

 

[blakjedi]

Someone pop a question to bioshock dev on its forums

didnt answer the question did he?

 

[scooby_dooby]

didnt answer the question did he?

If you read between the lines, I think he did. 2.5 but it's so hacked up it hardly resembles the original engine.

edit- I just noticed this guy is an artist, what does he know??