The Power Review

Unreal Engine 3: Epic’s Fail

The Unreal Engine 3.0 (UE3) is, without a doubt, one of the biggest middleware engines powering games this console generation.  It even eclipses past console generation’s middleware engines, like Renderware and Unreal Engine 2.  UE3 is a great engine, but it worries me how much developers rely on this engine to make their games.  I know it makes things easier when programming games for consoles; but what are the drawbacks of using one engine excessively?  I, for one, feel it is time to retire UE3.  It has been a double edge sword for the 360, and a jagged dagger in the back of the PS3

UE3 has been a major benefactor for Microsoft’s console this generation.  It has been the catalyst for a major portion of 360’s exclusive games such as: Gears of War 1 & 2, Bioshock (yes, I know it was timed), Mass Effect, Lost Odyssey and The Last Remnant.  These are all great games graphically; they even fueled early arguments that, maybe, Sony was feeding gamers a bunch of BOLOGNA with their claims that the PS3 is the more powerful console.  I mean, come on, early in both of the consoles life cycles it was hard to argue that the PS3 was better graphically than the 360 when nothing stacked up to the titan, Gears of War. Though as of late evidence has been building that Sony may have been telling the truth.

Another benefit that UE3 provides the 360, is providing an advantage with multiplatform games.  There hasn’t been a single UE3 powered game that runs better on the PS3 with the exception of Mirrors Edge.  I’ll mention a few examples for you: Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 1 & 2, Tom Clancy’s Endwar, Stranglehold, X-Men Orgins: Wolverine, Unreal Tournament 3, Army of Two, Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway, Bioshock, Black Site: Area 51, Destroy All Humans, Fatal Inertia, Medal of Honor: Airborne, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Turok and The Wheelman.  There are more games, but I just gave you 16 examples; all of which to show you the slant that UE3 provides the 360 when it comes to UE3 powered multiplatform games’ performances.  The slant in differences is so steep that when I see a head to head comparison of multiplatform games using UE3, I automatically know the outcome; the 360 version will be the winner. The reason for this is because the 360’s architecture is similar to a PC’s, where middleware engines thrive because there are so many different types graphics cards available in the PC market. Combine the previously mentioned reasons with the PS3 having a completely foreign architecture, then you a recipe for a downgraded port.

Above, I listed the good, but, now, it’s time to delve into the bad side of UE3 for the 360.  First, Microsoft needs to stop using UE3 as a crux for the majority of its exclusive games, because, to be honest, I know that the 360 would be better off with more proprietary engines instead of relying so heavily on UE3 with the majority of its exclusive games.  I mean, look how Halo 3, which was built on a proprietary engine to take advantage of the 360’s architecture, out shines Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 1 & 2, which both run on UE3 (What you should also take notice of is that Halo 3 and Rainbow Six :Vegas 1 & 2 are 1st person shooters, hence the reason I didn’t use Gears of War 1 & 2 in my comparison, because they are 3rd person shooters.  I just wanted to stay as fair as possible).
Middleware engines, like UE3, never take full advantage of the hardware they are utilizing.  I mean, think about it. PC’s use middleware engines because they have to.  It’s just not feasible for a PC developer to make a games engine based around one graphics card.  ATI and Nvidia have so many different cards available with different architectures and graphical performance limits.  Also, 3rd party developers use UE3 in order to get multiplatform games running in parity on both the PS3 and 360.  This same concept doesn’t apply to 360 games when they are exclusive.  An exclusive game should be taking full advantage of the hardware its running on.  One point in having a game be exclusive is to not worry about another console’s architecture.  Besides, the more Microsoft relies on UE3 for exclusives the further they lag behind graphically to the PS3’s 1st party games that utilize proprietary engines.  The fact that Microsoft relies so heavily on UE3 for their exclusive games saddens me because the 360, and its gamers, might never see the 360 reach its full graphics capabilities.

And PS3, I haven’t forgotten about you. The benefits that UE3 provide the PS3 are……(crickets!) Oh! That’s right! UE3 really hasn’t done any favors for the PS3, except the buzz that it caused for Sony at E3 ‘05, which is ironic; because it was touted to showcase the PS3’s graphics when the engine debuted, but it’s definitely done more for 360 in the graphical argument.

Honestly now, UE3 has constantly slapped Sony’s face this generation.  There was the constant delay of multiplatform games that used UE3 on the PS3.  This gave the 360 a de facto timed exclusive, and also branded PS3 with the nickname, The Delaystation 3.  Then when said multiplatform games arrived, they looked and ran worse on the PS3.  UE3 made many gamers doubtful, some still are, of Sony’s claim that the PS3 is more powerful than the 360, because the majority of games that use UE3 run better on 360.  Really this isn’t any surprise to gamers in the know.  Middleware engines tend to run better on the 360 because the architecture is closer to a PC’s, which is where middleware engines originated.  Kind of seems obvious as to why the UE3 doesn’t play well with PS3; when you consider the PS3 and its unique architecture, which hardly resembles traditional PC game development environments.

UE3 delivered yet another slap to Sony with the ex-King of Graphics, Gears of War, running on rival console, the 360; and trumping anything on PS3 from a graphical standpoint in its first year.  Many gamers and press were led to ask what the $600 price tag was for.

One thing is for certain and that is it might be time to retire the Unreal Engine 3.  There are still more problems with the engine such as: rampant pop in issue with textures loading in late on characters and the environments, that weird haze that most UE3 games have around objects in the background, and other technical issues I won’t get into for sake of length, but yea, it’s time for us, as gamers, to move past the UE3.  Think about it.  It’s holding back the 360 and its games, because  it’s being used as a crux for too many of the exclusive games which is leading  to the 360’s graphical growth becoming stagnant. Its not helping the PS3 and its games because the engine just doesn’t operate that well with the PS3’s architecture, which has led to less than stellar ports and numerous delays for PS3 games (The Last Remnant anyone?).  Well gamers, what do you guys think?  Is UE3 past its prime, or can developers still squeeze a little bit more juice from this engine before it is inevitably put to rest?

Also to further elaborate my points here are some screenshots. I’m doing these screenshots to give gamers a visual reference point of how I arrived at my thought and to further elaborate on them as well.

Ubisoft Haze? It certainly sucks like it!

The first two screenshot are of my beef with Unreal Engine 3 and its weird blur effect. Notice the Backgrounds in both screen shots have that weird haze effect in the distance.

Screenshots form www.Gamespot.com and www.ign.com

Texture pop-in

The next graphical error I hate from the Unreal Engine 3, and it’s well documented ,is the texture pop in issue. Notice in the 360 screenshot made the guys over at The Lens of Truth that the boot’s texture hasn’t quite popped in. Also another source with games documenting the texture pop in is provided by Giant Bomb.

Screenshots from www.lensoftruth.com

The graphical hold back of 360’s exclusives to PS3’s
Also just so 36o gamer can see that Unreal Engine 3 lags behind Sony’s and Microsoft’s  first party Engines. Here you go. Screenshots from
www.lensoftruth.com and  http://kineticninja.blogspot.com/2009/01/naughty-dog-realtime-graphics-and.html

Microsoft Halo’s vs.UE3’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

Multiplatform:

And here are some screenshot to showcase the slant that Unreal Engine 3 provides 360 over PS3 when it comes to multiplatform games. Notice the higher resolution textures on Bioshock. Also notice the better lighting in the X-Men Origins: Wolverine Shots

Well that’s it for the screens guys.

Please leave your comments below to let us know what you think!