1
Jun
2009
Epic Games is Breaking New Ground, Literally
I know it seems like we’ve been bringing you a lot of articles about Epic Games lately, but that’s strictly a coincidence. This news comes straight from the Sr. PR Manager over at Epic, Dana Cowley:
“We’re constructing a second building next door to our existing facility. It will include a totally new, state-of-the-art motion capture facility in addition to dozens of new offices.
The construction you can see from the road right now is mostly for the expanded parking lot.”
The part that really stands out in the quote is the mention of a new motion capture facility on the grounds of Epic. With this new facility at their disposal as well as their continued work on the Unreal 4 Engine, it is obvious that Epic is planning on stepping their game up bigtime with future releases. I look forward to seeing how this added technology will translate into the kind of advances that can be brought to titles that they’re going to put out in the future.
While several smaller studios are shutting down, Epic is expanding, extensively!
Keep checking back for more updates!
23
May
2009
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!
30
Apr
2009
“What Makes Us Epic?” Keynote Summary and Q&A
Dr. Michael Capps, President of Epic Games was the first keynote speaker at the inaugural Triangle Game Convention is downtown Raleigh, North Carolina.
Epic games has come a far way since they started as a company in the basement of their house shipping games out in ziplock plastic bags. First and foremost they are a game engine company. Unreal Tournament 3’s engine is one of the most popular ones out on the market right now, and is used to design everything from Kid’s TV Shows to MMORPGs. Because of their success, the Research Triangle has become the capital of gaming engines for the entire country.
Shameless Plug: “Make Something Unreal” 1 million dollars in prizes and possibly a job at Epic games. http://www.makesomethingunreal.com/
Epic is a gaming company, but it really is how they treat their employees that sets them apart. The most important thing is to treat all of their employees as if they are volunteers. Because there are hundreds of other companies who would love to have their expertise with the Unreal Engine, so everyone must be highly valued on the staff.
The best way to accomplish goals as a company is to have shared responsibility and shared success. If there is a team project rather than an individual one, everyone is accountable and has a vested interest to see that it succeeds rather than fails. Since we have all of these brilliant people working for us, we have to keep them challenged constantly. If you have brilliant people working towards nearly impossible goals, the end result will almost always be positive. As much we like to have success with our teams, we always tell them “if you never fail, they you aren’t pushing yourself hard enough.”
Gears of War is particularly interesting, because it started from a simple concept of “vehicles fighting in space”. After over 30 game of the year awards, some of which were even for marketing of the game, you would have to consider it quite successful. But in order to make a sequel to this game would have to be a marathon event for the staff. The game was supposed to be twice as big, twice as hardcore, twice as polished, and over twice the budget. Unfortunately the metacritic score didn’t reflect all of the work that was put into it, however, the sales did. And in the end since Epic is a game company, we want to makes the gamers happy.
In the end, “What makes us epic?” Simply learning from the lessons handed down from past “generations” of games. The goal is to keep all of the employees happy and to reward productivity, but it’s important to not forget to have fun, because “we’re a game company!”
Post Session Q&A
o What are your feelings about the kinds of marketing services that are available through Playstation Home?
- Well obviously we have a lot of ties with Microsoft, but Home has always interested us. Since it has been “developing” for so long, it will be interesting to see how companies will actually utilize it. I’ve heard good things about the space that EA has created, and although there’s nothing like that planned right now, it’s something that we’ll have to look into.
o When will we be able to fight a Brumak on foot in the Gears of War universe?
- Actually that was already something that we did in the first Gears of War, although it was only something that was added to the PC edition. There are a lot of exciting things in store for the series, I wouldn’t count anything out.
Keep checking back for more updates from the Triangle Game Conference!
27
Apr
2009
The New Game Conference: TGC
There is E3, GDC, PAX, etc. But now look out because North Carolina is making a name for itself. The first annual Triangle Game Conference is slated to kick off this week in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. (Wednesday April 29th – Thursday April 30th) Why Raleigh you may ask? This is because Raleigh and the Triangle region are home to the third largest density of game designers and developers in the entire country. There are over 30 companies that are going to be represented at this conference that account for over 1000 employees.
What kind of big names would come to a conference in its first year? That’s a valid question, except when your company is centered in Cary, NC and you make such blockbusters as Unreal Tournament, and Gears of War. I am of course talking about Epic Games. Not only them, but also Insomniac Games (Ratchet and Clank, Resistance) and Atomic Games (Close Combat) are some of the big names headlining.
Make sure to come down and check out the conference if you’re in the vicinity of Raleigh. Tickets start at $30 a day for students and range to $300 a day for premium passes. Be sure to check out their conference website for more information as well as continue to check back here for continued coverage of the entire event as well as exclusive interviews with Epic and other developers.