So. Windows tablets get a boring, ugly game engine that's almost a decade old. Woohoo! Baby steps I suppose, but can't wait to see what tablets might actually be able to do in a decades time.
Unreal Engine 3 has been around allot longer than 5 and a half years. We saw glimpses and screenshots all the way back in 2004 and at that point it had been 18 months into development. The first game to use it was Gears of War in 2006.
Irregardless it was merely an evolution of Unreal Engine 2, mostly in the shader, lighting and shadow department. It's an old engine, it's past it's prime on the Console and the PC.
Oh God, I knew someone would use this argument. You don't start counting how old an engine is by when you first become aware it's in development. You count it starting from when it's released. Gears of War was released at the very end of 2006, meaning that the Unreal 3 Engine is approximately five years and nine months old.
If we use your bizarro logic to count date things then I guess the Unreal 4 engine is already nine years old since it's been in development from 2003, and was first revealed in 2005, despite the fact it hasn't even been released yet and there are no games using it. No-one is disputing UE3 being past it's prime, I was just pointing out that your statement about it being almost a decade old are exaggerated at best (I was putting it kindly, really) and outright nonsense at worst (which it is).
1. Porting from win32 to Windows RT is no small task. 2. This is running very smoothly on mobile hardware. A Tegra 3 isn't able to run Crysis, so don't expect it.
If a developer can write someting once and have it run on the next Xbox, Windows 8, and Windows Phone 8 with only minor tweaks, that is a huge advantage over Apple and Google.
The same game engine probably runs on OS X, iOS, Android, Windows/Win32, PS3 etc too. No small task porting them to a completely new and intentionally handicapped platform though. If it's a real Windows Runtime application that is. It's totally non-interesting to run games in the WinRT-runtime on Windows 8 and tie yourself to the Windows Store though.
I guess there is a real risk for them to cheat their way in by getting access to Win32 directly by Microsoft which still powers these Windows RT devices.
i truly can't tell if you're just really bad at trolling or a total idiot. unreal 3 engine is by far the most ubiquitous and arguably the most advanced video game engine on the planet. if getting the full version of the most powerful development tool in the video game industry for their platform doesnt impress you, please enlighten us as to what does.
WTF are you smoking man? Crytek stomps all over this ancient console crap engine from Epic. Epic == Epic Fail compared to Crytek. Gee dude, you need to wake up and see a doctor really. Crysis 3 and Epic Fail crap engine are not even remotely comparable, console crap makers will never catch up to Crytek state of the art stuff. Have you seen that top secret toad tech clip? Ah fuck I'm wasting my time on idiots here who don't know anything...
The point here though isn't about how much you jizzed your pants over each respective engine. It's about the fact that the Unreal 3 engine is used for a huge number of titles, the most commonplace engine found on current generation games. So the fact that it's now running on tablet hardware is actually significant and noteworthy.
If you were trying to make a legitimate point instead of fanboyish nonsense, then perhaps you could have pointed out that the next generation of consoles is fast approaching, probably with a new range of more advanced game engines shortly after. That's a fair enough comment, but given that console lifecycles seem to be getting increasingly long with each generation I would argue it's fairly likely that whatever capabilities the next set of gaming consoles come up with it will be quickly matched by mobile devices, given their much faster 12-18 month lifecycles.
"The demo ran smoothly on NVIDIA's Tegra 3 SoC, at 35 - 45 fps according to the video below. Getting UE3 up and running on Windows RT is a big step. Microsoft's trump card in ultra mobile race has always been its role in the game industry. If it can stop treating the Xbox like a console and make it more of a platform that can run on Windows Phone, Windows 8/RT and Xbox hardware, it will have a real advantage compared over Apple and Google. That's if Microsoft is willing to treat all of its platforms as equal class citizens when it comes to games it publishes."
I read a comment like this one and it gets me thinking. I imagine a world where I actually want a WP device and a Win8/RT tablet instead of products from their competitors.
Then I remember that MS is incapable of executing much of anything and I become frustrated...
I fail to see the point complaining about the age of a game engine. It's like complaining about the age of the Unix OS, the POSIX specification, the NT kernel or the Win32 API.
The real question is does it deliver the features and performance that you want? I think for Unreal 3 the answer is yes.
Especially for tablets and other lower specification devices. It is almost always easier to add features to a game engine than to take them out later. If you start with a game engine designed to store and manipulate its fully deformable voxel based world geometry entirely on the GPU, you're only going to be able to run that thing on dual Nvidia cards with 3GB each. It isn't going to be running on your tablet. Not for at least five years.
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StevoLincolnite - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
So. Windows tablets get a boring, ugly game engine that's almost a decade old. Woohoo!Baby steps I suppose, but can't wait to see what tablets might actually be able to do in a decades time.
Malphas - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
Five and a half years isn't exactly "almost a decade old".Christobevii3 - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
Isn't the call of duty series still a heavily modded quake III engine still?StevoLincolnite - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
Unreal Engine 3 has been around allot longer than 5 and a half years.We saw glimpses and screenshots all the way back in 2004 and at that point it had been 18 months into development.
The first game to use it was Gears of War in 2006.
Irregardless it was merely an evolution of Unreal Engine 2, mostly in the shader, lighting and shadow department.
It's an old engine, it's past it's prime on the Console and the PC.
coolhardware - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
<i>irregardless</i> is not a word:-)
StevoLincolnite - Thursday, August 30, 2012 - link
Yes it is. I made it one.Malphas - Thursday, August 30, 2012 - link
Oh God, I knew someone would use this argument. You don't start counting how old an engine is by when you first become aware it's in development. You count it starting from when it's released. Gears of War was released at the very end of 2006, meaning that the Unreal 3 Engine is approximately five years and nine months old.If we use your bizarro logic to count date things then I guess the Unreal 4 engine is already nine years old since it's been in development from 2003, and was first revealed in 2005, despite the fact it hasn't even been released yet and there are no games using it. No-one is disputing UE3 being past it's prime, I was just pointing out that your statement about it being almost a decade old are exaggerated at best (I was putting it kindly, really) and outright nonsense at worst (which it is).
Spivonious - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
1. Porting from win32 to Windows RT is no small task.2. This is running very smoothly on mobile hardware. A Tegra 3 isn't able to run Crysis, so don't expect it.
If a developer can write someting once and have it run on the next Xbox, Windows 8, and Windows Phone 8 with only minor tweaks, that is a huge advantage over Apple and Google.
Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
Yeah, I dunno, I think it's cool, too. :-)Penti - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
The same game engine probably runs on OS X, iOS, Android, Windows/Win32, PS3 etc too. No small task porting them to a completely new and intentionally handicapped platform though. If it's a real Windows Runtime application that is. It's totally non-interesting to run games in the WinRT-runtime on Windows 8 and tie yourself to the Windows Store though.Penti - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
I guess there is a real risk for them to cheat their way in by getting access to Win32 directly by Microsoft which still powers these Windows RT devices.mfed3 - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
i truly can't tell if you're just really bad at trolling or a total idiot. unreal 3 engine is by far the most ubiquitous and arguably the most advanced video game engine on the planet. if getting the full version of the most powerful development tool in the video game industry for their platform doesnt impress you, please enlighten us as to what does.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unreal_Engine...
Pirks - Thursday, August 30, 2012 - link
WTF are you smoking man? Crytek stomps all over this ancient console crap engine from Epic. Epic == Epic Fail compared to Crytek. Gee dude, you need to wake up and see a doctor really. Crysis 3 and Epic Fail crap engine are not even remotely comparable, console crap makers will never catch up to Crytek state of the art stuff. Have you seen that top secret toad tech clip? Ah fuck I'm wasting my time on idiots here who don't know anything...Malphas - Friday, August 31, 2012 - link
The point here though isn't about how much you jizzed your pants over each respective engine. It's about the fact that the Unreal 3 engine is used for a huge number of titles, the most commonplace engine found on current generation games. So the fact that it's now running on tablet hardware is actually significant and noteworthy.If you were trying to make a legitimate point instead of fanboyish nonsense, then perhaps you could have pointed out that the next generation of consoles is fast approaching, probably with a new range of more advanced game engines shortly after. That's a fair enough comment, but given that console lifecycles seem to be getting increasingly long with each generation I would argue it's fairly likely that whatever capabilities the next set of gaming consoles come up with it will be quickly matched by mobile devices, given their much faster 12-18 month lifecycles.
ImSpartacus - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
"The demo ran smoothly on NVIDIA's Tegra 3 SoC, at 35 - 45 fps according to the video below. Getting UE3 up and running on Windows RT is a big step. Microsoft's trump card in ultra mobile race has always been its role in the game industry. If it can stop treating the Xbox like a console and make it more of a platform that can run on Windows Phone, Windows 8/RT and Xbox hardware, it will have a real advantage compared over Apple and Google. That's if Microsoft is willing to treat all of its platforms as equal class citizens when it comes to games it publishes."I read a comment like this one and it gets me thinking. I imagine a world where I actually want a WP device and a Win8/RT tablet instead of products from their competitors.
Then I remember that MS is incapable of executing much of anything and I become frustrated...
damianrobertjones - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
I was actually digging what you wrote until..."Then I remember that MS is incapable of executing much of anything and I become frustrated..."
...I then wanted to cry. Have faith
Belard - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
MS doesn't support Windows PC gaming... so its rather moot.JarredWalton - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
I guess all the work done with DirectX comes from someone other than Microsoft?Zan Lynx - Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - link
I fail to see the point complaining about the age of a game engine. It's like complaining about the age of the Unix OS, the POSIX specification, the NT kernel or the Win32 API.The real question is does it deliver the features and performance that you want? I think for Unreal 3 the answer is yes.
Especially for tablets and other lower specification devices. It is almost always easier to add features to a game engine than to take them out later. If you start with a game engine designed to store and manipulate its fully deformable voxel based world geometry entirely on the GPU, you're only going to be able to run that thing on dual Nvidia cards with 3GB each. It isn't going to be running on your tablet. Not for at least five years.
ant6n - Thursday, August 30, 2012 - link
Does this mean we may get arm/tegra based netbooks with decent gaming performance?