By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Gaming - Unreal Engine 4 "years away", says Rein

elnino334 on 09 April 2008

 http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=131051

News by Rob Purchese

Today 09:35

Epic Games has told Eurogamer it plans to release Unreal Engine 4 alongside the next generation of hardware.

"It's just a research project today," Mark Rein, boss of Epic, told us. "Our plan is that it will be aimed at the next generation so it is many years away."

Epic technology boffin Tim Sweeney has previously said development proper will not begin until later this year. The fourth version of its engine will exclusively target new consoles, and then PCs.

Gears of War was responsible for bringing widespread acclaim to Unreal Engine 3, which has since been used to power games such as BioShock and Mass Effect.

It is now licensed by nearly all the major publishers for their games, as creation cycles and costs increase, forcing developers to look for third-party solutions. Mark Rein would not be pushed on discussing pricing in any way, shape or form.

But not all have been bowled over by UE3. Silicon Knights famously sought legal compensation after it claimed losing considerable time developing Too Human as it had to make numerous modifications to the engine; it claimed Epic was too busy making its own games to help.

However, this was far from a one-sided argument.

 



Around the Network
playnext3 on 09 April 2008

i can't magine how big will be UE4



Onyxmeth on 09 April 2008

Epic saved HD gaming. Imagine how many less games we would have without middleware engines.



Tag: Became a freaking mod and a complete douche, coincidentally, at the same time.



Words Of Wisdom on 09 April 2008
Onyxmeth said:
Epic saved HD gaming. Imagine how many less games we would have without middleware engines.

Epic probably did more damage than good with it.  The costs of developing HD games are still too unreasonable to be the standard however things like their engine allow people to still raise the bar artificially which makes life very difficult for many developers (especially those who cannot utilize that engine).



Onyxmeth on 09 April 2008
Words Of Wisdom said:
Onyxmeth said:
Epic saved HD gaming. Imagine how many less games we would have without middleware engines.

Epic probably did more damage than good with it. The costs of developing HD games are still too unreasonable to be the standard however things like their engine allow people to still raise the bar artificially which makes life very difficult for many developers (especially those who cannot utilize that engine).

I completely agree that the costs of HD game development is too astronomical at this point, but I put full blame on Sony and Microsoft for jumping the gun with too huge of a leap in advancement.

What do you mean by making life very difficult for developers that can't utilize the engine? Are you speaking about the Silicon Knights incident?

I still feel the presence of having UE3 in the industry has given developers great tools and have cut a good year at least(complete guess based on little knowledge on the subject) off development time. I do believe more should try to get into the business to offer competing engines because UE3 can usually be seen a mile away when being fully used. Games look very...shiny, I guess is the word. I would love to have RenderWare back as I feel it was a great set of tools, just by seeing what developers got out of it. I'll still never understand EA taking it off the market. There would have been huge money this generation in selling a new RenderWare if EA would have put money behind it instead of chickening out to Epic.

 



Tag: Became a freaking mod and a complete douche, coincidentally, at the same time.



Around the Network
Rock_on_2008 on 09 April 2008

Unreal 4 engine would destroy both PS3 and 360 in graphics. Could be like three or four years away when the next consoles would be released.



Words Of Wisdom on 09 April 2008
Onyxmeth said:
Words Of Wisdom said:
Onyxmeth said:
Epic saved HD gaming. Imagine how many less games we would have without middleware engines.

Epic probably did more damage than good with it. The costs of developing HD games are still too unreasonable to be the standard however things like their engine allow people to still raise the bar artificially which makes life very difficult for many developers (especially those who cannot utilize that engine).

I completely agree that the costs of HD game development is too astronomical at this point, but I put full blame on Sony and Microsoft for jumping the gun with too huge of a leap in advancement.

What do you mean by making life very difficult for developers that can't utilize the engine? Are you speaking about the Silicon Knights incident?

I still feel the presence of having UE3 in the industry has given developers great tools and have cut a good year at least(complete guess based on little knowledge on the subject) off development time. I do believe more should try to get into the business to offer competing engines because UE3 can usually be seen a mile away when being fully used. Games look very...shiny, I guess is the word. I would love to have RenderWare back as I feel it was a great set of tools, just by seeing what developers got out of it. I'll still never understand EA taking it off the market. There would have been huge money this generation in selling a new RenderWare if EA would have put money behind it instead of chickening out to Epic.

 


No the Silicon Knights incident unrelated to what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about the expectation of semiphenominal nearly-cosmic graphics in pretty much all games.  Using and skinning the engine means you have more time to spend working on the other stuff, however those developers whose games are unable to benefit from the engine and cannot afford to handled the associated costs of all development themselves suffer.  Essentially that's where the games with good graphics but poor gameplay/bugs will come from.  It's speculation, but I'd wager if they hadn't had to spend so much money on graphics to "keep up with the Jones" the games would have turned out better.  Epic is only making it easier for some to "keep up with the Jones."



hunter_alien on 09 April 2008
Words Of Wisdom said:
Onyxmeth said:
Words Of Wisdom said:
Onyxmeth said:
Epic saved HD gaming. Imagine how many less games we would have without middleware engines.

Epic probably did more damage than good with it. The costs of developing HD games are still too unreasonable to be the standard however things like their engine allow people to still raise the bar artificially which makes life very difficult for many developers (especially those who cannot utilize that engine).

I completely agree that the costs of HD game development is too astronomical at this point, but I put full blame on Sony and Microsoft for jumping the gun with too huge of a leap in advancement.

What do you mean by making life very difficult for developers that can't utilize the engine? Are you speaking about the Silicon Knights incident?

I still feel the presence of having UE3 in the industry has given developers great tools and have cut a good year at least(complete guess based on little knowledge on the subject) off development time. I do believe more should try to get into the business to offer competing engines because UE3 can usually be seen a mile away when being fully used. Games look very...shiny, I guess is the word. I would love to have RenderWare back as I feel it was a great set of tools, just by seeing what developers got out of it. I'll still never understand EA taking it off the market. There would have been huge money this generation in selling a new RenderWare if EA would have put money behind it instead of chickening out to Epic.

 


No the Silicon Knights incident unrelated to what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about the expectation of semiphenominal nearly-cosmic graphics in pretty much all games. Using and skinning the engine means you have more time to spend working on the other stuff, however those developers whose games are unable to benefit from the engine and cannot afford to handled the associated costs of all development themselves suffer. Essentially that's where the games with good graphics but poor gameplay/bugs will come from. It's speculation, but I'd wager if they hadn't had to spend so much money on graphics to "keep up with the Jones" the games would have turned out better. Epic is only making it easier for some to "keep up with the Jones."


 So what , developers allways have secondary options : Wii/PSP/DS/DL/Mobile phones etc ...



Vote the Mayor for Mayor!

misteromar mk4 on 09 April 2008

Unreal Engine 4 "years away", says Rein

 

Thats like saying the sun will come up tomorrow. 



-UBISOFT BOYCOTT!-

ecurbj on 09 April 2008

eh..sure they always say that. Watch in the next coming months there will be talk about the next Unreal Engine :)