A new video takes the “infiltrator” demo apart piece-by-piece, in real time.
At some point, the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 will fade into the nostalgia sectors of our cultural memory. When that happens, it’s fair to say that our recollections of this era will be dominated by the Unreal Engine 3. It has powered a staggering list of games, from classics like Bioshock Infinite and XCOM to the infamous, like Too Human and Duke Nukem Forever. After seven years of faithful service, Epic is getting ready to introduce its successor. Earlier this year, Epic showed off an impressive demo for the Unreal Engine 4 filled with flashy effects. Perhaps it’s years of being conditioned by Square Enix cutscenes, but it’s hard to trust a beautiful trailer anymore. In a new video, Epic devs Tim Elek and Zak Parrish tear that demo apart, piece by piece, and demonstrate the sprockets and gears behind it.
Many of the effects in games look great until you start to peer around the curtain. Here, Epic go to lengths to shows how these aren’t just fancy sprites. It shows all the tools developers have to play with atmospheric effects like particles, water, and fog. Not only does it look gorgeous, but it can all be edited in real time. It also uses an updated version of the cascade particle tool from the previous Unreal Engine, so if you’ve ever used that, you should feel at home. There’s also a lot of under-the-hood work to make sure that graphic effects artists can add those shinies without compromising game performance as a whole.
As cool as it looks, you’ll have to wait until next year before it gets released inside a game, but if the last generation was any indication, you’ll have plenty to choose from.
Source: YouTube
