The folks at Kotaku spotted a video of Epic's Unreal Engine 4 demo from GDC on YouTube. The video is really a tech demo of Epic's UE4 technology and not any upcoming IP, but in usual Epic fashion it looks downright impressive. Even more exciting is the fact that the demo was run entirely on a single GeForce GTX 680. With the next generation of game consoles targeting GPU performance under that of a 680, the performance target makes sense.

Fortnite will be Epic's first game to use Unreal Engine 4. We can also expect UE4 to make its way onto mobile devices as well thanks to the excellent UDK for Android and iOS.

Source: YouTube

Comments Locked

22 Comments

View All Comments

  • hypopraxia - Friday, March 29, 2013 - link

    Wow. That is more than impressive. Just, wow.
  • T1beriu - Friday, March 29, 2013 - link

    I think this is a joke compared to what Frostbite 3 can do in Battlefield 4 and not a big improvement over Unreal Engine 3.
  • szimm - Friday, March 29, 2013 - link

    What exactly do you mean? These are the same types of effects used in the BF4 video. Same post processing; same DoF, same bloom (i.e. drowning us in anamorphic lens flares...), same physics particles, same bokeh, same motion blur. The only demo I've seen so far which goes above and beyond is the CryEngine3 demo with stuff like realtime area lights, etc... I did lol at some of the very Doom3 inspired art design is this Unreal demo... Haven't we come further in all those years? ;)
  • Sabresiberian - Saturday, March 30, 2013 - link

    While I think calling it a joke is a little strong, I have to agree, it doesn't look as good, to me. And, this isn't game play, it's a video.

    The Unreal devs are still focused on console quality. While they are looking forward to better consoles and Unreal 4 is obviously better than Unreal 3, that's what they primarily code for (by their own statements), and that's what has long held Unreal back, in my opinion.
  • Margalus - Friday, March 29, 2013 - link

    I think you reversed that, Frostbite 3 is a joke compared this UE4. Just look at the water dripping down from the ceiling/pipes.. Looks realistic in UE4 demo here, in the BF4 demo it is just plain pathetic..

    Of course that is only one part of the engine. Until both are out in games, I'm not gonna say one is better than the other. Videos like this are too limited to judge much about overall quality, imo. I'm sure they will both be good and have a place in the gaming industry.
  • szimm - Friday, March 29, 2013 - link

    ...And no developer in their right mind would ever dream of doing a simple water drop effect with anything other than a simple, old-school, billboard-style particle effect... ;) That kind of detail in a game engine is honestly a waste. What counts more than anything is lighting, post processing and particle density/physics. In addition, simple rendering power when it comes to having huge visibility ranges (avoid pop-in) and large amounts of dynamic meshes onscreen at once (crowds, flocks of birds, etc.).
  • T1beriu - Friday, March 29, 2013 - link

    I remember getting goosebumps when I saw the Samaritan Unreal Engine 3.5 demo, I got the same feeling after Frostbite 3, but after watching UE4 I'm not impressed or moved at all. :)
  • Thud2 - Sunday, April 14, 2013 - link

    "Frostbite 3 is a joke compared this UE4..... Until both are out in games, I'm not gonna say one is better than the other."

    Too late.
  • B3an - Sunday, March 31, 2013 - link

    Your comment is stupid and you're stupid.
  • Operandi - Friday, March 29, 2013 - link

    Man, in the future apparently bad guys are really dumb and don't know how to aim.

    Very impressive however considering it was running on single 680. Not that it really matters since I don't plan on buying a console I wonder if the PS4 and 720 will be up running at that level.

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now