Unreal Makes it "Real" - Part 2

The Future that is Unreal Engine 4

Unreal Engine 3 is yet to power many games. Sure, the fruits of Epic's work and the true benefits of this particular technology are already felt in a variety of top-quality current-gen video games. The folks at Epic Games are inclined to keep things in perspective and Tim Sweeney, technical director and founder of Epic, is involved with the development of the core system design of Unreal Engine 4. One of his statements that the technology will focus exclusively on next generation consoles caused an upheaval among hardcore PC gamers. Clarifying this Epic's Mark Rein explained in an interview that the Unreal Engine 4 "won't run on this generation of consoles." Rein said that the very idea of UE 4 not coming to the PC is absurd, since the technology itself is being built using PCs.

The "Middle-man"

We certainly don't see the Unreal Engine as the second coming. Each step of the way, we see more and more efforts to revolutionize in-game visual effects and game technology in general. The future rests on many other competent teams as well; such as Crytek, the makers of CryEngine 2, who have outdone themselves with the visual behemoth that is Crysis.

None of these technologies wouldn't be worth much without the efforts of other companies expressly dedicated to developing software suites known as middleware - these have helped countless games come to life. We all remember SpeedTree, which was used to render true-to-life vegetation and trees in Bethesda's open world RPG, Oblivion. Other middleware programs greatly contribute to various aspects of each video game project, physics, AI behaviour patterns, sound and so on (the work Havok immediately leaps to mind).

On to New Technologies

So, again, nobody ever said that the Unreal Technology is perfect. Even so, it allowed many game developers to accomplish some pretty impressive things over the years. The evolution of the Unreal Engine went through various stages, stretching the boundaries of game creation and increasing in-game realism.

Seeing the history of the Unreal Engine unfold, leads us to believe that its fourth edition has more than a solid chance of being a popularly licensed game-making tool.

The progress made and all the added enhancements are reeling in more and more publishers and developers. What's more, its success and growing reputation challenges competing teams such as id and Valve to push the envelope in terms of what can be done perk up video game development.

There's always room for improvement on Epic's part and whatever they're planning for the future, we have every reason to believe that the Unreal Engine will continue dominate the gaming scene.