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Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=3695

Quote:

I got together with Mark Rein last week and he showed me an Unreal Engine 3 tech demo running on a 3rd generation iPod Touch. The same Unreal Engine 3 that powers Gears of War 2, running on an iPod Touch. The engine also works on the iPhone 3GS, and Mark tells me that we’ll see it on another mobile platform at CES (hmm...).

The demo is both playable and has a flythrough. It’s using a modified Unreal Tournament level previously shown off at GDC. A virtual thumbstick on the left side of the screen controls your movement, while tracking your thumb in the lower right corner of the screen controls the camera. Just tap the screen to shoot. Mark said this is a tech test bed and they’re experimenting with several different control schemes including ones with tilt.

In practice, the controls work well. This is just a demo so there was no score or point to the game, I just got to run around and kill a single respawning enemy. And it was fun.

As you can see from the video the frame rate was smooth. There are more visuals to be added, as well as some polishing, but the demo looked very good for an iPhone game.

It requires OpenGL ES 2.0, so the iPhone 2G and 3G won’t work, nor will the older iPod Touch models. It doesn’t really matter though, this is just a starting point.

Epic isn’t announcing any sort of iPhone engine licenses nor are they entering the iPhone game market. Porting UE3 to the iPhone is simply one of many projects being worked on inside a newer, more svelte and innovative Epic Games (wait till you see what’s next...).
Today the iPhone, Tomorrow the World

Mark said they planned to make this available to licensees at some point in the near future. That’s great for end users because it means that any Unreal Engine licensee can now start playing around with making iPhone games based on the same technology. Unfortunately the recently announced, free to the public, Unreal Development Kit (UDK) is Windows only - the iPhone version isn’t included. I’d guess that at some point Epic will change that, it just makes too much sense. Doing so would enable a whole new class of iPhone game development using an extremely polished engine.

It’s all about taking the portable market seriously. While I wouldn’t expect to see any Epic branded iPhone games anytime soon, eventually it wouldn’t be too far fetched to see a full port of Gears of War to something as small as an iPhone. NAND Flash capacities to support multiple 9GB games will be there in another few years, as will GPU horsepower.

Remember that the SoC in the iPhone 3GS is only built on 65nm technology, Intel is about to release its first 32nm chips. You could cram four times as many transistors into the same space at 32nm, roughly 9 times as many at 22nm. Remember that graphics performance scales very well with additional transistors. At what point does the smartphone become more powerful than an Xbox 360? Sometime in the next 3 - 5 years for sure.

And it’s not just about iPhone support. Mark told me that as soon as CES we’ll see Unreal Engine 3 on another mobile platform entirely. More announcements will happen throughout 2010. This isn’t a platform specific thing, it’s about bringing Unreal Engine 3 to the entire portable market.
Final Words

For the end user, Epic just improved the chances of getting better looking games on the iPhone and potentially other portable devices.

For Epic, expanding UE3 into the portable market makes a lot of sense - it will eventually increase the base of paying UE licensees as well as help move the entire portable gaming industry forward. It’s not all altruistic though, by releasing iPhone and other portable versions of UE3 it helps secure Epic’s position as a supplier of game engines, regardless of platform.

For an existing Unreal Engine licensee you now have the ability to compete in the growing iPhone market thanks to Epic, how nice. Once the phone gets powerful enough I expect it’ll be used for more than just playing simple games.

As personal computing moves to more platforms and takes new forms, what we need are technologies that unify development across all devices. There’s no reason that a game you’re writing for an iPhone shouldn’t be built on the same foundation as something you’re writing for a high end console. The difference should be in the game, not in the engine.

This latest move by Epic does validate whatever Apple has been quietly doing all along. From the investments in Imagination Technologies to hiring two previous AMD Graphics CTOs, Apple is clearly interested in gaming (which is funny given the poor state of gaming on the Mac).

Historically Apple likes to enter markets when it believes that it can do something better or at least different. We saw that with the iPhone. The question is, how does Apple plan on providing a different take on gaming?

The remaining hurdles are significant, but not unsurmountable. Playing anything other than a point and touch game on the iPhone can be frustrating. Epic doesn’t address that, but someone else surely will when the time is right.

Engine houses like Epic enable game developers to focus on building the game they want to build, not the underlying technology. With UE3 on the iPhone, we will eventually see more and hopefully better games on future versions of the platform. Not to mention whatever other mobile platforms Epic plans on porting UE3 to as well.

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

It would make sense, considering what the N900 is packing under the hood...

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

Why not? Isn't uncertainity the definiton of hope!?

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

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Originally Posted by IWantToMarryTheN900 (Post 438202)

It would make sense, considering what the N900 is packing under the hood...

Yeah, hardware wise Maemo 5 would be a logical choise, since the N900 and the 3GS have somewhat (keyword) similar hardware - and both support OpenGLES 2.0, something that many Android, WinMo and Symbian devices doesn't.

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

Don't even dream about it.

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

The article says that the engine will be availeable on essentially every platform during 2010. The "one more platform" is only about CES.

Mark told me that as soon as CES we’ll see Unreal Engine 3 on another mobile platform entirely. More announcements will happen throughout 2010. This isn’t a platform specific thing, it’s about bringing Unreal Engine 3 to the entire portable market.

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boke (Post 438207)

Don't even dream about it.

First off, they said portable market, which basicly excludes phone-centric OS:s like Symbian, WebOS and last, but not least, WinMo. To be honest the GPU difference is way too large on the different Android devices currently availible to produce graphics that can rival or match the Iphone's. Which platforms are left!? Pandora? I won't even consider Blackberry in the entertainment section...

Edit: Of course the chances are slim, but there's no reason to lose the hope.

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

you know, i did have a dream once that i will be playing UT3 on the go lol...

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

damn, i just figured it out probably...the second platform will be the new PSP coming fall of next year... the PSP-4000, which was more less confirmed to be in production and coming out in 12 months time. On top of that, it is supposed to have a GPU technically and quality-wise on par with the PS2 and first Xbox. Now it makes sense.
So no N900 i guess...But i'd be happy to be wrong.

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

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Originally Posted by Jack6428 (Post 438277)

I think you are definitely right about the PSP2, but I guess it'll be the Nintendo DS2 as well.

still I hope they will both expand to Android and Maemo.

I'll try to ask our (see "about my team") contacts at Epic (including Mark Rein) if there is a possibility for this.

I'll let you know if they are willing to share this information publicly - can't promise though

Quote:

about my team:

My team and me are working on a UDK/UT3 mod - called Airborn - that might one day end up as fully developed game - because of this we are in talks with epic.

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

hey thanks, would be sweet to know definately...just a simple yes or no...
both to PSP-4000 and Maemo 5... hopefully yeah...about NDS2 i don't know..i don't play Nintendo....

btw, i work in the team working on the game Eclipse...for CryEngine..formerly for UE3...

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

Why hasn't anyone suggested the Droid yet?

Also, I think that the lack of DRM on the N900 is going to be a turn-off to Epic.

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jack6428 (Post 438331)

I think they'll be heading for the DS2 as well as it will also feature a nvidia tegra platform, so my guess is nearly same platform, same chances it'll be running on it as well.

Eclipse looks like a fine mode, keep it on :)

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Originally Posted by bocaJ (Post 438465)

Why hasn't anyone suggested the Droid yet?

Also, I think that the lack of DRM on the N900 is going to be a turn-off to Epic.

I did mention Android which is the DROID's OS.

anyway chances are a lot slimmer, because there are a lot more Android Phones on the Market - with hardware specs that differ a lot - which makes consistent development a lot more problematic for the developer of the engine. thus I'd say if they'll port it to android they'll definitely should give us a maemo version

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

any platform that doesn't have a consistent hardware base of Arm8 and Opengl ES 2.0 probably won't be considered. so that knocks out Android. i think they made a grave mistake not mandating Omap3 as a minimum platform requirement.

it also knocks out any platform whose OS is abstracted away from the the hardware such as PalmOS, which although it has capable hardware is completely unable to access it. this is also a problem for Android.

Zune should be ok.

drm on the n900 shouldn't be a problem as surely nokia must have a solution for the Ovi store? the addition of the samsung linux mobile platform should only make maemo more tempting.

Tegra2 as rumoured to be used in the DS2 should be a dead cert, as will the PSP 4000 rumoured to use the OpenCL enabled PowerVR 543 gpu.

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

"anyway chances are a lot slimmer, because there are a lot more Android Phones on the Market - with hardware specs that differ a lot - which makes consistent development a lot more problematic for the developer of the engine. thus I'd say if they'll port it to android they'll definitely should give us a maemo version"

i think there will be porting to android not maemo.. its basic business..

androis has a bigger market share and is growing- it is more consumer friendlya nd is stable.. they wont care about older phone models that run android- they just wont be able to run the engine, they will otimise it for the higher end phones running android..

i love the n900- but lets be honest i cant compete on this level at all.

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

i would say the number of droid phones running Omap3/Snapdragon doesn't greatly outnumber the number of n900's that have flown off the shelves.

i admit that the maemo communities open source love of "free" will be seen as a barrier by commercial developers, but you must also remember that those same developers are having trouble monetizing the android platform too.

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jack6428 (Post 438277)

damn, i just figured it out probably...the second platform will be the new PSP coming fall of next year... the PSP-4000, which was more less confirmed to be in production and coming out in 12 months time. On top of that, it is supposed to have a GPU technically and quality-wise on par with the PS2 and first Xbox. Now it makes sense.
So no N900 i guess...But i'd be happy to be wrong.

That would make it more powerful than the Wii (not that it's powerful). ;)

According to Tom's Guide, the next PSP might have an enhanced PowerVR GPU that is more powerful than all today's netbooks' counterparts. [http://www.tomsguide.com/us/sony-psp...news-4194.html]

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

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Originally Posted by REMFwhoopitydo (Post 440158)

Actually, Google provides great relationchips with companies (and customers as well). As a small company it's sometimes difficult to not rely on Google, and still make profit. With Google, money can be easily gained. Especially compared to the 1M$ requirement to publish in Ovi Store.

Nokia has alot to learn from Google, but at least they got one thing right: their philosophy.

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

I think a crucial problem we have on N900 is the amazing resolution 800 x 480 pixels versus 3GS's resolution of only 320 x 480 pixels.

Point is that even if 3GS is a joke of a smartphone and internet device, the small resolution has the advantage of lifting very much of the burden laid on the GPU.

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

I'd be happy with pcsx emu

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

I doubt it's Android. Besides the complexities of supporting different hardware devices (ok say they decide to ignore that and just focus on high end).

You still have the problem that it's Android, everything goes through a bytecode interpreter to be compatible. Unless you don't use the davlink java method (and indeed you can just use C++). But then can you bring it to another Android device still?

But Android would have the numbers.

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Originally Posted by Bec (Post 440192)

Yup that's another issue. The iPhone 3GS has a better GPU than most of the other devices out there and it's running at a lower resolution meaning the GPU can do more since it's not using as much strength to pull an 800 x 480 resolution.

Maybe the solution is changable resolutions. =P. Apps can change resolution on the fly lol.

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

The N900 has the potential to run it like nothing. IS THE MATTER OF NOKIA IF THEY ARE WILLING TO PAY FOR PUBLISHERS! I've played Open Arena on the N900 and Quake 3 on the iPhone 3GS and TBH i think the N900 is slightly better than the iPhone 3GS resolution wise. I understand they're not the same game but still. Only bad thing about Open Arena is that the movement is TOO sensitive and it needs to be a bit more polished compare to the iPhone Quake 3. Another problem is that the game does not run as a full game to keep the power saving out of the way. The game looks awesome on the N900 even though is NOT FINAL yet. Only problem is that will NOKIA ever work with EA, Gameloft, and other companies for these awesome 3D games. I'm really impress with the iPhone game Nova. That game will easily run on the N900 like nothing. It has great graphics!

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

Don't listen to Epic. They also said, that there will be a Linux client for UT3 on the retail CD. Then they said, it will be released shortly after. After 1,5 years after the release Ryan (Icculus) said, "they still need time". Afaik, there is still no client.

Don't listen to Epic. Ever.

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

Ihope nokia will work with games developers.
I would also pay for good games.
The N900 could play so great games but the only one with very good 3d graphics is bounce. And bounce is very boring it's just beautiful to see the graphic.
Open arena is nice but too sensitive.

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

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Originally Posted by unkn0wn (Post 443027)

I hope to see some RPG with the graphics from bounce. Nothing fancy, something pretty linear with two "road" choices for the player and some cities and dungeons, ofcourse each area separated by loading points...:rolleyes:

Can't stop me from dreaming, can you:D

Re: Unreal 3 Engine on the iPhone 3GS - one other platform yet to be announced............ can we dare hope?

Oh ya!
A rpg with graphics from bounce would be so great!!

With open world and online.
I can not stop dreaming about it too :D