First Videos of UnrealEngine 4

[Brad]

The results might be as good but are they saying its as developer friendly too?

[EvilBoris]

Cryengine does have a real time level editor, much like what was demod for Unreal.

It's free to download, it has a nice island level you can walkthrough and see some of the new effects being used in.

[EvilBoris]

Yes, but I like to game above 20fps.

I'm going to give you the PC gamer answer to that conundrum


Buy a better PC

[Brad]

So improved development times AND choice? Good stuff for the next gen of stuff then.

[EvilBoris]

I'm not really into that stuff myself, but I don't know how versatile Cryengine 3 is, I always find it a little odd that very few games have used it.

[Kit]

One of the reasons it hasn't taken off is because it's so demanding. I don't think we'll have to wait the best part of 3 years to see UE 4 running at a decent framerate.

[EvilBoris]

Isn't that more just Crysis or that it pulls of more things than games with shipped variants of EU?

There is no denying which has given the most impressive results, Crysis 1 from 5 years ago looks better running on a modern machine than say Gears of Wars which was released on PC the same year.

[chopemon]

Part of the problem with CryEngine 3 is cost and support. I don't know how much they charge for it now but once upon a time they had a high fixed price. Unreal has a much more flexible pricing system including letting indies use to to release a game and then taking a cut once it is out rather than wanting upfront payment.

Support wise, I don't know what Crytek's support infrastructure is like but Unreal's dev support is great and you have a huge community of people using it who can offer help and advice.

I absolutely loved using Unreal as a designer as the power to create is in my hands. It is all data driven with easy to use tools which allows you to mock stuff up really easily. I once mocked up an entire set piece where an oil tanker flipped over on an overpass in an afternoon. Cars flipped over and off the road as the tanker ploughed through them and then it exploded causing the road to collapse in front of the player. Allowed us to see exactly how much space was needed and how to make it happen in front of the player rather than in a cutscene. Not many tools I've used give that much power and speed to the designer.