Unreal Engine 4 - If ED's FPA world would look like that

[Iskariot]

Did anyone have a look at the new Unreal 4 engine?
The Unreal Editor can now be downloaded for free, as well as the alpha of the new community driven Unreal Tournament game.
Currently there are two official levels and they look stunning to say the least. Textures, lighting and effects etc look photo realistic. And it all runs smooth and fluid all the same.

There is a techy looking level that would fit in with the Elite Universe quite well. It could be a planetary refueling station or something like that. I could imagine putting down my ship on a landing pad somewhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4tNU2jgTZU

The video I linked to cannot convey the intimidating beauty and detail of the level like you would perceive it walking around it in first person yourself. It is awesome.
I hope one day we will see environments like this in ED.

Everything can be downloaded for free.

 

[Sanderson]

Did anyone have a look at the new Unreal 4 engine?
The Unreal Editor can now be downloaded for free, as well as the alpha of the new community driven Unreal Tournament game.
Currently there are two official levels and they look stunning to say the least. Textures, lighting and effects etc look photo realistic. And it all runs smooth and fluid all the same.

There is a techy looking level that would fit in with the Elite Universe quite well. It could be a planetary refueling station or something like that. I could imagine putting down my ship on a landing pad somewhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4tNU2jgTZU

The video I linked to cannot convey the intimidating beauty and detail of the level like you would perceive it walking around it in first person yourself. It is awesome.
I hope one day we will see environments like this in ED.

Everything can be downloaded for free.

I thought it was a$20 subscription? Doubt ED's will look that good but, maybe?

 

[Monk]

Everything will likely be done in Frontier's home grown cobra engine. See the outsider, a game they were making that didn't get a publisher. The Outsider by Frontier Developments: http://youtu.be/Glr71X-cr84

 

[reverendK]

Epic announced today that the subscription is gone. Download it for free and get to know it. It's an incredibly userfriendly engine with a TON of documentation and a very active community.

 

[Sanderson]

Epic announced today that the subscription is gone. Download it for free and get to know it. It's an incredibly userfriendly engine with a TON of documentation and a very active community.

What??? Dang, Thanks! I used to make mod levels back in the day for UT (Infiltration Mod) and would love to do it again with my sons. Even used it as a professional Project Manager for construction presentations and supplemental descriptions at meetings and Local Government public meetings. This is great news, thanks!

[edit] I should clarify. I did one map for infiltration in it's infancy somewhere around 1996-1998, can't remember if my oldest son was born yet at time. Not trying to pretend I'm some l33t modder or anything. Sure was fun though.

 

[LordKee]

What??? Dang, Thanks! I used to make mod levels back in the day for UT (Infiltration Mod) and would love to do it again with my sons. Even used it as a professional Project Manager for construction presentations and supplemental descriptions at meetings and Local Government public meetings. This is great news, thanks!

[edit] I should clarify. I did one map for infiltration in it's infancy somewhere around 1996-1998, can't remember if my oldest son was born yet at time. Not trying to pretend I'm some l33t modder or anything. Sure was fun though.

Always happy to meet another Infiltration player

Not a bad looking engine this new version. What I would give for a remake of Infiltration on a modern engine....

 

[Sanderson]

Always happy to meet another Infiltration player

Not a bad looking engine this new version. What I would give for a remake of Infiltration on a modern engine....

Arma III? lol. Sure miss those days of yore. Thanks again.

 

[OnePercent]

The problem with unreal engine is (while it is a very very matured engine) It is only really suited for small tournament style maps with a ground, Further, Elite: Dangerous already uses their in house engine with the cobra development engine.

That nice looking background is just that, A nice looking background, With elite's engine, That nice looking background HAS to be real so you can actually go there. There are no "invisible walls" in the elite Universe, Everywhere is everything in elite.

 

[Jaeger]

I thought it was a$20 subscription? Doubt ED's will look that good but, maybe?

Nope, not any more... free as in 3000$ of beer per quarter free.

 

[Soliluna]

What??? Dang, Thanks! I used to make mod levels back in the day for UT (Infiltration Mod) and would love to do it again with my sons. Even used it as a professional Project Manager for construction presentations and supplemental descriptions at meetings and Local Government public meetings. This is great news, thanks!

[edit] I should clarify. I did one map for infiltration in it's infancy somewhere around 1996-1998, can't remember if my oldest son was born yet at time. Not trying to pretend I'm some l33t modder or anything. Sure was fun though.

Same, save I used to make mods and levels (e: for the base game), and play it to death.

Been waiting for this, didn't hear it became free, already downloading thanks for the info op!

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The problem with unreal engine is (while it is a very very matured engine) It is only really suited for small tournament style maps with a ground, Further, Elite: Dangerous already uses their in house engine with the cobra development engine.

That nice looking background is just that, A nice looking background, With elite's engine, That nice looking background HAS to be real so you can actually go there. There are no "invisible walls" in the elite Universe, Everywhere is everything in elite.

Ahh conceivably, but not entirely true. It's just the walls you cannot see, there are always walls.

I know what you mean though, Unreal Engine (like many FPS engines) use a 'Skybox', which is a special edited zone. This zone uses smaller assets that get projected on surfaces as defined by the editor allowing for amazing vistas with very little hardware input by comparison to the actual creation of said zones.


One big minus point for UE4 is, over use of PP effects means no benefit to multi-GPU setups. Really does look gorgeous but as others have said - poor engine to use for Elite, an in house solution is far better for what they are doing particularly if the groundwork was already laid and they were already trained.

Those devs also have secure jobs provided Frontier is a successful company, bringing in new people to work with in house technologies is always a burden!

 

[Iskariot]

The problem with unreal engine is (while it is a very very matured engine) It is only really suited for small tournament style maps with a ground, Further, Elite: Dangerous already uses their in house engine with the cobra development engine.

No you are definitely mistaken about that. Perhaps the Unreal 4 engine cannot support completely open environments, but it sure can support huge and detailed environments with ease. The large open world of the latest Batman games are an example.
But of course I do not mean that FD should use the Unreal engine. I was just very impressed by the beauty and detail of the Outpost 23 map. It got my imagination running rampant . The richness of that level is something I hope to see when we are able to leave our captain's chair.