Game Engines

A compilation of familiar game engines. 

A showcase of Unreal Engine 3.

'The Samaritan' a short demo of the capabilities of the current Unreal Engine 3.

The full CryEngine 3 Showcase Video


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Having only ever used Epic's - UDK Editor at this stage, my knowledge of the various other Game Engines and Editors is fairly limited. 


However, having the briefest of introductions to the new Crytek game engine CryEngine 3, 
I can already see an enormous difference between the two. 

CryEngine 3 features CryEngine Live Create which enables developers to make real-time changes to their levels in the editor that are visible in-game. 
You can see the changes take place simultaneously! 


http://mycryengine.com/index.php?conid=53


Unlike UDK, which depending on your level, could take 2 hours to rebuild your lighting if you decided to move a coffee cup. (Groan)


Apparently by synching 3Ds Max or Maya to the CryEngine 3 Sandbox Editor you can update your assets in a matter of seconds. Which is truly remarkable.


This is a very attractive piece of software and I would be very interested in getting my hands on it in the near future. 




(some pics of Crysis 2- (2011)

http://mycryengine.com/index.php?conid=1




That said, UDK is still an amazing piece of software in it's own regard. 

http://www.unrealengine.com/features




We have this engine to thank for a wealth of great games (this is just UE 3)


Batman: Arkham Asylum - Rocksteady Studios (2009)
Batman: Arkham City - Rocksteady Studios (2011)
Borderlands - Gearbox Software (2009)
Enslaved: Odyssey To The West - Ninja Theory (2010)
Lost Odyssey - Mistwalker (2007)
Mass Effect 1,2,3 - Bioware (2006 - 2012)
Mirror's Edge - DICE (2008) 
Shadow Complex - Chair Entertainment (2009)
Shadows of The Damned - Grasshopper Manufacture (2011)
Silent Hill: Downpour - Vatra Games (2011) 
Singularity - Raven Software (2010)
Transformers: War For Cybertron - High Moon Studios (2010) 

Shadows of The Damned pics -

I swear this guy .......dropped out of her!

He's properly dead now!

And of course Zumba Fitness - Pipeworks software (2010) 
Which has sailed past the £6 million mark in sales. And there are more to come apparently.

A reviewer of this game wrote that - 


                        - "Surely everyone who wants the game now has a copy?" 
                                                                              - Tom Philips, www.eurogamer.net


This statement made me laugh. :)

Yep........ZUMBA! 

And not to be forgotten the Gears of War series developed by Epic themselves (2006 - 2011)

Infinity Blade - Chair Entertainment (2010) should also be worth a mention as it is Epic's first Unreal Engine 3 iOS game. 


And for a mobile game, it looks damn good! (Makes me wish I had an iPhone)

It made $1.6 million in four days. Making it the fastest growing App in iOS history.
Nearly a year after, Infinity Blade had generated another $21.4 million in revenue. 
Which is astonishing. Hardly surprising there is an Infinity Blade 2 out now. 

Bethesda developed the Creation Engine to help make their award winning fifth instalment of The Elder Scrolls - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

The Creation Engine is made up of Havok, Radiant AI, and the Gamebryo game engine, which allows users to tailor it's needs to fit specific needs of a developer. 


In early 2012 Bethesda released the Creation Kit for Skyrim on Steam.


http://www.creationkit.com/ 


Now modders and fans of their recent IP can make user-generated content. 
Where it can be shared with the world via Steam and their favourite mod sites. 


Now there's a company that really gives back to their customers. 


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The Source Engine developed by Valve Corporation makes even better use of the Steam community by distributing updates and new engine builds via its users. 

http://source.valvesoftware.com/

From what I can gather the general opinion about the Source Engine is that it handles physics exceptionally well but is a bit outdated in other aspects, requiring a lot of text editor scripting to affect performance.


It is noted for featuring a very capable facial animation system - 


http://www.tf2.com/movies.php 

Having read the overview on Valve's website I have to say it sounds like an impressive piece of kit. 
It both looks and plays as well as any other engine that I have discussed here. 
I think it comes down to personal preference in this case. 


People have their favourites. And always will. 
It's like asking a comic book reader 


"Who's better, Marvel or DC?"


And then the great debate begins. 


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Quantic Dream's new engine brings to life - KARA 


This demo is apparently a year old and the features of this engine have been increased by 50 percent. I can't wait to see what they've cooked up.


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I've just added a few interesting videos regarding advancements in blurring the line between Visual FX and Video Games.

Welcome to the 'Uncanny Valley'