Unreal Engine - Game Development, Virtual Reality, and Augmented Reality
If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past decade, you might have heard of an emerging technology called Unreal Engine. Well, if you are hearing those two words together for the first time, you are in for a real surprise or better yet an unreal surprise!
Unreal Engine is an advanced piece of software that currently has applications in a majority of media, entertainment, gaming, and other graphics and tech fields. However, it wasn’t this popular at the start. Its humble beginning was as a background engine for a 1998 first-person shooter game named Unreal. Hence it got the name Unreal Engine, developed by Epic Games Inc. It was written in the C++ programming language which makes it really easy to implement in widespread scenarios. The developers made a lot of improvements and progress in the software over the years and as of 2014, they have adopted a royalty-based model which means that the technology is free to be downloaded and used. However, they do get 5% of the sales revenue. Some examples of the games based on Unreal Engine are Fortnite and Player Unknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG). These online third-person shooter games have taken the world by storm, especially in the teenage community. Apart from the gameplay itself, these games feature exquisite graphics, comprehensive character models, and attention to detail like no other.
Unreal Engine not only helps developers in games but is increasingly being adopted for virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality projects. In AR and VR, Unreal Engine provides an immersive experience for the user offering high framerates and great quality which is essential for VR games, filmmaking, and more. It has been implemented in titles such as Robo Recall: Unplugged, The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners, Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR series, and much more.
Epic Games has recently announced Unreal Engine 5 which will be released in 2021. However, they have published a preview to let people know what they are working on. With this new iteration, they aim to add two new technologies to their platform. First is Nanite, a virtualized micro-polygon geometry which will fetch source arts from Zbrush or any other software directly into the Unreal Engine without loss of quality. Second is Lumen that brings global illumination without the need for lightmapping, saving a lot of time. Of course, they explain these new changes in detail in their preview. Be sure to check that out.
With the next generation of game consoles shipping to the customers right now, Epic Games went one step further and announced the Unreal Engine 5 demo running on the new Sony PlayStation 5. They have claimed that their new technology can get the maximum output from the new hardware that these new consoles have introduced. Epic has promised that with their new tools, the users will experience “a quantum leap”. We hope that Epic Games can come up to the expectations that they have publicized because, that truly will be a huge step for the world of Game Development, Virtual Reality, as well as Augmented Reality.
Here at Blunt Action, we also use Unreal Engine to create a multitude of projects and games. Our recent title that uses the Unreal Engine technology is Battle Snakes. It is really interesting so be sure to check it out. Furthermore, we are creating 3D environments and worlds in virtual reality that we will eventually turn into games and interactive environments. So, follow us if you are interested.