Nvidia, Epic Bring Unreal Engine 3 to Windows RT
Epic has ported Unreal Engine 3 to the Windows 8 and Windows RT environment. Was there any doubt it would eventually happen?
On Wednesday during IFA 2012 at an Asus press conference, Epic Games and Nvidia demonstrated Unreal Engine 3 running in the Windows 8 and Windows RT environment. It was done using the Epic Citadel app -- which was previously released for iOS and Flash platforms -- installed on the Tegra 3-powered Asus Vivo Tab RT (formerly known as the Tablet 600).
"The Unreal Engine 3-powered ‘Epic Citadel’ demonstration for Windows RT tablets implements our full DirectX 9 pipeline, with shaders and materials, all running beautifully on Tegra 3," said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. "By porting the full engine as opposed to a modified mobile version, Nvidia and Epic have made it easy for UE3 developers around the world to bring their best content to Windows RT, Windows 8, and Nvidia’s Tegra 3 processor. Windows RT code is available to licensees from Epic now and we’re excited to see the great games they develop with it."
"This is a big leap forward for the Windows ecosystem as not only is one of the top game engines now available for developers to begin working with, it is also the full PC implementation," Nvidia added on its blog on Wednesday. "This gives developers unprecedented support for porting PC and Xbox games to a mobile platform, and vice versa."
Epic already has Unreal Engine 3 up and running on Nvidia's Tegra chips within the Android environment, used in games like Dungeon Defenders, Dark Meadow: The Pact, Renaissance Blood THD, Monster Madness: Grave Danger, and Gameloft's upcoming Wild Blood. That said, bringing the engine to the Tegra-charged Windows RT platform seemingly rather quickly only makes sense.
As seen in the video below, Epic reports that it has the full PC implementation of Unreal Engine 3 running on a Tegra 3 Soc at roughly 35 to 40 frames per second. For developers who already have games on Windows PC and Xbox 360, that means it's easy for them to port their titles over to Windows RT and have them up and running in no time... and looking great.
Epic said that Unreal Engine 3 licensees can now access Windows RT code at the Unreal Developer Network (UDN). Meanwhile, Epic’s senior technical artist and level designer, Alan Willard, will showcase the Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) "Elemental" real-time demonstration this Saturday, September 1, at Nvidia’s PAX Prime booth (#3747) from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. PDT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_rR8ZEQztM
... so what's new?
Unreal on Windows RT has the full PC implementation, DirectX and all. I would think it would be way faster to port games over to tablets since there will be less code tweaking.
With the recent trend of handhelds suffering due to tablet, I am going to go a step further and say that tablets will someday be a threat to consoles. Consoles will have the graphical advantages at first but with the quicker evolving tablets the gap would just close and by the time the new consoles come out the tablets will be superior.
Imagine a tablet that simple docks and keeps a constant charge and streams to your TV in full HD quality, with bluetooth controllers for gaming. Everyone from the casual to the hardcore gamer could be satisfied. If Android or Windows based (although unlikely Windows as this would be a direct competitor to Microsoft's consoles) completely open to developers with no content control or large fees and profit %'s like the consoles have. Also with the luxury of being a tablet it is portable and
and can do anything from work to play.
Now port UE4 and get me 100 fps then I'll be impressed
Anyways, probably foll of marketing BS. I doubt it's any better then UE for iOS/Android.
What's new is that, this is on Win 8 and Win RT. Not iOS/Android. That, strictly speaking, is what's new.
The implications are reduced porting times, and an OS that big time devs are more familiar with.
(Also, Win8/RT>=Android>iOS #troll
A lot of MS' success with Windows has to do with the fact that it's been the most developed-for gaming platform out there. Probably their strategy with win 8/RT will be the same.
Nope. RT will be for ARM based SoCs, not x86 based ones. Win 8 and Win 8 Pro tablets are the one's you're looking for.